Creed (10 page)

“I believe you. My mom did too. That’s why she was getting ready to leave. She wanted to take us with her. I was helping her. We had a plan and a place to stay. We were supposed to leave two days ago, but … ”

“But what?” Mike’s asked, his tone becoming more abrupt each time he spoke. “I don’t see anybody stopping you. Get up and leave.”

“I wouldn’t get a half-mile from here before my father found me. Besides, I can’t.”

“You keep saying that,” I yelled. “How do you know that? How do you know if you’ve never even tried?”

“Because I know what happens to people who try,” Joseph replied. “My father caught my mother talking to some couple who stopped for gas last week. They had a map out. He got suspicious. Angry.”

“Are you saying that your mom wasn’t
allowed
to read a map, to speak with someone who lives on the other side of your town-limits sign?” Luke asked.

“Technically, it’s not a sign. It’s the giant oak tree by the water tank twenty-two miles west of here. But yes, that’s correct.”

Joseph averted his gaze, focusing on a nail pulling loose from the floorboards. I could see the shame in his eyes, in the way his entire body curled in on itself. I wanted to know if his mom was asking for directions, if she was planning on escaping and that’s what got her killed. “Was she asking for directions?”

He smiled at my question. “Yes. She had a sister on the outside. That’s where we were heading. She was trying to figure out how to get there.”

“Mary?” I asked, remembering the first words he’d spoken to me in the street.

“When I saw you, I thought … ” He paused for a second, then shrugged. “I thought that maybe when we didn’t show up at her house, she figured something was wrong and sent somebody … sent
you
to see what had happened.”

I shook my head. “You said your father killed your mom. How? Why?” It didn’t make any sense. Why would this Mary lady send help to someone who was already dead? Unless she didn’t know …

“He wasn’t trying to kill her, only bleed her,” Joseph said, and we all stared at him in confusion. “Purify her. Release the evil. You know … bloodlet her.”

“Are you kidding me?” Mike asked. He was standing closer now, glaring down at Joseph.

I grabbed Joseph’s arm, my fingers digging into his skin. “If what you’re saying is true, then why are you sitting here doing nothing? You need to head to the edge of town and keep walking. I mean, it doesn’t get much easier than that.”

Joseph looked at us, at
me,
with an intensity I couldn’t read. “I can’t.”

I knew there was more to this than he was saying, but no matter how hard I tried, I couldn’t get the pieces of his story to line up. No one would willingly stay here. No one.

“Can’t or won’t?” Luke asked, and for the first time I realized he’d been quiet for the better part of the conversation. But he had that gleam in his eyes, the one he got whenever he was watching the offensive line of an opposing team, trying to predict their next play from their formation alone. Luke was paying attention all right, probably more so than Mike or me.

“Won’t,” Joseph replied.

Luke studied him for a minute, his silence and scrutinizing stare making me nervous. Then he smirked, and I knew he’d draw some conclusion, picked up on something I’d missed. “What’s her name?” he finally asked.

Joseph didn’t answer immediately, and Luke grinned, convinced he’d pegged him right. “So? Her name?”

“Eden,” Joseph whispered. “But it’s not what you think.”

“You have no idea what we think,” I said. “But if your father is the maniac you’re making him out to be, there’s no way he’s gonna let you walk back in there and take her with you.”

“You don’t get it,” Joseph said. “I can’t leave her.”

“Sure you can,” Mike piped in. “Trust me, there are plenty of other girls out there. I can even introduce you to some.”

Luke and I both swung our heads in Mike’s direction, more than a little disgusted. Luke would never leave me behind.
Never
. The fact that Mike would pissed me off.

Joseph shook his head, a grim acknowledgement that the answer to his problems was far more complicated than I was making it out to be. “It’s not like that. Eden is my sister, and I won’t leave her behind. I promised my mother I’d keep her safe, that if her plan didn’t work, I’d find some way to get Eden out of Purity Springs. And that’s what I’m going to do.”

I got what he was saying. I was lucky enough to be an only child. One less person in this world for my father to beat up on. One less person for my mom to abandon. But if I had a sister … well, I’d like to think I wouldn’t leave her behind either.

“Does Eden know what your father did?” I asked.

He shrugged and turned away. I could feel the guilt pouring off him like a live wire. “I was there when he bled my mom. I begged him to stop, told him he was going too far. When she died, he pulled the town together, told them that his ‘sacrifice’ was for the greater good.
His
sacrifice.
HIS.
My mother is dead, and somehow he’s managed to convince the entire town that her death was necessary. That it couldn’t be stopped.”

“What did you do?” I asked, wondering whether he’d stood up to his father in public, told everybody in this town the truth about what had happened.

“Nothing,” Joseph replied. “I lost it and ran.”

I got the running part. What I didn’t get was why he’d stopped. I knew he wanted to save his sister and all, but at some point you gotta recognize your limitations. If this guy was truly the monster Joseph was describing, then he couldn’t do this alone.

I suddenly realized that Joseph knew that. I realized it was why we were here, camped out in the shed, staring at clawed walls and mirrored ceilings. He wanted, no, he
needed
our help.

“I’ve been watching outsiders pass through this town since I was born, and never once did they pose any threat or inflict any harm. They got what they needed and moved on. But my father told me not to be fooled, that the devil had two faces—one charming and meant to draw you in, the other full of sinful pride.”

I looked from Luke to Mike, wondering if they were listening to the same crap as me. Mike looked amused; Luke had a blank stare of disbelief covering his face.

“I made it three miles outside of town yesterday before I stopped and sat down, waiting for whatever evil lurks out there to find me,” Joseph continued.

“And?” I prompted.

“And nothing. I sat there for three hours and didn’t see anything but a few birds. Nothing evil. Nothing bad.
Nothing
.”

