“We have to be careful, though,” Joseph said. “She has Samantha. We can’t let Veronica hurt her.”
“We won’t,” one of the girls said. “She’s the closest we’ve had to a mother.” The other children agreed with this assessment. It occurred to Joseph as they marched towards the cabin that this was why Samantha kept leaving him to come back here. These children loved her like a parent and she like her own sons and daughters. All this time he’d thought she did it out of misplaced loyalty or as an excuse to keep from seeing him. Only now did he see how wrong he was about everything.
He supposed his plan to move to California had been born out of something other than wanting a quality education. Perhaps he’d done it as a way for Samantha to prove her love to him. He’d wanted her to decide between him and these kids. No wonder she had gotten so angry with him. If they got out of this, he would find a way to make things right. Although at this point he didn’t have to worry about college for another fourteen years.
This thought gnawed at him as he marched towards the cabin. What would happen to he and Samantha after all this? They would be a pair of orphaned toddlers stuck here for the next fifteen years. What if during that time, as they grew up again, she decided she didn’t love him anymore? That would be a fate even worse than death. He might as well let Veronica kill him now.
As they neared the cabin, Joseph picked up a rock from alongside the path. He didn’t see any other safe way to get Samantha than to hope this show of force caused Veronica to surrender. If not, then maybe they could negotiate a solution. He would volunteer to trade himself for Samantha. Veronica would agree to that so she could get rid of the algae and use the Fountain of Youth again. Unless she had become too unstable to care about the fountain anymore. Someone who would have her best friend burned at the stake couldn’t be too stable. Still, it was the best chance they had to save Samantha.
He reared back to hurl the rock through a window of the cabin. A moment later, he saw a head of curly black hair and a pair of brown eyes peer over the top of a crib. Samantha! Joseph’s heart leapt at the sight of her. Before could wave or call out to her, a pair of hands ripped her from the crib.
Veronica opened the door, Samantha tucked under her arm like a bundle of laundry. She surveyed the line of children with their makeshift weapons. “Look at that, the Lollipop Guild is armed for battle,” she said.
“Let Samantha go,” Joseph said.
“You’d like that, wouldn’t you Prince Charming? Did you really think you’d walk up with your little friends and I’d just hand her over to you?” Veronica took a knife out of her belt to hold at Samantha’s head. “We’re going to walk out of here and there’s nothing you can do about it unless you want your girlfriend here to get a lobotomy.”
“She’s not the one you want,” Joseph said. “Take me instead. I’ll help you get rid of that algae so you can use the fountain again.”
“Joseph, no!” Samantha said.
“Oh, how cute,” Veronica said. “See how much she loves you? Maybe I’ll let her go so you two can go make mud pies.”
“I can’t let you take her,” Joseph said.
“You can’t stop me,” she said, taking a step forward. The children behind Joseph whispered to each other, the grip on their weapons loosening. “You see, Prince Charming? I win. Now if you excuse me, I’m going to put Fatty here on a boat for Seabrooke and then I’m going to dump her body right next to your father’s. After three days I bet he’s not smelling too good. You can come with me if you like. Then you can die in each other’s arms like a miniature Romeo and Juliet.”
“You’re not going to get away with this,” Joseph said.
Samantha reached out towards him as Veronica passed by. The tips of Samantha’s right hand brushed against his fingers. Then she was gone. Veronica walked past the line of children, a smile fixed on her face.
After she disappeared into the trees, one of the boys said, “Come on, let’s go after her!”
“We’ll set an ambush for her along the road and take her by surprise,” another suggested.
“No, it’s too dangerous,” Joseph said.
“We can’t let her get to the boat or she’ll kill Samantha for sure,” one of the girls said.
Joseph considered this, tears coming to his eyes. The girl was right. If he did nothing, Samantha would surely die. If he tried to rescue her, Samantha would very likely die. The odds either way were not good. “All right, let’s go,” he said.
