What went wrong?

That was the one thought that kept spinning through his head as he groped his way through the darkness. He dragged himself along the ground, making his way towards the sound of the water dripping into the pool of the cave. 

He couldn’t see himself, which was a blessing. His skin was charred, and most of his clothing had been incinerated by the attack. The plastic that he had been carrying had melted, and the metal had seared whatever tissue it was closest to. 

He slowly felt his way along until his hand splashed into the spring, then pulled himself into the water. He floated for a few seconds, then sank beneath the surface, curling up into a fetal position.

What went wrong?

Something must have gone wrong, he thought to himself through the pain. What was the point of it all if it was going to end this quickly?

A few seconds, or maybe hours, later, he suddenly jumped up, surfacing.

"What do you mean, you made a mistake?" he rasped into the shadows.

After a moment, he nodded. "All right, I can accept that. How soon until I’m ready to go back?"

"What!?"

"No, I am not going to bide my time until he’s weaker! The others are there right now, and he’ll kill them without thinking twice about it! Then he’ll be confident enough to start attacking again! I have to stop him now, when he’s expecting me to be licking my wounds. You’ve got to send me back there!"

The only reply that could be heard was the howling of the wind.

"I don’t care what it does to me! They’ve all done too much, come too far, for you, or me, to abandon them. They were willing to fight for you on my word alone! Damn it, I led them there! 

"I won’t let any of them get hurt because of my actions! You do whatever you have to. Just make me strong enough to stop the bastard and get them back!" His voice took on a harder tone. "You do it, or so help me, I will never do what’s required! You can all go to Hell for all I care! I’ll let him win, I swear it!"

He nodded again. "I’m glad we cleared that up."

A moment later, he heard the rumble of thunder beyond the cliffs. He slowly lowered himself back into the pool, allowing only his face to break the surface.

"Of course it’s going to hurt," he muttered to himself. "It always does."

Paidric Casey usually didn’t take the shore road to get home, but he’d worked late, and the storm that was brewing looked threatening enough to be a problem. The time that he’d save would be worth missing his usual hour at the pub, and he had a bottle of whiskey in his cabinet that would help warm him up. 

He cursed suddenly and hit his brakes, startled by a noise. He looked around, but couldn’t see anything out of the ordinary. The only thing in the area was Riley’s place, over by the fairy mound, and the lights there were out.

Paidric listened for a moment longer, then started driving again. A sudden rumble of thunder urged him to increase his speed. A moment later, the sky was filled with flashes of lightning. He muttered a short prayer, then dismissed the whole thing as being part of his imagination. The wind was just getting worse, he thought to himself.

After all, why in the hell would someone be screaming?

Continued in Chapter Twenty-Six