"Speak up! What has everyone distracted during the celebration of our nightly ritual? What's going on? Cmon, spit it out!"

His voice was eerie, like a principal catching a student doing hooky and then embarrassing them in front of the whole school. Everyone was silent as they waited for a response and I was beyond terrified that I couldn't breathe.

What do we do now?

"Well?! Someone say something!

The man stared wearily at me before turning and facing the pastor.

"Sorry Father Isiah, it was my fault." He removed his cowboy hat and bowed his head slightly in an apology. "I ended up hurting this pretty lil' ladies feet with my boots and I'm just trying to make things right."

"Is that so?"

The man gulped and hesitated before answering. "Yes sir."

"Well then...that's very kind of you to help her. Is it bad?"

No! Please don't mention me! Please don't mention me!

"Yes, it looks like it's bleeding. I'm so sorry." He apologized to me again.

"Well then go ahead and bring her up here! We will take away her pain and the best part is that you get to join her!"

"Wait what?!"

The crowd let out roars of cheers and suddenly unfamiliar hands began grabbing me by the arms, pulling me forward towards the stage.

"Let go of me!" I screamed and struggled against their grasps.

All the life drained from the cowboy's face. His eyes were distant as if he couldn't believe what the pastor had said. It was confirmed by his wife who was cheering against his arm in delight before his cult members escorted him away like me. "No stop! I-I'm not ready right now! Marcy! Don't let them take me away! Marcy!"

"Isn't this excitin hun! I'm so happy for you!" She gleamed excitedly with a huge smile on her face. She gave him a huge kiss before waving him goodbye as the crowd dragged him away.

"Sasha!"

I heard Camila scream but her voice was drowned out by the loud uproar. My feet were in so much pain as they dragged me across the floor towards the stage, but soon more hands grabbed onto both of my calves. Everyone started hoisting me up over their heads as if I was a part of a crazy mosh pit.

"Stop it! Let me go!" I screamed and struggled against them. My heart was pounding hard against my chest. They wouldn't listen to me. I tried to scratch a few people and even throw myself around frantically to be dropped or let go, but they held on tightly. Suddenly I was face to face with the gleaming pastor.

I saw that his nails were disgustingly long as they reached out to me and they coiled into my neck when he pulled me out from the crowd. His entire hand wrapped around my windpipe tightly that I couldn't breathe. I could hear Ray calling out my name over and over. I tried to pry his hands off me but I was quickly dunked into the blood filled bathtub. Water filled my lungs the minute I fell in. The water was still hot from before and it felt like my whole body was on fire before the pastor tore me right out of it.

With one hand still around my neck, he started the chanting again, and soon everyone joined in just like before. The dagger in his hand was brought dangerously close to my neck so that I could feel the cold steel when it pressed into my skin.

I could hear Ray's voice but it was so faint. I could barely breathe. My body suddenly felt weak and heavy.

Was I going to die here?

"Oh my God is that smoke?!"

The sharp end of the knife already drew blood from my neck but he yanked it away for a moment.

"What?! What's going on now?!" The pastor spat out irritably.

The entire room was filled with terrified screams as my vision faded in and out.

Clouds of smoke were building up from the corner of the room and now that someone mentioned it, despite me being dipped in hot water, it was feeling stuffy in the room.

"Children stop! Listen to me!" The priest bellowed over the microphone but it was too late.

Everyone was screaming and running in all directions like chickens with their heads cut off to get to safety. The cult members holding the rabid person were taken off guard and he turned on them, taking them both and killing them instantly before leaping after the screaming people.

"Stop it at once!" The pastor yelled impatiently. "Settle down!"

All my energy was depleted, but I still tried to remove this disgusting man's hand off me.

"No matter. I can still help you, my child." He beamed in a menacing tone. The dagger was on my neck again.

"No.." I murmured.

Bang!

The pastor's hands shook and his grip loosened on me. He kept that creepy gaze on his face but after seeing the bullet hole through his chest, I pushed him off and toppled to the floor. His lifeless body fell backwards into the tub of water with a splash and floated there.

Stolen novel; please report.

Ray came to my side and Camila appeared at the end of the stage, hopped up on it and looked between the two of us.

"You two alright?"

I nodded. I glanced down at the revolver in her hand and it was smoking from the barrel.

So she was the one who...

"Come on," She held out her hand to me. "Let's get out of here."

"Wait, follow me, I know a way out of here." Ray shouted once Camila helped me up and looped my arm around her shoulder.

I used my free hand to cover my mouth from the smoke as we stumbled behind Ray, the room now filling up with the toxic gray fog and making it almost impossible to see in.

My brother held open the door he came through with the others and we found our way back outside. Camila and I headed towards our vehicles on the opposite end of the church but Ray sped past the opposite way that led into another parking lot.

"Ray?! Where are you going? We parked over here!" I called out to him.

"Just trust me, come on!"

We followed him out of the parking lot to find a lone van parked off the side of the driveway.

My brother went over to the back of it and pulled both of the doors open. A bunch of the members' robes were sprawled on the metal floor but other than that it looked completely empty inside.

Camila and I gave him a confused look before we saw that the robes grew a lump and were shuffling from left to right.

"Hey are you alright?" Ray asked the thing as he crawled inside the van. He pulled away the robes and revealed puffy eyed Sofia.

"Dios Mio! Sofia!" Camila cried and dove at the little girl, squeezing her in a big hug.

