“Scarlett?” Mum called, knocking on the door.
I jumped and spun around, making water swoosh up the side of the wall. My head and heart hurt so much I felt like I was going to pass out. “Yeah?” I replied as calmly as I could.
“Are you okay in there? Are you crying? Did something happen with Noah?”
Hearing her concern suddenly made me furious. How dare she ask if I was okay when this was all her fault?
“I’m fine,” I replied. “We argued, but we’ve made up already.”
“Are you sure you’re okay? Why don’t you come out and we can talk.”
I gripped the bath handles tighter. “No, thanks. I’m okay, just want to relax for a while.” I honestly did want to relax, not that I could.
“Alright. I’m downstairs if you need me.”
“Thanks.” I think I managed to keep the seething anger out of my words. She was my mum, how could she keep something that was obviously a huge deal, from me? They demanded honesty from me but were lying themselves. I never thought my parents would turn out to be hypocrites. I was so disappointed in them and frustrated with myself.
The truth was all I wanted. Why wouldn’t anyone just give me that?
Noah
“HELLO, DONALD,” I said as I took the phone from Dad and walked to my room for privacy. My nerves were all over the place after getting off the phone to Scarlett. I wanted to know where she was so I could go and get her. I felt like I was losing my grip on everything.
This was the absolute worst time to speak to Donald.
“Noah,” he said smoothly. “How are you?”
“I’m fine.”
“Staying strong?”
“Of course,” I replied. I was trying to anyway.
“Good. We knew you would be. You ascended long ago. Your mind is strong and sharp.”
Hearing those words from him now sounded… odd. “Thank you.”
“No need to thank me, Noah. You are responsible for all that you have achieved.”
Silence hung in the air.
He cleared his throat. “I’ll get to the point, shall I?” he said, chuckling under his breath. “Scarlett. How is my daughter?”
I gripped the phone tightly, something twisting in the pit of my stomach. “She’s fine.” She was out there somewhere.
“Good. I expect you are keeping a close eye on her.”
“I am.”
“We are almost there. Just six weeks to go now.”
They – we – needed her six days prior to the ceremony day to perform the rituals necessary for the sacrifice to be accepted, so we had seven days in total that she had to be with us. Her parents and the police could easily find her in that time.
“Are you worried about being caught?” I asked.
“No,” he replied. “Jonathan and Marissa will expect us to have stayed in England where we have other land. They will not suspect we bought land in Ireland and merged our commune with Eternal Light in Bournemouth.”
Bournemouth was my old home until we heard that The Light was going to be sacrificed and moved to Ireland where we waited for the other commune to join us afterwards. Donald had bought land in the woods in Ireland, so we could all relocate and live together as one larger united community. A few weeks later, they turned up ten people lighter and without Scarlett.
My directions were clear: Make her love and trust me then take her to Dublin on a day trip and hand her over.
The more time I spent with her, the more my instructions bothered me. I didn’t want to hurt her, and I didn’t want her to lose faith in me. But this was bigger than my feelings or what I wanted.
“Alright, good. I’m looking forward to coming home,” I said.
“And we are looking forward to being complete once again. If you need anything, please call,” Donald said. “I need to make my way back now, you know how I don’t like being away from the community, even if it is to make a quick call.”
No one did. We had to make runs into the nearest town every month for supplies and drive to the edge of the forest to make any phone calls. We all hated going.
“I will. Bye, Donald.”
“Noah,” he said and hung up. Closing my eyes, I took a deep breath and dropped my phone onto my bed.
I RUBBED MY forehead, downing a glass of water. Scarlett’s parents took her because they didn’t believe in Eternal Light anymore but could they have a point? It was my entire life, and I was starting to doubt it.
“How’s it going?” Finn asked from behind me.
I lowered the glass and turned around. “Fine.”
“Everything going according to the plan?”
My scalp prickled. “Yes, why?”
He shrugged. “You are spending a lot of time with her.”
“That was the whole point, you idiot!” I was harsher than I planned to be. It was getting harder and harder to control my feelings and pretend this was all business. I trusted my family but what if Eternal Light were wrong? What if we were just killing the funniest, most loving, passionate, annoying, and beautiful girl I’d ever met?