Chapter 26
I don’t know why I followed Death into the chapel. Maybe because I knew deep down that I didn’t have a choice. That no matter what I did or where I went, he would always haunt and hunt me.
The chapel itself was small. Empty benches were arranged in short rows on either side of a narrow aisle. There was a small altar at the front of the room beneath a little stained glass window that offered a glimpse of a courtyard garden. The air smelled very faintly of incense.
Death claimed the bench nearest the altar. I sat down beside him on the opposite side of the aisle. I wondered, in passing, if I had come in here just to die.
The thought didn’t raise as much fear as I expected it to. I was more ready for this than I’d realized, to make a sacrifice, to see my sister on the other side.
“Where are they?” I asked. “Where are the rest of the girls?”
“They’re alive and well.” Death flexed the fingers of his right hand slowly, watching in apparent fascination as the tendons pulled taut.
“Though they did get into something of a spat, I think. The hospital nurses had them take their fight out to the parking lot. Apparently, there was a lot of yelling involved. They were so absorbed that they didn’t see me come in, which is for the best, I think.
I wanted the opportunity to talk to Shiloh alone.
But now that you’re here, I think you’ll do just fine. ”
“What do you want to discuss?”
Death steepled his fingers, aligning them very carefully and with some awkwardness. He had an almost childlike demeanor, the clumsiness of someone who hadn’t resided within his body for very long.
“You resent me,” said Death. “More than the other girls do.”
It was strange to hear him put words to what I had felt for so long. This despise of him, for what he’d done and taken from me. For the ways I’d been changed by him without my will or consent. It was evil.
“The other girls didn’t lose a sister to you recently. They didn’t have to work for the person—”
He cut me short. “I’m not a person.”
“Fine, the thing that took her.”
Death didn’t like being called a thing. I could tell from the way his eyebrows pinched together in a frown that seemed more petulant than truly frightening. “Is that how you really feel?”
“That’s the reality,” I whispered. “You know that. You said it yourself. I didn’t want to live enough to do this, to kill people on your behalf. The only reason I’m here is because of what you promised me if I did.”
“But is that still true?” Death narrowed his eyes. “Once I tell you the truth, will you really be content to turn your back on all of this, live a normal life?”
I faltered. I’d mostly avoided thinking about what would happen to me after fulfilling my end of the deal with Death.
I had been so focused on finding out what happened to Adeline.
Her, her death, and my grief were like a fog too thick to see through.
I’d forgotten there was a horizon on the other side of it. “I—I don’t know.”
“They came to love you, you know. The girls.” Was it jealousy I sensed when he said it? “It was beautiful to watch.”
I didn’t like how he spoke in the past tense, as if it was a thing that had been and not something that was now.
“Human beings are so fascinating to me. You have these instincts coded into the intrinsic makeup of your being: the drive to live, and to live well, at that. You’re all so loyal to your dreams, no matter how far they are out of reach.
But there’s an error in your makeup. A desire that supersedes your survival instinct. Do you know what that is?”
I shook my head.
“It’s freedom. I put immortality in the palm of your hand, and you turn up your nose at it. Why? Because you’d rather live a short, free life than live forever under my care.”
“Under your boot, you mean.”
Death allowed for this insult with a smile.
“We don’t want to be bound to you any longer. And you’re right, I think some of us, maybe most of us, would rather find freedom in death than continue on as participants in this sick experiment.”
“A sick experiment that you agreed to.”
“You coerced us.”
“I gave you all a choice.” His eyes grew bright with sudden anger, motes of fire burning in the dark of his irises where his pupils should’ve been.
“One that others would gladly kill for. Do you know how rare this is? What exists between me and you? Do you think it’s a normal thing, to converse with your own demise?
What all of you fail to see is that there is no greater freedom than that which I’ve given to you already. ”
I knew he expected me to cower, to shrink in the wake of his anger.
But I refused to give ground. I had already seen the worst of him, in the cold corpse of my dead sister.
“Don’t pretend this is charity. You didn’t give us anything.
We suffer to do your work. We’re not like you.
We have feelings and souls. We carry guilt with us always, and it’s heavy. ”
“Then put it down,” he said, and the light in his eyes dimmed to black. “I’m not making you carry it any longer. Put it down and forgo the truth about your sister. Let her go, and you’re free of me. For now, at least.”
“And what about the others?” I asked, but I knew the answer. They were bound to him in a way that I wasn’t. I could turn my back on this, but they couldn’t, not without sacrificing their lives. “They deserve the chance to live their own lives, free of you.”
“The girls have to make their own choices. Hopefully, they’re not as foolish as you are.
I suspect that most will come around. They’re kind girls deep down.
But even kind girls can be selfish. If they know what’s good for them, they’ll choose well, and they’ll be safe with me for as long as they’re in my service. That much I can promise you.”
Someone spoke from behind us. “That’s not enough.”
I turned to see Shiloh standing in the doorway of the chapel.
And she wasn’t alone. The rest of the girls were behind her.
Iona stepped forward first to take Shiloh by the hand.
Then Chloe, gazing at Death as she had at those men across the parking lot, like she was ready to tear him apart with her teeth if need be.
Even Riley stood her ground, hands locked into fists at her sides.
Then Naomi shouldered to the front of the ranks, making a shield out of her own body. “I would die a thousand painful deaths before I’d let you take another one of these girls.”
I could’ve sworn that Death looked almost…afraid.
He stood up, and he was taller than he was when he’d first sat down.
The harsh cut of his figure seemed to blot out the light cast in through the window, darkening the room.
“I’ll give you twelve hours to reconsider.
If you fail to change your minds, then you all will die tonight.
Well, not all of you.” He turned to me. “You’ll remain.
” He put a hand on my shoulder, and when he did, the room emptied, all the other girls gone, just him and me alone.
I tore away from him, terrified, and the vision ended. “N-no—”
“Twelve hours.” It was as close as he’d come to yelling; his voice seemed to suck all the air from the room. “If you haven’t come around by then, you live, and they die.”
The girls froze, breathless. I waited for them to recant, to plead for their lives or else beg for forgiveness, but they didn’t. They stood silent, with tears streaming down their faces. Even in the wake of Death himself, they refused to cower.
He could have killed us all. In the moment, I half expected him to.
But instead, he just lowered his head. A father disappointed by his daughters.
“We’ll talk again soon,” he said, stepped into the hallway, and was gone.