Serenade

by Heather McKenzie

  “Thank you, Luke,” she said softly.

  When she reached up and touched my jaw with her knuckles, I took her hand and kissed it, happy to hear the sound of her voice, which, even at a time like this, still made me melt. Back at the river, I didn’t know if I would ever hear it again. That vision of her being bashed around in the water, only to be impaled by that tree and thinking she was dead, would haunt me for the rest of my life. But it also confirmed the one thing I knew in my heart I’d really known all along: I could not live in this world without her.

  “I thought I had lost you,” I choked out.

  “That would’ve sucked,” she said weakly.

  I couldn’t help but let out a small chuckle. “Yes, it would have.”

  She giggled too, which sounded so strange given the dismal circumstances.

  “What’s so funny?” I asked.

  “Oh… well I’d always wanted to see a cave, but now, not so much.”

  I turned to face her while she lay on her back staring up into the dark. I could see in her eyes that her laugh was to cover up how scared she really was.

  “Don’t worry. We’ll be all right,” I told her.

  “Oh, I know,” she said, her voice slurring, “but Luke… I really want one of those things you go driving around looking for… what did you call it… a slurpee? Will you take me to get one sometime? I want to just—uh—go for a drive, to nowhere, no plans. Just you and me. Do you think they have raspberry? I really love raspberry. Itz my favorite flaver.”

  I had to laugh. The painkillers were working. “Yes, they have every flavor you could dream of, and I promise to take you out for as many slurpees as your heart desires.”

  I said a silent prayer that I could make that happen. I stroked her cheek until her eyes shut and she passed out again.

  I paced. Brutus watched. There was nothing left to do but wait out the storm, which had been raging for hours now. The lightning had almost given up, but the rain was still relentless. I moved Kaya closer to the fire, avoiding the little streams of water rolling in through the cave entrance. She didn’t budge or stir even the slightest.

  “Kaya, wake up,” I said.

  She didn’t respond.

  “I’m just going to look around. I need to find more dry kindling to burn, but I’m not going far.”

  Brutus was cemented to her side and I knew he would keep watch over her. Shining my flashlight on the smooth surface of the cave roof, I ran my hands up along the stone wall. It felt like one of those worry rocks Mum used to keep in her purse. Soft patterns of orange and beige swirled in the sandstone and played tricks on my eyes. The cave was much larger than it looked, and when I reached the back, the walls came to an end in a smooth arc. There was nothing here but the bones of what had once been a large animal—probably a bear. As my flashlight’s beam passed over the remains, I noticed something shiny lay in the rib cage. I moved closer, carefully stepping over the skull for a better look, and realized it was a bullet. As I reached for it, a mouse scurried away, making me nearly jump out of my skin. I kicked at it, sending bones and stones rolling away, but strangely enough, the bones and stones didn’t make a stopping sound. I kicked more debris toward the back of the cave, but it all seemed to just disappear into the abyss.

  I stepped completely over the dead animal and shone my light around. There was a hole, about three-by-ten feet, perfectly concealed by overlapping panels of flat rock. Clever patterns in the sandstone had created the most brilliant optical illusion to keep the passageway hidden from view. I moved closer and stepped inside, realizing that I couldn’t hear anything outside—not the wind, the lightning, or the crackling of the fire. I carefully watched my footing as I moved deeper inside, the ground sloping down and into the earth.

  The farther I wandered, the warmer the air became. Then I heard water. The sound grew louder as the sides of the tunnel widened and opened up into a massive cavern. I found myself standing on the edge of an underground cliff, my flash light beam unable to reach the depths where an underground river flowed. This was incredible, but one foot forward and I’d be a goner. What would happen to Kaya if something happened to me?

