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Back The Nest Save as PDF
Chapters (82)
  1. Cover
  2. Copyright page
  3. Introduction by Will Errickson
  4. Acknowledgements
  5. TREMORS
  6. 1
  7. 2
  8. 3
  9. 4
  10. 5
  11. 6
  12. SUSPICIONS
  13. 1
  14. 2
  15. 3
  16. 4
  17. 5
  18. DREAD
  19. 1
  20. 2
  21. 3
  22. 4
  23. 5
  24. 6
  25. WITNESS
  26. 1
  27. 2
  28. 3
  29. ALERT
  30. 1
  31. 2
  32. 3
  33. 4
  34. 5
  35. ENCOUNTER
  36. 1
  37. 2
  38. 3
  39. 4
  40. 5
  41. 6
  42. HAVOC
  43. 1
  44. 2
  45. 3
  46. 4
  47. 5
  48. 6
  49. SEARCH
  50. 1
  51. 2
  52. 3
  53. 4
  54. 5
  55. CLASH
  56. 1
  57. 2
  58. 3
  59. 4
  60. 5
  61. 6
  62. 7
  63. COUNTERATTACK
  64. 1
  65. 2
  66. 3
  67. 4
  68. 5
  69. 6
  70. 7
  71. VICTORY
  72. 1
  73. 2
  74. 3
  75. 4
  76. 5
  77. 6
  78. 7
  79. 8
  80. 9
  81. EPILOGUE
  82. About the Author

Elizabeth whirled from the door and dashed for Hubbard’s outstretched arms where he stood atop the now steady ladder. A rotted plank snapped under her feet just as her fingers touched his. The woman found herself plummeting away. She tumbled and fell amid a concussion of broken boards, dirt, and avidly hissing roaches. Crashing to the floor below Elizabeth Carr struck her head so hard she almost fainted. She wished she had, for she felt the insect teeth going at her body at once. She covered her face hopelessly against the stinging bites.

Elizabeth knew she was beyond help. As a girl she had wondered how it would feel to drown—no other form of death had seemed real. Sometimes in bed she would hold her breath as if she were underwater and her life depended on it. Then she would suck in the life-­giving air, drenched in sweat with the effort. She felt that way now, but knew it was the wetness of the insects on her skin, not her perspiration but her blood.

In the doom that was hers now, Elizabeth Carr had only one thought: She was sorry, not glad, for the night with Peter Hubbard. To know how much she was losing made dying more intolerable and tragic.

Through her torment, Elizabeth thought she heard Peter’s voice nearby. She could not look, dared not expose her eyes to the roaches she felt biting the back of her hands. With her last strength she cried out, “Don’t come in here, Peter! It’s too late! They’ll only get you, too!”

A curtain drew down inside the woman’s head, slowly at first, then more quickly into the sheer dark of nothingness.

As she submerged, there were fire bells and sirens in some receding distance. The bells were tolling her funeral. The sirens were all the mourners lamenting the tragic end of all the victims of Yarkie Island’s unspeakable travail, and the end of Elizabeth Carr.

9

NINE

Elizabeth came to consciousness in her own bed in her grandfather’s house. It took time for her eyes to focus. She wondered whether she was on the other side of life, but the sound of Peter Hubbard’s anxious voice was no illusion, and her grandfather’s hovering face was no mirage. There were no angels or devils, no harps or pitchforks, only the two beloved countenances, and dear Bonnie behind them, distraught.

“We have the doctor coming over from Chatham,” Elias Johnson said as soon as he saw his granddaughter’s eyes open.

“Oh, Liz!” Bonnie wept. “You’re going to be all right!”

Peter Hubbard did not speak, only held her sore hands tenderly, and looked his love into her eyes.