We walk out of the house one after the other. As I stand next to the car, I notice Jayden pull the door closed behind him and then he pushes against it once to make sure it is locked.
Kieran opens the back door of Jayden’s charcoal black Audi and I slide in. He motions for me to slide across and as I do, he sits down next to me.
I say quietly, “You haven’t really explained anything, you know?”
Softly he replies, “I promise I’ll tell you everything.”
Jayden gets into the driver’s seat in front of me, and he grumbles softly under his breath, “Now I am a taxi.”
He starts the engine and his CD player loads The Script. The music plays softly from the speaker behind my head. I love The Script.
Kieran takes my hand into his and wraps his fingers around mine. As he glances at me, he leans into me and he kisses me softly on my cheek.
I smile at him in return.
When we stop at a red traffic light, Jayden glances back in the rear-view mirror at me. His dark brooding eyes pierce mine pensively. He grins when I glare back at him defiantly. Weirdly, every traffic light we get to between their house and mine is red, and we repeat the silent battle between us until we reach my house.
I notice the glimmer of the television through the curtains hanging in my lounge window, and I get out of the car with a soft sigh. Kieran gets out of the car on the other side.
As I walk past Jayden’s open window, he says my name softly. The sound whispers in my ear.
I stop and turn back to him. Kieran walks around the car hurriedly and stops next to me, wrapping his arm around my waist protectively. I lean into him naturally.
A hard edge forms around Jayden’s lips when he asks sarcastically, “Has Kieran made you the empty promise of keeping you safe yet?”
I feel Kieran stiffen next to me. He says angrily, “Jayden!”
Frowning I look from Kieran to Jayden. Kieran gently pulls me away from Jayden and then with his hand firmly in the small of my back he guides me toward my front door.
He says apologetically, “Ignore Jayden, he is angry and disgruntled.”
“It’s okay. He doesn’t bother me.”
Kieran takes my face between his palms and then pulling my face slowly, tenderly toward his, he brushes his lips fleetingly over mine. “Good night, Heather and I will always keep you safe, it is not an empty promise,” he says seriously.
“Good night, Kieran.” Somewhere deep inside I know he will.
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
As Jayden and Kieran drive away from Heather’s house, Kieran turns toward him angrily. “I thought you said this time you would not interfere. I thought you specifically said you were tired, and you will help me to find a way to break this curse. You are supposed to back off.”
Jayden settles deeper into his seat. “It was before I saw her again and what have I done anyway. I have not touched her, and I have not even spoken more than two words to her.”
“What was the whole, did he tell you he will keep you safe thing? Why don’t you just tell her everything and then scare the living daylights out of her.”
Jayden sighs loudly. “I cannot help it if I love her. She is the only one who makes all of this worthwhile. This long life I have lived will only have any meaning once she is mine—as it should be, Kieran.” He leans across and turns the volume up on the CD player. “I love this song. Anyway, you seem to be making a lot of progress. She is basically ready to tell you she loves you, so I suggest you find that spell breaker fast.”
Kieran heaves a long sigh. “Also,” he says as he slumps back into the chair. “The spell breaker I thought would work last time, after I went to see that senile old witch, will no longer work.”
Jayden says surprised, “Why not? You said it was sure to work, if we could have gotten her over the threshold of her house before the shadows got to her.” He smirks. “Although, you never know when she will decide to tell you and you cannot keep her imprisoned in her house.” He mumbles softly, “Actually not a bad idea.”
“The witch told me it will only work if it is a loving, caring home. If her mom and dad love each other, because then love will conquer the shadows—basically like the curse, true love will break it.”
Jayden tightens his lips as he considers this. “Her mom and dad do not love each other?”
Dismissively Kieran says as he stares out the window to his side. “They are getting divorced.”
“Well, brother, if you can recall, we have already dismissed that idea as not useful.”
“I was considering it as an alternative, in case we cannot find anything else.”
