Adermoor Cove: Sanctuary - 9. Chapter 8

Just then a blood-curdling howl split the air. Lane recognized the sound immediately; it made the hairs on the back of his neck stand on end. I don't think I'll ever be able to forget that sound.

"Wolves," he said. He went over to the window and pulled back the drapes. Night had fallen. The only thing he could see moving in the dark was the white flecks of falling snow. He was about to head into the kitchen when something jumped at the window.

The beast clawed at the glass, fogging it with its open maw. Lane resisted the urge to blow the wolf away: the glass, for the moment, served as a protective shield. "Carlos," he said in a shaky voice, "go make sure the back door's locked!"

Bill was laying on the floor now, curled in a ball. "No," he croaked in a weak voice. "Get out of my head...please just get out of my head…"

Lane turned his attention back to the window. The wolf was gone. He gaped at the window, trying to hold the shotgun as steady as he could. Come on, let me see your ugly face one more time.

Suddenly the glass exploded outward as the wolf jumped through the window. Lane pulled the hammers of the shotgun back, and fired. The shells, missed, tearing apart the wallpaper and raining splinters of wood onto the floor.

Almost a hundred pounds of muscle and fur fell on top of Lane, knocking him flat on his back. The shotgun flew from his hand. A second later, a blinding pain ripped through Lane as the wolf sunk its teeth into his shoulder. He howled in pain. He could feel the warmth of his own blood soaking the jacket.

Lane could feel the darkness already invading his vision. Just as he was about to lose full consciousness, Bill's shoulder collided with the side of the wolf, knocking the monstrosity off Lane.

Lane tried to get up, to make himself move, to do something, but he was paralyzed. "C-Carlos," he said. He rolled over onto his stomach. Somewhere behind him he could hear the sound of Bill screaming in agony and the sound of tearing flesh. He didn't want to turn around and see what was happening to Bill. Alarm bells were going off in his head.

Strong hands grabbed him from underneath his armpits and yanked him to his feet. The next thing Lane knew Carlos and he were running for the kitchen door. There was a dead wolf on the kitchen floor. "Wait," Lane sputtered as they darted out into the cold of night. "Back. We have to go back and get Bill."

"There's nothing we can do for him. He's dead."

Dead? Lane thought. He's not dead - he can't be dead. He just saved my life.

They reached the first line of trees. Carlos brought them to a full stop. He looked at Lane's wound. "Jesus," he said.

"Does it look as bad as it feels?"

"I'm going to have to stop the bleeding. You're going to have a scar."

"Good," Lane said in a feeble attempt at humor. "Something to show off to everyone." He hissed as Carlos pressed snow to the wound.

"It'll help clog the bleeding."

"I know. It doesn't stop it from hurting like hell."

Carlos took Lane's hand. "Come on, we have to keep going. There could be more of them."

"Don't let go of my hand." Lane realized he was frightened. Frightened of dying in this place, where everything was wrong. Frightened of dying alone. Frightened of dying young, before he truly got to accomplish anything.

"I won't." Carlos squeezed his hand. "I'm not letting you go."

After almost an hour of walking they at last came to the stream. With his clothes soaked in dry, crusty blood and cold sweat, Lane felt filthy and drained. His throat was parched. He cupped his hand and lowered it into the freezing water. He drank deeply.

"How far do you think we are from the cave?" Carlos asked. He stood just a few feet away, shotgun in hand, watching the trees.

"I don't know." Lane stood up. "I'd say halfway." He turned to face Carlos, his expression grim. "Are we really just going to leave Bill behind?"

"You really want to risk going back to save his life after he tried "Wto kill you?"

"I don't know what I want to do. I just keep remembering how he mentioned his daughter several times. I know what it's like not to have a father in my life. You don't grow the way you're supposed to. You end up being stunted."

"I'm more concerned about getting us out of this place alive. You're in rough shape. We need to get you to a hospital."

Lane nodded. "Okay." He felt an internal pang. His head snapped up. His eyes roved the dark. Carlos came over to stand beside him. Something was coming for them.

“Let’s go,” said Lane.

He took the lead, clawing his way through bare branches and snowy hills. Terror was the only thing that kept him moving. Each step was more agonizing than the last. His shoulder had numbed for a moment but now was back to throbbing. At last they came to the mouth of the cave. Lane breathed a sigh of relief.

It’s still there, Lane thought.

