Wild Magick

Chapter Two

Banging on her rented room's door woke Rai, way too vigorously for her liking.

"go away!" she yelled halfheartedly.

Stuffing her head under the pillow to better drown out the noise and sunlight streaming in from her window.

"none of that luv! Ma told me to wake you for lunch. You've been sleeping most the day." Colin replied.

It was true she returned late stumbling into bed without so much as a shower. Rai woke only to sneak downstairs for a muffin before racing back upstairs to bed. It was no surprise that Riona Murphy sent her son up to wake her, no surprised that he eagerly did so.

When Rai arrived at the inn with no escort or ring on her finger Colin took that to mean his latest conquest was residing in his mother's inn. Riona was a rather round woman, motherly in every way she seemed to dote on those staying at the inn. Fussing over her wellbeing, Rai knew she meant well even if it got on her nerves. Recently widowed, her son Colin moved back from Birmingham to help his elderly mother to run the inn.

Tucked along the Atlantic, with sturdy wooden furniture and cross stitching hung on every wall The Merrow Inn had an old sort of charm. Members of the town gathered as much for food and drink as travelers did for a room to sleep. Riona made delicate pasties, and filling meals. people gathered in the lounge for drink while a couple of older men from town played music. Later couples could be seen dancing, while everyone enjoyed a drink. At those times the lounge felt more as a tavern then an inn. Riona would be seen in the corner working on her stitching, smiling gently. She obviously loved seeing the gathering of happy people.

On her second morning, still fighting off sleep, staring into her coffee a frail looking woman and her daughter sat at Rai's table and welcomed themselves to her newspaper. After sputtering an introduction, she learnt their names were Amelia and Fiona. A few minutes of tense forced conversation Rai found herself liking the brass ladies. 

Amelia looked frail but was tough as nails, with many biting remarks, Fiona had a take no prisoners attitude, and handed out mostly joking insults like candy. Nearly every morning since then, the three ladies shared breakfast, and gossip. Rai thought it was something like stepping back in time, she cracked a genuine smile for the first time in months. Which made her feel terribly guilty, she hated it.

She did not want to get up, did not want to eat, or dress. Rai did not want to plaster on a fake smile and put up with Colin's advances or Riona's fussing. Truth be told she only had once desire left but it wasn't happening here. As such, she didn't want to feel welcomed.

Rai did not want anyone to get attached, to feel any sort towards her. She had a personal mission, her immediate plans only involved herself. She might be romanticizing it a bit. But a year after she first considered, she was finally ready. Rai was ready to die.

She could not do it back home, for three years she has only dragged her family down. Leaving her poor father and sister to clean up and sell a house after she kicked the bucket wasn't right. Why bring them more pain? Which is all that she seemed to do. After the incident, people grieved for a time before moving on, Rai could not. She found herself severely depressed, bringing her family down with her. A constant reminder, of what was lost. Rai entered a room and it seemed all the air was sucked out of it. The affect did not only happen back home.

When Rai first landed in England she stayed at a hostel in the west end. It may have been the off season, or maybe it was just her luck, but she had only met four other people in the common areas. Emily the overly cheery brunet from Glasgow, Erik the semi catatonic hippy from Holland, Naomi and John from Washington.