Chapter Fifteen

“…need an ambulance…”

“…Ryan…”

Mom?

“Oh, my God…”

Movement…faces…pouring water…

“…adolescent male…multiple injuries…”

Talking about me?

“…oh my baby…”

Hands caressing him…faces…more water…shivering

Bright lights…flashes…

White sleeves…green masks and caps…

Those are doctors…

He opened his eyes and moved his head.

His mother sitting in a chair, asleep. Mom?

Did he call her out loud or only in his head? He closed his eyes…slept some more.

Fingers gently stroked his face. He opened his eyes again. His mother looked down at him, her eyes red with dark circles underneath.

“Hello, sweetheart.” She smiled

“Mom.” It came out as a croak.

“It’s okay, you keep resting.”

“Thirsty.”

She moved out of his vision. “Here, have some ice chips.” A plastic spoon appeared, he opened his mouth. The ice chips tasted delicious. He slept.

* * * *

His mother and grandmother sat off to the side, reading magazines. They had been whispering to each other, which woke him up, but then returned to their reading.

“Hey.”

They both practically jumped to his side.

His mother rubbed his head. It felt funny. “You’re in the hospital. Did you know that?”

“Yeah. I gathered.”

“Are you in pain?”

“Um…I don’t know. I’ve been sleeping.”

“It’s okay, you can rest.”

“I’m tired of resting.”

Ryan shifted to place his arms behind him in order to sit up. He was surprised to see both arms in a cast. A jolt of pain stunned him. “Oh, man.”

His mother reached across his chest and pressed a button. “This is pain medication.”

“Thanks.” Ryan eased himself back down. “Is there a way to sit up?”

This time his grandmother pushed a button on a bedrail. The head of the bed rose.

“That’s good.” The bed stopped rising.

“I fell.” A statement.

“Yes, you did, but you’ll be okay.” Then his mother added, “Do you remember what happened?”

“Pretty much.” Ryan looked at her. “Beaumont?”

She paused, and pursed her lips. “He’s dead.”

Ryan nodded with satisfaction. “Good.” He glanced out the window and saw that it was raining. Again or still, he didn’t know. “Hugo and Max?”

“Those horrid boys?” his grandmother asked.

“They aren’t boys,” he said flatly.

“I know.” This came from his mother. She added, “They’re missing. Mrs. Pullman scared them away.”

Somehow, that didn’t surprise him. He smiled slightly. “Can you tell me everything, please?”

Ryan listened to the synopsis of events beyond what he saw and experienced. Agent Lund being attacked, Mrs. Pullman saving him and chasing the demon kids away, Lund trying in vain to reach the porch despite being hurt…he actually dived to try and catch him…the tips of his fingertips briefly brushing his sneakers as he went over the edge…

“Is Mrs. Pullman okay?”

“She developed a fever and they kept her in the hospital overnight to watch her, but she was fine the next morning. Both she and Dee really want to see you. Right now you aren’t allowed any visitors.”

“Was Dee hurt at all?”

“No, just badly shaken up.”

He let it all sink in and then asked a question he’d been dreading. “What’s wrong with me?”

“You have a lot of broken bones.” She started counting off on her fingers. “Both wrists, a couple of ribs, cheekbone, elbow, ankle. I think there is a dislocated shoulder in there somewhere. You may have set a hospital record.”

Ryan smiled, but then grimaced as his cheeks hurt.

His mother continued, “you also have hundreds of stitches…some are second attempts at closing your previous wounds, some on your head and arms, and you were cut very badly on your side and back.” She rubbed his head again and said, “They had to shave your head.”

“So, that’s why it feels strange.”

Later, Doctor Pullman-Batista came in and went over his injuries in detail.

“You’re lucky to be alive, you know.”

Ryan nodded to her.

“When people fall from the height you did, they either get disabling injuries or die altogether. Neither happened to you. Mister Beaumont took the brunt of the iron spikes, and you managed to hit some branches which helped cushion the fall.” Her expression was unreadable, but she was trying to remain professional. “All your breaks are relatively simple fractures. Oh, they’ll hurt while you’re healing, and you will have some scarring from the stitches, but you’ll be more or less good as new in a couple of months.”

