Haven’t read Chapter One yet? Click here to read it!
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five

Christine sat frozen in her bed, staring at the man who was walking confidently in through the passage in her wall. She had thought that Radek was out of the castle. That’s what Gervis had told her yesterday.
Lord Radek didn’t look as pleased with her today as he had yesterday. His hair still hung limply around his face, and there was a sardonic twist to his mouth.

“Expecting someone else?” he asked slyly, a hostile glint in his unusual green eyes.

Christine didn’t know what to say. He obviously knew about Gervis’ visit the day before. His words, combined with the comments made by Giselle earlier, made that all too obvious. She pulled the blankets up tightly around herself and just stared at him.

“Relax sweetling,” he cooed dryly, “I know it was not your fault. Gervis is a bit soft in the head for girls sometimes.   I should have
known that he could never resist you.” He chuckled. “I have to say though, I did not know that he was aware of this passage. That was rather precocious of him.”

Christine felt a wave of relief pass over her. He didn’t sound too angry with Gervis either. Lord Radek reached down, grasped her chin between his rigid fingers and turned her face upward, so that she was looking into his intense, emerald eyes. A flash of fear shot through her, but it only lasted for a moment.

She suddenly felt an overwhelming longing to please Lord Radek sweep over her, overcoming the fright that she had initially felt at his touch. The last thing she wanted was for him to be angry with her. He was so fascinating and mysterious. She wanted to learn everything there was to know about him. She wanted … she wanted … his love. That’s all she really wanted – to be worthy of Lord Radek’s love. Some part of her knew that this was wrong, that these feelings were not her own, but she was unable to resist the strong urge to please the man in front of her.

Christine found herself smiling radiantly at Lord Radek and he smiled back.

“Oh, how lovely. Sweetling, you have the loveliest smile. I wish I could see it more often.”

Christine’s smile widened. She was so happy he was there! She jumped up from the bed and threw her arms around Lord Radek, burrowing her face in his shoulder.

“Please don’t be angry. I don’t want you to ever be angry with me,” she begged.

Lord Radek chuckled. He took Christine’s hand and led her back to the bed. He lay her down on her back, and began gently running his fingers up and down her legs and her arms very sensuously, lifting the hem of her nightgown and sliding his fingers underneath.

“You are so very lovely, Christine,” he murmured, “I could never be angry with you.”

Christine’s mind drifted back to her wonderful dream. She realized now that it hadn’t been a dream at all. It had been Lord Radek. His wonderful kisses. His sensuous touch. She felt like she would never need another man as long as she had Lord Radek. Any romantic thoughts of Gervis had evaporated from her mind.

“That is right, my sweet. You will never need anyone else. Until the day you die, I will be your everything.”

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

 

When Christine opened her eyes, she could tell that it was late afternoon by the change in the angle of the sun’s rays through her window. As she looked around her room, wondering if Radek was still there, she found Giselle looking down at her with a look of disgust on her face.

“Are you going to stay in bed all day? You’ve only been here one day. I hope you don’t think I’m here to wait on you hand and foot.” With that comment, Giselle stormed out of the room, carrying the morning dishes with her. Christine took note of the sound of her locking the door behind her.

She was in bed. How had she gotten there? She remembered having breakfast, then looking for some way to access the passageway. Then she had decided to take a nap. But … something else.

It all came flooding back and Christine felt the colour rush to her face. Lord Radek had been there! Her mouth twisted in disgust as she remembered her behaviour towards him. Had she really fawned over him like that? What the hell had come over her? Maybe she really did have a concussion! The warmth from her face spread as she remembered what she had let … no … encouraged … Lord Radek to do to her. It could have been worse – she didn’t remember actually having sex with him – but what she did remember was bad enough. She felt dirty and violated and yearned for some way to wash herself to somehow get clean again.

She had to get out of there, that’s all there was to it. This place was doing strange things to her mind. Christine sat up in bed, then lay immediately back down as a wave of dizziness enveloped her. Concussion seemed to become a more likely explanation by the minute. And she was so very tired. She knew that Giselle was right, and she shouldn’t spend all day in bed, but she didn’t see that she had anything else to do in her luxurious prison. A bit more rest couldn’t hurt. When she was more awake she could think up an escape plan.

Christine closed her eyes, and she was fast asleep in seconds.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

When Sarah awoke, the light was already growing dim. She sat up quickly, which set off a fit of coughing. Hillard came quickly over and handed her a cup of tea in a tin cup.
When the fit finally passed, Sarah sipped the tea. It wasn’t black tea, it smelled strongly of ginger. It had the combined effect of warming her chilled bones and soothing her raw throat, which felt like it was lined with razor blades. Her cold was definitely developing into something worse.

“I’m sorry I don’t have anything for you to eat,” Hillard apologized, “but we should be at the cabin of a friend of mine later on tonight. She’ll have something I’m sure.”

Sarah was surprised at the pang of jealousy that shot through her when she heard Hillard use the pronoun ‘she’ for his friend. His girlfriend maybe? Why should she care? He was just some homeless guy who was helping her to find her sister. She reached into her bag and grabbed the sandwiches that Elke had prepared for her and Christine the day before and handed one to Hillard. Sarah was too hungry to worry about spoilage – the sandwiches tasted great, although it was extremely painful to swallow. She used the tea to wash the sandwich down more gently. Once she had finished, Hillard handed the other sandwich back to her, uneaten, insisting that he wasn’t hungry and that she needed the strength to travel and fight off her illness. She took it gratefully and soon there was nothing left but crumbs.

She felt ashamed of her jealous thoughts when she realized that Hillard had kept the fire going for her all day and had left her with all of the blankets as she slept. The crisp November air was chilly and she knew that he must have been cold. So what if he did have a girlfriend? She shouldn’t be surprised. He was attractive, caring, and charming. Besides, what right did she have to be jealous? It wasn’t like he would ever be interested in someone like her.

“Are you sure you’re okay to travel?” he asked, as he looked her over with concern in his eyes. She didn’t look at all well. Her face was flushed with fever and her breathing was ragged. He needed to get her to some real shelter soon, or she would become too sick to walk. He was developing a need for some real shelter as well. He couldn’t spend another entire day out in the sunlight without feeding.

He considered trying to heal her, but suspected that she wouldn’t react well. In fact, if she had any idea of his true nature it was likely that she would panic and flee. Then she would be worse off than she was now.

“I’m fine,” she insisted, crossly. She wasn’t really angry at him for being concerned. She was more irritated with herself for her feelings of jealousy.

Hillard began folding the blankets and putting them back into his bag while Sarah finished her tea. He handed her the folded emergency blanket. Silently, she put it back into her bag. She told herself that she was being silly. She really needed to pull herself together so that she could find and rescue Christine.

That last thought got her moving. She handed the empty cup to Hillard and started walking towards the road, before Hillard had a chance to put the cup in his bag.  She had spent the entire day sleeping! Who knew what was happening to Christine while she was lying around.

They walked down the road in silence for awhile. Sarah was concentrating on breathing – her lungs hurt and she was pretty sure that her fever was still high. For some reason she started thinking about the outrageous hypothesis that Hillard had thrown at her earlier. It was an interesting idea, that the fog was a gate, and she was in a parallel universe. She smiled. It sounded like something that would be a good plot for a fantasy novel.

As she walked, she looked around, trying to identify any familiar landmarks. The small range of large hills that she had thought earlier were part of Mount McKay was similar to what she would expect if she were heading into Thunder Bay. The only problem was the lack of houses along the way and the absence of the two major ski facilities – Loch Lomond and Big Thunder. Normally, the paths for skiers, cut through the thickly forested hillside, were obvious. There was no sign of them here.

About an hour later, they came to a broad river. There was a wide wooden bridge spanning the water. Something about the river seemed familiar, but Sarah pushed all of those kinds of thoughts away. She continued to insist to herself that they were on some road that possibly ran parallel to the highway. She and Christine must have just somehow turned off the highway in the fog. It wasn’t that unlikely. She hadn’t been able to see five feet ahead of her at the time, let alone the sides of the road. She could easily imagine that they had gotten off-track. Any other explanation was just impossible.

Hillard silently watched his travelling companion. She looked really rough. Her cold was obviously developing into some sort of secondary infection and he hoped that she would make it to the cottage. He knew that he could carry her, if necessary, but while carrying a woman and three bags was not something that would tax him or his abilities, Sarah’s reaction to such a feat was not an idea that appealed to him.

The night grew darker and darker and there were clouds covering the moon. Soon, Sarah was having a hard time even seeing a few feet in front of her. It reminded her of driving through the fog. She pushed that thought out of her mind again, not wanting to think about it, or the implications of what Hillard had been trying to tell her earlier.

After almost tripping over some loose stones on the road that she didn’t see because of the darkness, Sarah reached out and grabbed Hillard’s hand. He didn’t seem to have any trouble at all seeing in the dark. She considered using her flashlight, but didn’t want to run out of batteries and thought that they might need it if the night got any darker.

Hillard tried to ignore the feeling of Sarah’s warm hand in his. It was actually quite hot – her fever must be really high. Part of him felt so protective of her, the other part wanted to run away from the attraction he felt towards her. He couldn’t afford to get involved with someone as innocent as she was. He had too many obligations towards Adalaide.

Sarah was starting to feel a little dizzy and was happy to have Hillard’s steady hand in her own. They reached a crossroad and Hillard led her off to the right. She still had no idea where they were, but decided to trust that Hillard was the nice guy he appeared to be. He had taken very good care of her at their last stop. If he had less than innocent intentions, he could have made his move back then. He’d had her at his mercy while she had been sleeping. He essentially had her at his mercy now, too, while she couldn’t see and didn’t have any idea where she was. But for some reason she felt safe with Hillard.

“How long until we get to the cottage?” she asked, after what seemed like an eternity since they had left their resting place.

