Escaped the Night (26 page)

W
ith all this
time
alone
and
nothing to
distract
me
,
all I could do was
think
. S
ure as anything,
Ja
yce was first to cros
s my mind. Oh, how I missed him. H
e
never would’ve
placed
me in a position like this
,
and
I
wondered
,
what
was
he doing now?
What
would
he think
if he
s
aw
me
at this particular point
in time
?
As hard as I tried, I could
n’t feel
any
connection
.

No one had ever known me
in
such
depth
s
. He knew the entirety of my being,
both inside and out. The b
est part was, he loved all of it because h
e truly adored
me. Why did
I screw that
up?
I
regretted behaving so badly and
putting him through
all
this
.
It wasn’t deliberate and I shoul
d’
ve taken
the
time to
explain this
to
him
properly
. I
s
hould’ve picked him; better yet
,
I should’ve stayed with him. He’d always
been
there for me
;
as long as I’d known h
im
he’d
never let me down.
Above all else
, he
tried
his best to
kee
p
me safe and
somehow
swallo
wed his pride when he lost that
quest.
I’d live with the
regret of my de
cision for eternity, hoping
one day he’
d
be able to
forgive me for the pai
n and betrayal
I
caused
him
.

Another thought intruded
,
pushing Jayce aside. Daray had
spent every
night
of the last hundred years searching
for me
. He
’d
remembered everything about me
, even
when I couldn’t
.
He’d known me in both my lifetimes.
He
’d even
held onto my belon
gings until
we were re-united
,
and this wa
s how I repaid him?
Doubting him, t
urning him down when he proposed
?
What kind of person was I?
I
wanted to pull
my hair out
from this overwhelming confusion.
I loved Jayce with all my heart and wanted to be with him, but
for some stupid reason
felt
compelled
to
be with
Daray.
“Argh! Why is this happen
ing
to me
?” I yelled
in
the empty room.

‘
You’
re
confused. T
his experience
isn’t something you’re used to, but e
verything will work out the way it’s meant to
happen. ‘A
female
voice sounde
d in
my head.

I wasn’t su
re to whom the voice belonged
. “D
o I know you?” I asked aloud. Did other immortals have
the same powers as J
ayce or was someone
else
here?
I hopped
up out of my blanket cocoon
looking
around for a sign
of the other person.
I swung
open
the wardrobes and closet doors,
check
ed under the bed and behind
the c
urtains. The room was
empty
.
“Hello
, is anyone there
?”

‘
Y
ou know me
very well
,
better than most.
You don’t always listen
, but
trust
me when
I say
, you usually
end up
do
ing
what I want
.’
The voice let out
a sweet giggle.
‘
You need to
learn to trust yourself more; l
isten to what you think is right and wrong.
Feel what you need
and a
ct on those instincts, they may just save you one day.
’

I listened carefully to everything the voice said and it made sense, I did tend to doubt myself a lot.
I
always second-guessed things and w
hen
ever
I didn’t take
time to think a situation all the way through, it usually backfired. Most likely
,
those were the signs
I needed to listen to
more frequently
.
T
he
voice offering
me
advic
e
had a
certain
familiarity,
but could it be? Aloud, I said
the name
that came
in
to
my
mind.
“
Ginata?
”

‘
Yes, Shanntal
,
it’s me!
’

This
brought me a sense of joy
,
knowing
I could
once again
commun
icate with my dear
est
friend
.
“I’
m not sure why I didn’t recogn
ize your voice
right away
.
G
uess i
t’s been a while. Oh, how I’ve missed you
. It
’s so
good to
know you’
re okay
.”
This must have been quite
the sight
,
locked
in a
room alon
e
,
talking to myself.
If someone
were
watching me right now, they would’ve thought I’d definitely lost my mind.

‘
Yes,
my dear frien
d
, it’s been too long
,
but
I’
m
here to warn you. Daray’
s n
ot the same as you remember. D
ar
kn
ess has dominated his light. T
here’s nothing left of the man you once knew.
You must be
very
careful because t
he crew he runs with is
evil
and i
t’
ll end badly
if you stay. Y
ou need to get
far away from them as
quickly as
possible.
’

“Ginata, I’m locked in. There’s no way out.”

