by Rye Hart
"No ma'am," Eva answered timidly.
Lady Drummond raised an eyebrow at Eva before continuing. "The high druids seek yer counsel," she stated calmly.
Eva released her breath. She was afraid Lady Drummond might have known about the interactions Eva had with her son and was relieved that was not the topic of discussion.
Suddenly, Eva was feeling appalled since the high druids just accused her of witchcraft in front of the entire clan and now they had the audacity to seek her counsel. Who do they think they are?
She wasn't sure if she could take a repeat of that incident. "Does Laird Drummond know about this?" she asked cautiously, instinctively knowing that he was her protector now.
Lady Drummond didn't flinch at her question, but neither did she acknowledge it. "Before we can accept ye, the druids of our clan need to see if ye be true."
Eva could feel her heart racing; she knew that this was a bad idea. However, she didn't know how she was going to get out of it, short of running away from here as fast as possible. Somehow, she knew that wasn’t a feasible answer. Where would she go?
"I guess?" Eva said hesitantly.
"Excellent," the Lady smiled at her. She opened the door and motioned for Eva to lead the way.
Eva's nostrils were assailed by the heavy smell of incense as smoke wafted out of the room. Lady Drummond did not appear the least bit bothered by the smoke, but nevertheless proceeded to wait by the door while looking at Eva expectantly.
"Am I —" Eva began, "do you —" she pointed at the room. Does she expect me to go in there? It is so thick with smoke how would one be able to see anything, let alone breathe?
Lady Drummond simply nodded.
Eva took a cautious step into the room, her mind racing with the absurdity of the moment.
Once she stepped inside, Lady Drummond shut the door behind Eva.
"Wait!" Eva called out, she tried to open the door, but it was already firmly secured. Her heart raced with the cold realization that she was trapped inside with two people that made it clear they weren’t very fond of her and by the looks on their faces their opinion did not change.
Cautiously, Eva turned back around. "Hello?" she called out into the heavy smoke. Her nostrils burned with the sweet smell of incense; her head began to grow heavy and her mind started to fog. "Hello?" she said again, her voice beginning the slur.
The only reply was the distant sound of chanting. Eva took a shaky step toward the hypnotic song, and out of the cloud of smoke emerged a shadowy figure.
Eva recognized the figure as one of the druids from her "ceremony." In this room, the cloaked figure seemed even more inhuman amongst the thick smoke, than he had outside in the courtyard. Eva shook her head to try and clear it, but her idea of reality had been thrown into turmoil the moment she had stepped through the door back at the house.
"So ye claim to be capable of breaking the curse that afflicts our laird?" the shadowy figure asked in a hushed male voice.
"I don't claim to be anything," Eva blurted out.
While Eva was still trying to process this new information, the figure continued. "So ye say," he said in his hypnotic voice. The chanting in the background continued, creating a thoroughly chilling atmosphere.
Eva was just about to reach her limit. "Look here mister," she advanced closer to the hooded figure. "I don't know what is going on, but someone better start explaining things to me!" she demanded coolly. Eva was shocked by her own forwardness, but a girl could only take so many surprises.
The figure regarded her from under the hood, and took his time before he replied.
"There is only one way to tell if ye be the one," he said in a tone barely above a whisper.
"Enough already," Eva interrupted. "I am not your witch or chosen one or whatever else you think I am!" She threw her hands up in the air in a sign of defeat.
The figure chuckled from beneath his hood and the sound sent a chill down Eva's spine.
"Aye, she be her," said an even more chilling voice. The second hooded figure appeared next to the first, her face concealed just like the other.
Alarm bells rang in Eva's brain; she needed to get out of here.
"We have our orders," the first one told the second in a hushed voice.
Eva continued to back away, her anxiety slowly rising as the room took on a more sinister air. When her back hit the door behind her, she stopped. She had no idea how she was going to get out of this situation; she could barely see four feet in front of her. Not to mention, even if she could escape the room, she had no idea where she would go.
Eva noticed something shimmer in the man's hand. A knife perhaps? Eva froze.
"Look, I promise you, I am not who you think I am!" she said desperately, but already she knew that whatever she said would only be used against her.
The two figures continued to advance forward, closing the distance between them and her.
"Please," Eva pleaded. This whole thing had turned into a horrific nightmare. How could a simple game of manhunt have gone so wrong? She thought of her cousins, her aunt and uncle, the few friends she had back home, her job, her life. Will I ever see them again? she wondered.
The man extended his hand as he came closer, a thin bony appendage that appeared more skeletal than human.
Make it stop, Eva thought. She closed her eyes tightly, waiting, anticipating the chilling touch and the sharp blade of death.
Chapter Six
The next thing Eva heard was Jamie’s voice. "Cousin Eva, what are you doing on the floor?"
Eva's eyes shot open. She shielded her vision from the blinding light coming from Jamie's flashlight. After spending the past few hours with nothing but moonlight and candles guiding her, the artificial light was overwhelming. She sat up, still disoriented, her heart racing from the near death experience.
Jamie's face came into focus. He was standing in the doorway, an expression of utter confusion clouding his cherub face.
