The Forgeron Legacy

by J.D. Atchison

When Emma woke up she was in her bed back home with the worst headache she had ever had. But as she lay buried under her fluffy comforter and blankets with her head cushioned on a nice soft pillow she realized that the headache she had was a normal headache. The kind of headache anyone would get if they hit their head. The thought made her grin. But then the events from the night before came pouring into her head and she jolted upright in bed with a gasp.

  “Emma, calm down. You’re okay.” Mark sat down on the bed beside her, trying to restrain her from jumping out of bed.

  “Last night, those men, they were torturing him! And me, they went after me. I just stood there, but they couldn’t touch me.” Emma was babbling, she knew she was, but the shock of last nights events kept the words bubbling out of her mouth. “Then you were there, and everything went black!” She exclaimed.

  She stared at him and frowned, suddenly realizing what that meant. She jerked out of his grasp and scooted as far away from him on the bed as she could. “Why were you there last night?” She asked accusingly, hysteria edging into her voice. “And what happened to those men?”

  “Emma, you need to calm down.” Mark said soothingly, reaching over to pull her back towards him.

  “Don’t tell me I need to calm down!” Emma yelled at him, pushing his hands away. “I saw a man get tortured last night and the last thing I remember is you running at me, so don’t tell me to calm down! What were you doing there?”

  Mark held his hands up placatingly and leaned back to give her some space. “I was working at the coffee shop late last night. I heard the yelling and I came out to see what was happening. When I saw the men attack you I ran over to help.” Mark frowned a little bit in confusion. “I don’t know what had happened but one of them was already injured and the other one was just getting up again. When you turned to face me he hit you on the back of the head. That’s why you blacked out. They ran off when I showed up though.”

  “They ran off? Just like that?” Emma said, clearly not believing him.

  “Yeah, the big guy grabbed the little guy and Tyler and ran off after the man in the suit.” Mark said.

  “Greco.” Emma said absently. She plucked at the edge of her comforter, not sure what to think of Mark’s story.

  “Excuse me?” Mark said, looking at her carefully. He leaned closer, planting a hand on the bed. Emma stared at his hand, wondering if she had said too much. Slowly she looked up at his face.

  “The man in the suit. His name is Greco.” Emma said hesitantly.

  “How do you know that?” Mark asked, shifting to face her more.

  Emma looked down in embarrassment “I don’t want to tell you.” She mumbled.

  “Why not?” Mark pressed.

  “Because you’re going to think I’m crazy.” She muttered, tugging nervously at her comforter.

  “No, I won’t.” Mark said. He reached over to place his hand over hers on the comforter. “I would never think that.” When Emma still looked torn Mark gently took her hand in his and made her look at him. “You can tell me, Em.”

  Emma smiled at the mention of the childhood nickname he had given her. She sighed and finally caved. “I had a dream about him and when I saw them that night one of his henchmen called him Greco.”

  “A dream?” Mark asked. He wasn’t laughing though, so Emma continued.

  “It was more of a nightmare than a dream.” She explained. “In my dream I saw a huge manor in the middle of a forest. Inside the manor was a room, a study or a library I think. There was a fireplace there and a huge wing backed chair in front of it. A man was sitting in the chair but I never saw his face because the chair was always hidden in shadows.” Mark’s face looked serious but he was listening intently to everything that Emma was saying.

  Emma had a bad feeling that he knew who the man was. “Greco walked into study. He started talking about a journal and Tyler White. He started to say something about what happened to a girl but then it was like the shadows came alive and started choking him. The man in the chair told him never to talk about her. Then they started talking about descendants and that there might be a list of them in the back of the journal.” Mark was staring off into space, deep in thought. Emma pulled her hand out of his and wrapped her arms around herself. “I don’t know what any of it means but when I woke up I was terrified.”

  “Are you sure they said Tyler White?” Mark asked her suddenly, refocusing on her.

  Emma blinked, confused by the question and wondering why he was taking her dream seriously. “Yeah, it was Tyler White.” She affirmed. Emma paused as she remembered something else. “The guy they were torturing last night was the guy we talked to in the coffee shop that day. He was babbling about a bunch of crazy stuff then. Do you think it could all be related?”

  “I don’t know.” Mark said, but something in his voice made Emma think he knew more than what he was telling her.

  “Mark, do you know who those men were? Do you know why they couldn’t hurt me?” Emma asked, grabbing his arm.

