by Natasja Rose
Eternity’s Invitation
by
Natasja Rose
Copyright ©2016 by Natasja Rose
All rights reserved. This book or any portion thereof
may not be reproduced or used in any manner whatsoever
without the express written permission of the publisher
except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.
ISBN: 9780994388957
Previously published at Archive Of Our Own, under the pen-name Natasja
Characters in this story are completely fictional. Any resemblance to real places, events, names or people is entirely coincidental, and no direct association should be inferred.
Acknowledgements
To all of the friends and family who supported and encouraged me in pursuit of my dream of being an author, and to my twin, Sally, who first inspired me to write about ghosts.
Prologue
Wilt thou go with me, sweet maid,
Say, maiden, wilt thou go with me
Through the valley-depths of shade,
Of night and dark obscurity;
Where the path has lost its way,
Where the sun forgets the day,
Where there's nor life nor light to see,
Sweet maiden, wilt thou go with me!
Where stones will turn to flooding streams,
Where plains will rise like ocean waves,
Where life will fade like visioned dreams
And mountains darken into caves,
Say, maiden, wilt thou go with me.
Through this sad non-identity,
Where parents live and are forgot,
And sisters live and know us not!
Say, maiden; wilt thou go with me
In this strange death of life to be,
To live in death and be the same,
Without this life or home or name,
At once to be and not to be -
That was and is not -yet to see
Things pass like shadows, and the sky
Above, below, around us lie?
An Invite, To Eternity, by John Clare
Chapter One
Tina had sworn that she would never come back to England, especially this part of it.
Even if the United Kingdom as a whole hadn't been the site of so many battles and violent deaths that Tina could barely go five feet without running into a ghost, the village she was travelling to held far too many memories.
A little over three years ago, she had departed the small tourist town, and particularly the Inn that was the main attraction, with great relief, insisting that it would take a near-miracle to get her to return.
Some of the more unkind people of Tina's acquaintance might have suggested that Lizzy, who Tina considered a sister in all but blood, managing to keep up a serious long distance relationship for over two years should count as a near miracle in its own right.
Tina might have suggested that those people could shut up or get a punch in the face. Normally, that would have earned a frown from Lizzy. This time, her friend had pretended to have been too distracted by FaceBooking her fiancee to notice. Tina would have found that much more likely if James hadn’t been grinning like a maniac from the laptop screen.
Nevertheless, Lizzy's 'we-survived-a-possession' date with James Dawson, grandson of the local innkeeper, once both of them had recovered from their possession-resulting injuries and been released from the hospital, had turned into genuine attraction. Genuine attraction had been followed by three years of setting alarms for odd hours in order to make Skype dates (and dealing with grumpy neighbours the next morning), saving up to either visit each other or meet somewhere in the middle, a nine-month engagement to shut up any gossiping relatives and finally, on a very sunny Australian autumn day, a Civil ceremony uniting them in marriage.
It was probably a good thing that there were two months between the ceremony in Australia and the one being held tomorrow, because both bride and groom had the fair Anglo skin that had left them gloriously sunburned.
Well, Tina called it glorious, since it let her make all manner of bad puns at her friend's expense. Lizzy spent her last two days in Australia complaining that there were types of kindling that didn't burn as fast as she did, between liberal applications of aloe vera gel.
The happy couple had spent thirteen days on a European Road Trip before hopping the Channel to England, and the Inn that had been in the Dawson family for centuries, the Journeyman’s Rest, for a reaffirmation of vows, since most of the Dawsons hadn't been able to make it down to the former Colony for the Wedding itself.
Likewise, Tina was the only one of Lizzy's extended family who was able to make it over to England, for various reasons ranging from bosses who don't mind a day off for weddings but do mind taking an entire week, to being unable to afford the trip, to throwing a tantrum that they (or their children) hadn't been included in the ceremony, or that the ceremony wouldn’t be in a church of their denomination and refusing to attend out of some kind of bizarre moral objection.
Tina hoped that made sense to the relatives in question, since it certainly made sense to no one else: the sheer number of cousins and second cousins Lizzy had to choose from would have made including all of them impossible, even if Lizzy hadn’t insisted on a small wedding for the sake of finances.
For her part, Lizzy had shrugged, removed the drama llamas from the guest list, and been safely on a different continent when the relatives in question discovered that she had taken their dramatics seriously. Tina was certain that she had nearly ruptured something trying not to laugh when Lizzy’s relatives had descended on her like so many ruffled hens, though what they had expected Tina to do about Lizzy’s choices was anyone’s guess.
Still, Tina had every intention of treasuring what time she and Lizzy had left.
It was going to be strange, living by herself and not tripping over Lizzy's latest project, and remembering to actually do the washing up before the dishes developed intelligent life. And remembering to put clothes on before stepping out of the bedroom, if she wound up with another room-mate.
