Blue Sacrifice (Blue Davison) (8 page)

“I’m sure it’s a great opera and I’ll enjoy it,” I
finally said.

“If you love it half as much as I do, you’ll never
want to let it go.”

Swallowing hard, I was relieved when Lacey
appeared wearing a powder blue outfit that would be comical on someone less
beautiful.

“We’re off to the loony bin,” Lacey announced.

Stepping away from Tyson, I wasn’t sure what to
say. Why would Tyson be jealous of Flynn and not every other guy I dated? Was
Tyson just acting weird because the town was acting weird? Did he really feel
what I saw in his eyes?

“Next week, Bluebell,” Tyson said, returning to
the piano. “We can enjoy dinner first. I know how Gretchen forgets to feed
you.”

“I’m sixteen. I can feed myself.”

Grinning, Tyson barely glanced at me. “True, I
suppose you can figure out the intricacies of the microwave.”

Rolling my eyes, I glanced at Lacey who was
fumbling with her purse. “What’s wrong?”

“I can’t find my keys.”

“Take my car,” Tyson said, playing the piano
again. “I will permit this.”

Lacey glared at her older brother who smiled
without looking at her. Grinning at Tyson, I knew how he loved to tease Lacey.

“Fine, but I’m not putting gas in it,” Lacey said.

“Wouldn’t expect you to.”

Lacey tossed her hair over her shoulder then
walked into the kitchen. Returning, she carried his keys.

“I might put a few dents in it. Do you permit
that, old man?”

“Whatever you wish, child.”

Growling, Lacey stormed out as I followed after
her. I smiled at Tyson as I walked to the door.

“Thank you,” I said and he nodded.

“I wouldn’t want you to miss out on seeing your
aunt. Hopefully one day she will be released and you and she can live long
happy lives.”

“Yes hopefully.”

Tyson must have heard something in my voice
because he paused his playing. His shoulders sagged for a moment then he
straightened and sighed. Playing again, he said nothing more, but I knew he was
worried. Lacey was too which explained why she was being so grumpy with everyone.

Not with me though. Speeding along the highway,
Lacey allowed me to choose the music and to turn the air to the temperature I
liked. It was as if I was a dead girl walking and these were my last treats
before death. The ride to the hospital was almost festive, but this mood ended
as soon as we drove up the long path leading to the facility which rested just
outside Lily Falls.

Aunt Penny wasn’t really crazy when they locked
her into the institution, but I was certain she was crazy now. Years of hearing
the voices and seeing the demons had pushed her past the brink of sanity.

Yet Penny had a decent life in the hospital. I was
never sure why her doctors didn’t medicate her and send her home like so many
others with mental issues, but they kept her for eight years and showed no
interest in releasing her.

Waiting in the visiting lounge, I knew Lacey was
grabbing a bite nearby like she usually did whenever her chauffeur duties
forced her out to the boonies. The hospital was actually pretty swanky and I
felt comfortable walking the halls after so many years of visiting.

Soon Doctor Wessel joined me in the lounge and
told me what he always told me. Penelope was doing well, but continued to have
trouble distinguishing between reality and fantasy. Despite the medication she
was placed on, she suffered from delusions and repeatedly told the doctors how
she would kill herself once she was free.

This last part always made me a little suspicious.
If Aunt Penny really wanted to be released so she could take my place, why
would she announce she planned to do exactly what kept her locked up in the
first place? Despite my suspicions, Aunt Penny was family.

She also might have been the record holder for the
most freckles of any Davison woman. Her face was nearly tanned from all those
freckles, but her eyes appeared glassy and I could see the dark circles underneath
them. I suspected the voices were begging her to do what I was so selfishly avoiding.

“Little Blue,” she said, hugging me to her. “Not
so little anymore.”

The same greeting at every visit and I just nodded
at her words. Hugging her tightly, I remembered Penny the way she was before failing
to sacrifice herself. Back when she and my mom would cook big Sunday dinners
and laugh and tease each other. I had felt so happy and loved back then. Hugging
her now, I wanted to feel loved again.

“Your mom visits me,” Penny said, walking to the
couch with my hand in hers. “Every night, she begs for me to die and join her.”

“She visits me too.”

Sighing, Penny caressed my cheek. “She is so cold.
As a child, I hoped we went to Heaven when we died, but I think that was a lie
our mother told us before she sacrificed herself. Maybe she didn’t know it was a
lie, but living as long as she did, Mom must have known where we went was cold
and why would Heaven be cold?”

“I was going to do it on Thursday morning,” I whispered,
“but a guy stopped me. He stopped me Friday too. Maybe it’s a sign?”

“What kind of sign?”

“That I don’t need to die.”

“No, it’s the devil tempting you from your fate.”

Frowning, I thought about the demons which
followed me even here. I saw the twins killing each other nearby then I focused
my gaze on Penny.

“Why would the devil tempt us? The demons are evil
and they want us to die. Why would evil fight against evil?”

Penny frowned now, but her gaze was on the twins
who were gutting each other then throwing body parts at us. Even knowing
nothing would actually hit me, I still flinched when the bloody chunks flew at us.
Next to me on the couch, Penny flinched too.

“I never thought about it that way,” she finally
muttered. “When I was ready to sacrifice myself, I had signs too. People who
told me how great the world was and how much promise I had and other things
that made me want to live. I just thought they were tricks, but maybe God was trying
to save me?”

With hope swelling inside me, the demons and their
bloody games didn’t bother me so much.

“So should I wait?” I asked.

“After I tried and failed, your mom thought it was
a sign. She didn’t want to leave you, but then Assad killed all those people,”
Penny said then sighed. “Sweet Assad. He was tenderhearted and would never hurt
anyone. When I failed though, he was forced to become a monster.”

