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| Constable Gregory Reigns & Aurora Ashby-Jordan |
In the village a late afternoon sun warmed the frosty treetops and fallen leaves on the wet cobblestone streets.
At Gregory's apartment above the Constable's office, Aurora was slowly waking up from a deep sleep, a sleep that was brought on by medication that was injected into her by Gregory while he induced her labor. She gave birth to the child-- and now, poor Aurora believed the child she unwillingly became pregnant with by Caspian Casador, had not survived.
A lie, a scheme cooked up by Gregory and Asha, that Aurora believed.
"Gregroy?" Aurora's voice called in a hushed voice. "Gregory?"
Gregory slowly opened the bedroom door and saw Aurora sitting up in bed, her face swollen from crying in her sleep.
"Are you alright? Can I get you something?" He asked, doting on her every need.
"Just water." She answered.
Gregory obliged and quickly went over to a table that had a jug of fresh water that had been placed there only moments before Aurora woke up. He brought her the drink in an orb like glass that Aurora quickly consumer. She had been asleep for hours. Almost a full day in her medicated sleep.
"How do you feel? Are you in any pain?" Gregory asked sitting on the bedside.
She shook her head no.
"Are you hungry?" He asked.
She shook her head no.
"What can I do for you?" He asked again.
"Tell me about her, tell me about my baby. What she looked like, what she sounded like. How big was she?" Aurora said in a tearful voice.
"Aurora, please we shouldn't go through this. I don't want to upset you." Gregory said, not wanting to rehash anything of the labor and for sure not wanting to add more lies to his already devious one.
"I just have to know. She was a part of me too, no matter who her father was." Aurora said sipping more water.
"She was very angelic. Sweet. She did not cry, Aurora. She was born already gone." Gregory said, more lies. The lies cut at his heart. It was killing him that he had to do this, but this was his only way, he thought, of freeing Aurora of any ties to Caspian and thus freeing himself to be with Aurora without the terrible shadow of being a possible stepfather to a child that was created by a serpent of a man, the devil himself.
"No crying." Aurora said. "I thought--- for some reason I have a memory of crying. A baby's cry." Aurora mentioned. "Are you sure she didn't cry?"
Gregory gulped, he thought that the medication would not only render her unconscious but also memoryless. Perhaps she could have heard something, perhaps she could have seen something.
More lies "No, never. Not one tear. Now you lay back in bed and I'll get you something to eat, ok? I've taken the week off and I'll be here with you for all of it." He added reaching for a slice of her long honey toned hair and placing it behind her ear.
He kissed her cheek and she did as he said and laid back in bed.
"Gregory, wait." Aurora said. "Evie and Nik. They must be worried sick for me, I haven't really kept in touch since I came here to stay for a few days, would you please let them know I'm ok and what's happened. I ... I think I can't tell them myself just yet. It's too fresh for me. But I don't want them to find out later."
Gregory smiled. "Of course. Ill be sure to let them know right away."
She smiled at him, a man she so quickly fell in love with, a man she saw was truthful, honorable, kind, attentive. And he was lying to her face the whole time.
Gregory went into the kitchen to make Aurora a quick meal before he would head down into the Constable's office to use the telephone to phone Tirymor and fill in Evie and Nikolas about their mother and the baby's still-birth.
All Gregory could do now was keep up appearances and pray that Asha would do the same.
****
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| Filipe & Mary mourn their child |
The sun had fallen now just beyond the horizon over the hills of Welshport Island. It's shadow loomed there in a deep purple sky casting a gloom of dusk to flow over the narrow straight that separated Welshport from Goode Island where tragedy had occurred in the still birth of Filipe and Mary's baby after a fight in the house between Mary and Jacqueline.
In a quiet thicket of trees minutes from the cabin where fog lightly rolled over the snowy ground, Filipe and Mary stood cloaked in thick wool standing over a small family grave yard.
There the grave stones of Mary's mother Eliza and father Caleb were joined now by baby girl Mary lost that the mourning parents had named Louise.
"I'll never know her laugh or the color of her eyes." Mary whispered.
