Awake (29 page)

“I’m sorry,” I said, “But you are wrong about this.”

Donald took a step beyond my dad and held his hands up as if I was dangerous and required calming down. “It is alright, Noah. We don’t blame you. This was a risk, having you on the outside for so long. But you know the truth, everything we have taught you is the truth. Deep down you still know that.”

I shook my head. “No. You’re just going to kill her. Nothing will happen, she will be
dead
.”

“That isn’t true, Noah. Everything
they
are told is a lie, one to make them conform and fit perfectly into society. I used to be there, too, until I realised the truth. Until I had my mind unlocked. You’re making a huge mistake here, Noah, but it’s not too late to rectify it. None of us are angry with you; we can help.”

I gripped my hair, closing my eyes. No, he was lying. I thought about Scarlett, her smile, her soft musical voice, the way her hair naturally curled just a little bit, her bright eyes. Opening my eyes again, I said, “But she’ll be dead.”

“Only in this life, Noah. There is so much beyond this,” Donald replied.

“Why now? Why not when she’s sixty or sixty-four?”

Donald tilted his head. “If we want our community as it is now it has to be now. You know that if we waited that long I, Fiona, your parents, the rest of the elders will be dead, and it’ll be over for us.”

Selfish. That was all this was. He was willing to sacrifice his daughter so he could live in eternal happiness while he was still fit and healthy. Never mind Scarlett wanting to grow up and have a family of her own.

“What about what Scarlett wants?” I asked. “Does it not matter that she has things she wants to achieve?”

“This life won’t matter in the next,” Dad said. “We’ll be reunited, we’ll see Scarlett again, for eternity. Now, stop this, Noah, you know what is true.”

I stood taller. He was right. I did know the truth. “I won’t give her up.”

Dad took a step closer. “You either step aside right now so we can find her, and you can return home or this is it. Either way, we’ll get her back, but this the only chance you’ll get to make the right choice.”

“I won’t give her up,” I repeated.

Dad’s face sobered. “Alright. Remember that you have made your choice, Noah. There is nothing we can do for you now.”

Fear clawed its way up my throat. His eyes hollowed. There was nothing that looked at me like I was his son, his blood. He was choosing Eternal Light. He pulled a blade out of his pocket.

I looked between him and the knife, too shocked that my
dad
had pulled a knife on me.

“Dad, what’re you doing?”

“Shh,” he said, moving closer. Donald stood behind him, watching. The order would have come from Donald but the fact that my own father could go ahead with stabbing his child made me sick.

“Dad, don’t.” I backed up again, taking a sweeping look around the room to see if there was anything I could use to fight him off. An umbrella and an old, wooden walking stick that looked like it would break if I picked it up. “You’ll regret this for the rest of your life. I’m your
son
. Think about it for a second. How can you believe in Eternal Light and everything Donald’s told you if he’s asking you to kill? Love, peace, respect and harmony. Does that sound like what’s happening right now?” I said desperately.

My heart thumped against my chest, beating too fast and too hard.

“Dad, please. You know this isn’t right.”

“Stop talking, Noah. You made your choice, and
you
have to live with the consequences. You are a loose cannon now, a risk to us all and one we are not willing to leave.”

I lurched forwards, grabbing the arm that held the blade and shoving it away from me. Dad cried out and spun around, trying to shake me off. I held on, fighting for my life, knowing that if I gave him the chance it could be all over for me.

He stopped being my dad at that moment. When I knew I had to fight against my father to stop him murdering me, he became nothing but an enemy.

He flung us forward and my back cracked against the concrete wall, knocking the air from my lungs. Gritting my teeth, I tightened my grip of his wrist and tried to turn the knife back on him.

Donald did nothing but stand and watch. I expected him to dart after Scarlett.

He must have other people out there looking for her.

Shit. Run, baby.

The muscles in my arms ached from the struggle, and I didn’t know how much longer I could hold him off. My head swam, dazed from hitting the wall. I kicked my leg, and Dad grunted as it came in contact with his shin.

“What will Mum think?” I said. “Or Finn?”

“They’ll understand because they haven’t been poisoned,” he said through clenched teeth, straining to get the upper hand. Growling, he slammed me back again, and my head hit the wall for a second time with a loud thud. My vision blurred, and I saw black dots float in front of my face.

Dad used it to his full advantage; he punched me in the stomach hard enough that I doubled over and felt like I was going to throw up all over the floor. He pushed his whole body weight against me, forcing me to stand up straight. I was pinned against the wall. My abdomen in agony, and I could barely see properly from hitting my head so hard. But I didn’t need sight to feel the pinch of the knife against my skin and then the hot, blistering pain as he shoved it into my gut.

I was frozen, suspended in time as he stepped back, retracting the knife. It hurt so badly, but the shock kept me from crumbling to the floor and shouting.

“Likeliness is she went out of that door,” Donald said. “Let’s go.”

Neither of them looked back at me as I slowly slid down the wall. I tried to breathe evenly, but I couldn’t do it.

I was cold, shivering and already felt dead.

Scarlett

I COULDN’T STOP
running. The stich in my side slowed me down, but I wasn’t going to stop until I found a town. I promised Noah I would keep running, and that was exactly what I was going to do. But I also wanted to go back for him. I was scared about what they’d do after he turned his back on their sick cult.

My feet hit the ground, crunching the crisp leaves beneath them as I went. Sunrise was just around the corner; between the trees I could see a glow of orange starting to appear. I had to have been running for two or three hours at least. I hadn’t stopped at all, just slowed down to grab a bottle of water from the bag.

