Mrs. Radcliffe wrenched her head back to the altar. Mary Katherine knelt in her hospital gown. Her back exposed to the church. Freezing like Mary in the manger. Nothing but a slip of underwear. She heard the congregation rise out of the pews and stand behind her. The basket being passed down the row. Stones being picked like apples.
“Oh, Jesus. Help me,” she prayed.
“Confess!” Mrs. Radcliffe shouted, throwing the first stone.
The stone shattered a stained-glass window in front of her.
“CONFESS!” the congregation echoed.
The word chanted over and over. Confess. Confess. Confess. Mary Katherine held her hands up above her head in surrender. She faced the congregation. The stones in their hands. Father Tom outside caked in blood. The flock had taken over. The lunatics were in charge of the asylum. Ready to stone her to death.
“OKAY! I’LL CONFESS! I’LL CONFESS!” Mary Katherine screamed.
The congregation went silent. Waiting. Mary Katherine turned to her mother.
“Mom,” she said, her voice quivering. “I was going to be late that night.”
When the truth came out of her mouth, Mary Katherine burst into tears.
“What?” her mother asked.
“The night I found Christopher. I wasn’t going to make it home by midnight. I lied to you and Dad. I just didn’t want to lose my license, so I lied. But it was wrong. I am being punished for it.”
“That’s not your sin. Who’s the father?!” Mrs. Radcliffe screamed.
“Mom, if I hadn’t lied about being late, you would have taken my license. And I never would have been on the road. I never would have turned away from the deer and hit that little boy with the car. I hurt a little boy because I was afraid of going to Hell. I was selfish. THAT is my sin. But I swear…I don’t know who the father is. I swear on my soul that I am a virgin. Do you believe me?”
She looked at her mother through her tears. Her mother’s face softened as if remembering the little girl she raised. She nodded.
“Yes, honey.”
“Daddy?” she said.
“I believe you, Mary Katherine,” her father said.
The dam inside her broke as the congregation moved closer, the stones raised for death.
“DAN!” her mother screamed.
Her father’s instincts returned in an instant. He ran to protect his little girl, but the congregation jumped on him and beat him bloody.
“Leave my family alone!” her mother screamed as the congregation wrestled her to the ground.
Mary Katherine ran to help her parents, but Mrs. Radcliffe and Debbie Dunham grabbed her. They stood her up in front of the cross.
“Doug,” they hissed. “It’s time.”
Doug rose from the pews. His eyes were black and distant. Insane. He held a stone in his hands.
“Doug! Please help us!”
Doug said nothing. He just walked to her. Mary Katherine looked at her boyfriend with tears in her eyes. That face she had loved since they were eleven years old. She saw the marks around his mouth. Little pieces of yarn hanging out of his skin. He covered his mouth self-consciously until he realized she wasn’t looking at him like a monster.
“What did they do to you, Doug?” she asked, concerned.
“Don’t listen to her. She made you look like a fool, Doug,” Debbie Dunham said.
“Stone her, Doug,” Mrs. Radcliffe hissed. “Stone the whore!”
The congregation spoke as one. “Stone her. Stone her.” All of his friends from CCD and youth group chanted his name. Doug held the stone and looked Mary Katherine in the eyes.
“I love you, Doug,” she said. “I forgive you.”
He looked at her with tears in his black eyes. He raised the stone above his head and threw it as hard as he could.
Right into the middle of Mrs. Radcliffe’s forehead.
“RUN!” he screamed.
Doug threw his car key into her hand and turned to block the mob. Mary Katherine raced into the parking lot from the side exit. The lot was so packed, she couldn’t find Doug’s car. A terrifying scream rose up from inside the church. She heard stones shattering the stained glass. She hit the panic button. Doug’s car flashed to life on the far end of the parking lot.
Mary Katherine ran to the car, her bare feet cut on stones and gravel. She opened the car and turned the key in the ignition. The motor froze in the cold. The congregation crashed through the main doors into the parking lot. They raced toward her. Screaming. She turned the key again. The engine