Chapter 34
“The Gray Man deserved the punishment She gave him, but what criminal has ever understood their punishment and accepted it? He will not forgive us for it, of this I am sure.”
The rain hadn’t stopped, but the fight had left them both as the night dragged on.
Alexys’s fears began to creep back in—about Elliot, monsters, her nightmares.
Everything. Beyond the mouth of the cave, the woods were so dark it felt like staring into an abyss.
Something could have stood a few feet away from them, just biding its time, and they’d be none the wiser. Alexys hugged her knees to her chest.
“Tell me about it,” she whispered. It startled Nic, who had been busy stoking the fire with a stick.
“Pardon?”
“The Hollow Walker,” Alexys said. Nic looked at her, eyes wide and mouth open in exaggerated shock.
“Are you telling me you want one of my mind-numbingly long lectures?” She appreciated his attempt to lighten the mood.
“Yes, but keep it short, Professor. I don’t need every historical reference dating back through the last three centuries, thank you.”
“Your loss.” Nic settled forward with his arms braced on his knees. Alexys was momentarily struck by the way the firelight caught his gray eyes and seemed to dance in the curls of his hair. “I’ll spare you the details this time, since there are scarcely any to begin with.”
She frowned and pointed an accusatory finger at him. “Is this like that godforsaken Gopher cryptid you sent Jennifer after last year?”
“Look, I genuinely thought there was a possibility of that one being real.”
“That was the world’s dumbest wild goose chase. You wasted at least three weeks of her time.”
Nic shrugged. “Not all research is fruitful. Sometimes you chase a dead end, there’s no harm in it.” The sentiment hit a little too close to home for Alexys. She chose to ignore it.
“One of these days, someone’s going to strangle you, and I won’t blame them for doing it.”
He raised a single eyebrow at her, and the corner of his mouth twitched. “You seem rather keen to get your hands on my neck.” He leaned forward. “Something you want to say?”
“You have a very … strangle-able neck.”
“Strangle-able, huh?” His eyes flashed with something that almost looked like heat. “Do you spend a lot of time thinking about getting your hands on me?” She felt her pulse quicken.
Nope.
She certainly wouldn’t be answering that question. Instead, she snapped her fingers at him. “The Hollow Walker. Yeah? Focus.”
“Patience is a virtue, Keane,” Nic tsked. “You should’ve read the file I wrote for this evaluation if you’re so curious.”
“It’s not my fault you take forever to get to the point. Your files are just as long-winded as your lectures.”
“You have very little respect for the sacred art of sharing valuable information. You should work on that.” Noting the stubborn set of her jaw, Nic relented, “Very well, I’ll humor you.
” He took a deep breath. “The Hollow Walker has very few confirmed sightings. Most are explained away or chalked up to other creature encounters.”
“Like the Silver Giants.”
“Don’t interrupt.”
Alexys threw a small rock at him which missed by mere inches.
“Most creatures we encounter are part of a larger population, making up entire species that have populated regions of the country and inserted themselves into the ecosystems we are accustomed to seeing every day. The Hollow Walker is a singularity, an individual creature that, as far as we can tell, is the only one of its kind.”
On any other day, Alexys wouldn’t have the patience for Nic’s abundance of information on creatures.
Everyone at Entity knew he was prone to tangents, and his tendency to delve into the history of things was a bit excessive.
Maybe it was the ambiance of the campfire or the exhaustion from a long day of walking, but his voice developed a pleasant tone that was almost hypnotic, and everything else seemed to fall away.
“The origins of the Hollow Walker vary depending on who you ask, but everyone agrees that it resides exclusively in the Appalachian Mountain range. Some believe it to be a protector, others an apex predator.” He looked off into the distant trees beyond the cave.
The firelight cut the sharp angles of his features into something otherworldly.
“I believe it’s as old as the mountains themselves. ”
“It’s been around that long?”
Nic’s eyes slid to hers, and Alexys was surprised to find genuine disapproval lingering in their depths. “How can you know so little about the area you govern?”
She scoffed, immediately offended, the spell of his story broken. “It’s not like I’m the Queen of Appalachia or anything. The Appalachian Mountain range is huge. Plus, I’m in charge of making sure my Wardens have the resources they need to do their jobs. I’m not supposed to actually come here.”