"I, um —" Eva looked around at the room. It was a simple storage room, nothing out of the ordinary. No smoking incense, no dangerous druids, no enticing highlanders. "Nothing," Eva said in a rush. She wasn't about to explain what had just happened to her to her six-year-old cousin.
"You never found us!" Jamie whined. "We waited and waited for fifteen minutes and you never came!"
"Only fifteen?" Eva asked. She felt like she had been away for hours.
The little boy nodded. "Maggie gave up, but I said we must find you."
"Thank you," she said kindly.
The little boy beamed. "I'm glad you are alright," he said.
Eva wasn't sure she would say she was alright. She still felt a bit shaken by her experience in the druid's lair. Furthermore, she wasn't exactly sure if what she had experienced was real or not. It had all felt so vivid in the moment, but now that she was back at the house, she felt like it would be ridiculous to believe that anything that had transpired in the highlander's world was anything more than a weird dream.
"I think I am done for the night," she told her cousin. "I promise I will play Manhunt tomorrow," she offered.
He gave her a huge grin. "Ok!" he said enthusiastically.
Eva got up and made her way toward the door with little Jamie acting as her guide. As they left the room, Eva closed the door behind her. They both walked down the stairs, while Jamie started telling Eva about the pirate story his father had promised to tell him at bedtime. Eva nodded as he spoke, but her mind was still reeling with the thoughts of her strange experience. Although her rational mind tried to tell her that it was all just a dream, which perhaps she'd slipped and hit her head, her heart ached with a very different memory.
When they reached the bottom of the stairs, Jamie turned to bound off in search of his father. However, as Jamie moved away, he called back to Eva over his shoulder. "You need a bath Eva, you stink," he said with unabashed honesty.
Bewildered, Eva looked down at her clothes. Only after Jamie had pointed it out did the sic
kly sweet smell hit her. She lifted the hem of her shirt sniff the fabric; she smelled heavily of incense.
"Eva, if you are going to continue to click your pen incessantly?" Eva's boss said to her with an angered look.
"Sorry," Eva said sheepishly. She quickly stopped the nervous clicking and set her pen down. She refocused her attention back on the room, and away from the events of the night before that continued to play like a reel in her thoughts. She felt a blush creep up her neck and mottle her already embarrassingly red cheeks as she noted the stares of her coworkers.
"While we’re at it – what is the status of that book I asked you to edit and review?"
Shit! Eva thought. It was a miracle that she made her way into the office! She had completely forgotten about the book that her boss had asked her to take on as a project. She had been too busy trying to figure out the events from the previous night; like how she had been pulled into a different world by the call of a cursed highlander and then narrowly escaped being murdered by crazed druids! A book review was the last possible thing on her mind when she was too busy questioning her whole reality.
"I, um, I’ll have to request an extension please on account of unexpected personal circumstances" Eva stuttered.
"We are already passed the deadline Eva. You could have told me that you wouldn’t be able to complete it so I could assign another team member," he stated. "I think we need to discuss your ability to carry on with the responsibilities of your role”.
Eva could feel the heat return to her cheeks, while her eyes started to sting. She refused to cry in front of her boss and coworkers.
"Perhaps you should go home and think about that," he sneered. "And I’ll be expecting the finished assignment at my desk tomorrow at 9am sharp!" he said harshly.
Eva was shocked by the severity of his words. She knew her boss had never quite liked her, but she didn't think he would go so far as to mock her in front of her coworkers. She looked around at their faces, but no one dared to make eye contact with her.
Eva rose, and it took everything in her to hold back the sob that welled up in her throat.
But just as she was about to leave the meeting room, something within her snapped. With a calm strength that she had not known she possessed, she turned to face her boss. "You are right," she stated coolly. "I am not meant to work here," she held her head up higher, bringing her steady gaze directly on her boss before she continued. "I'm too good for a place like this, and it is not worth the level of crap I am forced to put up with from you." She felt the edges of her mouth turn up in a triumphant smirk. She was done with being talked down to, chastised, overworked, and underappreciated. No amount of money could justify the way he treated her, or any of his employees. "Good bye," she said with an air of finality. And with that, she turned on her heels and left.
Eva didn't stop even once on her way out of the building. She didn't care about the trinkets that she had decorated her desk with in an attempt to liven up a dreary workspace. All she could think of was getting herself out of this place as soon as possible. She felt dizzy with the adrenaline from telling her now ex-boss exactly what she felt; she shook with the aftershock of standing up for herself.
Yet, even as Eva exited the door, her mind began to drift away from the exhilarating moment of quitting her job. Instead, she began to focus on a thought that had plagued her since the moment she realized she was back at her house — how to get back? Something within her had awakened the moment the highlander had touched her. There was an intense pull between them that transcended all reason, and she needed to feel it again.
"What are you doing?" Jamie asked curiously.
Eva stopped what was probably her seventh time opening and closing the storage room door — her half haphazard attempt to recreate last night's events. "Umm, nothing," she said. "Don't you have some homework or something to do?" she asked him.
Jamie gave her a blank expression. "I don't have homework, I'm four."
Eva couldn't help but giggle at his deadpan response. "I see," she smiled down at her precocious cousin.
