A Dark Past

A Broken Past

A broken past

An ancient castle, a warm spring breeze, a light drizzle. Bright cherry blossom trees, clambering ivy, the sweet taste of happiness. Laughing faces dancing around the firelight, bright hopeful eyes underneath a lunar eclipse. A night to remember. She woke up and it was all gone and all she could feel was the sour taste of regret. Above her were those same cherry blossom trees now gaunt and fragile in the winter and the night getting colder with the gathering snowstorm.

The wind whipped the trees back and forth. There was a haunting sort of beauty about it all, sad and sinister. She shivered remembering how she had crawled out yesterday for some peace. They were probably looking for her right now. They had probably called the police. She was in for it now; she wouldn't hear the end of it for years to come.

She looked up above her. Clouds were blocking most of the night sky but it didn't cover the shining lunar eclipse, was it some sort of sign? In the distance she could barely make out the local graveyard through the snow but she knew she must get there somehow. She couldn't go back to the house that she knew. She would have to get by without her wheels.

One of the tourists' cars was still outside the castle, a nice fancy sports car the bodywork of it gleaming. You had to be rich though to stay in a castle like that.

She half staggered, half crawled over to it. She had known how to pick a lock since she was eight years old. It was a trick she had been taught long ago. She sat in the car for a moment breathing in the fresh smell of the leather searching in vain for any sort of spare key. She sighed remembering when she used to own a car like this. Sam had bought it for her eighteenth birthday. She shivered not wanting to go down that memory lane. She took the warm fur jacket off the back seat and got out of the car not sure of anything anymore.

From there she crawled to the side of the main road and sat down. Cars streamed by but they either didn't notice her raised thumb or they just didn't care. Eventually a car stopped, a friendly, freckly woman sat at the wheel." You o.k. lovín, looking for a ride?" she asked the lone girl at the side of the road.

"Yeah thanks", using the car to pull herself up she clambered in. She saw the realisation dawn in the kind woman's eyes. "So where you off to? , It's not such a nice night to be out in the cold." the unknown driver questioned. She took a deep breath. "The graveyard, please." "You sure about that, don't you want me to bring you home?" the kind woman asked her. " Thank you but I really need to go there, just before Christmas" Magalie looked at her determined face and nodded. "I'll take you there"; after all she knew all too well how hard it was to lose a loved one.

"Thank you, I appreciate this," she said as she clambered out of the car. "Sure, it's no bother at all" the kind woman smiled at her. Using the wall and headstones for support she made her way through the graveyard. Eventually she found the grave through the gathering snowstorm. She sat down laying her head on the cool headstone replaying the times they had had together when he had been alive right from the first day they had met. There had been no removal, no funeral no chance to really say goodbye. His bother, the only remaining family he had left apart from an aunt in Brazil didn't want any of that. She forgot everything, still lost in her dreams of a man she wouldn't ever see again.

Back in the car Magalie switched on the radio, listening to the weather. I'm afraid more snow is expected in the next few days the temperature dropping below -10 degrees. People are advised not to travel except in important cases as roads are expected to be icy and dangerous. The n5 to Dublin road is closed off due to a car crash, as is the m5 to Ballina. There will be long delays expected. Magalie switched off the radio not wanting to hear any more about it.

Half an hour passed and she began to feel restless wondering if the strange young girl was okay. She had been so secretive not even telling her name but Magalie felt intrusive asking her personal questions. In another twenty minutes she would check on her, to see if she wasn't stuck in the heavy snowdrift the poor girl being handicapped.

Magalie looked in the rear view mirror; a glossy black car was parked looking out of place in the crumbling graveyard. Through the graveyard she knew lay Pete's grave. She hadn't visited for months. She got out of the car leaving the keys in the ignition. In the black car the door was opened and a man in a black suit got out a Swiss army knife hidden in his sleeve.

He followed her through the twisting paths his feet making no sound on the gravel. She knelt beside the grave and he just stood there watching for a while. She turned her head slowly feeling his penetrating gaze on her.

"Dear Magalie it's been a while, his face was in the shadow and at first she couldn't see his face then he stepped forward into the light and she recognised him. How could she not? Living in terror for three years that he would come back to find her. Now he was here she wasn't so afraid anymore she felt calm she just wished the end would come soon and he wouldn't torture her. But the look in his eyes told her she would be waiting for a while.

"Charles, what a surprise I didn't expect to see you here. "Nor I you, I see your old man is dead, didn't last long did he? You should have stuck with me, I could have shown you the world" Magalie was shaking now, not so brave now he was so near every small footstep taking him nearer to her. Suddenly he laughed, " I'm not here to kill you I'm here on important business for a client of mine and you can help me". She lifted her face from her hands to look him in the face. "Anything, anything at all" she whispered.

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In the small house of the Flynn's there was uproar. Holly was on the phone talking earnestly to a policeman "But I just don't understand it, she couldn't just get up and leave out of the blue without her wheelchair, I mean how far could she go?" Behind her husband John stroked her back comfortingly,

"It's going to be all right Holly they'll find her don't worry"

"Don't say that to me I won't stop worrying until I know where she is and that she'll be Okay," she said almost sobbing.

"If this were your daughter Sara that was missing than maybe you'd understand"

"What exactly is that supposed to mean?"

"It means she isn't your daughter and no matter how much you think she matters to you you'll never love or worry about her the way that I do"

John didn't say anything knowing how futile it was to argue with her when she was in such a state and though he refused to admit it to himself he knew that in a way she was right, Kat wasn't his daughter and nothing would ever change that. He grabbed his jacket from the peg by the door and his phone from the worktop. "I'm going to have a walk around the neighbourhood see if anyone's seen her Okay?" "Fine" she said hardly hearing him lost in her nostalgic thoughts of the week before. She heard the door close and leant her head softly against the kitchen cabinet whispering softly to herself "She'll never forgive me until her dying day".

Kat made her way slowly back to the car stumbling a few times on the way. The keys were in the ignition but the woman who had brought her there was gone. She shivered in the bitter cold turning the heating up. She checked her phone as an afterthought and saw 22 missed calls and 7 unread messages from her mother. The first of which said:

"Kat where r u? We r worried. Call me when u get this" She scoffed scornfully at that and continued reading. The next six read:

Kat, plz pick up, we don't no where u r.

John has gone 2 search 4 u, plz answer back.

Kat, I don't know wht u r trying 2 pull here but it's not funny

Plz come home sweetie

Just call me 2 let me no ur all rite

Kat, if ur not back by 10 I pm calling d police

She checked her phone; the clock read 22:03. She sighed, just like her mum to over react. She had hardly been gone two hours and the police had already been called. Her phone began to ring again; she turned it off and lay back on the seat to wait for the woman to come back to the car.

There was a knock on the door and Holly rushed to answer it. One look at the policemen's faces and she knew they hadn't found her. She turned away so they wouldn't notice her petrified face and led them into the kitchen. "I'm very sorry Mrs. Caulfield but we haven't been able to locate your daughter"