Like a tidal wave of fire, the flames rushed through my blood, my head snapping back on a hiss. Hands shaking, I brought the blade to my arm and sliced hard. At the feel of the sharp edge ripping through my flesh, I smiled, feeling the relief of the blood flowing from my arm.
“Flame!” Maddie called.
“No…” I snarled. She couldn’t go. She couldn’t leave me.
Maddie took a step back, her palms up in front of her chest. “Flame, stop—”
“You’re not fucking going to that place!” My feet started to pace. All I could see in my head were rows and rows of pews. Screaming. People lying on the floor. And Pastor Hughes’s voice, call, “…In my name they shall cast out devils; they shall speak with new tongues…”
The snakes, being tied down, the poison, the pain, unable to move…
“FUCK!” I screamed, as the flames coursed through my veins.
I couldn’t stand them. Couldn’t stand them burning my flesh. Holding my breath, I threw off my Cut and sliced across my torso. I exhaled and bent over at the pain. But then he was in my head.
Fisting my free hand, I slammed it into the side of my skull trying to block out his voice. “GO THE FUCK AWAY!” I shouted. But he was behind me, gripping the back of my neck, taking me to that church.
“Flame! Look at me… please…” I could hear Maddie’s voice in front of me. But it was weak. I closed my eyes trying to push him away, to push the voices away. But they wouldn’t leave. They were there. They were always there, waiting. Waiting to strike when the flames came back. When the evil returned to my blood.
A moan tore from my mouth through gritted teeth. My eyes snapped back open. Maddie stood back against the wall of the living room, watching me with wide eyes. Her chest was pounding hard, and my stomach rolled.
“You can’t fucking go,” I roared again, my eyes blinking too fast. Then I felt it slide across my chest. Felt the slippery skin slithering across my skin, the flames following its path. And they couldn’t do that to her. They couldn’t hurt her like that. She’d suffered enough.
“Flame?”
“And they shall take up serpents; and if they drink any deadly thing, it shall not hurt them…” The poison. I could feel the poison trickling down my throat. Then it burned. And I couldn’t move.
“Flame… please… you are scaring me.”
I fought to stop the heat in my veins. My feet ground to a halt and I looked at Maddie. “No church. I can’t let you go there. You’re not fucking going there!”
Maddie took a step toward me, but I could see her hands shaking, I could see her lips trembling. I didn’t want to hurt her… “I need to save you…”
Maddie stopped. She took a deep breath and asked, “Save me from what?”
“Them,” I whispered, my hand lifting to her face. Maddie’s eyes went huge as she watched my hand, then I ripped it back, digging the tip of the blade into the skin to make it stop. The evil inside wanted to hurt her with the flames.
I couldn’t let it.
“They’ll hurt you. With serpents and poison, and—”
A knock on the door cut off my words. Maddie watched me. I watched her. “You’re not fucking going!” I bit, and dug sharp fingernails into my palm.
The knock sounded again. “Maddie?”
Mae. It was Mae’s voice.
“Flame,” Maddie said too quietly. I inched in closer, backing her against the wall.
“You’re not leaving.”
Another knock. Louder this time. “Maddie? Are you okay?”
But I never looked away from Maddie’s face. Maddie who was now staring at the door. She then looked to me. “I need to speak to her.”
I crowded her in against the wall, my hands towering over her head as my palms hit the wall. “No,” I ordered in a low voice, “she’ll make you go. And I can’t go in. I can’t fucking go in!”
Maddie’s gaze searched mine. Finally, her shoulders sagged. “I won’t go,” she whispered. “I swear. But I have to tell Mae. I have to tell her I will not be accompanying them or she will bring Styx. And… and I do not want you hurt.”
My arms didn’t move from their cage, but Maddie moved forward and I jumped back before she could touch my chest. She walked to the door, her hands still shaking. I walked right behind her.
Maddie’s hand hovered over the doorknob, and on an inhale, she opened the door. Mae, Lilah and a young kid were standing there.