I could make out Pastor Carter in the front. Directly beneath the wooden cross that adorned the wall. His arms outstretched. His followers on their knees. Heads bowed in prayer.
“Where’s Bastian?” Anne appeared beside me, her face frantic. Her eyes bloodshot.
“He’s inside. I can’t get in. The door’s locked,” I said. I turned to look at her. “What’s going on? Why would they lock the door?”
“It’s The Awakening, Sara. We always knew, deep down, what that meant.” Anne covered her face with her hands. “It’s David’s Awakening. God, we’ve been such idiots.”
I pulled her hands down. “Anne, what are you talking about?”
Anne sneered. An ugly expression that took me aback. “He’s not content with our money. Our free will. He wants our lives too.”
“What do you mean?” I whispered. Softly. As if the sound of my voice would make all this real.
It couldn’t be real.
How much more horrible could it possibly get?
Before Anne could answer me, there was an awful noise. The kind that came from the depths of your soul. It ravaged. It destroyed.
“No!”
The scream pierced my heart and I knew what had happened. I couldn’t deny it any longer. Iknew.
I felt it then. The final shift. Like an earthquake.
Like the apocalypse.
I waited helplessly outside listening to the cacophony of pain. The rise and fall of misery that came in waves. Bastian’s cries. His endless, tormenting cries.
And then total and complete quiet.
I took a breath. A shuddering, throbbing breath.
It was almost over…
I closed my eyes and wished for the sun. It had always been my comfort. Reliable. But there was only darkness. Pitch black night that went on and on.
“No!”
This time the cry came from Anne beside me. The subtle scent of wildflowers that always lingered when she was nearby would forever remind me of this night. Of this terrible, terrible night.
“Anne—” I reached out for my best friend. I wanted to console her. But, how could I?
This was all my fault…
She pushed away my hands. Refusing to let me touch her. Backing away as if I were poison, she turned and she ran. As I had wanted to. Off into the dead night. I could hear her sobs and longed to go after her. Yet she never looked back. She didn’t want my help. My comfort.
Our link had fragmented.
That realization squeezed and contorted my insides. My heart. It shifted and strained into something unrecognizable.
In that moment, I was filled with an awful self-loathing. I couldn’t have stopped it. Not really. This was part of Pastor Carter’s ultimate plan. I could see that now.
Anne was right. He wasn’t content with us giving up our pasts. He wanted our lives as well. It was the least we could give him. After we had followed him this far.
We were all such delusional fools.
But perhaps if I hadn’t rejected Pastor’s marriage, David would have been safe from this twisted plan…
