Chapter 36

The clothes were a little big on Hayden as Tommy helped him into them. His mother had picked up sweats for him to wear out of Tommy’s clothes, and they hung heavy and thick on his smaller frame. Annette stepped out while the boys changed. Tommy had stripped and dressed quickly in a pair of jeans and a long-sleeved shirt and moved to help Hayden slip on his clothes.

His chest hurt. Even though the medication did its best to numb the pain, he could still feel the pressure as he leaned forward and Tommy held the sweatpants for him to step into. He was a little embarrassed and felt his face grow hot at the intimacy of the situation. He had his hands on Tommy’s broad shoulders as he put one leg in and then the other and felt them slide up over his butt and finally around his hips. Tommy stood as he pulled them upward and tied them snugly around his hips. The sweatshirt was more of a project, but Tommy was patient and gentle as he slowly worked it onto his frame starting with the arms. Once on, Hayden leaned into the man, the injury and the medication making him a little woozy, and stood there for a second with Tommy’s arms around him.

The ride to Tommy’s house was uneventful as his mom stopped off at a fast food joint and picked them up a couple of cheeseburgers and fries. When they reached Tommy’s house, she walked ahead of them and opened the door. Hayden had never been to Tommy’s house before and was pleased with the entire thing. It wasn’t as big as Hayden’s had been, but it was very well taken care of, meticulously, in fact, and it suited Tommy perfectly.

After they ate, Hayden wandered through the house, taking time to look at the pictures that hung on the wall. Many of them were from his childhood, through his teenage years, and finally as an adult in the Special Forces. Hayden was able to watch the progression of the man’s family and life through the various images. He couldn’t get over how much he looked like his father in stature but favored his mother’s more delicate features.

“Welcome to the wall of me,” Tommy said, watching Hayden. Annette was in the kitchen clearing things away and Tommy leaned against the wall with his arms folded over his chest smiling at him. It amazed Hayden how well Tommy was coping with his own injuries, and it embarrassed him a little to feel so weak in front of this man.

“These pictures are wonderful. Is that really a biker jacket?” He pointed to a picture of Tommy and his father next to a supped-up GTO.

Tommy laughed and nodded. “Yeah, I was into heavy metal and angry music back then—my Metallica phase.”

Hayden smiled as his eyes drifted towards a more recent picture of him in the desert flanked by people similarly dressed in camo gear and carrying smaller versions of a machine gun that resembled an M16. Tommy was grinning wide, wearing a pair of aviator glasses and a green hat. The two on the side were also smiling and carrying the same weapons.

“Those are two of my best friends. Daniel here is still in the army and deployed right now to places unknown. Jimmy is retired and married with kids now,” Tommy said fondly.

“Those must have been the best days of your life.”

Tommy looked at him with something like wistfulness in his eyes. “Yes. I didn’t know it at the time, but it was most definitely my most defining moment,” he said, taking in a breath and reached out for Hayden, pulling him close. “But, that said, it’s moments like these with you that make me catch my breath.”

“Did you mean what you said when you told me you loved me?” Hayden rested his head on Tommy’s broad shoulder.

“Absolutely!”

Hayden smiled and basked in the light of that for a brief second before the house phone rang. Annette picked the portable up and answered and then motioned for Tommy to come to the phone. As she was handing it off, she was frowning, and Hayden who hesitated for a second, not wanting to get into his business, quickly followed fearing what it could be about.

“Okay. Yes, were fine… Hayden is a little banged up, but he can walk. I’ll probably protest his involvement, but I know he won’t listen anyway, so expect us both in the morning. Hey, if they’ll let you, would you drive my truck over to the bed-and-breakfast? I have a spare set of keys in the visor above the driver’s seat. Okay, thanks, Father Mark,” he said and hung up the phone. He turned to Hayden who was standing in the hallway listening to the conversation. His face was stony and slightly pale, and Hayden felt a lump forming in his throat.

“Everyone is meeting at the bed-and-breakfast in the morning,” Tommy said, and Hayden nodded. That wasn’t it. There was more, Hayden could feel it. “Michelle has gone missing. She was taken from Paul’s truck. They’ve been searching for her while we’ve been in the hospital without any luck. They want to go after this thing full on now.” Tommy’s expression was grim.