That might be a necessity, given the cost of living in the city, and the fact that Tina had paid for the flight with part of her redundency pay-out. Being a personal trainer was a fun job that allowed her to set her own hours, but it was also unstable, entirely dependent on clients.
Tina would need to start actually setting an alarm, rather than rely on Lizzy stampeding through the apartment as she tried to get out of the door in time to beat the traffic, and find someone else willing to join her in throwing over-ripe produce over the fence at people who thought 4:00 a.m. was a good time to mow the lawn.
Perhaps Ms Upstairs, who had just had a baby (and didn’t appreciate loud noises at oh-god-thirty when she hadn’t had a full night’s sleep in months as it was), or the couple across the courtyard (if they got tired of picking fights with each other) might be open to the idea.
On the bright side, at least this time there would be no ghosts of star-crossed lovers possessing random strangers - and inadvertently getting them killed - in a morbid attempt to create a happier ending.
Other than being forced to listen to the old biddies of the family complaining that only Tina could go to a wedding and come home without even a phone number, what was the worst that could happen?
Chapter Two
Tina caught a train from the airport, if only because the speed would hopefully prevent her from too many gory images. It wouldn't help much with battlefields, which could take anything from a few seconds to a few minutes to bypass, but at least she was less likely to be bothered by individual
ghosts.
The downside of taking a cross-country train instead of a several-hours layover, followed by a domestic flight and taxi, was the number of routes to choose from. The quickest route involved three changes, not something Tina wanted to do with a suitcase and a garment bag. The cheapest option with no changes took an extremely roundabout route that added an extra hour or so to the trip.
Eventually, Tina went with the train that wouldn't require having to change anywhere. It would even give her time for a nap to get rid of some of the jet-lag. Texting Lizzy the train and estimated time of arrival at the nearest station, Tina closed her eyes and hoped that no-one had died messily on this particular carriage.
The train detoured south-west, before skirting the Welsh border and passing through the Midlands on it's way up to the north of England, where the Dawson's Inn, the Journeyman’s Rest, sat nestled in a tiny between Northumberland National Park and the Scottish border.
Nearing Northampton Station, about five hours into the journey, Tina sat bolt upright, startling those around her. Anger, tangible yet distant, radiated from nearby, and she looked out the window, trying to pinpoint it. The best she could get was a large building, and she pointed it out to the man in the seat across from her. "What's that building there."
The man, wearing a suit and holding a briefcase with 'St Andrew's' stamped on it, followed where she was pointing. "That's St Andrew's Hospital, miss. Why?"
Luckily, Tina had practice in thinking up excuses. "The architecture looked old, and I was trying to figure out what it was."
The man shrugged. "It was built as a Hospital for the insane in the early 1800's, founded by the public. Now it's a psychiatric hospital dealing with various mental disorders, one of the four not covered by the NHS. Excuse me, this is my stop."
Tina thanked him and leaned back in her seat, trying to relax. Hospitals that used to be insane asylums were the worst, and tended to have a lot of angry ghosts, who had been put there for any number of absurd reasons, from 'Ill treatment by husband' to 'female troubles' to 'epileptic fits' or 'falling off a horse during war'. In some cases, the reason was as simple as being a woman whose husband wanted to be rid of her but couldn't obtain a divorce.
And that was before you counted the ones who were genuinely insane or had violent fits.
Nope, Tina was going to keep her eyes firmly closed with her earbuds in until she reached her destination.
Will, a friend of James who had helped with the whole 'Highwayman fiasco', picked her up from the station, roughly forty-five minutes drive from the Inn. Most of the drive was spent in silence, which changed as soon as Tina entered the Inn.
A squeal of joy was Tina's only warning before Lizzy slammed into her in a delighted hug, staying just long enough to say how wonderful it was to see her before being whisked away by a woman who was probably her mother-in-law, leaving James's friends to finish the introductions. Ben, the other friend of James's who had been involved in the possession problems of Tina's last visit, introduced a tall, cocoa-skinned woman to the others. "This is Valerie, we met in one of my History seminars."
Valerie smiled at them, her eyes focusing directly on Tina. "Ben's told me a lot about all of you. It's nice to finally put a face to the name."
Tina smiled back politely as James's grandmother called from the kitchen, causing the soon-to-be-married couple to hurry off in that direction, followed by Ben, which left the two girls alone, staring awkwardly at each other. Tina hated awkward silences, and it caused a small pang at the thought of the comfortable silences that were so common with Lizzy, that were about to become a lot rarer. "So… what do you do?"
Valerie flashed a quick smile, her black eyes lighting up with humour. "Nice intro. I work in a specialised government department. You?"
Tina shrugged. "Personal trainer. Apparently, I'm terrifying enough to make up to make up for my stereotypical looks."
Valerie rolled her eyes in sympathy. "I know what you mean. Some people still do a double-take when I don't have an exotic accent or speak in wannabe-gangsta."
