Rescuelander

by Samantha Liddell

  Two Scottish warriors, who were about to embark on the rescue mission of a lifetime, now left Swans Cottage, but not before adding a few more logs to the fire, switching on the coffee machine for the rest of the clan to wake up to, and locking the door behind us. We really were the new-age superheros.

  We ran towards my black Range Rover, which I could only picture as us looking like two strong, heroic Scottish men running in slow motion to our Batmobile, the wind blowing our kilts up just enough to expose a pair of sexy knees, yelling at each other in our Scottish accents about the details of the mission. Two Scottish heroes now on their way to save our very own Sassenachs. Who needed a superhero in a cape when they could have kilts on instead?

  I am not sure why I insisted on us both wearing kilts; either it was to add to the drama of it all, or it was to make a point to Letticia after the dream she had just forced me to be in, which was more like a nightmare, having to watch the woman I love being seduced by another man, and from Manchester of all places. So with that fact alone, I was swaying towards the whole kilt-wearing thing as a point I was about to make to Letticia.

  With the heroic exit from Swans Cottage and the heroic entrance into the black Batmobile—aka my everyday black Range Rover—behind us now, James and I now found ourselves driving towards the rescue mission of a lifetime.

  “Enter Torwood Castle into the maps, would ya,” I instructed James. Obviously I was the Batman out of the two, and James was the Robin. Of course, both equally as important as the other.

  Robin, I mean James, did as he was told, before asking, “Why Torwood Castle? How do you know they are there?”

  I glanced over at James to see if he was really ready to hear what I was about to say, then decided there was only one way to find out. “James, you will not believe what I’m about to say, but it’s the truth. And it does sound far-fetched, and we both still don’t know how we do it—”

  James interrupted me at this stage, as if to make him get to the point. “Do what, Scott? I don’t understand.”

  “Aye, we don’t understand much either, but Letticia has this way of pulling me into her dreams, and if I’m asleep, too, while she is dreaming, then I too am right there with her dreaming the same dream. It doesn’t happen all the time, it’s strange really,” I explained.

  James stared over at me, trying to gauge if I was serious and not just pulling his leg. After a moment or two of examining my expression, James came to the conclusion that I was indeed serious. “Okay… well, I’m willing to keep an open mind here, because I like you and you are normally an honest and decent guy who wouldn’t normally make up such an outrageous story such as this. So tell me this, then what did the dream show you?” James asked, puzzled by the whole thing.

  “Well, Letticia’s dreams are pretty far-fetched and full of drama, it’s just the kind of person she is, she always takes me on an adventure, which is one of the reasons I love her so much. So the dream pretty much consisted of the 1800s Torwood Castle, an ex-fling of hers who was seducing her—and it was working, by the way, right before my very eyes. There was a grand dinner in a dining hall, a night in a dungeon, the risk of being burnt at the stake, and a castle fire resulting in an explosion that ended up blowing us all up. Oh yeah, and Milla, my ex-wife, and James, Sophie’s ex-boyfriend, were thrown in the mix for some reason as well.”

  James mouth was stuck open, either in amusement, or pure shock. “Okay… so can you tell me, then, by dissecting that dream, exactly what Letticia was trying to show you?”

  James was referring to the location they were at and who they were with, but I went into far more personal detail than that. “Aye, that I can. Letticia was trying to tell me not to mess with her, not to treat her with so little respect by ignoring her. She was trying to make me feel the way I made her feel the morning Sophie and her went missing, after our little fight we had. Oh, plus that Milla and James have captured them and taken them to Torwood Castle, which is in ruins and indeed not the original castle it once was. She did this by blowing the castle up at the end of the dream. So I now know exactly where they are,” I announced.

  James sat there, still not quite believing what he was hearing. I then went on to sum it up. “They are with James and Milla at Torwood Castle.” I took a deep breath to recover from my long and convoluted explanation.

