The Ghost of the Rock by S.K. Epperson

Author:S.K. Epperson [Epperson, S.K.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2013-05-15T23:00:00+00:00

Gerard awakens the next morning and finds Sutton beside him in a sitting position, fast asleep, her arm cradling her head on the seat of a camp chair beside his air mattress.

“Is that my shirt?” he asks. His voice croaks with thirst.

She stirs then opens her eyes. After a second of bewilderment, she focuses on him.

“Check the generator then find me some water?” he asks.

She rises and hobbles out of the tent, his t-shirt reaching the tops of her thighs and covering a pair of his cotton boxers. In seconds, she returns with a bottle of water.

“Is the generator all right?” he asks.

“It's fine. Water's cold.”

She wipes sleep from her eyes and then rubs her sore parts as Gerard drinks thirstily from the bottle. When he hands it back to her empty, she caps it and sits in the camp chair.

“Stiff?” she asks.

“If I don't move I'm going to die,” he replies. “Help me get up.”

“Padrille said not to. You'll start bleeding again.”

“Then give the bottle back because I have to piss.”

Sutton leaves the chair and squats beside the air mattress to support him. His weight is too much for her and she nearly falls on top of him when he tries to pull himself up.

“Go get Jesse or Padrille.”

“I can help you. Let me get over here and pull.”

After much struggle, she pulls him up and allows him to lean against her as he stands. His face shows strain, the pain evident as he puts an arm over the top of her shoulders and they walk out of the tent toward the latrine.

“Padrille radioed for help,” Sutton tells him.

“I'm not going anywhere, “Gerard answers. “I'll be fine. We have a first aid kit and I know how to swallow an aspirin.”

“What if the wound becomes infected?”

“It won't.”

“You can't work the drills like this,” she says and Jesse comes to stand before them.

“He's got me for that.” Jesse nudges Sutton out of the way to help Gerard to the latrine.

Sutton yawns then looks past the camp toward the old military installation. She stares, surprised to see a female figure in a billowing dress standing outside the ruins. Sutton squints and takes a step. “Josette?”

“What is it?” Josette walks in front of her. The Frenchwoman's face appears haggard after a sleepless night.

Sutton blinks and looks at the ruins again. The female figure has vanished.

“Nothing. How…are you feeling?”

Josette shrugs and goes on without responding. When Jesse and Gerard emerge, Sutton asks, “Are we the only ones on the island?”

“What do you mean by we?” Jesse says.

“Why do you ask?” Gerard says.

“I just saw a woman in front of the old military installation.”

Gerard lifts his head and looks. “Are you sure it wasn’t Josette?”

“No, Josette passed me on the other side right after I saw her. When I looked again, the woman was gone.”

Jesse grins. “One of Josette's ghosts then. The mother or the daughter murdered by the evil lighthouse keeper.”

“You didn't see her,” Sutton says. “If you did you wouldn't think it was funny.

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