K. Marvin Bruce

  His face was peering in the crevice of the cave.   Terah started, sitting upright and rising in defense of his friend.   Demons must sense human weakness.   They attack when you need recovery time.   He didn’t know how to fight, but he would.   Then the face was gone.   Terah added some fuel to the fire and tried to let sleep take him.   The fears that defined him, that stitched him together, had culminated in the threat to Lindsey.   Struck by lightning—his heart had stopped when he saw her on the forest floor.   She was younger, and she should survive longer, more easily than a guy his age.   He knew he had much to offer that they world had already rejected.   He just wanted to settle down with Lindsey, protect her.   But he knew this couldn’t be.   Still, he could be the best partner he could.   She’d shown herself to him without a speck of self-consciousness.   There were married couples who didn’t kno...

  Terah cursed his lack of agility as he struggled to get out.   His body felt as wedged as his heart was in his throat.   Panic and anger combined as he pushed and finally found himself stumbling in the rain.   “Lindsey!”   He had no idea where she’d been.   Another bolt and immediate explosion fell.   Ducking instinctively, he glanced all around, eyes dazzled by the brightness.   He had to find her. Momentary lightning within the cloud bank revealed the whiteness of a newly split tree.   Hunched over, he scrambled in that direction.   He found one of her shoes and scooped it up.   She’d been here.   Another flickering flash behind him revealed a body before the bang.   Unsure if she was alive or not, he gathered her up and ran toward the rock pile.   He couldn’t simply feed her in through the crevice—she might fall into the fire.   He’d have to get in first and pull her down.   His wet clothes snagged at h...

  It wasn’t sunrise.   They’d been walking west all night.   The light came from a small town.   Rather like a candle in an otherwise darkened cathedral, it had appeared bright in the sky because beyond it lay miles and miles of undeveloped land.   “Up there,” Lindsey pointed toward a point in the darkness that seemed “down there” to Terah, “is St. Grosseteste.”   A few security lights, pinpoints in the distance, outlined the building like a constellation made mostly of darkness.   The ghosts and demons seemed far away with the prospect of a home.   Terah wanted to throw an arm over her shoulder, but knew it was out of the question.   “You’re sure it’s abandoned?” “No.   I know the order left it a few years ago.   The building may’ve been sold—how would I have found out?   The best we can do is hope.” “Should we try to get there before sunrise?” “No point.   Let’s find a place to get a few hours’ sleep.   And we gotta...

  Hurriedly tucking himself in, the snuffling behind him caused an urge to do the other kind of evacuation.   Although his eyes were adjusted to the dark, having been awake all night, the moon had completely sunk below the horizon.   Shapes were vague.   Terah knew the fishing hut was directly behind him a few yards.   He’d walked straight here.   Sound in the dark took on a reality of its own, an urgency amplified by the lack of light.   He had to turn and face it. It was a bear.   A black bear.   It was sniffing at the fishing hut door.   The garbage bag of baked goods was in there, and this creature was hungry from hibernation.   It wasn’t a huge bear, but the thing about even a small bear was its natural weaponry and lack of social restraint.   Terah stood as still as the tree he’d watered, although he knew the bear could smell him.   He recalled reading that the scent radius for a human, when it came to bears, was mea...

  Drew, Terah’s best friend at Grove City, tried to help.   “You only knew Wendy a week really.   How well can you really know someone in a week?” Deep inside Terah knew the wisdom of this.   Fred his stepfather had been kind to his three new tweenage children.   For about six months he pretended to be happy and carefree, joking and playing with the boys.   Then the mask fell.   Fred was a bitter and suspicious man.   When it was time to leave for college Terah was ready to go although Fred wouldn’t contribute a cent and Terah would be in debt forever.   Yes, he should’ve known a week wasn’t time to really know someone. He thought he knew Wendy.   Her glances, her words, her laughs all declared she was his.   At the very same time she was meeting Gary on the weekend.   Spending the night in his dorm room at Kent State.   Holding Terah’s hand but holding something else for Gary.   Even after she admitted as much and re...

  Nobody questioned why Terah didn’t show up again until the next gathering.   As unlikely as it seemed, life soon fell into a routine.   Terah’s leg healed.   He shared the tasks around Dickinsheet, and was elected the official chaplain.   It was odd.   He’d grown up with Bible-believing parents and had gone to college so he could become a minister.   His experience with Wendy wasn’t an obstacle in that regard since Methodist clergy married. Many people didn’t realize that Boston University School of Theology was the oldest component of the university—it had been founded to train clergy.   Even more didn’t know that it was a United Methodist seminary.   Terah had driven back to Boston, alone.   Wounds from Wendy still bleeding, he poured himself into his studies.   Graduated with high honors, but without ordination.   He was going to work on a doctorate.   His faculty advisors all saw the potential.   He’d never been...