

"Wow! Immediatly from the start you can feel the story moving and what followed was even better and kept me hooked! Nicely done... an entertaining story that reads with ease."

– YGPAC

___________________________

In Avon, a beach town along the Outer Banks of North Carolina, Ben is falling fast for the beautiful and intelligent Caroline, even as they both deal with her stalker ex-boyfriend who has followed her south on vacation.

As Ben learns the depths of the other man's madness his and Caroline's relationship runs into another wall, level 3 Hurricane Irene moving quickly toward the Outer Banks. When the storm arrives, all of their lives will be drastically changed.

How will they learn to cope with the consequences? When they are tested with a disaster on the brink of their comprehension, how will they pick up the pieces of their lives?

____________________________

"This is a page turner. The story is believable... visual and easy to follow."

– Roslyn Alexander, author of "I Am" Through The Ages
Breakwater Harbor Books presents by Scott J. Toney

Chic-Lit

Hearts of Avon

Christian Fiction

Lazarus, Man

Fantasy

The Ark of Humanity

Eden Legacy

Poetry

Dusk Crescence

# Hearts of Avon

Scott J. Toney

Breakwater Harbor Books, Inc.

Scott J. Toney and Cara Goldthorpe, Co-Founders

www.breakwaterharborbooks.weebly.com

Copyright © 2013 by Scott J. Toney

Smashwords Edition

All Rights Reserved

Cover by David Lockhart

Author email – poeticliscence@hotmail.com

Cover Artist email – lockhartdesigns999@gmail.com

First Paperback Printing, February 2013

Smashwords Edition, License Notes

This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you're reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return to Smashwords.com and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

Acknowledgments

I cannot express my thanks deeply enough to Ivan Amberlake, who is an impeccable editor and whose friendship is valuable beyond words.

David Lockhart, my best friend and cover designer, has created a stunning work for Hearts of Avon's cover. His talent is immense and I am honored to have his artwork for the covers of my books.

My beautiful wife Laura is what drives and inspires me. She brings heart and substance to my works by being by my side, holding my hand and loving me fully, as my equal.

Annabel, you keep my writing compass morally steady. I keep you in mind as my words fill the page, and hope one day when you read my books you'll know daddy has filled them with inspirations and love.
Dedicated to Laura, for being the intelligent, beautiful, strong, caring woman of my dreams. Words cannot express my thanks to God for bringing you to my life. I would not be the man I am or have the passion I do without you. This book is written for you. My love is in its pages.

When we wish on stars, dreams come true. But I do not need stars, because I have you. Hold my hand, dance with me, and I will give you the moon.

1

_What would life be like if you had lived?_ Ben wondered. Gulls sang somewhere in the distance and he smiled as he enjoyed the day.

Benjamin's heart had always been a part of Avon, ever since his mother had died there of cancer when he was a young boy. He still lived in that same beach house with his father and the two made their living by selling paintings up and down the shore. He loved his home and felt connected to his mother on the beach in the evening sun.

Ben closed his eyes; listening to the ocean beat against the beach, feeling its salty mist spray him in the wind. Sunlight warmed him as he sat near the shoreline, digging his hands into the sand.

_Click!_ The faint noise came from close by and he opened his eyes, turning to look in its direction.

There, standing next to the stilt beams of the neighboring house, stood the most beautiful girl he had ever seen. How did he not see her coming up on him? Sunlight shone around her form and her red top and skirt flowed in the breeze. A moment passed between them, and she smiled while holding her camera at her side. Before he could speak she turned and ran down the beach away from him.

"Wait! What's your name?" he called to her.

Who was this beautiful girl? If he let this moment pass he may never know.

Ben stood quickly, stumbling in the sand as he ran. "Wait!" he shouted, but she didn't look back.

He ran after her, past kids flying kites and a couple holding hands. Gulls sang overhead.

The girl ran up a dune of sand in the distance toward a light blue beach house and Ben's heart dropped. Was this where she was staying? He hoped so, because if she was staying somewhere beyond that point he would never find her.

He picked up speed as he neared the house and his bare foot cracked into a driftwood log, sending him crashing into the sand.

"You're coming with me!" a strong male voice shouted over the dune.

"No... we're not together. I can't, John, I... I just can't."

Was that her? Was that the beautiful girl who had taken his picture?

"You won't leave me! I won't let you! You're mine and I'm taking you back!"

"No, John!" the female shrieked.

"You'll realize you love me!"

That was it... it was all that Ben could take. No girl deserved to be treated like that. He didn't care who it was anymore, he was going to help.

He dug his arms into the hot sand and stood, walking toward the buff, black haired guy who had the girl's wrist clutched hard in his. A recent scar ran down the side of his face.

It was the same girl.

"Let her go!" Benjamin yelled to him.

"Or what?"

"Or I'll make you let her go!" Ben was nearing the car they were in front of now.

"Who is this, Caroline?" John asked.

"If she says she's through with you then she's through! She doesn't want you and I can see why!"

John shoved Caroline aside and was coming toward him now.

Ben's heart beat heavy in his chest. He couldn't leave. He would have to confront him and braced to stand his ground. "Go."

"John... I'll go," Caroline spoke with fear in her voice. "Leave him alone. This is between us."

John was taller than him and was coming up the sand toward him. "No! This boy's made it clear he wants this between me and him!"

John threw a punch, but Ben dodged to the side and avoided his fist. With his heart racing, almost as a reflex, Ben clenched a fist and crushed it into John's stomach, unable to move him. A second later, John cracked his fist into Ben's head and he collapsed in the sand, darkness consuming his sight and sand stinging his eyes. John's foot thrust against his ribs.

"Get up sissy! Who's ordering who now? You want her? Stand up and fight!"

Bile rose in Ben's throat as sunlight swam in his eyes.

... _have to get up..._ he thought, half conscious, as another punch from John's foot landed in his side.

"What's going on out here?" a woman's voice came from close by. "John? Get off my property before I call the police!"

"I'll be back!" John's voice came from somewhere above him. "Leave my girl alone, boy, or next time I'll give you more than bruised ribs and a sore skull!"

There was commotion as more voices came and Ben heard the sound of a car pulling out of the driveway.

A soft hand touched his face. "Are you alright?" Caroline asked.

Darkness swelled around him and everything fell away.
2

_Why, John?_ Caroline thought while sitting in a spare bedroom of her Aunt's beach house, The Ocean's Whisper. The waves outside crashed rhythmically against the shore. _You were so handsome and strong... What happened to the you I first met? It seems so long ago._

Three years ago she met John when she was in high school. He was two years older than her and the fact that an older boy liked her helped draw her to him. _You were charming and funny. You loved me... or at least I thought you did._ With a sigh Caroline braced her head with her hands. Tears streamed down her face and were soaked up by the carpet below.

Now he was controlling and abusive, not so much physically, but he had been mentally abusive for some time. He controlled who she was friends with, what she ate, even how she spent her money. Somehow she had justified it all, for the sake of being with him.

_And then you hit me._ Caroline took her sleeve and wiped her tears away. _I won't take any more. I'm never going back to you, John. I deserve better._ She lifted her head, looking at the guy who had stood up for her. _I don't even know your name._ She had seen him on the beach in the sun and thought he was asleep. _You looked so handsome lying in the sunlight. I never thought you'd wake up and see me._

Caroline breathed a deep breath. She had been worried about him but her Aunt, who had come to their rescue, was once a nurse and assured her that he would be alright.

"Who are you?" she asked softly. A shiver ran up her arms. He had a handsome, caring face. And he was tone, but not buff. His heart... she wasn't looking for a relationship but... she wanted to get to know his heart. _A friend..._ Could they be friends?

\-- --

Darkness.

Ben could not see, could barely think, but somehow was comforted by the sound of waves in a distant part of his mind.

Light entered and then returned to darkness before him.

Who are you?

It was the enchanting voice of a girl, _the_ girl, Caroline.

_Caroline..._ the thought brought him back to consciousness.

With a moan he turned his head on the soft pillow and opened his eyes, light flooding into them until they focused on the beautiful girl sitting beside the bed. "Caroline?" he asked. "Where am I? How did I get here? What happened?" He used his arms to brace himself up on the bed and went to stand.

She smiled and stood, placing a hand on his shoulder. "I'm so happy you're awake. You should stay in bed for a moment. Give your body time to wake up." As he relaxed again while sitting on the bed, Caroline moved a strand of hair away from her eyes and behind her ear. "Thank you so much for standing up for me. John is my ex-fiancé. I left him over a month ago but he still can't take a hint." There was an awkward moment of silence. "What's your name? I still don't know who you are."

"Ben." He smiled while holding out his hand and shaking hers. She had a soft and gentle touch. "I would stand up for anyone who needed me. I'm just glad that I was there to help you... or at least try. How bad was it? I didn't actually do much other than get punched out, did I?"

Caroline gave a small laugh. "You cared about helping me. That is doing a lot! This is my aunt's house, in case you're wondering. We brought you inside after John drove off. I'm here with my Mom for two weeks while we help my aunt paint the outside. I didn't honestly think you'd see me take that picture of you, but I'm glad you did."

Ben wanted to tell her how beautiful he had thought she was when he saw her, but somehow this didn't feel like the right time for that. "You definitely surprised me." He grinned. "I was intrigued, and I had to know who you were."

"I have an idea." Caroline stood and started going toward the door. "How about you meet my aunt and then we can make sandwiches and take a walk on the beach? I'd introduce you to my mom, but she's at the store."

"That sounds great," Ben said, happy to have more time to get to know this attractive girl. There was something special about her. His attraction to her was more than just physical. There was an intelligence that stood out and something even deeper than that. _What is it?_ He followed her down a hallway and into a sunlit living room. He could smell a mango scented candle burning close by.

"This is Ben," Caroline introduced him to her aunt who was reading a book on a flower patterned couch.

He walked further in the room. "It's a pleasure to meet you..."

"Suzie, just call me Suzie. I'm glad you're alright, and I'm thankful for what you did for my niece."

Caroline made her way to the kitchen close by and came back with bread, a jar of chocolate peanut butter and a banana.

Ben joined her at a counter that stretched out, separating the kitchen from the dining area. "Mmm... You've got good taste," he joked with her and took the knife as she smiled back at him. He took a good helping of the chocolate peanut butter and slathered it on his bread, adding slices of banana as he cut them up. "I thought I was the only one who did this!"

"Nope, me too! These are one of my dad's specialties. Breakfast, lunch, dinner, I've learned that they are great for any meal!"

"I think there are those who would disagree," Suzie called from the couch, "myself included!"

"Not dad," Caroline laughed. "Either that or his other go-to, hotdogs."

Ben spun the lid back on the peanut butter and helped bring the supplies back into the kitchen. "Mmm hotdogs, now you're talking!"

"One meal at a time, tough guy," she joked as they made their way down the stairs toward the front door. "We're going for a walk on the beach, Suzie!"

"Alright, I'll let your mom know! Watch out for John! I think he'll leave us alone now but just be careful!"

"I will! I have Ben with me! I'll be alright!"

There was a light breeze as they stepped outside and walked toward the beach. The sand was hot beneath Ben's feet and tall grass swayed around them as they made their way toward the shore.

"So do you always stalk the beach for unsuspecting guys?" he joked while holding his free hand out and feeling the reeds of grass.

Caroline blushed. "You were asking for it, and besides, I wasn't even taking a picture of you. There was this beautiful seagull flying overhead..."

"Sure there was." He gave a smirk and took a bite of his sandwich. The chocolate and banana were delicious, but he wondered if it was the company he was in that made it just right?

"You'll see when I get the pictures developed!"

"Developed? Isn't everything digital now?" He gave her a smile and a joking look. He couldn't help but think about how beautiful she was in the sunlight. _Her smile..._ he thought, _there is just something wonderful about her smile!_

"Oh, I still like developing them. I've actually always wanted to have a camera with actual film that I could develop myself. Maybe someday..."

There was a moment of silence between them and Ben searched for something to say to start the conversation back up. They were down by the edge of the water now and it lapsed over their bare feet as they walked. "So I know you're visiting your aunt, but where are you from? I've lived in Avon all of my life."

"And I've lived my whole life in Pittsburgh, but I love coming down to visit Suzie and just taking in the beach!"

"Did that guy follow you all the way down here?"

Caroline stopped for a moment and stared out over the glistening ocean. "John follows me, or at least he has since I left him. I loved him, but he became a man that I can't let myself love any longer." She kept looking out over the ocean, unable to look to Ben's eyes.

"How could you love a guy like that? He's obviously abusive! I couldn't believe he was treating you like that, trying to control you, and I've just met him!" Something made Ben wish he could take back or rephrase his words, but it was too late now.

"Don't worry," Caroline looked to him. "I know, I know I should have left him long ago. He is abusive, but it wasn't until recently that he put his hands on me. That's what made me leave him. That's why my mom suggested we come here and spend a few weeks helping Suzie paint The Ocean's Whisper. We hoped he would leave me alone."

_What can I do for her?_ Ben stopped walking and Caroline stopped with him. A cool breeze whipped around them. He liked her as more than a friend, he already knew that. But that's not what she needed in her life. _She needs friendship._ "If you need me while you're here let me know and I'll do whatever I can. Heck, if you need me after you leave just let me know and I'll be there for you."

Caroline gave him a huge smile and he could swear he saw tears forming in her eyes. "Ben, I can't tell you how much that means to me..."

Ben didn't know why, but he embraced her in a hug.

She let herself relax in his arms. "Thank you."

As she moved away, she wiped tears from her eyes. "Enough of this," Caroline sniffed and leaned down toward the water that was rising up the beach to meet her feet. She cupped her hands and, with a thrust, soaked him with a spray of water.

They both broke out laughing and Ben went into the water, soaking her with a spray as well. "You knew that was coming!" he managed before getting a face full of water as she sent another spray his way. Soon he was out of the water and chasing her back down the beach to her aunt's house.

\-- --

At night, as he lay in bed listening to wind whipping around he and his father's house, Benjamin closed his eyes and thought of Caroline's smile after he had sprayed her with water. _What a beautiful smile._

\-- --

That same moment a black car sat parked houses down from The Ocean's Whisper and Caroline.

John sat in his torn leather seat, alert, his eyes focusing on the darkness before him.
3

"You're distracted," his father's voice came from close by.

Sunlight shone through the window before him, warming Ben's hand as it clutched a paintbrush, its bristles coated in red paint. He had been sitting here for some time lost in thought, unable to put paint to the half-finished canvas before him. This was his and Mason's ritual, to paint every day after breakfast until they had each completed a fresh work.

Ben stared past his canvas, and out the window to the ocean's horizon. "I don't know, Mason, I just can't seem to get this paint onto the canvas."

He had called his father by name ever since he could remember, never dad, always Mason. The two were more like brothers than son and father. He credited his mother's death for that. At first his father had been cold to him. Mason later admitted that Ben had reminded him of his dead wife, Beth, and that it was the reason why their relationship had struggled. Now they were close though, dedicated to each other and to living in a way that Beth would be proud of.

Ben looked back to the painting of a sunset over the ocean he had been working on. A sailboat was in the painting's center. He had painted its sails extended fully in the wind, and was about to work the red on his brush into the horizon when Mason interrupted his thoughts again.

"It's the girl. You know that, don't you?" Mason asked Ben in his gruff voice. "I saw her with you on the beach yesterday. Is she local?"

Ben laid his brush down on his palette. "No. She's here for a few weeks to help her aunt paint the outside of her house."

"She's beautiful. Be careful, it's hard to start a relationship and then have her leave. And she could see what you have together in a totally different way than you do."

"We're friends, that's it, and I would make it work if I ever fell for a girl from out of town. You know I'm not a guy who'd take advantage of a girl and just use her while she's here."

"It's not her I worry for, Ben, it's you. I don't want to see you fall for her and watch her break your heart when she leaves."

_Knock! Knock! Knock!_ The sound from the house's front door interrupted them.

Ben put his brush down on the painting palette, careful to keep its bristles clear of other paint so that he wouldn't taint the red hue he had worked to achieve on its tip. "I can take care of myself," he told Mason while rising to go to the door. "Thank you for caring though."

Soon he was at the door, with its cool copper handle in his hand. As he opened it, sunlight flooded in and he smiled to see Caroline's beautiful smile as she greeted him. Her hair blew in the breeze coming off the ocean down the beach. He ran his hand through his hair, not expecting that she'd be there.

"You said if I needed you, to come, right?" Caroline grinned. "Well, I need you... that is, if you don't mind getting some paint on your hands."

He was excited. _Maybe she does like me._ "I don't know. I'll think about it." He smiled and shut the door, waiting a few moments before reopening it. "Sure, why not? But make no mistake, you're going to owe me. Let me go tell my dad and change in to some scrub clothes. Care to come in while you wait? I have some prime orange juice in the fridge."

Caroline stepped in out of the heat and followed him up the stairs. He caught Mason's eye roll and smile as he stepped into the main level of the house.

Mason stood. "And who is this lovely lady?" his father asked while coming over to them and reaching out to shake Caroline's hand.

"Caroline. It's a pleasure to meet you. Are you Ben's father?"

"Call me Mason. But yes, he's my son. Come here and let me show you something."

"Mason!" Ben called back as he made his way to his bedroom. "I'm sure she doesn't want to see those!"

A few minutes later, Ben emerged from his room wearing tattered jeans and a t-shirt that already had paint spots up and down them. He wore them while helping paint the local church the summer before.

"You never told me you were an artist!" Caroline called back to him as she stood by his easel, admiring the painting he was working on. "How do you do this? Your dad showed me your paintings. You have a lot of talent."

Ben didn't like praise. It had never been something he was comfortable with and he found himself wishing Mason hadn't shown off his work. "It's nothing, just something Mason and I do in the mornings," he said humbly while walking beside her and looking at the sunset he was painting.

"Don't be so modest," Mason chimed in while lifting his brush from his own canvas. "We sell them in different galleries throughout the Outer Banks, and Ben's usually bring in more than mine."

Caroline held out her hand, almost touching the canvas where the boat was, out in the middle of the water. Ben had begun to paint the figure of a girl there, on its deck. "It is so beautiful and real looking," she said while lowering her hand.

"I could paint something for you," he said, not really knowing where that had come from. Then he saw something out of the corner of his eye. One of his smaller paintings, about the size of his hand, lay on a table beneath a shell lamp close by. In it was a dolphin jumping through the waves as the sun set in the distance behind it. He actually painted the piece after seeing a dolphin when he went out on a local fishing boat. Ben went over to the table and picked it up. "What do you think of this one until I can paint something new?"

Caroline took it in her hands and he felt her fingers softly touch his as she did. The sensation sent a shiver through him.

"It's beautiful," she said. He could see her taking in its vibrant hues. "Thank you so much, Ben. I know just where to hang it in my room, and I would love to have any other painting you'd do."

"I would be honored." Ben took his paints and covered them to keep them from drying out. She had such attractive eyes. "From what you've said, I'd say you're getting a rather large painting out of me today already!" He winked. "Should we go get to work?"

Soon they were out on the beach walking toward Caroline's Aunt's house. The sun beat radiantly in the sky overhead and a nice wind curved around them. Ben couldn't help but notice Caroline's beauty as the wind curled through her hair.

She walked up the beach as a wave pushed up the shore. "I really like the name of your house. The Seaman's Watch, why did you choose that?"

Ben looked out over the ocean. "We actually renamed it. It used to be called 'Seagull's Perch' before my mom died. Mason decided on 'The Seaman's Watch' because, even though mom's not lost at sea, he spent so many days and nights after she passed just sitting on the porch watching the sea, somehow hoping she would return to us. I like to think that in a way she has returned through our paintings. She was the painter, not Mason, but we've dedicated so much for our lives to this because of her."

"How did she die?" Caroline asked. "That must have been so hard."

"I was young, barely nine, and my mom died of cancer. By the time we knew what she had, the disease had already almost taken her from us. I love her deeply. You take the hard things in life and turn them into something positive, you know. And someday I know I'll be with her again." He took a deep breath and closed his eyes for a moment while walking. He felt tears welling up in him but they never came.

"I'm sure she was a wonderful woman." Caroline looked to him. "She has an amazing son. That has to be partially in thanks to her. You have a great heart, Ben."

As they came to The Ocean's Whisper Suzie was already outside with a pair of heavy-duty ladders and large buckets of pastel-yellow paint. A small pile of paint rollers and brushes were beside her.

"Your painters are here!" Ben called to her as they approached.

\-- --

John sat in his car, parked in a covered parking space beneath the house beside The Ocean's Whisper. The house was for sale and apparently deserted. He was sure that he would be unnoticed here. With his hands to his temples, John closed his eyes and consumed the anger surging through him. His head throbbed in pain. "You are mine." He opened his eyes, staring at the wooden slates on the wall before him. You cannot leave me, Caroline. I own you."

He took the key from the car's ignition and thrust it in his pocket before moving his hand to the car seat beside him and his grandfather's old rifle. Its metal barrel was chill to the touch and the wood on it was worn with age. He opened the car door slowly, not making a sound, and stepped out into the garage. With his gun in one hand, he reached over and grabbed his beer with the other. A container of ammunition was in his back jean pocket.

Where to look for the key?

With a plotted, careful walk, John went up a curving flight of stairs leading to the house's door, knowing that realtors would often leave the spare key in a box so that they could show the house to potential buyers. He looked around the door frame and quickly realized there was no box there. He went down the stairs.

The storage room?

Soon his hand was on a splintered door to the side of the house. It creaked as he opened it and a group of stray cats scattered inside. Metal tools and wires lay sporadically on the floor. Sure enough, in the edge of the room's darkness, was a plastic key box hung on a nail in the wall. The box was already busted open and the key lay on a ledge close by. He wasn't the house's first unwanted visitor. He took the key, closed the storage room door and made his way back toward the stairwell.

As he closed the main door of the house, John locked it and looked out its glass. The pane stretched the length of the door frame. He would have to avoid the kitchen that the entranceway opened in to, just in case someone did enter the covered garage.

"Hello!" he called through the house, hearing his voice echo through its barren halls. "I'm here to see the house!"

Nothing. There was no response. As he had assumed, he was alone. And if there was a homeless person here hiding... well, he had his gun. The air was humid and dense as he moved.

The stairs creaked as he ascended them toward the house's upper rooms, and as he reached the top of the wide stairwell he took in sunlight flooding through the windows of the different rooms. Before him was a room with windows facing Caroline's aunt's house.

