Chapter 20
Jesse gazed down at Lucy, who was sleeping in his lap.
Sean sat on the ground next to Lucy with Theresa on his other side.
Avery sat close to Remy, doing his best to keep her from tearing up again.
Everyone was emotionally exhausted from fear and worry over what had happened to Lucy.
It was the calm after the storm, with nothing left to do but figure out what to do next.
“That fucking bastard,” Jesse said through clenched teeth.
Remy had never heard Jesse curse before, especially when there were ladies present.
Remy couldn’t imagine the pain and anger he was feeling.
He looked at Remy and said, “I hate him for makin’ you cry and goddamn him for what he did to Lucy.
” His body tensed even more as he looked over at Sean.
“I just don’t know how to protect the girls from him.
’Til now, I never thought he could physically harm them. ”
“I know,” Sean said, looking at Lucy as she slept. “I never could’ve imagined something like this could happen.”
“There’s got to be something we can do to stop him,” Jesse said, struggling to keep his voice low so he wouldn’t wake Lucy. “He’s so goddamn slippery, he can go wherever he wants!”
“Aye,” Avery said grimly. “Hard to keep him away from Remy and Lucy at the same time.”
Remy couldn’t help but think of all the times she had gone to see Ellis willingly. It seemed impossible that she needed protection from him, but there was no denying the horror she had seen today. The man was dangerous.
“I know!” Jesse exclaimed in a hoarse whisper, trying to yell without yelling. “We could do an exorcism! That’s the only way I know of to get rid of a ghost.”
Sean looked intrigued by the idea, but Avery wasn’t so sure. “I don’t think we could do it,” Avery said wearily. “Like ye said, he’s a slippery one. Not like he haunts one particular place. Soon as we got started, he’d run off.”
“True,” Sean said. “And I admit pretty much all I know about exorcisms is from the movies and stuff, but you need a priest to do that, right? And before they’ll even attempt it, they need lots of evidence of demonic possession.”
“That’s true,” Avery said. “And that’s the other thing. Ellis is a horrible person, but I don’t think he’s possessed by the devil.”
“I guess not,” Jesse grumbled. He looked down at Lucy. “Once she graduates in the spring, we can get the hell out of Gettysburg, but we’re pretty stuck until she finishes school.”
Remy’s heart ached at the idea of Lucy and Jesse moving away, but she knew it was for the best. It was too dangerous for her to be surrounded by battlefields and other sites where soldiers suffered and died. If she stayed around, it was only a matter of time until this happened to her again.
“I just gotta stay with her when she’s working late. He knows when she’s working, and God knows what he’ll do to her late at night when she’s closin’ up the restaurant,” Jesse said, his voice full of fear and anguish.
“I can take the weekend shift when I’m in town, Jesse,” Sean volunteered. “You let me know when she’s working, and I’m there.”
“Thanks, Sean,” Jesse said, sounding relieved. “That would be great.”
“It’s true that Ellis can go wherever he likes,” Avery said, determination in his voice.
“But so can I. I’ll keep an eye on Remy and Lucy as best I can.
Theresa, I know you’re out of harm’s way where you live because he can’t go that far, but I know you volunteer at the Gettysburg hospital.
You’ve never seen him ’round there, have you? ”
Theresa shook her head. “Not so far, no. And I never, ever walk to my car alone. I have a security guard walk me out every night.” Her voice trembled a little, and Sean wrapped his arm around her.
Remy knew that Theresa had been heading home from the hospital the night her ex-boyfriend attacked her.
She had been especially vigilant ever since.
“I guess all we can do is keep watch so that bastard doesn’t get anywhere near the girls,” Jesse said angrily. “I just wish there was something more we could do.”
Lucy stirred in Jesse’s arms. She opened her eyes and looked up at him.
“How are you feeling?” Jesse asked, stroking her hair.
“Better,” Lucy said with a smile.
“Your color looks better,” Sean said, looking pleased with her progress.
Lucy started to sit up, and Jesse gently helped her. She took a deep breath, then looked around at her friends.
“How long was I asleep?” she asked.
“About an hour or so,” Jesse told her.
Lucy blushed and said shyly, “You all didn’t have to wait around here for me.”
“We wanted to, Lucy,” Avery said with affection. “We wanted to make sure you were all right.”
