Chapter 9 Kaira #2
My legs shook as I walked toward the edge of the ferry, where the makeshift stairs were added by Jacob, letting him take my suitcase with no fuss this time. I was worried I would lose it into the water if I tried getting it down. I simply didn't trust myself, not right now.
The mist hovered over the ground, touching the tops of my boots as I landed on the dock, taking the suitcase from Jacob. "Thank you so much," I said quietly, not fully trusting my voice right now. I felt unsteady on my feet, but I didn't mind. "This means more than you can imagine."
"No need to thank me," Jacob answered, smiling once again.
"Just be careful up there," he added, looking up toward the stairs leading away from the dock, toward what I could only describe as an entrance.
"And I hope you find everything you're looking for.
" He clasped my hand, holding for just a second too long.
"Welcome back, Kore. They'll be expecting you. "
Kore? I turned toward him as he passed by me, entering the ferry once more, but he was already on the top, pulling up the stairs attached to the boat. This was the third time someone had called me Kore.
First in my dream, then the crow, and now him. Was I imagining them calling me Kore?
Dragging my small suitcase with me, I climbed the cracked marble stairs and stopped on top of the cliff, looking down at the black sand, when the whisper of the wind slammed into me, making me stumble forward and onto the gravelly path leading away from the docks.
My vision darkened as the scene in front of my eyes transformed from the sight of the gravelly road into the field of violets and daisies.
My eyes scanned over the meadow, my hands picked the flowers, but it wasn't me. This wasn't me sitting there on my knees, feeling happier than ever that the first signs of spring were finally visible on the surface.
"I'll take good care of you, my darlings," I said, but it wasn't my voice. It was, but it also wasn't.
The back of my neck prickled as awareness arose through me. Someone was watching me. Someone was there.
I turned around, looking at the trees lined behind me, only to see the figure of a man standing quietly, his eyes firmly on me.
"Who are you?"
I slammed back into reality, breathing heavily as I gathered my bearings, trying to calm my racing mind.
What the fuck was that? What in the actual fucking fuck did I just see?
My fingers dragged through my hair, feeling the sweat gathered on the back of my neck and just like in that vision, memory, whatever it was, the hair on my nape rose, alerting me of a presence. Of someone watching me.
Scanning the road in front of me I could see there was nothing but emptiness and a sign I couldn't read from this far, but the moment I turned toward my right, I saw him. I saw them.
The shadow of a man stood hidden between trees not too far away, shrouded in the morning mist and making it impossible to see his features.
I took a step forward before catching myself and stopping in my tracks.
He wasn't alone and I didn't need to be close to understand it was a dog next to him. A massive fucking dog.
The morning mist swirled over the surface of the ground, as if it was rising slowly, hiding the person from my eyes.
"So it's true then?" came from my left, and just like earlier this morning, I jumped, turning toward the source of the voice. A woman stood close by, staring at me as if she had seen a ghost, when in reality I should've been the one looking at her like that.
Her eyes were colder than my mother’s, her hair lighter, but I had no doubt about who she was.
"What is true?" I finally found my voice, unable to stop staring at her. My lungs contracted as memory after memory of the woman who gave life to me kept playing behind my eyelids.
They looked so much alike, yet also so different in the way this woman moved. In the way her sharp eyes dissected me even before we fully spoke to each other.
"She's dead," the woman added, taking a couple of steps toward me, letting me see her clearly.
The black dress she wore couldn't have been comfortable in this weather, but she didn't seem to mind the cold.
Its long sleeves covered her entire arms, going over her hands.
The bottom seemed to have been haphazardly sewn together, making it look like it was made from different types of fabric ending just underneath her knees and touching the tops of her black boots.
"Your mother," she clarified as she came even closer, letting me see her eyes properly.
She looked just like Daniela, like my mom. Past and present collided as she continued toward me, scanning me from head to toe just as I was doing to her.
"Who are you?" I asked for good measure, although I was pretty sure I already knew the answer.
She smiled but it never touched her eyes, and as she stepped right in front of me, looking me over as if she was as shocked by seeing me as I was by seeing her, she couldn't stop her eyes from dragging all over my face.
"I think you already know who I am, Kaira.
The question is…" She looked into my eyes, narrowing her own as if she was angry at me being here.
"What are you doing at Nevermere Island? "