CHAPTER NINETEEN
The silence that followed the shattered doors was a physical weight. It crushed the air from our lungs and pinned us in place. My daughter stood in the wreckage, a small, pale statue in the frame of splintered wood. It wasn't her. It was a shell, animated by the quiet between heartbeats.
Lily took a step inside. Her bare feet made no sound on the ancient stone. Her head was tilted, and that small, wide, plastic smile was fixed on her face. A smile that had never known warmth.
The crowd in the church was frozen. No one screamed. No one ran. They were prey caught in a predator's gaze, hoping stillness would make them invisible. The only change was the cold, a deep, soul-sucking chill that spread from the doorway, frosting the pews and painting our breath white.
Her black eyes, like pools of spilled ink, scanned the room. They slid over the terrified faces without seeing them. They were searching. Hunting.
They locked onto Leo Carter.
The smile on Lily's face didn't change. It didn't need to. The intent was a wave of pressure that made Leo whimper and shove his face deeper into his father's side. Mark Carter wrapped his arms around his son and wife, his body a trembling wall. He was a man who solved problems with words and patience. He had no defense against this.
Lily took another step. Then another. She glided, her nightgown swaying in a non-existent breeze. The people in the pews she passed recoiled, pressing themselves into the wood. A woman who couldn't move fast enough had the hem of Lily's gown brush her ankle. The woman didn't make a sound. She just went rigid, a small, choked gasp escaping her lips before she slumped over, a thin line of black fluid leaking from her nose onto the hymnal in her lap.
She was draining them. Just by being near. A psychic vampire sipping their life.
She was halfway to the Carters when Alex moved.
She emerged from the shadows near the confessionals, silent as a ghost. She didn't look at Lily. She didn't speak. In one fluid motion, she grabbed Mark Carter by the shoulder, her grip like iron, and shoved him hard, sending him stumbling with his family towards me, towards the altar.
"Get behind the rail," she hissed at them, her voice a low, urgent command.
Mark stumbled, confused and terrified, pulling Sarah and Leo with him. They tripped over the low wooden barrier and collapsed in a heap on the raised dais, right at my feet. They were now the centerpiece of this nightmare. The bait placed on the hook.
Lily's head turned slowly, following the movement. The smile remained, but her humming started. It was low, tuneless, the sound of a dead wire carrying a current.
"One small tap on the window pane..."
The sound was inside my head, scratching at the inside of my skull.
Alex positioned herself between the Carters and Lily, her back to us, her rifle held tight. She was a final, human barricade. She didn't explain. She didn't give a speech. Her actions were the plan. Isolate the bait. Force the confrontation.
The Carters huddled together at my feet. Leo was sobbing quietly, his small body shaking. Sarah was rocking him, her face white with a terror so complete it had stolen her voice. Mark looked up at me, his eyes wide, pleading.
"Who are you?" he whispered, his voice cracking. "What does it want? Why is it looking at my son?"
I couldn't answer. I couldn't form the words. The guilt was a stone in my throat. I had done this. I had led the wolf to their door and now I was standing over them, their supposed protector, the architect of their doom.
Lily took another step. The humming grew louder.
"...wash the floor with the crimson rain..."
The air grew heavier, colder. The few candles still flickering in the church guttered and died. We were left in the gloom, the only light the faint, sickly green glow now coming from the Anchor, which Alex had tucked into her belt. It was pulsing, a slow, hungry heartbeat.
Mark saw me looking at the glowing object. He saw the absolute devastation on my face. The pieces connected in his mind. The way the monster had fixed on Leo after we arrived. The way Alex had forced them up here.
His pleading look vanished, replaced by a dawning, horrified suspicion.
"You," he breathed, his voice trembling with a new kind of fear. "What have you done?"
He started to scramble to his feet, to put himself between me and his family. A father's last, desperate act.
Alex half-turned, her eyes like chips of ice. "Stay down," she commanded, her voice leaving no room for argument. "If you move, you die. If you interfere, your son dies first."
Mark froze, caught between the monster advancing and the monsters who had trapped him. He sank back to his knees, pulling his wife and son close, his body wracked with silent sobs. The hope had gone out of his eyes. Now there was only the certain, waiting horror.
Lily was ten feet from Alex now. The humming was a constant, maddening drone.
"...the string is pulled and the neck is tight..."
She wasn't looking at Alex. She was looking past her, at Leo. Her small hand lifted, pointing a single finger at the crying boy.
I looked at my daughter. I looked past the empty eyes and the terrible smile. I looked at the small, delicate shape of her ears. I looked at the way her hair fell across her forehead. I saw the ghost of the little girl who loved strawberry ice cream and hated the dark.
A memory, sharp and clear: Her first day of school. She was so brave, holding my hand tight until the very last second before letting go and marching into the classroom without looking back. My heart had swelled with a love so fierce it hurt.
That love was still there. Buried under mountains of blood and guilt, but it was there.
A tear, hot and sharp, escaped my eye and froze on my cheek.
I took a step forward, past the huddled Carters, to stand beside Alex.
She didn't look at me. She just gave a single, sharp nod.
It was time.
I was shaking. The cold was so deep I felt brittle, like I might shatter. I looked at the thing that wore my daughter's face.
"Lily," I whispered, the name a prayer and a curse on my lips.
The humming stopped. The black eyes shifted from Leo to me.
The silence that followed was the most terrifying sound I had ever heard.
I took another step, my hands open and empty at my sides.
"I'm here, baby," I said, my voice breaking. "Daddy's here."