Garrett grabbed a branch above his head and tried to pull himself to stand on his only foot. But he cried out and dropped again at the weight of his dangling arm. I helped him remove the prosthetic forearm, a difficult task due to the rapid swelling of the stump.
“I swear, this arm… it’s more of a hindrance than a help nowadays,” Garrett said. “Maybe I can get the Axe-Man to just shave it off right here.” He made a swiping gesture across his shoulder and grinned at the boy.
“Not funny,” I said. “We need to get back. I can’t carry you.”
“Kid, take Kelly’s flashlight,” Garrett said. “Need you to do a couple things. One, find the handgun she dropped. Two, bring me my leg. Three, find a stick about as tall as you and as thick as your arm.”
The boy nodded. “Got it.” I handed him the flashlight and he started poking around in the mud and trampled underbrush.
Garrett picked up the shotgun and held it out to me. “Go back to the house and get the car. Meet you at the bridge.”
“I’m not leaving you here.”
“I can get myself back to the road, but probably not to the house.”
I sighed. “Alright.”
During the slog back to the house, I kept away from lights and windows. I didn’t feel like explaining to the cops why I was lurking around the neighborhood with a weapon. I made it undetected and threw the shotgun in the trunk.
By the time I’d put my car in park in the middle of the road just before the bridge, they’d made it. The boy emerged from the trees first, wearing Garrett’s jacket, lugging the flashlight, the handgun, and both of the prosthetic limbs. I popped the trunk so he could load everything in before he climbed into the cab next to me.
Then came Garrett, using a tree branch as a crutch. He had wrapped his shoulder using the bandage roll he’d brought along. I got out to open the rear door. He half-climbed, half-collapsed into the backseat, tossing the stick away. I closed the door, jumped back into the driver’s seat, and turned the car around to take us through town toward the highway.
I couldn’t stop myself from crying during the drive. Laylah’s screams and the sight of the crocodile’s mouth coming toward me replayed in my head over and over. Garrett reached over the seat and gripped my shoulder. The boy’s cold little hand held onto my forearm.
Chapter 24
“I told you, I’m not printing this crap.”
Ike’s nasty tone made me squeeze my phone so hard I thought it would break. “This is important, Ike. The myths are real—all of them. I have proof. People need to know what’s going to happen, and they need to know now. If we don’t do something, Laylah Flaherty will die tonight.”
I heard him sigh. “Kelly… enough is enough. You’ve been consistently missing deadlines. I read your Bellwether article all the way through and it’s unacceptable. The church is the biggest player in town and we can’t afford for our little paper to say a word against it on record. And now this. I hate to do this over the phone, Kelly, but I have to let you go.”
“I have proof, Ike. There’s a letter, and this boy—”
“Then prove it. But you’re not risking the Grapevine’s reputation in the process. I’ll mail your last check.” He ended the call.
I jammed my phone in my pocket and collapsed onto the bench on my front porch, running my fingers along my scalp and squeezing handfuls of hair. Dammit. Dammit. Now what?
Defeated, I stood and headed inside. I was about to slam the door before I remembered I wasn’t alone in the house anymore. I glanced at the clock. Just after eight. I could have used some more sleep. But we only had so much daylight, and I wanted to capitalize on every minute of it. Adrenaline and coffee would carry me through.
I stood in silence in the bedroom doorway, peering in at the piled comforter and the head of black hair on the pillow. I just stood and looked for a while before my phone buzzed.
A text from my husband: they want to keep me one more night
I gritted my teeth and typed back: That might be a good idea. You’re too hurt to do anything tonight anyway.
The reply was instantaneous: screw that youre not facing him alone
I couldn’t help but smile. As much as I didn’t like it, Garrett was right. He wouldn’t let something like a broken arm stop him. And there was something else to it. He was so determined to be by my side. That was new.
Are you OK? Do you need anything? I asked next.