  I turned and made it halfway through the tunnel and back to her when the flashlight flickered and went out. I cursed loud enough for my voice to echo back and slap me in the ears. I couldn’t freak out. Not now. Breathing deeply, I reassured myself that everything was fine. I just had to stay calm. I fumbled with the plastic button on the flashlight handle, shaking it and asking it nicely to work, but as my eyes started to adjust to the darkness around me, I realized it wasn’t entirely pitch black. There was a dim light to the right that I hadn’t noticed before. I moved toward it. Soon, I was able to see the ground clearly under my feet. The closer I got, the brighter the light became, now fire orange and shimmering as if it were dancing off the tunnel walls. The air was getting warmer too—I could bring Kaya here until the rain stopped— but what was it? This strange light… it didn’t make any sense. As I slowly crept forward, my mind raced, trying to think of every possible source of what it could be—campers, fire, aliens? I steadied my nerves, took a few more steps forward, and then backed up against a corner of jutting stone from where it seemed a few feet away the light was the strongest. I listened for voices, anything at all, but it just sounded like a kitchen faucet was dripping… I steadied myself and swung my head around, then I almost fell backward in shock of what I saw. What was before my eyes couldn’t be real…it was impossible…

  “I don’t understand; we were so close! I even thought I heard her voice!” I was livid, gritting my teeth so hard my jaw ached. I hated everything about the tent, the mountains, the trees, the birds, and the entire world around me so much that if I could beat the crap out of it, I would.

  Davis gave me a tentative shoulder pat. “Oliver, relax. We’ll find her; I’m sure the storm is just interfering with the signal. It’ll come back. Deep breaths there, little buddy.”

  We’d followed Kaya down the river and up into the trees, and then the signal just quit. Henry went crazy, calling every five minutes and screaming death threats at me if I didn’t find her. I was going crazy too, stuck in this small tent and unable to do anything but wait out the weather. If the walls around me weren’t nylon, I would have driven my fists into them.

  “Let’s check our supplies; we’re getting low on food,” Davis said.

  He yapped about mashed potatoes and chocolate cake, but all I could think about was Kaya.

  “You aren’t listening to me, are you?” he said. “She's going to be all right, Oliver. She’s the toughest girl I know.”

  “She’s the only girl you know.”

  “Hey, be nice,” he said. “Seriously though, you know we need to rest. If we exhaust ourselves, we’ll be useless. Also, I’m not particularly interested in getting hit by lightning.”

  “I know. You’re right,” I agreed.

  Davis was ripping open some instant oatmeal packets. “Dinner’s ready, honey,” he said with a mischievous glint in his eye.

  He handed me a brown paper envelope filled with things I didn’t consider to be food, but there was no option of making a fire because of the storm. After ‘dinner’, I tipped the blue bottle of painkillers to my mouth and chased the pills with a swig of brandy.

  “Dessert?” Davis asked.

  “Yeah. Sindra gave me these for the pain. They really help.”

  “I wouldn’t take anything from that woman.”

  “Ah, it’s just strong aspirin or something.”

  “Unmarked? You’re probably being used as a test subject for some new drug Henry’s concocted in his lab. What if it’s highly addictive and has nasty side effects?”

  “Oh, c’mon. It’s perfectly fine.”

  Even though I said it, I knew it wasn’t true. The pills were becoming a bit of a crutch—a means of getting my body, as well as my head, through this hell. They quieted the anger that seemed to consume every part of my mind, but when they wore
off, it seemed to be worse than ever… At least my ribs didn’t ache as much. As I lay back, feeling the medicine and the brandy mix, a nice heat took over my stomach, the potent combination taming the wretched explosive feeling surging through my veins—if I gritted my teeth any more, I’d wear them down to nothing.

  “Oliver?”

  “Uh huh,” I mumbled.

  “When did you realize you were in love with Kaya?”

  Davis loved to ask the strangest things right out of the blue. “Really? You want to talk about that? Now? I’m kinda trying my best to not rip this tent apart and keep myself under control, ya know?”

  “I know, but maybe talking about the good things will help ease the pain of the bad.”

  I remembered the first time I saw her clearly. I knew right then and there she was the one. The moment had been on replay in my head a lot over the last few days.

