32. Bella - Mayor Calloway
Chapter thirty-two
Bella - Mayor Calloway
Darius pulls his phone from his pocket.
“We need to tell Mayor Calloway. He’ll need to see the body,” Darius says, as we stand by the freezer with the body bag.
The mayor answers on the second ring.
“Darius?” Calloway says, voice distracted. “Please tell me this isn’t another missing high schooler situation. I’ve already got residents complaining about the ferry schedule and Hazel told three people the gulls are carrying omens again.”
Darius’s expression remains unreadable.
“It’s serious, mayor.”
Calloway immediately hears it in his tone.
“How serious?”
Darius glances briefly toward the body bag.
“Come see for yourself. You should come now.”
The mayor arrives twenty minutes later looking windblown, anxious, and underdressed for catastrophe in his ridiculous red windbreaker.
“This better not be another dead deer situation,” he mutters while hurrying toward us through the fog. “Because last time Finn nearly made me throw up describing entrails.”
“In my defense,” Finn says, “you asked follow-up questions.”
Calloway stops when he sees our faces. Then his eyes land on the body bag. Darius unzips it.
“Oh,” he says quietly. No more jokes after that. Darius steps aside silently.
Calloway hesitates only briefly before crouching shakily beside the body bag and pulling the zipper down father to look inside. The reaction is immediate. He recoils violently and almost vomits.
“Jesus H. Christ—” His face drains completely of color. “No,” he whispers. “No no no…”
He stumbles backward, nearly losing his balance. Finn catches his arm automatically.
Calloway stares at the bag. “That’s not…” He swallows hard. “That’s not an animal attack. Who was it?”
“John Levine,” Finn says. “And not an animal attack.”
“Oh,” he says softly, his face white. “John was a good man.”
The mayor drags trembling hands over his face.
“Oh God. Oh God.”
For the first time since arriving on Bloodhaven Cove, I see genuine panic crack through the mayor’s constant cheerful performance.
“What do we tell people?” he asks suddenly. “What the hell do I tell people?”
No one answers immediately. Because there is no good answer. Darius finally speaks.
“For now? Nothing detailed. Or nothing yet.”
Calloway stares at him incredulously.
“Nothing?”
“You tell them there was a dangerous attack near The Wilds and everyone stays inside after dark. They already are supposed to but emphasize it.”
“That won’t hold if another body turns up!” His voice cracks.
Darius steps closer then, calm and steady in a way that somehow anchors the room.
“Bella and I are working on it.”
The mayor looks between us desperately.
“You know what this is?”
I hesitate. Darius does not.
“We might. We are working on it.”
That somehow feels more frightening. Calloway’s breathing turns shallow.
“This is happening again, isn’t it?”
Ah. So he knows more than he pretends. He knows about the last time, the Hunger.
Darius studies him carefully. “You remember the stories from twenty years ago.”
The mayor laughs once weakly.
“Stories?” He shakes his head. “People vanished, Darius. Everybody called them stories because nobody wanted to say the other thing out loud.”
Cold moves through me. Finn looks disturbed now too. Calloway points shakily in the direction of The Wilds.
“That monster did this. He’s back.”
“We believe so,” Darius says carefully.
The mayor turns pale again. “Then we’re in trouble.”
“Yes.”
Simple. Honest. Terrifying.
Calloway paces suddenly.
“We should shut down the ferry.”
“Not yet,” Darius says. “People may need to leave. We may need to receive shipments, medical supplies.”
“We should—”
“Calloway.” Darius says his name quietly and firmly.
The mayor stops.
“This island survives if people remain calm,” Darius says evenly. “Panic will destroy Bloodhaven Cove faster than the attacks will.”
Calloway stares at him for a long moment. Then nods weakly. Because beneath the panic, he trusts Darius. Everybody here does.
“But we need to stay in touch, ready for action, mayor.”
“Alright. I need to think this through, too. Thanks for letting me know…” He doesn’t look thankful at all.
We show the mayor out.