Whispers of Time

by Gwendolyn Ilimaris

  “All right ladies lock the door when I leave and have a good night,” Jake said as he turned to leave their room. Paige followed him to the door.

  “Night big brother,” she called after him as she locked the door behind him.

  Finally, alone with just Paige, Sara sank exhausted onto the couch. It had been a long night already and her hand was throbbing with pain.

  “Tell me what’s up,” Paige said as she plopped down next to her. Sara grimaced at the thought of revealing everything that had happened to her friend. Even Paige might have trouble swallowing this one. With a heavy sigh, she glanced at her friend.

  “If I do you have to promise that you won’t think I’m totally crazy,” Sara replied causing Paige to laugh.

  “I already do so nothing will change,” she said with a huge grin. When Sara gave her a dirty look she laughed again, “Okay, Okay I won’t think you’re crazy, now spill!”

  Sara looked down at her hands resting on her lap before she started to relay the events of the night to her friend. She only managed to get through a little bit before Paige was already interrupting.

  “But there’s no gate anywhere near the willow tree, is there?”

  Sara held up her hand to stop her friend from talking and Paige trailed off, “Let me finish all of it please.” Paige frowned but remained silent so that Sara could continue. After staring at the floor for a few moments to collect her thoughts Sara started again. When she was finished, she glanced at her friend. Her face fell when she could see the skepticism on Paige’s face. Why had she expected her to believe her?

  “Do you have the tiara?” Paige asked several minutes after Sara finished talking.

  Sara shook her head no but started to unwrap her hand, “It disintegrated, but it left this on my hand.” She held out her hand so that Paige could see the burn. Paige’s eyes widened in a mix of surprise and excitement.

  “Oh Sara,” she paused for dramatic effect. “That’s so awesome! You have the coolest stuff happen to you. I wish I could have cool things happen to me!”

  Sara just stared at her friend in disbelief before she burst out laughing, “Only you would think this is cool.”

  Paige shrugged with a large grin before she began to bombard Sara with questions. The two discussed what happened in more detail for a while. Once Paige finally exhausted all her questions, she leaned back on the couch and was silent for a minute before she looked at Sara again.

  “You know you really should have Jake look at that. It could get infected.”

  Sara’s eyes opened wide, and she shook her head. There was no way she could show Jake.

  “He’ll ask too many questions. You know that and what am I going to tell him?”

  Paige nodded in agreement to Sara’s concerns, “You are right but if you wait, then he’ll ask the same questions and your hand will be even more painful. It already looks a little infected.” Sara dropped her head and sighed in resignation of defeat. “You better go now before he gets in bed. He’s grumpy if you wake him up.” Paige paused with a giggle. “Good thing my brother is a combat medic and aspiring surgeon, huh?”

  “Yeah great,” Sara said, her voice laced with nerves. “Are you going to come with me?”

  “Nah, I’ll get our beds ready,” Paige answered as she stood up and walked toward the bedroom. “Besides my brother doesn’t bite.” She added with a grin.

  Sara rolled her eyes as she got up and left the room. She stood staring at the door to Jake’s room, but could not get the courage to knock. What was she going to tell him? Her face started to flush the longer she thought about having to talk to him. He was going to think she was nuts. She turned around to walk back to her room when her hand brushed against her pant leg. Reflexively, she reached for her hand when pain ran all through it. She bit her lip and faced the door again. There was no way to get out of this. She needed help to care for her hand.

  Without allowing time to talk herself out of it, she raised her hand and knocked softly on the door. She held her breath hoping that he would not hear, but a few seconds later the door opened. Jake appeared as if he had already headed to bed. He stood there with tousled hair, no shirt, and flannel pants. Sara’s face flushed a brilliant red and her eyes dropped to the floor.

  “Oh hey, Sara,” he said when he saw who was at the door. “Hang on a second.” He stepped back into his room and grabbed a shirt before coming back to the door, “Do you need something?” He asked as he pulled the shirt over his head.

