I Am Chosen

Epilogue

One week later

Kacey finished signing in at the desk, then walked down the hall, carrying the framed picture in her left hand.

She reflected on her phone call earlier in the day with Captain Bryce. The officer had been surprisingly forthcoming with all of the latest:

First off, Bryce informed Kacey that the bodies of the Chosen, who had escaped Bellingham hospital, were found at the old Pleasant Hills asylum. All of them had died, possibly in a mass, ritual suicide. No toxins were found in their bloodstreams but tests were ongoing.

Next, the captain had said that Investigators found an unknown substance on the floor of the Coolidge Estate rec room, and they had discovered a secret door that led to a caved-in tunnel.

The substance, of course, was blood from the staff members that Kacey and Hollis had fought. But after what those people had turned into-she wasn't even sure the lab would be able to identify it as blood. And the cave-in, Kacey learned, had spread all the way up to and past the quartz, burying the wheelbarrow, the rods, the copper wire... all of it.

Which was just as well.

That night, after the ambulance had arrived at Coolidge to take Hollis to the hospital, the story that Kacey had given directly to Bryce was that J.D. had done some amateur sleuthing and established a connection between Coolidge and Declan Crowe, including an ancestry that could be traced back to the Westco Mining Company board of directors. She claimed to have shared this information with Hollis, who went to the Coolidge Estate to question the staff.

After not hearing from Hollis for quite some time, Kacey said she and J.D. went to look for him. She then told the captain that when they arrived they found Hollis wounded and unconscious.

Kacey didn't know how much of it Bryce had honestly believed, but she also didn't think that in the end, it would really matter. What Bryce did seem to believe was that neither Kacey nor J.D. were directly responsible for Hollis's condition. The captain could have poked holes in their story. He could have asked if Kacey called Hollis after she didn't hear from him, and if she didn't, why not. He could have asked many more questions than he did.

Once she had finished her story, Bryce, in fact, had asked only one question:

"Is it over?"

"I think it is," Kacey said. Bryce had exhaled, and Kacey could tell that he was relieved. She also believed that he would be an ally in the months, maybe even years to come as outside agencies investigated the events of the Chosen Killings. One of the most surprising things he had said was that it might not be too long before she could return to work.

Yes, Kacey believed she could rely on Bryce. She knew now that she could rely on J.D.... whom she had once accused of always "playing it safe." There was nothing safe about what he had done down in those mines. So yes, she could absolutely trust him. The biggest remaining question mark... was Hollis.

The door to Hollis's room was open. Kacey entered to find him lying on the hospital bed, hooked up to an IV and heart rate monitor. He lay flat, facing upward, eyes open.

Just underneath the hospital gown on the right side of his chest, she could see a large bandage. The doctors had said the damage, overall, was minimal. Hollis was expected to make a full physical recovery. It was the mental recovery that still had Kacey concerned.

"Hey," Kacey said as she wheeled a chair over next to the bed.

There was no response. Just as there had been no response the last time she had visited, or the time before that.

Once again, Kacey wondered what must have happened to Hollis's psyche when the black tendril of the Traveler wrapped around his head. If the power of that creature could do all of the things it had done when it had been... slumbering, what could that same monster achieve once it had awakened?

Kacey held up the framed picture she had brought with her. It was one of the pictures from Hollis's study, of him standing with his wife and daughter. Kacey positioned it directly above Hollis's head and his open eyes. "Do you remember them?" She asked. "They would want you to fight. You hear me, you old goat turd? Fight this! Fight it and come back to me."

After a moment Kacey drew the picture away, but as she did so, she saw Hollis's lips move. Just slightly. She bolted up and leaned over, watching closely.

Yes, his lips were moving, and there was the faintest sound coming out. She leaned down and turned her head so her ear was just above his lips, and she could barely make out the words, though they didn't make a whole lot of sense:

"There is time."

The man who had been Hanson sat in the middle of the clearing.

It had taken many days for him to walk here, deep in the woods. So deep, that no one would find him. Here he would sit, here he would wait... and call out, day and night, for what had once been the Dreamer, as he did now; for the hundredth time since its presence had disappeared from his mind.

This time, however, as the sun settled below the treetops, he at last received an answer.

It was the voice of his great and powerful Lord, crystal clear in his mind. It spoke only three words before falling silent once more:

"There is time."

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Thank you all for reading I Am Chosen. I hope you enjoyed it!! I've entered this story in the Wattys, so wish me luck! Check out my other stories here on Wattpad, and if you want to read a very adult werewolf novel, take a look at my series The Turning, starting here: http://hyperurl.co/TheTurning

Thanks again, and keep an eye out on my page for new material in the coming months!

--Mick