Destinata (Valguard)

by Nicole Daffurn

  “Ok. Just promise me you aren’t going to run off again… Please.”

  “I can’t promise you that Ford. The way things are at the moment, I have no idea what is coming or what I’m going to do next.”

  He didn’t like it, but he didn’t argue the point and taking that as a truce Charlie moved to make her way back down the stairs.

  She found everyone else sitting, scattered around the lounge, seemingly not wanting to sit too close to each other. Charlie rolled her eyes at the lot of them as she entered and cleared her throat to let them know she was there. Zane jumped to his feet and was on her in a heartbeat giving her a bear hug to end all bear hugs and cutting off her air supply at the same time. El and Matt on the other hand sat arms folded, clearly still not happy with the situation.

  “Did you explain to them?”

  “Yea, they took it rather well but I don’t think they are too happy about having to bring your mom back here.”

  “El’ I’m sorry. I couldn’t leave her there like that, I just couldn’t.”

  “I know Char. I’m not angry with you about that. Why didn’t you just tell us what was going on? We could have helped.”

  “I didn’t tell you for that reason El’. I couldn’t stand to see you hurt.”

  “But you could take Ford? Does he mean that little to you?”

  “No, I didn’t mean it like that! Ford already knew mostly what was going on before he came back to town. Do you really think I could have stopped him? Ughh! Why is this so dam hard to explain! I love your brother and I always have, if there was any way I could have got him to stay here with you, I would have done it in a heartbeat!”

  Charlie was so rushed to explain her apparent lack of care for Ford that she hadn’t realized that she had admitted the one thing she had kept a secret for so many years now, but El’ didn’t miss a beat.

  “You love him?”

  “Ahh. That’s not… I mean… El’ that’s not fair I…”

  Charlie felt the burn rising in her cheeks as she turned and saw Ford standing not a foot from where she stood, arms folded. Closing her eyes and wishing to take her words back to save this embarrassment, she stomped out of the room before she could say or do anything else to further humiliate herself, running into Zane, who had walked away to give them all some privacy, in the hallway as she did.

  Shit!

  “You love him?”

  “Out of everything I just said did anyone actually hear anything other than those words? Seriously, my mom is dead, Kara is dead, my eyes are freaking purple and the only thing that anyone can fixate on is the fact that I love Ford! Yea I can see the logic in that!”

  “Kara’s dead?”

  “Shit! Zane, I’m so sorry, I didn’t mean for it to just come out like that I…”

  “How?”

  “She… She left a note for you. I’m sure it’s something along the lines of the one she left me explaining. Here…”

  She handed him the note which she had transferred from the pocket of her wet jeans to her dry ones and left him to read it alone.

  Finding Ford sitting in the dining room on the opposite side of the house to the lounge Charlie went to sit across the large table from him. They would have to find a quieter place to talk properly eventually but for now this would have to do.

  “Ford, I’m sorry you heard that the way you did. I didn’t mean for you to ever… I mean, I know that you don’t and I shouldn’t have said anything. El’ just gets me so worked up some times, it just blurted out.”

  “You love me?”

  “For god sakes, I thought the whole house had established that already. Yes, I love you. I always have. I’m embarrassed enough, can we just let it go and move on. Please.”

  “Why? I’ve loved you since I was five Charlie. Now that I know you love me too, why on Earth would I want to let it go?”

  “You… Ah… Jesus Ford! Why didn’t you say something?”

  “Why didn’t you?”

  “Good point.”

  Charlie giggled for the first time in what felt like days and moved around to sit next to Ford but he grabbed her wrist before she could sit and pulled her onto his lap. Her stomach fluttered at his touch and she moved her lips forward to meet his. They were interrupted by a red-faced Zane who was clearing his throat in the door way.

  “Sorry but we need to go. Now!”

  “What? Where? Why?”

  “Back to my place. We have training to do.”

