Capitulum XXX

W e smashed into Professor Arnold's room, making him jump in surprise.

"Agnes, what's wrong?"

"I'm so sorry about this, Professor," I said, my words peppered by the water dripping off me as I approached his cage door. "I promise we're not going to do anything. It's just crucial that we use your throughline immediately."

"Absolutely not—"

I was already opening the door.

He leaped out of his chair and pressed his back against the opposite wall.

"I promise it's important," I said quickly before disappearing into the throughline with Rigel on my heels.

I could just about remember the route there, and Rigel helped me, since he was the one who'd mapped the route in the first place.

When we arrived on the edge of Last Hope, I stumbled down the hill toward my old trailer.

"What are you going to do?" Rigel asked.

"I'm going to find a way to kill someone twice."

I leaped through Betty's bedroom wall and found her sleeping.

I went to reach for her immediately but then paused, afraid of hurting her if I was wrong.

Rigel came through the wall behind me, tripping on discarded toys and jolting her out of sleep.

Her big blue eyes flew open, taking in the shape of us. I was surprised to see a flare of fear, and she immediately screamed.

A sudden rush of scuffling came from the other side of the wall, and Cass appeared in the doorway, eyes wide and misty with sleep.

"What? What is it?" he asked before his eyes finally landed on me.

He faltered, gripping the door handle. "No!"

I blinked as he sprinted between Betty and us, throwing himself over her protectively.

"Please don't hurt her! Please don't do anything. I'm sorry. Please."

I stared in confusion as he gathered our daughter up against his chest.

"Agnes," Rigel warned, sensing my boiling rage before I did.

"How dare you!" I yelled. "You killed me! You don't get to treat me like I'm the dangerous one! You don't deserve her!"

He flinched away from my words, but that's when he stared at Rigel as if remembering him — as though he was terrified of him.

The ground rumbled, shaking the thin walls of the trailer and causing a few of Betty's toys to tumble off her bedside table.

"Please stop," Cass wheezed, clutching the little girl tighter. "I can't take it anymore."

I turned to Rigel in confusion. "That's not me."

"Maybe we should..." Rigel looked at the two people huddled on the bed. Then he breathed a slow chilling, "Agnes."

I followed his gaze, meeting my daughter's eyes to find them hooded and almost... amused? She no longer had the expression of a scared little girl.

Then her small mouth curved into a wicked smile, and her chubby hand disappeared beneath her princess pillow in a lightning flash, withdrawing a steak knife I recognized from the kitchen.

"No!" I said, raising my arm to stop her just as she rammed the knife up into Cass's throat.

He barely moved, like his body couldn't understand what had just happened to it. Then his mouth opened, jaw flexing like he was trying to gulp air.

His arms slackened from around Betty, and she pushed him away, watching him slide back against the wall while blood leaked down his chest. He finally pulled the knife free with a wet pot. A wet gasp summoned a pinkish froth from the wound.

I broke eye contact with the dying man to see the little girl smirking triumphantly.

Something in my brain shattered looking at the scene, at Cass, the man I had once loved, the man who killed me, slowly choking on his own blood, and my daughter's face, distorted by madness and evil.

Rigel lunged for the little girl, wrapping a hand around her arm. But when he yanked, the small arm didn't actually move with him. Instead, something else began to pull free like a parasite.

Finally collecting myself, I grabbed the other arm, the texture of something large and cold hidden beneath her skin. Together, our shared power had a significant effect.

I had to look away from Betty's face as she cried out in pain. Even though it wasn't her in there, the sound still cut me to the bone.

She shuddered violently on the bed, the ancient springs groaning as the ground shook below us. The piercing ring swelled in my ears, and I had to grit my teeth to keep my attention on what I was doing.

Then, with one final yank, the parasitic spirit pulled free, cutting Betty's bloodcurdling scream short as she collapsed onto the bed, lifeless.

Rigel and I landed on our backs, and between us was none other than Lindy, though I hardly recognized her. Clumps of her hair had fallen out, and her skin had gone a putrid grey except around her mouth, where her flesh was crusty and inflamed like she'd been gnawing at herself.

