Phantom Rider

                   Phantom Rider
Years ago, a group of justice-defenders rode from town to town on horseback.
One was renowned for his dedication to tracking down criminals and upholding justice.
While on a casual ride through the woods, he sees a man he had been chasing for nearly three weeks and rides after him.
The chase lasted for several minutes, until the target jumps over a fallen log.
As the rider jumps over in pursuit, he hears a gun fire and feels his horse buckle under him and rolls away just I time to avoid being crushed.
When he goes over to check his horse for serious injury, he hears someone laughing behind him and turns to see his target.
He begins to stand and draw his weapon, but sees that the target already has his weapon out, cocked and ready to shoot.
“So, you have me cornered and I’m unarmed, what now. If you were going to shoot me, you would have done so by now, and why did you shoot my horse” he asks?
The target just laughed and said “I didn’t shoot your horse, you can thank him for that” and motioned for his accomplice to step forward.
The shooter was in fact the low ranked sharp shooter from the horse-troop, “and I plan on killing you, but not until you watch as he finishes off your horse.”
The other man brings up his gun, aims, and fires while the rider watches on in horror.
He looks at the shooter as he says, “Why are you doing this. Why would you betray the horse-troop?”
The shooter looks at him, with narrowed eyes “if you even have to ask you have no clue. I’m ranked so low; I need a direct order to shoot a beer can. With my new friend I will shape the horse-troop the way I see fit.”
The rider begins to back up as he states, “So you’re plotting to overthrow the horse-troop, well you have one thing in your way. Me!”
But as the rider said ‘me’, the target man fires and the rider falls to the ground.
The shooter holsters his gun and starts to walk back towards town.
The target man grabs the rider, drags him to the nearby edge and drops him over the side.
He then goes back to the rider’s horse and starts to rummage through the rider’s saddle bag, but when he hears something behind him, he turns and sees the shooter standing there aiming his gun at him.
Before he can protest, the shooter fires and takes the bag of both the rider and the target.

~
`Present day`
A new girl moves in to the mansion on the hill with her parents’ servants.
The staff was raising the girl sense her parents vanished, they all believed they would return one day.
They said that so the girl would not get depressed.
She was trained in etiquette and how to be a proper lady, but she readily ran off and did her own thing the first chance she got.
She walked into the local library and introduces herself to the librarian. “Hello. My names Janet.”
The librarian turns to her and adjusts her glasses as she says “oh, hello. You must be new in town, welcome. You’re probably here for a library card. Uh, here, sign this and I will get you one” and hands Janet a clipboard, then walks back to the front desk to find one.
“Uh, thank you, that will be helpful, though I’m most likely to read and study the books here” Janet says as she signs and places the clipboard on the counter, and takes the card that the librarian held out to her.
The librarian looks at her over her glasses and asks, “excuse me, but are you living in the mansion.”
Janet smiles and nods “yes, I am. I moved in with my parent’s staff. But before you ask, I am just living with the staff, my parents disappeared a few years ago, they‘ll come back someday. The staff has taught me to the best of their abilities how to be a lady, and if they come in here asking about me please tell them I said that.”
The librarian smiled “I will. But that wasn’t why I asked about the house. It’s rumored that that house is haunted or that it housed the family of the horse riding ghost for several generations.”
Janet turned to leave but gave her a sideways glance, “I know the tales surrounding the house. Supposedly I am the descendent of the lost rider of the tales. I asked the staff to move back here so I could study up on my family history and maybe find out what happened to ‘the rider’ of the tales and find out what happened to my ancestor” then walks out the door and heads for home.
The first week, the staff kept her busy with chores and lessons.
She finally got away on Saturday evening and headed for the library.
Inside the librarian had found some books on the subject and left them in a study-alcove.
After what seemed like hours, all she had found out was ‘that the rider was a member of a group that guarded the surrounding towns and did so on horseback’.
She found a list of the names of the riders that were considered lost in the field; she copied the list to ask around to see if anyone knew more than what the books said.
She continued her search until the librarian told her that the butler called looking for her, and headed home.
Several weeks of chores, lessons, and library study later, Janet is out for a stroll enjoying the scenery and the everyday town activity.
She hears someone calling her name and turns to see the librarian running towards her.
“Is everything all right?” Janet asked.
When the librarian can breath again, she says, “the maid just called. There is a huge party planned to happen in about forty-five minutes.”
Janet looks at her with wide eyes for a moment, then starts running for home.
“I am going to be late. Why do they always do this when I‘m trying to relax?” she said as she ran through town.
She needed to get home so she could get herself ready to greet guests, be a good hostess, and generally help the staff.
She rounded a corner, faster than she wanted to, and ran into someone. “I’m so sorry, I’m late for something and…” she started to say, but the person she just bumped into turned to her and said “you’ll be more than late”.
She then looks around and sees a rather large group of unfriendly looking people in the alley.
As they came towards her, she turns and starts to run as fast as she can in the other direction.
Just as she thinks she’ll collapse from exhaustion, she hears the sound of hoof beats and feels someone grab her and pull her up.
When she turns to look behind her, she sees the group just standing there at what looks like a dam like wall for an old dried up river bed, she then looked down and saw that they were over the river bed and she grabbed who she figured was the rider in fear of falling.
After what seemed like forever to her they finally landed and the rider lets her down close to the mansion.
She turned to see who or what saved her.
Standing there was a horse with a gray-white coat, with dark red eyes that should have scared her but strangely didn’t.
Its rider, a tall man dressed in what looked like old style riding cloths, sat proudly on its back looking down at her, trying to hide his face with the brim of his hat.
As she looked up at him, she hears the maid and butler calling her.
She takes a few steps and turns back to the rider and says, “thanks for the save” and runs into the house.

