Chapter 17
“You have to lock the door behind me!” Sharon commanded.
“What do you mean?” I asked. My heart was pounding like war drums. My mind once again thought of the people who first settled this land; the land we had done everything to destroy since then.
One long history of war and bloodshed.
Sharon took hold of my face. “Tess, I need you to breathe.”
I hadn’t realized I’d been hyperventilating. I nodded and closed my eyes. I counted to ten. I sucked the air in through my nose and pushed it out of my mouth. Inside my head, I hummed the song James and I had played together on the piano back at Templeton. I tried every trick I knew to calm the panic attack, and while it was easier to breathe, I still felt the fear claim me. It was like the feeling had attached to me like some parasite, waiting to show itself whenever I felt safe.
“Look at me,” Sharon urged. I forced my eyes to hers. They were steady. Calm. Ready for whatever was next. This was the life she had chosen, and she knew that this day would come.
We all knew.
“We don’t have much time. As soon as I leave, you lock this door, and you don’t open it for anyone. Not till morning. Not till there’s nothing but silence,” she said.
I shook my head. “No. You have to stay here with us,” I pleaded, reaching my hand forward and clutching onto her.
“I have others to protect,” Sharon said quietly. Her eyes welled with unshed tears. She kissed my cheek and walked past me deeper into the room.
The bell continued to ring like a banshee in the night. If I made it through this, I promised to destroy any bell I saw for as long as I lived.
I turned and watched as Sharon pulled a chair up to a wardrobe. It was half broken by years of misuse and carelessness. She stood on the chair and reached up, fumbling around the top of it till she found what she was looking for.
Dust fell to the ground like snow. I couldn’t help but wonder if any of us would see another winter. I remembered playing in the snow with James; it would be easy to lose myself in memories of him in this moment.
Sharon sighed with relief when she located what she was searching for. I looked up to find her holding the precious item in her hands—a rifle.
She got down from the chair and placed the gun in my hands. “I understand that you know how to use one of these things?” Gone were the tears. She was back to being the mother who would do anything to protect her children. Back to being the mother any child would be blessed to have.
I wrapped my fingers around the rifle. “I can handle it,” I said. I sniffled, attempting to force it all back in, trying to put on the brave front that Sharon had shown me.
“I know you can,” she answered. She took two steps toward the door before I halted her. I pulled her into my arms and hugged her as tightly as I possibly could. “What’s this for?” she asked, laughing slightly.
“Everything,” I mumbled into her shoulder.
Sharon gave me one final squeeze, and then she was gone.
As soon as she left us, I bolted the door. Louisa cried quietly, and I didn’t really blame her. Everything in my soul told me I should be running. But Sharon knew as well as I did that I couldn’t leave Louisa, and I certainly wasn’t strong enough to carry her.
I could fight. So many around me had taught me strength. Sharon. Eric. Robert. Henry. Even my father taught me how to use my wits when weapons weren’t enough. And they were all out there fighting. I could join them in battle, but I was needed here.
Sometimes staying safe was the bravest thing you could do.
I sat on the bed next to my sister and wrapped an arm around her shoulders. She whimpered into my chest. After a while, the bell stopped ringing, and an eerie silence moved through the community like a slithering snake—all shhhh and foreboding. I knew it was only the calm before the storm.
Louisa lifted her tear-stained face. “What do we do now?”
I leaned down and kissed my little sister on the top of her head. In so many ways, she wasn’t a child anymore, but nothing could stop me from protecting her. I should have made it my mission to protect her years ago.
“We wait,” I said simply.
“For what?”
“For dawn. For the end. For whatever comes next.”
Chapter 18
The screams were the worst.
They filled the air. There was nowhere Louisa or I could go to hide from them. They started slowly at first. Random. Intermittently punching the air. It was as if the horror itself was a creature playing the most twisted game of hide ’n’ seek in all of history.
A piercing shriek would blast through the air and then the silence would follow. Cat and mouse. Louisa would stop trembling and crying long enough to look up at me with questioning eyes, begging me to tell her that it was over, but moments later, the screams would return.