The House Named Claurece

Nine

         "𝕳e's moving! He's waking up!"

         "Wake up, wake up!"

         Paul was being shaken, hard.

         "Let him go Jackie, we want him alive."

         "Is that supposed to be a joke? For all we know Grace thought she saw him move!"

         "Peggy!" came Grace's voice. "I saw him move!"

         "How's Terrence?"

         "Getting better,"

         "What happened to him? I wasn't here when you told everyone where you found him,"

         "He was trapped in some rubble - not under Penelope - and got scared. He must have called out for help and gotten Paul's answer. I guess Terence expected Paul to come quickly."

         Light broke through Paul's eyelids, making him squint.

         "HE MOVED!"

         He was being shaken again, more violently this time.

         "Wake up, Paul, wake up!"

         It hurt to open his eyes but Paul did, letting the sun burn his dilated eyeballs. Penelope opened her mouth but was stopped by Latter.

         "Are you okay, Paul?" he asked. "How do you feel?"

         The events previous to Paul passing out came flooding back into his mind.

         "Where am I?" he asked, and, even though he knew the answer; "What happened?"

         "You feel back," Latter explained. "I don't know why but you did,"

         "I was watching the house," Paul remembered. "I was seeing what was wrong."

         Latter nodded.

         "Then it started to crumble, you must have seen it and turned back to us," Latter said, "You must have yelled at us but we didn't hear you, we were all scared and yelling. Then, it fell. We didn't know Terrence was back there too. Thankfully he didn't get hurt.

         "We found you first, your leg was terrible. You were passed out. I didn't know how you got the piece of wall off in the state you were in. We kept looking through the rubble and found Terrence trapped in a little rock cave. He was terrified. He told us he had heard someone saying they were coming to get him. He told us that no one had come."

         Latter fell silent.

         "I didn't get the wall off on my own," said Paul quietly. "I had help."

         "From who?" asked Latter, looking up.

         "I don't know."

         Paul realized that the children weren't crowded around him anymore. They had backed up while Latter had been talking.

         "I saw someone though," said Paul, wracking his memory. "It was a man."

         Paul met A.B. Latter's eyes.

         "I thought it was him, Anthony," he said quietly. "I thought it was Runcorn,"

         Latter shifted.

         "I know it was stupid," Paul said, turning his gaze to the sky above him. "Runcorn's dead."

         "He's dead?"

         There was a note of shock in Latter's voice.

         "I thought he got home safely, he told me he would,"

         "Well he didn't," Paul said. "Hermes told us he died. They told us the children killed him."

         Latter's eyes widened.

         "They would never," he said, shocked. "Especially not to Runcorn."

         "I know that now," said Paul, "But he's still dead."

         Latter's face hardened.

         "He was a good man," he said.

         Paul nodded.

         "I know."

         Paul felt the children's eyes on him. He wished they would go away. He wished they had not been there through his and Latter's conversation. But they had been. Paul wanted to change the topic and break the silence desperately.

         "How's Terrence?" he finally asked.

         "Getting better," Latter replied. "He's still in shock and scared. He'll be pleased to know you're awake though, he was worried when I told him."

         Paul nodded and no one spoke.

         "Where are we?" Paul asked again. "Are we still in Fort Bragg?"

         "Technically."

         "What do you mean technically?"

         Latter sighed.

         "We're on the border to the next area. We couldn't stay in the town or near the orphanage."

         Paul swallowed.