Dreamlander

by Samantha Liddell

  We were drenched and cold. If we had left when everybody else had left, we would have avoided this turn in the weather, and we would have had our bottoms planted pleasantly and safely, and warming nicely, on Scott’s seat heaters in his Range Rover heading back to Edinburgh. But no, we never did follow the pack, we had our own agenda which often added to our adventures, well so it did in our dreams anyway. In reality, we were soon about to find out.

  Chapter Twenty-Five

  Another encounter

  I was starting to really feel the effects on my declining health with this walk back. My breathing was becoming laboured. We had only past the halfway point.

  “Scott, can we take five?” I said in between breaths.

  Scott turned around in concern. “Aye of course Letticia. Are you ok?”

  “Yes, I will be, I just need to have a drink and bit of a breather.”

  We found two large rocks beside each other on the side of the track, so we sat there to avoid sitting directly on the wet ground.

  Scott got my water bottle out of my backpack and passed it to me. “Drink up Sassenach.” I did as I was told and drunk, quenching my thirst. I handed my water bottle back to Scott who returned it back into my backpack. We stayed a bit longer on the rocks, allowing me to catch my breath before heading back onto the track for the second half of the walk.

  We sat in silence for the next few minutes. I was concentrating on recharging my energy to get me across the finish line when Scott all of a sudden fell forward and off the rock. His hand was grasping the back of his head when I noticed a rock had been thrown from behind, hitting him with such force it left him knocked out and on the ground. I turned around to be presented with that haunting face belonging to that Irish snake, Emmett.

  “Well it took you guys long enough, I have been waiting for you to come on past so I can finish off what I had started,” Emmett said, with such evil in his voice.

  I looked down at Scott, he was out cold. I yelled in panic, “Scott, get up, Scott get up!” I tried to pick him up with no success, he was out of it. I knew I had not the energy in me to fight Emmett off on my own. I picked up the rock that he used to throw at Scott’s head and proceeded to attempt to throw it back at him, with no success at all. It didn’t even get near him, let alone frighten him.

  “Give it up Sassenach, it’s just you and me, and I intend on getting what I didn’t get the other night.”

  “Scott get up!” I yelled in one last attempt to wake him up.

  No such luck. I decided to try and make a run for it and lose him. I ran off the track but didn’t get very far before he used the same move on me as he did the other night. He grabbed my ankle with his disgusting dirty hands and pulled me back and onto the ground. He flipped me onto my back. I struggled with all I had to avoid him pulling down my pants.

  He said again, “Give it up Sassenach, stop fighting, you know you want it.”

  I yelled back, “Never, get off me you dirty sadist bastard, and don’t you dare call me Sassenach.”

  I normally liked hearing the Irish accent, but not anymore. He had turned me off this little pleasure of mine for good. Tears started to well in my eyes, but I was determined not for him to see my weakness and the pain he was causing me. I continued to fight him, but I could feel myself losing my last bit of energy I had. My mind was still in fight mode, telling my body not to give up but my body was slowly about to.

  I could feel Emmet getting a firm grip on the elastic band on the top of my pants, and pulling them down. No sooner though did I hear Scott’s voice come booming overhead.

  “Nobody calls my Sassenach, Sassenach, but me, you dirty revolting piece of shit.”

  He pulled Emmett off me by his hair with such anger and such force I felt myself getting pulled in the same direction as Emmett didn’t loosen his grip on me.

  “I said let go of her,” Scott demanded. Emmett still refused to, so Scott got his fist ready and gave him one mighty blow. But he didn’t just stop there, he punched him again and again and again until blood started streaming out of the Irish snake’s nose.

  “That’s enough Scott. Stop, please stop, he’s not worth it.”

  Scott gave him one last blow to the nose before retreating and falling back onto the ground himself. Emmett’s blood covered Scott’s fist. It took a few moments for Scott to get his breath back before attending to me.

  “Letticia are you ok, did he get in you, did he hurt you?” Scott asked, concerned.

  “No he didn’t, I’m fine Scott, thanks to you. It’s you that I’m worried about. You have had quite the blow to your head. We need to get you looked at - and Emmett at that,” I said.

  “Emmett, what do you mean Letticia?” Scott asked, confused.

  “Well we can’t just leave him here, we need to get you both to a hospital,” I said.

  Scott wasn’t happy about my suggestion, but he could tell I wasn’t going to take no for an answer.

  Scott being the Scottish warrior he was, injured and all, managed to pick Emmett up and swing him over his shoulders. Lucky Emmett was just a small snake of a man. There wasn’t much to him compared to Scott, but in saying that Emmett was still strong enough and could easily hold me down. He had nothing over Scott though. I got left holding the tent. It was a struggle but there was no other way around it. Scott and I just gave it all we had to get back to the car in one piece.

