by Josh Roberts
100 . . .
Through bleary vision, she saw the cliffs quickly approaching on her left. “No, no, no! I need this, Jack!” she shouted.
The truck pulled alongside her. She glimpsed Logan leaning out of the passenger-side window, trying to wave her down.
The wheel shuddered rapidly. She was losing control of herself and of the vehicle. However, her desire to find her sister overruled any rationale and she forced the accelerator down until it hit its limit.
“I need—”
Her front right tire blew, causing the wheel to jerk toward the forest. She fought to turn the car in the opposite direction, overcorrecting and smashing into the side of Jack’s truck.
She was frantic and traveling too fast to gain control of the vehicle. She screamed as the collision threw her back in the direction of the woods, and the car dipped into a ditch alongside the road. Pitching forward, its nose hit the ground, shattering all of the windows as it began to roll. The roof slammed into Lissy’s head when the top of the vehicle was crunched by the hard earth, and her ear smacked into something hard on her left, sending searing pain through her skull.
Finally, the car landed on what was left of its wheels and came to a smoking halt. The roof was so low that Lissy was forced to remain bent over the passenger seat. She reached up to her throbbing head and brought a bloody hand back down. What have I done?
She could hear Logan and Jack trying to enter the car as the edges of the world grew fuzzy. Darkness took over within seconds, then everything disappeared.
24
August 29, 2019
Coming to, Lissy heard the chirping of various machines, each indicating in a different tone that she had survived that crash. Opening her eyes, she took in the room. The walls were pale white with no windows. Several containers hung from them, disposal bins for hazardous items. The bed she lay in had rails on either side, and various tethers ran from her body to the pinging machines. There was a TV on the wall near the door showing an old Broncos game. It was an average hospital room, but to Lissy it felt like the prison keeping her from her fate.
It comforted her that the room didn’t appear to be in the emergency ward. Reassuringly, she didn’t see or feel anything that indicated surgery of any kind. She felt her head, noting a thin bandage wrapped around it. Thin was good, she assumed. The only people she could see were a few nurses milling about in the hallway.
She attempted to call out to the closest of them, a kind-looking, mid-thirties woman with dark hair who carried a clipboard.
“Ex-excus . . .” Her mouth was so dry that she struggled to get the word out. Looking around, she spotted a plastic cup and pitcher on the bedside table. She leaned to grab them but was stopped when bright flashes of light shot through her head, accompanied by the same searing pain she’d felt during the accident.
She yelped and brought her hands up to the pain. The kind-looking nurse heard her and walked over. “Miss Oullette. Good to see you awake.” Her name tag read Margot. “Are you okay?”
Giving her head a moment to bounce back, the pain finally subsided and she attempted to answer. “I-I . . .” Her voice dried up again.
“Oh, you’re probably incredibly thirsty.” Nurse Margot walked over, filled the plastic cup, and handed it to her. It tasted far better than she ever thought water could. After downing the cup, she handed it back to the nurse. “How long have I been here?” she asked, an obvious panic in her tone.
“Sheriff brought you in yesterday morning. You had some head trauma from your accident, which caused your brain to swell. That swelling, along with the compression it caused on your brain, made you stay asleep.” She paused to smile. “That is, until now. The swelling has started to decrease, although it will take a couple of days to fully dissipate. Are you in pain?”
Terror seized Lissy. Had anyone else been killed while she was laying in a hospital bed sleeping? She ignored the nurse’s question and asked, “How long do I have to stay here?”
The question caught the nurse off guard. “Well, I guess that all depends on how well the doctor responds to your charts and how you’re feeling. But . . .” She paused, carefully considering her next few words. “I don’t think you’ll be up for anymore street racing anytime soon.” Her attention shifted to a readout from one of the machines attached to Lissy’s chest, prompting her to write something down. “How are you feeling? Your heart rate’s a little higher than I’d like.” She said it procedurally while still taking notes.
Lissy stifled the intense urge to run from the room, knowing she wouldn’t make it far in her weakened state. “Everything feels pretty good,” she lied. Her head felt like an elephant was balancing on it.
“You’re sure about that?” the nurse asked, with a strong hint of skepticism.
“Yep.”
“Good then. There’s a couple of people here who can’t wait to see you. I told them they’d have to stay out until you felt up to it. It sounds like you’re ready.” She smiled mischievously. “I’ll send them in.”
As Nurse Margot left the room, all Lissy could think about was how she needed to get to the lake. The thought of more people dying because she’d taken too long to get there was unbearable, not to mention the nagging sense that she was being summoned hadn’t waned in the least since the day before.
Neil entered with Rose right on his heels. They walked to the bedside, and Neil gently rested his hand on Lissy’s without speaking, allowing Rose to take the lead.
She looked Lissy over and then, in her most maternal tone, said, “Elisabeth Oullette, what were you thinking?”
“I—”
“You weren’t thinking.” She shook her head. “Well, I’m glad you’re okay, but no more of these shenanigans. You could’ve been killed.” Then, leaning in to accentuate her point, she added, “Your momma’s worried sick about you.”
