[pirate witch]: 524.Novels.NaNoWriMo 2006 page2

Because 50,000 words is a lot to fit on one page...

A crowded city restaurant turned on its neon lights. Not many people noticed, they were more interested in the restaurant’s interior than its sign. Kathryn noticed though. She was seated on a rooftop, watching the city below. The only company she had was the pigeons around here, squawking to each other in conspiratorial tones. One landed on her knee, and looked her in the eye. Kathryn didn’t mind. She was sitting so still that she might as well have been a part of the building’s roof. She was just a gargoyle dressed in a grey dress, watching the world go by.

A well dressed man stepped out of his limo, and held the door open for his lady companion. She wore a bright red cocktail dress, and it stood out in contrast against the night. She fit right in with the party on the street though, bright colors and laughter threatened to explode the walls of the restaurant. The man escorted the woman to the door, and was about to follow her inside when he stopped and looked up. His eyes met Kathryn, but she wasn’t afraid. 
She was a gargoyle, and no one could see far up enough to recognize her. 

After a few moments of a one sided stare down, the man turned around and went into the restaurant. When the door opened, the sounds of laughter and clinking glasses escaped into the night, only to be swallowed by the dark and cold. Soon it was silent again, with only the sound of the pigeons and Kathryn’s own breath. 

Footsteps sounded behind Kathryn. She was faced with a choice, one that needed to be made in a split second. To turn around, to move and betray her position, would waste all of her efforts of hiding. To take her chances and stay still, hoping that the disguise worked would be stupid though. Then she could hear the footsteps more clearly, and knew who it was without even turning around. Click. Click. Click. Click. It was Jessica. Kathryn moved slowly, barely making a sound. As she stood, the pigeons took flight, startled by what they thought was just a statue. In their little brains, one thought rang. What were humans doing on the top of a cathedral? The cathedral roofs belong only to the birds and gargoyles.

“What are you doing here Jessica?” The two females were facing each other, both wearing looks of innocent curiosity that wasn’t as innocent as attempted. 

Jessica sneered slightly, advancing on Kathryn. “I could ask you the same thing, young Kathryn. What are you doing watching life from the top of a cathedral, rather than enjoying it first hand? Surly one as young as you still has some sense of adventure?” Jessica stopped staring at Kathryn and started to wander around the roof, kicking at sticks and leaves. It seemed that she was searching for something. “Although, if I remember correctly, you were supposed to be working tonight.”

“I am working.” It was an interesting lie. Since Jessica was Kathryn’s boss, she would know that it was a lie. However, there were other people at the establishment, and sometimes they gave Kathryn tasks to do. Jessica wouldn’t be able to disagree with the orders of a superior. 

“Your working? What are you doing? Who sent you?” 

“Collin sent me.” Kathryn bit her lip. She hadn’t meant to point the blame to Collin, but his name was the first that entered her head. “There was some suspicious behavior going on in the city, and he sent me to check it out. He would have asked you, he wanted to, but I was too anxious to get going.”

Jessica laughed, but she was starting to sound unsure of herself. “Is that so?” She asked, stopping her search to pay complete attention to Kathryn. “And what was this supposed suspicious behavior that you heard of?”

“The party in the restaurant down below. Have you looked at the people who have been going in and out?”

“No. I am afraid that I have much more important things to do than to watch people go to parties. My missions actually have a purpose, and that purpose isn’t just to keep me busy while I get payed.” Was Jessica upset about something? It certainly sounded that way to Kathryn. “What was going on at the party that is so very important?”

“Well, the some of the people there seem...different.” Kathryn’s lie was dying on her. She was wishing that she had chosen a different excuse, because she was always horrible at making up stories on the spot. “For instance, that woman in the red dress who went in with a man a few moments ago. I was watching her intently.”

Jessica raised one perfectly shaped eyebrow in seeming amusement. “Really? The woman in the red cocktail dress with the tall dark haired man?” She walked to the edge of the roof to peer down at the restaurant below. “What was strange about them?”

Kathryn took several steps back from the edge. Jessica had made a mistake, and it was causing Kathryn’s heart to beat double time. Now she was on alert, because she had never described the style of the dress or the man. “They seemed to...they seemed to be ready for danger. They smile and laugh in there, I can see them, they’re by the window. All the time though, while they mingle and talk, they are on alert. The man constantly checks out of the window. The woman never lets him out of her sight. It’s very strange.”

“Hmm...” Jessica was still looking over the edge, and she batted away a pigeon when it tried to alight onto a real gargoyle’s head. It flew away, looking hurt and indignant. “Well, I suppose you have made some good observations. Why don’t you go and tell Collin what you have found. He’ll be able to use some of this in the observation files, I should think. And when you are done with him, tell him to see me. We need to have a little chat, Collin and I.”

