“I mean, how do you know it’s this deal with a devil that keeps you all successful and shit? You’re white. You’re well-off. Pretty sure people like you have been gliding through life for generations. No mystical protections needed.”
“Don’t pretend like I’ve had an easy life! You have no idea what I’ve had to do, to face, to decide in order to take care of my family, my people, my heritage.”
Ava laughs. “We read your journal. We know exactly what you’ve done. God. I can’t. I can’t talk with her anymore. Come on.” Ava stands and holds a hand out to Mack.
“What happens if the monster isn’t fed?” Mack asks. “Will it get out?”
“It will be fed, no matter what. I already told you. Besides, the gate keeps it bound.”
“Will you promise that LeGrand’s sister isn’t touched?”
“Mack,” Ava warns.
Linda looks up at this, eyes narrowing shrewdly. “In exchange for?”
“We go back in,” Mack says. “That buys you a day, and then you only need one more person.” Mack has finally figured out why it felt wrong to leave the park. They weren’t running away. They were hiding, just in a different place. Mack would hide, and someone would die in her place, just like before. Just like Maddie. And this time she knows it.
Never again.
“Mack!” Ava grabs Mack’s shoulder, but Mack doesn’t stand, doesn’t move, doesn’t look away from Linda.
“Two more,” Linda corrects. “It won’t eat her.” She jerks her chin toward Ava, her tone indicating she thinks that’s an insulting thing to say. Lowly Ava, not good enough to be devoured by a monster.
“Okay,” Mack says. “Two more. But not Almera. She’s safe forever.”
“Stop.” Ava tugs on Mack’s arm, trying to get her up, trying to move her. “Stop.”
Linda is fixed on Mack, a shark on the scent of blood. She can turn this around. She’s still going to win. Of course she is. It’s her divine right to win. “I can guarantee that. But only if I’m alive.”
“You swear?” LeGrand asks. “I go in, and Almera stays safe. Really safe. You take her away from my father and put her in a good house. A place where they’ll take care of her.”
“I swear on the lives of my grandparents. On their sacrifice. I will see to it that your sister is safe and cared for, for the rest of her life.”
“You can’t be serious!” Ava lets go of Mack’s arm and paces, but the pain is too much. It’s all too much. She can’t catch her breath as her vision tunnels, and she leans heavily against the wall. “No. No.”
“I never had a choice.” Mack stares at the wood grain of the table, the tiny scratches Ava made. Wonders if they can be buffed right out, erasing the fact that they were ever here. “No. That’s not right. I had a choice, and I made it, and I let my sister die in my place. I took her spot, and for what? What have I ever done with my stolen life?”
At last, Mack looks up, but not at Ava. At her ghost of a reflection in the glass of the hutch. The glass over the Nicely family china, china that Mack could never touch, could never use, could never have. “This time I know what the stakes are, and I get to choose the sacrifice. And I’m not going to make the same mistake.” Mack glances over at LeGrand. She’s making this deal for him, too.
He nods. Whatever it takes for Almera.
“Okay,” she says. “We’ll go back in.”
“Fuck!” Ava screams, slamming her fist into the wall. “No! I won’t let you.”
LeGrand calmly points the rifle at her. “Ava. Get in the car and leave. Go. This isn’t your problem, not anymore.”
“You can’t—this isn’t—god, no. No.” Ava’s voice breaks, tears pooling in her dark eyes.
“You can go back in with them,” Linda offers. “Stay with them. Be their witness.” Linda smiles, and the red of her blood dripping down her cheek clashes with the pink of her lipstick, a garish mess of colors. “You’ll be perfectly safe, and you can make sure I keep my word. That’ll make LeGrand and Mack feel better, right? Ava will keep me accountable.”
LeGrand nods, quick, small movements. “Please,” he says, still pointing the rifle at Ava.
“You really think they’ll let me live, after?” Ava’s voice is strangled with the strain of holding back tears, with the terrible weight of despair.