The Sisterhood

by A. J. Grainger

  Mella landed in a scrunched heap on the ground.

  “Take her away, sister,” Moon said with a casual flick of her hand. She turned her back on Mella as if she was irrelevant. “Sisters,” she said, “shall we continue?”

  Most shifted back to her immediately, but some looked confused; they exchanged glances. A soft murmuring rose up from them.

  “Quiet!” Moon said. She did not raise her voice, but it was an earthquake rolling out from its epicenter. The force of it made the sisters take a step back. No one else moved; no one else dared to speak.

  Mella’s mouth was covered so she couldn’t scream, but she fought. Muscles screaming in pain, back aching from her rough landing, she fought with everything she had. It made no difference. Evanescence held her fast, face pressed into the ground. She had no idea what Evanescence would do to her, but it couldn’t be good. Mella didn’t care; she was more worried about what they were going to do to Dazzle.

  Mella couldn’t move or see anything but the muddy grass in front of her, but she heard Moon speak: “And unto the Light we give our sister, so that she may be cleansed in Her fire.”

  Dazzle screamed. It was barely human. A vacuum in time that, like a black hole, dragged everything toward it.

  CHAPTER FOURTEEN

  After calling her mum, Lil tried googling “Sisterhood of the Light” and “Wales,” but she couldn’t get an Internet connection. After the third message saying “Server timed out,” she gave up and went back inside. Sabrina sat hunched over the table, scribbling in her notebook. She was sucking on a strand of her hair, something she did when she was concentrating.

  Lil handed Sabrina her phone, noticing that there was a sheen on Sabrina’s cheek from her wet hair, like a snail’s trail. “Mum’s going to take a nap and drive back later. She was a bit panicky but generally okay.”

  Sabrina nodded. “Good. Oh, I meant to say. The Colchesters are all right.”

  Lil felt herself color at the mention of Rhiannon’s surname and the fact that her aunt had thought to let her know that Rhia was safe. She didn’t realize that Lil hadn’t spoken to her for weeks.

  “That’s great,” Lil said guiltily.

  Sabrina smiled gently. “Why don’t you go and get some rest? You look all done in, sweet pea.”

  Lil started to protest but stopped to stifle a yawn. God, she was exhausted. It had been a long night without much sleep, on top of a lot of worry and anxiety. Neither of which was over. “What about Mella?” she asked, and then yawned again. It seemed as though she’d finally given her body permission to be tired and now she couldn’t control it.

  “We’re doing everything we can, cariad,” Sabrina said. “The best thing you can do now is get some rest. Whatever happens, I promise you’ll be the first to know. Sleep now while nothing’s happening, then you’ll be ready when it does.”

  It was logical, but Lil still struggled to accept it. How could she rest when Mella might be in danger? That thought was one she’d grappled with for over four months.

  “Go,” Sabrina said, gently pushing her to the door. “That’s a direct police order and you can’t disobey those.”

  “You promise you’ll let me know—”

  “Cross my heart,” Sabrina said.

  As Lil walked across the hall, she wondered what life would have been like if Sabrina had been her mum. If it was Sabrina who had taken charge in the days and hours after Mella left.

  When the police finally came around on the morning after Mella’s disappearance, pushed in no small way by Sabrina, they asked loads of questions, although they knew the answers to most of them already. They’d asked them all before. “How old is Mella? What was she wearing when you last saw her? Does she have any health issues? Who are her friends? Boyfriends? Have there been any arguments recently? Your husband is not around, right, Mrs. Laverty? Any chance Mella could have gone to see him?”

  Lil answered them all. Her mum was crying too hard.

  • • •

  The village hall was full. There had to be about two hundred people in there; most of them were huddled in blankets on makeshift cot beds. There was no electricity in any of the houses in the village, so a lot of people had come up here, where it was safer and, thanks to the backup generator, warmer. Also, they’d gotten an old gas stove going for food.

