Page 2 of The Halo & the Heathen
“Not even God knows what you’re doing.”
Good.It’s better that way.
“Go back to the women you can save tonight. There is not much time left for them.”
I offer her a smile and then shut my door in her face.
As soon as I snick the lock, I let the panic free from its tight cage.
I’ve been running out of time for months. But now… now I can’t dawdle.
I rush to tear my shirt off and shimmy out of my pants. My dress is hidden behind the changing screen, ready to step into and I wiggle it up over my hips and zip it up, happy the corset-style top isn’t a lace-up.
Sister Norris and the others who have donned their habits won’t be pulled down to dance for the Devil. They are married to God. And marriage or death are the only things that can save a person from going to hell on All Hallows Eve.
Smoothing the dress down, I bite my tongue. It’s purple, not black like it should be.
I put my hands in the pockets and fluff out the heavy skirt.
The bits that make it pouf are removable, but I don’t want to lose them until I need to. And when I’m sure they aren’t going anywhere, I smooth my hand down the slit over my left leg and sweep the copious fabric to the right.
The knife is made of iron and it’s probably too small to do anything to the creatures of hell, but I strap it to my thigh anyway. Like the map tattooed on my arm, I don’t know that it is going to actually help me.
I just have to hope.
Someone outside my door goes shrieking down the hall toward the room where young women can save themselves.
Ihaveto go tonight. I’ve done too much to hesitate in the final minutes.
The letter I wrote for Skye sits on the dresser beside the cross necklace my mother gave me. If I don’t make it back, the first will explain the second.
Beside them, a vial of holy water.
Plucking it up, I stare at it for a bare moment before I down it like a shot and let the small glass drop to the thin carpet at my feet.
It’s just water. The blade is just a knife. And I am just a woman. What chance do I have in hell?
There is a second cage in my chest, beside the one that held panic. But I keep the fear locked away tight.
Miracles require sacrifice.
The Long Way Down
Between one blinkand the next I go from looking my reflection in the eye, to staring into a pair of wide, terrified ones.
The holy water burns out of me in a blink and I know that the sinner in front of me turns back into a false devil.
Beneath the illusion, they’re just people. Sinners waiting for their absolution or demise. I’ve never understood this annual farce. I don’t know what the Devil gains from it, only that we were cursed simply by being born in a city called Eden.
Tonight, no sinner’s lips will meet mine.
I can’t save them if I want to save Skye.
I can’t even save myself.
The holy water only gives me glimpses of the truth as I scan the room, looking for the real Devil.
I find him, dancing with a woman in red who looks up at him like she truly loves him. An angel in gold dances with a woman in blue…