“Can I still play baseball?”

“Once you heal, yes. I will prescribe physical and occupational therapy to get you up and going. Even though you won’t feel like it, we’ll need to get you up and out of bed–starting today.”

Ryan paused and considered his next question. “Are you mad at me?” When she didn’t answer right away, Ryan experienced a sinking feeling.

“Initially, yes. I was very mad. You put yourself unnecessarily at risk and you put my own daughter at risk. Ryan, there are adults who are professionals…they are trained and paid to handle these situations. I know your heart was in the right place, and you were very brave. Having your heart in the right place and being brave are not the same things as being smart. In fact, in your case, it meant the exact opposite.”

Ryan dropped his gaze to his casts. His face burned. She was right…sort of. He was going to counter argue that he tried to rely on adults, but they didn’t believe him. She was one of those who didn’t. Instead, he said, “Yes, ma’am. I’m sorry. I never meant to harm Dee or anyone else.” That was the truth.

She reached for his fingers of his right hand that stuck out of the end of the cast. “I know that. I said initially I was angry, but I’ve mellowed some.”

Ryan looked up and saw her smiling. He did the same in return.

“I am happy and relieved things worked out. I know of one silly fourteen year old girl who thinks you were so heroic and courageous.”

His smile broadened despite the pain.

* * * *

The rest of the day contained a lot of activity. Nurses came and went. Technicians checked his machines and intravenous lines. The catheter was removed so he had to pee in a jug. An OT therapist came in and taught him and his mother about getting dressed with injuries. A PT therapist helped him sit up and then transfer from bed to a chair and then a wheelchair. When all of this was done, Ryan was exhausted and in intense pain.

He was able to use his pain medication pump once he returned to bed. His mother watched him anxiously.

“What?”

“Nothing…I can’t believe how brave you are.”

Ryan dozed for about an hour before dinner. When it arrived, his mother fed him like a baby, but he didn’t care. She left after dinner for the first time in two nights. Ryan tried to watch TV, but had difficulty focusing. He fumbled with the remote and learned how to turn it off. Just then, Agent Lund walked in to the room.

“Knock, knock,” he said. “May I come in?” He didn’t wait for a reply. “I’ll only be a few moments.”

Ryan smiled weakly, not knowing how to react. Lund was walking cautiously and his arm was in a sling. Ryan realized he hadn’t heard about his injuries, so he asked.

“Nothing serious. Those guys have sharp claws, so I have a few stitches. This…” he indicated the arm in the sling, “…came when I tried to catch you. Almost did too…” He shrugged.

“Sorry.”

“Don’t worry about it. It’s not your fault.”

Ryan wasn’t so sure.

“I wanted to let you know that the official word is that Mister Beaumont was a serial killer and he captured you and your family as his intended next victims. You were able to escape, there was a fight, and you both went over the edge. All of that is actually true, well, more or less. We have enough evidence from his home to close a number of unsolved murders. Turns out Beaumont and those two kids broke into a house across the street and down a ways from Beaumont’s own house. An older man, kind of a recluse, lived there. They killed him and took up residence for a few days and kept watch on the house…hoping you’d turn up, I gather.”

“Hugo and Max got away though.”

“So they did. Who knows how well those two can survive on their own. We’ll find them. Your room is being guarded, by the way.” Lund lifted his leg and placed his foot on an empty chair. He rested his arm on his elevated knee. Ryan noticed something in his hand for the first time.

“Really? You think they’d try to get me in here?”

“No. You’re not exactly important to the overall plan. You were just a pet project as far as Beaumont was concerned. Wouldn’t make sense for them to be that risky. By the way, we’ve kept their existence a secret.”

Ryan found he wasn’t sleepy at the moment, and something occurred to him.

“What happened to you after your cousin and aunt were killed?”

Lund nodded and said, “I’m glad you asked. Can I sit for a second?”

Ryan said, “Yeah, please.” He shifted slightly to face the agent.

