Together We Rot by Skyla Arndt

Author:Skyla Arndt [Arndt, Skyla]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Penguin Young Readers Group
Published: 2023-08-29T00:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER FOURTEEN

ELWOOD

Spying on a church has got to be a sin. And a dangerous one at that.

After everything we’ve unearthed, the sensible thing to do would be to run far, far away from here. All of us should clamber into the back of Lucas’s car and speed away. Out of this town, out of this state.

But spying is exactly what we’re doing. Wil’s busy fiddling with her phone settings in the back office and dutifully ignoring everyone’s whispered pleas for us to hurry up and leave. Once she’s absolutely positive that the flash is off, she clenches it tight between her trembling hands and starts the video. Kevin mutters something about found-footage horror films, but she swats away his comment too.

I swallow the lump that’s formed in my throat. I’ve never been to a night service. I always thought once I returned home in the future that I’d be deemed old enough to attend . . . but clearly that was never bound to happen. As horrible as this idea is, my dark curiosity has surfaced again. It’s been showing its face a lot recently and here I am, submitting once more. It’s a friend at this point. An impulsive, reckless friend leading me from one bad idea to the next.

Like Wil.

So we watch the scene from the back office, the room an echoing cavern that could betray us at any turn. One wrong move, one slight sound, and it’s all over.

My father stands among monsters.

Faces cloaked by deer skulls, antlers protruding like branches on either ends of their scalp. They’ve split deer jaws wide open, severed the mandible and left the upper teeth behind in a grisly faux smile. Beneath their ghastly masks, their bodies are obscured by long green cassocks. Stitched ivy slithers up the sides, the fabric alive with a forest of foliage.

“You all know why I’ve called you here today.” My father’s voice sounds like a roach scuttling up the drain. For years I’ve been Little Red living with a wolf, marveling over sharp teeth as if they weren’t meant to swallow me whole. “Elwood needs to be found, no matter the cost.”

“I wouldn’t be surprised if you’ve hidden him.” I recognize Vrees by the gray stubble of his chin and the timbre of his voice. He gnashes the words in my father’s face as he approaches him at the podium. He might’ve switched out of police attire, but his rigid stance is nothing he can hang up at the end of the day. “You’re telling me after years of keeping tabs on him, suddenly he’s running free? You’ll damn us for this, Ezekiel. As far as I’m convinced, the Clarke name is a rotten branch. Your father—”

“Don’t speak his name if you wish to keep your tongue,” my father seethes. I believe him. At this moment, I know that he’d take the switchblade from his belt and lop it right off if given the chance.

“No one here fears you, not anymore.” Vrees shifts to stand beside his wife and her face is visibly strained as she cradles her swollen stomach.

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