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“Fuck you!” The second member shoves at The Divine One’s shoulders, hard enough for the sick fuck to stumble backward and his mask to become askew.
“How dare you?” The Divine One’s voice sounds…normal. Without the mask carefully in place, the voice box isn’t working properly. But then The Divine One rearranges the gold mask, and I hear that familiar, mechanical voice once more. “Don’t you dare touch me again.”
Guards have begun to advance on the fighting pair, their guns lifted, but The Divine One raises a gloved hand, stopping them in mid stride.
Without another word, The Divine One turns and stalks away, that damn red cloak cascading across the ground like streaks of blood.
“Fuck!” The POP member kicks at the wall, anger emitting from him, and then storms away as well, in the opposite direction of The Divine One.
And…
I know that voice.
I’m fucking positive I know that voice.
I just don’t know which discovery tonight shocks me more—that my brother is a member of POP.
Or that The Divine One is actually a woman.
Fuck.
28
ELLIE
“Elllllieee.”
The sibilant, singsong voice chases after me as my feet pound against the pavement.
I glance over my shoulder, desperation filling my lungs, but I don’t see The Divine One. I only hear her.
“Elllllieee.” Her voice is reminiscent of a winter breeze blowing through the hollow husk of dead trees. There’s something empty sounding in the way she says my name.
I run even faster through the abandoned carnival, the same one Fischer used to take me to when we were kids. Back then, however, the smell of funnel cakes and cotton candy permeated the air, and there were so many people, it was impossible to walk. But now, the game stalls are dilapidated and covered in ivy. Litter covers the street, and stuffed clowns—the prizes we could’ve won—lay discarded on the brittle, brown grass.
In the distance, I spot a rollercoaster that is missing a part of its track. The car itself is overgrown with weeds and other unsavory substances that seem to move and wiggle.
I bypass them all, though, until I reach the largest building in the very center of the park. The gaping clown mouth appears particularly ominous, its red-painted lips stretched to accommodate a staircase leading inside.
“Ellie!” A figure materializes behind me, her red cloak billowing in the light breeze, and with only a moment’s hesitation, I run into the funhouse.
I bypass the grinning clowns and colorful tapestries until I reach a room at the very end of the long hall. I push open the door…only to see that I’ve entered a room full of mirrors. My face is reflected back at me from every angle—tangled brown hair, flushed cheeks, crooked glasses, and ripped clothing.
“Ellllieee.”
I begin to run even faster, taking turns at random, trying my damnedest not to look at the face peering back at me.
But then a shock of red captures my attention, and my head automatically snaps up before my brain can tell it not to.
The Divine One’s masked face materializes in the mirror, directly beside my own.
I spin, my heart racing, but she’s not next to me.
“You can’t run from me, Ellie,” she purrs as I continue to run through the maze of mirrors. But it seems like no matter which direction I go, I can’t find the exit. Trepidation curdles in my gut, weaving itself around the fear already present there.
I just have to keep moving.
No stopping.
