Duskwood: And Beyond

25. Recovery

ORYN

The next six months have been challenging. After Hannah was found Jake left town. It was hard to watch him go and stay behind but it was necessary. We didn't even have time to say proper goodbyes. I knew he would come back, I just didn't know when.

We knew that the FBI would be expecting him to run away so public transportation was not an option. So we contacted Poke. Yes, Poke. I called him. After some persuasion and a great deal of money, he agreed to take Jake to Colville. He stayed there for a day and then went back into hiding. This time, it was far worse. My phone and Anabelle's were wiped clean immediately. It was as if he never existed in the first place. I expected to hear from him but his number was out of service.

Meanwhile, we had other problems to deal with. After finding Hannah we immediately went to the hospital. Alan asked two of his men to get the rest of the group. Luckily, Hannah was not physically harmed. I, on the other hand, required some attention. Alan took Hannah's initial statement but asked all of us to come down to the station the next day. Except for Dan of course.

Dan was put back in the hospital. They even threatened to chain him to the bed. But he didn't fight them. I guessed he was still processing what happened. He was acting like everything was okay but I could see the pain in his eyes. That night he shot his friend and learned that that friend was the Crowman. It was hard to process. Everyone was in shock.

Cleo and Thomas were relatively better now that Hannah was back. Thomas even burst into tears when he first saw her. Lily called her parents. They rushed to the hospital. Cleo, Thomas, Lily, and her parents spent most of the time with Hannah in her hospital room. Their mother even hugged me to thank me for bringing their daughter back. But it didn't feel like a victory.

Anabelle, Jessy, and I stayed with Dan. Jessy was a mess. She kept crying and then laughing and then crying again. She took it the hardest. We spent the night at the hospital.

The next morning we went to the police station. Hannah and the others left before us and they didn't contact us that day. The police questioned everyone.

Phil was released immediately. That cheered Jessy a bit. We told the police everything. They let Anabelle and Jessy go but I had to stay. Jessy took Phil home. Anabelle waited for me. My interrogation and statement took a couple of hours. On top of that, the FBI wanted to question me about Jake.

I never lied, I just withheld information. They tried different methods to get something from me but I kept repeating the same story. I told them that I didn't know him personally and that he was only sending me information to find Hannah. I also told them that he was in the mine. At some point, I was overwhelmed and worried, I couldn't hold my tears. They must have believed me when I told them that he is probably dead as they ended the interrogation. They told me not to leave the town for a while.

We returned to the house. It felt so empty without Jake. But at least he was safe. I assumed he was safe.

Every day I waited for him to contact me. To tell me everything was fine... That he was safe. But days turned into weeks. And weeks turned into months.

The first week was a mess. The police couldn't find Richy's body. The mine was a mess. Alan constantly stopped by to check in on me and shared their findings although they couldn't find anything useful.

Hannah returned to therapy and she was mainly with her parents. I didn't see her for a while. I spent most of my time in my room. I was also recovering. It was hard to learn Richy was behind all of this. Not finding him also resurfaced all of the past traumas that I had to deal with. I decided to take my time to heal myself.