"The Dark Stranger"
© VeGirl 2014

"I need a shower before we leave." Vincent kiss me one last time before he reluctantly leaves me wrapped in the sheets.

"I assume we have running water?" I tease.

"Electricity and running water," he brags with a wide smile before he leave me.

I lay there, looking around to observe every detail in the room. The paraffin lantern on the nightstand feels like I saw it just yesterday and I try to grasp everything I have been told through over these weird few days. How can I have been away for two hundred years? Where have I been? This is a little too much for me to handle, and lost in time and space I remain staring out the window until Vincent returns, wet and smelling even better than before.

"How are you holding on?" His tone is sweet and I try to sound brave for him.

"Great." I smile.

"Thank you for trying, but it doesn't work that way. I can still see what you are hiding." He smiles patiently and suddenly my mind is filled with the most amazing view of him and me at the meadow I dreamed of. He looks at me with a huge smile. "I Vinćento Therrien take you Samira to be my lawfully wedded wife, to love and cherish as long as we both shall live."

I gasp as the image disappears like a soap-bubble and the newly showered Vincent stands before me. "We got married in that meadow!"

He smiles. "Yes, go shower now! I'll make us breakfast, we have a busy day ahead of us."

* * *

A luscious odor sifts up to the bedroom when I get out of the shower, my stomach rumble and suddenly I feel terribly hungry. I hurry to dry myself and get dressed. Since the wardrobe contain almost exclusively of dresses and skirts, I have to search for a while before I find a halfwhat simple shirt and pull my jeans back on.

"This smells absolutely divine." I sigh in bliss. "But I have to get back to work."

Vincent smiles at me with an amused face. "Not today, we have things to do." He gestures for me to take a seat by the table and put a plate with pancakes and bacon in front of me. I can feel my mouth water from the divine scent and I realize once again how hungry I am.

"Thank you." I smile as he takes the seat in front of me and dig into his own plate of breakfast equal to mine. "You are a fantastic cook."

"Thank you." He smiles and that fluttering inside of me starts all over again. I have never had that feeling last like this with any other guy, but then again; Vincent isn't just any other guy. "I thought we might pay Esme a visit."

"I can't believe Esme is here."

"Sure she is," he says as if it was the most natural thing in the world to be living in a mountain. I was afraid that I was losing my mind; well I'm not the only one. Just saying!

My eyes focus on the plate before me, but my mind is somewhere entirely different. The thought of what kind of magical phenomenon that is going on, is on a constant loop in my mind. My brooding takes such proportions that when Vincent says something, I don't hear any of it.

"I said; don't worry!"

I snap my head up and stare dumbfound at him. "What?"

"You are projecting your thoughts so loud that every man and woman in this realm will soon hear you." He has a smile glistening on his face. "Don't worry; I will soon be able to give you a few of the answers you need to know, love."

I blush and lower my eyes to the food in front of me again.

"You don't have to apologize, I get that this is confusing, I really do." His smile changes to be very considerate again. "I had a hard time to deal when I first arrived here, and I was prepared; I had a mission."

I merely furrow my brows for him to continue.

"I came here to find you and to bring you back." He smiles patiently. "I was sent by your parents."

I can feel my inside contract at the thought of being abducted, even if it is by him. Did I react to him in this intense way I do now? I wondered.

"Yes."

I look bemused up at him. "What do you mean yes?"

"Yes, you reacted this way even then," he explains and I blush once again due to my stupidity and still does not understand how he can answer thoughts I never air. "And I react the same way to you," he continues. "So you don't really have to project those scenes in the dungeon for me to spontaneously combust." He has a teasing smile, but my body reacts instinctively.

"We better get going, or I will take you back to bed and not get up more today." He finishes his meal and then gets up and put the dishes in a dishwasher.

"I can't remember a dishwasher last time I was here," I say to distract myself, and possibly him as well.

"They hadn't invented the dishwasher a hundred years ago." He gives me a pointed look.

Yeah right, I didn't think about that!

I laugh it away. "I'm sorry; it's a little hard for a twentyfour year old to have a three hundred year old boyfriend," I joke. "Or how old are you?"

He chuckles darkly. "Yeah, keep telling yourself that you are twentyfour..." He dodges my question.

* * *

A little while thereafter, we are out in the fresh air, and I am amazed by the strong scents here. We walk further along the road we had been on the day before and after a mile or so, we end up in front of another little picturesque cottage.

"This is Esme's house," Vincent announces and we open her little gate in the fence and walk inside. Almost immediately, Esmeralda opens the front door and step out to meet us.

"Esme, I heard that you tried to turn my Sam against me." Vincent has a cocky attitude. "Why would you do that?"

The girl looks like she doesn't know what to answer, but plaster a smile on her face anyway. "We both know you two are both good and bad for each other."

"Esmeralda," I say and manage to get the single word in a curt tone.

"Esme, please." She smiles confident, totally unaffected by my stern look.

"I went looking for you, but you were gone."

"Yeah, about that..."

"I needed some answers."

"What could I tell you, your entire body screamed that you didn't believe anything I said." She looks defiantly at me and I remember that day.

