The Savior of the Font

Chapter 3

 "Shit!" Faith shouts. Her voice pulls me from sleep. My eyes fly open just as she pulls herself from my arms and hops out of bed. She turned to face me, pointing an accusatory finger. Her hand trembles. Faith is either angry or frightened, and it's really hard to tell which. "Why the fuck are you in my bed?!"

"I'm sorry," I reply while scrambling to sit on the edge of the mattress. "I wasn't going to come in, but I heard you shaking and crying out in your sleep."

"Saying what?" she demands. "What did I say in my sleep?"

"At first it was something about drinking dirty water," I answer. "I went to try and get you water but you grabbed my hand. You kept saying, 'don't leave me down here', so I stayed with you."

Faith puts her palms on her forehead and backs into the wall. "Fuck!" she screams. "Fuck! This is exactly why I didn't want you here! This is why I tried to push you away! I didn't want you to see that shit!"

"Wait, this is common?" I ask while standing. "How long have you been having these night terrors? Where is 'down here'?"

She shakes her head frantically. "You need to go," she excludes. "You need to get out."

"No!" I reply forcefully. I'm done being pushed away. After last night, I'm not leaving her until I get answers. At least I know now why she left, but I can't just leave it at that. "I'm not going anywhere, Faith; not after what I just saw. Not after you grabbed my arm and begged me to stay."

With her back still against the wall, Faith slides down on her ass. Her hands drop to her sides and she taps the back of her head against the wall. I kneel next to her and place a hand on her knee. She doesn't jerk away. Maybe she'll finally open up? Her eyes are open but turned away from me. With a gentle hand on her chin, I turn her face to me.

"Whatever this is, you don't have to carry it alone," I assure. "Tell me, please, what's going on."

Faith shuts her eyes tight and lets out a long sigh. "I can't tell you."

"Why not?" I ask, trying very hard to not sound frustrated.

"I... I don't want to hurt you."

"What could possibly hurt me?"

Her right-hand lifts and rests on top of mine on her knee. "The truth."

"If the truth is that painful, then you can't hold it in. It's hurting you; I saw that with my own eyes."

She looks away again, but not to close off. It seems that, if she's going to tell me the story, she won't be doing it while making eye contact. "Yesterday, when we were in the living room, you said you couldn't let me go during the three months I was dead."

"And I swear it's true," I reply.

She shakes her head. Her hand trembles on top of mine. "I wasn't dead for three months, Molly." Her head raises again and we lock eyes. "I was dead for three days."

"What?" I ask.

She closes her eyes and nods her head.

"How is that possible?" I follow up. "The Redeemers killed you at least three months before the Rapture happened and then Lucifer brought you back."

"The Redeemers took me three months before the Rapture," she corrects. "They didn't kill me."

My heart is pounding. I can't tell if her hand is shaking anymore because mine definitely is. "We went back to the hotel room. We saw blood on the carpet and... holy shit. We just assumed they had..." A dizzy spell overtakes me and I fall back on my ass. My breaths quicken as the magnitude of our colossal fuck up becomes clear. "If you weren't dead... then... where were you?"