Kathryn was afraid. She didn’t want to get Collin in trouble, he was one of the few people at the establishment who didn’t constantly try to fix Kathryn. He helped her, and talked to her, even when he was working on particularly grumpy prototype. She was also afraid of Jessica. That one slip had betrayed something about the woman, but it wasn’t clear what that something was. And Kathryn sure as hell wasn’t going to ask. She didn’t want to jeopardize her job. None the less, she was now aware of Jessica’s knowledge of the situation, and she would tell Collin about what she saw.

As Kathryn walked down the stairs of the cathedral, she wondered what Jessica was looking for. She was so deeply emerged in her own thoughts that when she pushed the doors to the cathedral open, she walked directly into someone. Someone in a bright red cocktail dress.

“Hello Kathryn.” The voice was cold and mocking. A voice Kathryn had heard before, it was from the very castle she was monitoring back at the establishment. Queen Hannah. Without waiting for a greeting in return, Hannah stalked past Kathryn into the sanctuary. 

Kathryn was relieved. It seemed like Queen Hannah was going to let her leave. Maybe she was too preoccupied to bother acting. Kathryn began to hurry through the streets, not liking the cold or the dark and the sound of her feet on the cement. She wanted to get back to the establishment as soon as she could, so she could talk to Collin. As she passed the restaurant she had been watching, Kathryn peered inside the window. The light and warmth was a welcoming sight, but both Jessica and Queen Hannah were near, probably watching her from the roof. She had to hurry.

Something was not right. Kathryn could feel someone watching her. She turned but saw no one, so she continued on through a dark ally way, the shortest way to the building. It was a bad decision, and Kathryn realized this. She stopped, but then she heard it. The footsteps that she had assumed were her feet hitting the steps continued still. Kathryn whirled around and saw, standing between Kathryn and the way out of the alleyway, a tall and solid looking figure. 

It was the wings that worried Kathryn the most. The wings and the sound of the angel’s feet against the city pavement. They made a scraping sound. Then she recognized it. The angle was made of marble, and it had come from it’s post at the cathedral. There were two angels standing at either side of the cathedral door, and this was one of the towering statues. She tried to get past the angel, but he barred her way, drawing his stone sword with a deafening sound. 

An equally deafening noise was heard from the opposite end of the alley, Kathryn’s only escape. The second angel, the female, stood there with her sword drawn as well. Then Kathryn understood. She had not been sent to the cathedral to watch the restaurant, but rather the cathedral itself. Gargoyles landed on the roofs of the buildings on either side of her and beat their cracked stone wings against chimneys, forcing the pigeons away from their perches. And, far away, Kathryn could hear the laughter of Queen Kathryn and Jessica, who were sharing wine on the cathedral rooftop.

December 9th.
I think I am starting to understand something, I just wish I could put my finger on it exactly. As of late, my dreams have felt less like dreams and more like real life. I can remember every single detail of them, I can picture them perfectly, and they are less ridiculous. But these people, Queen Hannah, Jessica, Collin, they all seem so real! Its very disconcerting. If this keeps up, I will have a hard time distinguishing between real life and my dreams. But today, I am going to try to figure out what my dreams are saying without the book. It probably won’t work, but I am going to trust my own brain for something it is making up.

As far as I can figure out, there are several recurring things that have been appearing recently. The castle, Queen Hannah, the establishment (for that’s all I ever call it in my dreams) where I apparently have a job, Jessica, Collin, and most importantly moving statues. Marble statues are a constant. They have been in ever one of these dreams. Of course, I have other dreams, the relatively silly ones that I can never remember. But these dreams are becoming less weird, and now everything has become much more realistic. I suppose we could call this progress, and I’ll just be on alert for moving statues from now on. 

I have work at Madame Zupinski’s today after school. I am very excited.

Later The Same Day
Well, today was certainly interesting. Very interesting indeed. Elizabeth’s son Isaac was there today, but she didn’t seem nearly as upset as she has before. I didn’t speak to him much, he was fixing a table and didn’t seem in the mood for conversation, but he doesn’t seem very friendly. This didn’t bother me, I didn’t see any need to converse with him either. Elizabeth did a quick introduction and we were, for the most part, not bothered by each other’s presence. 

Elizabeth saw some clients, and I took care of the money and scheduled appointments for tomorrow and some other days. While Elizabeth did her future reading thing, I worked on my homework in the back room. I admit, it was difficult with Isaac drilling and swearing loudly at the wobbly legged table, but I managed. This is where the interesting things began.

“Kathryn!” I could barely hear Elizabeth over the sound of the drill, so I had to go to the front room to find out what she wanted. “Kathryn, I need you to make several pots of tea. The next person coming will, I believe, need an awful lot of it.” 

