Before the Devil Breaks You by Libba Bray

Author:Libba Bray [BRAY, LIBBA]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780748122479
Publisher: Little, Brown Book Group
Published: 2017-10-03T04:00:00+00:00

Up front in the administration building, an antsy Theta smoked a cigarette and looked out at the rain and fog settling over the island. Memphis and the others had been gone a long time. Shouldn’t they be back by now? And where was Henry? It didn’t help that Isaiah was sullen and focusing all of his hostility on her.

“You wanna play cards?” she asked, a peace offering.

“No, thanks,” Isaiah mumbled as he drew.

“I know you don’t like me,” Theta said finally.

“Never said that.”

“You didn’t have to.”

Isaiah cast a sidelong glance at Theta and went back to his sketching. “Since you been around, Memphis don’t have time to play ball with me or go to the games or nothing. He’d rather be with you.”

“Memphis loves you more than anybody.”

“No, he don’t.”

“Yes, he does.” Theta took a deep breath. “And anyway, I’m about to be around a lot less.”

“How come?”

“I got my reasons.”

“Swell. Now Memphis’ll blame me.”

“No. He won’t.”

“Yes, he will! When you’re a kid, you always get blamed for everything!” Isaiah said.

“You won’t get blamed for this,” Theta said sadly. She took a drag, let it out. “It really bugs you being treated like a kid.”

“And how,” Isaiah said on a sigh.

Theta stubbed out her cigarette. “You’re right. That’s not fair. Come on. Let’s go find the others.”

Isaiah looked wary. “Yeah?”

“Yeah. Come on. Let’s ankle.”

Theta wanted this night to be over. Even more than the thought of spending the night in the asylum, she dreaded the conversation with Memphis to come.

It was the lights Theta noticed first as they approached ward A. They were winking on and off. It was disorienting. And very creepy. The doors were shut, but when Theta reached for the knob, they creaked open.

Isaiah stopped short. “I got a bad feeling.”

“Like a regular bad feeling, like your stomach hurts … or a we oughta run bad feeling?”

Isaiah was scared, but he didn’t want her to know it. Hadn’t he said he wanted to be treated like a big kid, like the rest of them? If he looked like a coward, they’d probably never let him come along again. He stepped into the corridor.

“Smoky in here,” Theta said, coughing. “Somebody musta forgot to open a flue or something.” As they made their way down the hall, Theta saw that the doors to the patients’ rooms were open, but many of the patients were missing. Others sat on their beds staring out.

“The Forgotten, the Forgotten, we are the Forgotten,” they whispered as Theta and Isaiah passed by.

Isaiah was truly frightened now. Even more so when he heard screams and deranged laughter coming from somewhere he couldn’t see. There were marks on the clean walls. Bloody handprints. The laughter got stronger.

“Theta,” he said.

“Yeah. I see,” she said. “I think we better turn back.”

They turned around and the doors slammed shut, sealing them inside.

Isaiah’s eyes rolled back in his head. His body shook. “We are the Forgotten, forgotten no more,” he said in a strangled whisper.

“Isaiah! Oh, please don’t do this, please don’t,” Theta begged.

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