“But you should know what your team is dealing with,” he argued.
His tone was sharp, scolding. As if he were personally offended by her ignorance.
“There’s more in these mountains than Black Dogs and Haints, Keane.
Creatures and beings far older than our records and histories even begin to hint at. ”
A tense silence fell between them as Alexys weighed his words.
She wasn’t sure how much belief she put into the idea of old gods wandering the mountains around them, but she’d seen enough during her few short days in West Virginia to be wary.
Whatever they were, Alexys hoped they stayed far away from their search for Elliot.
“That whistling we heard. That was the Hollow Walker, wasn’t it?”
Nic considered her question before slowly nodding.
“Whistling, screaming, mimicking voices. There are plenty of creatures with tricks up their sleeves.” A shiver snaked its ways down Alexys’s spine.
“They use it to lure people to them. According to locals, the whistling from the Hollow Walker is more of a warning. Lets people know to stay inside and hide.”
She mustered up a weak smile. “Strange intimidation tactic. I’m not really going to run scared when I hear some monster whistling a tune in the woods.”
“Which is precisely why I’m here.”
Alexys was jealous of Nic’s easy confidence.
He was completely sure of himself, his every action, and his every word.
While she was worried her emails possessed too much punctuation, Nic could give a lecture on the history of Bigfoot in front of the entire company without breaking a sweat, and Alexys burned with envy every time she saw his confidence.
But the envy was overshadowed this time. Nic had gotten this look in his eye, a flare of passion, and the look intrigued her. Like a spark that turned his eyes from gray to silver, lit with excitement and boundless information.
“Alright then, Great God of Knowledge. How do we kill it?”
Nic blanched, and Alexys wanted to laugh at the way his eyes grew impossibly wide behind his glasses as he stared at her. “You can’t just kill it! It’s a singular, ancient being of unknown origins.”
“What are you, the Indiana Jones of creature lovers? We’ll kill it, stuff it, and stick it in the Archives if that makes you feel better.”
“Oh, go on then, J. T. Cross.” He waved a hand in her direction, his smile wide and mocking. “How do you propose we kill a monster whose mere description is a matter of speculation.”
“Dyre,” Alexys gasped, a hand pressed to her chest. “How dare you take the savior’s name in vain!
” Nic pressed his lips together into a thin line.
His brow creased in mock-disappointment, but she could see the smile pulling at his lips.
“If the great Reaper Joseph Theodore Cross were here, he would have found Elliot within the first hour of arriving!”
“In the pouring rain,” Nic added, a smile finally breaking free.
“Without directions.”
“Without a compass,” they said in unison.
Alexys was grinning at him as she declared, “And it’d be damn faster than any Reaper alive!
” They dissolved into laughter, and she had to admire the deep, contagious sound of Nic’s laugh.
She’d never seen him so relaxed before, or noticed the way his eyes lit up and crinkled when he smiled.
The sight made something warm stir in her chest.
When their laughter subsided, Nic said, “It’s such a shame he retired. Cross was such a legend.”
“My favorite stories growing up were the ones my dad told me about the great J. T. Cross.” Alexys’s smile grew fond and reminiscent. “I know half of them couldn’t be true, but they were amazing nonetheless.”
Nic’s mouth parted in surprise, and she realized he didn’t know who her dad was. “Your father knew him?”
It dawned on her then how little they really knew about each other.
Nic had no idea about her dad. The man she had idolized so much growing up, whose footsteps she was now desperately trying (and failing spectacularly) to follow in.
Nic didn’t even know her dad was the reason she worked at Entity, but she didn’t know why Nic worked for them either.
She’d never thought to ask. In fact, she realized she knew absolutely nothing about Nic—had never bothered to learn anything about him.
She couldn’t believe it, but it actually made her feel like an asshole.
“Keane?” Nic looked confused. His eyes searched her face like he was trying to piece together a complex puzzle.
Alexys made an effort to soften her expression into an easy smile. “Yeah, my dad was a Warden.”
He tensed, and an all-too-familiar look of pity consumed his face. “Was?”
“He died in the field.” It’d been so long since they’d lost him, but her heart still ached every time she said it out loud. “When I was eleven. A Wampus Cat got him.”
Nic shook his head. “I’m so sorry, truly, I had no idea.”