I checked the schedule, and saw that there was no name written next to four thirty. Actually, there was nothing written at all for the rest of the day. “Umm... Elizabeth?” I asked. “Are you sure that someone is coming in? There aren’t any more appointments.”

“This isn’t an appointment Kathryn. But someone is coming in, someone who will need the tea that so far hasn’t been made.” She looked at me sternly, daring me to doubt her prediction. I didn’t but I was still skeptical. Elizabeth may be in tune with the world, but I didn’t think she was that in tune with everything. 

I didn’t want to argue though, so I went to the back room and started to make tea. She hadn’t specified which kind was to be made, so I decided on an assortment of different flavors. Chamomile, Licorice, and Chai. I set about gathering some clean tea pots and cups, and all the while I could feel Isaac’s eyes on me. It was a little weird, but I just shook it off. Maybe he was just evaluating my performance at his mother’s shop. Once I had the tray set up, I set a pot of water on boil at the little stove and went to get the tea. I was opening the cupboard on the left side of the room when suddenly Isaac flew out of no where. He hit my hand away from the door, slammed it shut, and pushed me. It was not a hard push on his part, but I was so shocked that it knocked me right over. I fell down to the ground, but I saw his face as I fell. He looked angry, but surprised that he had pushed me over. 

“What the hell do you think you are doing?” Isaac shouted at me. “Sneaking around trying to steal things I suppose? Did you forget that I was in here? Or did you think that I was so dumb that I wouldn’t see? I may not be a psychic like my mother, but I am not blind! I didn’t trust you the moment I saw you.” He pulled me up roughly and pointed to a chair near the table he had been fixing. “Sit there, Kathryn, I am going to get Elizabeth, and you are not to touch anything while I am out of this room. Thieving hands away!”

I sat, shocked, and listened to him yelling at Elizabeth to come quick. Whatever he thought I was trying to steal, I had no notion of it. My back hurt from where I had fell and my head hurt from being shouted at. The injustice of it all combined with my nerves from the past few days made me want to cry, but I had to swallow my tears. I wanted Elizabeth to think well of me, and to be able to explain things rationally to her. I didn’t want to look like a child when she came in, so I wiped my eyes, sat up straight, and tried to figure out what it was that I had done wrong.

“What is going on Isaac?” Elizabeth asked as he pulled her into the back room. His dark face still looked furious, and Elizabeth had noticed. She pulled away from him and sat down in one of the chairs opposite me. “Speak slowly! When you get angry no one can understand a single word you are saying, let alone the point you are trying to make.”

“Mother.” He said, slowing himself down. “This girl, Kathryn,” He spat out my name like it was a curse, “Has been trying to steal from you. I saw her trying to get into your cupboard of supplies. Some of those supplies are worth a fortune, and she was trying to steal them!”

Elizabeth raised her eyebrows and turned to me, as I realized what I had done wrong. “That is what this is about?” I asked, slightly relieved, but still emotionally and physically injured. “I was going to get tea! Elizabeth, you told me to make tea right?”

“I did.”

“Well, look over there! I was making tea, there is the hot water, and the tea cups and tea pots. I was getting the tea bags, so that this client wouldn’t have to drink hot water!” I was being slightly sardonic and I knew it, but this was all slightly absurd. “I guess...oh I see. I was going to the wrong cupboard for the tea bags. I went to the third cupboard on the right of the room, like I did a while ago. I was supposed to go to the third cupboard on the right.” I was embarrassed for being so angry, since it technically was my fault. Still, he had pushed me over, and it hurt.

“An honest mistake, Kathryn. I’ll put a little sign on the tea cupboard from now on. And Isaac,” She turned to her son, who was looking thoroughly chagrined by now He still looked slightly livid, “I appreciate you trying to protect my things, but use your better judgement next time. I trust Kathryn, and you should too. Or, if that is too much for you to manage, at least try to give her an ounce of respect. She works here now, you will have to get used to her.” 

Both Isaac and I nodded, glad to have this settled, and Elizabeth started to go out into the front room again. “The person who I was talking about will be here in just a few minutes, so please have the tea ready before they get here.”  I went to the third cupboard on the right of the room, got out the three respective tea bags, and quickly made the pots of tea. I was just arranging the tray when the tinkling of a bell signaled that Elizabeth’s mystery client was here at last. I picked up the tray, swaying slightly from the weight, and headed out to the front room. Elizabeth was taking the coat of a rather young man and hanging it on the coat rack. I bent down to put the tea things on the table when I saw the young mans face. The tea tray fell to the table with a clatter, nearly avoiding a spillage. My breath raced out from me in a sharp gasp.

