36
Sassy stood alone in the fractured corridor, the lamp flickering wildly in her trembling hand. Dust floated in the air like ash. The crack in the ground where Wren had vanished hissed faintly with rising heat and moisture.
Silence pressed in around her. Not peaceful silence. Instead the charged, breathless quiet of a predator holding still.
Sassy wiped stone grit from her face and forced her lungs to steady. “I can do this,” she said. “I have to.”
The only path left was forward. Toward the deeper chambers. Toward the center of the Garden’s labyrinth, toward the answers she feared more than the dark. She raised the lamp higher and continued.
The corridor narrowed into a stone walkway carved with hundreds of hand-etched words. At first, Sassy thought they were prayers or chants. But as she passed, the truth chilled her spine.
They were names.
Soria
Iris
Delara
Maeve
Etta
Some carved carefully. Some scraped in jagged desperation.
Discarded Blooms.
Or successful ones.
Or ones who never made it to any ritual at all.
Sassy’s fingers brushed the wall as she walked. Each name a ghost brushing her skin.
She swallowed hard. “I won’t be one of you. I refuse.”
But the walls didn’t answer. Only the sound of water dripping somewhere deeper. As she turned a corner, she froze. A voice echoed faintly through the stone.
Low.
Rough.
Broken.
A voice she knew better than her own.
“—Sassy…”
Her heart slammed into her ribs.
“JIMMY!” she shouted, the sound ripping from her chest.
The voice didn’t answer.
Instead, a rhythmic chant rose from below, swallowing the echo:
“The Protector prepares.
The Protector awakens.
The Protector aligns.”
Sassy’s blood turned to ice.
“No,” she said. “No, Jimmy, don’t listen to them. Don’t let them take you.”
But another sound drifted up.
Softer.
More intimate.
Her name.
Not panicked.
Not pleading.
Calm.
Sassy backed against the wall, gripping the lamp so hard her knuckles whitened.
It wasn’t Jimmy calling for help. It was Jimmy calling to her. As if he wanted her to find him. As if he expected her to. As if he were waiting.
Her chest tightened painfully. “This is a trick. They’re mimicking him.”
But deep down in the marrow of her bones, she knew that wasn’t entirely true. There had been something in the tone.
A familiar cadence.
A softened edge.
An intimacy only Jimmy had ever held her with.
Her voice trembled. “Jimmy… what are they doing to you?”
A crackling sound broke through the quiet—a faint, static murmur. She froze. It came again. A low, distant shout.
“Sassy!”
Benji.
She turned toward the noise coming from an air duct far above her head. She climbed onto a stone outcropping, gripping the sharp edges, hoisting the lamp as close as she dared.
“BENJI!” she shouted. “I’m here!”
His voice echoed back, muffled but fierce. “Sassy, keep talking! I’m trying to get to you!”
Relief shattered her composure. Tears burned her eyes. “I fell into the lower levels! I don’t know where Wren is!”
Benji swore a string of curses thrown like weapons. “I’m coming down. Stay where you are.”
“No!” she yelled. “You can’t. There are guards everywhere!”
“I don’t give a damn,” he barked. “You sound scared.”
“I am, Benji!”
Silence on his end. Then softer words that hit her chest like a blow.
“Don’t you dare disappear on me. I’m not losing you too.”
Sassy pressed her forehead to the cold stone. “I’m not trying to.”
“Good,” he said. “Because I’ll rip this whole place apart if I have to.”
The air duct rattled as something heavy shifted. He was trying to reach her through brute force alone.
“Benji—don’t hurt yourself!” she called.
A dry laugh. “Too late.”
But then something clattered loudly beside her—small, metallic, skidding across the floor. A flashlight. Dropped from the vent. She snatched it up instantly.
Benji exhaled sharply. “Now go. Find cover. I’m close.”
The static faded. His voice was gone.
Sassy stood taller. She wasn’t alone. Armed with the flashlight and the lamp, she pressed onward. The corridor sloped steeply downward, ending in a set of carved stone doors. They’re massive, etched with the hourglass symbol in thick, deep grooves.
A plaque above them read:
CHAMBER OF REFLECTION
She felt it before she touched it—
the temperature dropping,
the air thickening,
the walls holding their breath.
Wren’s voice echoed in her mind:
It’s where they break Blooms.
Where they reshape Protectors.
Where they strip you of your past.
Sassy pressed her palm to the door.
It swung inward with a heavy groan.
