BooksBarbecue
Back When Darkness Loves Us
Chapters (56)
  1. CoverImage
  2. Title page
  3. Copyright page
  4. Introduction by Grady Hendrix
  5. Foreword by Theodore Sturgeon
  6. Acknowledgments
  7. WHEN DARKNESS LOVES US
  8. Part One
  9. 1
  10. 2
  11. 3
  12. 4
  13. 5
  14. 6
  15. Part Two
  16. 1
  17. 2
  18. 3
  19. 4
  20. 5
  21. 6
  22. 7
  23. 8
  24. Part Three
  25. 1
  26. 2
  27. 3
  28. 4
  29. BEAUTY IS ...
  30. 1
  31. 2
  32. 3
  33. 4
  34. 5
  35. 6
  36. 7
  37. 8
  38. 9
  39. 10
  40. 11
  41. 12
  42. 13
  43. 14
  44. 15
  45. 16
  46. 17
  47. 18
  48. 19
  49. 20
  50. 21
  51. 22
  52. 23
  53. 24
  54. 25
  55. About the Author
  56. About the Cover

“We looked for you,” he sobbed. “We searched for weeks. There are so damned many tunnels down there. We all got sick. We couldn’t believe that anybody could live down there. Oh, Sally Ann.” He sank to the floor and hugged her legs. “My soul ached to think you have been down there all those years. All those years I had given you up for dead. I locked you down there that day and didn’t know it. And I’ve lived with that guilt ever since.”

She stroked his hair. “It’s okay, Michael. I thought it wasn’t, but it is now. Everything is all right. Our son is a good man, and he’s a good father to the boys and a good husband to Mary.”

“When Mary was missing and Maggie told me it was you staying here with Mom, I didn’t believe her. I hit her. She makes me so angry sometimes. But I had to believe her when your Mom said the same thing, and the lock was broken off the door to the stairs. Our life hasn’t been the same since.” Sally Ann smiled slowly above his head. “How could you . . . ? How did you raise a child down there?”

“One has to do what one has to do, Michael. His name is Clinton.”

“My God. Will you take me to see them?”

“Of course, Michael. You won’t be able to really see them, it’s too dark. But I’ll take you to them, if you like.”

Cora paled when Sally told her what had happened. “You can’t take Michael down there!”

“I can and I will. Besides, he wants to go. He wants to see his son.”

Cora looked at her in horror, then turned to her closet. She put on a jacket and scarf. “Where are you going, Momma?”

“To church.”

2

2

Sally Ann laughed when she saw what Michael brought with him. A whole backpack, with sleeping bag, food, fresh clothes, and flashlights. “No flashlights,” she said.

“I can’t go down there without a flashlight.”

“If you take a light, you go alone.” He saw the resolve in her grotesque face. Reluctantly, he left them behind.

They descended. She breathed the familiar air of the main tunnel. Refreshing. She urged Michael to walk faster, but he was unaccustomed to walking in the dark so their progress was stumbling and slow. “At this rate, it will take us a month to get to them.” He didn’t think that was very funny, but Sally laughed. He was amazed at her ability to navigate.