Tested

Chapter Ten

Chapter Ten

The next few days were not a fun time. Dad and I barely spoke. My anger had faded, but I was hurt. I knew Dad would do whatever it took to keep us moving, but he had made me sound like the biggest problem in the world, and Sonia hadn’t even hesitated to get rid of me. I had begun to trust her, and she had thrown it back in my face.

Dad refused to go anywhere near a small village we saw in the distance, and I resigned myself to freezing to death. The moors were cold and rough, though beautiful in a raw way. But sounds kept travelling on the wind—howls and indistinguishable noises. The beasts were still out there somewhere, gorging on blood. Every step we took was indistinguishable from the last, and I saw that my father had come to regret following Sonia’s advice.

“Do you have any idea at all of where we’re going?” I blew on my hands, but I couldn’t feel my fingers anymore.

Dad ran his hands through his hair. “I think we got turned around somewhere back there. Let’s take a break.”

Night had begun to fall, and the fire Dad dared to try to light wouldn’t catch a flame in the wind. I tried my hardest not to laugh at his frustration, but a snicker slipped out.

“It’s not funny, Jess,” he said in a warning tone.

I looked away to make a better effort to tamp down on the hysterical giggles threatening to escape. That was when something caught my eye—a flicker of light in the distance. “Someone’s out there,” I whispered. “Do you see that?”

Dad stood and squinted. “A house, maybe? Not a village.”

“What should we do?”

He licked his lips, gazing at the fire that wouldn’t light. “We pay them a visit. A light means humanity, right? Those monsters won’t be anywhere near here. There would be no point when there are huge housing estates and hospitals full of people elsewhere. We need shelter for the night, and we’re not used to this kind of place.”

“What if they turn us away?” I asked, tasting anxiety in the back of my mouth. “What if they close the door and turn us away?”

He refused to look at me. “We only ever do what we have to in order to survive. If they won’t help, that’s their choice. We’ll make the choice we need to make.”

“I don’t want to—”

He whirled around and gripped my shoulders, shaking me hard. “I didn’t want any of this, Jessica! I didn’t want to have to cut you out of your mother’s womb because it was too late for her. I didn’t want to be sucked into deals with archangels because you happened to be the last chance for us to rid ourselves of Seth. I didn’t want to come to earth and spend my time running in fear from things that want to destroy every one of us.” He pushed me away and removed his glasses to rub his eyes. “They had to have known this was coming. That’s why they helped me save you from Seth. This was always on the cards, these monsters and everything else. I just wish they had warned me. I would have stayed away from England. I would have…” He looked at me, his green eyes watery and bloodshot. “It all seems so hopeless. This feels like the end of the world. What if everything else out there is gone? What if the messages about boats are a trick? What if nobody comes to help us? What if nobody can?”

He sank to his knees, my father who kept it together, always. I knelt next to him, unsure of what to do. His questions terrified me, made me want to scream, but we couldn’t stop. We had to keep moving. We had no other choice.

“We’ll go to the cottage with the light on,” I whispered. “And we’ll make the next decision when we come to it, okay? One thing at a time, one foot in front of the other. It’s all we can do right now. We need to get out of the cold tonight.”