  Sara swallowed hard trying to hide her nerves before she held out her hand so that he could see it.

  “Can you help me with this please?” Her voice shook when she asked the question.

  Jake looked down at her hand before he took hold of it with his and angled it, so he could get a better look in the dim light of the hallway. When she peeked up at him, he was looking back at her with a carefully composed expression.

  “Yes, I will definitely take care of this. It is a bad burn, but you are going to have to tell me something.” He knew this had to have something to do with what happened in the woods.

  Sara started to look back down at the floor.

  “No, look at me.” She raised her head and Jake frowned when he could see the timid look on her face. “You will tell me, yes?” Once she nodded, he released her hand and walked back into his room to grab a key. “I have to go and get some supplies. I don’t have them up here. Go wait with Paige and I’ll be back in a bit.”

  Sara nodded again and headed straight back toward the door to her room. She was about to open the door when Jake paused partway down the hall.

  “You know you can trust me, right?”

  Sara paused with her uninjured hand on the doorknob and looked down the hallway.

  “Yes, I know,” she whispered before she opened the door and disappeared into the room. As soon as she closed the door she called to Paige in a panic.

  “Paige! He wants to know what happened. What in the world am I going to tell him? I can’t tell him the truth. He’ll think I’m a total nut job.”

  Paige glanced up from the TV show she was watching with a mischievous grin, “I guess that means we’d better come up with a believable story in about the next fifteen minutes. I figure that is about how long it will take him to get back from the infirmary.”

  Sara paced around the living room trying to think of the best thing to say. She would not lie but she had no idea what to tell him. The idea of making him think she was as weird as everyone else thought caused a strange ache in her chest.

  “I can’t think of anything,” she said as her whole body started to tremble.

  “Calm down,” Paige said getting up from the couch. “He’ll see right through you if you’re freaking out. I know that from experience.” She paused and looked around the room. “What about you burned it with fire? Like you were building a campfire or something?”

  Sara shrugged, “I don’t know how to build a fire.”

  “There that’s perfect. You were trying to learn to build a fire and burned your hand on some wood that you were putting in. That sounds believable.”

  Sara sank down on the couch and put her head in her uninjured hand. “He’ll never believe that. It was raining and why would I be in the woods starting a fire after the festival?”

  “I know! You could tell him you burnt it on the stove. That’ll totally work.”

  Sara shook her head, “I doubt he’ll believe that either but that’s better than the fire idea.”

  “Well then perk up and make it believable,” Paige said in an enthusiastic voice as she sat down beside Sara. “Unless, of course you just want to tell him the truth.” A large grin appeared on her face when Sara gave her an exasperated stare, but before she could formulate a reply a loud knock on the door caused her to jump.

  “It’s me, I’m coming in,” Jake called before he pushed the door of the room open. He glanced at the girls as he walked into the room. When he made eye contact with Paige, he raised an e
yebrow. She just shrugged in response and grinned at him. He shook his head when he knew immediately that she would be no help. With a slight frown, he crossed the room and headed to the small kitchen area. He flipped on the light and arranged the supplies on the counter. There were packages of gauze, gloves, a bottle of sterile water, tape, and a bottle of ointment.

  “Let’s get this over with, Sara,” he said motioning for her to come over to the sink. She hesitated before she got up and walked toward him. He noticed right away that she was shaking, and he grabbed a chair from the table. After pushing it right next to the sink, he looked back over at her.

  “Here, sit,” he said as he reached out and absentmindedly patted her on the head like he would do to Paige. “This won’t be pleasant, but I’ll be as gentle as possible.”

