“Good morning!”

There is a faint glimmer of light at the edge of my consciousness.

“How are you today?”

Life overwhelms my senses…

I stare at the pretty young nurse at the foot of my bed. She is dressed in white scrubs, a head of short blonde hair, and a radiant smile. She scribbles on the pad before her as she speaks.

“Oh. Don‘t try to talk. I know you won’t be able to…I‘m just glad you woke up. Somebody up above was obviously looking out for you…”

I stare at the large window before me.

Sunlight is streaming in, illuminating the white sterile room where I find myself. Monitors chirp and blink beside my head. By lowering my chin slightly, I can see a mass of wires and tubes attached to various parts of my body. Wires and tubes that run beneath the swath of white bandages that envelope me.

“I’ve never seen a house fire go out like that. It was like someone blew out a candle…poof it was gone. Lucky for you, we were on site, so we checked the wreckage as soon as the fire was out.”

There is a brief pause as the nurse checks the monitors watching over me.

“We looked hard, but you’re the only ones we found alive.” The nurse moves to slide back the curtain on the right side of my bed. “Yep, you heard right, your girlfriend is here, in the bed beside you…we figured you two might want to be together. Anyway, I’ve placed your beds so that you can look outside, I thought you might like that. It’s a nice view of the town, isn’t it? Anyway, you two take care now…the Doctor will be along soon to explain more…”

The nurse’s steady footsteps clatter off into the hallway.

By twisting my neck slightly I can see the bandage-wrapped form of Susan… I just wish she was well enough to share her opinions. Well, I suppose there will be plenty of time for that in the future.

Over the years I had heard rumors that Susan was actually Dwayne’s younger sister…that Dwayne had been strange all his life but had become fully unhinged after the death of their mother, Hilda. Those rumors always seemed absurd to me…Dwayne and Susan obviously have nothing in common…but what if there was something to them?

How else did Susan know all the things about Dwayne that she did?

Someday soon, I will ask her.

I turn my gaze.

I can see the town through the window…life out there seems normal now, children are running and playing, the adults are laughing for the first time in a long time. The filthy grey overalls have vanished. Everyone is once again dressed comfortably in typical northern wear…Yes, it’s sure good to see people wearing blue jeans, plaid shirts, and hunting vests again…Oddly enough, I can see no trace of the wall, or anything else that Dwayne had ordered constructed.

Perhaps Susan was right when she said that all of Dwayne’s works, all of the things that he had made, would pass away when he did. That’s why the fire stopped so suddenly, that’s why the mob snapped out of their stupor and ran into the wreckage to save our lives….

However, some of the consequences related to Dwayne’s behavior remain…I can see the blackened wreckage of Travis’s house in the distance…I can feel the torment of the fire running all over my body…

I have a feeling that our own recovery won’t be that easy.

We sure didn’t choose the easy road but we did choose the fruitful one.

However, the pain will be worth it, simply because through it, we were able to finally defeat Dwayne and all his wicked works.

My eyelids droop as weariness overwhelms them.

For the first time in many months, I can have peace of mind…