Depraved 2 (29 page)

“Stop right here.”

Allie stopped and turned around to glance at Sienna, a quizzical expression on her face as she gave the surroundings a skeptical once-over. “Is your father buried somewhere around here?”

“Yes.”

“I don’t see a cemetery.”

Sienna shrugged off the backpack and unzipped it. She put the gun inside it and took out a flashlight, another of the items she’d liberated from the farmhouse. “My daddy isn’t buried in a cemetery.”

“Then where is he?”

Sienna indicated the tree line to their right with a tilt of her chin. “Some soldiers shot him dead out there in the woods.”

“Hmm.”

Sienna zipped up the backpack and shrugged it on again. She snapped on the flashlight and aimed the beam at the woods. The light didn’t penetrate very far beyond the tree line, and the way the beam flickered a couple times made her think the batteries might be weak. She screwed the cap on tighter and hoped they had enough juice left to last until she had accomplished what she had come here to do.

“I know how it sounds, but it’s the truth.”

“Why would army men kill your father? Was he a terrorist?”

Sienna sighed. “No, he wasn’t a terrorist. And I don’t know why the army guys killed the people here. Not the whole reason, anyway. Nobody does, as far as I know. Okay, so listen up. I put the gun away, but you still better behave and not try to run away. I’m bigger and faster than you. If you try anything, I’ll catch up to you and beat the snot out of you.”

“You wouldn’t do that.”

“I definitely would. You just try me. Now get moving. I’ll be right behind you.”

She gestured to the tree line with a wave of the flashlight. After a brief hesitation, Allie started moving in the indicated direction, but she stumbled as she set foot in a shallow ditch. Sienna grabbed the girl by an arm and jerked her to her feet more roughly than she intended, eliciting a high-pitched squeal of pain. An apology sprang to her lips, but she let it go unvoiced, recognizing that it would be counterproductive. She needed to be firmer with Allie now that they were approaching the moment of truth. The girl was about to die. It was time to start treating her like an object instead of a little human being.

That would make doing what she had to do easier.

Hopefully.

A hard prod in the back with the flashlight made the girl cry out again. This time it was accompanied by tears. The sound tugged at Sienna’s heart. She grimaced and tried to deaden her emotions, something she was usually able to accomplish with ease. It bothered her that she had to make a conscious effort, feeling dead inside having become her normal state of existence some time ago. However, though it took a bit of work, she was soon able to draw the veil back across her emotions.

They continued their slog through the woods at a pace so sluggish it was maddening, a problem exacerbated by the way the flashlight’s beam kept cutting in and out. Several times they had to stop so Sienna could shake the flashlight or take the batteries out and give them a brisk rub together. These dubious methods met with meager success, providing only a few more moments of precious illumination. At last, however, none of the usual old tricks would work. It was time to try something less conventional.

She ordered Allie to stop.

The girl frowned as Sienna again opened the flashlight. “What are you doing?”

Sienna took out the batteries, tucked the flashlight beneath an arm, and closed her eyes as she curled her hands around them. “Magic.”

“Why are your eyes shut?”

“So I can concentrate. Now kindly shut the fuck up.”

“I could run away and you wouldn’t even know it.”

Sienna opened her eyes and glared at the increasingly annoying child. “That’s a good point.”

Allie shrieked as Sienna grabbed her and spun her about. She cried out again when Sienna kicked at the backs of her knees and forced her to the ground. Allie squirmed and made noises of protest when the older girl settled herself astride her to hold her in place.

Sienna thumped one of the batteries against the back of the kid’s head. “Settle down or I’ll beat you unconscious and drag you the rest of the way.”

Allie made another, more subdued sound of protest, but she stopped squirming.

Sienna tightened her grip on the batteries and again closed her eyes. She slowed her breathing and made herself let go of her anxiety about the larger task still ahead of her, focusing instead only on the input of the senses—the feel of the cool night air on her skin, the rustling of leaves overhead in the gentle breeze, the buzzing of crickets and other night things, and the sensation of the earth and the living thing beneath her. The talent that lived inside her reached out and tapped into these things, drawing energy from the elements and the living flesh. Her skin tingled as she felt the power crackle through her like electricity. It blazed to life somewhere in her center and surged outward in all directions, lighting up all her nerve-endings, including in her extremities. The batteries vibrated in her clenched fists, filling with juice and growing hot from the raw energy emanating from her every pore.

She opened her eyes and thought STOP!

The wild power vibrating inside her shut down in an instant, disappearing like light from a room with the flick of a switch. She let out a shuddery breath and unclenched her fists, gasping at how red her palms had become. The batteries were almost unbearably hot. Another few moments and they would have melted in her hands, scorching her flesh and making the rest of what she had to do problematic at best.

Sienna put the batteries in the flashlight and thumbed the power switch. The light came on, brighter and steadier than ever. A triumphant grin came to her face. Her talent was getting stronger all the time. It felt like there was nothing at all she couldn’t do.

There was another tangible benefit of having tapped into her talent now. She felt like herself again, all emotions unrelated to her own pleasure or gain flash-fried away in the surge of magical energy. She looked at the blonde locks at the back of Allie’s head and saw only a thing, a convenient means of getting what she really wanted. If she didn’t need her for the ritual, she would smash her head in and walk away without a second thought.

She got to her feet and kicked the girl in her side. “Get up.”

Allie sniffled and brushed dirt and brambles from her pink shirt as she got to her feet. Her bottom lip trembled as she lifted her eyes in a teary, wounded expression. “You hurt me.”

“That’s right. And I’ll hurt you again if you don’t behave.”

Allie’s brow furrowed. “You’re different now. What--”

“Shut up.” Sienna aimed the flashlight at a spot just behind and slightly to the right of Allie. “That way. Start walking.”

