Page 35 of These Unhallowed Halls (Equinox Seasons Duet #2)
“Excellent, excellent. And I’m so glad to see that all of you have heeded His call to bring more of the faithful to the tent.
Welcome, new faces.” I ducked my chin, not making eye contact with him as the people around us clapped softly.
“Now, today, we have the most glorious news. He is so emboldened by your faith, your ongoing support of our small traveling parish. My father, rest him, would be so proud.”
Ha, I bet. Your dad was a rapist fuckbag who killed kids.
It was too real to be funny, and my stomach coiled into knots as the crowd around us began to sort of move, shifting in unison in a subtle back and forth.
They were hanging on this guy’s every word as if they were hypnotized by it.
Lizzie noticed it too, but the two of us weren’t feeling the effects.
I was quick enough to start mimicking them, Lizzie right there with me, but why didn’t we feel the “faith” like everyone else did?
Cerberus? He knew this asshole was fake. What if being with him protected us somehow?
That’s fucking lucky, Lizzie. What if we hadn’t performed the soul weaving? Gods, we need to tell Caleb about this. Do we sneak out?
Not yet. I want to see what this is all about.
“Now, He is so close to us, friends. The time is almost here. Come moonrise this very night, our savior with walk among the mortals. The heathens will bow down or be trampled by His might, and it is all thanks to your unyielding faith.”
“Praise Him! Praise Him!” everyone chanted, low and strange.
Jeb Junior came around the pulpit and stepped down from the platform, walking in front of the first row.
Each person there offered an eager hand up, looking to touch this man like he was some kind of walking avatar for a god.
Which, I supposed, wasn’t too far off, except for the fact that the Ring Leader was the mouthpiece of an evil entity that had been terrorizing people for millennia.
“His field is watered with the essence of His followers. And this night, this holy night where He will pierce through the veil holding Him back, He requires even more from us.”
“What can we give?” one person shouted out. “We live to serve Him,” yelled another.
“You are all so blessed in His name. Such valuable, devoted people. The parish’s custodians have gathered together ten from this morning’s sermon, but alas, one of our brethren has proven false.”
“Boo! Cast out the blasphemer!” Chills worked down my spine as the crowd cried out with such hatred, and I grabbed Lizzie’s hand, a building dread starting to choke me.
“Yes! Yes, that is right, my faithful! But we require another. Someone of total conviction and faith to stand in for that dreaded waste.”
Too many people to count called out, volunteering to be the replacement, begging to be lifted up in “His” name. Lizzie turned to me, and I could see the unease and anxiety peaking in her expression, undoubtedly a reflection of my own.
“I will choose, my blessed congregation. I am His hand, and through me, He will find His missing lamb, to walk it freely in the realm of the Lion.”
He was going to take someone, and going by the bodies we’d found earlier, I didn’t think it was going to end well for them.
Dammit, Lizzie. What do we do? We can just let this guy scoop someone up and butcher them in front of all these people.
I don’t know, Temps. This isn’t—Fuck, we almost died last time. We…we need to get Caleb and Cerberus. Look for a moment to sneak out.
Nodding, I made sure that I was standing level with the person next to me, and then slowly, so godsdamn gradually, I began to back up more, putting a hand behind me so that I could feel the tent when I got to it.
No one was paying attention to us, and Lizzie and I got farther and farther away from the main show.
Jeb was still walking that front row, his fingers grazing the people who reached up for him, this massiah among lowly mortals in their eyes.
His line got shorter, focusing on just the people in the center of the front row, and I took two more steps back, so close to the exit that I could feel the cool air outside blowing across my ankles.
We’re almost there, Temps. We got this. We’ll call Caleb right away.
I couldn’t bring myself to even think anything back. I was too nervous, too on edge as our escape hung in the balance. The crowd was practically roaring now, overcome by the heightened energy in the tent as they all called out to see who the new “chosen” would be.
One more step, then another, and there. I could feel the rough, fraying edges of the tent. Lizzie slipped out first when I hesitated, something making me look down at that front row one more time.
“You. You are His Chosen. Rise and face the people you save for His glory!”
No.
The world around me dropped away as I watched my mother fling herself up from her seat, a massive smile stretching over her face. She bounced up and down, happily shrieking as she spun around and faced the crowd. The Ring Leader, Pastor Jebediah Paine, Junior, stood at her back.
Something flashed in the spotlight, this white light that forced me to squint as I pulled back.
Then Jeb’s hand was in front of my mother’s neck.
Just as realization struck, a line of red appeared across her skin, and then it rained down her white suit, her pearl necklace breaking and scattering across the ground.
The crowd roared in approval.
“Temps,” Lizzie was behind me, pulling me backward toward the exit, “we need to—Oh, gods.”
The Ring Leader smiled as he held the bloody knife high for everyone to see, my mother’s body slumping to the dusty earth as he let her go.
“We need to go. Temps, please.” She hauled me backward as I stared straight ahead. “Now.”
And then it all disappeared as the flaps of the tent fell in front of me, Lizzie grabbing me by the hand and yanking me forward, sprinting away from the carnival as quickly as we could. My heart pounded, my stomach was on the verge of turning inside out, and I couldn’t think.
We just ran. We ran around the side of the tent toward the alleyways that spilled out into the large area the carnival had rented. My legs burned, but we just ran. We ran and ran and ran.
Until, just as we were getting to the edge of the fairgrounds, the metal fence only a few feet away, we collided with something solid and tall, knocking Lizzie and me backward to the dry grass.
“What the hell are you two doing out here?”