  “So…”

  Parts of my past were too painful to revisit, but some were the most incredible and precious moments of my life. I looked over at Davis, a man who I considered to be my closest friend, and realized that he was worried too. He was hurting, cold, and hungry, just like I was. Maybe he was the one who needed the distraction

  “For a long time, I cared about nothing. I just went numb after my family was… uh… taken. Henry found me and took me in. I could have lived or died; I didn’t care. Nothing mattered to me anymore. Then one night, I saw her—this young girl with the most intense emerald-green eyes. She stared at me with what I assumed was hatred, yet I couldn’t look away. There was something so different about her. She fired me up and sparked something that had been missing for years, and even though it looked as though she would rather see me dead, I felt alive again.”

  “So, you fell in love with a little kid? And you’re calling me a weirdo?” said Davis.

  “Ha, no.”

  “So then, when did you… know?”

  “I was twenty-three, she was fourteen, and it was Canada Day. I was looking after her while she lay in bed with the chicken pox. I had been her guard for two years by then, and she’d spent that whole time making my life hell, literally being a spoiled brat and doing everything she could to try to make me quit. On this particular evening, she was tormented by horrible itching wounds that I had spent most of the day preventing her from scratching. When her medication was due, I put the sticky syrup on a spoon and held it to her mouth, preparing for the usual fighting and the ‘I hate you’s’, but instead, she looked up at me and very sweetly said ‘thank you’. And that was it.”

  “Um… really?” said Davis.

  “What? Yeah.”

  “Gee, I was kinda hoping for something with a little more glitz and glam. That story is sort of, well… dull.” He laughed.

  I rolled my eyes.

  “Really though, it must have been awful to wait so long to tell her how you feel,” he said, reaching for the brandy.

  “Yep. That’s an understatement. She is everything to me—my love, my life, my family. I couldn’t imagine living without her, and I wanted to tell her so for years.” I pictured her beautiful face the day in the woods when I put the ring on her finger, which was yet another vision that replayed a lot. I disappeared into those special moments in my mind until I was interrupted by the cell phone buzzing in my pocket. Henry’s number flashed on the call display, and I prepared myself for more yelling.

  I pressed the answer button.

  “Are you any closer?” Henry barked, not even bothering with hello.

  My anxiety level shot through the roof again. “No. There’s zero visibility due to the storm, and it’s too dangerous to continue,” I replied, and a loud crack of lightning sounded as confirmation.

  “Damn it! This weather is making a huge mess of things!”

  “I’m sorry, sir. As soon as it lets up, we will get back out there. Is there anything showing up on your screen yet?” Even though I knew the answer, I had to ask anyway.

  “No, nothing is showing up on the stupid, useless screen. She has disappeared.” he yelled, “It’s up to you. Do you hear me, Oliver? As soon as you can, you get your ass out there and find my daughter!”

  I cleared my throat and assured him for the hundredth time I would, but he kept ranting. “I’m the only one who can protect her. You know that. She has to be returned to me before the damn wolves sniff her out.”

  As always, he was worried about the Marchessa ‘wolves’ while I was worried about real ones. “Listen Henry, there is no way I am finding anything or anybody in this weather,” I said firmly.

  There was a pause, and then a rather deep and frustrated breath occupied the vast space between us. The tent shook, lightning flashed, and the rain tried to carry Davis and me away.

  “Well, maybe I need to light a fire under your ass, boy… give you some incentive to move quicker,” Henry said darkly.

  I waited for him to continue. What more incentive did I need to find Kaya than Kaya herself? Whatever he was about to say wouldn’t change a thing. He didn’t need to threaten me, and I was just about to tell him so.

  “She is carrying your child, Oliver,” Henry said. “She is currently about two months pregnant. Yes, you heard me right—pregnant. Now, the current environment is not the best for a girl in her condition, is it?”

  I dropped the phone, and the pills and brandy came back up.

  Over the years, I’d only ever relied on one thing to get me through tough times: Scotch. Glenmorangie, eighteen year old, single malt to be specific. It was all I needed to raise Kaya from a child to an adult.

