Friday 31 December 2021

The Peacock 383

 "He was really a defiant kid, I think just about to turn twenty", Rhona said, "When he left us.  He hated his dad, and I think he went over to the other side just to put distance between them.  We didn't really have contact with the outside world, and for a kid like that it must have been a horrible existence."  This is news to me, but Lydia and I only came in recently, and we never were a part of this group.  Rhona herself, arrived six months ahead of us, and not willingly.  "hilip used to send out agents into the general community, hunting down new recruits, especially nubile young women.  They would arrive drugged, in most cases, and then the brainwashing would begin.  And that is where Rhona came in.  She became one of the recruiting agents, and she would go off to Vancouver and scout round in bars and private parties and get togethers to see who she could lure back with her, always picking vulnerable, eccentric and creative types.  She embraced her role eagerly, partly to keep her connected with the outside world, but also to look for some occasion to escape, which would be difficult, since she was also being closely watched.    "With the two of you", she said to Lydia and me, I thought I might have a chance to get out."  She thought we would be stronger than the others, and so she played a kind of double agent.

In the meantime, all they did was gather together and chant, and chant, and chant some more.  No one bothered to clean or repair or maintain anything.  They were getting ready to meet the elders in a parallel dimension...  

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