“We should be there within the hour,” he said. “We’ll reach the lake soon and then we just follow the shore to Adalaide’s cabin.”

‘Adalaide,’ Sarah thought, ‘So that’s what her name is.’ Jealousy reared its ugly head again and Sarah pictured what Adalaide might look like. She was probably a tall, leggy blond, with big breasts and a tiny waist. She most likely had blue eyes and the face of an angel. Unable to help herself, Sarah asked, “Is she pretty?”

Hillard thought for a moment before answering. “She’s beautiful. She’s very full of life and, although she doesn’t always realize it, she has a really good heart.” He looked like he was lost in thought after he answered and Sarah didn’t want to interrupt him by asking any more questions. His tone had answered her next question anyway – it was obvious that he had some very deep feelings for this woman.

Sarah didn’t know why she’d even bothered asking. She’d just met this guy. Besides, she was still married to Paul, the asshole that he was. She just focussed on walking, watching the ground in front of her. It felt as though they had been walking for hours, and perhaps they had – Sarah’s sense of time was as muddled as her stuffy head.  Nevertheless, they must be getting close to the city by now.

She knew she was right when she began to hear the cries of seagulls in the distance.  They must be in close proximity to the lake. The sun was starting to come up and she was relieved to finally be able to see what was under her feet and directly in front of her.

The lake, of course, was Lake Superior, the largest fresh water lake in the world. Whenever Sarah travelled away from Thunder Bay, it was always the lake that she missed most, much in the same way she imagined people who lived next to the ocean felt about their ‘big water.’ It was a majestic sight to see, the water stretching so far out into the distance that you couldn’t see the other side. It really did look like an ocean, if you didn’t know better, and couldn’t tell the difference in smell between fresh water and salt. It was just a few days ago that Sarah had been sitting in Christine’s apartment, sipping her coffee and gazing out, over the lake, and admiring her old friend the Sleeping Giant.

The road Sarah and Hillard were on came to an end, branching out into two paths perpendicular to the original road. Sarah looked at Hillard for any indication of which path to take.

Hillard had paused, an idea tickling at the edges of his mind. Finally he nodded, as if he had made a big decision, tightened his grip on Sarah’s hand and said, “Follow me. I think there’s something you need to see.” Still holding her hand, he led her straight ahead, into the woods. They tromped through the wild woods, no open path available to them, thickets scratching at them, climbing over the big pieces of deadwood that blocked their way. Finally they emerged onto a flat expanse of rock which Sarah recognised immediately as part of the Canadian Shield. It led into the unmistakable waters of Lake Superior. There, far out in the bay, was her familiar friend the Sleeping Giant. The sun was rising behind it and it was as beautiful as ever.

Sarah just stared at it for a moment until she realized that something wasn’t right about her view. The vista she had of the Giant was one that she would have had if she were standing in Marina Park. Normally, the Giant looked different, depending on where you were looking at it from – that’s how she knew that she should have been standing at the Marina.  From the back, and from the top of Mount McKay, the Giant almost looked like a woman, with rock protruding where two breasts might be. From Marina Park, the protrusion looked more like an Adam’s apple.  As she stared out into the bay, she realized that the discomfort she felt was related to the fact that something else was missing from her view – there was no breakwater and no lighthouse – two items that would be visible at any point along the western shore near the city.

She turned around and looked behind her, trying to spot the city that she knew should be there. There was forest – pine trees and birch trees – in abundance. There was a hill, where she knew Port Arthur sloped upward to Hillcrest Park and there, at the top of the hill, where the doctor’s houses normally stood, looking out at the best view in the city, was a castle – a real, stone castle. Sarah turned back around and looked at the Giant. There were no castles anywhere near Thunder Bay, she knew that. She turned back and looked at the castle again, then turned back to the water. Sarah repeated that action several times until, finally, the spinning didn’t stop and she was overwhelmed by dizziness. Darkness closed over the edges of her vision, and her last thought before fainting was ‘Oh my God, he was right. The fog was a gate.’

 

Read Chapter 7 next Wednesday, November 9th, 2011 . . .

 

Want to read more now? You can buy the book on Amazon.com, Amazon.ca, Amazon.de, Barnes and Noble, Powell’s Books, Flipkart.com, Bookadda.com, Bookdepository.com, Booksygen.com, Thalia.de

 

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In the upcoming weeks, we will be adding mobi, lit, and epub versions.

Haven’t read Chapter One yet? Click here to read it!
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four

 

For a few seconds, Sarah just stood there, looking at the cell phone in her hand in silence. Finally, Hillard asked, “What’s that?”

“My cell phone.  Christine had it …”

As Sarah continued to stare at the cell phone, her brain tried to process why it had been laying on the side of the road, when she knew that Christine would have held onto it no matter what. After a moment, Hillard gently took the flashlight from her hand and began searching the ground around where the cell phone had lain. He wasn’t gone long before he returned to her side. He didn’t look happy about what he had found.

“Someone took her, didn’t they?” Sarah asked quietly, a feeling of dread washing over her.

“Looks like it. Those rough types I talked about earlier, I would guess. But I have a feeling that I know where they took her. They wouldn’t really hurt her, not yet. We should be able to get her back.”

“Shouldn’t we call the police?”

That question seemed to give Hillard pause – he looked like he wanted to tell her something but was holding back. After a moment, he looked down at the phone in her hand and asked, “With what?”

Tears welled up in Sarah’s eyes. She should never have let Christine go off on her own. Visions of Christine, clothing torn, blood on her face, began to flash through Sarah’s mind. Her breath roughened and she began to cough again.

Hillard put his arms around her. “It’ll be okay,” he whispered reassuringly, “I’ll help you find her.”
Something about holding Sarah in his arms made Hillard smile, despite the seriousness of the situation. When he had first seen her, she had been so defiant and strong, and now she was full of a gentle vulnerability that it made him want to protect her. That was a new experience for him. Hillard generally tried to keep his distance from other people, whether physical or emotional. He felt like he was connecting with Sarah in a way that he hadn’t connected with anyone in a very long time, and although part of him just wanted to enjoy the feelings that were rushing through him, it was something he couldn’t afford right now, especially with someone like her.

He stepped back. “Come on. We’d best get moving. And I’m going to try to explain some things to you, although I’m not quite sure about the best way to go about it. There are some things happening around here that you’re going to find hard to believe. When I first saw you there, in your car, I thought there might be some way I could ease you into this, but I don’t think that’s possible now.”

Sarah was really confused now. She wasn’t even sure how to respond to what Hillard had said, so she just decided not to.  She turned away from him and started walking down the road again, Hillard falling into step beside her after a moment. Sarah looked over at him, waiting for him to begin to tell her whatever it was he wanted to say, still having no idea how to respond to his strange declaration.

It was awhile before Hillard sighed, ran his fingers through his hair and said, “Okay, this is a lot harder than I thought it would be. I don’t even know where to start.”

He didn’t continue. They walked on in silence for a few minutes, and then he sighed again. “Okay,” he said slowly, “you know the fog you came through the other night?”

“Yes.” Sarah was really curious as to where this was going now.

“Well, let me just give you a hypothetical situation. I want you to suspend all of your preconceptions and just listen to what I have to say with an open mind, okay?”

“Ohh kaaay.” Sarah drew the word out slowly and had to work hard to stop herself from forming a wall of disbelief at the very suggestion of anything that might require her to keep an open mind. Things had been so strange for the past day or so that part of her wanted to close up at the very hint that Hillard might throw any more weirdness her way.

“Just imagine that the fog was a gate,” he started, and now Sarah stopped walking for a moment and just stared at Hillard, searching his handsome face for any sign as to whether he actually believed what he was saying, or if he thought he was being funny. He continued, with the same serious look on his face, ”a gate to another world just like yours, but somehow different. In this world, something happened differently in the past. This world developed in whole other ways from your own.  It‘s as if it were the same world up to a singular point in time where one person made a different decision from that which was made in your world, and at that point the two futures branched off in two different directions.”

Sarah stopped and just looked at him for a minute. “You lost me at the point where you said that the fog was a gate. The rest of it sounds like some great Twilight Zone material though.”

“Well, has anything seemed strange or out of the ordinary to you since you came out of the fog?”

Sarah thought about the road suddenly becoming gravel, without any visible sign of construction. She thought about Gerwin and Elke and their secret looks and lack of technology. Even Hillard himself was strange. To say that things were strange or out of the ordinary was somewhat of an understatement.

“Okay,” she finally admitted, “Yes, some things have been a little . . . odd. But what you’re talking about is impossible. I think, at the most, I must be having some kind of fever hallucination. It’s also possible that you’re some kind of lunatic, and I shouldn’t be so trusting as to let you just lead me off into the dark like this.”

Hillard sighed in frustration. He could see that he wasn’t doing a very good job of explaining things to her. He didn’t want to scare her off completely and have her decide that he wasn’t a safe travelling companion. He decided to just let the matter drop for now and let things take their course.

“Well, fine, either I’m crazy or you’re crazy. We can just leave it at that for now. I can promise you, however, that I won’t let anything happen to you. I promise to keep you safe no matter what. How about we just don’t worry too much about what I’ve been saying and just go and find your sister, okay?”

Sarah was only too happy to drop the bizarre subject and they continued walking down the deserted gravel road. The sun was starting to come up and Sarah could hear an entire symphony of birds beginning to sing in the trees around her. Despite the lovely surroundings, her cold was sapping a lot of her energy and she was feeling pretty exhausted from all of the walking.

Hillard looked over at her and saw how worn-out she looked.

“Do you want to stop for awhile?” he asked, a concerned look in his eyes.

“We need to get to Christine. Or, at the very least, we need to get to a town so we can tell the police what happened.”

Hillard inwardly groaned. Sarah really didn’t seem to understand that things were different now. There was no authority they could go to for help – the authority was the one who had her sister. However, the idea of resting, away from the hot sun, appealed to him.