"You said you would play manhunt with me!" Jamie reminded Eva.
"Oh, that's right," Eva snapped her fingers and she remembered her promise. "Okay, how about right now?" she asked. "Do you want to wait for Maggie?" she asked.
Jamie shook his head. "Now, I want to play now! Please?" he pleaded.
"Oh alright," she gave in. "You are it," she tagged him and then quickly bounded down the stairs.
"I'll get you!" Jamie called after her.
Eva slowed down in order to give Jamie a fighting chance. They played a few rounds, alternating between who was "It" before finally collapsing in the living room, thoroughly exhausted from running through the house.
Eva was so tired — not just from the game of Manhunt, but from the events of the day.
"What have you two been up to?" she asked.
"We played Manhunt and I won three games out of five!" Jamie announced proudly.
"That's wonderful sweetie," her aunt told Jamie encouragingly. "Would a champion like yourself come and help your father and I make dinner?" she asked.
Jamie jumped off the couch. "I can do anything!" he announced to the room before bounding off to the kitchen.
Once she was alone, Eva finally began to process the oddity of the past twenty-four hours. However, her mind still felt overloaded with information and she could feel her eyelids grow heavy with exhaustion. She figured she wouldn’t get any answers while her mind wasn't firing on all cylinders.
She headed toward her room, prepared to call it a night. As she walked through the archway that led to her bedroom, she was gripped by a sickening feeling as the world around her tilted away and she felt herself falling.
She reached out to try and steady herself, but her hands clawed at the open air. This time, she held her breath and braced herself for the chill of the water.
Even with the anticipation of the icy pool, it still came as a shock to her system when her body was enveloped by water. Her body froze as she felt herself submerged. Yet this time, she knew that there was an escape. With a fierce determination, she fought to swim to the top. As her air supply faded away, she used the last bit of strength to kick her legs to propel herself up. With a gasping breath, she broke through the surface.
Eva treaded water while she filled her lungs with full breaths. Slowly, her senses returned as she recovered from the shock of the sudden journey. That’s something I probably won’t ever get used to, she thought to herself. She was excited that she was back.
Yet Eva's joy was short lived, as two familiar voices carried over the water to where she was swimming in the middle of the pond.
"She has returned as we have expected," one of the hooded figures hissed. "She has returned!"
Fear gripped Eva the moment she realized that the two druids she had so narrowly escaped from, were waiting for her on the bank.
"Now we can finish what we started," echoed the second one.
Eva knew she needed to get out of there, fast. She didn't want to risk letting them "finish" what they had started. With a wild, determined look, Eva glanced around at her surroundings. The pool was small, almost hidden from where it was nestled in the woods. She figured if she could swim to the other shore fast enough, she might be able to out run them on foot in the woods. Eva didn't have time to consider whether or not her plan was a good one, she had a split second to put it into action.
With a quick kick, Eva leaned her back into the water and began kicking her legs to propel herself to the other side. She wasn't much of a swimmer, but with her life at risk, she managed quite well. It only took a few kicks before she was grasping at the embankment and pulling herself out of the water.
As she stood, she didn't even look back before she started running into the woods. She could hear the druids calling something, but she didn't care to hear, she just kept running.
She ran until her legs gave way and she collapsed on the soft ground, gaspin
g. She prayed that she had outrun them. She attempted to rise and find a place to hide when suddenly, her world went dark.
Chapter Seven
Eva groaned as she rolled over onto her side, and opened her eyes. She was enveloped in darkness.
Panic seized her as she opened her eyes wider; she was no longer in the forest. They caught me she thought wildly.
She sat up instantly, looking around her, but she couldn't make anything out other than that she was in a room somewhere.
"Ye surely know how to make an entrance," said a seductive, familiar voice.
Eva's body relaxed at the sound, she couldn't see him in the darkness, but she could sense him. They had a strange connection that Eva couldn't explain. Although they barely knew each other, Eva sensed that he would never hurt her. Come to think of it, this would make the second time he had saved her life.
Eva laughed in response to his statement. "If you only knew," she added vaguely.
She heard footsteps and sensed him moving closer, her whole body came alive with the anticipation of his presence. She saw a glimmer of light appear as he lit a candle, illuminating the small stone cave.
Eva looked up at his face as Laird Drummond slowly came into view. The shadows made his face appear hard and dangerous. Eva felt a sense of relief and happiness come over her. She cocked her head at him. "What happened to the castle?" she asked as she motioned to the naturally formed stone walls around them.
The moment the words left her mouth, Eva knew she had hit a nerve. She watched Bhradain’s eyes flash a feral red for the briefest moment, before returning to their natural brown. "It was nae safe for the clan to be around me, they voted to send me away," he explained.
Before she had fully registered her actions, she had stood up and started to make her way toward Bhradain. The last time she had done this, she had reached out to comfort the beastly version of him — a beast that his own people appeared to fear. And like last time, he didn't shy away. As she brought her hand up to rest against his cheek, her gaze conveyed sympathy. She didn't know Bhradain very well and she didn't know why she had been brought here, but somehow she knew that she was supposed to be here in this moment with him.
