The Stars Never Rise

“There will be more patrolling the perimeter,” Anabelle said.

“We have to go now, before the patrol brings them close to the gate.” I slowed to a quiet stop in the middle of the dark street. “But Finn will have to drive, with Anabelle up front. They’ll recognize me and Mellie.”

After a moment of hesitation, Anabelle nodded. I put the car in park, then crawled into the backseat with Melanie while Finn slid into position behind the wheel and Anabelle buckled herself in next to him. He pushed back the sleeves of his police cassock, then shifted into drive and took his foot off the break. Mellie and I huddled on the rear floorboard, our heads pressed together, trying to see through the windshield between the front seats.

My heart thumped so hard my rib cage felt bruised as our stolen car slowly approached the wall I’d been trapped behind nearly every day of my life. The wheels rolled over the first speed bump, and Anabelle flinched. Her teeth chattered, a nervous habit certain to catch the guard’s attention.

“Stop!” someone shouted, and I ducked even lower, fear crawling like tiny bugs beneath my skin. “Gate’s closed,” that same voice yelled. “Town’s on lockdown. Don’t you watch the news?”

We were completely shrouded in shadow, and I couldn’t stand not knowing, so I peeked between the seats, nerves skittering along my spine. We were about twenty feet from the actual gate, a large steel panel mounted on wheels in a sunken track. Two police officers manned the gate itself, and four we hadn’t seen—three men, one woman—were marching toward us in unembroidered navy cassocks, their cheeks red from the cold, their swaggers inflated by an uncommon measure of authority.

Yes, they’d just lost a confrontation with the rest of Anathema, but as far as they knew, the demon Nina Kane had been captured, and the guards obviously thought they were the only force standing between the good citizens of New Temperance and mass slaughter by degenerate hordes from the badlands.

I wanted to laugh at them. But I also pitied them. They were human, and they had no idea what was really going on. They looked simultaneously thrilled and terrified by the prospect of actually shooting a degenerate, and if they failed to stop me from leaving the town, they would likely pay with their lives.

Or at least with their bodies and souls.

There was a soft grinding sound as Finn cranked his window down, the car still rolling forward slowly, and then a frigid draft raised goose bumps all over me.

“Hey!” The guard’s voice was sharper and louder with the window open. “Didn’t you hear me? No one leaves tonight!” The shouter and his colleagues were almost to our car now, and if they shone a flashlight into the backseat, we were screwed. “Jennings, is that you?”

“Yeah.” He stuck his head out the window. “Police business.”

“Where’s your car?” the guard asked, with another glance at the hood of our stolen vehicle.

Finn turned to Anabelle and whispered, “When I get out, slide behind the wheel and lock your door.”

“What? Why?” she demanded in a fierce whisper, but he rolled up his window and got out of the car without answering. Anabelle slid into the driver’s seat and locked the door as Finn waved the guard closer, as if for a private conversation. Then, suddenly, he went stiff, and I realized Finn had just abandoned Officer Jennings’s body.

“Carter?” Jennings said, glancing around at the gate and the wall, and I could hear confusion in his voice, even through the glass.

“Oh shit, did you guys see that?” the guard to the right of the gate shouted, large automatic rifle aimed to his left along the wall. “Degenerates! Three of the bastards just jumped right over the barbed wire!”

My pulse raced.

Anabelle shifted into drive.

“Are you sure?” one of the other guards called. “I didn’t see anything.” No one was looking at us anymore. They were staring into the dark now, guns aimed at something they couldn’t see.

That was when I realized Finn had stepped into the body of the guard who’d reported the wall breach. He was creating a distraction. Giving us a chance.

“Of course I’m sure! Go!” Finn-the-guard shouted. “We’ll handle this,” he added, and I peeked again in time to see him wave one hand at our car. The four guards closest to us hesitated for just a second, then took off into the dark after the imaginary monsters.

“What the hell is going on?” Jennings demanded, but there was no one left to answer.

“Nina…?” Anabelle said, when he turned toward us with no sign of recognition.

“I’ll explain in a minute. Drive. Slowly.”

Finn waved us forward, and as our car rolled toward the gate, he ducked into the guard booth and pressed a button. Metal squealed, and the gate began rolling to the right.