Olivia crawled to her feet and walked to her purse that was hanging on a hook in the front entryway. She pulled her phone out and dialed 911.
“I am calling with the location of the actual Minneapolis Witch Killers. They they have another victim.”
CHAPTER FORTY-SEVEN
“THE DAUGHTER IS here, but I don’t see the rest of them,” Angel said.
Suzan removed the gag from Karen’s mouth. “Call your daughter," she said flatly.
Karen glared at Suzan. “Fuck you," she said. “You’re going to kill me anyway.”
Suzan smiled. “You’re right. But we can do it quick and easy if you help us. If you don’t…” She lit a match. “It won’t be so quick.”
“You obviously aren’t a mother,” Karen said.
Suzan looked to Angel. “Do it," she said.
Angel unfolded a knife and walked onto the stage. He stabbed Karen in the leg. She winced in pain but didn’t say a word.
Suzan bent down and put her face in front of Karen’s. She began to twist the knife. Karen spit in Suzan’s face. Suzan’s expression slowly turned into a grimace and she wiped the spit off with her shirt.
“Fucking WITCH," she screamed and slapped Karen across her face.
Angel looked at her with wide eyes. “Well, she knows we’re here now.”
“Good. Let her come," she said.
Emily stopped in her tracks. She heard Suzan’s scream echo down the corridor. She was steps away from door she used to enter the building. Almost out of the school and in her car, driving to safety. She looked behind her and wondered if the scream was directed at her, or if they had someone else. If Claire wasn’t the one they were going to kill, who was it? Who was on that stage in her dream?
“Come save the day, Emily!” Suzan yelled. Her name repeated, bouncing off of the dirty crumbling walls.
Emily got chills and felt goosebumps cover her skin. “Fuck you!” She screamed back.
The sound of laughter echoed toward her. “That is just what your mother said.”
“Emily, run! Get out of here!” Karen screamed.
“Mom?" she whispered. It was her mother they had. Before she knew what she was doing she was running down the hallway toward the sound of the voices. She ran past the set of lockers that she hid behind when she heard Claire. She looked into each room as she ran by it, careful not to trip on any debris. She passed the gym from her dream to the left, so she knew that she would need to take the hallway to her left to get to the auditorium. She heard police sirens in the distance and that boosted her courage. She wouldn’t be saving her mother alone.
“Cops!” Angel said. “Suze we gotta go.”
Suzan shot Angel a crazed look. “We need to get her and trap the rest of them. They all need to burn here tonight." She climbed off of the stage and she picked up an empty gas can. “Where is the rest of the gasoline?”
“I used it all. It’s all over the room.”
Suzan closed her eyes and took a deep breath. “My love, we needed to save it for the rest of them.”
The sirens were louder, and they could see flashing red lights bouncing off the broken walls.
“They're here. We need to go. Light it up and let’s get out of her before the whole building collapses.” Angel said. He started pulling on Suzan’s arm.
Emily came around the corner and she saw her mother tied to a chair on the stage. It was just like the dream, but she almost fainted with relief that there was no fire.
“Mom!” she yelled. She saw Angel and Suzan in front of the stage struggling with each other.
Suzan saw Emily and started laughing maniacally. “Then I am going to get at least these two.”
She pulled out a zippo lighter and flicked it on. The small flame danced and bounced off of her face. She threw it to the floor in front of the stage, and the flame landed in a puddle of gasoline, going up in a burst of orange and blue and spreading in all directions. The stage was quickly taken over by flames, and Emily ran towards the fire as it spread towards her. Angel and Suzan ran out the back of the room and were gone. The flames reached Karen and as she screamed for Emily to go, the fire was already at the chair she was strapped to, and Emily lost sight of her. The main walkway to the stage became blocked by flames, so Emily started running through the rows of seats. The curtains were caught up in flames, and the room was quickly filling with smoke. A beam from the ceiling fell in front of Emily and nearly crashed on top of her. She jumped on a chair and kept making her way towards the stage. Her throat started to burn, and she coughed and gasped for clean air. Everything she touched felt wet and she realized she was touching gasoline. She heard a window break open and saw a police officer climbing inside near the door where she entered.
“Stop! Hands in the air," he yelled. He covered his face with his gloved hand and radioed for the fire department and EMTs.
Emily threw her hands in the air. “My mother is on the stage! We were brought here by the killers.” Emily turned back to look at the stage as she heard the wood begin to buckle. She dropped her hands and dove toward the stage, climbing on top of one corner and reaching her hands into the flames to grasp her mother. Her arm burned and she felt a cold numbness rising up her jacket as the gasoline led the flames up her arm. She touched what she thought was her mother and felt someone grab her jacket. She was pulled backwards just as another beam fell onto the stage, hitting her head as it crashed and the stage collapsed. She saw the silhouette of a body fall in the crumbling flames, and it was the last thing she saw as her vision went black.
CHAPTER FORTY-EIGHT
TANNER, ALLISON, AND Olivia sat on the windowsill of the hospital room. Jeremy stood next to Claire, with his arm around her. Her hand rested on Emily’s leg. She had stayed by Emily’s side since she arrived at the hospital, eagerly waiting for her to wake up. She stared at Emily’s bandaged hand and felt Jeremy squeeze her shoulder.
