Redemption (13 page)

His shiny hair
had fallen forward over his eyes, his head was bowed, and it looked like he was
struggling just to keep moving. 

“Isaac?” 
Rebecca drifted closer, taking his hand, which felt a bit clammy.  “Hey.  Are
you okay?”
He stopped and lifted his head to give her a grimace that was probably meant to
be a reassuring smile.  “I’ll be okay.  I just…”  he put his other hand to his
mouth for a minute, then abruptly folded his legs and sat Indian-style in the
middle of the path, his hand slipping from hers. 

Rebecca stood
looking down at him, not knowing what to do.  He really didn’t look too good,
and he seemed shaky.  “But… I mean… you can’t be sick, right?”  She threw her
hands up in exasperation.  “This place isn’t real.  It’s a dream.  How could
you be sick?”

But deep inside,
she was scared.  Isaac’s injuries never faded the way hers did.  Everything
here seemed to have more effect on him than it did on her. 

He lifted one
shoulder in a lopsided shrug.  “Does anything in this place follow any sort of
rules?”  His blue eyes were rueful. 

She heaved a
sigh.  “Well, I guess we’ll have to stop for a bit.  Maybe if you rest…”  She
stopped and watched Isaac as he canted his head from side to side, then put a
finger in his ear and wiggled it around. 

He glanced up at
her and caught her questioning look.  “Can’t you hear that?”  He flexed his jaw
as if trying to pop his ears. 

Rebecca frowned
at him.  Was he so sick that his ears were ringing?  “I don’t hear…” but then
she did.  A sound drifted to her on a burst of cold air.  It was a high-pitched
tone, somewhere between an opera singer’s high note and nails on a chalkboard. 
The minute she heard it, her knees felt weak.  She lifted her hands to her ears
as she glanced about for the source of the noise.

Goose bumps rose
on Rebecca’s arms.  She rubbed them absently as she stared down the path. 
Whatever was making that sound was getting closer.  Isaac pushed himself to his
knees, but he looked shaky, and he didn’t try to stand.

“What is it?” he
whispered, as if he were afraid to draw attention to them by speaking too
loudly.

Rebecca shook
her head.  “No idea.  Siren, maybe?”  She glanced at Isaac.  “But I don’t feel
particularly happy about the sound.”

He frowned. 
“Yeah, I know what you mean.”  The sound swelled for a moment, then decreased,
and Isaac shook his head as if trying to clear it.  “It’s mesmerizing- but it’s
not like I want to go throw myself into the sea over it or something.  I just
feel…cold, and tired.”

And he looked
cold, she thought, a bit of panic slipping beneath her breastbone and lodging
itself there like an ice cube.  Isaac’s skin was taking on an ashen hue that
she really didn’t like.

“There…” his
hushed whisper drew her attention back to the path, where the source of the
noise had finally appeared. 

She seemed to
float along the rough ground, her long, white dress and hair eerily still in
the chilly breeze that should have been stirring them.  As the woman drifted
toward them, her deep-set ruby eyes remained fixed on Isaac.  She opened her
mouth and let out that bone-chilling wail again.  Isaac made a sound and
Rebecca glanced at him in time to see him shudder.

He spoke to her,
but he couldn’t seem to tear his eyes away from the ethereal woman in front of
him.  “Not a siren,” he whispered haltingly, a note of fear making his voice
shake.  “Banshee.”

Rebecca turned
her horror-struck face back to the approaching figure, who’s perfect white face
was filled with sadness as she approached Isaac.  “What does this mean?”  Rebecca
said, her words tumbling out as she scrambled to come up with a solution.  “She
can’t be here for one of us.  We need to finish this stupid quest together.”

Isaac sagged,
sinking back to sit on his feet, hanging his head.  “I don’t think…I can go
with you anymore.”  He lifted his head to meet her eyes, wrapping a long arm
around his chest as if he were in pain.  “She’s here for me.”  His blue eyes
were haunted.  All the color was gone from his face.

The banshee was
closing in on her target.  Rebecca inched closer to Isaac.  “What do you want?”

