Children of Eternity Omnibus Page 14

  The calm she’d felt earlier came over her once again. She whipped her right leg back to trip Pryde. He stumbled, his grip loosening around her neck. She used the opportunity to grab his left arm and toss him over her shoulder. Pryde landed at the reverend’s feet.

  “I’m going to finish you now,” Pryde growled. He pulled out his knife and charged towards Samantha. She stood her ground, waiting for him to slash at her with the knife. When he did, she took hold of his wrist in both hands and twisted it around. The knife dropped from his hands, but still he didn’t give up. He tried to punch her with his free hand; Samantha calmly ducked and tossed him back to the ground.

  “Come and get me,” Samantha said. She squatted down on the ground and motioned to him with an index finger. Pryde snarled like one of his dogs, his hands curling into fists. He came at Samantha again, fury burning in his eyes.

  She leapt into the air as he neared her, rising over his head and twisting in mid-air to land on her feet facing him. She kicked him square in the back, sending him stumbling towards the fountain. For a moment he teetered on the brink and then plunged over the side and into the water.

  Pryde tried to raise himself from the fountain, clawing at the sides in desperation. His fingers caught the lip of the fountain, but then shrank into those of a boy scrabbling in the air. He flailed in the water, his anguished screams echoing through the chamber becoming those of an infant. And then silence.

  Samantha turned to face Reverend Crane only to find him holding Prudence to his chest as a human shield. At her throat he held Pryde’s knife. “One step closer and I will have no choice but to kill your friend.”

  Chapter 32: Final Reward

  “You wouldn’t kill her,” Samantha said.

  The reverend pressed the knife against Prudence’s neck until blood trickled down her throat. “When the Lord tested his faith, Abraham was prepared to sacrifice his own son. I will sacrifice this child’s life if I must to prove my worthiness to God,” Reverend Crane said. The hardness of his face indicated to Samantha he would have no qualms about killing Prudence or anyone else.

  “What do you want me to do?” Samantha asked.

  “Take the rope and tie it around your waist. Then dive into the fountain.”

  “All right, I’ll do it. Just don’t hurt her.” Samantha walked forward slowly to pick the rope up off the ground. She wrapped it around her waist. As she tied it, the reverend eased his grip on Prudence. She gasped for air, her entire face a violent shade of red.

  “Samantha…don’t,” Prudence said between gasps. “Don’t do this. You have to…you have to stop him.”

  “I won’t let him kill you,” Samantha said.

  Prudence shook her head. “You were right earlier. In the cell. I would rather die than forget my best friend.”

  Samantha’s fingers hesitated in tying the knot around her waist. The reverend pressed the knife to Prudence’s neck again. “She will die if you do not do as I say.”

  “Don’t,” Prudence mouthed.

  “I’m sorry, Prudence. I have to do it.” Samantha finished tying the knot and then raised her arms. “Now, let her go.”

  “When you enter the water I will release her.”

  “How do I know you’ll keep your word? How do I know after I go in there you won’t kill her?”

  “I am a man of God, Samantha. I swear to you in the name of almighty Jesus no harm will come to this child.”

  “You’ve already lied too many times before. Let her go.”

  “You are not in a position to make demands.”

  “Aren’t I? If you kill Prudence, then I’ll kill you. You already saw what happened to Mr. Pryde.”

  “I am no fool, my child. You will not let me kill your friend. Step into the water. I will pull you out so you may undertake your new place in Eternity.”

  Samantha studied the reverend and Prudence. She needed to find a way to get the knife away from him. If she could keep him talking, maybe she could get close enough to bat the knife away. “What are you going to do with me?” she asked, taking another step towards the reverend.

  “You are going to take your place at my side,” he said.

  “I wouldn’t join you, even if you erase my memory.”

  “No? This time I will raise you myself from infancy. You will be my adopted daughter and you will love me as your father. Together we will make certain all the souls under our care follow The Way forever.”

