The Quarter Moon (Afterlife saga) (10 page)

Then time dragged itself back at such a speed it was like the sight one would see in a blur going too fast for our eyes to keep up. It snapped me back to that same crossroads and had me facing my one other path. This one was named,

‘7 Breaths
to make, to 7 Steps to take, to 7th Heaven you will wake’

One step in this direction took me to one vision and one alone…the only one needed.

I was back in Draven’s arms looking up at him. He raised his hands to frame my face and he placed his forehead to mine. I saw his lips move but I didn’t need to hear the words to know what he said, it was a clear as the sky we stood under, as beautiful as the summer sun which shone down on us. We stood on his balcony and Ava landed next to us but we didn’t look her way, we couldn’t move and stand the thought of turning away from each other, I couldn’t, not as he told me,

He loved me.

I was suddenly slammed back to the now and turned to see Eddie waiting for my answer. I felt my heart pinch in my chest as I look
ed into the eyes of the man who could no doubt bring me a life filled with happiness. But it just wasn’t enough. It would never be enough. I knew that without the help of any vision. I knew that, thanks to this heart that beat inside of me for the only one person that would ever own it.

The
other half of a beating muscle that kept my blood still pumping around an empty vessel. Empty, until I could step back into those arms and feel him as he gave me back my soul.

Dominic Draven, my soul’s keeper.

“I’m sorry Eddie, I would love to say yes and would… if …well…if I wasn’t already in love with someone else.” I said biting my lip and feeling like I had just sealed a fate with a locked door, one as thick as a bank vault. He gave me a little head nod but the disappointment was clear.

“I figured a beauty and funny sweetheart like you wouldn’t be single. He’s a lucky guy, whoever he is
.” He said lifting my hand and giving the back a little kiss. I was so touched, I couldn’t stop myself from giving him a hug and I felt him breathe me in, making a shudder vibrate through his chest.

“Thank you for asking Eddie, and someday I have no doubt you will make someone a great catch. You take care of yourself…oh and my truck of course
.” I finished with a wink and he laughed. I opened the door and was just getting out when he stopped me.

“I almost forgot to give you this
.” He said pulling out an envelope from his jacket and handing it to me.

“Thanks ET
,” I said making him chuckle. We may not ever have a life together, but no one was ever gonna get to call him that nickname but me.

“You’re welcome, Hot Red
.” He said smirking and I burst out laughing. I left his truck on a massive high and in the complete opposite mood to when I had left this morning.

I waved to him and watched him until he went out of sight. I then rushed into the house to find a letter left back on top of mine in the kitchen. It was from Libby saying they had gone shopping and were going to grab pizzas for tonight.

Normally finding no one here would have me feeling low within seconds but with this new letter in my hands and everything that had happened this morning, I was in need of the solitude.

I rushed up the stairs, whipped the dress over m
y head, dumping it in my wash basket and tied up my hair. I changed into some comfy clothes and sat on my bed, ready to read the next part. I opened it up and when I pulled out the thick wad I noticed the first part was in the form of plane tickets. I looked at the destination and like last time, one comment came to mind,

“Son of a Bitch!”

Chapter 10

Royal Pain in the Cryptic Ass

I looked down in my hands that not only held my ticket out of here but more importantly, my first real footstep in the direction to bringing Draven back.

“London.” I said the destination out loud and flopped back on my pillows as I blew all the air out through my cheeks. It took me a moment to absorb it all and I had to shake my head to carry on with the letter. I picked it up and confusion hit me big time. It was an A4 sized piece of paper with only one sentence in the centre,

Didn’t fancy pulling ET?

“WHAT!?” I shouted out loud reading it again and again. Was this it?! Was this all I was going to get? This was unbelievable and just confirmed two things, the first being that this Pythia was truly and completely nuts! The second was that, when I finally met this nutter, I was going to strangle her!

“No I didn’t bloody pull ET! What is wrong with you people, just talk normal!
” I shouted at the ceiling whilst slamming the pathetic excuse for a letter down.

“
Arrrggghhhh!” It was only when I was panting through my little rage episode that I looked down to see that the piece of paper had started to mist over. I could see little ink veins travel from the underneath around the top and they came together growing into thicker branches.

“What the
Hell!” I whispered as all the branches joined together and swirled around until they suddenly splattered outwards making me jump back. It was as if someone had a water balloon full of ink and had just thrown it at the page. Then I watched on as the ink seeped into the page leaving only words behind. The first line made my mouth drop open.

There is no need to shout, I was only asking!

But as I now have your answer, it is time to proceed.

Good choice by the way!

