Part V
I woke to the sound of the morning bell ringing out through the loudspeaker in my room. I bolted upright and immediately felt sick. My head thumped, and I was sweating. I glanced around wildly before last night hit me with a devastating smack.
Mira.
I got up and tried the door. This time it was locked. I waited impatiently for someone to come. After what seemed like hours but was probably only ten minutes, the nurse from the day before arrived. I flew past her, running as fast as I could up the hallway toward the infirmary.
Orderlies scattered before me, people shouted, patients screamed, but I didn’t stop. I burst into the operating room and stilled.
It was empty. Everything was gone. The blood on the floor, Mira’s body on the table.
There wasn’t a single sign that anything had happened there last night. Had I imagined it all? Had it been just another horrific nightmare? I got them often. I dropped to my knees, suddenly unable to stand for one more second.
I stared in a daze at the bottom of the instrument tray and saw it. Startlingly red against the chipped and yellowing ceramic underside of the table.
A spray of blood. A spot someone had missed.
I pushed myself to my feet. I had to do something, tell someone. I had to get justice for her, the teen runaway no one else would miss. I felt dizzy and sick.
I staggered back, crashing into the wall. My head hit something hard, and I turned to look at it.
A phone?
I grabbed it off the wall before I could second-guess it and called the police. It rang and rang, and then, finally, someone picked up.
“You have to come to Hallow Hall, the institute on the hill. They—they killed someone. They stole her baby. They’re crazy,” I fired down the line, trying to get everything out before someone could stop me.
“Calm down, miss, and tell me again, who?”
“Father Vargas, Father Benedict, and Father Pavol. They killed someone, I think they—I think they harvested her organs.” A wave of nausea passed over me at the words.
They’ll never believe you. You’re just another crazy girl.
This time, I was pretty sure the voice in my head was correct, but I had to try.
“Ah, Katarina, there you are.”
Vargas appeared beside me and tugged the receiver out of my hand, then put it to his ear.
“This is Father Vargas. Yes, Officer.”
He listened, and I stood there and waited for the officer to tell him that the police were on their way. There had been a report, and they had to investigate, right?
Vargas nodded. “You tell Giuseppe that next time, dinner is on me. I’m sorry about this trouble.
Of course, you know we are only here to serve the community.
I’ll see that she gets calmed down. And do me a favor, Officer, if you see Mrs. Dmitrova around at the market, tell her I’m coming over later for a visit. ”
My mother. He was talking about my mother.
He hung up as my heart broke into pieces.
Vargas faced me and sighed.
“Well, Katarina. You just don’t seem able to stop making things harder on yourself.
Now, you’ve put me in quite the predicament.
Ivan wanted to marry you, but now—how can I let you leave?
I can’t kill you, because, like I said before .
. . you’re special . . . but I can’t have you remembering any of last night. Luckily I’ve planned ahead.”
“You can’t keep me here! I’ll expose all of you and the sick things you’re doing—”
His slap sent me spinning around. He followed me to the floor and took something from his pocket. It was a picture, grainy and a little unfocused, but I could make out the person in the image. My mother, in church. She went every day. She trusted Father Vargas more than anyone.
“You keep your mouth shut, be a good girl, and take your medicine. You’ll jump when we say jump, and you’ll do your therapy .
. . or else your mother is next. Her organs won’t be worth much, so they might just end up at the local butcher.
The whole town will be eating sausages made from your mother if you don’t fucking cooperate. Got it?”
I tried to lean away, but he gripped me hard by the hair and yanked my head back.
I bit down a whimper. I wouldn’t whimper for this man.
I tasted blood in my mouth. The threat to my mother was real. I believed everything this monster said. He and his fellow devils had carved up a sixteen-year-old girl last night. He’d really feed my mother’s flesh to the town to punish me if I stepped out of line.
It was a chance I couldn’t take.
“So, tell me you understand.” He shook my head so hard my teeth rattled.
I nodded slowly, and Vargas released my hair. I fell forward.
“Time to up your doses, dear girl. You can’t tell what you can’t remember. It’s a mercy. Be grateful. Welcome to the real Hallow Hall, Katarina.”