Page 9 of Razing Grace: Part 1

know him already.”

He steps to the side and a new set of shoes come into my view. My eyebrows knit together as I

slowly bring my eyes up past the clean dark blue slacks, past the crisp white shirt, and then falling

onto the fine wrinkles and face of my old priest, Father David.

I step back instinctively with my heart pounding against my chest. He matches my step, walking

toward me and in the corner of my eye I see Tripp about to step in front of him before stopping and

retreating back to his position.

“Remember me?” the priest questions, his hand flying up to my neck and squeezing. The crunching

of the pressure he’s placing on my windpipe vibrates around my neck. “You think you can run from

me?”

Air begins to come in slow, desperate waves as I tap furiously on his hand, hoping he will let up. I

don’t want to feel. My checks puff and all the oxygen from my brain begins to thin out as a deep

throbbing starts in my temples. He lets go and I drop to the floor with a thud, my ankle breaking my

sudden fall as I land on my hip.

He drops down to his knees and I begin to retreat backwards until my back hits the wall. “You’re lucky,” he starts, his light grey eyes lasering right into mine. His salt and pepper hair is

slicked back perfectly away from his chubby face. “That you are an asset here, or I’d kill you right

now for making me chase you for so long.”

“What do you want from me?” I say, my voice high on the fear scale but my blood kicking up a notch at being thrown around so much. You’re about to break, a high pitch voice giggles inside my

head in a singsong voice.

“Me personally? Nothing. Not from you. You witnessed something you should have never

witnessed though, didn’t you…?” he trails off, his eyes drifting to the side of the room before coming

back to mine. “Do you know why that happened, Millie? Why I pulled the trigger which set off a

bullet to pierce right between sister Avery’s bleak little eyes?” His head tilts to the side as he studies

me carefully. “It was because she didn’t want to feed me information about you anymore.” He pauses

and my eyebrows draw together in confusion. “You see, Millie, there’s so much you don’t know about

yourself that you will come to learn in time, but this right here, this was written in your cards.” He gets back up to his feet and I rub my hands over my cheeks angrily to swipe the tears which

have appeared. With his back turned to me and his shoulders squared, he looks to Kurr and begins

talking like I’m not right there. As if I’m a mere shadow of a being.

“When are you putting her up? The sooner, the better.”

Kurr nods his head, his hands diving into his pockets. His eyes find mine as a smirk crawls onto