Page 83 of The Last Stars in the Sky
She smiles and nods. “Always.” Then she closes her eyes, and her hand falls away; she’s already slipping into a doze. I let hergo, rising from the deck as quietly as I can while my mother sleeps on.
She sleeps on that night, into death, as I think I knew she would, one day soon. She’d been fading since she came to the cottage, like a photograph losing its color, turning sepia in front of my eyes, corners curling up. When I go to bring her a bowl of oatmeal the next morning, I’m not surprised at all to see her lying there so still in her bed. There is no confusion, no uncertainty as to whether she’s dead or not; like with my dad, I know it at once.
I take a deep breath, let it out, and simply stand there for a moment, acknowledging the moment, the surprising peace of it. As I’m turning from her room, I hear the crackle of the walkie-talkie from the kitchen; Kyle is on guard at the barn. He’s used it before just to check in—and occasionally ask for snacks—so I’m not too worried.
But as I come into the kitchen, I hear his words clearly over the crackle, and everything in me goes icy and still.
“They’re coming.”
TWENTY-SEVEN
Kyle’s voice is garbled, shrill with fear, but we get from him that there are three trucks, each one with a couple of men, minimum, all of them bristling with guns, and they are coming for the cottage.
“We can take them,” Justine insists, her voice low and fierce, a rifle ready in her hands. “We have the stronger position, inside, up in the loft, at the windows. We can pick them off, one by one, as they come down the drive.We can take them.”
I so want to believe her. Ineedto believe her because what’s the alternative? Surrendering the cottage and all we’ve worked for, to these renegades and rapists, thesedestroyers,without even a fight? I can’t stand the thought.
“We could take a few,” Daniel concedes, his voice steady. “But if there are ten, twelve men, all armed, with vehicles?” He shakes his head, a slow, firm back-and-forth. “No.”
Justine lets out a huff of sound. “You’re not even going to try?”
“If we try and fail, do you know what the price is?” Daniel returns evenly. “What these men will do to us? To you?”
Justine’s face twists, her eyes flashing with both fury and despair. “Yes, I do. I’ve seen it myself.”
Daniel doesn’t reply; he just glances at Phoebe. Justine’s face crumples and she hugs her daughter to her, closing her eyes. “Where else can we go?” she demands brokenly. “That’s safe, that’s evenpossible?”
“There’s a military base near Buffalo,” Daniel tells her, and he explains what he told me last night, about this mythical community that may or may not exist. And even if it exists, the people there may or may not let us in. And that’s if we even get there in the first place. No one seems particularly enthused or impressed by the idea. How far away is that, anyway, I wonder? At least four hundred miles.
“Why haven’t they come yet?” Mattie asks suddenly. “If Kyle saw them from the barn?” It’s only been a minute, maybe two, since Kyle was shouting into the walkie-talkie, but she’s right. Shouldn’t they be roaring down the driveway now, whooping and hollering, firing their guns? There is only silence.
Daniel moves to the laundry room window, standing to the side, peering out cautiously. “Nothing,” he says. “They must be planning an attack.”
We are silent, absorbing this news. How will they attack us? When will it come? I look around the cottage living room—the blue wicker chair in the corner my dad always sat in, the clock on the mantle that’s ticked the time for forty years, the bookcases filled with beloved old paperbacks, the wooden sign above the door to the deck that reads proudly, ‘Lost Lake’. I imagine those men, those villains, in here, striding around, lolling on the sofa or breaking the pictures, and everything in me cries outNo.
“We have to fight,” I burst out. “Wehaveto.”
“There’s more than one way to fight,” Kerry says quietly. I look at her in confusion, but she just gives a little shake of her head. The rest of us remain immobile, undecided. Should we leave while we can, get away safely? It feels wrong somehow,as if we’re giving the cottage away. We might as well leave a welcome note and a plate of cookies.
But if—when—they do attack, it will be far worse. Far more dangerous. I know what those men will do to us—to me, to Mattie and Ruby. Iknow.And, in reality, we might not get away at all.
Daniel glances out the window again, up toward the stand of pine trees on the hill; my dad planted them when they first bought this place, when I was just four years old. “I think I see them,” he says quietly. “They’re up in the trees.”
Instinctively, I head toward the window to look, but he holds me back, hard, with one hand. “Don’t,” he says quietly. “They’re getting into position. They’ll shoot if they see any movement.”
In an instant, the cottage feels like an empty stage we have all stepped onto, helpless and exposed under the glare of a spotlight. I look around at all the windows, imagine us being silently surrounded. My stomach drops, and my heart begins to thud, my head feeling fuzzy and light. I have to take several deep breaths just to stay upright. Next to me, Ruby begins to cry, the tears slipping silently down her cheeks. Mattie just looks furious, Sam sad.
“What about Kyle?” Kerry asks suddenly. “He’s stuck back in the barn.”
“We’ve said we’d meet at the car in case of trouble,” Daniel reminds her. “If he slips out the back and stays down by the lake, he shouldn’t be noticed.”
“Yes, but…” Kerry frowns. I don’t think any of us actually imagined this happening.
In the next second of silence, while we are all still absorbing the sudden sea change of our lives, it begins. I don’t know what it is at first because I don’t hear the gunshot. I simply see Justine clutch her chest, her eyes widening with surprise as she drops Phoebe and blood blooms between her fingers, spreads outward.Daniel moves first, hitting the floor, pulling me with him. Everyone else follows while Phoebe begins to wail, and Daniel pulls her toward him.
Another bullet shatters the picture window into a million glittering fragments. We are all on our hands and knees, every single one of us completely terrified.
“How do we get out?” Sam gasps. “If we’re already surrounded?”
