Sinner (Children of the Corn/Malachai)

Chapter #14: Stars Aligned

For the longest time, my head felt like it was spinning. The ground beneath me swayed, threatening to fall away if I were to try and stand. But I couldn't muster the strength to do even that now. Not with what Katie had just said still swirling around in my mind.

"Isaac is my cousin..."

The phrase felt like someone had hooked me up to a machine and sent 10,000 volts straight through my body. I was positive that a feather could knock me over at this point. The whole thing was almost impossible to believe, but it was all completely true.

I remembered the day of the massacre like the back of my hand, every face that was slain by my knife. I recalled Isaac telling me that the Lord exempted him from killing anyone, so he could not get rid of his own parents. Instead, he put me in charge of doing it for him.

I remembered killing them. Minister Chroner was up in his bedroom, knelt in prayer next to his wife laying on their bed when I got to the house. He'd locked the door to the bedroom, but of course it didn't stop me. I kicked it down and came stalking into the room, knife already drawn and coated with blood. At seeing me, Isaac's parents began to scream in terror, as did a third person in the room with them. I remembered she was blonde with dark blue eyes, much younger looking than the minister's wife. As I first took the minister in my grasp, clutching him by his hair and forcing him to remain on his knees, I brought my knife swiftly across his neck. His blood spilled out of him like a river, staining his skin and clothes, making his wife and her sister shriek in horror. Killing the wife next was easy. She was bedridden, so all I had to do was drive my blade into her throat. Her blood bubbled into her mouth and she spit it up onto her sister, who fell back onto the floor. I remembered her voice, shrill and mortified as I came closer to her. She screamed and begged for mercy, which at the time, only made me smirk and grab her by the chin. Raising my knife, I plunged it into her chest, through her heart. The woman let out a few choked whimpers of pain before I ripped my blade back out and she fell to the floor dead. That was it. I had killed Katie's uncle, aunt and mother all in one.

In my chest my heart felt heavy, regret taking me over like a spell. I knew it showed on my face too, because now Katie grew a concerned look on her face.

    "Hey...are you ok, Malachai?" She wondered, reaching out to touch my arm.

At her touch, I was able to come out of my thoughts, my head turning to meet her eyes.
    "Yeah...I'm alright. I'm just...really sorry that all of this had to happen to you..."

I genuinely meant what I said. Now that I had learned about Katie's mother and how much she missed her, I felt terrible. It was because of me that she had this hole in her life...

As I thought about this, another thought came to me. If the other residents in the town knew about the massacre...I wondered if they knew about Katie's relation to Isaac? How would they even have reacted to that?

I swallowed hard, gulping down some of the guilt in order to ask.
    "Katie...did anyone here...treat you differently when they found out about Gatlin and Isaac?"

Katie's eyes fell to the ground, half-lidded. A small sigh escaped her mouth.
    "Not for Gatlin, no...but...when last year's killings happened...that's when people began to fear me...just like all the other children here."

I raised an eyebrow at her, confused.
    "Last year's killings? What happened?"

Katie's head remained ducked down, but her eyes glanced back up at me. All of her features were now shadowed by the darkness of the night that had finally settled in. She shifted uneasily underneath the blanket.
    "We only found out about it a couple weeks ago, when our chief of police found the bodies...the ones of Burt, Vicky, Sarah and Job..."