Chapter 2
2
W aking up was like dredging through a sea of sludge, swimming my way to consciousness.
The first thing I noticed was that I didn’t feel cold. I remembered slipping, then falling, then hurting. Nothing after that. My back ached a little, but somehow, I felt like there should be more pain. Had the others found me and taken me back down the mountain? Was I in hospital? Had they located the missing man?
“She is waking up.” A deep, unfamiliar voice.
“Get away from her. You shouldn’t be here.”
Another man I didn’t recognise. Nurses? Doctors?
I reached deep to find the energy to open my eyes. Everything was blurry. Where were my glasses?
“Gently, take your time. You might have a concussion.”
I ignored the voice and pushed myself up into a vaguely sitting position to look around.
I wasn’t in a hospital. I wasn’t even in a building. Even with my blurry, shortsighted vision, I could see that I was in a cave. A fire burned to my left, which explained why I wasn’t cold anymore. The flickering flames made the ceiling glitter strangely. Quartz, maybe, or stalactites, but without my glasses, I couldn’t tell. I should have taken the time to put in my contacts before heading to HQ. Without my specs, I was lost.
The cave was surprisingly large. I hadn’t even known there were caves on Ben Macdui. The side opposite the happily crackling fire was decked in shadows, too dark to tell if there was an exit or a further extension of the cave.
But strangest of all – there were no men. I rubbed my eyes. I’d clearly heard their voices. They’d sounded like they’d been right next to me. But there hadn’t been footsteps moving away from me since. They should be here. Yet I seemed to be alone.
“Is this some kind of joke?” I muttered, more to myself than anyone else. I knew nobody in the mountain rescue team would play such a dangerous practical joke on me. We all respected the mountains and didn’t fool around while on a job.
“She can’t see us,” the first voice said sadly. “She’s not the one.”
Again, I could have sworn he was right next to me, so close that I should have been able to touch him.
“Maybe we got it wrong.” The second voice sounded like he was grieving someone. So much sadness and despair. It was dripping off every word.
Instinctively, I reached out towards the voice – and my hand touched something warm and hard. I blinked. Impossible. I looked at my hand, extended into nothing but air. Even with my blurry vision, I could see that there was nothing between me and the craggy cave wall a few yards away.
Cool fingers wrapped around my hand and I shrieked, trying to pull back, but the grip only tightened. Another invisible hand slid beneath mine, this one warm to the touch.
Okay, I was most definitely concussed. I was hallucinating. I should lie down again and wait to be rescued. Surely, my teammates were looking for me already. Hopefully, they’d found the missing man by now. I didn’t want my foolishness to interfere with his rescue.
“She can touch us. How?”
“I don’t know. This has never happened before.”
“Maybe it’s too early. What time is it?”
“The sun is still rising. Do you think touch comes first, then sight?” He sounded hopeful.
Even though the voices were clearly just in my head, I didn’t like that they were ignoring me. If they were my imagination, shouldn’t they be a little more self-centred?
Warm fingers caressed my wrist, gently exploring my skin. There was a certain hesitancy to the touch, whereas the cooler hands were wrapped firmly around my hand, keeping me in place. A thumb pressed against my palm, stroking in circling motions. A warm shiver ran down my back. This felt way too good. I fought against the craving of wanting more of these invisible touches.
“It’s all in my head,” I whispered. “I am concussed. I’m hallucinating.”
“Sorry to disappoint, but you’re not,” the deeper voice said close to my right ear. For a second, I imagined feeling hot breath against my cheek, but it must have been just the warmth of the fire. Even though that was on the other side of me.
“We are as real as you are, lovely human.” The other voice chuckled. “Maybe even more real. It depends on your definition of reality.”
“This is not the time for philosophy, Ben. She is clearly confused. We should enlighten her before she convinces herself that she’s unwell. Human minds are powerful. Imagined illness can become real if they believe in it too much.”
“You’re right.”
“As always.”
They laughed in unison, a rumbling sound that echoed through the cave, reminding me of rocks rolling down a hill.
The warmer hands finally released their grip, only for one to retake my hand, shaking it enthusiastically.
“My name is… well, you may call me Mac. And this is my brother-“
Cold fingers pushed away the warmer ones until my hand was shaken again. I didn’t even try to pull away this time. I was too stunned to do anything much.
“Ben. I’m Ben. And you are?”
“Claire,” I said automatically. “Claire MacDuff. But you already know that because you’re in my mind. Why am I even talking to you?”
“Because you know that you’re making excuses,” Mac chuckled, none of the earlier sadness remaining. “You can feel us. You can hear us. And soon, you will hopefully be able to see us.”
I wasn’t sure how to reply to that. Or if I should reply at all. Maybe I should just lie down and wait to be rescued. I wasn’t usually one to take a passive role in life, but there was a first time for everything.
“Just to double check,” Ben said close to my right ear, “You’re a MacDuff by birth, not marriage, right?”
“I’m not married.”
“Good. We got it right. This time.”
