Episode 16 —P.O.V: Let Me Go

Robin’s words hung in the air like smoke.

The room was silent—except for Jasmine’s sharp intake of breath. Tania’s mouth trembled open, but no words came out.

Jasmine stepped back until her shoulder hit the wall. “You knew all this time grandpa? All of you…and you didn’t tell us?”

Robin swallowed hard. “It wasn’t about keeping you in the dark…”

“Yes, it was!” Tania exploded, pointing a trembling finger at her mother. “We could’ve helped Sasha! We could’ve… we could’ve done something!”

“How could you do this to her, Mom?” Anya’s voice was soft but full of hurt. “It’s not fair.”

Arlon’s cane tapped against the wooden floor, the sound brittle as his voice. “It was not like that. It was more complicated…”

“No, I don’t think it was,” Jasmine cut in, her voice cold. “You were afraid of the Witch’s power and instead of facing it, you decided to get rid of her.”

“Jasmine…”

“No, Grandpa. Don’t,” she said, shaking her head. “You always talk about duty and sacrifice….but what you did was wrong. And now the rest of us are paying for it.”

Arlon opened his mouth to protest, but nothing came. The weight of Jasmine’s disappointment seemed to crush the air from his lungs. He lowered his eyes instead.

Tania’s voice broke the silence, brittle with anger and sadness. “And now we’re supposed to just… trust that we’ll survive this?”

No one answered.

The quiet felt like a noose tightening.

Finally, Kovac stepped forward. “We don’t have a choice,” he said firmly, though the fear in his eyes betrayed the lie. “What’s done is done. If Sasha can end this…we have to believe she’ll do the right thing. That’s all we have left now.”

Tania spun toward him, tears brimming. “And what do you know about what’s right, Dad?” Her voice cracked as she pushed past him toward the door.

On the other side of town….

Michael and Sasha stood frozen, their faces illuminated by the hellish glow of the inferno devouring the Church.

“They’re attacking the town!” a woman screamed as she stumbled past, dragging her sobbing husband. “Harold! Run!”

Sasha’s throat tightened. “We have to do something,” she whispered.

“Like what?” Michael’s voice was sharp.

“I have to go to the Statue. Leave the town. It’s the only way this ends.”

Michael stared at her. “What? No. I love my mom but she doesn’t know everything. They’ve lied to us for so long…how do we know it will work?”

“It doesn’t matter,” Sasha said, voice breaking. “I have to try.”

Michael hesitated… then nodded. “Okay. But no leaving the town. Promise me that.”

Sasha almost smiled. “I promise. Now let’s go save our asshole parents.”

“Yeah,” Michael muttered grimly. “No big deal.”

They pushed forward against the flood of townsfolk pouring out of the Church in blind terror. The crowd was a blur of limbs and twisted faces, people colliding, trampling, clawing over one another in their desperation to escape.

The Suits didn’t chase them at all. They didn’t even move —unless someone got too close.

A man stumbled toward one, swinging a chair in a futile attempt to shield himself. The chain Suit’s arm lashed out in a blur.

There was a wet crack, and the man’s head simply burst apart, blood misting the air like rain. His body dropped at Sasha’s feet, twitching.

Michael froze, staring at the mangled corpse.

“Michael,” Sasha hissed, forcing her voice steady. “We have to get inside.”

He tore his eyes away from the ruined face, his throat bobbing with a hard swallow.

“Why can’t things just be easy?” He grabbed a jagged stone from the ground, weighing it in his hand. “Okay, let’s do this.”

Sasha caught his hand, prying it from the rock. “Stay close to me. Don’t try to fight them.”

“What? We’ll be unprotected.”

“I can’t explain it, but…just trust me,” she said, locking eyes with him.

Michael hesitated, then nodded, dropping the stone.

They moved cautiously through the forest of Suits.

It felt like trying to walk through a graveyard of standing corpses. The Suits were motionless, their featureless faces tipped toward the sky as though listening to something only they could hear. One turned suddenly.

Sasha held her breath as it got inches from her face.

After a long, shuddering second, it turned away again.

She let out a shaky exhale and kept moving.

As they drew closer to the Church, the ground became a charnel house. Bodies littered the ground, some still warm, some cold and slick. Michael stepped on someone’s open eye with a sickening squish. He gagged but forced himself to keep going.

The Church’s massive doors were still open. A river of blood snaked up the cracked steps, flowing upward against gravity, vanishing through the jagged holes in the steeple.

Inside, the world felt dead.

There were no bodies. No blood. Only the destruction left behind. The pews lay shattered in piles, the altar reduced to rubble. Burning fragments of the roof fell in slow, like black snow, the air reeking of ash and scorched wood.

Near the fallen debris, they saw Clara and Mathers huddled together.

And standing before them was the Crimson Suit, clutching its bag.

Back at the house….

“Screw this,” Tania muttered, her voice brittle as glass. “I’m outta here.”

Robin reached for her. “Tania…wait. It’s not safe out there. Please.”

Tania stopped, staring into the bleeding red sky beyond the doorway. The wind carried distant screams, a sound that made the walls seem smaller by the second.

“It’s fine, Mom,” she said flatly. “Jasmine said the Suits are heading for the Church, right? I bet Sasha’s already on her way there.”

She stepped forward, but Robin caught her arm.

“So what?” Robin demanded, her voice cracking with fear. “You’re mad, so now you want to get yourself killed? That’s your solution, Tania? Tell me what that’s supposed to solve!”

Tania turned fully to face her, trembling with barely-contained emotion. Tears glistened in her eyes but refused to fall.

“I don’t want to die, Mom,” she said quietly, every word razor-sharp. “I don’t even want to fight. But I can’t just sit here when…Sasha’s out there facing everything alone. You may see her as a burden….a ticking bomb…but to me? She’s my friend…my best friend.”

Anya stepped forward, chin raised. “She’s right, Mom. We’re not letting Sasha face this alone.”

“You got that right,” Jasmine said, voice firm.

Robin turned to Kovac, desperation in her eyes. “And you’re just… okay with this? Arlon? Say something!”

Arlon smiled faintly, though there was no humor in it. “They’re not going to listen, Robin. They’re not helpless kids anymore… no matter how much we want them to be. We raised them to do what’s right. This is them doing it.”

Robin blinked at him, and looked at Kovac. “Seriously?”

Kovac sighed, the weight of it heavy enough to bend his shoulders. “If you can’t beat ’em…”

“I’ll stay and hold the fort,” Arlon said, slumping into the chair with a groan of creaking wood. “I’m not as young as I’d like to be. I’ll guard the snacks, I guess.”

Jasmine stepped up and wrapped her arms around her grandfather in a tight hug. “I’ll be back, Grandpa. Don’t eat all the sweets, okay?”

“Okay,” he said softly. “But you’d better be back.”

Outside, the sky split open with another unholy roar. Tania, Jasmine, and Anya exchanged a look before stepping out into the storm.

Robin sighed, closed the door behind them and held her shotgun.

“I can’t believe we’re doing this,” she muttered.

Kovac hefted his axe with a grim grin. “Believe it, hon. The kids are taking the lead now.”