  Mark’s expression was conflicted, he opened his mouth but didn’t say anything. The door opened then and Kathryn came into the room. “Emma dear, you’re awake!” She exclaimed, coming over to the bed and enveloping Emma in a hug. “We were so worried. I could hardly believe it when Mark told us that you had witnessed a mugging and had been hurt when you tried to help the poor man. What were you thinking? You could have been killed!”

  “I’m not so sure about that anymore.” Emma muttered, glaring at Mark.

  Mark stood up. “I should be going, I just wanted to make sure Emma was okay,” he told Kathryn.

  Kathryn stood up as well, beaming at Mark. “Of course, and thank you so much for taking care of Emma like you did. You are a great friend.” She gave Mark a big hug and Emma grinned at how uncomfortable Mark looked.

  “Uh, of course Mrs. Wellworth.” Mark muttered, his cheeks turning red from embarrassment. “I’ll come back later, Em.” He said, before walking out the door.

  When he was gone Kathryn turned and looked at Emma, propping her hands on her hips. “That is twice in the last two months that you have almost gotten killed!” She exclaimed. “Do you intend on making this a monthly occurrence?”

  Emma slouched down in her bed, trying to burrow beneath her comforter. “No.” She mumbled.

  “Good, I hope not.” Kathryn replied. “Now that you’re awake I’m going to call the doctor and have him make a house run. I don’t want to take you to the hospital again if we don’t have to.” She said briskly.

  Emma groaned. “I don’t need a doctor.” She grumbled. “I’m fine!”

  “You suffered a blow to the head and were unconscious for twelve hours. You aren’t fine.” Kathryn replied tartly, pursing her lips at Emma. “Now try to rest, the doctor will be here soon.” Kathryn left the room and shut the door firmly behind her.

  Emma humphed and crossed her arms. Then a slow grin stretched across her face, she must have really scared Kathryn for her to shut the door so hard. Emma’s mouth stretched into a huge yawn as she settled back into her bed. She was really tired. Before she fell asleep though a thought crossed her mind. If the men attacking her hadn’t been able to touch her how did she get hit in the head?

  Emma was having another nightmare. She was in the same room, with the same shadow covered chair in front of her. Emma looked at the black space around the chair. Slowly the shadows began to disperse. Emma was just beginning to see the outline of a man’s legs when she heard someone say her name.

  “Emma.”

  The shadows slammed down around the chair.

  “You’re in here, aren’t you?” The voice whispered.

  Shadows slid from the corners and grasped at her ankles. Emma screamed and tried to kick loose but the shadows wouldn’t release their hold.

  “Emma!” The voice came again, more urgently this time.

  The shadows slid up her legs, grasping tighter and tighter. Emma felt her shoulders bein
g shaken. She screamed, fighting the shadows that were pinning her legs in place, struggling to get free.

  “Emma!”

 

  With a gasp Emma jolted awake, glancing wildly around the room. Mark was bent over her, shaking her shoulders, concern written all over his face.

  “Another nightmare?” Mark asked gently. He sat back down in the chair next to her bed, watching her carefully. Emma nodded absently, looking around for her clock.

  “It’s 4:30 in the afternoon.” Mark told her. “Kathryn told me you’ve been sleeping all day.”

  Emma stared at him blankly for a moment. She heard what he said but she was having a hard time registering it. Her mind was still caught between the dream and reality. Slowly reality sank back in though and she relaxed back onto her pillows.

  “I had another dream about the manor.” Emma whispered. She stared blankly out of her bedroom window at the bright sunny afternoon. It was the kind of day meant for being outside with friends, laying out by a pool or floating down the river. Out the window off in the distance she heard children shrieking with laughter and calling out to each other, their voices young and bright.

  Mark watched her closely. Emma was pale and she kept chewing at her lip with her teeth. Her hands were shaking as she smoothed them over the comforter.

  “Let’s go for a walk.” Mark said brightly, standing up. “You’ve been inside all day. I think a little sunshine will be good for you.”

  Emma continued to stare blankly out of the window. She showed no sign that she had heard Mark. Then she slowly dragged her gaze away from the window to look at him. The dreams still weighed heavy on her mind but she could see Mark was trying hard to cheer her up so she nodded her head. “Okay.” She agreed quietly. “A little sunshine might be a good thing.”

  Mark smiled in relief and left to tell Kathryn. Once Emma had changed and was ready to go, Mark led her outside to the backyard. Emma took a deep breath of the sweet spring air, allowing the sunshine and fresh air to relax her and bring her back to reality. The sun was shining and the birds were singing. It was a beautiful spring day, and it reminded her that this was what was real, not the dark manor in her nightmares.

