This brought another thought to Prudence’s mind. “If we get back, what about you and I?” She could already hear Helena and Phyllis making fun of Fat Prudence and Little Wendell sitting in a tree, K-I-S-S-I-N-G.
“It doesn’t matter what they think,” Wendell said.
“I know, but I don’t want them to come between us.”
“They won’t.” Wendell patted her on the shoulder. “Come on, let’s go back. It’s almost time.”
She wiped her eyes and took one last look towards the east, hoping to catch sight of Eternity. She saw only darkness on the horizon. She might find it someday, but even if she did, it wouldn’t be the same. She wouldn’t be the same.
They hid Mr. Pryde’s truck behind the bank, next to a giant metal bin filled with trash. To get onto the roof, Prudence and Wendell removed the lobster traps and tackle boxes from the truck, piling them up behind the bank to form a wobbly set of stairs. Wendell went first, scrambling up the traps and boxes to the top of the roof. Prudence tossed one of the fishing nets up to him and then attempted to scale the stairs. She moved quickly, not lingering long enough for any of the objects to give under her weight. Wendell took her hand before she reached the top, grunting as he helped pull her up.
Prudence crawled along with Wendell to the front of the bank, where they waited with the net spread between them. Neither of them said anything as they waited, afraid someone would hear them. She’s not coming, Prudence kept thinking. She’s gone somewhere else. We’ll never find her.
Hours went by without anyone appearing. Then a car came around the corner to park alongside of the building. Prudence scrambled to the edge, peeking over to see a girl who looked like an older version of Helena she took for Samantha and a man dressed all in black she assumed was Joseph. “They’re here,” Prudence whispered. Wendell motioned for her to be quiet.
Samantha and Joseph went around to the front of the building. He hung back near a box of snow while she went up to the front door. Prudence took hold of the net, ready to drop it on Samantha, but Wendell stopped her. “We have to wait until they’re together,” Wendell whispered into her ear. She nodded.
Prudence’s hand tightened on the netting as she watched Samantha pick the lock on the front door. The sight of this cheered Prudence. At least some part of the old Samantha remained intact, even if it that part was being used for evil.
Samantha opened the door and Wendell signaled for Prudence to get ready. At last Joseph trotted up to Samantha so they could enter the bank. The net fell onto them before they got in the doorway. “We got them!” Wendell said.
Prudence tried to follow him down the makeshift stairs, but he rushed ahead of her and disappeared around the corner before she made it down the first step. “Wendell, come back!”
She stepped onto a lobster trap that this time snapped beneath her weight. She threw out her arms as she fell to grab onto something, her fingers catching the handle of a tackle box. She hung in the air a moment before the box tipped over, dumping her the rest of the way to the ground, landing on her stomach.
A sharp pain stabbed her in the ribs with every step she took as she made her way around the bank. Before she got there, she knew something had gone wrong. She heard Wendell cry out followed by a thump, like a body hitting the ground.
“Wendell?” she said as she rounded the corner. She saw him laying on the sidewalk, unconscious, a gash on his forehead. Samantha stood over him with a pair of blunt-headed scissors, slashed remains of netting lying at her feet. Joseph remained snared in the net, struggling like a wild animal to get free.
“He can’t hear you now,” Samantha said. She held up the scissors. “Time to die, piggy.” Prudence ran.
Chapter 45: Reawakening
Samantha turned to Joseph and said, “Wait here. I’ll deal with her.” She took off in pursuit of the fat girl, who had started running towards the gas station and McDonald’s, if her high-speed waddling could be considered running. Despite the fat girl’s head start, Samantha caught her less than a minute later, yanking her back by the hair. The fat girl cried out as she toppled to the ground, leaving a tress of red hair in Samantha’s hand. Samantha tossed the hair aside and then held up the pair of wire cutters she’s used on the little boy.
The fat girl, tears in her eyes, held up both her hands in a feeble attempt to defend herself. “Samantha, please, don’t do this,” the fat girl whined.