They wordlessly resumed the trek through the dark woods. Sienna followed Allie at a brisk pace, making sure the girl stayed only a few feet ahead of her. Despite the brighter light provided by the rejuvenated batteries, Allie stumbled a few times and each time Sienna yanked her back to her feet a little harder than the previous time. The girl was bawling nonstop by the time they emerged through a thinning line of trees into the clearing where Sienna’s father had been shot down four years earlier.

Memories from that night popped into her head with shocking clarity. She saw the Braves baseball cap tumble off her father’s head as high-caliber bullets ripped through his body and made it do a macabre dance. The bullets passed through him as if he were no more substantial than a wisp of steam, leaving bloody contrails in their wake as they exited through his back. He hit the ground like a sack of bricks and moved no more, having breathed his last. The sound his body made when that happened still came back to her in the middle of the night sometimes. She shook her head to clear it of the hateful images. The time had come to let go of the past and set things right again once and for all. To do that, she needed a mind at peace and channeled in the proper direction.

Sienna pushed Allie into the approximate center of the clearing and made her stop. After shrugging off the backpack and setting it down, she played the flashlight’s beam over the ground. At first glance, the clearing was as barren as the surface of the moon. Nothing was growing here, not even the least little bit of bramble or vegetation. This was a change from the grassy ground of years ago. It struck Sienna as fitting. This wasn’t just hallowed ground. It had been blighted by the senseless atrocity that had occurred here. But there were also no bones or other telltale traces of human remains. For a moment, she wondered whether this was the right place after all despite what her memory insisted, but then the beam lit up a wide patch of elevated ground.

She prodded Allie in the back and nodded. “Over there.”

Allie whimpered and walked with halting steps to the spot indicated. She stood in the middle of the patch of elevated ground and turned her tear-streaked face toward Sienna. “Is your daddy under me?”

Sienna picked up the backpack and approached the mound. “I’m pretty sure, yeah. The army must have buried him.”

Allie wiped tears from her face. Despite her terror, she was still struggling to understand. “But…why would they do that?”

“Who the fuck knows? They came out here and killed everybody in my hometown. They just fucking did it. That’s all.”

“Why have I never heard about this?”

Sienna rolled her eyes. “It was hushed up. Word got out, sure, but anyone who heard about what happened here blew it off as more conspiracy theory bullshit. All the online loons spreading their ‘false flag’ and Illuminati conspiracy stories meant the government barely had to make a real cover-up effort. Now everyone assumes crazy stories are all nonsense, even when they’re true.”

Allie took a hesitant step toward Sienna. “But…you could make people believe it. You could go find a newsman from CNN or somewhere and convince him.”

“Stop right there, little bitch.”

Allie flinched at Sienna’s harsh tone. She didn’t take another step.

Sienna scowled. “Look at me. No journalist in the world would take me seriously. I’ll leave the truth and justice business to someone else. All I know is those fuckers took my daddy from me and now I’m bringing him back.”

“By killing me.”

“That’s right.”

Allie trembled. “That’s not…f-fair.”

Sienna knelt and set the flashlight on the ground. “Nothing much is in this world. Life is pain. When you look at it that way, I’m doing you a favor. I’m sparing you a lifetime of misery.”

She opened the backpack and rooted around in it until she found the knife. Allie let out a wail of distress when she saw it. “No, no, no, please.”

Sienna stood up and approached her chosen sacrifice. “All things being equal, I do wish I had other options here. You’re not the worst little girl I’ve ever met. You have your charms, I admit. You know, in a movie or TV show things would be different. They’d never have me go through with this.” She chuckled. “You can picture it, right? The wind would be picking up and blowing shit around, making my pretty hair swirl about my face, and the music would be getting really dramatic. And then, in the last second, I’d have a change of heart and we’d fight the evil together. Here in real life, though, I’m the evil. And this isn’t that kind of story.”

She rammed the knife into Allie’s stomach.

And twisted it.

When she pulled it out, the girl’s shaking hands went to the hole in her belly and blood gushed between her little fingers. Sienna kicked at Allie, knocking her onto her back. She then used the knife to carve a rough pentagram into the earth around her. As she did this, Allie stared up at the clear night sky and said “Ow” over and over in a small voice. Hearing this pitiable expression of pain made Sienna grimace. She told herself this was only because she found the sound annoying, but in truth she had experienced another little flicker of regret. But this time it was there and gone in an instant, no more troubling than a gnat buzzing in her ear.

Once she had finished carving the pentagram, Sienna knelt at Allie’s side and peered into her eyes. They were starting to look a little dull and her breathing was becoming shallower with each passing moment. With no absinthe or other intoxicating liquid handy to help induce the state of ecstatic abandon the ritual required, Sienna believed the only viable alternative was to get drunk on her own madness and capacity for cruelty.

She brushed Allie’s hands aside and pushed three fingers into the wound.

Allie screamed.

Sienna’s fingers delved deeper. The girl arched her back and her eyes opened wide as she screamed again. Sienna braced her other hand, the one still gripping the blood-soaked knife, against the girl’s chest to hold her down. Her fingers were stained crimson when she removed them from the wound. She painted her cheeks with dabs of blood and then did the same to Allie’s cheeks. The girl’s teeth chattered and her whole body shook. Sienna smiled and slurped the rest of the blood from her fingers. Next she leaned in close to Allie’s face, opening her mouth wide just above the girl’s mouth. Magical energy vibrated inside her as she inhaled deeply, drawing the child’s breath from her lungs, which emerged from between her lips like a fine mist. The power already buzzing inside her grew stronger with every precious bit of innocent breath that filled her own lungs.