The Tens, Vanessa Jones [i like reading books .TXT] 📗

around her, he always tells her she is right and agrees with everything she says. Or mostly does. They don't really have a choice but to silence you for good.'

Sophie contemplated her, her nose pressing back into itself. Unconsciously, she pressed at her fire scar hoping a dull ache would show itself but nothing came. It was no more than a scar, as if she had acquired it in teenagerhood. There was no guarantee that she had not descended further into the abyss of insanity and everything she was experiencing was a carefully constructed delusion. She could be tucked up at home in bed, for all she really knew.

'How do I know any of it is real?'

'Well, you don't. But there are some things that you could consider. Has the consistency of this experience been the same the whole time you've been here? Do you understand the difference between right and wrong and want to get away to preserve your own life?'

Sophie nodded but remained sceptical.

'It's real Sophie. It's quaint and it's queer and it's something society shuns as madness. But it's real. All that I've told you, it has happened to you. Whether you believe in the Venus stuff— I know that even I, who has been taught nothing else have questioned it very occasionally— is entirely up to you. Either way, you have to escape.'

Abigail’s voice lowered and deepened. She was no longer the Abigail that Sophie knew. It was as if someone was speaking through her. Abigail's wisdom shot through her and as she talked, she saw the face of another superimpose over hers. A face that seemed familiar but one that she had never seen in the flesh. Sophie thought she recognised it from the book.

'Carla really is sinister, isn't she?' Sophie posited.

'Since you have come here, I have seen that more and more. I spent most of my childhood not even questioning so. But then I started to have dreams about Madame Maudelynne— the creator of The Tens— and she would tell me that "not everything is as it seems" and that I "didn't have to believe what I was told". I, too, thought I was going insane at first and that I just had to believe harder, worship harder, be more involved in ritual. But when you came, hearing you talk about another way, another life, another world... I knew that Madame Maudelynne was sending me a message through time, through space, through dimensions, to listen to my heart and question what the Seniors, and even the book, told us.’

Sophie thought of the pages in the book that she recognised. Madame Maudelynne and The New Way, they were titled. Madame Maudelynne was a sought after psychic reader who joined a beloved travelling circus in the 1860s. After a bout of insanity, she started believing that Venus was coming to join with earth and that people needed to prepare for the new way through the worshipping of copper and its supposed alchemical properties. And thus, she formed The Tens.

Sophie sniffed at the irony that all three women questioned their sanity and their own worlds. They were all bound by the thread of mysticism, disguised as insanity.

There was a parallel and familiarity that Sophie witness in Abigail and she wasn't too proud to admit that she liked it. 'Thank you for telling me all this Abigail. I'm not sure I can truly believe any of it yet but I owe it to you to help you discover a new world. One where you are free to question things without the crushing weight of believing you're insane. There's a whole, beautiful world out there just waiting for you. You're going to love it! You can go to classes and learn just about anything you want to. Or go to a supermarket and choose just about any kind of item you can think of. From pre-chopped onions to complete roast chicken meals, already cooked. Have you ever watched TV?'

'No but I have heard of it. And I saw it briefly in a window when I visited the city with Clive once.'

'Oh, you are going to love it! There are so many stories and shows on TV, you can watch what you want, whenever you feel like it. Best of all, no one is going to make you put fire on yourself.'

Abigail smiled at her with a warmth that radiated outwards. 'It sounds overwhelming! Maybe a little at a time?'

'Of course. You have the rest of your life to discover things.'

CHAPTER THIRTY ONE

In all her serenity, Abigail ushered Sophie over. 'Come on, let's do this now. It's time to break free.' Sophie knew she was talking about the shed but suspected she was talking about more.

Abigail splashed a little of the fuel at the base of the shed wall, far enough away from the door so they could escape without inhaling too much smoke or getting caught in the explosion. The acrid tang wafted up at her and gave her a kick of energy.

'Be ready to make an absolute run for it when this goes off,' Abigail warned.

Sophie shook her legs out, trying to rid them of the last bouts of pins and needles and numbness.

'Give them to me,' Abigail gestured at the gunpowder cases and Sophie obeyed. The frail bird that Abigail was had left her and she had transformed into a plight of power and direction. Sophie found herself admiring her.

'Okay, so when this goes off, it's going to leave a hole which is hopefully going to be big enough for both of us to squeeze through. Then we just run. Flat out.'

Sophie grabbed one of the ugly Tens jumpers and ripped of each sleeve, fastening one around Abigail's nose and mouth and one around her own. The rest of the jumper she soaked in fuel and laid in a line from the faded jerry can towards where they both stood