She stepped forward to meet him once more and locked her lips to his. They both lingered for a few moments lost in each other. When they fell apart again, Evelyn looked up through her tears.
‘Now tell me I’m not real.’ Ewan was reaching his own breaking point and turned his back not wanting her to see him crack. He was losing the strength he needed to protect them both.
‘I know this is hard for you, Ewan, and I don’t even know where to start with all of this. But are you telling me that you can make sense of anything that has happened to you recently? Why is this any different?’
His mind returned to the vision that he had back in the cell, as he looked across the plains of Wildermoor burning as if lit by the flames of the sun, the shadows advancing, those eyes, the screaming voices and the hooded figure that stood between them all.
Ewan’s mind fired images behind his eyes, bringing back images from a past that he had started to leave behind, one he left behind centuries ago but that swamped him again. His mind flickered back to the day he had returned from his coma, the day that he woke up and found himself back at Tewke’s Range. Evelyn had only broken one bit of news to Ewan that day. She presented him with a copy of the day’s Wildermoor Herald. The headline read:
MORE MISSING. POLICE CHIEF PLAYS DOWN RECENT RISE IN DISAPPEARANCES.
Ewan did not notice the photo of the well-groomed DI Thomas Laing next to the headline.
The date - March 26th, 2012.
Ten years lost as though they never existed at all.
He dropped the paper onto the kitchen table, overcome by a wave of disorientation and nausea, and returned to bed unable to face the rest of the day. There had been no mention of it when he re-surfaced and Evelyn had not dared to bring it up again. They had lived for some time happy in their own bubble.
‘This can’t be happening,’ his voice was breaking as he stared back towards Tewke’s Range.
‘Ewan…’ Evelyn tenderly reached for his shoulder. He flinched and shrugged her off. He wanted to lash out, push her away and tell her she was wrong. But he couldn’t. He wanted to keep her close to him in case she was cruelly snatched away from him again and apart from a few scattered memories and haunting visions, he knew nothing of the life he had woken up with.
Everything had changed. Was he expected to accept that?
‘What do I do?’ He turned away from her. He couldn’t bear to see what was behind her eyes or show her his. ‘What part do I play in all of this?’
‘Follow me,’ she replied, ‘I will show you.’
She led him back into the house, letting him catch up to her and allowing his hand to link into hers. Inside, she fished out a leather satchel she had left in the old store room. Returning to the kitchen, she laid the bag on the table and withdrew a package from inside. She handed a plain brown, padded envelope to Ewan and he closed his hand around it.
‘This will tell you everything you need to know but I have one request.’
He returned her gaze with a raised eyebrow urging her to continue.
‘Open it when I’ve gone.’
His face darkened unable to hide the hurt that she sent surging through him.
‘You’re not staying with me?’
His eyes resembled that of a child being left behind by their parent with no explanation as to why.
She shook her head and released a tear that she had valiantly held. Her voice shook as she tried to speak, taking a couple of attempts to compose herself for what she knew she had to do.
‘I do not belong here anymore; I have a new home now.’ She saw the defiance in his eyes as he shook his head, not wanting to listen. She gently grabbed him by the arm to stop him from turning away. ‘But neither do you. Just as I had a task to complete, you too have yours.’
Ewan looked at more confused than before. His head was spinning out of control and he had the urge to run out of the door into the wilderness and never look back. But he forced himself to hear her out. If she was going to hurt him, break his heart and take away all of his hope, he was sure she must have a good reason. He wanted to hear it for himself.
‘That night in the caves, I felt no pain. As soon as my body was killed, my spirit was saved. There is an existence beyond here – beyond this realm – referred to as the Trinity. Three of the highest powers in existence help save those of us who have been wronged in life, lives brought to an end too soon, destined for better things. You have to be chosen and that night I was.’
She saw by his glazed expression that she was losing Ewan. He was losing himself to anger and loss. She needed to keep him with her or risk losing him forever.
‘A war is coming, one that will be fought between the shadows and the light. It will soon invade the reality that we both know. They have found a way to breach the boundaries, between their world, my world and yours. As their Leader gains strength, it is becoming easier for them to invade this land taking whomever they want.’ Her voice was grave as her gaze fell to the floor.
