Page 14 of Ruined Wolf
“Lucas went to Devil’s Chimney?”
“He took me there, said he wanted to show it to me,” I replied, curling my fingertips around the sprinkling of dark hair on his chest.
“Wow, I didn’t think Lucas had been there since...”
“He hasn’t, apparently.”
“So you know?” Maverick asked. “About what happened there?”
I nodded. “Lucas said that’s where your dad died, and that they didn’t find his body for days until the tide went down.”
“Is that all he said?” Maverick inquired after a moment or two of silence.
“Pretty much. I think he was trying to explain how dangerous it was when I asked if we could get into the cave to see the petroglyphs down there.”
Maverick sighed. “He didn’t tell you the whole story then.”
I raised myself up on my elbow, looking down at him. “There’s more to it?”
Maverick nodded. “Did he tell you about Jaxon’s idea about there being treasure down there?”
“He did.”
“Well, Jaxon wouldn’t stop going on and on about it. He was convinced it was down there, and we just hadn’t had time to look properly. The rest of us ignored him, but Lucas used to worship Jaxon—not as much as our dad, but as far as he was concerned, Jaxon was never wrong. So one day, he got up really early and stole a boat.” Maverick paused, shifting himself up the bed so he sat up against the headboard, and then he pulled me back into his arms.
I leaned against his shoulder, picturing a young Lucas going off on his own.
“He wanted to find the treasure for Jaxon, wanted to prove himself, so he looked at the tides and headed out, but he was still young, and he hadn’t calculated properly. It took him longer than he realised to reach the beach when the tide was out and didn’t know it was already coming in.”
“Oh no... But he went in?”
Maverick nodded. “He went to search the cave, but he got trapped. The tide came in, and he couldn’t get out. He’s always been one for the outdoors, and he often roamed the woods on his own or with us or his friends, so it wasn’t unusual for him to be out all day. I remember Mum getting a little concerned when he didn’t come home for dinner, but he could have been at a friend’s place and not told us. By midnight, we had half the pack out combing the woods. Eventually, Dad sent us all to bed, and when Jaxon went into his room, he found a note from Lucas saying where he’d gone and why.”
I felt sick at the idea of a child missing for that long, and the pain his family must have gone through when he hadn’t come home. “Poor Lucas, to be trapped down there in the dark, alone all that time...”
“You don’t know the worst of it yet,” Maverick said, his voice grim. “Dad went out after him. He wouldn’t wait for anyone else to get back from the search, though he left messages to say what he thought had happened. He was an experienced climber, and we think he’d planned to abseil down into the cave to bring Lucas out, but something went wrong, and he fell into the cave, breaking his neck.” Maverick went quiet for a moment, and the horrible truth suddenly sank in.
“Lucas said they didn’t find his body for days...”
Maverick nodded, pain etched across his face. His arms tightened around me, and I let him pull me closer for whatever comfort it would give him. “The pack went out the next morning once they learned where he’d gone. They found the ropes straightaway, of course, but they couldn’t get to him. The tide was fully in. He’d dislodged some rocks when he’d fallen in, and the chimney had narrowed, so no one could fit down there to get Lucas out—not that there was anyone else who knew what they were doing back then. Now we have a few people trained in rescue situations for emergencies like that one. Asher is one of them.”
“So how did Lucas get out?” I asked, not sure I wanted the answer.
Maverick sighed. “He didn’t. They had to wait until the low tide again. We knew it was only a couple of days later, and they lowered blankets, food, and water down to him. He was safe from the water but constantly wet from the spray. By the time the tide was low enough to get into the cave and we got him out, he was a shadow. They found him curled up next to our dad’s body, and all the food and blankets were left where they’d been dropped. He’d ignored all of them, just staying close to my dad the whole time.”
I stared at Maverick in horror. “He was down there with your father’s body all that time?”
“Yes. In the dark, on his own. He never spoke once, never called up to reassure anyone he was okay, never cried or screamed the whole time. They warned us he could be dead too, but he wasn’t.” He took a breath. “They took him to the hospital. There was nothing physically wrong with him, but he caught pneumonia, and he wouldn’t speak.”
“He didn’t want to talk about it. I can see that,” I murmured. I knew trauma. Sometimes talking helped, but other times it just brought the nightmare back.
“No, I mean he didn’t speak. At all. For about six years. Eventually, he turned a corner and started talking again, but he wasn’t the brother I knew. He changed, becoming darker and more prone to rage and violence. How he didn’t end up in prison, I’ll never know, but he managed to get himself straightened out somehow, and now here we are.”
“Fuck,” I whispered.
“Yep.”
I couldn’t sleep after that, and Maverick didn’t either. For a while, we just lay there, staring into space, me with my thoughts, and Maverick with his memories. My heart broke for that child, the one lost in the dark with only the dead for company. He’d called me his sunshine, and I was starting to realise how important that chink of light was in his dark life. I was determined to do my best and to be the light he needed. As my baby squirmed in my stomach, I rested my hand on the slight rise, and tears fell slowly for both the child I carried warm and safe inside me and the child in the dark.