The Devil's Labyrinth

CHAPTER 28

SOFIA CAPELLI STOOD FROZEN at the dining room door, the din of two hundred teenagers talking and eating crashed over her like the surf pounding at a jetty. The racket sounded louder than usual, pummeling her with enough force that she felt oddly disoriented, as if she’d never been here before.

She peered around, and slowly things came into focus: the steam tables were off to the left, the trays and silverware were on a rack at the near end of the counter. As she started toward the rack, a girl across the room stood up and waved at her, then pointed to an empty seat. Though the girl looked familiar, Sofia couldn’t quite remember her name.

And the people she was sitting with looked familiar, too.

But who were they? What was happening to her? Why couldn’t she re—

Before she’d even finished the thought, Sofia’s mind suddenly cleared, as if some kind of wall had simply dissolved.

Melody! That was it — the girl’s name was Melody. They were roommates, and she’d come to visit her in the infirmary this morning.

Was it just this morning? But it seemed so long ago!

She picked up a tray and began filling it, first with silverware, then with food, even though she wasn’t very hungry.

In fact, she wasn’t hungry at all. Still, she took a few vegetables and a wilted-looking salad, drizzling a little dressing over the latter.

What was she even doing here? Why not go to her room and lie down and go to sleep?

Do what you’re supposed to do.

The voice was so clear it made Sofia jump slightly, and she barely managed not to drop her tray. Regaining her balance, she glanced around, but there was no one —nobody at all—close enough to her to have spoken the words.

She reached for a glass of iced tea, saw her hand trembling, consciously steadied it, and added the tea to her tray.

As she picked up the tray, the strange words echoed in her mind: Do what you’re supposed to do. But what was she supposed to do?

Eat lunch.

She looked around, saw an empty table in the far corner, and started toward it, ignoring Melody, who was once more waving at her.

She drank the iced tea straight down, wishing she’d taken two glasses.

She gazed at the food, which still held no interest for her at all.

“Hey!”

The voice behind her made Sofia jump, and she looked around to see a boy standing behind her. A boy whose face seemed familiar —a boy she knew she knew! But what was his name?

“Okay if I sit down?”

Darren! His name was Darren Bender, and he was—

Without waiting for her to reply, Darren put his tray on the table and dropped onto the chair across from her. “How come you didn’t sit with us? Melody saved you a seat.”

Sofia gazed uncertainly across the table. “Was I supposed to?”

Darren’s head cocked slightly as he gazed quizzically at her. “You always do.”

Sofia looked down at her salad and began to pick at it. If she always sat with Melody, why hadn’t she done it today? Because she hadn’t remembered.

“Are you okay?” Darren asked.

No, she wasn’t okay. She wasn’t okay at all. It was as if there were some kind of weird fog in her head that was hiding things from her.

“Sofia?”

She looked up at Darren, trying to figure out how to tell him what was happening, but no words came, and she felt tears of frustration begin to fill her eyes.

Darren leaned across the table, his voice dropping. “What did Father Sebastian do to you? All I got were four Hail Marys and four Our Fathers, and that was it. The whole thing took maybe five minutes.”

Sofia gazed blankly at him. What was he talking about? And then, very slowly, it started to come back to her. Darren wasn’t just someone she knew — he was her boyfriend.

But now, as she gazed across the table at him, she had a sudden urge to do something to him.

To hurt him.

He was looking at her again, his eyes fixed on her as if he knew what she was thinking. “What’s going on?” he asked. “What did Father Sebastian do to you last night?”

Father Sebastian. A face floated up from Sofia’s memory — a kindly face of a man with a soothing voice.

Father Sebastian?

“Nothing.”

“Well, something sure happened to put you in the infirmary,” Darren said.

“I don’t know,” Sofia said, struggling against the threat of her unshed tears. “I can’t remember.”

“You want me to take you back?” Darren asked. “If something’s wrong—”

“No!” Sofia cut in. “I just need—” She frantically looked around the dining room as if searching for something — anything — that would help her, but there was nothing.

Then she saw the crucifix over the door, and a sharp pain stabbed through her abdomen. Her fingers automatically closed around the cross that hung from the string of rosary beads she always wore around her neck.

Impossibly, it seemed to writhe in her hand, squirming at her touch.

Her hand jerked away as if she had touched a hot iron, but her forefinger caught on the string of beads. Instantly broken, it tumbled onto the table.

Sofia stared at it in mute horror. What had she done? The beads had been given to her by her grandmother, who had had them all her life!

“What’s wrong?” Darren asked as he quickly began gathering the beads together before they could roll off onto the floor. “What’s going on with you?”

Sofia said nothing, but held out her hand for the beads.

Hesitating only a moment, Darren dropped them into her open palm.

She felt the rosary begin to move the instant it touched her skin and stared at it in horror as it began to writhe like a handful of snakes.

Red hot snakes.

She rose to her feet as her nostrils filled with the sickly odor of burning flesh, and a single word erupted from her throat. “Noooo!” she howled, hurling the beads and crucifix against the wall, where the decades of the rosary exploded and scattered across the floor.

Without so much as a glance toward Darren Bender or anyone else, Sofia Capelli fled.