Chapter 7 - WHAT ROSE TAKES
“Floor!” Cal shouted.
Glass exploded.
Graham pulled Eli down.
Claire covered Rose.
Danny dragged Maya behind the stone fireplace.
Bullets tore through the cabin walls.
Cal fired twice through a side window.
Someone outside yelled.
Graham’s heart hammered.
“We need the cellar.”
“There’s a cellar?” Danny asked.
“Kitchen pantry. Move.”
They crawled.
Another window shattered.
Cal backed toward them, firing in controlled bursts.
Claire carried Rose.
Graham pushed his wheelchair with one arm and pulled Eli with the other.
Too slow.
Always too damn slow.
A bullet struck the floor beside his wheel.
Eli screamed.
Something inside Graham snapped.
He shoved himself up.
Right foot.
Then left.
Nothing.
He almost fell.
Danny caught him.
“Don’t!”
Graham leaned on the counter.
“Take Eli.”
“You can’t walk.”
“Apparently nobody told my right leg.”
He took one step.
Agony.
A second.
His left leg dragged behind him.
But he moved.
Danny stared.
Graham barked, “Move!”
They reached the pantry.
Cal pulled a hidden lever.
The shelves swung open.
A narrow staircase descended underground.
Everyone rushed down.
Graham came last.
Each step felt like stepping into fire.
Cal sealed the door.
Darkness.
Claire switched on a flashlight.
“Dad, sit down.”
“I am not—”
“Sit down!”
He did.
She examined his legs.
Danny stood nearby, furious.
“You used her again.”
Graham looked up.
“No.”
“Then why are you walking?”
“I don’t know.”
Danny’s eyes went toward Rose.
Her skin had turned gray.
Claire noticed.
She checked Rose’s pulse.
“What happened?”
Danny looked away.
“Danny.”
Nothing.
Claire grabbed his shoulder.
“What are you not telling me?”
He started crying.
Not loudly.
Just tears rolling down a face that had tried too hard to be an adult.
“When she heals someone…”
Claire waited.
Danny whispered, “She takes it.”
Claire frowned.
“Takes what?”
“The hurt.”
Graham felt sick.
Danny pointed at Eli.
“Three months ago, Eli got pneumonia. Really bad. He couldn’t breathe.”
Eli looked down.
“We had no money,” Danny continued. “Mom was already gone. Rose touched him.”
Claire looked at Eli.
“What happened?”
“I got better,” he said quietly.
“And Rose?”
Danny swallowed.
“She stopped breathing for almost a minute.”
Graham closed his eyes.
Claire stared at him.
“You let her touch your leg.”
“I didn’t know.”
Danny shouted, “I told you it hurt her!”
“You didn’t tell me this!”
“I needed you to believe us!”
The words echoed in the cellar.
Danny’s face crumpled.
“I’m sorry.”
Graham looked at Rose.
A baby.
A child who had somehow taken six years of nerve damage into a body that weighed maybe sixteen pounds.
He wanted to vomit.
Claire knelt beside Rose.
“If what you’re saying is true, this isn’t healing. It’s transfer.”
Graham whispered, “Can she die from it?”
Nobody answered.
That was answer enough.
Cal pressed his ear to the wall.
“Gunfire stopped.”
“Good,” Graham said.
“No.”
Cal looked toward the ceiling.
“They stopped because somebody’s here.”
A low mechanical thump sounded above them.
Then another.
Claire frowned.
“What is that?”
Cal’s expression changed.
“Helicopter.”
Danny backed away.
Graham asked, “Vale?”
A speaker crackled somewhere overhead.
Then Marcus Vale’s voice filled the cabin.
Calm.
Warm.
Almost friendly.
“Graham.”
Graham froze.
“I know you can hear me.”
Danny grabbed Rose.
Vale continued.
“Bring me the baby, and nobody else has to get hurt.”
Graham looked at the ceiling.
“Go to hell.”
A soft laugh.
“Oh, old friend.”
May you like
Then Marcus said the one thing Graham never expected.
“Ask Danny who his father is.”
