Page 34 of Haunted By the Mountain Man
Raven
Shane had been practically living at the hospital for two days while I held down the fort at his cabin, editing videos and fielding increasingly aggressive messages from my channel manager.
The Halloween special had exploded beyond anything I'd expected—five million views in 48 hours. My subscriber count jumped by 300,000. The comment section was pure chaos, everyone demanding to know more about the fire at Wildfire Ridge.
My phone rang. Shane.
"How is he?"
"Alive." His voice was exhausted. "Heart attack led to a stroke during surgery. He can't walk. Speech is affected. But he's alive and... Raven, he knows me. Consistently. First time in two years he's called me by my name every single time."
"That's good, right?"
"Yeah. Maybe. The stroke damaged some parts while clearing others. Doc says it happens sometimes." A pause. "I'm coming home tonight. Need to shower, sleep in a real bed."
"Need me?" I asked softly.
"Always."
After he hung up, I stared at my laptop screen. Three emails from Netflix, each offering more money. The latest was seven figures for an exclusive documentary series about "The World’s Most Haunted Abandoned Places" with Wildfire Ridge as theflagship episode. And then a new place all over the world for every episode.
Seven. Fucking. Figures.
More money than I'd see in a lifetime of YouTube ad revenue. Enough to never worry about anything again. Enough to go anywhere, film anything, complete financial freedom. I was responding to them when I heard Shane's truck pull up. He looked like hell—three days of stubble, shadows under his eyes, his usual powerful presence dimmed by exhaustion.
"Hey," I said softly.
He didn't speak. Just crossed the room in two strides and pulled me against him, burying his face in my hair. We stood like that for several minutes, him just breathing me in.
"Tell me he's really okay," I whispered.
"He's safe. Confused about where he is, thinks he's in a hospital for a 'work-related injury,' but he's safe. Can't come back to the lodge, though. Not ever."
"I'm sorry."
"Don't be. This is better. He's getting proper care. Three meals a day. Physical therapy. Pretty nurses to flirt with." A ghost of a smile. "He asked about you. Called you 'that nice Rebecca girl' but also 'Shane's girl' in the same sentence."
"His timelines are still mixed."
"Always will be. But he's not suffering. That's what matters."
Shane pulled back enough to look at me. "Show me what you uploaded."
I led him to the laptop, played both videos. Watched his expression shift from concern to surprise to something that looked like pride.
"You killed it," he said.
"That was the plan."
"I don’t know if I want to take down the lodge."
“I just said that so no one would come looking for it.”
“Hmm,” he said and then pointed to the notification that just popped up from the producer who had been trying to get me to commit to the Netflix series.
"What’s that all about?”
So I told him. I shook my head as I was recanting the story. I still couldn’t believe it.
