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“You were the last, Todd Hewitt,” Aaron says. “The final soldier in God’s perfect army.”
“I don’t think God’s got nothing to do with yer army,” I say. “Put down the rifle. I know what I have to do.”
“But are you a messenger, Todd?” he asks, cocking his head, pulling his impossible smile wider. “Or are you a deceiver?”
“Read me,” I say. “Read me if you don’t believe I can do it.”
He’s at the pulpit now, facing me down the centre aisle, reaching out his Noise over the sound of the falls, pushing it towards me, grabbing at what he can, and the sacrifice and God’s perfect work and the martyrdom of the saint I hear.
“Perhaps, young Todd,” he says.
And he sets the rifle down on the pulpit.
I swallow and grip the knife harder.
But he looks over at Viola and laughs a little laugh. “No,” he says. “Little girls will try to take advantage, won’t they?”
And, almost casually, he tosses the rifle off the ledge into the waterfall.
It goes so fast, we don’t even see it disappear.
But it’s gone.
And so there’s just me and Aaron.
And the knife.
He opens his arms and I realize he’s assuming his preacher’s pose, the one from his own pulpit, back in Prentisstown. He leans against the pulpit stone here and holds his palms up and raises his eyes to the white shining roof of water above us.
His lips move silently.
He’s praying.
“Yer mad,” I say.
He looks at me. “I’m blessed.”
“You want me to kill you.”
“Wrong, Todd Hewitt,” he says, taking a step forward down the aisle towards me. “Hate is the key. Hate is the driver. Hate is the fire that purifies the soldier. The soldier must hate.”
He takes another step.
“I don’t want you to kill me,” he says. “I want you to murder me.”
I take a step back.
The smile flickers. “Perhaps the boy promises bigger than he can deliver.”
“Why?” I say, stepping back some more. Viola moves back, too, behind and around me, underneath the carving of New World. “Why are you doing this? What possible sense does this make?”
“God has told me my path,” he says.
“I been here for almost thirteen years,” I say, “and the only thing I ever heard was men.”
“God works thru men,” Aaron says.
“So does evil,” Viola says.
“Ah,” Aaron says. “It speaks. Words of temptayshun to lull–”
“Shut up,” I say. “Don’t you talk to her.”
I’m past the back row of pews now. I move to my right, Aaron follows till we’re moving in a slow circle, Aaron’s hands still out, my knife still up, Viola keeping behind me, the spray covering everything. The room slowly turns around us, the ledge still slippery, the wall of water shining white with the sun.
And the roar, the constant roar.
“You were the final test,” Aaron says. “The last boy. The one that completes us. With you in the army, there’s no weak link. We would be truly blessed. If one of us falls, we all fall, Todd. And all of us have to fall.” He clenches his fists and looks up again. “So we can be reborn! So we can take this cursed world and remake it in–”
“I wouldn’t’ve done it,” I say and he scowls at the interrupshun. “I wouldn’t’ve killed anyone.”
“Ah, yes, Todd Hewitt,” Aaron says. “And that’s why yer so very very special, ain’t ya? The boy who can’t kill.”
I sneak a glance back to Viola, off to my side a little. We’re still going round in the little circle.
And Viola and I are reaching the side with the tu
“But God demands a sacrifice,” Aaron’s saying. “God demands a martyr. And who better for the special boy to kill than God’s very own mouthpiece?”
“I don’t think God tells you anything,” I say. “Tho I can believe he wants you dead.”
Aaron’s eyes go so crazy and empty I get a chill. “I’ll be a saint,” he says, a small fire burning in his voice. “It is my destiny.”
He’s reached the end of the aisle and is following us past the last row of benches.
Viola and I are backing up still.
Almost to the tu
“But how to motivate the boy?” Aaron continues, eyes like holes. “How to bring him into manhood?”
And his Noise opens up to me, loud as thunder.
My eyes widen.
My stomach sinks to my feet.
My shoulders hunch down as I feel weakness on me.
I can see it. It’s a fantasy, a lie, but the lies of men are as vivid as their truths and I can see every bit of it.
He was going to murder Ben.
That’s how he was going to force me to kill him. That’s how they woulda done it. To perfect their army and make me a killer, they were going to murder Ben.
And make me watch.
Make me hate enough to kill Aaron.
My Noise starts to rumble, loud enough to hear. “You effing piece of–”
“But then God sent a sign,” Aaron says, looking at Viola, his eyes even wider now, the blood pouring from the gash, the hole where his nose used to be stretching taut. “The girl,” he says. “A gift from the heavens.”
“Don’t you look at her!” I yell. “Don’t you even look at her!”
Aaron turns back to me, the smile still there. “Yes, Todd, yes,” he says. “That’s yer path, that’s the path you’ll take. The boy with the soft heart, the boy who couldn’t kill. What would he kill for? Who would he protect?”
Another step back, another step nearer the tu
“And when her cursed, evil silence polluted our swamp, I thought God had sent me a sacrifice to make myself, one last example of the evil that hides itself which I could destroy and purify.” He cocks his head. “But then her true purpose was revealed.” He looks at her and back at me. “Todd Hewitt would protect the helpless.”
“She ain’t helpless,” I say.
“And then you ran.” Aaron’s eyes widen, as if in false amazement. “You ran rather than fulfil yer destiny.” He lifts his eyes to the church again. “Thereby making victory over you all the sweeter.”
“You ain’t won yet,” I say.
“Haven’t I?” He smiles again. “Come, Todd. Come to me with hate in yer heart.”
“I will,” I say. “I’ll do it.”
But another step back.
“You’ve been near before, young Todd,” Aaron says. “In the swamp, the knife raised, me killing the girl, but no. You hesitate. You injure but you do not kill. And then I steal her from you and you hunt her down, as I knew you would, suffering from the wound I gave you, but again, not enough. You sacrifice yer beloved dog rather than see her come to harm, you let me break his very body rather than serve yer proper purpose.”
“You shut up!” I say.
He holds his palms up to me.
“Here I am, Todd,” he says. “Fulfil yer purpose. Become a man.” He lowers his head till his eyes are looking up at me. “Fall.”
I curl my lip.
I stand up straighter.
“I already am a man,” I say.
And my Noise says it, too.
He stares at me. As if staring thru me.
And then he sighs.
Like he’s disappointed.
“Not yet a man,” he says, his face changing. “Perhaps not ever.”
I don’t step back.
“Pity,” he says.
And he leaps at me–
“Todd!” Viola yells–
“Run!” I scream–
But I’m not stepping back–
I’m moving forward–
And the fight is on.
I’m charging at him and he’s throwing himself at me and I’m holding the knife but at the last second, I leap to the side, letting him slam hard into the wall–
He whirls around, face in a snarl, swinging an arm round to hit me and I duck and slash at it with the knife, cutting across his forearm, and it don’t even slow him down–
And he’s swinging at me with his other arm and he’s catching me just under the jaw–
Knocking me back–
“Todd!” Viola calls again–
I tumble backwards onto the last pew, falling hard–
But I’m looking up–
Aaron’s turning to Viola–
She’s at the bottom of the stairs–