Someone was looking for her. Someone called Aidan. Her blood froze as she got the news from Sister Julie and she had to grasp the nearby chair for support. So it had not been just a hunch; there was someone called Aidan in her life. 

She had remembered the name as soon as she had woken up from her nightmare on the third night and the nightmare had repeated ever since. She could focus on more details each time. Like she had been crying when she had felt that knife pierced her ribs. And the name Aidan had always been in every dream.

Which meant that he had to be linked to what had happened and to why she had ran. But who was Aidan? Was he the groom or the murderer? Or was he the groom murderer? Why would she call out the name Aidan if he had nothing to do with her being murdered?

The message in the dream was clear; her life was threatened. That was why her instincts had told her to run. It was pretty clear to her and she could not make anyone understand her plight. And he had to be pretty desperate to track her down till here. Not to mention dangerous.

And Mary was sure that the man wanted to harm her. Wouldn’t he have come with the police if he was clean? From what she had heard, he was alone and was carrying a picture of her and asking if anyone had seen her. Hell, how smart was that damned murderer? She had not set foot out of the convent ever since she had come here and nobody had come to visit since the doctor.

 “Please sister. Not a word,” Mary signaled the sister frantically from afar. She so wanted to get a glimpse of him and she was told that he was in Mother Katherine’s study. Stealthily, she tiptoed outside the study and peeped into the room to get a look of the man. To her disappointment, he was standing with his back to her and she could not make out his face.

But he was nothing like she had imagined. From where he stood, he looked lean and almost perfect. Gulping down her unease, she felt her heart pick up speed and rapidly hid behind the door to listen to whatever he was saying.

 “Are you sure you haven’t met this woman?” he was asking and his voice reflected some worry. At the sound of his voice, Mary felt her head started to pound again. Her subconscious knew this voice and was trying to warn her against him.

“Could you please try again? I have another photo of her. Maybe you could have a better look. Please,” he almost pleaded when Mother Katherine shook her head.

“I’m sorry but I cannot help you sir,” was repeating Mother Katherine and Mary knew how difficult it was for her to answer him without lying. The mother superior was after all a woman of virtues and she could not lie, not even for a good cause.

 “Her name is Katherine too. She has been missing for a week now. We have been worried sick and….” he seemed to falter and Mary processed the information in her head. So she was named Katherine. No wonder she had felt a pang every time they had used the name Katherine around her in the early days.

“How are you related to her?” asked the Mother and she felt her heart pound in anticipation at the question. She would finally get to know who he was and decide whether to confide in him or run from him.

“Kate and I were engaged to be married,” he said and Kate felt shock ripple through her. She had been hoping that he would not turn out to be her evil groom but it seemed that destiny was against her. “She ran on our wedding day but I know she has not run from me,” he delivered in a confident voice. “She loved me so much.”

Kate sagged against the door as she heard the latest confession. She was starting to have mixed feelings. He sounded sincere like someone who had suffered a lot and she could not make up her mind if he was acting or not. Not from the other end of the door. Maybe if she had seen his facial expression, it would have been easier to gauge his emotions.

“I’m sorry to hear that, son. But I’m sure that wherever she is, she would eventually hear your plea,” Mother Katherine said loud enough for her to hear and Kate knew that she had spotted her outside the door.

“I certainly hope so. But I really don’t know what to make of it. I was so sure she had been kidnapped. Until this morning. When I met a boy in a park who had spotted her. I cannot believe she is running from me. Something must have happened to her,” the beautiful voice sounded again and Kate wanted to reach out and comfort him.

What was wrong with her? Why was she getting carried away towards a complete stranger. And suddenly she understood how she had gotten herself in such a fix in the first place. Damn she must have been thinking with her hormones instead of her mind. No wonder that man could fool her so easily.

“She trusted me more than she trusted herself. I still cannot understand who she is running from. And why she had not contacted me yet,” he added and Kate who had decided to move back to her room retreated her steps back. Was she being completely mistaken about the whole thing? She could be completely wrong about what had actually happened. But it was too big a risk for her to take.

Hell, she had no memory whatsoever of her past life and one could hardly blame her if she was being cautious. She did not want anyone to take advantage of her situation and if her life was in danger she had better tread carefully.

“She will. Maybe sooner than you expect.”

“What do you mean by that?” he asked and Kate felt an alarm trigger in her head. Had he doubted anything. The answers he was getting were cryptic and had a double meaning but if Aidan could decipher them, it could only mean that he had a sharp mind.

“Keep faith my son. I will pray to God that she gets back to you soon.”

“It’s hard not knowing if she’s fine or not,” he finally delivered after a few minutes of silence and Kate felt his pain through his voice. Why was it so hard for her to trust him? Why was it so hard for her to trust anyone? It would seem that her amnesia has not only taken her memories but has also altered her faculty of trusting. But maybe she had always been that dubious.

