Return to The Quarry

Chapter Twenty-three

 The moon now sat high overhead, and besides the silvery blue puddles that gathered below the windows and French doors, the light hardly beamed into the dimness of the Lodge all. As quietly as they could, the eight gathered inside moved boxes and what few pieces of furniture remained to the doors, making weighty barricades. No one knew if the effort would do anything to prevent the Man in the Hood from gaining entry. After all, he did not seek entry back at the hotel. Setting fire to the place sufficed perfectly, it seemed.

Once the place was satisfactorily secured, Jacob made his way across the room to where Kaitlyn came to sit on the floor, her back against the wall just outside the restroom and nurse's station. He sat beside her.

"You did good out there." he said, bumping her shoulder with his.

She smiled, a sort of emotionally exhausted smile. "Thanks. Talk about getting slapped in the face with a dose of self-awareness."

"We're all confronting our demons tonight."

She paused. "Was I always a control freak?"

"Nah."

"You hesitated."

Jacob sighed. "You were always the tough one, Kaitlyn. Maybe it became your default setting."

She nodded. "Maybe. It makes a hell of a lot of sense of a lot of things." Kaitlyn was thinking of course of her husband, of all the times she pushed him to frustration with her insistence on running the show where everything was concerned. And maybe, somehow, it was linked to her fight for survival that night. Perhaps if it started here, she could leave it here. She closed her eyes. "God, I never thought in a million years we'd be back in this place."

A moment passed, and Jacob spoke again.

"Hey, I always wanted to ask you something. Remember back on that last day of camp?"

"Oh, the one with the werewolves? Yeah, I sorta remember it."

He rolled his eyes at that. "I asked you hypothetically if someone wanted to make the van not start,"

"And you took the rotor arm?"

He sat up, incredulous. "You knew?"

Kaitlyn laughed. "Duh," she said.

"Why didn't you say something when the van didn't start?"

When Kaitlyn's laughter subsided, she sighed.

"Nah. Nah, it's a dumb reason."

"Come on."

She shrugged. "I figured since you were trying to shoot your shot with Emma one last time that I would piggyback and shoot mine with Ryan."

Jacob slumped against the wall in disbelief. Then, he frowned. "Wait, so why didn't you say something and get the rotor thingy back when the werewolves and giant yokuls came after us with guns?"

Kaitlyn shrugged. "By the time we knew we were in danger, everyone was scattered all over. As it was, Dylan and I found one in the scrapyard anyway." She shuddered melodramatically. "Besides, you were in your underwear. I wasn't going to handle the rotor arm after it was wherever you were keeping it."

She laughed again. Jacob tried not to smile.

"You're so mean."

Laying her head on Jacob's shoulder, Kaitlyn smiled.

"Yeah. It wasn't all your fault, you know. Us getting stranded here that night. I could have said something too."

Further toward the center of the room, Dylan cleared his throat. "Okay, everyone. Huddle."