13 July 2009, 10:18pm, Jackman, Maine

Jackman, Maine isn't much of a town. 15 miles from the Canadian border, this place is more of a stop along the way than anything. Fortunately, a town with 872 people isn't the place you find littered with pay phones, so we went about looking for one in the dark of night. I checked my watch and shifted in my seat as Kimmy drove the Beetle at the head of the parade line. Too bad none of us felt festive.

It had clearly reached the point for me where if we hadn't gone as a group, I would have taken off by myself. I'd been mobile for days, even eating again, and saw no rational reason to delay the search for Rad, but everyone was hesitant. Then again, from what Korshan said, I was half dead when they found me in Hartford, so maybe the caution was warranted somehow.

At the time, I couldn't see it and maybe I still really don't. Rad, of all people, was the most important thing in the universe to me. We're married, focused on each other, and scary to think, happy. The ring was an unhappy reminder of what Amy had said to me, that they'd gotten to him, and I knew that every day that passed was one more day in Hell that he didn't need. Wasn't one of us enough?

There was the question of the ring itself, whether it was counterfeit, but the little bit of psychometry in my sanctum had confirmed what I knew. Amy was a total bitch, but she didn't really have it in her to lie--when you sleep with someone for 6 months, you come to understand these things.

Sue offered to use her magick to locate him and we'd packed the Beetle full of people to go do just that. Up north of Laconia on I-93 in the dark of night, on a cloudy and potentially rainy night, we waited while Sue went off by herself. An hour later, she came out of the trees at the side of the highway with the answer: Near Rockwood, Maine. The catch was that something was interfering with her search, so we'd have to do the rest the hard way.

Then 4 more days of waiting. I have no real idea of why, just the way things happen around here. Sue's comment to Blair about my not having a tradition hurt, as did her reproof of my despair and anger. Maybe she never had anyone truly close; maybe she didn't want anyone that close, but I felt like I'd been gutted. Rad was the one person I'd wanted to see, and he wasn't there when I woke up.

Damn straight the thought of losing my husband caused me despair. Telling me to 'let go' of my feelings was tantamount to telling me to let go of him. No fucking way, Jose. Damn straight that I was bitter about what the cult did to me, and maybe him. It didn't matter to me what happened, so long as I could look at him again and touch his face and tell him I was there and it was okay.

Yeah, it's overly romantic bullshit, but it's my bullshit. Deal.

Rockwood itself isn't much of a town, either. A 1000 people there, if that many, and most of them were deep into fleecing the outdoor enthusiasts who flocked there to fish and all that stuff. I got out of the Beetle with my map and started to get my bearings. Sue said Rad was 'southwest' and the only thing important in that direction was a mountain about 15 miles away.

I flipped through the pages of the map book and started to look more critically at that area. Sue was kind enough to fetch the Rockwood and Augusta papers for me. Every now and again, I thank God for David and what he taught me about looking at things. I flipped the Rockwood paper open and started looking for weird stuff, disturbances, and fire reports for the entire area while Blair took the Augusta paper and did a more general look for the same. Both of us hit pay dirt.

As I was marking off incidents that corresponded to the area Sue suggested, Blair came out with the confirmation that there could be darker things afoot. Maine is a whole state away, so we don't get the papers from over there. Yet pretty as you please, there was a whole section relating to occult crime and community concerns regarding cults.

It was amazing, almost too good to be true, but there was the Moosehead Lake region listed among 6 or 7 others as being hot spots. And yes, I know that cat mutilations and grave defacements are the province of dabbling teenagers, but it suggested an undercurrent of something that wasn't that easy to dismiss. Well, not when you've been up close and personal with it, anyhow.

Taking the occult stuff in the land thick with ghost stories into account, I filed it in the back of my mind while I sifted the 5 most likely reports. Don't get me going about the way addresses are done in the backwoods. I eliminated all but two: a sheriff's office report of gunshots in the middle of the night and a suspicious trash fire. Both of them were in 'Coffee Road', and from the looks of the map, we weren't going to like driving it.

I note that poorly graded, muddy roads and VW Beetles don't mix. We drove down the two lane 'road' slowly. It felt like it took an hour to get to that fork in the road where we stopped. Left fork or right? No clue, but while Blair was flipping coins to decide, I found the rock.

It was little more than a displaced chunk of the local bedrock, jutted out at an angle and covered with vines. I think the only reason I noticed it at ll, was because of the odd scratchings on the one corner. As I pushed the vines back, I saw more of it. I couldn't place the symbols, but they also seemed incomplete, like someone had stopped part way through the vandalism. About then, Blair announced the left fork and we were all back in vehicles.