“Do you have anything useful in these bags?” he asked.

“Just a change of clothes and some toiletries,” she answered, realizing that if they were going to rest for awhile she really didn’t have anything useful with her except for the emergency blanket.

“Well, I have a few things. They should do the job for now.”

They walked off the road into the woods a bit and then walked parallel to the road for a short distance until they found a nice sheltered spot that looked suitable as a rest stop.

“What if there are wild animals?” Sarah asked nervously, looking around her, picturing a bear coming through the woods to kill them both.

“They tend to keep their distance from me,” Hillard replied, with a hint of a smile. “Don’t worry, I’ll keep watch. You just get some rest. You won’t be any help to your sister if you’re really sick.”

Sarah was too tired to do anything but watch as Hillard spread a thick fabric ground cloth on the mossy forest floor. She didn’t have the strength to argue with him. When Hillard finished with the ground cloth, Sarah walked over to it, pulled the emergency blanket out of her bag, put the bag under her head as a pillow, and then lay down and tried to sleep. However, without the exertion of walking, her body temperature quickly dropped, a process that was sped up by the chill seeping up from the ground, passing all too easily through the cloth covering.

Hillard noticedSarah’s discomfort as she tried to wrap the blanket tighter and tighter around herself. Without saying a word, he strolled around the rest area, picking up twigs and small pieces of wood from the ground. Then he pulled some dried moss up and added that to the pile of kindling. He gathered some rocks, dug a shallow impression in the ground with the heel of his boot, and surrounded the hole with the rocks. Then he put the moss in the centre and started laying twigs around it in the shape of a tepee. This process took him all of ten minutes. Finally, he took a stone and his knife out of his bag and struck the stone sharply with the knife. Sparks flew from the knife, landed in the moss and, within minutes, there was a small fire going. Hillard dragged the ground cloth, Sarah and all, closer to the fire and wrapped the ground cloth up over both Sarah and her emergency blanket. Sarah was too tired to say a word.  Then Hillard pulled another blanket out of his bag and covered her with that, too. Within minutes, Sarah was feeling warmer and finally able to sleep.

“But what about you?” Sarah asked sleepily, grateful to have someone take care of her, but feeling slightly guilty as well, thinking that Hillard was probably feeling the cold nearly as much as she had been.

“I’ll just settle myself down over here and keep an eye on you,” Hillard replied, walking over to a tree, sitting on the ground in front of it and reclining against it, as if it were the most comfortable chair in the world. “I like the chill of the autumn.”

Sarah was too tired to argue, so she closed her eyes and gave in to the waves of sleep that were enveloping her. She was soon snoring softly.

Hillard just watched her. The tree he was leaning against was providing enough shade so that the heat of the sun was not bothering him too much. He would prefer to be in a complete shelter but, with Sarah with him, he hadn’t been able to move fast enough the night before to make it to the cottage.

Sarah was an interesting woman. A bit stubborn for his taste, but he liked it in a way. She didn’t just accept what she was told; she seemed to have an intelligent, questioning nature. She would be in for a heck of a shock when she finally accepted her situation. He just hoped that they reached her sister in time. Normally, fog travellers, once taken by Lord Radek, survived for about a month, sometimes even less. He reckoned that he and Sarah should be able to reach the castle in a day or two. He just wasn’t sure how in the world they were going to get in.

Hillard closed his eyes for a bit, confident that the forest creatures would not want to come within a hundred feet of him. He smiled as he dozed.

 

Read Chapter 6 next Wednesday, November 2nd, 2011 . . .

 

Want to read more now? You can buy the book on Amazon.com, Amazon.ca, Amazon.de, Barnes and Noble, Powell’s Books, Flipkart.com, Bookadda.com, Bookdepository.com, Booksygen.com, Thalia.de

 

Or you can get a signed copy or pdf version here. Right now the pdf version is only $0.99!

In the upcoming weeks, we will be adding mobi, lit, and epub versions.

Haven’t read Chapter One yet? Click here to read it! Or Chapter Two or Three!

 

The first thing that Christine became aware of was her aching head. Initially, she thought it was a hangover from drinking too much wine with Sarah the night before, but then she remembered the drive down to the border, the strange old couple, and the car running out of gas. The last thing she actually remembered clearly was walking down the road, shivering from the cold, then feeling a strange sense of calmness settle over her. She vaguely remembered being hit from behind.

Before opening her eyes, she listened to the sounds around her. There was water dripping some distance away, and someone breathing raggedly nearby. It sounded like the person was right beside her.

She cautiously opened her eyes and immediately became aware of the cold hard floor beneath her. She groaned a little as the world spun around her. It must have been a blow to the head that had knocked her unconscious.

“You’re okay. You’ve got a bump on your head, but it’s not serious,” said a deep male voice beside her. The man was wheezing a bit, as though he had a cold.

Christine sat up and looked at the man sitting beside her. He was dressed in what appeared to be old, but still serviceable, clothing. His dark hair was longish, not quite down to his shoulders, curly and tousled. His eyes were a deep chocolate brown and he was grinning at her like a little kid. He wasn’t a little kid though, he appeared to be close to her age.

Her surroundings weren’t so reassuring. Stone walls surrounded her, the perfect complement to the stone floor below and cold stone ceiling above. She was obviously in a prison of some sort. The problem was that she had no idea how she had gotten there.

The man sharing the cell with her must have sensed her confusion.

“They brought you in yesterday afternoon,” he said, “My name’s Gervis.” He held out his hand to her for a moment. Then as if realizing that she was too stunned to take it, he lowered it to his side, self-consciously.

“Where am I? And who brought me here?”

“Well, unfortunately, you’re in Lord Radek’s dungeon. His men brought you in yesterday.”

“Lord Radek? What are we, in nineteenth century Britain?” Christine was getting upset.

Gervis looked confused. He didn’t have time to explain, however, as there came from the hallway the sound of heavy boots approaching. The heavy wooden door swung inward into the cell with a creak.

“Girl! You come with us!” a rough, unshaven man, dressed in clothing much less serviceable than Gervis’, demanded in a gruff and strangely accented voice.

Christine was torn between two bad choices. She could smell the pungent odour emanating from the two men from inside the cell, but the cell wasn’t such a great place to be either. Her hesitation didn’t impress her jailers at all. The man who had spoken first grabbed her roughly by the arm, then dragged her to her feet and out into the hall. Strangely, the two men left the door ajar behind her, leaving her with the suspicion that perhaps Gervis wasn’t a prisoner after all. She heard him utter a weak “Good luck,” after her before she was hauled up a steep set of stone stairs. From what she could see as she passed, the walls were all made of stone and damp with moisture. Green moss was prevalent in some places and she wrinkled her nose at the smell of old and decaying things.

After walking through several hallways, each gradually improving in condition, she was finally pushed into a room that was much more extravagant than what she had seen thus far. It had several colourful tapestries on the walls and the floor appeared to be made of marble. Two huge fireplaces lined either side of the room and the furniture, while old fashioned, was plush and obviously expensive. The room looked like it had been designed from a picture in a book about old castles.

Her eyes finally rested on the lone occupant of the room. He was tall, pale, and had long, greasy black hair. What made her breath catch in her throat was his eyes. They were an astonishingly vibrant shade of green. She had never seen anything like them. It was as if someone had plucked out his real eyes and inserted two perfect emeralds instead. They almost seemed to glow from within and she felt somewhat mesmerised by them.

“So . . . you are the new visitor from the fog, hmmmm?” His voice was low and rough, and would have been seductive had Christine not felt that there was something slightly unstable in his tone.

She nodded her head dumbly, wondering what the fog had to do with any of this, but she was too afraid to ask. The way he was staring at her made her feel decidedly uncomfortable. His intense green eyes seemed to be looking inside her and it was almost as if he were searching for something. Finally, he spoke.

“I am Lord Radek. You were brought here last night. We found you wandering alone on the road to Donner. I know you have come through the fog. That makes you a very special visitor.”

“I’ve never heard of Donner. We were just outside of Thunder Bay when we ran out of gas.” Christine was confused, and now more than a little afraid.

“I know things are a little strange for you right now. But you will soon become used to your new situation. You see, the fog travellers are a gift to me. You are a gift to me. Normally, I keep my gifts in the room in which you awoke, but,” Lord Radek walked closer to Christine, grasped her chin steady in his icy fingertips and stared deeply into her eyes, “I think you deserve some nicer accommodations.”

Christine wanted to tell him that she was no one’s gift, but the words stuck in her throat. As she stared at him, he smiled reassuringly at her and she felt a seductive sense of relaxation overcome her. Her only thought was that he wasn’t actually threatening her in any way. She looked at him curiously.

“How am I a gift?”

Lord Radek just continued to smile at her. The look in his eyes was almost searching and he appeared to be considering something. Finally, he nodded his head and spoke.

“I look forward to getting to know you better, Christine. If you wait here for a moment, I will arrange to have you brought to your new room.”

He stepped just outside a different door on the left side of the room and Christine could hear him speaking softly to someone in the hall. She hoped it wasn’t the dirty men who had brought her up from that cell. She didn’t want them touching her anymore.

A slightly plump, kind-looking woman entered the room. She looked Christine over, almost in the same way someone would inspect a prized horse. She seemed to notice Christine’s confusion and she smiled reassuringly at her. “Now, you just come with me. I’m Giselle and I’ll help to make you comfortable,” she said.

Christine followed her obediently. Passing Lord Radek in the hall, he stopped her and absently brushed a stray piece of hair off of her cheek with surprisingly gentle hands.

“You really are quite beautiful, Christine. Very special,” he whispered in his seductive voice. He released her and stepped back into the room, leaving Christine with Giselle.

