Ted Dekker - Sanctuary

“By holding torture over his head?”

“Sometimes the threat of torture is the only way to get the wayward to confess their depravity. Danny is still pretending to be good.”

“You can’t force this on people. It’s monstrous!”

Marshall Pape arched an eyebrow. “Well then…perhaps she would like to save herself. Would that ease your mind?” He paced to his right. “How about it, Renee, would you like to save yourself?”

I only half-heard their exchange. My mind was cringing in my nakedness. I didn’t know what he meant by saving myself.

“All you would need to do is demonstrate your willingness to follow me. Make just a simple gesture of your love for me. Hmmm? Do that and I’ll save you from all this.”

My mind wasn’t working properly. He’d extended an olive branch to me, that was all I really heard. But he’d also used the word love and that confused me, so I didn’t respond.

“I’ll tell you what,” he said. “I can see you’re terrified, so let’s make this real easy. Don’t bare yourself. Just give me a simple gesture to confess your allegiance to me. Choose me, and I’ll set you free. Be my Judas; give me a kiss.”

The room was perfectly quiet. I could feel all of their eyes on me, some sad, some hardened by too many years in the warden’s sanctuary. All I had to do was kiss him and he would spare me?

It all struck me as a carefully rehearsed drama in which I, the unsuspecting victim, had been led onto the stage.

Nausea was flooding my belly and rising up through my chest. I had to be strong, I knew that. I had to save myself so that I could save Danny.

But I couldn’t move my feet. I couldn’t speak past the lump in my throat.

“No? Not even a simple single expression to be saved?”

“You’re a monster,” Keith growled.

“ I’m the monster?” The warden’s words rang through the hard yard. He turned to the members. “Is that how you see me?”

None of the prisoners spoke. How could they? They’d all either come to believe him or were too fearful of their own fate to question his ways. His power over them was absolute.

“You see, Mr. Hammond, I’m not the monster here. She is. You are. You’re two puppets dangling on the end of a rope while the fires burn at your feet.”

The warden slowly walked up to me again, hand in his pocket now, grin screwed on his face.

“What would you do to save yourself, my dear? You won’t remove your clothes and stand naked before me. You won’t even acknowledge me with a kiss. I’ll tell you what…why don’t you kiss Keith here? Show me that you care about someone besides yourself and maybe I’ll reconsider.”

He was playing with us. Manipulating. Leading us down his twisted path, determining just what we would say or do to save ourselves.

“Just kiss him, and I’ll reconsider. It’s a sign of friendship, dear, not betrayal. Prostitutes don’t kiss, you know.”

The thought of doing anything the warden suggested felt like a betrayal of myself. But I was desperate to stay alive. For Danny.

“You can’t even do that, can you?” the warden said.

“What exactly will you reconsider?” Keith demanded.

“Everything. Isn’t that what you want? She can become yours. Isn’t that what you’ve always wanted? And now the choice is hers.”

For a few seconds neither of them spoke, and it was just enough time for me to get hold of myself and make a decision.

I stepped over to Keith, lifted my hand to his neck, pulled his face down toward me, and kissed him. His lips were warm and he was breathing hard.

Something inside of me broke, and I couldn’t let go. He put his arms around me and pulled my head into his shoulder.

“Sh, sh…It’s okay, honey,” he whispered. “It’s going to be okay, I promise.”

I clung to him as if he were my last hope in that insane world.

Keith hushed me again. “It’s okay.”

“Don’t let them hurt me,” I whispered into his shirt. “Please.”

“They won’t.”

Behind me, the door into the hard yard crashed open. Keith lifted his head and stared. I twisted in his arms and saw what he saw.

A man stood at the door, naked except for a pair of black shorts. His dark hair was swept back, wet with sweat. My heart bolted in my chest.

It was Danny. Staring at us with fiery eyes.

I was already halfway across the room, running for him. I was already throwing myself into his arms and curling up in his chest and vowing my undying love. I was doing all of that already, but only in my mind. I hadn’t moved. I was still in Keith’s arms, which were tightening around me.

Then I saw that Danny’s eyes weren’t directed at us , but on the man who held me. On Keith.

And from Danny’s eyes spilled all the rage of hell itself.

39

DANNY KNEW THAThe was being led to her. He knew there were no guards to stop him because he wasn’t meant to be stopped. He knew the only door that remained unlocked led to the hard yard, because Renee was in there. And he knew that when he found her, he would not like what he found.

But he did not know that he would find her in the arms of a beast.

He saw the whole room in the space of a breath. Four guards stood in the corners, armed with rifles. Bostich was near the center of the room overlooking a dozen inmates seated along the wall. The warden stood close to a man who held Renee.

The man was Keith Hammond.

Danny had first met the man when Keith was a rising star in the sheriff’s department who liked to take out his frustrations on his wife, Celine Hammond. Celine had come to confession at Danny’s parish for a year, each time crying her shame. Her husband beat and abused her weekly.

Danny approached Keith after failing to convince Celine to go to the police. He took the deputy to a warehouse, bound him to a chair, and spoke to him plainly about his choice to inflict suffering on his wife. Keith had shown all the humility of a belligerent bulldog, but Danny was persuasive and the man had finally capitulated, realizing he would lose his life if he did not.

Unfortunately, Keith abused his wife again, and Danny would have ended his life then if not for Celine. Emboldened rather than deflated by his boast that he would beat her in spite of the death threat, she’d gone to the sheriff’s department and exposed their rising star.

The department offered Hammond a deal. If he stepped down and granted his wife a divorce, his secrets would remain safe with his employers. He agreed to their deal, however embittered, and Celine moved out of state six months later. Danny put the issue behind him.

Now Keith Hammond was back, evidently here to take Renee because Danny had taken Celine from him.

Keith stared at him over Renee’s head and a smile pulled at his lips. The hatred in his eyes could only be that of the devil.

“Take your hands off of her.”

Keith’s smile broadened. “It’s been a long time, my friend.”

Renee gasped and tried to spin free, but the man had a fistful of her hair. He jerked her back and backhanded her face.

“Stay!”

She twisted around, eyes flashing with terror. “Danny?”

Three of the guards lifted their rifles and trained the sights on him. It suddenly all made sense. Hammond was working with the warden. If they’d gone to such lengths, the end, too, was already orchestrated. Keith would hurt Renee, and the warden would push Danny to kill, testing him to his breaking point in an attempt to prove he hadn’t truly changed.

Renee’s face was white. “Danny?”

Keith’s hand flashed again, striking her face with enough force to knock her down. He let Renee drop.