~
The rider turns his horse and leads it towards the woods and vanishes into the darkness.
The woods remained normal for the first few feet, then changed into gnarly, twisted, old looking trees that opened up to a shrouded archway that seemed to lead to a steep cliff.
He walked through and emerged into a clearing of dead and rotten foliage.
He continued through the ‘dead land’ and towards a town far below.
In town he rode past, ghouls, ghosts, and goblins; trolls, demons, and all matter of horrifying creatures.
Leaving his horse outside to chase after imps, the rider walks into a makeshift bar and joins a group of small ogres already half drunk on the local drink.
The ‘one horned’ asked “where ya’ been, the good stuff is all gone.”
The ‘twisted horn’ asked “you weren’t topside, were ya’. Cause if ya’ were, we would have to tell the 'boss' man.”
Everyone at the table laughed, including the rider “yeah, like any of you would tell on me. I’ve saved your back sides more then you know. As for topside, that for me to know, and for you to but out.”
The ‘double fang’ stated “you have done a lot for everyone here, but you should keep your head low for a while. I heard the 'boss' has a new target, according to rumor there’s a kid in the manor house again and the 'boss' wants it for a project. But like I said, only a rumor. Hey, where did the rider go?”
The rider had left when he heard that the 'boss' was after the girl that he just saved.
He had to keep her and him away from each other as much as possible.
He ran a few blocks and found his horse trotting back to meet him.
He quickly mounted and headed for ‘topside’.
As he headed through the dead-land, he saw rather flat looking black birds flying several feet above the arch.
‘They can‘t be good’ he thought as he rode through the arch.
It was nearly mourning on the other side of the arch.
He took one quick look up and saw the birds flying off somewhere and decided to follow them thinking they may be guards or spies for the boss to keep an eye on the girl.

