her, her face stark white and wobbly. “All you vile, fallen women,” she heard her mutter.
Oh God, oh no. They’ll take Millie. They’ll hurt Haddie. It was her final thought before Scarlett floated away.
CHAPTER FORTY-THREE
Scarlett moaned, attempting to lift her head as the world slowly came back into focus. She tried to move her hands but they were tied behind her back. Fear dripped down her spine. The fog cleared minutely and she pulled herself up with effort, scooting backward against whatever was directly behind her, pressing into her back uncomfortably.
She opened her eyes, the world shifting into focus. She was in a stark, monastic bedroom, a bed against one wall with a large, metal crucifix hanging above it, a dresser on the opposite wall, devoid of any knickknacks or personal items.
A tabby cat sat on the windowsill casually licking its paws.
Scarlett gave her hands another tug, glancing behind to see that she was tied to a silver radiator.
Sister Madge’s bedroom down the short hall from the office where she last remembered sitting. It had to be. There was no way that frail old woman could have dragged her any farther than this. Panic howled through her. She’d drugged her. With a cake bite meant for the . . . what had she said? Youth group? Disbelief and sickness welled up inside of her and her panic increased. She pulled harder at whatever was holding her hands to the radiator, grunting with the effort. Her limbs still felt heavy, weighted.
The radiator rattled, tipping slightly back and forth but it didn’t give. Her brain cleared a little more and she turned her head around, looking for something, anything, that she could use to get free.
There was nothing. She stilled for a moment, listening, trying to ascertain if Sister Madge was still in the house. When she didn’t hear anything, she began yelling. “Help! Help!” over and over until her voice gave, her throat raw and painful.
Tears came to her eyes and for a moment she let the terror overwhelm her. They were going to hurt Millie. They were going to hurt Haddie. Oh God. Oh God. Are they already there? Do they have the girls?
You have to get free, Scarlett. You have to warn them. If you don’t, there’s no telling what they’ll do. Not just to them, but to you.
Where do you think Sister Madge went? To drive Vicky home? Yes, but then she’d head straight to get someone better equipped to deal with you. Or your body . . . once you’re dead.
They’d have to kill her now. They would have no choice. Her time was ticking.
Scarlett rocked the radiator with her hands again, using every ounce of strength she could muster to pull and push, pull and push, faster and faster, using the appliance’s weight against it. She cried out, her shoulder throbbing each time it wrenched farther from her body. Tears streaked down her face and she let out a yell of defeat and pain, bringing the radiator to a halt.
A light scratching sound came from behind a door next to the dresser and Scarlett stilled, her breath catching as a shadow moved beneath the frame. The scratching came again, a soft papery-sounding laugh as the doorknob began to slowly turn.
Scarlett pressed herself into the radiator, turning her face as though awaiting a blow. The door clicked open, swinging inward slowly. Something only partially human lay on its stomach on the floor, up on its forearms, its grotesquely burned face staring at Scarlett, mouth turning upward in a hideously wicked smile. It had a pair of sharp, silver shears in its disfigured hand. Scarlett’s whole body jolted, fear pinging over every nerve. She let out a strangled sound of terror, pulling on the radiator again, then pushing, creating the same rhythm she’d tried before, only this time more powerful, more intense, all the strength of her revulsion and horror behind her.
The thing she thought had once been human began crawling toward her, its piercing golden eyes wide and unblinking. “We have rules here,” it said in a scratchy voice, the shears hitting the floor heavily with each drag forward. Scarlett pulled and pushed at the radiator with all her might. It smacked into her brutally as it came forward and jerked her shoulder backward relentlessly as it rocked back. Her upper body screamed in agony. “You have not been granted permission to leave. She said I should stop you if you tried to get free.”