  Chapter Twenty-Six

  Inverness hospital

  * * *

  We made it back to the Blairmore car park with only a dozen or so cars left in the car park. We were cold, wet and dirty.

  * * *

  Scott dropped Emmett without much care onto the ground as he unlocked his car and started putting our bags and the tent into the boot. He found a dry towel in the car and laid it out onto the back seat. He didn’t want any blood to get on his seats from Emmett. Emmett was still in a bad way. Scott then very uncarefully chucked Emmett into the back seat and closed the door. Emmett was still out cold, but breathing.

  * * *

  Scott went to get into the driver’s seat. I was shocked, “Scott what are you doing? You are in no state to drive. Pass me the keys, I will drive,” I said.

  * * *

  “You are in no state to drive either, Letticia. I just walked a mile with a man on my shoulders, I’m pretty sure there is no issue with me driving.”

  * * *

  I could tell there was no point in arguing with him. “Ok, Scott, but if you crash and put me back into a coma, there is no forgiving you. However, I have always fancied taking a trip to South Africa, but I can’t really afford it so going back into a coma might be the only way I can,” I teased. Scott gave me his first smile since just before our encounter with Emmett back on the track.

  * * *

  “Well Letticia, I would rather like you to stay in reality for now so I will drive carefully. I'm actually feeling a lot better now that I’m sitting down.”

  * * *

  As soon as we were back in range, I called my children who were back in Australia.

  It only took a few rings before Sophie picked up and answered the phone with that very well-to-do English accent of hers.

  * * *

  “Hello, Sophie speaking,” she said.

  * * *

  “Hi Sophie, it’s me Letticia,” I replied.

  * * *

  “Oh, hi Letticia, how’s it all going?” she asked.

  * * *

  “All is well. We are alive, that’s the main thing. I can’t talk for long as I may lose reception again; I just wanted to say a quick hello to my girls,” I said.

  * * *

  “No problem, they are right here. I will put them on for you,” she said.

  * * *

  “Thanks Sophie,” I replied.

  * * *

  I talked to Polly and Leah for a good few minutes. They were having a great time with Sophie, not so much with James though. They didn’t go into much detail, but I could tell there w
as something strange going on there. So much so, in fact, the girls were now staying at my parent’s house and only visiting Sophie during the day sometimes. I wanted to get more information but my phone then cut out as we went through a tunnel.

  * * *

  “Everything ok?” Scott asked.

  * * *

  “Yes, everything is fine but something strange is going on with James. I will call my parents once we are back to get the full story. I guess I will also have to look into getting my return ticket home in the next few days.”

  * * *

  Scott looked unimpressed at my idea. “Well there is no rush Letticia, you are welcome to stay as long as you like.”

  * * *

  “No, I must head back. I need to see my girls, I miss them so very much,” I said, while trying to hold back tears.

  * * *

  “Well that is very understandable, but the offer stands,” Scott said.

  * * *

  I smiled a little smile of recognition at Scott as he placed his hand upon my knee and left it there for a minute or two, before my nerves got the better of me and I said, “Scott two hands on the wheel please.”

  * * *

  Scott did as he was told, understanding my past experience of being in a car crash. “Aye, of course, sorry Letticia that was a bit absent-minded of me, you may have got that trip to South Africa sooner than expected,” Scott laughed. I gave a Scott a warm smile before turning the other way to daydream out the window.

  * * *

  We were approaching Inverness when Emmett started to stir. I got a fright, I didn’t fancy being in the same car with him as it was let alone with him being awake. “Scott, I think he’s waking up, I think you need to punch him out again. One punch should do it, after all, we are almost at Inverness.”

  * * *

  Scott looked alarmed and shocked at what I had just suggested. “Letticia that is an outrageous thing to say, I’m not about to re-punch an already wounded person.”

  * * *

  “But Scott, this is no person, this is the scum bag who tried to sexually assault me and who is now sitting in the back seat of the car I am in. I do not fancy having to make small talk to him about the weather. This is just totally screwed up. How on earth do we get ourselves into these positions?” I asked.

  * * *

  “Nobody is asking you to make small talk with this scum bag, which I do totally agree with you that he is. He should be locked up for good and given a hundred lashings to his back,” Scott said.

  * * *

  He deserved a lot worse than that, I thought. “This is just like in our dream Scott. We had Emmett in the back seat of our car as a hitchhiker,” I reminded Scott.

  * * *

  “Aye so we did, even then he was a scumbag,” Scott said.

