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“Isn’t that what normal teenagers are supposed to do?”
“You’re not a normal teenager. I think you know that,” she said.
“Thanks for the reminder,” I replied.
“I …” Sorina opened her mouth, then shut it, her lips a hard line. Something passed over her face. A decision of some sort. “I thought I said to leave town.”
“Instead of being a runaway, I think I’d rather figure out what happened to the others.”
“It’s not safe. And they can’t help you understand what’s going on. They can’t stop it.Youcan’t stop it. Not without putting a target on your back.”
“So I’ll just leave the target on Kyrie?”
“Take Kyrie with you, then. Just leave.”
I arched a brow. “I thought you said she didn’t like me like that?”
“She doesn’t. I didn’t say run away together and get married. I just said take her with you.”
“And what happens to the next girl?”
“The rituals of small towns, that’s not your problem. It’s mine.”
I stopped my escape and let Sorina make it to me. I felt like my body was on fire whenever she was near me. I could still feel her lips, her small body wrapping around me, what I thought was a dream, but maybe it was real. I was tired of wondering.
“That night you gave me a smoke for the first time. Did you sleep in my bed?”
“Yes.”
“Did you touch me?” My throat hurt, and I closed my eyes, willing the past to stay there.
“Not like that. I just …” she looked away into the trees. The dark of her eyes growing. “I held you. Slept. I left when I heard Valerie waking up.”
“She could have seen you.”
“She’s blind to anything to do with you now, now that you’re here. She has a weak mind and a sour soul. But, she’ll take to it.”
“To what?”
“His … congregation.”
“The Deacon?”
“Yes.”
I shook my head, denial thick. “She hasn’t talked about the Deacon since that night we had dinner with him. I told her I didn’t want to go to church, but she thinks … we can start over with God or something. I don’t know.”
“God has nothing to do with what’s he’s selling her.”
I remembered my fear, my words to Kyrie that night.I think he wants to fuck my aunt.“Should I be worried about her?”
Sorina smiled, and there was nothing but sadness in it. I didn’t understand it then and would be blind to it for a while. Then, I would feel it too.
“You should fear her.” Her voice was a whisper, and I laughed at her comment. Scared of Valerie? No. She wasn’t a shell anymore; she wasn’t cowering. She’d gotten us out of that hellhole, that awful place. We weren’t close, never felt like family, but she took me away from it all. I owed her my life.
Sorina walked away to the edge of the pool, then dropped, going for the laces of her boots.
I asked, “What are you doing?”