Another ten minutes down the road and I noticed Sue wasn't behind me anymore. She and Blair had stopped some way back, so I backed up until I was reasonably close. Sue was ruminating over something she'd found on a tree and I was content to let others do the thinking for a bit.

That's when the shot hit the ground behind Blair and we all scrambled to defense. Within minutes, I'd felt the searing pain that came with being shot and was really wishing I hadn't gotten out of bed. A second round pierced my side and I crumpled like a rag doll beside the car. Blood and I don't get along and watching my own spill to the ground was one of the harder things I've had to deal with. Maybe I had needed more time to recover....

There were a lot of gunshots and voices in the next few minutes. Sue had healed me enough that the pain was remotely bearable, but just as I might have gotten up to take cover -behind- the beetle, Blair grabbed me and dug as my wounded shoulder. I have no idea what the moron was doing or why, but I did my best to swat him away from before the pain put me over into a heap again. The battle intensified for a few moments; sounded like the gunfight at the OK Corral. Then it was quiet again and I tried to get my head together on the damp roadway.

Kimmy's voice, soft, concerned, came to me next, "Beatrice... can you help me get you on your feet?"

I roused and asked, "Kimmy?"

She whispered to me. "Yes sweetie... it's Kimmy."

"Can't focus..."

Kim quieted me and helped me up and to the car. Once I was folded into the passenger seat, she cranked it back and let me recline a little. There was a quiet horror in her voice as she assisted me and talked me back, like what was happening over in the woods was unthinkable to her. Finally, at the end, after I healed myself and thanked Kammie for the gift of Life Magick to make it possible, I heard Kim pronouncing Last Rites. I cracked my eyes open long enough to see her looking out to where Sue and Blair had to be and knew that the job was being finished.

She sighed softly as she watched Sue, "Do't they realize... she is their last hope for redemption in this life?"

I let out a soft 'heh' and said, "You think people like that care?"

She whispered back, "I pity them that they do not..."

I might have launched into my perspectives on the cult I had been in and how hardened we all had been, but I was tired and the ringing celphone at my hip prompted me to cut myself short to open it up and see who was calling. The number was the main house line. Kim took the phone and answered it while I rested. I wasn't jumping up to do anything right then.

A few moments later, Kim announced calmly, but earnestly, "It is Aliya. She says Rad called the house, he sounded terrible, as though he were about to keel over..." She nodded on the phone as she spoke some more, "The place he called from is Jackman. He was really disoriented but managed to give her the number for a pay phone there... but he hung up before he could find out that Beatrice was back home..."

A gasp was my initial response, followed closely by, "Jackman is on the other side of this mountain." We'd driven through it on the way to Rockwood. Kim hung up and put the phone in my lap before murmuring something about Sue and sprinting off. Probably the only reason Blair didn't totally earn my ire, in the end, was because there was one point where I opened my eyes and he was there, looking up at me with some modicum of concern. Otherwise, I was asleep until Kim and Sue got back from their work beyond the tree line.

Grimfaced, saddened, but somehow unburdened, she checked me over again and asked "How ya feelin' sug?"

After a moment to consider, I said tiredly, "Just fragged, Kim. I'll be okay."

She patted my leg and said, "We gonna go get ya man back." Then she started up the engine and drove.

And wouldn't you know it? After all that slowpoking down the road from and to Hell, another half mile down the winding gravel and dirt road lay a paved crossroad....

In the 15 minutes it took to shoot back to Jackman, I had some time to pull my head together. Kim had the number of the pay phone in her head and once we'd saw the old style glass enclosed booth by the gas station, we rolled ahead to it. As we rolled up, Sue and Blair not far behind us, I saw someone sitting there.

When it dawned on me who it was, I didn't even wait for the car to come to a stop before I scrambled out to him. Rad looked like he'd been through the wringer. Hair a mess, no glasses, he was a sight for my sore eyes, even if I was mystified by the pastel floral print frock. For sure, some maven of backwoods Maine fashion was missing her favorite evening attire....

I settled down in front of him, trying to ascertain his condition without using my magick. He was scratched up, bug bitten, sporting a few assorted cuts and bruises, but there appeared to be nothing that couldn't be fixed. It was look of near collapsed and the the partially vacant stare that concerned me. I empathized to such a level it almost hurt as I put a hand on his leg and asked, very softly, "James?"

My heart had crawled right up in my throat about then. For so many days, I had only wanted to find him. Now that he was sitting there in front of me, I just wanted him to answer me enough to know he was going to be alright. Where the others were didn't matter anymore, in this instant while I waited, there was, and could only be, Rad.

He sat there for a moment before reacting to my voice. As soon as he glanced up and saw me, tears starting to form in his eyes. He leaned forward and simply as he wrapped his arms around me. Nothing said, nothing needed saying, he just held me tightly.

Both of us cried.