Chapter 16
CHAPTER
SIXTEEN
My sleep is thin and fitful after the tumultuous evening. Plagued by nightmares where Troy is forced to watch the governors take turns with me, I toss and turn for hours. I’m ready to give up when I roll over to see them.
Two dark figures stand in my bedroom. A scream tears from my throat as rough hands yank me out of bed.
“I knew this day would come.” Keeper’s voice fills the tiny space. “I told you wicked women don’t fool me.”
I’m struggling to wrap my head around what’s happening. It feels like it’s part of a nightmare. Am I really awake?
“Stand up,” Governor James snaps, tightening his grip on my bicep while I try to get my legs to cooperate.
“What’s happening? I didn’t do anything!”
“Shut up,” Keeper says, flipping on the overhead light. He looks so pleased with himself as I squint and blink. “Did you really think you and Troy could steal from us? God sees all.”
Terror grips my chest and my denial comes out in a gasp. “I didn’t…we didn’t.”
He raises his hand, holding up the plastic bag of cash from under the tree.
No. This can’t be happening. Troy. What have they done to him?
“What…what’s that for?” It’s difficult to choke out words through fear and despair.
It’s over for us. We knew they’d likely kill us if we were caught.
Troy may already be gone. Not even a day after I got him back.
His smile flashes before my eyes and a sob escapes me.
“For such a liar, you should be better at it,” Governor James says, dragging me down the hall and through my living room. They pull me out into the night, and he keeps his hand locked around my arm while Keeper walks on my other side.
My mind races. “Where…” I breathe, then quickly correct myself.
“Keeper, are you taking me to the reflection hall?” I stumble to keep up with their fast pace.
The gravel scrapes at my bare feet as we cross the road.
It takes every ounce of my self control not to ask about Troy.
If they think I care about him, they’ll use him to punish me.
“Corrupters like you aren’t capable of reflection. You will never be anything more than you are, a withered enemy of God. A deceiving polluter.”
We pass by the main house where the reflection hall is located and reality sinks in. They’re taking me up the hill into the woods. I’ll be another buried secret like Georgia.
Panic brings everything into sharp focus at the realization.
The earthy smell of the early winter air, the cold damp ground under my feet.
It’s very late but I can hear a robin singing in the distance.
I tilt my head back to stare at the stars that seem impossibly bright and close.
Drips of ice in a frozen sky. Beautiful.
I think of how Troy and I used to lie in the back of the truck and stargaze, how we talked about being a tiny speck in the middle of something as amazing as the universe. We got to see so little of the world but every experience floods over me.
I remember the warm hugs Grandma used to give me, running home from school to meet my friends, laughing with Jane, listening to music with the windows down and the summer wind in my hair on dark country roads.
But mostly, I think of Troy. He saved me when I didn’t realize I was drowning, woke me up and gave me hope. Despite how it’s turned out, I wouldn’t change that for anything. I got to love and be loved. That’s not something everyone gets to experience.
Tears roll down my face, and I stumble to keep up as I’m dragged uphill. I won’t beg them. I won’t say a word. They would love that and it won’t do me any good. Instead, I look at the stars and picture Troy leaning against my bedroom doorway, grinning at me.
When we get to the tree line, they pause and make a sharp turn toward the newly constructed building that’s off limits to everyone. I catch the amused look that Keeper and Governor James share. They wanted me to think I was being taken to the woods to be executed.
The long concrete building grows larger in front of me. Bright light bleeds out of the high windows on one side, but the other half is dark. My mind grasps at the possibilities. What will they do to me in there, where no one can see? A quick death in the woods might be preferable.
As much as I’ve tried to keep my wits, I can’t stop my body from shaking.
Keeper opens a metal door at the corner of the building. “Welcome to Redemption Keep. Since you cannot be redeemed, it’s where you’ll spend the remainder of your life.”
We enter into a narrow hallway with heavy metal doors on each side. Each door has a small barred window with some kind of hatch underneath. Before I can take it all in, Troy’s shout echoes through the space.