‘
Eve
rything with Jayce felt
right, i
t’
s because he’s full of
l
ight. Darkness hasn’t touched nor will it ever influence him
.
’

Memories of
Jayce
resurfaced and I
saw his warm smile and
spark
l
ing eyes
,
and
remembered
our passionate sparks. How could I
have
be
en
so cruel
?
Would he
ever
forgive me? I
tried
the door knob again
, but
it
still wouldn’
t turn. What was I
going
to
do
?

‘
You
r protectors
will come when
ever
you request. They won’t come
on their own
because
right now
you are safe
.
Y
ou’re alone in the house
.
Your friend
Layla can take
the
fo
rm of any creature she chooses
. Tell them to bring her
. Send for
them
now
, there’s not much time
!
’
Ginata ordered.

I spoke aloud
because
I wasn’t entirely sure how to
send my request.
“
Garrison
, Kale
b
,
I need you, p
lease come
and b
ring Layla.
I’
ll need her help too. Hurry,
they’ll be returning, d
awn
’
s
approaching
quickly
.”

‘
Shanntal,
I need you to know that
I’m
not with the living anymore. He came back
to
finish what he started. You’re not safe. I don’t think he’ll ever give up looking for you.’
’

A te
ar ran down my cheek. I was
officially
the sole survivor.
“Who
’
s he
?
Who did this?
” I asked. “Daray?”

Ginata never responded.

“A
re
you still here? Don’t go. Please
,
you need to
tell me who did this
.”
I was alone.
M
y dear friend
had
w
arned me
that
I wasn’t safe
in
the best way
she could
.
Glancing
around,
I took
i
n
one last look at
my past
,
knowing
that
s
ome things were better left
behind
.
“Wow!” I blurted out
.
A large dragon occupied the space outside the
w
ind
ow. The creature startle
d me until
I
noticed
the
purple eyes
assuring
me
that
Layla
had arrived
.
I
went over to th
e
window
and saw my protectors
. Kaleb
waved
his arms and
holle
red
, “Get out of the way!”

I moved to the far corner,
covered my head and closed my eyes
.
A
fireball smashed throug
h the window
,
shattering
the
glass
and sending shards
every
where
.
I felt the warmth of
the
flames quick
ly evaporate.
I opened my eyes and t
o
my surprise,
nothing appeared da
maged
, with the
except
ion of
the
window
.

Layla p
ushed her way through
, crunching
broken glass
under her giant reptile feet
. R
egardless of the fact
that
she
was
a
scaly
dragon
, I’d never been happier to see anyone. I wrapped my arms around
her thick neck and climbed
onto her back. Once I was secure
,
she turned
around
and
we
flew
out the window.
Garrison
and Kaleb raced across the ground with enduran
ce and speed. It was amazing watching
them
as they leapt
over obstacles
both
big and small
, basically
anything that stood in their path.

“
I’m so
rry. I don’t know what I was thinking. I’m
so
happy
to see you
guys
!
Thanks for coming
to get me
,
” I
said
as we
crossed
the
yard and headed
towards the beach.
I
looked back
briefly
at
the broken window where I’
d been held
captive and
fe
lt
a
rush of reli
ef. I was
once again
free of Daray and
had a better understanding of
what he was really like
. The gentle man
I
’d
once
loved was no longe
r
. I was alive because of the monster he’d becom
e. It was my
family
who’d
taught me
that
there was more to life
and
his way wasn’
t meant for me.
I
faced forward
;
with my head held high,
I wasn’t going to
look back at the past anymore,
instead I’
d
live in the moment.

The sun
broke
al
ong the horizon
—
a
nother day
dawned
. Daray and the o
thers had
probably
returned
to
the house. S
oon he
’d realize I was gone
,
if he hadn’t noticed already
. I
pictured
the
tantrum
he’d throw
and
shook the thoughts of his rage from my mi
nd. There were bigger issues to deal with
;
h
e knew where I was
and
I
needed
a w
ay to keep him
far
from me. I di
d
n’t imagine
he’d
be as f
orgiving
towards me
the next time we met.
I had a new set of priorities. Fix things with Jayce and find
ou
t who killed my family
,
because whoever it was, they needed
to be stopped.
The e
vidence pointed towards
Daray, but I couldn’t shake the feeling…
could he really do
something so
horrible… to me
?