Inside—
Darkness.
Rows of stone benches.
Ritual circles drawn in chalk.
The faint smell of incense and sweat.
And on the far wall— a mural. Two figures painted in sweeping strokes of ash and ochre:
A girl with long dark hair.
A boy with broad shoulders.
Hands intertwined.
Underneath the figures were words:
THE BLOOM RETURNS TO THE PROTECTOR
THE PROTECTOR PREPARES THE BLOOM
Sassy staggered backward.
“No,” she said. “This isn’t real. This is doctrine. This is madness.”
But her heart betrayed her. A single, painful throb of something like recognition. A whisper rose from the darkness behind her:
“Do you see now, Bloom?”
Sassy spun, lamp trembling.
A hooded figure stood just inside the door.
Calm.
Still.
Hands clasped.
The figure took one step forward.
“His heart is awakening. He calls for you.”
Sassy backed away. “Where is he? What have you done to him?”
The figure tilted its head.
“Nothing you did not begin.”
Sassy’s stomach twisted. “You’re lying.”
The figure pointed at the mural.
“At the end of the circle, he will guide you home.”
Sassy shook violently. “Jimmy would never—”
The figure interrupted softly:
“He already has.”
Before Sassy could react, footsteps thundered through the corridor behind the hooded figure.
Benji’s voice roared:
“SASSY—MOVE!”
The figure darted away into the dark.
Sassy turned toward the entrance just as the chamber doors were slammed shut behind her.
Locked.
Benji’s muffled shouting echoed from the other side.
Sassy stumbled backward, trapped in the ceremonial dark.
Alone.
Enclosed.
And for the first time, terrified
Not of losing Jimmy. But of finding him.
37
The doors slammed shut with a force that reverberated through the entire chamber. Dust rained from the ceiling in thin, trembling lines. Sassy lunged toward the stone slabs, slamming her palms against them.
“BENJI!” she shouted. “BENJI, I’m in here!”
His voice tore through the other side. Muffled, furious, frantic.
“Sassy, step back! I’m breaking this damn door down!”
“No,” she cried, pressing her forehead against the cold stone. “No, don’t—you’ll get yourself—”
But the impact shook the door before she could finish. A deep, violent THUD followed by Benji’s strangled curse. He was throwing himself against it. Over and over.
Her chest constricted.
“Benji, stop! You’re going to hurt yourself!”
“Sassy—answer me!”
“I’m here!”
“Talk to me so I know you’re—”
Another slam.
A gasp.
“—so I know you’re alive.”
Her throat tightened. “I’m alive. I’m okay. Just… don’t kill yourself trying to get through.”
His breathing eased only slightly. “I’ll find another way. Just hold on.”
Footsteps retreated. Benji pulling back, regrouping.
Silence pressed in.
Sassy turned slowly, lifting the lamp and flashlight making parts of the chamber glow.
The darkness swallowed most of the light.
The room stretched farther than she realized: cavernous, circular, its far edges hidden in shadow. As the light crawled across the stone, carvings emerged hundreds of faintly etched silhouettes.
Girls.
Boys.
Figures kneeling, reaching, entwined.
A circle of them surrounding a central emblem: the hourglass cracked down the middle.
Sassy’s stomach twisted.
Sounds drifted across the room, too faint to place. Like voices layered on top of one another. She spun, flashlight trembling. There was no one. But the faint chanting grew louder.
”…return…”
”…chosen…”
”…Protector prepares…”
She backed away, heart pounding in her throat. The words weren’t spoken aloud—they were embedded in the air itself, woven into the stone.
A ritual echo. A memory of a thousand indoctrinations. Her lamp flickered.
“No,” she said defiantly. “No, I won’t listen. You don’t get to define me.”
But a soft voice slid through the dark:
“You already let him define you.”
Sassy froze.
Her skin crawled.
She turned toward the voice slowly, dread sinking like iron in her gut.
A figure stood at the edge of the mural, hooded. Cloaked in the Garden’s ash-stained robes. The same voice as before. The one who’d told her: He already has. The figure stepped forward, lamp light catching the edge of their mask.
“You came farther than expected, Bloom.”
“Don’t call me that,” Sassy snarled.
The figure tilted their head. “Names have power. And you are not Sassy in here. Not to him.”
Her blood ran cold. “Jimmy doesn’t want this.”
“You think you know what he wants.”
“I do.”
“You don’t.”