"In your heart, find her there in your heart." Filipe said, holding Mary close.
"This is all my fault. If I had just figure out how to destroy Caspian without having Sebastian search for the Sisters of Highgrove, I would have never lost Louise." Mary added.
"You can't do that to yourself, Mary, you didn't know what was to come. You didn't know Jacqueline would do what she did. How could you? How could any of us know?" Filipe explained.
"It's my fault. It's all my fault."
"Mary stop, please. I'm telling you it's not. It will never be your fault. It's Jacqueline's fault -- she's the one who attacked you in this way and had no regard for our child. Sebastian too... he could have been more careful and trust us more than trust some woman he's suddenly fallen in love with. Especially you-- you're his family!"
Mary shook her head. She would not accept Filipe's attempt to shift the blame away from her. She knew that she too was responsible for the way things had gone with Jacqueline and how perhaps their own dishonesty with the way Gabriel lost his hearing could have handled better.
"Is this punishment? For what we did to Gabriel?" Mary wondered out loud.
"Mary -- you didn't do that on purpose either. Jacqueline should have told you what she had planned, you have to understand this. The way things were handled were handled that way because Sebastian is a loose cannon. We couldn't have been honest with him, he would have done what he did when he finally found out--- or worse. Explode. Kill. Hurt. We're lucky he didn't kill us." Filipe said, as they both shivered in the cold in the mini-graveyard.
Mary refused to blame Sebastian: "I understand his grief. His anger towards us isn't for nothing."
"Listen," Filipe said, grabbing hold of Mary's gloved hands. "we did what we thought was right at the time when we discovered the spell had rendered Gabriel def. We were buying time to see if we could fix it, reverse it. You know this, Jacqueline knew this and she chose to tell Sebastian the truth to benefit herself and herself alone. That is what happened Mary. That is the truth. We've lost our baby girl because Jacqueline and Sebastian are two people who cannot be trusted with their emotions create chaos and horror wherever they go because of it. Our baby girl is proof of that."
"We have to forgive him. Sebastian didn't want to be the way he is." Mary remidned.
"But what has he done to fix it? He could leave. He could go away forever and leave us all in peace." Filipe shot back.
Mary shook her head "That's never going to happen. Not with Evie and Gabriel here for him to see. He loves them."
"He could open his windows in the day. He could end it all, let the sun in." Filipe said cryptically.
Mary's eyes narrowed. She wanted nothing more to do with anyone's death.
She reached down on the cold hard ground that Filipe labored so difficultly to make a tiny grave suitable for his baby girl for a small bundle of ever green branches and leaves that she had created into a beautiful winter bouquet. A flash of that traumatizing site of the man she loved sobbing while he dug the small grave while she cried silent tears holding the small coffin they had quickly fashioned for the baby.
The mourning mother lay the winter bouquet on the unmarked graved and crossed herself. They both did a silent prayer and Mary then kissed her hand and touched her mother and father's grave stones.
"Watch over our baby mama and papa." She said.
The two cuddled together, Filipe lifted his large coat and placed it over Mary's shoulders as they huddled together to walk back the cabin. as the sun slipped away and the sky went black.
Under a stary winter sky that twinkled above grey night clouds, Sebastian watched as his cousin and Filipe walked back in tears to their home. He slowly made his way to the graves, he too with tears in his eyes.
He fell to his knees on the grave of his Aunt Eliza, the woman who had turned him into the monster of the night that he was now and cried. He was angry at her. He was resentful that the only way she knew how to bring him back to life after his original death two years ago was the use human blood in a spell of the undead and made him the vampire he was, forever locking him in the purgatory of two worlds.
He was angry that he was now tied to Jacqueline and her responsibility of innocent Louise's still birth.
He was angry that his son was rendered without hearing because of a spell he asked for went wrong.
He was angry that he and Evie were apart.
His anger turned to sorrow, and he fell from his kneeling position and laid on the graves crying into the snowy ground. His face felt the icy touch of the snow that didn't melt because of his own cool body temperature.
After the tears, he got up dusted the snow off his clothes.
