When Devils Sing(76)

This is all wrong.

As Neera was left alone in the walkway, she was overcome with the uneasy feeling of something shifting in the air, her sense of the world irreparably changed.





CHAPTER 29REID




67 HOURS


When Reid returned home from the festival celebration that night, he dreamed of his mother.

He was twelve years old again, having awoken atop his reading nook. The shock of thunder had jolted him upright. Lightning struck, washing the sky in a blinding white. He crawled away from the window, where rain violently splattered against the glass.

He wrapped his blanket around himself and tiptoed out of his room in search of water and a snack. It was late, so late in fact that everyone else was sound asleep in their rooms. Reid saw his opportunity: He’d play the Xbox in the living room on the big TV while his siblings slept.

Once Reid was settled on the couch with chips and a glass of water, he became aware of a door creaking in the heavy wind. He rose from the couch and approached the screened-in porch that overlooked the lake. The door that led outside was partially open, swaying violently from the storm.

Reid stepped onto the porch to close the creaking door, but something caught his eye. On the porch’s wooden planks were fresh, wet footprints.

Peering past the screen, Reid looked out into the rainy cover of night. Despite it, he saw movement out on the dock behind his family’s home. Looking closely, Reid could make out bright yellow rain boots. The ones that belonged to his mother.

What’s Mom doing?

Without thinking, Reid bounded out the door and ran toward his mother in the pouring rain. He slipped several times as he ran, but he didn’t fall. He was determined to make it to her. Whatever she was doing, it was dangerous. She needed him; he was sure of it.

His mother stood in a black raincoat and carried a duffel bag on her shoulder. She was looking away from Reid when he reached her, focused on a small speedboat sloshing frantically in the water.

“Mom,” he yelled. “Mom! What’re you doing?”

His mother turned suddenly, her face partially obscured from the hood of the raincoat. “Reid? You can’t be here.”

“I don’t understand,” he said loudly, begging to be heard over the storm. “Why are you out here?”

His mother knelt before him, pulling him close. They were both soaked and shivering, but her closeness brought him warmth.

“Go inside, Reid. Please. Go.”

Reid shook his head. “Where are you going?”

As Reid observed her up close, he realized his mother looked terrified. He’d never seen her so scared before. She was never scared of anything.

“I’m leaving, Reid,” she said into his ear. “But I’ll come back for you. I promise.”

Reid gripped his mother’s hand tightly. “Take me with you.”

“It’s not safe, Reid,” his mother cried over the rain. “It’s not safe right now, but I will come back for you. Please believe me.”

His mother tossed her duffel bag onto the boat, then knelt before Reid again. She held him close for a long moment, then said, “You never saw me, Reid. Okay? You can’t tell anyone about this. If you do, I can’t come back for you. Do you understand? I’ll be gone forever.”

Reid didn’t know what to say.

His mother shook his shoulders. “Say it, Reid. Tell me you understand.”

He swallowed the spit forming in his throat. “I understand.”

“What won’t you do?”

Reid looked at the boat, then back at his mother. “I won’t tell anyone I saw you.”

His mother kissed his forehead and hugged him for what Reid would soon realize was the very last time. “Go back inside, Reid. Pretend this was all a dream.”

Reid stood immobile as his mother climbed into the boat and disappeared into the stormy night.

The next morning, he was awoken by the screams of his father. Of his siblings. A chorus of people calling his name.

Reid found himself lying atop a pile of life jackets in his family’s boathouse. He didn’t remember how he got there. For the briefest of moments, he thought the previous night was only a nightmare.

But then it returned to him.

His mother had vanished before his eyes as he cried for her in the dark, yelling against the booms of a storm. He had stumbled into the boathouse, sobbing and hoarse. He’d cried himself sick until he succumbed on the life jackets and welcomed sleep.

“He’s in here!”

Reid opened his swollen eyes, finding Farris standing above him. Her face was tired and stricken. A moment later, Reid’s father and brother appeared in the boathouse.

His father rushed forward, on his knees before him. Clutching Reid’s face, he asked only one thing. “Where is your mother?”





CHAPTER 30ISAIAH




58 HOURS


Secrets of the South was born in the belly of an alligator.

Three years ago, the hurricane of the century hit the Southeast, barreling through Florida, then made landfall as a vicious tropical storm in Southwest Georgia. The storm drowned much of the rural flatland towns, knocking out power and destroying thousands of homes and businesses in its path. Lake Clearwater had been completely spared from the carnage, as it often was when natural disasters hit Southwest Georgia. The parts of Carrion nearest Clearwater were fortunate in the same regard, with only the homes on Langley County’s outskirts suffering even minor wind damage.