Jamie

by I D Johnson

  It seemed like he’d fallen forever, but with no light and no way of seeing where he was, there was little he could do to get out. He didn’t even know if his teammates would be able to shine a light down this far to find him without a rope, something they’d neglected to bring, though there might be one at the speakeasy.

  He assumed Janette wouldn’t go wandering around looking for him until Jordan got back with the light, but a few minutes later, he heard his name from a distance. “I’m down here!”

  There was a pause, and then he heard her say, “Did you fall to the right or the left?”

  Since he had no way of knowing for sure which direction she was facing, he shouted back, “If you’re looking at the cave opening, I’m on your left! I can’t see anything at all, though. Don’t you fall, too!”

  “No, I won’t,” she assured him. “I’ll wait for Jordan. You’re sure you’re okay?”

  Other than the building panic in his chest, he was physically fine. “I’m all right.”

  What seemed like hours later, Jamie heard more footsteps, and high above his head, he saw a small light in the distance, which he assumed to be the flashlight. “Jamie, we’re going to get some rope and send down a lantern, okay?” Jordan shouted.

  “Okay!” he replied. “I’ll just wait here!”

  He was afraid to move without being able to see anything, not knowing where another ledge might be, so he stayed very still, trying not to let the sound of the water lull him to sleep. He was certain there was a river of some sort not too far beneath him, which meant it was either on the other side of the ground or the place he was sitting was not the end of his journey should he be too quick to scurry around.

  “Jamie!”

  This was a voice he wasn’t expecting to hear. “Maryann?” he called back. “What are you doing in here?”

  “Well, the hunt’s over. We got them all. I think. I just… Christian and I came to see what was going on, and Hannah said you fell. Are you okay?”

  “I’ll be all right,” he replied, glad to hear her voice.

  “Man, it sounds like you’re three miles under the ground,” Christian said. Jamie tried not to roll his eyes for fear he’d accidentally roll himself further into the cave. A few moments later, he heard the sound of a rock clinking off the side of the cave before it landed right on his stomach. It wasn’t a big one, but it had fallen a long way.

  “What the hell are you doing, Christian?” he asked.

  “I wanted to see how deep it is. Did that hit you?”

  “Uh, yeah. I’m in the hole!”

  The sound of Maryann’s laughter actually made him feel slightly better, and Christian muttered an apology.

  Jordan’s voice cut off any thoughts Jamie had of calling Christian a few choice words. “All right. I’ve got a lantern and a couple of pretty long ropes. I’ll lower the lantern down to you.”

  Jamie was glad the speakeasy owners had been more diligent in their planning than his team had been. He saw the lantern slowly coming down the side of the cave, which was probably about five feet in front of him, it appeared, if all things stayed the same as it came down. It had to be a good fifty to seventy-five feet above his head, which means he’d fallen six to eight stories. The lantern stopped about twenty feet above him. “How much further?” Jordan called.

  “Far,” Jamie replied.

  There was some discussion up there that he couldn’t hear. He imagined they were discussing the fact that the rope wasn’t long enough. Jamie still couldn’t see what was beneath him, but he’d sat up now so that when the lantern reached him, he wouldn’t look like an idiot lying on the ground.

  “We’re going to have to tie the lengths of rope together,” Jordan explained. “They’re not long enough.”

  “Okay.” Jamie really didn’t care what they did, so long as he didn’t have to stay in this godforsaken hole any longer.

  A few minutes later, the rope, and consequently the lantern, began to move toward him again. This time, Jordan was able to drop it down far enough that he could see where he was. “Hold!” Jamie shouted when the lantern was even with his position.

  He was sitting on a thin perch, only about three feet across. On either side of him was another sheer drop off, and while Jamie couldn’t see how much further it was to the river, he had an idea he was only about halfway through what could’ve been an even worse fate if he hadn’t happened to bounce off a couple of very tall stalactites that sent him careening onto this island.

