Children of Eternity Omnibus

by P. T. Dilloway

  Chapter 40: Molly Strikes Back

  Molly watched Joseph retreat from view and then looked down at the bodies of Helena and Phyllis. Veronica had killed them. She had killed them with so little thought, as if she were swatting mosquitoes. How could Molly have been so wrong about Veronica all these years?

  For three years she had known Veronica. Samantha had raised them as sisters during that time. Although they were the same age, Veronica had always insisted she was the older of them, bossing Molly around like a little sister. I let her, Molly thought. Every time Veronica wanted to do something, no matter how it might get them in trouble, Molly went along.

  After Rebecca fell into the Fountain of Youth, Molly latched onto Veronica as her only friend in the world. Veronica, being the same age as her, was the only one who could understand how it felt to be the baby in the community. And because of that, Molly went along with everything Veronica did, too afraid to lose her only friend.

  She was never my friend, Molly thought, touching the mud-stained hem of her dress. Veronica had used her, just as she had used David and even Samantha to get what she wanted. Now she would use Joseph to clear away the algae so she could have access to the Fountain of Youth again.

  All of this was her fault. She thought back to that moment in the cave when Rebecca tottered on the brink of the fountain. If Molly had only reached out her hand to pull Rebecca—the girl who had raised her from an infant—back from the edge everything would have been different. How could I have let her die? Molly wondered. I was angry with her. I was an angry little girl and I didn’t know any better.

  This thought did little to comfort her when she again looked down at Helena and Phyllis. They had died because of Molly’s grudge against the best mother she could remember. Samantha, Prudence, Wendell, and David were gone too thanks to her. How many more would have to pay for her mistake?

  She couldn’t let Veronica take Joseph to Seabrooke. She had to stop them somehow, but she was too little to fight Veronica. She needed help.

  Molly ran into town, waving her arms and shouting for help. “Oh, look who’s back,” one of the boys who’d tormented her earlier said. “What’s wrong, do you need your diaper changed?”

  “Helena and Phyllis are dead and she’s going to kill Joseph. You have to help me stop her. Please,” Molly said.

  “Who are you talking about?”

  “Veronica! She killed them.”

  “Who are Helena and Phyllis?” one of the other boys asked.

  “She probably made them up.”

  “I did not. You saw them earlier. They were with Joseph and I. She killed them and now she’s going to kill him.”

  One of the boys tousled her hair roughly. “Sure. We believe you. We’ll go stop that evil witch right now. Where’s my magic sword and armor?”

  The boys laughed at this. Molly’s face turned red as she tried not to cry in front of them. “Please, you have to believe me. Joseph is in danger and so are all the rest of us.”

  “Right, we’re all in terrible danger.” The boys snickered.

  “Why won’t you believe me?” Molly said. She could no longer hold the tears back. “I’m not lying.”

  “Uh oh, looks like the baby is getting cranky.”

  “I think she needs a nap.” The boys dragged her into the nearest building—Prudence’s shop—and threw her onto a pile of rags. She tried to get to her feet, but they shoved her down. “Baby is getting fussy. Maybe we should get her a bottle.”

  “I’m not a baby and I’m not making this up! Go see the bodies for yourself! They’re—” The rest of her words were cut off when one of the boys stuffed a rag into her mouth. They bound her hands and feet then so she couldn’t move.

  In a mocking voice they sang her a lullaby until she closed her eye and pretended to sleep. “Oh look, Baby is finally all pooped out.”

  “I bet by tomorrow she’ll really be pooped.” The boys all laughed at this on their way out of the shop. Molly waited until the door closed before she opened her eyes. She tried to stand up, but they’d tied the rags too tightly for her to move. This can’t be happening, she thought. Joseph is going to die because of me.

  The door opened then, a slim girl in a powder blue dress slipping into the shop. She glided over to Molly’s side and knelt down before her. The girl pulled the gag from Molly’s mouth. “Annie? You’ve got to help me. Veronica’s gone mad. She killed Helena and Phyllis and now she’ll kill Joseph.”

