Rhonda’s eyes grew wide with alarm. “Somebody should call the police.”
“They’d be out of their depth with this bunch,” Cassie replied bitterly. “We’re trying to handle it on our own. I took Hannah to a place where she’ll be safe.” She chose her next words carefully so as not to frighten Rhonda. “And now I want to be sure that you’ll be safe too.”
The older woman appeared confused. “Cassie, what on earth do you mean?”
“I’m going to have to drop out of sight for a while—find a new place to live—and I can’t tell you where.”
“If this is because I gave Hannah your address, I’m sorry. Please don’t cut me out of your life because of that!”
“Oh, Rhonda.” Cassie squeezed her hands briefly. “It’s not like that at all. You’re the one friend I had after my sister died and I’ll always to grateful to you for that. By sending Hannah to me, you actually did me a favor. That isn’t the problem.” The pythia hesitated. “The not-so-nice people I mentioned before... Well, they might send somebody to find Hannah, and I don’t want you getting mixed up in this mess.”
“What should I do?” the shopkeeper asked helplessly.
“For starters, be really careful if you see a man in a cowboy hat walk into this shop.”
Rhonda burst out laughing. “You can’t be serious.”
Cassie’s tone was stern. “Dead serious. Be on your guard around him. His name is Leroy Hunt, and he’s very dangerous. If he asks about Hannah, you can say she came to find me, but you told her you didn’t know where I was. After that, she left. You don’t know where she went from here. And you’d be telling the truth. You don’t know where she is.”
“Alright,” Rhonda agreed uncertainly.
“And there’s one more thing. If he should ask about me, you tell him I disappeared. Tell him I took a trip to Crete about six months ago and nobody has seen me since.”
Rhonda’s expression displayed shock. “Is this man after you?”
“Not any more. He thinks he killed me. I’d prefer to keep it that way.”
At those words, the color drained completely from Rhonda’s face. She remained silent for several moments. When she spoke, her voice was barely audible. “I always thought that Sybil’s death was just a random burglary gone wrong.” She stared directly into Cassie’s eyes. “But it wasn’t random at all, was it?”
The pythia met her gaze without flinching. “No, it wasn’t. Those not-so-nice people were behind it.”
“And you never told the police?”
“I didn’t know at the time. Sybil’s death was just the tip of the iceberg. There’s so much more at stake than that now.” Cassie returned to the matter at hand. “If somebody comes here asking about me, you tell them I disappeared.” The pythia laughed bleakly. “You won’t be lying about that either.”
“But how will I know you’re OK?”
“I’ll stop by when I’m sure it’s safe. It won’t be for a while though. I have to leave the country for a few months.”
“What on earth was Sybil involved in?” Rhonda asked in amazement.
“Something really, really important. And now I’m part of it too.”
“But Cassie, you’re just a kid,” the older woman protested.
The pythia smiled grimly. “If you knew what’s happened to me in the past six months, you wouldn’t call me that. I sure don’t feel like a kid anymore.”
Cassie stood to leave, and Rhonda put her arm around her visitor’s shoulder. “When I think of you out there, all alone...”
“That’s one thing you don’t need to worry about.” Her voice held a note of conviction. “I’ve got friends now, and they’re watching my back. I’m not alone out there. Not anymore.”
Chapter 19 – Man Trampled by Nightmare
It was well past two in the morning. Abraham restlessly prowled the silent corridors of the compound. He couldn’t remember the last time he’d been able to sleep through the night. That was a lie. He could remember. It was the last evening he’d spent with Hannah. But too many sleepless nights had passed since then. Had it been a week? Two? The sunsets had all bled together into a single weary haze.
He wandered aimlessly down one dimly-lit hall after another. No sounds came from within any of the chambers he passed. The occupants were all fast asleep as he himself should be. He felt nervous tension and exhaustion warring for control of his body. It was an odd sensation. At the moment, nervous tension held the upper hand. His mind was disengaged—his thoughts suspended in a torpid state while his body continued to stagger forward toward some unknown destination. Without consciously intending it, his feet inevitably led him to Hannah’s quarters, and there they stopped. The door had been left ajar. He wandered in and sat down on the bed. Moonlight was streaming through the small barred window, projecting the shadow of a cross on the coverlet. He lay down on his side, just to rest his bloodshot eyes. Just for a few moments.
Abraham was standing beside the gates of the compound, but he felt a vague uneasiness. Something was very wrong. There were no sentries in the guard house. The gates had been flung open and people, his people, were spilling out. Not merely the few hundred who lived at the compound itself, but thousands more—all clad in the garb of the Nephilim—all coursing through the gates and out into the Fallen Lands.
“Stop!” he commanded. His voice was drowned by the roar of the crowd charging toward the open portal. The women were loosening the coils of their braids—shaking their long hair free and letting it swirl behind them as they ran. They removed their white aprons and trod them into the dust underfoot. The