He approached cautiously, careful to stay out of the window's view. Hatred burned in his heart as he watched Caroline holding a ladder. The guy from the other day brushed paint on the house above. "She's mine. I told you to leave." John clutched the gun tightly in his hand, shaking as he reached with his other hand to his back pocket and removed the container of bullets. He laid the container on the hardwood floor and clicked it open, removing several bullets to load. They were cold against his fingers as he put them into its barrels. His chest tensed as he moved the rifle's nose to the glass, fixing its sight on the guy's skull.

_Five, four, three..._ he counted, his heart racing in anticipation. Sweat ran down his brow.

\-- --

The sun was hot on Ben's back as he dipped his thick brush in the bucket of yellow paint latched to the ladder in front of him. As he stretched to coat it on the weather worn house, a warm, salty breeze curved around him. He was on a heavy-duty ladder but the wind still made him nervous. Somehow, with Caroline bracing the ladder, he felt safe though.

"If it gets too windy up there, come down until it calms!" Caroline called up to him.

"Thanks, I'm good for now!" he called back down.

So far they had just made small talk during the day, but he found himself interested in everything she said, in just being with her. She had avoided speaking about John though, and he knew from the way John had acted the other day he needed to know more about him. John would be back, he knew that, and he felt the urge to protect Caroline if she needed him to.

The wind lulled for a second then, hesitating stilly, and something felt wrong.

"Ben!" Caroline called up to him.

He turned around partially to look down at her and saw something move out of the corner of his sight in the window of the house behind them. What was it?

"Ben! Come down! I want to introduce you to my mom!"

Soon he was looking down at Caroline's vibrant smile and had forgotten all about the window. Her mom was beside her and, my they did look a lot alike. "I'll be right down!" he called down and placed his brush in a holder by the hanging bucket. As he reached the ground he wiped beads of sweat from his brow with a rag that Caroline gave him.

"Mom, this is Ben. Ben, this is my mom," Caroline went through the formalities.

"Pleased to meet you, Ben." Caroline's mom shook his hand with a sincere smile. "My daughter told me about how you stood up for her yesterday. Thank you. And thank you so much for helping us paint the house. You can call me Eva," she said while passing him and Caroline lemonades she had brought out with her.

"It's wonderful to meet you," Ben said while taking a gulp of the sweet, refreshing liquid. "And you are more than welcome for yesterday. I'm not sure what I actually did, but I was just doing the right thing."

Suzie came down The Ocean Whisper's deck stairs with lemonade for herself and Eva. "Care if we join you after a refreshing drink?"

Soon they were sitting in the sand, leaning against the house as they drank their lemonade.

"I can't believe you dated that guy for so long," Suzie said out of nowhere. "I mean, three years is a long time to be with such a jerk. He's so aggressive and mean."

"He wasn't always like that, Sue." Caroline stood and walked over near her aunt. "He changed."

"I don't think he changed." Suzie looked up at her. "I think he hid it from you until he knew he had you. I dated a guy like that once. Jerks are all the same. I just wish you would have gotten away from him sooner. He's like a stalker, following you here like that."

For some reason, Ben felt he needed to say something. "She's not with him now. I mean, I know I've just met your family and everything, but Caroline left him. None of us were there, in her shoes. Is there really any need to rehash anything?"

"Thank you, Ben," Caroline said. "It's my life. I made certain choices for my own reasons. It's really none of your business, Suzie." A few tears raced down her cheek and she wiped them away.

Suzie stood. "I'm sorry, honey, I didn't mean it like that." She reached out her arms and embraced Caroline as she came to her.

"It's alright, I understand," Caroline said as she came back over toward Ben.

"We all just care about you," her mom said. "I know that you know that's why we talk about things. We just love you and care about you so much."

"I know, mom. Let's just get back to painting, ok."

Ben drank the rest of his lemonade, tilting his glass up as the last drops streamed down into his mouth, and then set his cup on the deck's stairs. As Suzie and Eva set their ladder up he and Caroline went back over to their own ladder. "I know that you may not want to talk about things, but remember that I'm here if you want to," Ben said as they reached the ladder.

Caroline put her hand on his. "Thanks, that means as lot. Honestly, I really enjoy being around you. I don't want to dwell on the past anymore. I would love to get to know you better though."

Ben smiled. Her touch gave him a warm feeling. "What do you say about getting some ice-cream with me after we finish later? There's a great place close by."

"I'd love to," she said as she lifted her hand from his. "I can't wait."

"Well, that wall says otherwise." He pointed upward and began to climb.

\-- --

In that moment, next door, John shook violently on the floor, his rifle clutched hard in his hands. He almost choked as tears streamed uncontrollably down his face, resting on his hand below him and the gun's barrels.

_Why? Why, Caroline?_ Pain seared through his chest. _Why did you have to leave me? I could have changed. I can._ He grabbed the floor with his hand, scratching his fingernails across it, feeling pain burn through his joints.

He had come so close to shooting the other guy. His finger had tensed on the trigger, but when the guy turned around, John lost his nerve. _He deserves it._ But if the guy deserved it, then why hadn't he shot? _It is Caroline who deserves my anger, not him,_ he realized. _And I still love her._

John looked to his beer on the floor across from him. He set his gun down and pulled himself over to it, careful to stay clear of the window's sight. With a bottle opener from his pocket, John cracked the top off and let the warm poison sear down his throat. That would calm his body for now, until he could find some other way to fix or destroy what he loved.

\-- --

As Ben finished painting the second side of the house they had painted that day, he stared off at the horizon. It was beautiful, and he knew sunset would come soon. He was excited to finally finish painting and get some quality time, just talking with this beautiful girl.

Soon he was down on the sand, hammering the paint can lid back on his can. His arms were sore from the long day of work.

"Is our ice-cream treat within walking distance?" Caroline asked as she gathered other painting supplies.

Ben hefted the can and brought it to where Eva and Suzie were finishing up. "It's pretty close. I'd love to just walk and stretch my legs." She looked beautiful in the later-day's sunlight and he couldn't help admiring her legs as she walked.

"Ben," Eva's voice drew his attention back. "If you and your dad would want to come over this Saturday, we're having a cookout for a few of Suzie's local friends. We've got room for two more if you're interested. We'll be having tuna steaks, salads and something special for desert."

His mouth watered as he thought about all that good food. "I'll definitely come and I'll ask Mason. It means a lot that you'd invite us."

"It's the least we can do after all your help today. I'll stop stalling you now so that you can go get ice-cream. Be careful if it gets dark before you get back. Caroline, Suzie has a few flashlights in the closet inside if you'd like to take them, just in case."

As they walked down the street in their sandals Caroline was close to him, so close that every now and then her sleeve would brush up against his arm. It was silly, but for some reason he wished he could hold her hand. He wasn't honest with Mason that morning when he told him he just wanted to be friends with her, but Mason knew that. Ben smiled to himself as he fully realized that truth.

Soon they were sitting on the porch of Fat Cat Ice Cream. Ben savored the cool flavor of his mango ice-cream as he put the first spoonful in his mouth.

Caroline had chocolate and vanilla swirl and looked at him silently for a moment as she scooped out her fist bite with her spoon. The sun began to set in the distance behind them and its pink hue ribboned across the sky. "You know, I really like you, Ben," she said before eating her first bite and scooping in for her second. "Time with you is so, enjoyable. I haven't known many guys like you."

"Thanks, I guess." Ben leaned back and brushed his fingers against his chest in an arrogantly comedic way. "That's what they all say." He grinned. "You're pretty wonderful yourself, you know."

Caroline brushed her hair out of her eyes and tucked it behind her ear, playing with it subconsciously as she did so. "So what drives you, Ben? I know you live with Mason and that the two of you are amazing artists, but what drives you? I want to know who you are as a person. You already know some about me."

He had to think about that for a second. He wanted to impress her, but he found all he could really do was be himself. "I guess the beach, the wind, just Avon itself drives me in my art and my desire to stay here. And as a person, well, I'd have to say the people around me do. I've lived here all my life and there is a great small community here, even if most of the people we usually see are tourists."

He thought for a moment. "One of the things that's changed me and meant a lot to me happened last year. I was helping do renovations to our church, painting at the time actually, when a homeless man walked up to me and asked if he could join us. I had never seen him before but he said he had lived in the Outer Banks for years. He worked beside me the next few days as we painted and worked on small interior repairs. And in that time I learned so much about the struggles he dealt with in his everyday life and just how much like me he actually was. I had always viewed the homeless as people who weren't as strong as me, who just couldn't make it. But I learned what a good man he was. The things he deals with daily, the elements and the uncertainties, make him a stronger man than I could hope to be. We've been friends since that day and we meet once a week at a local restaurant to keep that up. I pay for his meal and he gives me his history and time."

Ben curved his spoon over the top of his ice-cream, getting a nice layer to enjoy. "I guess it's not me that drives me, but that man, my dad, my mom and all of the people I know here. The things I experience inspire me. They make me want to help make Avon a better place, to be a better person." He looked into Caroline's deep blue eyes as she listened to him. "Is that what you meant? It may sound silly, but that's what's been on my mind since I met that man. I'm actually meeting him tomorrow for lunch."

"You always surprise me, Ben. You're interesting. I'm not sure you know that though." She took another bite. They were both almost done eating now. "Your story reminds me of a bridge in Pittsburgh that I walk across when I meet my dad for lunch downtown. There is this homeless couple that is always sitting on one side of the bridge. Most people just walk by and ignore them, but I always give something if I have change or a dollar on me. You make me wonder what kind of people they are."

The sun had almost set completely as they finished, with just a deep red hue illuminating the sparse clouds above them. As they threw away their empty bowls, Caroline turned with a smirk to him. "So when are you picking me up tomorrow to eat lunch with you guys?"

Ben almost laughed. "Not that I'm complaining, but it seems like you are trying to have a little control over my days until you go back to Pittsburgh. Next, you will tell me that I should help you paint again tomorrow after lunch."

Caroline clicked on her flashlight and illuminated the darkness that was falling before them. "Didn't you already know that? I was hoping you'd say yes."

"It would be my pleasure. And I'll pick you up around noon."

They walked through the darkness together, shining their flashlights down the street and talking until they came to The Ocean's Whisper's door. Down the shore the ocean water beat against the sand.

He wanted to take her hands, to kiss her, but he couldn't bring up the nerve to do it. "Have a good night," he said and bowed, before heading down the beach house's deck stairs.

"Good night, Ben! Thank you for a wonderful day!"

Ben turned around to look at her as he stood by the water moving up and down the beach. "It was my pleasure! I can't wait to see you again tomorrow!" With another wave he watched her open her door and started heading down the beach toward his home. Moonlight reflected off the ocean and illuminated his way. _What an amazing day!_ he thought while watching a small crab scurry before him and out of his vision.

Then suddenly he felt something crash against his back and he landed face first on the beach. At first he was afraid it was John, but as he rolled over and sat up he saw Caroline's beautiful smile and her moonlit form looking back at him. She came to him, took his surprised face in her hands and brought his lips to hers.

They were soft, sending a warm shiver through his body. And as he lay down in the sand with her above him, the moonlight shining through her hair falling about his face reminded him of stars, stars more beautiful than those that were actually in the sky. They kissed for a moment longer, her body barely touching his above him, and then she stood, holding a finger to his lips.

She took a step away from him as he stood. "Good night, Ben," she spoke with soft emotion. "I had a lovely day."

Ben stood, speechless, watching this amazing girl head back up the beach. He didn't follow her, only watched in amazement as the girl he was falling hard for made her way back to The Ocean's Whisper and turned out its outdoor light.
4

Dark, silent night consumed the world around him as John sat in a rickety old wooden chair. A cigarette was in his hand, the glow of its embers the only light in the room as he peered out its window, into Caroline's room in the house next door. He was careful to keep the cigarette's embers out of view of the window.

He watched with a hollow glare as she undressed, her shirt rising over her chest as she pulled it off. She slid off her shorts and his heart raced as he watched her pull on night clothes. _I will have her again. It is only a matter of time._

Caroline crossed the room and stood at the sliding door that led to the porch. She stood, a shadow against the room's light, her hair and clothes moving in the wind as she opened the door and took in the night air.

_Does she know I'm here?_ John was still, careful not to move at all. At one time he swore she looked directly at him. What if he went to her tonight? Would she realize that she was his? Would she go with him?

Caroline turned then, looking out at the moon over the ocean and up at the stars. A shiver raced through John as he watched her wipe tears from her eyes. She closed the door and turned, going toward the light switch.

"No, don't go," he whispered into the cold nothing about him.

Her light went off. He could see nothing but starlight falling about the house.

Bringing his cigarette up to his mouth, without care of if he could be seen, John took a long drag, watching the embers burn and fade to ash on its end. He dropped it on the wooden floor beside him. He let its heat ignite on worn wood there, barely alert as its fire slowly lit the wood around it. His head pounded from the stress, from needing to have her here in this room with him.

He watched as the flames burned and began moving like a web over the room's floor. It would go out, he knew it would. A cigarette wouldn't do much damage. _But what if..._ He reached for two plastic lighters in his pocket and threw them on the floor near where the flames were stretching. He smashed his boot into them, cracking them open so that the lighter fluid seeped out. With a rush the lighter fluid ignited, kindling a dull orange light in the room around him.

John could feel warmth coming off of the catching flames. "Let the fire burn," he spoke. "Let it rise. Let her feel me." He took the aged chair he had been sitting on and leaned it over the fire before grabbing his gun and beer and heading for the door. He left his used beer bottles in the room. A poisonous smoke fumed up from the lighter fluid, searing his lungs. He hacked and coughed while standing in the doorway for a moment.

He hurried quickly down the stairwell and out of the house, to his car. As he started his engine, his gun propped in the seat beside him, he noticed a shadow shaped like a man moving in the darkness of the garage. What was the shadow doing there? There was no time.

With his headlights off, John backed his black Dodge Charger out of the garage, quickly making his way to the road before he could be seen. As his headlights clicked on, a car passed him, slowing down for a moment, and then accelerating away.

Behind him the beach house room was lit with flames.
5

Ben lay in bed, euphoric over his kiss with Caroline, as he watched the moon and stars outside his window. It was so surreal. His heart was still beating quickly in his chest and he knew it would be hours before he would get sleep. He just couldn't believe it was real.

_She kissed me,_ he told himself, still trying to truly grasp that fact with his mind. _Wow._

He closed his eyes, feeling the cool sheets over him as he relaxed in the cushion of his bed. He pictured the starlight coming through her hair as she came down to kiss his. Ben breathed a deep sigh. "Caroline," he let her name roll off his tongue and then let his mind head toward sleep.

Ben breathed softly as the night came to him. He turned in his bed.

Somewhere in his subconscious, he heard a siren. It was distant at first, then grew and grew until he shook awake. The sky outside his window was lit a faint orange. The smell of smoke wafted towards him.

Ben woke quickly, stumbling out of bed and then catching himself on his bedpost before pulling on shorts lying nearby. "Mason!" he shouted. "There's fire! Something's wrong!"

Soon he was going down the dark hall outside his room. He flicked on the hall light and squinted to see Mason coming from his room. They grabbed flashlights, and as they ran out on the beach Ben spotted flames licking up to the sky from the abandoned house beside The Ocean's Whisper. A large crowd had gathered there, held back from the fire by the red engine and firemen pumping water up into the flames. He couldn't see Caroline, but knew she was there. _Will the flames spread to their house?_ he wondered as a hard breeze blew through him.

"That's beside where Caroline is staying!" Ben shouted to Mason as they ran along the breaking waves rushing up the shore. Small crabs scattered around their feet as they ran. Unease swept through him. _Is this somehow connected to John? Is he stalking her?_

As they neared the flames a fire-lit board crashed to the sand near Ben and he jumped back in surprise.

"Stay away from the building!" a shout rang out from the area where the firemen were.

With a pivot he headed toward the crowd. "Caroline!" he shouted as he saw her standing with her mom and Suzie away from the main group. The heat of the fire crawled over his face as he neared. Caroline glowed orange from the light of the fire as it raged. Ben embraced her and she shook in his strong arms.

"Thank goodness someone called the fire in just as it started," Caroline said, her head against his shoulder. "One of the firemen said that the whole house might have burned if it had been much longer before they arrived. They think they can stop the flames before they spread or consume more than the top level."

"Could it be John?" Ben asked as Mason neared them from the beach. "That house was abandoned. It's strange that the fire started in the upstairs."

Caroline stood back from him. "I don't know. He wouldn't have done it before. I haven't heard from him since we saw him though and I have this horrible feeling about those flames. When I first came out of the house, before the fire truck arrived, I thought I saw a shadow watching the fire near that house over there."

She pointed and Ben could barely make out the house's silhouette in the starlight.

"Is everyone alright?" Mason asked as he came to their side. Suzie and Eva were coming over to them now.

Suzie held out her hand. "Everyone's fine and our house is alright. Thank you for coming to see. I'm Suzie and this is Caroline's mom and my sister, Eva."

The crackling sound of the fire was about them as specks of ash drifted in the sky, illuminated red.

"Pleased to meet you." Eva shook Mason's hand. "I hope you don't mind me saying that I wish we could have met at our get-together this weekend instead of now."

"We were worried when we smelled the smoke," Ben said while watching water from the fire hoses pump against the hissing fire, releasing plumes of smoke as it hit.

There was a sudden shout from the gathered crowd and the cracking sound of wood came over them. Part of the upstairs outer wall fell to the ground and the fire fighters focused their water on its flames to protect the stilt beams at the base of the house from igniting.

"Get back! Get down to the beach!" one of the firemen's voices rang out to them. Some people watching walked back into the road next to the houses. Ben went with Caroline, Mason, Eva and Suzie down onto the sand near the ocean.

Ben put his arm around Caroline as he watched the men work. He saw Mason give him a smile out of the corner of his eye. He hadn't had the opportunity to tell Mason about their kiss yet and wasn't sure he was ready to share that information.

Soon the firemen had the blaze under control and there were only sparse flames left on the structure. Only the top of the house was charred and one room nearest The Ocean's Whisper was a skeleton of burnt wood.

Ben held Caroline's hand and could feel her palm relax against his as she realized Suzie's house wouldn't burn. They were standing a short distance away from Mason, Eva and Suzie now.

"I don't feel safe there," she spoke so that no one else could hear. "What if it was him?"

Ben stood watching the dying flames for a moment. The fact that they both felt that way meant it was a good possibility it was John. "You could stay with me for the night." There was another moment of silence. "You could have my room and of course I'd sleep on the couch."

"Are you sure?" Caroline looked up at him.

_She is so beautiful,_ he thought while looking at her face in the moonlight. _It's amazing, we barely know each other and yet she would feel safe with me. We've just met and yet I feel like we've known each other for a long time._

"It would be my pleasure." He tried not to sound eager. "You would do it for me. Actually, you already brought me inside your aunt's house when I needed it. This would just make us even."

Somehow the look of worry on her face changed to a blush. In the dark of night he couldn't see that, but could tell by the way she smiled while looking at him.

Ben lay on the couch in his living room later that night, staring outside as a shooting star sped across the sky. His mother used to believe in wishing on stars. He preferred to pray. "Watch over her. Keep her safe," he spoke in an almost whisper. _I would love to date her too,_ he thought. _But I won't pray for that. That is something I will earn, if I can._

In his room Caroline was fast asleep, somehow comforted by having Ben nearby.
6

With a gentle stroke, Ben caressed the side of Caroline's body on the canvas.

She sat beyond the canvas, morning sunlight streaming through her hair, as she posed for the painting he had promised her. She smiled back at him. It was a gentle smile that held pure emotion and he was determined to capture that with his paint.

Ben dipped his paintbrush into a light-red paint tin. As he brought the brush to canvas he carefully worked the color into her skin. He picked up another brush, dipped it in a deep purple and brushed it into the pattern of her shirt.

_She is so beautiful._ He realized there was no way to truly capture her beauty. _Those eyes..._ He breathed a small sigh, trying not to be too obvious in his attraction to her. _Why should I not show her that though?_ _She kissed me last night, but somehow there is still this feeling of the unknown between us._ He felt a polarizing attraction to her as he continued to paint. Her eyes pulled him in as he studied them and tried to mimic them on the canvas. They attracted him mentally and physically, made him want to know the depth of her as a person.

They were inside the house, because painting was near impossible in the ocean's breeze. Caroline sat near a large window that looked out to the beach. Sunlight draped through the window across her body.

"Can I take a look yet?" she asked. "No-one has ever painted me before. I'm excited to see what it looks like."

"Almost ready." Ben smiled. He took a moment to watch how the sun lay across her form and then looked back to the canvas. _I have to get this just right,_ he thought. _Am I missing something? I can't fully capture her beauty, but can I come close?_ He closed his eyes and pictured her in his mind. He opened his eyes and looked again. The sunlight on her was right. This was his best, maybe the best work he had ever done. _That's because it's her. Why am I falling for her like this?_

He took a breath, set his paintbrush down, and stood up from his stool. "It's ready, though I've got to warn you that there's no way I could do you justice."

She got up from her stool and started walking around the canvas. "I'm sure it's... Wow... That's amazing. I wish I looked that good." Caroline held out her hand as if to touch the canvas.

"You can have it once it's dried. I've got a good frame I can put it in, too."

"Do you know what I'd really like?" Caroline asked with a grin.

"Hmm... a dance with a handsome fella before we meet my friend for lunch?" Ben made his way over to the radio and clicked the _play_ button. He came to her and took her soft hands in his as Sinatra began playing through its speakers.

"Well, I won't turn that down, good sir," she joked. "But I'd really love a painting of you."

Ben held her close, dancing around the room to the sway of Sinatra's voice. "I warn you, it won't be nearly as beautiful as your painting." Taking her by surprise, he dipped her back, pulling her up and holding her close as she smiled and laughed.

\-- --

Later that day, after they had gone to Suzie's so that Caroline could shower and change, Ben and Caroline sat in The Froggy Dog waiting for Excelsis to arrive. The Froggy Dog sat between the ocean and the sound, in the center of the island, and was a great place to sit back and enjoy a crab cake or burger. The smell of fresh fries wafted to them from the kitchen. Ben held Caroline's hand under the table.

They made small talk while waiting, just enjoying each other's company.

Then, down the aisle from the front of the restaurant, came a man with a scraggly beard and a pronounced limp. His jean shorts were torn and his body was somehow muscular yet frail at the same time. He had the look of an old seaman who had been washed ashore.

He grinned and waved to Ben, then stopped half way down the aisle, as if measuring them. Whatever was on his mind, he went past it and continued walking to them. As he sat down in a chair across the table, the scent of smoke filled Ben's senses.

