by Trinity Crow
“But it was a huge mistake, Cassie. And you're worse than you were before. You know that. You can't live alone, Cassie." Adam took a deep breath and his voice steadied. "You need to accept that or I will have you committed."
"You bastard!" she screamed, as her brittle cheerfulness crack and fled. "Get away from me. You just get the hell away from me!" Her face was contorted and wild as she screamed the words. "I'll never go back there. You swore you'd never make me go back. I'll kill myself first, Adam. I swear." She gasped for breath, tears streaking down her face as she clung to me.
“And that kind of talk right there is why you can't be trusted,” Adam snapped, running a hand through his hair in frustration.
“Adam,” I said, “Just give her a minute to calm down.”
"This is none of your business,” Adam snapped. “You need to butt out and let me talk to my sister alone. I know girls like you.” His eyes ran up and down my body, stripping me of my humanity. "You're all the same. But this is about my family. I call the shots here!" His thick brows drew together as he towered over us, seething in rage.
"I . . ." The words stuttered across my tongue. The currents here were too deep and I was out of my depth. I had no idea what had gone on before and how fragile Cassie was. I only knew that Adam was handling this entirely wrong. He was pushing her closer to the edge of the mental cliff his sister was balanced so precariously on.
“Adam," I said slowly, lowering my eyes. I used the same submissive tone that was second nature to women raised in New Eden. "I understand that I don't know all the facts. I can see you want what's best for Cassie, and how much you love her.”
Cassie's arms tightened around me as she sobbed the word no over and over.
"Adam, will you please give us a minute to calm down?" I asked permission humbly for what should have been the right of everyone. "We will sit right here where you can watch us. Let me talk to her. She just needs a minute." I gave him a tremulous smile. There was no need to fake how rattled I was. "It's hard to hear good advice when you are so upset," I told him quietly. "I know you can work it out where Cassie is safe and happy. I know you want that for her."
He stared at me. Gone was the kindly, cheerful boy who had sent those butterflies dancing in my tummy. His blue eyes were so dark with emotion they looked black. "I will be watching you," he said as he took a step back. "You can't trust her, Abby. She . . ."
"NO!" Cassie cried, flinging out her hands as if to stop the words from coming out of his mouth.
"She killed our parents," he went on relentlessly. "Drunk, out-of-control Cassie, always needing something, always the center of attention. Sneaking out, fighting, sleeping around." He shook his head. "I will never know what happened in that car, but I know she walked away and they died. I know she can never be trusted to do what's right."
I stared at Adam, aghast as Cassie's scream rang through the store. His coldness and anger were gut-chilling. Whatever had happened, there would be no recovery for Cassie underneath her brother's implacable judgment and damnation.
Lisa came running up the aisle, eyes wide, as she took in the writhing, screaming girl in my arms. "What is going on? Ma'am? Ma'am?" Her frightened eyes sought mine. "Should I call the police?"
I gaped at her, unable to answer, and my frightened eyes shot to Adam. Lisa stepped back as Adam turned to her, explanations falling glibly from his lips. But the look on her face said she thought he might be more of a danger that the hysterical girl.
The yank from Cassie's arms was so unexpected that I stumbled and almost fell. With a strength born of panic and fear, she towed me away from them and through the shelves of merchandise to the back of the store. Stumbling, I followed, unwilling to leave her on her own. She pressed the bar on the back door, pulling us out into the bright sunlight, as the alarm of the door began to shrill.
***
Cassie ran and I followed, terrified what the distraught girl might do alone. She was much faster than me as panic lent wings to her feet. Down the alley, she raced before dashing up the block, heedless of her surroundings. Only the tears blinding her allowed me to catch up and yank her to a stop before she ran headlong into the street. Spicewood was still a small, sleepy town, but it only took one car to do something irreversible. I winced at the thought.
"Cassie, wait," I begged her. "Just hang on. Adam is wrong, okay? He's wrong."
"If I hadn't been drunk," Cassie moaned, huddling against the brick wall of a laundromat. "If they hadn't come pick me up . . ." She choked, unable to go on.
