When I woke, I thought there was an earthquake. Panic exuded from my core to every inch of my body as the walls vibrated around us. Jean was gripping my arm tightly but I didn’t notice the lack of circulation.
My eyes scanned the dark room for something that would harm us in the quake. In the corner opposite us were Midian and Milas as calm as the last time I had seen them. They were huddled like my wife and I but they were passively staring expectantly at the center of the floor.
“Can you do anything?” I whispered at them.
Milas shook his head, pointing at the spot his eyes were still fixed to. Not wanting to believe that the answer was in an obviously otherwise empty room I looked to where his finger indicated.
Just when I was about to ask what was going on, a crack started in the center where Milas had pointed. It grew until there was a small gorge separating us from them.
A male auburn head popped up from the gorge and surveyed the damage. “Eh, not what I wanted but I can work on it.” It was distinctly a British accent. He spotted Midian and Milas who had stood like they were receiving a friend who had walked into a room normally. Jean and I kept exchanging gawking glances as we tried to make sure we were seeing what we thought we were seeing.
His clothes were unsoiled. I knew they were exchanging thoughts silently as they quickly shook hands.
Then another head, female this time, emerged. Brushing dirt from her arms and legs, she made her way to our side of the cell. Her golden locks were still glimmering in the dim light and despite the earth that littered them. Smudges on her face made her look like a coal miner. “Hi,” she whispered with a warm American accent when she knew we could hear her, “I’m Fiona. That’s Nathanial. We’re going to get you out of here.”
“H-” I started to ask but she held up her hand.
“Certainly Milas told you enough for you to believe that we will get you out of here alive. Get in the hole and start walking we will be down in a moment.”
Jean quickly obeyed but I couldn’t help but hesitate. “But,” again, she cut me off.
“We’ll take care of everything.”
“We will have to leave Midian and Milas,” Nathaniel said forlornly. “There’s no way you’ll be able to wipe that out of their minds. Just take care of these two and we’ll get out of the way.” A tear fell from the corner of his eye as he formed the phrases. His voice barely shook, almost inaudibly.
Fiona leapt the span of the gorge without any effort. I would have ended up with a broken leg in the middle. She grabbed Midian’s hand. Every few milliseconds she shook her head as they looked into each other’s eyes more tears formed silently. But the end of their exchange Fiona had her wrapped tightly in her arms. She let her go and nodded in understanding.
Nathaniel, just as gracefully as Fiona, crossed the crevasse and motioned me to follow my wife into the hole. I obeyed and could not take my eyes off of Milas who was then hugging Fiona.
The twins sat back on the floor to wait for us to leave. Fiona however stood perfectly still beside them, a goddess statue in such a bleak place. Her eyes were closed. Then without much signal, her eyes popped open and she jumped in right beside me. “We don’t have much time. There’s going to be a guard coming down the hall here in a few seconds. If we’re not gone it won’t stick.” She pushed me forward, urging me to run. “Stop worrying, they don’t know you exist anymore. Just get far enough down. Nathaniel will need some room.”
As we ran, Jean’s laden breath flowing back to my ears, the vibration started again and the dull light was suddenly no longer guiding us. I wanted to stop in the blackness, but Jean kept pushing me forward. I didn’t know the difference between the walls or the floor.
Nathaniel’s voice called with a strain from where we had just come, “Oh, give them some light, Fi.”
A brilliant, blinding orb floated above my head and took off down the tunnel. Jean’s head lifted to focus on it. She tripped on a stone that rose against the smooth tunnel and fell flat on her face. I stopped to help her up so we could continue our sprint down the who-knows-how-long path. But when I looked back to see how close Fiona was to my heels I noticed she was a few yards down looking back for Nathaniel whom I could not locate. She looked back to Jean and me. Tears were streaming down her face faster than I had thought possible before that moment.
“They are going to die. They’re going to die because you could not help but be curious. You couldn’t just think what you saw was a trick of the desert, a bird, something that was not worth your time.”
Pain split through my head. Through my squinting against it I saw Jean was also holding her head.
“FIONA!” A thunderous roar made the pain stop. “What would they think if you killed them?” He had come up behind her. His voice had all the authority of a superior. Her eyes were still glazed with tears and rage. I don’t know where I was thinking we could go but I started scooting backward from her. Jean followed suit. “Let’s just get them home and away from this whole mess. Nadine’s not doing well with it as it is.”
The rest of the walk was silent. Fiona took the front. I was glad for this. At least I had my eye on her. We reached a dead end and Nathaniel raised his hand and opened the ceiling to reveal a star lit night. Out in the cool desert night Fiona disappeared with a nod toward Nathaniel.
“When you get home, don’t talk about this to anyone or what Fiona did will break and those people will come after you. I’m sorry you had to go through that, but I thank you in advance for your silence about us. We’re a complicated people. What we can do, human’s aren’t meant to see. Hopefully at some point, but not now.
“You’ll have to forgive Fiona. There are only so many of us and we just lost two to an admittedly stupid cause.” He paused to take a very deep breath. “Now, what I’m about to do will not make any sense but like I said just keep silent about it. You’ll be safe now. And, no, I could not have done it sooner, it takes too much energy.”
A wind picked up. It was warm and comforting. Swirls of blues and purples mixed with deep greens around us. Then in a simple blink we were standing in our kitchen.
Jean and I looked at one another. We didn’t speak. How could we? What just happened seemed like a very bad dream. Questions riddled my mind. I know they did in hers, but when she fell silent throughout our lives I know exactly what she was thinking about. That was the only proof I needed that that night actually happened.
Happy Friday, everyone! Well this is a long one but it’s the last one. YAY! Well, for me cause I'm done writing it, but let me know what you think in the comments. I can't read minds. :) Follow me if you enjoy my writing.
No comments:
Post a Comment