  “I know,” Annie said.

  “You saw?” Annie nodded. “But then why didn’t you help us? We might have been able to stop her.”

  “What happened is what was meant to happen.”

  “Then why are you saving me?”

  “Because it’s what I must do.”

  “How do you know?”

  Annie closed her eyes, the rest of her face tightening as though straining to hear a distant voice. “I hear it speaking to me. The fountain. Ever since Veronica started to use it. Do you think everything that’s happened here has occurred by chance? It’s guiding us to our final destiny and you, Molly, have played the greatest role in shaping that fate.” Annie opened her eyes and patted Molly on the cheek. “On the outside you are a small child, but inside your soul is much older, almost ancient. Even in this body you can still act as grown-up as you want. Remember that.”

  “But what about Veronica? How can I stop her?”

  “When the time comes, you’ll know what to do.” She untied Molly and then helped her up. From the pockets of her dress, Annie produced a handful of stones. “These will allow you to free Joseph. If you run, you should be able to overtake them before they reach the shore.”

  “Thank you,” Molly said. She took the stones and then raced out of the shop. The trio of boys cried out when she ran past before laughing and going back to their game. She passed the fallen bodies of Helena and Phyllis and then bolted into the forest to try and catch Veronica before it was too late.

  As she ran, Molly thought of what Annie had said. Even though she was a child in body, she could still act grown-up in spirit. All along she’d acted like a little girl in deferring to Veronica. Not anymore. It was time for her to act like an adult and stand up to Veronica.

  As Annie had predicted, Molly overtook Veronica and Joseph, catching sight of them in the forest about halfway to the shore. They picked their way carefully through the forest, Joseph leading the way while Veronica hung back a step with her knife at the ready in case he tried anything. They didn’t give any sign of seeing her, so she crawled forward through the brush to find a better position for an ambush.

  She located a small clearing about fifty feet away and found a spot among the brush to wait. The stones had turned warm in her sweaty palms. She didn’t know what good a handful of rocks could do against Veronica, but then she thought of David and Goliath. Please God, guide my rocks like you did David’s, she prayed. If this didn’t work, then both she and Joseph would meet the same fate as Helena and Phyllis.

  Joseph appeared at the edge of the clearing, followed by Veronica. Molly waited in silence until they reached the center before she threw the first rock at Veronica’s head. The marble-sized rock struck Veronica in the shoulder. “What the hell was that?” she said.

  “What?” Joseph said.

  “Something hit me. You better not be up to anything.”

  “I didn’t do anything.” Molly threw the next rock, a bigger one that hit Veronica on the arm. She only had three stones left. I can’t miss, she thought.

  “Let’s get moving,” Veronica said. She pushed Joseph forward. Molly reared back to throw the next stone. She picked the largest one, the size of a golf ball, and hurled it as hard as she could, saying another prayer as she threw.

  The rock struck Veronica in the back of the head. She stumbled forward, collapsing to the ground. Molly burst out of the brush towards Joseph. “Joey, run!” she said. She took his hand and together they ran into the forest, Veronica roaring curses after them.


  “Where are we going?” Joseph asked.

  “I don’t know,” Molly said. Nowhere was safe from Veronica. There was only one way to stop her once and for all.

  Chapter 41: Reunion

  Molly skidded to a halt in front of the cave. She checked behind her for any sign of Veronica, but didn’t hear or see anything. Beside her, Joseph fidgeted nervously. “Why are we here?” he asked. “This will be one of the first places she’ll look for us.”

  “We have to destroy it,” Molly said. “So no one can ever use it to hurt anyone again.”

  “We can’t!” Joseph said. “Samantha is still in there. We have to find a way to get her out of there.”

  “They can’t be alive in there. It’s impossible.”

  “I saw them,” he said. “I did.”

