CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE #2
“George Quinn,” said a new voice, another boy. “This is my second trip to solitary. I tried hard to stay straight, but… well, I just can’t manage to avoid pissing off my guardians.”
There was a smattering of laughter. Then more voices joined the mix, offering their names and various offenses. At least a dozen kids were locked up in this so-called “solitary.”
“Cole, do you know what’s going to happen to us?” Molly dared to ask after everyone settled, all a little less lonely and frightened.
A heavy silence answered her. Then Cole spoke: “We’ll be chained. Soon, I imagine. Around the pit. You can see it, can’t you?”
She nodded – stupidly, since no one could see her. It didn’t matter; they all knew he meant the vast flame-lit cavern at the end of the tunnel. That was where the pit awaited them. “Why?” she wondered, her throat thick with fear. “Why chain us down there? We’re already prisoners.”
“It’s… the chains are not… normal chains.” He seemed to struggle to find the right words. “They glow. I – I feel weak afterwards. As if I’ve been drained of all my energy.”
“You live, though,” Molly said, desperate to find a ray of hope. The fear and dread in his voice was infectious.
“Others don’t,” he said softly. “Only the strongest walk away from those chains.” There was a pause.
“I watched them chain Sister Catarine.” His voice was small.
“They made me… made me watch when… her tongue…” His words choked off.
Only Molly knew what he meant about Sister Catarine’s tongue, but shocked silence filled the tunnel anyway.
Even those who hadn’t gone to Clem Prep knew Sister Catarine. Her good works were legendary.
An unbidden image of her favorite teacher blossomed in Molly’s head: chained, her mouth gaping, filled with nothing but blood. Gooseflesh shivered across her skin. She squeezed her eyes shut, but it didn’t help to erase the picture her mind had conjured.
A few soft sobs broke the stillness, then a low moan of horror.
“She was here,” Molly whispered, not even caring if anyone heard her. “All that time. Six days…”
“When I sent C-C-Cassie that letter, I didn’t know it would… I didn’t want anyone to get hurt. I just wanted out of here.”
Cole’s despair broke Molly’s heart. Her hands tightened on the bars of her cell. “It’s not your fault,” she said fiercely. “None of this is your fault! Or ours. We – we didn’t do anything to deserve this!”
“But why?” Katy Bell asked, her voice quavering. “Why are they doing this? Why us ?”
Cole’s low, bitter laughter drifted down the corridor.
“We are all cursed,” he said. “My parents called me Goddess-blessed to hide the fact that the Grahams are cursed with demon blood. Have been for generations, probably. It manifests sometimes. A person might stand out, be a little… different. That was me. Mrs H, back at Clem, she targeted me. She told me my blood made me special. But she was the one who said I broke into the school. But I didn’t! ”
“I believe you,” Molly said quickly. “Everything they accused me of was a lie, too.”
There was a soft grunt from someone. “Not me,” Jonny said, sounding almost proud. “I stole my dad’s liquor all the time. His smokes, too. Still, I don’t think I deserve all this! ”
“You don’t,” said Molly. “ We don’t. I don’t care if our blood is cursed.
We aren’t evil because of it.” Sudden outrage filled her.
She couldn’t help but think of her aunt, ostracized, outcast, abandoned.
For what? Her incubus father had been the villain, not Hero.
“I am demonkin,” she declared. “My aunt is half demon, and she brings murderers to justice!” She clung to a desperate hope.
Auntie Hero was investigating Sister Catarine’s murder; she knew about Cassie’s connection to Bright Renewal Academy.
The truth would lead her here. “She’s an inspector death speaker, the greatest in all the Realm.
” She wasn’t sure about that, but it didn’t matter.
It sounded impressive. “If anyone can save us, she can.”
The whispers resumed, skeptical.
“The demon nun?” A scoff. Was that Jonathan or someone else? “No one’s coming to save us. No one cares . ”
More soft sobs filtered into her crypt. Molly grimaced. “ She cares.”
How do you even know? You don’t know her at all!
It didn’t matter. Molly shoved her doubts aside. Aunt Viridian is coming . She knew this with a sudden, bone-deep conviction. She spoke louder, no longer afraid of reprisals. Let them beat her. Let them freeze her or starve her. She didn’t care anymore. She wouldn’t stay their helpless pawn.
“My Aunt Hero is powerful, and smart. She’ll discover the truth, I know it. They want to paint her as a fiend, but she isn’t. She does what’s right, no matter what. We just have to hold on until she finds us. I swear to the Goddess and the Branch, she’ll come for us!”
The others fell silent, but the undercurrent of despair had lessened. This silence was more contemplative than resigned. Did they believe her? Did she even believe herself? Was she offering them anything but a false hope?
Better than no hope at all.
“Molly’s right,” Cole said. “We have to stay strong. When they come for us, we have to fight back. Make it as difficult as possible. If we can hold out long enough…”
“She’ll come!” Molly said. “I swear it!”
“Then we fight.”