It was Collin. Collin from the establishment in my dreams. The loud crashing noise the tea set made as it hit the table made him turn to look at me. I must have looked like I had seen a ghost, for he smiled at me reassuringly, as if afraid I would pass out. “Kathryn?” He said, taking a step closer. He had the accent, the British accent as strong as it was in my dreams. “Kathryn, I didn’t know you had a day job.” Now I really did pass out.

He knew me. Collin new me, and he thought that Madame Zupinski’s was my day job. That means that he thinks I have a night job. As far as I know, I don’t have a night job, and that leaves only one possibility. He believes that working at the establishment is my night job. That means that I really do work there. I don’t know how, but it’s the only plausible explanation.  My dreams are real, it seems. At least those dreams, which almost makes sense. They seemed very vivid and realistic, where as the other dreams, my beginning dreams, were always a bit foggy when I woke up in the morning. But these dreams are real, and I am afraid of what might happen if I stay in them for too long. After all, I come very close to death in several of them, and then I wake up. They say it is impossible to die in a dream, I very much hope that is true.

I woke up in a car, not in the tea shop as one might have expected. My head hurt from the fall, but I felt all right. Isaac was driving, which worried me a bit, but then I saw that Elizabeth was in the passenger’s seat. They were talking in hushed voices. When Elizabeth saw through her mirror that I was awake she turned around to look back at me.

“Feeling alright Kathryn?” She asked. “You fainted.”

“I thought I did. I feel ok now I think.”

“Why did you faint?” Oddly enough, it wasn’t Elizabeth who asked this question, but Isaac. I couldn’t quite tell if he was honestly concerned for my well being or if he was just trying to show his mother that he wasn’t angry with me any more. Maybe he was just curious. The point is, he asked me why I fainted and I had to make a split second decision. Would I tell them the truth, or would I lie? The second choice appealed to me greatly, given the situation of having Isaac in the car, but I also needed to tell Elizabeth. I was sure that this information was crucial to our dream interpretation. 

“That man, who knew my name, what was he doing in the shop?”

“He was the one who I thought would be coming, although I can not claim to have known who he was or that he would have known you. He came for a reading, but then he left right after you fainted.”

“Was his name Collin by any chance?” I knew the answer before Elizabeth gave it.

“It was. How do you know him? He certainly seemed surprised to see you, and I daresay you were surprised to see him as well.”

“He was in some of my dreams. The most recent dreams of mine, that is. He was a part of them.” This sounded ridiculous, and I cringed as I said it. Elizabeth simply furrowed her brows together in a thoughtful expression, one befitting a psychic.

“Do you mean to say that you started dreaming of him after you met him? Where did you meet him?”

“I didn’t. That is what I am trying to say. I have never met him in real life, not until today that is. I told you a while ago that my dreams were started to become more and more realistic. Well, he is in the most realistic dreams. We work together, in a place I only know as The Establishment. It is some kind of top secret government facility, and in my dreams I work there under a woman named Jessica.” I gave her this diary and she read the things I wrote about my dreams about the establishment. “I was going to talk to you about these dreams today, since we haven’t been able to decipher anything for a little while, but I guess Collin showing up in real life put a stop to that.”

“Wait wait wait!” Elizabeth handed me the diary back, and twisted full around in her seat to look at me through the headrest. Isaac gave her a ‘be careful’ look, but continued to drive. “You mean that you dreamed of him but never knew that he was real?”

“That’s right.” I was beginning to understand her shock now. It did seem very unlikely that this would ever happen to anyone. “That’s why I fainted. He was the exact same person, same accent, same height, same clothing. He even mentioned the fact that I worked at the establishment. It’s as if I really do work there at nights.”

Elizabeth shook her head. “This is unbelievable. Really. I can’t believe that I did not foresee this. Kathryn, if you could please come to work first thing after school, we can try to figure this out.”

It was only at this point that I thought to ask where I was being driven to. Isaac didn’t answer, instead he pretended that he was way too engrossed with keeping his mind on the road to hear me. Elizabeth was the one who answered, which was a bit of a relief. If she knew where we were going, then it must be ok.

“We are taking you to the hospital. You had quite a large fall, and hurt your head when you fainted.” I did have a throbbing headache, but that didn’t seem like a good reason to go to the hospital. Elizabeth must have seen my puzzled look in her flip down mirror, for she gestured me to look in the mirror.

I had a giant gash on my forehead, with some blood trickling down my face. A large purple bruise went from my eyebrow to my hairline. It was not a pretty sight. When I reached up to touch the gash, it stung like mad. 


“You hit your head on the table when you fainted.” Elizabeth explained. “It isn’t life threatening or anything, but I would rather you get it looked at. I took the liberty of using your cell phone to call your sister and explain where you are going.

