"Everything?" Danny protests as Kinslee pulls him urgently by the arm, "I don't understand, at all."
"That's because she explained precisely nothing." Jen notes sourly, scanning the trees behind them, the noise of their pursuers rapidly catching up with them. Tightly clutching at the box, Jen reluctantly falls in behind her brother and the mysterious girl.
"I can't explain here. It would take too long." Kinslee gasps as she picks up the pace, "But now I understand why the box wouldn't open. No one can witness Great Xir's true glory with their eyes."
"Great Xir this, Great Xir that." Jen curses as the trees blur past the trio, "You're really starting to piss me off."
"Give her a chance Jen." Danny tries to mollify his sister, "We won't learn anything by keeping a closed mind. Hasn't there been plenty of weird stuff happening already?"
"I suppose." Jen grumbles, nearly stumbling over an exposed tree root, but managing to keep her balance at the last minute. More importantly, some distance was once again beginning to open up between the three of them and the slaves.
"You can't see Great Xir," Kinslee picks up the conversation with some hesitation, "At least not in the way both of you are thinking. For the box to open, you need to learn to see with your eyes closed."
"But we can see Xir." Danny points out, "He even visited me at that house when I first got here."
"That's just a ... fragment?" Kinslee makes a difficult expression on her face, "Yes, a fragment of Xir. That would be the best way of explaining it. You can't perceive Great Xir with just your eyes, that's what I'm telling you."
"Its like blind men feeling up an elephant." Jen interrupts dourly, "We're just rubbing its trunk and legs, not getting the actual picture."
"Yes! Precisely!" Kinslee cheers happily, "That's exactly what it is. And because you can't actually see properly, the noise you caused prevented me from seeing as well. Don't you understand?"
Danny nods mutely, turning over Kinslee's words in his head. It was just like how he couldn't escape the town. There was nothing preventing him from leaving, other than the mystical roadblock Xir had erected. And like Archie had told him before, although Danny couldn't actually perceive the roadblock, it still unconsciously registered in his mind, forcing him to turn back when he tried to escape. Whatever prevented Kinslee from opening the box probably operated on the same principle.
"A defense mechanism?" Danny hazards a guess, "Only the faithful can open that box?"
"No." Kinslee shakes her head vehemently, "Not faithful. Great Xir doesn't need people to believe in him, only for people to see the truth of this world."
"The truth." Jen smirks bitterly, the memory of the abuse she faced as a child resurfacing, "You can take your truth and shove -"
"Please. Not now." Danny lightly places a hand on Jen's shoulder, "This isn't the time."
"We need to get away from the other priests." Kinslee hurriedly chimes in, "Anything else can wait."
Jen nods grimly as the three of them make their way deeper into the woods. Neither Jen nor Danny had explored this area before, and they were wholly reliant on Kinslee to lead the way. The mysterious girl on her part confidently navigates past the trees, plotting a consistent course to the north. The trio travel in silence, the thumping of feet the only accompanying sound. Time had lost all meaning, everything focused down to the immediate danger of the slaves bearing down upon them.
"Wait!" Jen suddenly barks, horror dawning upon her, "We're moving away from the town!"
"We can always return once we lose the tail." Danny replies, using his arm to wipe the sweat dripping off his brow.
Jen's ears prick as the noise of the pursing slaves catches up with the trio again. If the slaves could keep pace so easily, why haven't the pursuers actually shown themselves yet? Jen's stomach churns at the uncomfortable implications forming in her mind.
"We're not going back to town." Kinslee says, "Its not safe for the two of you. I know a place where outsiders won't be given a second glance though."
"What place is that?" Danny furrows his brow in concern, "We're Xir's most wanted, if you haven't realized it yet. No one is going to shelter us."
"The camp ground." Kinslee fires back, "Its where new initiates are taken. Plenty of folks from the Free Republic there as well. No one would bat an eye at a pair of strangers showing up."
"Initiates?" Danny repeats dumbly, a sense of unease growing in his gut, "What initiates?"
"Initiates into the priesthood." Kinslee explains, "Two of you are a bit old though. We'll deal with that problem when the time comes."
Jen's breath hitches as the pieces fall into place. It was already too late for her and Danny to turn back to the town. They were guaranteed to be intercepted. This wasn't a chase like she first assumed. Danny and her were being corralled, toward whatever destination Kinslee had in store for them.
They were being led to their doom.
Both Archie and Clay had warned them the cabin was dangerous. Clay had even gone as far as saying whomever was sent there was no different from a dead man walking. But Jen wasn't dead yet. She could still turn things around. It would be simple.
