Fallen

“Fuck!” Mason was at Lilith House. With Scarlett. Scarlett and Haddie and Millie too. Georgia would be at work right now.

The split in the road approached. Drive to town to warn Georgia, or drive to Lilith House where the rest of them were, completely unaware of what he’d just set into motion?

A bead of sweat rolled down the side of his face. He didn’t know what to do. There was no good answer. At the last minute, he yanked the wheel, heading toward Lilith House.CHAPTER FORTY-SIXScarlett ran/limped through the woods, her head whipping back and forth as she called Haddie’s and Millie’s names. Her breath came in quickened bursts of panic. Something had her baby, something dangerous and unnamed. An animal, or even a demon. She could believe that now, after being attacked by the thing that must have once been a woman and now lay dead in a heap of bones in an old nun’s bedroom.

She stopped, taking a moment to catch her breath and listen to the sounds surrounding her. The trill of a bird. Leaves and foliage rustling in the cooling breeze as evening began to descend. The scampering of something close by. But nothing that told her where Haddie and Millie might be. Not the crunch of bones, or the tearing of flesh. She let out a terrified whimper as she raised her uninjured arm and clamped a fist over her ear, pounding once, as though she might beat out the visions her thoughts brought forth. A small sob escaped her throat but Scarlett drew her unharmed shoulder back, moving forward.

She was not going to fall apart. Not when her child needed her. Not when Millie, Kandi’s child, needed her.

Scarlett followed the path Haddie had led them on to find Kandi’s bones, cradling her useless arm to her chest. She had no other idea, no other way to go that would be based on anything except panicked wandering.

The pain of her injuries made her feel woozy, but her fear was bigger, and far more pressing.

She didn’t know whether it was wise to continue to call Haddie’s and Millie’s names, so she stopped. What if it only alerted the thing that had taken the girls as to Scarlett’s whereabouts? What if it helped the thing avoid her?

She ran on, weaving through the trees, and stepping over fallen branches as the day fell to dusk, washing the woods in an ethereal pale peach glow. The rustling noises picked up, the bird calls increasing in their noise level and enthusiasm, and a little girl in a pale pink dress with a green satin sash stepped from behind a tree. Scarlett gasped, a small cry emerging as her heart jumped and she raced forward, toward her daughter.

With another cry, she went down on her knees in front of her, bringing one shaking hand to her shoulder and then pulling her forward breathlessly, wrapping her arm around her. “Haddie, Haddie, oh my God, Haddie. Are you okay? Baby, are you okay?” She pulled back, her head whipping around. “Where’s Millie? Haddie, we have to—”

“Mommy. You’re hurt.”

Scarlett bobbed her head. “Yes. But I’ll be okay. I have to get us all out of here. Now.”

Scarlett stood, leaning down to pick Haddie up, to run, to find Millie, to escape whatever had taken them deep into these darkening woods.

“Mommy,” Haddie said more forcefully. “Come with me.”

“Come where? Baby, we have to find Millie. You can tell me later—”

“Millie’s that way,” she said, pointing her finger in the direction from which she’d come.

Scarlett nodded, her breath coming just a little easier. “Is she hurt?”

“No, Mommy. She’s with him.”

Her blood chilled. “Him? Who’s him?”

“Him. He’s light, Mommy. Very, very light. So light I couldn’t feel him at first. But I can now. I learned. Please, Mommy. Come see.”

Scarlett blinked down at her daughter, taking in her pristine dress, her hair still in the same mint-green barrettes she’d clipped in that morning, white sandals slightly scuffed but otherwise undamaged. It appeared her daughter was not only completely fine, but might have been carried gently through the forest. But how is that possible? She held out her hand. “Take me to Millie,” she said.

Haddie smiled, grasping her hand, and pulling her along. They only walked about three hundred feet through the carpet of pine needles, rounding a bend and coming upon a large rock between two massive trees. “You can come out,” Haddie called. “I found her. I found my mommy.”

All of Scarlett’s organs felt as though they’d turned to stone as she stood, clutching her daughter’s hand, waiting with bated breath for what was about to appear with Millie, but trusting, trusting Haddie because she was obviously not afraid.

Millie stepped out first and Scarlett sucked in air, lifting her injured arm as much as she could and holding out her other hand to the girl. Millie smiled, rushing forward. “I was scared at first too,” she whispered.