29 “Place your hand….on….me”

"The modern features that have been added have never been used before. After being modified by the creator, the gateway has yet to be used. It's been a while. Time moves differently here" the altar stated.

"Get up and come forward" it commanded.

Roland placed the book into the side of his trousers before using his hands to assist in hoisting himself up.

He took one big step before the altar.

"Place your hand….on….me" the altar's sounded flustered as though a girl confessing her love to her crush.

This behavior left Roland flabbergasted.

'…'

He was shocked to the point that he could not think at all.

"Just do it already" The altar got impatient, noticing Roland's lack of movement "It's a privilege to be able to place your hand on me. 'The creator' was the only one who has ever touched me before."

'That sounds so wrong on many levels'

He forced himself to push that kind of thought to the side.

"Where should I touch?"

The moment those words left Roland's mouth, he felt like beating himself up.

"You p – p – p – p – p – p – p – p – p – p - pervert!"

The altar's voice changed from being powerful, to one of a fair maiden.

'What's with the sudden change?'

Roland's yes bulged out, not believing what he'd heard.

"Shoot! Look what you made me do!" the altar spoke out again, sounding angry at Roland.

"What did I do?!" he seriously felt like crying at that point.

"I've always kept this side to me hidden and you just had to draw it out with your perverted behavior"

The altar's slowly voice reverted from the fair maiden-like voice, to its booming, masculine voice as it spoke.

'I feel like you'd spare no expense at screaming sexual assault, had you been a human, living in my time'

Roland shook his head as he listened to the altar's accusations.

"Just place your hand in the slot provided"

With a sigh, Roland placed his hand within the slot that he'd placed the book in previously.

The altar shook and Roland looked on fascinated as the structure molded into the shape of his hand.

'So cool', his eyes lit up.

Thinking that'd he'd seen enough, Roland received the shock of his life after the altar was suddenly engulfed in light, almost blinding him and to his surprise, a human form appeared with the light.

The light dimmed, and the stone structure – the altar – was nowhere to be seen.

In its place stood a female, seemingly a teenager – roughly 18 – slightly shorter than Roland.

She had a flustered expression on her face, which in turn caused Roland to be flustered.

"P-p-p-pervert"

'Pervert?!'

She tilted her head down and Roland unconsciously followed her line of sight.

He never prayed for death as much as he did in that moment, wanting to cut his hand off at the same time. He couldn't help being reminded of that verse that he'd overheard once.

"And if thy right hand offend thee, cut it off, and cast it from thee..."

Yet, at the same time, he felt as though his hand went stiff and he couldn't move it.

'Move dammit!'

He looked on, tears threatening to fall from his eyes, at his hand groping her chest.