Just as Lane and Carlos were about to enter the cave, a dark human shape came into view. Lane turned to see Bill’s shape staggering towards them; somehow he’d gotten out of his handcuffs. Lane stepped towards him, ready to rejoice, when he realized it wasn’t Bill.

Only something that had taken the shape of Bill.

Bill shouldn’t have been walking or standing upright. The wolf had ripped several of his fingers from his hand. Claw marks marked his shirt. Scraps of flesh hung off his body like yarn. But the eyes, once brown, now completely black, glittered with alien life and determination.

The dark man had possessed Bill’s body the same way he’d possessed Ramona’s.

Lane took another step towards Bill. “Bill...”

Before he could say anything else, a sudden boom ripped through the night. Bill was thrown off his feet; he flew through the air before landing in the snow on his back.

Carlos stood with his back turned towards the cave. Smoke curled from the muzzle of his shotgun.

“No!” Lane shouted. “What are you doing? I can save him!”

“There’s nothing you can do for him,” Carlo said through gritted teeth. “You can’t save him.” He grabbed Lane’s uninjured arm, and yanked him towards the mouth of the cave. Lane knew he was no match against the bigger man’s strength, so he followed behind. The thing that had taken Bill’s body shouted in fury, the voice deep and inhuman. It got to its feet and lurched after them.

The tunnels of the cave seemed to grow smaller the deeper Lane and Carlos went, as if trying to swallow them. The beam of the flashlight in Lane’s hand - he didn’t remember Carlos handing it to him - bounced off the walls, providing just enough light to see a few feet ahead of them. Carlos turned once more to fire another shot at Bill. The shot tore into Bill’s shoulder but did not slow him down.

Everything in Lane’s body hurt. It hurt just to keep breathing. His ribs ached. Still he kept running, kept pushing his way forward. Time had ceased existing, each second and minute bleeding together to form one long continuous nightmare. All he could think about was getting to the end of the cave, to the real world - his world - which was at least slightly less nightmarish. The exiting mouth finally appeared, lit by a shaft of phantasmal moonlight.

Lane and Carlos burst into the woods - their woods. Bill was still behind him, almost at the end of the cave. Carlos took aim once more and pulled the shotgun - click.

“Fuck. I’m out of bullets? Can you close it? Can you close the cave?”

“I don’t know,” Lane panted. “I can try.”

He reached inside himself, deeper than ever before, stretched his hand out, and directed the tide at the cave and the oncoming Bill. His eyes and skin glowed with an internal white light. A rumbling sound erupted from the earth at his feet. A strong gust of wind blew through the trees behind him. Carlos watched in amazement as Lane’s feet levitated several inches off the ground. Rivulets of blood leaked from the corners of his eyes, his nose, and out of his nose. His shoulder wound began to bleed all over again, as if the bleeding had never stopped.

The tunnel within the cave was collasping. Cracks appeared in the rock around the mouth. The cave emitted a deep groaning sound, before beginning to fold in on itself. The dark parasite let out a howl of fury, its face a horrid imitation of Bill’s - and then with a deafening pop the cave was gone.

Lane’s feet touched the ground. The internal light slowly winked out, his eyes returning back to their normal shade of blue. He wavered drunkenly on his feet; if Carlos hadn’t been there to catch him, he would have fallen.

“I got you,” Carlos said. “I got you...”

Lane could hear the waves of the ocean crashing against walk. Where the cave had been was the edge of a cliff, and beyond that the sea. It was a beautiful sight. The joy he felt at the sight was short-lived. Bill’s dead, a cruel voice whispered in his mind, a voice of guilt. Another father has been taken from his child. You could have saved him…

“No,” Lane said weakly. “No, no, no...”

He tried to stand completely upright but Carlos wouldn’t let him go. Lane’s legs gave up on him. Tears streamed down his filthy, bloody cheeks, hot and salty. “It’s my fault...I could have saved him...”

“No,” Carlos said. “No you couldn’t. There’s nothing else you could have done.”

Lane said something, his voice thick and wet with tears, but he couldn’t hear his own words for exhaustion unlike anything he’d ever felt before swept through him and took him under.

                    …

Almost two months later, Lane sat on the edge of Carlos’s desk. In his hand he held a photo of Bill Vickers and his daughter, Savannah. The photo showed the pair sitting together on a bench in the bright summer sun, eating ice cream cones. Lane had looked at the picture so many times now the photo was worn with creases. Every time he looked at the photo he felt his heart plummet lower and lower in his chest, reminded he was responsible yet again for the death of another soul.

