Found Shadows by P T Hylton

Author:P T Hylton [Hylton, P T]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Six-String Books, LLC
Published: 2019-10-13T04:00:00+00:00

17

“I wish I could tell you some secret to make it easier, Six. But everyone has to find their own path. Caleb stays close to the water. Becky’s good at suppressing it, but when an attack happens, hoo boy, people get hurt. Mikey’s straight-up bad at dealing with it. Poor guy spends half his life lying in bed wriggling in pain. Let’s hope you don’t go that route.”

Eric stared wide-eyed, his mouth half open, trying to comprehend what this man was talking about.

“Me?” the man continued. “I’m a cutter. As you saw the other night. Probably not the healthiest way of dealing with things, but the pain does bring a kind of clarity. It allows me to roam a bit. I can’t stand being cooped up in Wakefield like the others. I guess I’ve got a wanderlust spirit. That’s what Merle says, anyway. I apologize for the way I acted last time you saw me. I’d never been away from Wakefield that long. I started getting a little squirrely in the head.”

In his mind, Eric ran through the list of names Marsha Crawford had given him. “You’re Lewis.”

Lewis chuckled and nodded. “And you’re lucky number six. The one who got away.”

Eric felt a twinge of annoyance. It wasn’t like he’d enacted some great plan to escape his kidnappers. They’d just decided to let him go. He didn’t know why and might never. But the way Becky had talked to him, and now the way this man did, it was like they blamed him. Like they were angry at him for leaving them behind. It was like some twisted, reverse version of survivor’s guilt. Victim’s anger.

And so what if they were angry? What difference did it make to him? All he wanted was to go home, resume his normal life, and put this bizarre incident behind him.

And now, for the next twenty minutes or so, he was stuck sitting next to one of his fellow kidnapping victims. What was it Baughman had called them? The Wakefield Five.

As much as he wanted to put this all behind him, he’d never get another chance to talk openly and honestly with someone who knew more about this situation than he did.

Lewis was his captive audience.

“What the hell were you doing outside my window that night?” he asked.

There was a long pause, so long that Eric wasn’t sure Lewis would answer. But then he did. “I guess you could say I was putting the first domino in place. Making sure that when Baughman showed up and asked you to come to Wakefield, he had something to bump up against. I’m an agent of change, you see.”

Lewis said it with such earnestness that Eric almost laughed. “And why did you care if I came to Wakefield?”

Lewis shrugged. “I guess I felt like it was time for you to carry your share of the load. Besides, my boss cared, so I was sort of obligated to go with it.”

Another bizarre statement. Eric squirmed, trying to figure out what to ask next.

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