“You asked for it, both of you, trying to interfere with our plans.” She brought the wire cutters down on the fat girl’s left arm, the one she had nearly broken earlier. Samantha stifled the fat girl’s scream by clamping a hand over her mouth. “You aren’t going to take Joe away from me. You aren’t going to take our life away. You or your dorky little brother. This time I’ll make sure you two stay asleep.”
The fat girl bit her fingers. When Samantha jerked her hand back, the fat girl rolled up to her feet. “His name is Wendell and he’s not my brother,” she said. She tucked her useless left arm against her chest, holding out the other to ward off Samantha. “He loves you and you don’t care. You almost killed him.”
“The little jerk deserves whatever he got. He should have left Joe and I alone.” Samantha kicked the fat girl in her ample stomach, but something was wrong. The pig should have gone down in a heap, rolling around in agony. Instead, she merely grunted and stumbled back a step.
“Samantha, please, you have to stop this. He’s done something to you, like what he did to us. You have to fight against it.” Samantha kicked the fat girl again, this time a roundhouse kick to the face. The fat girl shook it off. “This isn’t you, Samantha.”
“How would you know who I am? How do you know anything about me?” This time, determined to knock the fat girl over, she tackled her, the two of them falling in a heap. Samantha recovered first, straddling the fat girl and then punching her in her lying mouth. “You don’t know anything!”
“You’re my best friend,” she said. “We were like sisters back on Eternity. Don’t you remember?”
“Shut up!” Samantha slapped the fat girl across the face. “I’m not your friend or your sister. You’re a fat, disgusting slob. That’s all you are.”
“Samantha, please. Somewhere inside I know you remember me and Wendell and Rebecca and little Molly and everyone else on Eternity. We love you. Come home with us. Please.”
“I’m not going anywhere with you. Joseph and I are going to start a new life. We’re going to be free.” Samantha raised her hand to strike again, but something held her back. The fat girl’s face looked so miserable, tears running down her cheeks to wash away the blood. “You wouldn’t understand what we feel.”
To Samantha’s surprise, the fat girl laughed. “I didn’t used to know what love felt like, but now I do. I know it means caring about someone so much you’d do anything for him. Do you think Joseph loves you? Really loves you?”
This time Samantha punched the fat girl in the left eye, where Joseph had struck Samantha. Where Joseph had hit her. She reached up to touch her eye. “He loves me,” she said more to herself than the fat girl. “I know Joe loves me.”
“What’s he done for you, other than make you rob a bank?”
“He made me beautiful,” Samantha said.
“On the outside maybe, but he’s made you ugly on the inside. Don’t you understand that? He gave you a new body, but he took away what made you special.”
“You’re lying. He gave me everything. A new life.” She found the pair of wire cutters lying on the ground and picked them up. Her eyes clouded up with tears, her mind swirled with confusion. Joseph loved her. He made her pretty. The memory of that night came back to her. He took the bottle of perfume and squirted her in the face. He squirted her. He hit her. He forced her to rob this bank.
“Samantha, you were never ugly to the people who really care about you. We love you no matter what,” the fat girl said. Prudence. Her name was Prudence. She and Samantha had known each other since they were little gi
rls. The wire cutters trembled in Samantha’s hand and then clattered to the pavement.
“Oh God, what have I done?” Samantha said. She collapsed, sobbing, onto Prudence. “I’m sorry. I’m so sorry.”
“It’ll be all right,” Prudence said. “We can fix everything. Wendell’s made a potion that should turn you and Joseph back to normal. We just have to make him swallow it.”
“How?” Samantha asked.
“I should have known you’d fuck this up,” Joseph said from behind her. Samantha rolled off Prudence and got to her feet. She saw the same trembling rage in Joseph as the night he’d punched her. “I never could count on you for anything.”
“Joseph, please, we have to stop this before anyone else gets hurt,” Samantha said. “We can go back home. I’m sure your father will understand—”
“I’m not going back to that shithole. I have a destiny ahead of me. I’ll be the most famous scientist in the world.” He sneered at her. “There’ll be plenty of bimbos lining up to take your place.”