Ben shook the man's hand. "Excelsis, this is my friend Caroline. She's visiting the beach for a few weeks while she helps fix up her aunt's house."

"It's a pleasure to meet you." Caroline held out her hand and Excelsis shook it. "Ben said you wouldn't mind if I had lunch with the two of you. We met a few days ago and he's been a great friend to me while I've been here."

"Any friend of Ben's is a friend of mine," Excelsis said gruffly as he picked up the menu. The dirt under his nails showed as he held it. Abruptly, Excelsis put the menu back down on the table. "Do you recognize me?"

It took her a moment to respond. "No. Have we met before?" Caroline asked, surprised.

Excelsis looked to Ben and Ben held his eyes.

He could feel Caroline's hand tense in his own as he held it. "You were at the burning house last night, weren't you? You should have said something. Why didn't we see you?"

"I didn't see you, or else I would have come over." He gave a sudden hack, covering his mouth with his hand and then wiping spittle away with his napkin. "Excuse me, I have... health problems. I didn't see you. I left before the trucks came. I used the phone you lent me to call the fire in and then left, but not before seeing her." His bloodshot eyes looked to Caroline.

"You were the shadow I saw by the house?" she asked in disbelief.

"So you saw me. I thought you did. I thought I was safe in the darkness."

Ben sat straighter in his chair. "Did you see anything? Do you know what started the fire?"

Then a waitress came over, taking out a pad of paper. "Hi, my name's Dana and I'll be taking care of you today. Welcome to The Froggy Dog. Can I interest you in a cool beer or one of our delicious appetizers to start off with? I highly recommend 'The Whaler', a starter of homemade crab puffs, grouper bites, conch fritters and shrimp jammers." She used a finger to move her hot-pink glasses up her nose as she waited.

_They always come in the middle of a conversation._ Ben smiled. "I'm ready to order if you guys are." He looked to Caroline and Excelsis for confirmation.

"I'm good," Caroline said as Excelsis nodded in agreement.

The waitress flipped open her pad. "What can I get for you, miss?"

After they ordered and the waitress left, Ben asked Excelsis what, if anything, he had seen.

The older man clasped his hands on the table. His skin was tough like leather and an old tattoo of a mermaid with angel wings was on his arm. "This stays between us."

Ben nodded to him.

"I sleep in the covered garage of that house some nights, when it's cold, raining or too windy to sleep other places. Last night when I came, there was a car I hadn't seen before parked there. It was a black Dodge Charger. I was leery but I needed a place to sleep, so I decided to stay." He took a drink of ice water that the waitress had dropped off.

Ben knew that car. He knew it was John and could feel Caroline's hand tightening in his as Excelsis spoke.

"As I was falling asleep I heard footsteps coming down the outside stairwell. It was a bigger man with a rifle and he smelled strong of smoke. I stayed in the darkness, hiding there, but as he pulled out of the garage I saw him looking in my direction. He saw me, but didn't stop. As I stood and went to the house's open door I saw smoke curling through the kitchen and the light of flames flickering down from the upstairs. I called 911 as soon as I was out of the house."

Caroline turned toward Ben. "That was him. It has to be."

A shiver ran through him. "Thank you for telling us. Caroline's aunt's house is next door. We think that is Caroline's ex-boyfriend." He was beyond words. Could this man really be that crazed?

Excelsis reached into his shorts pocket and then held his weather worn hand out over the table. "Would this help?" He opened his hand.

Ben took a crumpled-up, stained piece of paper from him. "E T M Y - D S T," he read.

"It was a Pennsylvania license plate, too." Excelsis said as the waitress returned with their food.

Caroline held her hand to her temples. "That's him. Can't he just leave me alone?"

Ben could feel tension go through her. Fear was on her face. "We have to tell someone," Ben said as the scent of his crab cakes wafted about him. He was no longer hungry. What would John do now?

\-- --

They were silent as they pulled out of The Froggy Dog's parking lot, the radio playing lowly in the background. They were in Ben's yellow jeep and wind curled around them as they headed for the police station.

Lunch had been good, but knowing that John was stalking Caroline, that he had probably started the fire and that he had a gun had them both on edge.

Ben punched the radio dial a few times, changing the station. He stopped on a channel with news. _I wonder if they'll mention the fire,_ he thought. _Maybe the police already know about John._

The radio announcer's voice clicked in... "In other news, tropical depression Irene is forming over the Atlantic Ocean, set to make landfall in the U.S. Virgin Islands and may be on course for North Carolina's coastline within the week."
7

John had parked his car far down the beach, in the parking lot of a surf shop, in the dead of night, removing his plates and dumping them in his trunk in case it was recognized.

He walked in the darkness and through the illumination of street lights, destined for the house he had lit aflame the night before. This morning he had headed back to the mainland after leaving the house. He was coming back for her. He wanted her. No matter how John tried, he couldn't stay away.

He stopped for a moment, concealed by darkness; away from a street light as a police car sped down the road. Sand whipped up in its wake. John held his rifle firm in his hand as he continued to move.

As he reached the house he breathed in a thick breath of char-tainted ocean air. It lingered in the area and he smiled to know that Caroline must smell it too. John stepped over caution tape that rippled in the wind as it blocked off the house from use. Water used to put out the fire had eroded the sand level around the house. Pieces of charred wood littered the ground.

John took the key from his pocket and walked up the staircase leading toward the main door. He peered through the smoke-stained glass and saw no-one inside.

Click.

Pulling the key from the lock, he went inside, holding his gun firm in his hands as he moved.

As he walked up the stairs toward the top of the house, a chilling breeze whipped his face, ruffling up his hair. He reached the top of the stairs and looked up at open sky, breathing in the chilled ocean wind.

Fire-scorched wood and housing material were all around him, like the edge of a shell marking off where the upper level of the house had once been. The burnt wood and ash cracked beneath him as he walked the charred floor. There were holes in the floor from the fire and he balanced on the remaining wood as he neared where he could see Caroline's bedroom.

He laid down in the ash and soot and removed an industrial black garbage bag from his pocket, opening it in the wind.

Carefully, he pinned it around his body to shield himself from any aircraft that might fly overhead. He kept the gun mostly covered by the large bag as well, except for its barrel, which he leveled at Caroline's bedroom.

Pain surged through his chest as tension held on to his body. _Tomorrow I will be free,_ he thought, and somehow a weight was lifted from him.
8

As Ben and Mason arrived at Suzie's, there was already a group of people on her porch laughing and enjoying drinks and appetizers. It was strange to see the half-burned house beside hers, an unsettling reminder John had been there. The structure loomed like a shadow in the light of the day.

"I'm checking the garage next door before we go up," Ben said, stepping out of the jeep.

"Ben!" Caroline called down to him from the deck.

"I'll be right there!" He waved to her, and then turned to Mason. "John would have to be extremely dumb to come back here, but I'm not putting anything past him. Watch my back."

"Of course," Mason said and came with him.

As Ben entered the garage the sunlight that was warm on his back was replaced by a cooler air. He looked around. His heart was racing and it settled now that he saw John's car wasn't there. Police had been patrolling the area steadily because they had reported the arson, and he hoped that if John did come back, they would find him before he did anything crazy.

"Let's go up. He's not here, thank goodness." Ben turned and headed to Suzie's house with Mason. They had made an apple pie and Ben took it from the jeep's seat before heading up.

Caroline greeted them with a smile as she took the pie from his hands. "Mmmm, men who can bake, I guess you can join us." She winked at Ben. "I saw you go in the garage next door. I've been watching around here all day for his car. It's still hard to believe that he started the fire."

"I'm just glad he's gone," Ben said while grabbing a can of sprite from a cooler. He and Caroline walked over to the edge of the deck and looked out at the ocean. They watched kids flying kites along the shore. "Is there anything I can do to help with the food?"

"Suzie might like a break from cooking the steaks," Caroline said, putting her hand on his.

Ben felt a shiver rise up his back. "Then we can't keep her waiting." He took her hand and kissed it before going over to the grill and offering to give Suzie a break.

\-- --

Later that night, after eating his fill of tuna-steak and salad, Ben found himself once more up in Caroline's bedroom. She said she wanted to show him something, after they had spent time talking with Suzie's friends, many of whom Ben and Mason actually knew from around Avon. The sky outside glowed a deep red, with the sun almost completely set along the ocean's horizon.

"It's beautiful," Caroline said while standing in her room, admiring the portrait Ben painted of her, as it rest propped against the wall.

Ben walked behind her and put his hands on her waist. "It's nothing compared to the real thing." Did he dare to? He brought a hand up and traced a finger gently down her neck, just barely touching her and giving her goose bumps. He traced back up her neck, around her earlobe, then down the bare of her back. He caressed up her back, then down her arm, touching softly on the palm of her hand before letting his touch leave her.

Caroline turned around and looked up into his eyes. _There really is nothing more beautiful than her face,_ he thought, before letting his eyes go to the delicate lines of her neck.

"Ben, every moment with you is so different from what I've experienced before. You make me warm inside. You feel right."

With her body pulled against him, he caressed down the bare of her back, wishing he could feel her body instead of her shirt. He could feel her letting her body relax in their embrace.

He went slowly and placed a kiss on her neck, then another and another. His heart was racing.

She moved a hand to his chest, pulling on his shirt as if inviting him.

She went from him and lay down on her sheets, looking longingly for him to come.

It was like a dream as he went to her, surreal. He put his knees on the bed and leaned down to kiss her, bracing her cheek with his hand and feeling her supple lips against his.

There was an unexplainable moment, a moment of pure emotion. It was as if time stopped as they enjoyed the passion of kissing.

Then the sound of a gunshot cracked through the air, separating their connection.

\-- --

moments prior, the house next-door

John's eyes were heavy as he lay on the charred boards of the house's second level, the new roof of this part of the structure. He had been here all day, unmoving, as he waited for the moment to act. The wind dried his skin and the sun burned and dehydrated him. Still, he had not moved. His body was forcing him to head toward sleep.

Then a light flicked on in Caroline's room and she walked in with that boy she'd been spending all her time with.

John clutched his gun and dragged its barrel to aim at Caroline's head. As he moved he sent ash and shards of burnt wood down the side of the house. No-one from the party looked to him.

She moved out of his view and he took a deep breath. Should he shoot the boy, too? He closed his eyes. They stung with dryness. He listened to the sounds of people talking and the ocean lapping on the shore. _Relief. Release for us both,_ he thought, opening his eyes and taking a glance at the blood red horizon.

He looked back to the room and saw Caroline lying on the bed. He was enraged. John clenched his jaw and aimed the gun barrel at her.

_Creak._ The sudden noise came from behind him. _Creak._ He heard it again.

_It's the stairs._ He remembered the noise from when he came up them. _Did I lock the door?_ He had to act. Whoever it was, they would see him soon. _I will return to you,_ he thought as he looked away from Caroline and stood. His muscles ached from his lack of movement during the day.

John used his foot to lodge his garbage bag in a hole of the charred floor and he went for the stairwell.

The silhouette of a man was coming toward him, the red sky barely reflecting down on his features. "Don't shoot," the man's deep, hoarse voice spoke.

_It's too late. You know I'm here,_ he thought. John leveled his rifle at the man's chest.

_Crack!_ The noise exploded as the gun jumped back.

John descended the stairs slowly, finding the man's crumpled body at the foot of the steps, blood pooling around him. A sucking, gurgled sound came as the bearded man in ragged clothes choked on his own blood.

"You came to the wrong place. I'll put you out of your misery, old man." John stepped back away from the convulsing body and leveled the rifle at the man's skull.

\-- --

With his heart beating heavy in his chest, Ben burst out of the door. As he neared the rail of the deck overlooking his Jeep, he saw Mason going for the vehicle.

"Stop! Wait for me!" Ben called to him as Mason pulled his arm from the trunk, his Louisville Slugger gripped tight in his hands.

Ben's feet fell like hammering weights as he rushed down the stairs, leaping to the sand as he neared the bottom. He and his father kept that bat for protection, knowing that it was a weapon no-one would try and stop them from carrying in the car. Now he wished he had removed the bat before they came. Facing John and his gun could only turn out wrong.

"Let's call the cops!" he called to Mason, but the headstrong man only looked to him with anger on his face.

"No." Mason pointed the bat into the garage. "Who knows who or what he's shot up there? It could even be Excelsis. Isn't that who you said told you this punk was there in the first place?"

_He's right,_ Ben realized. _And if he's shot Excelsis then he could need our help now._ Sweat ran down his brow as his heart beat even heavier and a chill of unease ran through him. "Then I'm coming," he told Mason as his father entered the garage.

"Ben!" Caroline called to him as she ran down the stairs. "Don't go in there!"

"Call 911!" he shouted back. "I have to go in after Mason!"

He met his father in the darkness at the top of the house's inner stairs. The door to the house was wide open. Red light from the setting sun reached through the inside of the house as if wanting to touch its prey, barely illuminating the barren floors and walls. The air was tense and heavy as it filled their lungs.

Mason pressed a finger to his lips. Someone was choking nearby. They heard feet as someone else walked the wood floor.

"You just had to come here."

It was John's voice. Ben remembered it clearly and nodded to Mason so that he would know.

"I didn't want to kill you, old man."

In a surreal moment Mason entered the house, bat held high, and went out of Ben's view.

_Crack!_ A gunshot almost deafened him as Ben stumbled inside.

_Thump!_ He heard the bat connect with flesh and another thump as a body pounded heavy to the floor. John's head lay on the wood in Ben's sight and his body was hidden behind a wall. The man's eyes stared hollowly out at him.

"Mason!" Ben shouted, running into the house.

His father held the bat firm in his hands, blood smeared over its Louisville Slugger writing. Mason looked in a state of shock. He let the bat fall and pound to the floor, then went to the rifle that lay close by. He picked it up and aimed it at John's head. "If he moves, I'll shoot."

"He won't move," Ben spoke through the haze of what had just happened. "He may be dead."

"He would deserve it." It was only then that Mason glanced over to the bottom of the house's inner stairwell where Excelsis' crumpled body lay. "Is that Excelsis?"

Ben felt his heart stop. He knelt beside the old man's body and felt the flesh of his neck for a heartbeat. A steady pulse pumped against his fingers. He looked at the blood dripping off of them as he lifted them away. "He's breathing. We need an ambulance here, now."

"Ben! Mason!" Caroline's voice carried inside the stale feeling house. "John..." he heard her gasp, then saw her come around the corner and look at him. She had a cold look as she met Ben's eyes, not hateful, just cold, and almost lost. "What happened?" she asked as her hand went to John's cheek. She looked up to Ben again and suddenly realized Excelsis was there.

"Oh, no!" she whispered, a look of horror over her face.

"Excelsis is alive, for now," Ben assured her. "Did you call the police?"

Tears were rushing down Caroline's cheeks and her response almost choked out of her. "Yes... yes, my mom called the gunshot in." She moved her hand to check John's pulse. "He's alive, too," she said. She looked up at Mason. "Put down the gun. He's not getting up."

Blood was seeping from a wound on John's head.

"And if he does?" Mason's arms shook as he braced the rifle.

Caroline put her head on John's chest and was crying uncontrollably. She looked up to Mason again. "Then I'll stop him. Damn you, put down the gun."

Sirens echoed in the distance, growing louder and louder. Ben's heart raced and he was glad the police would be there soon. A sharp pain shot through his chest. _How did this happen?_ It was surreal. _She still cares for him so much,_ he thought as he watched Caroline crying against John's chest. The sunset's glow had begun to dim in the room.

Mason lowered the gun, but did not put it down. "You'll stop him like you did this time."

She glared up at him.

Excelsis choked as Ben braced him in his arms. "Stop it," Ben said to both of them. "Stop it. The police will be here soon. I... we..." He was running on adrenaline. "We need to wait for them." He met his father's eyes. "Put the gun down. If they come in here and you're holding that they'll shoot you."

Mason laid the gun in the corner of the room next to him and went back to stand near John and Caroline. He watched John wearily.

The room was almost completely dark and sirens blared around them.

"Get down!" a voice shouted from beyond the house. "Put your weapons down! We're coming in!"

"The shooter is down!" Mason yelled back.

"Mason?" the police officer's voice called to him.

"Gustav? Yeah, it's me!"

Two officers in black stepped into the dark room, guns held high and ready to fire. "Get back!" one officer instructed Mason and went to him. "Put your hands behind your back!" The officer took his cuffs and closed them tight on Mason's wrists.

"It wasn't him," Ben said as he stood.

"I believe you," the second officer, Gustav, told him. "We have to take you both into the station until we can sort this out. Put your hands behind your back, son."

As Ben put his hands behind him, Gustav clicked handcuffs tightly on his wrists. The first officer was already cuffing Caroline. There was a hollow look on her face as she looked down at John.

"You have the right to remain silent," Gustav began reading them their rights. "Anything you say can and will be used against you in a court of law. You have the right to consult with an attorney and to have that attorney present during questioning. If you do not have an attorney one will be provided at no cost to represent you." He looked away from them. "We have two civilians down and three in custody!" he shouted out of the house. "Search the house," he instructed his partner.

After the house was cleared by the second officer, medics came in and carried Excelsis and John out on stretchers.

Ben closed his eyes as Excelsis was carried past. _God, please keep him alive. Please protect all of us, even John. We are in your hands._

The sky was dark as coal as they were led by the officers out of the house. Suzie's porch light was still on and the lights from the police cruisers rapidly flashed in the night. Suzie and Eva looked on, held back a distance away from them.

"It will be alright!" Eva called as Mason ducked into the back of a cruiser.

"Thank you! They just need to sort things out!" Ben called to her before an officer put his hand on the back of Ben's head, putting him in the car and shutting its door. It was awkward, sitting with his hands cuffed behind his back. He went cold as he watched Caroline barely look to her mom as she was put in a separate car.

"At least they have John now," Ben spoke to Mason as their cruiser pulled away from The Ocean's Whisper. "They'll believe us, right? They've got to let us out soon. I mean, we weren't even in the house when the first shot went off."

"I think so."

Ben watched out the window as they were driven to the station. _Excelsis could be dead by now, or John._ The stars seemed to have gone black in the vast expanse of sky above. _What is going on in Caroline's mind?_
9

Ben awoke to the sound of rain battering the roof of the police station. His back was stiff from sleeping on the hard bed in the holding cell. He opened his eyes and was blinded by light. As he focused he looked to Mason, sleeping soundly in a bed across the cell. Somehow, the man snored.

Ben stood, walked to the cell's bars and gripped his hands around their cold steel. How had he gotten here? A shiver of fear ran through him as he realized Excelsis may be dead.

"You're tough, son," Gustav's gruff voice came from the edge of the room. "It took guts to go in there like you and your father did. You may have saved that old man's life. He's in stable condition in the hospital."

How had he not seen Gustav in the corner of the room?

Ben looked to Mason as his father stirred nearby. "Does that mean you believe us and you're letting us leave?"

The officer came toward the cell. "Enough witnesses say that you and your dad were at the party before the initial shot that we believe you."

Mason sat up on his bed, holding his head in his hands. "So we're free to go?"

"That's the thing." Gustav neared them. "Benjamin is free to leave, but we've found your prints on the rifle, like you said we would, and we'll need to hold you at least until tomorrow, or until the homeless man wakes up and can vouch for your story."

"His name's Excelsis," Ben spoke up. "You can release Mason tomorrow, though?"

"I can't say anything for certain, but we'll try." Gustav took out his keys and headed for the cell. "Stay back, Mason. I'm letting Benjamin out."

Ben went and hugged his father before meeting Gustav at the cell door and following him into another part of the station. He looked back at his father as he left him. It was hard leaving Mason behind. _Hopefully this whole thing will be resolved soon,_ he thought while being led to another room for processing before being released.

Ben watched Gustav as the officer filled out the remainder of his paperwork before letting him go. "Is Caroline free to go, too?" he asked.

The man stopped his writing and looked up at him. "She was released to her mother last night when we determined that she was innocent. Do you have a thing for her? I thought you did when I saw the way you looked at her last night. I have to warn you, son, she's got a cold look in her eyes. I've seen this before. It's never good. It might be good to stay clear for a while."

Silence hung for a moment between the men.

Ben listened to the rain beating against the building outside. He looked down at his hands. "I just met her recently. I thought I knew her well, though. I'll be there for her if she needs me."

"You may have known her, but something like this has the ability to change people. There's no telling what's going through her mind. I won't ask you anymore. It's none of my business, but I just thought I'd lend you a little advice. By the way, Excelsis and John are at separate hospitals and both are in stable condition. Don't search them out. Once your father is cleared I'll call you so that you can visit Excelsis. John is being heavily watched by a few of my men until he can be safely transported to a holding facility and properly charged."

As Ben stepped outside he was hit by steady waves of rain. Gustav offered him a ride or an umbrella to use as he walked across the island toward his home, but something in Ben knew that the rain would do him good. He hoped it would wash away his pain, the emotions seeping out of his mind and burning in his heart. Rain soaked him as he walked out into the open. He closed his eyes and embraced the cool liquid, letting tears finally come and mix into the rain flowing down his face.

It was a cloudy day and a quick wind made the downpour sting against his face.

After walking for a good half hour, Ben finally approached The Ocean's Whisper and his parked Jeep. Should he say something to Caroline? He needed her now as he dealt with knowing Mason was still in jail. _Surely she needs me, too,_ he thought.

As he walked up the stairs toward her door, he wondered at the wisdom of that thought.

_Knock! Knock! Knock!_ His hand rapped against the wood, rain still flowing over him as he stood there.

Moments passed.

He waited, unnerved. Then he saw a light come on in the inner hallway through a window.

Eva stood before him after opening the door. "Ben, you're soaked. Come inside, please. Where's Mason? Is he with you?"

Ben stepped inside, careful to stand on the tiles near the door as the water coming off of him made a puddle where he stood. "The police are still holding him because his fingerprints were on John's gun. They seem to know that he's innocent, though."

Eva wiped a hand over her forehead. "I'd hope so. I mean, he was with us at the party when the first shot went off. Is the old man that got shot ok?"

"It sounds like he'll live, from what the officer at the station said."

Suzie came from around the corner with a towel and Ben worked on drying himself off as best he could.

"Thanks," he said. "Is Caroline alright? Can I talk to her?"

"She's been out of sorts since we picked her up at the station last night," Eva answered. "She hasn't come out of her room all morning and won't talk to either of us. John always had this hold on her. Just as we thought she had broken away from him, this happens."

He handed the towel back to Suzie, thanking her again. "I couldn't even imagine being in her situation, seeing how John almost killed Excelsis. Mason injured John pretty badly as well. I'm shaken up just from what I've been through. I can't even imagine what she's feeling."

