Beyond Immortality

CHAPTER THIRTY FIVE

I'm standing in the deep dark forest, dressed in a strapped loose nightgown and barefooted. The air around me misty and ice cold had me rubbing my freezing arms. I try to use my mouth to blow some warmth to my palms and then rub them but it doesn't work. The wind blows strongly against my frail body yet somehow inside my guts I was assured that I was not alone not one bit.

"Who's there?" I yelled into the empty yet not-so-empty darkness. The rustling of leaves has me whirling in circles searching for something, anything. Then my eyes settle on the same black canine I had once seen. Its piercing eyes still boring into mine. I let out a nervous inhale and exhale. My eyes grow wide in scare as they well up. I could feel every pain that would equal that of the underworld just by staring at it, the pain the anguish, the torment of souls, the coldness of the hot abyss they call the Underworld. It lets out a blood-curdling howl that has me screaming just then the frame of a woman embodied in flames appears.

"I will find you!" her voice echoes in a choral hunting chant before the figure stretched out and flew across towards me. I turned to make a run for it but the faster I ran the more it seemed like I was running slowly or barely moving forward till she engulfed me. I let out a dead awakening screech as my flesh sizzles, sitting up in the darkness as the door flings open Mithian rushes in. She pulls me in a hug calming me down.

My hand feels abnormally hot so I pull back and light up the candles in the room. My forearm appeared red and charred with blisters which then vanished. Mithian and I share petrified glances before I hop off the bed and rush out. I can hear her jogging to keep up with me as I descend the flight of stairs before navigating my way into the palace hallways. This is the second time I've seen this thing whatever it is, it can't be a coincidence. I banged at his door like a burglar threatening to break the door down if he deleted opening it.

"My Lady!" he says confused his gaze shifting from me to Mithian who is still catching her breath then back to me.

"I need to talk to you," I say. He steps aside to let us in. The room was filled with shelves filled with books on one side and the other side portions and empty tiny bottles. There were man tables and few chairs all over the place with equipment known to him and up ahead was an adjoining room. He offers us a sit and serves us wine. Once he is settled I narrate to him my encounter with the animal and the dream.

"I'm scared Gerald scared," I tell him once he goes into a state of thought. He kisses his teeth gets up and walks up to his book collections shelf. "Why do you have so many books?"

"Science requires knowledge, and so do potions administered so the books are for improving my understanding, they are mixed, however, I'm not a boring old man who drowns himself in science niche only." He peruses one book after another. "What did you say it looked like again?"

"A black hound or dog but it was enormous. It eyes red-"

"flaming eyes," Gerald finished the sentence. "Did you stare into its eyes when it howled?" he asks his countenance agitated and worried. I glance over at Mithian in dread getting on my feet.

"Gerald!" I ask my voice frail. He walks towards us and sets the book down on the table pointing at a drown picture on the book. I nod my head at him emphasizing that that was the same creature I saw.

"It's a cú sídhe, translation for Black Shuck. It's a harbinger of impending doom. It is believed that whoever stares into its eyes will meet their death within a year." I gulp at his words, catching Mithian's gasps beside me. This was not what I expected to hear at all. My death in a year! I had achieved nothing, nothing at all. I blink vigorously in an attempt to push back the tears welling in my eyes.

"wha...wha..what about the woman?" I ask my voice cracking.

"what woman?" he asks.

"there was a woman, accompanying it," I tell him," she said she would find me,"