Seeing Betty's pale shape on the bed, I tried to scramble to her, but Lindy was pinning me to the ground.

"You can thank me later," she croaked, a sliver of drool falling over her bottom lip and hitting me on the cheek. "Those two are the reason we're both dead."

"Neither of them had anything to do with what happened to you," I hissed, trying to push her off.

She leaned in closer, her breath sour. "They wouldn't save me because I didn't have you. It was both of us or nothing. So, yes, I'd say they had quite a lot to do with my death."

"Who's they?" I asked.

She chuckled in my ear. "Who do you think?"

I put my hands on her shoulders to shove her off, surprised to feel the sharpness of her bones as they moved unnaturally beneath her skin.

She tipped her head closer to me, mouth stretching into a distorted smile that revealed her missing dogtooth.

She looked like she was about to say something further when Rigel scruffed her from behind and hoisted her up into the air.

"We need to leave," he said, nodding for the door as another quake rocked the ground, causing a crack to splinter across the ceiling overhead.

I glanced back at the bed. Cass was still twitching, eyes hooded and distant. The hand holding his neck had gone limp on the soaked red bedspread.

Betty was sprawled out next to him, and despite him barely clinging to life, his hand was on her back, trying to shake her awake. But with a final gurgle from deep in his pierced throat, he went limp, his hand sliding off her, leaving a scarlet handprint behind on her floral pajamas.

"Betty?" I whispered, reaching out to the small, unnaturally still shape.

My hand went right through her.

Was she . . .

I couldn't even think the word. Surely, that wasn't it. Professor Arnold hadn't said possession was deadly, just that a soul could be removed. But where would her soul have gone? Would it still be here?

The earth shook again, making all the windows pop in unison as they spidered with cracks.

"Agnes, please," Rigel said, his words coming out strained as he fought to keep a thrashing Lindy subdued.

"She's got to be around here somewhere."

His face creased with pity, and I had to resist the urge to spit at him as he said, "I don't think a soul can just exist separate from their body for this long."

"You two should go," I said, turning from him and carrying on down the hall.

"It's no use!" he called after me.

I limped through the trailer, watching as the bulbs in the lamps exploded with violent little pops.

"Betty!" I yelled but didn't receive an answer.

I pulled all the cabinet doors open and shoved furniture out of the way, most of it flying through me as I stormed through the shaking house. But then just as I was losing hope, another shake threw her bedroom door closed, causing it to slam loudly, shooting me back to my final day alive.

But instead of remembering my death, my mind went to moments prior, where I'd told her to hide in her closet.

I ran back to her bedroom and went straight to it. The sliding doors resisted at first, but with a final desperate tug, I was able to shove them open just enough to look inside.

"Betty?" I asked again, pulling her dresses out of the way to reveal her small face looking up at me from the darkness.

"Mommy?"

I collapsed to my knees, pulling her against me.

It was so strange to touch her. She was so much bigger than the last time I'd held her, but her arms still automatically came up around my neck.

"What's going on?" she whispered as dust rained down through us from the crumbling ceiling. "Daddy couldn't see me."

I cried into the top of her head, knowing I needed to move but finding that none of my limbs would respond. But then I heard a soft voice in my ear, a man's voice.

"Agnes, you need to let her go. You're running out of time."

"Who's that?" she asked, lifting her head to see Professor Faun standing over us.

"Faun," I wheezed.

He crouched next to me, putting a hand on my shoulder. "You can still put her back, but you need to do it before her body is crushed. She can still live."

I sobbed. "I don't think I can move."

"You have to do it for her. You have to let her go."

I nodded, getting to my shaky feet with Betty clutched against my chest. My foot was still impressively intact thanks to Stacy's brace, but Professor Faun still had to help me across the room due to how badly I was shaking.

I stopped, standing over her body, then leaned back so she could see my face.

"When I let you go, I need you to run, okay? Don't stop. Don't look at anything. Just get outside. Promise?"