Hayden felt the burning sensation creep up his throat again, and he swallowed several times, trying to keep it down. He nodded fiercely, thinking about their new friends. “What about Jake and his family?”

“Tony told them to pack up and get out of town. So, I am assuming they’ve gone to wherever the dad lives now. He’s also instructed Tara and Robert to leave, for their safety.” He walked over to Hayden and put his massive hands on Hayden’s arms. “You know, we can do that as well. Get you out of here, I mean.”

Hayden shook his head, no. “Those are our friends, Tommy, and I’m tired of being chased away.”

Tommy nodded grimly and sighed. “Okay. Then we’ll meet them at eight tomorrow morning. Mom? Do me a favor. I want you to pack a bag and go stay with Jonas and his wife across town. There’s some bad shit happening in our little burg and I don’t want you to get caught in the blowback,” Tommy said, looking over at his mother, who had paused in what she was doing to listen in on the conversation.

“Something to do with the nightmares?”

“You’re having them too?” Hayden asked.

“Honey, everyone in this town is going a little crazy lately. I thought it was just me, but then I talked to a few of my friends, and they’ve been complaining about it as well. People are scared. But I’ll let the Martins know to expect me.” She picked up her cell phone to dial the number.

“Let’s get some rest. We have a long day tomorrow,” Tommy said.

After his mom left, they curled up in his bed, neither one of them sleepy. While Tommy flipped through the channels with the remote control and the television on his dresser flashed different images, Hayden’s mind was somewhere else, someplace more serene than the world he lived in and then…

* * *

…he was there in a blink of an eye. It was the same place he had stood earlier along the riverbank staring into the darkness of the opposing side.

“You’re talented, Hayden,” Riley said, walking up to his side and staring into the treeline with him. He could sense the torrent of power deep inside Hayden and wondered at his abilities. “So is your lover. Not as powerful as you, but he has latent talents.”

Hayden looked at him. “What is to become of us?”

Riley retuned his gaze, and Hayden saw sadness there. “I don’t know.” Riley considered him a moment and let his eyes roam down Hayden’s torso. “You’re hurt,” he said, commenting about the discoloration and bruising he saw on his skin.

“Yeah. That son of a bitch took a swat at us.”

“Yes, it did. It knows who you are, Hayden, and it’ll come for you again.”

“Then I’ll be waiting for it.”

“I am so sorry for what is happening.”

“Don’t be sorry, Riley. It isn’t your fault. What her father did to the both of you was wrong and is what started this downward spiral. You got swept up in ignorance and hatred, and the only thing you two were guilty of loving one another.”

Tears streaked down Riley’s face. “I never wanted this for her. I wanted to be happy is all. I am a selfish, terrible man and I’ve condemned her,” he sobbed.

Hayden spun around and put his hands on Riley’s shoulders. “No. There is no place so far that someone can’t come back from. I believe that. And to win this, you must also. But you have something you have to do.”

Riley looked at him, questioning. “What is that?”

“Heal the original wound. Her father walks this earth still, doesn’t he?”

Riley nodded, his eyes darkening. “That’s right.”

“Go to him. Speak to him. Maybe then, we can fight this thing and save your beloved.”

Riley was silent for a moment and then sullenly nodded. “I’ve watched him for some time now. He’s connected to her and, like me, is trying to find a way to help her. I’ll go to him like you asked, and Hayden?”

“Yeah?”

“Thank you,” Riley said and vanished, leaving Hayden standing alone on the bank of the river.

“You’re welcome,” he said to the surrounding woods. He swallowed once, twice, and on the third time stepped forward into the icy cold stream around his feet. He counted the steps across and made a mental note of them as he walked up the embankment on the other shore. The fury inside of him was like a phoenix trying to get loose, and even though he was hurt and bruised up, his anger drove the fear out of him. As he walked steadily into the shadows of the forest, into darker side of nature, he welcomed anything that dare cross his path. He, like so many others, disappeared inside the woods, and Riley, who had reappeared to ask him a question watched in horror as the woods swallowed him whole.

“NO!” he screamed but it was too late.

Inside the forest, the darkness consumed him as he walked farther in. He heard tittering of laughter, voices whispering, and felt the ground underneath him move. He ignored all these things as his feet moved him farther and deeper still. The trees were twisted, curling their limbs around each other, and if he looked close enough, he could almost see faces, tormented, in the bark. He decided not to stare too closely and kept walking.