"I'm sorry for what has happened," he whispered "and for what will happen soon."
Then he vanished back into the shadows of the night to feed.
****
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| Sebastian & Jacqueline at Lockwood Thicket |
Hours later, Sebastian had made his way back to Welshport Island and to the ruins of what once was his family's small cabin known as Lockwood Thicket, once owned by Rebecca Lord's family the Lockwoods. After a year ago, the cabin had burned down when Alice Winterborn and Sebastian fought in a terrible battle that killed her and almost killed Nik, Evie and Matthew.
It was in this fire, that Evie believed she saw Sebastian's body burn too -- but he survived.
At the Cabin, that was slowly being put back together by Sebastian, Jaqueline was doing her best to make due with what areas she could also revert back to normal -- using her magic.
Her powers had reverted the burned out bedroom back to a normal state for her and Sebastian; a front room too was also magically restored to what it once was, but the rest of the house had much work to be done. Jacqueline's powers were strong but to rebuild the way she had done the first two rooms exhausted her to no end. She waited for Sebastian to return, comfy in the new bed in the cabin as a little fire in the new chimney burned brightly.
Sebastian entered the room through a hallway in the new main room. The glow of yellow light shined in his eyes as he saw the beautiful Jacqueline Grey in bed waiting for him. Her eyes shined in excitement as he walked in.
He was still broken hearted over Mary's baby.
"I missed you." She said in a soft voice.
He did not reply, attempted to warm his body by the fire after tossing his coat and gloves off over a chair.
"Where were you?" She asked.
"I went to see Mary." he replied.
She gulped and sat up in bed wondering what Mary had told him. "Mary."
"She lost her child. I was there, I don't know why I was there. They had a little funeral for her." Sebastian replied, not realizing the conversation Filipe and Mary had concerned Jacqueline's involvement in the baby's accidental still birth.
"Why didn't you tell me you were going there? I would have gone with you?" Jacqueline said, still waiting for the other shoe to drop.
"I don't think that would have been a good idea, do you?"
Jacqueline stammered, unsure about what he meant at first but then he clarified "Mary and Filipe aren't exactly happy right now with us, after my outburst and what you told me. Now they're mourning their child, I wouldn't have wanted them to begin fighting with us again."
"Why did you go there in the first place?" She asked as he turned from the fire to face her.
"I honestly don't know. I was just drawn there. I went, following some kind of feeling and to be honest I thought it was just some kind of feeling for me to feed. I needed to feed. Goode Island was where I've been finding most of the blood meals after all these years. But when I got there, I went towards the cabin and there they were, at the little cemetery in the back." He explained.
"You didn't speak to them?" Jacqueline wondered. Sebastian shook his head no to her relief.
She patted the empty side of the bed next to her and he went over like a lost puppy and sat down. She held him, and squeezed his body tight in a hug that felt like it would last forever.
They slowly turned their faces, their noses rubbed as they did and their lips came closer and closer together. Hers were warm and pink and his were cool to the touch but would absorb her warmth as soon as they kissed. She could feel his heart beat -- it was like a vibration in the air, like sonar. He cupped her head in his big hands and held her safely as she began to unbutton his shirt.
While they kissed and her warm hands felt his chest, his mind was elsewhere. On the little girl that died, on his little boy that lost his hearing, on how he couldn't control his anger when things went sour in his world. How he wanted so much to be able to not grow into this wildfire of a person that would ravage everyone in his life as if they were trees in a forest engulfed by the fire of his fury.
She kissed him deeper now that his shirt was off and reached for the top of his trousers, his eyes filled with tears and he whispered the name "Evie."
She stopped kissing and pulled away.
"What?" She said, knowing full well what he said.
"I, I'm sorry." He said, his eyes now streaming with tears.
"If I ask you something will you tell me the truth?" She asked.
Sebastian knew what she was going to ask after that name came from his whispering lips.
"Sebastian?" She said, waiting for his reply.
"I don't what to hurt your feelings Jacqueline, so please --- careful what you ask." He warned.