That took Lissy by surprise. She’d considered her mom so far removed from her life that she assumed the potential of it ending wouldn’t mean much. It was selfishness, she supposed, to think that no matter how broken she’d let their relationship become, putting her neck on the line would mean nothing to the woman who had brought her into the world in the first place.
Clearly recognizing Lissy’s revelation, Rose added, “You’re not alone, baby. Even if you don’t realize how much you’re loved, it doesn’t mean you’re not.”
Shaking her head, Rose looked to Neil. “Talk some sense into my baby.”
With that, she patted Lissy’s leg gently and walked from the room. Releasing Lissy’s hand, Neil turned and closed the door behind her. Then, returning to Lissy’s side, he leveled his gaze at her. She’d never seen the amount of pain in his eyes that they showed now—not even when David was torn away from him.
“I had another vision, Neil,” she said, attempting to find the words to make him understand.
“Must’ve been pretty compelling,” he said flatly. She noted he didn’t ask what she saw. No doubt an attempt to disconnect her from the whole thing.
“It was. I had to try—”
“Try to what? What can you do, Lissy?” He was right on the edge of lashing out. She’d never seen him quite so emotional.
She didn’t want to argue with him, not again. So she stayed silent.
“Regardless, Jack’s got the lake under watch now. So it’s over.” His jaw clenched; he was still holding back.
“Watch for what?”
He sighed. “Sent a group up there after you crashed. He said he couldn’t have anyone else getting themselves killed.” His eyes burrowed into her as if trying to drill the point into her head that she had almost done exactly that.
“Those men are going to die, Neil.”
His face sank. He’d already drawn the same conclusion. “Maybe.”
“You said it yourself. If there’s something we can do, we should.” He stood in silence, as if the words had yet to reach him.
He was holding back tears now. “It’s not your burden, Lis.”
“I—”
“Wait,” he said sharply, pacing a short distance and then walking back. “I’ve lost my mother, my father, and my brother. I’m not gonna lose you too. I don’t care who it saves.”
“You don’t mean that.”
“I do.” Intensity lit his eyes. “Three days ago, you said there was no reason this had to be my quest. Then they found David’s letter, and it shook me. I swore to myself that I was done with all this—with the lake, the monster, all of it. Not because I don’t care about David; his death is still ripping my guts out. But because I care about you. And I can still save you. David wanted me to save you. And now you’re going rogue? Don’t you think your mom has lost enough daughters?”
The question knocked the air out of her lungs.
She said nothing so Neil went on. “Why? Make me understand it. Because right now I feel like the life I’ve always wanted is hanging by a thread and you’re holding a knife to it.”
Anger sparked in her. “You encouraged this. I wanted to stop!” For a moment she had lost all sense of her surroundings. They both paused, waiting to see if her shouts would warrant a checkup from the nurses. No one came.
Neil responded with hushed intensity. “I didn’t know then what I know now. It wasn’t . . . I don’t know. It didn’t feel real then. But David’s letter—”
“I can’t just stop,” she interrupted. “I know why Mia died.”
Neil’s countenance shifted. He couldn’t help but try to understand it, especially if it meant understanding David’s death. “Because of the dream?”
“Yes. It was more like . . . a visitation.”
He pulled a chair from the wall and put it beside the bed. Then, with some hesitation, he said, “Tell me.”
Lissy proceeded to describe, in detail, her entire meeting with the dragon. She told him about the bind it put her in, its need for a sacrificial lamb, and how it took the form of her sister. She also told him about her conversations with Yunjin about the Imugi and the Mireu. When she finished, he sat silently for a long while, parsing everything in his mind.
Finally, he said, “You would face it alone? Give yourself to this thing?”
“I don’t see any other way.”
“We still don’t even know what’s at play here. Maybe there’s something else. We should talk to my aunt again.”
“If I talk to her and I don’t come back, then she’ll feel responsible. I won’t put that on her. I’ve already involved her too much.”
Neil sighed. “Then what?”
“You have to let me go.”
Lissy’s words shattered Neil. His face contorted as he tried to fight the tears. “I won’t.”
“Don’t make this harder than it already is.” She fought back her own wave of emotion. If she cried again, it would only make it worse for him.
“Lissy . . .” he trailed off. There was nothing left to say. The conversation was over. He couldn’t change her mind, and she would never convince him to let her go.
The silence in the room was deafening. For a long while, Neil only stared at the TV, although she knew he wasn’t watching it. He was searching for anything he could possibly say to end her crusade but was repeatedly coming to the conclusion that he was unable to do so. In just the same way, Lissy remained motionless in the bed, trying to think of anything that would convince Neil to let her go, to help her go.
The door swung open, and Jack Porter stepped through.
“Neil, I’m gonna need a minute with Miss Oullette.”
“I’d rather stay,” Neil replied, still attempting to be chivalrous after all she’d put him through.
“I’m not askin’, son. Get up.”
Neil looked at Lissy, concerned. She nodded; she’d be okay.
“I’ll be right outside,” he told her.