  “I know you love Samantha, but she couldn’t have survived a fall into the fountain. At her age she couldn’t have lasted more than a few seconds in there.”

  “She’s not dead! She’s in there.” Joseph pushed Molly aside and then ran into the cave. He bent down at the edge of the fountain. As Veronica had said, the algae had grown thicker so that a solid coat covered the water. He couldn’t see anything reflected on the fountain’s surface. “No. She can’t be gone. She can’t be.”

  Molly put a hand on his shoulder. “We have to find a way to destroy this place before Veronica finds us,” she said. She looked around for the defenses Wendell had installed years ago. She found one of the trip wires, holding up the severed pieces. “Oh no. They’ve disarmed everything.”

  “Isn’t there some way to fix it?” Joseph asked.

  “I wouldn’t know how,” she said. Joseph knelt down beside her to examine the broken trip wire. “Can you repair it?”

  “I don’t think so, but there has to be another way.” He looked around the cave for anything that could be of use. He saw only the empty stone floor and walls. “What did these wires go to?” he asked Molly.

  “They triggered some rocks over the fountain,” she said.

  “Then we have to find a way to get up there.”

  “How?”

  “I don’t know. Build a ladder somehow.”

  “We don’t have any tools and we’re too little to move any big rocks or logs around.”

  “You have ladders in town, right?”

  “Yes, but if we try to go into town Veronica will find us.”

  “Not if we’re careful.” He grabbed Molly by the shoulders to calm her down. “It’s our only hope now. We can split up and that way maybe she’ll only catch one of us.”

  Molly thought of Annie’s words again. She had to act like a grown-up in this situation. She was small and weak and not as smart as Joseph. Any hope to destroy the fountain lay with him. “You go into town and find the ladder. I’ll find Veronica and draw her off,” Molly said.

  “Molly, no. I’m the one she wants. I’ll distract her and you get the ladder to destroy this place.”

  “Joseph, please, you have to let me do this. It’s the only way that makes sense.”

  “No it’s not!” Tears came to his eyes. “I can’t let you do this. I can’t let you end up like the others.” He couldn’t let Molly die like his parents and Samantha. Not after all she’d done for him in the last three days.

  “I can’t destroy this place, not on my own. I’m not like you. I’m just a weak little girl. I always have been.”

  “That’s not true. You saved me from Veronica twice already. You’re bigger than you seem.”

  “We don’t have time to argue,” Molly said. “If you think about this logically, you know this is the best way. I don’t know how to trigger those rocks, but I can keep Veronica occupied for a few minutes.” She again thought back to what Annie had said. “We each have to do what we were meant to do.”

  “You weren’t meant to die. I won’t accept that!”

  “I’m sorry, Joseph. This is the way it has to be.” With that, she ran from the cave. Joseph called after her to stop, but she’d already disappeared into the trees. She was gone. Another person he cared about was gone.

  He started towards the cave entrance to head into town for a ladder. Before he reached the opening, the cave exploded in red light, blinding him. Joseph pressed both hands to his eyes and dropped to his knees. As he knelt there he heard a familiar voice say, “No, I’m stiw widow.”

  “Samantha?” he called out.

  “Joseph?” He felt a hand on his shoulder. “What you doing here? When ow we?”

  He patted the folds of her tattered dress to hug her. “Oh thank God,” he said. “I knew you were still alive. I saw you in the water and I knew.”

  “How wong I been gone?” she asked.

  “You’ve been in there for three days,” he said.

  “But I not in there,” she said. “I was in Seabwooke, but it was years ago when I was a gwown up.” She told him about waking up in a Savannah motel room to discover she was a 40-year-old FBI agent. She went on to describe the string of murders that led her to Seabrooke, not mentioning the murder of Joseph’s mother. She finished by relating her meeting with Miss Brigham and capture by the reverend. “Then I woke up here.”

