I Belong to the Earth (Unveiled Book 1) by J. A. Ironside
"EM!" Someone was shouting my name. Someone I cared about. So tired. But there was something important I had to do…"Emlynn for the love of God!"
My eyes snapped open. I was cold and damp. Lying on the ground. Weird. Gold flecked eyes peered down into mine. I sat up so fast I clashed foreheads with the person leaning over me.
"Ciarán?" I winced feeling for a new lump on my head.
"Sweet Jaysus! You scared the shite out of me. I thought all three of you were dead!" Ciarán rubbed his own head, eyes watering.
I looked up. Clouds blowing in and the twinkle of a couple of stars. No blank void anymore. Haze, Kate, Helen—all gone. I glanced at Grace and the nameless biker. Both were motionless. They would only be getting colder. They needed help now and I didn't have any time to lose. Amy!
"N-not dead. B-but they need hospital, ruh right now." I noticed with apathetic dismay that the stammer was back.
"I'll try my mobile-"
"Y-you h-have a phone?" I said. It was definitely handy to have Ciarán around.
"It is the twenty first century darlin'. Don't you?" He quirked an eyebrow at me as he pulled his phone out and checked for signal.
"Somewhere." I never had got round to charging my mobile phone. Or even unpacking it.
The memory Haze sent me flashed through my mind. Amy. Hurry. I scrambled to my feet and swayed like a wind tossed tree. More or less perpendicular I pushed myself into a trot, away from Ciarán and Grace.
"Where the hell are you going?" Ciarán was holding the phone to his ear.
"D-did you f- find Amy?"
"No, I was still looking when I found you…"
"Know where she is. H-have to go. Stay with them? Please?"
"Are you effing kidding me…"
Ciarán's voice trailed away on the wind as I broke into a run.
Please. Oh Please.
Rain fell in hard, icy darts. The memory flashed into my head again. Haze's memory. This time I followed it. Became Haze…
I wait for Kate as close to the house as I dare. I know she is there. Why has she not yet come to me? She knows this marriage of hers is foolishness. I wait for long hours. It grows dark and cold but still she doesn't come. A light shines in the attic window. And there, at the kitchen door, a figure, a girl. My heart lifts in my chest. Nothing and no-one matters, other than Kate. I'll even let that milk sop husband of hers live since she is fond of him.
But it's not Kate. Her hair is yellow and streams from under her cap. It's that stupid kitchen wench. The one I took such pains to charm. How I despise her. Cannot she see I only tolerate her for information on Kate? I can at least respect Helen, who is not stupid.
A message then?
"Robbie? Robbie?"
Stupid bitch-puppy cannot see me when she's almost tripped over me. I rise from the heath and she squeals. Kate would never startle and squeal like that.
"What then, Ada?"
"I'm sorry. But Missus is dead." Her cheeks are flushed and she is out of breath.
I stare at her blankly. Dead. I cannot have heard her correctly. I lay a heavy hand on her shoulder. She has bones like a bird's. So easily broken.
"She's dead Robbie. Miss Kate. Mrs Lynfield that was, died. Just now….Robbie you…"
Her eyes are bulging in their sockets. Her mouth opens and closes like a fish’s. I look at my hand dispassionately where it encircles her throat. It appears to be the reason little Ada can't breathe. Her tiny hands claw uselessly at mine.
“Why did you not bring me word before?” Kate is dead. I tighten my grip convulsively and feel her neck snap. “Why leave me waiting here like a fool? Why?” I am talking to a corpse. I drop her in the heath.
"May you wander the Moor ever after, never finding what you seek." I make my words a curse.
Without a glance I head to the vicarage. If I cannot see her in life I will see my Kate in death…
With a dry sob I ran on. Nearly there. Nearly. Oh Amy. In worse danger than I realised because of Ada… And I never noticed because Ada had fair hair and light eyes, there was no outward change in Amy to warn me. I never noticed because I was too busy being afraid or angry or jealous. All along Haze had continued to use Ada through my little sister. Not part of the Pattern at all. A single, separate curse Hardiman had set in place.
It was so dark I found Amy by almost falling over her. The rain was heavier than ever, soaking me to the skin, disintegrating the plaster cast on my broken arm. My broken arm screamed, adding a soprano note to the choir of aches and bruises. Doesn't matter.
"Amy!" I dropped to my knees beside her. She was as cold as death to the touch. Her lips were blue. Was she dead? A racking sob tore out of my throat. "Amy, please…p-please be alright…"
I leaned over her but the wind and rain made it impossible to tell if she was breathing. So waxy-pale and still. "Amy…" I pressed my face close to hers. A faint warm breath against my cheek. Again. She was alive.
I took off my coat and wrapped it around her. No good. She was soaked through and my coat was drenched. Her pulse was faint and thready in her wrist. She was going to die of exposure if I didn't get her inside now. I cast about uselessly. There was no help. We were at least a mile from the vicarage. Probably further than that from Ciarán and his phone. Why didn't I bring mine? Why? Stupid. Stupid.
I had to carry her. It was the only answer. If it wasn't so dark, if the rain wasn't so thick, I'd be able to see the vicarage from here. It wasn't so far. Even with a broken arm I could make it…
You cannot have her. The figure was Amy's height with ashy-pale hair under a servant's cap and great blank sockets where her eyes should have been. A necklace of purpled flesh ringed her throat.
