Page 101 of Anathema Codex

Well, not a funeral. No one who enters Lakyn's house actually gets a funeral.

They get dissolved in a tub just like Willa did, just like this girl will be. I carry the latest of Lakyn's conquests into his workshop and drop her to the floor to finish unwrapping the mess. Burning the sheets will be easier than anything else, but my stomach clenches when I finally get a look at what he did.

She's cut open from breasts to cunt, and there's a bunch of other stab wounds around the gaping wound. The bloody mess between her legs looks more like one hole instead of two now, and I kick her legs back together just so I don't have to see it.

It only takes me a few minutes to get her situated, pouring the bottles over her in the way Lakyn taught me, and I make a mental note to remind him that we need more—whenever he starts talking to me again anyway.

With the dark-haired girl disappearing off the face of the earth, I head back out to the SUV and grab one of the bags from the back, barely catching the plastic container that almost tumbles onto the pavement. In the dim light of the driveway I can't tell what it is, but I crack the lid on it as I get back to the porch and it takes a minute for my brain to process what the fuck I'm looking at.

It's a heart. A human heart sitting in a plastic container like the leftovers from some fucked-up meal.God dammit.

I drop the duffel bag in the living room and head back to the workshop to add the heart to the mess in the tub. It's probably the girl's heart anyway, and Lakyn might be pissed that I destroyed his keepsake—if that's what it is—butsomeonehas to clean up after his shit.

A few more trips and I've got the rest of the bags inside, and I'm pretty sure that several of them belonged to Aftyn and Willa. As I'm putting Lakyn's favorite hatchet back where it belongs, right next to Bea's hatchet, I sink into the chair in the corner and stare at it.

Did he kill Aftyn? Is the kid out there somewhere in a dumpster, or on the side of the road, chopped into pieces because I reached out to him and lured him into his father's web? Just more questions that I want to ask Lakyn, more answers I probably won't get, but I feel the weight of the guilt anyway.

There aren't really a lot of reasons why Lakyn would have the kid's bags unless Aftyn didn't need them anymore, and that's just one more thing that's my fault.

Everyone that meets Lakyn Meyer eventually dies for the privilege, and I'm just waiting for my turn.

Who knows? By morning, maybe my time will finally be up.

THREE

A New Path

AFTYN

I smile at Raindrop as she walks by The Daughter’s home. She’s wearing a dress similar to one that is worn by their goddess of the desert, though not exactly.

I’ve noticed that almost everyone here, male and female, try to emulate her in some way. I seem to be the only one that wanted to stay as I was, but that didn’t last very long.

It’s been two weeks since I finally found the place where I belong, and I couldn’t be happier.

Especially now that Lakyn has gone back to fuck knows where—though no one cares about that except for Daphne, and probably his boyfriend. I still think about Ichabod sometimes when I hear the stories of how so many of the Children of the Light escaped bad situations to find this oasis, and I can’t help but think about how he would have been happier out here in the desert regardless of Beatrix not remembering him. I would like to think that in due time, all memories—painful or otherwise—serve a purpose and she’d use her newfound happiness to lift him up instead of knocking him down like Pops does.

Of course, he could get away from that fucked-up situation any time he wants to, and he chooses to stay, so I tell myself that it’s not my fault.

None of this is.

Not Dexter.

Not Daphne.

Not Lakyn.

I think what’s helped me get through the recent trauma I’ve experienced the most is The Daughter. She looks so much like my Willa, cares about me just as deeply, and holds me so closely any time I cry over her. She’s always patient as she helps me to understand that the universe is all-knowing and works in the way it wants… even if it’s not in the way one would hope.

It’s a concept I’m still struggling with even though so much of it is comforting.

She’s explained over our time together that Willa has gone to be a Light Weaver before us and that, eventually, we’ll be together again. But for now, I belong to her, on this plane of existence, and I’m okay with that.

While I’m still trying to understand all of her teachings, the one thing I’ve been able to glean from that shitstorm is that… I did it. With everything that went wrong, in the end I got the one thing Lakyn Meyer always wanted and could never get. And since he took Willa from me, I think it’s only fair that I get to keep The Daughter.

It may be her title here, but it still kind of bugs me to call her that, she just doesn’t respond to Beatrix, Trixie, or any form of the name. It’s just how things are here. She’s not that person anymore. She’s ascended to a plane where she doesn’t need a name, only a title, and to be surrounded by those she’s gathered around her to accept her teachings and weave light for the universe.

Even when the water from the Cactus of Ambrosia wears off, she refuses to respond to her given name. She’s told me that it’s because it’s a mortal name and she’s no longer of this coil—whatever that means—but I’ve given up on pressing the issue. She’s mine, Lakyn is gone, and that’s all that matters.

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