Page 60 of Stay Buried

“We’re going to tie him to the bed.”

“But we can’t—”

“Do as the doctor says,” Benjamin ordered.

“But, Mr. Stoddard, you can’t—”

“No matter what happens, no matter what I might say or do, you are to keep me tied to this bed and you are to keep Pearl away from me. Do you understand?”

Chauncey nodded, his eyes bewildered.

“Now do as he says and fetch some rope from the barn,” Benjamin ordered.

“Yes, sir.” Chauncey quickly turned and left the room.

“It’s coming,” Benjamin groaned. “The madness. I can feel it.”

“What does it feel like?” I asked, the words jumping out before I could stop them.

“Like going into a dark tunnel. The colors are changing. I can’t think the way I usually can. Can’t remember things properly. There is only what’s right in front of me, and I don’t like it. Whatever it is that’s waiting for me in that tunnel is bad. Very bad.”

His good eye was glassy, the white now a buttercup yellow.

“I hear things,” Benjamin said.

“What sort of things?” I asked.

“Whispers,” he said. “Far away but getting closer.”

Benjamin reached out a hand searing with heat and wrapped his fingers tightly around mine. “Promise me that you’ll keep looking for Clarice. You won’t give up.”

“I promise,” I said.

Uncle Thomas stood tall, placed a hand on Benjamin’s arm. “We are not giving up on anyone,” he said.

I turned my back while Thomas helped Benjamin out of his wet garments and dressed him in dry sleeping clothes.

Chauncey returned with the rope.

Together, the three of us bound Benjamin to the large maple-frame bed with thick hemp rope.

“Tighter,” he kept saying. “Make those knots as tight as you can.”

Chauncey left to go get a group of men together, a fresh search party.

“What do we do now?” I asked.

“We wait. We stay and watch Benjamin. Study and see what we can learn about the way the illness progresses.”

I nodded. “I’ll go down and see if I can find things to make coffeeand a light supper.” We hadn’t eaten at all yet—and the truth was, I didn’t have an appetite, but I knew we were in for a long night and would need sustenance. On my way to the kitchen, I stopped by Pearl’s room, cracked open the door, saw my beloved fast asleep. I crept in on tiptoes, kissed her forehead gently. She stirred, but did not open her eyes. I slipped back out of the room, pulled the door closed, heard it latch with a click.

FOUR HOURS LATER,Benjamin was kicking, fighting his restraints, foaming at the mouth like a mad animal.

“Let me go!” he screamed. “Cut me loose!”

Pearl hurried into the room, hair a mess, dress wrinkled. “My God,” she said, looking from her father to Uncle Thomas, her furious eyes then landing on me. “What have you done to him?”

“We—” I started.