Chapter 30 "Eyes of the Damned"
ADRIAN
The drive took fifteen minutes. Fifteen minutes of Adrian's mind spiraling through worst case scenarios. Ember was dead. The coven had found her. She was still possessed and had hurt more people. She'd run away and was living on the streets somewhere.
Or she'd simply forgotten about him.
Sterling Hall looked exactly the same brick facade, students coming and going, the normalcy of it all almost offensive given what Adrian had been through.
He stumbled inside, ignoring the stares from students who saw his bandaged head and bare feet. He found the stairs and climbed to the third floor, each step sending spikes of pain through his skull.
Room 314. Ember and Maya's room.
Adrian knocked. "Ember? Maya? Are you there?"
Silence.
He knocked harder. "Ember! It's Adrian! Please, if you're in there"
"They're not here."
Adrian turned to find the RA Brittany, he remembered standing in the hallway with her arms crossed.
"Where are they?" Adrian demanded.
"I don't know. Maya checked out two weeks ago. Said it was a family emergency. Took all her stuff." Brittany's expression was concerned. "Are you okay? You look like you should be in a hospital."
"What about Ember?"
"I haven't seen Ember since" Brittany thought about it. "Since the night before Maya left. Why? Is something wrong?"
Adrian turned and ran back down the stairs, ignoring Brittany's calls after him. He burst out of Sterling Hall and stood on the sidewalk, breathing hard, his vision swimming.
Where would they go? Where would Kelly take them if something had happened?
His apartment. Kelly's apartment.
Adrian pulled up the address from an old text thread and requested another rideshare. His phone battery was down to five percent.
The drive to Kelly's off-campus apartment took another ten minutes. Adrian practically fell out of the car when it stopped, stumbling up the stairs to the second floor.
He pounded on Kelly's door. "Kelly! It's Adrian! I know you're pissed at me but please I need to know if Ember's okay!"
No answer.
Adrian pounded harder, not caring who heard. "Kelly! Maya! Anyone! Please!"
The door next to Kelly's opened, and an older woman stuck her head out.
"He's not here," she said. "Left about a week ago. Lots of bags. Said he'd be gone for a while."
"Did he say where?"
"No. But he loaded everything into his car at like three in the morning. Seemed urgent."
The door closed.
Adrian stood in the empty hallway, his whole body shaking. Everyone was gone. Ember, Maya, Kelly all of them had disappeared.
And it was his fault.
He'd brought Ember to that estate. He'd handed her over to his grandmother. He'd let them hurt her.
Adrian sank down against the wall, his legs finally giving out. The bandage on his head felt too tight. His vision was blurring again. He might pass out right here in this hallway, and maybe that would be better. Maybe unconsciousness was better than facing what he'd done.
"This is all my fault," he whispered to the empty air. "I'm so sorry. I'm so sorry."
Tears were streaming down his face now, hot and unstoppable. He'd betrayed everyone. Ember, Kelly, Maya they'd trusted him, and he'd destroyed everything.
Adrian sat there crying for several minutes, students passing by and giving him strange looks, before something occurred to him.
The church.
Kelly had mentioned his father. Father David Thorne. A priest who specialized in
Adrian pulled out his phone with shaking hands. Four percent battery. He searched for "St. Catherine's Church Hollow Creek."
The address came up: 847 Maple Street.
It was worth a try. It was all he had left.
ADRIAN
Adrian drove his car retrieved from the impound lot for an obscene fee charged to his grandmother's credit card toward St. Catherine's Church.
His head was pounding. His vision kept blurring at the edges. He probably shouldn't be driving, should probably be back in that hospital bed, but he didn't care.
He needed to find Ember. Needed to know she was alive.
St. Catherine's appeared through the trees an old stone building with a towering steeple, surrounded by cemetery headstones and overgrown grass. It looked abandoned, though Adrian could see lights in some of the windows.
He parked and got out, swaying on his feet. The bandage on his head felt wet probably bleeding through. He was probably doing permanent damage to himself right now.
Still didn't care.
Adrian pushed through the heavy wooden doors. The interior was dim, lit only by candles and the weak evening light filtering through stained glass windows.
"Hello?" His voice echoed in the empty nave. "Is anyone here? Can anyone hear me?"
Silence.
"Please!" Adrian moved further inside, his voice growing desperate. "I'm looking for Kelly Thorne! Or Father David Thorne! I need to find"
A hand grabbed him from behind.
Adrian spun around, fists raised, but strong arms locked around him from behind, dragging him sideways toward a door he hadn't noticed.