The hallway in which she now found herself was quite different from the ones through which she had been dragged following her awakening in the dungeons. These walls were clear of any moisture and they, like the extravagant room in which she had met Lord Radek, were covered in elegant tapestries. Giselle led Christine up a staircase at the end of the hall and then down another grand hallway in the upper level. Finally, they stopped in front of a thick wooden door that Giselle unlocked with a key. Christine entered a bedroom that was just as beautifully furnished as the fancy room downstairs. It was amazing. There was a huge four-post bed against one wall and a lovely dressing table opposite it. The only other furnishings were a large, ornate wardrobe and a fireplace.

Looking around her, thinking about how different this room was from the one in which she had awoken, Christine remembered the kind man from the dungeons.

“Who was the man who was with me when I woke up?” she asked Giselle timidly.

“Ahh, that must have been Gervis,” Giselle smiled fondly. “He‘s Lord Radek’s manservant. He just goes down there to make sure that new … guests are okay, especially if they have any injuries when they arrive. I’m sure you’ll see him around the castle, but you mustn’t speak to him. Gervis is a gentle soul and I wouldn’t want to see him get into trouble with Lord Radek.”

“Oh, but I would never … “ Christine didn’t even have time to finish before Giselle swept out of the room. There was a clicking noise after the door shut behind her, and Christine rushed over only to discover that it had been locked.

Something Giselle had said struck Christine as strange and she hurried over to the window and looked out. There, below her, was a grand courtyard. This really was a castle! Christine shook her head, as if to clear it. Maybe she had been hit harder than she had originally thought. How could she be in a castle? There were no castles within a thousand kilometres of Thunder Bay. Had she been transported to Europe while she was unconscious? The very idea was crazy. Her eyes rose to the horizon and she gasped at what she saw.

 

* * * * * * * * * *

 

“Hello?” a familiar male voice came through the door, “are you alright in there?”

It sounded like the man that Giselle had identified as Gervis. Christine looked up from the bed where she had been sitting in stunned silence for the last half hour. She got up and ran swiftly over to the door.

“Gervis? Is that you?”

“Yes, are you okay?” Christine heard a note of concern in the familiar voice.

“What’s happening, Gervis? Is this a dream? How hard did I hit my head?”

“Wait there, I’ll come to you in a few minutes and explain everything.”

She heard Gervis’ footsteps echo back down the hallway and stared at the closed door. Was this some kind of dream or nightmare? She was trapped in a castle, held captive by some sort of medieval lord. The last thing she remembered before she had lost consciousness on the road was worrying that Sarah’s cold was getting so much worse. It now appeared that Christine was the one in dire need of help.

She heard a noise coming from behind the wall opposite the window. There was a brief clicking sound and a section of the wall swung into her room, almost silently. There stood Gervis, grinning at her with a proud expression on his face.

Impulsively, Christine ran over and hugged him. Then she realized what she was doing and, chagrined, stepped back. Gervis’ smile was bigger than ever.

“Are you okay?” Gervis touched her cheek gently, in the same place that Lord Radek had stroked it, but this time she felt a slight thrill rush through her body. Giselle was right, Gervis was a very gentle person. Having him there with her made her feel safer somehow.

“I’m confused, but okay I think. Unless I’m suffering from a concussion and a whole series of hallucinations. Then I am definitely not okay.”

Gervis chuckled, “I’m afraid not. This is real. I know it’s going to be hard to believe, but this is really happening. I’d try to explain everything to you, but I think it would just confuse you even more, and maybe even frighten you. I think you should just get used to things one step at a time.”

“But Lord Radek … ”

“Don’t worry about him for now. He’s just left the castle for a few days. You’ll be safe for now. That’s one of the reasons I’ve risked coming to you this way. He’s usually very aware of everything that goes on under his roof. And he would not approve of my visiting you. I don’t know who would suffer more for it, me or you.”

“Who is he?”

“He’s the ruler in these parts. He manages the village and the surrounding areas. He’s just left overnight for a visit to my parents. He’s trying to find out if anyone else came through the fog last night.”

Christine thought of Sarah, but still didn’t trust Gervis completely, despite his apparent courage in coming to see her and her obvious attraction to him.

“You said that was one of the reasons you came here. What was the other?” Christine looked at Gervis, surprised to find herself almost flirting with him. He blushed.

“Well, you looked so pretty and vulnerable in the dungeons. I couldn’t take my eyes off you when you were unconscious. I was afraid that you would disappear like a vision. We don’t have many women come through the fog alone, let alone any who look … like you. I guess Lord Radek saw that you were different from the other fog visitors as well,” Gervis looked chagrined, “he’s never allowed anyone out of the dungeons before that I can remember.”

Christine just stared at him intently, trying to read some sort of coherent explanation for her current situation out of his words. She felt as if she should feel flattered somehow, but she was lost in such a pool of confusion that she could make no sense of it at all.

There was a noise in the hall and Gervis nearly jumped out of his skin. He strode quickly to the opening in the wall and, as it shut behind him, Christine heard him whisper “I’ll be back to see you tomorrow.” Then she was alone again, if only for a moment.

The door to her room opened and Giselle marched in, carrying a covered tray. She set it down on the gorgeous redwood dressing table and motioned for Christine to sit down and eat. All business, she marched back out, without saying a word, the door locking behind her.

Christine sat down to eat and pondered her situation. First Lord Radek had mentioned the fog, and now Gervis had mentioned it too. They must be talking about that thick fog that she and Sarah had driven through the other night. It had been very strange, but it was hard to believe that it had the ability to transport her anywhere, which was what both men had seemed to be implying. She nibbled on a piece of dark bread as she tried to work out what was going on. She just couldn’t wrap her mind around it.

After eating a few slices of bread with a deliciously strong-tasting white cheese, Christine felt herself overwhelmed with lethargy. She knew that she had been through quite a traumatic experience over the past twenty-four hours and she decided to lie down and get some rest, hoping against hopes that she would wake up in her own bed.

 

His hands were on her, touching her, gently stroking first her arms and then her legs. It was so relaxing, so sensual. This was the most delicious dream that Christine had had in a very long time.

“Oh, meine Christine,” murmured a deep gravely voice, “Lassen Sie mich Sie lieben.”

Christine couldn’t understand the words, but the feelings that went with them were full of sensuous warmth and love. She felt warm lips on her wrists, making a trail up her arm, over her shoulder to her neck. His kiss there was exquisite, better than any lovemaking she had ever experienced before. It was like a never ending peak of pleasure that just trailed on and on forever.

 

When Christine opened her eyes she was very disoriented for a moment. The room was unfamiliar. She wasn’t in her own bed like she had hoped she would be as she had been drifting off. She was still in the castle dream.

Dream? Did she dream while she slept? Christine felt a wave of warm embarrassment rush through her and she closed her eyes for a moment. What a dream! She thought it was no coincidence that she’d had a dream like that right after meeting Gervis. He wasn’t the type of man she normally encountered – sleek, smart, ambitious and aggressive. Gervis was more the nice guy type, but more handsome than most. Most guys that she knew who were that good-looking were very full of themselves, but there was something both shy and unassuming about Gervis. She smiled as she thought of him. At least there was something to smile about in this whole crazy situation. She couldn’t wait to tell Sarah about him.

Sarah! Christine had totally forgotten about her sister, left feverish and sleeping in the back of their broken-down car. She had to get back to the car to find her. Of course, there was a locked door separating her from her freedom. Maybe Gervis could help with that. She was looking forward to seeing him again. Maybe she could convince him to leave with her.

Christine heard someone at the door and finally got out of bed. Giselle strode angrily into the room and slammed a tray down onto her dressing table. Christine noticed that the tray she had eaten from the night before was gone. Someone must have come in while she was asleep last night and taken it.

Giselle began to storm back out of the room, but she paused at the door for a moment, then spun around to face Christine. She had a look of utter fury on her face.

“I warned you to stay away from Gervis!” she spit at Christine, “It’s all your fault that he’s in trouble now! If you expected him to come visit you again you can just forget it!” Then she stormed out.

Shocked at the unexpected outburst, Sarah sat back down on the bed. Gervis was in trouble because of her! Somehow, someone must have found out about his visit to her yesterday evening. Numbly, she walked over to the dressing table and sat down. Nibbling on a piece of fruit, she thought carefully about her situation. From what Giselle had said, Gervis wasn’t going to be able to help her get out of here. She was going to have to depend on herself. The question now was how she was supposed to do that.

She ate her breakfast, expecting it to help wake her up. Despite having slept so long the night before, she was still exhausted. After finishing her meal with a glass of milk, she walked over to the wall from which Gervis had emerged the night before.

It was solid stone. If she hadn’t seen Gervis come out of there with her own eyes, she never would have believed that there was a door there at all. There didn’t seem to be any way to open it from her side, no matter where or what she prodded or poked. Finally, her exhaustion overwhelmed her and she lay back down on the bed, thinking to examine the wall again more thoroughly after a short nap.

She was almost asleep when she heard a noise at the wall and the door swung open. She sat up with a smile, expecting her visitor to be Gervis. Her face froze when the figure stepped into the room. It was Lord Radek!

 

Read Chapter 5 next Wednesday, October 26th, 2011 . . .

 

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In the upcoming weeks, we will be adding mobi, lit, and epub versions.

Still speaking through the closed window, trying to see more of the man, she said, “I was just trying to make some noise for my sister to hear.  She should be right back.”

The lie sounded obvious. Well, it wasn’t a complete lie, she told herself, and she was still hoping that her sister would return soon.

As the man gazed searchingly into the car, Sarah mentally kicked herself again.

‘Way to go!’ she berated herself, ‘Now he knows you’re alone!’

“Car break down?” the man asked.

Sarah noticed his relaxed way of speaking. He didn’t seem like someone about to do violence. She would expect to hear more of a nervous pitch to his voice if he was. Then again, psychopaths in particular were known for their lack of emotion.