Every traffic light is green between Heather’s house and theirs.
CHAPTER NINETEEN
I walk into the lounge and my mom is fast asleep on the couch.
As I look down at her sleeping face, an immense deep sadness fills me. I glance around the room and my dad’s leaving is glaringly obvious. There are gaps in the bookshelves, in the DVD and CD rack. A painting is missing over the fireplace.
I lean down toward my mom. I touch her shoulder sympathetically and I say softly, “Mom.” I wait a bit and then I say again, “Mommy, come it’s time to go to bed.”
Her eyes flutter open and she looks up at me bewildered. Her blonde curls are messy and sticking up in wickedly wild ways. She smiles timidly. “Was I sleeping?”
I laugh. “Yeah, you were snoring.”
She looks back at me insulted. Jokingly she says, “Now I can snore to my heart’s content, without worrying your dad will feel threatened he does not snore the loudest.”
“Exactly.” I sit down on the couch next to her and I say, “You know he doesn’t deserve you, right?”
She smiles up at me sadly.
Quietly I ask, “Do you still love him?”
She frowns briefly and then she replies evasively, “What is love really?”
I sigh as I stand up. “Good question. Do you want a cuppa?”
“Please.” She sits up and brushes her hand over her dishevelled head as I walk to the kitchen.
When I walk into the kitchen, I notice the door to the laundry room is open and the light is off. This is not what makes me take a step backward. I look directly at a dark shadow standing in the doorway, its long dark, hazy skirt brushing the ground under it. I gasp loudly and reach for the light switch blindly. As soon as the glaring fluorescent light flickers on, the dark silhouette is gone.
“Mom,” I call to her in the lounge. I check the water level in the kettle.
“Yes?”
I switch on the kettle and reach for two cups in the top of the cupboard, above the kettle. “I need you to make me an appointment to see the doctor, or maybe better yet, the optometrist.”
“Why?” She sounds worried.
“I think there is something wrong with my eyes. I keep seeing dark shapes, but when I look directly at it, there is nothing.”
She comes rushing into the kitchen. She takes my head between her hands and looks into my eyes as if she can determine what is wrong just by staring at them. “When did this start?”
“I think it was on Friday.”
She clicks her tongue. “Stress. Must be stress. I told you already; this thing between your dad and me is just that, between him and me. He still loves you and you will still see him whenever you can and want to.”
I turn away from her to put the teabags into the cups. She leans back against the kitchen counter and continues looking at me worriedly. She does not understand though, I am strangely happy for the peace I feel that has settled over the house. Together with my dad, there is a missing tension. I feel hurt and rejected. It feels as if he is not even concerned about me, he leaves me without a care in the world to go and live with another woman. Since Wednesday, he has not even tried to phone me. My mom’s words echo in my head—what is love really?
CHAPTER TWENTY
Sunday. The day of supposed rest, my mother decides to do a cleansing ritual with the help of every cleaning
instrument known to humankind. She scrubs, washes, scours, and polishes everything in sight, with the hope, I presume, of getting rid of every DNA sample my dad could have possibly left behind.
When I hear a knock at the door just after lunch, I am relieved and I call from my room, where I am hiding, “I’ll get it.”
I jump off my bed and rush to the front door. I pull the door open hastily.
“Oh,” I say when I see Jayden standing on my doorstep.
He looks at me uncomfortably when he obviously sees the displeased look on my face. He asks, “Can I come in?”
I am reluctant to invite him in, so I step outside and make sure the latch is up before I pull the door shut behind me. I remember the way he was glaring at me the night before in the rear-view mirror, so I am not in the mood for him.
Expectantly I ask, looking around him, “Is Kieran here?”
“No. I came here on my own.” His eyes pull together tightly, as he looks at me and I cannot hide my disappointment. He turns away from me. “I’ll be off then.”