“Thank you, guys,” Lucy said with a sweet smile. She stood up, and Jesse put his hand on her back to steady her. Sean and Theresa got up, too, to see if there was anything they could do to help. Lucy was a little wobbly, but was all right otherwise.
Remy and Theresa both looked at Lucy sorrowfully.
“Come here, you two,” Lucy said, opening her arms to both of them.
The three women went to her, and they shared a warm hug.
Remy was relieved that none of her friends blamed her for what had happened.
In that moment, it felt like a shared traumatic experience that they would all get through together.
When she finished hugging her best friends, Lucy said to Jesse, “We should walk Remy back to her car to make sure she gets there safely.”
“Avery and I will take care of Remy,” Sean said firmly. “You guys just go home and get some rest.”
“Thanks, Sean,” Lucy said, standing on her tiptoes to hug him. She looked so tiny in his arms.
Lucy walked over to Jesse, and he put his arm around her. “Do you want me to carry you?”
She laughed softly. “No, I’m fine, Jesse.” She kissed him gently, then he guided her toward the car.
* * *
The moment Lucy collapsed to the ground, Ellis realized he’d committed an unspeakably horrific act of malice toward an innocent woman.
Now he sat alone, invisible at Culp’s Hill, wishing with all his heart that he could undo the damage and pain he had caused.
At first, he really had wanted to meet with Theresa and Lucy, hoping they could help him face his demons.
But that was before he heard the three women laughing at him the other day.
Theresa and Lucy had seemed genuinely concerned about him, but then they had all dissolved into giggles at his expense.
He couldn’t hear what they were saying, but it didn’t matter.
Remy was laughing at him with her friends behind his back, just like he had feared.
After that, all of his fear and paranoia came flooding back as his thoughts spun out of control.
He could hardly vanish at all anymore, so he’d spent the last few nights wandering the dark streets of Gettysburg, consumed with the pain of his past and drowning in the shame of knowing his personal problems had become public knowledge.
Had Remy told everyone how his mother had touched him?
The humiliation of it was too much to bear.
His mother’s betrayal, Jane’s betrayal. Everything was mashed together in his brain in a mess of trauma and heartache, and he was lost in the eternal blackness of his bleak existence.
Ellis couldn’t get the image of Lucy having sex with Jesse out of his head. She looked so damn much like Jane. Images of Lucy on her back with Jesse fucking her on the bar melded with images of Jane fucking some other guy. Probably lots of other men.
He had thought that hurting Lucy would feel like getting revenge on Jane, but it hadn’t.
As Ellis watched Lucy suffer, he realized it would have been horrible even watching Jane suffer like that.
Even that whore didn’t deserve that kind of physical torture.
Besides, Lucy wasn’t Jane. Lucy loved Jesse with all her heart, and she was faithful to him.
He was sure of it. She was a sweet, gentle girl who was kind to everyone.
He realized what a coward he’d been to hurt her.
And Jesse. His suffering had been nearly as bad as hers.
Maybe worse. Ellis had been nearby, invisible, watching the whole nightmare unfold.
Avery was the only one who could have seen him, but he was too preoccupied with helping his friends to notice him.
As Ellis witnessed Jesse’s devastation, he realized how much Jesse truly loved Lucy.
The way he kept saying that he wished it were him suffering instead.
Ellis realized that Jesse truly meant that he would bear the pain for her if only he could.
Worst of all, he had finally broken Remy.
Nothing he had ever said or done directly to her had seemed to faze the brave, strong-willed girl.
No. The way to crush her heart was to hurt someone she cared about.
He pictured Remy’s beautiful face with those sweet blue eyes.
He knew he would never forget the sight of her sobbing, blaming herself for Lucy’s suffering.
The highlight of his existence was when Remy came to visit him.
He had such tender feelings for her. Feelings he had no idea how to express.
And now she was lost to him forever. He knew he deserved to lose her, to suffer the empty void her absence would bring.
Ellis only wished he had some way of making Lucy and Remy understand how sorry he was for hurting them.
And that he would give his immortal soul if he could only take it back.
How he despised himself. For torturing an innocent girl in front of the man who loved her more than life itself. For betraying Remy. For killing those men in the Railroad Cut, who may have had women back home who loved them as much as Lucy loved Jesse.