The children let out a cheer and then took off running. Joseph lagged behind, in no hurry to witness Samantha’s death. As he walked, something Veronica had said stuck out in his mind.
She had told them her plan. Granted this might be arrogance on her part, but why tell them where she planned to go so they could try to intercept her as they were doing now? Unless her plan wasn’t to head for the boat. He stopped in the middle of the path, a shiver running the length of his body.
If she didn’t plan to get to the boat, where would she go? The fountain cave maybe, but to get there she would need to double back. Where else could she go? A horrible thought occurred to him. He broke into a run.
***
As they entered town, Veronica kept running straight along the row of shops instead of turning right towards where the boats were tied. “You said we were going to the shore,” Samantha said.
“We’re going to a shore,” Veronica said. “I think you’re in need of a good bath.”
“What? No,” Samantha said. She kicked at Veronica as hard as she could, but it did no good. “You die once they find you. Wet me go and save yourself.”
“Your boyfriend might kill me, but I’ll die happy knowing that you’re going with me,” Veronica said. “We’ll go out together like a couple of old friends.” She took the heart necklace out from under her shirt. “Best Friends Forever.”
“Vewonica, this is cwazy.”
“Is it? I think we’ve both known this day was coming. I had been hoping to live a good long time without you, but in a way it’s more appropriate this way, don’t you think?”
“Vewonica, pwease, wet me hewp you. We can find a way, together,” Samantha said. Veronica continued to trot along the path towards the stream. Samantha’s heart sank as she heard the sound of water. She didn’t have much time left.
“What are you afraid of?” Veronica asked. “Don’t tell me Miss Rough-and-Tumble G-Woman is scared to die. Being in this fat little body must be making you soft.”
Samantha considered this. All her years in the Bureau she had charged into harm’s way, not caring if she lived or died. Even as a child on Eternity death didn’t scare her so much, because she had so little to live for. But ever since she had met Joseph life had gained new meaning. Now she really did have something to lose. “I don’t wanna die,” she said. “I wuv Joseph. Can’t you understand that?”
“It’s so adorable when you say it like that,” Veronica said. “It really touches my heart.” She wiped a fake tear away from her eye. The sparkling waters of the stream came within sight now, beckoning to Samantha. “Just think of it this way, when you die you’ll get to see him again. If you believe in all that Christian shit about heaven and hell.”
“I don’t wanna hurt Joseph,” Samantha said. “Haven’t you ever wuved someone so much you never wanted to hurt them?”
“Life is pain,” Veronica said.
“I know your parents were mean and—”
“Shut up! Stop trying to pretend you understand me. You don’t. If you did, you never would have betrayed me like you did. You never would have abandoned me for him!”
“I didn’t abandon you. You were stiww my fwiend.”
“I’m sick of your lies. I ought to cut open your throat right now.” The knife hovered over Samantha’s throat. She waited for the blow, but Veronica lowered the weapon. Tears had come to her eyes again. “Why couldn’t you love me? Why couldn’t anyone love me?”
Veronica knelt down at the edge of the
stream with Samantha still tucked beneath her arm. “No one ever wanted me. Not you, not my worthless parents. None of you ever cared about me.”
“That not twue. I did wuv you. You wike my sister,” Samantha said.
“Do you still wuv me?” Veronica asked, a hint of menace in her voice. “Am I still your sister?”
“I wuv the widow girl I met in kindygarden,” Samantha said. “I wish she would come back.”
Veronica shook her head. “No, it’s too late for that. But at least we can die together like sisters.” Veronica got to her feet and started to wade into the water. Samantha took a deep breath, knowing her only hope lay in outlasting Veronica once they went underwater.
The water reached up to Veronica’s waist, seeping into Samantha’s shoes, when she heard Joseph call out, “Wait!”
Veronica turned around so that Samantha could see Joseph standing on the shore, his empty hands raised. “Oh look, it’s the widow prince,” Veronica said. “You’re too late, Prince!”
“Let her go,” Joseph said. “There’s nowhere for you to go.”
