Emily's House: Book 1 of the Akasha Chronicles

Chapter 21: On the Run

Chapter 21: On the Run

We hoofed it back to the inn and arrived as the town was coming fully alive for the day. We put the shovel back inside the shed and looked forward to falling into bed for a long sleep. As we walked inside the inn, there were already a few people gathered around the dining table eating breakfast. When we walked by the front desk, Paddy looked at us with raised eyebrows.

“Bit early, huh,” he said.

“We wanted to see the sunrise,” I said as we walked up the stairs to our room.

When we got to our room, Fanny and Jake both flopped down on their beds to get some well-deserved sleep. “I think Paddy was a little suspicious of us, don’t you think?” I asked.

“Ugh-huh,” was all Fanny said in reply. I think Jake was already asleep.

“I gotta go hit the head guys,” I said. I tiptoed out into the hall and closed the door behind me. As I turned to go down the hall to the toilet, I heard Paddy talking to another man down the stairs in the reception area.

“Imagine that, some German tourist lady falling into a hole out there in that old graveyard,” the man said.

I heard Paddy chuckle loudly. “I’d have liked to seen that mate! Old bird was she? Falling right in a hole.”

“It ‘taint funny Paddy. That’s some serious stuff now,” said the man.

“Well the ladies out there at Monasterboice said the German gal wasn’t harmed. So what ‘taint funny about that then, Officer Kelly?” Paddy asked.

“Oh the old bird going down, that’s funny mate. But the hole being there? Now that’s another story. The volunteer ladies who run the place, they said that half to nine a German tourist came to them and complained that his wife just twisted her ankle in that hole back there. They ran to where the old bird was down and when she got up, they got to lookin’ at it, and it was a right proper hole someone dug up. Fresh too. Wasn’t there yesterday when they locked up. In the night, someone dug a hole at one of those old grave markers.”

“Can you believe it, some heathen defiling an ancient grave that way!” said Paddy. “Do you think they’re after treasure or something?” he asked.

“Probably some teenagers, you know, pulling some kind of prank. Or maybe it’s random vandalism like kids do these days,” said the other man.

“Did they take anything, you knows, out of it?” asked Paddy.

“They don’t rightly know seeing as how it’s so old, no one knows if there was anything in there still. But the hole was pretty small, so who’s ta say.”

There was a pause for a minute then Paddy said, “Hey wait a minute. There are some youngsters staying here. American kids, teenagers.”

“Yeah, so?” queried the other man.

“Well, my groundskeeper was out early this morning, and he couldn’t find his shovel in the shed,” said the innkeeper.

“Oh yeah? Tell me more.”

“Well, those kids, they came in early this morning. They said they was out for sunrise, but I reckon they was out all night,” said the innkeeper.

Then there was another silence. I didn’t wait to hear what they’d say next. I ran back to the room and opened the door.

“Guys, wake up. Get up man, we gotta’ go.” I madly threw my stuff into my bag.

“What are you doin’?” Fanny asked. “I wanna sleep for a few hours.”

“No time, Fan. We gotta’ leave now. A local cop is down there and he’s real curious about our shovel pinching. They’ve already found the grave that we dug up, and he doesn’t sound too thrilled about it.”

Jake and Fanny were up like a shot. I’m not sure I’ve ever seen Jake move that fast. He and Fanny stuffed their junk into their bags and shoved their feet into their shoes. We heard the loud steps of the portly Paddy and Officer Kelly coming up the stairs.

“What do we do?” asked Jake. “We can’t go out the door. They’ll see us.”

I looked around the room. There was only one window in the room and it was small and fairly high off of the ground. It would be a squeeze, but it was our only way out. “There,” I pointed. “Let’s go.”

Fanny was the first out. She fit easily through the window, stood outside on the small ledge, and jumped to the gable roof below us. Jake and I poked our heads out of the window and watched as she walked along the roof to the small shed at the back of the inn. Jake turned to me and said, “I can’t do that, Em. I’ll fall.”

“You’ve got to. Come on, Fanny will help you.”

As I tried to summon Jake’s courage for him, Paddy knocked on the door. “You kids, open up now. Officer Kelly here wants to talk to you.”

Jake took one look at me, swallowed hard, and jumped to the gable just as Fanny had. He stumbled a little and looked like he might fall off, but somehow he righted himself and ran to the shed roof.

My turn. I was quite a bit bigger than both Fanny and Jake. I had to squeeze to get through the small window, but somehow I did it. I jumped and ran without thinking, all the while hearing the innkeeper and Officer Kelly yelling for us to let them in.

We ran down side alleys and across neatly mowed yards. We didn’t know where we were going, only that we needed to get out of sight of the inn. As tired as I was, the danger allowed me to find the juice in my legs to run like I’d never run before. We ran south and west for a long time. Before long we were on a small country two-lane road with nothing but fields of grass and sheep on either side.

I was too tired to keep count of time or distance. I knew only that we had to keep moving.

After what seemed like an eternity, we came to a thick woods just off the side of the road. It was looked primeval. It was dark and scary, but it was a place to get out of the open and hide.

We walked until we were far into the dense wood. Without saying a word to each other, we threw off our packs and fell down. I don’t think we were awake for more than a minute. Sleep while we can. This is only the beginning.