Page 121 of Changeling
“Last house we stopped at, the Kranes? Mrs. Krane said she noticed her neighbor take off out of the house on foot like a bat outta hell less than an hour ago. Never seen her look so fierce, she said. I’m guessing that’s missing person number six now, right along the same row of houses.”
Nathan knew that Sasha could hear most of what Jim was saying but he didn’t think Iain had picked up on that last bit. It made him feel a cold chill like icy breath on the back of his neck. “Jim,” he said evenly, staring across the table at Iain. “You got a name from the mailbox of that new victim’s house?”
“Yeah,” Jim said, and Nathan knew his brother was calling from outside, probably looking right at it, “it says Wilde.”
“Forthelasttime,no,” Nathan ground out, “you aren’t going anywhere. You are gonna sit on your ass, stay calm, and wait until you hear from us. You are not coming out to that mine and that’s final.” Nathan sort of felt like he was chastising a small child instead of a grown man.
They had met up at Iain’s house with the near hysterical librarian in tow. Nathan hadn’t thought the otherwise laid back guy could get so riled up, but he had been pacing back and forth in his living room since they arrived, ranting about how they had to let him come with, how he had to find out what was going on, he had to find his mother.
Nathan could sympathize but there was no way that was going to happen.
“Iain, listen to us,” Alex said in a much more friendly and patient tone than Nathan had been using, “we’ll do everything we can to find out what’s going on, but you have to accept that there might not be a happy ending here. Either way, I can guarantee that you following after us will only make a bad outcome more likely.”
At first Nathan had expected her to give the ‘we promise we’ll bring your mother back safe’ speech, the one Jim usually gave whenever there was someone to save. It actually soothed Nathan a little that Alex thought more like he did, that you shouldn’t make promises you didn’t know for sure you could keep.
“If we can bring her back to you, we will, but you’re going to have to stay here,” she insisted.
“But it’s mymom,” Iain said, pacing madly across the shag carpeting while a misplaced smile touched his face like he was halfway crazed with the knowledge of what was going on. “It’sbeen just us practically my whole fucking life. God damn, shit fucking, sonuva—” SLAM. Iain’s curses broke off as he banged a fist angrily against the wall of the living room. “How can you tell me to stay calm? You don’t know what this islike.”
Nathan’s teeth clenched tight and he reached up to grab Sasha’s arm before the incubus could make any angry comments about the cumulative loss of mothers and fathers in the room. Sasha had been increasingly on edge since they arrived. Nathan could tell that Jim was also more fidgety than usual and he had to wonder if they could feel the dark resonance of the mine since it was only a few miles away.
“I just…don’t know what to do,” Iain finally sighed in defeat, sinking straight to the floor against the wall. He let out a humorless laugh and scrubbed a hand down his face.
“The doing’s what we’re here for,” Alex said. “All you have to do is sit tight. But if we’re gonna be of any help, we gotta go now. Might get dark before we’re through, but I doubt we’ll be any better off if we wait until tomorrow morning.”
“We have to go to the caves,” Sasha said, seeming significantly more agitated the longer they remained inside the house.
“We have to,” Jim echoed. His left leg bounced anxiously. “If we wait, it’ll just get worse, more people will be drawn there. Something’s going on in that mine and we have to stop it. I can…I can feel the dark energy like it’s…like it’s—”
“Taunting us,” Sasha finished.
It was clear to Nathan now that simply being in the house so close to where the dark activity was happening was affecting his companions more than he had first thought.
“Okay, I’m not feeling all that better about going with you two looking like you’re ready to scale the walls,” Nathan said, thankful that he could speak fairly freely what with how Iain was in his own little world of wallowing at the moment. “Besides, this place lures people, we’re thinking, right? Just because Aland I don’t feel too lured at the moment doesn’t mean that won’t change once we’re right in the mouth of this thing. Iain,” Nathan turned to the young man on the floor, whose eyes were distant and red around their edges.
Slowly, those eyes looked up at him. The tall brunette with a wide, smiling mouth and a tendency to swear too much was hollow looking and pale now.
“Iain,” Nathan said again, walking over to him and crouching down. “We never got to really ask you. What was at the site before it was a mine? If there’s anything you can tell us it might be more help than you’d think.”
At first Iain still looked distant, like he was up in his head and hadn’t really heard Nathan. Then he blinked, nodded, and said, “There’s this…hill above the cave system, above the entrance to the mine. Some of the settlers…before…built a church up there. Others tore it down when they found gold in the caves.”
“A church?” Alex repeated, drawing closer to the two on the floor. “Like satanic rituals and virgin sacrifices kind of—”
“No,” Iain shook his head, cutting her off. He sat up a little straighter against the wall, his head clearing now that he had a focus. “A Christian church. Those settlers were separate from some of the others. They were insistent about building their church on top of that hill. The other settlers had stories that it was a church filled with blasphemers calling themselves monster hunters. The ones in the church were outnumbered when gold was found in the mine. The church was destroyed and they were all run off. There aren’t many records of it, that’s why most of the books don’t mention anything. History gets written by the winners, ya know.” A small semblance of his usual, jovial smile cracked onto his face.
Nathan smiled back at Iain and gave the guy’s knee a firm, thankful pat. A church full of seals guarding over that cave was definitely more than a coincidence. The cave-in that guy Autrycaused was probably the only thing that had kept whatever was in there from getting out sooner.
Standing and walking back towards the others, Nathan took note of how Sasha and Jim were staring at him, eager to leave. Alex was right there with them.
“I know we need to get to that mine,” Nathan admitted, “but we can’t just rush in there without any kind of equipment. I know this wouldn’t exactly be spelunking but we have no idea what condition this thing is in. It was blown up once remember?”
“We have to go,” Jim said. “Something’s happening there that’s luring people to it, people who,so far,” he said for Iain’s sake, “haven’t been heard from ever again. If seals were guarding this place and were that terrified of what was inside, it has to be a Power Point, a weak spot into the Veil,something, and whatever is in there has to be dark. I can feel it.”
“I hate it,” Sasha broke in, shivering visibly. “Like I can pick up on all the malevolent feelings it’s giving off even from here. We have to stop it, Nathan. I know we don’t have the equipment, but…”
Suddenly, Iain stood up, his face like stone, strange without a smile but determined. “My father used to cave and climb. We still have all of his equipment in the basement, enough hardhats and lights for all of us. Grappling hooks and tools if you think we’ll need it, rope, gloves—”
“Wait,” Nathan stepped in with a held out hand. “There is no us to this equation, pal. Get that through your head. I already told you, you’re staying here.”
