"This is not how we expected you to find out." A dozen voices spoke in unison from behind me and I spun to see Mindy standing by the door where I'd left her. She watched me with pure black eyes.

If I'd had anywhere to run, my trembling legs would never have been able to support my flight. "What are you?"

"Why do you ask such mundane questions? Ask us what you really want to know. We have the answers you seek."

Every part of me wanted to put space between the horrible chairs that bore my family's name and myself, but where could I go? Not forward, toward Mindy. Moving to the right or the left would be drawing near the dead buried in this place. The air grew stifling and warm and a bead of sweat crawled down my vertebrae.

The Mindy thing moved down the steps and stood at the furthest point of the pyramid.

"I saw you on the screens at Dan's house. You were the only one, so I thought...." My words turned to dust in my mouth. Dan told me not to trust anyone, even as I sat there watching Mindy and thinking she must be different from the others. He told me she was the actor on the stage.

But then, what made me think I could trust Dan when all my life I'd been taught to fear him?

Mindy grinned at me. "Look at you, working so hard to figure things out. All you need to do was ask," she said in her chorus of voices.

My bruised head pounded, an audible sound like war drums. This wasn't right. "You didn't care about any of this a few minutes ago. All you wanted to do was get out of this town."

"Now, why would we want the leave this town? This place has been our home for some time now."

I shook my head. "No, that's what you wanted. It's the only thing you wanted."

"You're mistaken," the voices answered in unison. "Mindy Peters wanted to leave this town. We are not Mindy, and Mindy is not a part of us. She is the vessel, and she told us there was nothing she would not do to get out of this town." The thing that wasn't Mindy smiled broadly. "Nothing at all she would not do."

"Where's my brother?"

"We do not know. It is not our place to seek him."

"Where's my father?"

"Your father? That's a tricky question." Laughter filled the subterranean chamber, bouncing and echoing around me, ricocheting like bullets more prone to pierce the mind than the flesh. I cringed against the dais, willing the sound to stop.

"You ask so many questions, but you don't ask the one you most want answered. What an odd woman you are."

What question did I most want answered? Questions burst like bombs inside my head. More question than could be answered in a lifetime. One popped out before I realized I was going to speak. "Are you going to kill me?"

The Mindy thing cocked its head. "To what end?"

My thighs burned as I crouched against the dais. How had I gotten in this strange, squatting position? And why? I couldn't remember. "Will you let me go, then?"

"Where will you go?"

"I want to leave this town," I said. "Mindy wanted to come with me."

"Mindy was willing to pay dearly for what she wanted. You're not even willing to admit what it is you truly want. Leaving this town will bring you no satisfaction." Four slow steps along the line of the pyramid brought her to the side closest to me. "We are here to help you. It is our honor and our pleasure to guide you."

"I don't want your help."

"You need our help."

With my palm flat against the dais, I pushed myself up and stood before the black-eyed abomination. It had implied that it wouldn't kill me. Maybe I could walk right past it.

"Hobbs gave you his blessing, and here you are in our most sacred place, though we're not sure how the man, Dan Tanner led you here. It was too soon, but," she/it/they spread her/its/their arms wide. "Perhaps all things work together for the glory of... well... you know." She/it/they winked at me.

I made the only move I could. I took off for the door.

The Mindy creature turned to watch my progress, but made no move to intercept me. "You can't run from us, Jessica Kellerman. You cannot escape us anymore than you can escape yourself." She laughed again and I hated myself for whimpering like a frightened animal. "Ask us what you want to know. We have the answers you seek."

My foot was on the wide step and the nightmare was behind me. Cool air filled my lungs and chilled the sweat on my face and scalp. I staggered to a stop. The sight before me dropped me to my knees. Rows of black-eyed monsters stood silently in the graveyard. They watched without moving or speaking.

Old Mister Summerfield's white hair ruffled in the breeze.

Myrtle Myer's husband and small army of children stood at her side.

The post mistress. My fourth grade teacher. Several of the Yoder clan. These were faces I'd known all my life, now alien to me.

As one, they held their hands out in front of them, palms up as if to receive a blessing. A thousand voices spoke in perfect unison. "Empowered by the blood in your veins, baptized in blood as a child, consecrated in blood as a woman, cursed are thou among all humans. Come now, our Lord, and put your mark on this vessel, that she may bear the fruit of the labor of generations."

They dropped their hands, keeping their palms toward me. The shapes of the townspeople grew vague and hard for me to make out. I realized forms, humanoid and made of black smoke were stepping forward out of their bodies. My nose burned with the reek of sulfur. More shadow people emerged, spots of inky black, darker than the night around us, and then more until they outnumbered the humans twenty to one. So many now filled the circle around me that I couldn't see past them. There was only darkness and the burning stench that made my eyes water.

Whatever was in Mindy's body approached me from behind. She/It/They squatted down and put hands on my shoulders. "We only want to help."