I then couldn’t believe it as I read on and it began like any other letter....

Dear Tricks,

Well that was exciting now wasn’t it? Ok, so now it is time to crack on and flip the coin. The next steps will take you further into a place you have never known but have faith young traveller,
as it won’t be your only friend on this journey.

First you must go back to where it all began and take steps into the past that put you at the Kings level. Only in his footsteps will the answers come into the light.

A coin is just a payment for the ferryman but when kissed by Angelic Royalty it becomes a key into the palace. Take this key to the Hellfire gates and the mouth will drop at the sight of the depths Charon will go. Cross over to the other side with aid from which payment is granted and walk the path your lover’s fate will take you.

There you will find your King and with it your answers,

Now is the time to put pen to page for the riddle it dances,

To find the Ahoy and your deck,

Place your true name in order of its peck.

The last letter in your name is where you will begin,

Then jump to the start, find 3 A’s, put two in the bin.

To see the next 3 we’ll leave your name behind,

And look back to my words where the same 3 you will find.

The same letter you will see in my madness of double 3,

Never have over a traveller’s level lover for tea.

But then look back to what you find in half a ships greeting,

Before continuing on to find where we will be meeting.

So back we jump to your name once again,

Time to jot down the doubles and leave out the N,

But the L we won’t need until the last in the word,

Have faith in your King for this next letter to be heard.

For there is one who you love, this much is true,

But take him away and the answer left is in the do.

For with 4 in this Journey is Key to Royalty,

Here you will use 1 and then the A you find in loyalty.

The last word comes out on the page as a whole,

With the last step in my game for reaching your goal,

For a whistle and flute is the name of the place,

He pays at the end and leaves with his case.

Oh and Keira…have fun!

P x

“Oh you
gotta be kiddin’ me!” I shouted shaking the letter. This was unbelievable! Not only was I crap with riddles but this one looked like the Holy Grail, Mother of all that is Crazy and New York Times crossword level of difficult! Well, there went my good mood I thought as I dropped the letter. I don’t know how long I sat there giving the paper my death ray look with my arms folded but some time later my stomach rumbled at me. I got up, determined to leave the paper where it was, but it was suddenly as though it had become a bloody puppy, whiney about being left.

“Fine!” I snapped as I
picked it back up and went downstairs with it in my hand. I slapped it down onto the kitchen table making it shake under the force.

“I haven’t finished with you buster!” I said to it thinking that by the time I finally did meet this Pythia I
was going to be as crazy as she was! I mean here I was talking to a piece of paper and all I wanted to do with was ram it down the loo!

“Tea…I need tea
!” I said turning away from the table and clicking on the kettle. I made myself a sandwich and was chewing angrily, thinking this was doing nothing for my poor molars. All the time I couldn’t take my eyes from that damn letter. It was like it had some sort of spell. Like a magical pull that wouldn’t let me go until I knew its meaning. I rolled my eyes and wiped the crumbs from my mouth with the back of my hand.

“Fine, let’s do this
.” I said and plonked myself down to start the unlikely task of decrypting this mad code. Five seconds later I was swearing at it. None of it made any sense and forget about needing a degree, this thing needed a technologically advanced little green man with a PHD!

“Holy shit Pythia, why didn’t you just send me a bloody
rubic cube! It would have been faster…or here’s an idea, why not just do it the normal way and write down a bloody address! Oh no, couldn’t do that for me now, and while we’re at it try stepping into the modern day and emailing me! Hell, I wouldn’t say no to a homing pigeon as long as it didn’t come with quiz attached to its leg!” I said all this as I stormed back up the stairs…letter in hand of course.

I deflated into my desk chair and stared at the letter until the words started to blur and the
n slam, the first answer came to me.

“No way!” I shouted as I wrenched open the draw
er so hard I nearly pulled it from its runners. I grabbed a piece of paper and a pencil. I ignored the first three lines until it got to the part about my ‘true name’. At first I wrote down Catherine but then it didn’t make any sense so I added the rest,

Catherine Keiran Williams

Then I followed the rules. The last letter in my name was S so I wrote that down. Then I found the next one was A so added that. The next part about ‘madness of double 3’ which I gathered meant 6 but that was all I could get from the next part, so I moved on. I had no clue to the ‘Traveller’s level lover’ so passed on that as well.

So
I went back to my name as it told me to and looked for the double letters in my name. Ok so there were two N’s, L’s and R’s but after reading on I could eliminate N and L so wrote down R on my paper. Didn’t get the next bit but saw the A, I would ‘find in Loyalty’ so added it to the page. So now I had SA letters missing and then R and A. I quickly scanned the next part and think it meant O. Yes because if you took away the one I love, which was Dom, and the answer was in the ‘Do’ then that would leave O, also meaning 1-1 =0, so I added that to the list.

