Riverwatch

Chapter Thirty-one: Repercussions

"We’ve got to go back."

From his seat at the kitchen table, where Katelynn was disinfecting the wounds on his shoulder and preparing to cover them with a heavy padding of surgical gauze, Sam looked over at his friend.

"What?" he asked, incredulous. "What?"

Jake turned to face him. "We have to go back," he said more forcibly this time. The shocked, vacant expression he wore since they escaped the creature was gone from his face, and in its place Sam could see the first shining gleam of determination that he knew from past experience always meant trouble.

Sam wasn’t going to be persuaded. As a matter of fact, he’d had just about enough of Jake’s bullshit.

"No way, Jake. Not on your fucking life. Time to let somebody else take care of the mess. Gabriel was crazy to think we could handle it!"

Jake shook his head in denial. "We’ve got to stop this thing. We’re the only ones who know about it."

Sam snorted in disgust. "So we tell someone else. Anyone. The cops, the National Guard, I don’t really care." Sam seemed to remember that that had been the original plan. Prove it exists, and then get someone else involved. He said so to Jake.

Jake didn’t immediately answer, so Sam took his silence for agreement and turned his attention back to examining the cuts on his shoulder. The Nightshade’s claws had sliced through his leather jacket and had left four deep furrows across his shoulder and three inches down his back.

He winced as Katelynn began applying the bandage, and turned to watch her to take his mind off the fact that he’d come within inches of dying. She kept her mouth shut during the exchange between him and Jake, and upon seeing the look on her face, Sam instantly knew why.

She was pissed. Angrier than he’d ever seen her, in fact. She’d been at Jake’s house when they’d returned, pacing the front walk in sharp, hard strides, but on seeing their condition she’d followed them inside and had simply begun tending them without a word. Now her wall of calm seemed to be eroding, and Jake’s comments just made the stones start falling faster. Sam spared another glance in Jake’s direction and discovered to his dismay that his friend had retreated a thousand miles away, if the dazed look on his face was any indication.

A sudden pain flared in his shoulder, and he flinched.

"Hold still!" Katelynn said sharply, gripping his arm tightly in order to reinforce the suggestion.

"That hurts," he replied through teeth clenched against the pain, but he did as he was told. He knew he wasn’t about to get any sympathy from her. She said that they were liable to get killed if they went, and they had certainly come awfully close to making her prediction come true. Katelynn didn’t like it when her advice was ignored.

Jake broke Sam’s thoughts.

"Fine. I’ll go alone."

Sam surged to his feet, ready to tell Jake what a thick-headed fool he was, but Katelynn beat him to it.

"Are you out of your fucking mind?" she screamed at him suddenly. She moved closer, still yelling, each word seeming to Sam like a hammer blow directed at Jake’s head. They made him flinch, and he wasn’t even the target of her attack.

"Haven’t you figured it out yet? This…thing…kills people! That’s all it does. Kills people! It’s stronger than you, faster than you, and about four hundred times deadlier than you. You almost got yourself killed. Now you want to go back and try to fight this thing? How? With what? Haven’t you had enough already?

Katelynn was standing directly in front of Jake by the time she finished, her hands clenched into fists at her sides as if to prevent her from physically beating the idea out of him. Sam waited for Jake to blow his cool in return, to lash back at her in self-defense, but, after several long, tense moments, when he finally did answer her, his voice was calm and even.

Hearing that tone, Sam knew they’d lost, even before his friend’s words had sunk fully into his mind.

"You’re right, Katelynn. This thing, this Nightshade, does kill people. It’s killed six in the last two weeks alone. Six that we know of. Who knows how many others? No one else in this town will believe us if we tell them. That’s why it’s up to us. We’ll get the pistol from my trailer, search Riverwatch until we find where this thing goes to rest during the day, and then put a couple of bullets through its head. End of story."

"No. That’s stupid and too dangerous," said Katelynn, doing her best to regain her composure. "Let’s take Gabriel’s tape to Sheriff Wilson. Sam was supposed to meet with him later this morning anyway. Wilson will believe you. He has to!"

Jake shook his head. "The tape doesn’t prove anything, Katelynn. It’s just the disjointed ramblings of a sick old man on the brink of death. We don’t have time to gather the type of proof we need to convince anyone else, let alone the Sheriff. The police haven’t uncovered a single piece of evidence at any of the crime scenes that even hints at this thing’s existence. What makes you think we’ll be able to convince them otherwise? No, we don’t have time. Every minute we delay is another minute someone else might lose their life. I couldn’t live with that. Could you?"

Katelynn started to cry halfway through Jake’s explanation, and by the time he finished speaking she turned and moved away from him, the tears streaming silently down her cheeks. Jake started to reach out to her, apparently thought better of it, and let his hand fall softly back down to his side. He turned to face his other friend.

"Sam?" he asked, and the rest of the unspoken question was clear in his eyes.

He did not want to go alone.

A moment ticked by, neither of them moving, their gazes locked, unspoken words flying between them; memories of all the times they’d stood against whatever was the enemy, imagined or otherwise, memories that only a deep friendship could ever supply.

Then slowly, almost imperceptibly, Sam shook his head.

No.

Not this time.

Jake held Sam’s gaze a moment, then looked away. Crossing the room to the door, he opened it and without turning said, "Give me two hours. It won’t suspect that I’d come right back after it. It will still be thinking it scared us off. Now’s my chance to catch it off guard. Two hours. If I’m not back by then, well, then I’m probably not coming. Go to the police and tell them everything you can. They won’t believe you, but at least we will have done our best to warn them."

Without another backward glance, Jake stepped outside and quietly closed the door after him.