I paled slightly, hoping that Lily wasn’t mad. I also hoped that Elizabeth hadn’t told her too much of the situation over the phone. So far, Lily hadn’t found out that I work for a psychic, and I want it to stay that way for as long as possible. 

“Don’t worry.” Elizabeth must have used another psychic power I didn’t know about, mind reading. “I didn’t talk to your sister about anything important. Just let her know that you had hurt your head, you were going to be fine, and that we would drive you home after you got checked out.” 

“This whole mind reading thing makes one wonder just how private her thoughts are.” I muttered, and Elizabeth heard. She laughed.

“For someone who is so skeptical about psychics, you surely are anxious for anything to be a result of magical powers. You keep on forgetting, Kathryn, that you bring your diary for me to read every day. I read it. I see what you think about Lily and Rod, and Hannah and everything. Stop worrying.”

I heard the squealing of the breaks before I felt the car come to a screeching halt. Isaac started swearing very angrily and unbuckled his seatbelt with such force that it might have snapped. Elizabeth had her hand over her mouth and braced herself in her seat with one hand on the dashboard and the other gripping the door. “What was that Isaac?” She demanded of him. “When I told you that you could drive to the hospital, I didn’t want you to get us all into the hospital as well!”

But Isaac just got out of the car and slammed the door. Through the window I saw him walk to the side of the world, and then I realized that he was talking with someone, and it was this someone who had caused him to slam on his breaks in the first place. I couldn’t see the face, but I was sure it was a woman he was speaking to. After all, she was wearing a dress that looked like it could have come from the Middle Ages. It was black and red, and trailed on the ground behind her. The road was making the train of it quite dusty, which was a shame, because it really was a nice dress.

I can only remember seeing that dress too well. I have seen it twice in my life, and it was never when I was awake. Isaac had stopped the car to speak to Queen Hannah, who was standing by the side of the road. In real life. I didn’t faint this time, I merely chuckled. What else would I do? This was all becoming as weird as one of my dreams. Weirder. In my dreams the Queen stayed in her castle and Collin stayed in the Establishment. 

Elizabeth saw Queen Hannah too, and she heard my chuckle. “That wouldn’t also be someone from your dreams by any chance, would it?” She asked. When I nodded she gave a huge dramatic sigh. “How will we ever make it to the hospital with my son stopping to have lovely chats with people who used to be inhabiting your brain?” She realized what it was she was saying, and looked out the window again. “Wait, why is Isaac talking to Queen Hannah in the first place. Something is wrong here.” She stepped out of the car and marched over to her son and the Queen. She was shorter than both of them, but when she shouted, I saw the two recoil. Queen Hannah was looking at her surroundings with a mixture of interest and disdain. Isaac held on to her arm to keep her from going anywhere. A car sped past me, and I realized that Isaac had not bothered taking the effort to park the car, and simply left it sitting in the middle of the freeway.

I didn’t care for the situation at all, but I would rather be standing on the side of the road with Elizabeth and two people who I wasn’t sure of than sitting in the middle of the road waiting to be squished. I ran to the group of people, hoping to hear what they were arguing so heatedly about, but they all became silent as I reached them.

When Queen Hannah recognized me, she broke free of Isaac’s grip and advanced forward, sneering. “So! You are surprised to see me here aren’t you? You thought that with that little top secret organization there would be a way to watch me and the castle without my knowledge, didn’t you?” She laughed very loudly, and a minivan with a charming family of five slowed to a stop in amazement. She saw the children staring and ran up to the window to press her face against the glass. “What do you want?!?!?!” She hollered and the baby started to wail back at her. Queen Hannah stuck her tongue out and kicked the fender of the minivan before returning to our little group. The van sped away at top speed.

Queen Hannah is obviously still as crazy as she was in my dreams. When she returned to the side of the road, she was muttering something under her breath. “What was that?” Isaac asked her, taking her by the arms again. Two other cars sped past us, obscuring our hearing. I saw Queen Hannah say something into Isaac’s ear. I didn’t like to see how friendly Elizabeth’s son was with a crazed evil queen from my dreamworld. Elizabeth didn’t like it either. She slapped Isaac’s hands away from the queens arms and pointed towards the car.

“If we stand here by the side of the road much longer, we are going to draw the attention of the police. I suggest, no don’t take this for a suggestion, I say that we should go back into the car and continue our journey to the hospital. Isaac, you will drive, and Queen Hannah, you will come with us. No one, and I mean no one, is to cause any trouble.” She looked at Queen Hannah as she said the last bit, and refused to relinquish her grip on the struggling woman’s wrists.