"Cassie," I said firmly. "Your parents loved you. They wouldn't want you to ruin your whole life over their death. To carry this guilt . . ." The words dried up in my mouth as I saw the man climbing out of the large, square car at the end of the block. A man who haunted my nightmares. A man whose eyes had held pleasure as he forced a drug down my throat, rendering me senseless and compliant for my marriage to his father.
A fine trembling started across my body. My mind screamed at me to move, but I stood frozen, aware of my bright, auburn hair lit like a beacon in the summer sun. I wrapped my fingers around Cassie's arm and yanked her as hard as I could around the side of the building. Her tears cut off as she stared at me in shock.
"What? What are you doing?"
"Cassie, shhh!" I said urgently. "Please. The men from New Eden are just down the street. I can't let them see me." I looked wildly around the dead end alley. "Oh, dear Jesus," I said softly, fear racing through my veins. "They are going to find me. They are going to take me back."
Cassie froze, and then, the sorrow and pain vanished from her eyes as if wiped away with a clean cloth. ""Quick!" she told me, her face determined. "Get behind that dumpster.
We ran to the end of the alley and crouched behind the metal bin, hugging each other. Long minutes dragged by as intense fear made waves of nausea sweep over me.
"Did you see which way they were going?" she breathed softly.
I shook my head. "I only saw Brother Jabez and the others get out the car." My voice was a broken little squeak. Cassie turned and shook me roughly.
"Listen," she hissed. "We have done nothing wrong. Neither one of us are criminals and neither of us are children. We could walk right out here and go to the police."
I stared at her. I could. In fact, I might be safer if I went to the police. The last thing the men of New Eden would want was the police nosing around behind those ten-foot walls.
Cassie wasn't speaking to me anymore. "It's true. I messed up . . . in the worse possible way," she admitted. "But I did a year at a mental hospital and then another six months in rehab after they died. I will blame myself the rest of my life, but how much more does he want me to pay?"
"After . . ." I trailed off, stunned. From the way Adam talked, I thought they had just died. Maybe a month ago.
Cassie nodded grimly. "I know I look like the crazy one, and maybe I was, but he never lets me forget. Their house is just the same. He says he moved back in for me, but it was for him. He can't let go."
"Why . . . why do you stay?"
Cassie looked away. "At first, he was my guardian and I had to stay. And now, I don't know what will happen to him if I go." Cassie tipped her head back and leaned her head, uncaring of the filthy wall, her face bleak. "I just can't anymore, Abby. I can't be responsible for fixing him when I am still fixing myself. But every time I try to grow up, take some responsibility and move on, things go crazy again."
"Cass, he used that guilt on you like a weapon. You have to resolve that inside yourself," I told her softly. "And then he won't have such power over you."
"Just that easy, huh?" she said, her tone almost hopeless. "If it's that easy, Abby Jo, why are we both still hiding behind a dumpster?"
There were no words and no answers. Safety might lie as close as the police station and the calm, friendly manner of Officer Jackson, but the chains of fear that had controlled me all my life kept me crouched in that alley, a useless prayer on my lips.
Chapter 29
We might have sat there half the night had Adam not sent a message to Cassie's phone. At one time, I would have found his concern touching, now every remark seemed calculated to keep Cassie doubting herself and her ability to be on her own. After some furious typing, Cassie looked up with a watery smile.
"He's sorry. I mean, he's always sorry," she said resignedly. "But I am going to do what you said, Abby. I have to fix this in my own head and then when he starts pushing my buttons, I can just walk away." She heaved a sigh and then shook herself as if releasing the tension. "I told him I am going to spend the night at your place and will see him tomorrow."
I stiffened. Was it safe for Cassie to be my house? I thought I knew why Lena had been taken and yet, Nikki was allowed to leave unharmed. I was forced to admit part of me selfishly wanted to just agree. I hated to even think it, but for the first time, I was scared to go back to that house.
"I'm going to text Tas and ask her to come get us. Is it cool if I mention the guys from New Eden?"