“When do you think you’ll tell her?” he asked.
“Tell her what?” Christopher said as he walked into the room.
“Oh, hello,” Jeremy said, startled.
“I’m Emily’s father, Chris. You must be Claire,” he said.
“Yes. Nice to meet you,” Claire said timidly.
“I’m Jeremy. Nice to meet you, Sir,” Jeremy said as he shook Christopher‘s hand.
Chris appeared nervous and scared, and seemed uncomfortable with finding so many strangers in his daughter’s hospital room.
The three sitting on the windowsill waved and smiled at Chris and each introduced themselves, but gave him space.
“She is on some heavy pain medication right now,” Claire told Chris. “The doctor said she should be waking up soon, but that we need to let her rest.”
Chris nodded. “Yes, I spoke to the doctor when I got here.” He brushed Emily’s hair out of her eyes and gently touched her cheek. His face was firm.
Olivia stood up. “We’re going to wait in the waiting room. It was very nice to meet you, Chris." She led the others out of the room. Claire didn’t move. She understood giving Emily’s father space, but she wasn’t letting Claire out of her sight. They sat together silently, the rhythmic beeping of the hospital machines the only sound between them.
Emily stirred and Claire held her breath. She opened her eyes. The oxygen mask distorted her face, and she frowned as she blinked and tried to get her bearings. She felt tired. More tired and confused than she had ever felt. Her hand and arm felt like they were on fire. She tried to move her hand up to remove the oxygen mask and she winced as the pain overcame her.
Claire gently placed her arm back down in a resting position. “Shhh. It’s okay, don’t move.”
“Hey, Em,” Chris said soothingly. He brushed the hair off of her forehead again. “You’re in the hospital, but you’re going to be okay.”
Claire nodded in agreement.
Emily looked at Chris and began to tear up. “Mom? Is mom…”
Chris slid closer to Emily, choosing his w
ords carefully. “They couldn’t save her, honey. I’m so sorry.”
Emily felt like she should cry, but she felt herself go numb. This is a dream. She thought. This isn’t real.
Claire watched as Emily’s expression faded. “Are you in any pain?” she asked.
Emily didn’t respond. She was lost in her head, the memory of watching her mother fall into the flames kept replaying in her head. Or was it her dream that replayed?
“It was different than my dream,” she mumbled.
“What? What dream?” Claire asked.
“I had a dream of you falling into the fire. But it wasn’t you, it was my mother. But it all happened differently.” Emily’s eyelids were heavy and her blinks became longer. “But I still couldn’t save her.”
“She’s tired,” Chris chimed in, “Maybe we should let her rest.”
“Did they catch them?” Emily asked. Her voice was almost a moan. “Did the killers get away?”
“They caught them,” Claire said, assuringly. “The police found them trying to escape the building. They aren’t going to hurt anyone else.”
She felt numb. She knew there was guilt, sadness, fear, anger, and hate all boiling together in her gut, but nothing was coming out. She looked at Claire and she wanted to lose herself in her. She wanted to avoid every feeling she was having about losing her mother and what it all meant, and just succumb to pure love in Claire’s embrace. She wanted to run away from the reality of what happened, and just lose herself in her dreams with Claire. Their bodies as one, with nothing else in the world mattering but the two of them. Instead she blinked slowly and relaxed her head, turning to look out the window. She closed her eyes and fell asleep.
“Claire,” Chris said. “Can I be alone with her?”
Claire looked at Emily and the thought of leaving her was painful. She looked back up at Chris. “Sure. I’ll be right outside,” she said. She left the room, quietly closing the door behind her. Jeremy, Tanner, Allison, and Olivia all hugged her. She stood in the middle of them. Her coven, her family. She always felt complete when they were together. And for the first time ever, it felt like someone was missing.
Emily was awoken by a light knock on the door. She opened her eyes and a man wearing a black suit was stepping into her room.
“Sorry to bother you Emily. My name is Officer Martin, and I have to ask you some questions about what happened.”
She cleared her throat and told him everything she could remember. She left out the part about her dream showing the fire and her mother dying. She wanted to get out of this hospital as quickly as possible, and she didn’t need a psychologist questioning her too. She was able to talk about what happened to her mother without getting emotional, but she sensed that wouldn’t be the case for long. Guilt and grief would get the better of her eventually.
“Can I ask any questions?” she said.
“I will try to answer whatever questions you have,” he said.
“Did you catch them? The couple?”
“They were apprehended while fleeing the building, and there was evidence that they started the fire. While being held for questioning we did find additional evidence that connected them to previous murders.”
“But what about the confession? Who was that?” She was nervous about asking this, because she assumed she wasn’t going to be satisfied with the answer.
“We have reason to believe that the confession was coerced, and the person that confessed was another one of their victims.”
“But who was it?” she pressed.
“I am not at liberty to give you that information, ma’am.”
“Don’t I deserve that information? What if this person is a threat to me?” She heard her voice tremble.
“There is no reason to believe this person is a threat,” he answered her. “Please try not to worry.”