“This time?” I repeated weakly.
“About fifty years ago, another MacDuff came to us on Winter Solstice. We were so hopeful…”
His voice trailed off.
“What happened?” I asked, even though I still didn’t quite believe this conversation was real.
“She couldn’t see us. Couldn’t even hear us. Not like you.”
A cool hand touched my cheek. I flinched for just a moment, then forced myself to look at the air where Ben would likely stand. If he was standing.
“Are you ghosts?” I blurted. “Do you float?”
Both of them laughed in unison.
“No on both accounts,” Ben said, his hand still on my cheek. I should have pushed him away, but I strangely enjoyed his touch. Guilty pleasures like this were allowed in dreams.
Mac cleared his throat. “It’s a long story. But I suppose we have time until the sun reaches its zenith. Have you ever heard the story of the Grey Man of Ben Macdui?”
I would have stared at him in surprise and disbelief if I’d been able to see him. “Of course. Everyone here does. Am Fear Liath Mór , the Big Grey Man. A creature that haunts the mountain. Crunching footsteps behind you. Shadows that move. Strange noises. And tales of a man, ten foot tall, broad shoulders, dark hair, skin the colour of the rocks that line the summit.”
“Men. It should be men.” Mac sounded annoyed. “Nobody ever mentions that there are two of us.”
“At least most of the other details were right. Not sure I agree with skin the colour of rocks. Depends on the rock.”
“You’re the Grey Man…Men?” I interrupted. “Alright, now my mind is scaring me. Changing a myth into… what are you? Brothers?”
“Twins,” Mac said happily. “Two sides of a coin. Ben here is doing the haunting. I do the opposite, leading lost hikers to safety. Or into caves to get warm.”
I could hear his smile in his voice. He was talking about me.
“Let’s pretend I believe you, believe all this. How did you get me here? Where is this cave? And what are you planning to do with me?”
“I carried you,” Ben whispered close to my ear. “I’m sorry for leading you astray. I can’t help it. But when you fell, I wanted to help. I was about to lead one of the other humans to you when I saw your name badge… You’re a MacDuff. That changed everything.”
“We’re halfway down from the summit,” Mac continued the story. “While Ben carried you here, I led the humans to the one who was lost so that we would be undisturbed. Sadly, they realised you were missing fairly quickly and have been scouring the mountain ever since.”
“Like ants crawling up a leg. Itchy.” Ben growled softly.
I sat up straighter. “I need to go to them. Show them that I’m alright. Where is my radio?”
“I didn’t see one where you’d fallen,” Mac said. “It also wasn’t in your pockets.”
I looked down at me and realised for the first time that I was only in my underwear. Bloody hell. I searched the cave for a trace of my clothes, but without my glasses, everything was too blurry.
“You undressed me.”
"You were cold. Your clothes were wet. We didn't want you to become even more hypothermic."
Mac's words made sense, but I suddenly felt very vulnerable.
"Do you have a blanket?" I asked, my gaze firmly focused on the fire. I could feel a hot blush rise to my cheeks and I didn't dare look at where the invisible men-in-my-mind likely stood. I suppose it was a small mercy they'd left me my underwear. Not that it was my prettiest set. If I'd known someone would see me half-naked today, I would have put on... wait. I didn't have to impress anyone. Besides, they weren't real. It didn't matter what they thought of my lingerie because they didn't think at all. Their supposed thoughts were just a mirror image of my own mind.
"We don't," Ben said, pulling me from my confused thoughts. "But I have your pack. Do you keep one in there?"
A strange sound, something being dragged across stone, made me twist around. The most curious sight offered itself to my blurry vision. My red-and-black backpack, the same bag everyone in Mountain Rescue was issued with, moved towards me, seemingly on its own accord. The bottom dragged across the cave floor, leaving track marks in the dust. The handle was erect as if an invisible hand was holding it up. Fuck me. This was impossible.
When I reached for the pack, I almost expected my hand to only meet thin air - but no, solid cloth met my shaking fingers. Slowly, taking in every sensation to reassure me that this was really happening, I unzipped the backpack and pulled out an emergency blanket.
"Let me help you with that." Mac took the blanket out of my hand and unwrapped it. The fire's shine reflected off the silver-gold material, throwing tiny flecks of light all across the cave. For a moment, it seemed as if we were beneath the night sky.
He wrapped the blanket around me, or maybe it was both of them. Hard to tell when faced with invisible men.
"You're real," I whispered when I was fully covered. "How is this possible?"
"How much time do you have?" Ben laughed softly. "It's a long story. Are you hiding any snacks in your backpack? I haven't had human food in a while."
I ignored his request. "You keep saying human as if you aren't human yourself. What are you? Why are you invisible? And what are you going to do with me?"
"I could think of a few things." Mac's breath was hot against my cheek. "And I promise you'd enjoy every single one of them."
His lips touched the lobe of my ear. A wave of pleasant shivers ran down my spine. I shouldn't enjoy it but deep inside, I knew I wanted more.