Unlocking Adeline (Skeleton Key)

by J. D. Hollyfield

  “Brother, stop. She knows. Ye do not need to torture yerself. She knows.”

  As if he knew the torment flooding my mind. My eyes close, as I nod. “Thank ye.” My words are soft-spoken as I lift my head and meet his assuring eyes.

  “I must go. If there is anything ye need, send for me.” With that Christof is off, leaving me with Greta and Richard. Adeline hasn’t as much as twitched in my arms, and it causes me to grow even more restless. I begin to move. I need her in my room, where I can protect her. It’s when we exit Greta’s cottage, that I witness the entire town in a line formation. I look around to see close friends and villagers with lit candles, some kneeling and praying. All are wearing the Wren colors, to show support for their future queen. It’s then I realize I am so close to breaking. With the last bit of strength inside me, I turn to the townspeople and speak.

  “Someone has done an injustice to yer future queen. This town will not rest until we find out who has committed such a crime. If ye know anything ye shall come forward. And Lord help anyone who is to blame.” I finish on a struggled breath, weaving through the formation of people as flowers and signs of support fall at my feet. I don’t stop to speak to anyone, for today proves that I am not as strong of a man as I thought. I want to fall to my knees and pray. To plea for the woman who wrecks all of me, to open her beautiful blue eyes. I will welcome her deserved anger and hatred for me. I’ll even beg for one of her bloody face slaps.

  I barely remember the trip back to the castle or up the stairs to my master room. The fog barely lifts as I place Adeline on my bed, making her comfortable. Greta is close behind me, along with Ellie. I want to yell at them to leave. I want to be alone with her. But I am a not doing well myself and I know right now I need them.

  I cannot help but be on edge. Any time someone goes near her, I panic. Ellie looks scared of me and Greta looks wary. But I can’t trust anyone right now. What am I saying? I shake my head. I trust Greta. I need to. And Ellie would never harm her. She has treated Adeline like her own daughter.

  “Who would do this to her?”

  I don’t realize I’ve spoken out loud until Ellie replies, “Sir, if it is okay to speak, I believe—” A knock on the door has us all on alert. As the two women guard the bed, I reach for my blade. When the door is slightly ajar, I see Farah peek her head in. I sigh in relief.

  “Ah, it’s just ye, please come in.” I calm slightly, putting down my weapon. “Ellie, please ye were saying?” I turn to her, but she has shut down. “What is it? What’s wrong?”

  “Nothing, Sir. I’m sure this can wait.” Ellie responds, now acting strange and putting herself in guard of Adeline. I’m curious of her mood change, but Farah is suddenly next to me, wrapping her arms around my bicep, distracting me from further interrogating.

  “How is she? I heard the news. It’s all over the village,” she says, embracing me into a hug. I am in dire need of comfort, but I need it from one person. And she is lying in a bed fighting for her life. I pull away.

  “It’s not good. Someone has tried to kill her. Have ye heard anything? Seen anyone? Ye listen to the talk of the people. Has anyone said anything?” I ramble question after question, hoping she can be of some help.

  “No, I’m sorry Locke, but I haven’t. Is there anything I can do? Ye look horrible. Why don’t ye go get some rest, I can help watch her.”

  I look at Farah, studying her features. I know she wouldn’t do anything to harm me, or Adeline, but my fight with Adeline rests in the back of my head.

  “Farah, ye saw Adeline in the wild fields. What were ye doing there?”

  She looks caught off guard by my question. “I saw her up there, and I thought to let her know of the dangers of being in those fields. I tried to tell her she shouldn’t be in there, but she didn’t much listen to me.” I take in Adeline’s comment about being in the fields. Her response didn’t come across as feigning innocence for being in there. Her honesty shines best when she is upset.

  “Farah, Adeline told me that ye said, ye and I were together the night she was trapped in the shed, is that true?” I will know if she is lying. I pray that she doesn’t.

  “That’s correct. I told her how I found ye outside the shed. Which was true, as did everyone else who would had ears that could hear ye screaming.”