He stood up and grabbed his shirt that had been taken off by her and slipped it on but did not button it. The glowing light of the fire made his body seem to glow with little speckles of sweat that had beaded on his body. She scooted over from one side of the bed and looped her legs over and let them fall into a swooping heap of sheets and her nightgown that tangled together to the floor.
"I need to know what I'm doing here. I need to know why you have me around." She said.
"Jacqueline, things are complicated right now. You know this! You've seen what's happened in the last few weeks, whatever I saw now may put more stress on the subject and I don't want that. I just want us to --- I don't know. I want things to go back the way they were before when Gabriel was ok, When Mary was pregnancy, when we were at the Cabin with them. But I can't. We can't go back. Too much has happened, and now, we've got to try and move forward. Without them." He said.
"Together." She said, hoping for confirmation but Sebastian hesitated.
"-------I hope." He said.
Jacqueline got up from the bed and walked over to Sebastian who was clearly conflicted. She knew that his outbursts were key to the animosity between he and his family-- especially with Filipe who didn't trust Sebastian as far as he could throw him. But they were to men whose blood was intertwined literally thanks to Eliza's spell of the undead where she used Filipe's blood to bring Sebastian back.
This connection was a source of great tension between the two men; Sebastian resented being turned into what he was, and Filip resented being used to make Sebastian what he was. Neither of them realizing their anger and resentments were perhaps mistargeted.
Jacqueline put her hands under Sebastian's shirt and let them slide up his shoulders. She could feel his cool skin slide smoothly under her arms. She pulled him close to her and looked him in his pale blue eyes.
"There is nothing I wouldn't do to make sure we both get what we want, Sebastian. Whatever it is. There is no cost to me." She said.
He stared at her for a split second and almost felt the sensation of distrust enter his heart. He knew she had befriended Evie, and he wasn't sure why. Distrust. Doubt. And perhaps fear of Jacqueline began to seep through his whole body--but she was all he had now. They were the only two in their own dark world that could understand what they were, who they were, and where they came from.
He bowed his head and kissed her again, his mind once more swirled with feelings of nostalgia for his lost life-- and for Evie.
He again, this time only in his mind, thought of Evie. Her name entered his mind like a ship entering a bay and circled and circled and circled.
"Evie. Evie. Evie."
These were Silent, in his mind, but the witch Jacqueline sensed it all.
And she was furious that he was still this much in love with Evie Jordan-Lord.
****
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| Jacob catches Evie sleepwalking on her balcony |
As the night progressed, in her own bed, Evie tossed and turned.
Her bed looked like it had survived a tornado with sheets and blankets tangled around her like wool and silk nooses holding her tightly in bed. She slept with her own name coming and going in her mind, as if someone was calling her.
Calling to her from beyond the grave or from another world, trying to reach her. Trying to tell her something that she could not understand.
Who's voice was it and Where was it coming from?
It was Sebastian's distorted voice in Evie's mind echoing telepathically from Lockwood Thicket.
But Evie did not recognize his voice the way presented to her in her mind. It was deeper. Menacing too. Frightening her in her sleep.
Then, As they kissed, Jacqueline's eyes snapped open glowing white and she began to control Sebastian's thoughts that were filling Evie's mind.
Evie tossed and turned, but in a snap she sat straight up and her eyes were glowing too the same color as Jacqueline's.
Evie pulled the remining sheets off of her warm body and like a zombie she slowly walked in her dark room towards the French windows that were slightly frozen shut from the frost of the night. She pulled and she pulled on the iron door latch that was stuck causing quite the noise in the next room that was an adjoining sitting room where Jacob had come to get a glass of brandy before bed. The noise of Evie attempting to unlatch the frozen doors alarmed him and he began to make his way to Evie's room.
By the time Jacob entered the room, Evie had been able to open the French doors of her third-floor bedroom balcony and was standing barefoot on the stone ledge in the freezing cold. She lifted one foot and was about to jump to her death when Jacob dropped his brand and ran towards her and grabbed her by the waste pulling her down onto the snowy balcony floor.
The hit her body made on the balcony floor jolted Evie awake, she screamed, yanking Jacqueline out of her mind and out of her trans just as Sebastian picked the witch up in his arms and took her to the bed to make love to her.