Alexys shrugged off the shadow of grief and tried to keep her tone light. “He always told me the best stories about Reapers. J. T. Cross was one of my favorites. Do you know the one about that time he wrestled a Bigfoot?”
Nic’s eyes crinkled as he grinned. He chuckled softly. “There’s absolutely no chance that one is real.”
“I wish it was though!” Alexys beamed at the mental image of J. T. Cross, a retired Reaper in his fifties, successfully mud-wrestling a Bigfoot into submission. “It’d be even better if there were pictures. Can you imagine? They would have been priceless for recruiting.”
“Like those old-time war posters?” Nic furrowed his brows as low as they could go, pointed at her, and in a stern voice said, “We want you to fight Bigfoot.”
Alexys immediately thought of the old Smokey Bear ads and chimed in, “Only you can mud-wrestle Bigfoot.”
When he laughed deeply, Nic threw his head back and clutched a hand to his chest. For a moment, Alexys was able to forget about Elliot, the Hollow Walker and her father.
Nic’s laugh was infectious, and the way it lit up his entire face warmed her bones.
They went back and forth, trading famous taglines until they could barely breathe from their laughter.
Nic finally got control of himself, and his smile took on an ironic tilt.
“It’s a shame we won’t have a Reaper swoop in to save the day.
” He exhaled a deep breath. “Unfortunately, without one, I’m afraid we’ll need a better plan than simply killing the Hollow Walker.
It’ll kill us before we even realize it’s there. ”
Alexys’s warmth died off completely. Her mouth opened and shut several times, embarrassment and anxiety mixing uncomfortably in her chest as their reality came crashing back down around her.
Here they were, sat in a cave, soaking wet, on what could prove to be a fatal goose chase.
And no matter how hard they worked to make light of the situation, the truth was that Alexys had made one mistake after another.
But so had Nic. And she’d nearly forgotten how angry she was with him too, in addition to being angry with herself.
“Do you always have to ruin a good mood so spectacularly?” Alexys demanded. “Just when I start to think you’re half decent.”
“That’s always a mistake. I’m rarely decent, but always correct,” Nic said wryly.
“Oh, so wise. I bow before your wisdom,” Alexys retorted.
“As you should.”
She crossed her arms over her chest and snapped, “Well then, enlighten me. How exactly are we supposed to get Elliot back?”
“Assuming the Hollow Walker even has him and has chosen to keep him alive?” Nic tilted his head. Ever the devil’s advocate. “Frankly, it’s more likely he’s been eaten, or whatever else it does with its victims—the limited accounts are somewhat contradictory.”
Nausea and fear drained the color from her face as a horrific montage of deadly fates and old case reports flashed through her mind’s eye. “Really helpful, Dyre. Fantastic moral support. Thank you.”
Nic at least had the decency to wince. “I’m sorry, Keane. I want to find your Warden just as much you do, but I’m simply trying to be realistic.”
“Maybe you should try a little less.”
The silence that settled between them was tense and all too familiar.
Neither of them was ever willing to concede to the other, so Alexys didn’t expect anything in the realm of an apology from him.
Instead, she wrestled with the feeling that she was drowning under the weight of her own expectations and fears.
She felt as if her brain was a broken record, parroting, You’re out of your depth, over and over again.
Elliot Harman is dead. That joined in too.
She sighed and rubbed a hand over her eyes.
She had to stay positive, even if Nic couldn’t—it was the only thing she actually had any control over.
Alexys turned her body toward the mouth of the cave.
Staring out into the nothingness was somehow better than staring at Nic’s stoic face.
So typical of him to ruin a nice moment.
Not that it could be helped, Nic’s personality was entirely to blame, she was sure of it.
His complete lack of empathy was more than enough to curdle her affections like milk left in the sun—there would be no saving it.
Nic, oblivious to the funeral Alexys was holding in her mind for their almost friendship, picked up their backpacks. She felt him studying her profile before saying, “I’m going to move our things further into the shelter so they stay out of the rain.”
She didn’t object, but she didn’t offer to help either.
The rain outside continued to fall, drumming a steady rhythm against the trees and the earth.
She could scarcely see through the water and the darkness cast by the heavy rainclouds overhead, but she knew they were running out of time.
They were losing daylight they couldn’t afford to lose, and Alexys already knew to be very afraid of what lurked after sundown.