Clive Barker - Sacrament

'Why did you stay with him so long if he was such a waste of time?'

'Because it hurts me to be separated from him,' Rosa said. 'It's always been less painful to stay than to go.' Not such a strange answer, Frannie thought; she'd heard it from a lot of women over the years. 'Well this time you go,' she said. 'We go. And to hell with him.'

'He'll follow,' Rosa replied.

'If he follows, he follows,' Frannie said, crossing to the door. 'I just don't want to face him right now.'

'You want Will here.'

'Yes, I

'You think he can save you?'

'Maybe.'

'He can't. Believe me. He can't. He's closer to Jacob than he realizes.'

Frannie turned from the door. 'What do you mean?'

'I mean they're a part of one another. He can't save you from Jacob, because he can't save himself.'

This was too big a notion for Frannie to chew on right now, but it was certainly something to be filed away for later consumption. 'I'm not going to abandon Will, if that's what you're suggesting.'

'Just don't depend upon him,' Rosa said. 'That's all.'

'I won't.'

She opened the door, and looked for Sherwood. He was sitting on the front step, stripping bark off a twig. Rather than call to him - who knew how near Steep was? - she went to the step to rouse him from his thoughts. When she reached him she saw that his eyes were red-rimmed. 'Whatever's wrong?' she said.

'Row's dying, isn't she?' he said, wiping snot from his nose with the back of his hand.

'She'll be fine,' Frannie replied.

'No, she won't,' Sherwood said. 'I feel it in my stomach. I'm going to lose her.'

'Now stop that,' Frannie gently chided him. She took the stripped stick out of his hands and tossed it away, then caught his arm and pulled him to his feet. 'Rosa thinks Steep's in the vicinity.'

'Oh, Lord.' He glanced out towards the street. Frannie had already looked that way. It was empty, as yet.

'Maybe we should go out the back,' Sherwood suggested. 'There's a garden, and a gate that takes us out onto Copper's Lane.'

'That's not a bad idea,' Frannie said, and together they made their way back down the hallway to where Rosa was standing. 'We're going out the-'

'I heard you,' Rosa said.

Sherwood had already made his way through the kitchen to the back door and was now attempting to haul it open. It was stuck. He cursed it ripely, kicked it, and tried again. Either the kicks or the curses did the trick. With the hinges objecting noisily, and the rotted wood around the handle threatening to splinter, it opened up. What lay beyond was a wall of green, the bushes, plants and trees that had once been the Donnellys' little Eden now a jungle. Frannie didn't hesitate. She plunged into thethicket and ploughed through it, raising lazy swarms of seeds as she went. Rosa plunged after her, stumbling a little, her breath raw.

'I see the gate!' Frannie called back to Sherwood, and was within half a dozen strides of it when Rosa said:

'My bags! I left my bags.'

'Forget them!' Frannie said.

'I can't,' Rosa said, turning around to head back to the house. 'My life's in there.'

'I'll fetch them!' Sherwood said, sweetly delighted to be of service, and darted back towards the house, with Frannie telling him to be quick about it.

There was a time of curious calm when he'd gone. The two women standing in the midst of the bower, dwarfed by sunflowers and banks of hydrangeas, bees in the rampant roses, and blackbirds in the sycamore. It was, for a moment, a haven; and they felt quite safe from harm.

'I wonder...' Rosa said.

Frannie looked round at her. She was staring at the sun, unblinking. 'What?'

... if it wouldn't be better to just lie down here and die.' There was a smile on her face. 'Better not to know ... better not to ask even ...' Her hands had gone to the bandages, and were pulling at them. 'Better to flow...' she said.

'Don't!' Frannie said. 'For goodness' sake!' She pulled Rosa's hands away from the bandaging. 'You mustn't do that.'

Rosa kept staring at the sun. 'No?' she said.

'No,' Frannie replied.

Rosa shrugged, as though the notion had merely been a passing fancy, and let the bandaging alone.

'Promise me you won't do that again,' Frannie said.

Rosa nodded, the directness of her stare almost childlike. Lord, but she was a strange creature, Frannie thought. One moment something to be feared, wrapped in thunder; then a bitter woman talking of the brotherhood of Jacob and Will; now this wide-eyed innocent, gently compliant when she was chastised. All of these were true Rosas, she suspected, in their way: all part of who the woman had been down the years; though perhaps the truest self lay under the bandages, aching to flow

Only now, with this minor crisis managed, did Frannie's thoughts return to Sherwood. What the hell was he doing in there? Telling Rosa to stay put she went back into the house, calling for Sherwood as she went. There was no reply. She crossed the kitchen and stepped into the hallway. The front door was still open. There was no sound from either above or below.

And then he was there, in front of her, reeling out of Rosa's room with his eyes wide and his mouth wide, a low moan escaping him. And rightbehind him came Steep, his hand clasped to the nape of Sherwood's neck. They appeared so quickly Frannie stumbled backwards in shock.

'Let him go!' she screamed at Steep.

At the shrill din she uttered, Jacob's glacial expression broke, and much to her astonishment he did as she'd demanded. Sherwood's moan stopped and he fell forward, unable to bear himself up. She couldn't support him either. Down he went, sprawling, carrying her down to her knees beside him.

Only now did Steep speak. 'This isn't him,' he said quietly.

Frannie looked up at him, guiltily thinking - even in the terror and confusion of this moment -that she'd misremembered him. He wasn't the forbidding fiend she'd pictured whenever she recalled handing over the journal. He was beautiful.

'Who are you?' he said, staring down at brother and sister.

'Will isn't here,' Frannie said. 'He's gone.'

'Oh Jesus...' Steep murmured, retreating down the hallway. He'd got maybe three yards when Rosa said:

'Another mistake?'

Frannie didn't look around. She turned her attention to Sherwood, who was still gasping on the ground. Sliding her hand beneath his head, she lifted him up a little way. 'How are you doing?' she said.

He stared up at her, his mouth working to make a reply, but failing. He licked his lips, over and over, then tried again; still no sound emerged.

'It's all right,' she said, 'You're going to be all right. We'll get you out into the fresh air.'

Even now she assumed he'd been saved by her intervention. There was no blood on him; no sign of assault. He simply needed to be taken out of this awful place, out amongst the sunflowers and the roses. Steep wouldn't stop them. He'd made an error in the shadowy room, thinking he'd caught Will. Now he'd realized his mistake, he'd let them go.

'Come on,' she told Sherwood, 'let's get you up.'

She unknitted her hand from her brother's, and put both beneath him so that he could hoist himself into a sitting position. But he just lay there, staring up at her face, licking his lips, licking his lips.

'Sherwood,' she said, trying again.

This time she felt a tremor pass through his body; nothing significant. But at the same moment he simply stopped breathing.

'Sherwood,' she began to shake him. 'Don't do this.' She pulled her hands out from under his body and head, and opened his mouth to apply the kiss of life. Rosa was saying something behind her, but she didn't hear what. Didn't care, right now. She breathed into his mouth. Inflated his lungs. Put pressure on his chest to expel the air, then breathed into him again. Repeated the procedure; and again; and again. But there was no sign of life. Not even a flicker. His poor body had simply ceased.