‘This is makes no sense,’ said Ewan fighting his instinct to put his hands over his ears and ignore anything else that was happening.
‘Those who are chosen are given a chance to move towards divinity, to an eternal life beyond death. It is done in three stages – they are called Elevations. Only when you achieve the Third Elevation are you truly saved; until then we remain prey for the shadows. The First Elevation is the act of being chosen, being saved after your body has died and being given a chance. A mission – assignment – must be completed before each Elevation. Each assignment requires a soul to be saved. This,’ she motioned towards the envelope he had tightly in his hand, ‘is your assignment. Only you can complete it and only you can save this person.’
Ewan stared at the envelope as if he was searching for the answers written in invisible ink on the outside.
‘Where do you fit in all of this?’
‘I have achieved my Second Elevation. You were the soul I needed to save.’
A painful silence hung between them.
‘So what now?’
‘I have a job to do and now,’ she moved closer to him, stroking the sides of his floppy hair back behind his ears, ‘so do you.’
He looked down at the envelope, and then back to her. Both their faces were streaked with tears.
‘We will have our time,’ she reassured him, ‘but not here, not now.’
‘Why me?’ He asked the burning question that had built over years.
She sighed hoping to avoid telling him more than she had already, knowing his full purpose would be too much pressure. Spare him that weight.
She looked at him aware the child within had become frail and weak once more. She could not send him into this without being fully prepared.
‘You’re the most important link to all of this, which is why I have been given so many years to complete my assignment. The Reaper is looking for you, as he knows this too. You’re the last link to his bloodline, something he needs to absorb in order to make his transformation complete and bring all of this to an end.’
Ewan stood silently for a moment before it all came flooding back to him. That night in the woods, the fire, the screaming and the pain that Katrina endured for years.
‘Lucas…’ he whispered. Evelyn nodded. ‘You said bloodline but that’s impossible. I took him in as a brother but we were not bound by blood. He had no family.’
He could hear words echo around the cold kitchen although they existed only in his head. The night he had hidden in the trees and witnessed Stamwell’s murder;
‘Your son Stamwell, for my brother. If you will not give your life for his.’
‘Oh my God,’ Ewan muttered the words staring at the floor. ‘All this time…?’
‘Time matters no more, my love, ‘ Evelyn soothed trying to bring Ewan back once more, ‘Time will cease to exist if we cannot do this.’
Ewan turned from her again, trying to steady his breath and reclaim the thoughts as his own. In life he had not co
nsidered he amounted to anything and now he was here with the fate and weight of the world resting on his shoulders. There was no escape, He knew that. If he wanted the chance to live again, to live that life with Evelyn, this was what he had to do.
The Reaper.
The phantom he had dispelled as nothing more than ravings of a madman. Colin Dexler. Slowly it all began to make sense.
‘Evelyn, I never got to say it before, and may not have the chance to say it again so it’s now or never. I…” he turned around to find he was alone in the kitchen. “…love you.’
He ran out of the door and was greeted by the rolling, empty lands of Wildermoor. It was a sight that he both loved and loathed. This was the place that gave birth to him, killed him and shackled him to it forever. Still it asked for more. He nodded a grim acceptance still not fully understanding but knowing that he wanted to.
He looked down at the envelope that was still grasped in his hand, starting to crease and bend as his fists clenched. He tore open the seal and removed the contents: a thick document of around a hundred pages, containing separate files and photo’s clipped to the sheets haphazardly throughout. As the envelope tipped in his hand, another object slipped out and fell to the ground; a leather wallet. Ewan picked it up and turned it over finding a bright yellow post-it note on the other side.
We are who we are but don’t forget all you have been. I love you too. I will be waiting. Evelyn.
The wallet opened like a book - no clasp to hold it shut – and the gold badge glimmered as the sun emerged behind a heavy cloud ahead. Ewan smiled humourlessly to himself as he stared at the name written on the other side. A shiver ran down the length of his back as heavy storm clouds returned and reclaimed the sun. He turned back towards the house as the shadows grew and he felt the eyes on his back. Not hundreds this time, just one set. The heat behind him grew as fierce as it did in his vision of the burning moors.
Ewan looked behind to find nothing had changed, but he could feel Him watching.
Waiting.
Acolyte (The Wildermoor Apocalypse Book 1) Page 19