The Lost Souls (The Holy Trinity #2.5)(3)

Most people who were born in Elderton died in Elderton. But Carrie had never wanted to be one of those people, so she studied like crazy, got straight As in school, and joined every possible after-school activity and club available to her. She wanted the biggest and best—to go to college in New York City and then travel all around the world. She wanted adventure and intrigue and romance. But mostly, and more realistically, she just wanted out of Elderton.

During the barbeque, she snuck away with her boyfriend, Kris, and once inside the church, safely ensconced in a confessional, they began making out.

She’d started dating Kris when she was fourteen, a little over a year ago. They were official and exclusive, and all of her friends had decided she should have sex with him already since it was obvious they would get married one day. This had revolted Carrie. It wasn’t Kris that disgusted her, he was attractive in an all-American way with sandy-blond hair and pretty blue eyes. No, it was marriage that repulsed her. Even more so than marriage, it was that marriage to Kris would mean she was never going to leave Elderton. In Elderton, high school sweethearts ended up married either directly after high school or right after college, and college to an Elderton native meant the community college two towns over.

And since she had no plans to remain in Elderton, she had no plans to have premarital sex with anyone from Elderton and accidentally get pregnant with an Elderton baby and be forced to marry an Elderton resident because of it. So, no sex. She would remain a virgin until she could get out of this town. In fact, she would remain a virgin until she met a dark, exotic stranger with a ripped abdomen, who rode a motorcycle, and could bench press her, her brother, and their Doberman all at the same time.

So, inside the confessional, when Kris’s hand started inching its way up her skirt, she had immediately slapped it away. Kris had been about to let loose a litany of his usual protests when the screaming began. Startled, they jumped apart.

“CARRIE!”

Jason?

“Jason!” she cried, wrenching the door open.

Her eighteen-year-old brother was standing between pews, breathing hard as he scanned the inside of the church.

“I’m here!” she yelled, rushing toward him. “What’s wrong?”

That was when she noticed the blood. His shirt and jeans were covered with it.

“Oh my God!” she shrieked. “Are you hurt?”

Reaching out, he grabbed hold of her wrist and yanked her forward. “I’m fine,” he hissed, looking around. “But we’ve got to get out of here!”

Just then, the church’s double doors burst open and Mr. Habermen, the town pharmacist, fell through them, drenched in blood. Two people were right behind him; they jumped on top of him and…

Her stomach lurching, her vision blurring, she swayed backward. They were eating Mr. Habermen. Eating him. Literally.

Things got fuzzy after that. Kris was screaming, and Jason was yelling, but none of it was making any sense. She remembered blood, so much blood, and so much screaming, familiar voices screaming in agony and fear.

But she remembered her mother. She’d never forget.

She remembered her mother running beside them.

And then she remembered her father jumping in front of them and her mother throwing herself at him and the look in her father’s eyes…

His red eyes.



That was where the memories went from vague to completely blank.

Then her memories started up again locked inside the food pantry in their basement where Jason had hidden them for several days.



Jason had been fiddling with a radio, curled up in a corner with their dog, Tex.

The first thing he had told Carrie was the world had ended. The second was that their father had gone crazy, turned into a monster, and killed their mother. And the third was that they were going to die.

For the remainder of spring and all summer long, they continued living in their home. They raided the local grocery store and the homes of friends and neighbors. But out of fear, fear of what was happening outside of their now deserted town, they never strayed too far from home, and eventually they ran out of gas for the car. By fall, they ran out of food, and had to kill Tex. It was Jason who shot him, skinned him, and cooked him.

After that, Jason…well, Jason’s mind began to deteriorate. At first, it was his temper. It had always been bad, but it was out of control now. He began talking to himself, fighting with himself.

Then one night, he kissed her—not a chaste kiss between brother and sister but an honest-to-God kiss with tongue and groping hands. Carrie screamed and slapped at him until he reluctantly let her go. Grabbing hold of her throat, he told her he would leave her alone…for now, but eventually she would need to accept their fate, that she should stop fighting the inevitable because they were the last two people on Earth, and he had needs.

That was when she started cuddling with her dad’s shotgun, and stopped sleeping altogether. She didn’t want to kill her brother, but she would if she needed to. And things continued on the same as before.

It was nearing the end of fall when she began begging Jason to search for food on the outskirts of town. Winter was coming, she told him, and they would need everything they could get their hands on. Eventually, when their food supply was all but gone, he agreed.

Only a few blocks away from their house, Jason had spotted a dark blue Jeep Wrangler on the lawn of a neighbor’s house that hadn’t been there before. He’d run inside and before Carrie could stop him, he started attacking the young woman he found sleeping upstairs.