Stone Heart (3 page)

Minutes later, nearby bushes began to rustle. Elspeth walked forward and stood before the horrifying statue. She tilted her head as she looked up at the monstrosity, but she was not afraid.

"
I heard everything
. What the old woman said was not true. You are
not
a bad man. You saved my Holly, and I will
never
forget." She knelt and placed a dead flower at the foot of the statue. "I ran back from town to bring you a flower. I picked it several days ago, and I am sorry it is not so pretty as when it was growing. I was coming to give it to you when I saw what the old lady was doing. I kept as quiet as a mouse and listened. She is gone now, so do not be afraid."

Elspeth stood and backed away. Then she clasped her hands together. "I promise I will not forget. We will always be friends."

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Stone Heart

by Candace Sams

She turned and walked away, as the night grew colder and the wind began to blow. But Elspeth was determined to come back each and every day to talk to her friend, even though he could never answer back. She repeated the words of the spell over and over as she walked. The words had to be exactly right. She
must
remember all of them. She had made him a promise, and it
had
to be kept.

* * * *

Years went by, and Elspeth's voice changed from that of a tiny child to a young girl. She brought flowers, laid them at his feet and described them to him. He wondered when he would go insane from not being able to communicate. Neither hunger nor thirst plagued him, but he felt as if he would starve from the lack of real contact. Only the girl's daily presence kept him from losing touch with reality and going completely mad.

In time, someone decided to build a cemetery around him.

Those who passed by could be heard to comment on how hideous he was and speak of finding less, unwholesome scenery. Still, Elspeth came and never sounded as though she was afraid of his appearance.

When she spoke, no news was too trivial. She told him everything. Then she told him she had met a young lad from a neighboring village, and she had found work there as a 19

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cleaning woman. Angus feared he would lose his only friend altogether. Perhaps she sensed his fear, for she reassured him the walk from the nearby village was not far. She would still come. He need not have agonized, for she kept her word as she always had.

She married her lad and bore him children. She described each of them to him. She shared her hopes for the future and her plans for a new home and her life. And time went on.

She came to him in tears one day when her husband and oldest son had been killed in a senseless war. He knew the countryside was besieged because of the weeping he heard.

Many loved ones had been newly buried in the surrounding graveyard, killed before their time. He regretted, with all his heart, that he could say not a single word of comfort to her.

Still, she came.

One day, almost sixty-one years later, Angus waited for her. The afternoon grew into the evening, and he felt the night mist upon his stone flesh, but Elspeth did not come. The next morning, he knew what had happened. The faithful little girl who had turned into a woman would come no more. His only friend had passed from this life into the next. He could hear the voices speaking of her as her body was lowered into a nearby grave. Had the mourners taken the time, they would have seen one lone tear slide its way down the face of the moldy statue he had become. He could not even grieve for her properly.

Days passed by, and he mentally begged the Goddess of the Earth to take his life. He had been able to handle the loneliness as long as Elspeth came, but not any longer. The 20

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only caring person left to him was gone, and it hurt far too much to bear. So he came to know what it was like to be afraid and alone again. Just as he had when he was a child.

In his utter despair, he did not sense the boy's presence one sunny morn, some weeks after Elspeth's passing.

"My grandmother told me about you. My name is Andrew.

She knew her time was near, and she made me promise to come and speak to you every day. She told me that real men
always
keep their promises, and so I shall. I am sorry I did not come sooner, but I had to get permission to walk here first."

Angus guessed the child could be no more than the age Elspeth was when he first saw her. The little boy talked on and on, and Angus listened to every syllable the child uttered.

His friend had not forgotten. She had kept her word, and now there was a new person to keep him company. No one could ever take Elspeth's place, but she had sent a new generation to help him tolerate the long days.

That boy, and Elspeth's descendents who followed, seemed to believe that speaking to the gruesome statue was a kind of game—a family tradition to pass from the oldest of one generation to the youngest of the next. Angus felt the joy of learning to love each life that came to him. And he learned the pain of losing each one as well. He learned a great deal.

One day strangers came into the cemetery. One of them spoke of moving him, saying he was an eyesore and a detraction from the new cemetery gardens. Using ropes and equipment, Angus was moved from where he stood and horror followed. He was placed in some out-of-the-way spot 21

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where no voice ever came. Again, he wanted to die. This time he believed his wish might be granted. There was certainty in his heart that no one remembered the enchantment to set him free, even
if
he could be found. Each day brought him closer to the three hundred years which marked his enchantment. Dying was his only hope. He prayed for such release.

Loneliness
. It was a horrible thing to be alone. Not to just
feel
that way, but to actually know there was no living being within hearing distance.

There was no way he could stand the torture for another moment. If only they had cracked and broken him as he was being moved. Surely that would have destroyed him and he could know peace. His mind cried for companionship.
Any
kind of company. Even the birds did not sing where he had been placed.

Was this the kind of cruel anguish others had endured because of him? Out of his hatred, he had done horrifying things, and this was his atonement. Hundreds of years of it.

This had to end soon. It
must
or he would go mad. He would not only be alone in a dark stone world, but he would be quite insane there. He would
will
himself to death.

"
Someone help me
," his agonized mind begged. "Please let this end soon. Goddess,
please!"

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Stone Heart

by Candace Sams

Chapter Two

Present day

"I'm sorry, Miss Matthews. All we can do is see that she's made comfortable," the doctor consoled.

Karen swallowed hard and lowered her voice. "How long?"

The doctor looked at Karen's aunt, who lay on the bed, then back at Karen. "Maybe a week. No longer."