He heard his name being called from the shadows of the deep wood. With a jolt to his heart, he recognized the voice, its low tenor sending shock waves down his spine as he walked towards it. Low-hanging moss concealed the clearing that opened before him, and he absently moved it with his hand and stepped under. His heart lurched into his throat as he beheld what he had heard.

Malcolm stood in the clearing with his back to him. He had his hands over his face, and he was crying. His naked shoulders shook from the force of the emotions, and instantly Hayden felt his throat close, hating to see his lover in so much pain.

“You have forgotten me Hayden. Why?”

“I’ve not forgotten you, Malcolm.” Hayden protested gently.

“You have! You have! You have fallen in love with him!” he cried. “Don’t I mean anything to you?”

“Malcolm, you meant everything to me,” Hayden said as he folded his arms around his chest.

“Yet you deny me by loving another! You let them kill me. You told me we’d be all right and you let them kill me! Oh…I hope you rot. I hope you never find joy!” he said vehemently.

The words were full of hate and ate at Hayden’s heart like acid. Realization dawned on Hayden, and the sorrow he felt fled before the truth. He sturdied himself against the desire to give in.

“You’re not Malcolm,” he said.

The thing in front of him stopped sobbing and started to laugh manically. It spun on Hayden, forcing him to stagger backwards. The thing in front of him was void of a face. In its place was a black hole into nothingness. It screeched and suddenly was gone.

Hayden pressed on.

* * * * * * * *

He found him beside the lake, staring out into the darkness. He approached as quiet as a deer to see the man’s weary shoulders slumped in despair. How interesting it was to him now, to be standing at the same position where Jeremiah had stood that fateful night. He looked at the vulnerability of the man, and for an instant wanted to lash out at him. Sure, Veronica had condemned him to the demon when she died to walk in an eternity of torture, but Riley knew he could make it far, far worse. Yet those things were long dead now. The damage had been done and now, amends had to be made just as Hayden had said.

“Jeremiah,” Riley called out.

The man turned around quickly, eyes wide and fearful.

Riley put up his hands. “I mean you no harm.”

It didn’t help. The man stood and balled his hands into angry fists, ready to strike at a moment’s notice. “What do you want?” he cried out.

“A resolution. We have to fix this. Jeremiah. Please. These people, this place, are all suffering because of us. Your daughter is being held captive because of us. I have come to seek your forgiveness.”

The man visibly relaxed, and his shoulders slumped once more. The weariness of years traveling the old roads and not being able to rest his spirit had sapped all hope from his heart. Riley could see this and, to his surprise, felt a stirring of sympathy for him.

“My dear boy. It is I who must ask your forgiveness. I sinned against you and against my daughter. And now, you’re right, the banks of the cup have overflown, and we are drowning this town in our bitterness.”

Riley took a cautious step further, and then two. Finally, he sat next to the old man, looking out onto the lake that bore the name of the woman they both had loved. The night was wearing thin and the sun would soon rise on the next day. For more than a century, both men had watched the same sunrise without any joy, for the woman they loved was in torment.

“I didn’t help matters, Jeremiah. I was so taken with your daughter that I thought I could love her through everything. I had begun to teach her the ways of my people, and it was through that, that we both suffer now. I was wrong.”

Jeremiah looked at him and nodded. “Then we both have committed acts of treason against each other in her name.”

“So, what are we going to do about it?” Riley asked the old spirit.

“There are those who are trying to stand against this perversion. They are assembling tomorrow to find out how to do just that since that thing has kidnapped one of their own. The one named Michelle.”

Riley hadn’t known that, wasn’t privy to the beast’s thoughts the way Jeremiah was condemned to be. He was shocked. This demon had more ambition than to stir up trouble. If it had taken her down there with him, it was going to use her to destroy as much as it possibly could. Things were direr than he had once thought. And now, with Hayden walking along the forbidden roads—the roads Veronica accidentally had traveled once before—he had no idea how bad this could be.

“We have to do something,” he said.

“Then when the time comes, we will stand with them. Tomorrow, we will make our presence known.”

“This thing is going to fight back,” Riley warned, understanding the nature of the beast.

