Messenger (Mary Hades) by Dalton Sarah

Author:Dalton, Sarah [Dalton, Sarah]
Language: eng
Format: azw3
Publisher: UNKNOWN
Published: 2015-12-10T05:00:00+00:00

Chapter Seven

Have you ever wanted something so bad that it made you ill? That was how I felt during the days that followed Katherine’s initiation. No matter what I was doing—laundry, cooking, cleaning, playing—all I could think about was Alfie. I was twelve years old, and I was in emotional pain. It made me so ill that I began to imagine things. I had the strongest feeling that I was being watched. I saw Brother Bram at every turn, often playing with Stevie, sometimes just leaning against a wall, doing nothing except staring into space with a smile plastered across his face.

I think Jack noticed it too, because he hardly ever left my side. I didn’t mind Jack being around me. He made me feel better. He made me feel safe. It was Bram who made me nervous.

Aunty Cassie remained in Father Merciful’s private quarters during this time. I never saw her, not for a number of days. We saw little of Father Merciful, too. Brother Jacob, however, was a prominent presence on the farm. He didn’t seem to work much, but he walked up and down a lot, with his small eyes boring into us.

Because Alfie was in my thoughts so much, my mind began to pull tricks on me. It was either one or two days after Katherine had come to the commune that I first saw him. I was out in the fields, helping Jack and Noah turn over a patch of soil. It caught my right eye—a bright shot of scarlet.

“What was that?” I said, the air exhaling from my lungs in a rush.

Jack looked up from his task with a smudge of mud across his cheek. “What?”

“I thought I saw something,” I said, peering out into the distance.

We were on a part of the farm that backed onto the surrounding moors. The landscape sloped down, with small hillocks poking up and out of the grass. It was as I was staring out onto the moor that I saw a flash of red run behind one of those hillocks.

I dropped my shovel and rushed forward. “Alfie!” I screamed his name so loudly that the rest of the commune came running out of the farmhouse. Jack followed me, sprinting at my side.

It was a cold day, and my lungs ached as I sucked in the chilly air. My skin became slick with sweat mingled with drizzle. By the time I reached the hillock I was panting for breath, and I had to put my hands on my knees to recover.

“Alfie?” I said. I walked around the hillock, but there was nothing there. I ran forward a few steps and scanned the horizon, searching for even the slightest glimpse of his red coat. But there was nothing there.

I turned to Jack. “I saw him. I saw his red coat. He ran behind here just a moment ago. I swear, I saw him. I did.”

Jack squared his jaw. His gaze flitted from me to the moors and back again, as though he was assessing something.

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