They drove until the gas gauge hit empty, then pulled into a
rest stop somewhere outside Iowa. Marietta killed the engine. Neither spoke. Confusion
riddled them both. Their own beloved aunt Clara had slammed the door in their
faces, terrified of memories she couldn't name. They'd slept in the car because
it felt right. Like someone who'd loved them had left it behind as protection.
The next morning arrived, Anne Faith and Marietta awoke.
Marietta said, "Anne are you awake we need to get gas and breakfast I'm
hungry?" Anne Faith barely opens one eye squinting. "I'm awake, I'm awake!"
Anne yawns. "Let's head to Burgies it's down the street." Anne Faith and
Marietta enjoy breakfast, sausage biscuits and orange juice that reminds them
of fond love.
They head back to the car.
Marietta and Anne Faith are standing outside the car. Anne
Faith holding the jagged cross, feels a voice sliver through her head.
The-Crowned-Deep: I offer peace, the voice purred, intimate as a lullaby. Peace
through understanding your pain. Through naming your endless suffering. I can
make you remember what was lost—if you're brave enough to look. The cross was
cold in her palm—an empty cold, like touching the space where memory used to
live. Yet something lit up beneath the surface, searing with faith she couldn't
name. A memory she couldn't grasp, no matter how hard she tried. When Marietta
nudged her, the sensation snapped, and Anne Faith gasped as if surfacing from drowning.
Anne Faith said, "I just heard a weird voice coming from that cross, it told me
that it could help us remember what was lost." Marietta responded, "What was
lost…. What are you talking about? I'm still confused why aunty Clara kicked us
out of her house yesterday."
Marietta said, "We're going to have to deal with this
ourselves. Tell me do you think we should trust that voice in your head to help
us remember what happened?Anne Faith said, "I don't know for sure, but we can
see where it leads." Anne Faith's fingers tightened around the cross. "It seems
like the memory of love is in the cross. But it has an insidious feeling
now—after hearing that voice. We have to find out what it all means Marietta"
Marietta said, "We've always protected each other Anne. Remember
Dan tried to stalk us and looked at us like we were food. We overcame that
night in the basement because we stuck together..." Just wondering Anne can you
remember why we have this feeling of love in our hearts we can't seem to name?"
Anne Faith said, "I have it too don't worry Mari…etta, huh. Anne rubs her head
confused. Your name rings a bell in my
head? Anne Faith continues, I think it's related to that voice coming from the
cross! I think it took something away from us that meant more than the world to
us."
Anne Faith looked at her sister, then down at the cross in
her hand. The voice was quiet now, but she could feel it waiting—patient as the
next morning...
"There's one way to find out," she said, closing her fingers
around the jagged edges until they bit into her palm. Blood welled.
Marietta's eyes widened. "Anne, what are you—"
Marietta lunged for her hand—too late. Blood hit the cross,
and the world folded.
Not darkness—light. Blinding, searing light that smelled of purity
and rain.
A hand—not theirs—gripped the jagged cross. Blood welled
against tarnished metal, dark and warm. Then the hand released, and the figure
turned.
Light. Just light, shaped like love they couldn't name.
The figure dove—not into water, but into a wound in reality
itself. The Bermuda Triangle pulsed at the church's heart, teeth and pressure
and drowning compressed into a single point.
And as she fell, the voice—her voice—echoed:
"Remember who you are. Remember whose you are, girls."
Then—snap. The world rematerialized. Anne Faith hit the
pavement, gasping. Marietta's hands were on her shoulders. 'Anne! Anne,
breathe!' Anne Faith's palm bleeding. Marietta was crying, though she didn't
know why. The absence in their chests felt knitted now, like a wound beginning
to heal. While The Crowned Deep slyly whispered, "You'll never find the last
piece in a cosmos beyond your understanding, Join us instead of standing."