He would tell her afterward that the other boys made him do it, but that was a lie.”
Knox slanted his head. “How many times was she taken down to the basement?”
Black eyes sliced back to him. “Six, in total. Six times too many.”
Yeah, Tanner could agree with that.
“What happened the last time?” asked Knox. “Why did Harry want her forgiveness?”
“Ah, you found the letter,” the demon realized. “Muriel could not decide whether to be furious by his request for forgiveness or comforted by the sheer knowledge that he was haunted by his decision. She wanted him to suffer.”
Is it just me wondering why it’s being so talkative? Tanner asked Knox. Rogues usually have a more “fuck you, I don’t explain myself to people” attitude.
I’m guessing it’s either under the illusion that it will get free and is simply biding its time before it strikes or it’s been wanting to get this shit off its chest for a very long time, said Knox. “What exactly was Harry haunted by?”
“The night before Milton intervened,” began the demon, “Muriel and Dale received the same number of votes. The tutors decided to take them both to the basement.” Its eyes hardened to stone as it added, “They hurt the children. Forced the children to do vile things to each other. Then they brought Harry down and gave him the choice to take Muriel’s place. I could smell his fear; knew he would not agree, but she had hoped he would. He didn’t.”
Tanner liked to think he’d have offered to trade places with Muriel to spare the little girl further pain, but he couldn’t blame Harry for not wanting to do so. He’d only been a child himself. You couldn’t really know what you’d do in such a situation unless you were in it.
“The tutors were not surprised by his refusal,” the demon went on. “They laughed. I think they had noticed how the guilt of voting for others again and again was eating at Harry; they had worried he might tell someone, and so they had added to his shame by making him the offer to save Muriel, knowing he would refuse. But it did not have quite the effect they had hoped for. It made him more determined to make the abuse stop for good.”
Knox’s nostrils flared. “Why didn’t you push her to tell me? You must have sensed I’d have done what I could to stop it.”
“I urged her to speak with you. She would not listen, and she was far too ashamed to speak of it.”
Scrubbing his hand down his face, Levi softly cursed.
“You would not pity Muriel so much if you knew she was not so innocent,” said the demon. “She once convinced another female child to go the boys’ dorm, hoping she would be taken instead. The child received the most votes, and she was taken to the basement. She did not come out of it alive. The tutors made it seem to the other staff like she was yet another runaway. But Muriel liked to block that memory—she could not deal with the guilt. Not feeling so sorry for her now, are you?”
“She was still a victim,” said Knox.
“Yes. But she had no problem making someone else into a victim. No problem voting for those boys. She even voted for Dale a time or two. Not that I blamed her.”
Staring at the demon, seeing how little sympathy it now had for Muriel, Tanner couldn’t help but think that this was what would have become of Devon’s mother if she’d given control to her own demon. Pamela could have surrendered to the inner entity to escape her pain and guilt, but she hadn’t, even though the pull of it had to be strong. Pamela might have done some messed up shit, but it said a lot about her that she hadn’t tried to escape it.
The demon gave Knox a bored look. “I suppose you are going to kill me.”
“You can’t be allowed to live,” said Knox, conjuring a lethal ball of hellfire.
The entity spared the blazing orb a brief, disinterested glance. “Are you not going to ask why Muriel came here?”
“We know why.”
“Do you?”
“She intended to kill herself here; to die where she’d no doubt wished she’d died as a child rather than suffer what she’d suffered.”
“You are partly right. She wanted to die here. But she also wanted to purge the ground as she did so. There is no clock in here, so I am not sure how