Chapter 35

Tony Diaz walked over the remains of the house with Paul as firemen finished putting out the smoldering ruins. The sun had crested over the hills, and Paul was exhausted. As soon as they had left Tommy’s room, Tony had called and asked him to meet him back at the house to explain what was happening. Paul and Michelle had sent everyone back to the B&B and drove once more out to Hayden’s place bringing Amanda with them to see what had happened to the place. She was dumbfounded and immediately placed a call to her boss in Boston. While she talked, she walked down the driveway towards the road, leaving Paul with Tony.

“How bad was the area affected last night?” Paul asked.

Tony shrugged. “Negligible damage was reported. Some power outages, one fire from an electrical short, but other than that, most people slept through it and woke up afterward. I’m really glad they got out of there when they did, There was no way they would have survived this.” He looked over the burning rubble.

“No. No way, and I’m glad no one was seriously hurt,” Paul said, bending over to pick up a piece of charred wood that had blown away from the house. He looked beyond the rubble, out towards the lake. It seemed calm and very placid.

“What’s our next move?” Tony asked. “I don’t know what to tell people, to reassure them. They’re starting to panic and there’s this air of hostility over the place. People are scared.”

Paul nodded. “Then tell them the truth, or a version of it anyway. Let them know that we’ve been monitoring a series of quakes and that we will keep them updated on things as soon as we find out more information. But let them be proactive—tell them about emergency shelters, where to hide in the event of another quake. Tell them to stock up on things like batteries, flashlights, canned goods. I can give a press release if you think it would help.”

“I think it would. Just knowing the USGS is at work here will make them feel better.” Tony turned to look Paul in the face. “What are we going to do? This is getting worse.”

“I’m meeting with Father Mark Ambry who came to see David and me last night. He should be at the B&B by the time we get back. I’ll let you know what he’s decided.”

Tony nodded his head, and Paul walked back towards the truck, meeting up with Amanda right away.

“What did your boss say?” he asked as they walked together down the gravel driveway.

“That she can’t break away from the office until this weekend but wants to know how she can help.”

“We’ll know more about what we should do later on, I guess. Come on, let’s get back. I need to crash for a couple of hours, I’m running on fumes.”

“Then I’ll drive. Climb in the truck…hey, where’s Michelle?”

They had left the sleeping woman in the back seat of the truck, lying down, and now she was gone. Paul moved Amanda over to the side to see for himself, and as he reached inside the vehicle, his hands fell onto the seat. The fabric was darker than the rest of the interior; it was soaked through. He backed off, looking around the truck frantically.

“MICHELLE! MICHELLE!” he started calling. “MICHELLE!”

Tony came rushing over. “What’s wrong?”

“Michelle’s gone!” Paul’s eyes were wide and terrified.

“Look, there.” Tony pointed to dragging marks by the side of the truck from the door to the grass which led into the woods that ran next to the lake. Like a shot, Paul ran out into them screaming for Michelle with Amanda and Tony hot on his heels.

* * * * * * * *

Hayden woke from his deep sleep slowly. The painkillers were making it hard to shake off the edges of it as he roused, a little more painfully than he’d hoped. He turned his head and looked over to find Tommy also asleep with his mother reading in the chair. Seeing he was awake, she set her magazine down and came over.

“How you feeling?” she asked.

“A bit groggy. How long have I been asleep?”

She checked her watch. “It’s six in the evening now.”

“Wow. All day. How’s Tommy?”

“He went lights out right after you did,” she said, pulling up a chair. “The doctor and a few nurses have been in and out checking on your vitals as well as my son’s. They think everything is all right and should let you out this evening.”

Hayden thought about the house and the situation that got him in here in the first place. Everything was gone. Obliterated. Every memory he had collected over the years was destroyed in one blast, and Hayden felt sick to his stomach.

“Are you all right?” Annette asked.

“No. I’m going to be sick. I need to—” he started but the retching took over. She was fast and grabbed the wastebasket, bringing it to his bedside before he started to heave. He hadn’t eaten much in the past twenty-four hours so there wasn’t much to throw up, but that didn’t mean his body didn’t try. His chest felt like it was going to explode, and it burned from the force of him getting sick. When he was done, he lay back, shaking, and angry.

“That’s probably the remnants of the painkillers. Do you want me to get a nurse?”

Hayden wiped his mouth with the back of his hand and shook his head. He was seething deep inside, and his body shook with the force of it. Tears rolled down his face, and he tried to hide in the crook of his arm. He didn’t know this woman, and it took everything he had inside to hold it together. He remembered the shake-up, the moment of peace and then hell breaking loose as Tommy carted him out the front door atop his shoulder.

“Hey…hey…easy, Hayden. It’s going to be okay,” came Tommy’s deep and soothing voice.