I was the first back in the car, wanting just a few seconds to myself before everyone else would surround me to squabble about what to do. There was nothing I wanted more at that time than to just turn around with Elizabeth and go back to the tea shop and just forget about all these strange goings on. But that was impossible.

Queen Hannah crawled into the seat next to me with an air of dignity that I remembered from the dream I had of her and the castle. She adjusted her dress and sighed with a dramatic huff. “Of course I would be sitting with you.” She grumbled to me, as though I had insulted her honor in some way. “Back at the castle, I am given a carriage of my own. Here I have to sit in a tin carriage with a young girl who can not possibly grasp the influence of my powers.” She looked at me as she said this, hoping to gage me reaction. I didn’t give her the pleasure of seeing me sweat, although I was rather uncomfortable myself. I can deal with volatile people in my dreams, since I can wake up from them. But in real life, where things are done once and then they are final, I am not quite as comfortable being around crazy queens who never liked me to begin with.

“You know, I never liked you to begin with.” Queen Hannah was speaking to me, but she wasn’t even looking in my direction. Instead, she watched me from the window, seeing everything as a reflection. It was very odd, but I preferred it to the wild eyed stare I still remember from my dream of her. “Seemed very sneaky. No wonder my wolves didn’t take to you.”

“Your wolves?”

“Yes silly girl! My wolves!” She turned away from the reflections to look at me plainly. “The first time you came to my castle, the time I didn’t invite you, you were attacked by my wolves out in the garden. Don’t you remember that?”

I almost did not remember, but then the images of that particular dream flooded into my head. When dreams come out from memory they hit you like a brick wall, and everyone in the car heard me gasp as I remembered the wolves at me heels in that frightening garden. Queen Hannah grinned. “I don’t understand how you got away so quickly, but they were pretty angry for a while. They howled for hours, and I couldn’t finish my dinner in peace.”

“I’m sorry to hear that.” But, in reality, I wasn’t at all sorry. Because I had just remembered another aspect of that dream, something equally if not more chilling than the wolves in the castle garden. I remembered seeing that Queen Hannah was nearly identical to my friend Hannah, just older. For some reason, here in real life, I hadn’t noticed so quickly. I think, and this is just a guess, but I think that I was supposed to notice that in the dream, so it was made a lot clearer. Here, I could tell, but only if I was looking for these small details. But now that I was looking, I could see traces of Hannah everywhere. The way the corner of her lips were turned up in a slightly sardonic smile, or the almost purple tint of her eyes helped me recognize the face. Not to mention, the same dramatic tilt of her head and the perfect posture. It worried me a bit, especially the thought that now this suspicious woman was prowling our real earth.

“Alright, listen up all of you.” Elizabeth had closed her door with authority, and was speaking as though she knew exactly what to do. We could all only hope that she really did know what to do. “Here is what we will do. We will drive Kathryn to the hospital and have her head checked out. While we are waiting, and yes, we will all be waiting, we will have a small chat with this Queen Hannah.” Hannah kicked the seat in front of her, meriting a glare from Isaac. 

“Don’t kick my chair, Hannah, or you won’t make it to the hospital.” He gripped the steering wheel tightly, as if he were trying to restrain himself from hitting something.

“That’s Queen Hannah the Cold to you, Mulkin.” She growled back. “Also, if I had kicked that seat with all my might, there would be a giant hole right in your rear end.”

Isaac opened his mouth to retort, but was interrupted by his mother. “And, while we are having a friendly chat, we will discuss just how it is that you and our queen here seem to be previously acquainted.”

No one spoke for the rest of the ride, but I could hear Queen Hannah humming off key to herself the whole time. Maybe I was the only one who noticed it, or maybe not, but no one mentioned anything. I would be damned to break the silence and start the arguments again, so I just kept my mouth shut and tried to work everything out in my own head. 

We got to the hospital in around ten minutes without any more side adventures. I hate hospitals, I have always hated hospitals, and I especially hate being the one the hospital is paying attention. It makes me worry. Maybe it’s being so close to death all the time, seeing sick people and dead people and nurses and doctors, or maybe it’s the smell. That smell that shouldn’t be a part of anyone’s life. It just doesn’t seem natural. So clean, as though the people there are trying to cover up a different smell, and can almost do it, but not quite. It’s very unsettling. 

It will come as no surprise to anyone that I was not pleased to be told that I would be spending the night at the hospital.

The nurse who gave me this news must have been hired on the spot when the interviewer heard her voice. It was the most motherly, the most calming voice I had ever heard. I almost wanted to believe her when she said, “It’s hard to believe that you weren’t knocked out for longer with a head injury like this. It is absolutely necessary that you spend the night here, so we can make sure it’s safe for you to walk around on your own. Believe me, honey, this is what’s best for you. Just relax.” 

