Page 41 of Drag You Down
When he doesn’t complete his sentence, I ask, “Before what?”
He gives me a wide-eyed look of fear. “God cast even angels into Hell in… inchains of gloomy darknessto be kept until judgement. What if judgement never comes?”
I don’t know exactly what’s going on, but I’m certain that Zachariah Carpenter has something to do with it.
I refuse to let my little lamb stay here, alone, panicking on his own.
He deserves better than this congregation of naive fools who look the other way, who allow their fellow congregants to be abused right under their own noses.
I make a snap decision.
I scoop Levi up in my arms and walk toward the apartment door. “You will not be cast into Hell,” I promise him. “You are the light, Levi, and if anybody tells you otherwise?—”
Well, I am much more the Devil than Levi could ever be.
“Wait!” he says, but he’s still shaking.
I can’t leave him here. I won’t.
I push the front door open and carry him around the block to where I’ve parked my luxury sedan. There’s a parking ticket on the windshield, but I ignore it as I get the door open. Levi triesonce more to run away from me, but I get him into the plush leather seats and strap him in, shutting and locking the door fast.
I hurry into the driver’s seat and start the car before he gets ideas about jumping out.
“I’m taking you home,” I tell him sternly. “You don’t get a choice, boy. I’m going to take care of you.”
My words must have some impact on him because instead of trying to unbuckle the seatbelt and get out of the car, he stays put. “He’s going to be so mad,” he mumbles. “That I left with the Devil.”
“The only Devil you know is the one living in that apartment complex,” I say harshly as I pull out into traffic. The traffic ticket flutters in the wind, threatening to escape its spot underneath the windshield wiper.
Levi chokes on whatever words he was going to say, and he shrinks back into the seat. I want to comfort him, but I need to get him home before I can pull him into my arms. “My sister,” he whispers after a few minutes.
“What about her?” I ask, mentally threatening the driver in front of me with mutilation when they slow down at the yellow light.
“She needs me.” There’s something else he’s not saying, but I wait him out until he continues, “He mighthurther. Take me back. Take me back, I’ll pay my penance, and no one will have to suffer because of me.”
I grip the steering wheel tighter. “No. You had a panic attack because of that basement room—the basement room your Zachariah sent you into.”
“It wasn’t—” he begins.
I give him a sharp look.
He withers beneath it. “But I’m okay now,” he tries.
“You aren’t.”
Traffic finally starts moving again, and I break a few traffic laws in order to get back to my condo building in time.
When I finally park the car, I turn in my seat to face Levi. “I’m going to take you up to my condo. I’m going to give you a nice, hot shower or bath, your choice. I’ll cook for you. And you will tell me why you panicked, so I can—” I almost say,break the fingers of whoever hurt you,but I’m going to do so much worse.
He already knows I’m a killer though.
I shake my head. “I’m going to take care of you, little lamb.”
“And who’s going to take care of her?” he asks bleakly.
I couldn’t care less about his sister.
“She’ll survive one day without you,” I say.