Hayden opened his eyes to find Tommy sitting on the edge of his bed. He sat up and threw his arms around the huge man and buried his head in his chest as the arms of the man he loved wrapped around him. Yes, he loved Tommy, he realized. It wasn’t the love he had felt for Malcolm. No, with Malcolm it had been a flirtatious, cerebral, and wispy affair. Tommy was an easy kind of love. Like a large tree in the middle of a chaotic wood, a rock upon a stormy seashore—his presence was the lighthouse in the hurricane of Hayden’s life, and he loved him for it. He melted right into the arms that held him safe.

All hell was breaking loose inside of him. The winds of anger and rage screamed through the halls of his heart like a banshee, white-hot and angry, but that was a precursor to the molten lava of raw emotion, of a fury so black and powerful that it made Hayden afraid of not being able to control it. Memories floated upon the current of these emotions, the feelings of struggle, of loss, and brokenheartedness. It wasn’t just for him; this heat wanted to protect Tommy, and the thought of almost losing him made it burn all the hotter. It shook Hayden to the core.

“Sorry, I’m sorry. Tommy.” He kept repeating. The rage subsided, and the shaking soon relinquished to a few tremors and a terribly dry mouth.

“It’s okay, Hayden. I’m right here. I love you,” Tommy said, as if he’d heard what Hayden had been thinking.

It melted Annette’s heart and chased away whatever reservations she’d had when she heard him say those words to Hayden. She saw the beauty of the moment, and sat back, watching them and smiling to herself. They were going to be just fine.

“We still have my house, Hayden, and I’ve been considering a remodel for a long time, even before I met you. So, when things slow down, maybe you and I can tear out the walls together and build something of our own,” he said, pulling the man back and looking in his eyes. “Or we can rebuild yours from scratch, from the ground up.”

“I know. Sorry, Annette, you must think I’m a basket case,” Hayden said, wiping his emotions away with his hand.

She shook her head and patted him on the arm. “From what Tommy tells me, you’re no stranger to tough stuff. You’ve had a hard row to hoe lately, Hayden, it will get better.”

Tommy appreciated her words, her calm demeanor, and her ability to take everything in all at once.

“That’s what they say, huh?” Hayden said, clearing his throat. The rage he had felt earlier was still stoking inside of him. He had put an airtight top on it to keep it from exploding, but he could still feel it burning, white-hot and ready to ignite at a moment’s notice. Riley had said that was what he would need to fight this thing, but honestly, it made him afraid to let it loose for fear of burning the whole world to the ground.

“So, what do you say? Come stay with me for a few weeks until we get your feet back under you?” Tommy asked.

“I’d like that very much. Thank you.” And it was settled.

An hour or so later, the doctor came in and signed their release forms for them to go home at around eight. They had to do some other minor things for the patients, but other than that, they received a clean bill of health. Annette volunteered to run to Tommy’s place and bring back changes of clothed for them both, and in a flash, she was gone.

They sat next to each other, Hayden leaning in and resting his head on Tommy’s broad shoulder, soaking up the feeling of him.

“We’re going to make it through this, Hayden. I promise,” he said reassuringly.

“I know we are. I will make sure of it, Tommy, I swear to God.” He looked Tommy square in the eyes. For just an instant, Tommy saw the fire inside flicker and felt the heat in his voice.

* * * * * * * *

She didn’t know where she was, it was dark, and it was cold and wet. The ground underneath her was soft and sandy like the bank of the lake; the air smelled of water, but as she raised her head and looked around, she realized she was in pitch-darkness. She rolled over and sat on her butt, evaluating her physical condition with her hands and found that she was, indeed, intact. She was afraid of the uncertainty of where she was and felt the terror welling up in her throat.

“Hello?” she tentatively called out. She heard something shift hard to her right, and she froze, unsure of what to make of the noise.

A few minutes later, she called out once again. She heard water running close by, but it didn’t make sense.

“Shh. Don’t yell so loud. It’ll hear you,” answered a delicate female voice coming from the darkness.

“Hey. Hey. Where are you? Are you all right? Where are we?” Michelle asked, standing up. The sand underneath her feet shifted loosely, and she sank a little. She reached in her pocket for her cell phone and hit the power button. To her surprise, it illuminated the world around her, and she staggered backwards in wonder.

The first thing she noticed was a wooden altar in front of her and metallic-looking chains attached to the bottom of it. As her phone cast its light upwards, she saw the woman for the first time. She was restrained to the altar by her hands and her feet. Michelle darted forward immediately.

She reached for the chain and tugged. “Come on, honey, I need to know where we are and who we’re up against. We can get out of here. What’s your name?” She set the phone on the altar next to the woman and tried to work the chains off.

“Veronica Ackley,” she said, and Michelle froze.

“What did you say?” Michelle asked, afraid she hadn’t heard right the first time.

“My name is Veronica Ackley. Who are you?”

“My…my…name is Michelle,” she said, taking a step back.

“You’re from the topside. It hates you and all of your friends,” Veronica said plainly.

“It. What is it? I thought you were the one doing all of this.”

