In the Shadows of Fate

by Rick Jurewicz

  "Miranda! Are you all right?"

  Jake had her by the arms and helped her to stand. He still had contact with her, but the vision she was having was gone.

  "Jake?" she said. Her voice sounded shaky and her hands were quivering slightly.

  "Are you hurt?" he asked, pulling her through the crowd and walking backwards while keeping his hands firmly around hers.

  "I - I don't think so," she told him. As soon as they were in a place in the club where there was a little more room around them, Jake took off his coat and wrapped it around Miranda. He put his arm around her and led her out the front door of the club.

  Once outside, they walked about a hundred feet into the parking lot before Jake stopped and faced her.

  "What is going on? What were you doing in there? What were you thinking?" Jake asked, visually rattled and with a tone on the edge of anger in his voice.

  Miranda’s eyes filled with a glassy glare that caught the light of the parking lot lamps, and Jake's heart dropped.

  "I don't know, Jake, I swear I don't know!" she said, the tears now running down the sides of her face. "I was having a dream, and I woke up...and I was in the club. That's all I remember! I don't know how I got there..."

  Jake took her in his arms again, and held on to her tight as she cried into his chest. He started to walk her back across the street to the motel, all the while trying to put together the strange and complicated puzzle that the last few days have been, and thinking all along how much this girl has moved his heart and soul once again. There was nothing he wouldn't do for her.

  Jake did not sleep the rest of the night. He watched Miranda as she slept - when he finally did get her to fall back asleep - and made sure that nothing else would happen the rest of the night.

  CHAPTER 15

  The next morning it was quiet in the room. Miranda woke up in the bed to see Jake sitting in the armchair that he had placed near the door of the motel room. It reminded her of a movie she had seen once where an FBI agent was guarding a woman in witness protection while they were hiding out in a seedy motel in the Nevada desert. She couldn't remember the name of the movie, although it didn't really matter anyway. They were in a seedy motel, and that was the only similarity. Jake was no trained FBI Special Agent. He was a nursing student and one of Miranda's closest friends. And it wasn't drug dealers that he was trying to protect her from. They were running from mysterious individuals who had murdered her family; and now, they were seemingly coming after her.

  Jake was also protecting Miranda from herself as well. She still had no recollection as to how she ended up in the club bathroom the night before. It all seemed like a dream, but she knew it was all too real. The things she saw in her head...she couldn't be sure if her mind had been playing tricks on her, at least at first. She knew what she was seeing had felt real with the others before she had touched Jake. It wasn't until she saw what she had seen when Jake touched her that she knew for certain what she was seeing was real.

  "I'm glad you got some sleep," Jake said, looking weary from sitting in the chair all night.

  Miranda felt her stomach tighten with the guilt she was feeling about the night before. She couldn't imagine what had gone through Jake's head when he woke up to find her gone. On top of that, not being able to offer any kind of sensible explanation as to why she was gone in the first place made her feel even worse. He had gotten almost no sleep making sure that she stayed safe and sound in the room the rest of the night.

  She pulled herself up in the bed and pushed the long curls out of her face.

  "How did you find me over there?" she asked.

  "After the initial panic, the only thing I could think to do was go to the closest place with the most people to see if they had seen anything. A guy who had been in line overheard me asking someone else after I had described you. He said, 'You mean the dark haired blue eyed hottie in the tight black undies?' I had a hunch that had to be you."

  Miranda's head sunk a little. She wasn't shy or overly self conscious, but being out in her underwear in public and not having any memory of it was a little unnerving.

  Jake continued. "I still had to wait 20 minutes to get into the club. I offered all the cash I had to let me in, but the guy at the door wouldn't budge. You really don't remember anything before I found you?"

  Miranda thought about this for a minute. She was still trying to make sense of things that sense could not in any rational way be made of. She hated keeping anything from Jake, after all she has put him through while he has tried to help her, but she wasn't ready to tell him about the things that she had seen when she came into contact with the people in the club.

  "The only thing I can remember is waking up in the bathroom stall, and then trying to find my way out of the club. The last thing before any of that was falling asleep in this bed."

  Jake didn't have much of a reaction to this. He was starting to almost feel numb to the strange happenings that followed along with Miranda coming back into his life. It wasn't that the things didn't occur to him as odd or just plain strange. He acknowledged them, but was learning to stay focused on the task of keeping Miranda safe regardless of whatever the obstacles were that came at them along the way. Understanding them was for another time and another place.

  "Why don't you hop in the shower and get dressed? I'll clean up afterwards and run to the office to see about getting a ride back to the garage," said Jake.

  "I'm sorry about everything, Jake," she told him. "You should have just left me behind to let me deal with all of this myself. You don't deserve any of this."

  Jake walked over to the bed and sat down beside her.

  "That was never going to happen," he told her. "I'm not about to let anything happen to you. Not if I can do anything about it. We may not be what we once were, but that doesn't mean that I don't care about you any less. You were...you are...an important part of my life. You always will be."