The figure raised a gentle hand. Not aggressive, but pitying.
“When he spoke your name, he didn’t speak it in fear.”
Her voice stuttered. “You’re lying. You use people—twist them—”
“Yes,” the figure said softly. “We do.”
The admission stunned her.
“But not him,” the figure added. “He came to us open. Searching. Wanting.”
Sassy shook her head fiercely. “Jimmy would never willingly—”
“He asked questions.”
A step closer.
“He accepted answers.”
Another step.
“He listened.”
“No…” Sassy said, backing away until she felt the wall press into her spine. “You’re manipulating him. Drugging him. Breaking him.”
The figure paused.
“Breaking him? No.”
Voice almost tender.
“We are rebuilding him.”
The room seemed to tilt.
Her breath came in thin, ragged gasps.
“Where is he?” she demanded, voice cracking. “Where is Jimmy?”
The figure didn’t answer.
Instead, they gestured toward the far side of the chamber toward a smaller door she hadn’t noticed, half concealed by shadow.
“He left something for you,” the figure said.
Sassy’s heart lurched. “What?”
But the figure stepped backward, vanishing into the darkness as though consumed by it.
“Find it,” they whispered.
“And you’ll understand.”
The door clicked softly.
Unlocked.
Sassy grabbed her lamp and approached, legs shaking. She pushed the door open. It was small. Barely a closet. A single candle flickered on a low altar. The walls were carved with spirals and hourglasses, each symbol traced in ash. And on the altar… Sassy’s mind stopped and became perfectly still as soon as she saw it. It was a bracelet.
Worn leather.
Frayed edges.
A tiny crack in the clasp.
Jimmy’s bracelet.
The one he’d had since they were kids.
She staggered forward, snatching it up with shaking hands.
“No,” she said panicked. “No, no, no—Jimmy wouldn’t give this away. He never takes it off.”
Her vision blurred.
This was his anchor.
His identity.
His memory of childhood.
His promise to protect her.
He would never surrender it. Unless— Unless he didn’t see it as surrender. Her lungs constricted painfully. Benji’s words flickered in her memory: I’ll rip this place apart if I have to.
But Jimmy… Jimmy might not want to leave.
Her voice broke apart in the candlelit dark.
“Jimmy… what are you doing?”
Behind her—
the chamber door rattled violently.
Benji’s voice:
“SASSY! MOVE AWAY FROM THE DOOR!”
Relief crashed over her—but before she could answer, she heard something else.
Another voice.
Soft.
Male.
So faint she almost thought it was in her head.
“Sassy…”
She spun. The small room was empty. The candle flame danced. The faint call came again—gentle, coaxing, familiar:
“Come find me.”
Her heart stopped.
“Jimmy?”
No answer.
Only the echo.
Benji slammed the outer door again, shouting her name. Sassy clutched the bracelet to her chest, shaking violently. Torn between the boy she loved and the boy the Garden was shaping.
Between escape
and descent.
Between truth
and faith.
She faced the inner door again. The whisper repeated—
“Come find me.”
Sassy swallowed her sob and stepped deeper into the dark.
38
The whisper lingered in the stone like a breath held too long. A never ending ripple from a rock skipping across the placid water of a pond.
Come find me.
Sassy’s pulse hammered as she stepped through the narrow doorway, clutching Jimmy’s bracelet so tightly the leather dug into her palm. The air grew colder, the dark thicker, swallowing the lamp’s light in greedy gulps. The corridor beyond the threshold tilted downward, uneven, carved by hands that no longer remembered sunlight.
She paused once, glancing back at the Chamber of Reflection.
Benji’s roar was still faintly audible:
“SASSY! ANSWER ME!”
She opened her mouth to call back and the whisper came again, too close to ignore.
“Sassy…”
She gasped and stopped.
It sounded like Jimmy.
But softer.
Lower.
Almost… coaxing.
She turned away from Benji’s distant voice and stepped deeper into the dark.
The corridor twisted sharply. Water trickled along the floor, running downhill. The walls glistened with a faint mineral sheen that reflected her lamplight in fractured, ghostly patterns.
As she rounded a corner, she found a series of carved alcoves lining the passage—each filled with objects.
Offerings.
A cracked toy horse.
A rosary.
A girl’s ribbon, tied into a bow.
A boy’s belt buckle.
Buttons.
Shells.
Fragments of childhood.
Sassy recoiled as she realized—
These weren’t offerings. They were remnants.