"She's my suh sister. I'm t-taking her." I felt the familiar wave of revulsion and ignored it.
I'll still be with her. You can't stop that. The voice was childish, petulant.
"I'm s-sorry I t-turned you a-away, Ada." My stammer was exacerbated by my chattering teeth. "But p-please, she's guh going to die."
I don't care. No 'un cared for me.
"I know. I'm s-s-sorry. But I c-care now. I d-do. It shouldn't have h-happened. What Hardiman…what Robbie did -"
I'm still here. No one found me. No one really looked. The wind and the rain don't touch her.
I stared at her stupidly. "Wuh what do y-you mean?"
I'm still here, underneath. Ada's smile was sly but also full of sorrow.
Oh God… she meant. Here. She was buried here. I might even be sitting over her bones… Stop it! Do not crap out now.
"It's n-not you. N-not anymore. I c-can h-help you." I tried to sound patient but Amy…
Help me? Help me how?
"Rest. Isn't that wuh what you want?" I glanced at Amy in desperation. I was sure her breathing was slowing.
I was killed…The little, cold girl dissolved into sobs. I was alone… for years…
"Nuh not anymore." She was bleached of all colour not just pale. I wasn’t afraid anymore. She only ever wanted help, poor lonely child. A weight of sorrow beyond words tightened my throat. Dead at thirteen because she fancied the wrong boy. A mysterious, older man. It could happen today.
It did happen today.
With a wrench I trusted the universe not to take Amy from me in the next few seconds.
"Huh here." I held out my hand.
Hesitantly, as if afraid I'd snatch it away before she could catch hold, Ada took my hand. My whole body was plunged into ice water. I gasped for breath, rain running into my open mouth. It smelled like rosemary. And violets. I warmed slowly. And so did Ada. She looked at me with bright blue eyes filling the once blank sockets. The mottled flesh at her neck smoothed into a uniform cream colour. The smell of rosemary and violets grew stronger. A pocket of warmth in the storm. Mum.
"Ada, i-it's time to guh go." I smiled. The rain tasted of salt. Tears poured down my face, mingling with the rain.
Go? Where? Her eyes widened in fear.
"Huh
But I can't find the way!
"My muh mother will t-t-take you. She has to g-go too." I stifled a sob. I knew as I said it, that it was right. It was time to let go. "We'll buh be like sisters."
I always wanted a sister… Ada's voice was fading. The scent swirled around her. She smiled and sorrow speared through me.
I was left alone in the rain, with Amy, chill and pale beside me.
Goodbye Mum.
I wasted exactly three minutes sobbing into Amy's small, still body. Real tears, finally coming after so long. There was no time to marvel. No time to grieve, for Mum or Ada. I took off the useless soaked rag that had been my sling, freeing my broken arm. I rolled Amy in my coat and managed to prop her against my left shoulder. Now came the hard part. I gathered my legs under me, holding onto Amy as tight as I could with my good arm. The rain made the heath slippery and treacherous. I slipped and fell, Amy crashing down on top on me. My broken arm jarred against the ground. An explosion of pain that made me sob out loud. I can’t do it. I can’t. Oh please, please…Sobbing through gritted teeth, I repositioned Amy again and managed to get to my feet, wobbling under the extra weight. Amy was light but awkward hanging over my left shoulder. My broken arm was next to useless and every time I took a step, my sister’s cold form slipped and I had to make a desperate grab with my good hand, and try to clamp her in place.
It was an endless nightmare of staggering, slipping, catching myself, pushing Amy back into place and slowly, slowly moving forward in the driving rain. Lurching heart as I almost fell, feet tangled in wet undergrowth. Wrenching pain as Amy's weight dragged against my shoulder, my back, my arm.
I was over halfway to the vicarage before my legs crumpled under me. I couldn't go any further. Physically could not make my numb hands close or my legs straighten. I started to cry again. This time in despair. Amy was going to die within a ten minute walk of the vicarage because I was too stupid to work out clues that were in front of me the whole time. Too stupid to remember my mobile phone.
A light swung back and forth in the dark. I watched, dazed, as it swept the ground, then my brain kicked in.
"Here. Over h-h-here!" It was barely more than a croak. I took a lungful of icy rain and coughed. Tried again, "HERE!"
"Emily? Emily, you found her." A warm hand pushed my rain matted hair out of my face. Took Amy from me. Lifted her easily.
"D-Dad?"
"It's okay sweetheart, I'm here. I’ve got you both." Dad looked me up and down; coatless, mud-stained, soaked. "Can you walk?" He asked kindly.
"Y-yes." I took his hand and got up. My legs shook but I kept up now that Dad carried Amy.
It seemed no time at all and we were back in the house I had hated. How oddly comforting it felt now. So warm. Dad phoned for an ambulance and wrapped Amy and me in blankets in front of the fire. He pushed a mug of hot chocolate into my frozen fingers. My hand shook and brown drips hit the floor. Dad didn't say anything. Amy was still out cold but her colour was better. In the distance I heard sirens.
"D-D-Dad," I said as he went to the front door. "How did you know? T-to find us?"
Dad looked more sheepish than I had ever seen him look in his life. It made him appear younger.
"A scent. Your mother's shampoo. Rosemary for remembrance." He shrugged in an I-know-you-won't-believe-me way and went to the door.