SYNCHRONICITY (Dream Walker) 🖋

The Rowan Tree

Beth took Alison's hand and walked with her toward where Charlie's body lay. The morning sun was already hot, the humidity making everyone uncomfortable. Alison removed the fist-sized rocks that were holding down the tarp, already fighting to keep her emotions from surfacing; the rocks  were small but they seemed heavy as boulders and she was tired, making the work slow-going.

Seeing that she was emotionally distraught, Sebastian moved to help her but Beth grabbed his hand and looked into his eyes, shaking her head. Suzy followed closely behind while James pulled up the rear. Alison stopped and looked at the tarp, she was dreading pulling it away, imagining all sorts of decay. She knelt down, took the deepest breath she could and reached for the tarp.

When she removed the tarp, Alison covered her mouth and cried out, seeing the small bit of blood caused by the clean gunshot wound to his head. There was no decay what so ever, nor the foul smell of death and decomposition She felt his flank and noticed that it was still warm and quite supple. She looked toward Suzy and thanked her.

"Was actually Mark's idea. I actually had to call my father to try to figure out what spells to use. He came out and brought me something that's been in the family for a long time." She pointed to a small clock in what looked to be a half melted block of ice.

"You froze time," Sebastian said, as he knelt down beside Alison. "We read about those in school. It requires blood in order to work and...it's considered to be very dark magic."

"I suppose that it depends on how you use it, doesn't it? I drew a small vial of blood from Charlie just before I tranqued him," Suzy offered. "My father actually set it up for me. I didn't know if you were going to be able to return as fast as you did or not, so I had him set it for a week."

"A week," Sebastian asked. Alison reached for the clock and Sebastian grabbed at her a little harder than he had meant as he held her in place; she stiffened her body and glanceded over her shoulder at the underside of his chin. "Don't touch it, Love. It has to thaw, or at the very least, be handled by someone who actually knows what they're doing with it...At least, that's how I remember it, was a long time ago. We'll have to cover it up again, I reckon?"

Suzy nodded. "That's right. Ali, you'd have been frozen in time right along with him if you touched it," she said pointing. "I guess that would be the dark magic part? I'll call my dad later on to come out and pick it up. I'd hate for something or someone to accidentally come into contact with it!"

Sebastian chuckled. "Yeah..."

Alison half expected to see something horrific, but now, having viewed the body, she truly thought he looked to be asleep...Still, knowing that horses do not sleep lying down, the scene before her eyes screamed of wrong-doing...someone was behind this...she could feel it.

"I injected him with a really strong tranquilizer, Alison. I swear...he didn't feel it."

She nodded. Still, it didn't stop her hot angry tears from streaking her face. Beth knelt down beside her and held on to her sister and motioned toward Sebastian and James to join them.

Sebastian moved closer to Charlie's body and examined the wound. "A good clean shot," he declared and smiled at Suzy, nodding his head.

"My husband has never had to put down a horse before. He grew up on a dairy farm," she offered. "I had to tell him..." her voice wavered. "It...it wasn't an easy thing to do."

Alison nodded her head. "It never is."

"I took the liberty of having a contractor on stand by if you want to do this mundanely," Suzy said as she wiped at her eyes with her fingers. "Damn."