  During this speech, Samantha had advanced within six feet of Prudence. A few more feet and she could try to take the knife from the reverend. “I would never love you, even if you raised me,” Samantha said. She took another step forward. “For all your talk about recognizing Satan, you’ve never looked in the mirror and seen him staring back at you.”

  “Blasphemer! I am a servant of God. I serve the cause of righteousness!” The knife trembled in the reverend’s hand as his rage built. “You presume to call me wicked? You’re nothing more than a savage. You kill with as little thought as Mr. Pryde. You were an animal before I brought you here and you’re still an animal now.”

  This last sentence brought Samantha to a halt. “That’s not true,” she said. “I didn’t mean to kill Mr. Pryde.”

  “Didn’t you?” Reverend Crane sneered from behind Prudence. “The night you came here, you were not trying to help Miss Brigham. You were trying to attack her. Out there, in the heathen wilderness, you were a murderer and a thief. You were a blight upon God’s creation. I brought you to Eternity to reform you and put your skills to a useful purpose so you might atone for your life of sin. But look at you now, poised to strike down a man of God.”

  “You’re lying! I’m not a murderer or a thief. I couldn’t be,” Samantha said. The words sounded hollow even to her ears. Prudence looked at her with wide eyes, as if seeing her in a new way. “It can’t be true.”

  “Can’t it? I have the proof in my house. I have the history of all your misdeeds. I know everything about you.” Samantha didn’t notice what the reverend was doing until Prudence cried out a warning. The reverend shoved her aside and lunged at Samantha with the knife.

  Samantha stepped aside in time for the knife to cut only the fabric of her left sleeve. She spun around to punch the reverend in the back. He stumbled, but regained his footing. They circled each other, the reverend swiping the knife at the air to keep Samantha at bay. “Will you kill me now, savage,” he hissed. “Then what will you do? A creature like you can’t live amongst civilized people, not without my spiritual guidance. There is still time for you to join me. You can still save your immortal soul from the fires of Hell.”

  Samantha waited for him to slash at her with the knife again and then chopped the blade from his hand. She wrapped an arm around his neck and pulled him close to her. The reverend scrambled to free himself, but her grip was too strong. “I don’t need your spiritual guidance. I have people who care about me. They’re my Way.”

  “What do you intend to do with me? Kill me like Pryde?”

  “I’ll lock you up until we can decide what to do,” Samantha said. She dragged Reverend Crane away from the fountain, towards the entrance.

  “No! Prudence, you must help me. Save me from her, I beg you.” Prudence stared at them, her body shaking with indecision. “My child, please. I’ve loved you as a father. You must help me now in my hour of need. Don’t you want to go to Heaven? Pick up the knife, Prudence, and bring it to me.”

  Prudence stared down at the ground. She looked back up at the reverend and then went over to pick up the knife. “Prudence, no!” Samantha shouted.

  That was the opening the reverend needed to free himself from Samantha’s grasp. He shoved her down and then snatched the end of the rope she still had tied around her waist. He dragged her towards the fountain with Prudence looking on, still clutching the knife. Samantha clawed at the ground, but couldn’t find any purchase. She managed to sit up enough to reach the rope and work at the knot. She had gotten part of it loose whe
n Reverend Crane reached the fountain.

  “Now you will be mine,” he said. With a final heave, Samantha slid across the ground and towards the fountain. She screamed as she dropped towards the water. “It is finished,” the reverend said.

  He went to the edge of the fountain, his face turning white with surprise. Samantha’s fingers gripped the edge of the fountain, her waist contorted at a painful angle to keep her feet hovering an inch over the water’s surface. “Such foolish heroics, my child,” Reverend Crane said. He raised his foot to stamp on the fingers of her right hand.

  An instant before his boot could land on her fingers, she swept her hand behind his foot. The reverend teetered on the edge a moment before toppling over Samantha. His hands sought something to grab, latching onto Samantha’s left leg. She screamed in pain as he wrenched her leg down into the water.