  Her face looks innocent. But why would Adeline tell me otherwise? “Locke why? What’s going on? Why all the questions?” She steps forward into me, placing her hand on my chest. “Locke I would never do anything to cause ye pain, ye know that, right? Adeline was my friend.”

  I soften at the face of my childhood friend who I’ve grown up with. I reach for her hand squeezing. “I know. I don’t think that. I just need answers. I need to know what happened. I will not rest until I do.”

  Her sincere smile helps. “I know. Ye are too brave and kind like that. I will do anything ye need. What can I do to help?” I’m not even sure. I won’t leave Adeline’s side. “Go find my brother. Get me an update, aye?”

  “Yes, yes of course.” She nods, leaning forward, pressing a kiss to my cheek. She turns, bowing to Ellie and Greta, and she is off. I slump into the chair by the fire, trying to manage my emotions. Someone did this. Someone wanted Adeline gone. But who? I swipe my hands over my face, taking my palms and cupping my eyes.

  I don’t know why I torture myself with my thoughts, but I do. I sit by the fire and replay the moment I first saw Adeline. She had barged into her home screaming for someone. I didn’t know who, but she stomped through each room that I could tell. Once she found someone to listen, she started going off like a little firecracker.

  The thing is, something that no one knows, is that I first found her at age five. I had just turned twelve and started time traveling with my father through realms. I had earned my patch early. It was one day as I was getting ready for a mission with my father that it appeared. The Key: the legendary skeleton key that was said to lead you to your future. I took the glass key into my eager hands, and the second my fingers wrapped around it, the door appeared. I knew I should have told someone. My father. But there was something inside of me that forced me through that door. I didn’t know if it was luck, or just the draw I already had to her that led me straight to her, but it did none the less.

  She had come home in tears, but not due to sadness. She was furious. The tiny little thing she was. Her backpack probably weighed more than she did. Her wild brown hair, a mess, was blowing in the wind and her blue eyes shown bright, as she furiously cried and kicked her whole way home about a girl named Jenny pulling her hair. I couldn’t understand most of what she said, but when her father laid her down at night and promised to tell her favorite story to calm her down, I was shocked. I sat outside her window and listened to the story Richard told. It was a story about a magical land called Wren. He told her everything. As if he was happy there, once upon a time. And God did she listen. She asked more questions than he told story. But it was her questions about the prince. The one who would one day come for his princess and take her back to Wren, and she would become his queen. I stayed for three whole days and followed her, and at night I would wait for her to be tucked into bed and beg for her father to tell her more about Wren. And the moment her father spoke, it was like being transformed into his story. At age five she wanted nothing more than to be whisked away by her prince.

  And god I wanted to take her.

  But she was too young. And I was too careless. So on day four, I took the key and went back home. I didn’t see her again until she turned twenty.

  I spent my entire adolescence obsessing over her. Wanting to know what she looked like at age seven, twelve, sixteen. Was she happy? Did she still wish for her prince? I did everything I could to get the skeleton key to appear again, but it hadn’t. Eventually my obsession turned into anger. Did the key ever show itself to her? The Book of Wren stated that at age sixteen the chosen are announced. I should have had her here with me. But she wasn’t. Sixteen for her came and went. I won
dered if Richard had told her about who he really was. Who she was. I couldn’t stop beating myself up, wondering. I had convinced myself the key had shown itself, and she chose not to come. She chose her life in a world where she didn’t belong. Which meant, she didn’t choose me. And the more convinced I was, the angrier I became. I made a vow, that the next time the key appeared I would rip her from her perfect little world and bring her ungrateful self back to Wren where she was needed. Owned.

  The moment she stepped foot back into my life, I felt it. Almost like a change in the atmosphere. The air was thicker. My senses were stronger, and my weakness was lying right on the surface. And I only had one weakness. Her.

  The day I saw Richard McAllister, I was out for blood. I had spent so much of my life hating someone I didn’t even know, or who I made up in my head. The skeleton key appeared for me shortly after and I went through that door. It led me straight to the doorstep I remember from years before. I could feel she wasn’t home, so as my taste for revenge brewed, I waited.