‘Well,’ she thought, ‘if he meant to do me harm, the window isn’t really going to stop him. There have got to be rocks around that could break through pretty quickly.’ Of course, if she had been thinking that clearly before she had started honking the horn, then she wouldn’t have this problem at all.

She rolled the window down half way.  The chilly November air swept into the car.

“Thanks for stopping. I’m sure my sister will be back soon,” she said, trying both to give the impression that she was not alone and to give the man the opportunity to leave. At that point, something struck her as strange. She rolled the window down the rest of the way and leaned out. Looking around, she couldn’t see another car in sight.

“How did you find me?” she asked, puzzled.

“Well, you were kind of hard to miss, with that horn blaring away,” the man said, with a twinkle in his emerald eyes, “I’m Hillard, by the way.”

“It’s nice to meet you Hillard. I’m Sarah,” she replied absently, the she looked him in the eyes. “But what I meant to ask was: how did you get here? I don’t see a car.”

He continued smiling at her, his eyes twinkling as if she had said something funny. “I was camping in the woods over that way.” He motioned to the other side of the road. “I just walked over to see what all the ruckus was about.”

That seemed like a plausible explanation to Sarah and she decided to ask, “Is this a road off of Highway 61 between Thunder Bay and the border? Christine and I – that’s my sister – got stuck in the fog last night and I can’t seem to figure out where we are.”

An unreadable expression crossed Hillard’s face as she spoke.  If Sarah had to guess, she would have said that it was something between recognition and pity.

“Well, if you follow this road, you will eventually come to Thunder … Bay,” Hillard paused hesitantly between the two words and Sarah experienced the same sense of suspicion and unease that she had experienced at the house of Gerwin and Elke.

Sarah didn’t know what to do next. He was obviously hiding something.  She knew that she needed help, but she didn’t know if she could trust him. Getting out of the car could be dangerous.

“So, do you have a car out here?” she asked, thinking that maybe she could trust him just enough to give her a ride into town.

“Nooo,” he said slowly, looking wary, “I’ve been hiking. I have a bit of wanderlust. I like to travel cross country on foot.”

‘So now he’s homeless!  Great!’ thought Sarah.

“I guess you haven’t seen my sister around, have you?” she said aloud.

“What does she look like?”

“She’s three years younger than me. Prettier than I am. She has long curly blond hair and blue eyes. She’s a bit taller than me too.”

“Well, to be honest, I haven’t seen anyone for a few days. I’d be happy to help you to look for her though. There are some rough types who travel on this road,” Hillard looked genuinely concerned.

Sarah considered his offer for a moment. This guy was a complete stranger who had freely admitted that he was homeless. That didn’t really fill her with confidence. On the other hand, she had to go out and look for her sister soon. Hillard looked like the kind of guy who would follow her anyway just to make sure she was okay.

That last thought made her pause. He did seem like the kind of guy who would watch out for her, and not cause her harm. She thought for a moment in silence before finally deciding to trust her instincts.

“Okay,” she said, getting out of the car, “let me just grab our stuff from the trunk. She went that way. I think that’s towards the city.”

Hillard nodded, followed Sarah to the trunk, and took one of the backpacks from her. Sarah stuffed the emergency blanket into her backpack and after a moment’s thought, added the first aid kit. She also grabbed the sandwiches that Elke had made for them earlier.

Outside of the car now, Sarah had the opportunity to get a better look at Hillard. His eyes were extraordinary, but the rest of him was not bad either. He had a really kind looking face and was a few inches taller than she was. He was wearing a worn leather jacket that buttoned in the front, dark pants, and had a large leather bag slung over his shoulder. All in all, he was a pretty good-looking guy.

They started down the road in silence. Sarah had her flashlight, but kept it off most of the time to save the batteries. Every so often, Sarah would steal a furtive glance over at Hillard. He seemed nice enough.

“So,” she finally asked, “Where are you from originally?”

He smiled, almost wistfully. “Zwischenmeer.”

“Never heard of it,” she said, “It sounds foreign.”

He just smiled and did not respond.

“What brings you here?” asked Sarah. The question seemed to give him pause. She watched as what looked like several emotions passed across his face.

Finally, he answered, “Family.”

“Brothers and sisters?”

“More distant than that, although sometimes he feels closer.”

That was definitely an enigmatic response. Then, Hillard looked over at her and asked, “Do you only have the one sister? Or are there more of you?” This last question he asked with a smile. The corners of his mouth crinkled and Sarah could see tiny laugh lines around his eyes.

“Just the two of us,” she replied, “Our parents died when we were younger. My dad died of liver disease when I was only 16. I don’t remember much about him except that he drank a lot and yelled at our mom. My mom died of breast cancer three years ago. Since then, it’s just been me and Christine.”

“So, you’re close?”

“We’re best friends, as well as sisters. She’s always been there for me when I needed her – especially recently.” Sarah’s face darkened as she remembered the events of Friday morning.

Hillard looked at her quizzically but, before he could ask any more questions, Sarah changed the subject. “She’s always been the pretty one though. Guys chase after her all the time. Not that she ever gives any of them a chance.” Sarah smiled. “She says she’s waiting for a guy with substance, whatever that means.” Her smile turned wistful. “I never imagined that I would get married before she did.”

“You’re married?” If Sarah did not know better, she would have thought that Hillard looked disappointed.

“Was … is … not so much anymore,” she replied lamely.

“Sounds complicated.”

“Yeah, well, maybe Christine had the right idea when she waited.”

“So what, exactly, did you mean when you said that Christine was the pretty one? That’s the second time you’ve said that. I think you’re very pretty.” Hillard smiled at her and Sarah was surprised to feel her heart skip a beat at the unexpected compliment.

Sarah allowed her walking to take her to the side of the road, where she started kicking rocks self-consciously. She didn’t answer for a moment. She never knew how to answer those kinds of questions. They always seemed so loaded and fake. Plus, the feelings left over from Friday morning were just too raw.

As if sensing that this was a delicate subject for her at the moment, Hillard fell silent, and Sarah became absorbed by her own thoughts again.

 

After opening the door to her house, she had stopped in the entranceway, frozen in shock. Her neighbour, Judy, had been standing in her kitchen. Judy had been wearing Sarah’s bathrobe. As she turned towards Sarah in surprise, the bathrobe fell open at the top, and Sarah could see that Judy wasn’t wearing anything underneath the robe. Not surprisingly, the robe looked fantastic on the slender Judy – better than it had ever looked on Sarah.

Stunned, Sarah couldn’t figure out what Judy was doing in her kitchen half-naked. Her mind just wasn’t processing the visual information. Then Paul came out of the bedroom, wearing nothing but his white boxer shorts. He looked over to see what Judy was looking at and saw Sarah.

“What’re you doing home? You’re supposed to be at work!” he started shouting, accusingly, obviously trying to deflect the situation in her direction.  

Sarah’s first instinct was to defend herself and then she was overwhelmed with guilt at coming home without having earned any money for the day. Then an intense anger overwhelmed her. An icy cold feeling flooded through her skull and she couldn’t even speak. She just stared at the two of them for a moment, her lips pressed tightly together, then she spun around, stormed outside and went back to her car. She pulled out of the driveway and began to drive around aimlessly, turning from street to street, unsure of where to go next. She had been driving around this for what felt like an immeasurable amount of time when she finally found herself in front of Christine’s apartment building. 

Christine had been home for lunch, but she had called in sick for the rest of the day after she saw the devastated look on Sarah’s face. It had been Christine who had gone back to the house on Oliver Road to get Sarah’s things. It had been Christine who had held her while she sobbed. And it had been Christine who had ordered Chinese take-out and opened the first bottle of wine. Her sister always seemed to know what to do to help.

 

Now how was Sarah going to help Christine? How could she have let her sister go off by herself like that? The next time Sarah kicked a rock from the side of the road, it was in anger, not self pity.

“You okay?” asked Hillard. He was looking at her with compassion, as if sensing that she was going through a rough time.

“I can’t believe I just let her go off by herself. I just fell asleep in the back of the car and didn’t wake up for hours.  I just …”  Sarah broke off with a fit of coughing. She had almost forgotten about her cold in her worry about Christine..

“That doesn’t sound good. The cough, I mean, not the sleeping in the back of the car. Maybe that’s where I should have left you. If you’re sick, the cold air could make you worse.”

Sarah rolled her eyes at him. “I’m fine. It’s just a cold. My sister is the one we should be worrying about. She might be out here in the dark, all alone. And I don’t see how we could possibly catch up with her, since she left hours ago.”

Suddenly, instead of a rock, her foot connected with something metallic. It made a clunking noise as it hit a large rock off to the side of the road. Sarah’s eyes opened wide as she gasped and bent down to retrieve the object. It was dented now, and the screen was broken in two places. But there was no mistaking what it was. It was the cell phone she had given to Christine before she had left the car.

 

Read Chapter 4 next Wednesday, October 19th, 2011 . . .

 

Want to read more now? You can buy the book on Amazon.com, Amazon.ca, Amazon.de, Barnes and Noble, Powell’s Books, Flipkart.com, Bookadda.com, Bookdepository.com, Booksygen.com, Thalia.de

 

Or you can get a signed copy or pdf version here. Right now the pdf version is only $0.99!

In the upcoming weeks, we will be adding mobi, lit, and epub versions.

Sarah retrieved the clothes she had been wearing yesterday from a chair in the corner and put them on slowly. Her head ached and the bright morning sunlight streaming through the bedroom window was only making things worse. She had noticed when she awoke that Christine wasn’t in the room and, listening carefully, she could hear her voice, and her cheerful laughter, coming from downstairs.

Sarah went downstairs. She could smell coffee and that distinctive aroma was something that could always get her moving in the morning, headache or not. It wasn’t just her head that was aching – her whole body seemed to hurt this morning.  This cold was really doing a number on her. Of course, she hadn’t done her immune system any favours by drinking so copiously with Christine on Friday night, but it was something that had been necessary, dammit! It’s not every day that you discover that your marriage is a sham.

