Read Online Marysvale by Jared Southwick - Free Book Online Page B

of that one.”
    “ No, I don’t suppose you
have. Not many people know where it is.”
    “ Because of the monsters?” I
asked.
    She put her fork down. “They tend to
make a pretty effective barrier, sealing us away from the outside
world. Eventually, the word gets around that if you come up here,
you don’t go back.”
    “ Yes, I would imagine
so.”
    I felt my shoulder, noticing that it
had settled into an uncomfortable, throbbing sensation—until I
tried to move it—then needles of pain would shoot through my
arm.
    “ Over time, the rest of the
world forgot about us.”
    Lost in thought, she stared out the
window into a sea of white, twinkling stars.
    Satisfied, I too put down my fork and
watched the flickering yellow light emitted from the lamps, as it
danced off the walls and cast shadows this way and that.
    Not entirely sure I wanted to disrupt
her contemplations, I asked hesitantly, “What are they?”
    She looked back at me and softly asked,
“Do you believe in God?”
    What a strange question. Is she
trying to change the subject?
Even so, I answered,
“Yes.”
    “ And do you believe in the
Bible?”
    I took a moment before answering. They
read the Bible at the different churches I’d attended, but I hadn’t
really paid attention. Church was a necessity because, if I didn’t
go, I’d be seen as a heretic. Funny how in the end, attending
church didn’t seem to help me in that regards too much. I also
remembered my father reading me stories from it when I was young,
before he died. Whenever I tried to read from the Bible now, it
made me think of him and how much I missed him, so I didn’t study
it like I should.
    “ I think so,” was the best I
could come up with.
    I hoped she wouldn’t judge me too
harshly for my incredible lack of conviction. She didn’t seem
bothered.
    “ I want you to read
something.”
    Sarah got up from the table, took a
lamp, and disappeared. A moment later, she returned holding a large
family Bible.
    “ Do you remember the story
of Cain and Abel?”
    “ Some.”
    “ What do you
remember?”
    “ I know Cain slew
Abel.”
    “ Do you remember what
happened to Cain?”
    “ I think he was punished
somehow.”
    She opened the Bible.
    “ Here, read these three
verses,” she said, pointing to them.
    “And the Lord said unto
Cain, Where is Abel thy brother? And he said, I know not: Am I my
brother’s Keeper?
    “And he said, What hast
thou done? The voice of thy brother’s blood crieth unto me from the
ground.
    “And now art thou cursed
from the earth, which hath opened her mouth to receive thy
brother’s blood from thy hand:
    “When thou tillest the
ground, it shall not henceforth yield unto thee her strength; a
fugitive and a vagabond shalt thou be in the
earth.”
    “ So what does that mean?” I
questioned. “It’s not really clear to me. Did God curse Cain, or
was it the earth, or was it Abel’s blood crying from the ground
that cursed him?”
    “ Strange, I’ve wondered the
same thing,” she mused.
    “ And what does this have to
do with the monsters?”
    She hesitated a moment before
proceeding. “There are a lot of people in Marysvale who believe
that what you saw was the curse of Cain—maybe not Cain himself, but
perhaps his offspring.”
    “ And do you believe that?” I
asked.
    “ Well, at first it was as
good an explanation as any; but the more I think about it, the less
I believe it.”
    “ Then what do you
believe?”
    “ Truthfully, I have no idea
what they are; but I do know that they weren’t always like this.
Their violence is more of a new development, and I believe that
some evil was used to change them into the creatures they are now.
The first ones I saw showed up about twenty years ago, and they
were a very different animal then.”
    I was surprised. “You’ve lived with
them for that long?”
    She nodded.
    “ And you’ve never been
attacked before?”
    “ Not exactly…”
    Before I could ask more about it, she
quickly