January Dreams

by Carrigan Richards

  Casper swings onto the horse’s back and pulls me on behind him. I wrap my arms around him. The horse trots toward the wrought iron gate. Once the horse turns a corner, he breaks into a fierce gallop. Feeling the warm breeze, I hold Casper tight.

  We are free.

  I don’t know how long we race in the night, but when the auburn light barely breaks the horizon, we come to a stop. He gets off the horse and helps me off. Tossing his mask to the ground, my heart skips a beat at the sight of him.

  I remove my mask as his lips press against mine. He lifts me by my hips and our mouths release the built-up passion between us. We are together again.

  He eases me to the ground, still kissing me. He holds me so tight and I clutch onto his shirt, never wanting to let him go.

  “I tried so hard to find the Jewel,” I tell him, breathless, the tears coming now. “I wanted to bring it back to your people. All this time, I thought you were dead. They said they killed Florence and put me in a cell because they thought I was a traitor. This whole time I’ve been pretending to love Vincent. I can’t do it anymore. I can’t be away from you.”

  Casper draws me closer, holding me tightly against him. “I found a way to be together,” he whispers.

  “We’re together, now.”

  His thumb grazes my cheek, wiping the tears that escape. “So, we won’t have to run.”

  “How?” I meet his beautiful, deep brown eyes. How I’ve missed them.

  He hesitates. “The Witch.”

  I gasp.

  It takes me a minute to actually open my eyes. I swear they feel like they’ve been glued shut. My head is killing me with an ache that could kill a rhino. I sit up but I can’t see anything. Not even my hand in front of my face. Wherever I am, there’s a damp chill. Briefly, I think I’m dreaming and back in the cell, but no, this is real. All of it is real. Vincent tried killing Casper.

  I roll over on what feels like a bed with a lot of blankets. I swear if I didn’t know better, I would think I’m blind. I sit up, feeling for anything that I might recognize, but even the wrought iron bed frame doesn’t feel like mine. The cold, concrete wall feels empty.

  The last thing I remember, I was trying to leave Vincent’s, but everything beyond that is blank. I remember our conversation. His proposal. His confessions. My blood turns cold. I start to panic. Did Vincent put me in a cell?

  “Vincent,” I yell. When I get no answer, I stand from the bed, cautiously. I’m barefoot and my feet land on soft carpet. I can tell I’m still wearing my prom dress. I hold my arms out blindly trying to find my way to a door or window. Anything. “Vincent,” I shriek.

  I back up against the smooth cold wall. I can’t keep my breathing leveled and I start crying. I can’t stop shaking, I’m so scared and I have no idea how to get out of here, wherever here is.

  A door squeaks open and I jump. Looking toward the direction of the sound, I still see nothing. Footsteps slowly meander down wooden steps. My breath catches in my throat and I try not to make a sound.

  I hear a flick of a switch and I squint from a soft orange glow.

  “Vincent?”

  “Are you okay?” he asks, pure concern in his eyes. “Are you hungry?”

  “Where am I?”

  His lips press in a hard line. “In my basement. Sorry it’s not the Ritz, but I tried to make it homely as I could.”

  Scanning the room, I see a bed, vanity, and a bathroom.

  “It’s just for a few days.”

  “Days? Why?” I’m trying so hard to keep my voice strong, but it’s hard when my psycho boyfriend has me locked up in his basement mere hours after confessing to killing a man and almost killing Casper.

  He exhales. “Because I need you to stay here. I have things to do before we can go home. And I can’t have you going to Casper.”

  “I don’t want to go to Casper. I want to go home. To my house. My parents are probably freaking out by now.”

  “Stop all of this. This isn’t your home. You don’t belong here. You belong with me in Chateau de Fées. And as soon as we return, I will make sure you don’t ever remember Casper for as long as you live.”

  “Please stop. It was all a story. A fantasy. None of it is real. I have to get home.”

