by Amy Cross
"I've never heard of Devil's Briar," Ed says. "I could look it up if you like..."
"Sure," I say, "I just..." I take a deep breath, and it becomes clear that I have no idea why I was thinking about Devil's Briar at all. Feeling a cold chill run through my body, I realize that my mind seems to be playing tricks on me. I had so many questions to ask Ed, but they've all just fallen away. "I don't remember what happened to me," I say eventually. "Why was I out in a forest?"
"We were out there doing some work in Colorado," Ed says. "Checking the local roads. Remember?"
"Not really," I say. "Where's Dr. Cole?"
"Who?"
"Dr. Cole," I say again. "Reuben Cole, he was -" I take another deep breath, as I realize that the name Dr. Cole means nothing to me. I don't know why I even asked that question. A moment later, I can't even remember the name that was in my thoughts. "This all seems a little strange," I say cautiously, as I start to wonder whether I might have suffered some kind of head injury. "None of it makes much sense."
"There's something else you should know," Ed says. "It's... big." Hearing a noise over at the door, we both turn and see that Bill has arrived. He's on crutches, and he has a few cuts and bruises on his face, but otherwise he looks like the same old Bill. "I guess Bill can tell you," Ed continues, getting to his feet. "I'll be heading back to the faculty. You know what it's like, Old Heller's gonna want to see me show my face eventually or he'll have my funding earmarked for a new office. I'll catch up with you two later."
Once he's gone, Bill limps over and sits next to my bed. He has an awkward, nervous look in his eyes, and he seems quite different from the arrogant Bill I've come to hate over the years. "Hey," he says eventually, breaking the uncomfortable silence. "So how are you doing?"
"I'm good," I reply, looking at the bruises on his face. "I'm not the one who was in some kind of accident."
"Don't worry about me," he says. "It's nothing that won't heal. I just wish I knew what happened."
"You can't remember?" I ask.
"It's a little vague."
"But you remember how you ended up in the car, right?"
"Not really." He pauses for a moment. "I guess I banged my head pretty hard," he adds with a sheepish grin. "I don't know what to tell you. I just don't remember at all."
"Join the club," I tell him, trying to sit up in bed but feeling a sharp pain across my chest. I relax, and the pain fades away. "What the hell's going on, Bill? I still don't get how I ended up in this hospital. I don't get how you ended up in a car wreck. I don't get... I don't understand where..." I pause for a moment, trying to remember the name of the town I was thinking about earlier. Damn it, I swear to God I've got huge gaps in my memory. The last thing I remember now is... being at work, at the faculty in Boston. At the same time, I'm certain that other things have been happening.
"Don't worry," Bill says. "It'll come back to you."
"Maybe," I reply, trying to stay calm.
"So there's something else you need to know," he continues, smiling. "When they brought you in here, they did a full check-up, just to make sure you were okay, and... they found something."
I stare at him. "Cancer?"
He shakes his head. "So when were you going to tell me you're pregnant?" he asks. "Or didn't you know?"
I open my mouth to reply, but I'm not sure what to say. Did he just say what I think he said?
"You're about six weeks gone," he continues. "I'm gonna take it from your shocked expression that you had no idea."
"I can't be pregnant," I say, looking down at my belly. "I don't feel anything..."
"It's early days," he says. "Some people don't show for quite a while."
I take a deep breath, remembering that I'd noticed my cycle was running late a few weeks ago. Still, I'd put that down to some new sleeping pills I'd been trying out, and it never occurred to me that I could be carrying a baby. Bill and I barely have sex at all, although I suppose I should have been more careful on the rare occasions when we tried to rekindle things. A baby is definitely not something I ever wanted, at least not now and not with Bill, but there's no way I can get rid of it. I guess I'm going to be a mother.
"Are you okay?" Bill asks.
I nod.
"You sure?" he continues. "You look a little pale."
"What do you want me to say?" I ask. "I'm in shock."
"It's fine," he replies. "I was pretty surprised too. I mean, I thought you were using birth control."
"Nothing's totally safe," I point out. "I guess..." I take another deep breath, trying to make sense of the jumble of thoughts that are rushing through my head.