  “You want to tell me about your dream?” Mark asked. He walked slowly next to her, matching his pace to Emma’s slow meandering stride. His hands were tucked into the pockets of his jeans, and he chewed absently on a blade of grass but Emma could sense his tension. Emma stared off in the distance as she thought of how to describe it.

  “It was the same as the last one, the manor, the study, the man sitting in a chair covered by shadows. Greco walked in. The Shadow Man seemed unhappy that he had returned without the journal but Greco told him there was something he would want to know.” Here Emma paused, taking a deep breath to fortify her nerves. Mark reached out and took one of her hands in his. The feel of his warm, rough hand against her own was comforting.

  Drawing strength from the contact Emma continued to tell Mark about the dream. “Greco started telling the Shadow Man about what happened last night, about me. He said I was using a shield to block the attacks last night and when he mentioned that Tyler had called me Alexandra the Shadow Man told Greco to bring me to him. Greco said they would have last night if…” Emma stopped talking again.

  Mark squeezed her hand reassuringly. “If what, Em?”

  “If you hadn’t shown up.” Emma told him. She watched him carefully to see how he would react to what she was going to say next. “He said you were the one who knocked me out and that you fought Ethan. But that’s not what you said. You said they ran off when you showed up and that Ethan had been the one to knock me out. He was lying, right? Greco was lying.”

  Mark stopped walking and Emma realized how far away from the house they had gone. They had reached the forest line at the edge of her family’s property.

  “Emma, there’s a lot I need to tell you.” Mark said slowly. He was looking down at the ground, shifting his weight from one foot to the next.

  Emma pulled her hand out of his. “Was it you?” She demanded, her eyes widening in shock. She couldn’t believe that he would do something like that to her. Mark, her best friend. “Were you the one who hit me?”

  “It was for your own protection.” Mark defended himself, trying to keep her calm. “You weren’t supposed to find out about any of this.”

  Emma’s face crumpled. Hurt and confusion battled for dominance inside of her. Tears pricking at her eyes, she dropped Mark’s hand as she backed away from the one person she had thought she could trust most.

  “You should leave.” She whispered. Looking at Mark she felt nauseated at the thought of what would have happened if those men hadn’t ran away. Mark had left her unconscious and helpless in a back alley when dangerous men were right there in front of them. He could never have fought them off on his own…

  A strange sound drifted on the breeze from inside the forest. Emma cocked her head to the side, trying to hear more clearly. She could sense…something. She wasn’t sure what though.

  Mark opened his mouth to respond. Emma held a hand up to silence him, flicking an annoyed glance at him before she turned and stared at the forest again.

  “What is it?” Mark asked, shifting to put himself between her and the trees she was staring at.

  “I don’t know.” Emma whispered. She sounded genuinely confused, and very distracted. “Something is happening in the forest.”

  Before she could say anything else something slammed into the tree directly in front of them with a loud crash. Emma squeaked as Mark turned and wrapped his arms around her, curling his body around hers and shielding her with his body. Emma had never felt so tiny in her life. His head tucked over hers and his shoulders and arms curved around her so she was completely enveloped in his hug. When the sound faded Mark pulled away and bent to look into her face.

  “Are you okay?” Mark asked, holding her face between his hands.

  Emma nodded. “Yeah, I’m fine. What was that?”

  Mark turned his head to stare at the tree that had been struck, keeping one arm protectively around Emma. Branches snapped as something tumbled out of the tree, grunting as it fell. Emma’s jaw dropped when she saw Jason land in a heap on the ground. Emma and Mark stared in shock, unmoving. Jason didn’t see them as he pushed himself to his feet.

  “You think that was funny?” He yelled to whatever had thrown him.

  “Jason!” Emma called his name. Shock melted away into concern as she realized what had just happened to him. She stumbled forward a few steps, not sure whether or not Jason was really standing there or if she was just seeing things.

  Jason jerked around. When he saw Mark and Emma his expression darkened. “Stay away!” He bellowed, waving them off before running back into the forest.

  “What?” Emma stared after him. She looked over her shoulder to say something to Mark but he was already sprinting past her. “Stay there!” He yelled back at her as he ran.

  Emma’s jaw dropped as she watched his retreating back. With a frown she snapped her mouth closed. “Yeah, like that’s going to happen.” She muttered as she started running after him. Mark had already disappeared into the forest before Emma could even take a few steps. “And since when could he run so fast?

  CHAPTER NINE