Later that night, there is a knock on the door and when I open it, I find Beth standing on the other side. She frowns slightly like she wasn’t expecting me to be here, but she quickly masks her curiosity.
“I need to talk with you,” I murmur and guide her inside before closing the door.
She faces her back to me with her arms wrapped around herself like she was shielding herself.
“Beth, what is wrong? Why are you avoiding me?” I ask with worry rising in my tone.
“I’m not,” she mutters under her breath and shakes her head vigorously.
“Is it because of that night?” I stalk towards her, to face her and urge her to look at me while answering. “Because of what you saw?”
She keeps her eyes cast down like she can’t bear to look at me.
I hold onto her shoulders, trying to get her attention. “Please, Beth. If you don’t tell me then how will I help you?”
She remains silent for a few seconds before I notice a lone tear coursing down her cheek. “You can’t. Nobody can help me with this…nobody…” her words trail away.
Cupping her face, I meet her bloodshot eyes that make my heart ping with pain for her misery.
“I will help you, Beth. I promised you and I will keep that promise. Believe me-”
Beth moves back and takes a few steps away, shaking her head. “You can’t…it’s better to leave me alone. I don’t want you to save me.”
I frown in confusion. “But why?”
“Because I want to be part of this place…”
“What?” Utter shock consumes me.
“I have never been accepted anywhere, but I believe this is where I belong…I belong in the Magdalene…with the angels.”
I shake her by her shoulders. “Have you lost your mind? What are you even saying? You said you want to be free and leave-”
There is a sudden, wild smile stretching across her face as she nods frantically. “I can be free. I can be free with the angels. They exist, Agatha…believe me.”
My heart drops listening to her as something tells me that Geryon must have done something with her. Maybe he has fed her with his lies and bullshit about the ritual. And now she is starting to fall for his trap…maybe she already has.
“Beth, it’s not true. It’s all part of Geryon’s fucked up ritual.”
“No!” she screams, nearly hurting my ears with her screeching tone. “He told me the truth…he showed me. I have seen heaven…it…it exists.”
“No, Beth! It’s all lies!” I yell at her face, pleading to her with my eyes and now streaming tears to come back to reality.
“It’s not. I see them now…” she whispers. Her eyes rapidly move in all directions like she can actually sense the presence of angels.
My heart thuds against my chest that I can feel it aching everywhere. My nerves racing faster as I look over my shoulder, following her gaze. There is nothing but the walls and yet Beth looks at them with a smile that sends shivers down my spine.
“Don’t let him control you, Beth. Don’t do this to yourself. You can fight this.”
A frown exchanges with her smile with a raging look shadowing upon her face. “I am an angel. I am part of heaven and I will show you.”
She puts her hand inside her pocket and retrieves a red pill from her pocket. Suddenly she grips my jaw trying to make me have the pill but I catch her wrists, giving it all to push her away.
She struggles against my hold but doesn’t give up. Using her leg, she kicks me and losing my balance I fall on the ground. Her hair curtaining around her as she continues to force me.
“Beth! Stop this madness!” I screamed but it’s futile.
I try to push her body on the side table, hitting her back hard against it with the candelabra falling on the ground.
“You have to see this! You must!” she protests and holds onto my neck with a harsh grip that’s hurting my windpipe.
I struggle to breath but she keeps choking me tightly. Panic consumes me as I start to lose the ability to think through this situation. I try to pry off her hand but it’s no use.
But from the corner of my eye, I spot the candelabra and stretch out my hand to grab it. Just then she puts the pill close to my mouth, shoving it inside.
I hold the handle and in the next second I hit her temple with it just when the pill passes down my throat. Beth cries in pain and falls on the other side holding her now bleeding temple.
Fuck.
I start to choke from the aftermath of her suffocation but I quickly compose myself to look over Beth. Her eyes are slowly fluttering close with the blood pooling around her head.
Oh God. What have I done?
Horror shadows upon me with the fear that I might have hurt Beth so much that her life is at risk. I lean over her, lightly tapping her cheek.
