Dark Rite

Chapter 23

Grant vaguely registered sensations of movement, a change in temperature. He heard sounds of the forest and heard distant shouts. Pressure on his body as he was shaken roughly and realized he was being carried over someone's shoulder as they ran. He heard a voice calling his name and some distant part of him celebrated as it was almost certainly Cassie's words he heard. Blackness took him again.

He woke lying on something soft. He registered movement and something brushed the hair from his brow. He opened his eyes and Cassie's face split in a grin of sheer joy.

“You're alive!” she said. She was wrapped in a big, dirty coat.

“Am I?” He saw movement behind her and realized he was looking out the back window of a car. He lay across the back seat, his head in her lap. He turned his head and saw the dark shape of the driver and recognized Elijah's short cropped hair. Tears streaked the young man's cheek as he drove. The passenger seat was empty.

Cassie eyes were sad again. “Your arm…” she said quietly.

Grant tried to grin at her. “Got another,” he slurred.

He closed his eyes and let the oblivion of darkness take him again.

The next time he woke, he found himself lying in a hospital bed. Cassie and Elijah sat beside him. Elijah stared into nowhere and Cassie smiled as he found her eyes.

“You're going to be okay,” she told him. “But you're badly hurt, so you have to stay still.”

He nodded, winced at the movement and stopped. “Yeah. Don't think I'm going anywhere any time soon.”

“I can't believe you came for me,” Cassie said, looking away, unable to hold his gaze. “You came for me and you fought that thing.” She looked back, tears in her eyes. “You beat that thing!”

“I had a lot of help.” Grant looked at Elijah. “I'm so sorry about Amos.”

Elijah nodded. “I did that to him.”

Grant had no idea what to say to that. It was true. But it was also because of Elijah that Amos had come to help and the old man's bravery and fighting spirit made all the difference. “Your dad was amazing. There's no way I could have done what I did without him. He saved all of us, even you.”

Elijah nodded again, said nothing. Fresh tears rolled slowly down his cheeks.

“Where are we?” Grant asked Cassie.

“Kingsville. We just drove away from Wallen's Gap, away from all of that and straight here to the hospital. I don't ever plan to go back, either.”

Grant’s eyes fell on a newspaper lying on Elijah’s lap. The headline read Cavern Collapse! He recognized a picture of Natural Bridge. “What’s that?”

“The cover story. You been out cold for nearly two days.” Elijah tossed the paper onto the bed.

A cave-in at Natural Bridge Caverns claimed the lives of dozens of Wallen’s Gap residents in the worst tragedy to hit the community in decades. Members of the Wallen’s Gap Community Church were enjoying a picnic in one of the larger chambers when the roof suddenly gave way. A representative of the Virginia Department of Conservation and Recreation said that the chamber in question was in a remote area of the park and not a place frequented by tourists. Local authorities…

He stopped reading. They had certainly moved fast. The Kaletherex cult was going to get away with it. To hell with them. If the survivors were willing to be a part of the cover-up, they deserved what they got. He looked at Cassie and grinned.

“What do you say, when I get out of here, we head west until we hit the Pacific? I've had my fill of mountains. Let's see what it's like by the sea.”

Cassie smiled, but her eyes reflected the deep injury she had endured, to body and soul. It would be a long time before either of them were even vaguely better. But she seemed to genuinely mean it when she said, “I'd really like that.”

“What about you, Elijah?” Grant asked. “You want to come and see the ocean?”

Elijah shook his head. “I got a sister moved to New York to go to college. Reckon I might go and see her, tell her what happened. Then maybe stay there a while if she'll have me.”

Grant nodded. He keenly felt the burned patches of skin, the torn muscles and cracked bones throughout his body. He lifted his left arm, what remained of it, and stared at the dressing that rounded off just below his elbow. So much for his dreams of being a professional musician. Then again, the drummer from Def Leppard only had one arm. A shame Grant was a guitarist. Perhaps Suzanne had left him for all the wrong reasons, but it led him to Cassie. He thought she would support him whatever his dreams. And he would support her.

He remembered Ma Withers' words. That finger you got gonna cost you, don't forget that. He hadn't known what she meant, but Grant knew well enough now.

“Your arm,” Cassie said, eyes wet as she looked at his injury.

Grant smiled. “I'm just glad to be alive.” And he meant it. “I honestly thought I was going to die back there in that cave. I was kind of at peace with that. So seeing as I've managed to get away with nothing but some injuries that'll heal and only ended up losing my hand, I guess I can live with that.”

“That's quite an amazing attitude to have.”

“Oh, it's going to take some getting used to, I don't doubt that. And I’ll be angry about it for a fair while. Just as well I'm right-handed. But any problems I run into, I guess I'm going to need your help.”

Cassie leaned forward and kissed him softly. Her lips were warm against his. “I can do that,” she said.