THE CROW & THE BUTTERFLY

4. Broken Mirror

After hours Mary woke up like, she came back from the dead. Her eyes open widely like life returned back to her body. It was still dark outside, when she wore her clothes and doing the regular noise, she walked outside of her room. Passing by the kitchen Brace was lighting the fireplace, when he noticed her walking outside without any attention to hide. She slammed the door behind her and wore the gloves. The hounds rose heads, but she looked at them once and turned the other way towards the stables. Without running. "Follow me, if you want." She opened the stalls door and look at his white stallion. "Take me out of here." She looked at the animal and mounted him. The last thing they heard, was the gallop from James' horse leaving the property.

James came downstairs and he met surprised glance from Brace and soon also Lorna came to kitchen. "Mary, she..."

"Yes, I saw," he said with a shrug.

"James..." She gasped and  took a deep breath after that. "Get yourself out of here and go for her now! She is scared, desperate. Somebody can hurt her, what if..."

"Nothing will happen to her," he said and came to pour a cup with coffee.

James' horse ran in gallop through the woods. For long. Mary didn't know the land, she was never in Nootka before. Local woods were dangerous and in a while she lost the path. The horse was galloping in circles and suddenly stopped. He stood on his back legs, neighed almost furiously, refusing to move forward as heavy fog suddenly surrounded them both.

"Thanks a lot!" She hissed and jumped off him. "Yes! Run back to your master, go!" With broken nerves she started to yell at the animal. She continued walking for hours and hours. But she couldn't take much. When she found the so called city. A filthy place with drunk sailors around fucking whores on the streets or vomiting. She was terrified, but looked down hidden under her hood. She couldn't bear the sight for much and she walked inside a pub. Bad idea, she thought once she stepped inside, drawing a lot of attention. Men started to look at her up and down with their drunken hideous faces. Suddenly, a hand took her wrist and made her sat next to a person. "She's with me." The old man said. Mary instantly opened her eyes wide in terror. One of the others spat on the floor as he passed by outside. Mary slowly turned to the old man, he was an Indian.

"I'm afraid there's a misunderstanding. I'm not a..." She tried to explain awkwardly, holding her eyes down.

But the man had no such intentions towards
her. "What are you doing here?" The old man asked her.

"I... I... I was lost," she explained.

"Obviously." The man nodded. "Or you're stupid to walk here tonight. You're not a woman of streets, I can tell."

"Who are you?" Mary asked the old man. His hands and face wrinkled and aged. He took a sip from his drink and looked up at her.

"They call me Horace... or Salish.." he shrugged.

Few minutes has passed and sudden silence took over the place. Loud noises vanished at first from the place outside the pub, then the silence like a snake creeped and took over the pub. Person by person everybody, slowly or running, made themselves out, until it was only Mary, sitting on a chair and James, who stood in front of her, looking at her with his piercing glare.

Even the man across her left, slowly vanished in the shadows. Mary looked at James and nodded. "I guess, that's why you don't have many friends." She nodded to herself and sighed, looking down again.

"It's surprising, you even consider, that I have any friend," he replied, looking at her.

She stood up and looked around for a clean glass. Obviously, nothing was clean on that place, so she grabbed a bottle from the bar. "Rum..." she mused to herself. "Don't worry, Mr Delaney. I'm aware. I was just joking the truth." She murmured and opened the bottle. Once she tried it, she spat it out ,coughing.