Still indecisive about what to do, Kate tiptoed back to the corridor while she watched the man thank Mother Katherine profusely and made for the door. As he turned, Kate had to mentally remind herself to breathe. She had never expected him to be so… so handsome.

His lean well-toned tall body was the perfect fit for her tall figure and his ebony hair was neatly swept back from his face. Kate felt an unexplainable urge to run her fingers through them and could have kicked herself for her over aging hormones. But once she got a look at him, she was mesmerized and could not look away.

When he smiled at Mother Katherine at the door of the study, Kate noticed lines of worry round his mouth and the smile did not quite reach his eyes. He had a three days stubble on which gave him the look of a dangerous mouthwatering pirate.

Mouthwatering? Now where had that thought come from? Was she losing her rational as well? He was breathtakingly beautiful for a male and she found herself wishing fervently that he was not the one who was supposedly causing her harm.

Her eyes were riveted to his face like a magnet to metal. As she stared at him from the corridor, she was glad he could not see her. Even from a distance, she was breathless watching the way the lines played on his face or the way his muscles rippled.

“Well, thank you for your time Mother. I will take your leave now. And here’s my card. Do call me if you get to know anything,” he said and Kate was so busy admiring him that she had no time to react. She felt her heart stop when suddenly he looked in her direction.

Her whole body went rigid and it was a torture trying not to make the slightest movement. Her heart was pounding so loud that she feared he might hear it. But there was no way he could see her. The corridor was dark and her body was almost behind a door.

As he squinted his eyes, Kate gulped at the beauty of the two specters. They were dark green. Like a dense forest. God was so unfair sometimes. Why did the eyes had to be outstanding too along with everything else?

Finally, he shook his head and made his way to the exit door and Kate let out a long repressed breath. However the relief was short lived as she watched his retreating back from the window and felt like her heart was breaking into millions of pieces.

What the hell was wrong with her? She had to make up her mind once and for all. Okay she was attracted to him but it was plausible since she had been ready to marry that man. But not when she had found out that he was a damned murdered?

How could her head overrule her mind? What kind of person did that make her? Well, she was glad not to have been in front of him. If she was having such reactions on just spying on him, she could hardly imagine what it would be like facing him. Wrinkling her nose, she watched him stride off until he was out of sight and heaved a huge sigh of relief.

“Oh no, you don’t!” sounded behind her which made her jump guiltily. It was Mother Katherine who wore a severe expression.

Oh-oh. It wasn’t looking good.

“I don’t know what you mean,” she prevaricated.

“You are the Katherine he was looking for. I cannot believe you are hiding from your past. And from him. He seemed really worried about your disappearance.”

Kate flashed guiltily at the words. “But I’m sure he has been trying to kill me. And you know about the nightmares. Why would I call out the name Aidan if not to warn myself against the murdered? And why else would I run from my own damned wedding?”

“Don’t swear!” admonished the Mother superior instantly. “You’re in a convent! The fact that you are avoiding him does not make any sense. If he was the killer, you should have at least confronted him about it. I don’t think he would have killed you in front of all of us!”

She had a point. But Kate did not know why she was feeling so apprehensive. The doctor had warned her that her present ailment was preventing her from getting back to her old ways because she was still not ready to confront her past. It was a weird feeling; one she could not even explain.

But Mother Katherine was right. That man could hardly kill her in front of so many people and she should have asked him what had happened after she had run from the wedding. But she had a feeling she did not want to know.

Hell, how was it supposed to be when your bride has left you at the alter? It was downright humiliating and not to mention painful. She was behaving like a fool.

“And if he had the intention of killing you, he wouldn’t have come in the open asking about you in the first place. He would have followed you or something,” Mother Katherine added and Kate felt even more guilty at the implied accusation.

She was practically being accused of overreacting but she could not explain her sixth sense. It was telling her that someone was after her life. And whatever anybody said, it was not making any difference to her. But after seeing him, she felt different. Like she was missing out on something important.

Kate sighed as she had nothing to say.  The Mother superior was more keen to side up with that stranger than her. And true to her words, the latter thrust a business card forcefully in her direction and she moved back out of pure reflex.

“Here, call him. Don’t go alone if you don’t want to but at least talk to him.”

And when she took the card, she read his full name. Aidan Flint Waldorf. Out of their own will ,her fingers stretched against the name and she found herself caressing it. And she felt a sense of déjà vu. She was damned sure she had done this before but she could not place any event to it. Damn her memory loss!

“Who knows maybe you have been calling out the name to save you,” Mother Katherine said wisely before leaving her and she stood transfixed. Was she right?

As she went to her room, the words echoed in her head and she finally accepted that it was a possibility. Something her frenzied mind had not taken into consideration because she was in her survival mode. Maybe Aidan was not the attacker but her savior. Maybe she had been over dramatizing the whole story and she had only freaked out from her wedding.