"I'll let her know you're here, just in case it will get her out of her room." Eva left him and he waited in the doorway. He had felt so warm in this place when he awoke here after John punched him out. Now cold permeated the air. He fidgeted with his keys in his pocket and looked around the barely lit house, the light of day outside severely grayed by the drenching rain.

Eva returned with a stressed look on her face. "I can't even get her to answer me in there. It will just take time, I think. Would you like me to ask her to call you later?"

"That would be great, thanks."

Eva took an umbrella from near the door and gave it to him. "Take this with you. Call us if you need anything and please let us know when they let Mason out."

"Thank you." Ben smiled and then opened the door, opening the black umbrella into the rain, the sound of raindrops pumping against its fabric.

\-- --

As Ben pulled his Jeep into the garage of The Seaman's Watch he felt extremely alone. He shut off the engine, stepped out and just listened to the rain for a moment before heading inside. He suddenly found himself wishing he had a dog, or a cat or something, anything to greet him and be with him now. All there was, was the pattering of rain and silence beyond that.

_Mason will be out tomorrow,_ he reminded himself. He began to head to his room to change when he glanced over at his painting area, realizing that he hadn't painted anything since he had done the portrait of Caroline. He had gotten so caught up in her that he could think of nothing else. _I'm still thinking of her._ He smiled wearily, wishing she was here, hoping that things would work out for them to be together, or at least have more time together.

_I need to paint._ _But what do I paint, the rain?_ He had an urge, an inkling. Sometimes a strange way to paint would strike him. Those would often turn out to be his best works. His heart was heavy, but he had to work, to release the pain and the stress.

Ben set the umbrella down on the kitchen counter and went to his paints. He picked an older set of paints and brushes, then hefted a pre-used canvas in his other arm and went toward the deck doors. He opened them, walked out into the steady rain and laid the canvas flat on the porch's boards. He opened a paint can with a screwdriver and dipped his brush in its royal blue paint, spreading it on the canvas and watching as the rain pushed its hues in different directions.

As he worked he was soaked again, and cold, from the wind coming off the ocean. At times he worked without barely thinking. Other times he found himself crying for Caroline, for what she was going through because of John.

After about an hour's work the rain dissipated into an almost mist. Then sunlight came down on the deck. He put his paintbrush into one of five small cans that were open and filled with rainwater on the deck. As he stood, he saw a rainbow stretching over the ocean and the distant churning waves.

"That is so beautiful." He went to the railing and watched it for a moment, then returned to his canvas. With his watery paints he painted the rainbow over what he had already created. Its lines weren't perfect, because of the water there, but it held beauty over the blue and multicolored designs beneath it that he had already created.

He left it then, out in the new sunlight to dry, and went down to his outdoor shower to wash the paint that was now covering him, from his clothes.

He didn't hear from Caroline all day, and as he lay in bed that night he found he was cold and alone, wishing he could go back to their last kiss, before the gunshot struck them apart. _Please protect her, protect Excelsis and John, watch over all of us,_ he prayed.

\-- --

Around 5 a.m. Ben awoke to his cell phone buzzing on his nightstand. He reached for it, only half awake, and brought it above him. _Caroline,_ he read the sender of the text message's name in its glowing blue light. He fidgeted with the buttons to access the message.

Ben's heart raced as he read her words.

I need you. Are you awake?
10

Ben could see the coldness in Caroline's face as he approached her by the shore.

She said nothing, only stared at him, or beyond him perhaps.

"Caroline!" he called out, watching her hair and clothes move in the wind, as if she were a ghost in the moonlight. She stepped away as he went to embrace her. "It will be alright."

"No," she said, looking to him with unexplainable depth in her eyes. "It won't."

Ben was baffled as to why she had texted him. His company seemed to do nothing to soothe her.

"I need to leave this place, to escape my mind." She ran a hand through her hair. "Why do I worry about him? After all he's done, why do I... why do I love him?"

Something worse than physical pain moved through Ben as he heard those words. He wanted to be here for her, but wanted to leave at the same time. "I know a place on the mainland where we can have breakfast and talk. Maybe that will give us both a breath from this place. We can take my Jeep."

Caroline hesitated for a moment. "Yes. I'll leave my mom and Suzie a note to tell them where we are."

\-- --

Caroline was quiet as they drove the long stretch of road connecting Avon to the mainland. She sat, staring hollowly at the beach and ocean blurring beyond the Jeep's windows.

The sun rose on the ocean's horizon, spreading its yellow and orange hues across the sea. Dunes of sand rose up to their left and right. Beyond the dunes was the ocean and 'the sound', a large body of water that rest between the islands of the Outer Banks and the rest of North Carolina.

_What do I do?_ Ben thought. _What can I say? What is best for both of us?_

Then, out of the corner of his sight, he saw a group of the islands' wild horses running beside the dunes. He slowed the car and he and Caroline both watched them run down the road toward them and then up the slope of a dune. There were four of them, their smooth brown hair reflecting in the sunrise. Three disappeared over the dune, and then the fourth stopped, looking back at them as they slowed near where it was crossing.

"It is so beautiful," Caroline said as the animal turned and disappeared from their sight. "I never knew there were horses here."

"The Spanish brought them here in the 1500's, when they attempted to settle the coastline. They've been here ever since." Ben touched Caroline's hand. Her warm touch reassured him that it was right to be with her.

"It is amazing that they are still free." She smiled at him, and as they drove on he felt the tension between them calm.

Soon they were on a vast bridge linking the series of islands and the mainland. The Jeep bumped rhythmically on the road beneath them and gulls swooped along the edge of the bridge. The Bodie Island Lighthouse, with its black and white horizontal stripes, rose in the distance beside them and they soon entered the mainland and the town of Nags Head.

Ben let the tension within him relax as he turned up into the parking lot of The Dunes. "We're here, and just in time for them to open." He smiled and got out. He could almost taste the waffles, eggs and corned-beef-hash he was about to order and devour from the restaurant's buffet. He walked with Caroline past the restaurant's white wraparound deck and then inside.

\-- --

After finishing his syrup drenched waffles, Ben grinned wildly at Caroline. Somehow they had gotten completely off topic from what they had experienced the day before and had gotten carried away with silliness. He had been laughing like crazy. "So you're telling me that all these are jokes you memorized off of popsicle-sticks? Surely you had something better to do!"

Caroline had been telling him joke after ridiculous joke. "Care for another?" She smirked.

"I don't know if I can handle another."

"Why don't seagulls fly by the bay?" She was holding back a huge, contagious grin.

"I give up. Why?"

"Cause then they'd be called bagels!"

Ben almost spit out the water he had just drunk. It wasn't that the jokes were that funny. Caroline's excitement and humor just made him need to laugh. "Alright, one more, and then I think I'm through."

"Then you won't want to eat popsicles with me later, because there's no stopping me with fresh artillery. Alright... let's see." She hesitated a moment, eating her last strawberry as she thought. "What did the banana say to the other banana?"

"Oh goodness, that's just fruity!" He let out a chuckle.

"Nope. I'm afraid you're wrong Charlie Brown, the banana said..."

Ben made a drum roll with his fingers against the edge of the table.

"I find you a peeling!" She winked at him and giggled as he laughed.

Ben held back his laughter and sat up with a grin. "That was so a-pear-ant!" He returned her wink.

"I see you are apple-lying yourself."

"Orange-n't you going to come up with something else?"

"My Mango-al was to make you smile!" Caroline sat back with her arms crossed, a huge smile on her face.

Ben was laughing uncontrollably but was trying to hold back.

Their waitress returned to them, a smile on her face and her apron stained with kitchen grease. "Will that be one check or two?"

"I'll take care of it." Ben took the check and gave the woman his debit card. "If I don't she may kill me with laughter."

Caroline kicked him playfully under the table as the waitress walked away.

He tipped the waitress well when she returned and he and Caroline walked, smiling and talking to each other, as they left the restaurant.

"So what do we do now?" she asked as they got in Ben's Jeep.

Ben checked his phone, hoping that Mason would be released and would call him. He decided to give it until noon and then call in to the police station. "Have you been to the Wright Brothers' Museum?" he asked her.

"Not yet, but I saw that it was here when we drove in. That's crazy to think that this is where people first learned to fly."

"Yeah, it's pretty cool, and actually pretty fun to see. They have replicas of the Wright Brothers' first 'planes'. Maybe I'm a dork, but I think it's interesting."

Caroline smiled. "Let's go. It sounds good."

As Ben parked his Jeep in the museum parking area, he smiled, watching people flying kites nearby over a vast field of grass. People would often meet here to fly kites because of the strong winds that gusted through where the Wright Brothers had first taken to flight.

"I wish we had kites," Caroline said while stepping out of the Jeep. "They sure are beautiful up there. Look!" She pointed to a group of five kites being flown in a synchronized pattern. "That's amazing! How do they do that?"

Ben went to his trunk and took out his own vibrant orange kite. "I can't do anything like that." He brought it to her as the wind was already catching in its fabric. "But I'll bet we can have a lot of fun!"

They brought the kite to the field and soon Caroline was letting out its string, letting the beautiful fabric of the kite soar high into the sky and be pulled in whatever direction the currents of air took it. She tried to control it, and did somewhat, by moving around and pulling the string, but the kite itself harnessed the wind and moved where it was carried.

_It is a reflection of life,_ Ben realized while watching this beautiful girl maneuver the kite's string. Her hair curled and moved in the wind around her. _We hold the string of life, trying to harness and control where our paths will lead. But something else controls us and carries us where we go._ He pushed the thought from his mind. He was determined to enjoy his time with Caroline and not dwell on where tomorrow may lead.

"Woah!" Caroline called out as the kite was pulled by a sudden stream of air. "Care to take a turn?"

As Ben took the kite's stick and string from her, Caroline's hands touched his, sending a warm feeling through him. Soon, though, he was feeling the pull of the kite above him. He enjoyed the chaos and strength of its movements, determined to hold some sway over its destiny.

When they were through flying the kite they toured the museum and Caroline bought a disposable camera to take pictures with.

Ben marveled at her beauty as she would line up a shot to take, carefully eying each angle and looking to get the best contrasts of color in her photos.

She took pictures of the museum's displays, the replica of the Wright Brothers' plane there and the expanse of field that stretched out where the brothers had first flown.

A metal replica of the brothers' plane and statues of the people who were there during that first flight was set up past the field and Ben and Caroline took turns doing goofy poses around the statues and taking pictures of each other.

"What is that?" Caroline asked as the two of them walked up a hill toward a white pillar that slightly resembled a wing.

"That's where they began their first flight," Ben told her.

A woman in a bright shirt saw them as they climbed the hill. "Would you two like me to take a picture of you?" she asked.

Soon they were standing in front of it as the camera flashed, freezing their images forever in time. Ben had his arm around Caroline and she held herself close to him.

"Thank you," Caroline said as the woman returned her camera.

Then Ben turned around, seeing the part of the statue's inscription that was facing them. "I think there's a reason we came here," he told Caroline, pointing to the base of the statue.

"Achieved by dauntless resolution and unconquerable faith..." she read aloud. "It's a good reminder."

"Resolution and faith will see us through this," Ben said, squeezing her hand with emotion.

His phone vibrated in his pocket and he pulled it out and answered, "Hello."

"Ben, I'm calling from the police station. They've let me out and I'm headed home. Where are you?" Mason sounded tired.

"Thank goodness. How did they clear you?"

"Excelsis is conscious and he backed up our story. He's at The Outer Banks Hospital if you want to check in on him. Gustav said he's been asking for you."
11

Caroline's hands shook as she waited outside Excelsis' hospital room. Ben was already inside. She peered in, watching Ben talk to Excelsis as the man scratched his forehead. She couldn't go in yet, but had told Ben she would be in soon. The way the old man moved, showed how well he was recovering.

It was all too real. The morning with Ben had allowed her to escape things somehow, but here she was, about to face the man her ex-fiancé had shot and almost killed. She massaged her temples for a moment and tried to collect herself. She could feel tears begin to well in her eyes. _You can do it. Just go in._ She wiped tears away with her sleeve.

_Buzz-buzz, Buzz-buzz._ Her phone vibrated in her purse and she pulled it out. A random Outer Banks phone number flashed across the screen.

She clicked 'Talk' and brought it to her ear. "Hello."

There was silence on the other end.

"Hello?" she asked.

"Caroline... I... I love you."

She was frozen. Fear swept through her. "John..." she managed. "What are you doing? It's over."

"They said I could have one call."

"We can't do this. I... You..." She punched the 'End' button on the phone and held it before her, powering down the phone and watching its light go off. Caroline let it drop back in her purse and slumped against the wall. She let her hand relax. She had gripped the phone so tight when she heard John's voice.

There was hatred in her, fear, and some small attraction to the man that she hated to admit still existed. That feeling made her disgusted.

The door to Excelsis' room suddenly opened.

"Are you alright?"

She turned to see Ben's concerned eyes. Cold ran through her.

\-- --

Something was wrong. Ben could see that in her eyes, in the way she stood. Who had been on the phone? John?

"Nothing. I'll be fine."

Her complexion was pale and he could see where she had been crying. If she meant for him to know, she would tell him. "If you want to talk, when you want to talk, I'm here for you." He decided he would let it go for now. They both had been through so much. Maybe she just needed her space.

"It was John," she said, her eyes focusing, or rather not focusing, somewhere away from his. "He's in custody and awake. I was his one call."

"Don't they have rules against that?" Ben asked as her cold hand touched his rigidly.

"I don't know. I need to stop thinking about things."

"Ok, but I'm here for you." He couldn't do anything else for her now. If he went to hold her, Caroline would just back away. "Are you coming in?"

"Sure," Caroline said and followed behind him into the hospital room.

Excelsis moved to adjust himself on the bed as Ben returned to him. He cringed in pain and Ben moved to help him, not knowing what to do. "It's ok," the old man told him as he was finally able to sit up. Tubes and wires protruded from his skin and Ben could see where he was well bandaged beneath his scrubs. "They say I'll need to stay for at least a week so that they can monitor me." He looked to Caroline. "Good morning, lass. It's good to see you're well."

It took a moment for Caroline to respond. She came to Excelsis and put her hands on one of his. "We were so worried about you. Thank you for being there. If it wasn't for you... Ben or I, or anyone at my aunt's party, could be dead."

Excelsis huffed and then briefly choked, holding his hand to his chest as he did. "I was just looking for a place to sleep."

"We know you were watching out for us," Ben said. "And we appreciate it. Give me a call once you are released and I'll pick you up. You're staying at my house, at least until you are fully healed. I'm sure Mason will agree."

"Normally I'd say no. But I'm not too proud to know when I need to take someone up on their offer. Thank you." Excelsis slowly let himself lie back down in the bed as a nurse entered the room.

"We'll let you rest," Ben told him and gave Excelsis' hand a firm grip. "Let me know once you're cleared or if you need anything. Don't worry about the hospital bills. Mason and I will pick up those as well."

"I..." Excelsis was at a loss. "I'll find a way to pay you back."

Ben stopped at the room's door. "You already have, with our lives. I'm just thankful you were there and that you're ok."

As they drove the long stretch of road back in to the Outer Banks islands Ben once again felt that Caroline was cold to him. _What can I do?_ he thought, watching dunes of sand moving quickly by his window. _We are connected now,_ he realized. _We have experienced too much together not to be._

"Can you take me home?" Caroline asked, looking away from him. "Thank you for taking me out. I need to rest... to think."

Ben took a second. "Sure."

A half-hour later, after a car ride full of silence, Ben pulled into The Ocean's Whisper's driveway.

"I'll call tonight," Caroline said after giving him an emotionless hug.

"And I'll answer!" He tried to smile while saying it and waving goodbye. He watched her walk away and into the house. _I can't believe that what I hate more than the way John stalked her is what he is doing to her mind, to her heart._ He couldn't wait to get back home and see Mason. He needed to see how his father was and to just feel like his world was normal for a change.

Ben flicked on the radio out of habit, turning it up in an attempt to drown out the noise of his thoughts. Maroon 5's song, 'Moves like Jagger' cranked out his open windows. He pulled into the carport of his house as the song went off.

He was about to turn off the Jeep when a newscaster came over the line. "We interrupt our broadcast with this news update. Hurricane Irene is currently a category 3 hurricane and is set to make landfall along the U.S. eastern coastline, Friday or early Saturday, this week. It appears to be on course for North Carolina's coastline and the Outer Banks and should be a category 2 or 1 hurricane when it makes landfall. If you are in this area or along the coast, please plan to evacuate and board up windows and doors. This hurricane should be taken seriously. We now return you to your regularly scheduled programming."

_Great,_ Ben thought while shutting off the engine. He and Mason would weather the storm in The Seaman's Watch. They had been through many bad storms there and he knew they would do it again, but he would have to do a lot to prepare.

_Caroline and Eva will leave early._ The realization hit him. His fears of not being able to help Caroline and of losing her friendship and affection turned to something new. _Will I even hear from her again? Will she be gone from my life forever, after all we have experienced?_

That night, as he sat on his deck with a strong wind curling around him, his cell phone rang. He saw it was Caroline and punched it on. "Hello?"

"Ben, I'm not going to talk for long tonight. I just wanted to keep my promise and call. Did you hear about the hurricane?"

"Yes, I heard about it on the radio on the way home." He stood, walking to the deck's railing.

"We're helping Suzie board up her house and then we are all leaving early Friday morning." She sounded sad.

An idea came to him. "Would I be able to take you out, late tomorrow night, after we're both through working on the houses?"

"I..."

"It may be our last night together here."

"Yes."

He could hear a smile in her voice. It warmed him. "I know you need to go. I'll call you tomorrow before I come. It will probably be around 8:00."

"I'll look forward to it. Have a good night."

"Have a good night, and call me if you need me." After hanging up the phone, Ben took a moment to enjoy the moonlight reflecting off the ocean on the horizon. Whatever this storm would bring, he would at least have another night with her.

He took out his phone and punched it back on, waiting for the voice on the other end.

"Hi, Ben, what's up?"

"Hi, Joe. I need to ask a huge favor."
12

Ben drove down the road in darkness with Caroline by his side. His hands were sore from boarding up The Seaman's Watch with Mason, and tomorrow there would still be a lot more work to do.

Caroline's hand came to his. "Thank you," she said. "I'm sorry if I was cold yesterday."

He loved her touch. "So much has happened... I'm just glad to have you by my side." He was driving down the long stretch of road connecting the islands of the Outer Banks, this time headed away from the mainland, toward Cape Hatteras.

"So where are we going?"

Her perfume wafted over him, giving him a shiver. "It's a secret."

"I'll say. You're driving me away from civilization. I know everything's closed out here. Are you taking me to a beach party?"

"Nope, you'll just have to wait and see." Beach houses and street lights whizzed by. Ben's heart was racing. He hoped she would enjoy what he had planned. "Do you know what I love most about living here?" he asked.

"I love lying out and listening to the waves." She moved close to him, holding his hand on his lap.

"The ocean is amazing, but the thing I enjoy the most is the stars. They are so crisp in the sky, away from city lights that would block them."

"You always say things that make me smile." Caroline leaned over to the Jeep's window and looked up. "They really are beautiful."

They drove a while further before Ben saw what he was looking for, veering down a dark street, toward a house with its deck-light illuminating sand and patches of grass beyond.

Caroline let go of his hand. "Ok, now you've got me a little worried," she said with joking hesitation in her voice.

"Trust me," he assured her before parking and shutting off the engine.

His friend Joe came out the house's door and hurried down the steps toward them. "Ben, Sorry I wasn't down here already. Get in the car and I'll take you."

"We can't take your Jeep?" she asked him.

Ben walked around the vehicle and opened the door for her. "Trust me. Joe needs to drive, but you're going to like this."

Caroline took out her cell phone and looked at it. "What time are we heading back? I can't be too late. My mom and Suzie need my help prepping the house and packing up tomorrow."

Ben reached a hand to hers. "We can go back whenever you want."

She looked off into the darkness. "What are we doing? It's time to tell me. I need to know."

"Just tell her," Joe said and got in his truck. "She's gonna know soon enough, anyway."

"Alright," Ben gave in.

She looked at him with a smile.

Ben pointed out past the main road, through the darkness. "Do you see that light?" he asked. The Hatteras Lighthouse's light beamed through the darkness a ways off. It shined like a titan over the darkened world. "I'm not sharing more yet, but we're going there." He could see Caroline relax some now that she knew part of what was going on. "Come with me. You're going to enjoy this. It's my gift to you, to remember after you leave."

Caroline climbed in to Joe's truck behind him. "I'm not going to forget you, Ben. You know that, don't you? We have something special. I'll come back to visit my aunt and see you."

"I know." Ben held her hand as the truck pulled off the sand road and out on cement, heading toward the lighthouse.

Caroline rested her head on his shoulder. "I think I need time to collect myself and just be me before we could start any real relationship. I need a break from being someone's 'girl' so that I can experience being me."

"Will you consider me after that?" he asked playfully.

"Pushy, pushy," she joked. "Right now, you're the only one on my mind."

"Alright, love birds," Joe spoke up from the driver's seat. "Save the mushiness for when I'm not around."

It was pitch black as they pulled into a large parking lot near the lighthouse. The truck lights illuminated a deck and gift shop as Joe parked. He handed them each a flashlight before shutting off the vehicle. "Point the lights to the ground as you walk," he instructed them.

"You're lucky I trust you, Ben. This is a little strange," Caroline said as she followed him out of the truck.

A warm wind blew against him from the coast as he took Caroline's hand. They followed Joe on a gravel path toward the black and white striped lighthouse. Its brilliant eye illuminated the sky as it turned around the goliath's top. The body of the massive pillar lit eerily in the moonlight.

"This is as far as I go," Joe told them as they reached the base of the lighthouse. He shone his flashlight against the worn wooden door's knob, put a key in the keyhole and turned. "We're even now." He looked to Ben. "One favor for another. Call my cell when you're coming out and I'll meet you. I'll watch for anyone else in the parking lot and call if I see trouble."

"Thanks." Ben grinned. He pulled the heavy door open and took Caroline's hand. "Follow me, milady?"

"You are full of surprises." She smiled back at him and followed inside.

As the lighthouse's heavy door echoed shut behind them, Ben took a second to look around. Their flashlights illuminated a red steel stairwell and the beautiful, old brickwork of the walls. The bricks were different colors in places and had clearly been there for a long time.

"Want to see the top?" Ben asked.

