Page 122 of The Gathering
A sob gushed from Bishop as he pressed Seer’s hand to his mouth.
Please God.
Don’t take my best friend.
****
Bishop lifted his head from Seer’s bed, and the sight of Beth racing in finished breaking the little control he was clingingto. He barely got his face in her neck before he let go of the crushing pain.
“Oh baby, I’m so sorry!” She cried with him and hugged him tight. “I’m so, so, sorry. Listen, listen,” she strained as he wept. “I talked to Quantum and he said he’s in a coma and that’s actually good news.”
To him it was a grave above ground.
“Did you hear about the coin they saw?” she whispered, holding his face now and kissing him.
He turned his head, not able to stomach kissing her while talking about thosefucking coins.“Where is Cherie? Does she know yet?”
“She’s on her way, yes she knows.”
Loathe crawled over his skin and he pulled out of her arms. “Fuck, I don’t want to see her.”
“Oh, baby, she doesn’t blame you,” she swore, back in his arms, emotion choking her.
Her gift packed those words and relief hit his knees. He sat in the chair by the bed and she lowered before him, putting her head in his lap, wrapping her arms around him.
Filth saturated him and the urge to push her away had him nearly locked up. Changing and showering a hundred times wouldn’t clean it off. Theevil. The faces cycling in his head every five minutes. Crying, horrified, insane. Empty. Dead.
Men, women, kids. Old and young.
They’d lost fifty-seven, twenty-five of them kids. Going over every step of the event, looking for that one thing that would’ve stopped this from happening. Because it wasn’t over, they had to go back out there and do it again.
“Tell me about the coin,” Bishop whispered, petting her head.
She climbed in his lap, and he wrapped her up in his arms at feeling how much she needed him. “It had FEAR on it.”
He closed his eyes, his stomach already sick with it.
“FEAR,” he croaked, swallowing. “Did Maggie draw?”
“Yes,” she murmured, nodding against his neck. “And we thought nobody would be able to interpret it, but…”
His hand paused briefly on her body before moving to her hair. “Somebody did?”
She eased up and stared at him. “Idid.” She turned in his lap more. “Remember that drawing with the dots?”
“Yes. I saw ravens.”
“Right. And I saw those words.”
His pulse jumped at the idea of having somethingspelled outfor a change.
Panic hit next at the idea she would be required to partake. “I’m thirsty,” he said, easing her off him.
“I think you’ll appreciate what it said,” she thought next to him, no doubt feeling his fucking dread.
“I doubt I’lleverappreciate whatanyof these drawings say, Beth.”
“Where are you going?” she whispered, following him out the room.