  Miranda heard the words coming from Jake's lips, looking up into his eyes that stared at her with softness and sincerity. It was the depth of his compassion and strength that she felt behind those beautiful eyes that brought her back in her mind to better times, seemingly ages before this moment. She leaned into him and pulled him by his shirt gently closer to her until his lips met hers. For that moment, they both found themselves lost in the kiss, until Jake pulled away.

  "Miranda...I don't know if this is a good idea. Maybe...I think...things aren't so clear right now..."

  Miranda stopped him short and once again pulled him to her in an even harder and more intentional kiss. When she finally let up, his lips moved just a few inches away from hers. She reached down and pulled her black spaghetti strap tank top over her head, and he began to remove his shirt as well. He slipped beneath the covers in the bed beside her, and together they became lost in a distant place, far and away from all of the thoughts and heartache of the last few days, in the intimate moments that followed. If only for a short time, they could forget the loss and the pain, rapt in the memories a time between them long gone by.

  The shower was surprisingly hot, although the pressure wasn't the best, but Miranda appreciated it still. Her mind was fixed on so many different things, but now it was complicated even more by what had just happened between her and Jake. She felt like she needed to find whatever kind of release she could to break away from everything else that has happened, and she wanted to think that Jake did too. She was sure that the deeper feelings that she had had for Jake at one time were only a part of her past.

  Miranda couldn't escape the feelings of guilt she was now having. She knew - in fact, she had seen - how much she had broken his heart the first time around. What if he hadn't come to terms with what the relationship had come to now? The fact they were only friends; friends that had been through a difficult time together and needed an escape from the harsh reality that was hounding them now.

  If he still had deeper feelings for her, how could she possibly allow herself to let him stay bes
ide her if she had to keep running? It wouldn't be fair to him, and after all he is risking for her, all she would end up doing for him is breaking his heart all over again. She leaned her head against the shower wall and let the water run over her, wishing all the while that it could wash away everything that had happened over the last few hours, and even more so, over the last few days of her life.

  Jake had many of the same thoughts on his mind. While Miranda showered, he had spent time gathering their things in the room and trying to concentrate on what their next steps were going to be. But his thoughts couldn't escape what had just happened between them. He knew all too well what his feelings were for Miranda. That had never changed. But he also knew how careful he had to be with her now. Was there more to this than just a whim to try and forget everything that was happening around them?

  Jake knew that wasn't what he needed to be concentrating on right now. It was thoughts like these that he feared to allow himself to believe; Miranda had just gone through a great emotional trauma, and she was fragile. His own guilt was creeping up on him now. How could he allow himself to take advantage of the situation like that? It wasn't as if he didn't love her. He knew deep within his heart that he did. But love doesn't give you the right to take what you want, even if it feels right. Real love is having the strength to sacrifice what you want the most for those you care about. He knew he had to put all of his feelings aside if he truly wanted to help Miranda through all of this. The only thing that was important to him at that point was keeping her safe.

  When Miranda got out of the shower, Jake told her that he was going to get some food from the store just down the block and then see about getting a ride to the garage from someone down at the motel office. Miranda decided now might be a good time to try and call Lydia. She thought Lydia might need some more time to get the money together, if she could do it at all. If she couldn't, Miranda did not know what they would do. They were almost out of cash, and they had no way of knowing how close the people who are pursuing them might be.

  "Hello?" Lydia's voice was the most refreshing thing she felt she had heard in days.

  "Lyd?" she said, cautiously. She could not help the thought that every time she spoke to someone she cared about, she might be putting them in danger. She almost hung up the phone, not knowing what she might do next.

  "Miranda! Oh my God, are you all right? Where are you?" Lydia almost yelled into the phone, her voice frantic.

  "I'm alright, Lyd. What's wrong? Why are you so upset?"

  "The police stopped by here looking for you. They asked if I had seen or heard from you."

  Shit. If the police are calling to question her, then Miranda was sure that the people after her must know about Lydia as well.

  Lydia went on. "A detective from Native Springs called and asked me the same questions. He couldn't tell me why he was calling, so I got on the net and...oh my God, honey...your parents...I'm so sorry. I was scared to death something had happened to you too."

  "I'm okay. Jake is with me," Miranda told her.

  "Jake?" she asked, puzzled. "Are we talking high school boyfriend Jake?"

  "Listen, it's a long, long story. You don't know how good it is just to hear your voice."

  "Miranda, what's going on? Where are you?"

  Miranda paused for several seconds. She didn't know where to begin or what to say. She didn't know how to tell Lydia how much she felt that this was her fault. How she felt that if she hadn't looked into the past, how none of this would have happened.

  "Miranda? Are you there?" asked Lydia.

  "Yes. Sorry. Lydia, if there is anyone that I want to tell what happened in the last few days, it would be you. But I'm running out of time and I need your help."