Garrett’s answer: so far so good. my parents are here. im telling them about last night
The little head in the bed moved. The boy rolled over, yawned, and sat up. “Good morning, Kelly.”
I was still smiling. “Hey.”
“Is your husband alright?”
“He’ll be fine. The arm’s broken. They set it and gave him some pretty heavy pain medication, so they want to keep him one more night.”
The boy frowned. “We may need his… expertise again come nightfall.”
“I know. That’s what he said. We’ll see what happens.”
He stood and looked at the laptop. I had been up writing out the events of last night into the early hours of the morning when he had finally fallen asleep. “Did you get any sleep at all?”
“A couple hours on the couch. I’m fine.”
“Did you give our story to the newspaper like you said?”
“I did.” I hesitated. “My boss didn’t take it very well. He fired me.”
The boy’s eyes widened and he made that tight-lipped face. “He did? Well… wow. What an idiot.”
I hadn’t expected that. His words plus my exhaustion made me burst out in uncontrolled laughter. I doubled over, holding onto the doorframe until I had composed myself.
The boy looked me over. “Are you alright? You’re covered in scratches and bruises. And mud.”
“So are you.” I wiped tears of laughter from my eyes. “We should get cleaned up. Are you hungry?”
“I eat out of boredom from time to time, but I don’t exactly get hungry. You should eat, though. And I would very much like to wash the dirt off.”
Now it was my turn to look him over. “Alright. I’ll draw you a bath. And I’m not sure we have any clothes that would fit you, but we can look anyway.”
His dark brow furrowed. “Bath? Clothes?”
“Yeah. You need both, badly.”
“I do. I just haven’t been offered those things since…” He stroked his chin. “I’ve lost track of everything these days. There was a woman some time ago who gave me the clothes I’m wearing now.”
I bit my lip. “Muriel Greaves?”
“Yes. How did you know that?”
“I’ll explain later. I think we have a lot to talk about before tonight. Let’s find you some clothes.”
I started the bath and then went through Garrett’s drawers, finding a white T-shirt and some gym shorts with a drawstring. A search through his travel bag netted me a toothbrush still in its packaging.
“Take these,” I said, “and when I go into town later I’ll get you some clothes of your own.”
“Thank you.” He stared at the folded pile in his hands while I pulled out a clean towel and set it by the tub.
“There. I’ll give you some privacy. I’m going to eat some breakfast.” I stepped out of the bedroom and closed the door as he began to pull his ragged, filthy shirt off.
I made a quick breakfast of toast and jelly in the kitchen, sending off a quick check-in text to Garrett.
Im fine except this food sucks, he replied.
I laughed. I can bring you something in a couple of hours. We need to plan our next move.
There was a pause of a few minutes before Garrett answered back: When you come by can you also bring my old leg, its in the closet.
You got it. I stuck my phone in my pocket and got up to take care of that before I forgot. In the back of the closet, next to the gun safe, I found Garrett’s previous prosthetic leg. It was an older model and didn’t fit as well as the custom mold the VA had
made for him, but Drag-Belly had pretty much destroyed that one.
I threw the old leg in the trunk of the car and pulled out the one that had fallen victim to the crocodile’s jaws. The titanium post was bent almost forty-five degrees. The artificial arm was undamaged, but it would be useless to him with a broken shoulder. While I was there, I also made sure to grab both guns. They were caked with dried mud. I took them apart, spread the pieces on the kitchen table, and began to clean.
By the time I had put both guns back in the safe, the boy had emerged from the bathroom. He looked even smaller in the oversized shirt and shorts.
I directed him to sit in my vanity chair. I buffed his shaggy hair with the towel, looking in his eyes through the mirror.
“What should I call you?” I wondered aloud.
“What do you mean?”
“Well, in my head you’re just ‘boy,’ but that’s not right. Muriel called you ‘Leviathan,’ but that’s not a name. That’s a monster from the Bible.” I dropped the towel and began to run my fingers through his damp hair. I don’t know why I did it, but it didn’t seem to bother him.
