“Hush now, child,” said a voice
she recognized as that of her mother’s closest friend. “The man cannot harm
you, mijita, as long as you are with us. We will make him think you are
dead. But you must be very quiet. “Ya no llores,” the woman warned,
raising a finger to her lips.
The woman then carried her into a
dark cave illuminated by the light of a single candle. The cave was frightening,
with shadows of what appeared to be goblins and demons dancing on the red
sandstone walls. “I will return for you soon. You will be safe here,” the woman
said. The girl watched the woman walk away, shivering as a breeze blew through
the cave’s narrow passages.
Closing her eyes, she rocked back
and forth—imagining herself safe in her mother’s arms—then opened her eyes to
the light of the full moon shining through the mouth of the cave. The shadows
on the walls were just shadows now, no longer goblins and demons. As she
slipped into a trance, images flickered in her mind. She saw the woman who had
brought her to this place scattering pieces of raw meat around the open mesa
where her mother had struggled, helped by two other women the girl could not
identify.
Suddenly, the scene shifted to a
stone ledge jutting over the mesa, and she heard the pounding footsteps of a
man running toward the women. The girl felt her heart race and her breathing
quicken, afraid that the bad man would spot them and kill them. Then the image
shifted again, and she now saw on the mesa three gray wolves circling the raw
meat and the man walking away from the granite ledge. As he left, she heard his
thought: The child is dead.
*****Want to find out more about Paul DeBlassie III? Want a chance to win your own copy of The Unholy? Come back Friday for your chance to win!*****
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