House of Light, Book 2 - Saw the Light

"I wake to the sound of rain tapping against the window pane. It's been days since we moved into this mysterious new home, but the thought of our enemy's friends still lingers in my mind.

Did they see the light before I figured out how to turn them off? And more importantly, will the light run out when we need them again?" 

There was only one reason Monty saw them. No one in their right mind would be out there getting completely drenched in a rainstorm with no end. Except Bessie caught herself in a pile of brambles at the edge of the following field. She'd gone missing earlier in the day, having squeezed through a break in the fence. And Tristen and the others had looked all over the place. They'd given up. But then Monty peered out the upstairs bedroom window before going to bed and saw something white struggling in the brush in a field down the road. He had debated waking Tristen. But the poor kid had been up for days. He needed his rest, especially after the concussion. So, he sighed when he looked at the warm place next to his wife, Onnie, and pushed back the blankets to keep her warm. “This won't take long.” The whisper was meant to encourage himself. However, even he doubted his own words. It was cold out there. And he would be freezing the minute he stepped off the porch. So, he grumbled down the stairs, slipped his boots on, put on his jacket, slung his rifle over his shoulder, and headed out to the barn to get a lead. 

He crossed the field at a diagonal through the pelting rain. And when he reached her, he slid his heels down a muddy embankment, making her struggle more against the bramble’s hold.  “All right there. All right, calm down. You're only hurting yourself more. We'll get you freed.

But then the rain came down harder, and Monty knelt behind the cow to look closely at her captor. He pulled out his knife and began sawing through thick tendrils. “Hold still, hold still,” he said, though he doubted she heard him over the torrent. And from beneath her belly, he caught a glimpse of something moving. And then something more. He inadvertently shoved back against the muddy bank, attempting to escape or hide, but then realized he was already hidden from view. 

Wiping the rain from his eyes, he looked again. There was a man on the road pulling what looked like a hand cart filled to the brim. But then there was also someone else. A woman was carrying a child and holding the hand of another. They stopped on the street, right in front of the long drive, where one end met with Monty’s house, and the other ended in a farmhouse long in disrepair. The woman's arm shot up in one direction. The man’s shot up in the other. “No, no, go the other way. The other way….”  One way meant he had to get involved. With the other, he'd only have to watch them from afar. But then the man took several steps to the left, and the woman began to follow. And that's when Monty said, “Damn it.”

The last thing he wanted to do was sneak up on someone just trying to find shelter for the night with his family at the end of the world in a rainstorm. It reeked of desperation, and desperation made people do wacky things. Like, he was keeping a slippery finger on the trigger of their weapon. So, he pulled away in the dark, made his way back up the embankment, and then skirted to the road so we could meet them head-on. And just when he was about to step on the road camouflaged by the cover of night, there was a thunderous sound from the wind and rain, and the world went to day all around him. Not only did he see a look of shocked surprise on the man's face, but he also saw him go for his weapon right before the veil of darkness slammed down again.

“No, wait!” Monty yelled. “Don't shoot!” 

Despite the warning, a red bead suddenly appeared on Monty’s chest. 

“Don't you move!” 

“I'm not moving.”

“Get on the ground.”

“I'm not getting on the ground. I'm trying to tell you....”

“Get on the ground!”

“All right. Getting on my knees.”

“Give me your gun.”

"You don't need to... Look, I have a family too." Monty reached over with his right hand, pulled the strap of his rifle off his left shoulder, and held it out. The man didn't take it. The wind and rain made the weapon jangle in the breeze.

“Why are you here?” the man asked after a long pause.

"I live here. If you need to camp...go down the opposite road. There's a house just up the lane. It's abandoned. No one lives there. You can take your family there for the night."

"What's wrong with the other one?"

"There’s no room. We're full. Look, I swear. We mean you no harm. If you're passing through, you can stay in the other house. No one will bother you."

"What if we're not passing through? You're going to shoot us in our sleep?”

"No. We don't have to… listen. There's wind and rain, and all of us are trying to find some shelter. It's got to be dangerous. You have a family. I think it's safe for you there.”

The man never touched the weapon Monty held. He backed away one boot step at a time. He said from a distance near the road, "I don't want to see you or anyone else come near that house. I won't ask questions." After a few moments, the children's cries mellowed in the distance, and a wheel began to squeak. 

The red bead disappeared from Monty's chest as he knelt in the downpour. "You're welcome!" he yelled, and then he caught a glimpse of white from the Holstein, slowly making her way back to the warm barn. Drops of rain clung to his eyelashes and kerplunked to the ground. Monty shook his head after a while, braced the stock of his rifle in the mud, and stood.