Undone: The Complete Duology, page 34
“She didn’t accept it,” he said.
I glowered at him. “You don’t deserve to have your pathetic apology accepted.”
“The whole town blamed her,” he said. “It made no difference. They didn’t care about, ya know, promiscuity or anything like that. They just wanted her to say she had…caused it. She’d enticed me. She’d wanted it to happen. That it was mutual, and she’d just regretted it but she hadn’t been…”
He couldn’t even say it. Hell, he wasn’t even putting the blame where it belonged.
“No, Robert, she hadn’t been anything. You did it.”
He winced. “They just wanted her to go along with their version of the story.”
“Right, because nothing bad can happen in Thorn Tree. Isn’t that the dream they sell to keep people in this sewage pit? Everyone believes they are safe here and living the perfect life. No one ever wants to turn over the rocks. No one wants to leave.”
“That’s what they tell themselves,” he said softly. “That’s why they never came after me. It was in their best interest that I remain innocent in the eyes of the town. Fucking is fine. Teen pregnancy is fine. But…”
My brother had broken the façade over Thorn Tree, but Gracie had pushed back. She’d refused to let them spackle over the truth and paint a new exterior to hide the rotting structure underneath. Her refusal, her very presence, made the town confront day after day that all was not as it seemed in their little slice of imaginary Heaven.
“Why couldn’t she just do what they asked?” he said, breathless.
Rage consumed me. I slammed him against the rock side of the mountain. His head jarred, and he lulled forward.
“Because you did this!”
Truth and comfort so rarely went hand in hand. Even though my brother knew the truth, he still couldn’t shake the need for a cozy answer that let him sleep at night.
He coughed, his lungs rattling and wheezing. Truth be told, he needed a hospital.
“You are to blame for this situation, not her,” I said with a growl.
“I know. I know!” He coughed again and struggled to breathe. “I would undo it all if I could. They won’t accept my answer. I told my mom…I told the sheriff. They won’t listen. I told them!”
“Isn’t that fuckin convenient for you? No matter what, you don’t have to do the right thing. Isn’t that nice?”
He shook his head, then turned paler. His stomach heaved. I dropped him to the ground and took a small step back before he vomited on my shoes. He dry heaved a few times then stared up at me with watery, bloodshot eyes.
“I’ve had a lot of time to think,” he said, voice scratchy. “I tried not to in New York, but since I came back…since Gracie did all this…I’ve had nothing but time.”
“What’s your point?” I snapped.
Inside, my brain and heart waged war. I couldn’t let my brother die, but I also couldn’t save him.
“This town, it fucks with your head.”
That was an understatement if ever there was one.
“Nothing sane or logical or…even acceptable happens in Thorn Tree.” He lowered his gaze, flushing red under the pallor of skin. “I wonder who I would have been if I hadn’t been raised here.”
As easy as it would have been to believe that he was again trying to pass the blame for his horrible decisions, the resignation in his tone and on his face said otherwise. But his remorse hardly mattered. He’d destroyed a life. He’d destroyed Gracie.
He peered up at me. “How do I fix this?”
“You can’t. Where the fuck is Gracie now? I have to find her.”
“Beth took her.”
Panic raced through me. “Took her? What the fuck does that mean?”
“She probably took her to the Reverend.” He cleared his rough throat. “I’m sure of it, actually. I know I don’t deserve your help, but Mac…I’m going to die out here.”
He wasn’t wrong—about any of it. It would take a long time for me to sort out my feelings about this situation. Time I didn’t have, and neither did Gracie if the Reverend had his claws on her.
I flung the knife at the ground, and the blade stuck into the snow inches from his leg.
Without another word, I turned and took off through the snow in the direction of the church.
18
MAC
As I raced through the trees, shadows on either side of me kept pace. At first, I thought it was from the lightheadedness of my thudding heart. The farther I went, the more certain I was that I was being followed.
Were the demons following me, or trying to beat me to Gracie?
I didn’t know what fate I had left my brother to, but I couldn’t spare the energy for him. He’d made his choices, and now, I had made mine.
The trees faded as I reached the road, but it was barely visible under the blanket of snow. Cracks still marred the ground, glowing faint orange and yellow. I hadn’t yet made sense of those either, except the town seemed to be coming undone at the seams.
The first buildings along the main road came into view. I didn’t slow, though the shadows continued to move with me, flanking me as I veered towards the church.
I rounded a corner and skidded to a halt. Two dozen of the townspeople stood in a tight group, bats and crowbars and steel bars raised.
They had been waiting for me.
I scurried back a few steps, hands up, my gaze darting around and beyond them. On the hill, the church silhouetted against the darkening sky.
Behind me, footsteps crunched. I spun as one of the shadowy demons stepped from the edges of the building, as if fully forming into existence.
The demon curled back its lip with a snarl, thick saliva stringing past its chin. More demons stepped into view behind it. I was blocked in by the townspeople on one side, and the pack of demons on the other. Their red eyes shone in the darkness, their gazes latched onto me.
Everyone awaited my move.
