Willowcreek; Within The Roots

Part Twelve ─ Won't Be Long Now

The storm left the estate in shambles. As much as he wished he didn't have to, Caleb had made his early morning rounds and created a list of everything that was going to need fixed when Eamon was ready to get back to work.

He couldn't blame either Eamon or Sean for putting off work, again, because Evie had been hospitalized for a few days. He hadn't known that she had some kind of heart defect, but the fright from whatever that thing in the maze was quite literally almost killed her. He'd heard his grandmother telling his grandfather that everyone had thought she'd had a heart attack.

He would have fully believed that her heart had outright stopped. She'd been white as snow and limp as wet noodles when Sean put her into the car. He couldn't stop hearing her gasp for air, a sound resembling a paper bag or chip packet, that crisp kind of rustling coming from her chest and throat, or forget the look of pure terror that aged her and made her look like a completely different person.

Combined with whatever that thing was, Caleb had had a nightmare the night it had happened. It was the worst nightmare he'd had in years.

"When are they supposed to be getting back?" asked the boy as he entered the house through the backdoor, walking into his grandmother's domain. The old woman hadn't been herself since the other night, she'd been more anxious and panicked than usual and Caleb was starting to worry about her.

"In the next couple of hours, I believe," Rose answered, her arms crossing her chest while one hand gently rested against it, gently tapping as though she wanted to make sure her own heart was still thumping away. Her usual array of scones and muffins weren't laid out on the countertop. Her breakfast sat half eaten on a smoked glass plate and a brown mug sat beside it, probably from her morning tea, both on the counter at the sink, waiting to be washed.

"She'll be alright, Grandma," Caleb told her, a comforting smile on his face as he held his arms out, waiting for her to hug him. According to her, he always had a way of making things happier, even when things were going about as horribly as they could possibly go. "You should have heard the way she was yelling at me out there," he chuckled lightly as the old woman pulled him in close for an embrace. "She's tough stuff."

"She's as much a little girl as you are a little boy, troublemaker," Rose patted his back as he squeezed her, laughing at her grandson resting his head on her shoulder.

He'd been taller than her for quite some time, however, he'd never outgrown hugging her like he was still ten years old and had to tiptoe to reach her shoulders. And Caleb swore he'd never outgrow it. Even if he looked childish, even if it was comical and made people laugh. He loved his grandmother, he wasn't embarrassed by that. He was indeed a grandmama's boy.

"She'll be fine, you'll see," assured the boy, one more time, kissing his grandmother's cheek and pulling back to smile at her.

The two Garroways sat in the kitchen of the manor for an hour before Caleb was shooed by Rose. It was about the time that he would go to the greenhouse and his grandmother was trying to make sure he stuck to his routine as much as she could. "I'm going to check on Barnaby," Caleb told her, instead of doing as she asked. The last he'd seen the dog was the night before, around when he was leaving to drive them home. Eamon had been back to the manor over the last few days but he couldn't get Ludo to come away from the front foyer.

He was probably waiting for Evie to come home.

It tugged at Caleb's heartstrings, made him feel bad for the dog, so he had been trying to distract him. Which wasn't easy to do, because Caleb had never had a dog and had never considered himself a dog person. He'd never even considered himself a pet person, if he was honest. It was too much responsibility. He'd made the mistake of taking him outside the morning after Evie had been taken to the hospital and the dog made a break for the gates. If Boyd hadn't been coming to make his own list of things that would need repaired after the storm blasted the building, Ludo would have broken free, probably doing his damndest to find her. And god only knows what could have happened.