The Claimnation

Ed's eyes opened.

It wasn't an immediate process but they opened gradually and he was able to take in his surroundings again. The noises were still there. Incoherent and vexing for him as he couldn't make a thing out of different words of what more than a thousand people screamed.

He tried moving his arms to see if he had drank of the liquid when he recalled about it. He had passed out when it was his turn to and when his seat mates had been motioning for him to take a sip out of the "sacrifice".

That was all he could recall from before he had lost consciousness.

He turned around him when he discovered he could not move his hand and figured out that he had been bound to a chair with the both of his hands tied backwards.

He became apprehensive and immediately sat upright but regretted it no sooner did the nails on the chair he was seated on pricked his back, be winced in pain and stopped minutes after adter telling himself that he needed to man up in front of all those that were staring at him.

The biggest pain was hunger and it was already disturbing him. For now he didn't mind the pains he might feel from the nails pricking on his back, he was only concerned about the imminent hunger that was coming for him.

"Where am I? What am I doing here?" He asked no one in particular, seeing some of the other boys that were tied on chairs beside him.

It appeared like all of them had fallen short of the same rule which had resulted them being punished.

But what was with the ridiculous punishment of tying them in the middle of the same podium still filled with blood of the pregnant women who had desecrated it before.

And why not just keep them somewhere else while they awaited punishment. Why did it have to be here.

"What is your name?" A man clad in an all black ensemble asked a boy not far from him.

He looked like the leader of this place because of how commanding his voice was. If he wasn't mistaken, Ed was sure he was also the man whom he had overheard speaking the first time.

"El Castro De La Lucas" the boy answered fearfully immediately he was asked.

"El Castro De La Lucas??" The man repeated, screaming into the crowd.

Ed couldn't understand why he was doing that. Was he asking them of their names to mention to the others so that they would be weary of the name owners whenever they would see them in public?

If that was the case then he wouldn't mind. He wanted to leave this place so desperately. If more than those thousand people were to know his name and avoid him in future for being a coward towards their sacrifice, then he honestly wouldn't mind.

"Clear... I brought him here. He isn't an intruder. He is the twenty fifth boyfriend I promised to bring this week" a girl stood up from the crowd and said.

Some people from the chaotic crowd cheered her on.

Ed was surprised. She was so matured and the boy she was currently claiming as her twenty fifth boyfriend didn't look anything pass a nineteen year old boy.

How had he been stupid to believe that he was dating the woman he was currently seeing, standing in front of them from the crowd she had come out from. She looked as if she was almost approaching her fifties. What could have made him that foolish?

Well, apart for the massive boobs that were almost popping out of the overtight white sleeve she wore, there was nothing else about her thay he could see.

Ed watched on and found the boy being united from the chair he was on. The same went for some of the other boys who had someone come out on stage to claim them.

He thought about it for a while and figured out that they might have been pardoned as they were confirmed not being intruders, walking into a land they had no business with. Which had been exactly what he had done.

"Your name?" He heard someone requesting and raised his head to find the man clad in the all black ensemble already at his front.

Every of the other boys that had been there were gone except for one more boy who was bound opposite to him.

Ed trembled. Even if his name were to be called, who would possibly know his name? Who possibly would come out to claim him? It was not as if he had a famous surname someone would be so eager to claim.

Then it struck him. Why was he worrying when he had in real sense followed someone in anyway?

"I just asked you a question!" The man blazed hot.

Chill chill chill man. Ed wanted to mutter to him. Getting angry at him wasn't going to help him at this instant as he was fretting himself.

What would be the consequences for him when it is discovered that he had trespassed on the land? None of the other boys whose names had been mentioned before were left unclaimed. Would the punishment start from him and be for o my him alone if he was unclaimed? Would they pound him in a mortal as well and have him shared to everyone in the hall to be consumed? Or was that practice strictly meant for only new born babies being the sacrifices?

"Lorraine Blai.....Lorraine Blai brought me here..... You can ask her..." He muttered incoherently after brief thinkings.

There was absolutely no need to mention his name first since there would be no one to claim him anyways, but he had thought.

If he were to mention Lorraine Blai's name and then his name was demanded after, surely she must claim to have brought him.

She knew him. They were from the same neighborhood and attended the same monastery. They had even been friends in their childhood. And even if it wasn't for these closeness of theirs, atleast she must claim him for a reward. Or wasn't there rewards for people who brought in new members for this place that looked like an occult coven?

He could only imagine that as he hadn't seen one himself but they were all passing what Father Romillon had described to be an occultic coven.

"You say that Lorraine Blai brought you here young man?" The man asked.

Something was off this time and Ed noticed immediately.. His voice was gentler, almost like a whisper to him than how loud they had been before to others.

"Yes she did" Ed answers immediately, smiling somewhere in his heart. Perhaps Lorraine was an important person here. She would surely save him. The mere mention of her name was already his saving grace. No wonder she had two muscular men pick her up before.

"And what is your name?"

"Ed" Ed muttered. "Ed Warren" finding it easier to say now that he seemed relax with the reaction he had given when he mentioned Lorraine's name.

The man paused for a while. "Warren" he repeated the surname, his voice in a mutter again.

He stared at Ed and Ed couldn't tell why. Did he know about him? Or had he heard about the Warren family of drunkards courtesy to the image his father might have given off.

The man paused when he heard the surname for a while, looking at Ed from head to toe. Could he be him? He asked himself but immediately shaked off the thoughts.

There was no way he could be. Perhaps one of these families bearing Warren because of the aesthetics and glamour associated to it. And even if he was, there was no way he would be seated here, bound hands and legs.

"Lorraine Blai?" He called out to the crowd after what seemed like an hour.

The crowd went silent. Ed stared on.. Why had it gone silent? They had been loud and noisy each time the other people's names were called and their claimer stood up to save them, why had they gone silent on his own case and turned staring at one direction?