"I"m so proud of you."
"Thank you."
Kathryn had gone about the rest of the day humming with grat.i.tude. The blessing that came after obedience and suffering never ceased to amaze her.
Bobby seemed quite distraught to learn that Wyatt would be gone for a while and, without a playmate, he was far too fidgety. So Kathryn had allowed him to spend some time in Eden"s bedroom that afternoon. She"d listened at the door while Eden answered Bobby"s questions about why she had a bandage on her leg.
"I hurt it," Eden said. "But don"t worry, it was actually a good thing."
"Why is it a good thing? Does it hurt?"
"Yes, it hurts, but sometimes you need to feel pain so that you don"t get hurt again. Like putting your hand in the fire-you feel the pain so you don"t get burned again. Isn"t that right?"
"Fire will burn you."
Eden had hesitated for a few moments before speaking.
"That"s right, Bobby. Fire will burn. That"s why we stay away from it."
It was all Kathryn needed to hear. Why it had taken a measure so severe to finally show her daughter the full nature of righteousness after so many years of faithful service in purity, she didn"t know. G.o.d knew how it pained her more than it pained Eden. The important thing was that her correction had taken hold.
Zeke would be proud of them all.
On that third night, Kathryn had knelt at the side of her bed before retiring and offered a long prayer of thanksgiving for the great blessing, once stolen by the locusts, now being returned a hundredfold as they all humbled themselves and walked in obedience. Then she"d climbed under the sheets, folded her hands on her belly, and drifted into a peaceful sleep for the first time in many days.
She dreamed of Wyatt, because she missed him. He was walking with her as she approached a towering cliff and at first she thought the cliff was an obstacle she had to climb to reach the top where heaven awaited.
"Where are you going?" Wyatt asked, in the echoing way people speak while dreaming.
"To the tomb," she said, and she thought, that"s right. I don"t have to climb the cliff. I"m just going to the tomb at the base of the cliff.
"What"s in the tomb?" he asked.
Jesus, she thought. But no, it wasn"t Jesus. It was someone else. And suddenly she was very curious about who exactly was in that tomb.
The dream was interrupted by another, this one about a dog and Bobby and she was thinking that Bobby should have a dog as a friend. But then she was somehow back with Wyatt, at the base of the cliff, looking at the tomb with its stone rolled away.
"Are you going inside?"
"No." Her answer surprised her.
"Why not?"
"Because I"m already inside."
Why she said this, she didn"t know. Dreams were just that way. But then she stepped up to the tomb and looked inside anyway.
Inside lay the body of a woman, arms and legs bound in strips of cloth. She blinked and saw that she was right-it was her, lying on her back with her hands folded over her belly.
"That"s you," Wyatt said over her shoulder. "Are you dead?"
Was she?
She was no longer looking down at herself: she was herself, lying on her back, arms and legs bound. She tried to open her eyes, but couldn"t. Tried to free her hands, but the strips of cloth held them together.
"Where are the keys to h.e.l.l?" a voice asked.
I"m in h.e.l.l?
Everything started to get muddled up in her head.
"Wake up!" The voice wasn"t Wyatt"s. It sounded more like an angel.
"Wake up!" Something pushed against her arm and she opened her eyes.
"Tell me where the truck keys are."
Kathryn twisted and stared up into the face of her angel. Only it wasn"t an angel. It was Eden!
"Tell me!"
She was dressed up in a dark-brown wig Kathryn hadn"t worn in years. Wearing one of her dresses-a white one with yellow flowers that Kathryn had recently outgrown.
The truth crashed over Kathryn like a tidal wave. Eden was running again! She"d only pretended to have changed. And now she stood over her mother, glaring, demanding to know where the truck keys were.
Kathryn jerked up, outraged, and it was then that she found that her hands had been bound-wrists and fingers, so she couldn"t use them. And her ankles. Twine, the same she"d used on Eden, had been tied to the bonds on her ankles and to the bedpost.
"Tell me where the keys are!" Eden demanded again.
Kathryn stared at Eden"s work, hardly daring to believe. She"d managed all of this without waking her. She"d planned it all along?
"What have you done?" she stammered.
"What I should have done a long time ago."
"You untie me this second, Eden Lowenstein! What in the depths of h.e.l.l has possessed you?"
"You have," Eden bit off. "You"ve come out of h.e.l.l and tormented me! Tell me where the keys are."
"Don"t be a fool! You can"t just drive out of here! Have you completely lost your mind?"
