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6

Jolie

I leapt out of bed,immediately alert. “What?”

“I think… I think she…” Lauren faltered and wiped her face. “Just come and see.”

I ran down the hall toward Elena’s room, heart thudding with fear. Two men were carrying her out. Her face was blue and a dark bruise was on her throat, stretching all around her neck as if thin invisible hands were choking her.

“What happened?” I screamed, trying to get closer. Another man held me back.

“Jolie, my little lamb,” my father said from somewhere behind me. His hand touched my shoulder. “Come with me to the church, please. We are gathering all the girls there to discuss this terrible tragedy.”

Tears streamed down my face as I watched the men take Elena away. She was one of my best friends in the whole world… and now she was gone forever. I would never meet someone like her again.

My knees weakened, and I sank to the cold concrete floor. Lauren joined me, wrapping her thin arms around me. “I don’t understand how this happened,” she said, her voice a ragged whisper. “I just…”

My father interrupted. “Girls, come on,” he said, reaching for me again.

With shaky legs, I got up and followed him to the church in the middle of the shelter. The rest of the women filed in soon after, their faces white and anxious. I took Lauren’s hand and squeezed hard. She was trembling like me, and her face was wet with tears.

My father took his usual spot up at the pulpit, and the Elders stood by him. He waited for the women to sit down on the uncomfortable stone pews, and then he pressed his hands together in front of him, like he was praying.

“It is with great sadness that we must inform you of Elena Landry’s passing,” he began. “We were unaware of this—and that is entirely our fault—but Elena was extremely ill.”

I frowned. Elena wasn’t sick. She seemed perfectly healthy to me.

“Her sickness was not in the body,” my father went on. “It was in her mind. So even though she looked healthy, she was very mentally ill, and recently, she started to have delusions and suffered what used to be known as a ‘psychotic break’. I only wish someone had noticed sooner and said something, so that our Healer could’ve tried to help her. If that had happened, she might not have taken her own life.”

My eyes widened. That was why her neck had all that bruising around it. She hanged herself. Oh, Elena, I thought, hoping she could hear my private reflections now that she was in the afterworld, whether it be heaven or hell. How could you?

“Elena left a note for all of you to read, and I will pass it around once I have read it out to you,” Elder Landry said from beside my father, holding up a slip of paper. “Her last words to you were this: Hello, dear sisters. I am so sorry about the things I have done, and the things I have said. I lied to you all last night, and as I write this, I am riddled with guilt. The Devil has been in my mind for a long time now. He asked me to spread his wicked lies, so that he may enter your minds too. I did as he said, and now I feel nothing but shame and deep regret. I cannot believe I have done this to my own sisters. You all deserve so much better. I must leave this world so that I cannot spread any more corruption to you. Please, try not to think of me once I am gone. You must disregard anything I told you, lest you fall to wickedness too. Again, I am so deeply sorry for what I have done. Love, Elena.”

I sat there, stunned. Why didn’t Elena come to me? Why didn’t she tell me she was suffering so much? I could have helped her. I could have taken her to the Healer. I could have stopped her from spreading what I now knew were the Devil’s tempting lies.

No wonder it all sounded so good last night. So right. That was how he wormed his way into people’s minds, especially the weak minds of girls. It was insidious. Pure evil.

Poor Elena…

“We must praise Elena for doing the right thing in the end!” my father called out, slamming his hand on the pulpit. “She knew she had to remove herself from this Earth in order to protect the rest of you. While we are all saddened by this, we must also rejoice in the knowledge that she has made it to heaven with Him by virtue of her selfless act. So say it out loud with me: thank you, Elena!”

Bile crept up my throat and into my mouth as nausea washed over me. “Thank you, Elena,” I murmured along with the others.

Even though it made me feel sick to my stomach, I knew my father was right. If Elena had stayed here any longer, she might have infected us with the wicked lies the Devil planted on her tongue.

She almost succeeded last night. I’d actually seriously considered what she said about the airplane and all the rest. Now I knew better. I was simply weak. I should’ve known that already, given how many times I’d succumbed to sin in recent days.

I clasped my hands together and prayed softly. “I am sorry for ever listening to such lies. Please forgive me, and please keep Elena warm and safe in your arms up there.”

Elder Landry had begun passing the note around by now, and it finally made its way to me and Lauren. We held onto it together as we looked at it for a moment. Then I met Lauren’s big brown eyes and nodded. It was definitely Elena’s handwriting.

Another tear slid down my cheek. I brushed it away, furiously fighting the rest of them as they threatened to spill out.

“Now, young ladies,” my father called out. “We know you went up to the old church last night to listen to Elena. We forgive you for this. You must’ve been very curious, and the things she said were surely tempting. But you know now that it was blasphemy. The evil words of an insane woman whose mind had been rotted by the Devil himself. You would do well to forget everything she told you, unless you want to follow in her footsteps.”

I frowned, wondering how the men knew we went to the old church last night. Someone must’ve told them.

I glanced around at the other women. My eyes finally came to rest on Martha, and they narrowed as I stared at her. She was pale, her curly hair looked frizzy and unkempt, and her eyes were wide and glistening with tears. I knew it was an act.

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