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“He came to me three nights after he’d killed Charlie, he lifted my nightdress and I was so scared he’d hurt my baby with his…” I feel so stupid and naive explaining this now.
“Go on.” Skid’s low grumble encourages me to continue.
“I pulled the knife from under my pillow and I rammed it into his flesh as hard as I could. I stabbed him over and over. I killed him, or at least I thought I had. Annie woke up and saw him laid on top of me. We shared a room, and she was the only person in that house who ever showed me any kindness. She gave me the time I needed to get from under him, climb out the window and run before she screamed for help. I ran. I ran to the tree behind Charlie’s house. I climbed it just like he told me to and then I found the money he’d been stowing away for us to use when we escaped. He was my friend. He died because he tried to help me.” My voice gets overtaken by sobs. I’ve never spoken to anyone about where I came from before and now my heart is beating as wildly as it had that night.
“Charlie.” Skid nods his head, obviously figuring for himself where my son got his name from.
“We were supposed to have left that place together. I knew nothing about what I’d find on the other side, I’d only ever been told of the evil. The Elders told us they were our protectors, they made us believe that they were saving us, but they were monsters, Skid.”
“Who?” Skid leans in closer, his hand squeezing tight at mine now.
“The Elders. I had to marry one. Abraham, he is in charge and he killed my friend, Charlie. He slit his throat in the middle of town in front of everyone. Charlie’s mother’s heart broke but his father… he just watched. He accepted it. Because the Elders' words are the gospel to those people. That's when I knew I had to get me and my baby out of there.” I feel my stomach go hollow when I remember that day.
“Shit, Addy, are you tellin’ me you escaped some kind of fuckin’ cult?” Skid looks even more worried than he did before. I can’t imagine what must be going through his head.
I nod back at him, hoping this won’t make him change his mind about helping us.
“And now they’ve found me,” I tell him, feeling helpless as the pad of Skid’s thumb wipes away the tears that spill onto my cheek.
“How can you be sure?” His voice whispers softly.
“It started off with little things, I found a dead bird on the porch last week, then the next day there was another. I started to get the feeling I was being watched, and then on Sunday when I was walking out of chapel, I saw him. Abraham’s alive, he was standing on the other side of the cemetery in the hat he always put on when he left the village. He’s alive and he’s coming for us.”
“You sure you weren’t just ima—?”
“He was real,” I interrupt. “He smiled at me like he knew he could still scare me. I got in my car and I drove straight here because I had nowhere else to go. I’ve never trusted anyone the way I did you and I can’t let him take Charlie,” I blurt out, sinking my head into my hands and letting all the fear and emotions I’ve been building unleash.
“Come on, now. No one’s gonna take your boy.” Skid’s hand strokes my back while I sob and when I eventually find my breath again, he guides my head back up to look at him. “You got family back at that village?” His question suddenly makes me realize that he hasn’t doubted a single thing I’ve told him. He’s not looking at me like I’m crazy either.
“My parents and my sister. We were planning on having Everleigh escape with us, but after what I did to Abraham I had to leave quickly. I had to leave her behind.” More tears fill my eyes as the weight of that guilt presses heavy on my shoulders.
“Okay.” Skid strokes my arm and tries to act like everything is gonna be alright, but I can see from the look on his face that he’s unnerved.
“Why didn’t you just tell me all this before, I must have asked ya a hundred times?”
“I didn’t think you’d believe me, and I hate thinking back to those days. When I do, I start to feel crazy.” I snuffle back my tears.
“You and Charlie are gonna be okay here. No one's gonna find ya, and even if they do, they’ll never get a chance to hurt you.”
“I should have gotten further away but there was hardly any money in that tin, barely enough for a bus ticket. I made it to Fountain before I’d run out. That’s why I had to take that job at the bar, you have no idea how hard it was adapting from that world to this one. I was stupid to think they wouldn’t find us.”
“None of that matters now that you’re here,” Skid assures me.
“Skid, they won’t stop.” I wish he understood how determined these people are. “Abraham thought I was one of the chosen, it’s why he married me.”
“And your parents let that happen?” He stares at me in confusion.
“My parents were honored by it.” I laugh when I realize how crazy it must sound. “Like I said, that place is so detached from the real world, it's scary.”
“I’m startin’ to understand that,” he admits, gravely.
“Me and Charlie, we’re gonna have to move on and get further away. If I can just stay here long enough—”
“You're not doin’ that,” he cuts me off. “You shouldn’t have to run.”
“I have to, we’re too close, the village is only four hours from here.”
“You ain’t runnin’. You and your little boy are stayin’ right here. You're gonna let me fix this, and you are never gonna look over your shoulder again.”