"Where have you been?" she asked, shocking me. "Daddy said you left."

I shook my head. "I've always been here, okay? Even if it doesn't seem that way." I kissed her on the top of her head just as the ceiling cracked loudly.

"Agnes," Professor Faun warned.

"I love you," I whispered to her, layering her down over her still body.

Her soul sucked into her limbs, filling them up until she was submerged. Her body jumped, chest heaving with a sudden gasp of breath.

Sitting up, she looked around in confusion. "Mommy?"

"Run!" I yelled as a piece of the ceiling fell through me.

She looked at me, blinking in surprise, like she didn't understand what she was seeing.

"Run!" I yelled again.

She turned to the bloody mass on the bed, which was covered with a fluffy coating of insulation. "Daddy?"

Another chunk of the ceiling fell, but Professor Faun diverted it before it could crush her.

That was enough to scare her into action. She slid off the bed and ran for the hallway.

Professor Faun gently touched my shoulder. "We have to go now."

"I need to make sure she gets out."

I followed her through the crumbling house, watching as the walls bowed in around us and the ceiling folded like a deck of cards.

She got up on her tiptoes, using both hands to turn the knob. The door popped open from the pressure of the collapsing house, and she stepped down the breeze-block steps a moment before the whole place finally imploded.

Aunt Virginia was running down the dirt path, clutching another young cousin on her hip. When she noticed Betty, she ran straight for her.

I let out a relieved whimper, feeling Professor Faun's arms come around me as I was rocked by more sobs.

"We need to go," he said, lifting me up into his arms and walking through the broken walls.

Betty would be safe, so I allowed it to happen, the fight finally leaving my body.

"I'm screwed, right?" I asked him once we were back in purgatory. "The school knows?"

He cringed then tentatively said, "Yes."

"So, I'm going through the door?"

He hesitated. "Maybe that's for the best."

"What about my daughter?" I asked, nearly choking on the word. "What happened to trust my judgment ?"

He shook his head. "I'm just trying to put you at ease, as it's not exactly within your control."

"Then, let me down," I said, squirming in his arms to free myself. "I'll leave the school."

"I'm not going to let you go mad and be stuck in purgatory forever," he said, his words strained from the effort of holding my flailing limbs. "Agnes, listen . I promise I'll do everything I can to keep her safe, but that doesn't mean I'm going to let you destroy yourself."

"Didn't you say you were going to stop poisoning me or whatever?"

"That doesn't mean I intend to let you make poor choices while you're upset. It is not my fault you're in this mess, but I will not contribute to this botched situation."

I shook my head. "Can you tell them I'm important?"

He bit out a bitter laugh. "I'm not so sure they'll deem me an unbiased party."

Defeat weighed down on me.

"Please, Faun," I whimpered. "My daughter needs me. I don't want to go. Please . If you love me, you'll think of something. If you trust me like you say you want to, you'll figure it out."

He paused for a moment, eyes meeting mine. "I do love you, Agnes."

He said nothing more.

The campus gate appeared in the distance, and my body tensed, prepared to sprint the opposite direction.

Despite that, I didn't bolt when he set me back on the ground.

He was right. As much as I didn't want to be sent through the black door, I also didn't savor the idea of living outside of campus, especially not if it ended up being for eternity.

The sheer, inhuman insanity in Lindy's eyes was not something I could imagine battling with for the rest of my existence.

Ephraim's door was waiting for us inside the gate, swinging open, revealing the familiar, unique silhouette of Ephraim limned by the firelight.

We approached slowly, and I kept my eyes on the ground, unable to handle the inevitable disappointment.

"Thank you, Professor," I heard him say. "I'll take her from here."

Glancing up, I watched Professor Faun's dutifully stoical face as he nodded.

The light misting of rain that still hung in the air from the earlier storm made his hair cling to his face in elegant curls as his head tipped forward. It occurred to me I might never see him again, and I looked, hoping I could permanently stamp his visage into the backs of my eyelids.

All too soon, he disappeared, nothing left but the light hush of his footsteps against the wet grass.