All the Pretty Dead Girls Part 32

She prayed it would come quick.

"Master!"

The voice in front of her was familiar. Dean Gregory.

"Master, for you!"

Gregory let his robe fall open. Even though she was upside down, Tish could see clearly that the dean was naked, with a blood engorged erection.

She began to cry.

"On this, your sacred night!"

Gregory approached her. The group was chanting, urging him on. Nurse Cochrane, Professor Adamson, even the dean's wife.

But not Oostie, Tish thought with some satisfaction. Tish thought with some satisfaction. I killed Oostie. One less monster in your coven. I killed Oostie. One less monster in your coven.

That was Tish's last conscious thought. Mercifully, her brain shut down as Gregory raped her. Her eyes never opened-not even after Gregory pulled away, the darkness in the room seeming to vibrate, to pulse with life.

The darkness became the demon itself, and it swallowed what was left of Tish's body.

49.

Outside, the sky looked like snow. Impossible, Impossible, Sue thought. Sue thought. It's still too early in the season. It's still too early in the season. November had just begun. Yet the gray, heavy sky looked ominous enough. November had just begun. Yet the gray, heavy sky looked ominous enough.

She looked over at Malika, studious as ever, her nose in a book. They'd never really talked about their argument, just fallen back into a careful routine with each other. They didn't talk much. Mostly just "h.e.l.los" and "good-byes" and the occasional grunt in between.

"I'm heading into town," Sue told her.

"They'll stop you at the gate."

"I have the guard fooled. I pull a cap down over my forehead and he thinks I'm a driver for one of the bigshots."

Her roommate lifted an eye to look at her over her textbook. "You're breaking the rules," she said softly.

"Promise you won't squeal?"

Malika returned to her reading. "I'm not the type. I challenge authority."

There was just the slightest emphasis on "I" and it p.i.s.sed Sue off. "And are you implying I do not?"

"I'm merely referencing your support for these armed fascist goons on campus."

"Oh, please," Sue said. "Have you ever talked to one of those guys? They're quite sweet. As if they'd ever do anything to harm one of-"

A strange image flashed through her mind. A guard-clamping a gloved hand down over a girl's mouth.

Had she dreamed it? She didn't remember.

"I'm sorry, I don't trust them. Grow up a black woman in this country and you'll learn that you can't just blindly trust a group of white guys with guns."

That statement just p.i.s.sed Sue off all the more. "Look, would you really rather the administration did nothing?"

Malika threw down her book. "That's exactly what they did! Nothing! For weeks! Not a word to any of us about Joelle and Tish going missing! Just lies!"

Sue gave her a bemused face. "Tish Lewis isn't missing."

"What do you mean?"

Sue began to answer, then realized she didn't know. Why had she said Tish wasn't missing? As far as she knew, Tish still hadn't been found...

Or had she?

"I guess it's just a feeling I have," she said, puzzling to herself. "I guess I think she'll turn up."

"Well, I'm not nearly so optimistic."

Anger flared again. "That's what's wrong with you, Malika! You're always so pessimistic, always so ready to see the bad side of things!"

"Tell me a good side to any of this!"

Sue glared at her. "You know, maybe your problem is that you just haven't gotten laid lately."

Where did that come from? Even as Sue said the words, she was aghast at what she was saying. Certainly she she hadn't gotten laid-she had never gotten laid. But she was deliberately giving the impression to Malika that she and Billy were having s.e.x. And the weirdest part-she was enjoying doing it! hadn't gotten laid-she had never gotten laid. But she was deliberately giving the impression to Malika that she and Billy were having s.e.x. And the weirdest part-she was enjoying doing it!

Malika stood up to face her. "That is uncalled for, Sue Barlow!"

Sue laughed, even as part of her hated herself for doing so. "You know, Malika, I'm beginning to wonder if maybe you just don't like men. Maybe in fact you're a lesbian. Ever consider it?"

Her roommate's eyes were nearly popping out of her head. "I am not a lesbian!" she shouted.

"Not that there'd be anything wrong with that, right, Miss Limousine Liberal? Excuse me, Ms. Limousine Liberal."

"f.u.c.k you, Sue!"

Sue laughed. "I'm beginning to think you want to."

She gathered up her pocketbook and cell phone.

"If anyone reports me for going off campus," she said, one last parting shot, "I'll know it was you."

She closed the door behind her.

Once again Sue made it past the guard.

Driving into town, she was mystified as to why she had deliberately provoked Malika in that way. But she had to admit, she enjoyed it.