  He raises his hand to my cheek and caresses it. “It is real. All of it. We’re immortals who love each other. I’m sorry you don’t remember, but once we get home, it will all come back to you.” He takes my hands in his. “You are my life. You are mine and I am yours. You have to trust me.” His eyes are full of passion and it’s so easy to be swept up in his words. I can play along and maybe he’ll release me.

  “I trust you. Please don’t keep me here. You’re right about Casper. He manipulated me.”

  He studies me and I can tell he’s mulling it over in his mind. But he closes his eyes. “It won’t be much longer.”

  “What do you have to do? Why can’t we go now?”

  “I have some things to take care of in the meantime. Everything will be okay.” He presses his lips against mine and softly kisses me. He starts walking back up the stairs.

  “Wait. Don’t leave me here, Vincent. Please.” I’m practically begging on my hands and knees.

  “A few more days. That’s all.” He trudges up the stairs, opens the door, and locks it once he closes it.

  I have to find a way to break the door down. I have to get out of here. I wait until I hear him leave, but I can’t hear any footsteps above me. It’s like I’m in a sound barrier or something. I look around the room but there isn’t anything I can use to wail at the door. Unless I take apart the bed.

  I charge up the stairs and slam my body against the thick door. Of course, nothing happens. I scream and beat against the door until my voice has gone hoarse and my fists are tender. Defeated, I sink to the top stair. I’m such a mess. Crying and shaking and scared for my life. I can’t believe everything that’s happened. I’ve been dating a complete sociopath and I defended him. Repeatedly. What does that say about me?

  How in the hell does he know about mine and Casper’s dreams? None of this makes sense. He knows something that he’s not saying. These thoughts race through my mind like the lights on a Simon Says game.

  Leaning my head against the door, I think of ways to escape. How I wish I was at home or with Casper. I wish my mom was holding me or Casper could rescue me, not to sound like a damsel in distress. I can get out of this. I will escape.

  Chapter Forty-Six

  Casper and I have run from our homes once more and the beautiful morning light breaks the horizon as we hold each other.

  He looks at me with so much love. “I’ve found the witch. She can turn us into mortals. No one will ever find us.”

  “Mortals? How?”

  “I don’t know the details. She said to come to her when I’ve found you. I want to be with you forever, Megan. Every time they rip us apart, it nearly kills me.”

  “I will do whatever it takes to be with you.”

  He kisses me with hard edge, and he holds me tightly against his body. I melt from the softness of his lips and from the heat of his touch. I revel in the hope that we will be together.

  “Come on.” He takes my hand and we walk through the woods to an old shack.

  The door opens and an old woman with long white hair emerges.

  “I see you have found me,” she says, and invites us in with her long bony fingers.

  We exchange wary looks, step inside, and sit at a round table with her. It’s dim inside with cobwebs and clocks. Clocks everywhere. Each ticking at different times. There are thousands of vials and bottles filled with different colored liquids. Candles light the entire shack, which looks much bigger inside than outside.

  “So, you want to become mortals,” she says, her voice light and smooth.

  “Yes,” Casper answers.

  The old woman raises an eyebrow. Her blue eyes are glossed over, and her skin is lucid and wrinkled. “Why do you, immortals, want to become mo
rtal?”

  “The Elves and Sprites are constantly at war because of us and other reasons,” Casper says. “We wish to be together forever without being ripped apart.”

  The woman nods with a cunning smile. “How miraculous? An Elf and a Sprite fell in love and doomed us all.”

  I tense, gripping Casper’s hand. “Is there no hope for us? We never meant to hurt anyone with our love. We just—”

  The witch raises her hand to stop me. “I feel your love. It is overflowing. It’s radiant like the sun. If only others could see your beautiful aura.” She purses her lips and watches us in silence for a few moments. “Perhaps making you into mortals is the right thing to do. You will be gone, therefore, maybe the wars will end, and we can have peace again.” She scoffs. “But don’t hold your breath. However, I’m willing to try.” She turns to her shelves of vials and takes two. She faces us again. “Now, you must listen to me very carefully. Once you are mortal, know that you will die in each lifetime. You won’t be a true mortal, because you will reincarnate after each life. Dreams will bring you together.”