I was hungry, thirsty, and tired, but I wasn’t going to stop. They could be anywhere in the woods. I was terrified that I’d run into one of them. As far as I knew, I’d been running straight but without being able to see I could have easily veered off to the left or right. I just wanted to find someone who could help and get back to my parents.

I wanted to be safely in my mum’s arms. Before I was taken, I was so angry with them for lying to me. Now I understood what they were protecting me from. I just hoped I got the chance to tell them how much they all meant to me – even Jeremy.

Noah was nowhere to be seen. I half expected him to pop up and tell me to run faster. They loved him, so I wanted to believe that they would never hurt him, but I wasn’t so sure. They’d done something to Seamus and Bridget at the house, and they were completely innocent. That wasn’t supposed to happen. If we’d have known they would do something like that we’d never have gone there.

Tears leaked from my eyes, rolling down my face. I felt awful for them, they were nice, decent people who took us in, and they didn’t deserve anything bad. When was it going to end? Who else was going to be hurt over me?

Continuing to run became increasingly difficult. I could feel the fear and heartache slowly start to pull me under, digging its ugly claws into my skin. If I’d just handled my parents telling me the truth better, I probably wouldn’t be here now. If I hadn’t fallen in love with Noah, then it never would have happened.

Then I lost my footing on damp, slippery leaves and crashed to the ground. I threw my arms out and pain shot through my wrist. “Ahh,” I cried out, instantly stopping myself by slapping my good hand over my mouth.

Sitting on the damp floor of the forest, holding my screaming wrist I had never felt so alone.

Get up, keep moving.

I took a few deep breaths and battled the urge to cry. I’d done something to my wrist and while I was at it stretched the cut on my forearm, too. Everything seemed hopeless. I forced myself up, crying silently as I hobbled forwards again, trying to work up to a jog. My muscles, bones, screamed at me to give in, and I almost listened.

But from somewhere I found the strength to keep going.

Every step sent sharp pains the full length of my legs. I didn’t know how much I had left inside before I gave in to the need to curl up and for it all to be over with,
one way or another. But then I heard something. I froze, gripping a dead tree for stability.

Road traffic. I had never been so happy to hear cars before, but I wasn’t so stupid to go straight out onto the road in case one of Eternal Light was on it. A shimmer of hope was all I needed to keep going.

I stumbled forwards, barely having the energy to move anymore. I saw houses first, on the other side of a road and burst into tears. The area was built up and to the right of the housing estate were shops. There must be a police station nearby.
Please.
Sobbing, I ran faster, stopping briefly to make sure there were no cars coming.

I ran along the street, probably going no faster than a walk, desperately trying to see through tear filled eyes. People stopped and looked, a few pointed and at the end of the road two police officers did a double take and then ran towards me. They knew who I was.

Oh, thank God.

“Scarlett Garner?” one of them said as they approached.

I cried harder and collapsed into his arms, nodding my head. He scooped me up and turned around; walking back they way they’d come. “It’s alright,” he said. “You’re safe now.”

They had me bundled in the police car within seconds and started talking on his radio. I rambled about everything, the cult, almost dying but mostly about Noah. Where was Noah? Even I knew I wasn’t making sense, but I couldn’t stop the jumbled words flowing out of my mouth.

The officer who sat in the back with me placed his hand on my upper arm. “Scarlett,” he said.

I looked over my knees where I was huddled against the door and finally spoke my only legible word, “Yeah?”

“I need you to calm down so we can find out what happened and help you. Can you do that for me?” I nodded. “Where are they?”

“I-In the forest. Noah’s still out there; you
have
to find him.”

“Noah? The Noah who took you to Ireland?”

I knew how it looked. “Yes, he was the one who helped me escape in the end. He turned his back on them and now he’s out there and if he didn’t get away in time…” I took a deep, shaky breath. “They found us in a house, and I don’t know what they did to the people living there, but Bridget screamed for Seamus and then Noah made me run. Please.
Please
go back to that house, check the old couple are okay and find Noah.”

“Okay, shh, calm down. We’ll have people check that out, don’t worry. Are you hurt?”

I shook my head even though I was. My feet ached and stung from running barefoot for ages; pain throbbed through my wrist and the cut to my arm had started to hurt, too. But I didn’t want to go to the hospital first because they would make it all about me. I needed to go to the police station and tell them what happened so they could find Noah and arrest every crazy member of Eternal Light.

“No, I just need you to find Noah and that house.”

He nodded once. “Alright.”

When we got to the station, I was helped to freshen up in the bathroom, given a hot drink and biscuits and a blanket to wrap around myself. I sat in a room with my hands hugging a steaming mug of coffee, trying to keep it together long enough so that I could go over everything – again.

“Hello, Scarlett, I’m Detective Crossby but you can call me Adele, and this is my colleague Detective Long. We need to speak to you and ask you a few questions if that’s alright?”

I nodded and sat up in the seat. “Do you know where my parents are?”

“They’re in Ireland. We want to have a chat with you first.”

Thank God. It was a good sign that they were free to go wherever they wanted. “What do you want to know?”

She scratched the back of her neck, probably not knowing where to start either. There was so much. “Your family have said you’ve no memory before the age of four, is that correct?”

At least she was still referring to them as my family and not making them out to be child-snatching criminals. “That’s right. Want to start from the beginning?”

Detective Crossby smiled and tilted her head in a nod, making her short black hair slide into her eyes, and I went right back to where I could remember – waking up a scared and confused child.

When I’d told my story, every detail, right up to escaping two hours had passed. It was the same story I’d already told the police, but they had been lucky enough to only need the condensed version. Naturally she had a lot of questions.