  “Well, this all sounds well and truly entertaining, and once we arrive at Torwood Castle and we do indeed find them to be in the presence of James and Milla, only then will I turn to you and shake your hand, and believe every single word you just told me. But until then, I shall hold on to my doubts,” James said.

  “I look forward to shaking your hand in a few hours, good sir,” I said with a smirk and a wink.

  The drive from Swans Cottage to Torwood was just on an hour. If all went to plan, the girls would be back in their lovers’ arms in the next hour or so. Letticia would have full faith that I was indeed on my way to save her, I had no doubt. Faith was something I had taught her to have—"Faith in the good of the world,” I had once said, “you need it, or otherwise what sort of life will you attract and lead.” The more she practiced having faith in the good of the world, the more the world had delivered her with experiences that made her believe in my theory. What we put out to the world, the world returned to us. So at this very moment, Letticia should have faith that we were en route to save them.

  And that was just what we were doing; we were now pulling into a little town called Larbert, located two miles from the small village of Torwood. It wasn’t through choice that I was pulling into Larbert. We wanted to get to Torwood Castle as soon as possible; however, the Batmobile, or should I say Range Rover, had other ideas. As we drove into the town, the Range Rover just cut out, leaving it powerless on the side of the road.

  “No, no, no, no, no!” I yelled as I hit the steering wheel in frustration. I turned to James. “Right, then. Looks like we are going the rest of the way on foot.”

  “Do you even know where you are going?” James asked.

  “Nope, not at all, but the maps on my phone will lead the way. Come on, let’s go,” I ordered.

  But before abandoning the Range Rover altogether, I had it towed to the nearest mechanic and left it there to get fixed while we completed our rescue mission.

  James and I were now running down the main street of Larbert in out kilts looking rather out of place. Not that we even noticed people staring, we were only focused on one thing and one thing only: finding the loves of our lives, who were in immediate danger.

  The map on my phone led us to the end of the main street, through a lush green park, over a hill, through a meadow, and then we found ourselves in the woods, in amongst trees.

  “Are you sure this is the right way?” James asked, not showing the least bit of confidence in my ability to follow directions.

  “Yes, it’s a shortcut to Torwood Castle. I can see the route my map is taking us. We just need to keep walking this way a bit longer until we come to a clearing,” I explained as I studied the map on my phone.

  “Well I must say, that’s very precise directions there, Scott. I feel like the direction called ‘this way’ is very accurate, just as much as the directions of north, south, west, and east are,” James teased. I decided not to answer, and continued in the direction of “this way,” in which I had full confidence was the correct one.

  James and I had been walking for a while. As we continued along in the direction of “this way,” we found ourselves getting deeper into the woods. We stopped a few times for a drink of water and to catch our breath.

  “Well I must say, lost or not, it is a very nice place to be. It is so green and lush and peaceful out here,” James said.

  “Peaceful it is. It’s a lovely, quiet place to focus on clearing all the noise in life,” I replied.

  James and I eventually refocused, and decided it was time to continue on. We stood up feeling light and refreshed after our moment of reflection and calmness, sitting in natur
e. A sense of peace now filled our bodies.

  “You know, I have always thought about starting yoga,” James announced.

  I laughed at first, picturing James, a big strapping Scotsman on a yoga mat doing the downward dog.

  “Laugh as much as you like, Scott, but it’s good for the mind and soul,” James said.

  “Sorry, I shouldn’t laugh. In all honesty, I have thought about starting yoga too. Life just gets so busy and noisy sometimes, I feel like I need to clear the mind,” I replied.

  “Well then, there we have it. Once we complete this rescue mission and return our woman back home, you and I are enrolling in a yoga class,” James announced.

  I laughed again but noticed James was not laughing along; he was completely serious. “Okay, deal. Yoga, here we come,” I said halfheartedly.

  “We can have a man-date once a week,” James joked.

  “Aye, don’t push it, James, I have only just said yes. I can quite easily change my mind on you.”

  The yoga discussion stopped there as we came into a clearing. I checked my map and pointed in the direction we needed to go. “Right, carry on this way,” I announced, and James rolled his eyes.