"Let go! What are you"
He was pulled through the door into a small room that looked like it had once been a vestry. And there, standing in the dim light, were Kelly and Maya.
Maya's eyes widened when she saw him. Then her face twisted with rage.
She moved forward and slapped him. Hard. The sound echoed in the small space, and Adrian's already aching head exploded with fresh pain.
"You BASTARD!" Maya screamed, and then she was hitting him slapping, punching, her fists connecting with his chest and shoulders. "You betrayed us! You betrayed HER! She trusted you and you"
"Maya, stop" Kelly grabbed her, pulling her back, but Maya was fighting him.
"Let me go! He deserves worse! He deserves" Her voice broke into sobs. "He let them hurt her, Kelly. He let them"
"I know," Kelly said quietly, still holding her. "I know."
Adrian stood there, not defending himself, not moving, just taking Maya's rage because she was right. She was completely right.
"I'm sorry," he whispered. "I'm so, so sorry."
"Sorry doesn't fix this!" Maya was crying now, her face red and blotchy. "Sorry doesn't undo what you did!"
"Where is she?" Adrian asked, looking at Kelly. "Where's Ember? Is she alive?"
Kelly's expression was grim. "Come with me."
He led them deeper into the church, down a narrow hallway to a door with symbols painted on it symbols Adrian didn't recognize but that made his skin crawl.
Kelly pushed the door open.
The room beyond was set up like some kind of containment cell. Heavy chains bolted to the wall. Salt circles on the floor. Candles everywhere. And in the center
Ember.
She was sitting against the wall, her arms pulled above her head by thick chains attached to manacles around her wrists. Her clothes were torn and dirty. Her hair was matted. She looked like she'd lost weight, her face gaunt and pale.
But it was her eyes that made Adrian's blood run cold.
They were completely black. No whites, no irises, just solid, empty black that seemed to absorb the candlelight.
Those eyes lifted as Adrian entered, and despite the horror of seeing her like this, his heart surged with relief.
She was alive. She was here.
"Ember," Adrian breathed, starting forward.
"Don't." Kelly grabbed his arm. "Don't get too close. She's not, it's not safe."
As if to prove his point, Ember or Rosanna, or whoever was in control smiled. A cold, cruel smile that didn't belong on her face.
"Look who finally woke up," she said, her voice layered with that double-tone Adrian remembered from the basement. "The traitor returns."
Adrian sank to his knees, fresh tears spilling down his face. "What happened to her? What did I do?"
"My father has been trying to perform an exorcism," Kelly said quietly. "For almost two weeks now. But the spirit is too strong. It's integrated too deeply. Every time he tries to separate them, Ember starts dying. We can't" His voice caught. "We can't get Rosanna out without killing Ember too."
"No," Adrian whispered. "No, there has to be a way"
"There isn't," Kelly said flatly. "Trust me. We've tried everything."
Adrian looked back at Ember, at those terrible black eyes, at the chains holding her. She looked so small. So broken.
"I'm sorry," he said again, knowing it wasn't enough, would never be enough. "Ember, I'm so sorry. I never wanted, I tried to"
"Stop crying, Adrian," Ember said, but her voice was wrong. Too deep. Too cold. "Your tears bore me."
Adrian put his head in his hands, his whole body shaking with sobs. This was his fault. All of it. He'd brought her to that estate. He'd let his grandmother
The door opened behind them.
Adrian looked up to see an older man in priest's vestments entering the room. He had kind eyes and a weathered face, and he looked exhausted.
"Adrian Crane," Father David Thorne said, studying him. "I wondered when you'd show up."
Adrian tried to stand but his legs wouldn't cooperate. "Can you help her? Please, there has to be something"
"I'm doing everything I can." Father David moved to Ember, checking the chains, the salt circles. "But I'm afraid we're running out of time. The possession is nearly complete. Soon there won't be enough of Ember left to save."
"How long?" Adrian asked, his voice breaking.
"Days. Maybe less."
Adrian looked at Ember at the black eyes, the cruel smile, the way she watched him like a predator watching prey.
And he realized he might have to watch her die. Might have to live with the knowledge that he'd destroyed the only person who'd ever made him feel like he could be something other than what his family expected.
"I'll fix this," Adrian said, though he had no idea how. "I promise. I'll find a way to fix this."
But Ember or Rosanna just laughed. A cold, bitter sound that echoed off the walls.
"You can't fix what you broke, traitor. Some things stay broken."