𝐛𝐮𝐫𝐧 𝐦𝐚𝐫𝐤𝐬━𝙖𝙧𝙫𝙞𝙣 𝙧𝙪𝙨𝙨𝙚𝙡𝙡

Ⅳ

REAGAN SAT IN HER MOTHER'S CAR as she did when she was younger. "Mama, why'd you make your apple pie?" Reagan asked, picking apart the tinfoil on top.

"They wanted us to bring a dish, Reagan. Stop pickin' at it." Her mother hit her hand away from the tinfoil. Reagan rolled her eyes as she stared ahead of her. They pulled into the dirt parking lot of the church. Her mother stopped the car and looked directly at her. "Behave." She sternly told her. Reagan rolled her eyes and got out of the car.

Her mother walked up ahead of her, rushing to catch up with her friends. Reagan stayed behind, carrying the pie. She sighed as she looked at the building in front of her. Reagan hadn't been inside a church in years. She just didn't go. It wasn't something that made her comfortable.

She found her mother standing inside the building. Reagan walked up to her and stood there. "Reagan, say hi. You remember Mrs. Russell, right?" Her mother asked as she grabbed the pie from her. "How could I?" Reagan asked, smiling brightly. Reagan looked back at her mother, who was standing there, talking to a few of her other friends. She waved goodbye to Mrs. Russel and the two kids standing with her and walked over to her mother.

Her mother held the pie out in front of her proudly as the preacher walked up to them. "Hi, how y'all doin'?" He asked, staring down at the pie. Without hesitation, he grabbed the fork that Reagan was holding and dug into the pie. "I'm sorry, did you just stick an entire serving fork into a pie, just to shove it in your mouth. Ain't everyone supposed to eat this? How are they gon' eat it if there's a giant piece missin'?"

Her mother elbowed her lightly and smiled at the preacher. "I'm so sorry. She's not normally like this." Her mother mumbled as she drug her back to where they were standing. "What is with you today?"

"I'm here for you and daddy, mama. I ain't here for Jesus."

Her mother pointed across the room. "Your best friend's here though.." Reagan looked over at her mother. "Mama, we ain't been friends in years. I saw him the other day—helped him really—but, we haven't hung out in years."

"Why'd you see him the other day?"

"Them boys were pickin' on Lenora again. Thought I'd step in, help her." She told her mother. Her mother stared at her for a moment before realizing what she was talking about. "Those damn gunshots were you, weren't they?"

Reagan smirked and looked back at the preacher. All the food was out on the table in front of him. He had a plate, full of almost all of the food. Reagan was starving so everything smelled delicious. He stopped in front of the platter and put his plate down onto the table and raised his hand onto the table. Reagan knew he was about to start talking and she rolled her eyes as she prepared for the sermon.

"Friends," he said in his high, squeaky, preacher voice. "there's no doubt we're all humble people here." A few people mumbled "amen" and "yes sir", and the preacher continued. "Y'all have been awful nice to me and I thank you from the bottom of my heart for the welcome. But friends, the poor soul who brought in them chicken livers on that beat up plate...well, let's just say, I'm inspired to preach on it for a minute."

Reagan looked down to Arvin and his family. His grandmother looked embarrassed, his sister looked upset, and he had a death stare on his face. Reagan noticed that her mother was smirking a little. She shook her head and looked back to Arvin's family and the preacher man began speaking again.

"Sure, some of us are better off than others. And I see plenty of white meat and red meat laid out on this table. And I suspect the folks that carried them in eat mighty good sometimes, but poor people got to bring what they can afford. So them organs," he pointed back and began back to the table, "is a sign to me. Tellin' me that I should—as the new preacher of this church—sacrifice myself, so that y'all could have a share of the good meat tonight. And that's what I'm gonna do, friends."

He picked up the platter and turned back to the group of people. Reagan couldn't stop staring at him. She knew what he was about to do, and she knew that it probably wasn't the best decision he was going to make. She kept glancing down to Arvin and his family, watching his every move. She knew that the preacher might not leave the church alive. Not today, not tomorrow, but someday, he wouldn't leave that church alive.

"I am going to eat these organs. And I model myself, on the good lord Jesus, whenever he gives me the chance, and today is blessed with another opportunity to follow in his footsteps." He picked up the organs one by one, and gobbled them down.

Once they were all gobbled down and everyone else could eat, everyone began to get their food. Reagan stayed back and leaned onto the wall. She looked across the room. Arvin was leaning against the wall, staring at his sister and grandmother. He could see how upset they were, but he knew that he couldn't do anything while his grandma was there.

Reagan sighed and walked over to where he was standing. "That was stupid...what he did." She mentioned as she leaned against the wall with him. "It was..why do you care?"

"Because, Arvin, your grandma practically raised me up until I was fourteen. My mama didn't want to give up looking for my daddy. She always wanted me to get to know him better. I guess that's never gonna happen, is it?"

He looked at her, confused. "What do ya mean?"

"Ain't it obvious, Arvin? My daddy's dead. Has been for 15 years." She replied. She could feel his eyes glaring on her. "I'm going outside. Churches make me feel uncomfortable."

Reagan walked out of the church, shoving her hands in the pockets of her jacket. Reagan stood out front of the church, looking out at the dirt road and trees ahead of her. There was a smell that she hated coming from next to her and she knew exactly who it was. "God, I hate that smell.." she mumbled.

"You've told me that every day." He told her. Reagan nodded. "I know. 'Cause it's gross, Arvin. It stinks. Not to mention the smoke..it's just...weird." Reagan mentioned as she looked back at him. Reagan shook her head as she still smelled the smoke. "That preacher is creepy, right?" Reagan chuckled lightly. "Yeah, he is." 

The two laughed for a minute before Reagan looked back inside. She looked at her mother and watched as she was trying to hide the pain. She was hurting more than Reagan was, and it was obvious

"What's going on with you? You've been weird every time I've seen you." Reagan looked back at him and smiled lightly. "Mama hasn't been eating as much recently. I make her food, and she doesn't eat it. Yesterday was fifteen years since my daddy went missing." 

"Right." The boy mumbled, putting the cigarette back in his mouth. Reagan kept glancing back to her mother, making sure she was okay. She could feel his eyes on her every so often. Reagan tried to listen in on the conversations, but she couldn't hear. She smelled the smoke from cigarette and made her nose crinkle. She turned back and stared out at the open field ahead of her. 

"Something else is wrong." She heard stated from beside her. "N-n-nothing else is wrong. I'm fine." Reagan stammered, trying to sound normal when she spoke. The boy laughed lightly and shook his head. "I've know you for ten years, you think I don't know that somethin's up?" Reagan looked at the boy, trying to figure out what he was thinking. "What're you thinkin' about?" Reagan asked as she stared at the boy. 

"Nothin'. Nothin'." 

She smirked, shook her head, and rolled her eyes. "Reagan!" She heard being called from behind her. Reagan turned and looked at her mother, who was waving her inside. "I will be right back." 

She turned and headed back inside, but she didn't know that the next time she talked to Arvin, he would be trying to kill some of the people that hurt his sister.