“Of course there is.” Veronica gestured to the water. “Samantha and I are going for a little swim. You’re welcome to join us if you want.”
Veronica began to wade out of the water. At the shore, she threw Samantha against a rock. Samantha’s head banged against the stone; she felt blood when she touched the back of her head. Through dimming and swirling vision she watched Veronica approach Joseph, her knife raised.
“I might as well finish off the whole family tree,” Veronica said. “First your mommy, then your daddy, and now you. Then I’ll take care of your little girlfriend.”
The dying words of Joseph’s mother rang in Samantha’s ear. I won’t fail again, she thought as she wobbled to her feet. Joseph backed away from Veronica until his foot caught a loose stone and he fell down. She stood over him, her knife raised over her head to strike.
As the blade arced downwards to tear into Joseph’s chest, Samantha threw herself between them. The knife plunged into Samantha’s stomach. Joseph caught her as she fell, pressing her close to his chest. “Samantha, no,” he said.
“I’m sowwy,” she said. She looked down at the blood spreading across her princess costume. “I pwomised.”
“How sweet,” Veronica said. A smaller knife appeared in her hand. “It won’t change anything but the order in which you die.”
She brought the knife down on Joseph, aiming for his throat. Halfway into the swing, her hand stopped, hovered shaking in midair, and then dropped the knife. She looked down at the handle of her own blade sticking out of her chest. “At least we go together,” she said, collapsing to the ground.
Samantha’s breathing turned ragged, the color draining from her face. She had kept her promise to Joseph’s mother. No harm would come to Joseph now. He took her bloody hands in his, squeezing them as tightly as possible. “Please don’t go,” he said. “Don’t leave me.”
“I sowwy,” she said again. The world around her faded away so that she could only see his face. In that instant she saw not the face of a little boy, but the man she’d fallen in love with. “I wuv you.”
“No, Samantha, please. Don’t go. Stay with me.”
“I can’t,” she said. His face faded away into darkness. Her breathing slowed to stuttering gasps. She felt cold, so cold. She wanted to ask Joseph for a blanket, but couldn’t make a sound. This is it, she thought.
She heard him crying and wished she could tell him not to be afraid. He would find another woman to love as much or even more than her, much as she’d found him after Andre died. Sometimes you did get a second chance at love. She was glad he was hers.
Then she felt his lips touch hers and the darkness exploded into red light.
Chapter 45: The Miracle
Samantha felt something soft beneath her. A cloud? She wondered. She had always thought the notion of people sitting around on clouds playing harps to be corny, but maybe there was some truth in it. Then her hand scraped against the wooden surface of headboard.
She opened her eyes to stare up at the familiar headboard to Joseph’s bed, a poster of the solar system tacked to the wall above. She flexed the hand touching the headboard, noting her long, thin teenaged fingers. She touched her straight hair and then rolled over to pat her firm stomach and breasts. Oh thank God, she thought.
As she lay on Joseph’s bed, she ran through everything that had happened. Veronica had taken out the knife to stab Joseph. The blade instead plunged into Samantha’s gut. She collapsed into Joseph’s arms. Veronica drew another knife to finish Joseph off. With her last strength, Samantha pulled the knife from her stomach and jammed it between Veronica’s ribs just as she had trained to do during her years in the Bureau.
And then she died, Joseph pleading with her to stay while the world grew dimmer and dimmer.
This must be the afterlife, she thought. How strange that it would be Joseph’s bedroom. Is this Heaven or Hell? she wondered. Or it could be some kind of purgatory?
She crawled out of bed, stumbling over her adult-sized feet as if learning to walk for the first time. If this was the afterlife, then what about her parents? What about Andre? She pressed a hand to her stomach, thinking of the unborn child Veronica had killed in her womb. Would she be able to see the child here too?
There were so many things she needed to know, but first—She went around the bed to kneel down in front of Joseph. She peeled aside the covers to look at his face with its pimples and stray hairs the razor had missed. His lips were the ones she remembered kissing so many times before.