  Waving the sheet of paper with Kara’s writing on it in front of them as if in explanation, he moved towards the front door clearly expecting everyone to follow. Ford shrugged his shoulders and gently moved Charlie off his lap to stand up and follow, but Charlie refused to move from the dining room.

  “I’m not going anywhere yet. In case you have all forgotten, my mom’s body is currently residing in the backseat of El’s Impala and Kara is still sitting in the chair in the cottage, do you really think I’m going to do anything before they at least have a proper burial?”

  She was astounded by the lack of caring from all of them and more than a little angry, she felt her blood pulsing and by the flicker of everyone’s eyes to her own she guessed that her eyes were pulsing along with her blood.

  “Charlie I’m so sorry, I completely forgot. Kara’s letter was urgent and…”

  “Well I’m glad that you were able to forget so easily, but I can’t. No matter how urgent Kara’s letter is, I’m quite sure she wouldn’t want you to let her sit and rot in that chair forever!”

  Her words were meant to make the others – particularly Zane – feel at least a small amount of the hurt that they had just afforded her in her time of grief and by the look on his face it had worked. He didn’t seem to be able to say anything, only to stare at Charlie’s eyes for longer than usual and she wondered briefly whether they had changed color yet again.

  “Right then, my mom first.”

  Zane and Ford dug a whole deep enough to block out any smell that might permeate from Eva’s decomposing corpse and laid her to rest under the Wisteria in the Oak Street house yard. Charlie felt it was too much of a goodbye, too final and before she could speak tears broke through her stronghold and she collapsed into grief at her mother’s modest graveside. Ford stepped forward to speak for her and she was grateful as ever at his presence.

  “Eva was one of the strongest women I have ever had the privilege to meet and her life has been taken far too soon, but I’m sure that she wouldn’t want us to waste our lives grieving at her graveside. She was a positive uplifting person who could stay optimistic even in the darkest of times and although her smile has left her face it certainly hasn’t left our hearts. Rest in peace Eva, we’ll be waiting for the day when we get to see you once again.”

  Ford recited a poem, placed freshly picked flowers from the yard on her grave and moved away with the others to give Charlie some space. Her mom had gone where she couldn’t follow and the emptiness that she felt inside threatened to swallow her whole if she didn’t make a move. Placing a single red rose and leaving one last blown kiss with her mom she walked away towards the road where her friends were waiting for her to join them.

  Eloise grabbed her in a vice-like hug, tears streaming down her own face and no words were needed in that moment, she knew that everything was going to be ok as long as she had her friends by her side and with that small gesture of a hug and one small look El’ had let Charlie know that she wasn’t going anywhere.

  Feeling a little more than awkward with Zane staring at her hand that was firmly clasped in Ford’s, Charlie tried to remove it more than once but he wasn’t going to let her budge. She had declared her love for him in the heat of the moment and although it was true that she had loved him since childhood, those feelings conflicted with the ones she currently held for Zane. Is it even possible to love two people at once? She wasn’t sure but she was sure that she was going to find out.

  They walked silently to Kara’s house in the forest,
none of them knowing quite what to say to the other. Now that El’ and Matt had been filled in on everything that was going, though they would be by her side through anything, now more than ever they were weary of her and more than once she caught the flicker of their eye turn to her. Keeping an eye on her just in case she guessed. She wanted to scream at them that she was still the same old Charlie, that besides her eye color nothing had changed but she knew it wouldn’t help, and so they trudged on in silence, cautious of each other’s actions, alone in their thoughts.

  Once again, Zane, Ford and Matt selected a resting spot and dug a grave for the second Dawson to be buried that day. Charlie couldn’t watch as they retrieved Kara’s slight frame from the building and placed her in the earthly grave and covered her over with dirt. Her mother and Kara both deserved a better resting place than they currently held but neither could be helped. They didn’t know who they could trust anymore, if the Mayor was in on it, were the police as well? The doctors? The Fire Brigade? Who knew. The only certainty now was they could trust no one but each other and even that trust was fragile at best.