Evie screamed again as Jacob helped her up in the snow. Celeste burst into the room and saw them together.
"What's happened???" Celeste asked grabbing a blanket from the floor and wrapping Evie in it.
"He was trying to kill me!!!" She screamed.
"WHAT?" Jacob shouted back. "Evangeline, you're out of your mind! I heard loud noises from this room and when I came in you were outside on the balcony almost jumping to your death!!"
"That's a lie!!" Evie shouted back confusing Celeste.
"Evie, you were sleep walking or, I saw it with my own eyes." Jacob replied.
Just before Evie could reply that it was Jacob who was lying she suddenly remembered standing herself on the ledge of the balcony -- on her own.
"No, but I... I wasn't--- no, that can't be!" She said as she slumped to the floor petrified of what she almost did, not knowing Jacqueline had controlled her and almost killed her.
"There, there." Celeste said, sitting down next to her and hold her body to warm in. "You're under a lot of stress dear. You're still not over both Matthew and Sebastian's deaths."
Evie turned to Celeste and pushed her so that she'd be released.
"Sebastian is not dead. And maybe Matthew isn't either." Evie said, jumping to her feet.
"Evie, calm down." Celeste said.
"You know it! Jacob knows it! ... I don't know it. Do I? I don't know what's happening to me. What's happening to me?" She asked, her eyes filled with tears, completely overwhelmed by the stresses of reality.
"Lie down, Evie, lie down." Celeste said as she shot Jacob a look realizing they wouldn't have to do much to convince anyone that Evie was losing her mind after all.
Jacob was finally going to get what he wanted now that Evie's mind was spiraling out of control... but he began to feel pity for her as he watched Celeste attempt to calm her in her bed.
The game was to make her seem insane to the rest of the world all over again, it wasn't for her to actually be insane.
Back at Lockwood Thicket, Sebastian and Jacqueline's bodies were a tangle of flesh. He was enamored with her, and she with him. Their heart beats were synced, their lips on fire. She whispered in his ear that she loved him, and he licked her neck as his sharp teeth suddenly grew and gently caressed the soft skin behind her ear. She dug her nails in his back and they made love the rest of the night as the snow fell down over renewed Lockwood Thicket.
****
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| Dr. Hoffman runs into Filipe in the village |
In the village two days later, Filipe Braga carried several boxes of supplies that he was taking back from Welshport Village back to Goode Island. He and Mary were alone now, Jacqueline and Sebastian were hiding out in Lockwood Thicket after the devastating loss of baby Louise.
As Filipe walked towards the boat docks where he'd take his small sail boat back to Goode Island with the supplies, he passed the card reading parlor of his estranged Aunt Fatima who jumped up from her appointment as her beloved nephew passed her window.
Fatima came to the door, he was now too far to speak to but she watched as she always did from a far and hoped that one day he'd come and speak to her again.
As Filipe made his way down the street, Asha Hoffman came from around the corner from her street and almost bumped into Filipe as she held a child in her arms all bundled up in blankets and coats.
Fatima, from her door, watch this exchange.
"Asha, I'm sorry, I didn't see you." Filipe said.
"How are you?" Asha aske nervously holding Caspian and Aurora's baby boy.
"I'm well, thanks. Well-- actually, that's a lie. We've had something awful happen out on the island." Filipe replied, his eyes glued to the baby in Asha's arms. "Mary lost the baby."
Asha Gasped. "Oh my god, Filipe I'm so sorry. If there's anything I can do please let me know. Has Mary seen a doctor?
"No, actually, she hasn't. I've tried to get her to but she says she's fine and really doesn't want to see anyone. At least not now."
Asha's signed. She could sense Filipe's despair and how much he was hoping for the baby to be born happy and healthy, she could feel his heart sink every time he mentioned how sad Mary was and how stubborn she was being for not seeing a doctor to see if she was ok after the birth. The whole time they chatted, Filipe's eyes never left the baby.
"I'm sorry, who is this cute little guy?" He asked.
