How I edit my own work - Plus a story to read too - 15

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He lied again and said, “I buried you in utter misery. The Priestess that married us performed the ceremonies.”

He held her gaze and a solitary tear formed at the corner of one eye and he allowed it to fall, not wiping it away.

“Your severed hand was placed over your heart and I blessed the area before I dug the grave, at dawn the next day. Why are you still in this half-world? What holds you here?”

At that lie, he seemed unable or unwilling to look into her eyes and he dropped his gaze to the ground, making it appear he still felt the sadness surrounding her death.

Katherine almost balked at his bald-faced lie but she managed to keep her composure.

“I can only imagine that is it the absence of knowledge on my part of where my mortal remains lie buried. Perhaps that is what holds you in this spirit world also?”

She made up a lie of her own. “Perhaps you are held here waiting to tell me where you buried me? I must roam in between these worlds until I have seen my own grave.”

Katherine noticed confusion on his face for a moment before he recovered his own poise and decided to go along with her theory.

“That is easily resolved!” He took her by her ghost of a right hand and led her, seeming not to notice the absence of the hand.

As he took hold of her, Katherine felt a compulsion to pull from his grip. She felt an unpleasant tingle as he touched the ghost of the hand he had stolen.

The sensation she felt as he held her hand was akin to holding your hand onto a block of ice – the numbness spread, insinuating through her bones and even along her veins – so it seemed.

He took her swiftly back to the land of the living. The wood where he had murdered her was still there; more dense than before.

They passed a lovely house beneath them, with barns and fields; it was obvious that it belonged to an affluent owner.

Over more woodland they travelled, roughly Westward. They arrived at a church at the top of a hill, a town just beginning to establish itself around it.

He pointed and said, “Your body lies at the North end of the Churchyard.”

“On consecrated ground?” she asked, bewildered.

“Of course not! Our Goddess does not follow this church and is not represented by it.” His tone had lost a little of the patience he had shown in the spirit side of the veil and Katherine wondered if it was easier for him to be modest there than in the mortal world.

“Why bury me here then?” Her mind began to form questions and some, she knew would have to be kept back, for if she gave voice to them, he would know that his lie had been uncovered and he would be wary.

“The church was not here then but it is the highest hill and it is therefore a good landmark. It is somewhere I knew I would always find – so that I can come and remember you – what we almost had together.”

His eyes cast downward again, hands fitted into his opposite sleeve as a monk would stand. He had taken on the stance of piety – and Katherine suspected it was more for effect than virtue.

At one time, while she was alive, Katherine would have been moved by his emotive speech. Before, when she did not know his true colours, she would have believed his lies. Her thoughts and questions tumbled around in her mind and the prevailing question was, ‘How could I have been so foolish as to be deceived by this evil creature?’

She at once realised what she must do. She looked at the place where he had pointed then turned back to Dominic. “I must go, Dominic. I feel peace now. I can move further on. Thank you – husband.”

She departed towards her grave, her head down, she hoped she looked like she prayed.

She strolled away from him, keeping her head still, yet glancing all around, searching for other markers for her to remember. She desperately needed to remember, but she wanted Dominic to believe she was still that foolish, naïve girl he’d murdered.

She stopped at the side of her grave – for she knew at least that part was true, he had not lied about the place he had buried her remains - probably in the hope that she would disappear.

She felt as though she had returned home from great distances – which effectively, she had - great distances of time. She knew that she would be able to find the gravesite again, even if it was devoid of markers, her heart and soul had noted the place, and she would never forget it.

As she stepped further away from her own grave and her murderer, she saw the hint of a sneer on his face – a nasty expression of loathing – and she knew she had only deserved his disdain because she had allowed herself to be deceived and she kept herself naïve by not questioning him, by not taking control of her own destiny.

As the sneer dropped from his face as though it had never been there, and he gave a sad little smile and a wave to her departure, she felt thoroughly justified in lying to him.

She gave no inclination that she had seen the sneer and moved through the trees away from him.

She caught a glimpse of something then, something scuttling away, not quite in view, more a hint of movement.

Katherine stopped and stood still to see if she could spot it, but every time she saw something move, it had gone before she could lock her sight onto it.

She looked to see what it was, tried to pre-empt where it would be next, but it evaded her, even though she could use supernatural means to find it.

Morgana appeared in a place that Katherine guessed the creature would appear next, she was smiling.

“Mother,” Katherine whispered.

Morgana put a finger to her lips to indicate silence.

The smile fell from her face and she stepped forward, beckoning with both arms extended to either side of her. Two creatures – mismatched in body, and unnatural in colour – with a great deal of hesitance and caution approached from either side of the Goddess.

“Demi-demons, why do you stalk this spirit – my servant? Speak truth, I command you.”

“Morgana,” the twin creatures croaked in unison, giving an odd echoing effect. “We do not stalk, we watch.”

The creatures stood as though that had answered her question.

Morgana raised her eyebrow to indicate displeasure at their stubbornness and they coughed, not quite together.

“We see a spirit captured in the world of man. We are… curious. We have heard her speak with the other spirit. She tells him half-truths and she does not believe his lies. We are attracted to lies and liars; you know this, it is our nature.”