Lund didn’t say anything for what seemed the longest time. Ryan guessed he was trying to organize his thoughts. When he did start talking, he was obviously relating things rather carefully.

“I enjoyed living with the sheriff and his wife. As I said the other day, they became foster parents at first so they could keep me. Soon after, they adopted me. It was easy to start calling the sheriff ‘Dad’, but I had trouble with calling his wife ‘Mom’. She recognized this, and said it was perfectly fine to call her whatever I was comfortable with. It took a while, but eventually ‘Mom’ flowed off my tongue with no problem. What made it final was a dream that I had where my real mom said I should use ‘Mom’, and that she–my real mom that is–was honored to share the title. I also gained two older brothers which was really cool. They were twenty-one and nineteen at the time, and they enjoyed having a new kid bother to play with when they visited home.”

“That would be cool.”

“It really was. They were jocks in high school, so I had someone to play basketball with.” Here he paused and looked at Ryan, which Ryan found curious. Finally, he resumed, “I think my aunt and Cam considered my arrival an amazing stroke of good luck. I think they initiated their plans right away, beginning with the ‘serpent needing an heir’ craziness. I’m positive that’s what Cam was doing with his leering and his efforts to check out my body. He was seeing if I was ready or ‘old enough’ as my aunt said. What the plan involved I have no clue, I am just fortunate things ended before I had to find out. That’s where my experience differed from yours.”

Ryan felt awful for him. “God.”

“I learned more about my aunt and Cam. The sheriff, that is my dad, helped me. Some of it was hard to believe, but he let me accept it at my own pace. I’ll never forget the first thing he showed me. It was the Book of Revelation from the Bible. It mentions the dragon and the beast. He said this was the reference for understanding what I was facing.”

“Mrs. Pullman showed me the same thing.”

“Now that is an amazing woman. Talk about a superhero with amazing powers. Anyway, the rest is history. Went to college, got married, and got a job, so on and so forth. So here I am.”

“I’m glad you were.”

Lund bowed theatrically at the comment. “Suffice it to say, we’ve been tracking down people like him for a long time. You handled yourself pretty well, even if it was a bit too risky for my taste.” Lund smiled at him. “You look tired. I’ll let you go.” He stood and started to leave.

“Oh, my main reason for coming was to give you this and I almost left without doing it.” The object in his hand turned out to be a rolled up T-shirt, which was dark green with small white lettering on the front. “Welcome to the club.” He placed the shirt unfolded on Ryan so that he could examine the words more closely.

Ryan squinted and then looked up at Lund. “What does it mean?”

“I tell you what…Why don’t you figure it out, and when you do, give me a call. We can talk then.” He saluted Ryan, and left the room.

Ryan returned to the shirt front. The lettering was three words in a single line:

Twelve: Seven-Eight.

* * * *

Agent Lund left the hospital and walked to his car. He felt lighter than he had in a week. The immediate threat had passed, and the kid looked as if he would recover. Ryan was strong and determined, more so than he was at that age. Lund was curious to find out if he was up for a new challenge. He had a hunch Ryan would be, but he had wait patiently. It might take a while.

Lund planned on spending the night at his parents’ place instead of the hotel. They still lived in the same house as when he was a teenager, despite now growing very frail. He and his brothers have been bringing up the topic about selling the place for a few years now. Finally, it seemed they were willing to listen, but Lund had his doubts about them making a move unless they are forced to because of health. He hoped it never came to that.

His father was the person who started the gimmick with the T-shirt. Lund was the first recipient, and the first T-shirt being an old white undershirt with the numbers written on with a black laundry pen. His brothers now wore the shirts, more as honorary members instead of official members. Lund picked up on the idea and updated the design.

Lund had only a handful of opportunities to distribute the shirts, but he continued to use his father’s strategy for introducing the topic. You couldn’t force people, and many of them were adolescents and young adults, to recognize they have been “drafted”, like it or not, because of their experiences. They had to dwell on it for quite a while and warm up to it. Some eventually grabbed for the ring, others didn’t.