Death is Only the Beginning, Chapter 8.1 from the Irish Fantasy Novel: We Come Back: Vol. 1
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Death is Only the Beginning
As Jack reached the woods, he didn’t stop to catch
his breath, he could feel his heart pounding like it never had before, but he forced himself to run down the trail. He was soaked from head to toe, but the rain seemed somehow lighter under the trees. As he ran he searched with his eyes wondering what he would find, but the farther he went the more he realized that in the darkness of the cloud cover, he had gotten off the trail, and now he was lost. He had no idea what direction to go in, and each time he would start off one way, it seemed he would back track and see familiar spots. Just as he was starting to become frantic, he heard movement in the brush near the trees to the right of him.
The closer he got to the brush the more the air seemed to stand still.
Suddenly, two does stepped out in front of him,
looking at him. He recognized these deer from another trip in the woods. They stared at him, as if trying to convey a message. They walked in front of him and through the trees, but kept stopping, and looking back, as if they were waiting for him to follow. He looked around realizing there wasn’t much else he could do, but decided to stay a good five feet behind them, so as not to scare them. Before he knew it, they had led him back to the trail. He took a deep breath, and stared up the trail; when he turned to appreciate them, they were gone.
He wasted no time, sprinting further and further
up the trail. When he saw me sitting against a tree, he rushed over to me, throwing himself down in front of me, and putting his hands on my face lifting it to his.
“Rae?” he whispered.
He was shaking, from the adrenaline or his cold,
wet body he didn’t know which. I opened my eyes, it was him. He had come for me, though I had only called to him in my mind. I smiled, and wrapped my hands around his wrists. He stared into my eyes, worried beyond belief. I looked so exhausted, and seemed to have lost a certain luster that had made my skin tone stand out so much.
“Come on, let me help you up. We need to go to the house and get out of this storm. You need to dry off,” he tried to pull me up, but I resisted, pulling him back down with me.
“Jack, I have to tell you something and I have to tell you now.”
“I don’t understand. Why can it not wait?” he asked.
“If I do not tell you now, I fear I never will. Jack, I…”
I searched for my courage. He could see that I needed to do this, I needed to say something, and he would not deny me of that, but rather encouraged me. He got comfortable, and began rubbing my arms with his hands, leaning in close, so that I might use as little energy on voice control as possible.
“Jack, I… I am… not… I mean… I don’t live… here.”
“The county, you mean?”
“No…”
“Ireland?”
“Earth.”
He stopped rubbing my arms, thinking ‘did I hear her correctly?’
“Pardon?”
“Earth Jack, I don’t reside on Earth,”
I began speaking at an incredible speed, as tears began flowing down my face, “that is why I cannot stay an entire evening here with you. I am an Etherian Jack, I, I live on Pastel, in the constellation of Pleiades where every human must eventually come to. I am sure you have grown up surrounded by the stories of old, the stories of the Fare Folk and the changes they make, have you not?”
“I have,” he whispered seriously.
He had personal experiences aside from the stories, which he reflected upon while he listened.
“That night when you saw me, you were the first human being ever to see me, ever to speak to me. I thought I was dreaming. I knew it couldn’t be real. Yet here I am. I travel on the wind through the moonlight bridge.”
We sat in silence, until I couldn’t stand the suspense
any longer, “I am not what you had hoped for me to be. I feel as if I have lived in a lie but you cannot blame me for taking all the time I could with you before telling you. I deeply apologize that I didn’t tell you before now Jack,” I couldn’t seem to stop crying, though I tried desperately.
For a second, at the beginning of our conversation, he thought maybe I was delirious from the rain, but now, he knew I was serious. He could see it by the pain expressed on my face that I entirely believed what I was saying, and in his love for me, so did he. Jack swallowed, and took a deep breath to steady himself before responding.
“Astraea, you are exactly…” he paused, forcing me to look at him, “what I hoped you were.”
I suddenly felt much weaker, yet my heart felt
like it would burst with joy. I smiled, and whispered, “I think you should take us back to your house now.”
He helped me to my feet, and let me lean on him, while we walked ever so slowly, down the trail.
“You know, I am not as surprised by your truth, as you might have thought.”
“That, I completely agree on. Why is that? I must sound raving mad. I feared you would get up and walk off, and that would be the last I ever saw of you.”
“Well to be honest, I knew something about you wasn’t the same as everyone else. Your looks are easily dismissed as great genetics.” I smiled at this compliment.
“Your manners are impeccable, and your vocabulary of the highest quality. And though your skin is very white, and seems to glow like freshly fallen snow, it isn’t what tipped me off. No, you see I couldn’t sleep last night.”
He was lightening the mood, and I liked it.
Farenton was in sight now, and the closer we got the warmer I felt.
“No? Whatever did you do, pray?”
“No, I could not. I lit a candle and set it on an end table, next to my favorite chair. I grabbed a throw blanket and sunk down into it, to think. I leaned my head back and looked at the paintings on my ceiling, though I wasn’t really looking, it more served as a background while I was lost in thought. Just as I thought I would climb back into bed, I saw something on my ceiling that I had not really looked at in a very long time.”
“What was it?”
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Table of Contents
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