Stupidly, Asha hoped the baby wouldn't come up so that she didn't have to lie to even more people.
"He is a ..." she paused. "foster child. His mother died in childbirth and while we wait to see where he can go, I've been charged with looking after him, when I'm not at the hospital of course." Asha said.
"You're fostering a baby, that's very kind of you. I'm sure it's not easy with work." Filipe answered.
"It is, yes."
Then an idea came to Filipe's mind. Something out of the blue, something so farfetched that he felt if he didn't ask he would think about it over and over again until his mind exploded. The baby, in Asha's arms, lost it's mother and for all he knew had no father. He and Mary were a father and mother who lost their baby.
This was in no way Filipe's attempt to replace the sweet daughter who never had a chance to live but if it was fate stepping in and showing him that out there in the world there was another child that needed a home where two parents were also missing a piece of their lives that maybe, just maybe they would fit and that this was the family that was supposed to join all along.
"You said, you were fostering him, that means he's not permanently going to stay with you, right?"
Asha cocked her head unsure of where he was going with the question "Right. just until we can find him a home, a home where he can stay forever." She said kissing the baby's little hand.
Down the street, Fatima, Filipe's tarot card-reading aunt, walked closer and closer until she could hear the conversation but still not be seen.
"I think I'm going to sound insane here, but ... what if ...Mary and I....." Filipe began trailing off hoping Asha would understand.
"Oh. OH! You think you --- Filipe would you want to be his adopted parents?" Asha asked.
Filipe, shrugged. He wasn't even sure he meant it what Asha had repeated to him but perhaps it was. The baby, so tiny and so innocent needed parents, Asha clearly seemed to be sure that she couldn't take him in forever. They lost their child so recently and were so ready to raise a baby on their own. It could work, their baby could be theirs and he could live with them and they could love him as their very own just as Gregory wished--- out of the eye and control of Caspian and where Aurora could be free of the terrible memory of the boy was conceived.
The idea, for Asha, seemed perfect. She was actually fine with the idea knowing what a good man Filipe was and if he chose Mary to be with him that Mary must be a good person too. A good mother. A good father. For an innocent baby.
"Do it Filho." Fatima suddenly said, calling Filipe "filho", the Portuguese word for son.
Asha turned to see the white-haired Fatima shivering in the cold staring at all of them.
"What are you doing here?" He asked his aunt.
"I think you should do this. For this baby." Fatima said.
Asha took a step back, unsure of what was happening.
Filipe ignored the aunt he didn't want to speak to, turned back to Asha. "Do you think you'd come to the cabin some time with the baby? Maybe if Mary meets him she'll feel ok enough to take him in. Plus maybe, you could examine her."
Asha felt a wave of relief wash over her like nothing she had ever felt. She would be free of the crime she felt she had committed taking the baby from Aurora, this was her way out, washing of her hands of such a terrible lie that she had done by helping Gregory.
"Of course! Of course! I can go now if you want." Asha said very eagerly ready to pass the baby on.
"Now? If Mary agrees, you can just let us have the baby now? No paperwork?" He asked.
"I can take care of everything for both you if this is something you want to do, I absolutely can, no question about it. The little boy really just needs a good home with people who can take care of him better than I can. You and Mary were ready for a child before the tragedy of losing the baby. Now you can, this baby can needs a home." Asha said.
"Tragedy?" Fatima asked.
Filipe took a breath "My partner lost a child to still birth." He replied filling in his aunt.
Fatima put her hand on her heart, and gulped. "I'll pray for her." She said.
"We don't need your prayers Tia. We'll be fine." Filipe replied coldly, using the Portuguese word Tia, for aunt.
Fatima stepped sensing his animosity was still quite potent. She loved him very much but had to watch herself fearing she'd overstep her grounds. She was surprised he had even talked to her after all these years. This was their first conversation and he had not shooed her away, the baby in Asha's arms, Fatima thought, was already a source of good luck.