“Beth, look at me. Can you hear me?” The agitation is crystal clear in my tone.
Her eyes are merely open but she still gives me that bone-shivering smile when I feel my vision blurry all of a sudden.
I shake my head but it instead triggers the ache in my head.
What is happening- shit. It’s the pill.
“You will see it…It’s real,” I can only hear Beth’s hushed voice but I can no longer see her. It’s nothing but darkness engulfing me while my body starts to shiver vigorously like I’m having a seizure as my body falls on the ground. My blood turns cold as ice with my lungs begging for air.
A sudden white flash takes over the darkness and I see myself standing outside the Magdalene, instead of the bedroom. I frown in confusion and look around, finding nothing but the building and the forest. Everything looked dark and green. Even the sky had green instead of the usual grey shade.
I try to take a step forward but I can’t move all of a sudden. My feet are rooted on the ground and I see dirty, burnt and bleeding hands growing out from the soil and grabbing my feet.
“Ah!” I scream out loud trying to push those horrific hands away. But their grip was so tight that I can feel it aching my muscles already. I look up when at the rooftop of the Magdalene I find a familiar face looking down at me.
Helena.
She is looking down at me with the same miserable, distant and cold expression she carried the last time I saw her.
“Save me.” I can hear her voice even from this distance.
Desperation consumes me and I try to move away from the hands bounding me against my will.
“Helena! Don’t move! I’m coming!” I scream while struggling to get away from the hands. But nothing is working.
Suddenly, I feel a dark shadow looming behind me. And it’s truly a shadow that I find over my shoulder. A dark hand reaches out from it and cups my face.
“I will save her…” the voice is so deep and groggy that it sounds like a monster.
“No! I will!” I protest but it guides my face towards the roof where Helena is taking a step forward to her downfall.
“Helena no!”
But she doesn’t stop.
“I will save her. Say yes…accept this darkness.”
My throat feels clogged as I’m unable to speak, looking back and forth from Helena to the shadow again and again. My ears start to tear up with fear of losing her but also feeling myself surrendering to darkness with no way of coming back.
But when I see her taking another step, I yell my answer. “Save her! Please!”
I witness Helena falling down again and unable to see her death again I shut my eyes, breathing heavily and sobbing at the same time.
I lost her…I lost her…
“Agatha,” the soft voice of my sister fills my ears that it feels unbelievable.
My eyes slowly open and I see her…she is alive.
“Helena,” I whisper as emotions overwhelm me beyond anything else with my heart pumping fast against my chest.
She is alive and smiling brightly…a smile I have long forgotten about.
“You are here…” my voice trails off. I look down and see my feet are free and without any further delay I wrap my arms around her in a tight hugging while I let my emotions flow out.
The caged sorrows and guilt I have been carrying for so long.
“You saved me, Agatha,” she murmurs, running her hand along my hair. She feels so real like she never left me in the first place.
“You are my savior, my angel”, she kisses my temple and leans my face back, “I knew you would be there for me.”
I cry harder, kissing her palms. “I’m so sorry for what I did…I’m so sorry, Helena. I should have told you everything…I should have done something before it was too late.”
She shakes her head and kisses my forehead. I close my eyes, relishing in her feeling…her touch…her love.
I miss her so much that I’m willing to do anything to see her like this for the rest of my life.
“I can’t believe you are here.” My voice is choked and heavy from sobbing for so long.
“I’m here because of you…because you are my angel. You are an angel, Agatha.”
I frown. “I am?”
She nods with a soft smile making my heart pang. “You truly are. And soon you will realize it.”
“But I don’t want to lose you,” I grab her hands tightly, afraid she will disappear again, “please, stay. Don’t go away, Helena,” I beg her.
“You can see me all you want. Anytime…anywhere.”
“How?” I immediately ask.
“Just like the way you came here right now.”
The pill.
I have to take it and I will be able to see my sister as much as I want. I don’t care if I need to surrender myself to darkness and make a deal with the devil because for Helena, I’m willing to do anything.
Even to get tainted by the devil.
