https://cdn.pixabay.com/photo/2017/09/03/16/38/priest-2711054_960_720.jpg
<center>[Source: Pixabay](https://pixabay.com/photos/priest-pastor-bible-christianity-2711054/)</center>

# <center>High is the Lord</center>

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***<div class="text-right">“Hell is empty and all the devils are here.”</div>***
***<div class="text-right">- William Shakespeare “The Tempest”</div>***

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<div class="text-justify">She woke up suddenly gasping for air. Sweating cold and breathing with difficulty, Aurora opened her eyes. Her heartbeat was racing and the back of her neck was wet. She had had a nightmare, that was clear, but she couldn’t remember everything in it, just pieces of the dream. 

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Aurora got up from bed quickly because for some reason, she didn’t know yet, she believed she had to run away. The apartment was a complete disaster; clothes everywhere, beer cans spread all over, and rotten pizza on the table. 

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She grabbed her pants and a t-shirt and put it on. With an elastic band she tied her hair up in a ponytail and finally put on her Converse shoes. She took some of the clothes that were on the floor and put them in her backpack and then she noticed something black, it was a small gun. She took it too and tug it under the waistband of her pants covering it with her t-shirt. 

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“I have to get away from here,” she said nervously.

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Looking for the keys, she heard a sound on the doorknob that alerted her. She rushed to the bathroom and peeped through the door crack. It was only the lessor. She remained silent and motionless so he thought she was not there. After he left the apartment, she waited for ten minutes. During that time, Aurora felt she was having an anxiety attack; her thoughts rumbling on her head, the sweating, the cold, the crying…

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In her nightmare, she saw as if all the green things turned gray. And later all the birds dropped from the sky. A warning she thought, something was going to happen to her. She did not want to believe in such stupidity, but her whole life she had listened to the High Man talking about the signals of the good God, so her mind was quite puzzled in that regard.

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She knew they would come for her; they would take her back to the place she belonged, though she absolutely hated it. Aurora was escaping from what her destiny means to be. After living for a couple days in the real world, and knowing what life was, she understood she didn’t want to return to her other life. No matter all they said, no matter if she could not be forgiven by God, she had to go.

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She left the apartment, it wasn’t hers of course, but she had to go. She went through the hall and hurried to hail a cab. There was not so much traffic, and taxis seemed to have been taken from that street. But as if someone whispered in her ear she turned to the left and saw it. She started to run the other way. How did he find me? She thought while running for her life… 

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Aurora was an exemplary student who was left at an orphanage when she was a child. The place was run by the church, so all the teachers were nuns and priests. Living there she learned about sins and what was bad to the eyes of the Lord, and for a time she believed it; she thought it was true until she saw in them the very flaws they were supposed to eradicate in others.

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First, it was a boy from her class, bragging about sleeping with one of the youngest nuns, and although she didn’t believe it at once, she paid attention to her teacher. Then she saw how this nun was always so close to the boys, caressing them furtively and smiling at them.
Second, some of the priests looked at them weird; it wasn’t like old Harold, the gardener who always inspired in them a sense of confidence, like a grandfather. Some priests were looking at them as if they were a piece of meat, preys to be hunted and devoured. 

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And then, it was her turn, only she didn’t know what was going to happen. She was unexpectedly summoned to the High Man’s office. She thought maybe he had called her to inform her about her religious orders application. And it was along the lines of what he told her, she only had to follow certain rules. Then he asked her to take off her clothes and she looked at him scared. It was wrong; he should not be asking her such a thing. He saw her, and in his stare, she saw his lust and savagery. 

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She tried to run, but he was faster and took the keys from the keyhole. Then he slapped her face and pushed her against the desk, lifting her skirt and lowering her panties. She cried, and tried to get out of his chest but he was stronger and with one hand he covered her mouth, while with the other he pulled her hair. 

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He raped her, and no one in the orphanage would believe her because it was her word against his. She decided she had to run away, and so she did. 

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Now, running away from the man who disgraced her life, she thought about what she could actually do to stop him. He was dressed like a normal guy, like he was a father looking for her daughter. She kept running and entered an alley but this was a dead-end. She looked at the wall there was no escape, and turned around to confirm he had trapped her.

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“Aurora, I’m not going to hurt you,” he said calmly.

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“Stay away from me,” she shouted. “Don’t get any closer.”

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He started to laugh, a spineless and creepy laugh. She saw his eyes and they were empty like he wasn’t even human, but he was. He gave a step towards her and she stepped back. Then she felt it, the cold metal on her waist. She took the gun out and aimed it at him. His laugh vanished and he went serious.

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“What are you doing, Aurora?” he asked “God is against guns. Give me that and come back home.”

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“That’s not my home anymore, and you are nothing to me.” She was crying, scared about what she was going to do. “You raped me.”

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He gave another step. “Don’t be stupid.”

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But Aurora didn’t want to listen anymore. When he approached her a little bit more, she pulled the trigger, not once, but three times. She had killed him and she felt no remorse about it. She left the scene right away, but she was not free. Now there would be others who will look for her. Until then, she knew she had to start anew, in a new place away from nuns and priests, away from churches. A new Aurora had been born.</div>

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<center>**Thanks for reading!**</center>

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>Declaration
I certify that my entry to the The Ink Well Writing Prize is my own original work and has been published exclusively to The Ink Well and my Hive profile. I understand that my entry may be excluded from the Writing Prize if I have not met the Rules of Entry and the Community Rules. The Ink Well and the Writing Prize is supported by the @ocd Communities Incubation Programme and the @curie curation initiative.