Caroline started to walk beside him up the spiral stairwell. "It wouldn't be very fun if we came all this way and snuck in and didn't go up." She gripped his hand affectionately. "So how was Joe able to get us in here?"

"He works for the National Parks Service and they take turns manning it during the day."

She gave him a smirk. "Ok, so I have a better question. Why did he agree to risk being caught so that you could sneak me up here?"

"Well, it could have something to do with me covering for him when he decided it was a wise idea to 'borrow' a motorboat for a joyride when we were in high school. I took the fall when we were busted and he hid in the cabin until dark. As he said, he owed me one."

"And now you've left your lawbreaking days behind you," she laughed.

"Hey, I had permission to come in here, given to me by the National Parks Service." He pointed his flashlight down as they approached a barred window in the side of the brick wall.

"You can tell yourself that, Romeo, but I know better."

"I'm innocent." He shrugged.

There was a chill in the air as they climbed. Ben's heart beat heavily in his chest, from both the fear of getting caught and the excitement of being here at night with Caroline. This was the type of experience that very few people could ever say they had. Somehow the air felt warm around him as well, even if it was only from the excitement of being with her.

As they neared the top of the lighthouse they came to another door. There was no lock. It was made of black steel. "Do we dare to go out?" He smiled to her.

She came and held his hand. The sound of wind curled though the structure. She pulled close to him and he could feel her warmth. "I don't need to go out there to see the beauty of the ocean. I can feel it in you. I can feel the strength of its waves and the wind, in your heart."

Did she know what she did to him, the warmth she filled him with, with her words? He barely felt her lips as they came to his. He set his flashlight in a ledge of the wall. Her lips were warm and he loved the feeling of her hand as it came to his face. He moved his own hands to her back and held her close.

Moments passed.

Time seemed to stop as they shared their passionate embrace. He was lost in her warmth. When Caroline took her last kiss from him, she held her hand to his chest and walked back. "I get so carried away with you, Ben. I love your kisses."

"I love yours, too." He smiled, not sure what to do. "I'll wait for you after you leave, until you're ready."

"Thank you for respecting me." She came to him, kissing him again before putting her hand on the steel door's handle. "Shall we?"

"Ladies first," he said, taking a short bow.

As Caroline opened the massive door a quick breeze hit them, swimming over their bodies. Starlight lit the room where they stood. They cautiously walked out on the lighthouse's balcony.

"Wow." Ben breathed a deep breath. He was in awe of the beauty of the ocean stretching out before him. "It is so beautiful from up here. I've never seen the ocean like this at night." The sound of waves crashing against the shore mixed with the wind hitting the lighthouse. The structure's light beam moved around above them, stretching out for miles over the ocean as it passed overhead.

"Everything is so small, and the world is so vast," Caroline said while walking to the steel railing at the edge of the balcony. "The wind is so powerful, now. It is hard to imagine what it will be like here when the hurricane arrives. It's amazing to think that this lighthouse has survived many hurricanes in the years since it was built."

Ben came to her side, putting his arm around her. "I know. I wouldn't want to be here when the storm hits." _But I would want to be by your side in any storm,_ he thought. There was silence between them for a moment. He held her in his arms, at the top of the world with this beautiful girl in his embrace. "I could stay here with you all night," he told her.

He didn't know how long they stood there, enjoying the night and the beauty of the ocean. Time seemed frozen in this place.

Then, as a hard gust of wind blew through him, he knew that they should leave before they were discovered.

"Maybe we should go down," Caroline said, as if reading his thoughts. "We don't have to end our night. It's just getting a little cold up here."

The lighthouse's stairwell echoed with their footfalls as the two descended. Ben couldn't hate but leave what they had been sharing, but he knew they needed to go. He clicked on his phone and sent a text message to Joe, letting him know they were coming out.

They exited the lighthouse, locking its door behind them, and began their walk back toward the parking area.

Ben walked beside Caroline, holding her soft hand in his. Something was wrong. Somehow he felt exposed, vulnerable. Then, near a group of trees, he saw the silhouette of a man. His body was a shadow and he appeared to be watching them.

A shiver ran up Ben's spine. _Is it John?_ he wondered, ready to freeze and run at the same time. _How can John be free? He should be in police custody._ He tightened his hand on Caroline's and motioned with his eyes toward the man, hoping she would see and could make out his eyes in the moonlight. She didn't look, and as he looked to where he had seen the man, he saw nothing but tree foliage blowing in the wind.

"What?" Caroline asked. "Is something wrong? You seem cold."

"I thought I saw someone," he told her. They both picked up their pace, running until they reached Joe's truck. As they reached it they were out of breath.

"What's wrong with you two?" Joe asked as they climbed in and quickly locked the doors.

"I saw a man out there as we were leaving the lighthouse, but when I looked away and back again, he was gone," Ben said.

Joe looked back with a grin as he started the car. "Sounds like 'The Gray Man of Hatteras' to me."

"We can hope." Ben wasn't sure what he had seen, but was relieved as the truck pulled out on the main road.

"What's 'The Gray Man of Hatteras'?" Caroline asked.

"An old wife's tale," he assured her.

"That's not what my grandfather says." Joe kept his eyes on the road. "He swears the stories are real. The Gray Man of Hatteras is a ghost that they say haunts the beaches near the Hatteras Lighthouse. A sailor named Gray is said to have died in a hurricane off Cape Hatteras sometime in the early 1900s. Ever since, every time a hurricane takes aim at the Outer Banks, Gray's ghost comes out to warn the living to leave the island, and then vanishes before their eyes. That's not a good sign for us if he appeared to you."

"Ghosts aren't real," Ben said, "but that man definitely was." He didn't need to say he was worried it was John. He was sure Caroline was thinking the same thing.

That night, after spending time walking and talking on the beach with Caroline, he lay in his bed thinking. He had called the police and they assured him John was being held in jail somewhere away from the islands.

_Could it have been the Gray Man?_ It was his last thought before sleep.
13

An eerie wind howled across The Atlantic Ocean in the evening of Friday, August 26, 2011. It buffered the shore, sending a haunting warning to all who remained in the islands along the North Carolina coast.

Caroline should have left that morning, but after loading all of Suzie's important things into their van, they realized the vehicle wouldn't start.

A stinging wind whipped over Ben's skin as he lay beneath their car, trying to figure out why the vehicle was dead. He had checked the battery, the engine and anything else he could think of, for issues. Both local mechanics had left town because of the looming hurricane and he began to think Caroline, Eva and Suzie would have to 'wait it out' with he and Mason. That, or he could always let them use his Jeep.

Ben moved himself out from underneath the car. The sky in the distance was hauntingly dark. _I haven't seen a gull for hours,_ he thought, clicking on a handheld radio nearby.

" _Irene is steadily approaching North Carolina's coast, and should hit as a level 1 or 2 hurricane,_ " the announcer warned. " _All residents are advised to leave the coast, if they have not yet done so. Irene should hit during the night or during the day tomorrow. The coastguard will..._ "

Ben clicked off the radio and kicked the van's tire. He'd call Joe. Maybe he could figure it out.
14

There was calm in the night air as Caroline hugged Ben. Somehow he and Joe had got their van started. They had to leave now if they were going to escape the Outer Banks before the storm hit. A light drizzle pattered down from the sky around them.

"I'll miss you," she said, wiping tears from her eyes and going in to kiss him. His face was strong in the embrace of her hand. His lips were true.

"Call me after the storm," he told her. "I'll be safe. We have the house boarded up well and Mason and I have been through more than a few bad storms out here. Be careful driving. You could still stay, if you wanted to."

Eva opened up the driver door of the van. "No, we need to go. I don't want to be caught up in a storm like this out here. I wish we could have left earlier."

"She's right," Caroline said, though a sinking feeling in her made her wonder if they shouldn't stay. "I'll call, and I'll come back down to visit soon, or you could come see me."

Ben gave her another kiss and followed her to the van as she got in. "I'd love that," he said. "Be careful."

As she sat in the back seat of the van, watching him as it pulled away, a feeling of hollowness filled her. Would she see him again? Was that even what was eating at her nerves?

The Outer Banks looked like a ghost town as they drove down the main road in the whipping, light rain. In the starlight she could see boards on windows of shops and houses. A streetlight flickered in the distance. There were no people or animals that she could see.

As they neared Rodanthe, the thinnest stretch of land between Avon and the mainland, the van made a loud noise and suddenly ground to a halt.

Eva turned on the overhead light with a curse.

Thrashing rain beat against the outside of the van, shaking it in the wind.

"What do we do now?" Caroline asked.

Eva turned the key in the ignition; almost turning the van's engine before realizing it wouldn't start.

Suzie looked to Eva. "We need to go back. If we can't make it this far, then we can't trust this thing to take us out of here, even if we do get it started again. Caroline, can you call and ask Ben if he can pick us up?"

"Sure." Her hands were shaking as she took out her cell and clicked it on. She dialed his number and held it to her ear. Nothing. There was no ringing or dial tone. She checked the screen. "I don't have any bars."

"Great, just great." Eva held her head in her hands, then turned the key in the ignition and attempted to start the vehicle again. It almost started and then kicked off.

"Maybe if we just wait a few minutes it will work," Caroline said. "Or we could always see if someone is in one of the houses down the road?"

Her mom looked to her. "If we do that, we all need to go."

A half-hour later, when the van still wouldn't start, they decided to abandon it to search for help. They put on raincoats Eva packed in her suitcase and stepped out into the hammering rain. Caroline felt like she would be swept away in the wind.

They trudged through the storm for what seemed like an hour before finding a house with a light on the side of the road. They were drenched and Caroline's heart beat heavily as they approached it.

Suzie pounded on the boarded up door. "Is anybody in there? Our van broke down on the side of the road and we need help before the hurricane comes!"

"I'm coming!" A sheet of rain hit them as an old man's voice called back.

After some effort in removing boards from his door, an elderly man greeted them. "You can stay here, if you like," he said. His breath smelt of smoke. "Or I've got an old car battery in here. I could give that a try. You know, you shouldn't have been out on the road in this."

"Trust us, we didn't want to be," Eva laughed. "Could you give us a ride to the van and try the battery? We should at least get some of our things, if we leave it there."

The man looked past them into the storm. "Alright. Come in out of the rain while I get the battery and put on my boots."

As they drove back toward the van, in the man's car, Caroline watched the storm raging outside. The wind pummeled the shore and she would see large waves in the moonlight crashing against the stilts of houses near the water. Something large was being pushed in the waves in the distance, some massive black thing. _A boat?_ she wondered.

After working on installing the battery, the old man was able to get their van going again. "Are you sure you don't want to wait through the hurricane at my house?" he asked.

"No," Eva said. "Thank you so much for helping us, though. The news called for the severe part of the storm to hit in the morning, so we should be able to get out in time."

They followed his car down the road until he turned off, flashing their lights to thank him, then drove on in the darkness, their headlights illuminating the barren road ahead.

Waves leapt out of the sea, breaking over dunes and battering houses blocks away from where they drove. The roar of the wind was all Caroline could hear.

She watched the ocean and the sky, wondering if the two would come together and swallow her family whole. She had never had a strong faith, but now she closed her eyes and prayed. _Keep us safe. If someone out there is with us, be with us tonight._

A boom echoed in the air as a blast of wind rammed up against the van, shaking it and trying to roll it on the road.

Eva did all she could to hold the steering wheel straight. She cursed loudly, but was barely heard over the roar of the wind and sheets of rain cutting across the road.

Caroline took a death grip on the safety handle above her and held on tight. "We should pull off or go back!" she shouted to her mother and aunt over the rain.

"What?" Suzie shouted back to her.

"We need to turn back and find shelter!"

There wasn't time to react, to answer, and they could barely hear each other in the chaos. Towering waves decimated the stilt legs of a house on the edge of the ocean as they neared the end of Rodanthe, the thinnest stretch of land for miles. The house crumbled into the ocean and was consumed by the jaws of the waves.

"Turn around!" Caroline shouted, afraid of the water pummeling across the land, toward them. Then, in an instant, the other body of water to their left, The Sound, rose up and over the land, a cliff of water like she had never seen before. It slammed into their van, throwing it on its side and knocking the air out of her with her seatbelt.

Darkness. Her mind was gone for moments. Then, as she shook awake, she watched in horror as the car was thrust clockwise in a massive flood of waves. Water seeped in through the pores of the van. "Help! Help!" she screamed in terror.

"Take your seatbelt off and try to escape!" Her mother called out to her from the front as the van flipped in the waves.

Suzie was eerily silent.

Caroline reached for her seatbelt, trying hectically to unlock it but being too nervous to find the button. _Click._ She found it and began taking it off.

"I'm so sorry honey, I love you." She could barely hear her mother up front.

"I love you too, mom. We'll be alright."

An angry wave of the ocean's maw cracked against the windshield, shattering it and sending shards of glass like daggers across the van, then flooding the vehicle completely.

The last thing Caroline saw before the darkness was blood. Was it her own?
15

The beast of a storm raged outside The Seaman's Watch, shaking its walls and the floor beneath him as Ben bunkered down in a shelter-like room. He hadn't expected Irene to hit with such force, or this soon.

"Do you think they made it to the mainland before this?" he asked Mason, who was taking pictures off of the walls around them. The power had gone black, but a lantern illuminated the room.

"They should have. They had plenty of time, and Avon may be getting the brunt of the storm."

Something in Ben's gut told him Mason was wrong. He only hoped they were safe, no matter where they were. _Why didn't I try harder to get her to stay?_

The crash of something large hitting the side of their house startled him, causing him to instinctively duck and grip onto the leg of a chair close by. The truth was, if waves took their house down, no amount of instinct or caution would be able to save him.

The sound of waves licking up against the bottom and sides of the house sent an ominous sound through it.

"How high do you think the water is out there?" Ben asked.

"Let's hope we won't have to find out until after the storm," Mason said as he sat down next to him. "Here, put this on." He handed Ben a life vest and put one on himself. "Not that they would save us, but just in case."

The roar of wind pierced the house's walls, sending adrenaline through Ben's body, making him want to flee. His heart raced in his chest.

Then, in the depths of the roar, he heard the faint sound of someone screaming. "Do you hear that?" he asked.

"I..." Mason listened for a moment. "Yes."

"What do we do?" Ben was on his feet, headed for the room's door.

"You can't go out there." Mason stood to follow him. "They're as good as dead if they're in the ocean."

Ben couldn't leave whoever it was. _What if it were Caroline?_ he thought. "I have to go, to try to save them if they're in the water." He opened the room's door and made his way toward the upper deck and their painting room. Its windows were boarded with two layers of wood planking, inside and out. A flashlight he picked up off the counter was the only illumination in the room.

"That's madness!" Mason called after him. "I won't let you! You'll kill yourself! Is that really worth it?"

The scream shattered Ben's hearing, after being silent for long moments. "I'm going," he told Mason. "Either help me or don't." He tightened the straps of his life vest and grabbed a thick rope off of the wall. "Tell Caroline I love her, if I don't make it back."

"I'll tell her you're a fool," Mason said, but came to the door and hugged his son.

Together they used crowbars to pry planks of wood away. The door flexed from the wind as they finished, then ripped from its hinges and burst into the room. A deep howl deafened them as wind and water whipped in through the structure's open wound.

Ben forced his body through the pummeling wind, grasping the doorframe and pulling his body out on the deck as he scoured the moonlit fangs of the raging ocean. There, beyond their house in the smashing waves, was the body of a boy, his arm stretching upward feebly before a wave crushed down on him and took him from sight.

"Help!" his neighbor's voice called from her porch next door. "My son was pulled off our deck in the wind!"

Ben turned to the woman as stinging rain beat his skin. He leapt off his deck without hesitation, crashing into the battering waves, his breath being forced out of him as he hit the water.

Darkness.

Booming echoes filled his senses. He would have to swim upward to breathe, to be of any use to this boy.

His hand crashed against a plank of wood as he surfaced. A nail in it gashed open his hand and he took a gasping breath before being covered by a heavy wave.

Ben opened his eyes as waves thrashed him back and forth under the ocean's rising maw. It pulled him downward, dragging him out into its belly. Then, as his heart raced and currents tried to force the air from his lungs, he saw the boy in the stomach of the tide with him, being pulled out to sea.

He could barely think, was afraid to lose his breath and drown at any moment, but used all his strength to swim against the ocean currents toward the boy. With a thrust he grasped the youth's wrist and kicked upward.

He took another breath as they emerged into the air. Wind from the hurricane battered his ears, deafening him. They had been pulled a good distance out to sea.

"I'll save you!" he shouted to the unconscious boy as he struggled to keep both of them afloat. Salt water thrust into his throat and he gagged, almost being pulled under again.

Suddenly a roar consumed his hearing from behind him, louder than the storm around him had been. With a panicked glance out to the dark, writhing ocean, he saw a goliath of a wave thrusting his way. It engulfed him within moments, tearing the boy's wrist from his hand and dragging him in its rolling currents, forward.

He resurfaced to see the porch of a nearby house give in to the wave, crashing down into the ocean's fangs. Before him, he saw the boy's limp body being pulled his direction in the retreating water. He reached for the boy's wrist and missed, before clutching hard on the youth's ankle.

A looped rope crashed to the ocean behind him. He clutched it with his free hand as the wave rushed back, taking the remnants of the deck he had watched crumble, with it.

"Hold tight!" He could barely hear Mason's voice as he clutched hard in desperation to survive.

Soon he was being pulled up out of the raging waves, their teeth reaching up for him as the hurricane's air-stream gust against his and the boy's bodies, causing them to move like a kite in the wind.

His arms felt as if they would rip from their sockets, burning as he struggled to hold on. He opened his mouth to scream, but was in so much pain that nothing would come out.

When he thought he would slip away and crash down into the ocean, he felt Mason's strong grasp on his arm, pulling him and the boy up on The Seaman's Watch's deck. Wind and rain battered his face, but he wouldn't let himself collapse. He went to the boy, placing his hand on the youth's chest. He wasn't breathing.

"Mason," Ben almost spat out. "...Mason."

Soon his father was above the boy, pumping his chest to try and extract the water from his lungs.

Ben stood, barely able to find the strength in his legs to rise. The boy's mother was frantic at the side of her deck, at the house across from them.

"Charlie!" she shouted. "Is he alive?"

The boy's face was worn and lifeless as Mason pumped his chest. "Is he dead?" Ben asked his father.

Mason didn't respond, only pumped again and again. In this storm, he and Ben were the boy's only hope.

Ben turned, looking to the mother. Fear struck her whole form. He watched her through the battering wind, unable to remove his glance from the terror in her eyes. Then, just as he turned, he saw Mason pump down on the boy's chest and water spew up from the youth's lips. Charlie's hands struggled to move and he choked uncontrollably, coughing up more of the ocean from his lungs.

"He's alive!" Ben shouted back to the mother. "We have to bring him inside! We'll bring him after the storm!" He didn't know if she heard him through her tears, but they had to get the youth out of the pummeling rain. He braced the boy's legs as Mason hefted his shoulders, lifting with whatever strength he managed to have left in his body, and bringing the youth inside.

They brought him down to the room they had been waiting out the storm in, and then returned to the doorway to board up where the door had been. Rain beat through the sides of the boards, but it would have to hold.

This storm was worse than anyone in the Outer Banks had expected. He feared for those who hadn't fled the coast.

Downstairs, as the boy's chest lifted and fell, Ben kneeled beside the couch they had laid him on.

His hands were folded as he prayed to God, asking for the boy to live, thanking him for his own life.
16

At midday the next day hurricane Irene was through devouring the Outer Banks, heading up the coastline to prey on Virginia, New Jersey and New York. But when it left, disaster epitomized its wake. It was as if the ocean had come up and clawed away a layer of flesh from the Outer Banks, taking houses, piers and anything else it could find that got in its way. It was a beast that had no care for life. But the Outer Banks held firm.

Ben awoke to sunshine streaming through a crack in the boarded window of the room they used as a safe room. He must have fallen asleep while watching over the boy. His muscles burned. The hardwood floor beneath him wasn't doing much to help him with that.

"Good morning, Sunshine." Mason smirked from across the room. "You'd think you had a rough night or something, from the way you've slept."

"Ugh..." Ben rolled to his side and slowly stood, bracing himself on the arm of the couch nearby. The boy was gone. "Where...?"

"I brought him home to his mother when the storm stopped." Mason interrupted him. "He should be fine. His mother was extremely grateful. I still can't believe you risked your life like that. Next time we have a storm, I'm chaining you to the wall so that you can't do anything stupid."

"I feel like I've been beaten." Ben smiled, glad to be alive. "We'll have to check in on him later, after we've both had some time to rest."

Mason made his way toward the door. "I took a look outside earlier. The Henrys' house was completely washed away, except for its stilts. Thank goodness they left before the storm. And I think I saw Alan Brown's boat, wrecked, sticking end up out of the sand down the beach."

As Ben walked out on the upper deck, he was struck by the change in the beach's landscape. The ocean waves used to stop a distance down the beach from their house, but now they lapped clear up below his deck. Debris of destroyed boats and houses littered the shore and a sand bank had collected off in the water, marine life apparently stranded, destined to die there as they baked in the sun.

"Wow." Ben took a breath, and then a sip from a bottle of Fuji water he had stored in the house. They were still without power and probably would be for days. He would have to start up their generator, but not so soon that it could die if they really needed it later. "Did you get the radio up and running yet?" Somehow the gulls crying in the sky were eerie to hear.

"Yeah, they're saying the Outer Banks was hit the hardest. It sounds like part of Rodanthe was actually washed away. I'm glad we weren't there."

Ben took out his cell phone and powered it on. He'd had the power off to conserve battery. _No messages. Surely Caroline should have called by now._ He searched for her number, and then called, clutching the phone nervously. Nothing. It went to voicemail. "Caroline, this is Ben. Well, of course it is. I'm calling to make sure everyone's ok and that you made it out alright. Call me back when you're able to and just let me know. We got hit badly here, but everyone's ok." He punched the phone off and powered it down to conserve battery.

He looked to the sky. "I'm going for a walk, to see if there's anything to see out there."

Mason gave him a quick hug. "You know where to find me."

As Ben walked along the crashing waves he was reminded of his mother. When he was younger they would often walk the beach together. She had taught him to pick up sea creatures that were out of the water on the beach and toss them back into the waves.

" _God loves all animals,"_ she told him. _"After storms, there are people who'll scour the beaches to collect them to sell. If they can't sell them, they'll leave them to die."_

He reached down and picked up a dying starfish, tossing it back into the waves. The animals deserved to live, too. He did this as much for his mom as he did for them.