"Listen, why don't I go to the cabin, talk to Mary, and then come back for you a little later and bring you over. I think I'd rather speak with her first and not surprise her. It's only been a few days since we lost the baby, obviously you can understand it might be too soon. But Maybe not. Mary is very strong, she's a woman like I've never met. She might just agree right then and there." Filipe explained.
"I understand completely. Even if you'd like to foster the baby first and then speak on adoption, that is fine too. But how can anyone turn down this beautiful face." Asha said.
Filipe smiled. "Alright, I'll be back in a few hours, let's say 6 o'clock." Filipe replied to Asha's agreement.
"Ill be on the dock at 6."
Filipe walked off into the distance and to his dockside boat and set said back on the short-trip back to Goode Island leaving Fatima with Asha.
"You're his aunt?" Asha asked.
Fatima nodded.
"Well, maybe you're about to get a new nephew." Asha said showing the baby's face to Fatima.
Fatima smiled back and stepped a little closer to the Asha. She lifted herself up on her tip-toes and pulled the white blanket from the baby's face allowing the cold air to frost over them all and when she touched the baby's hand a rush of energy came over Fatima.
In her mind she saw A woman and a man, she saw fire, and darkness, she heard screaming and crying, she saw an evil man's face laughing.
Fatima quickly released the baby's little hand quickly and looked down at her fingers that were red at the tips almost as if she had touched something on fire.
"Are you ok?" Asha asked not seeing anything Fatima saw.
"I.... this baby. Who were it's parents?" Fatima asked, her heart beating fast.
"I don't know the father." Asha said again lying. "The mother was here from the mainland. No one local. She didn't make it." She lied again.
"Are you sure?" Fatima asked, her mind telling her something wasn't right about the story.
"Of course!"
Fatima wasn't sure she believed the doctor. She saw things that she had never seen before. She tried to look at the baby again but this time Asha pulled away "I have to get back to my house and prepare a bag for the baby. It was very nice to meet you Mrs....?"
"Braga." Fatima said. "Fatima Braga."
"Mrs. Braga. Of course. Good-day." Asha said, quickly making her way down back to her house away from Fatima's prying eyes.
Fatima stood there on the street, her thoughts swirling in her mind of what to make of what she saw when she touched the baby. She thought of her own past in Lisbon had ended in scandal and she was forced to come back to Welshport. The scandal of the affair with a Lisbon priest had left her without a family, and now she felt that there was a chance that she could finally get back in good graces with Filipe.
That was her hope at least.
But now, with the vision she just had perhaps that would be her way back to redemption with him. Was something in the spirit world telling her, or giving her clues to how she could save Filipe and his beloved Mary from something dangerous that was coming with the child Asha was holding?
What was the link, Fatima wondered. What did these visions mean for her and her connection to Filipe? Fatima knew that something about this baby felt just as strange and mysterious because of this vision but how would she use that to her own advantage and help Filipe.
Then, bounding down the street in crush of blue fabric from a dress and a slush of wet show came her appointment who had been abandoned in Fatima's parlor to meet Fatima with an angry face as Fatima watched Asha make her way down the street in a quick pace.
"'EY!" The woman from Fatima's parlor shouted in an English cockney accent. "'Em I goin get my money's worth or wut?"
"Huh?" Fatima replied, sort of in a state of daze.
"Me Readin'! I want me readin of the cards." The woman said, her front tooth missing.
Fatima did not turn to her client and kept watching Asha as she finally disappeared into a house way down the street "Oh, yes, yes, of course. You will. You will."
"Awl right then?! Come'on!" The frustrated woman said.
Fatima smiled uncomfortably back and the woman and looped her arm into the woman's and walked back to her parlor ash she dazzled her with compliments on her outfit to calm the woman's anger.
All the while, the flashes in Fatima's mind from the baby's touch never left her; not during the reading, not the rest of the day.
Those visions disturbed her and frightened her.
And she would not let those images go from her mind until she figured out what they meant, where they came from and why she was seeing them when she touched the baby.... she would not let this go, not for a long shot until she figured out just where the baby came from and who the parents were.
The clues, they were burning in Fatima's mind like a wildfire.
Nothing would put the fire out except for the truth.
And Fatima wanted the truth.