  “That’s impossible,” Joseph said. His vision began to clear so that he could make out Samantha’s chubby face. What did it matter where she had been or what she had thought she saw? All that mattered was that he had her back. He kissed her on the forehead, cheeks, and then lips. Even in her current state, her flesh felt the same as he remembered.

  She pushed him back and said, “Joe, we have to stop Vewonica. She kiwwed aw those people.”

  “I know. Molly and I were going to destroy this place, but we can’t get up to the ceiling to trigger a cave-in. We need to find a ladder of some kind.”

  “I hewp you,” Samantha said. She took his hand, but before they could start out, the Fountain of Youth erupted in red light again. Joseph clapped a hand over Samantha’s eyes and then closed his own to keep from being blinded. When he opened his eyes, he saw little Prudence and Wendell lying at the edge of the fountain, entangled in each other’s arms.

  “Pwoodance! Wendell! You’re awive!” Samantha said. She rushed forward to hug her friends. “I taught you dead.”

  “What’s going on? Where are we?” Prudence asked.

  “You been gone for twee days,” Samantha said. She hugged Prudence again. “But now you back.”

  Prudence started to cry. “Oh, Smanfa, it was terrible. The reverend…he raped me. And he killed Rodney and the whole village of natives.” She broke down into uncontrolled sobs.

  “Pwoodance, I don’t understand. The weverend? Wodney?”

  “We were back in time, about three hundred fifty years ago,” Wendell said. He explained about the shipwreck, the schism between Prudence’s husband and Reverend Crane, and the reverend’s discovery of the Fountain of Youth.

  “How can this be?” Samantha said.

  Joseph clapped his hands, the three other children looking to him. “Of course, it’s so obvious now!” he said.

  “What?” Wendell asked.

  “This algae. It’s not just some stupid plants. It has temporal properties that allow it to serve as some kind of gateway through time. When you fell in, it transported you back in time. Do you see what this means?” The others shook their heads. “This whole thing here is like a time machine. We don’t need a ladder or anything else. We can use this to go back in time and stop Veronica.”

  “But we twied before and faiwed,” Samantha said.

  “Yes, but you didn’t know because your memories were wiped. If you go through now, you’ll remember everything.”

  “Who should go back?” Prudence asked.

  “Wet me go,” Samantha said. “Vewonica is my wesponsibiwitty. I can stop her.”

  “Samantha, no, it’s too risky,” Joseph said. “Let me go.”

  “I’m the one who should go,” Wendell said. “I’m the one who let the reverend find the fountain in the first
place.”

  “Wendell, you can’t. I don’t want to lose you too,” Prudence said and began to cry again. Samantha, Joseph, and Wendell argued among themselves until they heard a drum beat outside the cave. “What’s that?”

  The children went to the entrance of the cave to see a line of torches approaching. The sound of drums grew louder as the torches came closer. They stopped at the foot of the hill so that the children in the cave could see them.

  Every child in Eternity had gathered at the base of the hill. The boys carried pitchforks, knives, and boards for weapons along with their torches. The drumbeat came from a line of girls banging on pots and pans. They continued drumming as a group made its way through the crowd. Veronica stood at the head of the group, along with a trio of boys dragging a squirming Molly.

  “Joseph, we know you’re in there. Come down and I promise Molly won’t be hurt. More so, I mean. I’ll give you thirty seconds to answer and then I’ll cut her throat.”

  “I’ll come down when you let her go,” Joseph shouted back.

  “I’m afraid I can’t let her go. She has to answer for the murders of poor Helena and Phyllis. But I promise if you come down, she’ll only be locked up in the cellar for a while. Think it over. You have twenty seconds.”

  “What do we do?” Prudence asked.

  “I’ll go down there,” Joseph said.

  “Joe, you can’t!” Samantha said. “She kiww you!”

  “It won’t matter if you use the fountain to go back in time and stop her. It’ll be like none of this ever happened.”

  “Aw wight,” Samantha said. She kissed Joseph for what might be the last time. “I won’t faiw you this time,” she said as she let him go.