  The rock wall, and thus the rope, was a good fifteen feet across the chasm from him now as the space opened up the deeper it went. Jamie’s only chance of getting to it would be to jump out and over the drop off and grab it so they could pull him up. He would also be leaping at a fully lit lantern, which could potentially be painful as well, not to mention, he could end up igniting the rope.

  “We could tie a counterweight to the rope now that we know where you are, and swing it over,” Hannah suggested, as if reading his mind.

  “But you’d have to take away the lantern to do that,” Jamie pointed out. There was no way they could swing the lantern over to him and let him put it down where he was sitting to help illuminate the area.

  “Yes, but we could calculate how to swing it to you in the light, and we’d get it to you. It might take a few tries.”

  “We could go get more rope,” Christian offered.

  The possibilities all seemed unpleasant. Jamie didn’t want to stay in the hole any longer and was in a huge rush to get out. “I think I can make it,” he said, carefully standing up, making sure he didn’t lose his balance.

  “From there?” Janette asked. “I can hardly see you.”

  “You don’t even have enough space to launch yourself,” Christian reminded him.

  Jamie looked at the ground and then back up at the rope. “I think I can make it,” he said again.

  “Absolutely not!” Janette said in her mother voice. “James Joplin, if you so much as think about making that leap….”

  “You can do it,” Jordan said, and even though he couldn’t see them, Jamie imagined that Janette was giving him a stern talking to or at least a look that could kill.

  “Be careful, Jamie!” Maryann shouted down.

  That as all he needed to make up his mind. He took off his jacket and tossed it aside, swung his arms around for a second to loosen up, and surveyed the situation. “Can you lower it a bit more?” he called. He thought it would make more sense to jump above the lantern, not directly into it, and also if he missed and there was still rope beneath him, perhaps he would be able to grab it before he fell into the water.

  He knew he wouldn’t die, but thoughts of being swept away in that water, pounded against the rocks, potentially trapped beneath the surface for who knew how long as the rushing water attempted to get out of the cave through a hole much smaller than his body, were not pleasant. For a moment he wavered.

  Thoughts of continuing to stand in the hole, perhaps for hours as they contemplated how to get him out, of the light going out and leaving him standing in pitch black brought his conviction back around.

  “All right. Margie could do this,” he whispered to himself. Clearing his throat, he placed one foot behind the other and then, without thinking any further, he hurled himself across the vast gap in the ground and stretched his fingers out for the rope.

  They made contact; he had it! Then, there was a bit of a snapping sound as the fibers began to unravel, and suddenly, he was hanging a frayed bit of the rope as the lantern swung, casting eerie shadows along the cave walls. With nothing beneath his feet again, Jamie grasped for more rope, clutching higher and higher as worn fibers broke. The team was pulling him up toward the surface as well, and Jamie prayed he’d reach the lip of the floor before the rope disintegrated.

  When he got to within a foot or so of the ground, Christian grabbed hold of his arm, and he and Maryann dragged Jamie up over the top of the narrow walkway so that his stomach was on what at le
ast seemed to be solid ground. “Oh, thank God!” he said, his eyes closed.

  “Just be careful,” Janette warned. “There’s another drop off on the other side.” Then she mumbled, “I cannot believe you did that.”

  Jamie smiled to himself, realizing it had been a big risk. He could be down in the mire right now, fighting the current. Instead, he was happy to be making the acquaintance of the cave floor.

  “Come on,” Hannah prodded, bending down and tapping him on the shoulder. “Let’s go home.”

  “All right,” Jamie agreed. He opened his eyes, and as the flashlight Jordan still carried swung around, he saw something glinting just a foot or so away from his hand. Carefully, Jamie got to his knees and reached out his hand. It was his knife, ashes from the Vampire still scattered around it. “I thought I’d lost this for sure,” he muttered, cautiously coming to his feet.

  “Nothing lost is ever gone,” Jordan reminded them, and Jamie knew he meant more than just a weapon.

