BooksBarbecue
Back When the Reckoning Comes Save as PDF
Chapters (44)
  1. Cover
  2. Dedication
  3. Epigraph
  4. They are coming.
  5. I.
  6. II.
  7. III.
  8. Once, they stole away.
  9. IV.
  10. V.
  11. VI.
  12. VII.
  13. VIII.
  14. IX.
  15. X.
  16. XI.
  17. XII.
  18. Those who stayed behind found their own ways to resist.
  19. XIII.
  20. XIV.
  21. They remembered the feeling of their beloveds sold,
  22. XV.
  23. XVI.
  24. XVII.
  25. XVIII.
  26. XIX.
  27. XX.
  28. It took the babies drowning for the rest to say, Enough.
  29. XXI.
  30. XXII.
  31. XXIII.
  32. Tools meant for work became seen as weapons.
  33. XXIV.
  34. XXV.
  35. XXVI.
  36. XXVII.
  37. XXVIII.
  38. When they were caught, punishment was swift and severe in its execution.
  39. XXIX.
  40. Soon it would be morning, and those left behind would prepare for another day.
  41. Acknowledgments
  42. About the Author
  43. Also by LaTanya McQueen
  44. About the Publisher

For days Mira waited for the nightmare to be over. He’d be released and they all could go back to how it was, or how it could be, but when rumors continued on she was left examining that last day they’d been together. She hadn’t understood then, hadn’t realized how he’d hoped she would confirm his fear of what they’d witnessed. Instead she’d lied and told him she didn’t know what he meant, and when he’d pushed her, something permanent had shifted between them. Jesse must have recognized her lie and viewed it as a form of betrayal. A nauseating dread rose up within her at the awareness of what she’d done. With a trust broken, the possibility of whoever they could have been together was ruined. She’d thought the choice was his, not realizing that with her lie she’d been the one to make the decision, and it became clear there was no way to take any of it back.

III.

NOT LONG AFTER, the nightmares started. Always a menagerie of faces wearing masks, the masks painted black and outlined in white. The slits for their eyes were dark pools. The faces circled around her until she was surrounded, and then a spark flashed. Fire, and she watched as they all burned in flames.

She feared going to sleep because inevitably, she’d shock herself awake and spend the rest of the night wrapped up in the covers of her bed, waiting for dawn to tell her she was safe.

After a week of this she went to her mother in near tears and said she could no longer contain the truth. In a rush she let it out as best she could, telling her she’d seen someone else at the Woodsman house, that it hadn’t been just her and Jesse, and all the while her mother sat quiet and steady, taking it in. Lips pinched, arms folded across her chest, the way she always got when she caught Mira in a lie.

“Quit trying to save that boy. I told you he would drag you down and look at you now, sitting here lying to your own mother. Didn’t I say this would happen? He should have never taken you to that place. I should have never let you hang out with him. He’s nothing but a hood like his father. Breaking into property not his own. Doing damage, and dragging you in with his mess. Lord, what are we going to do now?”