The Tens by Vanessa Jones (tharntype novel english TXT) 📕

girl was not the delicate sylph that she had pretended to be, but rather, just as manipulative as the rest of the group. A group who lived in tents in the middle of a field and shared some kind of mass delusion that they could not be talked out of.

Sophie let images flick through her mind— people on the news that lived this way, sharing the same dangerous and unfounded beliefs, performed harmful rituals... none of it ended well. People always ended up abused or dead.

Her chest started to smart as it occurred to her that she was likely to die here, in this camp surrounded by these asinine people who didn't care about her. And she thought of the people that did care about her. It was excruciating to face such a tiny list of people. A list of no one. Carla never cared for her. What’s worse is that up until a few days ago, Sophie faithfully assumed she cared about her the most. But, what she could deduce from the conversation she overheard, was that it was all some kind of hatched plan to extract information out of her. Bree cared about her, albeit briefly. But Sophie had put her off with her odd behaviour and she would have happily left her life as if she had never entered at all. Alex, well he clearly didn't care about her if he could just vanish and never contact her. And so, Sophie cried. Heart-wrenching sobs that hurt her throat. She cried for the fact that she would die as alone as she had lived.

Sophie lifted her head when she heard the sound of tumbling metal: Abigail was fumbling through some of the small wooden carved boxes. Abigail pulled something small and round out of one of the boxes. It was a key! Sophie wiped her face and stood up to ready herself. She was determined not to let Abigail get out without tagging along also, even if she had to hurt Abigail to do so.

But Abigail didn't walk to the door, instead, she strode over to Sophie and placed the key in her hand. Speechless, she looked at the key. As she looked at it and felt the cool sharpness of it, she realised it wasn’t a key at all. Instead, it was a solitary keyring. A keyring that she kept seeing. The same sort of keyring that both Carla and Alex had. 'Sophie...' Abigail couldn't finish her sentence. She didn't know how. She didn't have to though because Sophie knew when she felt the stony metal oblong press into the palm of her hand and when she ran her thumb over the etching of the cross. Which was never a cross at all. But an “X”. Abigail gingerly lifted Sophie's elbow and placed her forefinger on her new burn scar, slowly touching it in a circle. It was the same "X".

The keyring dropped to the cement floor with a hollow ting. 'How could I not have known he was in a fucking cult the entire time we were married? Like, how dumb can I be?'

'Sophie, you mustn't blame yourself. There is so much we are blind to when we know it will hurt us. Besides, we spent a lot of time with Alex casting blindness spells so you would deliberately not see that he was part of us, The Tens.' The look of pity on Abigail's face was almost excruciating.

'But how could he have been living out here, when I know for a fact he was living with me. We barely spent any time apart, for goodness sake!'

'That's true. He didn't live with us since you two moved in together. We would see him occasionally. When he reported back.'

Sophie's head swam. 'What do you mean, reported back?'

'Oh nothing, that's not what I meant. Sorry, I...' Abigail shrugged.

'Am I some kind of project for you all? Why me? Are you trying to recruit me?'

'No, not really. It's hard to explain. It's just...' again Abigail couldn't locate the words.

Sophie wanted to know more, wanted Abigail to be straight with her but the crushing realisation that Alex was part of a cult hit her hard.

'Abigail, please tell me. You must tell me this, please...' Sophie grabbed the front of her top desperately. 'Did he... ever love me?'

'I don't know. I assume so. I didn't have much to do with him. I did overhear Clive and Carla talking about how they were losing him. So maybe he was thinking about quitting. For you.' The small flake of hope that came with those words was a respite to Sophie, even if Abigail was lying. If it was even possible that Abigail could lie. She wore innocence like armour.

'I find it just so hard to believe that my Alex was into spells and believing that Venus was a planet to be revered. He used to squirm any time I mentioned anything vaguely supernatural.' And as the realisation hit, Sophie mouthed the word 'oh,' and put her head in her heads for what seemed like hours. 'Where is he then? Can I see him? Please Abigail, if I could just talk to him...'

'I honestly don't know. But it's not looking good. He hasn't been here for a few months now. I've feared the worst. As I said, I didn't know him that well but he was always kind to me. He has the same kindness in his eyes that you do. I don't want anything bad to have happened to him. But it's not above... them... this place.'

'What do you mean?'

'I shouldn't say. It's speculation, really. I don't know it for real. But...' Abigail tossed up whether to tell Sophie or not but a cock of Sophie's head meant she'd already gone too far.

'There have been insinuations that people can be abolished if they don't place nicely. It's supposed to have happened before.'

'Oh, I believe it, Abigail. The way that I overhead Carla and Clive talking, I