  Lil stopped in the bathroom to change out of her wet clothes. When she came out, she saw Kiran, his dad, and his twin brothers. She lifted her hand to wave but then saw that Kiran and his dad were deep in conversation. Lil didn’t like to interrupt. She hoped Kiran’s dad wasn’t too mad. Insurance would cover flood damage, right? Or car-lost-in-flood damage? Lil knew that Kiran’s dad couldn’t afford a new car. Money was even tighter for them than it was for Lil and her mum. Lil’s mum wasn’t working much now, but at least her dad sent the alimony payments regularly.

  Lil recognized a few kids from school, but none of them were in her year. Porthpridd didn’t have a secondary school, so, at thirteen, everyone went to the one in town. Lil smiled at a girl in year nine whom she saw on the bus sometimes.

  There were some volunteers taking bedding and cups of hot tea to people. Some were in search-and-rescue uniforms, but most seemed to be just regular villagers. Lil saw the vicar and his wife, Gwen. They’d helped a lot when Mella first went missing, bringing up meals to the farmhouse and organizing a couple of the searches. Lil’s nain had been a big member of the church. Gwen hugged Lil when she saw her. “What’s up, love?” she asked in Welsh. “You look wiped out.” Gwen motioned to a couple of spare beds over toward the back of the hall. “You get yourself some rest. Your aunt go up to get you, did she? It flooded around you, too?” She didn’t wait for an answer, which was good, as Lil didn’t know how to explain the reason they’d left home. “That young girl is over there too,” she added, pointing to a corner of the room, where Seven was sitting on a cot.

  Lil thanked her and headed in that direction.

  There was a man reading a newspaper on a bed nearby, a battery-operated radio lying next to him. As Lil passed, she heard the newscaster mention the floods and stopped to listen.

  “It’s seven forty-five a.m., and much of North Wales remains under water this morning after heavy rain caused flash floods overnight. The Gwynedd area was among the worst affected, with water waist-deep in some places. The Environment Agency issued a flood alert for the tributaries of the river late yesterday. It is expected to stay in place until at least tomorrow. The agency says water levels remain high but are gradually dropping. Makeshift accommodation for those affected has been set up . . .”

  Lil walked on to join Seven. There was a spare cot next to her, and Lil sat down on it. “All right?” she asked Seven.

  Seven looked at her fiercely. “They asked me many questions.” She said it like it was Lil’s fault.

  “They’re trying to help,” Lil replied, wrapping one of the blankets around her shoulders. It smelled of mold, but at least she was warmer. She was about to wrap another blanket around her knees when she saw that Seven didn’t have one, so Lil held it out to her. When she didn’t take it, Lil put it around Seven’s shoulders and then sat back down on her own bunk.

  “I do not trust the police. Only your aunt.” Seven’s fists were curled tightly in her lap. Lil recognized the posture from Mella. Seven was trying to seem angry when really she was scared. Her eyes kept darting around the room.

  “Sabrina’s in charge. The officers have to do what she says. And she’s going to talk to you later. Everyone just wants to help.”

  “When will they go to the compound? I need to know that the sisters are safe.”

  Lil understood Seven’s impatience. She felt exactly the same way. It was agony to sit here waiting while Mella was still in so much danger. But if they didn’t know where the Sisterhood was, how could they rescue them? Seven was the only one who knew anything. Surely, she must remember something about the route she took yesterday. “Did the officer who talked to you ask you wher
e the Sisterhood is?”

  “Yes,” Seven said, “but I don’t know. I have never left the compound before now. I know only what I can see from behind its walls.”

  “And what’s that?” Lil asked, desperate for any piece of information that might help.

  “There is the sea on one side and three high walls on the other.”

  “You can’t tell us anything else?” Lil tried and failed to keep the frustration out of her voice.

  “I would watch boats pass from the cliff top, and in a nearby bay children would play sometimes.”

  Boats. A beach. That could be literally anywhere on the Welsh coastline. Lil tried not to feel irritated. It wasn’t Seven’s fault. “What about when you left? What did you see then?”