She passed each alcove like she was walking through a mausoleum of stolen pasts. The bracelet in her hand felt like it was burning.
“Jimmy,” she said shakily. “What did they take from you?”
Another faint call drifted through the air. Warmer this time.
“Sass…”
She froze.
This time the voice didn’t come from down the hall.
It came from everywhere. Like the stone itself was speaking.
Her heart stuttered. “Jimmy?”
Only silence answered.
Far above her, in the Chamber of Reflection, Benji slammed his entire body weight against the stone door one more time. The impact rattled the hinges but didn’t break them. He staggered back, chest heaving.
Levi placed a firm hand on his shoulder. “Benj, stop. You’ll mess yourself up.”
“I don’t care!” Benji snapped, shoving him off. “She’s in there. Alone. They did this to her. They want to break her like they broke those other girls!”
Colton stepped between them. “We need strategy, not stupidity.”
Benji’s eyes blazed. “If anything happens to her—if they touch one hair on her head—I swear to God I’ll burn this place to the ground with my bare hands.”
Wren, still pale and trembling, approached the mural on the far wall—the depiction of the Bloom and Protector.
Her voice was thin. “They’re accelerating the ritual.”
Benji spun toward her. “What does that mean?”
Wren swallowed hard. “It means Sassy is running out of time.”
Benji grabbed his rifle. “Then we move. Now.”
Sassy pressed forward.
The tunnel widened unexpectedly into a broader, bowl-shaped chamber glistening with condensation. Channels of water traced patterns overhead, glowing faintly with some mineral luminescence.
For a moment, she forgot to breathe. The beauty of it was haunting, surreal—almost sacred. Until she noticed what stood at the center of the room. A stone pedestal. And atop it a folded cloth the color of deep wine.
Her stomach tightened as she approached. She reached out, hesitated, then lifted the cloth.
A robe. Thick, soft, ceremonial. Her size. A garment meant for ritual.
Her knees nearly gave out. “No,” she said. “Not for me. Not for me.”
The whisper slid through the chamber like a hand along her spine.
“You’re almost here.”
Sassy dropped the robe and staggered back.
“STOP!” she shouted to the ceiling. “Stop using his voice! Stop pretending you’re him!”
Her voice cracked into a sob.
“I know him. You can’t fake Jimmy. You can’t.”
But the stone didn’t care. The whisper came again. Not loud, not dramatic, just quiet enough to sound real.
“Please… don’t be afraid.”
Her heart twisted violently. It sounded exactly like him. Exactly. The way he used to speak to her when they were little and she woke from nightmares. The tone he used the night they almost confessed feelings in the motel.
Soft.
Tender.
Honest.
Too honest.
She pressed both hands over her ears. “NO! He wouldn’t want this! He wouldn’t want whatever this is—he wouldn’t want these rites or these tunnels or these—”
Another whisper.
Not a command.
A plea.
“Sassy… let me show you.”
Her mind froze but her body kept moving. Because despite her terror—a part of her wanted to follow the voice. Wanted to believe he was alive and calling for her out of love.
Not devotion.
Not indoctrination.
Not transformation.
Love.
She turned away from the pedestal, shaking, and ran.
The tunnels spilled her out into a long, arched hallway lined with hanging fabric—silver cloth shimmering softly in the lamplight. Each sheet bore a symbol: a rising sun over a cracked circle.
The Garden’s sigil.
She passed them slowly, one hand brushing the fabric as if trying to tear through it. At the end of the hall, another door waited—wooden, reinforced with iron, slightly ajar. A draft of warm air drifted through it.
A breath.
A pulse.
Life.
Sassy pushed the door open. It was a small chamber. Round, low ceiling, a single ring of candles burning along the perimeter. A pool of water sat at the center, still as glass.
Sassy approached gingerly, raising her lamp over the surface. Her reflection stared back, wide-eyed, trembling, ash-streaked. And behind her reflection—a silhouette.
Tall.
Broad-shouldered.
Male.
“Jimmy?” She spun around—
Nothing. Just darkness.
The whisper came again. Gentle, full of longing that stabbed her like a blade.
“Don’t be afraid. I’m waiting.”
She clutched the bracelet so tightly the leather cut into her skin.
“Where are you?” she called into the void. “Where are you, Jimmy?”
The answer flowed through the chamber like a breeze:
“Closer than you think.”
Benji and Levi broke through a secondary door, splintering wood, forcing themselves deeper. Colton covered the rear, gun raised.
