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Puzzle barreled past them, his tail wagging furiously as he pranced around a teenage girl with dark curly hair and light blue-green eyes.
True.
A brief expression of panic flitted over her features, and she stared at Hope like she expected and explosion. When none came, she relaxed slightly and turned toward Ellie. Her eyes seemed to scream, “Help!”
True looked so much like Hope, it was almost eerie. The same soft curls, the same striking eyes. Except there was something different about her, something more innocent, less tarnished. Maybe it was just wishful thinking, but she wanted to believe that this girl still had a chance to escape the life her mother had chosen.
She turned back to her sister. “Where’s Cal?”
“He’s around,” she replied nonchalantly, as if they were asking about a misplaced pen and not a missing person. “He needed some time for... soul searching.”
Ellie swallowed down her fear. She wasn’t sure she wanted the answer to her next question, but she had to ask it. “Is he alive?”
“For now.” Hope’s gaze slid toward the mercenaries standing in her yard with their guns raised. She smiled. “But it doesn’t matter. None of us will be for much longer. The Great Renewal has started and if you’re smart, you’ll save yourself the horror to come like my family did.”
“I’m your family.”
Hope laughed at that, a bitter, pained sound. “No, Ellie. Not anymore. We haven’t been family since your mother kicked me out.” She looked at her daughter. “The woman who birthed me is selfish and evil. She will rot in hell when the end times come.”
Terror lanced through her. The look in Hope’s eyes... it was fanatic, unhinged.
“Mom’s not evil,” she protested. “Yes, she can be selfish sometimes, but she loves us and she’s only human. She’s not meant to be perfect. None of us are.”
“True is. She’s the embodiment of purity and light. She’s here to lead us to salvation.”
The conviction in those words made Ellie’s blood run cold. Then realization struck her like a thunderbolt. “You’re Mother God, aren’t you?”
“No.” She nodded toward her daughter. “She is. I am merely her harbinger. The bringer of her destiny.”
Ellie’s gaze flicked to True. The girl was trembling, tears silently trailing down her cheeks. “You ordered those people to kill themselves. It wasn’t Hopeful.”
Hope gave a serene smile. “Before something better can begin, everything else has to end.”
“Did you kill Hopeful, too?”
“I set him free. I set them all free.”
This was not the fun, careful sister she remembered, the sister who had promised her a magical yellow cottage in the woods. This was a woman twisted and broken by beliefs that were hurting everyone around her.
A noise from the edge of the clearing caught Ellie’s attention. Zak, Donovan, and the mercenaries were inching closer, their guns pointed at Hope. But Hope seemed blissfully unaware, or maybe she just didn’t care. She continued speaking, this time addressing True.
“And you, my angel... you will lead them into the new age.”
True was shaking her head, tears streaming down her face. “No... I don’t want to. Mom, this is wrong. I can’t...”
“This is your destiny,” Hope snapped.
“No, it isn’t!” True’s voice was like a sharp snap of a twig. “You’re wrong. This isn’t normal, Mom. This isn’t how things are supposed to be.” With that, she bolted past her mother, past Ellie, out into the yard. She held her hands high over her head. “Don’t shoot. I want to leave!”
Zak and the team moved in and surrounded her, tucking her away to safety behind the shield of their bodies.
“No!” Hope wailed. “No, she’s my salvation! You can’t take her from me!” She lunged out the door, but the mercenaries were faster. They closed in on her, their guns raised.
“Hands on your head,” one of the mercenaries ordered. Followed by another shouting, “Face down on the ground! Now!”
Hope didn’t move for a solid five seconds, and the tension was a palpable thing, thrumming through the air like an electrical charge. Puzzle whined beside Ellie, his tail tucked between his legs, and she reached down to pat his side reassuringly, even as her own hands trembled.
“Hope, please,” she called, her voice breaking. “Please, just… stop. You’ve lost control. You’ve lost yourself. You need help.”