Sarah pushed those negative thoughts back out of her mind as she entered the kitchen. Elke was bustling around the kitchen and the smells coming from the stovetop were heavenly to her growling stomach. Sarah was relieved to note that, despite her cold, she was starving.

Christine handed her a hot cup of black coffee as Sarah sat down at the table with her and Gerwin. She had a peculiar look on her face, which contrasted starkly with the cheerful laughter Sarah had just heard as she had been coming down the stairs.

“I think we should probably just head back to Thunder Bay today, Sarah. I doubt we have enough time today to really enjoy the spa, anyway.” Christine looked anxious to leave.

Sarah looked at Christine carefully over her coffee mug. The coffee was wonderfully soothing to her sore throat, but she was distracted by concern about what could have spooked her sister.

“Sure. It looks like the weather has cleared up nicely.” It was true – the sun was shining as brightly as ever and there wasn’t any hint of the fog that had so enveloped everything the day before.

Christine glanced over at Gerwin. “I was just asking Gerwin how long the construction had been going on around here. He said that this road has always been gravel.”

Sarah walked over to the window and just stared outside for a moment. She was positive that the road down to the border was paved all the way. Had they somehow turned off onto another road? That would explain the traffic, or lack thereof.

She turned to Gerwin, “Is this a side road off of the main highway to the border?”

He looked uncomfortable. “Might be. You should probably just drive straight back the way you came. I’m sure you’ll find your way.”

Sarah was sure he was lying, or at least not telling them about something. She just had no idea why on earth he would lie about the road. Before she could ask him about it, Elke came into the room, carrying a platter of eggs, bacon, and fried potatoes. Sarah ate quietly, thinking about all of the strange things she had noticed since they had met Gerwin and Elke. She silently debated with herself whether she should confront the couple, but decided against it, since they had provided such kind and undemanding hospitality. Once she had finished her breakfast she carried her plate into the kitchen and went upstairs to get her bag. Christine followed.

“Something weird is going on here,” Christine whispered to Sarah.

“I know … don’t worry about it. We’ll be out of here in a few minutes and then it’s not our problem.” They quickly tossed their few belongings back into their backpacks and, all packed and ready to go, the two women took deep breaths and went downstairs to say goodbye to their strange hosts. Elke had prepared sandwiches for them for the road.

“You didn’t have to do that. I’m sure we’ll be home before lunchtime,” Sarah protested.

“Never you mind. You never know when you might get a bit of hunger in your belly.”

As Sarah took the sandwiches from Elke, she suddenly felt herself enveloped in the woman’s large embrace.

“Be safe,” Elke whispered in her ear and then abruptly let her go and walked swiftly into the kitchen. Gerwin looked uncomfortable.

“Well, have a nice trip,” he said, not looking them in the eye, “Watch out for strangers.”

Sarah and Christine just looked at each other, mumbled their thanks for the hospitality and quickly walked outside to the car. The Grand Am looked the same as ever, if a bit more dusty than when they had left the city the day before. They tossed their overnight bags into the trunk and got in. Sarah noticed that the gas gauge was hovering just above the line reading E for empty.

“We’ll have to stop at the first gas station we see.”

As they drove off, in the same direction from which they had arrived the night before, Sarah looked back and saw Elke peeking out of the window with what looked like a worried expression on her face.

“What the heck was going on back there?” Sarah said out loud, more confused than ever.

The girls spent the next little while discussing the various things that had bothered them about the couple during their brief stay with them. Besides their seriously rustic living conditions, there was the fact that Gerwin and Elke had seemed so reluctant to discuss their past, and had seemed to be speaking in a different language the night before.

“Maybe they’re here illegally from another country,” suggested Christine with a shrug, “That would explain pretty much everything.”

“Except for the fact that they seemed even weirder just as we were leaving,” insisted Sarah.

She finally let out a slow sigh and decided to drop the subject. The odd couple was behind them now. It wasn’t really any of their business if Gerwin and Elke were in the country illegally. What was starting to concern her now was the fact that this dirt road wasn’t turning into a paved one and she didn’t see anyplace where they could have turned off of the main highway by accident in the fog. She also hadn’t seen any other houses since they left Gerwin and Elke’s cottage twenty-five kilometres back. Given that it was only about a sixty-kilometre drive from Thunder Bay to the border in the first place, they had come quite a distance without passing any traffic, houses, or heck, even a moose!

Sarah didn’t want to panic Christine, so she focussed on the road. To either side she saw only thick forest. In the distance she saw what might have been a big hill or a small mountain. It could have been Mount McKay, another one of Thunder Bay’s landmarks. If so, they must be coming around the back side of it, because Thunder Bay would be visible by now if they were at the front.  It looked vaguely familiar, but not enough so as to provide her with their current location.

It was at that moment that the car decided to sputter and stall. As the car rolled to a stop, Sarah swore under her breath. All she really wanted at that moment was to be back under some warm covers, nursing her cold – she would even have settled for the weirdness of Gerwin and Elke’s house if she could just get some rest. This road trip idea had turned into a complete disaster.

Christine looked worriedly over at Sarah. Sarah’s face was flushed, and not just from anger at the car. It was obvious to her that Sarah was at a breaking point – had been for the last few days, in fact. Somehow, luck was just not going their way at all. She put the back of her hand to Sarah’s forehead.

“Jesus, Sarah, you’re burning up. You shouldn’t have been driving. You should’ve told me, I would’ve driven.”

“Well, it’s too late now. This car isn’t going anywhere without some gas,” Sarah snapped irritably.

“How about you just lay here in the car and rest for a bit? Grab the emergency blanket and curl up in the back seat. I’ll take a walk and see if I can track someone down or maybe even find a gas station.”

Sarah felt guilty about letting her little sister go off by herself, but had to agree that she wasn’t in very good shape herself. She shrugged and let Christine lead her to the back seat and cover her with the emergency blanket. It wasn’t the most comfortable bed, but at this point she wasn’t in any position to complain. She just needed some rest. Sarah couldn’t remember having felt this sick in a long time.

Just before Christine started off, Sarah had a thought.

“Wait a minute,” she said, “I‘m such a dumb-ass. My cell phone is in the glove compartment. We should be close enough to the city for a signal now. Try that first, before walking out on your own.”

Christine retrieved the cell phone from the glove box and turned it on. Sarah had been keeping it off since Friday, just in case Paul had tried to call. There was no signal at all, not even a single bar. Christine tried it at various points around the car without any success. Finally, Sarah gave up and agreed to let Christine start walking down the road.

“Make sure you take the phone with you though.  Try it every so often to see if you hit a good spot with a signal.”

With that last piece of advice, Sarah lay across the back seat of the car, curled up under the blanket, and fell fast asleep.  She was snoring before Christine was even out of view of the car.

* * * * * * * * * * * * *

When Sarah awoke, she was disoriented. There was darkness all around her and she was shivering in the cold. It took her a few moments to realize that she was still lying in the back seat of her car.  It was pitch black outside and the temperature in the car had dropped substantially without the sun shining on it. She must have been asleep for hours!

Where was Christine?!  She should have been back by now!

Sarah jumped up and struggled her way out of the car. It was even colder outside and the brisk air did a quick job of waking her up the rest of the way. She could barely see anything by the light of the quarter moon, so she returned to the car and retrieved her flashlight from the glove compartment. That was one of the few good things her father had taught her – always have full emergency supplies in your car at all times. She shone the flashlight down the dark empty road. There was no sign of Christine, or anyone else for that matter. How could she have let her little sister go off by herself? They really had no idea where they were and there could be all sorts of dangers out there. Come to think of it, the prison was located right on the side of the same highway that led to the border.

‘Good job Sarah, send your sister out to be raped or murdered!’ she silently berated herself.

She called Christine’s name out into the darkness for a few minutes before stopping herself, realizing that if there were any unsavoury characters out in the night, they’d be able to hear her too. She quickly got back into the car and locked all of the doors. She wrapped her blanket around herself tightly and thought carefully about what to do next. The car, in its current state, was pretty useless. It wouldn’t be moving anywhere anytime soon without some gas.

Suddenly, she had an idea. She scrambled over the front seat and tried the radio. There was nothing but static. Now that was strange.  Sarah knew for a fact that there was radio reception all the way from Thunder Bay to the border. There should still be something, even if they had turned off of the main road. Hmmm. The radio wasn’t going to help. What would? In frustration, Sarah put her head into her hands and slumped forward. The horn beeped momentarily into the night.

Maybe someone would hear the horn. It couldn’t hurt to try. Even if there were people lurking out there in the dark night, she had the doors locked. She beeped the horn again briefly – then again. Finally, she just laid into it and left it blasting into the darkness for several minutes, until she could hear the tone of the horn starting to change, becoming lower and slower, then she sat back into her seat and took a deep breath to stop herself from screaming out in frustration.

‘Oh boy,’ she thought, ‘I should be careful not to kill the battery. With the luck I’ve had over the last few days, Christine would come back with gas and then we wouldn’t even have the battery power to start the damn thing!’

Tears of frustration welled in her eyes. Why did everything have to be so hard lately? It seemed like her life had just turned to shit over the past week. It hadn’t even been a week. It had all started on Friday morning as she arrived at work.

 

    Her boss had immediately seen that she was ill and had given her a stern warning about coming into work sick. Normally, Sarah would be glad to go home and sleep through the weekend to get rid of her cold, but she had used up all of her sick days and didn’t have any vacation days left. That meant that she would have to take unpaid time off. That would certainly make her husband, Paul, unhappy.

    Paul had been off work for the last six months, having been laid off from a local lumber mill. Finding another job for him hadn’t been as easy as they had hoped. The job market in Thunder Bay had been suffering for the last decade, due to a lumber trade dispute that Canada had been in with the United States. Most of Thunder Bay’s job market was dependant on raw material industries, so now there were too many unemployed people and not enough jobs for them. 

