Page 52 of The Godhead Complex
Sadina looked down at the journal and Kletter’s stupid, sloppy, handwriting. She stared at the words surrounding ‘Señora Cowan’and wished they could have unjumbled themselves to make sense, but they didn’t. That feeling deep in her gut, the one that saidsomething is wrong, wasn’t a premonition—it was regret. She should have stayed with her mom. Sadina handed the book back to Minho and tears fell from her eyes. Roxy wrapped her in a hug. Sadina wished Trish had followed her up to deck andnotgiven her space. She couldn’t have felt more wrong. She was one big mess. “I shouldn’t have come.”
“You’ve got too much on your shoulders, girl.” Roxy rocked Sadina back and forth in a hug. “It’s okay. You’re doing what you believe is right, and Minho didn’t mean to make you cry—did he?” She glared at her adopted son, stern eyes held with the necessary pause for an apology.
“I’m sorry,” Minho said. “I just wondered why you didn’t stay.”What a way with words.Sadina stared into the sunset and let the tears fall.
“It’ll be okay,” Orange said. But as sunburned as Orange’s skin looked, that’s how Sadina’s heart felt.
“Just try to do a sniper move,” Minho said.
“I don’t think shooting anyone is the answer here.” Roxy continued to rock Sadina.
Orange nodded her head as if she knew. “No, that is a good idea.” She held her hands out. “To stay calm under pressure we did breathing exercises.” Roxy loosened her arms around Sadina. “Before you shoot at a trespasser or an animal, you always take in a lung full of air through your nose, and let it out real slow through your mouth. Then the rifle and you are steady enough for a shot.”
“But I’m not going to shoot anyone.” Sadina shook her head. “No, thanks.”
“It’s not about pulling the trigger,” Minho said. “It’s about letting everything go in that breath, out of your mouth so your body can steady. You put every anxiety, every worry, every thought you ever had in your whole life into that exhale. And you push it out of you to somewhere else.” He pointed far off into the horizon.
“Go on, try it,” Roxy said. “Can’t hurt.” And they all waited for Sadina to breathe. It felt silly.
She wiped her eyes and took a slow inhale through her nose and held her breath, long enough to think about everything she needed to put into her exhale to let go. Worries about her mom being alive. Seeing her again. Ever seeing Isaac again. Living up to Old Man Frypan’s legacy. Living up to her great uncle Newt’s legacy. Being a part of the Cure. Meeting the Godhead. All of it at once.
And then Sadina let it out in a slow whoosh. She released all the worries and pressure into the air to float away somewhere else. She pictured those thoughts skimming along the top of the ocean, and pictured the same tide that rocked the ship so roughly, taking them away. Far, far away.
“Here we are.” Carlos pointed ahead to a building with columns in front, but it didn’t look like what Ximena remembered. The Villa seemed so much bigger, and scarier, when she’d been little. The mansion in front of her looked worn down and weak. Concrete crumbled on the steps leading up to the front door. She headed that way.
Carlos grabbed her arm and stopped her. “Not that door.”
“Why?” Ximena waited for Carlos to point to another entrance but instead he just looked into the trees to the left and the right. He wouldn’t let go of her arm. “What?” she asked again. Carlos pulled her by the wrist to the side of the Villa. Her foot slipped on the knotted roots of a dried-up bush. “¿Qué diablos?” She looked at Carlos for an explanation.
“They have security,” he said in a whisper.
“In the trees?” She watched as he scanned the whole property with his eyes, keeping his body tight against the Villa.He couldn’t tell her about this on their long journey?It would have only confirmed her doubts about the trustworthiness of Annie and the Villa, and Carlos probably hadn’t wanted to hear miles and miles of Ximena’s questions. “What’s going on? You’re acting like they’ll shoot us for trespassing.”
Carlos didn’t say anything, which told Ximena everything.
He waved her to follow behind him along a thin path in between more dried bushes. Ximena took the knife she’d taken from Annie and lifted it out of its leather sleeve. “But you worked here, too. Isn’t there some sort of password you can give them?”
“It’s more of a process than a password.” He carefully stepped closer to the back of the building. “I don’t know if they still have traps, so we have to—”
“Traps?” Traps were for animals, not people.
Carlos turned to her. “The work they do here is very important, Ximena. It needs to be protected.”
She sighed. She’d heard her whole life about how important the work at the Villa was, but she had yet to see theimpactof that importance. She only saw the ways it affected her own village negatively. She matched Carlos’ steps as best she could until they turned the corner of the house and reached a door painted all black. The paint was chunky as if someone had painted over it in layers. Sloppy. If this was a sign of the work the Villa did on theinside, then her thoughts about the Villa would stay unchanged. Carlos knocked once, hard. The crack of sound echoed around them as if the door was made of metal.Why did the Villa have metal doors?
Carlos rocked back and forth. He only did that when nervous. “Think they already know about Annie?” he whispered as if someone might hear him through the steel door.
“No. If they did, she wouldn’t still be there. They wouldn’t have left her there, not like that.” Ximena steadied herself as the door opened. To her surprise, someone from their village was on the other side. Ximena recognized her features, but couldn’t remember her name. “Diena?” she guessed.
“Danita,” the woman said without any warmth. She eyed the two of them up and down.
“Hola, ¿Podemos . . . podemos entrar?” Carlos asked, but Danita shook her head.
“Tenemos que hablar con la profesora Morgan ahora.” Ximena insisted they speak to Professor Morgan, but Danita started to close the heavy black door. Ximena stopped her with the same hand that held Annie’s knife. “Annie Kletter, Ellas están muertas.”
Danita paused. “¿Ella esta muerta?”
Ximena nodded.