We
closed in on
the beach.
My heart beat quicker as
I
hoped
Jayce
would
greet us
upon our arrival
.
Disappointment
ru
shed
through me when
I found
he
wasn’t anywhere in sight.
I climbed off Layla’s back and s
he transformed back into her human form
.
My protectors caught up with us as w
e walked over to where T
erran, Aiden, Makan and Meriel stood
. Shea
fluttered close to Terran and
it
was obvio
us
they’d
been talking.

“Quite the
little
advent
ure you’ve been on
.
Enjoy yourself?”
Aiden
sneered.

Meriel shoved him.

“
What were you thinking?
” he continued. “
Can you even comprehend
how much trouble you’ve caused? D
id you at least l
earn anything
so you
could get
this out of your system
?”

“
I did and I’m
really
sorry.”

“Sorry, is
a start,” Makan replied,
offering me
a grin.

“Daray
isn’t the same man
living
in my memories.
I
understand that. What I saw was more
monster
,
n
othing
bu
t darkness and evil
.” The gui
lt I felt was un-
measurable and
I quickly realized
that
everything I’
d chosen to do
had
clearly affected more
people
than
just
myself. “
Please understand,
I needed
to find
out on my own
,
because
this is the life I once lived
. I
felt lost a
nd didn’t know where I belonged.
I owed it to myself,
Daray
and Jayce
,
to find out
where I’m meant to be
.”

Terran and Meriel came over and hugged me.
I’d lost the love of my life,
and
met an old love, only to find out
he was my worst nightmare. I’
d
been throu
gh so much
and
was
relieved
that
someone recognized or at least acknowledged
the
pain
I
felt
.
The girls tried
their best
to comfort
me
,
but I needed Jayce. Only his arms around me
,
letting me know
he
’d forgi
ve
n
me
, would make
this pain go away.

Garrison
,
Kaleb and
the
element boys
,
gat
hered together in a circle
,
conspiring
.

“What do you guys think you
’re
doing?” Layla
said
.

“What need
s to be done,
” Aiden snapped
,
turning
his
back
to us
.

“Enough! What’s done is done; it’s over.
We need to stick together
now
.”
Terran was the voice of reason.

The
girls listened in
as
t
he guys
rambled
on
about f
ighting
the
nightwalkers
and who was s
tronger.
There wasn’t any point
;
they had
no plan of attack, just an ove
rwhelming batch of testosterone
with nothing better to do
but
mouth
off. However, o
ne by one
,
the girls
joined
the
ir
circular formation.
No one was
getting
left out of the loop
,
even if they were
just
talking nonsense.
Feeling like an
intruder,
I was
the
last to join the group
. This whole mess
had
started because of me
and
I couldn’t
stand by
and watch
the out
come from
the sidelines
.
I needed to
step up and
help
make things right.

A few minutes
of
deep conversation
passed
. There were
some
very productive ideas
being tossed around
when
suddenly
,
e
veryone
stopped talking
.
Wanting to know what
distracted
the group,
I
turned my head
to
follow
the
stare
s
.
Jayce
came down the beach
towards us.
I felt dizzy,
I
couldn’t breath
e
. I wanted to run o
ver,
wrap
my arms around him and say
how sorry I was
.
I started to move
,
but the look on his face
made me decide othe
rwise. H
is anger
and sadness was because of me.
I’d done this to him
.
His eyes wandered
in my direction
,
and
he gave
a
nod of acknowledgement
as he passed
by.

Terran
whispered,
“He’ll be okay, just give him a little time. Once this
is all
sorted out with Daray
,
I’m sure he’ll come around.” She squeezed my hand.

Her
small
gesture
gave
me
hope.
I couldn’t help
but think of
how I’d managed to ruin
my happiness
in
the
blink of an eye. Everything
had
changed; it’d only t
a
ken a
few minutes for my world to be turned upside down yet again.
If I
’d only
listened to Uncle Dane and not run out, things would
’ve
be
en so different
. This wasn’t fair.
I
’d
just found
my way
and
managed to
let it get destroyed by a man I
couldn’t
remember
,
destroyed
by a memory
forgotten for
a
century,
obviously for good reason
. Yes, Daray had saved me
, but by the sound
of
things
, it
was purely
accidental
.
I owed him nothing.