The next morning, I see the corpses again. The blood-smeared familiar faces of young and old.
This time, they won't go away.
It's all her fault. Kitty Willow—or Kitty Poison Oak. She puts it in motion when we stop to eat after driving through the night.
We order breakfast in a rundown diner along the road near Alexandria, Louisiana. I order breakfast, I should say; the other three don't seem to be hungry for some reason.
Quincy, at least, has toast and coffee. When the food comes, he asks Kitty, "Will the studio pick up the tab for our friend here?"
Kitty puts down her glass of ice water, which is all she ordered. "There's no studio, you big joker," she says. "You know darn well the Willow Emergency Fund covers this."
"Here's to Father Law." I raise my orange juice high. "For having the foresight to set up that fund."
"To Father Law." Kitty toasts with her ice water.
Quincy lifts his coffee halfway, but Dunne just sits there in a daze behind his steaming teacup. Of the three of them, he's reacting worst to my taking over. I think he shit himself when I showed him the bomb the first time.
Just wait till he sees what's coming up later.
Kitty takes a sip of ice water and meets my gaze. "Thank God you found us," she says. "The Poison Oaks were closing in."
I swallow a forkful of blueberry pancake. "They won't stop till they destroy all Willows." I hack off another hunk and plow it through a puddle of syrup on my plate. "You know what their next target is, don't you? America."
"How?" says Kitty. "How will they attack the country?"
"We don't know," I tell her. "Buzz radioed us some of their plans, but no specifics on targets or weapons. We just know it's going to be huge."
"That's awful." Kitty shakes her head. "Shouldn't we be heading for Washington or New York or Los Angeles, then? A likely target?"
I swallow another bite of pancake and reach for a slice of bacon. "The mastermind behind the Poison Oaks is a man named Cyrus Gowdy. If we can stop him, we'll stop the attack."
"Cyrus Gowdy's the Poison Oak mastermind?" Kitty aims her flaming green eyes at me. "We didn't know that."
"But you're looking for him, too," I say. "That's what Knox wrote in his blog."
"He's against the Poison Oaks," says Kitty. "We're joining forces to take down the Oaks for once and for all."
I stare back at her as I chew my bacon. What she's saying goes against everything I know...but she seems so confident about it. She seems confident about everything.
Then again, a Poison Oak imposter would have to act confident, wouldn't she?
"Who told you Cyrus Gowdy's an Oak, anyway?" says Kitty.
"Buzz did." I reach for my orange juice.
Kitty leans forward. She lays her fingertips on my wrist. "Are you sure you were talking to Buzz, Warren?"
I don't bother to pick up the juice glass. Instead, I shake off her hand with a scowl. "Of course I'm sure. He called over the Willows' secret Threat Frequency. He used the proper passwords and code."
"Warren." Kitty closes her hand around my wrist. "The Oaks are holding Buzz prisoner, right?"
I nod my head.
"Maybe they forced him to call and tell you those things," says Kitty. "Maybe they tortured him. I'm sorry, but it's possible."
I don't have an easy denial ready to fire back. I break her gaze, turning to Quincy, then Dunne...but neither offers any support. Dunne can't even stand to look at me for more than an instant.
Could Kitty be right? Isn't it the reason I'm here with them in the first place—because I worried I might have been fooled? Because I couldn't be totally sure about my mission?
Or is that Kitty Poison Oak sitting across from me after all, lying like crazy to confuse me? To exert the sinister influence I feared I was under?
If so, maybe it's time I went on the offensive.
I put on my stiffest poker face and lock Kitty in an unwavering gaze. "Who told you Cyrus Gowdy's against the Poison Oaks?"
Kitty answers without hesitation. "Agent Mohican."
Mohican's F.B.I. and an honorary Willow, based in our hometown, Justice—but Kitty could still be lying. Time to crank up the heat. "Where were you when the Willows were disappearing, Kitty?"
I watch carefully for her reaction—but she doesn't flinch. "I was spirit-camping in the desert with Sienna. By the time I got home, everyone was gone...except a Poison Oak who looked like you. He tried to abduct me, but I captured him and called Agent Mohican."