I slowly turned back to the vigilante group. The way their gazes raked over the pack, I had no doubt they could see the demons. The group did not seem the least bit alarmed. They were aware of the demons, always had been.
I took a single step towards the vigilante group. Then I darted to the side, running faster than my injured ankle could handle. Hot flares of pain shot straight through me, blinding me in spurts. The townspeople charged after me and took swings at me. I zigzagged and ducked, barely missing having my head caved in.
Behind the vigilante group, the demons launched forward. They separated around the townspeople and pulled ahead until they leveled with me on either side. The demons melded into one long blurring shadow. Red eyes flashed through darkness.
I just had to get to the church. I had to help Gracie before the Reverend hurt her.
The ground shook. I lost my footing and stumbled forward, folding over. A crowbar swung over my back. I dropped to the ground and rolled out of the way as a familiar, unnamed man brought down the crowbar. It sliced the snow with a sickening crunch that could have been my face.
I scrambled to my feet and kept running. Nausea gathered in my gut, but I tried to focus on the cold air that barely warmed in my nose. My lungs ached, and my side cramped.
Another tremble rocked the ground. Around me, more golden lines traced through the snow. As I raced over them, heat puffed against me.
From the side, a demon separated from the stretch of shadows. It launched at me, slamming me into the ground. The air rushed from my lungs. The demon jutted its face into mine, its enormous, curved bottom teeth scraping along my skin.
“Not on the first date,” I groaned, ramming my forearm against its rubbery neck.
The demon pushed just enough to show me it could overtake me if it wanted. Smoke billowed off its body.
The townspeople surrounded me, weapons at the ready, but they held back. The demons ruled in this town. That much I’d figured out.
The only goal here was to keep me from Gracie. I couldn’t let them succeed, but I couldn’t exactly pummel the demon off me. He was a big boy, and already I was flattened against the snow with little room to maneuver.
In one swift move, I pulled my arm back from its neck and grabbed one of its jutting teeth, twisting down. The demon’s head went with the motion, and the creature’s growl cascaded into a shriek. I yanked harder and rolled the opposite direction, out from under the body.
A woman swung a metal bar at me. I caught it with my hand and jerked it from her grasp as I clambered to my feet.
“Stay back!” Swinging the bar wide, I took a few paces away from the townspeople and the demon that had pinned me. The demon rubbed its face against the ground as it billowed thicker smoke.
Behind me, the other demons paced in their melded shadow.
I was outnumbered, by both demons and humans, but they moved carefully. No one had ever intended to kill me, after all. They just didn’t want me interfering with what the Reverend had planned for Gracie.
It couldn’t be anything good.
I couldn’t hang out in this standoff any longer. Dropping the bar, I bolted in the direction of the hill with the church.
The townspeople and demons surged after me, cries and growls filling the air, underscored by heavy footsteps. The shadows flowed past me on either side. They shot forward and converged in the distance to block me off.
I was going to have to plow right through them. If I would come out the other side unscathed was yet to be seen.
Right before I reached them, the ground shifted heavily. I spilled to the snow, slamming forward on my shoulder. The townspeople screamed as the ground swayed back the opposite direction. I scrambled for purchase but only grabbed fists of snow as I rolled with motion.
A booming sound split the air. Heat welled up around me as golden red light illuminated the night.
I scrambled to sit as more glowing lines webbed along the ground. The lines grew thicker.
I pushed to my feet and stumbled back as the lines on three sides of me continued to widen until they were the width of my palm. They kept growing. The earth cleaved apart with a pained groan, and heat and golden-red light shot into the air.
The townspeople milled around the cracks, careful to avoid them as they worked through the maze to reach me. The demons prowled and stirred, and discontent wafted off them.
They didn’t like this new development, either.
I ran, my sight locked on the dark church on the hill. I refused to acknowledge the agony that had welled up inside me. I couldn’t feel anything but pain with each step, with each breath.
The hill was in reach. I picked up my pace, forcing myself to close the distance.
A golden line shot across the ground in front of me. I tried to stop as the ground yawned open, revealing a crevice with no bottom.
I veered to the side to dart around the gap. The crevice ripped farther and wider. I skidded to a halt, falling onto my ass, and slid. I flailed around me until my fingers latched on to a handful of a bush, yanking me to a stop right as my legs went over the edge. I pushed my soles against the side of the crevice and wiggled on my back away from the opening. When I was a few feet away from toppling over the edge, I dared to rise to my feet.
Deep golden-red ravines had split the earth in random scars in every direction. The one in front of me separated me from the church.
I jogged the length of the ravine, looking for a way over.
Had the Reverend ordered this not-so-natural disaster? Who the hell was he?
Around the side of the hill, the ravine tapered to an end. I charged towards the hill. The ground rumbled as the ravine grew longer, cutting me off. As the earth split in front of me, I said a small prayer and leapt. Heated wind rushed up around me, the golden-red light of the ravine filling my vision. Then my soles slammed into hard ground. I toppled forward and crawled before the heat and blinding light had cleared.