  “Bring us together?” I ask. “Won’t we already know each other?”

  “Being mortal is different. You start a new life and live however long that life is, you die, then you start over in a new life. You may not know each other. You may hate each other or find each other at the very end of your lives or worse never find each other. Years in a mortal life are longer than our immortal ones.”

  “So, there’s no guarantee we’ll be together?” My voice shakes and Casper tightens his grip.

  “I would say that about anyone else but you two. Your love is stronger than I have ever seen. Even if you ended up hating each other in a life, you would eventually remember who you are. Remember, dreams will bring you together. It might take a while for you to remember what the dreams mean.”

  “What kind of dreams will they be?” Casper asks.

  “Of your immortal life together.”

  “Once we turn mortal, we cannot return to the immortal world?”

  “If you can find me, or find someone like me, you can give up your mortal life and return here. If you possess the Nuummite Jewel, you can return as well. But know this, they will never stop looking for you,” she warns.

  “But they’ll never know we’re in the mortal world,” Casper says.

  “No. They won’t.”

  “Except Vincent has the Jewel, Casper,” I say. “He could find us.”

  “Only if he knows we are in the mortal world.”

  “Will you be safe?” I ask the witch. “If Vincent and his men come lurking around asking questions?”

  She curls her wrinkled lips into an appreciative smile. “I will be fine. I am more powerful than anyone knows. You deserve happiness and peace. However, be forewarned. If you find each other, and one dies before the other, you must live out the rest of your life.”

  “Don’t mortals sometimes take their own lives?” I ask. “That would bring us back together.”

  The old woman looks at me sternly. “Life is a gift, not one to waste. It is frowned upon. I know you would be miserable without each other, but these mortal lives are not to be wasted. I only ask one thing in return.”

  “Of course. Anything,” Casper says.

  “Use these lives to find a way to stop the wars.”

  Casper nods and looks to me as if asking my opinion. I agree and he turns back to the woman. “What do we have to do?”

  “Drink this potion.” She hands us a clear liquid in a vial. “And say goodbye for now.”

  My stomach drops. “But we just found each other.”

  “I will give you a minute,” she says and leaves the room.

  “Casper,” I say. My heart is racing and I’m clutching onto him.

  He pulls me to him, cradling my head and peering into my eyes with a heated gaze. “This is the only way, Megan. We will see each other in the next life.” He wipes a tear from my cheek. “Don’t cry. Know that I will always love you.”

  “But what if we don’t find each other? Then what?”

  “I’d rather be without you for one lifetime than never have you at all. This is all we have, and I can’t be apart from you. I will find you.”

  I search his eyes. He’s right. This is all we have.

  We look at each other, potions in hand, and wanting more than anything for a way to be together without interference. It is crazy to think that in each life we’ll have to find each other and fall in love over and over. I fear us hating each other or never finding each other.

  But the possibly of being with him without the Sprites hunting us down and trying to kill us is what encourages us to drink. After we down the drink, we embrace, clutching onto each other. We kiss like it is our last and then blackness.

  Chapter Forty-Eight

  My eyes flutter open and there’s an ache in my neck. I massage it and stand. I’m still stuck in Vincent’s basement and my body hurts from throwing myself against the door. I don’t know how many days it’s been since he locked me up. He seldom visits, and part of me wonders if he forgot about me.

  I remember my dream.

  Flashes of memories fill my head. I steady myself against the stair rail as the memories race forth. Everything makes sense now. The dreams. The visions. My whole immortal life with Casper. We found each other. In every single lifetime. Except one. The one with Vincent. The one where he took me back home, but I aged. Will that happen again if he takes me back?