"That b.i.t.c.h thinks she knows everything," Sue said to herself. "I'll show her a thing or two."

Oh, her roommate got her so mad...

She found a spot to park on Main Street. She was supposed to meet Billy at the Yellow Bird. She looked at her watch and saw that she was early. She'd go in anyway, and grab a booth.

She took one close to the door. "I'll just have a strawberry shake," she said when Marjorie offered her a menu.

She sat there and stared out the window. The square was deserted. She watched the bare trees bend and swing in the strong wind. The sky was still dark. It's going to snow, It's going to snow, Sue thought. Sue thought.

And sure enough-a few wispy flakes began turning in the air.

"Well, will you look at that?" Marjorie said as she placed her shake in front of her. "The first snow of the season. Gets earlier every year."

"It won't amount to much," Sue said.

"Let's hope not," the waitress said before moving away.

Sue took a sip. She was surprised at how angry she still was at Malika. Part of her said the fight had been all her fault, that she'd goaded her roommate into it by calling her a lesbian. But what if she had? Malika had only gotten what she had coming to her.

"She'll learn," Sue whispered.

"Do you mind if I join you?"

A voice startled her out of her reverie.

She looked up and instead of seeing Billy, she saw an older man. Sixties probably. Small, some kind of Hispanic. She resisted her Manhattan upbringing-that instinct drilled into her from childhood to not talk to strangers, to dismiss him with a wave of her hand and a curt "no." Why this older man wanted to sit in the same booth with her was rather peculiar and even a bit creepy-but Sue was intrigued. She gave him a slight shrug. "Be my guest," she said.

"I'm Father Ortiz," he said as he slid into the booth across from her. He smiled at her as he opened his coat and shrugged it off his shoulders, revealing his priestly collar.

"You're a priest?" Sue asked.

"I am."

"Catholic?"

He nodded. "Right again."

Sue gave him a strange look.

"I just wanted a moment of your time, Miss Barlow."

"How do you know my name? My boyfriend will be here in a minute-"

"This won't take long," said Father Ortiz. "I understand you had a rather interesting encounter with a friend of mine recently at the hospital."

"I don't know what you're talking about."

"You seem sad," he replied as though she had said nothing. "Is everything all right?"

He seemed genuinely interested. Sue thought that his eyes looked kind.

"I don't know you," she told him.

"But I know you, Miss Barlow. I know that you must be very confused right now. Even frightened."

"Why would I be frightened?"

"It's not hopeless, you know. It doesn't have to go the way they are expecting. You still have your own self-will. You still have a soul-"

"Okay, now I'm thinking you're crazy. Who are 'they'? I'm thinking I should call the waitress and have her kick you out of-"

"I suspect you are not usually so belligerent. Does it frighten you? Concern you?"

Sue stared at him. "Your friend at the hospital. You mean that freak, don't you? Bernadette deSalis? How dare she speak of my mother!"

"It must have been hard for you to grow up without your mother."

How does he know so much about me?

Sue narrowed her eyes at him, ready to tell him to get the f.u.c.k out of her face! get the f.u.c.k out of her face!

But suddenly-she softened.

"I wish I had known her," she said, slumping.

"There's been a lot of tragedy lately," Father Ortiz said. "You're a caring girl, I can see that. I know you don't want any more to occur."

Sue picked up the wrapper of her straw and began shredding it. The priest was making her uncomfortable, despite the kindness in his eyes and the gentleness of his voice. There was something about him-he's dangerous to you- that unsettled her. that unsettled her.

Still, he seemed to have answers...

"It's almost like," she said, struggling to get the words out, "the college is under some kind of curse."

"As though there are dark forces at work there?"

Father Ortiz's smile was still kind, but his eyes narrowed a fraction, and the twinkle in them seemed to go out as he spoke. "Tell me, Sue. Do you believe in evil?" He tilted his head to one side slightly. "Evil as a force that exists in the world?"

Sue s.h.i.+fted in her seat, and looked down at her melting milk shake. The straw wrapper lay in shreds next to her gla.s.s. "I suppose that without evil, good cannot exist," she replied. The words came from nowhere. "They need each other. They define each other."

He laughed gently. "Many theologians have debated and written about this very question-indeed, far greater minds than mine."

Sue was growing increasingly uncomfortable. "Why did you sit down here with me? Did you come here specifically looking for me?"

"I admit I did. I was at the hospital in Senandaga just now. Mike deSalis is being sent home as we speak. He has made a full and complete recovery." Father Ortiz smiled. "Your boyfriend was there, cheering him on, and I heard him say he had to hurry back here to meet you."