  Now, for the first time ever, scotch had failed me.

  It was four in the morning. Sleep wouldn’t come, and worry wouldn’t stop. I knew Henry would still be up, so I made the trek through the building toward his wing of the estate and entered my code into the gate. It didn’t work. I tried again, thinking maybe I had entered it wrong, but the iron bars wouldn’t budge. I tried a different set of numbers, ones I’d used ages ago that were probably long forgotten, and quite incredibly, it opened.

  There wasn’t a single guard anywhere to be seen. Maybe they were all still out in those mountains searching for Kaya, which is what I wanted to be doing instead of waiting around uselessly. I needed to convince Henry to let me go out there and help find her, and practiced what I would say to him as I walked through the stone-walled corridors toward his office. It was at the far end of a ballroom across a sea of marble floor surrounded by museum-worthy paintings. Everything was gold—from the ornate moldings around the windows and pillars, to the only four chairs in the room that could have easily seated two hundred. The room glimmered, filled with décor meant to impress—I thought it was all pretentious bullshit.

  Light poked out from Henry’s office door, and I could hear his voice. I was a foot away but stopped when I heard Lenore’s name spewing from his mouth like acid. “That bitch!” he roared. “I still to this day can’t believe she did this to me! If she weren’t already dead, I’d shove her off that damn balcony all over again!”

  I froze. Was the scotch finally kicking in?

  Henry went on, his angry ranting directed at someone else in the room. “In two years, Kaya inherits everything I have worked for, and you’ve found nothing that can change that?”

  “Well, technically, it’s not yours, sir. It never was,” said a voice I recognized as Henry’s lawyer, a sly prick who always wore white cowboy boots and too much jewelry. The scumbag was more snake than human.

  “That bitch never intended for me to have a thing.” Henry raged.

  “Yes. But this baby is the solution, sir,” said the snake.

  Henry’s voice shook with fury. “Pregnant. Damn if Doc Ellis conveniently forgot to tell me about it until she was in that race. I never would have let her go. If she dies out there, I lose it all!”

  What? My baby girl, pregnant? I felt dizzy. Maybe this was all some sort of sick joke. Maybe they knew I was here and would burst out in laughter and say gotcha. I backed awa
y from the door but kept listening as Henry stomped across the floor in his hard-soled Italian shoes.

  “Everything could be fine if Kaya would go along with my plans,” Henry said, his voice chilling. “She could live a long, happy life here in paradise. But problem is, the kid has a conscience, and she can see right through my lies. Once she finds out what we’ve been doing, what we’re still doing, she will shut Eronel down. She won’t sign anything over.”

  “That’s why we have this backup plan in place,” said the snake. “But you know, Daddy Dearest, being sweet as pie won’t hurt, either.”

  “I know that, Michael. Why do you think I let her participate in that stupid race? I was working on a few brownie points. Why don’t you tell me something I don’t know? Give me something I can actually use!”

  I heard the sound of papers rustling, and I pictured the snake’s black eyes as he spoke. “Ahem, well that’s why I arranged this meeting with you,” he said. “You know all that lovely paperwork we get the new trainees to sign?”

  Henry didn’t answer.

  “Anyway, I was going over Oliver’s today. When you picked him up, he was underage, and there was a maze of documents exchanged with some agency. As it turns out—”

  “Get to the point!” yelled Henry.

  “Apparently, you are Oliver’s legal guardian,” the snake hissed. “You are his… father.”

  “So?”

  “So, the baby is Kaya and Oliver’s. If Kaya dies, everything goes to her child, which, of course was always the plan, so that you could buy more time to figure out—”

  “For God’s sake, get to the point!” Henry barked again.

  “Well, if the child dies too, everything would go to its next of kin—the ‘baby daddy’ if you will. This, quite conveniently, is Oliver. He would inherit everything. Are you with me so far?”

  “Yes, damn it. I am not an idiot.”