It was strange to be a part of the aftermath of the storm. Children ran up and down the beach, laughing and shouting as if a major event hadn't just happened, and yet there were houses that had been torn down by the storm and other debris littering the ocean. The isle of sand that had collected out in the ocean remained a major reminder of the storm's ferociousness to him. He thought of the night before, about how Irene had almost taken his life. _So much destruction, and yet all of the people here seem to be fine,_ he thought.

Dead fish littered the beach before him. The sea life hadn't been as lucky. As he came to a stranded jellyfish, he used a stick to lift it and toss it into the water a ways down the beach.

About a half hour passed as he walked; and he was about to turn around, before seeing a decimated pier not too far in the distance. Curiosity got the better of him and he walked toward it, wondering how much of the structure still stood.

A cool breeze cut through him and salt water sprayed his face. As he approached the pier he saw only a small section of its planks still stood. Posts protruded from the ocean and nails projected out of the wood where boards had been ripped away.

Then, beyond the pier, on an outstretched peninsula of sand, he saw something. _A mermaid?_ He squinted in the sunlight, but could not make out the form. Then he realized it was a person.

"Is someone there?" he called. The form lay motionless on the sand.

With an unknown burst of energy, he ran toward it, seeing a girl's hair caked with sand as he approached. Her clothes were torn and half ripped from her body. Gashes ran down her form.

Something stopped Ben cold. Then he moved quicker, in denial about who this was. He touched her dirty, blood-stained face, turning it toward his.

"Wake up," he said, panicked, "wake up, wake up, wake up..." He shook her, not knowing what to do, not remembering what he should do.

It was undeniably Caroline.

"No!" he shouted to the radiating sun overhead.

He moved his hands to her chest, about to attempt to start her heart again, when he realized something. Her chest rose and fell. She was still breathing.

He cursed himself for shutting off his phone, his hands shaking and dropping it to the sand as he removed it from his pocket. He picked it up, powered it on, and then dialed the buttons frantically.

"North Carolina Emergency Operative, Becky, speaking. How can I help you?" the voice came across the phone.

"I... there's..." He struggled to find the words to speak.

"Be calm. Take your time," the operator said.

Ben looked down to Caroline, assuring himself that this was her, and that she was still alive. "This is Benjamin Towne. I'm in Avon. I was walking and found my friend washed up on the beach. She's breathing but unresponsive."

Silence.

"The roads are out, Benjamin. We'll send a medic helicopter in from the mainland to take her to the hospital, if she can be moved. Can you give me an idea of your location?"

He tried to think, but couldn't. Then, out of the corner of his eye he saw the pier. "Crabber's Pier," he blurted out. "It's been torn to pieces, but we're right next to it."

"Stay there and watch over her. If you can use your shirt to flag down the helicopter, that will be a big help. Do you have much power in your phone?"

"Yes."

"Good. I'll keep you on the line."

He held his hand to Caroline's chest, feeling her heartbeat. _What happened to Eva and Suzie?_

He felt helpless and alone. All he could do was kneel there, waiting for the medics to arrive.

\-- --

It felt like hours passed as he watched over Caroline. Her face was blank and cold and she made no movements. "Are they almost here?" he asked the 911 phone operator.

"Yes, you should see them soon. Has there been any change in her?"

"No. She's the same." The distant sound of a helicopter came to him over the sound of crashing waves. He turned to see it flying in his direction over Avon. "I see them," he said, putting the phone in his pocket and pulling off his shirt. He pumped it in the air above him and the aircraft veered in his direction.

Wind from the helicopter's blades beat against him as it descended, landing on a stretch of barren beach nearby. Its blades did not stop as medics with a transport board jumped out, running across the beach in his direction.

"Stand back!" one of the men called to him as they approached.

They checked her vitals and her limbs before hefting her limp body onto the board and turning to him. "Come with us! Normally we wouldn't take you, but there is no knowing when you'll be able to get out of here by car again!"

"Alright, I'm coming!" He didn't hesitate. Disbelief and fear were taking hold of his body.

"Hold your head down and watch out for the blades!"

The medics reached the helicopter first and hefted Caroline in. Air rushed around him as he ducked, running and then leaping up into the aircraft.

"Get back!" a medic instructed him before sliding and locking the door in place. "We're going to Albemarle Hospital in Elizabeth City. Buckle yourself in. It could be a rough ride."

"She was with her mom and aunt," he spoke in a haze as he watched the beach drop away below them. "We need to look for them."

"Benjamin, is it? We'll send out a call when we get her safely to the hospital, but we have no way of knowing where they are. Hopefully they're safe somewhere, but we're medics, not the coastguard."

He watched as they checked Caroline's vitals and worked frantically around her. He took his phone from his pocket and saw the 911 operator was no longer on the line.

Ben realized the full scope of the destruction as the helicopter left Avon behind. Avon was mostly intact, but as he looked down the group of islands he could see Rodanthe and a stretch of water where he knew a large group of houses used to be. The ocean had taken a chunk out of Rodanthe's end.

\-- --

Beneath the ocean, far out from Rodanthe's shore, was a submerged van. Flowing sand and kelp along the ocean floor consumed it through its broken windows. Suzie's body floated limply in the vehicle's shell.
17

_A coma?_ Ben watched the doctor as he walked down the hall and out of sight. He hadn't expected that. She was going to be alright, maybe some nursing would be needed, but she'd be alright. That was what he had thought. _A coma._ He couldn't get his mind around reality.

Nurses rushed past the waiting area pushing a man on a stretcher.

He had to get up, to breathe. What did he do from here? He still hadn't been able to reach Eva or Suzie to tell them he found Caroline. He dreaded the thought of them being buried beneath the sea. _What happened to you?_ he thought while opening a glass door and walking out on the hospital's patio. A smoker in a wheelchair puffed away in the corner of the area. The sky was cloudless and the warm sun covered his body. _Why didn't you save her, God? Why did you allow this to happen to her?_

Maybe she would come out of the coma. Maybe Eva and Suzie were still alive. God didn't answer, but right now Ben wasn't sure he had the faith to listen.

As he walked back inside, he knew he had to go and be with her, even if he didn't know what he could do from here. The nurses directed him to her room, though they said it was normally against protocol, and he was soon at its door and ready to go in.

The doorknob was heavy and cold as he turned it. The smell of sterilizer and staleness permeated the room.

Mental pain seared through him and tears flowed from his eyes as he went to her, holding her hand and looking at her still form. Oxygen tubes connected to her nose to help her breathe.

_Beep beep... Beep beep,_ the monitor on the wall steadily sounded.

"I don't know what to do. I don't know what to say to bring you back. If I had only persuaded you to stay..." Tears flowed down his cheeks and he looked away, out the window into the sun. His chest heaved with sorrow. He was almost too ashamed to be here. _It's my fault,_ he thought, closing his eyes. _I should have said something._

Words Mason had spoken to him when they spoke on the phone hours before, came to him. " _You couldn't have known. What if our house had been taken down by a wave and we all had been inside?_ "

_But it wasn't._ Ben forced himself to open his eyes and wipe the tears away, to look into her face. "I failed you. I am so sorry. I'd do anything to get you back." There was a moment of silence before he spoke again. He fully realized the horror of what had happened as he watched her. "I'll stay by your side until you come out of this. You will wake up." He kissed her hand, a teardrop landing on her scarred flesh as he lifted his head once more.

Hours passed. He didn't leave her side until a nurse came in the room and made him go.

He stopped in the doorway, turning to look back at the beautiful girl who was so far from him now.

"I love you," he told her.

The long hall led him back down to the waiting room. The night sky consumed the windows beyond it, but no stars or moon could be seen in the sky.
18

Darkness.

Silence.

Nothing.

There was a void around her, without light or sound.

A heaviness weighed on her soul as she grasped for something. What? Who was she? What had happened to her?

She hovered in the darkness, stretching her consciousness, but unable to see. Water... there had been water around her moments before.

_Beep beep... Beep beep..._ a noise echoed from somewhere far away. Cold consumed her. Then, in the distance, she saw a light.

" _Hello?"_ she called out with her thoughts. _"Can you help me?"_

There was no response, and the light dimmed and turned to black once more.

Then, through the cold, came warmth. It came to her slowly at first, then wrapped and embraced her. There was a familiar voice, and words she could not fully hear or understand. But something was there with her, encouraging her to keep looking for who she was, to understand what was going on around her.

" _Who are you? Where am I?"_ she asked the voice. There was no response.

A great distance of time passed as she remained there in that darkness and warmth. Then the warmth faded, leaving her cold and alone in the nothing. _"No, don't leave."_

As soon as she had spoken, something came through to her, a man's voice.

"I love you."

She knew that voice. Who was it? It gave her hope.

Then, just as quickly, it was gone.
19

Ben felt as if he were buried, beneath the earth and unable to move. Darkness blanketed him. His heart raced as he tried to break free of whatever held him down.

No! No! I need to go to her! I need to get to Caroline!

With every movement of muscle, he felt more helpless and confined.

"Sir," a female voice broke into his dream. "Sir, are you alright?"

Light flooded in around him as his heart raced. A nurse's face came to shape before him. The waiting room's lights hurt his eyes. It had all been a horrible dream, and yet he saw he was in the hospital and knew it was still real. His palms were sweaty.

The nurse smiled. "You've been here all night. You should really go home and get some sleep. Hopefully she'll come out of the coma soon, but stressing yourself out and staying in our guest area won't make things better any quicker. Besides, her father should be here soon."

"Her father?" Ben rubbed his eyes.

"Yes, we called Mr. Lilly after she arrived. We still haven't been able to get hold of her mother."

_How did they get his number?_ Ben wondered. _I don't even have that._ He supposed they could have looked it up with her ID.

The nurse took a step away. "I have to go, but if you'd like a cup of coffee, the coffee maker is over there."

"Thank you." He didn't drink coffee, but was thankful for the kindness the nurse shown him. He did go over and fill up a cup of water, taking a jelly donut from the coffee table for his breakfast. The donut was delicious, waking him up with its strawberry jelly and granules of sugar.

_It's a small thing,_ he thought. _But sometimes the small things can help lift you away from the big things._

He took a moment to close his eyes and think. He hadn't seriously prayed to God for a good while. He needed to, he realized. _I don't want to. I'm bitter with you,_ he spoke to the Lord. _But I know that I need you, now more than ever._

_Dear God, why have you done this? I prayed to you, asking for her safety. She has done nothing to deserve this._ A tear flowed down his face. _She... we have been through so much. When can it be enough?_ Ben took a deep breath, trying to hold down the hurt in his stomach and in his soul. _Heal her, please. She is such a wonderful person. I love her. I'll give anything to have her back. I'll be a better man._ God didn't want to hear that, he knew. But he didn't know what to say or do so that God would answer his prayer. _I love you. Please watch over Caroline and her family. Please bring her back to me. Amen._

As he opened his eyes, he did not feel relief, but he did feel steady and ready to face whatever the day would bring. He realized he was clutching his hands tightly and loosened his grip.

Nurses rushed by with carts, and a doctor casually strolled up to the main desk and began talking to someone else who had been sitting in the waiting area.

_I need to go see her,_ he thought. He knew he couldn't leave yet.

As he stood and started walking toward the main desk, a man in a black suit caught his eye. He looked familiar somehow. The man was quickly walking up the hallway, going away from Caroline's room.

There was a hard look in the man's eyes. "Excuse me," he spoke to the doctor, insisting that he turn around. When he had the doctor's attention, he continued. "I'm paying for my daughter to be transported to UPMC Medical Center in Pittsburgh, tonight. She needs to be there, where I can care for her and watch over her. I have large cases coming to trial soon, and I don't have time to fly back and forth to check in on her here."

The doctor took a professional stance and watched the man. "Mr. Lilly, I understand what you're saying, but she has to be cleared to be moved before we release her to UPMC's care. That could be tonight, or that could be in a few days or a week. She might also come out of the coma, by then."

_Her father?_ He wasn't at all how Ben imagined he would be. Ben approached slowly. Neither man looked to him.

"I want her at UPMC as soon as possible," Mr. Lilly said harshly. "Do what you need to do. I've got a conference call to attend now, but I'll be back in an hour to sign any papers that need signed for her release."

"Dr. Smith," the nurse butted in, "you're needed in room 113 for surgery."

"I'm sorry, Mr. Lilly, but we'll have to speak later. Your daughter will need to be cleared before she can be released." Before Caroline's father could respond, the doctor turned and left.

"That's an outrage!" Mr. Lilly raised his voice at the nurse. "He can't just walk off! My daughter is in there in a coma! I need her near me!"

At first Ben thought the man was just a pompous jerk, but he began to wonder if the stress of knowing his daughter was in a coma was causing him to act like that.

Ben approached the reception desk. "Excuse me, Mr. Lilly, I'm Ben, Ben Towne. I've become friends with your daughter since she and Eva came to the Outer Banks. I'm the one that found her after the storm."

"Hello. She spoke of you on the phone once." The man took his hand and gave it a firm shake. "It's a shame we have to meet like this. I'm having her moved to a Pittsburgh hospital soon. It will be better to have her nearby. Thank you for watching over her until I could arrive. When she comes out of this, I'll contact you." The man paused for a second. "It's strange. Her mother and I are divorced. I never thought I'd lose my daughter, too."

"She's not gone. She'll wake up." Ben didn't know what else to say. He was in so much pain himself. Her dad needed to not think like this if he was going to help her. He had a heavy feeling in his chest as he realized he would be lost when she was moved to the other hospital. "What if I came to Pittsburgh to help be there for her, to be by her side until she wakes up?"

Mr. Lilly looked at his phone, checking the time. "No. No, you need to stay here. There is nothing you can do for her that I can't. I don't need someone else to look after, as well. You were more than friends, weren't you? Here, write down your number for me and I'll call once a week to let you know how she's doing." The man took a metal pen from his pocket and a slip of paper from the reception counter, and then held them out to Ben.

"Please think about it," Ben said while writing down his name and phone number. How could he get her father to understand that he needed to be near her? "Would I be able to call you, also?"

Mr. Lilly wrote down his own number and handed it to him. "Call any time. I'm busy, so if I don't answer, I'll call back. You can call me Francis, by the way. You seem like a good guy. I'm glad you were here for her."

"Francis, I..." Ben began to talk, but the man turned and walked down the hall toward the exit.

"We'll talk before I go!" he called back. "I've got a meeting I have to attend!"

Time. He wished he had so much more of it. He looked to a wall-clock and saw that it was just after 11 a.m. _Wow, I was lying here for a long time, wasn't I?_

"Can I help you?" the nurse greeted him warmly as he approached the reception desk once more.

"I'd like to see Caroline Lilly, if she's able to have visitors," he said. Soon he was back in her room, holding her hand and looking at her face. _You are beautiful even with your bruises and scars,_ he thought while listening to the sound of her steady heartbeat, coming from the monitor hanging on the wall. He kissed her hand again. "I will be here for you," he said, not knowing if she heard him at all, where her mind was.

That night, he stood in Albemarle Hospital's parking lot, watching the roof of its main building. Helicopter blades whirled in his vision, churning wind in their wake. His heart broke as he stood there, helpless against whatever would come.

The helicopter lifted into the sky.

Ben watched it until its lights disappeared amongst the tapestry of the night's stars.
20

After the helicopter had left, Ben took a boat back to Avon to be with his father, determined to gather the pieces of his life. But Caroline's coma weighed heavily on his mind.

As he helped his neighbors fix the damage to their homes and stores in the coming days, Caroline's face was constantly in his thoughts. He walked past the yellow house on the corner and was reminded of a walk with her. He had eaten lunch with her in The Froggy Dog Café, and as he helped repair their damaged deck, he was reminded of her contagious smile.

It didn't help that his calls to Francis Lilly's cell phone went unanswered. And the man never called him back.

UPMC hospital refused to release any information to him because he was not a family member.

That brought up another point. Where were Eva and Suzie? What had happened to them?

The road connecting to the mainland was decimated by Irene. It was still completely impassible, a week after the storm.

Then one day, as Ben was sitting on his porch with his head in his hands, sweat rolling down his back, word came over his radio that the Cape Hatteras ferry was finally cleared to ship cars and people across The Sound, to Stumpy Point, North Carolina.

"I have to go," he told Mason. "I have to know how she is."

"If you need me, I'll come," his father said, clutching his hands. "And I'll watch over Excelsis once he's ready to be released and can come back. You have extended your hand to him. He's still welcome in our home."

They didn't have a long goodbye. It wasn't their style. But as Ben sped down the road away from Mason later that day, he felt a knot in his heart. _I'll be back soon,_ he mentally promised the man. _As soon as Caroline is well._

The ferry rocked as he took the last car space on its deck. He opened the Jeep's door and stepped out, feeling the harsh beat of the salt-wind against his skin.

"Where are ye going from here?" A fisherman approached him and asked.

"To find hope, or to give it." Ben stood, watching the blood-red sunset devouring the sky.
21

Wind whipped around him as Ben drove the last leg of his journey toward Pittsburgh. Trees on both sides of the road blurred in his vision, a funnel directing him toward Caroline's side.

He looked at the time. _Ten hours,_ he thought, exhaustion coming over him. Ten hours was the amount of time he had already spent driving, without any rest since exiting the ferry in Stumpy Point. His heavy eyes called him down to sleep. _I'm so close. I can rest when I get there._ He shut his eyes for a moment. That's all he needed, just a second to relax...

Darkness.

_Humm. Humm. Humm._ He startled awake as his Jeep hit the highway's rumble-strip, veering off the road toward a ditch.

With a quick jerk he was back on the road, his heart beating rapidly in his chest.

_HONK!_ Another car burst around him.

_I have to find a rest area and take a break,_ he realized, though he still hated stopping before reaching Pittsburgh.

A few miles down the highway he saw a sign for the next rest area. There would be bathrooms, a Burger King and possibly even a place for him to park his car and take a short nap. He hated to admit it, but he was ready for this break. The only other places he had stopped so far were gas stations. _A person can only survive for so long on Combos and Coca-Cola._ The thought made him smile.

It was 8 a.m. as the yellow Jeep veered up into the rest stop parking lot. The ham and egg biscuit was delicious and the warmth from the sandwich felt good on his hands. His carton of orange juice was a nice replacement for his Coke.

Ben drove the Jeep over to a shaded area with overhanging tree limbs and reclined his seat. He set the alarm on his phone for thirty minutes, and then double-checked the doors to make sure they were locked. He wrapped his jacket around him, shut his eyes and was fast asleep.

He awoke with a jolt, to horns honking and people shouting outside. _What?_ he wondered before looking outside and seeing a trucker step out of his big-rig close by. The man seemed to be having an argument with a young man who had just stepped out of his Lamborghini.

Ben rubbed his eyes and set his seat's incline back to where it had been. _What time is it?_ He looked to the car stereo. It was almost 4 p.m. How in the world had he slept through his phone alarm? His body must have known he needed rest, much more than his mind.

\-- --

Pittsburgh's suburbs were nothing like Ben had seen before. Rolling hills marked the landscape with houses somehow built into the sides of uneven terrain. Businesses lined the streets, like boxes crammed into a grocer's aisle. The streets themselves were patched with long swatches of black tar.

It was vastly different from the Outer Banks, the place he had spent most of his life. But the people here looked interesting. He decided he looked forward to having the opportunity to experience all Pittsburgh had to offer.

As Ben drove down the road toward the city with his map opened up in the seat beside him, he marveled at the fact that he was so close to Pittsburgh now and yet could still not see any of its buildings. He had heard that all roads leading into the city either went through a tunnel, over a bridge, or both. It was shaped like a triangle and rivers and massive hills surrounded two of its three sides.

Soon the road he was driving led him into one of those tunnels. Its darkness surrounded him as yellow lights swept by along his sides.

At the end of the tunnel, he began to see the yellow beams of a bridge. He passed through the tunnel's exit and his eyes widened. Towering skyscrapers stood like giants beyond. One was nothing but glass, with the look of a castle at its top. Others reached up toward the sky, grasping for the clouds above with their silver sheets of steel.

The way the city rose up instantly from beyond the river took his breath away. He could see why Caroline said she loved this place.

He reined in his sense of awe as he drove over the massive bridge of yellow-painted steel. He looked down to his map, trying to navigate where to go. After several turns off the main road and a brief episode of being lost, Ben finally entered the misshapen grid of Pittsburgh's streets and was confident that he could locate UMPC Hospital before dark.

Then, after another half hour of getting lost and finding his location again, Ben finally saw his destination. A massive brick giant with UPMC on its side rose up before him.

Ben parked his Jeep at a parking meter along a side street and stepped out, taking all the quarters he had and loading up the machine. He wasn't planning on returning for a while. There was probably a parking garage close by that he could have parked in for free, but right now all he cared about was getting to Caroline.

_How is she?_ he wondered. _Has she made any progress?_ That was it, though, what progress could you really make when you were in a coma, other than coming out of it? He just hoped he could help her in some way, now that he was here.

The automatic doors swept open before him as he went through the main entrance. It reminded him a lot of the hospital Caroline had been transferred from. A nurse hurrying somewhere almost ran into him as she rushed by.

"Excuse me," Ben said as he approached the main desk.

The nurse there looked up with a frown, seeming perturbed, stressed or both. "What can I do for you?" she asked.

Ben let some of the stress and tension leave his body. _I'm here,_ he thought. _After all this time, I'm here._

"I'm here to visit Caroline Lilly, a coma patient that was flown in from North Carolina a week ago."

The nurse clicked away on her keyboard. "What's your name, sir?"

"Benjamin Towne, I'm..."

"I'm sorry, Mr. Towne, but I cannot disclose any information regarding this patient to you." She looked up with that same agitated look in her eyes.

Ben braced his hands on the desk. He felt himself going weak with exhaustion and hopelessness. He should have expected that they wouldn't let him see her because he wasn't family. That was the same thing they said when he called. "She's here though, right?"

"I'm sorry, Mr. Towne, but I cannot disclose any information regarding this patient to you."

Obviously Caroline was here. Why else would this nurse be so adamant in denying him? _Did her father specifically request to keep me from finding out how she is?_ The thought angered him. It angered him even more to be so close and yet still unable to see her or be by her side.

"I'm a good friend. Can you at least confirm for me that she's here?" He didn't know why he was asking again. Maybe the nurse would have a heart and give him at least that information.

"I'm sorry, sir, but I can't..."

