Bitter Falls (Stillhouse Lake #4)(94)

More of the Assembly men are coming down the path behind them. Nobody was asleep. Everybody was in on this.

“Go back to the Garden, Sister Aria,” Father Tom tells her. “Your job is done here.”

She nods, still smiling, as she walks past me and toward the path. She passes Sam, and that’s when I realize he’s watching me. I take a step toward them. He shakes his head, emphatically.

“Easy, Connor,” he says, and the calm sound of his voice makes me ache inside because I want him to be okay so bad. “I’m fine. I’m all right.”

Caleb yanks on that chain, and Sam gags and staggers, and fury rips through me.

I lose it, just like in the classroom. But this time I know who I’m going to hit. I go straight for Caleb, and I see him drop the chain and step back and aim that gun he has and I don’t care—I’m too angry and too scared and I just want it to stop.

Sam moves between us, and I skid to a stop because I don’t care if I get shot, I don’t, but not him. “Easy,” he says again. “Breathe, Connor. Breathe—”

Caleb puts the muzzle of his rifle to the side of Sam’s head. “Back up, Brother Connor. Right now. Or this is your fault.”

“It’s not,” Sam says. “Remember that.”

One of the other men punches Sam in the side, and he cries out and nearly goes down. Somehow he doesn’t, and it’s all I can stand not to go charging at them again. I know it’s stupid. But I have to do something.

“He’s right, Connor. It’s not really your fault,” Father Tom says, like none of this is happening. “You’ve been poisoned by women your whole life. Especially your mother.”

Sam looks like he’d say something to that. I say it for him. “My mother’s the strongest person in the world.”

“It’s not your fault you think so. You’ve been brainwashed. Female strength is inferior. They’re incomplete, made from the rib of a man. They were made by God to serve.”

Sam gets his breath then, and he says, “Save it. It’s not going to work. Connor knows better. Weak men believe shit like this. Weak men like these assholes.” He jerks his head toward Caleb, and I know Caleb’s about to punch him again and I need to make it stop.

“Brother Caleb,” Father Tom says, and stops it for me. “There’s no need for that. We’re not here to torture the man.”

From the expression on Caleb’s face, he’d like to do it anyway. But now I’m scared what’s coming. Sam looks so tired; he’s fighting to stay on his feet. He’s doing that for me. The sound of the waterfall is like a drill whining through my skull, tunneling right through bone.

“I want to believe in your ability to change, Brother Connor,” Father Tom says. “But you’ve shown poor judgment too many times in a short period of time. I think it’s time you were baptized. I think you’d be of more use to us if you join our army of saints.” I don’t know what that last part means. I don’t think it’s good; it feels like something awful is in the air now.

The men standing around us say, “Amen.”

“Come with me, boy,” he says to me, and puts his hand on my shoulder, just the way all those men did in the church when they welcomed me in. “Let me anoint you with holy waters.”

“No!” Sam shouts. He lunges forward, and Caleb grabs the chain again and yanks him back. He fights, and I’m afraid he’s going to choke. I can’t stand this, can’t stand seeing them hurt him.

“Okay!” I shout. “Okay! I’ll go! Dad, it’s okay!”

He keeps on struggling. They push him down on his knees. I can’t look. I need to do this so they’ll stop. It’s just water. It’s nothing.

Father Tom leads me into the lake. Two steps and the bottom drops off, and I’m up to my knees. It’s freezing, so cold I’m already shaking. The water, close up, has a weird oily shine on top. It stinks.

He keeps pulling me deeper. I don’t want to go, but I need to do this. I can’t let them kill Sam, and I know they will. I can feel it.

“One more step,” Father Tom whispers in my ear. “I’ll anoint you with the holy waters and you will be one of us, Connor. A full brother of the Assembly in the sight of God. Then you’ll be worthy.”

I take another step. It’s a drop-off, and I sink fast. The water comes up to my chest. I gasp and flail. I can barely feel my feet now.

Father Tom scoops up water in both hands. I don’t want this. I don’t. I turn and look back at the shore and I see that Dad is still fighting his chains to get to me. He’s hurting himself more.

I need to just do this and get it over with. Now.

So I take a deep, unsteady breath and nod. “Okay.”

Father Tom lifts the water in his joined palms.

“Father! Someone’s at the gate!” Someone shouts it from up close to the path. “You need to come! Right now!”

Everything freezes.

Father Tom pauses, and ripples go out from him across the pond to disappear into the darkness. The only sound that continues for a moment is the dull roar of the waterfall cascading down.

Father Tom lets the water fall back into the lake, grabs my shoulder, and pushes me back toward shore. “The day of reckoning,” he shouts. “Hallelujah! Brothers, the day of reckoning is at hand!”