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Teresa crept to the edge of the boundary and stared out at the hypo lying in the puddle. A soft sob broke through her lips. At least Ruthie couldn’t get her now. Even if she could still move, she couldn’t grab or bite.
Derrick and Sheriff McBloat were too slow. She could dash out, grab the syringe, and get back beyond the barrier before they even knew she was near them.
Her legs refused to move.
One . . . two . . . three . . . go.
Nope.
“Do it, Mommy,” Tiffany’s voice said. Teresa cast around, but her baby was nowhere to be seen. “You can do it.” The voice carried like an echo on a whispered wind.
“I can do this. I can do this.” Her legs still shook from the adrenaline of fighting off Ruthie.
She jumped up and down a few times. Then, before her brain could stop her, she lunged forward and dove past Derrick, dodged around the sheriff, and snatched the hypo. Her left leg slid in front of her right. She went down onto her hip.
Ruthie shrieked, but her body only twitched from side to side. Her legs kicked.
“Move,” she yelled at herself. “Move it!” Her numb legs wouldn’t cooperate. Her muscles twitched with fatigue and wasted adrenaline. She let out a sob.
I’m done. I’ve failed. I can’t do this anymore.
She looked up. Derrick was only two steps away.
Beyond him, Tiffany waved to her. Teresa had to do this. If not for her happiness, then for Tiffany’s. She had to get her baby away from Yaldabaoth.
Teresa gritted her teeth, got her knees under her again, and lurched into a sprint. She knocked Derrick out of the way. He grabbed for her, found purchase in the knit of her sweater.
Her forward momentum halted, and she crashed backward into him. They fell onto the ground. He let out a burnt-smelling oof into her ear when she landed on him.
“No,” she yelled. His hands pawed her stomach, her breasts, below her belt.
She slapped at them and pushed them away, but it seemed like he’d grown extra arms. The smell of him turned her stomach, turned her vision foggy. She’d never eat barbecue again.
His hands raked her skin and forced their way down her pants. He breathed in ragged bursts in her ear and bucked and pressed his hips against her backside.
Teresa lifted her head and smashed it back against his teeth.
Again.
Again.
Again, until he let go of her.
She scrambled to her feet and backed away. He groaned and held his burned hands over his burned face. Teeth lay near his head, gleaming white in the moonlight.
She backed toward the creek and bumped into something soft and lumpy.
Sheriff McMichael’s arms lifted to wrap around her. She elbowed him in the gut.
He let out a blasting belch, foul and stinking of rotten guts, stumbled but kept his feet. She spun around him and got across the creek.
Safe on the other side, she crumbled to her knees and collapsed onto her belly.
The lost souls bounced toward her, congregating around the syringe. At least they couldn’t hurt her. She lay still for a moment, then got to her feet and stumbled to the house. She fell inside, and the cave appeared around her. Yaldabaoth turned from the pool.
“Back so soon?” He fixed her with his gaze. “My, you’ve been through quite a trial, haven’t you?” He held out his hand and lifted her to her feet.
“S–six.” She handed him the zoe and turned to shuffle back out into the cold world, but he held her hand and stopped her retreat.
“Please, stay,” he said. His voice had changed.
Teresa closed her eyes, turned around, and opened them.
In Yaldabaoth’s place stood Derrick. Teresa’s heart shattered. Her world crumbled into nothing. She broke apart inside.
“I’m so sorry, Derrick. I’m so sorry.” She cried against his neck. Even his smell was right. It was really him. Relief washed over her. He wasn’t gone. He was here, now, in this cave.
“I love you so much. I’m so sorry for how I’ve behaved.”
“There, there,” Derrick said. “Don’t get too gushy, my sweet. There’s one more left.” His scent shifted.
The soft flannel shirt under her cheek turned to cold snake skin covering a strong chest.
Teresa jerked out of his grasp. Anger tore through her now.
“I’ll get you number seven,” she said. “If I can have my husband back, too.”
Yaldabaoth held out his hands and shrugged. “Sure. Why not. You deserve it all, don’t you?”
“Just like that? Sure, why not?” She stared at him, skepticism lacing her judgment.
He’d tricked her so many times.
Yaldabaoth shrugged again. “It’s inconsequential at this point. My power will be great. I can give you anything.” He stepped toward her. “Of course, if you’d rather spend the rest of your days by my side, I wouldn’t argue with that either.” He slid his hand over her cheek and tilted her chin up. “My queen. My bride.”
Teresa closed her eyes, and in her mind she saw Derrick on their wedding day. She gritted her teeth.
“No.” She stepped out of his touch and paced away. “As soon as I deliver number seven, I’m finished.” She turned around. “I want my daughter and my husband and my . . . my happiness.”
“Suit yourself.” He moved back to his pool.
Teresa backed away, turned, and ran out of the cave. She tripped on the porch steps, landed on her hands and knees, and vomited onto the ground. Everything hurt. Her legs, her lungs, the back of her head. Her heart. She wiped her mouth and sobbed.
The crunch of tires on gravel drifted through the trees. She wiped her eyes and looked up.
An old pickup truck stopped out on the road. Ann Logan stepped out. The dog from Brent’s house followed. Ann locked the door and closed it.
Teresa slunk to the side of the house and hid among the shadows until Ann and the dog went inside. She waited a little longer. She kept telling herself one more minute just in case Ann came out at the precise moment Teresa left her hiding spot.
When she couldn’t take it any longer, she snuck out of the shadows and back to the barrier. The lost souls paid her no mind. She thought back to the times she was in here with syringes full of zoe, how the souls had flocked to her.
But, no. They only flocked to her that one time. Now they only flocked to the zoe. She stood straight.
Why didn’t the souls come to her? The last shred of hope drained from her.
The lost souls disregarded her because her soul was lost, too, corrupted by the evils she had embraced. A sudden sensation of aloneness draped over her like a death shroud.
You can get it all back. You have to finish this.