Another nurse enters, her hands immediately covering her face, her eyes wide open like a cartoon as she gazes down at Mr. Baldwin. “What’s wrong with his eyes?” She gazes at us. “And his body?”
In our brief interaction, no one noticed Mr. Baldwin’s eyes retreating completely inside his head and disappearing. There’s nothing left where they should be except black holes with oozing sludge dripping out of them. His body, flat to the floor, like a corpse missing its muscle and fat, leaving nothing but skin and bones.
Fried from the inside out.
I dart around them and make a mad dash down the hallway, my mind a buzz with uncertainty and options. My bare feet slap against the tiled floor as I round the corner and slam into a man wearing all black with a clerical collar. He holds me firmly, extending his arms, creating distance between us and gazing deep into my wild eyes.
“Child, you’re frantic. Come with me,” he says, tugging me to a room to our left.
The minute we enter the space, I shriek at the sight of multiple candles burning. “No! He’s going to kill me! He travels through the flames.”
Candles burn before an altar, set against multiple rows of pews, but they don’t rise; they don’t lash out with the devil’s tongue; they flicker peacefully beneath the cross that holds Jesus Christ.
The chaplain grabs my head with both hands, squeezing gently. “Not here, child,” he says firmly. “Not in this room.” He plunges his hand into a basin of water beside him and makes the sign of the cross on my forehead. “You are protected.”
His words offer me no comfort. Mastyx has breached them before at Jayce’s funeral when his father was screaming in my face. Mastyx may not be able to enter the sanctity of these four walls temporarily with the application of holy water on my head, but I can’t stay here forever.
A shadow appears through the frosted glass on the door. It swings open, and the nurse from my room heaves a heavy sigh. She shouts down the hall. “Found her.” She reaches inside the room and takes me by the elbow. “Come on, Dr. Z is looking for you.”
I pull away from her, backing further into the room. “No, he has to stay away from me. It’s not safe.”
The chaplain nods for the nurse to leave, and he gestures for me to follow him to a pew. We take a seat in the front row, and he gazes up at Jesus. “My child, you are in the house of God. Whatever you are running from, whatever you are afraid of, I can help you—he can help you,” he says, pointing up at the statue.
I stare down at my fingers, poking out of my cast, and say, “My fate is sealed—has been for years.”
He rests his hand on mine and says, “No one’s fate is ever sealed. You can change it through him.” His eyes float to Jesus on the cross. “He can save you; you just have to give your life to Him.”
I’ve never been a religious person. Perhaps it’s because the devil saved me at the ripe age of eighteen, and I owe him my loyalty. I slide my hand from under the chaplains and whisper, “Making a deal with God to save me for my sins voids my contract with the demon who saved me.” I stand and frown down at him. “My life isn’t my own—hasn’t been for a long time.”
He stands abruptly, reaching for me as I back away from him and say, “No one can save me after what I’ve done.” I turn away from him and walk solemnly to the exit.
“Where are you going, child?” he asks, jogging in front of me.
I put my head down, ashamed to look in the eyes of this man of God and murmur, “To face the flames.”
Chapter Thirty-Five
Wandering Aimlessly
When I exit the chapel, I look up and down the empty hallways, searching for the first exit sign I see. It glows at the far end of the corridor, and I run to it, desperate to get away before Dr. Z sends another search party after me.
Darkness envelops me when I step outside and the air chills me to the bones. I wander around the parking lot for several minutes, wondering where I parked my car before remembering that I didn’t drive; Dr. Z did.
Fuck.
I slosh through a puddle on the sidewalk that runs parallel to the hospital. Tears blur my vision and sting my face. I wipe them away and press forward, determined to walk all the way home. I stop walking and stare ahead. Home. Do I really want to go there?
Where else can I go? I can’t call my parents; they wouldn’t believe me. It’s not like they could protect me anyway. Not from this. Not from Mastyx. Water soaks my feet with a penetrating cold, curling my toes. Goosebumps race up my arms and stop at my neck. I rub my upper arm above my cast, trying to generate friction to warm it. Raindrops trickle down from the sky, landing softly on my head. I continue walking. The faster my legs move, the harder the rain falls. A lightning bolt dances across the sky,before traveling down to earth, and I swear I see Mastyx’s face in the black clouds.
A car passes me, and the faint sound of a single word unnerves me. “Mine.” I watch as the car continues down the road and the driver flicks the end of his cigarette out the window, dispelling his ashes. Soon, that’s all I see. One car after another drives by me, the word ‘Mine’ filtering from each person who holds a cigarette in their grasp.
“Help me,” I murmur.
Mine…Mine…Mine…Mine.
The cars keep coming. It’s like I’m stuck in an infinite loop.
“Mine!”