“He hasn’t come looking for you yet?” Luke asked.

“Oh, he did. He’s searching for me now.”

I spun around, surveying the dimly lit room. I knew his father wasn’t here. I knew the door was shut and Mike was standing in front of it. Whatever we’d seen outside the shed was gone, replaced by dead silence. But that didn’t stop me from looking.

“And that’s your problem, isn’t it?” Mike said. “He knows you’ll come back, that you won’t leave without your sister. Your father has you by the balls and there isn’t a damn thing you can do about it.”

“Not alone. But with you, with all of us, maybe.” Joseph cast a hopeful look in my direction, his eyes locking on mine. Somehow the kid had figured out that I got him, that I understood what he was going through. That shared knowledge scared the crap out of me.

Luke caught Joseph’s look and moved forward, angling his body in front of mine. “Hell no,” he barked. “You leave Dee out of this. Eden’s your problem, not ours.”

“It’s not like I haven’t tried to get her out on my own,” Joseph said. “I did. I’m the one who set off the sirens. I tried to create a diversion so I could grab her and run. But my father wouldn’t let her out of his sight. Now he’s got the entire town holed up in the basement of the chapel. He’ll keep them there until he gets a handle on the situation, until he can make sure the threat is gone.”

I knew what he was getting at. We, and in some way Joseph himself, were the threat. And by “gone,” I knew he didn’t mean safely removed from his town. He meant the six-foot-under kind of gone. I felt bad for the kid, but I’d be insane to risk any of our lives for a stranger.

“I’m sorry,” I said as I reached a hand out to him. “We can’t help you. You can come with us, though. The next town we hit, we’ll find the police, tell them what’s going on. They’ll come back here and get your sister out.”

Joseph shook me off, not interested in my suggestion. “That could take hours. Days. I don’t have days. Plus, no one in the next town is going to help me. You’re my only chance to save her.”

When none of us budged, he continued. “My mother was fourteen when she was forced to marry my father. Eden is twelve, and Elijah has three high-ranking followers who are in need of a wife. I overheard them talking—each of them was pleading his case, telling my father why he was the better choice for Eden.”

I shook my head in horror. I knew what these men wanted from Eden. It was the reason why the state had finally taken me away from my father for good. My dad hadn’t … but he’d tried. He’d been stumbling drunk and off-balance, giving me the … no, this was going to stop right now.

“There’s no way, that’s—no way—I—” I struggled to get my words out, then finally came up with a not-so-simple “No!”

Luke interrupted my rambling. I think he did it to shut me up and give me time to lock those memories away more than anything else. “Listen, man, I’m sorry. I really am. And our offer still stands. You can hike out of this town with us, but that’s the best we can do.”

I nodded in agreement and backed toward the door, hoping Joseph would follow our lead and leave this town behind him.

“Apparently I didn’t make myself clear,” Joseph said as he stood up. “I wasn’t giving you a choice.”

For some reason, he looked bigger, more threatening than before. Maybe it was the clarity of his voice, the pause between words as he carefully articulated each syllable. Joseph was no longer desperate or frustrated. His behavior was deliberate. Calculated. Either way, it had me backing into the wall out of his reach.

He didn’t head toward Luke or Mike—he came straight at me. But he didn’t get more than a half-step in my direction before Luke snapped, the fine thread of control he’d been holding onto breaking as he let loose with a violent string of curses.

“You don’t touch her!” he screamed, lunging at Joseph. He hit him square in the chest, his hands going for Joseph’s throat.

I don’t know whether it was Luke’s intention or just the sheer force of his weight, but he slammed Joseph into the door and it flew open, both of them stumbling out.

“Luke!” I screamed and ran after them, skidding to a stop as the sunlight blinded me.

A shadow of movement to my left caught my eye, the low growl of an unfamiliar voice breaking through the chaos. I vaguely registered Mike screaming, yelling at me to run.

A loud crack echoed through my mind, and I wondered if the ringing in my ears had anything to do with the dull pain creeping across the back of my head. My world spun, Luke’s face going in and out of focus as I felt my cheek melting into the cold, wet ground.

The last thing I remembered, the last thing I heard, was Luke’s voice and my name all muddled together into one ear-piercing jumble of words. Then everything went dark.

FOURTEEN

I swung my head to the left, trying uselessly to clear the sound that was dragging me back from the peaceful darkness. The rhythmic dripping of water echoed through the room, keeping me marginally aware when all I wanted to do was slip back into blissful unawareness. Something cool and damp slipped across my forehead. I tried to swipe it away, but my hands were too heavy to lift. Eventually, I gave in and let my head fall forward.

My stomach clenched with the movement. I forced my head up and searched the room for a focal point, something to concentrate on until my world stopped spinning. I found it—a small crack in the wall at the far corner of the room. That tiny spot became my anchor, and I used every ounce of energy I could muster to simply keep it in my sights.

I stayed still, a deep haze blanketing my mind. The corner of the room shifted in and out of focus, shadows of light dancing behind my eyelids each time they drifted closed. Blinking long and hard, I concentrated on that spot again, began to process the rough outlines of a cinderblock wall. I blinked again, and the whole wall came into view. With that came a flood of thoughts. All scattered. All useless.

It hurt to think, the mere effort driving me to the brink of tears. Gasping for breath, I squeezed my eyes shut as the pain flared through the back of my head. It lanced through my skull like a hot poker. Moisture seeped across my scalp and trickled down my neck. I harnessed what little strength I had and attempted to bring my hand to my head in hopes of dulling the pain, but I couldn’t. My hand wouldn’t move.

“What the … ?” I peered through the darkness at my hands. They were strapped down. Thin white plastic was laced around my wrists, tethering me to a chair. I did what came naturally; I jerked against the restraints, ignoring the pain as they dug deeper into my skin.