He turned to leave. “Thank you for taking the time to speak to me, Emily. We will be in touch if we have any additional questions.”
Emily nodded and forced a tight-lipped smile at the officer. She wasn’t satisfied with his answers, and felt like he cut her off. Something didn’t sit right with her about the confession. Maybe it was the meds she was on, and the fact that she was drowning in her feelings. Maybe she was just being irrational. Claire came back into the room, and her face lit up when she saw that Emily was awake.
“What’s wrong?” she asked. “You look upset.” She sat down next to Emily on the hospital bed and placed her hand on Emily’s good hand, squeezing it gently.
“A cop just came in to talk to me,” Emily said. “I told him what happened, and I asked about the false confession.”
“And?” Claire asked.
“And he didn’t really tell me anything. He said the person who confessed was another one of their victims.”
“Okay…” Claire said, hesitantly.
“I don’t really believe him,” Emily said.
“Okay,” Claire said. “I think you need to try to relax, and not worry too much about this right now. You went through a traumatic experience, and you have to focus on healing.”
“Do you think I’m wrong?” she asked.
“No, I’m not saying that,” Claire stuttered. “I just think that the actual killers were truly finally caught, and you should take this time to rest before you start getting on edge about there still being someone out there that was part of all of this.”
“What do you think?” Emily asked. Her eyes were sad and she was looking at Claire for reassurance.
“I think we should talk more about it if you feel unsettled about it,” she said. “But I think we have a lot of other things to talk about too. Things that might be a bit more pressing.”
“Like what?”
“Like your mom. Like your hand. Like us.”
“Us?” Emily said. She didn’t want to talk about her mom, but she definitely wanted to talk about her and Claire. “What about us?”
Claire took a deep breathe. “There was so much I wanted to say to you when I found you in that building, but there wasn’t time. I wanted to apologize to you for closing the door on the possibility of us before we even gave it a chance. That was stupid of me, and it was rude to lay it all out on the table like that and embarrass you. I’m surprised you even stuck around after I was such a dick about it.”
Emily felt relief wash over her as she listened to what Claire was saying. “I wanted to leave. I really did. And I did feel embarrassed and upset. But I felt too connected to the coven, and once they came after me at my apartment I felt like I didn’t have a choice. I had to be a part of it even if I couldn’t have you. And maybe being your friend and coven mate was better than not having you in my life at all.”
They looked at each other, and neither of them said anything. They just sat comfortably in the silence each trying to decide what to say next. Claire shifted on the bed and looked down at the floor before looking back up at Emily.
“Well I was wrong. And I haven’t been able to stop thinking about you. And I didn’t care about anything else when I thought I was going to lose you and lose any chance of ever being with you. I don’t want to waste any more time apart from you.” A tear rolled down Claire’s cheek, and Emily slipped her hand out from under Claire’s to wipe the tear away. She held her hand on Claire’s face for a second, and laid it back down on top of Claire’s. Emily didn’t know what to say. She felt so in love and happy with what she had just heard. She felt lucky, and she could hardly believe Claire wanted to be with her. But her feelings of joy were wrestling with the grief inside of her, and it was all too much to process. She wanted to kiss Claire, but she also wanted to cry. She did neither.
“I don’t know what to say,” she told Claire. “Except that I want to be with you too. I never stopped wanting you. I just tried to convince myself otherwise, and I failed the entire time.”
Claire leaned in to kiss Emily, and just before their lips met, the door swung open.
“I got pizza!” Chis an
nounced as he backed into the room, pushing the door open and spinning around to see Claire and Emily on the bed. He looked guilty. “Did I… interrupt something?”
Claire and Emily scooted apart slightly, both of their faces turning red with embarrassment.
“No, it’s okay Dad,” Emily said. “I’m starving, thanks.” She held Claire’s hand and shot her a loving look. He set the pizza down on the small table in the room and walked to Emily’s bedside.
“Are you ready to go home tomorrow!” he asked.
Emily smiled at Chris. “Very ready.”
“Kiddo, I am sorry I didn’t make myself more present before all of this. I should have done more to help you.”
“It’s okay, Dad. I didn’t ask for your help.”
“Well I’m going to help you now. You can stay with me, and I’ll help you recover.” He put his hand on her shoulder and his lip quivered. He looked as if he was about to cry.
“That is really sweet of you, but I’ll be okay,” she said. She saw his face tighten and she thought about how often she had pushed her mother away when she had tried to help. And now she’s gone. “You can come by and help me around the house if you want?” she asked. “I think I’d feel more comfortable at home.”
His face relaxed. “Okay, I will,” he said sounding more relaxed.
“Claire is taking me home, but you can come too, Dad.”
He looked at them sitting together and tilted his head. “No, I don’t need to tag along for that. But I’ll definitely be stopping by to bug you and help you however I can.”
CHAPTER FORTY-NINE
EMILY WATCHED THE buildings go by in the passenger side window and tried to focus on her breathing. Her last two experiences coming home had been traumatic, and on top of that she was going to be alone with Claire in her apartment for the first time since their feelings had been out in the open. Her stomach twisted and turned from either the nerves, or the pain medication she was still taking. It was probably a combination of both.
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