"We just got lucky," he replies, smiling.
"Uh-huh," I say, swallowing hard. Right now, I don't feel lucky. I feel totally confused, as if everything I know has suddenly been ripped out of my mind. I can't shake the feeling that I've forgotten something really, really important, and that at the center of my brain there's a kind of fog. It's as if I know that something happened, but I can't remember what it was, or where, or how, or any of the details. The strangest thing is, I have this sensation of having lost Bill somewhere.
"We're going to be good parents," he says, reaching out and holding my hand. "We're going to put our past problems aside and we're going to get ready for the future. This accident has really made me think about things, Paula, and I've realized what I jerk I was in the past. I swear, some time soon, I'm going to take you on the most amazing holiday."
"Yeah," I say, pulling my hand away. "Let's not get carried away," I add. "If we're having a baby, we're gonna need to save money."
"I know, I know," he replies. "I guess I just want to make sure you're the happiest you can be. I want to support you and -"
"Don't worry about it," I say. The crazy thing is, I'm pretty sure I'd made up my mind to leave Bill, but the baby complicates everything. If I'm pregnant, I have to reconsider my plans. The last thing I can do right now is raise a child on my own, and Bill would probably be a pretty good father. Staying with him might not be ideal, but at least I could give it a try for the sake of the baby. "We'll work something out," I continue, still feeling kind of surprised that I don't feel pregnant.
"You know, it doesn't mean life has to stop," Bill continues. "In fact, I've been working on something that I think you might want to help me with." He reaches into his pocket and pulls out a collection of print-outs, which he rather ingloriously shoves in front of me. "I didn't want to say anything at first," he adds, "because I thought people would think I'd lost my mind. I checked and double-checked, though, and now I'm certain I'm onto something. If I'm right, this could be a huge discovery."
"What is it?" I ask, leafing through what appear to be a series of aerial photos.
"A town," he says. "A whole town, undiscovered in the Colorado wilderness. Before you say anything, let me finish. This place is in no record books. It's not mentioned anywhere. As far as the world is concerned, there's no town at all. But I've been checking images from various sources, and I'm certain I've found what appears to be an entire, undisturbed, completely empty town."
"Impossible," I say, staring at the images. To Bill's credit, it certainly looks as if there's some kind of settlement in a small clearing in the forest, but there's no way an entire town could go unnoticed.
"I'm thinking of going out there to check it out," he replies. "Just a short trip, to see if I've lost my mind or... I think it's really there, Paula. The only information I've managed to come up with is a brief reference in one old journal to a town called Devil's Briar."
"Devil's Briar?" I say, feeling a sudden rush of recognition. It's as if I've heard that name before, but... As I try to remember the context, my mind seems to cloud over again.
"You okay?" Bill asks.
"Yeah," I reply. "I just had this really strong feeling of deja vu for a moment, like... I don't know, I just felt like I'd heard that name Devil's Briar before."
"Maybe it's the hormones," he says. "You know, the
baby and stuff?"
"Maybe," I say, resisting the urge to tell him to go fuck himself. Seriously, do I have to spend the next eight months being told that all my reactions are just due to pregnancy hormones? Bill's always been a slightly sexist kind of guy, and I really don't want to have to put up with too much more of his bullshit.
"So what do you think?" he continues. "Do you want to head up there with me? It'll be like the old days, just the two of us, and we can scout around and see if this town really exists."
"It's a hell of a long-shot," I say, but at the same time I can see that he's really animated by the prospect of this whole crazy idea. Bill used to be so ambitious and enthusiastic when he was younger, but over the years he's become kinda jaded and listless. Finally, some spark of passion seems to have been reignited in his eyes, and I don't feel like I can crush his hopes just yet. "Maybe," I say eventually. "If we plan the whole trip properly, I guess we could spend a couple of days up there."
"I knew you'd be up for it," he says, leaning over and kissing me on the forehead. "We'll wait a few weeks and then we'll hit the road. I guess we need to get started before your pregnancy really kicks in."