The white woman
stopped a mere foot or so from them.  Her eyes were a deep red, like garnets…
or blood.  There were black shadows below them.  Even so, her face was the most
beautiful thing Rebecca had ever seen, with high cheekbones, and smooth,
perfect skin.  The look of sadness etched on her stunning face made her even
more beautiful, chillingly so.  She continued to sing, stretching out a pale,
graceful hand to Isaac.

He stared up at
her as if he were seeing an angel, his face suddenly losing all traces of fear. 
Rebecca’s breath made little white clouds in the freezing air.  The fallen
leaves nearby crackled as frost crept over them.  He lifted his hand. 

Rebecca jumped
into motion, knocking his hand aside and inserting herself between Isaac and
the banshee.  “Leave him alone!” 

Her breath left
behind little puffs of steam in the cold air.  Her fists were clenched at her
sides and she trembled as she stared down death’s messenger.

The banshee
turned her sad eyes to Rebecca, and the cold danced over her skin.  But it
wasn’t altogether unpleasant, kind of like that feeling you get when you’re out
in the snow too long and think, for just a moment, that it might be nice to lie
down and sleep.

On impulse,
Rebecca lifted her hand and covered the woman’s mouth.  “Stop it.  You can’t
have him!”  The words spilled out without thought.  “He’s mine!”

Wide, startled
red eyes regarded her over her raised hand, but the wailing had stopped. 
Rebecca’s hand burned with cold and she removed it, shaking her fingers to
regain the feeling in them, but she couldn’t take her eyes off the chilling
garnet orbs that stared back at her.  The banshee tilted her head, studying
Rebecca as if she were something strange and foreign. 

Rebecca swayed
as Isaac’s head hit her backside.  He had wrapped his arms around her legs as
if steadying himself.  “He’s mine,” she repeated firmly.  “I need him by my
side.  There’s no way he’s going to die.”

The banshee
floated backward.  Her face was still etched with sadness, but for a brief
second- so brief Rebecca wasn’t sure she had really seen it- her colorless lips
turned up in a beatific smile.  There was a swirl of cold that stirred the
leaves and twigs along the path and sent them dancing upward.  The banshee
lifted her face to the sky and vanished into the wind.

Rebecca watched
as the leaden sky lightened.  The watery sun returned, and with it, the color
came back to the world.  Isaac released her legs and she turned to give him a
hand up.  His skin looked better, and he wasn’t shaking anymore.  His lips
twitched with suppressed laughter as he looked down at her with those sharp blue
eyes. 

“‘He’s mine,’”
he intoned.  “’I need him by my side.’”  He stared into her eyes and Rebecca
wanted to retreat.  “What was that all about?”

She waved a hand
airily.  “Well I had to say
something.”

He caught her
hand and refused to let her escape.  “You aren’t…falling in love with me are
you?”

Rebecca opened
her mouth to reply, but words wouldn’t seem to form.  Her face grew hot under
his close scrutiny and she opened and closed her mouth several more times
before she actually managed to make a sound.  “Don’t be an idiot!”

She snatched her
hand away and turned her back on him, continuing down the path.  “C’mon.  We’re
supposed to be looking for something, right?”

He followed her
just a bit too closely, and Rebecca picked up her pace, not wanting to face
him.  “I don’t think it’s a good idea,” he said from right behind her. 

Rebecca cast a
glance over her shoulder, then looked away.  He was standing too close.  “What
isn’t?  I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

Isaac sighed. 
“Having feelings for me.  It’s a bad idea.  I’m pretty sure it’s going to hurt
you in the end.”  He put a big hand on her shoulder, stopping her, making her
face him.  She stared at his shoulder, refusing to meet his eyes.  “You saw
what happened back there,” he said quietly.  “There’s nothing to say that I’m
going to survive this.  Do you believe me now?  That I am the one who’s going
to die?”

