Free All Fall Down by Megan Hart Page B

stool and ran to her with a cry. She got on one knee to greet him, holding him at arm’s length and studying his face. She looked up at Christopher with a faint smile that didn’t reach her eyes.
    “Peanut butter?”
    “Yeah…is that okay? They’re not allergic or anything, are they?” Christopher looked back and forth from her to Liesel, who’d gone to the fridge with a glass to get herself some crushed ice and chilled water.
    Sunny shook her head and stood, holding on to Happy’s hand. “No. They like peanut butter.”
    “He wouldn’t eat it. Said it wasn’t dinnertime,” Christopher said with a self-conscious laugh that didn’t sound like his. “I guess you have pretty strict rules where you…live.”
    The ice crashed into the glass. Sunny looked at Liesel. “I need to feed Bliss, and Peace probably needs a nap. Maybe Happy, too.”
    Liesel nodded. Her smile felt like a grimace. “Sure, you go on. I need to talk to Christopher.”
    When Sunny had taken the kids from the room, Christopher looked at Liesel. “What the hell is going on? Did you guys have a fight or something? She’s definitely a little weird, I know that—”
    “They’re all dead.”
    Christopher blinked. “What?”
    Liesel swallowed frigid water, thinking it might somehow make the words easier if they fell from a numb tongue. “All of them, in that compound. They’re all dead. They killed themselves yesterday in some sort of mass suicide. Some cult thing.”
    A broken, strangled cry tore from her throat. She clapped her hand over her mouth and went to the sink to dump the water down it. The clink of the glass against the stainless steel was very loud when she put it down. She turned to him.
    “It was all over the news. We saw it on TV at Kmart, for God’s sake. And yesterday, when I was running, when I slipped on the ice? I saw the ambulances and the police cars heading in that direction. I saw all those cars, but I didn’t think… I didn’t know—”
    “Hey. Shh, hey.” Careful not to press her bruises, Christopher took her in his arms again. “Slow down. How do you know they’re all dead?”
    “The reporter on the news said so. The paper, too. A hundred people, all dead. They didn’t release how it happened, just that they found them all together. Dead. Don’t you get it? That’s why Trish sent them to us. She must’ve known.” Liesel swallowed convulsively, nausea rising. “Oh, God. We have to call the police, don’t we?”
    All those people. Dead at their own hands, dead like those poor jerks in Jonestown who drank the Kool-Aid. Was that how they’d done it? Or had they put themselves to sleep with plastic bags over their faces and matching sneakers like those Heaven’s Gate fools?
    “Did the news say what happened?”
    “Just that the police found only bodies. No survivors.”
    Above them, the ceiling creaked with footsteps. Both of them looked up, then at each other, connected by something more than twelve years of marriage and familiarity. Christopher pulled her close.
    “There were at least four,” he said.
    “I think we have to call the police, Christopher.”
    “Yeah. I guess we have to.”
    Liesel swiped at her eyes. “Sunny didn’t seem surprised. Do you think she knew? I mean, ahead of time. Do you think she left that place knowing?”
    “If she did, then she’s smart, don’t you think?”
    Liesel pressed herself against him with a soggy sigh. “All those people. There were children in there, Christopher. The news didn’t say how many, but there had to be kids.”
    His hands rubbed her back in slow circles. She waited for him to say something comforting, but he stayed silent. She looked up at him, thinking how he would kiss her and tell her everything was going to be all right, and then he’d do something to make that true.
    “Christopher?”
    “I’ll call the police.” He kissed her forehead. Then he let her go.

Chapter 10
    M ama shakes her awake and says, “Come on, Sunshine,