Wren pressed a hand against one of the carved walls, horrified.
“They’re guiding her,” she said. “They’re pulling her toward the sanctum.”
Benji’s blood ran cold. “Why her?”
Wren looked at him with trembling certainty.
“Because Jimmy won’t complete the ritual until she arrives.”
Benji froze.
Then—
“…Jimmy?”
Wren nodded once.
Benji’s face twisted with fury, and something like fear.
“Move,” he yelled. “We’re not losing her. Or him. Not to them.”
Sassy stepped back from the pool, shaking uncontrollably. Her lamp flickered as though struggling to stay alive.
Every instinct screamed to turn back. Every memory of Jimmy begged her to move forward. She stood in the threshold between two versions of reality— the boy she loved and the boy he might be becoming.
Her voice cracked into the silence: “I’m coming… but not because of them. Because of you.”
The whisper answered immediately—
warm
relieved
devoted
“I knew you would.”
Sassy stepped into the next passage.
The door closed behind her on its own.
39
The corridor narrowed into a stone throat, swallowing Sassy with every step. Her lamp flickered, fighting against a suffocating darkness that felt almost alive - flickering, waiting, listening.
She clutched Jimmy’s bracelet in her fist, the leather digging into her palm.
Her heartbeat in frantic, uneven pulses.
Ahead, a faint glow brightened the next chamber—a soft amber light that seemed to come from nowhere and everywhere at once.
The sanctum.
She knew that word without ever being told. It vibrated in her bones, in the stale air, in the whisper that had guided her.
“I’m waiting.”
Her breath trembled. She took one step forward. The whisper came again—gentle, warm, coaxing:
“Sass…”
But this time another voice cut through the darkness.
Sharp.
Familiar.
Desperate.
“SASSY! MOVE!”
She spun just as a figure barreled into her—a blur of flannel, mud, and fury.
Benji.
He slammed into her with such force they tumbled back onto the hard stone. The lamp shattered beside them, plunging the corridor into near-total darkness.
Sassy gasped, disoriented. “Benji—?”
He grabbed her shoulders, eyes wild. “Are you insane?! You were walking straight into the heart of it!”
“I—I heard him,” she said. “Jimmy. He’s close. He needs—”
“No,” Benji snapped, pulling her to her feet. “They’re using him. Or using his voice. I don’t care which. You’re not going to them alone.”
She swayed, dizzy. “But I can’t leave him—”
“You’re not,” Benji snapped. “But you ARE leaving this place.”
Heavy footsteps thundered down the corridor behind him.
Levi.
Colton.
Wren.
“We have to go!” Levi shouted. “They’re sealing tunnels behind us—we’re nearly boxed in!”
Wren grabbed Sassy’s arm, eyes wide with terror and something else—something like guilt.
“They know you reached the lower sanctum,” she said breathlessly. “They’re mobilizing.”
“The High Mother is with them,” Colton added. “We saw her in the upper hall.”
Sassy’s stomach twisted. “But Jimmy—”
Benji cupped her face in both hands, forcing her eyes to his.
“We’ll get him,” he said, voice shaking with earnest fury. “But not here. Not when you’re alone. Not when they’re using him as bait.”
She blinked, tears slipping down her cheeks. “Benji… I heard him. He sounded—”
“I know,” he said, pulling her close. “That’s why we run.”
Another distant whisper slithered through the corridor, soft as silk:
“Sassy…”
Her knees buckled.
Benji lifted her immediately and shouted:
“MOVE!”
The group sprinted up a sloping passageway, Benji carrying Sassy like she weighed nothing. Wren ran ahead, guiding them through twisting paths and narrow crevices invisible to the untrained eye.
“Left!” she cried. “Then up the incline! Hurry!”
Ritual bells began ringing behind them a terrifying, metallic chorus that grew louder with every second.
Levi cursed under his breath. “They’re calling the guards.”
“They’re calling everyone,” Wren said. “The Protector chamber is active.”
Sassy flinched.
Jimmy.
Benji’s arms tightened around her. “Don’t think about it. Just hold on.”
They reached a rusted ladder embedded in the stone. Colton scrambled up first, pushing open a hatch that released a blast of cold night air.
Moonlight spilled in. Freedom.
“Go, go, GO!” he shouted.
Wren climbed next. Levi pushed Sassy into Benji’s arms as he climbed after her. Benji waited until the last possible second, then hauled himself up the ladder, muscles trembling with adrenaline.
