Alyssa Redd's Arc

Chapter 13 of 15

Alyssa stood up from the wooden floor and looked around the chapel. Dust drifted in the colored light. Marla sat with the brass cylinder in her lap. Neither of them had put it there. Neither of them remembered how the door had closed behind them. "Someone lives here," Marla said. "Or comes here." Alyssa walked the aisle. Her crocs stuck to the boards. The pews were pushed against the wall to make room for two cots joined at the foot. A cloth was folded on one pillow. The other pillow had a dent in it, like a head had been there that morning. Alyssa's skill kicked in without asking. She saw how the roof would fail in a hard wind. She saw the weak beam over the door. Then she saw what did not fit. A wooden crate stood behind the altar, hinged, painted to look like part of the wall. She opened it. Inside sat a shelf of dented cans with faded labels, a jug of water, and a book. The sign above read church donations in half-peeled letters. The cans were old but sealed. Someone had stocked this for people. Marla lifted the book. The cover read the truth of shrumella and its origin. Her hands shook. "Alyssa." Gravel crunched outside. Slow steps. Not running. Not hiding. Alyssa reached for the cylinder. Marla reached for her hand. The door pushed open. A man stood in the frame. Brown robe. Bare feet in worn sandals. A bruise along his jaw that had faded to yellow. He carried nothing. He looked at them like he had been expecting them for a long time. "You found your way," he said. "Welcome." Alyssa put herself between him and Marla. "This is your land." "It is nobody's land." He stepped inside and closed the door. "I stocked the shelf. I set the cots. I have been walking a long time to reach the ones who were forgotten." "How did we get here," Marla said. "You were carried." He did not explain. He walked past Alyssa and touched the book in Marla's hand. "No one will find you here. Not the ship. Not the Bureau. Here you can learn the truth of Shrumella. Why they took your family. Why they took the memory." Alyssa's chest went tight. "Who are you." "I am here to help you wake up." He looked at her with plain brown eyes. "Wake up." He snapped his fingers. "Wake up." Another snap. Alyssa's knees loosened. The colored light bent. "Wake up." The third snap took the room. Black poured in from the corners of Alyssa's vision and closed over the middle. She felt Marla's hand still in hers. Then she did not feel anything. The chapel was quiet. The cylinder rolled once on the boards and stopped. The book lay open on the cot, waiting to be read.