We Remember || ONC2022

Chapter Twelve

I stretched out on my bed on top of the cool sheets, the ache in my chest from the other day still there but numbed. My backside hurt from sitting on the mausoleum's hard floor for hours, though a good night's rest would cure that. Whether a peaceful sleep was in the cards, well that was an entirely different question.

We'd agreed that Alder would share my bed tonight, but soon we'd clear out and fix up our little downstairs catchall room for him. Pim couldn't give a fig if Alder chose to stay in my room every night, but she thought that someone who'd lived alone their entire life might need their privacy once in a while.

And I think she wanted him to feel that he had a real place here, that our home was his home. When he'd arrived in Saltash, he'd tried to fit himself into the hole made by Alder Flint's absence. Be that one missing puzzle piece. But while he looked like Alder, the edges didn't quite match up. Now we were making a space that only he could fill. It's what Pim had done for me when my parents left, and continued to do to this day.

While I was a little nervous to share a bed with Alder for the first time, I also liked the idea of being together in this way. Not that I expected anything romantic to happen tonight, but I wanted to be alone with him. To try to ease the pain ignited by today's events and tomorrow's journey.

But when we got home, Alder had put his bag in my room and said he was going for a run. His body vibrated with anxiety, and I wished that I could help him. But he insisted that all he needed was a little time to himself. That running would clear the clouds from his head.

I wanted to tell him that in my dreams we ran together, but maybe we hadn't yet caught up with the Goddess's plan.

I closed my eyes, just to rest them for a moment, when I was startled by a horrible sound. Through the open window, I heard a horse in distress, its cry broken and trumpeting. A jolting, juddering shriek that scratched against the peaceful song of the beach at night. It was a terrible, awful sound.

I longed to go to Alder, but he'd asked to be alone. I would respect his wishes. And hope it was the right thing to do. I tried to listen, tried not to turn away from his pain, but eventually I covered my ears. I must have fallen asleep, because the next thing I knew I was being shaken awake.

I opened my eyes, squinting up at Alder. He looked wild, like he hadn't slept in years, his curls pulled into a frizzing halo around his head. The sky was gray, light enough to see but without the yellow warmth of sunrise.

I remembered the morning we'd found each other on the beach. I'd woken to the same gray sky, buzzing with the urge to take an early walk. A nudge from the Goddess that led me to Alder. Today we came full circle and were now moving backwards.

Going through the portal would take us into the past. A living memory. If you could call that living. I knew Alder wasn't ready to face the memories preserved in the lake. I also wondered if the waters would show me things about Alder that should have been his to share in his own time. Or did the lake's magick only preserve the stories of the dead?

I unkinked my limbs, my joints protesting, stiff from not having moved all night. I groaned. I sat up, rubbing the salt from my eyes. I was still wearing yesterday's clothes.

"What's going on, Alder?"

"I want to go now," he said. "To my lake. Before Cherry gets here."

"Right now?" I said, glancing out the window. It had to be around four o'clock and my brain still felt half asleep.

"Yes."

I yawned. "Did you sleep at all?" I touched the space on the mattress that I'd left for him and found it cold and unwrinkled.