"I guess," I reply. The truth is: I feel like there's a real danger we'll find that this Devil's Briar place doesn't exist. After all, the chances of discovering an abandoned, unknown town out in the middle of Colorado are extremely low. These things just don't happen, not in the real world, and I'd hate to see Bill get excited only for his hopes to be dashed. Then again, there's no way I can shoot down his ideas just yet. We'll go up there, and we'll look around, and who knows what we'll find? I guess it's not completely impossible that this Devil's Briar place might actually exist.
Once Bill has left, I get out of bed and wander along the ward. Something feels really, really wrong. The last thing I remember is being in my office at the university in Boston, after which... It's as if there are more memories in the back of my mind, but some kind of fog is preventing me from knowing where I've been or what I've been doing. I certainly don't remember going on some expedition with Ed, but at the same time I don't see why he'd lie. Every time I try to access those blocked memories, I come back to one basic feeling: it's as if the name Devil's Briar is somehow significant. Maybe I just took a bump on the head, and maybe my mind is playing tricks on me, but I can't shake the sensation that I've heard of Devil's Briar, and even that I've been there. For a moment, I feel like I'm about to remember something, but the fog remains in place. Taking a deep breath, I figure I'm just imagining the whole thing, and I turn to walk back to my bed.
Epilogue
1925
The fire rips through the town, devouring everything in its path. First one building falls to the ground, then another, and then another... People run screaming through the streets, desperate to get away from the flames and the smoke and the heat. In their panic, some of the people become disorientated, and some even collapse; some begin to see strange shapes around them, and soon there's panicked talk of the devil himself being in the town. Hysteria takes hold, and calm voices are drowned out by screams. As one group of people moves along a street, a burning building collapses directly onto them; the timbers continue to burn, and the flames flicker up to the night sky, sending thick black smoke curling past the large metal cross in the town square.
Book 8:
Electrolyte
Prologue
Fighting through the smoke and flames, I try to get down the stairs. There's an intense wall of heat ahead of me, but I know that I have no chance of survival unless I can somehow get down into the reception area and out through the front door. For a moment, it actually looks as if I might make it, but suddenly the stairs start to collapse and I crash to the ground. Catching my breath, I crawl from the wreckage and try to reach the door, but I feel the flames erupt across my clothes and I fall into a heap.
Ahead of me, standing out in the town square, I see Victoria Paternoster. There's a curious, terrifying look on her face, as she's enjoying the fire. I'm about to call out to her, when I realize that there's another presence. I turn and look up, and I see a terrified woman staring down at me, panicking. I don't know who she is, but she quickly turns and runs.
I make one final attempt to drag myself forward, before I realize that there's no point fighting any longer. I close my eyes and wait for the agony to stop. Finally, just as I feel the skin sizzling on the back of my neck, I let out a roar of pain and everything goes dark.
Chapter One
Today
"Devil's Briar was on a few early maps," shouts Bill, trying to be heard over the sound of the spluttering engine as our truck bounces along the dirt road, "but it was generally assumed that the place was just a small encampment. A few houses, maybe a water well, nothing of any real importance or even permanence." At that moment, the truck hits a particularly large bump, jolting us violently. "Those old maps were notoriously unreliable," he adds, barely even missing a beat. "Seriously, if we went looking for every scratchy little town that might or might not have existed, we'd be -"
"Rock!" I shout, pointing at a boulder that's sitting straight in the middle of the road.
Bill looks ahead and sees the boulder just in time. He turns the wheel sharply to the left and the truck careers off the dirt road and into the brush. For a moment, it seems like we might be about to overturn, but the heavily-laden truck just about manages to remain the right way up as Bill slows us down and we come to a halt at the edge of the tall pine trees that reach high up into the afternoon sky. "Are you okay?" he asks, turning to me and staring at my stomach.
"Yeah," I say, taking a deep breath. I'm only a couple of months pregnant, and I'm not showing yet, but Bill has been treating me like I'm this delicate creature that can't bear even the slightest nudge. "Don't worry about me," I continue. "Worry about keeping your eyes on the road. In fact, do you mind if I take the wheel for a while?"
