on guard duty or sleeping?
Cameron gave it his all, sitting on the bed instead of lying in it, but even he had dozed off. Glitch had joined him, snoring softly into the carpet after stuffing the pillow I gave him between his legs and cradling it. He would have quite the cheek imprint come morning.
Brooke whispered softly into my ear. “What about Glitch and Cameron? Did you see what happened to them on that camping trip that spring break? Have you seen that in your visions?”
I turned to face her, our noses mere inches apart in the dark room. “No,” I whispered back, hoping not to wake Cameron, since we were talking about him and all. “I’ve tried very hard not to, in fact. It’s just— It’s such a violation.”
“But if you’re not doing it on purpose, if you’re not controlling it—”
“I used to think that too, but it’s all I can do to make it through a school day without throwing up or becoming suicidal. I just try my best to avoid visions whenever and wherever possible.”
She took my hands into hers and lifted them to her mouth. “I’m so terribly sorry, Lor. All the pushing I’ve done, all the nagging, and you were just trying to get through the day.”
“It’s not your fault.”
“I just wish I had known. I wish I had picked up on it instead of making your life worse.”
I smiled, wondering yet again what I’d done to deserve her. “You couldn’t make my life worse if I paid you to.”
The smile that widened across her face like the New Mexico sky made me rethink my last statement. She crinkled her nose. “Bet I could.”
I laughed softly. “Okay, I bet you could too.”
She sobered, bit her lip, looked at me from underneath her ridiculously thick lashes. “Lor, why didn’t you tell me?”
My lids closed with regret. “I’d planned to, but when I saw what happened to you, when I saw your past, I just didn’t know how. I felt like I was doing something wrong. Something invasive. And I just wanted it to stop.”
She nodded. “I understand. I do. But you’ll still have to pay. Dearly. You realize that, right?”
I grinned. “I suppose I do.”
“And I won’t go easy on you just because we’re besties.”
“I would never expect you to.”
“There’ll probably be pliers involved. And fire ants.”
I shuddered. At least she didn’t mention spiders.
“And spiders.”
Dang, she was brutal.
* * *
By Sunday morning, Brooke was belting out classic tunes to try to cheer me up. It was not working. Jared had never come home, and I had been reduced to a pile of nerves. No, not just a pile of nerves. A quivering pile of nerves.
Brooke leaned over to me as we sat in a padded pew, and whispered, “Want me to sing ‘Tainted Love’ again?”
I frowned. “No.”
“‘Love Is a Battlefield’?”
“Nope.”
“‘Love Shack’?”
I couldn’t help it. I cracked a smile.
“‘Love Shack’ it is.”
She took a deep breath and I clamped a hand over her mouth in horror, garnering a few admonishing looks from our staunchest members in the process. When Grandma joined in, her expression mortified, we straightened instantly. Brooke pointed to me, rolling her eyes as though I were hopeless. She would pay.
Grandma made eye contact with me. I quickly averted my gaze. I could see the sadness and frustration through my periphery, but I couldn’t quite bring myself to pretend everything was okay. They were once again making plans for my life without even consulting me. And just where were they planning on sending me? We had no relatives. We were the last of our clan. I think my grandma had a great aunt who was still living, but that was about it. She lived in Oklahoma. Was that where they would send me? Off to live with an estranged aunt nobody had heard from in decades?
I fought not to focus on that and tried to pay attention to Granddad’s sermon. My mind wandered regardless.
Like many churches, this one had an unassuming door behind the pulpit. Ours led to the basement. Or so that’s what I’d always believed. My grandparents showed me just how deep the basement went. They gave me the grand tour of the Order of Sanctity headquarters.
Down one level was a shadowy storeroom that looked like any other basement one might find beneath an old church. Dark and dank and a little bit scary. But down another set of stairs was a second basement. Again, it looked normal at first glance. Until Granddad