Second Sight

Letters from the Atlantic

Behind Ava's eyes, lights danced in the sky, as though the whole of the milky way were coming to life in her own mind. Images of her visit to London from earlier this year, with two men in cloaks hovering along the entrance to tower bridge, a man who appeared as though he shared features with a wolf... Memories of walks everywhere and anywhere began to feature new characters that Ava had never seen before. Her mind felt like it was expanding, like she had opened a third eye...

She felt like she was walking through the woods with her family back home in Massachusetts, through the Salem Woods back by her house and her old high school. Her mom, her dad, and her sister had all decided to go on a family jaunt before Ava departed for Ireland for the next five months, as per Ava's request. This time, though, there was something following them... something that didn't seem quite human. For that matter, it didn't seem quite beast either... something between the two; hooves, fur, and hands... with horns, but human facial features... and Ava felt like she was the only one who could see them.

Ava's sister turned to her in a sudden moment of panic and chaos. "Ava?" her mouth was moving, but her voice didn't belong to her. It sounded a lot like Aubrey from Ava's travels abroad. "Ava! Please! Say something!"

Her father's lips began to move with a woman's voice, "is she breathing? Does she have a heartbeat?"

"It's there, but it's faint..." her mother's mouth moved with a young Irish man's voice.

Her sister touched Ava's shoulders, moving down to Ava's chest, and it felt like she had left stickers behind on her skin.

"We're set," she heard her Mother's new voice say, "everybody... 3, 2, 1... Clear!"

A bolt of lightning struck down in the middle of the woods, despite it being a completely clear day, and the image of Ava's family began to fade.

"Mom... Dad..." Ava tried to shout out, "don't go! Don't—"

Another bolt of lightning reached its way through the woods and struck down just shy of Ava's feet.

With a gasp, she came to. She became aware of the damp ground under her body, the crashing waves against the cliff side just a few meters away from her...

"She's up, stop the defibrillator. We've got a pulse!" The young man's voice that came from her mother now made more sense—a young man with a Belfast accent was leaning over her, feeling for a pulse and preparing to perform CPR. Not that she'd mind it, but she was glad to be alive. As far as she was aware, she was lying on the highest cliff side, looking over the Grand Causeway and the infamous rocky shore below.

"Wh..." Ava made an attempt to open her eyes and speak, "what happened?"

Hannah ran up, shrugging off the EMT's hand that attempted to stop her. "You said you'd be back in an hour and a half... do you not remember?"

Ava was too tired to comment on the obvious fact that if she did remember, she wouldn't have asked. "No... I just remember walking into the..." she stopped. Did these people know about the cave? Was it something the ancients of Ireland desperately just wanted her to discover?

"Walking into the what?" One of the EMT's asked, writing down information in a small notebook for future reference.

"...Never mind," Ava muttered, taking advantage of the fact that she sounded like a psychotic woman who forgot everything that had just happened.

"You've been gone for almost 8 hours, Ava," Rachel announced solemnly, reaching down to hold Ava's hand, "we thought you had died. And then we found you..." she stifled a sob, unable to finish her sentence.