Page 50 of Into the Abyss
“Yes.”
He raised his other hand until they bothrested against the ceiling. The short sleeves of his brown shirtfell back to expose the muscles in his biceps as well as hisforearms. When he leaned toward me, a lock of platinum hair fellforward to curl at the corner of his eye. I suddenly wasn’t sotired as my fingers itched to brush that lock aside.
“And this group wish would work to affectthem all even if the wisher didn’t specifically name the people ordemons they wanted to be involved in it?” he asked. “Because Isincerely doubt the wisher namedeverysingle victim caughtin here.”
“I doubt that too.”
“Are there enough jinn to pull off somethinglike that, and are they strong enough to do so? They took a lot ofpalitons in what had to be a short amount of time as most of thevictims were close to each other.”
My fingers dug into my legs as my mind spun.“Well… no,” I realized. “Everything has been so go, go, go, that Inever stopped to think about it before, or since entering here, butthey aren’t strong enough to pull off a group wish of thismagnitude. The jinn usually have to deal with their victimsone-on-one, some can handle two at a time, but there are only fortynon-Faulted jinn—the Faulted would have nothing to do with this!” Iyelled as I sat up straighter and leveled him with a stare thatdared him to disagree with me.
“I believe you, continue.”
Taking a deep breath, I drummed my fingerson my shins. “There are forty jinn compared to how many from yourcamp?”
“There were a hundred twenty-five of us, onehundred twenty-one entered here.”
“So many trapped souls,” I murmured. “Onejinni could bring one or two victims here, then wait until theywere stronger before returning to Earth for another, but it wouldtake time for them to gather so many.”
“Someone would have noticed something beforeall of them were put under.”
“Yes, they would. Even with a group wish,that’s too many people and demons for the jinn to getallofthem here without some help.”
“What kind of help?”
“If those affected were somehow moresusceptible to the jinn’s form of mind control, then the jinn couldget into their minds easier and wouldn’t tire themselves out asfast. But, I havenoidea what would make them allsusceptible to that kind of mind manipulation, and there wouldstill have to be a group wish.”
I could practically see the wheels spinningin his mind as he tried to figure this out. “More susceptiblehow?”
“Well, like if they didallyearn forthe same thing as the group wisher, and the wisher worded theirdesire in such a way as to include more than themselves in thewish. Then the jinn might be able to get into the minds of theothers more easily too.”
“What do you think the odds are of everyoneinvolved in thisallwanting the same thing?”
“Zero.”
“I agree. What if the others involved didn’twant the same thing as the wisher, yet they’re still here?”
I rubbed my forehead as I tried to think ofother ways the jinn could have manipulated so many with such ease.“The group wish could have taken out some of them, and the restcould have each made their own wish, but I’m sure someone wouldhave noticed something before that could happen.”
“So am I. Is there any other way?”
“If they were unconscious and morevulnerable to manipulation, then the jinn could get into theirminds easier if there was a group wish. But they’d have to be deepunder, and I’m assuming not everyone at the camp would be asleep atthe same time.”
“No, they definitely wouldn’t be. It was themiddle of the day, and we always have lookouts posted to keep watchfor any threat.”
“And it would have to be adeepsleep.”
He stared at me for a minute before his eyeswidened and a wave of fury washed off him. I braced myself as Iknew I wasn’t going to like whatever realization he’d just arrivedat.
“Sloth,” he hissed.
“What?” I asked in confusion.
“Sloth. The horseman. He could have leftsomething orthingsnear the camp that, when touched, putthe toucher to sleep. Greed did something similar to us not toolong ago. Or Sloth could have gotten close enough to the camp toput some to sleep while the jinn used their powers to trap therest.”
I’d never understood the saying “my bloodran cold” until it felt like my heart pumped chunks of ice throughmy veins.A horseman? The jinn had worked with ahorsemanto do this!
It was so much worse than I’d expected.