  She only nodded before she sat down and held her hand, so it was over the sink. Jake watched her for a moment before turning his attention to the supplies. He opened the bottle of sterile water and several packages of gauze, careful to leave them laying on the sterile inside of the packages. Once he was finished, he put on a pair of gloves before he took a gentle but firm hold of her hand. He started to work on cleaning up the wound. Sara jerked when he poured the sterile water on it but tried to remain as still as she could. After a few minutes, she found herself watching him to keep her mind off the pain. His long, lean fingers using the gauze pads to very gently remove the dirt and the concentration on his face as he studied the burn.

  It was not long before she found that she was totally mesmerized by his face and wondered what it would be like to touch his cheek. It looked firm and soft at the same time. She was so absorbed in her thoughts that she did not notice when Jake leaned in closer.

  “Did I cut myself when I shaved?” He asked with an awkward chuckle.

  She was so shocked by the sudden closeness of his face that she tried to jump back and pushed the chair over backwards.

  “Whoa, careful.” Jake said as he caught the back of the chair in time to keep her from tumbling to the ground. “Where are you trying to go? I’m not finished with your hand.”

  “No… nowhere,” Sara mumbled as she kept her eyes locked on the floor in front of her. Jake tilted his head before he went back to work on the wound. He managed to keep his attention on it for a few minutes before he started glancing back at her out of the corner of his eye.

  “What were you thinking about? You looked like you were in your own world,” he said as he was drying the burn with more of the gauze.

  “N… nothing,” she stammered, and a deep blush crept across her face.

  “Doesn’t look like nothing.” His voice dropped so that only she could hear what he was saying. Sara swallowed hard and refused to look up at him. She was red all the way up to her ears.

  “Okay, okay you are about to give my best friend a heart attack,” Paige called from across the room. She had her arms folded across her chest with an irritated scowl.

  “I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Jake joked as he turned his full attention back to covering the burn.

  Paige gave him a yeah right look, “Aren’t you done yet?”

  “Yup, just finished,” he said as he wrapped the last piece of tape around the gauze. The moment he released her hand, Sara scurried out of the chair and hurried to put distance between her and Jake. Paige was right, she felt like her heart was going to leap out of her chest if she stayed that close to him any longer.

  Jake watched her bolt with a conflicted look on his face. He shook his head a second later and turned to clean up the extra supplies. Once he finished and turned back to face the girls, he was his normal all business self.

  “We have some things to discuss, don’t we?” He asked as he motioned for them to sit on the couch. The girls shared a hasty glance before they sat side by side on the couch. Jake followed them and sat down in a chair he pulled over. “Who’s going to tell me what happened?”

  Paige just shrugged at her brother before she looked at Sara. She looked back at her with panicked eyes. Paige frowned before she tilted her head to which Sara immediately shook her head no. With a heavy sigh, Paige started to talk.

  “It was just the stove, Jake. We were getting ready to make… uh… soup… for a snack and she accidentally touched the burner. She didn’t know I had turned it on.”

  Jake’s eyebrows rose as disapproval appeared on his face, “I am going to stop you there. That stove was not even the slightest bit hot nor was there any food making items out in the kitchen. I also know that burn is several hours old and not recent. And before you try saying it was a fire, yes, I know how you think Paige, I know that it was not wood. Whatever made that burn was metal. Now, will one of you please stop insulting my intelligence and tell me the truth?” His tone was stern as he leaned back in the chair and folded his arms across his chest. “I have all night, ladies.”

  Paige shrank back from her angry brother and gave Sara an apologetic look before she bolted from the room, leaving Sara to fend for herself. Sara stared after her open-mouthed when she realized her best friend had just abandoned her. Her eyes narrowed in irritation, see if she helped her get out of trouble with her brother again.

  Jake cleared his throat softly and brought her attention back to the current situation. She looked down at her hands in her lap and bit her lip.

  “You wouldn’t believe me,” she whispered.

  Jake slid forward in the chair, “Sara, look at me.” He lifted her chin with a couple of fingers. “You don’t know what I’ll believe unless you tell me, and you have nothing to be afraid of when you’re talking to me. Just tell me the truth.”