The muzzle of Jen's gun draws level at Kinslee's back. One shot, and she and Danny would be able to escape whatever trap they were being led into.
Then Danny settles in between Jen and Kinslee as the trio run indian file through the woods. The moment had passed.
With a long sigh, Jen eases off the gun's trigger. Not that she could have done it anyway, not with Danny so insistent on protecting the strange girl. At the end of the day, Jen was not willing to risk losing her brother again. Not after everything both of them had been through. After tasting the pain of betrayal first hand, Jen had no intention of becoming a betrayer herself.
And so Jen follows in silence, racing to whatever fate had in store for her and Danny.
........
"Stay low." Kinslee orders both siblings, as the three of them hear snatches of conversation ahead of them.
As Danny creeps close to the ground, he notices through the trees a cluster of circus tents in a clearing ahead of them, surrounding a large bonfire. A pair of slaves toss bundles of incense into the bonfire, causing a musky scent to permeate the air. Kinslee leads the group along the perimeter of the compound, heading toward one of the smaller circus tents right at the edge of the camp ground.
"Look. Clay's deputies." Jen whispers, pointing out a pair of armed men standing guard close to the bonfire. Danny nods in response, noticing a few more deputies listlessly patrolling about, not paying much attention to their surroundings.
"Don't worry." Kinslee reassures, "Those deputies won't cause trouble once both of you get settled in."
"Whatever you say." Danny replies, licking his lips reflexively, "As long as we can lie low here, I suppose it wouldn't matter."
"Right." Jen responds guardedly, her eyes scanning the compound with nervous energy. A dirt road leading to the camp ground had been cleared, and standing alongside the road were several people, looking on with blank smiles on their faces. Clay and the bulk of his deputies were standing by the road as well, preventing the people gathering there from entering. Everything seemed peaceful, but there was an almost palpable dread radiating off the onlookers.
"What's going on here?" Jen demands.
"Initiates are brought here from all over Maine for the ritual of hatching." Kinslee looks back at Jen, "Its part of the preparations for the Midnight Lottery."
Danny blinks as he passively listens in on the conversation. Midnight Lottery. Archie mentioned something about that right? Probably? Danny wasn't sure about anything, after all that had had happened.
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"Wait here. Need to check whether the coast is clear." Kinslee murmurs softly and darts into the tent in front of them.
"You seriously trust this Kinslee." Jen frowns at her brother, keeping one eye glued on the largest circus tent of the ensemble, a crimson abomination. She could hear brief snatches of conversation coming from within the red blob, but too vague to decipher any meaning.
"Kinslee saved my life." Danny insists, "I would have been killed by the Infected if not for her."
"And you're fine with this so called resurrection?" Jen quirks an eyebrow critically.
"I don't understand it," Danny admits, "can't explain it either. But we need Kinslee's help, Jen. Its the only way we can survive this."
"We could just run away right -" Jen disagrees before Kinslee abruptly pokes her head out of the tent flaps.
"Alright, come on in."
Danny pushes aside the flaps and enters the tent without hesitation, with Jen following behind unhappily. The tent's interior was absolutely packed with clothes, taking up almost every square inch of space. Kinslee begins rifling through a clothes rack, pulling out a few dresses seemingly at random.
"Both of you need proper disguises." the mysterious girl says, coughing lightly from the dust being thrown about, "Then we make sure you blend into the crowd."
"Sounds good." Danny agrees but before he can say anything further, he's cut off by the sonorous boom of a gong, resounding throughout the camp ground.
"I'll go check it out." Jen volunteers, eager to escape the stifling gloom of the tent. The gong booms again, causing her teeth to chatter.
"Just don't go too far." Danny reminds, "The deputies might be loafing about, but if they spot you, there'll be trouble."
Jen merely grunts in affirmation before stepping out. The crowd at the road had grown more agitated by now, chattering animatedly among themselves. Clay himself walks up to the crowd and begins to engage a few of its members in conversation, his hands making placating gestures. Smelling something amiss, Jen slips back between the trees, sneaking closer to the road where she can listen in on what's going on.
"- I understand its necessary, but -" a tall man says to Clay, his eyes imploring.
"And necessary things get done. That's just how it is, sir." Clay answers stonily, "Please don't make it harder than it has to be."
"Can't we get more people from the rest of Maine?" the man almost begs, "Why do we need to use our own?"
"You know the rules." Clay says solemnly, looking down, "I don't like it too -"
"CLAY! WHERE'S MY BOY CLAY?" a familiar looking woman pushes her way through the crowd, her face pale as she stifles a cough. Jen bites her lip, trying to recall where she had met that woman.
