His body was naked as the day he was born. A wooden stake, about as big around as a baton, had one end shoved in the dirt. The other end was shoved in Elias’s anus. It was what was keeping the body upright. Flies buzzed around the body, playing electric blues on their translucent wings. The past few days had been unusually warm. While Cole Marshall had been spared the indignity of flies crawling across what was left of his face, Reverend Elias received no such consideration.