  The clearing was hilly and covered in lush green Scottish grass. We started to cross the clearing and had not even reached the middle when suddenly five men came running over the top of the hill towards us, dressed in old military-looking uniforms. They ran past and grabbed our arms.

  “Quick, follow us if you want to live,” one of the men yelled. Within seconds more men appeared at the top of the hill. With pistols in hand, they started shooting at the five men, and now James and I were in the middle of it all.

  One man was shot dead right in his tracks and fell to the ground, blood streaming out of the wound in his chest. James let out a high-pitched scream. “Holy shit, what just happened?” He looked at me, as if I should know.

  “Aye, I have no idea, but we need to follow these men, they seem to know where they are going.”

  We ran alongside the other men who were still standing, in the hope they would get us to safety, and also get us out alive.

  All of a sudden, I could hear the sound of galloping hooves behind us as more shots were fired. Men on horses were now closing in on us. One man rode up beside one of the others running in the group and scooped him up from the ground and rode off with him. Another rode up beside the man who was running right next to me and shot him right then and there, and the man collapsed to the ground right next to my feet. It was starting to look like a bloodbath.

  I lay there beside the man, who was not moving an inch—obviously, because he was shot dead right in front of my very own eyes. I lifted my head up a little while still trying to play dead, to see if I could catch sight of James. I could see him still running across the field with one other man, but a horse with a soldier on its back was closing in on them fast. He was holding what looked to be a sword and was pointing it towards James’ back. Within seconds it made contact with James, causing him to also fall to the ground.

  Without even a moment’s thought, I got to my feet and ran straight towards James, yelling “Nooo! James, I’m coming.” I was so caught up in the moment of panic and disbelief, I didn’t notice the fighting had ended, and all eyes were now on me, still running to the aid of my friend James. Once I got to James, I flung myself on top of him before turning him onto his back to start CPR. I went in and started mouth to mouth on James’ big Scottish lips, and as soon as my lips made contact, James moved.

  “Aye, I’m fine, I’m fine, Scott, but nice to see you too,” James said with a wink.

  There was a real bromance forming with James and I over the past few days, it seemed. The adultnapping of our women had really brought the two of us together.

  As I removed my lips from James’, we both stood up to see we were not surrounded by soldiers in a battlefield anymore, but rather being watched by what appeared to be actors and a film crew, rehearsing for some movie or TV show, by the looks of it.

  One of the actors come over to us first. “Well, you had us all fooled out there, you two are quite the actors, very natural indeed.”

  My back was still turned away from the person. As I turned around, I replied, “Well, it does help when you don’t know you are acting in the first place.” I then looked closer at the actor standing there right in front me. “Hells bells, Alistair, is that you?” My eyes widened in shock.

  “Wow, you are the first person to ever recognise me. I’m not that famous yet, only being one season in and all,” Alistair said.

  I didn’t know Alistair, truth be told. I had never even seen a single episode of… Scotland History, according to the clapperboard held by some fellow to my left, and the only reason I knew of him was from Letticia’s dream. I decided to go along with Alistair’s scenario, though. “Oh yes, I’m one of your biggest fans,” I said.

  “Well it’s very nice to meet you, your name is?”

  “Oh sorry, yes, my name is Scott King, and this is my friend James,” I replied.

  “A very good friend, by the looks of it back there,” Alistair teased.

  “Aye, it’s nothing like that,” I assured him.

  James, who had now finally recovered from that whole scary situation, including the fake sword attack that had not actually stabbed him at all, but rather only knocked him over—as a blunt sword is only capable of doing—was now standing beside me.

  “You don’t know where to find Torwood Castle do you, by any chance?” I asked Alistair.

  “Aye, you are on track, just keep going north for about another fifteen minutes on foot and you will come across it.”

  “At least he uses the correct terminology,” James said under his breath, and I once again decided not to react.

  “Well, best we continue on our way, then. Just out of curiosity, how long are you rehearsing here for today?” I asked Alistair.