“Joe, I love you. Doesn’t that mean anything?”
“I don’t need you or your love. I don’t need anyone! Not you, not my father, not my mother—no one!” He lunged forward, catching Samantha off-guard. His punch to the side of her head sent her sprawling on the pavement, the world spinning around her. She tried to get up, but couldn’t move.
Joseph stomped towards her like a rogue elephant trying to crush her. Prudence blindsided him, knocking him down. He seized her by the shirt, hurling her away as though she weighed nothing. He faced Samantha, his face turning scarlet and throbbing muscles breaking through his sleeves.
Samantha got to her feet and ran back towards the bank. Prudence had mentioned Wendell had a potion that could change Joseph back. Her only hope lay in giving this to him before he finished off she and Prudence.
She came within sight of Wendell before Joseph yanked her back by the hair as she’d done to Prudence. She somersaulted around, kicking him in the head. This only made him laugh. “You can’t hurt me, baby,” he said. “You’re a fucking Barbie doll for Christ’s sake.” He swatted her aside, knocking her back into a lamppost.
Samantha sagged to the ground, her vision turning dark. She willed herself to get up, but her muscles refused to heed the command. What did it matter? He was right: she couldn’t hurt him. Before she might have been able to do something, but not with this dainty body.
“It’s too bad,” he said. “You were a nice piece of ass.” As he reared back to shatter her head with his fist like a ripe melon, she saw a flash of red from the corner of her eye. Wendell flew through the air, landing on Joseph’s shoulders. He managed to hang on even as Joseph bucked and spun like an enraged bull.
“Get the net!” Wendell shouted. “Get the net!”
Samantha heard this command from a great distance, the words slurring together to become almost indecipherable. Then she found herself on her feet, running towards the bank with Prudence leaning against her. “Come on,” Prudence said. “We can do it. Together.”
Samantha nodded her head, not quite understanding. She followed along as Prudence tucked a corner of netting into her hands. “Stay with me,” Prudence said as though to a small child. “I need you to stretch this out as far as you can. Understand? That’s a good girl.”
They ran back towards Joseph with Prudence holding the net on one side and Samantha on the other. Wendell still clung to Joseph’s neck, but even in her dazed state Samantha knew he couldn’t hold out much longer. “Keep it low!” Prudence called.
Joseph turned to face them the instant before they reached him. The net sunk into his thighs, Samantha’s corner threatening to shoot from her hand. “This way!” Prudence shouted. They ran towards each other behind Joseph, the net encircling him. Joseph thrashed around, hurling curses at them as he tried to throw Wendell off. The net became entangled in his legs until he started to wobble and then toppled like an ancient oak tree.
Wendell leapt off his shoulders at the last moment, landing awkwardly on the pavement a few feet away. As Joseph screamed and fought to untangle himself, Wendell took out a vial of orange liquid. Samantha and Prudence threw themselves on either side of Joseph to pin his arms as Wendell poured the potion down Joseph’s throat. He continued screaming a moment and then went silent. His eyelids drooped until finally closing and his body went still. “Is he dead?” Samantha asked.
“No, he’s still breathing,” Wendell said. He held out another vial to her. “This is for you.” Samantha took the vial and a moment later fell asleep alongside Joseph on the street.
Chapter 46: Emerging Friendships
Samantha first noticed the dryness of her throat. She tried to say something, but could only make a gurgling sound. Water dribbled into her parched throat until she could at last say, “Thank you.”
“You’re welcome,” growled a familiar voice. Samantha opened her eyes to find herself in her bedroom at Mr. Pryde’s house with Mr. Pryde standing at her bedside. “About time you woke up. How’re you feeling?”
Her head felt as though someone had filled it with cotton while the rest of her felt limp as boiled pasta. With Mr. Pryde’s help, she managed to sit up in bed. “I’m feeling better, I guess,” she said. “What about you?”
“I’ll survive,” he said. “I’ll let your cousins know.”