  Charlie looked around at the faces of her friends, Ford, El’ and Matt stood respectfully but with lack of emotion, after all how can you feel pain over the death of someone you didn’t know? She was sure that they felt some sort of regret and sorrow at the loss of a good person but it was nothing like the pain that was etched on Zane’s face and she regretted looking the instant she did. The burdens of the day became too much seeing how hurt he was by the passing of the woman who had taken him in five years ago.

  Not sure what happened and only realizing once on the paved road outside the woods that she hadn’t walked out here, Charlie’s looked up and her eyes were met by the Zane’s grief stricken face. She must have passed out, that much was apparent, after seeing the mourning on his face, everything had become a blur and she remembered collapsing to the ground but nothing after that. She was grateful that they had the sense to move her away from Kara’s graveside but one thing baffled her more than most. Why was it Zane carrying her and not Ford? After her declaration of love for him, she would have thought that he would insist on carrying her out, so why was it that she was in the warm embrace of Zane’s arms right now? Looking up into his sad eyes once more she was overcome with guilt. Guilt over not being able to save Kara but more guilt because she knew the sadness in his eyes wasn’t just for the death of the woman who had been his companion for five years rather sadness and hurt over Charlie’s own admittance of love for someone that wasn’t him. She looked away disgusted in herself and closed her eyes to whisper two small words in Zane’s ear before her let her down.

  “I’m sorry.”

  Giving her a sad half-smile, he gently placed her feet on the ground where she immediately looked around to find out why Ford hadn’t brought her out of the woods but to her surprise he was nowhere to be found.

  “Where’s Ford?”

  “He’s coming. He was just finishing things up at Kara’s.”

  “Finishing up? What do you mean? We already took care of everything before I blanked out.”

  “Kara left me with specific instructions in the event of her death. One of them was to find a locked door in her basement and retrieve something that would help us with the situation at hand.”

  “Yea. So? Why is Ford the one looking for it?”

  “I… I couldn’t…”

  “What Zane? You couldn’t what?”

  “He couldn’t leave you so he made Ford leave you instead.”

  From the scowl on El’s face it was clear that she wasn’t happy with the arrangement. Charlie was just shocked that Ford actually agreed to leave her side.

  “Oh.”

  El’ looked like she was about to go on one of her rants again but just as she opened her mouth in what was sure to be an epic tirade of insults and screaming aimed at Zane her phone rang and she looked at the screen before answering rather rudely.

  “What?!”

  Charlie could hear the faint buzz of someone talking on the other end of the phone and then a pause waiting for El’ to talk.

  “Oh! Really? Ok we’ll meet you there.”

  “Meet who? Where?”

  “Ford. He’s at Zane’s apparently.”

  “What? How the hell did he get there without us seeing him?”

  At least the shock of the phone call had wiped away some if not all of the sadness from Zane’s eyes and voice… For the moment anyway.

  “I don’t know, he just said he was at Zane’s and to come meet him there.”

  Charlie moved first, running towards her street at full speed, wanting to be with Ford and curiously wondering how – like Zane said – he had gotten from Kara’s to Zane’s without being seen and before us. He was supposed to be recovering some mystery item from Kara’s, not finding faster ways to get home.

  Bursting through the front door without waiting for the others Charlie was calling for Ford before the door was shut behind her.

  “Ford!? Ford!”

  “Chill Char! I’m here.”

  “How?”

  The urgency in her tone was one of relief at being near Ford again not one of worry, and it sent her flying into his arms and crashing into his hard chest. Hugging her briefly before pulling away to answer her, she distinctly heard him breathe the scent of her hair in deeply.

  “Why don’t we wait for the others to catch up first. You look like you have run a marathon.”

  “Ok.”

  She reached up and placed a soft kiss on his lips but wasn’t granted leave to move away. Ford had once again wrapped his big arms around her body and held her tight, deepening the kiss into something with more urgency. Charlie knew he was worried about her relationship with Zane and so was she but she couldn’t think of that right now. She had made her choice unknowingly when she had told El’ that she loved him and it was true, and that was enough… For now.

