Consequences Unforeseen

July 22nd - 24th "PITER" Russia - Part Two

July 22nd – 24th "PITER" Russia – Part Two

And so it was – an old friend indeed, he felt, as the hair rose on the back of his neck. He paused as he followed the car into the internal courtyard and glanced upwards into what would have been the gatehouse of the old English castle.

Of course there was nothing of the sort above him today. Just an ornate tiled cornice and roof of burnished copper. Pretty but not at all what his mind's eye saw.

He felt like he travelled backwards in time, and his body tensed when he reached out to touch the wooden doors with the tips of his fingers. He didn't know what would come next but his head reeled with memories of the revenge taken in the Castle Maxstoke by his ancestors. Legitimate war actions – 'If there could be such things,' he thought – but horrific and brutal none the less. As usual, women and children had been spared, as was the Douglas way, but not one English soldier was left alive on the night they took the fortress by stealth initially but ultimately with hatred and bloodletting so that the events would become yet another legend in the minds of their enemies.

Alexis got out of the car and looked back at him, mesmerized herself now by the faraway look on his face and the sight of his body which he held so rigidly. She felt that she could hear the electricity sparking between his hand and the doorway, with her additional thought that he had travelled far from here and now. Her instincts told her to leave him well alone for the moment.

Bill Douglas was uneasy. His logical mind was active and pointing out to him that there was NOTHING here to have caused him to travel in time and space. The building although old was created less than a hundred years before. No part of its construction to his current knowledge had been plundered form the original castle.

And yet, he was tingling with apprehension and foreboding and with his mind on high alert. So much so his old mentor Uncle John seemed to have been caged with not one word escaping to lessen the tension.

There were ghost here, Douglas knew with certainty. This place had seen some bad things, and would probably see more, but what puzzled him, given the brief history of the place Alexis gave him on the drive here, was what the Hell could these be?

Douglas turned suddenly and looked directly into Alexis' eyes so intently, that she too tensed and she felt her muscles freeze. No words were exchanged, but she absorbed every piece of the energy he emitted, instantly realizing that all was not well here. She saw what he saw in his mind and the scream rose unstoppable in her throat.

When she recovered, he was gone. Bursting through the closest turret door he vanished inside with what she would later come to think of as 'without his feet touching the ground.' An utter impossibility, she knew, but real enough in her reality at that moment.

Inside she saw that he had ignored the elevator and she could hear him pounding up the circular stairs with so much noise that Aleksandra would surely arm herself if she was home.

Uneasy already Bill's strange behavior moments ago, now she was totally on a knife edge of nerves, but driven to go pounding after him.

Total silence awaited her at the top of the stair well and this only served to increase her tension. She'd expected shrieks of welcome and happy celebration, but no sounds escaped through the open doorway.

What she saw on entry to the room took all of her breath away and caused her stomach to throw its contents northwards and out through her mouth.

Her twin lay naked and flat on her back in the center of the room, arms outstretched and clearly nailed to the wooden floor from her wrists to her shoulders. In contrast to her arms, her legs were unfettered and demurely side by side. "Like a crucifix," Alexis thought to herself.