11.
Oh, she is my dear, my darling one, her eyes so sparklin' full of fun, no other, no other can match the likes of her!
They may be song lyrics from long ago, but they echo just how it is that Samuel feels. It echoes just how he has always felt about Delia. Time has not altered these feeling one little bit. Her disappearance of course brings him down emotionally, physically and in any other which way possible. Did she just leave him? Surely not, then maybe something must have happened to her. This must be it. Maybe something made her leave him. Whatever the reason she is gone Sam knows but one thing, he must find her if indeed that is at all possible.
His new journey is motivated by finding her, it is motivated by his heart, it is motivated by a very strong sense of love. The strangeness which has come in recent times ensures he is willing to do the impossible to get her back. For Samuel, he must find Delia, alive and well. The previous journey, the one he took with Delia is still an unknown, a mystery, an unremembered dream. The remnants of the past are still there, not completely gone but most definitely forgotten.
Having stepped through that very strange door, an out of place door, a door which seeming leads to nowhere in particular just as much as it leads to somewhere as peculiar as peculiar can be, he felt her, he felt her presence. He is on the right track; he is sure of this. He can hear her cries but there is something else ... a warning, a warning of a darkness.
Does this darkness have her? Whether it does or not, there is all the more reason to go find her. If she is being held captive, he will free her or vanish into the nothing that consumes everything in its path.
Stay away Samuel ... or the nothing will take you ... save yourself ... don't worry about me ... save yourself ... while you still can.
***
It was on that night, just a few days before the wedding, when things really began to take shape. The night at Morgan Fay's bar, the celebration between friends, the memory Samuel saw upon his recent return to Morgan Fay's, the night where that 'follow the yellow brick road' toast was given. For on this night, an offer had been made to and accepted by Owen Barnes.
Is moving past this door, for Samuel, some sort of equivalent of moving somewhere over the rainbow? ... It could very well be.
Being who he was and is, his position of being a bar tender and co-owner, Owen would be one who uses his powers of observation to his advantage and on this particular night, it would be those observational skills of his that would earn him the offer which was to come his way. Thing is too, why is Morgan Fay's bar shut down? Why is it now filled with dust? It had been a bustling place not all so long ago.
The offer itself, which had been made to Samuel for himself and his lovely bride, would come at the hands of a stranger, a stranger soon to become somewhat familiar to Samuel, this man being the entity that is The Faerie Knight, and of course the offer suggested to Owen would indeed relate to an acceptance from Samuel and Delia.
The decision had been made. Samuel and Delia would together go on a vacation like no other, a vacation which would have a lasting effect on so many people while also having little effect both at the same time.
It would be Owen Barnes who would lead the way to the door. Whatever effect this other world would have on the mind, any mind, it had already begun to settle in even prior to any arrival to that world, for present day Samuel has no memory of ever being led to a door and definitely has no memory of Owen being the one to bring him and Delia to such a place.
Strange indeed for there were three keys waiting at the hotel reception for the brand-new happy couple, the hotel of course from where the wedding reception took place. These three keys were accompanied by a handwritten note, a note with directions to a place that Samuel and Delia did not need directions to get to. So very strange that this note would lead them both to Morgan Fay's Bar. It is as if this bar has some kind of significance with all that is to come, as if the bar itself has some relevance to the place Sam and Delia are about to head to.
At first it was not so clear as to where the directions on the handwritten note was taking them. In a way the directions took the couple on the scenic route. Of course, the closer they got to Morgan Fay's Bar the more they knew something was up. Confusion could only grow when the two did arrive to the destination on that note. What was stranger yet was the fact that when they did arrive, it was to an empty bar.
It's mid-afternoon. Morgan Fay's should at least have a number of patrons visiting the establishment but there was no one there, no one at all.
'What is going on?' Delia would ask once she and her man were well and truly inside the establishment.
'I have no idea' was all that Samuel could offer in response.
On the main bar counter there sat a parcel. A parcel wrapped with a rather large yellow ribbon. Yellow, is there some sort of relevance in that? The closer he got to this parcel the more obvious it became as to its contents. Samuel unties the large yellow ribbon despite Delia's reservations about him touching such a thing at all.
'Relax' he tells her, 'it is only a box of chocolates; maybe they are intended for us.'
'Are our names on or anywhere near those chocolates?'
'No.'
'Then why would they be intended for us?'
Before Samuel could offer an answer, he would be interrupted by the arrival of that quite familiar someone.
'Good afternoon' speaks Owen Barnes as he seemingly arrives out of nowhere.
There would be a surprised reaction to this arrival to say the least. Owen would speak again before any thoughts could settle in the minds of the two people who stood before him.
'You guys are in for a real treat. You are about to go to somewhere very special and it gives me great pleasure to be the one who takes you both to where you need to be.'
'Owen, what is going on? Bit quiet in here today, huh?' asks Samuel.
'Do not panic my friend, all is good and for all there is a reason. You trust me, right? Are you ready to head on your honeymoon?'
'What? Right now?' asks Delia.
'No time like the present.'
'But we haven't packed anything. In fact, we haven't even been home yet since we got married. All we have with us is what we have from back at the hotel.'
'It is alright Delia; you guys don't need to bring anything with you. Everything you need for your trip has been sorted already. And not to worry, I will take care of all that you both have with you right now. So, are you guys ready?'
Samuel and Delia look at each other, confused as ever they have been. They both have a 'what the hell?' moment before agreeing to let Owen Barnes lead the way and lead the way is what he would do. The newly-weds held hands as they reached a destination of sorts. They were already expecting to pass through a door of some kind, but they were not expecting the door to be just where exactly it just so happens to be.
'You guys have those keys that were left for you?' asks Owen.
Samuel reaches into his jacket pocket and takes out three keys on a keyring then nods.
'Alright then so' Owen says as he points to an outdoor corner having led the way for a moment or two. 'You see that bend over there? Just beyond it there is a door, one of those keys' you guys have will open that door and all you both had to do is go through that door. I am so excited for you guys. You are about to have one heck of an adventure.'
Samuel and Delia have themselves a moment. They stare into each other's eyes. Indeed, they are in a 'what the hell?' moment but they have arrived at this moment so why not keep going? Before they do move to pass through this particular door Owen has a parting gift for them. All of a sudden and from outta nowhere, Owen is holding a bouquet of flowers.
These flowers are unlike anything either Samuel or Delia have seen before. They are beautiful, strangely beautiful. Staying on the strange trend, present day Samuel of course recently found a dried flower in a photo album. The dried flower just so happens to be one of the gifted flowers in this strange bouquet, and of course a photo that present day Samuel carries in his wallet, features one of these flowers.