"Thank you," she said. "I don't know what I'd have done without your help."

The doctor paused before picking up his bag and leaving.

"And how are
you
feeling? Did the prescription I gave you help?"

She nodded. "Oh, yes. The pain isn't nearly as bad now."

"Maybe you'd better let me have a look at you. All this worry over your aunt hasn't done you much good, I'm afraid."

"No," she said and waved a hand in refusal. "There's no need to fuss over me. We both know what the verdict is where I'm concerned. There's no point wasting your time."

The doctor sighed and nodded. "Karen, I wish I could move you ahead on the transplant list, but the way things are, a donor might not match anyhow..."

"Don't! There's no sense going into all
that
again." She smiled and tried to act brave. "I've been ready for a long time."

The doctor sadly shook his head and took one of her hands in his. "If I can do anything—arrange for hospice care, or another nurse..."

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Stone Heart

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"I've let the nurse go." When the doctor started to object, Karen held up her hand. "I know, I know. I shouldn't be stressing myself. But Aunt Agatha did everything in the world for me after my folks died, and I want to be with her now.

She shouldn't have a stranger in the room when the end comes."

"And who'll be in the room with
you
?" he asked. "I can arrange for someone to come talk with you. No one should have to go through this alone, Karen. There are people who can help."

She shook her head. "I don't want a stranger in the room with me, either. I-I'd rather be alone."

"Are you sure about that?"

"Yeah." She grinned and tried to make a joke of it.

"Besides, maybe I'll surprise you and live to be an old, old woman."

The doctor didn't return her smile. "I wish, with all my heart, that you could."

After a moment of silence between them, the doctor walked to the door. He turned, looked as though he was about to speak, then shrugged and quietly left. Karen swallowed hard and tried not to be afraid. Time and her illness were catching up with her, just as Aunt Agatha's had.

The difference was, Agatha had been blessed with a long life before succumbing to a faulty heart. Karen was at the age where most people were really just beginning their lives, but there was no sense ranting and carrying on about the unfairness of it all. The deck had been cut from the day she 24

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was born. It had only been a matter of time thereafter. In fact, she was on borrowed time, according to the cardiologist.

A soft moan tore her from her morbid thoughts. She walked toward the bed where her aunt lay, and she slowly lowered herself to sit beside the old woman. She placed a frail hand on Agatha's head and gently pushed back her brown hair. Faded blue eyes looked up at her.

Agatha smiled up at Karen. "I heard what he said, baby.

Don't you listen to him."

"Hush, Aunt Aggie. Just rest."

"Remember the promise you made?"

"Yes, I remember. But you don't need to be talking about that right now. You should sleep."

"Repeat it back. Everything I told you." The old woman tried to sit up.

Karen carefully pushed her back against the pillows, fluffing them as she did so. "Will you go to sleep if I do?"

Aggie nodded.

"All right." Karen sighed. "You want me to go to the bank, open the safe deposit box and look at what's inside." There was no sense pretending her aunt wasn't going to die and that everything would be all right. Agatha had accepted it, and so must she.

"The rest, girl. Tell me the rest," Aggie insisted.

"I'm supposed to follow your will and all your instructions to the letter."

"And your promise, Karen? You'll keep it?"

Karen grinned. For the thousandth time, she made the same promise. "I'll do
exactly
what the will says. Okay?"

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"
Promise
me, honey."

She leaned over her aunt and softly whispered, "I
promise
.

I swear it."

Aggie took a deep breath and slowly smiled. "Good. A Matthews always keeps their word."

"So, you'll go to sleep?"

She nodded. "I'll go to sleep. Only..."

"Only
what
?" Karen tilted her head and gazed into her beloved aunt's eyes.

"Don't you listen to that old quack tell you about your bad heart anymore, baby. He's
wrong
."

"Aunt Aggie, let's not go into..."

"No!" She raised her voice. "You
will
get better. I
know
you will."

Karen tried to blink back the tears. "All right, Aunt Aggie.

Hush, now." Her hands went to the old woman's shoulders as she tried to calm her. According to the doctor, her aunt had only hung on as long as she had due to her worry over Karen's condition.

"You do as you promised me, Karen. There's a place where you'll be with friends. A wonderful place. There are all kinds of wonderful creatures. Fairies fly, and I know ... I know you'll..." She stopped when a round of coughing racked her body.

"All right now, darling. Go to sleep. Hush," Karen softly crooned, stroking the old woman's face.

As Agatha slipped into a deep sleep, Karen fought hard to keep back the tears. Her beloved aunt's fantasy world had been the cause of many debates with the doctors. They had 26

Stone Heart

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wanted the old woman institutionalized, stating it would be better considering Karen's own failing health. But Karen wouldn't listen. Aggie was all she had. Her aunt had devoted her entire life to raising Karen and seeing to her education. If it meant giving up luxuries or things for the house or the car, then that was the way it was. Karen had always come first.

"
I promised to love you, darling
," Aggie had said. "
And we
must always, always keep our promises. Besides, you make it
so easy to do
."

Karen had heard her aunt say those words a thousand times. There was no way in hell she was going to let someone put Aggie in a cold white room just because she had some quirky beliefs. Besides, Agatha's stories and strange convictions had never hurt anyone. There had been a few embarrassing moments, but if you loved someone the way she and her aunt loved one another, you put up with it. What did hurt was Aggie's refusal to accept that Karen's heart was giving out. Every time it was mentioned, the older woman had retreated even more deeply into her fantasies.