Captivated by a Highlander

Chapter 1 - Scotland

I sat down in my stepfather's sleek black Cadillac. I said nothing as I stared out the tinted window. I propped my head on my hand, sadness filling and tightening my chest. Why my mother had to choose to get married so soon after my father's death, I didn't know. I was happy for her, of course, because my mother had been so sad about Kyle Calhoun's death just over ten months ago. But to force her only daughter to leave everything she knew behind, I didn't quite understand.

My violin case was on the seat next to me, the leathery case cool beneath my skin. I lightly ran my fingers along the edge of the case and my eyes closed as I did do. Our family cat, Pepper, was curled up in my lap and having no problem with the ride to the apparent 'castle' we were going to live in. I wasn't necessarily looking forward to it since I was moving from beautiful and sunny Florida to currently cold and rainy Scotland. In fact, I absolutely, positively despised it.

"Oh, sweetie, look! Look at the sheep! Look at their adorable black faces!"

My mother's cheery voice broke through the silence in the car and my eyes opened in vague annoyance. I sighed to myself and swallowed down any answer her squeal of delight. "Sweetie" was a nickname that was once was my own, but it was now one my stepfather, Alan, adopted for himself. I could hear my mother's shrill giggle of excitement over my music, and I shook my head and rolled my eyes. Alan simply smiled at her, stroking her hand with his thumb. I cranked my music louder, adjusted my headphones, and closed my eyes again.

Lindsey Stirling's beautiful melodies were something I had always loved. My mother had taught Lindsey when the latter was a young child, but since then, Melissa had lost her touch. I had picked up my mother's talent, and with that gift I learned how to play the violin with enough skill to match, hell, maybe with even more skill than my mother.

Now, Lindsey was pouring her beautiful melodies into my ears, the song "Transcendence" ringing in my head. I leaned against the cold glass of the window and tried to focus on the strings rather than the quiet rumble of the car. I detected a soft smack of rain pattering against the glass through my music and my eyes slowly opened. The dark sky above us seemed even darker through the dark windows. Dark... Just like the way my life had gotten in the matter of a few weeks.

My eyes drifted from the sky to the passing scenery. There were clumps of dried heather along the side of the road, though they were surely in bloom at one point this year. My eyes trailed over the flocks of sheep that we passed by, and surely enough, they were just as adorable as my mother had squealed over.

As the Cadillac curled along the twisting road, I found myself beginning to wonder... What was life going to be like from now on? My stepfather hadn't enrolled me in a new school, and I didn't even know when I would start again. Not that I necessarily wanted to know. I was always a good student, with straight A's and sometimes a B here and there, but school wasn't always my strong suit on a social level. I always had problems with other students, whether it was from bullying about my rust colored hair and dark blue eyes that contrasted with my ghostly pale skin, or if it was about my choice in music over cheerleading. Even though I wasn't the greatest person socially, I had two good friends that I had spent an hour crying with before I had to leave for the airport. But I knew that once I was gone for long enough, they would forget about me like everyone else would.

I closed my eyes, one of my hands stroking Pepper's salt-and-pepper colored fur. I blocked out everything except the hum of the violin playing in my ears and the vibrations of Pepper's delighted purring. I wanted to let everything go, for life to be as simple as the motion of my hand against the velvety fur beneath my palm. I wanted to go home more than anything. Not to my new home in Scotland, my home in Florida, where my life was waiting for me to come back.

A hand was placed on my knee and made me jump slightly from the sudden touch and startle Pepper. The cat jolted and jumped up, making me groan as her claws dug into my chest before she perched on the head of my seat. I glared at Alan, whose hand was on still on my leg. My hands moved up slowly to prove my cautiousness without having to speak, and I pulled the headphones around my neck. "Yes?" I inquired, not liking the fact that he just disturbed me in my moment of bliss with my now freaked out cat and my music. I could tell by his expression that he detected the disgust in my voice.

Alan smiled at me, but the cold look in his eyes caught me off guard. Something definitely wasn't right with this guy. He must have a few loose screws somewhere in his brain. "We are here, Christine," he said as he removed his hand from my leg and got out of the car.

I rubbed my leg where his hand was. It felt frozen cold, as though he had placed a bag of flash-frozen ice on my leg and not a human hand. I shook off the eerie feeling that was growing and churning in my stomach as best as I could. I did not want to let it bother me. My day was already bad enough. I did not need superstitions about my stepfather going through my head already. I could be wrong. I hardly know the guy. I clung onto a single sliver of hope that I might like this new home. I reached up behind me and nudged the cat gently, rousing her from her sleep. Pepper looked at me with her pale blue eyes. The look in my cat's eyes was slightly distant and she had her ears perked up.

Pepper had felt the same chill, I thought.

I picked up my violin case and tried to unbuckle my seat belt at the same time. I pushed the car door open, stepped out, propped the case on my shoulder, and grabbed the cat from her perch. When I turned around, my heart fell at the sight of the "castle" I was going to live in.

It was like a fortress. A tall wall surrounded the actual castle, four watch houses on the corners. The castle itself was menacing, as though it came right out of a historical fiction novel. There were gargoyles perched where ever I looked; each one seemed to stare at me as I walked behind my mother and stepfather, and I moved my line of vision away from the hunched over deformities as soon as I could manage. I seriously wanted to go home, right at this moment. But this was going to be my new home. When I looked at the old stone, my skin picked up the cold coming off of them. As old as the stone was, I was able to sense the history it held: strife, storms, and in it all, love.

Was it strange for me to be able to sense these things?

Nope. Not one bit. Growing up, I had learned that I had developed... a sixth sense, so to speak. I could place my hand on an old building and tell what happened within it, all the way back to ancient times. Strange, I know. Yet this gift and curse was another thing that set me apart from everyone else and led to my diagnosis of social anxiety. Call this sixth sense telepathy. That's what I call it sometimes (depending on how often or how deep I can read into an old building or tombstone).

"Christine," Alan said, "yer room is in the fourth corridor. Take the stairs on the left, up the east wing. Yer mother and I will be in the west wing. There is a servant on that floor already, he will attend to yer things. Be down for dinner at six o'clock. Please dunna be late. Ye' dunna want to upset me, do ye'?"

The look in his eyes was colder than ever.

I shook my head in response and walked off towards the stairs. "Come on, Pepper," I said hurriedly. The cat was quickly on my heels as I headed for my new bedroom.

I could feel his cold eyes on me the entire way. Chills ran down my spine. In my gut, I got a premonition of something bad; I had a feeling that I wasn't going to like my new life here at all.