Chapter 66 #2
Bennie turned and ran. Harper reached under the bench and with a silent apology, pulled the black-and-white cat out by the scruff of her neck, the terrified creature fighting her all the way.
“Stop it! The huldufólk saved you—show some gratitude!” Harper whispered as she tucked the cat into her jacket and followed the disappearing forms of Einar and Bennie.
They would reach the manor road in time; already there was a Trekker headed to pull them on board.
Harper could see it imprinted on the darkness, events that had already unfolded, waiting to play out.
She ran forward, the trembling creature in her jacket clinging to her chest. Her phone buzzed madly in her pocket.
She pulled it out and glanced at the screen as she reached the end of the village and started for the open stretch of land that led to the manor road. An alert from GeoRata:
Earthquake imminent epicenter following coordinates
Seek shelter
Earthquake imminent estimated 7.3 epicenter following coordinates.
Harper immediately hit the ground, the cat objecting but too stunned to fight.
The angry rumbles turned into a violent convulsion, knocking Harper to her side. Spider-like cracks formed in the earth beneath her fingertips. From the distance in front of her, she heard a scream.
The earth settled, but Harper knew the aftershocks would be coming.
“Stay put, one more minute, stay put!” she whispered to herself like a mantra.
The earth rumbled once again, the quake like waves under the mud and rock.
Harper took a deep breath. This was it, she had to run; the tentacle tightened and pulled her to her feet.
The lights in the village were dark, the electricity cut.
The darkness made it so she could see the winding lights of the Trekkers up and down the manor road in the distance.
It looked like there were already several carts on the way down for another load.
Harper breathed a tentative sigh of relief.
She started forward, but with horror she realized the ground below her was shifting.
It felt like mud, a river of mud, but she could make out in the darkness that the soil was still.
Her whole body went numb and a chill spread from the top of her head to her toes.
She held the cat to her chest with one arm and forced herself to run faster, though her legs felt as though they were jelly and her lungs were on fire.
Liquification. The ground was becoming unstable; a low growling, a gurgling sound began building around her.
Harper knew the water from the shoreline was being pulled out into the blackness, it was forming the wave from her dreams, and it would break over Bell in minutes.
She pushed herself forward. The night was overwhelming.
The ground buckled in front of her and Harper nearly fell, but she caught her balance as a crack formed across her path.
She jumped over it and kept running, her whole body feeling as though it would crack along with the earth.
She could still see the Trekkers on the manor road; the last of them looked to be nearly to the top.
That meant the majority of the villagers were on the cliff already, safe from what was to come, and the rest must be on the winding road.
Harper was alone here. As she reached the manor road, she looked back at the ocean of darkness behind her.
The tentacle coiled itself around her neck, pushing her forward.
Harper pressed the cat to her chest with one arm and started up the hill.
With horror, she felt a vibration in her bones and chest as she pushed forward.
Her very core shook as though an internal quake were rocking her organs.
In the distance she heard the building roar of what sounded like a thousand jet planes approaching, the sound traveling through the storm, growing louder and more imminent with each passing second.
The panic in Harper’s gut grew to an intolerable pace.
She choked down a scream and stumbled forward in the dark, the ground below her a river of mud that unearthed Anna’s carefully paved road.
The roar of the engines grew and grew and then it stopped abruptly.
Harper nearly stopped in her tracks, but her legs kept the forward momentum on their own as she rounded a curve and reached a new level of the road.
It was waiting, the wave was hanging there in the black of night, it was the moment before the world ended, before the unstoppable terror dropped.
It was the flash of fire that would consume her parents, the last touch as they lay in each other’s arms, the last second of normal.
It was the moment a millisecond before the fire kissed the fuel; it was too late to stop it, the wheels already in motion, fate already decided, the terrible curse of knowing what had been lost before it was gone.
The otherworldly silence was replaced with the hissing of water and the crack of all that it carried with it.
Harper hit the ground as the wave hit with a deafening roar; her ears rung and her breath was trapped in her chest. The water was ice.
It raced up the manor road as Harper struggled to her feet and started to run.
It swept up and round her. She was immersed to her knees, then her waist, and then she lost the ground completely, the cat in her jacket screaming in a language known only to the Fae.
Harper closed her eyes, her arms still wrapped around the creature but her core giving in to the water.
She choked on the water that pushed her back and forth, she felt herself sinking, the creature in her jacket screaming in protest. I’m sorry I couldn’t save you, Harper whispered silently to the cat, to her mother, to her father, to everyone she had lost.
Suddenly she felt spiny fingers pulling her to the surface.
Harper gasped as her head breached the water, and she coughed out the salt water that rolled angrily around her.
The sharp, spiky fingers pulled and tugged, tearing into her skin, her flesh bloodied from the hysterical cat as much as this new assault.
With wonder she realized what it was. The huldufólk pulled her along; they moved through the water like fish, pulled Harper up and forward until she found herself beached on crumbling dry land as the water began to recede below her, slinking back into the night.
Harper gasped and choked, spewing out the salt water, shivering uncontrollably.
The cat inside her sodden jacket vibrated with fear, but Harper could feel her heartbeat.
“You good, kitty?” she whispered, as she pulled herself to her feet. “Me neither.”
“Harper!” Murphy’s voice rang out from the darkness before her.
“Here! I’m here!” Harper shouted back in a voice riddled with salt and wind.
“Coming to you!” Murphy’s voice pierced the blackness. Harper nodded to no one and kept walking forward, the road cracked and broken.
“Jesus Toast. I thought we’d lost you.” Murphy’s voice was a model of controlled panic as she reached Harper on the road.
“Did we get everyone?” Harper asked, afraid of the answer.
“According to the emergency rosters we were missing one person, you.” Murphy put a supportive arm out to help Harper up the road. “What the hell do you have in there?” She nodded to Harper’s jacket.
“Bennie’s damn cat.” Harper coughed up more water. “The one cat that wasn’t at Bell Manor this weekend.”
“Holy hell,” Murphy whispered as they reached the top of the road and surveyed the scene below them.
The water was creeping back down the manor road like a retreating sea monster.
The tentacle around Harper’s neck relaxed.
It was done, they were safe. Together, they limped through the gates to Bell Manor.