Below them, chanting filled the tunnel.
Dozens of voices.
Echoing.
Rising.
Benji slammed the hatch shut and dragged a broken plank across it as a makeshift brace.
“Run,” he gasped.
And they did.
They emerged into a clearing deep in the woods. The night’s sky transformed each exhale into silver clouds as they stumbled forward.
Sassy collapsed onto her knees, gulping cold air. Wren crouched beside her, touching her shoulder gently.
“You’re out,” she said. “You made it out.”
But Sassy’s eyes drifted back toward the hatch.
“He’s still down there. He’s still calling me.”
Benji knelt in front of her, his face shadowed but unyielding.
“And we’ll go back for him,” he said. “But on OUR terms.”
“What terms?” she asked.
Levi answered grimly: “War.”
They trekked for nearly an hour through dense woods until they reached a decomposing structure tucked behind overgrown brush—a two-story hunting lodge, long since abandoned.
Windows broken.
Roof sagging.
Walls covered in moss and brambles.
Perfect.
Benji kicked open the door and ushered her inside.
It smelled like dust and old pine. Cobwebs hung in the corners. Broken furniture littered the floor. But it was shelter. It was theirs.
Colton started barricading windows with fallen boards. Levi searched for dry firewood. Wren found an old lantern and coaxed it to life.
Benji pulled Sassy aside, voice low.
“You were walking right into their trap,” he said. “I’m not letting that happen again.”
“I had to know,” she said. “I had to hear him.”
Benji’s jaw tightened. “I know. And that’s the problem.”
She flinched.
He stepped closer, his voice softer. “They’re using him. Or they’re changing him. I don’t know. But whatever’s happening—it’s not Jimmy calling you. Not the Jimmy you know.”
Her eyes stung. “But what if it is him?”
Benji’s voice broke.
“Then I’ll fight him too if I have to. To bring him back.”
Sassy stared at him, stunned.
Benji swallowed hard, gaze locked on hers.
“I’m not losing you,” he said fiercely. “Not to them. Not to him. Not to anything.”
Footsteps approached—Wren, voice trembling.
“They’re coming,” she said. “They know she escaped. They won’t stop.”
Benji rose to his feet, fire in his eyes.
“Good,” he said. “Let them come.”
He loaded his rifle, the click echoing through the ruined lodge.
“They want a Bloom and a Protector?” He stepped in front of Sassy. “Then they can choke on a Fallon instead.”
Sassy stared into the flames flickering from the newly lit lantern.
Jimmy was in the earth.
The Garden was coming.
And for the first time she wasn’t sure which one frightened her more.
40
The lodge creaked in the wind like an old animal snoring in its sleep. Moonlight filtered through broken slats in the roof, striping the dusty floor. The lantern Wren had lit flickered weakly, casting long, trembling shadows across the peeling walls.
Outside, the woods were alive. Too quiet, too still.
Sassy sat on the sagging couch, clutching Jimmy’s bracelet, trying to stop her hands from shaking. Benji paced the room in tight, agitated loops, checking and rechecking the rifle’s chamber. Levi stood at the boarded window, scanning the tree line. Wren crouched near the doorway, wrapping her arms around herself as if the cold were trying to climb inside her bones.
No one spoke at first.
But silence never stayed long when fear sat in the room.
In the distance, a horn sounded.
Low.
Resonant.
Foreign.
Sassy jolted upright. “What is that?”
Wren’s face drained of color. “The Calling Horn.”
Benji froze mid-step. “Explain.”
“It’s how the Garden organizes a pursuit.” Wren’s voice trembled. “They use three signals. One to summon. One to surround. One to close the net.”
Levi muttered. “Which was that one?”
“The first,” Wren explained.
Benji slammed his fist against the wall, splintering rotting wood. “They’re coming fast.”
“They know where you surfaced,” Wren said. “And they know she’s with you.”
Sassy hugged the bracelet to her chest. “Jimmy’s still down there. They won’t leave without him.”
Wren hesitated, then shook her head. “Jimmy is not their priority tonight.”
Sassy’s heart twisted. “I heard him. He was calling me.”
Benji stopped pacing. “Sassy, that wasn’t him.”
Wren inhaled sharply. “We can’t assume that.”
Benji spun on her. “Are you kidding me? You SAID they mimic voices—”
“I said they CAN,” Wren snapped, surprising everyone. “Not that they ALWAYS do.”
