Read 2041 Sanctuary (Genesis) for Free Online Page A

tired.
    ‘I don’t think so,’ she said. ‘It should still work, it would just make you even more tired.’
    ‘Then I’m doing something different.’
    Relieved to have something else to occupy her mind, Sarah thought back to when she’d activated the orb before. A thought struck her. ‘Have you got any more of those stones?’
    Sarah heard the slap of skin hitting skin.
    ‘I’m such an idiot,’ he said.
    More rustles of clothing followed and then a bright blue glow appeared.
    Jason held out the crystalline brick he’d unearthed before they’d been chased by the dreaded light. ‘We don’t need the orb at all. We have this.’
    The crystalline stone shimmered in the dark like a magical cerulean pearl, its light bright enough to see by.
    Savouring the renewal of sight, Sarah gave Jason a tired smile, but rather than return to thinking about their situation, she took the opportunity to study Trish’s locket.
    ‘She always wore this,’ Sarah said, holding it under the crystal’s illumination, ‘and I’ve never seen inside it, not in all the years I’ve known her.’
    ‘She always wears it,’ Jason said. ‘Not wore, wears .’
    Sarah nodded and clicked back the catch and opened it up. Inside was space for two oval photos. The photo on the left was faded and old. But Sarah recognised the two people framed within it. One was Trish and the other was Sarah herself. It was taken back when they’d first met at uni so they were both a lot younger, fresh-eyed and smiling. Sarah wiped a tear from her eye. The other photo confused her. It was the image of Christ on the cross.
    She showed it to Jason. ‘Do you know why she has this in there?’
    He shrugged.
    ‘She’s not religious,’ Sarah said. ‘I’ve never seen a cross at her home and she never talks about going to church or anything like that.’
    ‘Perhaps that’s because she knows how you feel about the Vatican.’
    ‘With good reason, they helped cover up the Anakim’s existence for millennia. They killed to protect their doctrine, destroyed priceless artefacts, stole ours …’
    ‘You don’t have to tell me.’
    She frowned. ‘I don’t understand. She knows what they stand for, what they’ve done and yet she still carries around their symbol.’
    ‘Everyone needs faith in something,’ Jason said, ‘some more than others. Does it matter?’
    ‘It matters to me.’ Sarah felt betrayed by her friend’s secret perversion. It was like there was a whole other side to her she’d never known. She stared at the locket and then realised something was underneath the photo of the Redeemer. She prised the photo out and something clinked to the ground. Sarah picked up a golden cross to hold in the palm of her hand. It glinted under the blue glow of Jason’s rock, but the sight of it served to reinforce the sense that her best friend had not been what she seemed. How many times had she spoken to Trish about the church, of how she loathed its power and influence over history? Until recently Sarah had believed they’d been solely responsible for her mother’s murder, too, although as things turned out they were now no longer the only organisation under suspicion.
    She passed the cross to Jason, her thoughts melancholy, but as she placed it in his hand she saw the rent in his glove and the congealed blood beneath. She grasped his wrist to inspect the wound. ‘This is bad.’ She lent forward and looked at his other hand. ‘If you don’t get these seen to they’ll go septic.’
    He touched her neck. ‘Your burns need treatment, too.’
    ‘We’re both right, but without supplies there’s nothing we can do.’
    Jason mumbled his agreement, his attention turning back to Trish’s cross. ‘I always thought,’ he said, stroking the metal surface with a finger, ‘if God created us, the universe, everything, he did it so he wouldn’t be alone. It must very lonely to be omnipotent, don’t you think? If I was omnipotent I’d make a universe so