"Yes," I told her faintly, still torn on her staying the night. "It's better if they know. So they can be careful."
Cassie looked up, her thumbs pausing in their rapid dance. "Are they that dangerous?" she asked wide-eyed.
I hesitated. "There were rumors. Young girls brought in who had no families. They wanted to believe that New Eden was a great, big, happy community. And once you were in, they didn't let you leave. I think maybe that's how my mom got involved with them."
"How did you leave?" Cassie asked, her face fascinated.
"I stabbed a man," I told her more calmly than I felt. "He was trying to take my clothes off and force me to consummate a marriage I didn't agree to."
"That Jabez man?" she said, shocked.
I shook my head. "His father."
I felt myself start to tremble again as I remembered that it was someone else who had saved me that night and she had died for it.
"His father! Ewww! How old was he?"
I shrugged, unable to answer as misery crashed over me.
"Okay, take a breath," Cassie said, finally noticing my distress. She gave me a brief hug. "Let's talk about something else until Tasmyn gets here." She tapped her finger on her phone and leaned over to show me a picture of Tasmyn. She looked younger, but her face was colder.
"I Googled her," Cassie said confidingly. "This is when she was sentenced to juvie."
I shrugged again. "What's juvie?"
"Oh, uh, juvenile detention. For when kids break the law."
"Poor Tas," I said. "How bad was her family that she had to break the law?"
Cassie looked at me surprised. "I didn't think of it that way. Now I feel bad. Serves me right for being nosy."
She tapped at her phone again making the picture disappear.
"Cassie, what's Google?"
She tried not to look amazed but failed. "Um, it's like you can type in a subject and the computer in the phone, or maybe in the air. . . see there's this web . . . Look, you can ask it anything and it will give you information."
I thought about this. "Can you look up someone for me?"
"Sure," she said and sat up straighter, fingers poised.
"Her name is Lena Kochilas."
Cassie typed and then said: “There are a bunch of them. Is she a psychic, stripper or PTA president?”
“Psychic,” I said firmly.
Cassie let out a low whistle and then caught herself, looking guiltily around. "She's wanted by the police for fraud and Holy Crap! The disappearance of a nineteen-year-old girl named Heather York. And there are links to her and three other missing girls.”
Cassie turned to look at me, her eyes wide. “Does she work with those New Eden guys?"
I shook my head. “Not that I know of. Nikki said she was friends with her . . .”
"Maybe we should warn Nikki,” Cassie interrupted.
“Sure,” I said, thinking Lena would not be harming any more young girls . . .ever. “Nikki actually brought her to my house to, uh, help with some of the weird things going on there.”
Cassie looked stunned. “Wait, what? So maybe Tasmyn is in danger! For all we know, Nikki was working with this woman.”
“Or Lena was trying to get closer to Nikki and then heard she had a friend who was even more vulnerable.” I wasn't sure I trusted Nikki, but I hated to believe she was that devious.
Cassie sighed. “This world is so messed up,” she said, the sadness palpable in her voice.
“There are still lots of good things, Cassie,” I insisted, turning to face her.
“You believe that? I mean, your one dollar dream house is actually haunted and you still believe life is sunshine and rainbows?”
I had to laugh at her outraged tone. “Yes, but I could be hiding in this alley alone. I could have been kidnapped and killed by those men. I could never had had the amazing weeks of freedom I just had in my own house.”
“A haunted house,” Cassie said stubbornly.
“Listen, about that . . .”
I wasn't sure how much I wanted to tell Cassie. Somehow it almost felt as if I was betraying a trust, but she needed to know some of it if she was going to be safe in that house.
“The house doesn't seem angry or harmful as long as you aren't negative towards the house and land.”
"Whaaaat?!" Cassie burst out laughing. “You're kidding me!”
“No, Cassie. I'm not. The house did not like Lena at all. And she didn't stay long,” I told her seriously, managing to skirt the truth.
Cassie's eyes were round with fascination. “So what kind of things happen? Like slamming doors and cold spots?”
