Page 4 of Ghosts From Christmas Past

“Is it okay if I visit her today?” The words rushed out. This couldn’t wait. He had to see for himself that she was awake.

“Oh course.” The surprise in the doctor’s tone came through. “I’m sure she’d love to see you.”

“I’m on my way there now,” he said, then ended the call.

Dylan grabbed his jacket and headed for the door.

“Charlie just woke up,” he announced to his deputy and dispatcher. “I’m going to Whispering Pines.” Even though it would be a hard road ahead for Charlie, he couldn’t stop smiling.

“Charlie’s awake?” Jesse came over and patted his shoulder. “That’s great news.”

Jesse had been with him through eight years of pure torment. His friend had kept him putting one foot in front of another when he didn’t have the strength to do it for himself.

“It is.” He told them about the amnesia. “I’m not sure what to expect, but I have to see her. I’ll be reachable by phone if you need me,” he told Stella, the sheriff’s department dispatcher.

“That’s wonderful news, Dylan, but hold up a second,” Stella said before he left the building. She was old enough for him to be her son, and she treated him as such.

Frustrated, Dylan gradually faced her with raised brows. All he could think about was Charlie.

“What about the mayor? You two are supposed to have dinner tonight and discuss next year’s budget, remember? I made the reservation at Ellison’s myself a few days ago. You want me to call and cancel?”

He’d forgotten. The minute he heard Charlie was awake, everything else disappeared.

Dylan blew out a sigh. “No, I’ll handle it. I’ll call you later and let you know about Charlie,” he said to Jesse and then pivoted on his heel and left. Once in his cruiser, Dylan sat behind the wheel without starting the engine. His hands were shaking. He still couldn’t believe it. His Charlie was awake.

What might have been washed over him. They had so many plans before that day. He wanted to spend the rest of his life with her. Then the horrific scene from that Christmas eight years earlier played through his mind as it had so many times through the years.

If he closed his eyes, he could almost smell the blood thick in the air when he’d found her. The scene in her family’s home would be forever imprinted on his brain. Still today, it had been the most horrific thing he’d ever seen, and he’d been a cop for many years. Dylan had seen plenty of bad things, but nothing as bad as what took place in Charlie’s home.

At the time, Dylan was a seventeen-year-old teenager. He’d gone to her house because they planned to spend Christmas morning together. There was something important they needed to tell Charlie’s parents.

The first thing to hit him was the pungent smell of blood, although at the time, he hadn’t known what that smell represented. The front door had been unlocked and slightly ajar, which should have been the first clue something was horribly wrong. Her family lived in the country and off a well-traveled county road. But at the time, all he was thinking about was Charlie.

Dylan had gone inside. Her father was the first to die, according to the M.E. Barlow Swenson was lying near the staircase, his body covered with blood. Dylan had later learned he’d been stabbed more than seventy times. At the time, Dylan couldn’t take it in. He’d hurried to the man’s side before he realized there was no bringing him back.

Patricia was barely inside the living room, close to the sofa. Dylan still remembered the tan leather, discolored in places from blood splatter. The festive holiday decorations stood in stark contrast with the gruesome things that had happened there.

Near the Christmas tree, Charlie lay in a pool of blood, clinging to life.

Dylan called 9-1-1 and didn’t leave her side. At the time, he hadn’t realized the nightmare he’d stumbled onto would go on for almost eight long years. The events of that time had shaped his future. Because of what happened to Charlie and her parents, he’d gone into law enforcement. He wanted to find out the truth and bring the killer to justice.

And now she was awake, and she had no memory of that horrible period.

Theirs had been a love story filled with fireworks and tender moments from the beginning. They’d grown up together. Went through almost all twelve years of school right here in Bitter Creek, Wyoming. He and Charlie had been so much in love that nothing, not even the fact that they were barely seventeen, could stand in their way. They’d slipped off and gotten married. He hadn’t been able to afford to buy her a ring yet, but he would. They were going to tell her parents that morning. Then Christmas Day happened, and everything he’d wanted for their future was grabbed away.

The period following the attacks felt as if time had stopped. Charlie had been rushed to the hospital where she clung to life for days. He stayed at her side twenty-four seven. Days turned to weeks, then years, yet she remained in the coma. Dylan was terrified he’d lose Charlie for good to the other world she now lived in.

He’d prayed. Raged at God. Cried. Begged Him to bring her back. All his pleading seemingly came to nothing.

Physically, her body slowly recovered, yet Charlie hadn’t awakened. After three long months in the hospital, she was moved to Whispering Pines. And he’d spent every second possible with her there, thinking if she’d just wake up, everything would be okay.

But she didn’t, and it wasn’t. Far from it.

Soon, spring came, followed by graduation. That summer, when he wasn’t at Charlie’s bedside, he’d followed Sheriff Henry Lewis around and picked his brain for answers as to who had done this terrible thing.

It had been Sheriff Lewis who’d realized Dylan’s talents lay in law enforcement. He’d promised Dylan that once he finished his college education, he’d have a place with the Bitter Creek Sheriff’s Department. And he had.

Only, the years had slipped away without answers. Sheriff Lewis retired. Dylan was appointed sheriff and still, Charlie’s case remained unsolved.

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