Hour Of Darkness

CH 25 - "Journey's End"

25...Journey's End...

Somewhere along the line, Hunter had passed out. Apparently Orlando had hit him harder than he realized. But through the fog, he felt hands grabbing at him, trying to wake him up, lift him off the floor. He opened his eyes slowly and his head swam again, but the dizziness began to abate and his vision cleared.

Lancaster was kneeling beside him. “Wake up, dammit.” There was fear and desperation in the man's – or whatever he was – voice. Hunter could still feel the weakness in him as he tugged at his arm.

Groaning, Hunter pushed up on his hands and knees then dropped back on his rear, sitting up right on the floor. He touched his temple where Orlando had hit him with the gun. “Motherfucker.” He spit out, a painful knot swelling in the spot. He raised his eyes and Lancaster was staring at him. One human eye and one...very non human eye bore into him. Hunter figured if the guy wanted to kill him, he'd be waking up dead right about now.

“Are you all right?” Lancaster asked stiffly. “Can you get up?”

“Yeah.” Hunter coughed then crawled to his feet, expecting the dizziness to grab him again, but he stood steady on his feet. “Where did...” he looked around. There was no Orlando. No woman.

“He went after her.” Lancaster said. “Up the trail to the gorge. He's...going to kill her.”

Hunter looked at him. Even with his face half peeled and that rather creepy alien eye staring back at him, he saw more humanity in Lancaster than he'd ever seen in Orlando. “Do you have more weapons?” Hunter asked.

“In the basement.” Lancaster motioned towards the pantry.

Hunter moved quickly and went to the basement. He grabbed a Luger 9mm, checked the clip then took the concrete steps two at time back up through the pantry. He stuffed the handgun in the back of his jeans and covered it with his jacket. “This way?” He pointed towards the back door.

Jonathon nodded, then asked, “Why are you helping us?”

“Let's just say I've seen the error of my ways.” He offered no more as he sprinted out the back door, spotted the head of the trail and took off up towards the gorge.

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Clarice moved slowly towards the plank walk as if invisible hands were moving her feet. She didn't believe she could actually go out on the bridge, but she couldn't just stand still and let him shoot her. She stepped up on the walk.

“There's no place left to run.” His voice carried easily across the frosty air. “I don't want to harm you. I apologize for my lack of control back at the house, but I realize now that you're as necessary to me as your child. If I had harmed you, the child would not have survived.”

Backing slowly down the plank walk, Clarice stared back at him incredulously. Was this supposed to be some form of pep talk to convince her to come with him? Let him experiment on her and her baby? He may have regained his composure but he was still clearly out of his fucking mind.

“You're not taking my child.” Clarice spoke with determination but she couldn't keep the tremor out of her voice. The tears flowed freely, but she had no control over them. “You're not gonna fuck him up the way you did Alec.”

“Alec was a special case.” Orlando slowly approached the plank walk, the gun held non-threateningly in his hand. But the threat remained nonetheless. “He was damaged goods right from the start because of his connection to you. I tried several different ways to sever that link but...” He shrugged. “It didn't work. I even thought that maybe if you were dead it might finally free his mind. Make him more useful to me.” He chuckled as if telling a joke. “That didn't quite work out the way I had planned...thanks to Johnny.”