"I don"t know, Mother, have I? You should know. You"re the one who tried to break my leg."
"I had to! Don"t you understand? I had to!"
"Of course you did. And if G.o.d-oh pardon me, Zeke-tells you to kill me I suppose you would do that too. But actually you won"t, because I won"t be around to kill."
"I would never . . ." Kathryn felt the first waves of a panic attack coming on as the full scope of Eden"s intentions settled into her mind. It was getting light outside. The dogs would be tied off soon. Eden was going to drive out dressed up like her and she might very well make it. If she did . . .
Kathryn set her jaw and leveled her sternest warning.
"Now you listen to me, young woman. If you do this there will be h.e.l.l to pay! Do you understand me? You will reap death if you sow death. An eye for an eye."
"I don"t think you understand. I"m leaving h.e.l.l. I"m going to drive the truck out of here and this time there"s nothing you can do to stop me."
The hatred spilling out of her daughter could hardly be measured. What was this evil that had come over her? How dare she repay her mother with anger after all the years of loving kindness?
You, Kathryn. You"re the evil.
She swallowed deep and pushed the thought out of her mind.
"I"ve looked everywhere for the keys and can"t find them," Eden said. "So now you"re going to tell me. And if you don"t I"m going to break one of your fingers."
Kathryn couldn"t comprehend those words. They weren"t from her daughter. She had to remain strong and stand up to this demonstration of evil if she expected to save Eden.
"Never," she said.
There was no wavering in Eden"s glare. Her daughter had learned to stay the course in the closet; that same resolve now directed her on a new path.
"Fine." Eden stepped up, jerked Kathryn"s pinky finger from the binding, and tugged it back toward her wrist.
Kathryn gasped-a deep, guttural cry as much in shock that Eden could do such a thing to her own mother, as in pain.
"Tell me, Kathryn!" Eden said. "Or I"ll break it."
"You"re hurting me!"
"Tell me!"
This was her punishment, she thought. She was reaping what she"d sown. But that thought was immediately overridden by righteous rage.
"You"re hurting me!" she cried.
"Have it your way." Eden applied more pressure and excruciating pain ripped up Kathryn"s arm. Panic overtook her and she lost all bearings but those pointing to survival.
"Okay, okay, okay, let go!"
"Tell me!"
"In the shed!"
"Where in the shed?"
"By the lantern!"
"If you"re lying to me . . ."
"I"m not, I"m not! For heaven"s sake . . ."
Eden released her hand, stared at her with fixed inquisition, then crossed to the door, barely limping, and twisted back.
"If the key"s where you say it is, the next time you see me will be with the police. If it"s not there, I"m going to come back and break all of your fingers."
Eden turned and exited the room, leaving Kathryn breathing heavily, fighting back waves of dread. How dare Eden do this! How dare she!
It"s what you taught her to do. An eye for an eye.
Kathryn let out a sob. Her mind wasn"t working correctly. She couldn"t seem to get enough air in her lungs. She had to stop Eden, she knew that much, but the horror of what was happening seemed to have turned her thoughts off.
If Eden got away . . . Dear G.o.d, she couldn"t let that happen.
Then she remembered. The cell phone.
She had to get to the cell phone in her dresser across the room.
Sitting, Kathryn lunged for her feet, grabbed at the string that tied her off to the bed, and dug at the knot. "Hurry, hurry, hurry . . ."
But she couldn"t get her trembling, bound fingers to work properly on the knots. They were too tight!
She heard the front door slam shut. Eden was already out of the house, headed for the shed.
What if she finds the key? What if you can"t get free?
But she already knew the answer to both questions. Driving by any onlooker, Eden would look like her mother and no one would stop her. She would reach the city. The police would come.
They would take Eden away from her.
The terrifying thought washed everything but itself from her mind. Time seemed to slow.
They"re going to take my daughter away again. They"re going to take my baby away. They"re going to take her away and hurt her. They"re going to take my baby away from me again.
And then another thought came.
She"s at the shed by now.
"Bobby!"
The house rang with her cry. She screamed his name again, this time at the top of her lungs.
"Bobby!" She took two heavy breaths. "Bobby!"
He barged through the doorway and pulled up, eyes wide, still half-filled with sleep. But he"d come. Thank G.o.d, he"d come . . .
"Listen to me, Bobby-"
"Are you hurt?"
"I need you to do something for me." It wouldn"t take Eden long to discover that the truck keys weren"t by the lantern. "I need you to help me."