“I know you won’t.” As Joseph started down the path, someone emerged from behind a rock to grab him. Samantha cried out a moment before a net descended upon her, Prudence, and Wendell. Two boys came out of hiding, shouting with triumph.
Samantha kicked and clawed at the netting, but it was too strong for her tiny limbs. The boys dragged the net down the path, leaving them at Veronica’s feet. She knelt down and reached through the netting to grab Samantha by the hair. “This must be my lucky day,” Veronica said. “As soon as I get the fountain back, you and I are going to have ever so much fun.”
“No!” Joseph shouted. He tried to break free from his captors until one of the boys elbowed him in the stomach. Samantha screamed at this and again tried to get out of the net, but couldn’t.
“Take them back to town,” Veronica said. Before letting go of Samantha, she whispered, “This time you and your little friends aren’t going to escape me.” As the boys dragged the net towards town, Samantha began to cry for having failed yet again.
Chapter 42: The Plea
The ground and netting shredded the back of Prudence’s dress until she felt a burning pain from her raw flesh scraping against the dirt. Samantha continued to struggle next to her, tearing at the net in a frenzy that did nothing. Wendell had his eyes closed as if already accepting their failure.
This is what it comes down to after three hundred fifty years, she thought. They would be dragged into town by their fellow children to be tortured for years, until death finally came for them. These children who at one time had been her neighbors and friends would now be her executioners. She and Rodney had come here with the others to find a new land of peace and tolerance, where they could live without fear. But ever since Reverend Crane had taken control of the Fountain of Youth, fear had ruled the land. It’s just as well Rodney isn’t here to see what’s become of them, she thought.
Samantha finally ran out of energy to struggle, her body going limp. She turned to Prudence and said, “This not over yet. We find a way, Pwoodance.”
At another time Prudence might have put some faith into her friend’s defiant words. At ten or fourteen or seventeen Samantha could probably find a way out of the net and to take down anyone who got in their way. But the fat toddler next to her in the net, who couldn’t even pronounce Prudence’s name correctly, was as helpless as Prudence in the forest with Reverend Crane.
They couldn’t fight their way out of this. Trapped in the net and surrounded by enemies, they couldn’t run either. They were doomed to suffer through whatever torments Veronica had in store for them, if the other children didn’t kill them first.
She closed her eyes to pray for a quick death. Better that than another three centuries spent as a child. At least dead she might get to see Rodney again. There she might finally become the adult woman he had loved so long ago. They could finally live the life they’d come here to find.
Wendell touched her hand. What would become of him? They had been through so much together the last three years, ever since their first trip to Seabrooke. From that time, Wendell had loved her as much and made her as happy as she ever was with Rodney. With Wendell she had discovered strength and beauty she never thought possible. For the first time she had become the person she might have been if Reverend Crane hadn’t taken her into the forest. Wendell meant as much to Prudence as Rodney; what would happen to their love if they died?
She turned to Wendell and said, “Promise me that no matter what happens you’ll never leave me.”
“I promise,” he said. He opened his eyes and with great difficulty managed to kiss her on the cheek. “I love you. No matter where or when or how old we are, there’s nothing that can ever change that.”
The town appeared in her vision. The boys dragging the net slowed as they reached the town square. “What do we do with them?” one of them asked.
“The redheads are traitors. Dispose of them however you like. The fat one is mine,” Veronica said. As soon as the boys pulled the netting away, Veronica snatched Samantha by the arm, dragging her away.
“Samantha!” Joseph shouted. He tried to run after her, but was again elbowed in the ribs. For her part, Samantha kicked and even tried to bite Veronica to no avail.
A group of boys hauled Prudence and Wendell to their feet and then carried them to the center of the square, where they were reunited with Molly. “What do we do with them?” some of the boys asked.
“Stab them!”
“Hang them!”
A boy Prudence recognized as John, Helena’s former husband, pressed his way through the crowd. “I say we burn them!” he said. The other boys roared their approval of this.
