LOCH MORAR, SCOTLAND
The Past - Greystone Castle
A reverberating clap of thunder boomed outside, shaking the walls of the castle. Flinching from the noise, Paige hastily made her way down the hall. The lone torch she had lit earlier, flickered, making shadows dance across the floor.
Paige groaned thinking it was just one more thing in a long list of things that were setting her nerves on edge. First: she wasn’t real sure how she had gotten on the floor in the hall earlier. She seemed to have blacked out and whatever she had been doing up until that point was still a mystery and made her question her sanity. Second: she wasn’t a big fan of storms, and especially now, since this reminded her a bit too much of her unusual dream that she had last night after her weird black out episode.
Drawing closer to Gavin’s room, the sound of water beating against stone became more prevalent. Once Paige entered the room, two things struck her simultaneously.
One: water was pouring in through the open window, and two: Gavin was awake, leaning out said window.
“Gavin!” She ran forward and wrapped her arms around his waist. Using all her strength, she pulled him with her back onto the bed.
He landed on top, trapping Paige underneath.
“You are suffocating me,” she muffled out of the corner of her mouth—her face squished under his shoulder blade.
Gavin rolled to the left and staggered to standing once more.
Paige sat up and pushed her wet hair from her 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,” she yelled half terrified and the other half pissed that he had nearly given her heart failure. “Get back in bed.”
When he didn’t move, Paige 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 her 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 her less patient then she normally would be in these types of situations. Hell, she had singlehandedly cared for her Grandmother for the last two years while she was sick, which included bathing, feeding, cooking, and changing her, just like she 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 she had left.
No.
She shook off the dark thoughts.
He was fine. He would be fine, she told herself repeatedly.
He had to be, right?
♦
After she rehung the tapestry, cleaned up the water and restarted the fire, Paige sat down on the edge of the bed and folded her hands in her 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,” she 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 her face.
Now we’re cooking, she thought. Leaning forward, she grabbed his ice-cold hands in her own, and squeezed them.
“Can you hear me?”
Nothing.
She tried a different tactic. “Gavin, if you can hear me, squeeze my fingers once.”
He squeezed her fingers once.
“Do you remember me?”
Nothing.
Sniffing, she wiped her tears back and tried again. “Can you see me?”
He squeezed her hand again.
♦
For the next half hour, Paige went through just about every question that she could think of that involved a yes or no answer. At the end, she didn’t know much more than she did when she started with the exception that Gavin could hear and see her, but he didn’t remember who she was.
“I am Paige,” she said. Thinking he just needed a reminder of who she was and continued with her version of how they 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 Paige had been feeling, just flew right back out the proverbial window. So, they were back to square one. She 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 she probably should have been saying to defend herself but she 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 her chest.
Not expecting this, Paige fell backward off the bed onto the floor. Her head smacked the stone and she saw stars.
Dazed, Paige stared stupidly up at the ceiling.
Something shiny entered her periphery.
She rolled to the left as that something landed right where she had been lying.
Not having time to get up, she used her feet and hands to push her 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, Paige spotted the dagger and dove forward. Just as his fingers touched the handle, she wrenched it from his grasp before he could get a proper hold.
Chest heaving with exertion, she stood back up. Brandishing his dagger in front of her body, she 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!”
Paige felt like the dagger she was holding was just plunged deep within her heart. “Gavin, I am not a witch…I love….”
“Gah!” he screamed, grabbing his head in pain.
“Oh my God! What’s the matter?” She wanted to run to him, give some kind of comfort but since he nearly killed her a moment ago, she kept her 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…” She tried to make him see reason.
“Get out!” he roared.
Her 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 she had just been struck, Paige felt like her heart had just splintered in two. Not able to assuage his fears, and not wanting to cause him anymore-undue duress, she turned, and ran from the room.