“Muriel wasn’t wrong. That’s what I told her. I am the Leviathan.”
“You’re not a monster.”
“I was, once.”
I sighed. “You don’t like to answer questions. What if I just call you Levi? Or Ethan? Will that settle it?”
He made a thoughtful face. “Ethan.”
“Alright. Ethan it is.”
“How do you know so much about Muriel? How do you know what she called me?”
“I found a letter she wrote in 1915.”
Ethan’s face turned to surprise and intrigue. “Can I read it?”
“Of course.” I pulled up the photo of the letter on my phone and handed it to him along with the drawing she had made. “Take a look at those while I wash up.”
Chapter 25
We sat across from each other at the kitchen table. He had my phone in one hand, twirling the photograph on the tabletop with the other. My hair was still wrapped in a towel.
“Muriel was a great woman,” Ethan said. “It always bothered me, the way they treated her during the Axe-Man crisis and after. Grunwald was never kind to her again. I don’t know why she didn’t leave. Maybe it was because her husband was buried there.” He slid the phone back to me but put the photograph in the pocket of his shorts. “Why are you so nice to me, Kelly?”
I was a little taken aback. “Should I not be?”
“Don’t misunderstand me. I like it very much. I just don’t get it. I asked Muriel the same question once, and she had no answer.”
I thought for a long time. “You know… I was going to be a mother once. At the time, I was terrified. But then I lost my chance, and I haven’t had another. I’m not sure I ever will again. Since I met you… I’ve felt something changing. I think I’m being given a look at the kind of person I would have been. And I know it’s ridiculous, because my lifespan is a tiny speck compared to how long you’ve been around. But sometimes I think you still need it because you never really had it.”
Ethan nodded. “That’s fair. Muriel was so young to be a widow. She did the same as you, took me in and gave me clothes and things.” His gaze fixed on some point far away, then returned to my face. “She was so sure Momma Kodi would come protect the town that night… but that didn’t happen. The bear only appeared on nights when Muriel was in the forest.”
“You think the bear didn’t come because Muriel was in jail that night?”
“Yes. We got lucky. The policemen happened to stop the Axe-Man in time. He didn’t get what he wanted. He didn’t get me. But he learned how to stop the bear, by stopping Muriel.”
“So if you think I brought the bear this time… the Axe-Man’s going to do everything he can to stop me from entering the forest tonight.”
“I think so, yes.”
I stood up and walked to the bedroom. He followed and watched in silence while I brushed the wet tangles out of my hair.
“Well, I’m going to be there tonight,” I said. “So I think it’s time you told me everything you know. I need to be prepared. Last night would have ended in disaster if I hadn’t brought my husband along. That’s because he at least had some knowledge of what we were getting into.”
Ethan shifted. “Alright. Where should I start?”
“I need to know what you are. You call yourself Leviathan. And you keep saying the Axe-Man is after you for something. Can you straighten it out for me?”
“You should sit down.”
“I’m good. Start talking.”
The boy sat cross-legged on the cold tile. “Alright. A long time ago, someone was trying to cure humanity of whatever made them evil. He extracted all the darkness from the belly of the world. It formed a consciousness. Not completely sentient like you or me, but halfway there. It had incredible power. It could reshape the land, change the weather, raise the dead, all kinds of crazy stuff. That was the Leviathan, the monstrous one of Scripture and legend. But this person who created the beast in the first place found that much of its evil was rooted in ignorance and loneliness. So he reached into the Leviathan and found the soul. He separated the monster into the good, pure aspect and the wild, chaotic darkness.”
“You mentioned having a father thousands of years ago,” I said. “That was him, wasn’t it? The one trying to cure evil.”
“Yes. I am the result of what he did. The black mist that sleeps in the forest is the Leviathan’s physical form. I’m its soul. I live here, always near the body but separate from it. It can be controlled, but only by someone incredibly powerful. It doesn’t even recognize me. Anyway, things were fine, even after my father left. The shadow beast went to sleep in the earth. Then the first King of the Forest arrived. Eld Stagger.”
