Experiment in Terror 06.5 And With Madness Comes the Light by Karina Halle

getting to be too much now. We were so close.
So damn close.
    I could hear Roman and Bird talking to each
other in their native tongue as they looked over Perry and I could
only hope that Bird was doing what he could to encourage him. Ada
was standing by the rancher, wringing her hands together, looking
like she was going to lose it at any minute. Poor girl had gone
through so much. I regretted bringing her along for her own sake,
though she saved my ass a bunch already.
    “Hey,” I said to her as I stood beside her.
“You okay?”
    She nodded even though it was quite obvious
that we weren’t okay. We couldn’t be further from being okay. We
were down and out and struggling to hold onto hope, hope that was
currently looking over Perry like she was a lab specimen.
    “Bird will help us,” I told her. “He won’t
give up on her. You’ll see.”
    Ada bit her lip, blinking fast.
    “And neither will we,” I added. I reached
down and grabbed the cold, tiny hand of Little Fifteen and tried to
give her the strength that I sure as fuck lacked.
    She squeezed back, her eyes wet as she
looked at me, pleadingly. “But what if we can’t save her? What if
it’s too late? What if it’s all for nothing and we lose her right
here in the middle of nowhere?”
    I could tell she was having doubts now,
doubts about bringing Perry all the way here when maybe she would
have been better off at home. Doubts about trusting me, assuming
that I knew best. I’d be lying if there wasn’t a part of me that
was wondering the same thing.
    “We’re going to get through this,” I told
her, wishing I could make us both believe it. “All of us.”
    A monstrous groan came from the car as our
attention went back to it. Roman and Bird had a wriggling Perry in
their arms, carrying her toward us in a hurry.
    I kept the rusted door to the house open as
they took her inside. I could feel the waves of animosity rolling
off of Perry’s body, the hate, the need to win and destroy
everything she was inside. It felt colder than the winter wind that
was whipping through the sunshine, blanketing us with a sense of
defeat.
    Ada and I followed close behind, navigating
through the small house. It totally looked like a single dude lived
here, though, aside from a room that looked like a grow-op, it was
hard to tell that the single dude was also an exorcist. Maybe I
expected more native, medicine man-type artifacts, but the place
was pretty bare, with a lot of dust floating in the air.
    They took Perry into a large room with just
a bed in the middle and an armchair in the corner. There was a
pretty bad ass painting of a raven on the wall but it didn’t look
very homey or lived in. Still, it was better than a hospital. It
had to be.
    I began to take that thought back after they
placed Perry down on the bed and Roman brought three leather straps
out from under her.
    “What are you doing?” I asked, taking a step
toward him.
    Roman ignored me and went around to the
other side, pulling out three more straps. Then he leaned over
Perry and started strapping her down, across her chest, hips and
legs.
    “Is that really necessary?” I exclaimed,
about to pounce on him. This was no better than a hospital at
all!
    Ada reached out and dug her long nails into
my arm, pulling me back.
    “You know it is,” she said quietly, her eyes
warning me.
    Damn it. She was right. Of course she was
right, we had her covered in duct tape—in fact she still was. We
had to do what was necessary and Roman was no different. But it
didn’t mean I had to like it.
    Roman took out a pocket knife and snapped
the blade out. Ada gasped from beside me but he quickly took the
knife and sliced it down Perry’s middle. I winced as he did so,
afraid that if she moved violently at the wrong moment, she would
get hurt. But Roman was quick and soon she was free from her duct
tape prison.
    “I won’t rip it off,” he said to her. “I
know it would hurt you, still.”
    “I hope you’re talking