  "What do you need? I will do whatever I can to help," Lydia told her without hesitation.

  "Jake and I need to lie low for a while, so we can sort things out. We need to try and figure out who murdered my family."

  "Isn't that the job of the police? Miranda, why do you think this is something that you need to be doing? You've just gone through something very traumatic..." Lydia went on before Miranda cut her sentence short.

  "Lydia, I know this sounds crazy, but this is bigger than the police. I swear as soon as this is all over, I will tell you everything. But right now, I need to borrow some money. I hate asking, and I promise, no matter how long it takes, I will pay you back every penny. I didn't want to have to ask this. Someone is after us, Lyd...and I'm scared."

  "I don't care about getting paid back, Miranda. All I care about is that you are alright. Whatever is going on...I trust you. Just please, be safe."

  "Thank you, Lyd. You have no idea what that means to me."

  "How much do you need?" asked Lydia.

  "About $3,000. That should give us some time to figure out what we are going to do next."

  "Consider it done. I should have it within an hour. Do you want me to come to wherever you are?"

  "No, we are heading to town and should be there in about two hours. I was thinking that we'd meet at Baristas."

  "Okay, that's fine. Do you need anything else?"

  "A hug, maybe..."

  "You'll get the biggest one you've ever had!"

  "Thanks, Lyd." Miranda paused, trying to choose her words carefully to get across the seriousness of the situation without overly alarming Lydia.

  "Lydia, I want you to just...be careful. I am sure you are okay, but if you see anything out of the ordinary, I want you to get somewhere safe. Go to a crowded area. Get to the police. Don't take any chances, please."

  Lydia snickered. "Are you trying to scare me?"

  "Yes, I am," said Miranda, her voice unusually cold and direct.

  Lydia felt a chill run through her like it had come right through the phone and up her arm.

  "Okay. I'll be careful. I promise," Lydia said, her voice now conveying a sobering tone. "See you soon."

  "See you soon, sweetie," said Miranda. She hung up the phone.

  Miranda sat for a minute afterward, realizing the heaviness in her heart that she felt bringing so much grief upon those she cared about. She regretted even her own existence. Miranda thought about the movie It's a Wonderful Life. If the angel in the film, Clarence, came to her to try and convince her that her life had a positive impact on anyone around her, she believed he would be hard pressed at this point to make a good argument. As things were now, she would have to break Jake's heart a second time. The parents who raised her, good and loving people as they were, would still be alive. Jake would not be in danger alongside of her. And now, Lydia could be in harm’s way as well. She still hadn't heard from Aimsley, and feared she could already be dead. It seemed that everyone she came across since she found the Gale family back in her life was plagued with the touch of death and despair, and she was the unwilling agent of these foul things.

  Miranda noticed that one of the side pockets of her laptop bag was only half zipped. She didn't remember leaving it like that herself. She was in the habit of making sure things were properly closed up and put away when it came to traveling, especially when it came to things like her computer case.

  Miranda slipped her finger inside of the pocket and felt the edge of an envelope that she knew she had not put there herself. She pulled it from the pocket, and it had her name handwritten across the front of it in very neat and pristine handwriting.

  The envelope was not sealed. The top fold had been neatly tucked into the bottom flap of the envelope. She opened it, and removed a full sized sheet of paper, crisp and folded in thirds. Within the folds of that sheet of paper was another smaller piece of paper that Miranda could tell by its overall look and texture was far older and more brittle, folded in half. She read the larger of the two first.

  Miranda,

  You don't really know how much it meant to me to see you again after all of these years. Your mother would be so proud of the woman that you have become. I wanted to give you something when you were here, but I thought that
perhaps it might be better for you to find this once you were well on your way. You had said that you studied journalism. I take it you are becoming quite a writer. That reminded me once again of your mother, and how she, too, loved to write. So much was lost in the fire, things that were very dear to your mother and to myself. But I had managed to keep this all these years. It is a poem that your mother had written after you were born. I thought that you would like to have it. After the ones we love are gone, it is only their legacy that we have to look upon to remember them by. Your mother's legacy lies within your heart, Miranda. These are simply her words, perhaps they are a window into her very soul. Take care, Miranda.

  Aimsley

  The handwriting of the letter was as neat as the name on the envelope. Miranda took the smaller piece of paper and unfolded it. She looked upon the words written by the woman who had given her life. These were the words of Suzanne Gale. Miranda ran her fingers along the text on the page, and then finally read the words aloud.

  “In the shadows of fate we are so blind,

  To the wonders, the mysteries, the secrets divine,

  For no greater strength was ever to be,

  Than found in the heart, down deep within thee,

  In darkness we strive to seek out the light,

  To escape the temptations we find in the night,

  In tempests the soul may be lashed by the winds,

  Pure hearts filled with virtue, enticed now by sin,

  And here, our fates might now be revealed,

  From out of the shadows, no longer concealed,

  Still within our hands 'tis our destiny held,