After an hour of hiking, Xeke stopped in an area overgrown with old privet. He prodded the ground with his foot until he found the handle. The steel door opened upwards with a groan to reveal a cinderblock-lined dirt-floor basement. It smelled like mold and earthworms.

  “The ladder is rotten,” he said. “I’ll lower you down.”

  “I could jump down,” Ruddy said. “It won’t hurt me.”

  “She doesn’t look like she needs to be jostled,” Xeke said.

  “Yeah, you’re … wait, you can see her now? That’s a bad sign. I bet everyone can see us. Yeah, just lower us down.”

  Xeke took a flashlight out of his backpack. The beam of light illuminated the dust in the air. It caught the big heart painted on the wall with “Ezekiel + Gracie” written in it. He turned his back to it and handed Ruddy the flashlight.

  He dug through his backpack some more and found the canteen.

  “Hold this and let me get a look at her.”

  Xeke peeled her shirt back. Bile rose in his throat when he saw the neat rows of what looked like cigarette burn scars. The air in the room went still. He turned to Ruddy.

  “Did you do this?”

  Ruddy held up his hands. “You can’t think I … I’ve only known her for a couple of weeks. I would … I could never.”

  Xeke’s eyes narrowed. “You said she was your sister.”

  “It was easier than trying to explain. She saved my life and she doesn’t have anyone. I sort of adopted her I guess. Jesus, what was I supposed to do, leave her on her own? Look at her. She’s just a kid.”

  Xeke exhaled and the tension in the air dissipated.

  “I’m sorry,” Xeke said. “I mean, you hear about these things, but ...”

  “I know. I felt the same way when I saw it.”

  Xeke removed Teri’s bandages. It was bad. Someone had done a good job of stitching her up, but the skin had torn around the wound. It was red and swollen—probably infected.

  Ruddy handed him a bag filled with bandages and antibiotics. Xeke cleaned the wounds and re-bandaged them.

  “That’s better, but she’s still in bad shape,” Xeke said. “We need to get her fever down, but even then …”

  “This is so fucking ridiculous.” Ruddy slammed his fist into the cinderblock wall, cracking it. “All I wanted was some help, anything. We haven’t hurt anyone. It’s not fair!”

  A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

  “Calm down,” Xeke said. He poured water from the canteen onto Teri, avoiding the bandaged area. A breeze sprang up out of nowhere, curling around her.

  “Evaporative cooling,” he said. “I can ventilate the whole room like this.” He doubted it would help that much, but if it would make Ruddy feel better it was worth it.

  Ruddy nodded and leaned over the girl. “You’re going to be okay, Teri. Just hang on.” His voice sounded choked. It was strange to see a man who was nearly seven feet tall and bigger than a professional wrestler cry.

  Xeke watched him. Ruddy was a study in extremes: red-haired with a ghost-pale complexion and eyes a shade of brown almost as red as his hair. His big lumpy nose and oversized ears turned crimson with every emotional outburst and made his uneven features stand out even more. His mouth had a cruel turn, so that when he wasn’t smiling, he looked as if he was thinking about killing someone.

  Ruddy caught him looking and turned away.

  Xeke shut off the flashlight and waited. His eyes adjusted to the slight beams of light coming through the door above. Ruddy was a large, vague shape sitting next to Teri.

  “So, what do we do?” Ruddy asked.

  “I don’t know. We’ve got to get her some medical care, but this place is going to be swarming with government agents within the hour. We can try to slip out after dark, but …” Xeke sighed. “The odds aren’t good. If we try to fight our way out, we probably won’t make it and a lot of people will get hurt.”

  “I’m sorry I dragged you into this,” Ruddy said.

  Xeke shrugged.

  Silence.

  “Are you really Ezekiel Daniels?”

  “Yes,” Xeke said.

  “Did you really kill all those people?”

  “You don’t beat around the bush, do you?”

  “Sorry ...”

  “It’s okay. Yeah, I did, but it wasn’t anything I intended. I didn’t know I was afflicted. I lost my temper and a window shattered. Everyone started screaming about Satan. I was freaking out, they were freaking out, things were flying around the room. Hell, even I thought I was possessed. Then my dad pulled his gun and emptied the clip at my head. It went downhill from there.”

  “Damn. So … you grew up around here?”

  “Yeah. My dad owned the property here before they built the church. We lived out here part of the year when he wasn’t preaching in the city, and during the off-season.”

  “Off season?”

  “There’s a revival season. It’s like anything else.”

  “Oh,” Ruddy said. “We just went to mass on Sunday. I don’t think mom and dad really believed in it but they liked to be seen.”

  “Ah,” Xeke said. “Uh, any brothers or sisters?”

  “Nah. Only child. I don’t think dad was willing to risk another kid after the way I came out. I’ve got a glandular thing, it’s genetic. I’ve got a lot of cousins, though.”

  “Huh,” Xeke said. “Well, I was the youngest of five, but I’ve only got one brother left. As you saw, he’s not very fond of me.”

  “Oh. That preacher is your brother?”

  “That’s him. Samuel James Daniels the third. Just like my dad. Looks like him, too. Samuel and I did most of the preaching when my dad was … otherwise occupied. I got a lot of attention because I was so young, and I had some different ideas. There was always a rivalry there.”

  “You’re a preacher?”

  “Used to be, anyway. Before I killed the whole congregation.”

  “I … uh …”

  “Ruddy,” Xeke said. “That’s an interesting name.”

  “It’s a nickname. My real name is a little … I don’t know … pretentious.”

  “Well, let’s hear it.”

  “Reginald. Reginald Sebastian Unglesby ... the fourth.”

  Xeke laughed. “I understand all too well, though my parents had a different brand of pretentiousness. My dad gave us all Bible names. I think they were running out by the time I was born. How else do you explain Ezekiel Luke Daniels?

  “It’s not that bad,” Ruddy said. “It’s got a nice cadence.” He put his hand on Teri’s forehead. “Damn. She’s still burning up.”

  And I’ve got no idea what to do about it, Xeke thought.