Sighing, he unbuckles his seat-belt and climbs out. "I'm okay, you know," he says. "I just got distracted for a split second."
As soon as I get out of my side of the truck, I'm struck by how cold it is out here. There are patches of snow all around, and I can see my breath as I walk around to the driver's side. "It must be below zero," I say, climbing back into the truck. "How much further until we get to Devil's Briar?"
"Just a few more miles," he replies, getting into the passenger seat.
"You said that a few miles ago," I point out, starting the engine, "and a few miles before that." Easing the gas pedal down to avoid spinning the wheels, I ease us slowly back up onto the dirt road. Frankly, this trip is starting to feel like a wild goose chase and a chore. For the past week, Bill has been able to talk about nothing other than the possibility of finding this once-buried ghost town out in the Colorado wilderness. It sounded like a far-fetched idea at first, but he gradually gathered enough evidence to persuade me to come with him. I mean, what kind of a wife would I be if I let my husband come on a cockamamie trip like this by himself? He tried to get a few other professors interested at the university, but none of them took his claims seriously. To them, the idea of discovering an entire lost town is too far-fetched. As for me, I'm willing to suspend my disbelief for a while, if only to humor my husband.
"Are you sure there's no-one else out here?" I ask, feeling a little spooked by the thought of us being so far from civilization. "We can't seriously have this whole wilderness to ourselves."
"There's nothing and no-one," he replies. "The nearest town is Florence. This is dangerous territory, Paula. It's not the kind of place you want to go wandering around aimlessly. Satellite imaging shows no signs of wheel-tracks or any other kind of disturbance."
"And satellites can never be wrong," I say, unable to hide the cynicism in my voice. I've been supportive so far, but now I'm getting worried. The odds of us actually finding this forgotten ghost town are tiny, and I'm afraid that Bill's spirit will be crushed. Am I doing the right thing by indulging him in this journey? I'm desperate f
or him to get back into his work, but perhaps I've taken things too far? I'm starting to think that I should have let him down gently and encouraged him to find some other project. Something nice. Something safe. Something easy.
"It's thanks to the satellites that we found this place at all," he replies. "Without..." He pauses for a moment. "Hang on, pull over for a second."
"Why?" I ask, unable to see anything up ahead that might have piqued his interest.
"Over there!" he says, pointing to the right of the road. "Paula, stop!"
Sighing, I pull over and stop the engine. Bill immediately gets out of the truck and limps twenty or so feet across the desert, finally stopping next to what looks like a long line of wood, partially buried in the ground. At first, I assume it's just a fallen tree, but as I sit and watch him through the windshield, I realize maybe he's actually found something. Getting out of the truck again, I wander over to join him. After all this effort, it'd be pretty amazing if it turned out Bill was actually right about there being something out here. At the same time, I'm getting this really weird feeling, almost as if I've been here before.
As I get to his side, I see what he's looking at: it appears to be the foundations of an old house. Laid out before us, six large beams are sticking up from the ground. It's not much, but the only logical explanation is that at some point in the past there was a dwelling here. A dwelling isn't exactly a whole town, but it's still more than I thought we'd find, and it should be enough to boost Bill's confidence. I guess this trip won't be a waste of time after all, but I can't shake the feeling that I've stood in this same exact spot before, staring at these same exact pieces of wood.
"This isn't on any maps," Bill says, turning to me. I can see the excitement in his eyes. This is the kind of thing he lives for: discovering places that no-one else knew about, and digging up the secrets of the past. These past few years stuck behind a desk at the university, and then recovering in hospital from his accident, have left him drained of enthusiasm. The accident was hard for him, and hard for me, and... I pause for a moment, and I realize that I don't quite remember the details of the accident. Something to do with a car, and... I sigh, figuring that the pregnancy is messing with my hormones. Still, I shouldn't complain. Finally, and slowly, the old Bill - the man I fell in love with, the man I married, the man I hoped to have children with some day - seems to be coming back to me, and we have a baby on the way. I should be happy. I really, really should be happy, and the fact that I'm not makes me... what? An ungrateful bitch? What's wrong with me?