“Um, strange lights,” I said carefully. “Strong winds. Sometimes, things move.”
“Like the flashlight!” Cassie said in excitement. “The ghost got the flashlight out for you?”
“Yes," I said, feeling a smile tug at my lips. “It did.”
“Wow, that is so cool.”
“Cool?” I repeated doubtfully. “I don't know about that, but definitely powerful. I get the feeling the woman who lived there before me was very into nature and respecting the land.”
“Pagan, huh?”
I thought about that ancient-feeling spiral.
“Yes, maybe so. But Cassie, seriously, no littering or using chemicals or I don't know, hunting without permission.”
“Hunting! Oh my God, you are hilarious.” Cassie snorted. “Hunting! I can barely stand to cook raw meat. I'm not about to go hunting in your creepy woods.”
“Well, that's good,” I told her, the smile breaking free.
“A pagan ghost,” Cassie mused, “How weird is that? Though you hear about ghosts who are like nuns or priests, but never pagans.”
“I don't think it is exactly a ghost, like a dead person,” I said, uncomfortably aware I was getting close to the edge of revealing what was only mine to know. “It's more like a spirit.”
“Like in Princess Mononoke. The forest spirit. That's cool to see in a movie, but in real life? Doesn't it freak you out?” She stared at me curiously.
I nodded. “A little. I was glad to get out of the house today. It was a bit, uh, unnerving to see how much it didn't like Lena in the house, but now I see there was a reason.”
Shifting uneasily, Cassie cut her eyes away from me. “What if it doesn't like me?'
“You've been there before,” I pointed out. “And I don't think you plan on making me disappear, do you?”
A smile flickered across her lips. “Not a chance, Abby Jo. You are so stuck with me.”
I smiled back. Cassie was volatile, one minute sunshine and the next, rain, but I was glad to have her in my life just the same.
"Oh, there's Tasmyn and Nikki!” Cassie said as her phone beeped. We scrambled up as the sound of a car approached the alley. Cassie grabbed my hand and pulled me along with her and suddenly I could not wait to get back home. Let Brother Jabez and the others come if they would. They would find a very different girl f
rom the one who had run that night. One with powerful friends.
***
The talk in the car was all about Lena. Nikki reacted in amazement to the older woman's background and the girls Googled as fast as their fingers could fly, exchanging the tidbits and details they found on the web. Nikki apologized to me a couple of times but I told her it was not her fault and to let it go.
I really wanted her to let it go.
I had no idea what her role had been in this mess, but for my own sanity, I had to focus on what I was going to do next, not Nikki's standing in the group. But when they dropped us at the house, the alarm on Nikki's face told me she knew there had been another death. She said nothing, but she could not leave fast enough.
For Cassie and I, it was a very quiet night. The emotional distress of the day had worn us both out. It surprised me how glad I was to be home. The horror of Lena's fate had become a safeguard against the threat of the Brethren. The fear of their threat had faded as soon as I set foot on my land again. Here, I would be protected.
We locked up as best we could, Cassie looking wide-eyed at the screened-over holes where the cinder blocks had been. As the sun lowered and the shadows deepened, she dragged me upstairs and shut the bedroom door firmly against the night.
Crowded together on the bed, we bent over her phone as I watched my first movie ever. Cassie chose something she said was a comedy but seemed mostly a series of humiliating events that made me cringe and blush for the heroine's sake. Nevertheless, laughter rang out in the small, bright room, chasing the shadows of the past few days away. We traded handfuls of snacks Cassie produced from somewhere and between us, something close to friendship blossomed.
This was my home, I thought suddenly, fiercely, as I watched Cassie throw back her head and laugh. From outside the house, the light from this room must surely shine like a beacon. The idea resonated again within me that I belonged here, that the house needed me as a hedge against that darkness. And I resolved inside myself that I would make some agreement with these beings to share this place in safety and peace. And if the price was my soul . . . had there ever really been a time I could call it my own? Perhaps it was something I could afford to trade away. Perhaps what I gained would be worth it.