And then it was over.
Below him, P.J. felt his nephew stir, whimpering with the pain of his ruined hand. He heard the cries of his niece and the gentle shushing sounds of Tyler Wilson’s voice. He heard the moans of Cassie Monroe as she started to awaken and he heard the absolute silence of the forest.
Finally he allowed himself to look and was surprised by the light that illuminated the woods around him. The sun was rising and slowly the creatures that lived there allowed themselves to move again.
Mark Howell lay awkwardly on the ground, broken in a bad way. Of Jonathan Crowley, there was no sign.
EPILOGUE
It’s been a year. I guess it’s time to talk about the changes that have come over Summitville. Where to start is the only real question and I guess that even that is a simple enough question to answer.
I’ll start at the ending. After it was all said and done, after the thing was gone and Crowley had disappeared, I had to run for help, along with Tyler who miraculously managed to find his glasses. It took about two hours all told to get paramedics out to the spot and if Tim hadn’t been one of them, it would likely have taken even longer. Tim’s a strange one, almost too friendly for a person born in Summitville, but he has to be I guess; it must come with the territory, working in Denver and all. The worst of the injuries were those that fell on Mark’s shoulders. Crowley had apparently managed to rupture a few of his vertebrae in the fight and whatever left him apparently decided that it was done doing him favors. Mark had to be secured to a gurney and carried out of the woods over paths that would have been treacherous in the best of situations.
He’s alive and no permanent damage was done to his spinal cord, for that he should be grateful. They expect him to be fully mobile by the end of the year. For now he needs a cane and upon occasion he still needs his wheelchair. I know that he will be happy indeed to be away from his wheelchair once and for all. He put on some weight as a result of being immobile for so long, but that’s probably for the best. It probably means that whatever influence held him, is finally gone. Sometimes you could doubt that, he still has a tendency to stare into infinity when no one is looking. Maybe that’s just natural, he always struck me as a dreamer.
Tony’s hand may never be the same. The surgeons did their very best and he is able to flex his hand, able to make a fist and even to lift light weights, but you could see the pain on his face when the winter came, you could almost feel the swelling of his still healing bones.
He seems a little more withdrawn for all that he has gone through and he is most certainly more cautious when it comes to physical activities, but for the most part my “nephew” is growing up very well indeed.
Lisa is another story entirely. She seems almost completely recovered from the traumas she was forced to endure, but I can’t help wondering. I think that she will pull through, so long as she has Tyler by her side. He’s really an amazing boy. Never have I seen anyone so dedicated to protecting the girl he loves. Now and then he is almost too protective and now and again Lisa lets him know it, but for the most part, I think she loves him almost as much as he loves her. There have been discussions between them of marriage, I think, but so far Lisa is winning the day with her practicality. I imagine that Tyler will never be fully satisfied to wait, but then a beautiful girl has always seemed to be his major weakness. I suspect that he is as in love with the idea of being in love as he is with my “Niece.” That’s okay, I believe that they will find their happiness together.
If only the same could be said for Cassie and Mark. Cassie lost interest in Mark almost immediately after the incident under the Overtree. I suspect that there are worse fates than losing your first girlfriend, but I also suspect that Mark can think of none. They have become friends and I imagine that they will always be friends, but the pain that Mark lets show when they are together and she is looking away from him is almost enough to break my heart. He is already going through so much, what with Joe and his mother separated. Joe seems ready to reconcile with his wife, but I don’t know if she is ready yet. I wonder if Jenny is angry at herself, the town, her husband, or her son. Who can say. Such is the way that life goes, it moves on when you least expect it.
Life goes on in Summitville as well, minus a few people who will be missed. Chuck is gone from the world and Summitville had the good sense to put Stacy Calhoun in his place as the sheriff. She really is the only qualified person who was born in town and I think that Dave Palance knows it as well. Besides, Dino very much wanted her daughter to become sheriff some day and no one in their right mind would think to cross her. The woman can be an unholy terror when she wants to be.
Rick Lewis has been replaced by another out of town Doctor, at least for as long as it takes Tim to finish his medical training. He’ll make a good doctor someday and in the meantime, Summitville is tolerating Doctor Doubletree. He at least is originally from Boulder and that’s not so far a distance; the people here can almost pretend that he’s a neighbor. Almost.
The others that have died are missed in their own ways, but they could never have been as important as the adults that died. They had yet to make their worth known to Summitville and that is a sad thing. They will never get the chance to, that opportunity was stolen from them.
As for me, I thought about leaving this miserable little town for a while, but much as it pains me to admit it, the damned place has grown on me. I have my writing, I have my books and I have my friends. I guess in the long and short of it, that’s all that really matters.
Oh and I have two other writers in town these days. Despite the fact that their love refused to blossom, Mark and Cassie write well together. Their first combined book has received several positive reviews and I hear a lot of comments on how well they write together, how mature the level of their writing is considering their ages.
I hope the book does better than Mark’s first attempt. I suspect it will. They work well together. One day, if life gives them the opportunity, they may well make a lovely couple.
These days I’m more of an optimist than I used to be, that or I’m getting sentimental and mushy in my old age. I think they will get together. If an old man can forgive himself for his many transgressions, even so late in his life, then two young people can eventually come to realize that not all they felt for each other was the work of an outside force.
I have forgiven myself, I know now that whether or not I had performed a magic spell in the woods so long ago, things would have been pretty much the same. I think that the thing under the Overtree had enough power to make us do its bidding. There was no control to be had by me, or by Alex, or even by little Todd. We were all just pawns, just pieces to be moved in a game that is probably going on elsewhere by now.
I got a post card from Jonathan Crowley, it came from Hawaii. Short and sweet, all it said was “Hope you’re keeping your nose clean, Philly. I’m still watching you.” It wasn’t signed. It didn’t have to be. I threw it away.
That chapter of my life is closed, life is moving on and I intend to enjoy the ride for as long as I can.
—Phillip James Sanderson
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
James Arthur Moore is an American horror novelist and short story writer. In 2003, he was nominated for a Bram Stoker Award for “Best Novel” for his book Serenity Falls. In 2006, the novella Bloodstained Oz (co-authored by Christopher Golden) was nominated for a Bram Stoker Award for “Best Long Fiction.” He wrote the novelization of Buffy the Vampire Slayer’s Chaos Bleeds (based on the video game written by Christopher Golden). Many of his books have been released by small press publishers.
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Table of Contents
Prologue
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
&nbs
p; Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve
Chapter Thirteen
Chapter Fourteen
Chapter Fifteen
Chapter Sixteen
Chapter Seventeen
Chapter Eighteen
Chapter Nineteen
Chapter Twenty
Chapter Twenty-One
Epilogue
About The Author
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Under the Overtree Page 48
