Page 36 of Dollface

He pulled me closer to his body and whispered, “I’m going to let go, but you have to stay quiet. Understand?” I groaned into his hand. “I mean it, Rosie. Now is not the time for games.” Witha heavy sigh, I nodded. Sabbath slowly moved his hand from my mouth. I turned around, and as I opened my mouth to speak, he raised his finger to his lips and silently shushed me. He was dressed in a clean band t-shirt, a fresh pair of jeans, and his worn leather jacket. He was also holding a damn axe, which made me a bit uneasy. It was weird to see him so on edge. I looked back in the direction of the cavern and then at him. He tilted his head and shook it, as if telling me not to go back. But I had to.

Before he could stop me, I bolted in the direction I had come from. He quickly followed and grabbed my waist. “Let me go!” I shouted. He shushed me again and carried me back the way he’d come. “Sabbath, please!” He ignored me and continued to run in the opposite direction. “Put me down!”

He eventually threw me down and covered my mouth again. His dark eyes were wide, and I noticed the axe firmly in his grip, which told me just how serious this all was.

“Please,” he whispered. “Just try to keep your voice down.”

“Why do I have to keep quiet? Who were those people?” He eyed me closely. Why was he so afraid? Did he know who those people were? What they were doing? “Sabbath, is that your church?” He didn’t answer. “Sabbath!”

“Shh!” He listened for a few seconds. “Listen, I’ll tell you everything. But first, can wepleaseget out of here?” I furrowed my brows and glared up at him, annoyed. Sabbath stood and offered his hand out to me. I slapped it away and crawled to my feet without his help. He rolled his eyes and raised the axe to rest on his shoulder. I waited for him to lead the way, but he only pointed to a small path ahead.

We didn’t speak and quietly walked away from the ancient redwood until the forest slowly morphed back to the mundane version that surrounded the camp. I stopped in my tracks and turned to face him. “This is far enough.” He stopped directlyin front of me, and I stared up into his dark eyes. “Tell me everything. Now.”

Sabbath brushed his hair back with his free hand. “Why don’t you start by telling me what the hell you were doing way out there in the woods? You could’ve gotten lost, Rosie. Or worse.”

I scoffed. “Worse? Like what?” He didn’t answer. “You know I didn’t ask you to come rescue me. I’m not yours to save, Sabbath.”

He stepped closer, and I stumbled back. His hand gently pressed against my lower back as he pulled me towards him. My hands reached out and landed against his chest. I felt flustered with how close we were. “Yes, you did.” His fingers trailed under my shirt and up to my scar. A light gasp escaped me as his fingertip pressed the raised skin. “You reached out to me and asked me to come find you. So, I did.”

Wait. So it’s true? The scars—these marks—they connect us? He can really find me because of it?

I shook my head and stepped back from him. “You’re avoiding the point.”

“And you’re avoiding my question.” He raised a brow. “I thought you wanted me to leave you alone. So why reach out to me? Why were you out in the woods this late? And all alone?”

I crossed my arms. “I thought I saw something and decided to chase it down.” Sabbath made a face. “I know, it sounds crazy! But I saw a plague doctor. Again! And I wanted to find out who it was and why I kept seeing them, so I followed it! Only, I lost it, and then it got dark, and yeah.” I turned away. “Go on. Call me crazy.”

He lowered the axe and sighed. “You’re not crazy. And you did see a plague doctor.” I spun to face him. Sabbath walked over to a large rock and sat down. He grabbed his head and groaned. “Fuck, why do you have to be so damn curious.”

Rude.

“Who were those people in that cave, Sabbath?” I walked over and sat next to him. “Please, none of this makes any sense.” His head rotated, and he looked up at me. “Are they from your church?”

Sabbath noticed me shivering and removed his jacket. He wrapped it around me, and I settled into it, unintentionally inhaling his scent. It was so warm and comforting. “You’re freezing. We should get you back to camp. We can talk another time.” He stood, and I made a face. “Fine,” he groaned and sat back down. “The people you saw in the cavernaremembers of my church. Only, we’re not actually a church. That’s just what we call it around, well, people like you.”

I raised a brow. “People like me?”

He nodded. “Outsiders.”

“So you’re part of a cult.”

He didn’t seem to like the phrase. “We’re not a cult. We’re called The Order of The Redwood.” What is with everyone’s obsession with these damn trees? “As you can probably guess, the… group.” Cult. “Is based out of these woods. The old, ashen redwood tree you saw earlier? We call it The Ancient One. It possesses the entity we worship, The Redwood. What Foster made is called a Sapling and it’s more or less a small representation of The Redwood. A tree-like entity that resides here in these woods.” He paused for a moment. “The Redwood is an extension of The Ancient One and one cannot exist without the other.”

I blinked. “You worship an old tree?” Definitely a cult.

“It’s not just a tree, Rosie,” he growled. “The Redwood is an ancient and old entity that’s lived on this earth longer than anything else. And while it may look like a normal tree to you, it’s not. It houses a powerful and evil spirit. A spirit that can do many things.”

A spirit? In a tree?

“Like what?” I asked.

Sabbath sighed. “Well, for one, it can heal people and extend their life.”

I grabbed his arm. “Like the fountain of youth?”

He shook his head and laughed. “No. It’s a bit more complicated than that. The Redwood can grant many things, but everything comes at a cost. A sacrifice.” I flinched at the word.

So he was a part of a cult.

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