“What happened to Levi?” I asked.
She turned her head and cast an anxious glance at the open door, then dropped her voice to a whisper. “Pastor Bill called me into his office and told me that Levi had decided to go without me. The pastor said that he and Levi had prayed together—asked for God’s guidance—and Levi decided that I’d be better off staying at the church camp while he went to look for his grandpa. Supposedly, he said he’d come back and get me once he knew for sure his grandpa’s place was safe.”
Something smelled fishy about the story. “Did you believe Pastor Bill?”
Hannah scoffed. “The story was total bullshit. For one thing, Levi’s an agnostic. The last thing he’d ever do is to sit down with Pastor Bill and pray for divine guidance. For another thing, he’d never leave me behind, especially without talking to me. We made a promise to stay together no matter what.”
Memory smacked me in the face.
Whatever happens, whatever comes, we’re sticking together, Mac. You got that?
Crap, not now.
“Did you question the pastor’s story?” I asked.
“Do I look stupid? By the time Levi disappeared, I was totally weirded out by Pastor Bill and the camp. Just wait, you’ll see what I mean. I decided that the smart thing to do was to play along. I’m a good actress. I had a lead role in the theater program’s big spring show last April.”
“So, what did you do?”
Hannah’s face assumed an expression of wide-eyed innocence. “I’m playing a role. I’m all ‘Yes, sir’ and ‘Whatever you think is best, sir.’ It’s a total mind fuck. Pastor Bill always thinks he’s the smartest person in the room. It wouldn’t occur to him that a girl could outsmart him. So, I simper and act meek, and nobody suspects that I’m not onboard with this cult thing that Pastor Bill’s got going.”
What the hell was going on at The Golden Rule Church Camp? “Are you saying that you’re a prisoner here?”
“Well, I haven’t tried walking up to the front gate and demanding to be let out, but every time I get close to the fence, a guy with a gun shows up and tells me to go back. So, yeah, I’m pretty sure I’m a prisoner.”
For somebody who was being held prisoner and whose boyfriend suddenly went missing, Hannah seemed surprisingly upbeat. “What about Levi? Did you ever figure out what happened to him?”
She nodded. “The day after Levi left...” She rolled her eyes. “I found his car hidden under a tarp behind the equipment shed. I totally wigged out and wondered if they’d locked him up or maybe even killed him. I searched everywhere. If you carry a laundry basket and keep your head down and act busy, nobody asks any questions. The only place I couldn’t get into was the basement of the camp office building. That was locked. Then, two days later, I heard a mourning dove cooing.”
Hannah paused, catching her breath. She spoke rapidly, as if trying to get her story out before we were interrupted, or maybe because she was relieved to share it with somebody she trusted.
Confusion wrinkled my brow. “A mourning dove cooing?”
“Yes, except it wasn’t a real bird. It was Levi. His grandpa taught him how to make bird calls, and Levi had taught me his special version of a backwards mourning dove call: coo-coo-coo-uh-coo. We were supposed to use it as a secret way to communicate if we ever got separated when we were out scavenging. I made the call back at him and he repeated it, so I know it was him. Levi’s alive, and I know he’s going to find a way to get me out of here.”
The odds might be against a pair of teenagers escaping from a compound surrounded by armed guards, but Hannah radiated optimism and confidence. Hope and optimism were fragile things, here one day, obliterated the next. It would it take a miracle for Hannah to achieve the happily ever after that had slipped through my fingers. Maybe...maybe I could be part of that miracle, help Hannah achieve the happy ending that fate had denied me.
A sharp rap on the door frame intruded on my musings. Pastor Bill stood in the doorway, Nicole at his side. “Are you decent?” he asked, turning his head and averting his gaze in a conspicuous show of manners.
Hannah glanced at me, hers eyes full of warning. Nodding slightly, I squeezed her hand. I was no thespian, but following her example, I was down to attempt a good mind fuck. I tugged the blanket up to my chin, demurely covering my chest.
“Come in.”
Hannah folded her hands, bowed her head, and stepped back when Pastor Bill took her place at the side of my bed. Nicole took a position next to the girl, behind Pastor Bill’s back, but instead of demurely casting her gaze to the floor, she met my eyes. When she caught me looking at her, she widened her eyes. Was she feeling guilty about participating in Pastor Bill’s lie, for allowing me to believe that I was dying? Good. She should feel guilty.
“How are you feeling today?” Pastor Bill asked pleasantly, betraying no hint of resentment over our last, rancorous conversation.
Okay. If he wanted to make nice, I could play along. I pressed the back of my hand to my forehead, frowning in confusion. “I don’t understand. Instead of feeling worse, I seem to be getting better. My fever has gone down, and my head still hurts, but not as much.”
There. I’d given the man the perfect opening to congratulate himself. Would he fall for it?
“Oh, my dear. I told you that God would listen to my prayers and restore you to health.” He bent over and clasped my hand between two sweaty palms. I suppressed a shudder at the contact, then extracted my hand from his, pretending that I needed to pull up the blanket.
Yup. He couldn’t resist taking credit for my miraculous recovery from a flu I’d never had.
“God has a very special plan for you,” he continued, cocking his head to one side as he smiled down at me.
“And Ripper, Kyle, and Sahdev didn’t have a part to play in God’s plan?” Saying their names hurt, but he might see through my ruse if I ignored my lost friends. I dashed away the tears that suddenly filled my eyes, determined to give Pastor Bill nothing real, especially a window into my grief.
Behind Pastor Bill, Nicole shook her head. The movement must have caught the pastor’s attention, because he twisted his neck to look at her. She stilled and wiped all expression from her face.
Pastor Bill fixed his gaze on me again.
“The Lord moves in mysterious ways, Mackenzie. Never doubt that everything that happens is ultimately for the best. Your loss, your grief, your sacrifices, all pave the way for a better tomorrow.” His voice took on a soothing, melodious cadence, and despite myself, some small part of my mind responded to his reassuring tone. The tight knot of anxiety in my chest relaxed. “The path we’re on is hard, strewn with rocks and obstacles, but you must have faith that it will lead us back to Eden.”
Back to Eden: the same graffiti I’d spied painted on a wall in Portland and on a rocky cliff along the Columbia Gorge. The reference shocked me out of the stupor his voice had lulled me into. Back to Eden? That had to be a coincidence. Pastor Bill’s influence didn’t extend that far, did it?
I bobbed my head, too startled to formulate an appropriate response.
Pastor Bill’s smile broadened. Apparently, he took my silence as a positive sign, perhaps an indication that his persuasive arguments were wearing down my resistance to whatever he had in mind. Truth be told, the fact that I’d responded at all to his hypnotic voice freaked me out. The man was a liar, a manipulator, and a creep. I knew that, yet for a few seconds, I’d succumbed to the false comfort of his words. Never again. I’d never end up as one of the sheep in his deluded flock of followers.