“How do we do that?” someone asked.
“Tie them to a post and light a fire beneath them,” John said. He shoved Prudence’s head forward and then with his knife sawed off her long hair. She screamed from the pain until someone muffled her with a dirty rag. John held up the shorn tresses for everyone to see. “This will make good kindling.”
“You can’t do this,” Wendell pleaded. “We haven’t done anything wrong.”
“She killed Helena and Phyllis,” John said, pointing to Molly. “And you two helped her.”
“She couldn’t have killed them,” Wendell said. “Look how small she is. How could she murder anyone?”
“Veronica is lying to you,” Molly said. “She’s using you like she used me. As soon as she’s done with you, she’ll kill you. She doesn’t care about anyone but herself.”
John hit Molly in the stomach with the handle of his knife. “You killed them! Why should we believe anything you say?”
Molly looked about her frantically. “Annie, tell them! You were there. You saw them. Annie?”
Prudence scanned the crowd, but didn’t see Annie anywhere. As the others spoke, Prudence had been working the rag free from her mouth. She finally managed to spit it out as some of the boys returned from the fields with three fence posts. They pounded the posts into the ground and then tied the redheaded children to them with ropes. Others brought firewood from the nearby shops to pile at the base of each post. As a finishing touch, John laid Prudence’s hair at her feet. “Now you three will get what you deserve,” he said.
“John, you can’t do this,” Prudence said. “I know you loved Helena. She was your wife. Do you remember?”
“I didn’t love her. She was just a stupid girl,” he said.
“You two were married by Reverend Crane on a June afternoon. It rained so much that we had to move the wedding into your father’s barn.”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” he said. “You’re trying to stall for time. It won’t work.”
“You two rented a room from Mr. Mathers in town. You stayed there for a year until you left for this place because you wanted to start a new life. That’s why we all came here,” Prudence said. “We all wanted to find a land where we could live in peace to raise our families. A dream brought us here. A dream that we could find a new country not ruled by the fear and corruption of our homeland.”
The match wavered in John’s hand. Behind him, the other children were similarly confused. “It’s working,” Wendell said.
“Don’t you see,” Prudence said. “We didn’t come here as children. One man’s evil vision made us this way. He enslaved us for over three hundred years through his lies. He took away our memories. He took away ourselves. But if we look within our hearts, we can find ourselves again. We can once again be those adults who came here in pursuit of a dream and we can make that dream a reality.”
One at a time, the children dropped to the ground, clutching their heads. The match fell from John’s trembling finger to ignite the hair and wood beneath Prudence’s feet. As the children moaned and rolled around on the ground, the fire grew more intense. “Someone help me!” Prudence called, flames singeing the soles of her shoes and hem of her dress. She thrashed against her bonds, but they held fast.
Prudence screamed with pain whi
le Wendell and Molly joined her cries for help. No one responded. Then, as Prudence’s feet began to blister, someone dumped a bucket of water over the fire. Joseph cut her down from the pole and set her on the ground. He did the same for Wendell, who rushed to Prudence’s side. She whimpered as he yanked the shoes off her feet. “Oh my God,” he said.
“Is it bad?” she asked.
“No, of course not,” he said, but his grim look told her this was a lie. “You’ll be fine.” He kissed her and then picked her up in his arms, carrying her into the girl’s dormitory as if she weighed nothing at all.
He set her down on her bed and then kissed her on the forehead. “I’ll be back in a minute,” he said. “I just have to get some water.”
“Promise you’ll come back,” she said.
“Of course I will. I love you.” He left her there on the bed, where her feet continued to burn with pain. She looked up at the ceiling, wondering if soon she would be reunited with Rodney. At least now the others might remember and finally achieve Rodney’s dream. That’s the best I can do, she thought as she passed out.