  They took their time making their way back toward the narrow opening, and Jordan let him know that they’d actually ran into six Vampires. He and Hannah had gotten three while two broke in a different direction that came out near the speakeasy opening, an exit Jordan hadn’t been aware of. He and Hannah had pursued those Vampires, but by the time they caught up, Christian had taken care of one and Maryann the other. There was no reason to tell Jamie what had happened to the final Vampire as he was pretty sure he was still inhaling little pieces of its face.

  Jamie had seen a lot of terrifying things in his half-century killing Vampires, but something told him that ghastly face and his fall into the black abyss would stay with him no matter how long he lived.

  Chapter 26

  Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, USA, 1941

  War was coming, there was no doubt of it, and even though Jamie had been at war for over half a century now, this would be a different kind of war, and he wanted to do his part this time.

  When World War I had swept across Europe, Jamie had been tempted to join, but at Jordan’s insistence, he had kept to his previous assignment. Vampires had a tendency to become even more active during times of war because humans were so distracted tearing each other apart, they didn’t seem to notice the other enemies. Now, on the brink of another war sure to encompass most of the world, Jamie enlisted as a medic with the Navy well before the US even entered the fray, hopeful that he would be able to use his talents in any way that might help his country’s cause, and since Jordan wanted him in Hawaii anyway, being assigned to the Navy Hospital in Pearl Harbor worked out as a compromise for the pair.

  There had been an increase in Vampire activity in the area starting well before Jamie moved into an apartment near the hospital in the summer of 1941, and along with some locals, he was doing his best to track down as many of the bloodsuckers as possible. After two weeks of gathering intel, all he’d discovered was that it was easy for Vampires to lose themselves in the forested areas of the islands, and there were lots of rundown former sugar cane workers’ homes for them to hide in, as well as other obscure dwellings and even caves, which Jamie was keen on avoiding. By day, he worked his shifts in the hospital, and most nights, he was out late looking for Vampires or gathering information.

  There were so many legends of mythical creatures in the area, sometimes it was difficult to know what was true and what was storytelling. He’d teamed up with a local Hunter by the name of Kai who had been hunting Vampires on Oahu for longer than Jamie had been alive. His hair was gray at the temples and he had to weigh almost twice Jamie’s 130 pounds, but his girth didn’t seem to slow him down any, and Jamie enjoyed working with him.

  Thanks to an invention Christian and Aaron, along with some other LIGHTS team members had come up with they were able to make telephone calls to each other even when they were out in the field using special devices they could carry in their pockets. Jamie still wasn’t used to the new technology, but when he remembered to use it, he was impressed with how well it worked. He had a feeling it would change the way the organization worked.

  While doing his rounds at the hospital, Jamie was always careful to wear gloves. Being back in the same setting as he had begun was cathartic in a way, but it was also a reminder of how he had failed to follow his original dream of being a renown surgeon. While he was proud of all that he’d accomplished over the years, he had always wondered what might’ve been different if he had only avoided Transforming altogether. Now, he was able to live part of that dream, at least for a little while, and he didn’t want his special abilities to change the experience for him, so he rarely used his Healer powers unless a patient was going to die without them. So far, in three months of being stationed at Pearl Harbor, he’d only taken off his gloves on one occasion and that was to save a newborn baby that was having trouble getting air inside of his lungs.

  It was much more common for doctors to wear gloves now than it had been when he’d first realized he had to wear them to keep from Healing people, and most doctors wore them as a habit. They were also much thinner now than they had been before, which allowed him to have better control over his utensils and tools. Even without his special skills, Jamie was still in the top one percent of practicing medical doctors in the world, and he was aware of that, even if no one else seemed to notice or care. He saw it in his own ability to ascertain what was wrong with his patients and treat them appropriately in a timely fashion.

  People did start to notice, however, and after a few months he was promoted, which allowed him to pick his own shifts. Since Vampires tended to come out more in the twilight hours, he chose to work during the day at the hospital and leave his evening hours for other activities.

