Page 136 of The Outsider
“Claire!” she said my name with a frantic edge now, tapping my cheek harder. “Come on. Wake up.”
In my current state, I couldn’t make myself react appropriately. It was only the vague sense that I was in danger that kept my head above the waves long enough for me to whisper, “Find John.”
“Where is he?” Holly demanded. “Please, Claire.”
“Outside,” was all I could manage. “He’ll…come for me. But why…help me?”
There was a brief pause, and even through my drug-induced stupor, I was surprised to hear a sliver of emotion in my sister’s voice.
“I don’t want you to die.”
“Oh,” I sighed, blinking rapidly, trying to rouse myself. “That’s…good?”
Holly choked back a laugh of disbelief but continued sawing at the ropes around my ankles. She managed to free them, then started on my wrists.
“What changed?” I murmured, working to stay lucid. Thankfully, it seemed like the sedative effects might be beginning to wane. “I thought you hated me.”
“I didn’t,” she replied softly, and her eyes betrayed regret. “I was stupid and brainwashed. I couldn’t…handle the truth. I thought that joining them would give me a sense of purpose…”
“But what?”
Her blue eyes darkened. “But then he started raping me.”
“What?” I whispered. “Oh, Holly…”
She paused briefly at her work, his fingers trembling, but quickly started again.
“Does Mom know?” I asked, but I knew the answer.
“Of course,” Holly replied curtly. “We all knew that Jim J took women from our ‘family’ as consorts. It’s a great honour to be chosen by him. I guess I was naïve and thought they all wanted it.”
“But you’re his—” I cut off the thought.
She sneered. “You think he gives a fuck? If anything, I’m more attractive to him because of my connection to our mother. He sleeps around, but his heart is hers. He’s utterly obsessed with her.”
My queasiness reemerged, and I swallowed hard. “Is that the real reason he wants to kill me? Because I’m a reminder that Mom had a child with someone else?”
She blew out a breath. “Maybe. But from what I’ve seen, he’s a true believer. He really believes you’re the ‘Vessel’ for Odessa on Earth, that he has to destroy to be granted his ultimate powers.”
I thought again about the shots I’d fired, right into Jim J’s chest.
“But he does have powers,” I said slowly. “Doesn’t he? His immortality seems…real.”
“Yeah,” Holly sighed. “I don’t know how, but it is. I’ve seen it. He won’t tell anyone how he gained his power. He just keeps promising to give it to us, too, if we help him in his ultimate goal.”
She freed my wrists, and I flexed them, my head throbbing.
“Which is?”
“I—”
A door opened and shut somewhere nearby, and Holly immediately sheathed her knife, tucked the shredded rope under me, and backed away from the table. A moment later, Jim J’s awful smile greeted me as he walked out from behind one of the old theatre curtains. He was wheeling a small cart of terrifying-looking tools alongside him, including a cleaver and a bone saw.
Jim J’s expression faltered on seeing Holly. My heart pounded hideously in my chest, and I tried to lie perfectly still, hiding my free hands beneath me.
“How odd to see you here,” he said in a low, dangerous tone. “Since I specifically asked for you to wait outside with the others until called.”
Holly backed up a step, her complexion wan, a sheen of sweat forming on her brow. Her fear of this man and the things he had done radiated off her; I’d never seen her so clearly terrified. My palms felt clammy as I tried to form a plan.
