LOT'S MOUNTAIN

CHAPTER FIFTY-ONE: After

There's a murder house, well, what's left of one in a little place that used to be a town. Beams jut up out of the ground and are black and splintered. There's just enough left to give a hint of what kind of things can happen after the sun goes down.

I still come back to 210 Carver Street. I always will.

My brother died here, and now I know why and how. I reckon I'll always have some dark thoughts, some shadows over me when I come here. I'll always remember the wendigo and the screaming in the walls. And how my brother was trapped here.

But not everything that happened in this town was bad. Bill's free now and at peace. I saved him. I met Jamie and Nameless. And my best friend, Grim.

All the same, a lot of people died in this town. But when you take away something, something takes its place.

It isn't always hunger.

It isn't always dying.

Jamie's been back a few times. Dennis isn't so sure about coming back here. Neither is their mom. Their father is still missing. But Jamie and me still talk and see each other. A lot. Her power keeps growing. So does mine.

Sooner or later, whatever's gonna replace Glass will pop up. There's been some fighting here and there between monsters. Nothing major. Yet. With the Stone Men gone, some of them aren't too sure about playing by the Old Bone Woman's rules.

We have to be ready for anything. And we will be.

Skeiron hasn't healed all the way yet, but is getting stronger. Grim keeps him company at Belle Lake a lot of the time.

Some of the dark ones returned to Belle Lake and stay there. From what I can tell, the Mourner's leading them, if anyone actually can. The Old Bone Woman gave them a spot in the woods of Belle Lake, way in the back. The trees, like the rest of Belle Lake, are slowly growing back. But the trees there in the dark ones' spot ... they're different from the rest. The trunks are black and warped.

Grief's Dawn ... things are real messed up there. Parts of it, where the tombstones have been crushed, are covered in this weird black fog. The ghosts ... In some of Grief's Dawn, they're the same as always—doing what they always do and are oblivious to what's going on. But the ones in the black fog ... they remind me a lot of what I felt at the DeJarnette Center. They're getting angry. I'm not sure what Loomis is going to do with them, but he's not giving up. He's going to get Grief's Dawn whole again somehow. Maybe he can't make it what it was, but maybe he can still help the ghosts inside that cloud.

As for the town, the state declared it a disaster area. I think the story they're sticking to and trying really hard to believe is some kind of freak earthquake ripped through here. Volunteers are working to rebuild it. The first night or so, they stayed in tents on the outskirts of town. They don't do that anymore. They stay the next town over, in hotels.

Some of them talked about noises. Others thought they saw weird lights.

Some of them left and have never come back.

Diane's house is still standing. She always leaves the light on for me. Maybe it's to remind me that I have a home to come back to or just to come back in general.

Or to show me that I'm not alone.

But I know that I'm not. Diane's waiting for me back at the house, with Nameless. She never comes with me to 210 Carver Street.

Someone else does, though.

"Dylan?"

"Yeah, Grim?" I say.

"You want to see something cool?"

Yeah, I do. Diane won't be expecting me home for a few more hours yet.

Then he adds, "Another kind of monster woke up ... You're never gonna believe this. Never."

I've seen a whole lot, but there's still a whole lot more to see and to find.

I lost my guilt about my brother, like the Glass Man did about his family. But there's more to me than guilt. A lot more. With all of his sermons, maybe the Glass Man should have saved a few for himself. I do still remember all that shit he said about finding safety in mountains and not looking back at the shadows, though.

Not everything that preacher said was crazy.

As we stand there in the shadows of 210 Carver Street, Grim says, "Come on, Dylan."

He hops up and waits for me to follow.

I do, and I don't look back.