Chapter Fourteen

"The devil's voice is sweet to hear." Stephen King's "Needful Things"

"I'm telling you Burt, we should just turn around and go straight to Hemmingford. There's nothing here!" the Outlander sighed. She was right, of course. Burt just wouldn't listen.

I saw them, you know. I saw them as soon as they entered the town. Most of the children were still in the cornfield. Most, but not all. I guess the visitors just had terrible luck, no? Who had to get lost in the middle of nowhere? Who had to face murderous children?

Actually, it wasn't very funny and I am sorry if I at first gave that impression. It was not humorous. There was absolutely nothing laughable about it. Their visit killed people. Everybody dies but many go too soon. If anything, that is what I have learned.

Anyways, let's go back a bit before Burt and Vicki decided to make an appearance.

I should have known that something was wrong by the way that he acted. Malachai was different that day. It's really hard to explain it. Let's just say that I knew Malachai and that day, he wasn't acting like his usual self.

So I followed him.

What else would I do?

It probably wasn't a very good idea to follow a murderous corn child into endless rows of corn that could kill you, no matter how in love you were. But I did love him and I did follow him.

He walked through the corn. He received his orders from I sac. Then, Malachai and a group of children ran as if they were going to leave Gatlin. Then I saw the weapons in their hands and I knew. I just knew.

Someone was going to be killed. I ran after them. It was easy to hide in the corn, so I did so. I had to watch. I was a very short distance behind Malachai. I knew that there were two others there, one further down on my left and one who was edging further away on my right.

When the boy, Joseph turned around, Malachai attacked. He was killed in one blow. Right before he fell, he managed to do one last act. He looked me in the eye. Our eyes met for a short time. He fell to his knees and then fell forward. Joseph was dead.

"We're putting him in the road," Malachai said. They did so.

A car came by. It hit the young boy. The man driving got out. He then proceeded to make the worst decision of his life. He walked into the corn. He came rather close to me. I could have jumped out and attacked him, but I wasn't the type. He grabbed Joseph's suitcase and ran. He got away, but I couldn't.

"Where next, Malachai?" a girl asked.

"We're going to make sure that they don't get into town," he said with a grin. He had blood on his face.

They were after Mr. Diehl. He was supposed to keep everyone away from Gatlin, per order of Isaac. It was strange, Isaac was willing to kill off the people who were following him, but he didn't want to sacrifice anybody else?

I tried telling Mr. Diehl that I did not support the actions of all the other children. He didn't want to talk to me. He thought I was one of them. My first thought about him on that day was "I bet he's going to regret ignoring me now." To this very day, I don't know why I thought that. Maybe I was turning into one of them, if that was even possible.

I turned away from them and did the only thing I could do. I ran.

AN: Well, guys, tell me what you think. I'll admit, I was a little upset I only got two reviews for the last chapter. Ah, oh well. I have to thank user "Radio Free Death" for the concrit, though.

There are a few things I'd like to make clear that I guess I didn't before.

1. Kara did not know that the children were going to kill everyone. She, like Sarah and Job did not go into the corn.

2. The day her parents left was the day of the Cleansing. Kara believed that they would be back. Denial is the first stage of grief (according to the Kübler-Ross model).

3. Kara doesn't openly reject the Children. She keeps quiet about it. She's not brave enough to stand up to them, I'm afraid. Then again, I guess she knows what the kids would do.

Do you guys have any questions? I'll gladly answer.

So, thanks for reading. Review?