“He took control of the Leviathan?”
“Yes. It doesn’t have a conscience the way you or I would understand it. The shadow responds to one thing only—power. It sides with whoever it thinks is strongest. Stagger won it over as soon as he appeared. With it, he was about ready to rule everything. But then Momma Kodi appeared. I’m not sure how she came about that first time, but it must have been because I wanted a protector. I think she’s a part of the Leviathan just as much as I am. A different aspect, I guess. Maybe the shadow is conflicted about all this.”
“What about the wolf and the others?”
“King Firehide must be a part of it, too. But Stagger and his servants… they’re not part of the forest. They are invaders from outside.”
I put my hair in a ponytail and sat on the floor next to him. “So the bear and wolf killed Stagger. Why does the Axe-Man think he can bring him back?”
“Because they only sort of killed him. The first thing that Stagger did upon taking control was command the Leviathan to hold onto his soul if anything ever happened to him. The Leviathan won’t give something for nothing. To raise Stagger from the dead, the Axe-Man’s going to have to give it a soul to trade. The more vitality the soul has left in it—like that of a child—the more life Stagger can leech from it.”
“But the Axe-Man killed all those people. Why not use one of their souls instead?”
“Those murders weren’t sacrifices. They were meant to demoralize the town and drive them to hysteria so that they’d do exactly what they did to Muriel. I don’t think the Axe-Man was completely sure about the mechanism that brought Momma Kodi into the picture, but he knew it had something to do with me and her… and now me and you. See, he doesn’t want to bring Stagger back only to have to deal with Kodi and Firehide again. He wants them out of the picture, out of his King’s way.”
“Is the Leviathan keeping the Axe-Man alive?”
“Yes. It clings to his soul just like it does to Stagger’s. The Leviathan will do what it can to bring Stagger back, and the Axe-Man is the means to that end.”
“Even though you don’t want Stagger back?”
“Oh, I have no control over the shadow
.”
“So what does the Axe-Man want with you?”
“He’s going to give me to Stagger. He has the easiest time ordering the shadow around when he has me captive.”
“That makes it sound like you do have control over the Leviathan.”
Ethan looked thoughtful. “Huh. It sure doesn’t listen to me.”
I shrugged. “Just a theory. One more question. The two animals that Kodi killed last night. Are they gone forever?”
“The Leviathan will probably put Anvilback and Drag-Belly back together eventually. But that won’t be anytime soon. It depends on the damage. It took the Leviathan a hundred years to revive the Axe-Man from a bullet wound and the decomposition that followed. And you and Kodi made a huge mess of those two animals.”
I smiled. “We did, didn’t we?”
He didn’t return the smile. “Even without them, the Axe-Man is very powerful. We’re going to need a plan.”
“Well, number one priority is getting Laylah. If we prevent the sacrifice, then Stagger won’t come back. We need to make sure I get into the forest so the bear will appear. She’s our best chance. Other than that, I plan to spend the rest of the day convincing as many people as I can to come with us.”
“How will you do that?”
“I have you. The letter. The picture.”
“I’m… not sure that’s as much proof as you think it is. Documents can be forged.”
“Garrett will corroborate my story.”
“He’s hardly an unbiased source, he’s your husband.”
I sighed. “Well, I’ve got to try. Maybe my parents will believe me now. Maybe Sammie will, now that I have you.”
Ethan winced. “I’ll do what I can.”
Chapter 26
“Hello, Kelly.”
“Hi, Mom.”
“I’m glad to hear from you. I wanted to tell you how proud I am. You looked so good up there on the stage with Pastor Cotton. And he told me you came to speak with him in his office as well.”
“Well, thank you.” My toes ground into the lawn in my anxiety. I was in the back yard. I could see Ethan watching through the kitchen window. I hoped he couldn’t hear what I was saying, although I wasn’t sure it mattered.
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