She Has A Broken Thing Where Her Heart Should Be - J.D. Barker Page 0,241

the crowd, fighting his body with each step, David’s summons, his words more powerful than Dunk’s own free will.

When he reached David, David told him to kneel and he did, the lines of his face tight as he tried to fight that, too.

David took the small Motorola radio from Dunk’s free hand and pressed the transmit button. “Edward Thatch, Cammie Brotherton, and Jeffery Dalton, I want all of you to come out and join us. Leave your weapons behind, only you.”

I heard David’s words echo through the tiny speaker of the radio attached to my belt. He followed this first request with a second that chilled my bones.

“For the rest of you, if you’re involved in illegal activities with Mr. Duncan Bellino, take a look around you, find one of your coworkers, and kill them. Another after that. Last one standing, takes home the prize!”

At first, nothing happened. And I hoped to God nothing would. Then I heard the first gunshot. That was followed by another and another after that. Several bodies fell from the catwalks and roof and crashed to the concrete below, a rain of people, some still clutching their guns, some still wearing headphones which did little to protect them from whoever had been standing at their side.

There were no shouts in anger, no cries of pain, only silent death.

Stella closed her eyes, pressed her face against my chest.

David said, “Geez, I completely forgot about my previous instruction—the whole thing about forgetting how to breathe if you fired your gun. I imagine that finished off a few more of you. So sorry about that!”

David’s ability was frightening. The fact that he was enjoying himself scared the shit out of me.

My father was first to step outside and cross over to David. Preacher and Cammie followed about a minute later, Darby clinging to her mother’s hand, her pink little cheeks streaked with tears.

David told each of the adults to line up next to Dunk and kneel. They did as they were told, no other choice. He grinned at Darby, the pink and white burn on the side of his face stretching awkwardly.

Darby cowered behind her mother.

“You must be Darby!” David beamed. “Come say hello to your Uncle David!”

Darby didn’t want to. Even over this distance, I saw her grip tighten around her mother, but her body betrayed her—her arms broke free, her legs shuffled toward him.

David took her hand. “You’re not going to say hello?”

“She doesn’t speak,” Cammie said. “Please don’t hurt her. Please, David…”

David cocked his head. “She doesn’t speak at all?”

“No.”

“Has she ever?”

“No.”

He thought about this for a moment. “What is her ability?”

“If she has one, I’ve never seen it.”

David leaned down and smiled at the little girl. “Do you have any special abilities, sweetie? I bet you do.”

Darby shied away from him, her eyes fixed on his scar.

David reached to his face and stroked the ruined flesh. “This is nothing to fear. It’s beautiful. I’m the most beautiful man you’ve ever seen.”

“Whatever you’re going to do to us,” Cammie said, “please don’t make her watch.”

David turned back to her. “Me? I’m not going to do anything to you. What would be the point of that? Remember what we talked about? Your promise to me? It’s time.”

Stella twisted from my arm and started toward the door.

“I’m so sorry, Jack. My dearest Pip,” she paused there long enough to say. Then she disappeared around the corner, and I was alone.

I went after her.

I knew I shouldn’t. I should have let her go as I should have let her go so many other times during my life, but I couldn’t. I left the Ruger on the floor in that little room and followed her down the hallway and out the wide open door into the sea of people in white.

They parted as she approached, those candles still in their hands. Heads and faces hidden beneath white cowls. Stella and I stepped around the bodies of the dead, so many, haphazardly strewn around the concrete. The dark blood of all those dead in stark contradiction to the white of those who still lived.

“There you are!” David said as we approached. “I was beginning to think you didn’t love me anymore.”

Stella moved slowly, and when she was about ten feet away from David and the others, she nearly collapsed again. She clutched at her stomach, and all around us, shrill static burst from the radios.

I ran to her, tried to help her, but she shrugged me off. “Don’t touch me,