Feeling embarrassed at my blatant rudeness, I lean toward him and grab onto his arm. “Why did you come here? What do you want anyway?” I feel him stiffen under my touch.
He turns around slowly and takes a step closer to me. He stands too closely, and he looks down at me pensively. I feel my heart palpitate in my chest. He has a profound power over me. His eyes are hypnotic, and he keeps my eyes captive with his. The corners of his mouth lift into a sardonic smile as if he can hear my heart racing in my chest.
“Kieran told me about his almost death yesterday and I am worried about you. Did you see any dark shadows before you saw the car speeding toward you?”
I gasp. How could he know? I step away from him.
He steps closer to me, leaning nearer. He scans my eyes, looking pensively from one to the other. He asks worriedly, “Have you always seen shadows or dark mist?”
“No, never before. But, how do you know?” I ask bewildered.
He ignores my question. “When did you start seeing them?”
“Friday. Why? What is it to do with you anyway?”
He replies quietly, “Everything.”
I frown briefly. “My mom says it is stress.”
“Stress, because your dad left?”
Bunching my fists tightly against my legs, I exclaim angrily, “Jeez, does Kieran tell you everything!”
“Not always.” He smiles sarcastically. Two lines are forming between his coal black eyes. “Why do you think you are seeing them?”
“It is my eyes. There is only something wrong with my eyes.”
For a long, slow moment, he just stands there looking down at me. I cannot stare him down, so I glance across the street. Nervously I glimpse he is still looking at me intently, so I look down at my feet. The top of my head rubs against his chest, so close is he standing to me.
Tenderly, he places his palms under each side of my chin, and he pulls my face up gently. He keeps his hands against my neck, his thumbs pushed against my arteries. I am sure he can feel how fast my heart is beating. Slowly he leans down toward me, and then even closer. I can feel his breath on my cheeks. Involuntarily my eyes move to his lips. They are full and slightly moist. I feel a little frightened by him and a bit intrigued.
I can actually feel his lips on mine, so close they are, as I stand there unresisting as if he has weaved a spell around us. He is going to kiss me. He must kiss me.
My mom pulls open the door and she says startled, “Oh.”
I step back from Jayden embarrassed. The enchantment between us is broken.
Relaxed Jayden turns toward my mom, and he greets her friendly, “Good afternoon, Mrs. O’Halloran.”
My mom looks at him flustered as her eyes dart between him and me.
I stutter when I introduce Jayden to her.
She gives me a stern look. “I need your help, Heather. Best you come in now.”
“Okay, Mom.”
She goes back into the house, but she leaves the front door open.
Jayden laughs. “Your house smells clean.”
The smells of cleaning products waft in the air around us. “I know. My mom is on a cleaning frenzy.”
He looks at me deep in thought, and then he sighs. “Anyhow, I guess I better go. Kieran doesn’t know I am here, and I only wanted to find out about, um, you know, the shadows.”
I ask urgently, before he turns away from me, “Do you know why I am seeing them suddenly. Do you know whether it is my eyes or not?”
“I cannot say.” He smirks.
“You cannot say, or you will not say. You would not come all the way here if you did not think it was something more than my eyes.”
“I really cannot say.”
I sigh frustrated.
He turns away from me and walks to his car. When he pulls open the door, he leans with his forearms on the door frame. He looks at me again and then his straightforward question shocks me. “If you had to choose between Kieran and me, who would you choose?”
Laughing mortified, I say, “Neither one.”
He smiles suddenly, a brilliant natural smile. “Thought so.”
He gets into his car and I wait to watch him drive away.
After his car turns the corner, I walk into the house thoughtfully. It suddenly dawns on me that when Jayden was standing so breathtakingly close to me, I did not feel any shadows pressing into me, also the entire time we were together I did not see a dark shadow fleetingly pass across my vision. However, when I stood in Kieran’s back garden and we kissed, I could feel the shadows pushing and prodding into me. I realize also I met Kieran on Friday and that is when I started having these visions of apparitions every time I am with him.
CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
My mom is in the bathroom, balancing herself precariously on a three-step ladder. She is actually wiping the ceiling from corner to corner. I am relieved when I see her concentrating so deeply on her task, she does not notice me and am grateful she is not going to ask me a hundred and one questions. Although I have had many boyfriends, she has never seen me in such near passionate circumstances before.
I let sleeping dogs lie and I walk past the bathroom door softly. I close my bedroom door quietly and then I drop down onto my bed. I try to remember the story Kieran told me. There was a girl and there were two brothers. Did he tell me about shadows, I cannot remember. I do not think so.
Against my will, my mind drifts to Jayden.
I wake up and everything is pitch black dark. I hear voices coming from downstairs. My hand finds its way naturally toward the switch for my bedside lamp and I click it on.
Slowly I get up from my bed. I must have fallen asleep and my hungry, disgruntled stomach insisted I wake up.
I walk down the stairs quietly. Each step hesitates before I put it down onto the ground in case it causes a creak. Halfway down the stairs, I realize the voices I am hearing are coming from the TV, and I smile at my own silliness.
My mom is curled up on the couch again. Is this going to become a familiar picture?
I look down at her peaceful sleeping face for a moment. There is a dirty streak across her cheek and her hair is still tied up in a tangled mess on top of her head.
Turning away from her sadly, I walk up the steps to the immersion closet. I pull a thick comforter from the top shelve and then when I am standing next to her again, I drape it over her gently. She murmurs softly as she snuggles into the blanket. I turn to the television and I switch it off.
Quietly I make myself a toasted cheese sandwich. I carry the plate with my sandwich and a glass of Cranberry Juice up to my bedroom. Fluffing up my pillows, I lean them against the wall behind my bed, and then when I sit down on my bed, I lean my back against my pillows and bring my knees up. I take a bite of my sandwich as I select Shannon’s name on my phone.
She answers after the second ring, her voice sounds groggy.
I ask, “Did I wake you”
“Uh, duh.” I hear
her fumble with something. “Gawd, Heather. It is like two in the morning.” Sleepily she asks, “What’s wrong then?”
Apologetically I say, “Sorry. I just needed to speak to someone.”
She groans as she stretches. “’Bout what?”
“Kieran.” I can hear her sit up straight on her bed.
“Yes?”
“I kissed him.”
She laughs softly. “Heather! You are such a slag! I swear you only met him yesterday.”
Insulted, I defend myself, “Not yesterday. Friday.”
“Well, then it is okay then. You met him two days ago.”
“What’s wrong with kissing him, miss high and mighty? Besides, he looks at me in this funny kind of way. I can’t really describe it, but it is as if he knows me since forever.”
“Did he say he loves you?”
“No! Why would he? Really, Shannon, you are being daft.”
She laughs. “Did you then say you love him?”
“Please, Shannon! I do not have to love someone to kiss them, or do I? When did I fall into this alternate universe, where you think you have to love someone to kiss them? Besides, you know how I feel about love, more so now that my dad upped and left.”
“Yeah, yeah.” She says mockingly, “I will know when I love someone, and only then will I ever say it to anyone.”
“Don’t use my own words against me!”
“So?”
“So, what?”
She giggles. “Is he a nice kisser?”
I smile. “Yeah, kind of.”
Seriously, she asks, “Were you there when your dad fetched his things?”
“No. I left early to meet up with Kieran.” I add sadly, “I couldn’t bring myself to stay.”
“It’s sad. I would rather have my mom and dad at each other’s throats all day than have them get divorced.”
“I feel sorry for my mom, though. She is not as tough as she makes herself out to be.”
“What’s she doing?”
“Today, she cleaned the whole house, from ceiling to skirting boards. Tonight, is the second night she has fallen asleep in front of the TV.”
Timeless (ForNever) Page 6
