I’d forgotten all about them. I knew as an angel I gave off the crisp, clean scent of rain that might be camouflaged in the smoky atmosphere of the clubs but would be unmistakable out here in the open.
“Are you going to tell me who the Trackers are?” I was still having problems regulating my breathing. Tuck took one look at my face and shook his head.
“Not right now.”
“Come on,” I urged. Tucker seemed to have assumed a protective role since leaving the hotel that he wasn’t about to relinquish without a fight. “I’ll be better off if I know.”
Tuck sighed. “Trackers hunt down souls that have wandered off into the Wasteland.” He kept his explanation succinct as if there was already too much to focus on without the added effort of conversation.
“Do the souls end up back in the clubs?” I asked naïvely.
“Not exactly.”
“They’re thrown into the pit, aren’t they?” I said. “It’s okay, Tucker. I’ve seen it.” I was on the verge of elaborating, telling him to stop trying to spare me from the harsh realities when Tucker stepped lightly in front of me and clamped his hand over my mouth.
“Do you hear that?” he asked.
“Hear what?”
“Listen.”
We stood in silence for a moment until I too heard the sound that had made Tucker stop short. It was a voice, breathy and high-pitched, like it belonged to a young girl. It was calling my name. “Bethany!” the voice wailed. “Bethany, it’s me.” The childlike voice drew closer.
I waited with baited breath as a gust of hot wind swirled around me. Tuck’s hand dropped to his side.
“Who are you?” I asked shakily. I felt a presence in the wind, caressing me with long tapering fingers.
“Don’t you remember me?” The voice sounded forlorn and yet there was something oddly familiar about it.
“We can’t see you,” Tuck said boldly. “Come out of the shadows.”
“It’s okay,” I encouraged. “We won’t hurt you. We’re on your side.”
I watched openmouthed as the figure of a girl emerged out of the swirling fog and began to take shape before me. At first she was just an outline, like an artist’s rudimentary sketch that hadn’t been properly filled out, but as she came into focus and I looked more closely, I knew exactly who she was. The powdery blond hair, the pert upturned nose, the pouting lips were all achingly familiar. Her hair was matted and her cheeks hollow, but there was no mistaking her. Her blue eyes were still luminous, their brightness a sharp contrast against the grime smudged across her face. She stared at me with such despair that I felt all of her sadness seep into me and thought my heart would break.
“Taylah,” I whispered. “Is that you? What are you doing here?”
“I could ask you the same thing.” She smiled absently. Taylah was dressed, much as she had been in life, in a fitted top and tight denim shorts. She was barefoot and through the dust I could still make out chipped nail polish.
“Were you kidnapped too?” I asked. “Did Jake bring you here?”
Taylah shook her head. “I was judged, Beth,” she said softly. “And my soul was sent here.”
“But how?” I said in a hoarse whisper. I was having trouble grappling with what she was trying to tell me.
“After I died on the floor of the girls’ bathroom, I heard voices all around me. They were weighing up my sins, calculating my good deeds. And then I was falling.”
I wanted to ask what had happened in her past to land her in this place, but I couldn’t get the words out. It would have been tactless in the extreme. But I knew it had to be some kind of mistake. Taylah was just a girl. She could be shallow, catty, and competitive sometimes, but those weren’t exactly heinous crimes. She was capable of being cruel to those who didn’t inhabit her glittering world of tanning and Pilates, but I’d also seen her capable of kindness. I couldn’t imagine her doing anything seriously immoral.
“I know what you’re thinking,” she said, looking shamefaced. “You’re wondering what I did to end up here.”
“You don’t have to say anything, Tay.”
“No, it’s okay,” she said. “I’m here because I was never taught to believe in anything. I didn’t understand what was important in life.” She hesitated, her blue eyes glazing over. “I only cared about having fun; I never cared about anything real. I sinned and never thought twice about it.”
I looked at her expectantly but it took some minutes before she mustered the courage to speak again. “I did something terrible. Well, I didn’t exactly do it, but I did stand by and let it happen.”
“Let what happen?” I asked.
“A couple of years ago there was a hit and run in Venus Cove and little Tommy Fincher was killed. He was out playing catch in the street. It was all over the papers but they never found the driver. Tommy was only ten years old. His parents never really got over it.”
“What’s all this got to do with you?”
“I was there when it happened.”
“What? Why didn’t you report it?” I was confused.
“Because the driver was my boyfriend at the time. He was drunk and I should never have let him behind the wheel ….” she trailed off helplessly.
“You covered for him? Why?”
“He was a senior and I was fifteen. He told me he loved me. All the girls in my year were jealous. I was so obsessed with him I couldn’t tell right from wrong.”
I didn’t know what to say to her. The sin of omission was a serious offense. There were some who believed a bystander who allowed an injustice to take place was as guilty as the perpetrator himself. Taylah’s only defense was her youth and inexperience. Evidently it hadn’t been enough to exonerate her.
“What happened with the guy?”
“Toby and I broke up a few months later when his family moved to Arkansas.”
“Why didn’t you speak up then?”
“I thought about it but I lost my nerve. It wasn’t gonna bring the kid back anyway. I was worried about my reputation and what people would say about me.”
“Oh, Taylah,” I said. “I wish you’d had someone to help you through it. You must have felt so alone.”
She seemed so different from the girl I’d known. The old Taylah had been too busy fussing over her hair to worry about questions of right and wrong. I guess she’d found enlightenment now, only it was too late.
“You know how I knew I was in Hell, or Hades, as his royal asshole likes to call it?” she continued. “It wasn’t because of the flames or even the torture. I knew where I was because of the total absence of love. You can’t stay here, Beth. This place is only about hate. You end up hating everyone but mostly you hate yourself. It’ll eat you up.”
“Aren’t you scared to be out here alone?” Tucker asked.
“I guess so.” Taylah shrugged. “But I had to cut and run. I couldn’t stand the clubs anymore … being mauled by the demons like a piece of meat.”
Her words served as a reminder to Tucker, who looked around nervously.
“We need to keep going.”
“Walk with us,” I said to Taylah, reluctant to part with her again so soon.
We crept on through the barren Wasteland, Taylah trailing beside us, occasionally disappearing and then reemerging from behind the blanket of fog.
As we walked a passage from the Bible floated back to me:
And there came out of the smoke locusts upon the earth … and it was commanded that they should not hurt the grass of the earth, neither any green thing, neither any tree; but only those men which have not the seal of God on their foreheads.
How swift was God’s wrath. Youth and lack of understanding did not preclude one from judgment. Suddenly my purpose on earth had never seemed clearer.