Page 32 of Secrets in Salem: Part One

Nodding, I go about lifting the first body, noting how light it is. I may as well be carrying a skeleton. Brushing the thought away, I carry the body outside and drop it onto the ground at the back of the house under the cover of the dark sky and overhanging trees. After working for the Devil for as long as we have, it's no surprise this comes easy to us. We've had to remove and dispose of plenty of bodies in our time.

I go back for the other body, bringing it to the same spot and dropping it on top of the first, Aleric doing the same. As soon as the bodies are piled, I nod to Aleric and he goes about destroying them. His hands heat up before flames spark over his fingers and cover his arms, fire running up to his elbows. His eyes flash red as he kneels in front of the bodies and touches each one, using his fire to burn away the evidence of Willow's crime.

Once the bodies are aflame, all traces of them whittling away to ash, Aleric moves back and stands beside me, the fire evaporating from his skin and his eyes fading back to normal. He tucks his hands in his pockets, watching the flames grow bigger, the rain absent for the time being.

"She can't stay here," he tells me quietly.

I nod, watching the sparks flicker from the flames and onto the ground, the sizzle of the wet grass dousing the flecks of fire. "Didn't plan on leaving her here. She'll stay with us tonight, and then we'll work out where we go from there in the morning. Her safety is priority. Pretenses have already been lost, so it's no issue to take her with us and make ourselves a fixture in her life now. She'll have questions, but we'll have to be careful with how much we give away so soon."

Aleric nods as I talk, silently agreeing with me.

We stay outside until the bodies are nothing but piles of ash on the wet ground, the wind scattering their remains over the yard. As soon as they meld with nature, we both turn and head back inside.

"What the fuck are we going to do about this?" Aleric asks, trailing a finger over the wall and coming away with a blackened pad. Where he's traced a line down the wall, there's a white layer beneath. She's only burnt the surface.

"The floor is going to need to be replaced. Looks like it's just a clean up job other than that. We'll wash the walls and repaint. Shouldn't be too much trouble," I tell him, looking around and spotting the messed up wallpaper. "We'll have to strip the wallpaper too."

Aleric sends me a dry look followed by an eye roll and turns his back on the mess, heading up the stairs. I follow behind him, hearing him mutter, "I can't paint for shit. I ain't doing that, so he better know someone who can."

I shake my head with a smile playing on my lips. That is, until we enter Willow's bedroom again and find her in the same position, sitting in Micah's lap and now staring at nothing. Her tears have dried; the only proof they were there are the tracks on her cheeks. Otherwise, she looks like a hollow shell of the woman we met earlier.

"We're taking her home with us. We'll figure out the rest tomorrow," I tell Micah, keeping my voice low so I don't startle Willow.

Micah nods and gestures for one of us to come closer. Aleric steps forward and bends so he's eye level with the two of them. He turns his eyes to Micah and asks, "Want me to explain?"

He gets another nod, and Aleric turns his focus on Willow. "Hey, Willow? We're going to take you back to our place for the night, okay? You're not safe here, but you will be with us."

She blinks then blinks again.

"She's in shock," I comment, noting the way her hands tremble and the shakiness of her breath.

Keeping his voice just above a whisper, Aleric says, "Dove, I need you to nod for me so I know you're okay with us taking you to our place."

Three things happen as soon as the term of endearment slips from Aleric’s mouth. First, a little bit of life comes back to Willow, her blinks barely more deliberate now, but it’s an improvement to the dead stare she’d been giving the wall. Second, Aleric frowns with confusion, his eyes flashing red while his head tilts to the side as he intently watches her. Three, that familiar feeling I’d felt before grows in strength, the single word bringing back a flash of distant and muddled memories I can’t make any sense of. What the hell was that?

Slowly, Willow’s head nods with jerky motions, drawing my attention back to the situation at hand. Her eyes are still empty, and she doesn't look as though she really knows what's happening, but the nod is enough.

"I'll take her off you," Aleric says to Micah. "You can grab some of her things. I'm sure she'll be more forgiving knowing you went through her stuff than me. I haven't exactly given off the best impression."

Rolling his eyes, Micah hands Willow over, and she goes without a fuss, still staring at nothing with her cold gaze. Aleric hooks an arm under her legs and wraps the other around her back, his hold gentler than I would have expected. Willow’s grip on Micah’s shirt loosens, the material slipping easily through her fingers.

I help Micah gather some of Willow's things, necessities like clothes, toothbrush, hairbrush, everything we think she uses daily, and shove them all in a duffle bag Micah finds in her closet. Once we're done, we all leave the house in silence before settling in our cars and putting the whole night behind us.

Chapter 17

Willow

I can feelsomeone holding me, but I just don't have it in me to find out who it is. I don't have the energy for much of anything right now. The endless replay of pictures that keeps flashing in my mind is demanding all of my attention. Flashes of flames, the floor burning under my feet, the frightened looks on the faces of the men who were in my house. How did they get inside? What were they doing there? Why were they in my home, and why did they look so terrified when they sawme?

As soon as I think about the intruders, my head starts playing an loop of images of their wide, vacant eyes and parted mouths, the way they slumped to the floor, the way they looked in death. Something deep inside me knows it was my fault, but I just don't understand how. My mind is working tirelessly to fit the pieces together, but it's as though there's a block in my mind preventing me from completing the puzzle. I'm not entirely sure I want to know.

The way the men shriveled and turned to leathered skin sagging off their bones makes it clear to me that whatever happened tonight was not natural. That there's something wrong with the entire situation. There's something wrong withme.

I feel my body being jostled, then I'm placed on something cushioned, but I don't pay any attention. My mind feels completely disconnected from everything while memories I don't even remember making filter through my head, flashes of color, bright sparks of flame, the smell of burning... flesh.

"I'm going to be sick," I whisper brokenly.

Everything goes silent. It’s almost like there was noise surrounding me but only now that I’m paying attention to it.

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