Paths of the Hunter, chapter 22
Title:Paths of the Hunter, chapter 22
Genre: Dark is Rising fanfiction
Rating: PG (suspense, mild violence, hints of romance)
Chapter 22
Amy blinked her eyes open groggily, moaning as her head throbbed. She didn’t recognize her strange surroundings. Where was she?
Memory returned in a painful flash, and suddenly all the debris and smoke and reddish glow around her made sense. “Candace?” she called, her throat hoarse from the smoke. She tried to move, but her right leg wouldn’t respond. She looked down at it, finding that it was trapped under a steel beam from the roof of the warehouse. It hadn’t hurt, but seeing it caused the nerves in her leg to realize that they were supposed to be doing a job. Pain swept over her in a nauseating wave, and she fought back bile.
She was alive, and that was more than she had expected when she sensed the blast coming. She remembered the flare of light from the Sign, and wondered if that was the only reason that she had survived. “Candace!” she called, trying to remember what exactly had happened.
She looked up at what was left of the warehouse roof, seeing only black smoke and the red glow of flames. She could feel the heat pressing in on her, and she wondered with panic where the nearest flames were. She was quite pyrophobic at times, and this would be one of those times.
“Amy?” she heard a female voice call from about twenty feet away. “Are you there?”
“I’m here,” she called back, relief sweeping over her and driving back the pain in her leg. She hadn’t gotten Candace killed after all.
“I’m stuck,” the other girl said.
“So am I,” Amy replied. “I guess we’ll have to wait for the fire department.” Or Will, if he was okay. Why hadn’t he come for her before the blast? Where was he? Had he left after he finished the task of defeating the Chinaman? Why hadn’t he killed Cheng?
What was left of the corrugated steel roof, twisted and sharp from the blast, creaked ominously. Amy groaned. They needed to get out of here before the roof caved in on them and they were buried beneath the metal debris. Even if they managed somehow to survive the roof falling on them, they would be baked alive by the intense heat. She had no desire to become a human pot roast.
“Amy?” a different voice called from some distant part of the destroyed building. Her heart leaped. She recognized that voice.
“Will!” she shouted back. “The roof is about to fall!”
He appeared, seeming to materialize from the smoke and the heat haze. He rushed to her side, kneeling by her and taking her hand. He frowned as he saw her leg under the beam. “Don’t worry, I’ll get you out of here. Where’s Candace?”
“She’s over there. Get her out first. She saved my life.”
Will raised an eyebrow at her, and then nodded, glancing up at the roof as it creaked again. “I will be back for you,” he promised, squeezing her hand and then standing. He ran over to where Candace was, and Amy could hear shifting debris and Candace’s whimpers as he freed her. He rushed past her, carrying Candace in his arms like a little girl.
She bit her lip as another wave of pain hit her, tasting blood. “Hurry, Will,” she whispered as the roof creaked once again. She could see the dim shadow of the ceiling start to tilt toward her, and she closed her eyes. This was not something that she wanted to watch.
After what seemed like an eternity, Will reappeared. He looked so tired, but determined. With a few words in that strange language, he pushed against the steel beam on her leg. It didn’t move, and he slumped to the ground next to her, exhausted. “It’s just a little too heavy,” he apologized, staring up at the roof. “I’m sorry, Amy. I can’t do it. I’m trying, but there is nothing left in me.”
She reached for his hand, clinging to it for dear life. “I don’t want to die alone, not like this.”
He brushed her bangs out of her face, trying to smile reassuringly at her. She thought that he looked like he was about to cry. “You won’t die. I won’t let you.” He got to his knees again, bracing himself against the beam. “I’m going to try again. Help me. Lend me your strength.”
Amy reached one hand up to her necklace, and closed her eyes. The Sign glowed warm in her hand as she concentrated all her will to live, imagining all the strength she had to give flowing to Will in a beam of light.
She cried out as bone fragments shifted under the moving steel, but the beam was suddenly off her leg and Will was scooping her up in his strong arms, running for the door as the roof gave one final groan and half of it crashed to the floor. Sparks flew around them as Will ran for the door, and flames blocked their path, fanned by the air flowing in through the gaping hole above them. “Hold on,” he told her, wrapping his dark cloak around her protectively. She wrapped her arms around his neck and closed her eyes as they passed through the final wall of fire. She felt like the flames were reaching out to grab her, but the Sign flared once more and drove the heat back.
