LOCH MORAR, SCOTLAND
The Past - Greystone Castle
A reverberating clap of thunder boomed outside, shaking the walls of the castle. Flinching from the noise, I hastily made my way down the hall. The lone torch I had lit earlier, flickered, making shadows dance across the floor.
I groaned thinking it was just one more thing in a long list of things that were setting my nerves on edge. First: I wasn’t real sure how I had gotten on the floor in the hall earlier. I seemed to have blacked out and whatever I had been doing up until that point was still a mystery to me and made me question my sanity. Second: I wasn’t a big fan of storms, and especially now, since this reminded me a bit too much of my unusual dream that I had last night after my weird black out episode.
Drawing closer to Gavin’s room, the sound of water beating against stone became more prevalent. Once I entered the room, two things struck me simultaneously.
One: water was pouring in through the open window, and two: Gavin was awake, leaning out said window.
“Gavin!” I ran forward and wrapped my arms around his waist. Using all my strength, I pulled him with me back onto the bed.
He landed on top, trapping me underneath.
“You are suffocating me,” I muffled out of the corner of my mouth—my face squished under his shoulder blade.
Gavin rolled to the left and staggered to standing once more.
I sat up and pushed my wet hair from my eyes. “What the hell were you doing?”
Gavin’s face was void of all expression. “I was getting a bit o’ fresh air.” He wrapped his arms around his waist and gave her a bewildered look.
“For God’s sake,” I yelled, half terrified and the other half pissed that he had nearly given me heart failure. “Get back in bed.”
When he didn’t move, I stood up and practically shoved him down on to the bed.
Normally, Gavin would have had a thing or two to say about that, but to my amazement, he didn’t protest, or make a fuss. Instead, he pulled back the blankets and lay down like some kind of half-witted invalid.
“What the hell were you thinking?” Lack of sleep made me less patient then I normally would be in these types of situations. Hell, I had singlehandedly cared for my Grandmother for the last two years while she was sick, which included bathing, feeding, cooking, and changing her, just like I would a child unable to care for itself. But this was worse, I decided. Because there was no reason for Gavin, a strapping Highlander, to be acting this way…unless…
Did Broderick somehow scramble Gavin’s brains?
That thought almost made me lose what little restraint I had left.
No.
I shook off the dark thoughts.
He was fine. He would be fine, I told myself repeatedly.
He had to be, right?
♦
After I rehung the tapestry, cleaned up the water and restarted the fire, I sat down on the edge of the bed and folded my hands in my lap.
Gavin was still awake.
Well, his eyes may have been open, but he looked like he was an empty shell.
“Gavin.”
He didn’t even flinch.
“Gavin,” I repeated, using a sterner tone.
Not even a blink.
“What did Broderick do to you?”
At the sound of Broderick’s name, Gavin’s eyes flitted over to my face.
Now we’re cooking, I thought. Leaning forward I grabbed his ice-cold hands in my own, and squeezed them.
“Can you hear me?”
Nothing.
I tried a different tactic. “Gavin, if you can hear me, squeeze my fingers once.”
He squeezed my fingers once.
“Do you remember me?”
Nothing.
Sniffing, I wiped my tears back and tried again. “Can you see me?”
He squeezed my hand again.
For the next half hour, I went through just about every question that I could think of that involved a yes or no answer. At the end, I didn’t know much more than I did when I started with the exception that Gavin could hear and see me, but he didn’t remember who I was.
“I am Paige,” I said. Thinking he just needed a reminder of who I was, I continued with my version of how we met. “You came to the future and retrieved me from the mist and brought me back with you, here, to your time. Do you remember now?”
This didn’t get any response from him at all—not even a blink.
“Do you know who you are?”
“Aye, I know who I am,” he said. “However,” he added just as clearly, “I do no ken what ye are doing in my room.”
The belated relief I had been feeling, just flew right back out the proverbial window. So, we were back to square one. I took a breath. “You came and got me from the future and then brought me back, here, to the past….”
His face drained of color. “Och, ye are a witch.”
“No…I’m…not.” There were a lot of other things I probably should have been saying to defend myself but I was rendered momentarily speechless by the look of revulsion and horror that simultaneously appeared on his beautiful face.
“Be gone witch!”
His hands shot forward, and hit my chest.
Not expecting this, I fell backward off the bed onto the floor. My head smacked the stone and I saw stars.
Dazed, I stared stupidly up at the ceiling.
Something shiny entered my periphery.
I rolled to the left as that something landed right where I had been lying.
Not having time to get up, I used my feet and hands to push my bottom backward across the floor.
Still weak from being incapacitated for so long, Gavin tumbled from the bed and landed hard onto the floor. Lying face down, his breath came out in a ragged rush as he extended his hand for the blade that was just out of his reach.
Scrambling to standing, I spotted the dagger and dove forward. Just as his fingers touched the handle, I wrenched it from his grasp before he could get a proper hold.
Chest heaving with exertion, I stood back up. Brandishing his dagger in front of my body, I screamed, “What the hell are you doing?”
Tangled in the blankets, Gavin screamed back, “Be gone witch, else I will be forced to kill ye with me bare hands!”
I felt like the dagger I was holding was just plunged deep within my heart. “Gavin, I am not a witch…I love….”
“Gah!” he screamed, grabbing his head in pain.
“Oh my God! What’s the matter?” I wanted to run to him, give some kind of comfort but since he nearly killed me a moment ago, I kept my feet rooted in place.
“Loathsome witch,” he groaned, holding his head as he rocked back and forth, tangling himself more in the blankets. “What spell are ye casting against me?”
“I’m not… I didn’t…” I tried to make him see reason.
“Get out!” he roared.
My body shuddered involuntarily from his harsh tone. “Gavin…”
“GET OUT!” he screamed, louder this time.
“Gavin, I want to help….”
“Can ye no see,” he implored, his face mirroring what he said next, “Ye are killing me.”
Stumbling back, like I had just been struck, I felt like my heart had just splintered in two. Not able to assuage his fears, and also not wanting to cause him anymore-undue duress, I turned, and ran from the room.