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But the other half of my brain was certain something was very,verywrong.
I had to leave. I had to leavenow.
But I turned to find the church doors had been shut, and the congregants, in their masks and white robes, had moved closer. I faced a barrier of masked figures, the dark sockets of their eyes staring at me coldly.
Outside, the gathering clouds unleashed the first crack of thunder.
“We’ve been waiting for you, Juniper,” Kent said. I turned back to him, slowly. Victoria had been given a white robe she was slipping her arms into. I shook my head as her face disappeared behind a mask like the others.
What the fuck was this? What the hell was going on? Was I hallucinating all of this?
I began to back away, quickly, stumbling over debris on the ground. But I didn’t get far. Kent nodded his head, and suddenly both my arms were seized, gripped tight by masked figures who forced me back up toward the pulpit. I didn’t know what was happening, but I hated strangers touching me. I thrashed against them, pulling back, digging in my heels. Why was everyone just staring?
“Let go!” I jerked against them, their masks looking far too real from behind the veil of psychedelics. It was like they didn’t even hear me. They forced me up before Kent, and pushed me to my knees.
The moment my knees hit the dirty wooden boards, it was as if reality smacked me in the face. This was real. Holy shit, this was allreal.
“Don’t worry, my dear. All is as it should be.” Kent’s voice was calm, almost soothing. He smiled down at me and lightly touched my cheek with his cold fingers. I jerked away, tugging against the arms still holding me in place.
“What the fuck is this?” I yelled, my voice shaking. “Let me go. Tell them to let me go.”
Kent shook his head, like I was a child making a ridiculously unreasonable request. “God has called you, my dear. It has waited for you for a very long time.”
I laughed, but it wasn’t funny. None of this was funny. My heart felt like a fist pounding against the inside of my ribs, trying to escape its prison of bones. “Stop,” I said. “Stop it. This isn’t funny. This isn’tfuckingfunny.”
Kent turned, lifted a mask from the pulpit behind him and placed it over his head. He became another empty-eyed skull, and the woman in black peered down at me, examining me carefully.
“What is your name?” she said.
“Juniper! Juniper Kynes!” I struggled, panting. “And I know you! You’re Heidi Laverne! I know all of you!” I shouted at them, hoping it would rattle them. I didn’t know what they were doing, but I knew their names, their faces. I could tell someone. I could name them guilty.
But guilty of what?
Heidi nodded slowly. “She is the one It seeks. It calls her name.”
“It calls her name.” The entire congregation murmured in unison behind me.
My mind was spiraling. There were bizarre patterns on the walls, infinite looping geometry in the floorboards, in the pores and freckles across Heidi’s face. She stepped back, and from within the folds of her black dress, she drew out a knife and handed it to Kent.
It was like a part of my brain turned off. Some part of me, the part that still had logic, saw what was coming and flicked a switch, shutting me down.
It shut down the part that wanted to scream.
It shut down my frantic struggling, so I wouldn’t waste my energy.
I went still, and silent, and only hot tears streaked down my face.
“Brothers and Sisters!” Kent’s voice boomed through the space, echoing amongst the rafters. “Long has God blessed us with Its mercy and patience, long has It awaited this night! Tonight, we begin to fulfill the oath of our ancestors. Tonight begins a new era upon earth. Tonight, the first sacrifice goes to the Deep One.”
“Amen,” the congregation said in unison, and a deep shudder of revulsion went straight to my core. I could only stare at the knife, its blade catching the fire’s light as Kent turned it slowly in his hands and knelt before me.
“Mr. Hadleigh.” My voice was a trembling whisper. “Please.”
“Do you know the story, Juniper?” he said, his voice as light and happy as if he were speaking to a little child. “Long ago, three men were rescued from the tragic flooding of the mines. Only three. The only survivors amongst dozens.”
“I’ve heard the story.” I was weeping, staring at the blade. Knowing something awful was going to happen, and I could do nothing to stop it, had turned my limbs numb with dread. “My grandpa used to tell me, because his great-grandpa was down there —”
“And his great-grandfathersurvived,” Kent said. With one smooth motion, he cut open my t-shirt.