She shook her
head.  “You are not going to die.  This is just a
stupid dream
.”  She
lifted her chin defiantly, finally meeting his eyes.  “And you’re delusional if
you think I love you.  I don’t love anyone.  I’m not stupid enough to make that
mistake
ever again
!”  She turned on a heel and trudged off down the
path, leaving Isaac standing there with his mouth hanging open.

~~~~~

The hooded man
paced. His long robe stirred the fallen leaves and forest debris, but made no
sound.  He reviewed his interaction with the girl- Rebecca- finding himself
surprisingly pleased.  She was a welter of emotions, and quite as damaged as
her idiotic companion, but there was something in her….  She seemed docile
enough, and weak at times, overwhelmed by her pain, but there was more than
that.  He’d seen it at their last meeting.  Though she denied it heartily she
did, in fact, love.  That one quality had survived when she broke, and might
yet be redeemed.  His pacing increased, and he threw back his head to gaze up
at the vast sky above the canopy of trees.  He laughed to himself, the rasping
noise startling a bright red cardinal from its roost in a nearby tree. 

She loved
fiercely- so fiercely that she burned with it.  So fiercely that when that love
was sundered, she was shattered and destroyed.  For her, love had been her
greatest strength- and her greatest downfall.  Just now, looking into her eyes
as she defended that pretty moron’s life- for just a moment, something in his
cold, withered heart had stirred. 

But would it be
enough?  Isaac- the incompetent, worthless fool- seemed destined to fail.  The
hooded man felt only contempt for Rebecca’s companion.  Occasionally he felt
sorry for him, as the fool was so surely destined to die.  His only hope was to
cling to that glorious woman who seemed to have found something in him worthy
of saving.

The hooded
figure paused in his pacing.  He thought of her luminous brown eyes, regarding
him with disgust and loathing.  His long, frayed robes rippled in the breeze
and he grinned within the shadows of his hood.  She seemed convinced that he
was evil.  She’d known it from the very beginning.  He reached out, and with a
swirl of his long, slender white hand, pulled a tall, hooked wooden staff from
the air.  Its curved top was reminiscent of the scythe she wanted him to
carry. 

He swayed, then
caught his balance against a nearby tree trunk.  He looked forward to their
next meeting, though he told himself it was only for the pleasure of watching
his pawns struggle along in this cursed game.  With a curt gesture, he vanished
in a swirl of dead leaves and frigid air. 

~~~~~

The third day of
their journey seemed unbelievably long, as if they had traveled for a week. 
Rebecca was physically and emotionally exhausted, and she could tell that Isaac
was even worse off than she was.  He was trying to hold it together, but he had
been trapped here longer than she had.  It seemed to be taking its toll. 

Again, they
built a fire on the path when night closed in.  However, this time they took
advantage of a soft patch of grass just off the side of the path.  Unlike the
previous night, there was no chitchat.  Isaac gazed into the fire as if he were
mesmerized, his pale blue eyes unfocused.  Rebecca was silent as she flogged
her poor, tired brain to come up with some way to speed up their journey and
find the damned key.  No matter how hard she thought about it, the only option
seemed to be to keep following the path that was laid out before them. 

Isaac finally
lay down and curled onto his side facing the fire.  His eyes drifted closed and
his breathing became deep and even.  Rebecca watched his sleeping face for some
time.  He truly was the most beautiful person she had ever met.  And the most
wounded.  The thoughts that swirled in her head every time she looked at him-
every time he smiled at her or touched her in passing- they were dangerous
thoughts.  She knew that, and she tried to squelch them. 

When she was sure
that he was really asleep, Rebecca moved closer.  She lay down behind him and
slipped an arm around his waist, marveling at the feel of him.  Though he was
slender, he was broad.  He was surprisingly muscular, and she surmised that he
must have done his share of manual labor in his quest to raise his siblings.  She
splayed a hand over sculpted chest, feeling the slow beat of his heart as she
nestled close behind him.  There was nothing wrong with what she was doing, she
told herself.  That warm feeling in her own chest was just compassion for
another human being.  Nothing else.

She fell asleep
with a soft smile on her lips.

I
n the distance,
a peculiar sight peeked up at them from between lush green woods and rolling,
misty blue hills.  A Ferris wheel turned slowly, and the top of a big red and
white striped tent could just be seen above the trees.  As Rebecca strained to
examine this anomaly, the sounds of music and crowds drifted to her on the
wind.