"What else can we do?" Prudence asked.

"Nothing. Try to keep everyone calm until he comes." Prudence said something else, but Samantha didn't hear her. She fell asleep then, lapsing into a vivid dream.

She finds herself sitting against a wall, her hands and feet no longer bound. The room is so dark she can't see anything. A blinding light interrupts the darkness and a figure appears in the doorway. She tries to see who this person is, but a shadow masks his face. When she tries to ask, she finds her mouth too dry to make anything but a wheezing sound.

"Drink this," a voice rumbles. He places a clay jar in front of her. She picks up the jar and puts it to her lips. The liquid inside tastes sweet, sweeter than anything she's ever known. She drinks it all in one swallow. "Very good."

The man takes the jar from her hands and leaves the room, plunging her into darkness once again. After he's gone, she feels a tingle all over her body as if every limb has gone to sleep. She screams into the darknessSamantha woke up to the sound of a door opening. The door to the dining room yawned open on its own, a rotten egg smell wafting through the dormitory. "What's that?" she asked.

"It smells awful," Rebecca said.

"You girls stay here with Samantha. I'll find out what's going on," Prudence said. She gave Samantha a worried look before leaving the room. The older girls were already pushing through the door, anxious to find the source of the smell.

"What do you think it is?" Rebecca asked.

"I don't know," Samantha said. The girls speculated among themselves with theories ranging from fish guts to manure. Prudence returned a few minutes later with a clay bowl filled with a thin gruel. She offered it to Samantha, who stuck a cautious finger into the bowl. The gruel tasted sweet, sweeter than anything she ever tasted.

In a panic she swatted the bowl away, shattering it against the wall. "What are you doing?" Prudence asked as the other girls began to cry.

"It's poison! He's poisoning us!"

"What? The reverend wouldn't do that to us. He loves us."

"Prudence, you have to believe me. You can't let anyone eat this or something terrible will happen."

"How do you know?" she asked.

"Please, trust me. Something bad is going to happen."

"I don't know-" Samantha crawled towards the edge of the bed. She swung her legs around over the edge and bent them until they touched the floor. Then, biting down on her swollen lip, she straightened in a blaze of pain.




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