Be Not Afraid Read Free Page A

William’s arms dropped for an instant, and then he raised the host higher.
    As he did, Cassie threw her head back.
“Nooooo!”
she screamed.
    It was a horrific sound, murderous and high-pitched, and the stillness of the surroundings magnified it even more, as if a gun had just gone off in a graveyard. The auditoriumseemed to gasp with one breath. Up on the altar, Dominic stared at his younger sister, his body leaning forward, both hands gripping the sides of his chair. Even Father William took a step back, the host still in his hands. The look of alarm and fear on his face was unmistakable. Two silent seconds passed as Cassie stood there, panting.
    And then all hell broke loose.
    “Take it away!” If Cassie’s voice had been shrill before, now it was demanding and insistent. She pointed at the host on the altar and screamed a final time. “Take it away! Take it
away
!”
    Mrs. Loftus, the freshman science teacher who weighed no more than a third grader and was sitting at the end of Cassie’s row, had already leapt to her feet. She lunged for the girl, but Cassie swung her arms and gnashed her teeth, growling and spitting at the woman’s outstretched hands. For a split second, I remembered a caged tiger I’d seen on a TV show, being trained to perform for a circus. Part of the training involved torturing the animal with electrical wires. Every time the electricity shot through it, the animal reacted like this: roaring, furious with its torturers, hell-bent on escaping. Students screamed as Cassie slapped and clawed at them, frantic to get out of the row she was in. Grim-faced teachers rushed in from all sides, trying to pick up where Mrs. Loftus, who was now standing with both hands pressed over her mouth, had left off.
    “Cassandra Jackson!” Sister Paulina’s voice soared above the melee with the preciseness of a bullet. She appearedfrom nowhere, pushing past the other teachers to get to Cassie. Her robes flapped around her like an enormous brown bird as she gestured in the girl’s direction, both arms raised high over her head. “Cassandra! Cassie, look at me! Come here!”
    If Cassie heard Sister Paulina, she gave no indication of it. She seemed intent instead on plowing down everyone who obstructed her path, pushing kids out of the way, even taking a flattened palm and shoving it against one boy’s face so that she could get past. Dumbstruck, I watched as the nun nodded curtly at Mr. Bobeck, the gym teacher, who had sidled into the row behind Cassie. “Grab one of her arms, if you can!” she shouted. “I’ll come around to the other side!”
    Did they know what was wrong with her? Had something like this happened before? Did anyone know what to
do
?
    Cassie gave an unnatural howl as Mr. Bobeck managed to grab one of her flailing arms and tried to drag her from the aisle. His bald head glimmered under the bright lights, and his jaw was set like a piece of flint. Just behind his rib cage, I could make out an oval-shaped yellow ball, pulsing like a miniature sun.
    “Get
off
me!” Cassie screamed. She pulled backward, trying to twist her arm out of Mr. Bobeck’s grasp, but he held on tight. Drawing her free arm back, she decked him hard under the chin. I flinched at the dull crack of bone meeting bone, a horrifying noise that seemed to reverberatelong after it was gone. Mr. Bobeck let go of her arm and staggered backward, falling into the row of students behind him. Fresh screams rose up as he brought a hand to his face and struggled to right himself. Directly across the aisle from me, a chubby boy with red hair held up his phone and began to record the action.
    “Let me out!” Cassie shrieked. She smacked at people, moving in the opposite direction of Sister Paulina, who was still edging in from the other end of the row. “Let me out! Let me out before it kills me!” She raked her nails down the sides of her cheeks as she screamed and twisted forward. “Get me out of here! Move! Move! Let me