The woman began to sob quietly, and Michelle heard the deep well of sorrow in her voice. Michelle grabbed her phone; the light had gone out, and she turned it on again, shining it at her. She was physically there, there was no doubt. But the question was, where were they? She raised the phone over her head and tried to get a look around.

“It is my entire fault. I summoned it here; it has me trapped and won’t let me die. It’s been holding me here since the walls caved in. I’m physically dead but my soul is trapped inside of me,” she cried.

Michelle listened to her lamentations with open ears and walked, one foot in front of each other, until she reached something that awed and horrified her all at once. There was a wall of water in front of her. She reached out a hand and touched the face of it, felt it give in to her touch. She pulled back a wet hand. In wonder, she raised the cell phone up above her head. With the power of the small Samsung, she was able to see the top of what looked like an air bubble domed above their heads. Her hands trembled with the realization that she was standing on the bottom of Lake Veronica.

“Jesus Christ,” she whispered aloud in fear and trepidation.

“He has forsaken us,” Veronica cried and in the darkness, Michelle was forced to agree with her. With a quick flick of her wrist and a little squeal of excitement, she checked to see if she had a signal. She felt her heart sink at the small x on top of the touchpad that told her said she didn’t. She closed her eyes and thought of her children, of home, and of Paul. She let the phone go dark again, scooting back to where she thought it was that she had been when she woke up, and lay down, crying for the life she could have had.

* * * * * * * *

They had been out in the woods for hours with police dogs and people from the town walking the lake, calling for the woman who had gone missing. Everyone had shown up from the bed-and-breakfast including the priest and Mr. and Mrs. Hatch who were bundled up with flashlights in hand. Paul’s mind was delirious with lack of sleep as he kept seeing someone just outside of the flashlight’s beam. Tara, David, Robert, and Amanda flanked him as he walked through the marshes and high weeds.

Tony intercepted them with a sad expression on his face. He was shaking his head, and the glimmer of hope that Paul had in his heart for them to find her died in the moonlight on that lake shore. He staggered away before Tony could speak and felt David’s arm come around his shoulder and lead him away. He heard Tony explain to Cassandra, who had walked up with him and the others, that there was simply no trace for her at all.

His mind spun like a spider unable to grasp at the twig it had reached for and fell to the ground stunned and in silence, unsure of which way to go. Another police officer charged over to where Tony stood, and Paul heard him say that they just found a body in the water. Like a shot, Tony took off and Paul followed, his heart sinking even further down. They reached the body, which was floating half in and half out of the water. Paul knew right away, given the size and the shape of the body, that it wasn’t Michelle.

“What the hell? This is Rose Demeter. Somebody get those stupid fucks from the coroner’s office down here right now!” Tony yelled.

Paul turned away before they rolled her over, unsure of how his stomach would handle it. Instead, he looked out over the lake and yelled one more time.

“MICHELLE!!!!”

Only the loons answered back in a solemn call is if to mock him.

* * * * * * * *

The demon hovered lazily over the whole scene, watching with serenity the chaos it had started and the fear that rolled off those below. Nothing had changed much in the thousands of years it had been in the void unable to move, to feel, to torment. And now here it was, freewheeling about the world unfettered by the druids of times past, to wreaking havoc on an ignorant population. None would recognize the signs of its presence nor chase it away or worse, banish it back to the void the way the old magicians used to. The practice of magic had all but faded in this technological mess of wires and satellites.

It played with that word on its lips, new vocabulary that it was trying to wrap its mind around. It had access to all the memories and vernacular that the victims had stored away in their minds—images that scared and thrilled their killer to no end.

The one named Paul cried out his lover’s name in distress, thinking that she was surely dead. The demon hovered lower over top of him, soaking in the misery, the dread, and the sorrow emanating from the man. It was like wine to a parched mouth, bread to a starving belly, and release for the chastened. The demon fed on those feelings like an infant suckling its mother’s breast. But like many times in its past, the hunger it felt would only be satiated for a time. It would need to eat more, to ruin more, and its lustful ambitions would not be restrained.

Oh, how they would run and hide, trying to figure out the mystery surrounding its actions. It nearly laughed aloud when it thought about this, giving away its location, but it playfully placed its hand over its mouth as if the action alone ceased the urge. It floated upward, away from Paul, and was about to drift down into the lake, to the altar Veronica was tied to, to the pocket of air it created through magic to hold its hostage alive, when it saw the man with the white collar walk up.

It hissed and backed up quickly, covering its eyes from the glare of the light that rolled off him.

So, there is a Holy man here.

Clerics and mages worked together to banish beings like the demon into the chasms of forgetfulness, spirit worlds filled with trapdoors and mazes, or pits of burning flame. It was afraid of this man, of his power, and of the risk it had stupidly taken by almost giving away its presence. It would take care of the priest when it had a chance, but for now, someone awaited, and it couldn’t wait to hear her scream. She had dared to defy the demon by not harking to the legend, and it was going to cost her. She had dared to love despite the warnings, and now it was time for her to pay.