Chapter 43: Friendly Ties
Veronica dumped Samantha into the crib. Samantha tried to scramble out, but as before couldn’t climb out. Veronica leaned over the side with a victorious smile. She reached out to pinch Samantha’s cheek. “Anything you need in there? A dowwy? A bwankie? A dipey?”
“What you gonna do with me?” Samantha asked.
“For now I’ll keep you in there. Once your boyfriend figures out how to get rid of that fucking algae, then I’m going to bring him back here and stab him through the heart so you can watch him die just like his bitch of a mother.” At this, Samantha again tried to claw her way out of the crib, but Veronica pushed her down. “When I finish with him, I’m going to make you into an iddy-biddy widow baby. I think I’ll keep you like that for a couple centuries and then maybe—if you’re a good little girl—I might let you become a toddler again.”
Veronica pinched Samantha’s nose before disappearing from the side of the crib. Samantha heard her banging around pots and pans in the kitchen. She looked around the crib for something that might help her escape, but once again saw nothing that could give her the needed boost.
By now the other kids might have already killed Prudence, Wendell, and Molly. If only I can get out of here, she thought. If she could get to the fountain cave and dive in then as Joseph suggested she might be able to go back in time to stop Veronica. Then none of this would have happened. Her friends would all be alive and more grown-up, depending how far back she went.
What if the fountain brought her back to the docks twelve years ago? If she stopped the reverend then, she would stay an adult and while she would be able to keep Veronica from harming anyone, she and Joseph could never be together. With all that had happened to them, she supposed this was for the best. Better if he never knew her, just as it would have been better for Andre to have never known her.
She brought death to everyone who ever loved her. First her parents, then her aunt, then Andre, and soon Joseph would die, his only crime loving her. If she wanted to change history for the better, then she ought to stop herself from being born. Then her parents, aunt, and Andre would all still be alive. And Veronica—
Samantha thought back to that first day of kindergarten. If she had never befriended Veronica, would Veronica have still killed all those people? Perhaps Veronica could have become a normal, well-adjusted woman if she’d never known Samantha. Like a plague, Samantha infected and then destroyed everyone she touched. In the crib she began to cry like a little child with loud wails that turned her face a livid red.
Veronica peered over the edge of the crib, her face troubled. “What’s the matter with you? Your brain hasn’t snapped again so soon, has it?” she asked. Samantha was too choked by crying to answer her. Veronica reached into the crib to pick Samantha up and pat her on the back. “There, there. Mommy is going to take good care of you.”
“I sowwy,” Samantha managed to get out. “I did this to you. It my fauwt.”
“What do you mean?” Veronica held Samantha out at arm’s length as if she’d wet herself. “What did you do to me?”
“I made you this way,” Samantha said. “I made you so angwy and hateful. If I hadn’t known you, then you would have been aw wight. You wouldn’t have kiwwed anyone.”
Veronica’s face twitched, but she didn’t say anything. Finally, she dropped Samantha back into the crib and then leaned against the side. “Maybe you’re right,” she said at last. “I probably would have been better off not knowing you. I would have been better off on my own.”
Veronica’s lip trembled and then tears came to her eyes. “It wasn’t fair,” she said. “You had everything. You never had to go home to a trailer with no electricity and no food because your mother was too busy whoring around to pay the electric bill or buy groceries. You never got woke up in the middle of the night by the smell of alcohol on your father’s breath. You never had to comb your hair in the morning to cover up a black eye. You never had to stay home from school because you couldn’t walk after one of your father’s rampages.”
Her voice grew louder with each sentence while tears coursed down her cheeks. She wiped at them with a furious hand. Then she reached into the crib to grab hold of Samantha’s curls. “You were a spoiled brat who got everything you wanted, but it was never enough. You always wanted more. I wasn’t enough of a friend for you. No, you had to have him!”
“Just because I wuved Andwe didn’t mean I stopped wuving you,” Samantha said. “You were awways my fwiend.”
“You were everything to me. Everything!” Veronica said. “I didn’t have anything else. But to you I was someone you hung out with when you didn’t have a date. That’s all I ever meant to you. Once you had him, I didn’t matter anymore.”
