“I never thought he was talking to us,” he muttered. “I was told to keep my head down.”
“We need to ask. Ask to go up there,” I said.
He paled. “I don’t want to go up there. The Minister is not nice when I go up there, Kansas.”
“We have to do something,” I argued back, and then, a moment later, the door screeched open and Eisley was thrust back inside. As the Mother was pulling it closed, I called out to her, “Mother! Wait!”
She paused and glared at me. “What?”
“We would like to hear the sermons. Please, we need to understand who we are praying to every night.” I never prayed unless forced to do it aloud, but she didn’t need to know that.
She considered my request and then nodded. “Of course. I will speak to the Minister.”
When the door was shut, I explained to Eisley that something was going to happen, but I left out most of the details. She was as confused and scared as the rest of us, I didn’t need to make it worse. The Mother returned with the Minister, much to all of our surprise.He came inside and zeroed in on me.
“Kansas, Son. I hear you are interested in hearing my sermons.”
I gulped and forced myself to stand still and not shy away from the cold, cruel man who had beaten, starved, spit, and yelled at me for the last five years.
“Yes, Minister.”His lips curled upward into a grin so sinister I wanted to cry. My gaze flickered to my best friends. My companions. The only true family I knew in this hellhole. “I’ve been reading your book.”
He nodded. “Well then, that’s a great place to start. Tomorrow, I shall take you upstairs and we shall begin your lessons. In time, you will understand it all. Both of you.” He stood straight up and nodded to Constantine. Constantine didn’t look happy.
That night, we huddled together, with Eisley in the middle as always, and tried to piece together who the Reanimator was. We were woken up by a Mother coming in with fresh clothes for us. That was rare for us.
“If you are to truly become a student of the Minister, you must dress like one. You will be clean for him,” she explained when we didn’t jump to change. Reluctantly, we peeled off the thin, too-small, filthy clothes and put on the clean ones that fit nicely.Eisley stared longingly at us in our new clothes, but as she was not coming with us, she was not given a new dress. The one she wore now barely covered her bottom. It was a small child’s dress, not one for an eleven year old.
Constantine reached for my hand and together we followed the Mother out of our room and up the stairs, through the pews and clean hallways that smelled of lemons. We were taken past the giant cross and pew and to a smaller room, an office.
The Minister came in behind us and ushered us to sit in the chairs in front of his massive desk. As I sat, my head swung back and forth, trying to take in everything. Bookcases lined every wall. Some with books, others with weird candles and rocks, and other knickknacks I didn’t quite understand. I pushed my glasses up and squinted. I needed to remember everything I saw today.
“So…” The Minister went around and sat at his desk. He folded his hands and sat forward. “You’ve read the scripture.”
In tandem, we nodded.
“You have questions.” He nodded. “Where shall we start?” He leaned back and smirked. “Are you truly here to learn who the Reanimator is and how to serve our savior, or are you here to ask which one of you is going todie?”
Rule 45 - Eisley
Play innocent.
It wasn’t until I was in my car, blocks away from the greenhouse, did I realize I was missing my necklace. Panic set in, and it took everything in me not to turn back around to retrieve it. I sat in the car with my hand pressed against my chest, where the ring had sat around my neck for the last ten years.How things had changed in such a short time.
Oh, Emi.
Tears came then as it hit me. Emi was dead. She’d tried to kill me, and in the fight, it was her that had lost her life. It had all happened so fast, I wasn’t entirely sure I could fully understand. She’d been my best friend!
Kansas’s grim expression drifted through the fog of Emi. I had to get out of here. He’d take care of it. He’d take care of me.
I put the car in reverse and made sure to drive slow through town and back home. I slid into my bed and stared at the ceiling. It felt wrong to be doing something as normal as sleeping, knowing that Emi was dead.
How was Kansas handling it? Thoughts of everything that could go wrong,more wrong, ran through my head, and I couldn’t sleep. I got up and tried to call him, but there was no answer. I paced my kitchen, trying to absorb everything. Constantine was in jail, Kansas was disposing of a body, and I… I was in love with both.
Out of the need to clear my head, I pulled out the ingredients for pumpkin rolls and began mindlessly making the batter for it. I pulled out the cake at seven in the morning, right as I got a text from Therese.
I know Emi was a bitch about it, but we convinced Micah to confess and get Constantine out of jail. He talked to his dad last night.
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