Chapter 13
Finn
––––––––
Something was wrong with the town the moment Finn stepped onto the street. Too quiet. Too muggy. A pressure crawled beneath his skin, warning him of something out of his reach.
He pushed open the door to the grocery store. The bell above it chimed. He swept his gaze across the front of the building and found Moe at the endcap on aisle two, stacking cans with slow, mechanical precision.
"Hey, Moe," Finn said.
Moe placed another can on the shelf, then glanced over his shoulder. "Morning."
Finn studied him. Moe always had questions. Out of the others, he was the only one who continually tried to get out of Everstill. But this morning, he looked...defeated.
"You remember the girl?" he asked.
Moe's hand froze mid-reach. "What girl?"
"Kallie."
A single slow blink. "Oh. Right. The kid who wandered in a few days ago."
Finn's pulse kicked. "A few days?"
"Yeah." Moe shrugged, turning back to the cans. "She didn't stay long."
Finn stared at him, heat rising in his chest. "That's all you remember?"
Moe frowned. "What else is there to remember?"
Finn stepped closer. "You don't find it strange that someone came through and was able to leave?"
They'd spent countless days talking about how to escape Everstill. And it was always Moe who brought it up first. The man was obsessed with finding a way out of the rift.
Now he just shook his head and reached for another can, moving like a man on autopilot. The conversation slid right off him, as if it meant nothing.
As if Kallie meant nothing. And that was the part that chilled Finn the most.
Moe shrugged. "Smith came through."
Smith came last month and never left. Nobody knew his story, but Finn was damn sure he wasn't leaving. Eventually, he'd fallen into the same routine as everyone else and hadn't caused any trouble with the others.
He stepped back outside, the bell over the door jingling behind him. At one time, Moe used to work around the town with him. They worked well together. But anymore, Finn couldn't stand being around any of them.
Brent and Rex were repairing the fence near the old courthouse. They hammered the same loose board every few days, even though it never stayed fixed.
Finn approached them. "Hey."
"What's up, man?" Brent put the hammer in his other hand. "Want to help?"
He shook his head. "Have either of you tried to leave this place?"
Rex didn't look up. "Road loops."
"I know that," Finn said. "But did you ever try? Really try?"
Rex wiped sweat from his brow. "Tried once. Years ago. There's no leaving."
"Do you remember how you got here?" Finn asked.
"I was living on the streets." Rex ran a hand through his hair. "Woke up on the main street of Everstill."
He turned to Brent. "What about you?"
"I faked my own death. Instead of dying, I'm here." Brent shrugged. "Does it matter?"
His frustration grew. No one took their arrival in Everstill seriously.
Finn didn't move. "Do you remember the girl who came through?"
Brent paused mid-hammer. "Girl?"
"Kallie," Finn said, voice sharper than he meant.
Rex exchanged a look with Brent. "Oh. Her. Yeah. She was here for a day or two."
Brent frowned. "She left yesterday, right?"
Finn's stomach twisted. "No, it was a long time ago."
The other two went back to fixing the fence. Finn crossed the street to where Nolan and Wade sat on the courthouse steps, passing playing cards back and forth.
"Nolan," Finn said. "Wade."
Both men looked up.
"You remember how you got here?" Finn asked.
Nolan scratched his jaw. "Walked in, I guess."
Finn frowned. "What were you doing before you came?"
Nolan closed his eyes, and when he reopened them, he whispered, "I was a priest."
"Jesus." Wade scoffed. "A priest?"
"Everstill is my punishment." Nolan straightened his flannel shirt.
"What about you?" asked Finn. "What were you doing before you came here?"
Wade shrugged. "I was a police officer, but what does that matter? We're here now."
Finn's voice dropped. "Do you remember the girl who came here?"
Wade blinked. "What girl?"
Finn's hands curled into fists. He turned and walked away. The men weren't lying. They weren't hiding anything. They simply didn't care.
Everstill had drained them dry. Emptied them out of all emotions. Left them hollow enough that nothing touched them anymore. Not even a young girl.
Whatever happened, he couldn't allow himself to become numb to what happened around here. He needed to stay aware, in case the veil opened again.
He walked back through town, away from the road that never led anywhere.
The wind brushed against him, cool and indifferent, almost mocking.
Lately, his need to see Kallie had grown more intense.
It was an ache he'd kept to himself, but he could no longer contain it.
The others were unable to help him with the new awareness growing inside him.
Kallie was twenty now. Not a child. Not even the sixteen-year-old who had clung to him in the wind, but a woman.
A beautiful woman.
The realization hit him like a blow. He was plagued with desire. An unwelcome and undeniable craving. Not lust. It was deeper, and he could do nothing about those feelings in a town of men.
It left him breathless and hurting. The frustration was something he hadn't felt since before Everstill swallowed him whole. Hell, even longer. Before he'd gone to prison.
He closed his eyes. It scared him to think of Kallie like that. He had no right. No future.
But the thought of her older and even more beautiful lit something in him he thought had died long ago.
He opened his eyes and stared down the empty road, the silence stretching out in front of him like a wound he couldn't close.
She was gone. But the constant ache she left behind stayed lodged in his chest, refusing to fade with the morning light.
Finn had never been certain of much in his life, but he knew this with a clarity that bordered on pain—Everstill hadn't seen the last of her. And neither had he.
No matter how long it took, no matter what the town stole from him next, he would wait for her.