  A flash of white light blinded her for an instant. Her fingers clutched onto the edge of the fountain, digging into the rock until her nails bled. “Prudence, help me!” she shouted. Her vision cleared enough to see a white glow had crept up the length of her body to the tips of her fingers. They shrank bit by bit until Samantha could no longer hold onto the edge of the fountain. Her fingers slipped from the stone, leaving her clawing at air.

  Her legs sank into the water, but then a hand took hers. Samantha looked up to see Prudence at the edge of the fountain, straining to pull her up. Samantha kicked at Reverend Crane with her free leg, but the chubby little boy that had been the reverend would not let go. “Don’t let go of me!” he wailed. “I don’t want to die!”

  “Prudence, hurry!”

  Prudence looked down at them with tears in her eyes. “I’m sorry,” she said. A moment later, Pryde’s knife appeared in her hand. She handed it to Samantha, who plunged it into the reverend’s arm. He screamed, letting go of her and disappearing beneath the water. Prudence hauled Samantha up and they lay in a tangled heap next to the fountain. “It’s over,” Prudence said.

  “No, it’s only beginning,” Samantha said.

  Chapter 33: An Uncertain Future

  Samantha got unsteadily to her feet and held up the sagging arms of her dress. She had to hike up the tattered hem of her dress several inches to find her feet, which hadn’t seemed to shrink at all. “How little am I?” she asked Prudence.

  “I don’t know. How little am I?”

  Samantha squinted to find Prudence’s chubby body amongst the folds of the dress that now fit her like a tent. “Five, I’d guess. So that must make me six…and a half.”

  “How do you know that?”

  “I just do.” Prudence said nothing more to dispute Samantha’s arithmetic. Samantha stood at the edge of the fountain, seeing only reflections of herself as a chubby toddler and the infant Reverend Crane wanted to make her into. “I can’t remember being a little girl before. Maybe it won’t be so bad. At least I’ll still have you as my friend.”

  Samantha and Prudence embraced and then started to search for the cave’s entrance. They wandered around in the dark, walking slowly to avoid tripping on a rock or their skirts, until they saw a shaft of light coming through an opening above their heads. In the light they found a set of steps carved into the rock that led to an opening so small they had to stoop to get through.

  The opening came out within sight of Reverend Crane’s house. Samantha remembered what he had said about the proof to her prior life being inside and steered Prudence in that direction. “Are you sure we ought to look through the reverend’s things?” Prudence asked.

  “I have to find out,” Samantha said. She opened the front door to the reverend’s house and began searching for any clues in the sitting room. She flipped over the chairs, stomped on the floorboards, and felt along the walls for anything he might have hidden. She found nothing in the sitting room and then moved on to the kitchen, flinging pots, pans, cups, and plates from their cupboards.

  In the bedroom, she needed Prudence’s help to lift up the mattress. They found nothing there or in any of the cabinets or dressers. This left only one room: the reverend’s study.

  On a simple wooden desk, Samantha studied the reverend’s papers. Most were future sermons dealing with The Way and avoiding temptation. She opened a leather-bound ledger sitting next to Reverend Crane’s Bible and gasped.

  “What is it?” Prudence asked.

  “It’s a census,” Samantha said. “It has the name of every child in town on here.” Samantha ran her finger along the list, stopping at the name of Prudence Elizabeth Gooddell. Beside her name was listed the entry: ‘Born 3 February, 1625, Wessenshire, England.’ When Samantha read this to her, Prudence put a hand to her lips and took a step back.

  “What does this mean?” she asked.

  “It means you were thirty years old when Reverend Crane first poisoned you.” Samantha turned through the pages, finding a census taken in 1700 that listed Prudence’s age as three. Through the censuses, Samantha determined a pattern. “Whenever anyone might start to remember anything or question anything, he poisoned you and wiped your memories so you had to start all over again.”

  “How long? How long has this been going on?” Samantha turned to the last page of the ledger with writing on it, a projected census with the date of 31 May, 1999. It listed Prudence and Samantha as newborns. “He’s been doing this for almost four hundred years?”