Then they were out in the cold night air, and Amy gasped as it filled her heat-seared lungs. She suddenly couldn’t breathe. Will carried her over to the fire engine that had arrived, where Candace already sat with the paramedics. She was vaguely aware of an EMT placing an oxygen mask on her face, and less aware of what happened after that. She was so tired, and now that she was out of danger, all she wanted to do was sleep. She closed her eyes as Will held her, breathing his own oxygen calmly, and fell into sweet black oblivion.
:::::When she woke, Will was sitting next to her hospital bed, snoring softly in his chair. She smiled, glad to be alive. “Will?” She spoke quietly. He probably needed sleep more than she did at this point, and she didn’t want to wake him if he wasn’t ready.
He jerked awake, startled by her voice. “Amy. You’re awake. Thank goodness.” He grinned at her, and she felt her heart melting. “That was a close call back there.”
She nodded her agreement, swallowing painfully. She imagined that her throat would probably be sore for a long while. “Candace?” she asked as she maneuvered herself into a sitting position.
“She’s fine. One arm and the other wrist are broken, and she has a concussion from hitting her head on the ground. Your parents are here, and you now have a steel rod in your leg where they had to reconstruct it. You’ll be on crutches for a long time. But you are both in pretty good shape, considering what that blast did to the building.” He raised an eyebrow at her. “What happened back there? Did she switch sides at the last minute or something?”
“Wait a minute. My parents came? How long have I been out?”
“You’ve been out a good twenty-four hours, except for a brief period after surgery. But you probably don’t remember that. Your parents rushed here as soon as the hospital called them. Right now they’re getting something to eat. They asked me to sit with you.”
Amy blushed. “So they know about you and me, then?”
“They know that I’m a very good friend, nothing more, although I’m sure they can guess some of it.”
“Good.” She would feel weird trying to explain the exact nature of her relationship with Will to her parents. “And yes, Candace did switch sides at the last minute,” she changed the subject.
“What exactly happened?”
Amy looked away, staring out the window. The day was bright and sunny, a stark contrast to the last time she had been awake. “Cheng was about to chop my head off and she got in the way. And as her reward, he tied her up with me and left us both there to die.”
It was Will’s turn to look away now. “I’m glad she was there. It’s my fault that Cheng is still alive in the first place.”
“What happened?” she asked. She had been wondering about that. “Why didn’t you kill him while you had the chance?”
“Because he told me that he had already ordered you killed, and that the only way I was going to find you is if I let him go.”
She shook her head. “Oh, Will.” This was exactly what everyone had been afraid of. This was exactly why Merriman and the Lady had been after her to leave his heart alone. “You are in trouble now.”
“I know,” he sighed. “By now he’s left Rock Springs, so this place is safe. Your job is done.” He smiled at her, a sad and lonely look in his eyes. “I, on the other hand, get to track him down again.”
“You’re leaving, then.” It was not a question, and she already knew the answer.
He nodded. “I have to. I need to set things right. He may have failed here, but he’s not going to be content with a little town like this. He only started here because this is where he joined the Dark so long ago. He’s going to go back to large-scale politics and that is a truly dangerous game.”
Amy nodded. “We’re all in trouble.”
“Maybe not. Maybe by letting him go this time, I’m going to be able to discover the true extent of his plans and his influence. I have to look for something good about my failure here.” He reached out and took her hand. “I will stop him before he has a chance to cause any real damage.”
She laughed bitterly, looking down at her leg. “I don’t know, Will, the damage here seems real enough.”
“I’m sorry,” he apologized, and she heard pain in his voice. He was truly upset that he had gotten her hurt. Her, and Candace, and anyone who had been foolish enough to side with the Chinaman and then get in the Old One’s way. “I don’t know what I can do to make things right.”
“Find him,” she replied. “You already know that.”
He opened his mouth to reply, but the door opened and her parents entered. “Oh, good, you’re awake!” her mother exclaimed, rushing to her bedside.
Amy gave her a huge hug. “I’m glad you came,” she told her parents. Her father joined her mother at her bedside. “It’s such a long drive.”
“We were worried about our little girl,” her father told her. She could read all of the unspoken questions on his face- who was this Will fellow, what had she been doing in that warehouse in the first place, and what was really going on here? She wanted to answer him, but she knew that he would never understand the truth. It hurt, but she would have to come up with a feasible story. Was this a foreshadowing of other lies to come?
“I’ll let you be alone with your family,” Will excused himself. “You know where to find me when they discharge you.” So he was going to hang around at least long enough for her to get out of the hospital. That was reassuring.
“I’ll see you later,” she told him as he left the room, and then went back to trying to answer her parents’ many questions.
