Page 48 of Borrowed
“Anywhere,” he replied.“Where do you want to go?Mother is still waiting for us.”
I grinned, the collar biting deliciously into my throat.“Then let’s hear her sins.”
* * *
The rectory dooropened with a whisper.It was always too quiet in this part of the church, like even the walls were afraid to speak.
She was sitting there.
Mother.
On a stiff pew beneath a faded portrait of Mary, clutching her purse like a Bible and wringing the handle with white-knuckled grace.The incense had long since gone cold, but she still breathed like she was choking on smoke.
She turned when she heard the door creak.
And froze.
I stood framed in the doorway, wet, naked, draped in his collar, dripping with the font’s failed salvation.My hair clung to my shoulders in snarled ropes, blood from my nose painting a line down to my collarbone.In my hand, the rosary twisted like a noose, and behind me, the iron cross on the fabric dragged along the floor with a scream.
“T—T—T,” she whispered.
I shook my head.I didn’t want to answer.
She didn’t ask what had happened.
She knew.
They always knew, didn’t they?The ones who looked away.The ones who smiled while their child burned behind their eyes.
I stepped inside.
Closer.
The cross scraped against the old tile like it was screaming, too.
“You took me to Him,” I said.My voice came from somewhere else.Somewhere lower.“But He never answered.You heard me scream, and you called it a test.”
She shook her head.“No.You’re sick, baby, you’re not—this isn’t who you?—”
“It’s always been me.Your eyes are closed.Mine are open.”
Toby was behind her now.His hands slid over the top of the pew, just inches from her skull.His eyes locked onto mine, a gleam of hunger peeking through the slits of the bandages.
Approval.
Stroking her face like a lover.
Like she did to him.
“Tell her,” he said softly.“Ask her if she feels the love now.”
I dropped the rosary.
Let the beads scatter like teeth on the floor.
Watched as my blood dripped down and made it red.
Then I smiled and stepped into the aisle.“Mother,” I said sweetly.“Your God couldn’t save me…can he save you?”