His eyes opened as she kissed him. To her surprise, he grabbed her around the waist and wrestled her into bed on top of him. He pressed her against his body hard enough to suck the air from her lungs. “Joe, stop it,” she said.
“Oh my God,” he said. “It’s really you. I must be dreaming. I saw her…I saw her kill you. I held you as you died. But then—”
She squirmed free of his grasp to lie beside him. “Maybe we’re both dead,” she said. “Or maybe I’m making all this up.”
“You mean that I’m some kind of illusion?” He pinched the skin on his arm. “I don’t feel like an illusion.”
“I don’t know.” A smile came to her face. “I don’t care either. All that matters is we’re here.”
A scream from down the hall interrupted their kiss. Samantha leapt from the bed, crashing against the wall before regaining her balance. She raced down the hallway to the guest bedroom where the scream had come from. When she opened the door, she heard two screams.
Prudence and Wendell hurried to cover their naked bodies with a sheet. “Prudence, what’s wrong?” Samantha asked, a moment of relief tickling her mind that she’d lost her childish speech impediment.
“Nothing,” Prudence said, pressing a hand to her temple. “When I passed out my feet hurt so much, but now they’re all right and I’m here and I’m not little anymore. I don’t understand. What’s going on?”
“I was sitting right there beside her in the girl’s dormitory and then all the sudden I was lying here,” Wendell added. “What happened?”
“The fountain,” Joseph said from the doorway. He held up his digital watch. “This says it’s the day after Prudence’s birthday. That means someone used the fountain to go back in time and stop Veronica from poisoning us. And—”
Joseph took off running down the hallway. He pounded down the steps, ignoring Samantha when she called his name. She caught up with him in the kitchen, where he knelt down on the floor with tears in his eyes. “What’s wrong?” she asked.
“He’s not here,” Joseph said.
“Who?”
“Dad. Do you think he’s still alive?”
She knelt down beside him, putting a hand on his back. “I’m sure he is. Let’s get dressed and go down to the docks to see if we can find him.”
In the guest bedroom, Prudence stuck a finger into her bulging stomach. Never before had she been
so glad to see her fat. She pulled the sheet away from her legs to stare down at her chubby feet. She reached down to feel the undamaged skin on the soles of her feet, sighing with relief when she didn’t see any burnt flesh.
Wendell put a hand on her back. “It’s all right,” he said. “None of it happened. We’re safe.”
“How do we know? Veronica might still be out there. Even if she didn’t do it this time, she could try again.” Prudence rolled out of bed and gathered up her clothes. “We have to go back and make sure the fountain is destroyed. Come on!”
“Prudence, relax—”
“I can’t relax.” She picked up his clothes, hurling them at him. “I don’t want to be a little girl again. I don’t want to be brainwashed into thinking you’re my brother again. I don’t want to lose us. I love you.”
Wendell hurried to put on his clothes and then hugged Prudence. “It won’t happen again. I promise. You and I are going to grow old together,” he said. He kissed her on the cheek. “Let’s go tell Sam and get the Primrose ready to sail.”
They met Samantha and Joseph in the hallway, both of them fully dressed now. “We’re going to the docks to look for Mr. Pryde,” Samantha said. “Where are you going?”
“We were going to get the boat ready,” Prudence said. “We need to get over to Eternity and find out what’s going on.”
“Then I guess we can go together,” Joseph said. They piled into his father’s sedan, Joseph taking the wheel. He stared at the controls a moment as if seeing them for the first time. Samantha put a hand on his arm to reassure him.
“We’re not kids anymore,” she told him. He nodded and then turned the key in the ignition. He drove slow down the hill, growing more comfortable as he turned onto the highway into Seabrooke. No one spoke during the drive; despite what she’d told Joe, Samantha kept looking at herself in the rearview mirror while Prudence and Wendell clung to each other in the backseat like a drowning person to a life preserver.
Children of Eternity Omnibus Page 86