  “I’m afraid so.” Samantha turned back to the previous census taken in 1991. Her name was not included on the list. This disheartened her more than if learning she—like Prudence and the others—had been a pawn of the reverend for the better part of four centuries.

  She closed the ledger and searched through the rest of the study, but found nothing. Nothing that might have given her a clue to her real identity or tell her where to find her family. She sagged to the floor and put her head in her hands. “It’s useless,” she said. “He was lying. I should have known. I’ll never know who I am or where I came from or find my family.”

  Prudence sat down next to her and put an arm around her shoulders. “But you have a family, Samantha. We’re your family now. All of us: Miss Brigham, Rebecca, Wendell, even Helena. We love you, Samantha.”

  “But do you think all those things he said are true? About me being a murderer and a thief? How else would I be able to do what I did?”

  “I don’t know, but it doesn’t matter who you were and what you did. All that matters is who you are now. You’re my best friend.” They embraced again, both of them crying. They stayed on the floor of the reverend’s study until their tears dried up.

  “We should go back to town and tell the others what happened,” Prudence said.

  Samantha shook her head. “No, we can’t tell them about this. The little ones wouldn’t understand. They still think their parents are coming for them.”

  “But, isn’t that lying?”

  “It’s not lying. It’s withholding the truth,” Samantha said with a smile. “Someday, when they’re older, we’ll tell them. Until then, it’s our secret.”

  “What about Miss Brigham? Should we tell her?”

  “It might be hard to explain to her right now. Let’s give her a little while to adjust.”

  They left the reverend’s house and found Miss Brigham still tied up in the woods where they’d left her. Samantha hesitated before pulling the gag from Miss Brigham’s mouth. “Oh, thank heavens you girls came along. I don’t know what happened to those other two. I ought to give them a talking-to for leaving me out here all night with nothing to lie on by this hard ground. I ought to give them a real piece of my mind.”

  “Miss Brigham, it’s us. Prudence and Samantha,” Prudence said. Miss Brigham stared at them, her eyes narrowing.

  “Oh my, what’s happened to you two? You’ve become such darling little girls. My, look at those adorable freckles and you have such lovely dimples now.” She pinched Prudence’s cheeks until Prudence winced in pain. Then Miss Brigham turned to Samantha. “You look better now with a little more
meat on your bones. And what gorgeous dark hair you have. Oh, won’t you please let me braid it for you?”

  Samantha touched the back of her head, feeling the tangled hair that went down past her waist. “I think I’ll leave it the way it is,” she said.

  “I really must thank the reverend for making you two into such adorable little creatures,” Miss Brigham said.

  “I’m afraid you can’t,” Samantha said.

  “Whyever not? Is he still sleeping? I’d hate to bother a reverend, but I could come back later after breakfast.”

  “Reverend Crane is dead. So is Mr. Pryde,” Samantha said.

  “Dead? No, that can’t be. Whatever shall we do now without the reverend? Who will look after us?”

  “We’ll have to look out for each other,” Samantha replied. For the first time in her second adolescence, Miss Brigham had nothing to say. Samantha took her hand and started to lead her back into town. She stopped at the church to open Helena’s hiding place, where she found the copy of Forever Young.

  She handed the book to Miss Brigham, who took it as though it were a dead snake. “What do I do with this?” she asked.

  “Read it to us at bedtime,” Samantha said. “You don’t have to worry about The Way anymore.”

  “Oh my, I’m not sure I should—”

  “Please,” Samantha and Prudence pleaded as one.

  “All right. I can’t resist such adorable little girls.” Samantha and Prudence hugged Miss Brigham, who patted them gently on their heads. “I suppose we should check in on the others and see how they’re faring.”

  “I’ll race you there,” Samantha said to Prudence. The two girls flew towards the dormitories, laughing all the way.

  Children of Eternity #2: Young Family

  By P.T. Dilloway