"Cammy!" The little girl wailed and gripped onto her big sister. Her tiny arms were shaking horribly.

"Ray, how did you know she would be in here?" I asked, astounded

"The guy who grabbed us from the bridge gave me a few extra robes to dry up in since we were dripping wet. When he let us out, I told her to hide here and I ran out as fast as I could when he opened the doors. He was so distracted catching me that I had a feeling that he would forget about tiny Sofia."

"Wow Ray, I'm impressed! That's really..."

"Brave." Camila interrupted. "You're amazing Ray. You're my-" She stopped for a second and scooped Sofia up into the conversation. "Our hero." She corrected with a smile as tears streamed down her face. Camila pulled him into a hug and even Sofia wrapped her small arms around his head, as if she was aware and grateful that he saved her life. Camila gave him a peck on the cheek causing him to blush.

"Now that we are all together, let's get the hell out of here already."

******************************

By the time we ran back to the front of the church, the whole building was up in flames in a deadly red and orange glow.

From a distance, I heard someone cackling and it grew louder the closer we got to my truck.

Who was laughing at a time like this? Shouldn't they be trying to escape?

My car finally came into view and next to it the old woman from before was standing in front of the burning building. Her hair was wilder than before and flew in all different directions.

Was this her distraction that she was talking about?

Camila must have seen what I was looking at because she froze and stopped us from getting to the vehicles.

"Camila what's wrong?"

"Bruja used all the gas tanks we got to start the fire!"

I looked over and sure enough laying on the grass next to the crazy old lady was the empty red gas cans. Her ragged clothes and hair had hay sticking out of them and when I glanced down there was a ring of more hay circling around the church where the fire rose up from.

"That's fine. If it wasn't for her, we wouldn't have been able to save Ray or Sofia." I said watching the woman spew slurs and rude gestures at the building.

"Rot in hell, you pig fuckers!" She laughed menacingly.

"I guess you're right.." Camila trailed off then did a quick cross sign over her head and chest. She handed me over to Ray and took Sofia from him. "Here, you two get to your truck. I'm gonna go grab the other van."

"Okay, but what about her?" I asked, referring to the old woman.

We watched her for a moment, and as if we all agreed just from what we were seeing alone, decided to leave her behind.

Camila left to sneak behind the woman's back and Ray escorted us back to my Chevy.

Once I heard Camila start the van up, the woman jerked around unnaturally towards the vehicle and started chasing after them.

I quickly turned on my truck and set it in reverse. I floored it, sending us backwards roughly and took off with Camila tailing not too far behind.

******************************************************************************

The bright rays of morning slowly cleared the night sky and Camila slowed down to the side of the road next to us once we were miles away from the church.

"Crazy adventure right?" She joked from the driver window.

"Yeah." I sighed out of exhaustion.

This was really crazy. I don't know what's going on in the world where cults like this form and people are suddenly just dying. Whatever it was, I was just glad it was over. Once we got home, I planned on calling every number possible on these freaks, on the city and for someone to save Lily.

And after that...years and years of therapy to numb what I've seen.

"What's your plan now?" I asked her.

Sofia appeared up on Camila's lap. "Hi!" She screamed excitedly while waving really big.

I envied her innocence so badly.

Camila smiled and stroked her hair while I waved back.

Sofia shook her head stubbornly. "No, no! Aki! Aki!" She jumped up and down pointing over me.

"Huh?"

We all started laughing when I realized she was trying to say hi to Ray and not me.

"Aww how cute, looks like she might have a little crush on you for saving her Ray." I teased him.

Sofia let out an audible excited gurgle in response and Ray slouched in his chair while groaning.

"Anyway Camila, do you have somewhere to go? Maybe you guys can come with us?" I offered. "I was thinking of heading home and trying to figure out what's going on."

"Sorry, we can't." Camila responded softly while settling her little sister down. "I was thinking about checking up on mi abela over at the retirement home in Chino Hills. Bless her soul, she doesn't have any family left and she would want to know about our dad." She squeezed Sofia's small hand. "And I wouldn't want her to die alone either."

"Okay" I said, swallowing the lump in my throat. Even though it's been only a day, I had kinda liked Camila and didn't mind her companionship through this mess. It would be nice if we could at least stay friends but who knows if we would ever see each other again.

"I wish you two the best of luck then. Hope she's alright."

Camila gave me a smile that glimmered as bright as the sun. "You too chica. Let's survive this shit together."

"You too...uh, chica." I replied awkwardly.

"Also, don't forget to give your feet some rest. You could use it after today."

With a quick wave and a smile, she rolled the window up and took off down the road as quickly as she came.

I wonder if we'll ever see each other again?

"Hey sis?" My brother called out.

"Yeah, what's up Ray?"

"Do you think...with helping Sofia...did I do okay?"

I smiled wide at him. "Are you kidding me? You did awesome! You saw what they were doing to people in there. If it wasn't for you, Sofia could have easily been the first one to go."

Ray returned the smile. "Yeah they were pretty scary weren't they? Are you alright by the way?"

I rubbed my neck. The cut was already starting to scab.

"Yeah, I'm fine. Seriously though Ray, you surprised me. You handled that situation really well."

I thought for a moment and then smiled softly. "So good in fact..." I hesitated before saying this but after all the hell he's been through, he deserves it.

"How about we teach you how to drive?"

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