Hah. Relax, when I am being told, sneakily, that I have a dangerous head injury and must spend the entire night breathing in the fumes of cleaning solution. I asked for her to please bring Elizabeth into the room, so that I could talk to her. Elizabeth poked her head in to say that she couldn’t come in, as she didn’t trust Isaac and Queen Hannah alone together. As a result, I had to bide my time sitting in the hospital bed writing in this diary alone. I wasn’t alone for too long though, because eventually Lily showed up. This was exactly what I did not want to happen today.

“What happened to you?” She whispered to me, as though the sound of her voice would disturb someone if she raised it. Since there was no one in the room, I thought this was a bit silly, but I didn’t say anything about that. “Do you want me and Rob to stay at the hospital with you?”

It was almost sad to see Lily so worried about me, since she worries so much as it is. I didn’t want to have to watch her pacing by my bed all night, I wanted her to be able to go home and sleep well. “Really, I feel fine!” I said, patting her hand and trying to get her to sit down. “They just want to keep me here so that my head can get completely better before I go walking around.”


She didn’t seem completely convinced. “Are you sure? It’s not out of our way.” It took me ten more minutes to convince her that I was comfy, that I felt fine, and that I would feel better if she would just GO HOME. She consented, but didn’t leave right away. “Can I at least talk to the lady that brought you here. She is your employer isn’t she?”

Oh dear. Not part of the plan. Once again, it isn’t like I don’t want Lily knowing anything about me, but the psychic and tea shop was something I was planning on keeping a secret for a little while longer. But there was no escape now, so I had to face the music. “Um, sure, if you want to. That is, if she is available right now. I think she is still here.” I knew she was. To be perfectly frank, it was not Elizabeth that I was worried about Lily meeting. Elizabeth can be perfectly charming and sociable with people, and without a trace of her out there psychic act. Isaac, on the other hand, was nearly always rude and sarcastic. Of course, he was nothing compared to Queen Hannah, and that was my main concern. Queen Hannah and Lily. Two women of singular vision, to put it nicely. Pig headed and paranoid were the technical terms.

Amazingly enough, luck was on my side in this aspect of the day. Isaac had left to drive Queen Hannah to the tea shop, and Elizabeth was going to wait at the hospital for a little while longer. I let Lilly talk to her for a while, and then said goodbye without chatting much longer. I was getting rather tired, and my headache had returned. 

Elizabeth is now sitting in one of the supposedly comfortable chairs here in the room while I finish up writing this. She brought be Farrendian tea, which was somehow in a thermos in the car all along. How lucky, because it’s helped me relax a great deal. It really is a good thing that I brought this journal with me, or I would probably forget all of this before I got back home. Maybe today was supposed to happen this way, but I sure would have preferred that it not end with me drifting off at the hospital. And I am certainly drifting off right now. I bet they gave me some kind of sleeping medication with that painkiller. Way to tell me...

Gypsies were dancing in circles around bonfires, but Kathryn didn’t join in their dance. The sound of the drums and fiddles were inviting, but she restrained herself. She was a stranger in these parts, and the dance was somewhat foreign. All Kathryn did was clap her hands to the beat and watch in awe as the dancers whirled around and around. 

The dance carried on for several minutes, with the beat of the drums growing louder and the tune of the fiddles becoming more and more frantic. The dancers were just blurs now, whirling around a flame that seemed to want to touch the sky. It was magical, and Kathryn found her feet tapping without her knowledge, wanting to join in the dance. But she wouldn’t join in, because she was a stranger in these parts. She didn’t want to overstay her welcome.

The fire was warming to her front, but with her back to the woods, Kathryn was beginning to get cold. The summer air had a bit of a chill to it, the chill of fall creeping into the world. It gave her goose bumps, and she had to inch closer to the fire to make them go away. One of the gypsy women noticed her moving in closer, and came to sit by her.

“Why have you not joined in the dance? You are young, and your legs are still strong. Dance while you can.” She wore a turban like wrap on her head, but some wisps of steel grey hair fell on her cheekbones, giving her the look of a woman twenty years younger. But she was an old woman, her eyes showed this. Kathryn could see wisdom in the black eyes now staring at her. Wisdom, but also something else. There was a sort of sadness in this old gypsy woman, and the traces of a suffering from long ago. No sadness was on her face tonight though, and the firelight gave her skin a glow of youth. She smiled lopsided smile and pointed Kathryn to the group of dancers, who were resting from the tiring dance. “Go. Enjoy the night. I will watch you all.”

Kathryn just shook her head. “I will not dance tonight. Tonight, I just want to watch. Maybe another time.” She probably would not be back another time, but she didn’t want to seem ungrateful. The old gypsy woman nodded and settled down next to Kathryn. She pulled out a pipe and began to smoke it.