The ground sloped upwards as I ascended the hill on hands and knees. Pressing my palms against the softening snow, I got my feet under me and stooped, trudging onward and upwards.
The rumbling at the base of the hill came again, but no golden lines followed me upwards. Neither did the townspeople or the demons.
That was concerning.
At the top of the hill, I huffed to catch my breath. Any other day, this wouldn’t have been such a difficult climb.
Today was not another other day, though.
Today was a day of reckoning: either for Gracie and me, or for the town.
In the next few hours, our future would play out.
I staggered to the front of the church. I blinked a few times, then scowled as I assessed the wall where the door should be.
There had been a door here. Concern spiking my heartbeat, I circled the church, but it was void of both doors and windows, just a closed-up box with a simple steeple on top.
I had no doubt Gracie was inside.
Rage and despair filled me all over again. Every step of the way was absolute torture. I just wanted to get Gracie out of here, but they were never going to let her go.
Not without a fight.
“Fuck you!” I slammed my fist into the wall where a stained-glass window should be. Pain rocked through my hand to my elbow, but I grit my teeth and hit the wall again. “I will fuckin’ kill you, whatever the fuck you are!”
My hand couldn’t take much more, so I searched the ground until I found a rock protruding from the melting snow. The heat from the crevices had already taken its toll.
I hefted up the rock and swung it hard at the church. The rock thudded into the wall and dropped to the ground. I hurried to scoop it up and threw it again, and again. When nothing happened, I beat the side of my fist against the wall, over and over, until tears filled my eyes. I dropped my forehead against the wall, continuing a slow beat with my fist, and screamed at the impossible battle I had been fighting.
How had I ever thought I could get us out of here? We were up against something altogether not of this world.
We were but mere mortals.
Well, Gracie was a witch, a real one, but her powers paled in comparison to the darkness that controlled this town.
We never stood a chance.
“You can only enter if you are ready to submit,” someone said from behind me.
I spun around. Lexi stood with the glow from the ground framing her from behind. Her wild hair laid over her shoulders.
“What the hell do you want?” I snapped, tensing.
Thorn Tree had taken her. Whoever stood before me was no longer the sweet woman I’d grown up with.
“All you must do is tell me you are ready, and then you may enter the church.” She held out her hand and gave me a small smile. “Are you ready, Mac?”
I clenched my fist at my side, ready to retort, then halted.
The townspeople never called me Mac. They called me Malachi.
If she was one of them, wouldn’t she use my full name too?
Maybe it was a trap.
“Just submit,” she said, but her eyes twinkled with an all too familiar kindness.
The town had gotten her, but not entirely. Somewhere inside, she resisted.
She wiggled her fingers, beckoning me to take her hand. “Just say you are ready.”
There was nothing left to lose.
I stepped forward, took her hand, and whispered, “Yes, Lexi. I am ready.”
Without a word, she led me around to the front of the church. No windows or doors had yet appeared.
Maybe she was going to feed me to a demon after all.
Instead, she jutted out her other hand, splaying her fingers. Red light encompassed her hand.
A rumble issued around me. I glanced at the ground, expecting more gaping ravines to open. The snow remained untouched.
On the front of the church, the door slid into place as if it had been hidden.
Lexi smiled at me and released my hand.
“Save us,” she whispered.
Before I could reply, she disappeared back into the shadows.
I turned back to the door that had formed in the church. There was no telling how long it would stay accessible.
I wrapped my fingers around the doorknob, took a deep breath, and shoved open the door.
19
MAC
Inside the church, an inferno raged. Roaring flames obscured my view farther than a foot in front of me, the sweltering air suffocating the breath from my lungs.
I nearly turned back, but the thought of Gracie trapped in here somewhere rooted me to my spot. I tried to make out any indication of her—or anyone else—amidst the flames, but my vision was full of dancing orange and red.
Despite all instinct, I took a step forward, wary of the walls or ceilings preparing to collapse around me. The church had shown no indication of damage from outside, and while I couldn’t make out the structure while the interior was engulfed in flames, I doubted the building was damaged. This fire was a façade—like everything else in this town.
It certainly felt real, though. I unzipped my jacket and shook my arms a little to get some ventilation, but it did nothing to help.
“Gracie?” I called. My voice bounced around the room in a strange echo that didn’t belong. “Gracie, are you in here?”
I waited as the last repetition of my words finished, then took another step forward. The flames allowed passage, and I headed forward, confident that I was caught in little more than an illusion.
As I neared the stage, the dark silhouette of the Reverend appeared.
After everything he had inflicted on this town, I would recognize him anywhere. I climbed the steps to join him. Rows of candles burned against the backdrop of flames.
Gracie was nowhere to be found.
The Reverend turned towards me with a smile. “You didn’t really submit, did you, Malachi?”
I hesitated. There was no good answer here. If I insisted I would submit to his strange little cult, then he would proceed immediately with whatever indoctrination remained. If I told the truth, he would end me here—or worse.
But Gracie had been right; this needed to be over. We were on the brink of the final showdown, and either we would win, or Thorn Tree would.