  Seven’s brow furrowed. “It was dark. I did not see much and I was very scared. I ran very fast, but . . .” A pause. “The gates of the compound open onto a narrow road, overhung with many trees. But it was too dark for me to see anything. I ran for a long time, until the sun started to come up.

  Great, Lil thought. She held in a sigh.

  “I’m sorry I can’t remember more.”

  “Maybe something else will come back to you.”

  “Perhaps.” She didn’t sound convincing.

  “Did you tell the police all of that, about the sea and the beach and that?”

  Seven nodded.

  It was pointless to keep asking questions when Seven didn’t know the answers. Yawning, Lil lay down on the bed, then said, “The police have no record of you.” Seven’s lack of official documentation seemed sinister, like someone was trying to hide her or deny her existence. Given what Moon had planned for her, both were probably likely reasons.

  “Record?” Seven repeated.

  “You know, like a passport or a birth certificate—a piece of paper that says you’ve been born.”

  “Do I not prove I’ve been born?”

  Lil smiled. She couldn’t argue with the logic. “It helps you get a job and that. And a bank account.” Lil was unable to imagine Seven getting a job or going into a bank. “It’s different where you come from, right?” she said.

  “I was special,” Seven said quietly after a pause. “That’s why I was never registered. The other children at the compound had birth certificates, but I didn’t.”

  “Tell me more about the Light,” Lil said, rubbing her eyes. She was exhausted, but she couldn’t sleep yet, not when she was so worried about Mella. Talking to Seven made her feel like she was doing something active to find her sister. “I want to understand.” She needed to know what it was about this group that had appealed to Mella. “When you talk about the Light, you don’t mean this”—Lil waved her arm around vaguely—“do you? It’s something else.”

  “In some ways it is the same. The Light is everywhere. That is what makes it so special. It’s what gives us life, what creates us.”

  “Yes, but what is it?” Lil pressed. “How does it create us? It’s like a god?”

  “The Sisterhood has no god. We do not worship the Light, but we venerate it. We believe it is a life source that comes from the sun in its purest form. It travels through all of us, and it guides us toward the right path to live. It is beauty and truth and hope. It is love. It is what makes the plants grow and so gives us the food we need to sustain us.”

  “And Mella believed this. . . .” Lil bit off her words. She sounded skeptical. Rude, even.

  Seven just smiled. “Many are like you when they first encounter the Light. Your sister was different. She wanted to believe. She was looking for the true path her whole life. It took her time, though, to come to see the Light as the way and not an escape from herself.”

  An escape from herself. That’s what Mella had been looking for her entire life. Had she really found her way at the Sisterhood? Lil suspected not, the Light most likely being another escape route, like the countless other things Mella had believed in for a while: tarot cards, the Magic 8 Ball, Christianity. Running away.

  “How long was she with you?” Lil asked.

  “It’s been fourth months since you sister joined us.”

  “Four months?” What had she done in the weeks she was alone? Lil shivered as she imagined what Mella had gone through. Why hadn’t she just come home? Lil wished more than anything that she could go back to the morning Mella left and change everything.

  “What do you mean by ‘the Dark’?” she asked, trying to push those thoughts out, to focus on what she could control: asking Seven questions. “You mentioned it last night. Something about opposites?”

  “Yes, it’s all about balance, about opposing forces of nature. Light and Dark coexist; one cannot be without the other. We respect the Dark because it gives us the Light, and we fear it because it has the power to take that Light away.”

  Lil nodded. She could see a sort of logic in that. She could definitely see how it would appeal to Mella. It must have done. Four months was a long time for Mella to stick with something. “Where did you find her? Did she say?”

  “A sister does not force that knowledge which is not given willingly.”

  So Mella had refused to talk about it.

  There were so many questions Lil wanted answered. They jostled in her mind, each one fighting to be the first one out of her mouth. There was something that had really been bothering Lil, though, since Seven told them about knowing Mella. “Did Mella tell you to come to me?” she asked. “When you left the Sisterhood?”

