Chapter 3
Brody
When Indigo and Onyx stood from their places lying on the porch, I didn’t think anything of it. The two dogs regularly patrolled the edge of our land, and it wasn’t unusual for something to catch their attention around dusk, when all nocturnal creatures started coming out.
However, when Pip also ran off after them a moment later, I knew something was wrong. Once the little Chihuahua found a comfortable spot on someone’s lap, even an earthquake wouldn’t move him.
Sharing a look with Magnus, I signaled for him to stay put and followed after the dogs. It didn’t take me long to find what had caught their attention.
“No. Stupid thing. Let go.”
I hadn’t known Ellis for long, but I still easily recognized his voice from a distance.
I’d left him to get cleaned up in the guestroom, but following the sound of his voice, I found him a fair distance from the house, almost at the edge of our property.
A few more steps and he would have disappeared into the tree line.
Onyx and Indigo each held onto one leg of his pants with their teeth, keeping him from going anywhere. His hands darted around, unwilling to hit either of the dogs, but unable to free the fabric from between their jaws.
Pip sat between Ellis and the darkness of the forest as a last line of defense, calmly watching the scene unfold. His little ears perked up when he spotted me, but otherwise he didn’t move a muscle.
“Going somewhere?” I asked as I approached.
Ellis jumped at the sound of my voice and he nearly tripped over the dogs that still held his legs in place. I grabbed his arm to keep him from falling and felt him flinch away from my hand.
“I was just…” he tried to say, but didn’t even manage to finish the sentence.
There was an emotion in his eyes that hadn’t been there before. Fear and uncertainty I expected.
Who wouldn’t feel such things in his situation?
Now, however, he reminded me of a prey animal. Like some hunted creature that was trying to flee for its life.
I tightened my grip around his arm. “What’s wrong?”
He didn’t try to remove my hand, but he kept staring at it as if I would suddenly strike out and hit him. Biting my tongue, I swallowed down my annoyance.
“Look, if you want to leave then I won’t stop you, but wandering off into the woods without any supplies is dangerous. You aren’t even heading in the direction of town. There’s nothing but wilderness that way. Just tell me what’s going on and I’ll take you somewhere safe if you really want to go.”
For a moment, it looked like he might argue.
I could practically see the words coming together in his mind.
Yet, before he could utter a sound, it seemed as if something inside him suddenly deflated.
Like a building whose last remaining support beam finally snapped under the weight, he practically collapsed to the ground in a slump.
This man was nearly my same height, but still managed to look distressingly small as he pulled his knees up to his chest in a defensive posture.
Taking a seat next to him, I occupied myself by petting Onyx and Indigo, and letting Pip crawl into my lap, while I waited for Ellis to find the right words.
It took longer than I expected. Dusk passed and night fully settled around us before he finally spoke up.
“I remembered something.”
“That’s good,” I started to say, but the look on his face brought me up short. “Right?”
Ellis shook his head, tangling his hands in his thick hair. “No. I don’t know. It’s not really clear, but I think… I think I remember burying someone.”
This time it was my turn to sit in silence for a few moments. That certainly wasn’t the revelation I was expecting, though I supposed in the grand scheme of things it could have been worse.
Burying someone was better than killing someone.
Although…
“They weren’t alive, were they?”
The shocked and disgusted look on Ellis’s face told me all I needed to know.
“What? No. I wouldn’t… at least, I don’t think I would. I remember the smell of blood mixing with soil, and the weight of a body in my arms, but I’m certain the body was dead. It wasn’t moving. It must have been dead.”
He was starting to ramble, getting lost in the details of his single memory.
I moved closer to him and wrapped an arm around his shoulders, urging him to calm down. I’d seen firsthand how memories could change when reviewed too many times. If he kept obsessing like this, he’d probably convince himself that the body he buried had been alive.
“It’s all right,” I said as gently as possible. “We’ll figure it out. If you did bury someone, I’m sure you had a good reason. There’s no point in jumping to conclusions until we know what happened.”
In an unusual offer of comfort, Pip crawled into Ellis’s lap. The little Chihuahua usually hated strangers, but he allowed Ellis to pet him and run fingers through his fur.
