Afterlife - Douglas Clegg [95]
“You’re talking but I hear nothing but bullshit,” she said.
She stepped into the bedroom.
6
Julie stepped into the room, feeling as if she were entering a dark cave. Yet, it was just a small bedroom, with the narrow bed pressed up against the far wall. Candles were lit around the child’s bed, and some of the Inner Sanctum’s members were there—a man of about thirty with thick blond hair sitting on a barcalounger near the shuttered window, and a teenaged girl who had a Sony Walkman in her hand and earphones in a halo over her head. She drew them off, looked at Julie, then at the blond man, and then at Hut.
“Christ,” Julie said. She had lost the nervous feeling, knowing she had a purpose here that was not about herself. That was not about weakness. But she saw her daughter’s hair, from under the covers, and the lump of her body under the covers.
The blond man’s face betrayed nothing but caution. He had half risen up in the chair, and then, seeing Hut, sat back down.
Eleanor’s voice behind her. “Now, Julie, you must be exhausted. Why don’t you just…”
“I’m not your patient anymore,” Julie said. “Talk to your Great God Hut.”
“He’s not a—” the blond man began, and then silenced himself.
Julie said to herself: don’t be afraid. You don’t matter anymore. They don’t matter. All that matters is Livy. All that matters is my little girl.
“You’re ghouls, aren’t you?” Julie whispered. “I’m not even sure if you’re human.”
“Good grief,” Eleanor said. “Julie, this isn’t mysticism. It’s pure science. It’s just a science we didn’t know about.”
“I don’t need to hear about this death cult anymore,” Julie said. She had that one thing left in her. She had hope. Maybe Livy was alive. They’d only had her one day, after all. Not even a full day.
“It’s reality. Objective reality,” Eleanor said. “It’s not a cult.”
“It’s not therapy, either,” Julie spat back. She pointed the gun at the teenaged girl. “Get away from my daughter.”
If you just ignore them, they’ll feel your will. Will is everything. They’re weak people who believe in nonsense. They think Hut is a God.
“Julie,” Hut began, but silenced himself.
If you’re psychic, guess what I’m thinking. Guess what my plan is. Guess.
She fought to keep her eyes from welling with tears. She moved to the bed, and sat at the edge of it.
“Livy,” she whispered softly. “Livy.”
“She can’t hear you,” Eleanor said, nearly as softly. “The auditory nerve is—”
“Shut up, Eleanor,” Julie said. “Just shut up.”
Julie felt a hand on her shoulder. It was Eleanor. Old friend. Comforter. Therapist. Monster.
Julie shrugged her away.
“My God.” Julie barely was able to get the words out.
Minutes seemed to pass, as she turned the words over in her mind.
She’s dead. They did it. They killed her.
They tested her.
The way they killed Matty. They used her for their test.
Her own father…
She hadn’t really believed it would happen. She hadn’t believed in her heart that it wasn’t all fantasy. That it wasn’t all mumbo-jumbo. PSI. Ability X. Resurrection. Death Cult. Project Daylight. Then, her voice returned. “My God. She’s dead. She’s dead. You already killed her, you really killed…” Julie murmured, covering her face, the tears breaking from within her, a dam burst, and she could not see when she had brought her hands away from her eyes, for the tears had nearly blinded her. “Monsters! Monsters!”
Hut’s voice, “She’s not dead. I know she’s not. Death is a state of consciousness. It’s not what you think.”
“You sick perverted bastard,” Julie thought she said, but wasn’t sure, because she felt knocked out, wiped clean, somehow destroyed by the knowledge of her daughter’s death.
“Three days,” her husband said. “You can’t believe the lies Diamant told. You can’t, Julie. Matty wasn’t right. Mandy and I were too much to produce a child that worked. Two Ability X’s don’t work right in bringing children into the world. Livy will work, because in you, like