Find Us in the Shivering - Chapter 18

Mavis waved him forward but Josh could not move, afraid to stray too far from the door.

"Come, come," she said as the left side of her mouth failed to move as strongly as her right side.

Josh chanced taking a few steps.  "Mavis?"

She nodded and Josh noticed the stapler in her right hand.  "That I am and you are, Joshua.  I learned of your coming to our town already.  You do know you've stumbled into a dire circumstance, don't you?"

"More and more," he admitted.  "I came because of the kids."

Mavis shook her head, dark blonde hair combed and curled on the right side while the left side was a mess amidst the facial features of her conjoined twin.  "They cannot be helped.  You've been told that haven't you?"

"Yes.  But I need to see that for myself.  Even so, why did you put out the missing children's report if they could not be helped?"

"Because, Joshua, I have other needs for the town.  Other desires I wish to see fulfilled."  She brought the stapler down on the chest of the old man on the cart and the snap made Josh jump while his stomach twisted.  Three more staples followed with equally shocking snaps before Mavis took the sheet and covered the body.  "You have a skill that can still be utilized even though you cannot retrieve the children."

Josh desperately desired to taste fresh air again as the smells of the dead and that which preserved them began to settle in his stomach.  "What do you mean?"  He wanted to use as little words when speaking as possible; his breakfast threatened to come up the longer he stood in the horrible room.

Mavis pushed the cart with the corpse down to the far side of the room where there was a line of stainless steel doors to which bodies could be stored.  She opened one of the doors, cold mist escaping before she pushed the body inside.  From the back, the lumps of her conjoined twin gave her the distinct look of a hunchback.  What looked like the outline of an undeveloped forearm and hand could be seen underneath her custom made clothing.  

Mavis had another sheet-covered body on the steel cart and wheeled it back over before she addressed Josh's question.  "You have a knack--a calling some might say--to finding what is lost.  Would you agree?"  Anytime her wide face looked up at him with their uneven features, Josh suppressed a squirm.  

He exhaled.  "I'd argue I have a need to keep looking until what is lost is found."

"Point taken," Mavis said, pointing a scalpel at him.  Her hand came down to the chest of another male corpse and Josh averted his eyes.  "What I require of you has not been found so you would be ideal to find it."  Josh chanced a quick glance to see if she had finished her cutting of the corpse and saw now she had a chest separator in her hands.  "In your meeting with Anson, did he tell you of our town's founder?"

"He did.  Please don't tell me I need to find him?  I search for the living, not the dead."

Mavis chuckled--an odd sound to precede the cracking open of the chest cavity.  Josh turned around now, searching for a waste basket to throw up into.  "There was something he claimed to have found but could never find again."

Josh dropped to a crouch, taking deep breaths.  "This sounds like a big waste of my time.  Surely Anson has gone out to search along with many others!  What makes you think I'd have any luck?"

"Because, Joshua, I've kept a family secret until now."  

He looked up and instantly regretted it as she had her hands inside the chest cavity of the corpse.  He waved his hand for her to continue knowing if he opened his mouth, words would not be what would coming out.

"My family served as our founder's ward.  Dalton," she stopped to grunt as she worked, "said he found a natural well--water pouring from a rock, he said.  My ancestor made several markers along the path to find the well.  Anson and those before him knew nothing of these markers.  You will know them and you will find the way to what has been lost for hundreds of years."

Josh considered her words carefully, working out what was not said.  "What am I supposed to do when I find it?  This lost well."

"You will gather as much water as you can.  That is what I require of you."

"In exchange for what?" Josh asked, realizing the dangers out in the desert and the risks he would be taking.

Mavis exhaled and wiped her face her right forearm.  "In exchange for your freedom from this place."

Josh stood.  "Anson and everyone else has made it very clear I am trapped."

"And I am telling you that is false.  This place has more secrets than you can imagine but there are some I know and others do not.  There is a way out of this town and valley that will not result in the winds raging and dust rising."

"And if I say I'd rather know about the shivering and where the kids are?"  It was a shot he had to take.  He had to know the truth of his chances.

"Then I'd say you might as well give yourself to the crows right away."  A serious tone entered Mavis's voice.  "Leave it alone, Joshua.  The kids are gone.  The shivering is not to be meddled with.  Take on my task and you'll at least exit this place free of any further harm or failure."

Josh finally stood, getting his legs under him.  "I won't push it further," he lied.  "Where do I start for this well of yours?"

Mavis smiled and nodded her satisfaction.  "You'll need to get to the northern road that ends in a dead end.  We call it Dalton's End.  Once there, you'll continue on past the wood barrier.  There's a trailhead you'll have to follow until you get to Stonehand--you'll see it; impossible to miss.  From there, you have to head east.  You'll hike into the lava rock garden.  Do not, I repeat, do not enter any of the caves--stay clear.  Past the garden, you'll reach a fork in the trail.  Take neither fork.  Continue on forward as if the trail kept going.  Find the glass arrows.  From there, follow where they point."

"Why is it you've not followed this path before?"

Mavis did not smile or frown but something in between.  "Because Anson has his eyes set on me at all times.  I have not left this building in nearly two decades now."  She motioned to her legs.  "I can't exactly outrun anyone or thing either."

"And no one else has been given these directions from you?" Josh asked.

"Well, yes, they have but as you can guess, they have not been successful.  My hope is you will be."

Josh made mental notes for himself, asked her to tell him the directions again and then turned to leave the room as quickly as possible.  He ignored the funeral director and his questions in order to free himself of the building.  Gasps of air filled his lungs once outside again.

"What the hell?"

Josh turned to find Cannon just arriving.  "Shit."

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