Return to The Quarry

Chapter Twenty-nine

 There was nothing for the emergency crews to do until the fires had burned themselves out, so they waited. The entire property that was once a quarry, then a summer camp, then a resort, sat empty and devoid of all human life.

Caleb Hackett, the last of the Hackett bloodline, was dead. He lay inside the smoldering tunnel that would be his tomb. The body on the boardwalk near the hotel, the one mistaken for being the body of Braden Timuskus, would turn out to be that of 61-year-old Travis Hackett. In exchange for having given evidence against his family, he avoided jail time. Upon learning this, Caleb lured his uncle to the property and killed him as retribution.

With the hope of the Hackett family bloodline continuing being effectively ended, something changed. Something in the way the stones vibrated, in their very magnetic pull had released somehow. The stones were giving up the souls that remained bound there, as prisoners.

From the shadows of the forest, the glowing forms of people began to emerge as though waking up. The faces of Lenni-Lenape people who walked the land long before the Hacketts took it as theirs looked around, their eyes finding one another. Here and there, the forms of men dressed in trapper's attire emerged from rocky outcroppings, and generations of miners, killed while mining quartzite, drifted forth from the depths of the lake with faces full of awe at seeing the stars again. The three go betweens stumbled forth from their long forgotten watery graves, as did Ed Benson. A group of travelers greeted one another in the woods where their caravan was set ablaze, all smiles and laughter.

Eliza Vorez felt light, somehow. As she clutched the composition notebook to her chest, she felt the snug pull of the land let go. She looked around at the legions of glowing faces that filled the woods around her, other departed souls who suddenly found themselves free from the confines of the land. It was a beautiful sight.

"Mama!"

Eliza's heart skipped a beat. She whirled around. Through the throngs of people, one smiling face wound his way, his bald head and childlike laugh rising over the hubbub of laughter and song as he ran to her. Silas's arms, outstretched, was a sight she never thought she'd see ever again. She dropped the composition notebook.

"My boy!" she wept. It was surreal. So like a dream, but really happening. Eliza felt the familiar embrace, the wide eyed, adoring smile, and for the first time in a long, long time, she felt warm all over. It was then that a warm hand touched her shoulder.

She turned, and was greeted by the kind smile of her brave, smart, favorite aunt. Ginny enfolded both Eliza and Silas in an embrace that was long overdue. All around, some of the souls had dissolved into specks of bright white light and began to drift away and out of the place that had held them captive for too long. Slowly, the three of them did the same.

The glowing form of Caleb Hackett stumbled out of the woods. He stood at the edge of the trees where they bordered the parking lot outside of the building that was once the camp Lodge. He was surrounded by all these people, none of whom he knew, all of whom were dressed as though they came from different time periods. Up on the deck of the Lodge, three forms caught his eye.

Tearfully, he sprinted up the steps to where his father and sister stood. He collapsed into their arms and sobbed, his heart letting go of the darkness that consumed it for so long. He looked up into the face of his uncle Travis. There was no trace of anger or resentment. He reached out a hand and tousled Caleb's short cropped hair.

The view from the island was spectacular as the figures all dissolved into starlike lights and drifted away to the hereafter. Like bubbles in a glass of champagne, they drifted out of sight until the night was dark again, except for the full moon and the blue moonlight.