    Money had been seriously tight for them recently and it was beginning to take a toll on her marriage. Taking an unpaid day off of work was something she couldn’t afford – financially or emotionally. Heading home, she dreaded the inevitable confrontation with Paul.

    Sarah had pulled into the driveway and gone quietly into the house. These days it was Paul’s habit to sleep late. If she woke him, he would be cranky and even less pleasant to deal with. 

    She had frozen as she entered the house. Through the door to the kitchen, she had been able to see a woman looking into her fridge. It was her neighbour, Judy.

 

Sarah was startled out of her remembrances by a knock on the window beside her.

 

 

Read Chapter 3 next Wednesday, October 12th, 2011 . . .

 

Want to read more now? You can buy the book on Amazon.com, Amazon.ca, Amazon.de, Barnes and Noble, Powell’s Books, Flipkart.com, Bookadda.com, Bookdepository.com, Booksygen.com, Thalia.de

 

Or you can get a signed copy or pdf version here.

In the upcoming weeks, we will be adding mobi, lit, and epub versions.

Thirty-year-old Sarah Ingram slowly sipped her hot black coffee and looked out the balcony window of her sister’s sixth floor apartment. The weather outside looked deceptively warm for the middle of November and the slumbering stone form of the Sleeping Giant seemed to be reclining peacefully in the bay. The large peninsular land mass was a prominent landmark, best seen from the Thunder Bay harbour front. It resembled a man, lying on his back, with his hands crossed over his chest. There were many Native Canadian legends about the large figure they called Nanibijou. Sarah’s favourite was the one in which the spirit of the mighty Nanibijou called up an awe-inspiring storm to punish the white men for daring to steal silver from his sacred mine. After the storm, his people gazed across the bay in horror, seeing that their revered protector had been transformed to stone because of his magical exertion.

Sarah loved watching the sun rise over the Giant. She hadn’t had many opportunities to just sit and watch the sun rise since she had gotten married three years ago. She sighed resignedly and listened for the tell-tale sounds of her sister emerging from the shower. Last night they had made an impulsive decision to take a road trip to an expensive spa located just across the border in the United States. They had booked an overnight stay in the most extravagant room available and planned to take full advantage of the spa services. Christine insisted that they really deserved a nice, relaxing break from reality, and that Sarah’s husband, Paul, deserved to foot the bill. Sarah had to agree that both ideas sounded good to her at this point.

Christine walked into the room, a big fluffy blue towel wrapped around her long, curly blond hair.

“Feeling recharged?” she asked, looking brightly, but carefully, at Sarah, almost as if she were afraid that her sister might fall apart at any second.

“I’m fine. Quit worrying about me. I’m just looking forward to a nice massage. Who knows, maybe I’ll even get a manicure.” Sarah was grateful for her sister’s concern, but every time she saw that worried look on Christine’s face it reminded her that she had good reason to be upset. She forced a smile to her face, trying to convince Christine that she was doing much better today than she had been the night before.

Last night, when they had called The Blue Cove Inn and Spa, the desk clerk must have thought they were crazy, the way they were giggling when they had made their reservation. Or maybe he could tell that they were nearly falling-down drunk. Three bottles of Rosé could do that to someone – or some-two as the case may be. The wine had been Christine’s idea of how to cheer up her emotionally devastated sister. The silliness had helped to temporarily numb the pain, although it had returned all too quickly this morning.

Sarah did wish, however, that she had gotten a bit more sleep – it might have helped with the hangover she was currently experiencing. Her head was aching and she was too nauseated to even enjoy her morning coffee. The fact that she had a horrible cold didn’t improve matters. However, her coffee cup, still warm in her hands, let off some nice aromatic steam that seemed to help a bit – as long as she didn’t actually try to drink too much of it. The thought of the acidic coffee hitting her stomach made her stomach wince. Nevertheless, she breathed in the pungent scent, grateful for any wakening effects it might have. She still felt as if she was in a trance, but that wasn’t solely from the wine. It was probably due more to the fact that her husband had, for all intents and purposes, destroyed her world yesterday. She pushed herself up out of the chair and thrust all negative thoughts back to the corner of her mind as she started to pack her things for the road trip.

An hour later, the two women were speeding down the road in Sarah’s red 1992 Pontiac Grand Am, heading south. Sarah was at the wheel and singing soulfully along to the radio. The old Leonard Cohen version of “Everybody Knows” was playing, and it was the deep, dark kind of song that matched her current mood perfectly.

Despite the sunny start to the day, rain clouds were now suspended overhead and a thick fog had started to roll in. Thus far oblivious to the changing weather, the women chatted about inconsequential things as they sped down the lonely highway. Christine described some of the comedic antics of her grade three students in her class at CD Howe Elementary School. She’d been a teacher there for four years now, and she had yet to develop the cynicism that plagued so many of her colleagues. Christine still saw every child as her own personal project to mould and shape into a future citizen. She hadn’t yet experienced enough disappointments to taint her sunny view of the world.  Sarah hoped that she never would, but knew that the inevitability of some students falling through the cracks would eventually bring her sister’s optimism down.

The fog was really rolling in now. The edges of the highway were barely visible to her straining eyes and Sarah could feel the adrenaline starting to flow as the driving became more and more hazardous. She slowed their speed to a crawl, afraid that oncoming cars wouldn’t see her or that she would inadvertently cross the highway dividing line.

What normally was a vista of rolling hills, majestic forests, and lush farmland, was now obscured by a thick mantle of mist. The vapours were sliding over the hood and windshield of the car like blankets of silk and the combined effect was eerie.

Neither Sarah nor Christine were talking now. The conversation had just faded off as the driving became more perilous, almost as if their spoken words had been swallowed by the fog as well.

The road itself became rougher, and the small area of motorway that Sarah could see in front of the car changed suddenly from pavement to gravel.

“Well that’s just great. Now I can’t even tell if I’m on the right side of the road. Christine, watch for any houses or gas stations or … heck even just a light would be good.”

Christine stared intently out of the passenger side window as they continued. Sarah was tempted to pull over, but she didn’t know where the shoulders of the road began anymore and was afraid that if she just stopped the car they wouldn’t be seen by any oncoming traffic until it was too late. To top it off, the gas gauge was now reading less than a quarter of a tank full. They had been planning to fill up with cheaper American gas at Ryden’s Gas Bar, directly on the other side of the border, but it didn’t seem as if they’d be reaching the border any time soon.

Suddenly Christine sat up straight.

“There’s a light … over there … on my side, just ahead.”

Sarah saw it now too, and pulled slowly and carefully off of the road and let the car coast to a stop in front of a small, rustic-looking house. She turned the engine off and they both just sat in the car, not saying anything for a few minutes.

“Should we go to the door?  Or should we just wait here until the fog passes?” asked Christine.

Sarah looked at her watch and saw that it was just after six in the evening. Her stomach was rumbling, reminding her that she hadn’t eaten much that morning. She hadn’t even tried to have lunch, given the upset nature of her post-drinking night stomach.

“I don’t know if there’s anyone home. It looks like there’s a light on outside, so I guess it wouldn’t hurt to knock on the door. This is awfully strange weather.”

Sarah was just reaching down for the door handle when there was a knock on Christine’s window. Both women jumped and gasped in surprise. They could see a big, man-shaped figure standing beside the car. Christine looked at Sarah for guidance, a look of apprehension bright in her eyes.

“Just roll it down a crack,” Sarah said, her voice quivering just slightly.

Once the window was down, a pair of kindly blue eyes looked in at the two women.

“Well, hello there. Caught in the fog, were you? Not a very good night to be out. My name’s Gerwin.”  The voice was unmistakably masculine, with a slight gravely tone, and a rough accent that Sarah found vaguely familiar but couldn’t place. Both women visibly relaxed at the friendly tone of Gerwin’s voice.

“Really strange weather today, huh? Started out all sunny and now this … fog.” Christine peered through the open space of the window at Gerwin, and then impulsively rolled it all the way down before Sarah could protest.

Gerwin was a much older man, maybe seventy years old, with white hair and a wonderfully kind smile. His deep blue eyes were surrounded by the lines of age that Sarah liked to call ‘crinkles’ because of the way they bunched together when people smiled. His smile, so obviously genuine, reached beyond his eyes to every other part of his face. In fact, it seemed to almost reach right inside of Sarah and she finally felt herself start to relax.

“Would you girls like to come in?  My wife, Elke, was just making supper, and we would be happy to have you join us.”

Gerwin’s smile was infectious and Christine couldn’t help but smile back. She looked over at Sarah, who nodded. Supper sounded great to their grumbling stomachs – and it would be nice to be inside and away from this almost unnatural fog. It actually reminded Sarah of a story from a Stephen King novel where monsters came out of the mist and killed everyone. She had read the short novel as a teenager and had suffered from nightmares about it for weeks.  This fog seemed to envelope her in dread and she just wanted to get out of it.

They got out of the car and walked towards the house. The house appeared to have been constructed using a very old-fashioned method, with logs instead of siding, a technique that Sarah really admired. She had always dreamed of getting away from city living and escaping to a more rustic way of life. She was startled, however, to notice that the light they had seen from the road was an old oil-lantern hanging from a brass hook by the front door. Gerwin noticed her reaction and smiled.

“Elke and I like the simple life. We don’t put much stock in modern things, so we just keep everything old-fashioned around here”

Sarah looked over at Christine, who shrugged. It seemed strange, but she completely understood the sentiment. Modern life, with all of its technology, was certainly less physically demanding, but it added stresses that most people didn’t realize.