  And then I saw her.

  This sullen girl. Walking up the unsafe, dark street, as if anyone could just snatch her. They didn’t live in the best neighborhood, and it was dark because most of the streetlights were burnt out. And there she was, now a young woman, walking in the shadows with her eyes closed. What surprised me was the closer she came, the more I realized she wasn’t this happy, spoiled girl. She looked so sad, and she was crying. It pained me instantly. I didn’t want to care that she was upset, but it only angered me more to think someone had upset her.

  I wanted to reveal myself instantly and demand she tell me who caused her pain. Instead, I hid as I watched her approach her house. I took a deep breath and whispered a silent prayer of strength to stay put. I didn’t move as I watched her enter her small home, and while she appeared dead on her feet, began hustling around like she was the head of the house. She tended to the small child in the house. She cooked and cleaned, and when all were asleep in her house, she would sneak out the back door and sit on the back step staring up at the stars.

  She boggled me. Was this the same selfish girl who I imagined my entire life? One who was not basking in the riches of this world or treated with luxury. She looked frail and tired. She did not dress as a princess would, but more humbly. As if she was hiding who she really was. Hiding the beauty, that to me, she radiated.

  I should have just taken her that day. But I couldn’t stop watching her. She was such a giver in her own way. She mesmerized me. Helping everyone else before herself. She was overworked and under cared for. The amount of times I fought not to kill Richard for how neglected she was. How he took advantage of his daughter. Christ, I remember the times she would finally be asked out by an employee at her work or a customer. How my blood would boil, and I had to fight not to kill anyone who tried to get near what was mine.

  And she was mine. But was I worthy of being hers? There came a time, from being around her in the shadows that I realized she deserved better than me. She deserved something that I may not be able to give her. That’s when I came up with the idea of handing her over to my brother. He would treat her with the respect and love she deserved. He would be gentle with her, when all I wanted to do was take, consume, own. She didn’t deserve the beast that lived inside me, wanting to devour every inch of her for my own. So I finally put a stop to my compulsion and I made myself known. I followed her to the bar. I walked inside right in front of her and cleared two spots. I knew she would sit down next to me. Whether she realized it or not, she would be drawn to me. And she was.

  It wasn’t until I finally touched her smooth skin, that something inside me became animalistic. My vulgar mouth, the way I wanted to force my tongue down her throat, then take her in the back alley and do things to her I was ashamed to admit. I was even more ashamed at how much she turned me on by resisting me. Her stamina. Every time she got away from me was like a stroke that got me hotter and hotter. I swear, I couldn’t tell if I was letting her get free just so I could see her little arse move.

  Realization hit once again when I brought her home and Richard confessed that Adeline knew nothing. I wanted to put my fist through his pitiful face. How could he not have told his daughter her destiny? Her fate. I learned that the key did appear. That’s when I saw him leaving Greta’s. That’s how he was able to come home. Once learning this, I almost left without her. Adeline didn’t deserve to be pulled from her life to a world she didn’t know, but I also couldn’t imagine leaving without her. Not again.

  So I took her. I threw her into my world and forced her to accept her new life. I didn’t coddle her or help explain. No, I turned my back on her, pushing her into the arms of my brother.

  I thought I was doing the right thing, but the need she drew in me burned like a wildfire. The animal inside me scratched to come out and claim her. She was mine. She was always mine. But then I would see her smile with Christof, and I would remind myself. I was no good for her.

  It wasn’t until that night in the office; I had her in my arms and she confessed to me. I knew I couldn’t do it anymore. I couldn’t pretend I didn’t ache for her, when that’s all I did. Any time I had her in arm’s reach, her body submitted like a flower parched for water. She would suck me up, wrapping her whole being around me. I knew I couldn’t give that away. I didn’t want a life of royalty. I didn’t want to be King. But the thought of having her next to me, as my queen, made it feel possible. Like I could do it. As long as her feisty little self was next to me, holding my hand; we would rule together.

  And I would love her.

  Love.