There was a reason dogs were often used as therapy animals, and I saw the proof right in front of me. Almost immediately, his breathing evened out and he calmed down.
“What, um…” His voice was so quiet I felt the vibration of his words more than I heard them. “What were you talking about earlier?”
“Earlier? You mean when I was out on the porch?”
He nodded, uncurling from his defensive posture a bit while also holding Pip closer to his chest. “I shouldn’t have eavesdropped, but I heard you and the others talking about a body you found. What, um, what was it?”
There was an almost audible click in my mind as the mystery of his sudden panic snapped into place. “Oh, no. Magnus and I did discover a body buried on our property recently, but I promise you, there’s no way you were the one who buried it.”
As succinctly as I could, I explained about the one hundred and twenty-five year old body we’d uncovered.
I mostly stuck to the relevant details, skipping over the unsavory parts like the objects in the coffin that people were following over the secret mausoleum, and the fact that there seemed to be some sort of cult connected to the whole thing.
He must have guessed that I was leaving some things out. As he listened to my explanation, he opened his mouth several times as if to ask a question, but he always stopped himself, shook his head, and stayed quiet.
It was for the best. Ellis had enough on his plate now. He didn’t need to be getting involved with our affairs.
The most important thing was that the body we’d found had died over a century ago, and presumably been buried not long after. There was no way that Ellis could have been involved.
“But what if I was?” Ellis whispered so he was nearly drowned out by the sound of the wind rustling through the trees.
“Not with the body you found, obviously, but somewhere out there is a body that I buried. What if I did something bad? What if I killed them? Maybe losing my memories was a good thing. I don’t want them back if it means remembering something horrible.
” This time, even Pip’s comfort wasn’t enough to keep him from getting worked up as he started shifting back and forth where he sat.
“That’s selfish of me. If I killed someone then I deserve to remember what I’ve done.
Maybe I should go back to the police. Turn myself in.
If I really did hurt someone then I should be locked up. ”
He moved as if to stand up, like he was going to run off to the cops right that moment.
I acted on instinct and grabbed him by the back of the neck, forcing him to sit back down. Once he was seated again, I still didn’t let go and continued to hold him by the neck, even going so far as shaking him a bit.
It was a ridiculous sight. This was a large man in his early forties, yet I was scruffing him as though he were a misbehaving kitten.
No matter how ridiculous, though, it worked. Almost as soon as I grabbed onto him, he immediately calmed down. He didn’t even try to fight me as he slumped on the ground, clearly exhausted.
“Stop,” I ordered him. “There’s no use getting worked up. We don’t know what happened, and your memory isn’t reliable. You’re just going to get yourself hurt running off into the dark, and that’s not going to help anything.”
When I was sure he wouldn’t try running off again, I let him go. For a moment, I considered apologizing for handling him so roughly, but he wasn’t complaining, and it had worked, so I kept my apology to myself.
Through it all, he’d still kept a gentle hold on Pip. The Chihuahua didn’t even look startled as he continued to sit in the other man’s lap, perfectly content.
Ellis gave the dog’s fur a few strokes before turning to look at me.
“If I get my memories back, and it turns out that I did hurt someone, will you make sure I turn myself in?”
I doubted the situation would be so simple, but that wasn’t what he wanted to hear right now. All he wanted was some reassurance, so I agreed.
“Yes. I’ll drag you to the police myself if I must. But not until we know exactly what happened. For now, you need to get some rest. Come on. I’ll take you back to the house.”
It turned out that Ellis was more exhausted than he initially seemed.
Even once we got him standing, he was unstable on his feet.
I had to escort him all the way to the guest room and practically tuck him into bed like a child.
He was asleep the moment his head touched the pillow, and to my surprise Pip chose to curl up on the bed next to him.
Looking down at the sleeping man, I sighed and ran a hand through my hair.
What had I gotten myself into?
Leaving the bedroom, I turned off the light and closed the door as quietly as possible.
Near the front door to the house, I looked out the front window where Magnus and Trent were still sitting.
This was exactly where Ellis had been standing earlier when he overheard us, but now I was the eavesdropper.