He could see Carlos’s form through the glass, coming towards the door. Lane had just enough time to tuck the photo in his pocket before the door swung open and Carlos came into the office carrying a fresh cup of coffee. “Alright,” the sheriff said, grabbing his coat. “Let’s get out of here. What do you say we grab a bite to eat? I’m starving. Then we can go back to my place and have some hot chocolate.”

“Sounds good to me,” Lane said. The sound of dining out and a nice evening spent alone with Carlos sounded a hell of a lot better than drowning in his own feelings. He was even hungry.

Carlos took Lane’s face in both his hands and leaned down to kiss him. Their lips touched and for a brief moment - just a moment - Lane was able to focus on something other than his guilt.

“Thanks for waiting. I didn’t keep you waiting, did I?”

“Not at all.” Lane waved a hand at Carlos’s desk. “I straightened up your desk for you. It was a pigsty.”

Carlos took his hand and pulled him to his feet. “What would you do?”

“God only knows.”

Minutes later Carlos drove through the center of downtown Adermoor Cove. The small island town had transformed itself into a cozy winter wonderland: green wreaths had been pinned to storefronts; Christmas lights were strung between lamp posts; people scurried to and fro, carrying wrapped packages.

At the Treasure Trove, Captain Adermoor had been replaced by an equally disturbing animatronic Santa Clause. Annabelle looked prepared for the holidays, dressed in red with a white Santa Claus hat planted squarely on top of her head.

Lane was able to eat half of his bacon deluxe cheeseburger when he realized he didn’t want it any more. He asked for a box and put what was left of his meal inside. Carlos, the man with the superior appetite, had ordered a second cheeseburger and showed no signs of slowing down.

“Are you feeling okay?” Carlos asked, concerned. There was a smear of mustard around his mouth.

“My stomach’s just feeling fickle,” said Lane. “It’s nothing.”

“Are you sure? You haven’t been eating like you usually do.”

Lane narrowed his eyes at him. “What’s that supposed to mean?”

“I just mean you can put it away for someone your size.”

Lane chuckled sardonically. “You’re one to talk. It’s nothing. I’ve just been in a bit of a funk.” A funk was putting it lightly. It hadn’t just been his appetite that was lacking, but the amount of sleep he was getting as well.

“Wanna talk about it?” Carlos asked.

“It’s not anything we haven’t talked about many times before...”

Carlos set the rest of his burger down on his plate. “You’re talking about Bill?”

Lane looked out the window so Carlos couldn’t see how much he was hating himself right now. So he couldn’t see just how torn up he was. “Yes.”

“You’ve still been dreaming about him.” It wasn’t a question. Carlos knew about everything: the sleepless nights, the nightmares, and the anxiety attacks. He wasn’t an idiot. “You know I’ve been biting my tongue, trying not to say anything because I know it would just piss you off...you hate appearing weak, and you know this about yourself whether you’ll admit it or not. But I’m worried about you. And I can’t keep quiet any longer. I think you should see somebody, get on some medication.”

“You think I should see a shrink?”

“I do,” Carlos said. “I’m no psychiatrist, but I know what PTSD looks like when I see it.”

Lane took a sip of his soda to give him another second or two to process what they were talking about. “Maybe I should. But what would I say? Any shrink would just find me certifiably nuts.”

“Outside of Adermoor Cove, maybe. But not after everything that happened a couple months ago. Things are changing around here.”

Lane cleared his throat. “Carlos, I don’t think it’s just PTSD. For the last couple of weeks now I’ve been getting these feelings...you know the ones I’m talking about. Bill is not dead...he’s alive. And he’s still trapped, on the other side. It’s only a matter of time before he finds his way out.”

Carlos’s face turned a shade paler. “Why didn’t you say anything?”

“Because after everything that happened on the other side, everything we discovered, I just wanted to give you a break.” Lane reached across the table and grabbed both of his hands. “You’ve been so cheery with the holidays coming up.”

“Yeah. I was looking forward to celebrating Christmas with you.”

“Me too,” said Lane. “But there’s this...”

“It doesn’t matter.” Carlos smiled. “One way or another we’re celebrating the holidays. And when Bill finally does show up, we’ll be ready.”