“Ok so
what next, I have the S.A….3 letters missing and then R.O. Letter missing and then A.” I bit my lips as I read on hoping I was on the right track so far. I read the other part more slowly and asked myself what 4 had to do with ‘This Journey is Key to Royalty’…when I saw it…that’s sentence had 4 Y’s and it asked me to only use one and then an A!

So after a quick scan of the rest I saw a bit that said ‘But the L we won’t need until the last in the word’ So when I added that too it spelt out,

‘S.A…..R.O.Y.A.L’

After reading the last part it came to me quicker this time as the only thing ‘Whistle and Flute’ could be is Suit in cockney slang. And then the ‘Pays at the end and leaves with his case’ meant hotel so these too put together could only mean ‘Suite’

“I got it!” I shouted going back to th
e top and reading ‘You find in half a ship’s greeting’ which she mentioned at the beginning in the ‘To find the Ahoy and your deck’

I wrote down the place she was going to finally meet me and couldn’t hel
p but make a ‘Woop woop’ shout out. It might have taken me a few hours to figure it out but I finally made up the place name with the last letters…

‘SAVOY ROYAL SUITE’

I knew it was one of the most famous hotels in London, so this could be the only place she meant. I felt so great after I finally figured it out, it was only when in the shower later that it occurred to me why she did things in this way. All of the letters so far only made sense after the next piece of the puzzle. So if anyone was to get their hands on one of the letters then they wouldn’t be able to make out where she was, or even what they meant. She told me in the beginning she couldn’t just write down where she was and in this last letter, without the right name you wouldn’t have figured it out.

It was crazy madness and frustrating as
Hell, but you couldn’t deny the genius in her ways. The one part I still didn’t get was why hand over the coin and letter to someone that wanted to eat a piece of me? That one I think would have to be explained by the lady herself.

After I got out of the shower, changed, and dried my hair
, I was starting to feel more human again. I picked up the tickets and the rest of the letters and hid them all in my top drawer apart from the last letter. I sat down on my bed cleaning the water from my ears with an ear bud while I scanned the first part of the letter. It just felt like there was something I was missing, something I needed to do and soon.

It was a strange feeling, like some invisible hand was pulling at my fingers until I got it right. I mean
, everything so far she’d predicted. That was until the one choice I was given. Eddie was like the ultimate test to where my loyalties lay. It was like handing me my one and only chance at a normal life. Like the Gods had given me a way out of being the Chosen One. But why...was this my very own version of ‘free will’, the same chance at it that everyone else got?

At this point there was only one person with any answers for me but first I needed to figure this part out. I knew the key was in these words but it was like trying to make sense of a small child that can’t quite talk yet. They knew what they were saying but as adult
s we already had the correct way of saying things drummed into us, so the key was thinking like a child. Was it the same with this? If I ever wanted to make sense of it I needed to think like her. Like someone who was trying to give me orders in a way only I would understand.

‘First you must go back to where it all began and take steps into the past that put you at the Kings level’ Well
, surely the only thing meant by this was ‘Afterlife’, as that was after all where this all began and to put me at Draven’s level was in the VIP. The next part I didn’t understand yet but I knew one thing, I would have to get back into Afterlife before I went anywhere. And it had something to do with this coin. So, with that in mind, I rooted out that envelope and placed the coin in my pocket, feeling comfort instantly on feeling its tiny weight in my jeans, so I continued to keep it there.

After a few days I had it all planned out in my head. The tickets said I was to travel on the fifth of July, two days before my birthday, which gave me enough time to put my plans into action. But there was one thing I knew I needed to do to make sure my plan worked and for that I needed Jack. Which was wh
y I was scrolling down to his number and calling him right now.

“Hey stranger, what’s up?” His easy going voice helped calm the buzzing I felt in my head from being ready to burst with excess energy. All this cracking codes and planning a rescue mission had
had me pumped and ready to go for days.

“Umm, nothing really
, just kinda need to ask you something but don’t want to do it over the phone…do you fancy meeting up?”

We arranged for him to come round after his shift the next day and this gave me time to talk to Libby. I
didn’t know how Libby would take to the idea that I was going to go on a mission on my own, to try and find Draven, so this is where I had to do the hard part…lie. I hated the thought of doing it but I hated the idea of her worrying even more. I knew after all this time that she thought Draven had broken up with me and she would have thought I was crazy travelling the world to find a man that clearly didn’t want me, but what else could I have told her?