Tina perked up, hoping to have found a kindred spirit. ”Do you get the 'but you're too pretty' and sexual stereotypes in varying degrees of non-subtlety, too? Bane of my existence."
Modern day society had become better about it, but several of Tina's older clients still somehow got the idea that a woman couldn't be involved in a physically-demanding profession (or reach 30 without having a steady relationship) unless they were a lesbian. Yes, Tina was fairly sure that she wasn't all-the-way-straight, but it was the principal of the thing!
It was Valerie's turn to shrug. "Sometimes. Most people are smart enough to realise that I wouldn't have made it to my current position without being very good at my job, but others seem to think that I'm some kind of affirmative action Bond Girl."
Tina managed not to grimace. For all that society was improving, they still had a long way to go. But what kind of specialised department was Valerie in to cause Bond Girl comparisons? "So, how does that relate to meeting Ben in a History seminar and being his plus one for a wedding?"
Valerie grinned broadly. "Personal interest and research into my then-current assignment. He also dated my sister for a few months, but they broke up last week. We're friends, so he asked me, instead."
Tina nodded, but remained suspicious. The ghost of a small and underfed, if not quite skin-and-bones child, most likely a street urchin from somewhere else in the village, had crept into the room while they had been talking, seen Valerie and/or Tina, and was making a significantly faster exit. "Lizzy's a history nut, too. Sometimes it comes in handy, but most of the time she needs to be reminded that obscure facts are not common knowledge."
Valerie's eyes seemed to pierce through Tina, prying her open and extracting her secrets. "Yes, I imagine that was helpful when she and James were trying to get un-possessed."
Tina snapped instantly into defence mode. She hadn’t mentioned anything about a possession, Lizzy or James wouldn’t have told a complete stranger, and neither Will nor Ben would have been stupid enough to tell the story in the hope of impressing a pretty girl.
Both of them might have been suckers for a pretty face, but they were also aware of just how insane the whole thing sounded, even to people who had lived through it.
Valerie worked for a Government Agency, and secret organisations within Governments taking an interest in private citizens, especially private citizens from other countries, never ended well. "I don't know what you're talking about!"
Valerie considered her for a long moment, body language telegraphing that she didn’t believe Tina for a moment. "Then I'll tell you more after dinner, when there are less prying ears around."
Chapter Three
Wedding Planning, and pre-wedding jitters, were stressful at the best of times, so dinner had involved rather more alcohol than was usually on offer. After cringing through the bad puns and innuendos made by people with about as much alcohol tolerance as a mosquito, Tina and Valerie retreated to the living room.
Valerie sat down on the couch, having exchanged booze for coffee. “On the bright side, at least the memories will be blurry. I almost miss that wine-tasting dinner in Florence.”
Tina paused halfway through preparing her own cup. “Oh? What happened that time?”
Valerie winced in pained recollection, “I had a free night between a business trip and the flight home. Trying and failing to walk in a straight line back to the bus, and way too many puns about the David replica statue ‘saluting’ the city.”
Tina sniggered as she slumped down beside the darker woman. “I’m normally the last person to believe stereotypes, but I kind of expected more from a family that runs an Inn and live so close to the Scottish border. Surely there’s some beer-quaffing Scots blood in them somewhere!”
Valerie considered the possibility, “Not when shooting a Scotsman only became officially totally illegal a bit over two decades ago, and at the time the Inn was founded, Scotland was seen a
s a place of exile to send inconvenient or embarrassing relatives..”
Tina, about to take another drink, paused and put down her cup, “Wait, seriously? Killing a person actually wasn’t illegal?”
Valerie rolled her eyes. “Under certain conditions, and mostly in border towns, no. There’s still a law on the books that you can’t enter Parliament while dressed in armour, and some bright spark who tried to declare a University exam invalid because he hadn’t been given a tankard of ale during an exam over a certain time limit.”
Tina tried to remember. “I think I heard about that one. It was all over certain internet circles, and Lizzy was giggling because the University fined him for not wearing his sword to lectures, or something.”
The woman in question poked her head in, “I was what? Never mind. Tina, you’re in the same room as last time, since you said that one was ghost-free. Do you remember the way?”
That was another reason Tina was going to miss Lizzy. Even before Lizzy knew about the whole ‘seeing ghosts’ thing, she had always been considerate of Tina’s quirks and occasional ‘dizzy spells’. Tina smiled at her gratefully, “I remember, and thanks a bunch. I’ll see you in the morning?”
Lizzy grinned. “I’ve left some melatonin on the bedside table. You’re still my bridesmaid, so I’d better see you at some point at least an hour before noon.”
Tina laughed and waved goodnight, turning back to her conversation with Valerie, who abruptly changed the subject. “How much do you know about the supernatural? In detail, not just you seeing ghosts.”