Mr. Pryde got up, leaving Samantha alone in the bedroom. She pulled her arms out from underneath the covers to see the familiar bronze tone of her skin. She wiggled her long, knobby fingers before she reached up to feel the acne, short hair, and big ears that had driven her to using Joseph’s potion.
She didn’t have long to consider this change before Prudence and Wendell came in, the former with her left arm in a sling and the latter with a scar on his forehead, reminders of the damage she’d done to them. “Mr. Pryde said you were awake,” Prudence said. “We weren’t sure if you ever would wake up.”
“How long have I been out?”
“Two weeks,” Wendell said. “I’m sorry about that. I didn’t have time to test the formula before I gave it to you.”
“It’s all right. At least now I’m caught up on my sleep.”
They all shared an uneasy laugh about this. “How much do you remember?” Prudence asked.
“Everything,” Samantha said. She couldn’t stop herself from crying at this realization. Prudence leaned down to put her good arm around Samantha’s shoulders. “You must hate me now. All those awful things I said. And what I did to you. Can you ever forgive me?”
“Of course we can. You weren’t yourself. We know that.”
She thought about what Mrs. Milton had said. “No, I was myself. For the first time, I was myself.”
“How can you say that after all you’ve done for us?” Wendell said. “If it wasn’t for you we would never have gotten rid of Reverend Crane.”
“You’ve been my best friend. My sister,” Prudence added. “You’ve cared for everyone in Eternity.”
“It was our turn to return the favor.” They shared an uneasy laugh before Wendell and Prudence got up at the same time. “We’ll let you rest.”
“Now that you’re awake, we’d better start loading up the supplies to take back,” Prudence said.
The supplies. Samantha had almost forgotten about the children on Eternity waiting for them. “You got everything on your own?” she asked.
“Mr. Pryde and Mrs. Schulman helped,” Prudence said.
“We didn’t tell them about the island,” Wendell added. “They think we’re taking everything somewhere up the coast.”
Samantha couldn’t believe it. In less than a month Prudence and Wendell had gone from knowing almost nothing about the world outside Eternity to being able to manage the entire resupply operation by themselves. Now that she looked closer, Prudence looked as though she’d lost at least ten pounds. Tears came to Samantha’s eyes as she felt like a mother whose children leave home to go out on their own. Proud and yet with a sense of dis
may that she would no longer be needed to kiss their boo-boos and tuck them in at night. “Are you going to be all right?” Prudence asked.
“I’ll be fine. I’ll see you two later.” They walked out together and before the door closed, she saw Wendell take Prudence’s hand. What had happened to them in her absence? She would have to ask Prudence later.
She lay back on the bed, staring up at the ceiling. With everything that had gone on since arriving in Seabrooke she didn’t know if she could go back to Eternity with Prudence and Wendell. She couldn’t bear to hurt them again as she had under Joseph’s spell. She’d been a fugitive before coming to Eternity; perhaps it was time to go back to that life. Better the beast within escaped around strangers than people she loved.
She heard a shy tap on her door. “Samantha? Can I come in?” Joseph asked through the door. His voice sounded higher and a little more nasal than she remembered.
“Of course,” Samantha said. Two weeks of sleep had changed Joseph back into the boy she’d met that first night in his bedroom. He wore a set of blue pajamas and his hair stuck up from all angles, meaning he must not have woke up long before her. He pushed up his glasses and cleared his throat but didn’t say anything. He paced around back and forth until she asked him to sit down, feeling dizzy from watching him.
“Sorry.” He cleared his throat again and then said, “I wanted to apologize for what happened with us. I know I said some terrible things and did some terrible things.”
“It’s not your fault,” she said. “It was the potion.”
“I know, but that doesn’t make me feel any better. I hurt you. On purpose. The worst part is I enjoyed doing it. I wanted to hurt you. At the end I wanted to kill you.” He took off his glasses and pressed both hands to his face. “I can still see it when I close my eyes. I see myself doing these things and I want to stop, but I can’t. It’s like there’s something else inside me. Something dark.”
Children of Eternity Omnibus Page 55