  Sara’s eyes flicked to his face and she could see the sincerity in his gaze, “It was a small tiara. I found it in the woods after the festival.”

  “A tiara?” His eyes narrowed as he thought. “That would fit the shape of the burn. What happened to it?”

  “It disintegrated after I picked it up.”

  “Where did you find it?”

  “By the large willow tree where you found me.”

  “Anything else you can tell me?”

  Sara shook her head. She could not possibly tell him about any of the rest of it. He regarded her for a moment before he sighed.

  “I know you aren’t telling me everything, but you at least told me about the burn. I believe you about that part, so I’ll leave it at that for tonight. You need to get some sleep before we leave in about three hours.” He stood up and put the chair back by the table before heading to the door. “Oh and tell my sister that I’ll have a chat with her later.” A somewhat cold smile crossed his face as he slipped through the door and closed it behind him.

  When he was gone, Sara sagged back on the couch. She could not believe he had believed her. It all sounded so crazy to her and she had experienced it. With a shake of her head, she headed straight to bed and collapsed. She was so exhausted by the day’s events that she was asleep as soon as her head hit the pillow.

  A couple of hours later, Sara was thrashing in her sleep. She started flailing her arms around like she struggling to break free from something. Her hand connected with the lamp on the bedside table and she sent it flying across the room. It slammed into the wall with a loud crash causing Paige to jump out of bed at the sudden noise.

  “No, don’t hurt him,” Sara cried out in her sleep. Her struggles continued as she fought with the covers.

  Paige ran over and grabbed her hands to keep her from hitting anything else, “Sara! Sara wake up!” Her face clouded with concern as she shook her by the shoulders. Sara did not wake up, and she started screaming as her struggling became frantic.

  “Sara!” Paige shouted, her voice filled with agitation. When Sara still did not wake up, she smacked her friend on the cheek. Sara woke with a startled gasp and her hand flew to her face in shock. She rubbed the spot where Paige had just smacked her and struggled to get her breathing back under control. She shivered when the cooler air of the room chilled her since
she was soaked in sweat.

  “What happened?” Paige asked. Her normal bubbly personality was gone and replaced with apprehension.

  “I saw her again in the cave. She was desperate to save someone. I couldn’t see who, but I felt her pain and fear like it was mine,” Sara said, her voice shaking. “I’m goin--.”

  A loud knock on the door caused both girls to jump in surprise. Paige leapt to her feet.

  “Oh no, someone must have heard you. I’ll be right back.” She dashed out of the room and pulled the door open to find her brother standing there. He stepped past her without a word and scanned the room. His sharp blue-grey eyes were assessing for a possible threat.

  “What is going on?” He asked when nothing caught his attention right away. “I heard a loud crash and screaming. Are you both alright?”

  Paige grabbed his arm when he tried to move further into the room, “We’re okay. Sara was having a nightmare and she knocked a lamp off the table.”

  Jake glanced down at his sister, who was still holding on to his arm as she spoke, he could see that she was anxious and confused.

  “What’s wrong?”

  “I had to smack her to wake her up,” Paige admitted with a frown. “I didn’t know what else to do.” She let go of his arm with an embarrassed chuckle. “But we’re all good. You can go back to your room. I can take it from here.” She gave him a halfhearted grin. It was obvious to her that she was worrying her brother.

  “Paig--.”

  “Hey, what’re you doing up anyway? Shouldn’t you have been sleeping too?” Her tone turned indignant as she regained her equilibrium and Jake could not help but smile.

  “We have to leave for the plane in half an hour. I was about to come and make sure the two of you were awake.”

  “What?! It’s already that late,” Paige exclaimed with wide eyes. “Oh, my goodness we have to get ready. Out! Out!” Without waiting on him to say anything, Paige spun and dashed back into the bedroom. Jake chuckled as he watched her leave.

  “I’ll be back in about twenty minutes since we need to be at the transportation office by 0500,” he called as he let himself out.