"You're lucky you weren't hurt," I say. "Not even a bruise, from what I can see."
"I've got bruises." That's all Kitty says on the subject before turning the questioning around on me. "Now, where were you when the Willows were disappearing?"
I smile, ready to turn it around again and force her into a corner.
But she breaks in again before I can get out a word. "How do we know you're not an imposter, War? How do we know you're not a Poison Oak?"
I take a breath. I am relaxed and untroubled.
Then I take another breath.
Suddenly, I am surrounded by corpses again. The bloody bodies of men, women, and children. Clinging to each other, eyes open.
Staring at me as I pass. Shoes splashing in puddles of blood.
My heart pounds as I realize I know them. I know them well. So well I am sick at the sight of them. I am something else too.
Wherever, whenever this is, whoever they are, I am more than an observer. And this is more than a dream.
My foot slips, and I catch myself on the end of a pew. It's then I realize that I'm in a church.
When I look at my hand on the pew, it is soaked in glistening crimson.
I feel a surge of heat. A memory of a memory. The crackle of gunfire. Shrill screams like shrieking gulls over a landfill.
Christ watching from overhead, at the front of the church, a silent witness. I wish he'd tell me what happened, what he saw, what I don't want to remember.
There's a symbol on the wall, painted in blood: a question mark with a crossbar through it. Like a question mark combined with a crucifix. What does it mean?
So much blood, everywhere I look. Gallons of blood.
For the first time, I wonder. Why am I not dead, too? Why do I have blood on my hands?
Did I do this? Why would I ever do this?
The answer comes quickly. War Willow would never do this.
The moment freezes around me.
War Willow is a hero.
I hear a voice calling, and I turn toward it. I realize my eyes have been closed, and I open them.
"Warren?" The voice belongs to Kitty. She looks at me, if not with great concern, then at least with great intensity. "Can you hear me, Warren?"
"Yes." I look around the table. Dunne sits on the edge of his seat, as if he's thinking about making a run for it. Quincy watches me with darkness in his eyes, as if his fear has turned to rage and he's thinking about killing me.
"What happened, Warren?" Kitty touches my forehead with the back of her hand. "Do you feel all right?"
It's then that I realize things have changed. Even as I look at her, I'm thinking about my vision. Seeing the corpses, large and small, in my mind's eye.
In the past, when I had this vision, it always went away when I opened my eyes...but not this time. Not anymore.
I can't shake it.
"Are you okay, Warren?" says Kitty.
For a second, I am moved by what sounds like warmth in her voice. Human kindness, expressed between enemies. Forgiveness, though I carry the power to destroy her. Amish Amos, my mentor, would be proud.
Then, as my head clears, I wall myself off again. Poison Oaks are serpents disguised as angels—everything we hate, masquerading as everything we treasure. They are experts at pretending to care, even as they scheme to annihilate us.
"Why wouldn't I be, Sis?" Looking around, I spot the waitress and give her a jaunty wave. "Check, please."
"Warren." Kitty hits me with that fiery green stare again. "I'm worried about you. Is there something you're not telling me?"
"Funny." I smirk as the waitress hands me the check. "I was just going to ask you the same question."
"Well, let me know when you want to talk." She says it with great sincerity.
"Will do." As I pass her the check, I see she's finished playing for now. That's fine with me. She's already done enough damage.
Before her damn questions, I'd have a vision of the bloody church every once in a while, and it would disappear when I opened my eyes. Now, it won't go away. I keep seeing it in my head, playing in the background like a movie. Repeating and repeating.
Even as I wish it would stop, I can't help watching. I can't help wondering what the full story is and why it's important.
And what it means to me. Did something terrible happen that I've blocked from my memory? A tragedy beyond my control? Or within my control?
Or is it not a memory at all, but a premonition of the future? A dark destiny at the end of the road?
Either way, the most troubling question of all is this: why did it come up when Kitty asked how she could know I'm not a Poison Oak?
Though I know I must find the answer at all costs, I almost dread what the truth will be.