“I love you!” I shout back, tears clouding my vision, adding a quiver to my voice. Her body is now dangling at least ten feet above me when it was only inches away before. “I’ve always loved you! Say the Lord’s Prayer, Scarlett! Say the Lord’s Prayer, and he’ll bring you home!” I can’t move, not even to turn my head. The darkness holds me down with shackles. “Oh God, please take her home!” I scream. In the distance, I see the movement of the nasty things she was talking about, jabbing her in the sides with fire pokers. She yelps and wiggles to get free from them.
“OUR FATHER WHO ART IN HEAVEN! HALLOWED BE THY NAME! THY KINGDOM COME, THY WILL BE DONE, ON EARTH AS IT IS IN HEAVEN!”
She screams again as a fire poker plunges through her chest from behind her back.
“GIVE US THIS DAY OUR DAILY BREAD! AND FORGIVE US OUR TRESPASSES AS WE FORGIVE THOSE WHO TRESPASS AGAINST US!” I scream as loudly as I can, trying to get off the ground to save her. Like hybrid beasts with rotting charred skin and fangs, more nasty things climb on top of her now naked body and rip off her skin in shreds that look like tissue paper.
“LEAD US NOT INTO TEMPTATION BUT DELIVER US FROM EVIL—” A blinding white light causes my sister to vanish as quick as the blink of an eye. All of the darkness surrounding me is sucked into a hole that drains the black hell until it’s nothing but a pinhole of a memory.
Something warm grips my hands and yanks me out of the hole I am buried in.God. It’s our Holy God. He saved us.“For thine is the kingdom, the power, and the glory—” The warm hands tighten around the sides of my arms, fingers stern with purpose.
“You’re safe. Come back to me now.” An angel’s voice speaks to me from behind the blinding light.
“Forever and ever—” I say with tears growing colder on my cheeks from the breath of the angel. A thick daze still whirling in my head, spinning around a maniacal carnival. The clean scent is gone, and I blink over and over to clear the white light from my sight.
A figure taller and broader than myself comes into focus. “Squeeze my hands until the fear is gone.” A man’s voice. I do as the angel man says and squeeze his hands as the panic and despair simmer in my gut. “There you go,” he says softly.
“Amen.” I let go of the last of my prayer.
“Tell me you’re safe.”
I know this man.
“I’m safe.”
“You’re safe now. I’m here,” he assures. The man’s eyes come into focus. Those vengeful brown eyes, like bronze lit on fire, dazzling me with anger and concern.
Dessin. It’s Dessin, with his titan-like shoulders, peppered stubble, and a spartan chest. It all comes back to me now. The tank. Meridei. The drugs from Demechnef.
“Oh…” I say, the welling tears threatening to expose me for a coward once more, causing my chin to tremble and tighten upward.
Keeping his eyes locked intently on mine, he says, “You don’t have to hold it in. I’ve got you.”
And as if he had the key to my grief, the cry splinters out of me like a bolt of lightning. I throw myself into his arms, and he doesn’t hesitate this time. Dessin’s hands find my waist, and he burrows his face as close to my neck and shoulder as he can get it.
I’m safe now.
I sob into a space somewhere between his chest and shoulder, and he keeps me grounded with the steady rhythm of his breathing. Warm ripples plow through me. I don’t know what to make of it, so I pull away gently.
“How did you find me?”
He stares into my eyes with an impenetrable sense of purpose. “What did you see in there?”
“Nothing,” I say quickly. “Just—hallucinations.”
“No. You’re lying to me. Something had you scared.”
I lower my head. If I can’t tell him the truth. I won’t say anything at all. I see his fists clench at his sides. Within the span of a single breath, his features change. Once comforting and gentle, now twisted in a look of silent rage.
“Say your goodbyes,” he says, murder dancing in his chocolate eyes. “I’m going to kill them all.”
“No—please don’t.”
His head snaps up to the door, watching it like a guard dog sensing intrusion.
“What is it?” I follow his concrete stare, but there is nothing but a closed door.
He holds a finger up to his lips, signaling me to stay quiet. He glides across the room, careful to keep his footsteps light, and flattens his back against the wall by the door.
