Chapter 12 - The Cold Creek
The revelation hit Julian harder than the shotgun blast.
His daughter.
Before he could process the words, the flue beneath them ended abruptly.
The brick floor dropped away into a five-foot vertical shaft. Julian and Maya tumbled together down the drop, plunging straight into a roaring torrent of freezing, knee-deep river water.
The shock of the ice-cold water hit Julian like a physical blow, instantly washing the black coal dust and warm blood from his hands.
They were inside the concrete culvert—a eight-foot wide storm pipe running beneath Route 9. The current was fast, swollen by the autumn rains, pulling them downstream through total dark toward the forest outlet.
Behind them, high up in the furnace pipe, a single gunshot echoed through the brickwork, the lead pellets splashing harmlessly into the water forty feet behind them.
Julian dragged Maya up by her blanket, keeping her head above the dark water as the current swept them out of the dark pipe and into the open air of the forest ravine.
They hit the shallow gravel bank half a mile downstream, tumbling out onto the wet rocks under a cold, starless sky.
Julian lay on his back on the wet stones, gasping for air, the cold rain washing over his face. His left shoulder was completely swollen, his thumb bleeding steadily, his body shivering uncontrollably from hypothermia.
Maya sat beside him, pulling her knees up to her chest, staring back up the dark ridge toward the silhouette of the Ash Ridge Sanatorium sitting on the hill like an old black tomb.
The heavy, yellow headlights of a truck lit up the treeline half a mile up on the highway.
Sterling’s red Ford F-250 was moving fast down Route 9, its spotlight sweeping through the trees toward the river ravine.
Julian forced himself up onto his elbows, his teeth chattering so hard he could barely speak.
He pulled the rugged USB drive from his pocket. It was still intact, sealed in its hard plastic casing.
"We have to get to the highway," Julian rasped, pointing toward the road. "We find a truck driver, a state trooper... anyone."
Maya didn't look at the highway. She looked down at the USB drive in his bloody palm.
"That drive won't help you, Julian," she said softly, her voice completely devoid of hope.
Julian looked at her, his brows furrowing. "What do you mean? It’s his files. Clara’s name was on the band—"
"That’s not his file," Maya whispered, her eyes dark, hollow, reflecting the yellow light of the approaching spotlight in the trees. "That’s yours. Your mother didn't die of cancer in 2018, Julian. My father killed her because she found out what you really are."
May you like
---
### ACT II: THE RESONANCE OF LIES