Jeremiah considered this and again, nodded his head glumly. “Yes, I imagine it will. It will be expecting them. It will be expecting us. But I doubt it will know what to do if we combine our efforts.”

It was Riley’s turn to nod his head. He stood up and looked down to the man, offering him his hand. Jeremiah looked at him, surprised, but eventually he took it and stood. They stayed that way for a minute staring at each other. It was Riley who broke the silence. “Okay then. Let’s go get your daughter.”

* * * * * * * *

“You’re a failure! You let us down Hayden! You let your lover get killed! What kind of man are you? I should have known better than to hire you. You were always in the way,” Terri screamed at him. Of course, her back was to him and although her words stung him, he was starting to catch on to the theme of these manipulations. They were trying to play on his worst fears. The thought of these people, the most important people in his life secretly hating him and blaming him for the misfortune that had befallen all of them, made him sick. But he knew it wasn’t the truth. He knew that in life and, in Malcolm’s case, in death, they loved him.

“Get away from me, spirit. You have no power here,” he said firmly and, just as the other had done, the being in front of him spun revealing an empty head, screamed at him, and was gone.

“So, you think you know the way of things over here, do you?” came another voice as a figure emerged from the shadows. It was the man who had been hired to kill him and had accidentally hit Malcolm. Hayden bristled at the sight of him. Unlike the others, he had a face and his eyes were cold, his lips pulled back in a chilly smirk. “Oh, that’s right. I’m the trigger man. BANG! BANG!” He raised his right hand and made a gun out of his thumb and forefinger. “I watched from the car as he crumpled and fell into your arms bleeding, dying,” he said, his thick Boston accent coming out of his long nose.

He had looked like a punk back then, and to Hayden, he still did. The tank top t-shirt underneath the leather jacket was as greasy as the snake that stood in front of him. He was trying to scare Hayden. It didn’t work then, and it wasn’t going to work now.

Before he knew what he was doing, Hayden raised his own right hand and mimicked the gun the dirty mobster in front of him had. He felt the rage within his blood boil as it streaked up from the ground which he stood. With a smirk on his own face, Hayden said, “Now I am the one with the gun, trigger man. BANG! BANG!” To his surprise, two bolts of white light poured out of his finger like bullets and hit the man in the center of his chest. The figure in front of him disintegrated and, like the others, let loose a horrendous wail as it did so.

Hayden crept on.

* * * * * * * *

Michelle screamed so loud she thought the sound of it would reverberate throughout the world around her. The pain she felt in her mind was tearing her to shreds. It was white-hot, unrelenting, and the cause of it stood atop of her with its fingers attached to her skull. It laughed as she screamed and writhed in pain.

It had come for her earlier; it had emerged into the lake bottom, illuminated, and become visible to her. As it pierced the veil of the air pocket that it had created, she could see the figures of those in its control standing around the pocket and staring in as if on guard.

Veronica screamed for it to leave her alone, but the demon, whose face was simply a black hole and who had horns that twisted upward on its head, marched toward her. It had the torso of a man but the legs of a beast, cloven hooves and all. The image of it tore into Michelle’s soul and caused her to piss her pants. It stalked her, hands stretched out, and placed its long bony fingers into the flesh of her skull. That was when the torment began. It had lasted hours, and she was barely hanging on to sanity.

“Just tell me what I need to know,” came the seedy, sickly-sweet voice of the thing on top of her.

It wanted to know more about the people who were trying to fight it, and the purpose of the interrogation was to probe her mind. Michelle fought, and fought hard. She could hear Veronica encouraging her to resist. But now, she was too weary. It promised her relief if only she’d let it in; told it what it wanted to know. She held on, thinking about Mike, thinking about her children, and most of all, thinking about Paul, who must be worried sick about her.

The pressure it had on her was enough to start molding her into the floor of the lakebed. The mud was packing around her as she sank, soaking into her clothes, grabbing at her skin, and pulling her down. It was making it almost impossible for her to move. It didn’t matter now, she was as good as dead, and even though the pain she was in was excruciating, she pushed back with every ounce of strength she had left.

The demon withdrew in shock at her resolve, and relief flooded Michelle’s mind for the briefest of seconds before it reached again to torment her and pry the information from her. She screamed again.