Free The Risen (Book 2): Margaret by Marie F Crow Page B

something again out of their control. Lives fade with, not the blood we sought after, but with our own flowing together on the floor in a thick puddle of defeat. We were not monsters. We were victims, and we have become victims again.
    I remember everything now. I remember the laughter of my friend April, the one we lost first. How ironic it was, her being so afraid of the dead things. She was always so timid and shy with her many fears. She was never a monster. Just the one they killed first.
    I remember how afraid Teddy was of the shot that took our freedom and how, in this new form, he took the lead, no longer a scared little boy hiding behind jokes to mask his shyness. He had no say then and he had no control now. He was not a monster. Just a little boy that was afraid of the pain and then only wanted for the pain to stop.
    I remember the sound of my mother’s voice as she sang to me trying to calm my fears. She sang a song that I took for granted each morning, and now I will never hear again. She told me she was going for her shot this afternoon. I can’t warn her to save her. No one will ever hear her sing again. She won’t be a monster. Just a mother that is lost to me forever.
    My father, with his over scheduled day, will never make it to his afternoon appointments. They will judge him as I did. They will think he has forgotten them the way I thought the same of him. He will, but not because he wants to. He won’t have the option to remember them. He is not a monster. Just a man that worked so hard for so long to provide for his family that he wasn’t always perfect. But who is?
    We will never be rewarded for being so brave this morning like we were told we would. Our reward is our death. It was given to us not with smiles and pretty bows, or even with the warm chocolate cookies we were promised, but with pain and the tears of remorse for having to do it. We will never feel the love of those that care for us again. We were not monsters, but that is how we will be remembered in shared stories and haunting nightmares. We were just children.
    My final death is so much easier than the last. There is no pain this time. Just a draining feeling like when the night comes after a long day and all you want to do is sleep, to just escape. One last sigh, and I escape.

CHAPTER 16
    “M argaret….” Miss Lacey is calling to me again. I don’t want to answer her. I don’t want to face what I have done to her.
    “Margaret, can you hear me? Open your eyes.” The same words again, and I am so haunted with fear of them.
    Why won’t it just end?
    “Open your eyes, Margaret. We are waiting for you.” Her voice pulls me forward out of the blackness once again and they are here. They are all waiting for me.
    Surrounded by laughter and smiles, they are waiting for me. Teddy, April, Meghan, are all here running among our friends and even Charlotte with her make-up and bright colors waves to me. Miss Lacey stands beside me, smiling, and I am filled with shame with the taste of her still so fresh in my mind.
    A feather-soft kiss she places on my forehead and I know that I am forgiven for my sins. We all are. Those that were killed and those that killed mingle with warm hugs and reassuring smiles. Our clothes no longer wear the stains of our actions. It is as if it was all a bad dream. A dream that we are all waking up from now with each new child that appears and is forgiven by whom they harmed.
    The bell rings its three sharp tones, bringing the day back to order and my friends turn, waiting on me to join them.
    “What is my brave girl waiting on?” Miss Lacey asks me with her heart-soaring smile.
    “I’m afraid.” My voice is tender with my fears and shame.
    “What is there to be afraid of?” Her smile continues, earning my trust to confide with her.
    “The monsters,” I whisper it, knowing the secret shame the words hide.
    “There are no more monsters, Margaret. There will never be any more monsters here. Just us.