“I don’t think so,” Snag said, looking away.

“We were decent people,” Cradle said. “And now we’re not. Because of you. Because you’re infecting us.”

Rain looked away.

“Kill yourself,” Cradle said. “I don’t want any piece of you in me. Just… wake up and kill yourself. You can’t be happy with the Fallen. So just end it. Kill yourself. Everything becomes easier.”

“I’m not going to do that, and I’m not with the Fallen,” Rain said. “Not anymore.”

“Kill yourself,” Cradle said. “At least that way it’ll be easy.”

“Are you listening to me?” Rain asked.

“Kill yourself,” Cradle said. “If you don’t, then some time, maybe a month from now, maybe a year, we’ll come for you. We’ll take all of that ugliness you gave us and we’ll give it back. With interest.”

The coins rattled in Snag’s hand.

“Kill yourself,” Cradle said.

Love Lost’s fingernails clicked against the top of the dais.

“Kill yourself,” Cradle said.

The fingernails clicked.

Rain stood, turned with his back to the dais, venturing further into his section of the room.

A bang made him turn. Cradle had slammed his hand against the dais.

“Pay attention,” Cradle said. “And kill yourself.”

“You think I’m going to listen to you?” Rain asked. “Because you say it over and over?”

“I think if I say it often enough, there’s a chance it’ll catch you when you’re weak. It could cross your mind at a critical time. It’s a small chance, maybe, but I’m not doing anything else with the rest of my night. I could keep it up tomorrow night, or the night after. I could come up with something else.”

Nails clicked against the dais.

“Kill yourself,” Cradle said.

⊙

The church service concluded. The speakers rotated on the regular, and today’s was Mrs. May. She was a respected figure in the community, but she wasn’t respectable. She was a harpy of a person, with a shrill voice and a grating laugh she was inclined to use at the slightest provocation, and most people either loved her and her rhetoric, or they despised her. She performed a lot of sermons, usually with plenty of warning to others and often with women in attendance. Much of what she said appealed to that crowd.

Rain took some small solace in the fact that because his aunt and uncle had made him come, they had been obligated to sit through this. They weren’t part of Mrs. May’s sub-congregation.