  How did Vincent find us? I have to find Casper before Vincent finds a way to take me back and erase my memory again. He will kill Casper and Casper will start a new life without me. The dreams would torture him. He would search endlessly for many lifetimes. I can’t let Vincent do this to us. I have to end this. Is he trying to kill Casper now? He said he had things to take care of. I have to get out of here.

  Frantically searching through drawers of the vanity for anything, I dig inside and find matches. I pick up the box. I can set this whole house on fire. I wonder if this is considered suicide, but I have to end this. The war. The fighting. I can’t imagine how many more have died because of us.

  I light the match and take a breath. I will find Casper in the next life. I drop the match and light another one and drop it on the bed. I empty the matchbox and stand back and watch the flames feed themselves across the room. Soon the room starts filling with smoke.

  “Vincent,” I scream.

  Seconds later I hear the door open and he clamors down the stairs. “Megan!”

  “Help me.”

  The flames grow, latching onto anything they can. He jumps through the flames and grabs my hands. But I tug him and knee him hard in the groin. I snatch a flaming pillow, burning my arms, and press it to his face. He lets out a cry and I dart up the stairs. It’s dark and my heart feels as if it’s going to burst through my chest. I shakily open the front door and charge for the woods. I can’t promise it’ll lead me someplace safe, but I don’t care. My bare feet step over dead pine straw and sticks. I feel cuts forming but I ignore them. I run as fast as I can. I don’t know how far Casper’s house is, but I know the way and I won’t stop running until I get there.

  It seems like days that I run, but I finally reach a familiar street.

  I finally arrive at his house and it’s dark inside and out. It looks like no one is there. I ring the doorbell and try to turn the knob but this time it’s locked.

  “Casper,” I scream and I’m sure the neighbors welcome the sounds I’m making but I have to find him. I have to tell him everything. I hold myself as my body is shaking but I know it’s not only from the unusually cold night.

  Headlights blind me as they sweep across the driveway and the car halts. The door opens and I see a man running toward me.

  “Megan.” I immediately relax when I hear his voice.

  I collide with him; my arms wrap around him as he catches me. He holds me so tight and I breathe him in.

  “I’ve been looking every
where for you,” he says as he exhales. I feel the air travel over my head. “I’m so sorry. I knew Vincent took you, but I didn’t know where.” He holds me at arm’s length and looks at me.

  “Casper, he locked me up in his basement. He’s the one who tried to kill you. He killed Adam.”

  “What?”

  “I left him in his burning house. I left him to die.”

  Casper holds me tight. “It’s okay. You’re safe. Are you okay?”

  I nod. “You were right all along. I love you—” His lips cut me off. Soft, warm and eager. We finally found each other. I lose myself in his kiss, forgetting, if only for a moment, being held captive and knowing Vincent’s confessions. Casper is all I need, and I want him forever.

  He rests his forehead against mine. His hands rake through my hair, which feels matted. He takes a deep breath and kisses my forehead. He tilts my chin up. “I love you.” He fans my hair out from my shoulders and his fingers brush against my neck, sending a hot shiver up my spine. I can’t tear myself away from his brown eyes and I inhale as he leans down, pressing his warm lips to mine. The same rush fills me like in my dreams. There is nothing else but us. I press my body to his, wanting him closer as our mouths slip over each other’s. My heart can’t be tamed. It’s like a wild horse who has escaped, freely running.

  A loud crack sounds, though it doesn’t distract me enough to pull away from Casper. But the blinding white pain that suddenly washes over me, makes my whole body slack. He holds me to keep me from falling.

  “Megan,” he cries.

  The pain swallows me. Burning, searing throbbing. I take short, shallow breaths.

  “Hold on, Megan!” His voice is muffled by the pierce ringing in my ears. My eyes are heavy, and my body is numbing. I can still hear his voice and I cling onto it with everything I have. “I need help. Please. She’s…shot!”

  His words jumble in my mind as my eyes close. Slowly, slowly, I hear no other sounds.

  This is how I die in this lifetime. Murder. And now Casper will have to live out his entire life without me.