Chapter 43: Friendly Ties

Chapter 43: Friendly Ties

Veronica dumped Samantha into the crib. Samantha tried to scramble out, but as before couldn’t climb out. Veronica leaned over the side with a victorious smile. She reached out to pinch Samantha’s cheek. “Anything you need in there? A dowwy? A bwankie? A diaper?”

“What are you going to do with me?” Samantha asked.

“For now I’ll keep you in there. Once your boyfriend figures out how to get rid of that algae, then I’m going to bring him back here and stab him through the heart so you can watch him die like his bitch of a mother.” At this, Samantha again tried to claw her way out of the crib, but Veronica pushed her down. “When I finish with him, I’m going to make you into an iddy-biddy widduh baby. I think I’ll keep you like that for a couple centuries and then maybe—if you’re a good little girl—I might let you become a toddler again.”

Veronica pinched Samantha’s nose before disappearing from the side of the crib. Samantha heard her banging around pots and pans in the kitchen. She looked around the crib for something that might help her escape, but once again saw nothing to give her the needed boost.

By now the other kids might have already killed Prudence, Wendell, and Molly. She brought death to everyone who ever loved her. First her parents, then her aunt, then Andre, and soon Joseph would die, his only crime loving her. If she wanted to change history for the better, then she ought to stop herself from being born. Then her parents, aunt, and Andre would all still be alive. And Veronica—

Samantha thought back to that first day of kindergarten. If she had never befriended Veronica, then Veronica wouldn’t have killed all those people. Like a plague, Samantha infected and then destroyed everyone she touched. In the crib she began to wail, her cheeks turning a livid red.

Veronica peered over the edge of the crib, her face troubled. “What’s the matter with you? Your brain hasn’t snapped again so soon, has it?” she asked. Samantha was too choked by crying to answer. Veronica reached into the crib to pick Samantha up and pat her on the back. “There, there. Mommy is going to take good care of you.’

“I’m sowwy,” Samantha managed to get out. “I did this to you. It’s my faut.”

“What do you mean?” Veronica held Samantha out at arm’s length as if she’d wet herself. “What did you do to me?”

“I made you this way,” Samantha said. “I made you so angwy and mean. If I hadn’t known you, then you would have been aw wight. You wouldn’t have hut anyone.”

Veronica’s face twitched, but she didn’t say anything. Finally, she dropped Samantha back into the crib and then leaned against the side. Veronica’s lip trembled and then tears came to her eyes. “It wasn’t fair,” she said. “You had everything. You never had to go home to a trailer with no electricity and no food because your stepmother was too busy whoring around to pay the electric bill or buy groceries. You never got woke up in the middle of the night by the smell of alcohol on your father’s breath. You never had to comb your hair in the morning to cover up a black eye. You never had to stay home from school because you couldn’t walk after Daddy fucked you all night.”

Her voice grew louder with each sentence while tears coursed down her cheeks. She wiped at them with a furious hand. Then she reached into the crib to grab hold of Samantha’s curls. “You were a spoiled brat who got everything you wanted, but it was never enough. No, you had to have him!”

“Just because I wuved Andwe didn’t mean I stopped wuving you,” Samantha said. “You were awways my fwiend.”

“You were everything to me. Everything!” Veronica said. “I didn’t have anything else. But to you I was someone you hung out with when you didn’t have a date. That’s all I ever meant to you. Once you had him, I didn’t matter anymore.”

“That’s not twue,” Samantha said. “I wuved Andwe in a diffwent way than you, but I didn’t wuv you any wess.”

Veronica slammed Samantha’s head against the side of the crib. “Liar! You didn’t ever love me. You only needed me when you didn’t have anyone else. You used me.”

“Veronica, pwease, hut me if you want, but weave my fwiends awone. Pwoodance and Wenduh didn’t do anyfing to you. And Mowwy, she wuved you wike you wuved me. How can you hut her?”

“I never gave a shit about Mowwy,” Veronica said. She wiped away the last traces of tears from her cheeks. “I needed her help to find the fountain. That’s all.”

“But you were wike sisters for twee years. Didn’t that mean anyfing to you?”

“Never.”

“I saw you two togever. You wuved each other and now you’re going to wet her die.”

“So what? She doesn’t mean anything to me. Just like I never meant anything to you.”

“Veronica, pwease—” Veronica silenced her by slapping her across the face. She pushed Samantha onto her back. “I better go check on your boyfriend and get him to work.”

“If you hut Joseph—”

“Then you’ll do what? Cry? Tell on me? You’re as helpless now as when I killed him.”

“Ow stop you.”

Before Veronica could say anything, a window shattered. The stone landed in Samantha’s crib, coming within an inch of her. She stood on her tiptoes to peer over the edge of the crib. Outside the children of Eternity stood in a line, Joseph at their head.

Veronica grabbed Samantha by the front of her dress. “Looks like I’ll have to kill him sooner than I hoped,” she said. Then Veronica tucked Samantha under one arm and opened the door to face the mob.