"Charlotte." Clay gently grabs the woman by her shoulders, "I told you not to make a scene here."
"She's the florist." Jen mutters to herself as she puts the dots together, "From next to Archie's place."
"I WANT MY BOY!" Charlotte sobs as Clay embraces her, patting the woman on her back, "YOU'RE OUR SHERIFF! ISN'T PROTECTING US YOUR JOB?"
"You need to give me time." Clay answers the inconsolable woman, "Once everything is ready -"
The gong crashes once again, this time drowning everything else out. All eyes turn to the crimson tent as the pair of slaves by the bonfire open the flaps, revealing a dark maw. From this abyss a serpentine procession emerges, with each row made out of a slave clasping the hand of a girl and boy on each side. But that's where all claims to normalcy end. Each girl in the procession has her hair cut short, and wears a tuxedo with short shorts. The boys on their part are adorned with long wigs and wear a combination of dresses, thongs and mini skirts. It was a complete inversion of genders. But both girls and boys shared one thing in common. A bolt of silk wrapped tightly around their faces, utterly obscuring their features. The slaves lead the children around the bonfire, keeping a steady pace. As the procession wends its way around the bonfire, Charlotte begins screaming again.
"GIVE ME BACK MY BOY!"
A boy in a summer dress, blindly flailing about behind the silk veil, attempts to break away from the slave grasping him, but is roughly pulled back into line. The rotund belly of the slave jiggles obscenely as he chuckles at Charlotte's plight. The boy's mother howls like a wounded animal and tries to break free from Clay.
"Stop it! Stop it!" Clay snaps, wrestling with Charlotte, careful not to hurt her.
"RICHARD! HOW COULD YOU?" Charlotte cries, "HOW COULD YOU LET THIS HAPPEN?"
"Don't say that," Clay says sternly, "I'm trying to stop you from getting yourself killed, and you know it."
And with that, all the fight goes out of the florist and she collapses on to Clay, crying on to his shoulder.
"Help her home." Clay hands Charlotte over to one of his deputies, "Make sure she gets back safe, you hear?"
"Right you are sheriff." the deputy confirms, helping Charlotte up, "This way, ma'am."
"Damn it." Clay mutters, watching the pair disappear down the dirt road. As Clay stretches, working out the knots of tension in his body, his eyes suddenly widen in alarm.
"Damn it." Jen repeats on cue, her eyes looking straight into Clay's own. Clay's mouth moves silently, but Jen can make out the words he's saying just fine.
Run. Now.
Jen scrambles back through the trees, returning to the tent Danny and Kinslee are hiding in. Coming here was a mistake. Clay was right, both Danny and her needed to run, right now.
"Danny!" Jen shouts as she bursts into the tent, "We need to - OH MY GOD!"
"Jen?" Danny answers, his voice muffled by the silk cloth Kinslee is tying around his head. A waist length blonde wig had been placed on to his head while his entire body had been grotesquely forced into a faded evening gown.
"Be right with you Jen." Kinslee says as she ties the final knot on to the silk cloth, "Just putting the final touches on Danny's disguise."
"Let him go!" Jen snarls, raising the gun.
"Jen? I can't see." Danny complains impotently, "I can't see."
"Its fine." Kinslee smiles taking Danny by the arm, "I'm right here with you. Always."
"Don't make me -" Jen's mouth narrows into a line.
"My other arm is reserved for someone else Jen." Kinslee says sadly, "So I can't help you get ready. But I'm sure someone else would be able to."
"What the hell?" Jen spins about as she hears the tent flaps open again. The rotund bulk of the slave who had been leading Charlotte's son in the procession steps slovenly into the tent, trembling with anticipation.
"We'll be seeing you later then?" Kinslee asks rethorically as she leads Danny out by the arm.
"Jen? Jen?" Danny cries, sensing something wrong.
"Shhh. Its fine." Kinslee comforts her man as they leave, "Everything is going to be fine."
The rotund slave pulls out a length of silk from his clothes and advances on Jen, chortling under his mask. The gong begins to boom again, drowning everything else out.
"You made me do this." Jen growls and gritting her teeth, pulls the trigger of the gun. The sound of the gun is overwhelmed by the booming gong and the bullet smacks into the slave's chest, causing him to topple over like a fallen tree. Blood begins to pool on the ground.
Jen begins to leave the tent, thinking frantically of a way to rescue her brother. But before she can leave, the bulk of the slave begins moving again. The slave heaves himself off from the floor, no worse for wear.
"Endless time. Perfection." an oily voice comes from behind the mask, "Join us."
Forcing her fear back, Jen ...