Levi stepped between them, but the damage was done. The tension was thick enough to choke on.
Benji’s voice dropped into a lethal, low tone. “If Jimmy is calling her, then they’ve already gotten into his head.”
Wren’s eyes flicked away. “We don’t know that.”
Sassy watched them argue around her, the room spinning. She felt the whisper again in her mind. Come find me…
She had never doubted Jimmy.
Never doubted his love.
Never doubted that he would die before he hurt her.
But doubt crept in like smoke.
A sudden thud hit the side of the lodge.
Everyone froze.
Another.
Then another.
Benji raised his rifle. “Positions.”
Colton, who had been guarding the back exit, burst into the room. “Movement in the trees. Lots.”
Wren’s voice trembled. “They’re surrounding us.”
A second horn blew.
Lower.
Deeper.
Hungrier.
Wren slapped a hand over her mouth. “That’s the second signal. They’re forming a perimeter.”
“Let them,” Benji snarled. “We’ll make them regret stepping foot on Fallon land.”
“This isn’t your land,” Wren hissed. “This is THEIR territory. Their tunnels run under half this county. You’re in THEIR web.”
Benji glared at her. “Then I’ll burn the web.”
Another crash hit the boarded window. Wood splintered. Levi shoved his shoulder into it, reinforcing the boards.
“They’re testing the walls,” he said. “Looking for weak points.”
Sassy stood, wobbling slightly. “Why are they coming here? Why are they risking a fight they don’t want?”
Wren looked at her with painful clarity.
“Because they need you.”
A crackling sound drifted under the door.
Soft.
Rhythmic.
Like static.
Sassy stepped toward it.
“Sass.”
A whisper.
Warm.
Familiar.
Her heart seized.
“That’s him,” she said panicked. “Benji—Benji, that’s Jimmy—”
Benji grabbed her arm. “No. Stay away from the door.”
But the whisper came again.
Closer.
Coaxing.
Pulling.
“I’m hurt… I need you…”
Her knees weakened. Tears stung her eyes. “Jimmy, where are you?”
Benji’s grip tightened painfully. “Sassy. He’s not out there.”
“Then how is he speaking to me? How does he know what to say? How does he know—”
Wren cut her off abruptly.
Not unkindly.
But with dread.
“They’re using him.”
Sassy’s could barely push out words. “What?”
Wren swallowed. “If he’s speaking directly to you. If he’s tracking your position then he may not be resisting them anymore.”
Benji stepped protectively in front of Sassy. “You think he switched sides?”
Wren’s voice broke. “I think he believes he hasn’t.”
A slow, deliberate knock echoed through the lodge walls.
Three taps.
Pause.
Three taps again.
Jimmy’s childhood knock.
Sassy’s chest collapsed inward. “He wouldn’t knock like that unless… Unless he was real. Unless he was close.”
Something brushed against the outside door.
A shadow passed across the cracks.
A silhouette.
Tall.
Broad-shouldered.
Benji shoved Sassy behind him so hard she nearly fell.
“DON’T TOUCH THAT DOOR!” he barked.
“Sass…”
The whisper again.
Soft.
Pleading.
Achingly familiar.
“Please. I need you.”
Her tears spilled. Her heart fractured. Everything she loved twisted against everything she feared.
“I have to go to him,” she said numbly. “He’s hurt—if he’s hurt—”
Benji grabbed her shoulders, shaking her gently. “Sassy, look at me. LOOK at me.”
She did.
His eyes were fierce.
Terrified.
Bloody with loyalty.
“That’s not Jimmy,” he said. “That’s the Garden using him. Or worse—”
He swallowed hard.
“—that’s Jimmy letting them.”
The words shattered her.
Another crash hit the door. The boards made a wailing noise as if in pain.
Levi shouted, “They’re coming through the back too!”
Colton yelled, “They’re circling us!”
Wren screamed, “THE THIRD SIGNAL IS COMING! RUN NOW!”
Benji kicked over the beat-up couch, positioning it as cover.
He grabbed Sassy’s hand.
Not gently.
Not gently at all.
“Sassy, choose,” he said, voice shaking. “Stay with me. Or go to him.”
She froze.
The lodge trembled from another impact. Outside the third horn sounded. A long, piercing wail that cracked the night open like bone. The Garden had closed the net. And at the door, Jimmy’s silhouette stood motionless.
Waiting.
This author has a clever way with words