I Am Chosen

Singularity of Purpose

After asking the Uber driver to call 911, Hollis rushed into Jack Richards' home. The Winchester, now free of the golf bag, was raised in his hands. The home's entry led straight into a kitchen and dining room on the right side, ascending stairs on the left, a wall, and past the wall...

The living room. There, kneeling on the floor between the couch and TV, facing the couch, was the uniformed cop who had been assigned to protect Richards. He was staring forward, mouth open. In his right hand, nearly tucked between his knees, was his service weapon.

Across from the officer, seated on the couch, was Jack Richards. His chin was resting on his chest; there was a sizable chunk missing from the rear of his skull and a rose blossom of blood adorned the back of the couch and the white wall behind.

"Goddamnit," Hollis whispered.

He was too late.

"So, it just... melted?" Kacey was standing inside the cabin, looking down at the spot where the black rock had been, where now nothing existed but a tar-like stain on the rotted floorboards. J.D. had asked her about twenty times if she was okay after she had exited Hollis's vehicle—to which she had emphatically replied that yes, she was fine. And she was, really; somewhat shaken, but that was about it. The bear was still lodged up front in the vehicle, but after it had collapsed, it reverted to a normal—though still just as dead—bear.

"Liquefied when I tapped all of the crystals, yeah," J.D. said, kneeling down next to the ring of quartz stones.

"So you destroyed the black rock..." she said with a slight hint of awe. After everything she and Hollis had tried...

"Well, I have a theory," J.D. replied.

"Of course you do."

"I don't think it was a rock."

Kacey's eyebrows knotted. "Okay, you lost me."

J.D. stood, still looking down at the stain. "I think that thing... the Traveler that Walks Unseen, the Beast that Dreams, whatever you call it... I think this was a piece of it."

Kacey's mouth hung open slightly. She walked to the couch that sat just inside the doorway facing the living area and plopped down.

What J.D. was suggesting was crazy, but... it seemed possible. As possible as just about anything else at this point. "If so, then what, this thing exists down there as some kind of a stone layer? Like the coal?"

J.D. shrugged. "Something like that, maybe. Maybe that's why it's 'sleeping'. Maybe becoming stone is how it hibernates."

Kacey thought of Piggy's words, back in Los Angeles: "It sleeps and it dreams... and in its dreams we tremble." She thought of the old man Eustis, whose uncle had said that something evil slept deep in the ground.

Her wheels were turning now. "So what if the 'Emanant Revival' has to do with bringing it out of hibernation? What if that's why it's collecting people? To draw their energy so it can 'wake up'? With everything its capable of now..." Kacey shuddered. What might the Traveler do to Pleasant Hills, to the United States, to the world if it were brought out of its slumber?

"These are all just theories," J.D. said, "but if we're right, you're overlooking the silver lining to all of this..."

"Which is?"

"Now we know how to kill it."

Hollis had considered fleeing the scene.