After Neil exited, Porter closed the door, pulled off his Stetson, and laid it on a small table in the corner. He wore jeans and a flannel shirt, indicating that he was off duty, something she rarely saw.
“Hey there, Elisabeth. How’s your head?”
She wasn’t in the mood for banter, and she wasn’t about to tell him what her head actually felt like. “Are you going to take my license?”
Porter raised an eyebrow. “I could.” He rubbed the stubble on his chin. “Prob’ly should.”
“Meaning you’re not?”
“You tell me why you were in such a hurry to get to the lake, and I’ll tell you what I plan to do.” He looked her in the eye. It wasn’t a threatening look. More like the look of a concerned parent waiting to see if his daughter was about to do the right thing or not.
Telling the sheriff the truth would just get her thrown into some kind of mental ward. But what could she say that he would accept? “I had a dream that someone at the lake needed my help.”
“And you didn’t think I’d believe ya, so you were trying to . . . what? Beat me there and rescue ’em? Who was it?”
Recognizing that she was treading down a slippery slope, she decided to alter her approach. “I’m feeling pretty tired, Sheriff. I don’t think I’m up for any more questions right now.”
He sighed and lifted his hat. “I wish you wouldn’t do that, shut me out. I’m on your side, Elisabeth.”
She felt a pang of guilt, knowing she had started to view the sheriff as the bad guy in all this, when in reality, he was just doing his job, no matter how poorly. “I know,” she replied, with nothing else to say.
The back of her head flared, sending a fresh wave of pain through her entire body. She tried to repress it and hoped the sheriff hadn’t seen her flinch.
“Well,” he said, “you’ll be happy to know that no one’s been hurt at the lake since you crashed. I’ve got a couple men there right now, and they ain’t seen a thing. So, seems like your dream was just that.”
She stiffened at his confirming what Neil had already told her. The sheriff’s eyes narrowed, clearly noting the change in posture.
She spoke almost involuntarily. “Why?”
“They’re guardin’ the lake for the time bein’. That’s all.”
“Guarding from what?” she pressed in an attempt to understand just what he suspected she would do at the lake. A sense of dread was overtaking her. She knew if those men weren’t already dead, they would be soon. She could feel it.
“From people bent on gettin’ themselves killed. That’s what. I may not know what’s killin’ people yet. But they are bein’ killed. I won’t have that on my hands, no matter how much you seem to want it.” He turned to leave.
“They’re going to die, Sheriff! It’s only gonna get worse!” The words spilled out before she could think to stop them.
He turned slowly, his thick jaw clenched. “Whaddya mean they’re gonna die?”
She froze.
“I said, what do ya mean, Elisabeth? You need to start talkin’. Now.”
“I just meant, whatever killed Melissa and David . . . it’s probably still there.”
“Is it now?” He moved toward her. “What are you not telling me? Why were you willin’ to die to get to that lake?” She realized now what was happening. She was tied, in some way, to everyone who had died at the lake. So, while she may not be a suspect in conventional terms, she was suspect by association. Porter didn’t want her getting killed, but he also didn’t want her out there to get someone else killed.
Just as she began to retort, the throbbing in her skull reached a boiling point, and this time it was white hot. The room started to dim. “I-I can’t,” she said through gritted teeth. He clearly recognized her pain now.
“Elisabeth?” He turned and shouted down the hall, “Someone get in here, now!”
The sheriff was fading into the distance, as if he were standing in a similar room a thousand feet away where everything was grey and dull. Her chin dropped to her chest and she blacked out.
25
August 15, 2008
After the group finished their dinner, David and Mia decide
d they still had time to make the hike up to her favorite spot on the bluff before the sun set. She said she really wanted to show David the view before they left, and since it was their last night, they should just do it. He was nervous after her outburst earlier that afternoon, but she’d seemed fine since, so he begrudgingly agreed.
When they finally reached the precipice, David couldn’t believe how beautiful it was. Peering over the edge, he could see the lake extending from the foot of the cliff for miles before disappearing out of sight. The sun had just dropped below the mountains in the distance, casting a purple hue across the darkening sky. It was breathtaking, the perfect scene in which to present the girl he loved with his mother’s engagement ring.
“I told you it was best at night,” Mia said. She wasn’t wrong. The stars and moon were already beginning to pop up, reflecting in the lake’s surface. David could just make out the twinkling lights of Mitchum across the lake.
After gazing for a long while, he turned to Mia to comment but found himself standing alone. “Mia?”
“I’m here.” He spun to find her sitting on a large broken boulder behind him. It was the biggest rock he’d ever seen.
“You startled me.”
She smiled, and it was intoxicating. “Sorry.”
He joined her on the rock. “This is our spot. Lissy and I come here all the time,” she said. “We can’t seem to stop loving it.” She rested her head on his shoulder, snuggling in.
“It’s a nice rock,” he said, grinning.
She shouldered him playfully. “It’s not the rock. I just feel . . . at home here. I can’t explain it. It’s like when I come here, everything else stops mattering. Everything fades into the background and the splendor of this place takes over. I don’t have to worry anymore when I’m here.”