Genre: Dark is Rising fanfiction
Rating: PG (suspense, mild violence, hints of romance)
Chapter 22
Amy blinked her eyes open groggily, moaning as her head throbbed. She didn’t recognize her strange surroundings. Where was she?
Memory returned in a painful flash, and suddenly all the debris and smoke and reddish glow around her made sense. “Candace?” she called, her throat hoarse from the smoke. She tried to move, but her right leg wouldn’t respond. She looked down at it, finding that it was trapped under a steel beam from the roof of the warehouse. It hadn’t hurt, but seeing it caused the nerves in her leg to realize that they were supposed to be doing a job. Pain swept over her in a nauseating wave, and she fought back bile.
She was alive, and that was more than she had expected when she sensed the blast coming. She remembered the flare of light from the Sign, and wondered if that was the only reason that she had survived. “Candace!” she called, trying to remember what exactly had happened.
She looked up at what was left of the warehouse roof, seeing only black smoke and the red glow of flames. She could feel the heat pressing in on her, and she wondered with panic where the nearest flames were. She was quite pyrophobic at times, and this would be one of those times.
“Amy?” she heard a female voice call from about twenty feet away. “Are you there?”
“I’m here,” she called back, relief sweeping over her and driving back the pain in her leg. She hadn’t gotten Candace killed after all.
“I’m stuck,” the other girl said.
“So am I,” Amy replied. “I guess we’ll have to wait for the fire department.” Or Will, if he was okay. Why hadn’t he come for her before the blast? Where was he? Had he left after he finished the task of defeating the Chinaman? Why hadn’t he killed Cheng?
What was left of the corrugated steel roof, twisted and sharp from the blast, creaked ominously. Amy groaned. They needed to get out of here before the roof caved in on them and they were buried beneath the metal debris. Even if they managed somehow to survive the roof falling on them, they would be baked alive by the intense heat. She had no desire to become a human pot roast.
“Amy?” a different voice called from some distant part of the destroyed building. Her heart leaped. She recognized that voice.
“Will!” she shouted back. “The roof is about to fall!”
He appeared, seeming to materialize from the smoke and the heat haze. He rushed to her side, kneeling by her and taking her hand. He frowned as he saw her leg under the beam. “Don’t worry, I’ll get you out of here. Where’s Candace?”
“She’s over there. Get her out first. She saved my life.”
Will raised an eyebrow at her, and then nodded, glancing up at the roof as it creaked again. “I will be back for you,” he promised, squeezing her hand and then standing. He ran over to where Candace was, and Amy could hear shifting debris and Candace’s whimpers as he freed her. He rushed past her, carrying Candace in his arms like a little girl.
She bit her lip as another wave of pain hit her, tasting blood. “Hurry, Will,” she whispered as the roof creaked once again. She could see the dim shadow of the ceiling start to tilt toward her, and she closed her eyes. This was not something that she wanted to watch.
After what seemed like an eternity, Will reappeared. He looked so tired, but determined. With a few words in that strange language, he pushed against the steel beam on her leg. It didn’t move, and he slumped to the ground next to her, exhausted. “It’s just a little too heavy,” he apologized, staring up at the roof. “I’m sorry, Amy. I can’t do it. I’m trying, but there is nothing left in me.”
She reached for his hand, clinging to it for dear life. “I don’t want to die alone, not like this.”
He brushed her bangs out of her face, trying to smile reassuringly at her. She thought that he looked like he was about to cry. “You won’t die. I won’t let you.” He got to his knees again, bracing himself against the beam. “I’m going to try again. Help me. Lend me your strength.”
Amy reached one hand up to her necklace, and closed her eyes. The Sign glowed warm in her hand as she concentrated all her will to live, imagining all the strength she had to give flowing to Will in a beam of light.
She cried out as bone fragments shifted under the moving steel, but the beam was suddenly off her leg and Will was scooping her up in his strong arms, running for the door as the roof gave one final groan and half of it crashed to the floor. Sparks flew around them as Will ran for the door, and flames blocked their path, fanned by the air flowing in through the gaping hole above them. “Hold on,” he told her, wrapping his dark cloak around her protectively. She wrapped her arms around his neck and closed her eyes as they passed through the final wall of fire. She felt like the flames were reaching out to grab her, but the Sign flared once more and drove the heat back.