“No! I told you Sybil had nothing to do with it! She didn’t even know what I was doing! She’s just a servant. You think I’d trust her with money?”
He presses his face against the bars of the second door. The pain that overtakes me at the sight of him is indescribable. His face is bruised, his lips swollen and bloody, and one eye is ringed with black.
I bite my tongue to keep from speaking, but the devastation in his eyes says it all, and I’m sure it’s mirrored in mine.
“Save your lies. You’ve been corrupted by her, and you’ll suffer the consequences for your weakness,” Keeper replies calmly while he unlocks the next door and shoves me inside.
A loud clank sounds when he pulls it shut. Troy continues to argue but they pay him no mind.
“Get things arranged for gathering tomorrow,” Keeper orders Governor James. They discuss it as they leave.
Silence descends once the outside door is closed and I sink down to my knees, sobbing.
I hear my name whispered from behind me and whip around to look.
Some light from the hallway reaches in, along with moonlight from the one window that’s too high to see through.
The two allow a dim view of my surroundings.
Getting to my feet, I look around. A mat lies on the floor against one wall, and a long skinny table is bolted to another.
At the rear is a partial wall that doesn’t reach the ceiling, and behind it the floor slopes down to a drain.
There’s a spigot halfway up the wall and a showerhead above that. Just a few steps away is a toilet.
It’s a cell. They’ve built a small prison. One meant to hold people for far longer than the reflection hall where I was before.
It’s where you’ll spend the remainder of your life.
That could mean until tomorrow or until I’m old and gray. Maybe execution would be the better option.
“Sybil. Sweetheart.”
This time I can tell where the whisper comes from, down by the mat. It’s not clear in the shadows, but when I crouch down, I can feel a vent along the bottom of the wall.
“Troy.” His name comes out on a sob. I press my hand on the cold wall. He’s right on the other side but so far away.
“I’m here,” he says.
I lie on the mat right next to the vent. “What happened?”
He continues in a whisper, mindful that we may not be as alone as it seems. Not that it probably matters now. “I guess they didn’t believe my hand job excuse. They went back to search that area. I told them you didn’t know anything about it. I swear.”
“I know. I know you did.”
“I’m so sorry. We should’ve left tonight.”
I run my fingers along the grating. “It’s not your fault.” As terrible as things are, just the sound of his voice helps calm my beating heart.
“Listen to me,” he says, urgency in his voice. “The other spot is safe. Keys and all. Do you understand?”
I do. They only found the backup stash of cash, not the bag with the bulk of the money and the car keys. “Yes.”
“If you get a chance, you take it. At any point. Don’t wait for me. You take it and get as far as you can. Promise me.”
Tears pour down my face. “We won’t get another chance.”
“If you do. Promise me. I need to hear you say it. Please.”
“I promise.” I’m not going anywhere without him, but it doesn’t matter. They’ll never let their guard down with either of us again. “Troy, do you think they’re going to kill us?”
“No, I think they would’ve done it already. They wouldn’t do it publicly, especially with all the new members. They’d have a stampede of people trying to leave. You heard them say there’s a gathering tomorrow.”
A shiver runs through me that’s unrelated to the cold cell. “That’s when we’ll find out what they’re going to do to us,” I whisper. The last time I was part of a gathering, I was shaved bald, tattooed, and made into a servant. This time is bound to be worse.
“I think so. Did they hurt you?”
“No. Sticking up for me is just going to get you in more trouble. You have to stop defending me. They won’t believe you. Now, promise me that.”
“Can’t do it, sweetheart.” I press my forehead against the wall as he continues. “I love you. Whatever happens, this last year has been the best of my life.”
Sobs shake my body. “I love you too. They can’t take that from us.”
“They’ll never tear us apart.”
I stay curled up against the wall, as close to him as I can get as the night slowly passes. We whisper back and forth occasionally just to know the other is still there, still listening. My eyes grow heavy as the sun rises but neither of us sleeps.
The terror of the coming day makes sure of that.