  Jamie finished closing his patient, a sailor who had needed an emergency appendectomy, and looked out the window at the pristine blue sky. It seemed like the perfect day to head out to the beach to catch some waves, and he was considering doing just that as he left the rest of the staff to finish with the patient and headed out the door of the operating room toward the front desk area to see if anyone was waiting to hear news about the surgery. Since it had been an emergency, all Jamie knew was that he was a petty officer by the name of Tommy Whitfield and that he’d been stationed here for just a few weeks longer than Jamie had been. He’d gathered most of that information from the nurse who’d called him into surgery, but how she’d found out, he wasn’t sure. Hopefully, the nurse at the front counter would have some idea how Whitfield had arrived at the hospital.

  Jamie approached the intake desk and didn’t have to wait long for Nurse Parsons to look up. When she did, a smile broke across her face and her ruddy cheeks seemed even more red somehow. She pushed up her glasses with her index finger and gushed, “Hello there, Dr. Joplin. How can I help you?”

  “Nurse Parsons—”

  “I’ve told you to call me Hildy,” she insisted, still smiling and batting her eyes at him.

  “I know,” Jamie replied, taking a deep breath and forcing a smile. “I just don’t feel comfortable doing so… while we’re at work.”

  “All right then. What can I help you with?” she asked again, still smiling though she seemed a little disappointed that he wasn’t responding to her advances.

  “I just finished with that emergency appendectomy, and I was hoping you could tell me who brought him in.”

  Hildy’s expression changed. “Oh, yes. That woman over there brought him in. She’s been pestering me for information for hours now.” She jabbed with her thick finger in the direction of a woman standing with her back to them in front of the window, her arms folded and her legs crossed at the ankle. Jamie knew that worried look even from behind and from across the emergency waiting room.

  While he realized Hildy had to be exaggerating since the surgery hadn’t even taken hours, he knew he needed to keep the buxom middle-aged woman on his side or else things could go very poorly for him. “Thank you, Nur—uh—kindly,” he stammered and then approached the woman at the window.


  She was wearing a light blue dress and was slim with long blonde hair which she wore down her back, except for the pinned up waves on the top of her head. As he approached he could see her reflection in the glass, though she didn’t seem to notice him, and couldn’t help but observe how breathtakingly beautiful she was. Her eyes were a shade of blue similar to her dress, her skin looked smooth, like porcelain, and her nose was perfectly shaped with just a slight upturn at the end which he thought made her look even more unusual in her loveliness. He was a bit envious of Whitfield if this was his wife or girlfriend, but he tried to push those thoughts aside as he approached her. Professionalism was very important to him.

  “Pardon me, miss?” Jamie said stopping beside her. She turned, wide-eyed, and he could see the worry in her eyes as she waited for him to continue. “Are you the one who brought in Petty Officer Whitfield?”

  “How is he?” she asked, a clear indicator that he had the right person. “Is he going to be okay?”

  Jamie smiled in assurance. “He’s going to be just fine. It was an appendicitis, which is a fairly routine surgery. I was able to get it out without any problems, and he’s recovering now.”

  “Oh, thank God!” she exclaimed, reaching out and grabbing Jamie’s arm. “I was so worried. It seemed like he was just fine yesterday, and then today, he calls, and he’s so sick. And Mom and Dad were out of town. I didn’t know what to do….”

  “Mom and Dad?” Jamie asked, not understanding.

  She nodded. “I thought I should drive him to the hospital, but I wasn’t sure, and then, when he started throwing up, well, I was just terrified so, I decided I should bring him here.”

  “You did the right thing,” Jamie assured her placing his hand on her shoulder. She seemed comforted by the gesture as she looked suspiciously at her own hand and then an embarrassed smile formed on her ruby red lips as she withdrew her hand from his arm. “We’ll keep him under close observation for a while, but he should be just fine in a day or two.”