“You smoke?” She asked Kathryn, and offered the pipe. Kathryn shook her head and pushed it away.

“No, I do not. But feel free to, the smell doesn’t really bother me.” The lavender smoke did smell rather good. It wasn’t a tobacco smell, but more of a summery smell. Like roses and berries and chamomile. It reminded Kathryn of tea. 

“A wise decision on your part, my dear.” The woman said. “It certainly isn’t doing my lungs a favor.” She exhaled another puff of the purple smoke, and watched it until it disappeared into the starry skies above.

“Why do you smoke it then?” Kathryn inquired. “Are you addicted to it?”

“Addicted to this stuff? No, certainly not!” The old woman laughed at the suggestion. Her whole body shook, and the turban slipped off her head a little bit. She had to readjust it. “I smoke it because it helps me with my psychic abilities. The Farrendian flower has a property that somehow helps with psychic readings. I don’t understand how it works, but I have been getting vivid readings ever since I started to smoke the Farrendian petals with my tobacco.”

Kathryn choked back a gasp. This woman knew of the Farrendian flower. “Do you mean to tell me that the Farrendian flower is what makes you a psychic?”

“No, no, no!” The old woman pulled the pipe out of her mouth and waved it in Kathryn’s direction. She continued, indignantly. “I am a psychic by both blood and birth! I can get visions and premonitions without the flower. All the flower does is help me remember my visions more clearly, and it puts them into a recognizable order in my head. Very useful stuff, Farrendian. It has helped me in so many ways, so my lungs are a small price to pay. They are a price though, have no doubt of that. I shall die soon, I know, but very well known and loved. My daughter will have to carry on my psychic blood.” She looked sad, and the lines on her face were much more visible now.

“Is your daughter a psychic too?” Kathryn asked. She suspected that she would be, but since she knew nothing about psychics, she asked anyway. Maybe psychic abilities skipped a generation or something.

“Yes.” The woman got up slowly, and Kathryn could almost hear her bones creaking. Somehow, it seemed that the woman had aged in the ten minutes or so that they had been talking. She took a walking cane up from next to her, and leant on it, swaying slightly. The sight made Kathryn want to cry for a reason not known. Old age was always something that worried her, maybe even more than death itself. 

Once she was standing upright, the woman started to walk towards the fire. “Yes,” she said again. “My daughter is a psychic. And maybe a better one than I am.” She smiled at Kathryn then, and waved goodbye. “If you are ever back here in gypsy country, tell whomever you find that you are a friend of Caroline Mulkin. You will be treated with respect.”

Mulkin. Like Elizabeth. Could this be Elizabeth’s mother? “Caroline!” Kathryn called out, getting up from the slightly dewy ground. “Caroline, wait!” Both of her feet were asleep, and she stumbled slightly as she tried to run near the campfire, where Caroline was handing her pipe to a gypsy man with a long black beard.

If Caroline Mulkin had heard Kathryn, she didn’t let it show. Kathryn watched in shock as the old woman took off her cloak and spread it out on the ground. Now she stood in just a deep purple silk robe. It matched her turban. Without so much as a glance to any of the other gypsies standing around the bonfire, Caroline walked into the blaze. Kathryn gasped, and the sound echoed through out the cold air. No one turned to look at her, even though she was the only one who had made a sound. All the others simply watched Caroline as she stood in the blaze.

Above the crackling of the fire, Kathryn could hear someone singing a haunting song. The words were not in English, but she could clearly understood their general meaning. They sounded like deep sleep on a quiet night, and flying in the winter. They sounded like a farewell. The song was beautiful and sad, so much so that it brought Kathryn to tears. She saw through them Caroline collapsing in the bonfire. Still, no one made a move.

With a great cracking sound, the logs and sticks in the fire broke and shot into the night sky. Bright red ashes fell down among the small crowd, but cooled off before hitting the ground. There Kathryn saw a great bird made of fire soaring into the sky, still singing the song. Flames fell down onto the gypsies, who all watched this phoenix flying up higher still. 

Kathryn heard the fluttering of wings then, and saw the gypsies turning into birds. Ravens, owls, hawks, and herons were there, as well as exotic birds that she didn’t know the name of. They all took to the sky, singing along with the phoenix, who was leading them towards the stars.

Either still December 9th, or early morning of the 10th

I woke up a few minutes ago, with everything from that dream still running through my head. That was Elizabeth’s mother, or her grandmother. I am sure of that. And Farrendian tea is to help with psychic powers! I needed to write this down before I forgot it all.

It is not pleasant to wake up in a hospital alone. I don’t know when Elizabeth left, but now I only have the beeping machines and hushed voices of the nurses outside to keep me company. I don’t know how I will fall asleep again.