  “No, not specifically, but when she talked about you, she said you were full of Light, and I knew that although you were not a sister, you would help me.” She smiled sadly. “She was right. You are one of the Light’s chosen daughters.”

  Lil smiled inwardly. After everything that had happened between them, it really meant something that Mella still trusted her, still believed in her. “But how did you know where to go? You were so close to the house when I found you.”

  Seven hesitated. “Your sister wrote a letter, to your mother. It is forbidden at the compound to communicate with the outside world, so she left it on the cliff top. She said she would let the Light carry it to you. I was afraid that the high priestess or Evanescence would find it, so I took it. Your address was on the front.” She paused, then added, “I memorized it. I don’t know why. The Light was perhaps guiding me without me knowing it. Your sister was kind to me. She told me about Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland.”

  “Did she?” Lil smiled. “Is that why you called yourself Alice?”

  Seven nodded. “We only spoke once, but I have never forgotten. Many of the sisters would not speak to me at all. It was forbidden. A couple of them were kind to me, though, in secret. Your sister and one of the Alphas, Luster.”

  Lil felt intense sympathy for Seven then. To live in a place where no one spoke to you? It was horrible. Lonely. “But an address wouldn’t have led you to me,” she said. “Had you heard of Porthpridd, this village?”

  Seven shook her head. “The Light in all Her bountiful goodness led me to you.”

  “And Mella didn’t . . . she didn’t come with you?”

  Seven shifted position, the color rising to her cheeks. “I left in secret. I believed my departure would be their salvation too. Now I realize that was an untruth, and I was naive to believe it so easily.”

  “I just want to find them,” Lil said. “I want to know she’s safe.”

  “So do I!” Seven said with passion. “I have been asking the Light to help the high priestess fight back the Darkness and let the goodness shine in her once more.”

  Lil appreciated how concerned Seven must be. Whatever had happened at the Sisterhood, these women were her family, all she’d ever known, but Lil didn’t find her prayers (was that the right word?) to the Light that reassuring. Moon was obviously dangerous, incredibly so, and possibly insane. She’d branded Seven and would have burned her alive if she hadn’t escaped. Who knew what she might do to the rest of the Sisterhood? Oh, Mella, please be okay.

&nbs
p; “I’m glad you found me,” Lil said with feeling. At least now, with Sabrina’s help, she had a chance of saving Mella. But more than that, she was genuinely pleased that she could be there for Seven. She’d been through so much, and Lil wanted to make sure she got the support, help, and love she needed. “But what if you hadn’t, what would you have done? Could you have gone to your mum? You said she left? Isn’t she somewhere outside the compound?”

  “I do not know where. I’ve never heard from her.”

  “Never?” Lil asked.

  “No. She and Moon had a disagreement,” Seven explained, fiddling with the blanket. “I was not yet in my fifth sun, so I remember very little of it. We lived in a different house. A great distance from here. There was another high priestess. Moon had a dream in which the Light said that she was to be the new high priestess because the old one had been cast into Darkness. A lot of sisters mistrusted this prophecy, not least because it came to Moon during the darkest part of the night. My birth mother was one of them. There was a split in the Sisterhood between those who followed Moon as the true high priestess and those who continued to trust the false one. Moon led the true sisters away from that place of Darkness and we found a new sanctuary. Moon brought me with them. I am the Light’s Gift. She could not have left me behind. She could not have risked the coming Illumination ceremony and the sisters’ ascension to the Brightness. She gave my mother a choice: Stay with the false prophet or come with your daughter. My mother chose to stay.”

  “And abandon you?” The words were out of Lil’s mouth before she knew what she was doing. “Sorry, that was . . . sorry. But your mum left you with Moon? She didn’t try to keep you with her?”

  “You do not understand. The Darkness is as powerful as the Light. It is blinding. My mother’s faith was strong. She did not know that it was the Dark that guided her. Moon protected me! She safeguarded my gift. If I had remained with my mother, I would have resided in the Darkness.”