  “Aye, it’s going to be one hell of a long day. We will be lucky to get out of here before dark,” Alistair moaned.

  “Well in that case, you couldn’t do me a huge favour, could you?” I asked.

  “Aye, of course, anything for my number-one fan.”

  While I explained the whole favour to Alistair, James was getting edgy and looking at his watch, and paying no attention to the conversation Alistair and I were having. We had already wasted so much time dying in the fake battlefield, and really did need to get to Letticia and Sophie. James probably wasn’t fully convinced I knew the whereabouts of the women, but if Alistair was correct, then they were only fifteen minutes away. James was looking more than ready to get going.

  I picked up on James increasingly agitated demeanour, and said to Alistair, “We will see you soon, we had better get a move on.”

  As James and I made our way off the battlefield set, to loud applause from all the other actors, James asked me over all the noise, “What did you mean when you said ‘see you soon’ to Alistair?”

  “Oh nothing, he is just going to do a little favour for me, that’s all. Nothing to worry about.”

  James had already lost interest in the answer anyway, now fully focused on finding his Sophie.

  At this point in time, after everything that had happened, I was not fully convinced I was awake. This sort of adventure only really happened in Letticia’s dreams, and now I had just bumped into Alistair, in what I thought was reality—but Alistair had only ever been in Letticia’s dreams.

  Being in a confused state and all, I caught James’ attention. “Aye, you all good there?” James asked me.

  “Yeah, all good, just trying to work through a few things in my head. It will all come clear once we find the ladies, I’m sure,” I assured him.

  Chapter Thirteen

  By my calculations, if I had indeed brought Scott into my dream last night and showed him where we were being held captured, and he had indeed left straightaway after waking up, to rescue us, then he should be here by now.

  But there was no sign of
Scott. Had my ability to bring Scott into my dreams ended? Did the argument we had the other morning stop him from seeing what I was dreaming? Or worse yet, was our love not strong enough anymore to behold such a gift we once held for each other. My insecure thoughts were put on hold as the sliding door was slid open at that moment, and in streamed a blinding beam of sunlight even though the temperature outside still felt like it was at freezing point.

  James and Milla stood there in a very hungover-looking state. I felt like Sophie and I could quite easily have made a run for it without them having the energy, coordination, or strength to catch us, but then I noticed our hands had been tied up once again. Wow, I must have been really in a deep sleep last night not to have woken up to that.

  “Well, James, do you fancy a hair of the dog?” Milla asked, still sounding half-cut still.

  “I wouldn’t say no to that” was James’ slurred reply.

  Before they did, however, they ever so kindly took us off for a walk, like two little dogs, into some long grass, and allowed us to release our bladders. It was time to make a run for it. I tried to signal to Sophie my idea by using a lot of strange facial expressions—that she was apparently unable to read. Sophie looked like she had given up all hope and was now just going through the motions. I on the other hand was unable to give up.

  As we squatted in the long grass, my pants around my ankles, I decided now was the time to make my escape to freedom. Not sure why I thought I would succeed with my pants around my ankles and my hands tied behind my back, but that was me—I thought anything was possible in this world, and I still do feel that way, even though I got no more than two feet away before Milla pulled me back into line.

  “Not so fast, you husband stealer,” she said as she pulled me back by my hair with such force, my eyes started to water.

  I was still not sure what James and Milla’s plan was in this whole adultnapping ordeal, and what they were hoping to gain from it all. It was not at all clear to me what they even wanted from this whole adultnapping. I mean, really, how long did they think they could keep us before getting caught. It was obvious their whole plan was not at all well thought through, and it lacked originality and detail. I mean, really, if I was to perform such a crime, I would at least have a plan, and have something exciting in place to keep my victims and myself from becoming bored. I was bored out of my brain right now. Hence the reason I had such an amazing dream last night; I had to create my own entertainment. Sophie had gone all quiet and depressed on me, and as for James and Milla, well, they were just two boring alcoholics who had not one ounce of personality between them.