The Kelpie's Curse (book #1 in the Kelpie's Entrapment trilogy)

Day 6 pt. 1

She was back in the water, only she wasn't in a cave or the car this time, it would seem that this time her dreams were finally back to normal. Funny how that didn't reassure her at all.

The tightening in her throat started but it seemed much slower this time. She turned her face up to the light above before looking back in front of her. She wouldn't make it to the surface and she knew it, best to just wait it out.

    Suddenly she felt a presence behind her but before she could turn around whoever it was grabbed a fist full of her hair and jerked her face back up towards the light of the surface. She almost let go of the air she was holding onto and screamed as pain spread across her skull. She didn't need to be told who or what it was, there was only one thing that had tormented her since her arrival in Scotland.

    "I told ye, ye can not escape me. Ye are mine, the sooner ye realize that the sooner this torment will end."

    'I'd rather be drawn and quartered.' She thought angrily.

    "Like ye keep reminding me, Tis nothing more than a wee dream, Lass so that can certainly be arranged.

    She struggled against him, desperate to get away. The surface wasn't very far away maybe she could make it after all.

    He laughed maliciously in her ear, surprise stilling her movements.

    She'd seen enough horror movies to know that the evil laugh probably didn't mean anything good for her.

    "Even if ye could make it to the surface it still wouldn't change a thing, more will die because of your selfishness."

    Now that was enough to set her teeth on edge. In fact she was so consumed with anger that she almost didn't notice the burning sensation that was currently consuming her lungs. So she was selfish because she wasn't about to die for a bunch of people she didn't know?

There was a reason why she'd never entertained the idea of joining the military god damn it.

    "And if I was to threaten someone ye do know, what then?" He growled into her ear.

    Her eyes widened in true fear as her body began to convulse. No, not Kaloria and Evelyn. Instantly she felt a profound sense of guilt, she never should have brought them to Scotland.

    'Stay away from them!'

    Her fear spiked as the black spots began to form in her vision, signaling that she would be waking up soon.

    "Then ye know what ye have to do, Lass." He pulled sharply on her hair, causing pain to explode across her scalp. "Dinnae make me wait."

    Her heart clenched painfully in her chest as the convulsions wracking her body slowed and-

    Unable to hold it in Renestrae screamed as the Kelpie sank it's teeth into her shoulder.

Renestrae jerked awake, her mouth open in a silent scream at the same time that her hands frantically felt her shoulder for the wound that she knew wouldn't be there. She breathed in and out frantically as she slowly began to calm down from the nightmare.

    She knew it was just a dream but the more these new nightmare's assaulted her mind the more she was sure that these dreams weren't just dreams.  The Kelpie, whoever it was had threatened her friends. Oh this was bad, this was very, very bad.

    What was she going to do?

    There had to be a way to defend oneself from the creature but there was no way to find out when no one in the town was going to talk about it. To make matters worse with the recent murders and Officer Dean suspecting her she doubted any one in town would willingly talk to her about the weather let alone the creature from their buried folklore.

    She let her head fall back onto the pillow and stared up at the ceiling as she contemplated what she could do about any of this without Officer Dean suspecting her of murder or Evelyn thinking she had gone nuts.

She was between a rock and a hard place. A difficult situation made even worse with her friends' lives on the line.

Then ye know what ye have to do Lass. Dinnae make me wait.

    Renestrae sat up right seconds before she bolted out of bed and threw on a pair of jeans, a black T-shirt, and her favorite pair of boots. She needed to calm down and cease thinking about her latest dream and the best way she knew to do that was with a round of target practice.

    Before heading out she peeked into both of the girls' rooms, just to reassure herself that they were still there. She breathed a sigh of relief before heading to the door with her bow in hand.

    She was just about to step over the threshold when she noticed a small brown package sitting innocently on the porch with her name written in cursive on the top right corner.

    Instantly her brow furrowed in confusion, who would be leaving things on the porch for her? There was Dageus of course but this seemed much too plain to be from him, of course she could have been wrong.

    Curiosity winning over caution she flipped open the top of the box and peered inside. As her eyes connected with the red and pink lump of flesh inside she dropped the box and couldn't have held in the blood curdling scream that was ripped from her throat if she tried.