Ambrose held his little brother and rushed into the light. With every step, the halos in his eyes returned. Along with the joy. He had found his brother. He was going to rescue him. He was going to get him out of this horrible place. Suddenly Ambrose felt them hit an invisible wall. An invisible fence. His brother dropped from his arms. He turned around and found David, staggering to his feet. Desperate.
“Come on, David!”
David shook his head. No.
“You can’t leave?” Ambrose asked.
David nodded yes. He pushed against his brother. Pushing him into the light to save him.
“It took me fifty years to find you. I’m not leaving you,” Ambrose said.
David began to cry. He pushed on his brother like an oak tree, but Ambrose wouldn’t budge.
“David, stop. I’m never leaving you again.”
Gently, the old man lowered David’s hands until the little boy stopped pushing. Ambrose knelt down and put his hand on David’s shoulder. He felt the light inside him. He looked through the halos in his eyes.
“David…can you go to Heaven?” Ambrose asked.
David nodded. Yes.
“Then, why aren’t you there already?”
David looked at Ambrose.
“You stayed here for me?” Ambrose asked.
David nodded. Yes.
“You were protecting me?”
David nodded again. Ambrose looked back at the clearing. He saw the hissing lady being torn apart by the nice man. The shadows and skeletons crawling on the sheriff. The damned ripping Christopher from his mother as the deer attacked. All was lost.
“David, do you want to see Mom and Dad?”
David stopped. He knew what Ambrose was asking. The little boy nodded. Yes.
“Come on, David,” Ambrose said. “Let’s go home.”
He took David’s hand, and they ran at the nice man. With every step, Ambrose’s body felt like it did on that night when he was seventeen. His bad knees. Arthritis. The scars from the wars. All the little aches and pains. They all melted away. There was no more pain because there was no more flesh to hold it.
The two Olson boys raced through the clearing.
And then…impact.
They hit the nice man, who fell to the ground in agony. Their light spreading like buckshot through his skin. It was so bright that the shadows were vaporized. The deer attacking Christopher’s mother were blinded. The skeletons and the damned were knocked away from the sheriff and Christopher like a house made of cards.
Time seemed to slow. Ambrose opened his eyes. There were no halos. It was all a halo. All of the grief. The worry. Fifty years of an empty room. It was gone. He finally found his little brother. He could stop being lost now. In a blink, he saw David turn to the hissing lady. His protector. His guardian. The woman who kept him safe for the half century Ambrose could not. He waved goodbye to her and smiled with his missing front teeth. She cried in joy as she watched him leave this place forever. Her David was finally going home. The two Olson boys rose up. Two sons. Two suns. The light was brighter than anything Ambrose had ever seen, but it didn’t hurt his eyes. The lights came on in his bedroom. Ambrose looked up from his bed and saw his little brother at the light switch.
“Hey, Ambrose. You want to have a catch?” David asked.
Chapter 135
Christopher watched as the last of their light flickered in the wind, and then, darkness descended. The woods were coming back to life. Christopher ran to his mother, bleeding on the ground. He helped her to her feet. She put her weight on her leg, bitten to ligaments by the deer. Christopher helped his mother over the graves left by the skeletons as the hissing lady grabbed the sheriff and threw his arm over her neck like a soldier.
The four limped to the tree.
The door opened to light. The hissing lady threw the sheriff into the trunk. Back to life. Back to the real side. She turned to Christopher’s mother. One look a lifetime.
“Go!” she said.
Christopher’s mother moved her son into the light. Christopher looked back at the hissing lady when suddenly, he saw the nice man charging them. Christopher knew both of them couldn’t get out. It was either him or his mother. He threw his mother into the light.
“No!” she screamed.
The nice man grabbed Christopher and yanked him back into the clearing. The hissing lady rushed at him. In his fury, he threw her down like a chew toy for the deer.