  The other’s arrived a few minutes later, out of breath and soaked to the bone. Obviously the rain that had subsided whilst they were walking through the forest had started up once again sometime after Charlie made it through Zane’s front door.

  “How…the…hell…did you get back so…fast?”

  Barely able to get his sentence out it was clear to see that Matt was in worse shape than the rest of us.

  “Well, if you all follow me I’ll show you.”

  “No, not you. Her.”

  Matt pointed in Charlie’s direction, the fear plain on his face.

  “What? I ran, just like you. It’s not my fault you’re out of shape.”

  “That was not any normal type of running I’ve ever seen! You practically flew out of your skin back there!”

  “Her Valguard powers are becoming stronger by the day, she can probably outrun any human on Earth now.”

  Zane flicked his eyes towards Charlie worried about the way she would react at hearing the news but it seemed she was taking it rather well.

  “Ah.”

  Matt’s short response was his only one and he ducked back into his usual position in the shadows of the lounge.

  “Right then, you going to tell us how the hell you got back here so fast then Ford?”

  There was no need for Zane to be so abrupt but Charlie was dying to know as well so she said nothing but turned to Ford looking for answers as well.

  “Well when you sent me into that dusty old basement to get this stinky old thing, which by the way I have no idea what use it’s going to be to you, I found another door at the far end. I decided to check it out. It was a tunnel and guess where it leads?”

  “Where?!”

  “Right here into your basement.”

  “What? I practically live in my basement some days; I’ve never seen a door except the one that leads into my kitchen.”

  “Well, it’s there. Come on down and I’ll show you.”

  Everyone followed Ford towards the kitchen but instead of taking the door to the right that would lead to the b
asement, Charlie was surprised to see him opening the pantry door. Raising her eyebrows at him and getting a small, knowing smile in return she followed closely behind him into the depths of the deep pantry. She couldn’t see what he was doing in front but she assumed by the hiss of air that he had reached for a handle of some sort that opened the back wall of the food cupboard. She shuffled out of the way so that he could open the door/wall all the way. She could see a faint light coming from within now and heart hammering in anticipation she ran forward after him, both curious to see what Zane kept in his basement and how Ford had reached it from the tunnel that led from Kara’s house.

  There were twenty-six steps that led down from the pantry and once at the bottom Charlie knew they weren’t yet in the basement. This room was small but every wall was lined with tins and jars, bottles and paper packets, an old radio of some sort and two shotguns which she supposed weren’t legal. In one corner sat two small reclining chairs and an antique coffee table; it looked pretty cozy actually, if you weren’t claustrophobic of course. It looked like some kind of shelter rather than a basement. Looking around she found that the whole room was encased in some sort of heavy gauge metal and just as she was thinking it, El’ said it.

  “Can anyone say panic room? Creepy.”

  Her whisper echoed around the small room and rebounded back to Charlie’s ears. The echoing only accentuated the creepiness of the shelter and suddenly with the whispered words and panic room image in her head she couldn’t wait to get out.

  Turning to his left Ford pushed on one of two walls that only had a shelf along the top and one along the bottom. The shelf along the bottom was a dead giveaway that something wasn’t quite right with the wall; no one in their right mind would put a shelf that close to the floor and nothing in between, or maybe she only felt it was plainly obvious that something was concealed because she already knew without a doubt that there was something concealed here. She heard the familiar hiss of air being released and once again stood back to allow Ford to open the wall as far as he could. Behind it, was the tunnel that must have connected Zane’s house to Kara’s basement in the cottage. Ford didn’t say anything, there was no need, everyone here saw the tunnel and knew what it was so instead he closed the wall tight once again and moved to the right side of the wall. This one held just as many shelves as the back wall and thought it impossible that it could be a door at all but hearing that hiss of air escape when Ford pressed against one of the shelves in the middle, she knew her assumptions had been wrong. He swung the wall wide and stepped inside leaving Charlie to follow into the darkness.