  * * *

  “Well, it’s just like Fletcher told us. Some people came into our dreams as a warning to watch out for them in reality. It’s safe to say Emmett was indeed one of those people.”

  * * *

  Thankfully we were about to drop him off to Inverness hospital and that was where we would leave him and depart ways, hopefully to never see him again. Scott needed his GPS to show him the way to Inverness hospital. Emmett had still not woken up but had been stirring a bit in pain. As we pulled up to the emergency department, I urged Scott to go in too and get his head checked but he declined, saying he would go see his own doctor once we got back. Plus, he was feeling fine.

  * * *

  I wasn’t sure how feeling fine was even possible after what had happened to him, but I decided to not push him. He had done well getting us to this point so I had complete faith he would keep to his word and get us home safely. I was becoming a very faith-oriented person after this weekend, I laughed to myself.

  * * *

  We came up to the drop-off and pick up area with only a five-minute time limit. Scott stopped the car but kept it running.

  * * *

  “So how are we going to do this Scott?” I asked.

  * * *

  “Well you get his legs and I will carry him under his arms. We will drop him off on that bench over there,” Scott said.

  * * *

  “Scott, even for a scum bag that is so unethical of you,” I replied.

  * * *

  “So is trying to sexually assault you twice Letticia. He’s lucky we did this much for him. The bench is as far as we take him,” Scott said.

  * * *

  “What if we get caught though?” I asked.

  * * *

  “Well we can’t allow that to happen, we need to be fast and precise,” Scott said.

  * * *

  “Well, in that case, I think we need to rethink our carrying position, it will look too obvious. We need to carry him upright as if he is walking in with us. Let’s both stand on either side of him and put his arms around our shoulders as if we a supporting an injured person into hospital, then we will ever so calmly walk him over to that bench, and sit him down next to us. We will stay sitting next to him for a minute or two then we will ever so calmly get up and leave him there and we will make our way back to your car and make our escape.” I suggested.

  * * *

  “Letticia, you are good. If I wasn’t mistaken, I would say you have had experience in this sort of illegal happenings before,” Scott said cheekily.

  * * *

  “Well, only in my dreams Scott, but I did, in fact, learn a lot of useful tips in my dreams. But this is a first in reality,” I said.

  * * *

  “Well, what are we waiting for, let’s say good riddance to this scum bag,” Scott said.

  * * *

  Scott turned his car off in preparation to dispose of Emmett. “Shame you don’t have your army pants on Scott,” I teased.

  * * *

  “Very funny Letticia,” Scott replied. And with that, we got into position. We had Emmett standing up between us both. He was still in a bad way, but he was breathing so he was fine. As we pulled him towards the bench a security officer walked on by. He didn’t even show the slightest bit of interest in us. He carried on his way as we did also.

  * * *

  We got to the bench and sat him down. He kept flopping over. “Scott, how are we going to keep him upright when we leave?” I asked.

  * * *

  “Here, slide him down to the end, he can lean up against the wall.”

  * * *

  The feeling of touching Emmett was awkward, to say the least. It just brought back too many bad memories of having him lying on top of me and being locked in his tight grip. But I had to just block that all out, for now. Nothing a hot soapy shower couldn't fix once I returned to Kings Ridge, I thought. I just kept focusing on the positives.

  * * *

  “Right, that should do it Letticia, I think it’s time we leave this scum bag for good.”

  * * *

  We both ever so calmly departed the bench. We said a friendly goodbye to Emmett - we were still playing the part of old friends. Scott even went as far as giving him a goodbye hug in case we were being watched by security. I blew him a kiss for good measure. Emmett looked like a slouched-over drunken man that would get taken into hospital in no time by a concerned passerby no doubt.

  * * *

  We made a beeline to Scott’s car and drove off quickly while doing a high five to one another. “We are just as good in reality as we were in our dreams,” Scott laughed.

  * * *

  “Like I said, you learn a lot from your dreams, Scott,” I replied.

  * * *

  “Just like how I learned how much I really love you Letticia,” Scott said.

  * * *

  “Well, it took you long enough in reality to admit that, but yes just like that,” I said.

  * * *

  “I always did love you in reality, Letticia, but like I said I just needed time to get my head around everything before allowing myself to be fully yours,” Scott confessed.

 
* * *

  “Well, I’m just glad you finally did get your head around everything Scott because you are my very own Scottish warrior and I wouldn’t want to do life without you.”

  * * *

  It was starting to get dark now and we were still about an hour away from Kings Ridge. Our clothes were damp from getting caught in the rain on the walk out. I was still not feeling 100% after my fever yesterday. The thought of a hot shower and a hot meal was torturing me. I was so close to both I just needed to sit back relax and let my Scottish warrior get me home to Kings Ridge.