Entering the house was like taking a step further back in time. There was no Ikea-style furniture here. Everything was made of wood and obviously hand-crafted. They entered directly into what appeared to be a combination dining and living room, with a lovely old-fashioned stone fireplace dominating the space. A roaring fire greeted them and Sarah finally began to feel that overwhelming feeling of trepidation that had been brought on by the fog melt away.

“Have a seat, and I’ll tell Elke you’ll be joining us.” Gerwin spoke softly as he walked through a door into what must have been the kitchen.

Sarah plopped down on the couch. The blue hand-crafted cushions beneath her were surprisingly comfortable and the warmth of the fire helped to draw out not only the last anxious effects of the fog, but also the chill caused by the damp weather outside.

“This place is so cute!” declared Christine, “I love this. It must be so nice to live in such quiet solitude.”

Sarah had to agree. The rough surroundings, instead of giving an uncomfortable feeling of primitivism, exuded warmth and calmness.  It seemed like the perfect life for an elderly couple.  She wondered what they had done before they moved out here and withdrew from ‘civilization’.
Just then, Gerwin re-entered the room with a sweet-looking older woman that must have been Elke. In addition to the friendly crinkles next to her soft brown eyes, she also had a rosy bow-shaped mouth that smiled warmly at the two women.

“I’m so glad you’re able to join us,” she said brightly, “I’ve made too much food for just the two of us tonight and it will be a real relief to have some extra people help us to eat it. I would hate to have it go to waste.”

Sarah only then noticed the delightful aroma that filled the house. It smelled like Elke had been slaving over the stove all day. She closed her eyes and inhaled slowly through her nose. There was definitely a roast of some sort cooking in the other room.

The two women sat down and waited at the big wooden table with Gerwin while Elke brought out the food. It was an enormous roast on a platter, surrounded by a wonderful assortment of carrots, potatoes, and turnips. It smelled absolutely heavenly to the two famished women.

“Is that beef?” asked Christine, curious because the roast smelled somewhat different from those that her and Sarah’s mom had used to make for Sunday dinners.

“No, venison. We could never eat our cow. Bessie is like part of our family,” replied Elke with a twinkle in her eye.

While Sarah was surprised to be eating deer meat, she found it to be a delicious change from her constant diet of beef and pork. Soon everyone was quiet as they got down to the business of eating.

After dinner, Elke brought out cups of aromatic herbal tea for everyone and they sat quietly by the fire, each lost in their own thoughts. Every so often, Gerwin would get up and look out the front window, almost as if he were expecting more visitors. Sarah was surprised that she had heard no other cars drive by. Usually, the road to the American border was pretty well-travelled, with many people driving across every day to either the Casino on the other side, or to the nearby cities of Duluth and Minneapolis for shopping or concerts. Maybe the dreary weather had scared everyone off of the road, as well.

Remembering her earlier musing about the prior professions of the couple, Sarah interrupted the silence. “So, what did you two do before you moved out here?”

Gerwin and Elke exchanged wary glances. There was a momentary, somewhat awkward pause and Sarah was just starting to wish that she could take back the question when Gerwin finally answered.

“I was a … bus driver. Elke stayed home and took care of things around the house.”

“Did you drive a school bus or a city bus?” Christine enquired, thinking about her students. Sarah could see how uncomfortable the couple seemed to be even thinking about the topic and tried to catch Christine’s eye to get her to drop the subject, but Christine was leaning forward, waiting for Gerwin’s answer.

Gerwin looked like he was trying to decide how to answer. Finally he just mumbled “a school bus” and took a quick sip of his tea.

Christine finally sensed that she had brought up a sensitive subject for him, although she didn’t have any idea what could be so distressing about having driven a bus. She decided to drop the matter, rather than cause their generous hosts any further discomfort. Perhaps there had been an accident, or Gerwin had lost his license for some reason. They hadn’t seen any other cars in front of the house when they had arrived; perhaps neither of the couple drove now.

After awhile, the awkwardness faded and Sarah began to yawn. It was getting late and both girls were exhausted, still not fully recovered from their late night girls’ session the night before.

“Oh!” exclaimed Elke, looking distressed, almost as if she were experiencing some undeserved feelings of guilt for failing as a hostess, “You two have to stay the night. You can’t go back out in this terrible weather. I’ll show you to our guest room and you can get some rest. I’m sure the skies will be all cleared up by tomorrow morning.”

Glancing out the window, she saw that the fog was still thick outside at the moment and Sarah had to admit that they wouldn’t be going anywhere that night. The offer of a warm, dry bed was very attractive. Except for Gerwin’s evasiveness about his job, the couple seemed very nice and completely harmless. Sarah looked over at Christine and saw that her sister looked exhausted as well.

“We’d love to stay. Thank you so much for rescuing us tonight,” she smiled warmly at the couple, who smiled back.

Elke got up from the couch, took a candle from the fireplace mantle, lit it, and led them through the kitchen, and up a set of stairs leading from the back of the house. At the top, the girls saw that there was one door on each side of a small hallway.

“I hope you two won’t mind sharing a bed,” said Elke, apologetically.

“But I hope we’re not putting you out of your own bed.  We can sleep on the couch, or the floor,” Sarah protested, thinking that the other door must be a bathroom.

“Oh no, that’s our room right there,” Elke said, pointing to the other door.

Sarah was a little confused.  She hadn’t seen any other doors or rooms in the house that could have held a bathroom. Just thinking about it made her realize that her bladder was feeling quite full.

Elke seemed eager to leave them alone. “Well, goodnight girls,” she said. “I’ll have a nice breakfast waiting for you when you get up tomorrow morning. Sweet dreams.” Elke handed Sarah the candle and hurried back downstairs before she had any chance to ask about the bathroom.

When Sarah and Christine entered the guest room, a feeling of utter relaxation enveloped them both like a warm blanket. The room was simply decorated, like the rest of the house, but the home-made quilt on the bed and the aroma of potpourri added the perfect touches to make it special. There was an oil-lamp on a dresser beside the bed, and the room was softly lit in no time.

“I’ll just run downstairs and grab our overnight bags out of the car. I’ll make sure to ask Gerwin and Elke about the bathroom while I’m down there,” Sarah volunteered. Christine just nodded in silent agreement and flopped down on the bed, closing her weary eyes.

Sarah retrieved the candle and walked back down the stairs. She could hear Gerwin and Elke talking in muffled voices downstairs. She instinctively strained to hear what they were saying, but found that she couldn’t understand a single word. It didn’t even sound like they were speaking English. The conversation broke off abruptlz when Sarah entered the room.

“I’m just running out to grab our bags from the car.  I’ll be right back.”

Gerwin and Elke shared another one of those mysterious looks as Sarah went out the door. Sarah was starting to wonder what they were being so secretive about, but felt bad about intruding on them.

Coming back into the house after grabbing the two backpacks from the trunk of the car she was greeted by more welcoming smiles from Gerwin and Elke. She figured she had just startled them by coming downstairs unexpectedly. It couldn’t have been all that comfortable, after all, having two strangers intrude on them out of the fog without warning. She did have one more question to ask, however, before she could leave them in peace.

“Um, I was just wondering where the bathroom was?” Sarah asked, somewhat timidly.

“Oh, there’s a chamber pot in the closet of your room. Just use that,” said Elke, “I’ll clean it out in the morning. Unless you want to go out back to the outhouse, that is.”

Despite the simplicity of the house, Sarah could not hide her surprise at the lack of indoor plumbing. It made any questions she might have had about the behaviour of the couple when she had first come into the room vanish. Speechless, she nodded and went back upstairs to the guest room.

Christine was already asleep, snoring softly.  Sarah went over to the closet, opened the door, and found the chamber pot there, just as Elke had said. She dragged it out into the room and looked at it speculatively. Part of her was happy that Christine was asleep and couldn’t see her trying to squat down and use the chamber pot; the other part wished she was awake and could marvel with her at the utter lack of any twentieth-century technology in the house.

After doing her business she carefully pushed the chamber pot back into the closet, firmly closing the door and securing any unpleasant smells safely into the small space. She then slipped into a pair of pyjamas from her overnight bag and slid gratefully under the covers, expecting to immediately drift off to sleep. Unfortunately, despite being in a blissfully comfortable bed, Sarah just tossed and turned.
Her mind started out full of confusing thoughts about the couple downstairs, but it gradually moved on to angry thoughts about her husband  He was a treacherous bastard! She unsuccessfully tried to keep her mind from replaying the events from Friday over and over in her head like a movie. She eventually succeeded, or so she thought, and finally slipped off into a fitful sleep.

Sarah was getting out of her car in the driveway of the small house she and Paul shared on Oliver Road. She had come home from her job as a medical secretary after only an hour, because her bad cold had left her in no state to be having contact with patients. Working for doctors was a good thing – you never had to feel guilty about staying home, or going home, when you were sick. But the downside was that sometimes they also sent you home when you still felt good enough to work.

As she walked up the four steps to her front door, Sarah felt a sense of dread settle over her. She had been here before. She didn’t want to do this. Her hand rested on the handle of the door, and although she tried to pull it away, her hand was stuck to it, as if it had been glued there.

Suddenly, Paul thrust open the door and glared out at her.

“What are you doing here?! You shouldn’t be here! You’re too ugly for me.  You’re a big fat cow! You’re worthless!! I’ll suck every last little bit of happiness out of you if it’s the last thing I ever do!!” He screamed at her, his face red with anger, his mouth twisted cruelly, and his eyes blazing.

He put his hands on her shoulders and pushed her backwards off the steps.  Sarah fell backwards and kept falling.

 

Read Chapter 2 next Wednesday, October 5th, 2011 . . .

 

Want to read more now? You can buy the book on Amazon.com, Amazon.ca, Amazon.de, Barnes and Noble, Powell’s Books, Flipkart.com, Bookadda.com, Bookdepository.com, Booksygen.com, Thalia.de

 

Or you can get a signed copy or pdf version here.

In the upcoming weeks, we will be adding mobi, lit, and epub versions.