“Do you think that’ll happen if I wait?”

“Your mom thought the spreading evil would stop if
she died and she was right.”

“But what about the signs for us to live? Do I
ignore them?”

“I don’t know.”

Realizing I had hoped for Penny to be the adult
and tell me what to do, I was left in the same position as when I arrived. Yet
if Penny had been given signs, my mother might have too? What if we listened to
the signs and ignored the craziness? Would the violence end and the demons fade
away if no sacrifice was made?

“I don’t know what to do,” I said quietly as my
mother appeared before us.

Penny stared at Rhiannon who looked at her most
beautiful. I knew how she would end up looking after a long drawn out presentation
of all her suffering.

“If you were free tomorrow, what would you do,
Penny?”

Blue eyes on her sister’s, Penny didn’t answer for
a long time. Then she glanced at me and I saw how she had retreated into herself.

“I’d die and it’s what you should do too. Those
signs are just there to tease us. If we follow them, we get a sense of hope,
but in the end, we have to die,” Penny said then returned to watching my mother
who was now bleeding. “The only reason we are born is so we can die.”

“But what happens after I die? Eventually the town
will need another sacrifice and you’re in here and Aunt Rory won’t come back.”

“Rory won’t have any choice once I’m gone. Somehow
I’ll get out of here when it’s my time. It won’t matter what the doctors want.
I’ll get out and it’ll be my turn. Then the town will draw Rory back here and
she will either sacrifice herself or convince one of her daughters to do it. Remember,
Blue, sacrificing ourselves is the only reason we exist.”

My mother had stopped bleeding and was now sitting
in a chair. Dressed like she was running errands, she wore her favorite striped
shirt and holey jeans. Stroking the material on her shirt, Mom smiled at me.

Why wouldn’t my mom be happy? She would have me to
warm her soon.

Lacey was vain, shallow, and lazy, but she
embraced those qualities because she could. The Zandi women were notoriously
superficial. They were always fighting over who was prettier, more stylish, and
better waxed. Yet if the Zandi family lost their wealth tomorrow, any one of
those lazy, shallow, and vain Persian princesses would hit the ground running and
rebuild the fortune. Likely they’d marry well then take the new wealth to buy
and build businesses until the rich husband’s bank accounts were dwarfed by his
gold digging wife’s.

For this reason, whenever I listened to Lacey
whine about how difficult it was to drive while looking at her reflection, I knew
how much of her superficial façade was bullshit.

“Guess what big surprise I have in store for you?”
Lacey asked, speeding down the highway towards Lily Falls.

“Not a clue,” I said, without faking how badly the
visit with Aunt Penny had gone.

“Can you say mall time with the Zandi girls?”

Glancing at Lacey, I found her smiling big as she
eyeballed me, completely ignoring the road.

“I’m not in…”

“No choice. You don’t have the money to repay me
for the gas I wasted on the stupid trip to see Poopybrains Penny. Since you owe
me, you’ll do what I say, slave.”

“Poopybrains?”

Shrugging, Lacey grinned. “I couldn’t think of
another P word.”

“So it’s just you and me and who?”

“My mom and Alyssa. We’re going to shop and have
fun and do fun stuff. It’ll be fun.”

“Did you get drunk while I was with Penny?”

“No, but I ate a donut the size of your head so I
might be on a sugar high.”

“And there it is. I knew something was up with
you. Normally when you drive, you watch the road and other lame crap like
that.”

“True, but sugar frees me from such hassles. So
let’s hit the mall and meet up with Mom and Alyssa. I’ll buy you shoes to go
with the dress you’re wearing to the opera.”

“What dress?”

Lacey grinned. “While you were chatting with Crazy
Cathy, I was making all kinds of plans. Don’t take this personally, but as a
poor person with bad taste, you don’t have the proper clothes for the opera.”

“Why would I take that personally?”

“Sometimes you can be too sensitive. It’s just
another one of your many flaws. Anyway I have the perfect dress for you. I’d
buy you a dress, but you’ll piss and moan about it. Instead you can wear my
dress and fill out the boob section better than me which I won’t hate you for
at all.”

“You’re stacked.”

“Oh, don’t I know it,” Lacey said, glancing down
at her boobs that were hidden by a thick jacket. “Carrying these chicks around
all day is tough on my back, but it’s so worth it. Anyway you’ll need shoes because
you have giant elf feet.”

“Elf feet?”

“Elves are pale and have huge feet. Didn’t you
know that?”

“Nope.”

“Learn about your heritage, will ya?”

Laughing, I thought about what Aunt Penny said.

“She’s full of stinking crap,” Lacey said, reading
my mind. “You can’t take advice from someone who screwed up her own suicide. Someone
who makes sure she can’t do it again, even though we both know if she wanted to
she could kill herself in the hospital. And finally someone who benefits from
dumping the responsibility on you. She got your mom to do it last time and now
it’s your turn. Next time, she’ll push the job on Rory or someone else. She’s
not trustworthy so whatever depressing crap she told you should be ignored.”

“I guess.”

“No, don’t guess. Just ignore her. You don’t
really think she meant to die that day in the town square, do you? Like
everyone was going to stand around and watch her blow her brains out. She
planned it that way so she wouldn’t have to die. She knew it would be your
mom,” Lacey said with a sneer. “She’s as bad as Rory, if you ask me. They let
their baby sister die. Penny didn’t even have kids, but she still let it be
Rhiannon. It is beyond me how you can trust her when she forced your mother to
leave you.”

“She’s my family.”

“Penny’s a selfish bitch. Your mom was too young
to die and she had you. It wasn’t fair. None of the sacrifice crap is fair, but
your mom dying was totally unfair.”