Unwelcome Bodies Read Free Page B

sick if He didn’t have a reason to.”
    “You already said that.”
    “I… I know.”
    The girl’s expression was troubled, but her gaze was locked on Kathleen. Damn it. She should have gone for the Mace more quickly. She swallowed hard, trying to calm her churning belly, as her brain raced through several different things to try and say next. Her instincts screamed for her to beg, but her rational mind reminded her that hadn’t worked before. “Why… She took a steadying breath. “Why do you think God is responsible?”
    “Because He’s all-powerful. He wouldn’t let this happen without a reason. Don’t you believe in God?”
    Kathleen opened her mouth and closed it again. She hadn’t thought about her faith in years. She wasn’t sure if she’d lost it, or just forgotten it. “Maybe…maybe God brought this plague down to punish us, or test us. Or maybe the devil brought it to tempt people like you to kill people in the name of God.”
    “No!” the girl screamed, and Kathleen threw her arms protectively over her face, breath stopped in her throat, waiting for the hiss of the spray.
    And then she heard the sobbing.
    She slowly lowered her arms, gaping, as the girl unabashedly wept, her disease-laden tears and snot coursing down her face. “God did this,” she hiccupped. “G—God killed my parents and my little brother. They were good people. He was such a good little boy.” She slid down the wall, knees tucked tightly against her chest, the spray can falling to the floor and rolling under the sink.
    Suddenly, the girl looked so young. Younger than the students here. Younger than anyone Kathleen had seen in at least a year. About the same age as one of the nieces she’d buried. “I’m sorry about your family,” she whispered.
    “He had a reason,” the girl said, turning her tear-streaked face to look up at Kathleen. “God wanted my little brother for a reason. He was such a good boy. There…there had to be a reason. There had to be. Oh God, I miss them!” She curled up on her side on the marble floor, sobs tearing from her throat, and she looked so young, so vulnerable.
    Kathleen watched the girl and felt tired down to her bones. Tired of the constant fear. Tired of the distance people put between each other. Tired of the numbness that had replaced emotion. Tired of the bleak future she tried not to let herself imagine. Tired of waiting for her turn to come. She turned to look in the mirror, at the hair gone far too gray. It wasn’t worth living like this. This wasn’t life.
    She pulled the ring from inside her sweater, clutched it tightly in her bare hand, and cursed what she was about to do.
     
    * * * *
     
    Tessa wanted to die. She wanted the earth to swallow her up. She wanted the virus to boil in her veins and bleed her out from the inside. Oh God, she couldn’t live anymore. She couldn’t bear it. She cried until her insides felt raw and then she cried some more, the void inside her filled with nothing but endless pain.
    And then she felt gentle hands pulling her up, tucking her head in the crook of a neck, arms wrapping around her in a comforting embrace. She sank into it, grateful for the comfort, for the soft warm skin against her face, then a lightning jolt hit her belly and she reared back. “No! Oh God, I’m so sorry!”
    “Shh, come back,” the woman said. “It’s probably too late already.” She held her arms out, and Tessa ached to fall back into them again.
    “But why?” she whispered.
    The woman shot her a wan smile. “Because you’re right. I’m saved this way.”
    “But…but you’re dead! What if Father Moran’s wrong?”
    “No, it’s not about that. I’m saved from being afraid of getting sick.” She laughed, a harsh, barking sound, and held her arms out again. “I don’t have to be afraid of the virus anymore.”
    Tessa’s voice cracked as she said, “No, now you need to be more afraid.”
    The woman sighed through her nose, looking down at the