“Shhh. Follow me.” He whispered and removed his hand from my mouth.
I walked right behind him through some of the mansion, “Where are you taking me?” I whispered back to him.
“I want to show you something.” He reached backward with his fingers extended for my hand. I reached forward and intertwined my fingers into his. He turned back and smiled at me. I could feel my heart starting to beat harder, faster than a hummingbird’s wings.
We walked into his room and he set me down on the edge of his bed. Then he walked over to his dresser and picked up the white teddy bear that had age spots I had once seen in a walking dream while I was captured by the Morrígan.
He turned back around with the teddy bear in hand, “I got it the day that my mother died.” I started to panic but I couldn’t say anything. He walked closer to me, “she had taken all of us to the park here in town, and Angelica was barely able to slide down the slide by herself. So, I made sure she would be safe and went with her in front of me and held on to her so she wouldn’t be scared. Duncan went running off and my mother had to go after him. He was halfway across the playground when I saw this little girl so sad sitting with her brother. Their mother came running at mine, yelling and screaming about something. I walked over to that little girl that had started to cry, I knelt down, and gave her a kiss on her cheek. She stopped crying and handed me this teddy bear. Her mother came running and picked her up and pulled her brother along taking them away from me and Angelica. But I will never forget that moment when she handed me this teddy bear. And I’ve kept it close ever since.”
He handed me the old teddy bear and when I grabbed it I suddenly got a glimpse of myself handing it to him. “How do you remember this?” I questioned him.
“How could I forget it?” He smiled at me.
I handed the teddy bear back to him. He turned back around and set it on his dresser. He made me feel better in that moment. He always knew what to do, but I still don’t think I can tell him what is going on. No need to make him worry more about me.
“I want you to feel safe wherever you may be, I would like for it to be with me, but if it is not, then I would be happy to escort you to wherever your trust may be.” He smiled again and sat next to me on the edge of the bed. I nodded slightly as he lifted his hand to my cheek. “You have always been in my heart. I do not want you to leave without you knowing what you mean to me.”
I couldn’t take this from him—not now. I got up and left the room. He is making this too hard on me. I took off for the library and closed the door behind me. “There has to be some book in this room that can help me.” I hated that I couldn’t tell him the truth or that Duncan was worried about me or that Striker knows that I might be slipping away from this reality.
I reached for an old brown leather bound book that was on the top shelf. I got up on my toes and just barely reaching it, I edged it forward with my fingertips and pulled it down. “Breitheanna agus básanna réigiún. Humm… Region Births and Deaths. Just maybe.”
I took it to go sit down on the gently used brown leather sofa and I opened the book looking through years of hand written birth and death records. I flipped to one specific, “O’Donovan, Male, live birth, 12:52am, June 27, 1990.” I continued to look; and there was no death record for O’Donovan. Was it possible that I have another brother out there in the world and could he be a mac tire? My thoughts drifted as I started to get sleepy.
***
I heard a knock at the door, I stood so tired wanting to just go to sleep and walked over to the doors opening them up to see Tommy. He threw his arms around me and hugged me tight. He was warm and felt comforting.
“What are you—” I looked at him, “You’re not real.” I backed away slowly.
“I am real.” He argued back. “What makes you think I’m not?”
I walked back to him with my hand extended out, I was close enough to feel his warmth. I pulled back again. “Because I—” I had no answer for him. He took a step to me and I could hear his shoes hit the floor. If my mind was playing a trick on me, then it was a good trick, and I was going to take advantage of the fact that he was here.
“Is it possible that we have a half-brother out there somewhere?” I asked.
He looked at me in surprise, “possible?”
I turned away from him for a brief moment and rubbed my eyes.
“Shay?” He said.
I turned back to him not saying anything.
“It’s time.” He said.
I shook my head back and forth. “Time for what?”
He took a step to me. “It’s time to die.”
My eyes widened and I took a step back, as he approached me his form started to distort into something else. Everything around me started to distort, the wood paneled walls turned into trees, the ceiling turned to night filled with stars, and the silence turned to a cackling, I looked back toward him whispering a plea, “Tommy?” He was no longer Tommy. A ghostly dark tar-like shadow had taken over him and grabbed onto my arms. “Stop! No!” I could feel my screams not going past my lips.
“You should have died.” A deep, slow growl came from it.
He had turned into this shadow creature that I feared almost as much as the Morrígan and Cas Corach. The shadow made a strange figure extending like a tentacle, another tentacle had wrapped around my mouth so I was unable to scream again. It came closer and closer engulfing me; the extended tentacle pulled backward then lunged toward me in one swoop. The ghostly tentacles pierced through my flesh burning as it went through my chest. I tried to scream out in pain as my knees felt weak, and tears streamed down my cheeks, I felt the last gasp of air release from my lungs as I tried to get away. The shadow creature’s tentacles materialize into a solid silver form. It was the Gael Fearg sword. It had been used once again to strike me to the ground. I could feel blood pouring from the new wound I had just suffered.
“Beidh tú bás mar ba mhaith liom tú a bás. You will die because I want you to die.” The shadow creature whispered into my ear as my body fell limp to the ground.
The End.
Crimson Secrets Page 35