“That not twue,” Samantha said. “I wuved Andwe in diffwent way than you, but I didn’t wuv you any wess.”
Veronica slammed Samantha’s head against the side of the crib. “Liar! You didn’t ever love me. You only needed me when you didn’t have anyone else. You used me.”
“No, I didn’t. You my best fwiend. If not for you, then I would have been wike this forever,” Samantha said, grabbing a handful of her belly for emphasis.
“Good. That’s what you deserve,” Veronica said. “As soon as I can use the fountain again I’ll make sure that’s exactly how you grow up. A fat, timid thing just like your fwiend Pwoodance. Too scared of your own shadow to do anything.”
“Pwoodance is better than you ever be,” Samantha said. “She not hurt anyone.”
“She definitely won’t now that she’s dead,” Veronica said. She wiped away the last traces of tears from her cheeks. The haughty smile returned to her lips.
“Vewonica, pwease, you have to stop this. Hurt me if you want, but weave my fwiends awone. Pwoodance and Wendell didn’t do anyfing to you. And Mowwy, she wuved you wike you wuved me. How can you wet her die?”
“I never gave a shit about Mowwy,” Veronica said. “I needed her help to find the fountain. That’s all.”
“But you wike sisters for twee years. Didn’t that mean anyfing to you?”
“Never.”
“I saw you two togever. You wuved each other and now you going to wet her die.”
“So what? She doesn’t mean anything to me. Just like I never meant anything to you.”
“Vewonica, pwease—” Veronica silenced her by slapping her across the face. Samantha’s face turned red again, this time with anger. “You won’t get away with this. No matter what you do to me, I find a way to stop you.”
Veronica shoved Samantha onto her back. “You’re getting fussy. I think it’s time for you to take a nap. I better go check on your boyfriend and get him to work.”
“If you hurt Joseph—”
“Then you’ll do what? Cry? Throw a tantrum? You’re as helpless now as when I killed your other boyfriend.”
“You monster!
I gonna stop you. You wait and see.”
Before Veronica could say anything, a window shattered. The stone landed in Samantha’s crib, coming within an inch of hitting her. She stood on her tiptoes to peer over the edge of the crib. Outside the children of Eternity stood in a line, Joseph at their head.
Veronica grabbed Samantha by the front of her dress. “Looks like I’ll have to kill him sooner than I hoped,” she said. Then Veronica tucked Samantha under one arm and opened the door to face the mob.
Chapter 44: Endgame
After Wendell carried Prudence away, Joseph looked around him. “Molly?” he called out. He didn’t see her anywhere. She must have gone to find Samantha and Veronica. That’s where he needed to go to save Samantha before Veronica killed her.
A hand reached out to grab his ankle. The boy who’d nearly burned Prudence alive looked up at Joseph, his face covered in sweat. “What happened to me?” the boy asked.
“I don’t really know,” Joseph said. He helped the boy into a sitting position. “What do you remember?”
“Everything.” The boy started to cry. “My God. Three hundred years like this. How could we let this happen?”
“It’s all right. Everything will be fine now.” Around him, Joseph saw the other children similarly reviving, looking at each other as if for the first time. Many of them, like the boy, cried from the shock. The only one who didn’t seem fazed at all was a girl with honey-colored hair in a light blue dress. She stared at Joseph, a smile pulling at the corners of her mouth. He went over to her and asked, “Is something wrong?”
“Everything is as it should be,” she said. “Veronica has Samantha in the cabin. She’s in the crib right now.”
“How do you know?”
“It’s not important. You know what you must do now.”
Joseph took a step forward and then stopped. “I can’t do this by myself. Not against Veronica. I need help.”
“We’ll help you,” the boy Joseph had comforted said. Around him, the other children nodded. They picked up their makeshift weapons. “This ends now.”
Children of Eternity Omnibus Page 85
