Grey Eyes: Book One of the Forever Trilogy

Chapter Six

I stood there, staring out over the moonlit features of my grandmother’s estate, dazed and so very confused. A stranger had entered my room, watched me from the shadows—capable of doing me any number of nightmarish harms…

But it wasn’t a stranger. Not truly.

As I read my aunt’s description of her mysterious visitor, something strange happened. His image became clear in my mind. I could picture the jet-black locks framing his face, clear as if he sat down on the bed next to me.  His pale face glowed in the lamplight. I felt the intensity of his green-eyed stare.  I wasn’t guessing at these things; rather, it was very much like pulling them from some long buried memory, revived by some memento, or in my case a diary.  I knew what his voice would sound like, how he laughed.  I knew, without wonder or curiosity, that he would look the same today as he had then.  I remembered him, this boy I never met and what’s more, though I couldn’t explain it, standing here alone made it suddenly undeniable—somehow, I actually missed him.

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“Anastasia…” Helena called, stirring me from my slumber.  Waking up surprised me.   I didn’t remember falling asleep.  I looked around the bed.  No note, no diary.  I searched the floor surrounding the bed.  Nothing there either.  Had he come back for them?  He had to.  I found myself feeling disappointed for having missed his return.  “What is wrong with me?” Weird.

“Breakfast will be served in an hour,” she continued, pulling back the curtain that stretched across the glass wall.  Morning’s sunlight swept into the room.  “Take a quick shower and get changed. Ms. McArthur will be up shortly.  Your gown is on the end of your bed.”

Only half listening, I rolled over and buried my head into my pillow.  I was in the midst of wrapping my head around last night's memory and the weird emotions that accompanied it when Helena’s words sank in. Who was Ms. McArthur?  And did I hear something about a gown?  I rose to address those very points, just in time to watch her back disappear into the hall.  I crawled across the bed to have a look at what it was they intended for me to wear. 

So it wasn’t really a gown, gown. Thank goodness. More of a dress:  A navy blue sleeveless little dress with matching colored shoes just beside it.  Still, I didn’t have much experience with dresses either.  Why couldn’t I have started my new life with a nice pair of jeans or something? 

Groaning, I rolled out of bed and stepped over to the glass wall.  Morning provided a much better view.  The grounds, like the house itself, seemed to continue forever.  Paved walkways cut through the gardens, separating large patches of blue and pink, and red and white, with berry-filled bushes dotted in between.  Following the main walkway away from the house led my eyes to two large bushes in the shape of giraffes, each facing the other, craning their long necks over the path to create an archway of sorts—an archway into the wild.  Mighty elephants migrated across the edge of the large field, while proud lions perched majestically on wide stones at its center.  Snakes swirled up from the ground like twisty straws in various places, and ducks spread their wings around a small pond.  Just beyond these animal hedges lay more hedges, these forming tall, thick walls, like those surrounding the perimeter of the estate. The walls of hedges formed a large maze; the kind I had always thought  only existed in cartoons and movies.  But then, I thought that about a lot of things until yesterday.  Until my mother’s dissapearance…  I forced myself to think positive. They’ll find her. Meanwhile, my eyes settled on the tall grass that swayed in the winds along the bank of the wide lake in the distance.  Grass which brought that boy’s face suddenly back to mind, those eyes…