Ben didn't even let her finish her sentence, turning and heading back out the hospital's automatic doors. _I'll have to find a way to get hold of her father and convince him to allow me on the visitor's list. If he doesn't answer my calls, then I'll just get online and figure out what law firm he works for. He can't ignore me forever._

He walked past the parking meter, looking at his still unused time left on the digital clock. _What am I doing here? I don't even have a reservation at a hotel to stay tonight._

Ben started his Jeep. He would head out of town. He only had a limited amount of money to spend and didn't want to waste it just to sleep in the city. Tonight he would rest and collect his thoughts. Tomorrow he would attempt to search out Francis Lilly.

Dark clouds rolled by above him as he drove Pittsburgh's congested streets, and then turned onto one of the massive yellow bridges extending out of the city. His car rumbled on the bridge's cement.

As the traffic came to a stop, he turned his head and stared out over the massive river rushing beneath the bridge. Somehow it calmed him. He smiled as he watched a ferryboat emerge from beneath the bridge and continue down the waterway.

_Honk!_ a horn blared from a black minivan behind him.

A bearded man leaned out the van's window. "Move it, buddy! The light's green!"

Ben waved his hand to the man and pressed his foot on the gas once more. He had the urge to stop on the bridge and take in the sight of the river below.

There was a shopping center near the end of the bridge and he turned towards it. A sign with a train on it greeted him as he entered. _Station Square. It must have been a train station, once. I wonder if there's still a station here._

After parking in the shopping center's garage, Ben walked up to the walkway on the bridge.

A harsh, cold wind whipped through him. He might as well have not even been wearing his jacket, for how cold he was now. The river was beautiful though.

As he reached the center of the bridge, he leaned against the cold steel rail. A speedboat skipped by beneath the bridge and a ferry was docking in a port near the shopping center.

_Caroline, where are you?_ he thought. He wanted to be here, but he felt hollowness beside him, a vacancy. He wanted to share this with her. _Will I ever have that chance again?_ He looked up to the sky and the cold clouds moving slowly there. _Help me, God,_ he thought. _I am alone._

As he turned to walk back across the bridge, toward the shopping center, he noticed something he hadn't seen before. A bearded man and worn-looking woman with tattered clothes sat in the walkway of the bridge a distance down. The man held a cardboard sign in his hands. A bucket sat in front of them.

Words Caroline had spoken to him suddenly came through Ben's thoughts. " _Your story reminds me of a bridge in Pittsburgh that I walk across when I meet my dad for lunch downtown. There is this homeless couple that is always sitting on one side of the bridge. Most people just walk by and ignore them, but I always give something if I have change or a dollar on me."_ That was what she said after he first told her about Excelsis.

_Could it be?_ He stared at the couple for a moment, and then started walking toward them. As he walked he fumbled with his wallet, taking out a five-dollar bill.

"Thank you," the man said as Ben placed the bill in his bucket. The woman was asleep on his shoulder.

Ben couldn't help but wonder where they would sleep tonight. He knew he should offer to pay for a room for them for the night, or at least a hot dinner. He was still leery of that though, somewhat afraid of the unknown. "Gladly," he responded to the homeless man.

"Bless you," the gray-bearded man replied. "May the Lord be with you." He huddled back up with the woman, wrapping a torn blanket tighter around them.

Ben took a moment to read the cardboard sign. _Homeless. Disabled VET. Anything will help._

As he walked back across the bridge he thought of Caroline, and then wondered if God had led him onto this bridge because of her. _I am meant to be here,_ he reassured himself. He could feel her with him, because of the homeless couple, even though he hadn't been able to see her at the hospital.

Something suddenly struck his thoughts. He stopped, turning to look back at the couple. What was the story he had heard, where the man was waiting for God at dinner, but instead of God coming, a hungry child came? Then, after the child came, a pregnant woman came and then a homeless man. God had later told the man that he had come, that he was the child, the woman and the man.

He thought of that story, and of Excelsis, before turning and heading toward the couple once more. He couldn't buy them a room for the night. He wasn't sure he had that in him. _But a hot meal,_ he thought, _I can at least do that._

The wind seemed to calm some as he moved. _This is for you, Caroline._ He took a deep breath as he approached.
22

Caroline could feel warmth in the darkness. She had been here for so long. How long had it been? Where was she?

It was as if she floated in a river, carried by some unknown current. And yet it seemed like she did not move at all. There were consistencies around her, like the faint light she would see opening in the darkness and familiar voices that would sometimes seem to speak through her mind.

A pinpoint of light returned to the darkness, widening and somehow blinding her vision, even as darkness still consumed most of her sight. She still could not see her body, or any other form.

Then something happened, something she did not expect. A voice broke into the world around her. It wasn't like the other voices. She didn't recognize it. It seemed to actually 'be' a part of what encompassed her.

_I am here, my child. Do not be afraid,_ the voice spoke.

_What has happened to me?_ she asked in her mind. _Who am I? Where am I?_

It is not time for you to know. Be strong. There is a reason for everything. I am always by your side.

_I don't feel like I'm supposed to be here,_ she said. _Should I join the light with you?_

Your time is not now. Wait. I will stay with you. The time will come.

The light was consumed by the darkness once more, but somehow she still felt the entity by her. _When?_ she asked.

There was no response.

Darkness.

Time passed.

She felt alone and uncertain.

Then a voice broke through the nothing, a voice she recognized from some place before this.

_They still haven't found Suzie or your mother,_ the voice said. Somehow, she felt like it loved her. _I had feelings for your mother once, before the divorce. We've had our troubles for some time now, but I would never wish this on her._ There was a moment's hesitation in the voice. _You probably can't even hear me... I still love her._

She did hear the voice, though. She wanted to shout to it, to tell it she was there, but she couldn't make the connection to it. Who was it? How did she know the voice?

_Father,_ the word came to her. It was her father. He was here by her side, wherever she was.

She didn't hear the voice again after his last words, but she felt like she was given a gift. She was beginning to remember who she was. 
23

"...and seeing what we're seeing from them already this season, I think the Steelers have a chance to..."

Ben slammed his hand against the clock to shut off the radio alarm. "Ugh." He rolled over in bed as sunlight streamed through the thin motel curtains and into his face. It took a minute to register where he was.

He braced his hands on the hard mattress and forced himself to sit up. A cramp ran through his back. He discovered this rundown motel in a suburb of Pittsburgh called Robinson. The area was nice and the motel was in his price range, but he hoped he wouldn't need to stay here again tonight. Somehow, though, he was sure he'd be back.

After a shower and some freshening up, he loaded his luggage back in the Jeep. He asked the desk manager where the closest library was, happy to get the Jeep down the road.

In the Robinson library, Ben found what he was looking for, a computer and free access to the Internet. Once the system was up, he quickly pulled up Google and began hammering at the keys.

He typed Francis Lilly's name into the search engine and pressing enter. A list of people with that name and their various websites and affiliations instantly displayed. To Ben's delight, a lawyer named Francis Lilly was first on the list. Law practices tend to rank high in Google searches, and Ben was thankful for that. He was listed as a practicing Lawyer for Burns White, LLC.

After plugging in the address to Map Quest, he had easy directions there. All it took was an ok from the librarian to print them out and he was on his way.

Burns White ended up being located near Pittsburgh's baseball stadium, PNC Park, and the stadium's parking lot ended up being a good place for Ben to leave his car.

Ben's palms sweat as he approached Burns White's brick exterior. It was an older building, not too tall, but not small either. After entering the main doors, he was struck by the structure's beauty. It had an old-fashioned feel that just felt good to take in. A security guard sat at the desk by the elevators. Ben hoped he could get in, or at least get Francis's attention somehow.

The large guard eyed him from behind the desk. "Excuse me, sir. What can I do for you?"

Ben took his chance. "I'm here to see Francis Lilly. I don't have an appointment, but it's important."

The guard lifted his phone. "Let me call up and see what he says. What's your name again, sir? And what are you here to see him about?"

Ben swallowed. He didn't think being honest would get him very far, but what else could he do? "I'm Benjamin Towne, and I'm a friend of his daughter's who needs to talk to him."

The guard gave him a good look over. "I'll call," the man said hesitantly, "but I'm not sure I'll get through." He dialed an extension number and, after a few seconds, hung up the phone. "There's no answer. Why don't you write down a message and I'll give it to him when he leaves? Here, you can use this pad of paper."

Ben took the pad and went to a chair and table in the lobby. There would be no point in writing anything down. If Caroline's father wasn't returning his phone calls, he sure wasn't going to do anything with a note.

Fear coursed through him. _This is my last chance, isn't it? How else can I get hold of him if I can't get to him here?_ He closed his eyes and allowed tears to flow down his face. _I'll find a way, today, or tomorrow, or the next day._ He took a breath, turning to God. _Help me. Help me to see him. Please._

There was commotion down the hall as the doors leading to the street opened and a man with a black and yellow polo entered the lobby. Ben barely saw him out the corner of his eye, making eye contact for a moment before looking away. When he heard the doors open he hoped it was Francis. This man was not him.

The sound of the man's footsteps on the floor traveled past him, and then stopped and came back his direction.

"Are you alright?" the man's caring voice asked.

Ben looked up. The man was balding and had a close-trimmed mustache and beard. Most people didn't want to know the real answer when they asked you how you were, but he seemed to genuinely care. "No. It's a long story." Ben didn't know what to say. There was too much to even begin sharing with him, even if he wanted to. But if this man worked here, this was his opportunity. He had to do something.

"I'm Mark." The man smiled as he held out his hand.

He took it. "Ben." He wiped the tears from his face. "Thank you for caring."

"Is there anything I can do, Ben?"

He took a deep breath. "Do you know Francis Lilly?" He could see from Mark's eyes that he did. "I'm a friend of his daughter's, and I've been trying to reach him for days, but he won't answer or return my calls. It's really important that I talk to him."

"I heard about what happened. I'm sorry." Mark placed his hand on Ben's shoulder. "I'll tell you what, I'll let him know you're down here and tell him how important it is to you to see him. Are you the one who found her?"

Ben was puzzled. How would he know that? "Yes."

"Francis told me about that. You sound like a good man. I'll see what I can do."

"Thank you!" Ben called to him as Mark got into the elevator and the doors closed him off from view.

The security guard eyed him suspiciously as he waited in the lobby.

He watched the hands of the clock above the guard ticking away time as he rigidly sat on the lobby's couch.

Five minutes. Ten minutes. Fifteen minutes passed as the occasional person entered the lobby and headed into the elevator, either that or his hopes rose when seeing the elevator doors open, then fell while watching someone other than Mr. Lilly walk out.

He took his phone out, about to actually try and call her father again when...

"Benjamin?" the voice came from behind him.

Ben was startled as he heard his name. There, behind him, was Francis Lilly. Relief washed through his body, just knowing he'd have the opportunity to speak with him. "I thought you'd come from the elevator."

"I took the stairs." It was the first genuine smile he'd seen from Mr. Lilly since they'd met.

"Thank you so much for coming to see me."

"It's no problem. I'm sorry I haven't returned your calls. Things have been hectic around here. Life has been hectic. I'm sure you understand."

Ben didn't know what to say. He hadn't honestly expected Francis to come see him. "I'm here to see Caroline, to see how she's doing. The hospital wouldn't let me see her, though, because I'm not family."

"Let's go for a walk," Francis said, and then let him out of the lobby and on to the sidewalk. A taxi sped by and a horn blared from blocks down the road. "I thought you might be here. Last night I visited Caroline and the receptionist told me a young man had been asking to see her."

"How is she?" It was all he wanted to know immediately, that she was alright, or at least that she was the same as he had last seen her.

"The doctors say she's steady. Her heart is normal. Her brain functions are where they should be. But there is no knowing when and if she'll ever come back out of the coma. And if she does, she may not remember you, or even me." Francis wiped a tear from his cheek. Ben wouldn't have known it was there if he hadn't seen the man reach his hand up. There was no emotion on her father's face.

Ben wiped more of his own tears away. "Can I see her? Will you speak with the hospital and ask them to authorize me as a visitor?"

"I don't want to, but not for the reasons you may think. Believe it or not, I like you. You seem to be a good man. And it's clear you care deeply for my daughter, but I'm worried she won't come out of this, and then where will that leave you?"

"It will leave me where I am now." Ben looked up to the sky beyond the buildings, watching smog and clouds roll by above the rooftops. "I'm a part of this, Mr. Lilly, and I can't just leave her behind. Maybe my voice will help to bring her back to us, to you. Or maybe I'll sit for hours in a chair talking and no one will hear me but myself and people passing in the hall. But I'm doing this for me as much as for her. I'm not going anywhere."

"You don't like being told no." There was a worried look on Francis's face. "And what happens if I tell you to go back to the Outer Banks?"

"Then I'll stay here until she wakes up, in Pittsburgh, until I know she has come out of this." He didn't know how he would manage that. He and Mason only had enough in their mutual checking account to last them a few months. And he hadn't painted anything that he could sell since meeting Caroline. He would do it though, somehow. He meant what he said.

Francis took out his pocket watch for a moment, eyed the time, and then stuffed it back in his pocket. "I'll call and give authorization for you to visit. But on one condition, if she does come out of the coma and doesn't know who you are, then you'll leave both our lives for good."

"Yes." Ben didn't hesitate. He wasn't waiting for the man to revoke what he said. "She'll wake up. You'll see. And she will remember us."

"How long will you be here?" Francis asked.

"As long as I can manage it."

"Don't be a stranger. I promise to return your calls."

Ben shook Francis's hand firmly and watched as he walked back into Burns White's building. "When can you call so that I can have authorization?"

"I'll call as soon as I reach my office. They should allow you in tonight. Maybe I'll see you there."

_He's a man of little emotion,_ Ben thought, _but somehow I'm beginning to like him._ If he saw Mark again, he determined he would ask to take him to lunch.

Ben's heart raced as he anticipated seeing Caroline. What would he say?
24

Ben held Caroline's hand for hours as he sat by her side, just 'being' with her, but not actually saying much. His heart swelled. The pulse of her heartbeat beeped across the computer screen behind her hospital bed.

Before this moment, he was working to get here, to be with her. Now he was with her and he just felt hopeless. Looking at her bruised face, he wished she would open her eyes, or that she would speak to him.

A rose he'd brought in a vase sat in the corner of the room, poorly lit with a dim hospital light.

Silence.

Ben closed his eyes. _I am here. What do I do now, God? How can I comfort her? How can I help her heal? I'll give anything if you just bring her back to me._

The dark night sky was motionless outside the room's window.

He had a book beside him, a Christian book called 'Come What May' that he'd picked up and begun reading to her. The book was about a woman and man who were separated and lived different lives after college, but remained friends. It was called 'Come What May' because that was what the man always told the woman. God's will would guide their lives, 'Come What May'.

He hoped his voice would comfort Caroline and that she could hear him, wherever her consciousness was. He read this particular book as much for himself as for her. He needed to know that God would lead her back to him and return her to him from this storm.

Ben closed the book after reading the first few chapters, feeling the edges of its pages with his thumb. All he could do was read, pray and hope.

"I love you," he said, reaching out and holding her hand before standing to leave.

He stood there, watching, hoping she would open her eyes. Reality that she may be in the coma for a long time began sinking in. He blew her a kiss and turned to leave. Then as he began walking down the hall, he recognized a man approaching him.

"Ben, just the man I was looking for." Francis steadily shook his hand.

"I'm just leaving," Ben said. "Thank you for calling and giving authorization for me to visit her."

"Where are you sleeping tonight?" Mr. Lilly asked. "There's no sense in paying for a hotel room while I have vacant rooms in my house. Ever since my ex-wife and daughter moved out it has just been me."

"I'm honored you'd offer, but..."

"Nonsense, you can stay as long as you like. I meant what I said earlier. You seem like a good man. It will be good to have the company. I appreciate what you're trying to do for my daughter. Just give me some time alone here and I'll meet you in the waiting room, to lead you to the house."

"Thank you." Ben had been caught off guard by the offer. As he thought more about it, he realized it was a good idea. Of course, he couldn't stay there for free. Even if Francis tried declining him, he'd look for work around Pittsburgh and find a way to pay the man for as long as he was here.

_Don't think like that. She might wake up tomorrow,_ he thought. Then he remembered the bruises on her face as he sat with her in the room and the complete stillness of her body. He would stay here in Pittsburgh, come what may.

As he waited in the lobby he took out his phone and called Mason.

"Ben!" Mason's voice came over the phone. "How is everything? Have you gotten to see her? We're just getting power back here and they're releasing Excelsis tomorrow. He'll be staying at The Seaman's Watch for a while, as you offered, until he heals."

He told his father all that happened. They didn't share the kind of love most families did, but as they talked he felt some deeper connection with Mason. It was good to have him as a rock in the chaos of the world. Mason was the one certainty in the unknown of his life.

"I love you, dad," Ben said before getting off the phone. He hadn't called him 'dad' in years.

Mason hesitated a moment. There was surprise in the silence. "I love you too, son. Call me. Let me know what's going on with Caroline and what you're doing."
25

The first memory that returned to Caroline was of Irene, after the ocean swallowed their van.

She had been in darkness for so long, then suddenly was thrust back into this memory, forced to live it again.

\-- --

She shook as she remembered, watching in horror as the van thrust clockwise in a massive flood of waves. Water seeped in through the pores of the van. "Help! Help!" she screamed in terror.

"Take your seatbelt off and try to escape!" her mother called out to her from the front as the van flipped in the waves once more.

Suzie was eerily silent.

Caroline reached for her seatbelt, trying hectically to unlock it but being too nervous to find the button. _Click._ She found it and began taking it off.

"I'm so sorry, honey, I love you." She could barely hear her mother up front.

"I love you too, mom. We'll be alright."

An angry wave of the ocean's maw cracked against the windshield, shattering it and sending shards of glass like daggers across the van, then flooding the vehicle completely.

The last thing Caroline saw before the darkness took over was blood. Was it her own?

Her mind was gone for moments, darkness surrounding her once more. Then, in an echo, she heard her mom calling to her. She was pulling at her arm.

Caroline opened her eyes and choked on the ocean flooding her lungs.

Eva was above her, her head in an air pocket at the roof of the van. She watched helplessly as her mother dove down and grabbed her arm, pulling her up into the air.

Her throat burned as she convulsed, choking out the water. There was blood everywhere. It was coming from Suzie's limp body, still strapped in the front seat.

"Suzie!" she called out when she was able to breathe.

"We can't, not now." Her mother was panicked. "We need to get out before we drown." _Crack! Crack!_ Eva shattered a side window with her feet. "Go!"

Caroline went. Currents pulled at her as she used what little strength she had to escape the vehicle. All she could do was swim as hard as she could for the surface a good distance above.

She reached air, only to take a deep breath before a wave crashed down on her. She held the breath tight as currents battered her body, pulling her down.

Caroline kicked and moved her arms, trying to reemerge.

As she reached air a second time, she breathed, and then saw Eva swimming away from her off in the distance. "Mom!" she shouted. But Eva did not hear. The storm raged against them, pulling them apart. Should she swim for her mother's direction or toward the shoreline closer to her?

A wave beat her body beneath the ocean, darkness consuming her as she was pulled back out of the memory.

\-- --

Wherever she was, she was no longer in the ocean. _But where is that?_ Caroline thought as she felt nothing around her form. She remembered her mother and aunt, and knew that Suzie was dead. That pain wracked her soul, and yet relief washed through her to know that her mother could still be alive. _But am I dead?_

There was no relief to the darkness, and no words to comfort her. The unknown voice she heard before had been gone for some time.

This was nowhere.

She feared she was becoming part of it.
26

Six months later, Pittsburgh, June 2012

Ben sat on the wooden swivel-stool staring at his canvas. Golden bridges stretched across the painting he'd been working on for a couple of hours now. Towering skyscrapers stood like goliaths beyond them as a radiant sunrise danced, shining through their forms.

She's here, he thought, in this city, beyond the paint.

He put down his paintbrush and took a drink of cranberry juice, then looked to a picture propped on a table close by. He had discovered Caroline's camera in his Jeep some time back and had the film developed. This was the picture the woman had taken of them standing in front of the monument to the Wright Brothers.

She really was beautiful. He admired it for a moment, and then caught himself. She still is.

Artists moved and painted around him in the vast room. Ben had been forced to start painting and selling his work again as he and Mason began running low on money. These past months had been hard financially, but especially on his heart. Luckily Francis was happy to allow him to stay.

"At least until the end of the year, if that is what you want," Francis told him sometime in January.

And luckily, when John was tried, he hadn't needed to take the stand. Mason and Excelsis' testimonies along with police evidence were enough to convict.

But with every new day he lost more hope, his heart and faith being slowly eaten away. How much longer can I last? How much more can I take? The questions had been unanswered for a long time now, and yet every day he came here to paint, before going to visit her hospital bed.

As he sat there, looking at the picture of the two of them standing next to the pillar, something caught his eye. He put down the juice and picked up the photograph. There was writing on the pillar's base, writing he remembered from that day of the photo.

_Achieved by dauntless resolution and unconquerable faith_ , he read the words, only a portion of what was inscribed around the full monument.

I have to push on. I have to have faith that she will wake up and be here when she does.

A chill ran across his skin. I need to go, to be with her. He swiftly put away his paints and covered his canvas. He said nothing to the other artists as he left the studio, making his way quickly onto the sidewalk outside.

As Ben walked toward the parking area where his Jeep was, several people bumped into him, or he moved out of their way as they passed. It was lunchtime. Congestion clogged the streets and people were in a hurry to get their lunches before their breaks ended.

"Praise the Lord! Praise Jesus!" a homeless black man with a shaggy gray beard shouted from the street corner. Few people looked at him; most just walked past, purposely not making eye contact.

As Ben neared, he considered crossing the street so as not to bump into the man, but then realized it wasn't the right thing to do. Instead, he fished in his pocket for his wallet and got the last two dollars he had on him ready to give the man.

"Praise the Lord! Ask forgiveness! Jesus saves!"

As he reached the man, Ben took out the money to give him, and then realized there was no box or can on the ground to put it in. He looked and saw one of the disheveled man's eyes was glazed over with white.

The homeless man motioned for him to put his money away. A moment later he handed Ben a pamphlet with Bible verses on the front.

"Thank you," Ben said, stopping and giving him a smile.

"I don't need money. I live at the shelter down the street. I just want to spread the word of the Lord."

There was an odd look in the man's eyes. Something was clearly off about his expression and his mind. Is he sane? Then he remembered the book Don Quixote de la Mancha, and how in that book the most noble and good man was Don Quixote, who was technically insane.

The homeless man came closer to him. "Trust in God's will. Give your problems to the Lord. Do not try and control his path. Let him guide you on your journey."

