each time he slid a bit, causing gravel and dirt to fall over the edge into the abyss below. He didn’t even want to think about the fact that a tiny girl like Haddie had made this climb as well. He still couldn’t fathom how or why she’d decided to look in the spot where so many bones waited to be found.
Scarlett had scooted back and Camden hoisted himself up and over the edge, pulling himself to his knees, and brushing the dust from his shirt. She moved forward, grasping him, holding on tightly, her heart beating as swiftly as his. He gripped her back and they stayed that way for a moment, clutching each other on the side of the cliff. When she pulled away, she asked softly, “It’s her, isn’t it?”
“I think so, yes.”
Scarlett’s shoulders dropped and she let out a soft moan. “My God. All this time.”
Haddie approached, looking behind Camden where he’d sworn he’d heard the soft sound of a drum. Whatever animal or peculiarity of nature made that echoing rumble hadn’t changed or gone away in the thirteen years he’d been gone. “You found them,” Haddie stated.
Scarlett turned, gathering her daughter to her. “Yes, baby, we did.” She took her face in her hands and leaned her forehead on hers. “I didn’t realize that canyon was so deep.” She shivered visibly and her voice broke as she said, “You could have been badly hurt.”
“I had to, Mommy,” Haddie whispered. “I felt them there.”
Camden frowned, wondering what the little girl meant by that, but Scarlett simply released a slow exhale, seemingly unsurprised by the comment, if not confused.
Camden walked forward, going down on one knee in front of Haddie. Scarlett glanced at him questioningly but moved aside. He smiled at the child. She looked like Scarlett, except for her coloring, and those wide, almond-shaped eyes that somehow seemed young and ancient all at once.
“Haddie, can I ask what you mean when you say you could feel them there?” He could sense Scarlett’s eyes on him, and her wariness. It comforted him. She would step in and let him know if his questions were out of line, or if he risked scaring the little girl.
Haddie glanced at her mother and then back to Camden. “Some people . . . or places feel heavy like . . .” She scrunched her nose and looked off to the sky behind him. “Like a storm is coming, only on the inside. In my bones.”
He tried to understand, wanted to be the person he would have wanted if someone had questioned him when he was a child, trying to unearth things which seemed desperately inexplicable to his young mind. “Like . . . pressure?” he asked.
“Pressure?” she repeated.
“Yes, like when something heavy is pressing down on you.”
She nodded, her eyes opening wide as if with excitement. “Yes, pressure. Heavy. Achy. Some people, some places, are so heavy, I can’t move.”
Camden watched her for a moment. He didn’t know what to think of what she was saying, but he also wanted to get the information from her while she seemed inclined to give it. Perhaps it was the side of him that had worked law enforcement for several years now, or perhaps it was more that he had grown up escaping to these woods every chance he got. He’d sensed things here too, things he could never explain, things that made him feel strange. And he also wanted this little girl to trust him, Scarlett’s daughter.
Maybe Haddie’s words were simply the way a child would explain her fear and confusion. Things that were scary to her caused pressure to build inside. He thought about how Haddie had appeared frightened of him the first time he’d been in her presence. So frightened she’d wet herself. “Am I heavy, Haddie?” he asked quietly.
“No,” she said softly, shaking her head. “You’re light. Like my mommy. Only . . . different.” She appeared to think for a moment. “She’s light like air. You’re light like fire.”
She stared at him with a surety he’d never seen before in a child’s eyes and tenderness filled him. Whatever she’d been afraid of that day, it hadn’t been him. He felt inexplicably honored by her words. Humbled. Relieved. “Thank you, Haddie.”
He stood and so did Scarlett. She took his hand in hers, squeezing it gently. “What do we do now?” she asked.
Camden looked behind him, squinting out into the canyon. “We call the authorities. We get as many people here