Page 115 of The Idol

He was one of them.

He’d always been one of them.

Father had known.

Father had tried to warn me.

“Y-you—with t-them—” My breath came too fast and too shallow.

Everything blurred.

“Elior!” Daddy climbed halfway into the van, hands out but not touching me. “Listen to me. I am with them, but I never lied to you. I love you, baby. I swear to God, cherub, I didn’t—look at me, please look—”

But I wasn’t seeing him anymore.

Just light.

Dust.

Shadows.

The imprint of Father’s rage carved into the backs of my eyelids.

“I-I didn’t mean to,” I whispered, barely a sound. “I didn’t know. I didn’t… betray… I didn’t…” My vision tunneled.

Daddy’s voice grew distant.

The nice lady shouted something about blood pressure.

Hands tried to steady me.

But Father’s words clung like hooks.

“Your very existence is a sin.”

I heard one last sound—Daddy’s voice breaking as he called my name. “Elior!”

The world folded in on itself.

White, then black.

And I was gone.