Haunted

CHAPTER 38

IT’S FULL DAYLIGHT NOW AND I LOOK AT MY WATCH. Ten minutes before I can turn on my cell and try to reach Max. A glance around at the girls looking to me for salvation makes my heart feel heavy in my chest. How long can we hide here before someone thinks to look more closely in the church?

At eight, I switch on the cell. The power indicator reads two bars. Less than half power. I pull up Max’s number and press Send.

He picks up right away. “Are you all right?”

“Did you get Adelita to safety?”

There’s just the slightest hesitation, but it’s enough to jump start my heart. “Max? Where’s Adelita?”

He snaps back. “Relax, Anna. She’s okay. She’s in a safe house on the U.S. side of the river.”

I let out a breath. “Good. Here’s the situation. I got four girls away from Santiago’s brother, Luis, and we’re hiding in a church building in the village. I don’t know how much time we have before they look for us in the one place they haven’t searched. It might not be long.”

“Where’s Culebra?”

I tell him quickly and succinctly what’s happening to Culebra. What I don’t tell him is that Ramon was one of the bastards that attacked him all those years ago. Some news is better left delivered in person. I finish up with, “How long before you get to us?”

“I’m already on the way. Do you have the duffel?”

“You mean the one with the arsenal inside? Yes. Nice thinking, by the way.”

“I should reach you in four hours. I’ll contact you when I get close.”

“No Maria sightings?”

“No. You must have done a good job on that door. Shut your phone down now. Conserve power.”

He says good-bye and disconnects. I do the same, noticing I’m down to just one bar now as I power the phone off.

The girls have been watching me whisper into the phone. They don’t say a word when I shove it into my pocket, waiting, I guess, for me to give them some kind of signal that we can leave now.

Instead, I tell them something that makes their faces grow even tauter with concern. I have to leave them. I need to get the duffel. The weapons inside may be their best hope yet to making it out alive.

The older girl has assumed the role of protector. She listens to what I tell them I must do. My Spanish must be getting better, because she nods and pulls the others into a close circle. “We will be waiting for your return,” she says. In English. “I will keep them quiet. Please hurry. We have been without food and water since yesterday morning. I don’t know how much longer the little ones can last.”

At fourteen or so, she is the oldest of the four by two or three years. She is the most physically developed, her sister and the others are barely into puberty. The tear-streaked faces of “the little ones” burn into my brain. Luis’ appetite has not only grown, it’s gotten more perverse. I look around the church, trying to understand how men can perpetuate such horror on children.

No answer comes.

This used to be a place of worship. My head spins at the paradox. God created men like Luis in his own image? Then maybe god created this vampire to be his retribution.