She is right about that. I shrug my eyebrows. "So, what about the coincidence that the real Esmeralda didn't know anything about Eddie and my visit?" I give her my best glare, not ready to drop the subject just yet.

"I am the real Esmeralda! That lady who calls herself Ester, who by the way got the brilliant idea to change her performance-name that morning, looked tired and walked out the hut without too much persuasion just before you and your friend entered it; I'm surprised that you didn't run into her."

Her story makes my jaw drop in surprise. "You knew I was coming, before I knew it myself?"

"I heard you and your friend's debate. You were shining like a beacon," she snapped annoyed. "Why haven't you taught her to turn that off?" She turns to glare at Vincent.

He smiles amused. "I've been busy."

I am confused and don't really know what they're talking about.

"It is like some radio that sends a signal out; or a metal detector that beeps louder, the closer you two get. You need to turn that off."

I feel a little embarrassed. "I'm sorry."

That seems to take her edge off immediately. "Well, I'm sorry too. I'll teach you," she smiles and starts to instruct me how to imagine myself like a beacon that need a protective lid or shell around not to project my every thought to all the supernatural entities around me.

I stop and stare at her. "There are a lot of supernatural things around?" I ask astonished.

She smiles uncomfortable. "More than you like to know right this minute."

I think that I might have paled up, because Vincent quickly grabs hold of me and makes me sit down in the closest chair and brusquely bends me forward.

"Nice work Esme," he snarls. "We just stopped by to give you this." He picks up the crystals he bought in the dingy looking store, and lay them in Esme's hand.

"You got the Malachite?"

"Yes, but the man was very curious, I think he recognized Sam and asked if I wanted an Adamite."

"And he spoke Echino... Enock... whatever," I mutter. "Can I get up now?" I turn to give Vincent the evil eye, but from that point of view it is hard to catch his eye. He let go of my neck and I straighten my back to find Esme stare wideeyed at Vincent.

"He's part of them?"

"Yeah, he recognized Sam all right, but she did the air-head performance of a lifetime and I think she managed to fool him. I put the veil around our visit, so I hope his head doesn't clear for a few days."

"If he has a magic-shop I'm sure he comes protected." Esme glare at Vincent.

I sit there between them as if I am attending a tennismatch while they bicker back and forth, but at that last statement a loud bang reverberate within me and I am pushed backwards and so is Esmeralda. A vague translucent shivering is visible around Vincent. I hear Esme impressed say something about him having amped up, but I can't take my attention away from the shimmering air, surrounding him. How could Eddie say that he had a dark aura? I have never seen anything as bright and beautiful.

"Are you okay?" Vincent asks concerned, the shimmering aura fades away and that is the moment that I snap out of my amazement.

"Eddie! She's gonna have a fit if I just don't show up for work." I fiddle with my cellphone. "How long are we staying here?"

"No reception," Esme says and I notice that she is right.

Vincent smiles. "Your compassion is astonishing. The magical thing about being here is that no time at all have passed when we get back to the other realm."

I can feel my forehead wrinkle up as I process this new information. "So the people, or creatures..." I correct myself. "...that we're dodging here, are still gonna be after us when we get back?" I deduce and notice his slightly confused expression. "Why are we here then? I thought it was to get away."

"Hmm..." He exhales and looks like he don't know what to answer. The last of the shimmering translucence aura around him disappears like a busted bubble or like my weird dream-episodes.

Esme takes a step forward. "We're gonna protect you better than the last time."

I notice how she flinches as if she said too much. "Last time?"

She takes a deep breath before she continues. "Yeah, that was before the orphanage found an almost ten year old girl abandoned."

I feel confused, but it dawns on me. "Me?" I exhale sharply. "How could I suddenly get ten years old, when I was an adult?"

"I'm sorry, that was me," Esmeralda admits. "I was scared of what they might do if they caught you, so I threw them off your track for a decade and a half."

I watch her with my brows in a tight line and my mouth slightly ajar. "What are you?"

She gives me a glib smile. "I'm your friend."

I sigh in exhaustion. "I need some answers; now!"

Vincent and Esmeralda look at each other as they seem to fabricate some kind of story to tell me.

"Are you a witch?" I throw out there since I realize that sort of thing must be true if people can just drive through a mountain and end up in some weird Narnia reality. I watch her as she draw her mouth out to one side as if she tries to bend the truth a bit.

"...ish..." is all that comes out.

"Ish? Witch-ish?"

"Ahem... yes."

This is definitely not something that would hold in court, I think as I press my lips together in a fine line. I turn towards Vincent. "Take me home."

He looks surprised at me. "But we just left."

"I want you to take me back through the weird tunnel to my house." My tone is stern and so is the cold gaze I give him. "I am tired of being made fun of.

"Oh sweetie, no one is making fun of you," he claims and even Esme looks as if she mean it.

"Absolutely not, we just can't tell you more." She looks honest enough.

"Then why not just keep me in the dark completely?" I snarl. "If you can't tell me anything, I obviously shouldn't know."

* * * * * *

Hmm, first she want to know everything, but then she get's pissed and don't want to know anything...?

Really?

What about this girl?

.