  Was it love? Hell, if I know. Does your heart aching and your skin tingling at just the thought of another equate as love? Because she does a hell of a lot more to me than that. If I am honest, I would admit that I think I fell in love with her at age five.

  It’s been three torturous days that I’ve sat by the fire and watched time go by. Thought about any and every moment I’ve shared with Adeline. I’ve watched her seem to get better, and then get frighteningly worse. I look up at the sounds in the room to see Ellie reapplying more salve. The fire has gone down, and there seems to be a sudden chill in the room.

  I stand, feeling the ache in my bones. I go check on Adeline and see no change. Her color hasn’t gotten any better, nor have the cuts to her side. The doubt is slowly starting to gnaw at me that she won’t pull out of this.

  “Sir, Greta made a new salve. She is confident in this one. This is the second round, and her wound is looking better.” Ellie consoles me as she finishes and covers Adeline’s side.

  “And she said that about the last salve she used.” I catch my negativity and shake my head. “I’m sorry, Ellie. I didn’t mean that. I am just tired”

  “I know, Sir. We all are. But she is a strong girl. If anything, she will awaken just to smack ye for yer harsh tongue and lack of trust in her.”

  I turn to her, surprised by her boldness. “Ye don’t think the entire kingdom hasn’t heard what ye said to her?” She shakes her head at me. “Shame on ye. She would never have hurt ye. She was planning to tell ye she wanted to stay. Ye need to have faith in her, Lockelan. I have been with this family for as long as I can remember, and I have never seen one little thing bring such happiness to Wren. To yer family. To ye. I have faith she will wake, and she will raise hell as she always does. And ye will be on yer knees for a very long time, begging for her forgiveness.” I don’t say a word. My mouth has fallen open at her brash words and, if I am not mistaken, she looks like she is fighting a smile.

  “And if I may request one thing, Sir, it’s to go bathe. Ye smell like an old shoe, and when she wakes, I would hate for ye to be turned down before ye even get a word in, simply by yer smell.”

  Leaving me with a wink, she grabs the soiled towels and heads out of my room.

  Fighting off death is a lot of work. You don’t do much, but feeling like you’ve been sleeping for eternity takes a toll on your body. Before I even open my ey
es, I know where I am. The thick air permeates my nostrils and I know I’m in Wren. But how did I get here? I try and piece together my memory, but it’s jaded. I remember the fight with Locke. I was so upset, but I was going to go back to fix things. Then I was home. Farah. The painful memory of her stabbing me comes to mind. Just the thought has my side throbbing. As I slowly become more lucid, I realize there are hands on me. Touching my side. Panic shoots through me. I whisk up all the energy I can and grab for the hand that is touching me, preparing to snap it off. It’s then the screams of a familiar voice startle me fully awake.

  “Oh dear heavens!” I open my eyes to see a pale Ellie staring at me, while I death grip onto her arm. I release her instantly, grabbing for my side in agony.

  “Oh my good Lord, yer awake! Yer awake!” I wish she would stop screaming at me.

  “Ellie, tone it down a notch,” I groan, as more pain suddenly shoots up my side. I feel like I’m going to be sick, so I turn in case I need to yak all over the floor.

  “Oh my, Miss Adeline, ye gave us all quite a scare! The gods must be shining down on us to have ye awake. I must go find Locke!” She pulls away, but I call for her.

  “Ellie, wait, don’t leave. I need to tell you something.” I need to warn them about Farah. Then I need her to find me some painkillers or knock me back out.

  “Oh ye can tell me once I get Locke, he will have my head if I don’t retrieve him this second.” She leans down and places a kiss on my forehead, then is running out the door. I lay back down, trying to catch my breath. The pain is making it hard to breathe, and I feel a bit dizzy. I close my eyes and count, hoping the nausea will go away. I hear the door open again. When I open my eyes, hoping to see Locke, it’s the one person I need to warn everyone about.

  Farah.

  “I tell ye. Ye are becoming a lot harder to get rid of than I expected. Locke’s door has been guarded since ye landed back in Wren. It’s a shame yer father brought ye back.”