Then they were out in the cold night air, and Amy gasped as it filled her heat-seared lungs. She suddenly couldn’t breathe. Will carried her over to the fire engine that had arrived, where Candace already sat with the paramedics. She was vaguely aware of an EMT placing an oxygen mask on her face, and less aware of what happened after that. She was so tired, and now that she was out of danger, all she wanted to do was sleep. She closed her eyes as Will held her, breathing his own oxygen calmly, and fell into sweet black oblivion.
:::::When she woke, Will was sitting next to her hospital bed, snoring softly in his chair. She smiled, glad to be alive. “Will?” She spoke quietly. He probably needed sleep more than she did at this point, and she didn’t want to wake him if he wasn’t ready.
He jerked awake, startled by her voice. “Amy. You’re awake. Thank goodness.” He grinned at her, and she felt her heart melting. “That was a close call back there.”
She nodded her agreement, swallowing painfully. She imagined that her throat would probably be sore for a long while. “Candace?” she asked as she maneuvered herself into a sitting position.
“She’s fine. One arm and the other wrist are broken, and she has a concussion from hitting her head on the ground. Your parents are here, and you now have a steel rod in your leg where they had to reconstruct it. You’ll be on crutches for a long time. But you are both in pretty good shape, considering what that blast did to the building.” He raised an eyebrow at her. “What happened back there? Did she switch sides at the last minute or something?”
“Wait a minute. My parents came? How long have I been out?”
“You’ve been out a good twenty-four hours, except for a brief period after surgery. But you probably don’t remember that. Your parents rushed here as soon as the hospital called them. Right now they’re getting something to eat. They asked me to sit with you.”
Amy blushed. “So they know about you and me, then?”
“They know that I’m a very good friend, nothing more, although I’m sure they can guess some of it.”
“Good.” She would feel weird trying to explain the exact nature of her relationship with Will to her parents. “And yes, Candace did switch sides at the last minute,” she changed the subject.
“What exactly happened?”
Amy looked away, staring out the window. The day was bright and sunny, a stark contrast to the last time she had been awake. “Cheng was about to chop my head off and she got in the way. And as her reward, he tied her up with me and left us both there to die.”
It was Will’s turn to look away now. “I’m glad she was there. It’s my fault that Cheng is still alive in the first place.”
“What happened?” she asked. She had been wondering about that. “Why didn’t you kill him while you had the chance?”
“Because he told me that he had already ordered you killed, and that the only way I was going to find you is if I let him go.”
She shook her head. “Oh, Will.” This was exactly what everyone had been afraid of. This was exactly why Merriman and the Lady had been after her to leave his heart alone. “You are in trouble now.”
“I know,” he sighed. “By now he’s left Rock Springs, so this place is safe. Your job is done.” He smiled at her, a sad and lonely look in his eyes. “I, on the other hand, get to track him down again.”
“You’re leaving, then.” It was not a question, and she already knew the answer.
He nodded. “I have to. I need to set things right. He may have failed here, but he’s not going to be content with a little town like this. He only started here because this is where he joined the Dark so long ago. He’s going to go back to large-scale politics and that is a truly dangerous game.”
Amy nodded. “We’re all in trouble.”
“Maybe not. Maybe by letting him go this time, I’m going to be able to discover the true extent of his plans and his influence. I have to look for something good about my failure here.” He reached out and took her hand. “I will stop him before he has a chance to cause any real damage.”
She laughed bitterly, looking down at her leg. “I don’t know, Will, the damage here seems real enough.”
“I’m sorry,” he apologized, and she heard pain in his voice. He was truly upset that he had gotten her hurt. Her, and Candace, and anyone who had been foolish enough to side with the Chinaman and then get in the Old One’s way. “I don’t know what I can do to make things right.”
“Find him,” she replied. “You already know that.”
He opened his mouth to reply, but the door opened and her parents entered. “Oh, good, you’re awake!” her mother exclaimed, rushing to her bedside.
Amy gave her a huge hug. “I’m glad you came,” she told her parents. Her father joined her mother at her bedside. “It’s such a long drive.”
“We were worried about our little girl,” her father told her. She could read all of the unspoken questions on his face- who was this Will fellow, what had she been doing in that warehouse in the first place, and what was really going on here? She wanted to answer him, but she knew that he would never understand the truth. It hurt, but she would have to come up with a feasible story. Was this a foreshadowing of other lies to come?
“I’ll let you be alone with your family,” Will excused himself. “You know where to find me when they discharge you.” So he was going to hang around at least long enough for her to get out of the hospital. That was reassuring.
“I’ll see you later,” she told him as he left the room, and then went back to trying to answer her parents’ many questions.