Despite herself, she found her heart accepting this option and she felt a shudder of anticipation at the thought formed in her mind. Maybe he had not betrayed her as she had been imagining. Maybe there was a hope for her and her fiancé after all.

And there was only way to find out. She would call him tomorrow. There was no use hiding from her past anymore. Come morning, she would ask Sister Julie to accompany her and if she did not get back after two hours, Mother Katherine would call the police.

It was the only thing she could do. It was time for her to face the past. As the evening went by, she become more determined and decided to ask Sister Julie to make the call tomorrow. She would not expose herself to any danger at first. If he was the murderer, he would jump at the first occasion offered to him and he would waste no time in killing her.

As she shared her idea with Sister Julie, the latter appeared more enthusiastic than her. Hell, everybody seemed to be under his spell.

“Oh, Mary. I mean Katherine. I’m glad that you have finally decided to meet him. Talk to him and listen to whatever he has to say,” replied Sister Julie.

“You can call me Kate. Katherine is so like the Mother superior,” she said and they both laughed at her joke but she could feel her insides clench with worry. Or was it anticipation? She could feel herself looking forward to meeting that man Aidan again.

“Do you think we must take a man along?” she queried pursing her lips in worry as she tried to figure out a way. But there was no male in the convent except Father Christopher and Dr. Carl.

“I think it’s a good idea. If you will feel safer. There’s Kent who lives near and he usually helps us with the cleaning during the winter. I will ask Mother Katherine if he can accompany us. And don’t worry he’s well-built and would be able to defend you if need be. Except that I don’t think it will be necessary. That boy is too pretty to mean any harm.”

Did she have to add that last part?

“Right, see you in the morning then,” she bade Sister Julie goodnight and moved to her room her mind still in havoc.

How would she react if she found out that he had been trying to kill her? It would break her heart once again no doubt but it was time for her to face her fears. And besides, she might find out about her family or there must be other people worried about her.

Staying at the convent was a temporary reprieve and she could not settle in her sanctuary forever. It would make her a coward. And she was sure she was worth more than that. With those thoughts in mind, she settled against her pillow after her usual night bath preparing herself for another nightmare session.

It was a normal thing for her to have nightmares those days and every time she woke up, she would feel her hair damp and her whole body shaking terribly. But it would seemed that every time she prepared to go to bed, she was mentally rehearsing  the nightmare also. And it came naturally.

It was the same nightmare which replayed in her mind however and try as she might she could never go further than the sadistic laughter. It seemed too real to blame it on her subconscious and she had been clinging to her nightmares to derive her conclusions.

But no more. Tomorrow was another day and she would finally get answers to her many questions. It had been one week of going crazy about not knowing anything about herself and it was more than she could take.

Suddenly, just as she was trying to doze off, she heard a sound and jumped on the bed looking around fearfully. It was a sound of someone who had landed on the ground and she felt her heart pick up speed. Who could it be at such a late hour? It must be past midnight and by the past week she had spent in the convent, she knew that everybody went to sleep early.

Was someone trying to break inside to get her? Or was it Aidan who had seen her even in the dark and had waited till the night to attack her? She was being paranoid and she felt sure that her amnesiac mind was conjuring such frightful images to scare off.

Sitting up in bed, she tried to calm herself down as adrenaline kicked as her overactive mind was assessing option after option. As she got down from her bed, she squinted in her dark room to see if there was someone around. But it was so dark that she could not see anything, not even when her eyes adjusted to the lack of light. With trembling fingers, she switched on her bed lamp and to her uttermost relief found no one hovering in her room.

It must have been a figment of her imagination. But she was damn sure that she had heard a sound. It could have been some cat who had entered the convent. She was still debating whether to look for it or not and strained her ears for any other sound.

The silence screamed back at her and she berated herself for her exaggerated foolishness and sagged against her pillow again. Switching off the light, she found her position and closed her eyes to sleep. And instead of having pictures of her in her wedding dress, she found herself fantasizing about some handsome man with green eyes.

This was no flashback. Even in her present state, she was drooling over the man like some foolish teenager. How was that possible? What kind of woman did that make her? Was she promiscuous? Sleep eluded her and as she closed her mind from the image of Aidan, she heard another sound in the corridor and jumped off the bed again.

There was no way a cat could collide with the chandelier in the corridor! Trying not to panic, she switched on the light again and got up to check whether she had locked her door.

Before she could reach the door, she saw the knob turn and her flight instincts took over. Whirling round, she frantically looked at the window making up her mind whether she could jump or not. When she felt a hand over her mouth and her cry came out as a muffled sound.

Instinctively, she struggled against the hand and found herself back in her nightmare but this time it felt more real.