by Keri Hudson
Chunks of the burning house were already falling, planks landing like burning spears and shingles wafting down with the breeze, leaves of flame as they abandoned their fallen leader.
Abigail clung to Caleb, still in his lupine form, Daniel standing with them to watch Jonathan drag that beleaguered behemoth back into the crumbling inferno. Caleb could only stand there with the new incarnation of the great man’s legacy, thinking, Good luck, and goodbye.
But Jonathan Armstrong had said all, clearly using all his strength and focus to pull the exhausted ursine into the crumbling building. A big pine beam fell to block their exit, and Caleb knew that they were doomed. Chunks of burning plaster and wood fell on top of them like some righteous rain, Sodom and Gomorrah both going up in flame to cleanse their hateful and sinful past. There would be a new world, one without either of them.
A tremendous plank of the second floor fell down on both shifters, the ursine and the lupine alike, their death screams ringing out even through the creak and crack of the house’s collapse. The anguish in their mutual cries leaked out as their waning but unseen death struggle continued in that house of death.
It ended soon enough.
The fire raged on, the frame of the house soon the only part of it left standing. It was a hellish portrait of a family line corrupted and contorted, a noble concept which had been twisted by the basest instinct of man and beast.
But the house burned, consuming everything in it. Caleb wondered if he’d ever know the identity of the shifter, not that it mattered.
Whoever has suddenly vanished, he knew, that’s the one. We’ll know at the funeral.
But there were other questions, other souls whose fates were left undetermined. Caleb had to wonder, Where’s Lulu, or old Edith? Surely one of them at least escaped from that terrible fire? Or did Armstrong House claim them both as sacrifices to its own demise?
No house built here will ever make such a claim again, Caleb silently swore, not while I’m the patriarch here and not while my children reign behind me!
Caleb looked down at the pup who would be his adopted heir, the woman he would love forever. But before love had come death, a baptism of fire spelled out for them all in the crumbling construct of Armstrong House itself. The beast had fallen, the man had been engulfed by the very thing which had given him the power which had propelled him through life.
But his genes had lived on, and they would be guided by a man of greater moral compass and purpose, a family without stain or blemish. They were born anew of true love, forged by the fire of renewal, unstoppable in their combined powers. Human and lupine would create new fire, new life, a new future for their line and for all Fall River, Massachusetts, the Unites States, and even beyond.
CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR
Pastor Eric Newton stood dressed in black, King James Bible once again in his hands. Caleb could only stand there with a resolve, a calm he’d never known. He couldn’t wipe clean the memories of Jonathan Armstrong, a flawed man who struggled for redemption. It would be for Caleb to finish correcting the damage he’d done, to restoring the sheen and shimmer to the name of Armstrong House, a new world of smiles and games and long, happy summers.
Abigail looked into Caleb’s eyes, and seemed to read his intense reflection, taking his hand in hers.
“Whatever is has already been, and what will be has been before; and God will call the past to account. And I saw something else under the sun: In the place of judgment, wickedness was there; in the place of justice wickedness was there.”
Lulu and Edith sat together in the front row, hand in hand. Lulu had managed to escape the house through the kitchen and tucked away to safety. But Edith had drawn on her long years of experience and tied bedsheets together to slither down the side of the burning building unseen. The wheelchair under her spoke of her relative success. But she was alive, and in her old friend Lulu’s company she was resplendent. They’d had little more than each other, and Daniel, and now had a future they could enjoy, a house they could live in without oppression, without fear.
The pastor read, “I said to myself, ‘God will bring into judgment both the righteous and the wicked, for there will be a time for every activity, a time to judge every deed.’ I also said to myself, ‘As for humans, God tests them so that they may see that they are like the animals. Surely the fate of human beings is like that of the animals; the same fate awaits them both: As one dies, so dies the other. All have the same breath; humans have no advantage over animals. Everything is meaningless. All go to the same place; all come from dust, and to dust all return. Who knows if the human spirit rises upward and if the spirit of the animal goes down into the earth?’”
They’d selected the scripture deliberately, a fitting salute to the long, winding journey which had brought them to the pastor on that hallowed day. Caleb turned to see the face of Fall River PD detective Paul Hume, offering him a friendly nod from the pews. Caleb was glad to know the man was his ally if not his friend; he knew he’d need plenty of both in the years to come. Things were only meaningless on a certain level, Caleb knew. On another level, they contained all the meaning in the world, in the Universe. And somewhere between enemy and ally, between threat and promise, between human and shifter, between love and hate, that was where the balance would be found. That was where the hope of the human race rested, and of the shifters as well. As if it could be found, as if such a thing could ever be accomplished. But that was the hope of their races, of the entire world.
One notable absence was the Animal Control officer, Jane Baxter. Her two assistants were in attendance, and they glared at the altar with barely contained disgust and anger. It was clear to Caleb who the ursine had been, and he wasn’t surprised. He was also ready for any retaliation. One glare at them seemed to make the point clear, the two looking away as soon as they felt his attention turned to them.
“I have seen that there is nothing better for a man than to enjoy his work,” Pastor Newton went on reading, “because that is his lot. For who can bring him to see what will come after him?”
Caleb and Abigail shared a glance, then looked down at little Daniel. Resilient, full of promise and love, Daniel looked back at them and smiled. The pastor looked over the crowd of friends and family gathered in the yard of the newly rebuilt Tudor mansion standing where Armstrong House had been.
“We’re gathered here today to join these two in holy matrimony. One family becomes another, love endures and prevails. We have said goodbye to one great member of our community, who died heroically fighting to protect his family. Now we say hello to the family which rises from the ashes of the other. But the name of Armstrong still lives, the next generation to be joined by new siblings, new life, new hope. That is the gift of the Christ, after all. And in His name, we witness this vow.”
Caleb looked down into her lovely face, the image of pure beauty. “Do you, Caleb Kahr, take this woman, Abigail Sanderson, to be your lawfully wedded wife; to have and to hold for richer or for poorer, in sickness and in health, for as long as you both shall live?”
Caleb smiled, eyes locked on Abigail’s. “I do.”
Daniel stood there in a smart tuxedo, holding a velvet pillow with two rings, one bigger than the other. He picked up the smaller one and slipped it over her delicate, pale finger.
Pastor Newton went on, “Do you, Abigail Sanderson, take this man, Caleb Kahr, to be your lawfully wedded husband; to have and to hold for richer or for poorer, in sickness and in health, for as long as you both shall live?”
A little tear crawled down that precious face. “I do.”
“Then by the power vested in me by the Great State of Massachusetts, and by the power of the Lord Almighty, I now pronounce you man and wife. You may kiss the bride.”
Caleb pushed Abigail’s white wedding veil aside and leaned down for a supple little kiss, a wondrous sensation that thrilled him down to the tip of his toes. He pulled back, her eyes on his, and he could feel her excitement matching his.
/> Caleb reached out and took Daniel’s hand. With Abigail on one side and Daniel on the other, the three walked down the aisle together, a new family. Their family and friends nodded and smiled and clapped for the next generation of Armstrong House, a new reign of peace over Fall River and all of Massachusetts.
The End
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