"Thank you," Ben said, firmly shaking the man's hand. "You don't know how much your words mean."

"I do. They are the Lord's words." The homeless man smiled. His teeth were yellowed and gapped. "Have faith in the Lord's plan."

As Ben walked up the street it struck him as to the importance of those words. I've been begging and trying to make God heal Caroline since I found her on the beach. He looked to the radiating sun overhead. Whatever happens is his will. I will love you, Lord, and have faith in you, no matter what the days ahead bring.

It was a little after midday when he arrived at the hospital. He ate a Peanut Butter & Jelly sandwich in the cafeteria and checked in before heading to Caroline's room. Ben said nothing as he entered, but put his hand on hers after moving a chair beside her bed and sitting down.

"I know I'm a little early today," he said as he listened to her steady heartbeat coming from the monitor. "I couldn't stop thinking about you. I needed to be here sooner." Ben took a rose he'd purchased from a street vendor and laid it on a table close by. "I brought you a flower. I know that the other ones died."

It was cold, talking to someone who didn't talk back or respond, day after day, and yet there was always warmth with Caroline that he could never find anywhere else.

"I need to talk about something. On my way here today I came across a man who said that I needed to have faith in God's will and not try and force my will upon him. That's what I've been doing each time I pray for you to wake up. I've been begging him, but not giving my faith over to him." Ben took a breath and looked to the tiled floor, where sunlight coming through the window spread out over the pattern. "It hurts, but that's what I have to do, no matter what comes in the end." There was silence for a moment as he thought.

Ben held Caroline's hand tighter as his chest ached. Goosebumps covered his arms. "I love you. I love you so much, and I don't know how that's possible. We only knew each other for a short time before the coma. But I do, and I just wish I knew what I could do to bring you back."

He stayed by her side through the day and into the night, only leaving for short breaks to stretch his legs or eat. As night came, his head became heavy and he fell asleep.
27

Caroline sensed someone in the darkness with her. She had been alone for so long, but slowly began to remember things about her life.

She remembered her parents' divorce. She remembered the way her mother used to stroke her hair when she was having a rough day. She remembered John. And after most of her memories returned to her, she remembered Ben. Why didn't I tell you I'd be with you? She was no longer in his world. It hurt her. But where am I? Will I ever see you again?

The darkness warmed around her and she shivered as she sensed the unknown being's presence nearby.

It is time, the being spoke.

"Time?" she asked. She floated in a vast, black, undefined sea.

It is time for you to leave this place, my child. You will not remember anything from here, but I will be with you.

Leave to where? she wondered. All of her memories were finally hers. I want to escape the darkness, but is it worth it if I lose myself again?

You will not be lost, and you do not have a choice. I will take you soon. It is what will be.

Caroline felt free. Her body was lighter somehow, and in the distance of the nothing she saw stars twinkling through.

No, she thought, but relaxed and opened herself to the feeling.

The stars expanded, nearing her and merging, pulsing as they overtook the nothing. Soon the nothing would be gone.

She reached her hand out toward the light and saw a pulsing silhouette of white around its form.

Her mind soothed as the white swept over her.

It was pureness.

It took her in its arms.

Her memories of the nothing... were gone.
28

As Ben woke, his head slumped against his one hand while his other hand held Caroline's, he knew something had changed. Something had startled him.

Caroline's heartbeat pulsed steadily on the monitor, and in the hall he could barely hear nurses talking. He forced himself to wake and focus. Suddenly Caroline's hand twitched in his.

Ben's heart raced.

Her hand twitched again, and then again.

He watched her face and body for any other sign of movement. "Caroline?" he asked her. "Caroline, can you hear me? It's Ben."

She opened her eyes.
29

There was a haze about Caroline, as light and dark swam in her mind. She had just been in the ocean, watching her mother swim away.

A beeping noise pulsed in her consciousness. Pain surged through her head.

"Caroline?" a male voice asked.

She tried to move, to respond. Was that her name? It is, she remembered, and then tried to speak.

The light and dark haze swam over her. She felt something warm against her fingertips. Somehow that was comforting.

"Caroline, can you hear me? It's Ben."

Who?

She struggled to respond again. Then she remembered how to open her eyes, how to control her body.

The world was a blur as she opened her eyes and looked out on it. What happened to the ocean?

She started to make out a figure in the haze of her eyesight. It was undefined at first, and then she remembered. Ben? she thought. She remembered him, and knew she had feelings for him.

"She's awake!" he called out. "Somebody, she's awake!"

As Ben's hand left hers and he moved from her blurred vision, an uneasy dread pulsed through her. Where am I? How did I get here? What is wrong with me? She heard footsteps coming closer, and then felt hands on her.

A nurse came close as her vision became clearer and she was able to make out a hospital room. "Can you hear me?" the nurse asked.

Caroline hesitated, trying to form the word. "Yes."

"Good. Do you know your name?"

Things were coming back to her now, movements and reflexes. "Caroline."

The nurse smiled at her. "And what is your last name?"

"Lilly."

"Caroline, you've been in a coma." The nurse checked an I.V. that was stuck in her vein. "You're in Pittsburgh, in UPMC hospital. Everything will be alright."

"Caroline." Ben approached her. He was crying and wiped tears from his eyes. "I was so worried for you. Your father is so worried for you."

She couldn't handle it, couldn't handle the shock of being in the ocean, beaten by the waves one moment, and then the next moment waking up in a hospital bed. "Mom?" she asked, realizing that he hadn't mentioned that her mother was worried for her.

Ben hesitated.

She held his eyes so that he could not look away.

"They haven't found her yet," he said hesitantly.

The nurse who had spoken to her shot him a look. "Leave the room," the nurse instructed him.

He took a step toward Caroline. "But..."

"Leave. This is too much for her to handle right now. She will need time to think, to understand, to rest."

Ben came to Caroline and kissed her forehead. "I'll be out in the hall until I can come back in. I love you."

That night was a haze to her. Ben came in after the nurses worked with her for a while. She was having trouble enunciating, but asked him questions about the night of the storm and about her coma. She realized he had given a lot to be here with her. The depth of his feelings was hard to understand, but she realized the reason he seemed to feel so strongly for her was because he had so much time here with her, while she only had memories of him from a few weeks.

Soon her father joined them. He didn't cry, but as he sat beside her, his strong hand holding hers was somehow just what she needed. Her father's love wasn't always in his words or his emotions, but rather in his strength and persistence.

The hardest thing was knowing that Suzie was dead. Caroline had seen her body, and there was no way she had managed to stay alive. Somehow, though, she knew her mother survived. But where was she? She would find her, one way or another, once she was well. Odds were likely that her mom was also washed ashore in a coma, and that they just weren't able to identify her yet.

\-- --

In the weeks to come Caroline overcame much. She had been nourished through a feeding tube while in the coma, but now as she began eating food she realized her senses of taste and smell were no longer as strong. And she was full after only a few bites of food.

At first nurses would carry her to the bathroom because of how weak her body was. She lost weight while in the coma. Luckily, with therapy, she regained her ability to walk, a little after a week's time. A speech therapist helped her learn how to enunciate and brought puzzles for her to work with to be sure that her mind was comprehending as it should be.

She craved mobility, the freedom to move how she wanted and to escape the confines of the hospital. During the day, she would sit and look out the window, watching people walking the sidewalk and trucks and cars going down the road. It fascinated her to watch everything beyond the window, because that was where she could not be yet.

She yearned for sunlight on her skin, for the wind to tousle her hair, for normal reality awaiting her beyond hospital walls. Her only release from the hospital, so far, was her time with Ben. They talked, played card games, and often times he would stay with her at night, just watching whatever was on TV and being by her side.

Do I love him? she thought one night while holding his hand and watching a music competition called The Voice on television. She squeezed his hand, giving him a wink as he looked to her. "Thank you," she said. "You know you're stuck with me now, don't you. You can't just stay by a girl's side the whole time she's in a coma and think you'll ever get away."

Ben made a panicked look to the door. "Oh man! And I was already packing my bags!" He leaned in and gave her a kiss. "I think you know you've got me for as long as you'll have me."

Knock! Knock!

They turned to see Caroline's main nurse, Sandra, through the window of the room's door.

"Come on in!" Caroline called to her.

Sandra had a huge grin as she entered. "You've been cleared for release tomorrow, my dear. You'll be missed, but I'm happy for you. You'd better not be a stranger!"

Caroline's heart was racing and she felt relief sweep through her. She braced her hands on the side of her bed and stood to give Sandra a hug. "Thank you, for everything, for watching over me and for your friendship. I can't tell you how much it means."

"It's my job and my pleasure," Sandra said as she released their embrace. "And I know you'll be in good hands with your boyfriend and your father." she winked to them. "He is your boyfriend, right?"

It was funny, Caroline's heart was fluttering as Sandra said that. We haven't even used that term before, she thought. "I don't know. Are you my boyfriend, or are you just a hunk that's been following me around?" She grinned at Ben.

"I'll gladly take that title on." He blushed, and she knew how strongly he felt for her by the look in his eyes.

Sandra moved back toward the door. "Then I know you're in good hands. Of course you'll need to go to rehab, every day at first, and then less and less over time. I'll see you in the morning to check up on you one last time before you're released."

As Sandra left the room, Caroline leaned back and felt Ben's strong hand find its way to hers.

"Are you excited?" Ben asked.

"Yes." She enjoyed the warmth of his hand against hers. _There are so many uncertainties,_ she thought. _But if I can get through this, I can get through anything._

\-- --

Caroline stood at the edge of the hospital doors the next day. Her crutches were braced under her arms and Ben stood to her side while her father pulled Ben's Jeep into the hospital's main drive. She saw the Jeep and took her first step out of the hospital and into sunlight. The warmth of the sun's rays blanketed her, releasing her from the hospital's cold chill.
30

October 26, 2012

Ben held Caroline's hand as he drove through the main streets of Pittsburgh towards the rehab center.

Caroline made quick progress building strength back in her legs, and the center's specialists were optimistic that this would be her last session with them. That meant that both of them would soon be free to physically search for Suzie and Eva. Whether they were dead or alive, neither Ben nor Caroline would be able to put things to rest until they knew for certain. They had made multiple calls to hospitals along the coast, but so far had discovered no news of an unidentifiable woman or women being cared for.

Wind whipped through the Jeep as Ben parked the vehicle in front of a one-story brick building. "It's the last day." He gave her a smile.

"Thank goodness!" Caroline unbuckled her seatbelt and Ben turned off the ignition.

He met her outside the Jeep and took her arm. She didn't need his support anymore, but he still liked escorting her in.

After Caroline left for her rehab session he returned to the Jeep and turned on the radio to kill time until she was done.

Rock music blared out his speakers as he leaned back in the seat. Never a shortage of good Rock in this city, he thought, thinking about the fact that back home there really weren't any great Rock stations. The radio was tuned in to 105.9 THE X.

He started to daydream as he stared out the window to the clouds rolling through the sky above.

Then, as the song ended, a radio broadcaster that wasn't normally on the station came over the line. "We disrupt our regularly scheduled programming for this announcement. Storm system Hurricane Sandy is predicted to make landfall along the east coast of the U.S., and its effects could be felt as far west as West Virginia and Ohio. It should make landfall sometime on Monday, October 29, and Pennsylvania could be affected by high winds, heavy rain, snow and hail. Precautions should be taken, and those in low-lying areas should head for high ground. This storm should not be taken lightly. This station will keep you updated as Sandy nears. We now return you to your regularly scheduled programming."

A local band called 'The Clarks' came on the station next. They were a good group, but Ben was already distracted. I wonder whether Mason's heard, he thought as he took out his phone and dialed his father.

"Ben, how are you?"

"I'm good. Hey, have you heard what kind of damage the Outer Banks might take from Hurricane Sandy?"

"They're saying it could be worse than Irene, and they still haven't reconnected the road in Rodanthe from last year from that."

There was silence for a moment. Ben's nerves had his hands shaking. "You might want to think about going inland until this thing passes. I just heard on the radio that we're expected to get winds and snow here because of it."

"Wow, yeah, sounds like one nasty storm. Don't worry, I'm already planning on staying with your aunt until Sandy is gone. Excelsis and I are taking the ferry to the mainland tomorrow. While I've got you on the phone I have to ask, are you and Caroline still planning to look for Eva? If you are, and you need me, then just call. We can meet up somewhere when you get close. Or I can do anything else you need me to do as well. It's so hard for me to believe that she's still alive."

"I know, but Caroline insists that she is. I have to have faith in that." Ben looked to the car clock and realized Caroline would be out soon. "I've got to go, but be careful. Call me when you get to aunt Joy's house."

Moments later Caroline came out of the rehab center with a big smile on her face. There is such potential for darkness on the horizon, Ben thought. But the light and hope in her shines beyond that.
31

On October 29, 2012, Hurricane Sandy rammed the east coast of the U.S.

Ben and Caroline sat rapt in news feed as they watched newscasters report on the damage done to the Outer Banks. The eye of the storm hadn't hit there, but Rodanthe, Avon and the rest of the Outer Banks took substantial blows. Ben shuddered while watching video of a house collapsing into the ocean, which someone took with their phone and sent to the major news outlets. That could have been The Seaman's Watch, he thought. Thank goodness Mason and Excelsis are safe.

Yet that was the day before, and so far he hadn't heard from Mason. He must have lost power and phone reception somehow, Ben hoped.

It was a little too surreal to witness this storm just over a year after Hurricane Irene, and to know that people's lives all along the coast were in danger again.

Ben and Caroline had woken to bad winds and snow, but luckily that was most of the effect Sandy had on Pittsburgh.

Emergency evacuations for New Jersey and New York were called in. New York appeared to be in the storm's direct path. All the subways and bus systems were shut down and the whole city was warned that it was best to leave.

It was worse than everyone had expected. Ben was horrified to learn that whole towns were now underwater and that the sea was swallowing up New Jersey's Coney Island boardwalk and rollercoaster.

Footage from New York showed winds battering skyscrapers and barren streets below them. A crane on the top of a building had its arm broken by the wind and now leaned off the side of the building, prepped to fall to the streets below.

It was like something out of a movie. It's horrible. What is happening to the people who stayed? Ben thought. He could imagine it. Knowing, was the horrible thing.

As he watched the horrific power of the storm he became engrossed in it. He was unable to pull himself away from the terror that unfolded. Then he heard Caroline crying behind him. She stood without him knowing and was headed for the front door of the house.

"Are you alright?" he asked, clicking off the TV with the remote and heading after her. "I'm sorry. We should have turned it off. There's no point in watching it. We can't do anything to stop it."

"It's just..."

She came to his arms and he held her strong in the embrace.

Caroline took a step away from him. "That's not it. It just hurts, not knowing where my mom is, not knowing if I'll ever see her again or if she's in the path of that storm."

She's convinced Eva's alive, Ben held down his fears. What would happen if they never found Eva, dead or alive?

Caroline walked away from him toward the front door. "I need to go outside. I need some air." As she opened the door, snow blew in. She stood on the small porch on the front of the house, leaning against the rail without any jacket or coat on.

Ben joined her, leaving his coat inside as well. He enjoyed the coolness of the snow as it landed on his face and hands, melting on his skin. But the cold wind whipped through his clothes, chilling him to his core.

Caroline stood there looking at him for a long moment. "We don't have to just stay here watching. People in New York and New Jersey will need help after Sandy is gone. We should go."

Ben took her hand. "Living that destruction with them would hurt," he said, thinking of Irene and knowing that going to help destroyed and wounded areas would churn up memories for them both.

"Look around us." She held out her arms as snow curled over them. "It's freezing out here, but it's worth it to experience the snow. We can't run away from pain. If anything, I've learned that, through all this madness in my world. But if we face the pain, we will get through it, to something more beautiful in life. The people on the coast will need help, and I can't just do nothing. Will you come with me?"

Intelligent. Beautiful. Strong. Caring. He found himself adoring this woman he was in love with more and more. "I'll be by your side, through every storm and for every rainbow beyond them. Once the hurricane has passed we can load up the Jeep and head toward the coast."

"Thank you." Caroline came to him and put her hands on his chest, kissing him fully.

He held her for a good while. The cold penetrated their bodies as they warmed each other with their embrace.
32

Snow-covered trees blurred as Ben drove his Jeep on a highway toward New Jersey. He feared what he would find in the wake of the storm and what would be needed of him. Caroline is right, he thought. Facing this may be hard, but we will be stronger people because of it. He hated to admit it, but Hurricane Irene brought him and Caroline closer somehow, pulling their hearts into an inseparable embrace. But to lose Eva and Suzie... Nothing can be worth that. "What should we do when we get to New Jersey?" he asked Caroline.

She sat beside him with a map open on her lap. "When we near the coast we can look for the police and ask where we are needed. We'll do what we can do." She looked to him, smiling. "I need to do this. I've been given so much, I need to give back to someone else."

He took her hand and kissed it. "You amaze me. After all you've been through, you still have so much depth of love in your soul."

While driving, Ben began to think of the beauty of what God did by returning Caroline from her coma. He prayed so much for her to heal, and yet after she returned to him he prayed less and less. Thank you, he thought, speaking to God through his thoughts. Please watch over and protect us in the days to come. Help me to be the best man that I can be. Help us to learn what happened to Suzie and Eva, no matter how hard that truth will be to know. Help that closure to come.

His phone vibrated suddenly in his pocket and he worked for a moment to take it out. Seeing it was Mason, he punched the answer button and held it to his ear. He hadn't heard from his father since the storm. "Hello?"

"Ben, we need to talk. Is Caroline there?"

"Yes, but how are you? Is everything alright? We're heading to New Jersey to see if we can help storm victims there."

"This is important. Can you put me on speaker?" Mason almost interrupted Ben's words.

"Sure." Ben punched the speaker button, careful to also keep focused on the road.

"I was down in your Aunt Joy's basement last night and as I was packing up old newspapers to trash I found one with a picture of a woman who was discovered randomly walking around the town. The article says she doesn't remember who she is. They were looking for anyone who might know her. Ben, this is Eva. She looks a little different, but it's her. I've called the newspaper and they're looking into where she is now. I can't believe she's alive."

Speechless, Ben pulled the Jeep off the road.

Caroline cried, holding her head in her hands and shaking while bracing against the side of the door. She began calming her nerves and looked up. "We need to go there." Her hands shook violently. "I knew she was alive. I knew it."

Ben's mind was running fast, figuring out the best route to North Carolina. He pressed his foot to the gas, pulling back on the highway. "We're coming there," he told Mason. "I'll call when we're close."

"I love you, son," Mason said before getting off the phone.

"I love you too, dad." Ben reached his hand over and held Caroline's with a strong, loving embrace.

"We're coming, mom," Caroline said. "I'm coming for you."

\-- --

The author would like to express his thanks for your purchase of Hearts of Avon. It is his honor to share this book with you and he would love to hear what you think of the read if you would like to email him. His email is poeticliscence@hotmail.com

If you enjoyed this work, it would mean a lot to the author if you would post a review and rate it on Amazon.com so that other readers may have the opportunity to enjoy the author's books in the future.

\-- --

Thank you so much for your time with Hearts of Avon!
Also by Scott J. Toney

**This is the story of Lazarus of Bethany, told through tale and tribulation.**

"Scott adds a context around the existing scriptures that helped me to think about what it would be like to be Lazarus... the danger, the fear, the uncertainty about being given a second chance."

  * Julie Van Meter, author of A Beautiful Gift

0

Darkness.

Nothing.

There was a void in the world around him, without light or sound.

A heaviness weighed on Lazarus' soul as he grasped for being. He sensed in the darkness there had been light only moments before but he could not grasp what that light was.

Suddenly he felt a pulse in his chest. Something heavy held his body firm. Memories flooded through his mind of heat, cattle... family. _Where are my sisters? What has happened to me?_

The world was somehow wrong.

He tried to move but found he could not, could not raise the heaviness above him. He smelt earth.

Then, with a thrust, he pushed his bound arms out of the cave soil he was buried in and braced them on the earth, using his weakened strength to pull upward. Earth caved in about him as he rose from his grave, his arms and legs bound with bandages. There was a cloth over his face he could not remove. He saw a faint light before him through the cloth.

"Lazarus, come out," a voice beckoned.

He walked slowly in his bandages toward the light and could feel a warm breeze move about him. The sun radiated in the cloth over his eyes.

"Unbind him, and let him go," the voice returned.

He felt coarse hands on his arms as bandages were unwrapped from him. Coolness came over his skin where they had been. Lazarus breathed heavily, unsure of what was happening. He had a vague memory of being sick before this. He was barely aware of who he was.

The cloth over his face was pulled away and he squinted as sunlight blinded him. A bearded man with long wavy hair stood in the light. _Jesus,_ he thought in disbelief as the man approached, placing his palm on Lazarus' forehead.

"You are healed, brother," Jesus told him as Lazarus' sisters rushed to his side. "You are still needed in this world." There was a crowd gathered beyond the cave's entrance.

"Brother..." Martha cried and kissed his cheek. Her soft hands grasped one of his. Tears streamed down her face. "What a blessing..."

Mary had embraced him and was kneeling before Jesus now. "Thank you, Jesus. How could we doubt you are the son of God?"

"Rise, sister," Jesus told her. "There is no need to kneel for me. God's grace is given freely. It is him who we should praise."

"And through you he has raised our brother from his tomb. We are forever in your debt."

Jesus took her hand and helped her to rise. "All I ask is your belief and your mouths to spread God's word in the coming days. Our people will soon face days when believing is much harder than it is now. But come, let us rejoice in what God has done."

He turned to Lazarus, embracing him. Lazarus felt the warmth of the man and felt his sense of confusion change to a feeling of peace. When Jesus pulled his arms away Lazarus walked out into the sun, through the awestruck crowd toward his home.

A sheep baaed as he passed. He opened the front door to his home and headed to his room, lying down on his straw bed, closing his eyes and giving in to darkness and rest.

Other BHB books we recommend:

Chic-Lit

Hearts of Avon, by Scott J. Toney

Christian Historical Fiction

Lazarus, Man, by Scott J. Toney

Historical Fiction

Chasing Pharaohs, by CMTStibbe

Fantasy

The Ark of Humanity, by Scott J. Toney

The Awakening: Dawn of Destruction, by Cara Goldthorpe

Eden Legacy, by Scott J. Toney

Horker's Law, by Mike Lee

The Beholder, by Ivan Amberlake

Sci-Fi

Fey, by Mike Lee

StarFire, by Mike Lee

Visit Breakwater Harbor Books for these and other great titles!

www.breakwaterharborbooks.weebly.com