~
The party had finished and Janet was standing at the door thanking everyone for coming and to have a wonderful evening.
When the last guest left, Janet walked back to her room and crashed on to her, and tried to relax from the events of the day.
First the staff springs a last minute party for her, then she runs into a ‘gang’, and while running from them she is saved by…she thought for a moment.
She wasn’t sure whom or what saved her, but whoever it was, reminded her of something, something her parents mentioned long ago.
She decided that the next morning before the staff gave her chores for the day, she would head for the library and see if the librarian had any ideas as to the identity of the rider that saved her.
The sun had not risen yet, but that just encouraged Janet to go through with her plan.
She changed, packed a small bag with a few supplies she thought she might need, and climbed down the wall with the rope she had ‘found’ and ‘borrowed’ from the garden shed.
In short order she was on the ground and heading for town, and hoped that the library was either open or the librarian was close by so she could open it for her.
She found the librarian taking an early walk and asked if the library is open.
The librarian opens the door, then handed Janet her own key for future use.
Janet entered the library and went straight to the alcove.
She had to find all the info she could on the legend of the ghost rider, how it started, how long has it gone on, and any sighting records.
The first bit of info was stuff on the missing riders; some notes had been stuck in-between pages and the names of some of the riders.
She read through and marked off the names on her list of names to ask about, which narrowed her search down to two.
In a rather ragged looking book, she found records of past sightings of the rider.
The sightings began just a year after the horse-troop member vanished.
The sightings were of the rider stopping a fight, or a robbery, or anything else the troop normally did.
The sightings stopped for a few years when the troop finally disbanded, then started up again about ten years later.
The sightings continued for the next fifty years or so, then became a rarity and the rider became a legend.
There were a few sketches of the rider from people’s descriptions, but they looked nothing like the rider that had saved her from that gang.
She then walked over to the town records and looked up her family that was rumored to have lived here for a few generations.
As she flipped through the books, she wondered why they left in the first place.
Out of nowhere a cool breeze blew through the library, causing her to drop the book on the table and ran to the door to close it, but saw that it was still closed.
When she walked back the book she had dropped lay open on the table to a certain page, she glances at the page and sees her family name, then at the photo with it and sees her ancestors in front of the mansion.
She sits down and starts reading; it tells of how this family was the first to move in and start small businesses for people to work at, some carpenters, others seamstresses, though most members of the family worked with horses in some way.
One generation loved horses so much, they learned to ride them early in life, and one joined the local guard with a horse he picked out and trained himself.
The whole family was so proud of him, but he vanished during an afternoon ride, the family assumed he forgot and decided to spend the night out in the woods, but when the day came everyone looked for him and only found what may have been his horse, dead.
The town went into a frenzy about why he was gone and why he left his horse, if it was his.
The family simply packed up their things and left, taking the rider’s now down cast wife and only child with them for their own safety.
The bottom of that page had a picture of the wife and baby standing in front of a car, ready to leave.
She stared at the picture for a few moments, then pulled out of her bag a picture of her great-great-grandmother with her mom in front of a car getting ready to go and see family.
The car behind them looked like the same as the one from the book and the mother in the picture looked almost identical to the one in the book.
As she ponders this revelation, the librarian walks in and taps her on the shoulder making her jerk slightly.
The librarian steps back “sorry, didn’t mean to scare you. Oh, you found the book on the Equestreons, they were well respected in this town. What’s the photo you’re holding by the way?”
Janet looks at the photo as she says “this is my great-great-grandmother and her mother in front of the same car that is pictured in the book that talks about that family and what happened to them.”
The librarian’s eyes open wide in astonishment at what Janet just said.
She tries to tell her something, when an icy-cold wind blows through and causes papers and books to go everywhere.
The librarian runs around trying to catch anything she could.
Janet joined in until a bunch of papers change into black almost origami like birds and dive-bomb her. She puts her hands in front of her to block them and backs at the same time into something. She turns and sees the rider on horseback offer his hand to her for an escape from the chaos. She turned one last time, only to see the paper birds still coming. She grabs his hand and he hauls her up as he signals his horse to turn and run.
As they rode off, the chaos left the library and followed them.
They galloped into the woods thinking the trees would slow them a bit.
After what seemed like hours, they lost the paper swarm and began to trot along so Janet could steady her nerves after what she just witnessed.
The rider takes her back to the town square, and let her down just a few feet from the statue.
She stood there, not really knowing what just happened, but turned around when the horse pushed his nose into her back.
She stroked its neck while glancing at the rider who was looking the other way, avoiding her eyes again.
“I don’t know if you’re the same man” Janet said, “but I just read the story of a well respected family that lived here, and I know what happened to the wife and child of the lost rider.”
The rider turned sharply when she mentioned the wife and child.
She looked up at him and saw for the first time his eyes, though he was some sort of spirit or ghost, she saw the same eyes that seemed to be past down from one generation to the next, eyes of strength and courage, the same eyes her mom said she had.
He looked at the ground to hide again, but she had already started to walk away, he turned his horse to follow but only aimed the horse her way.
She turned once and gave him a smile before jogging back to the mansion.

~
The rider sat there a few minutes, just trying to understand what Janet said.
That she knew about the wife and child, what she didn’t know was that he didn’t ‘know’ them.
He had strange memories of a woman and small child, living in this very town.
He closed his eyes, trying to wrap his mind around it, when he hears the deep thrum that only those from the ‘low side’ can hear and heads back, knowing there was trouble brewing.
The ‘low-side’ was filled with things running everywhere.
The rider rode past them trying to see his drink-buddies, and sees them trying to lift some big crates into a rickety cart.
“Wouldn’t it be easier to just carry them, then to put them in that. It won’t last a block,” the rider said as he smirked down at them.
‘One-horn’ stepped forward and stated, “the 'boss' is coming, that’s why the call went out. You want to know the worst part, no one knows why or what he wants. Maybe you should help out for a bit, then hide out till he's gone.”
The rider looked over at the crumbling building the 'boss' supposedly stayed at “I don’t care what he does or wants, and I won't let him get her.”
“What?” twisted-horn came around the corner and just heard the rider mumble the last bit.
Before the rider could make something up to cover up the mumble, black low-lying fog rolled through town.
The rider dismounted while almost everyone who could crouch down and hid below the fog.
An old broken down carriage rolled down the road, being pulled by winged imps, covered in black cloth to hide what was inside.
The carriage stopped just in front of the rider, who had to hold the reins of his horse tightly because whoever was inside scared even him.
No words were spoken, but the rider seemed to turn his head away and cringe slightly when ‘he’ spoke.
Finally, the rider said “you can ask me to do whatever you want, it does not mean I will do it”, the ‘horn’ gang lifted their heads to stare at the rider for his statement, but he continued “because unlike these things, I am not under your command. And if you tried to punish me, you can’t do much worse than what I’ve already been through. So find someone else to do your dirty work” mounted and rode back to wait him out in the dead-lands.
The rider sat on the edge of where the dead-lands ended and the road to town started. He stared at the town; still covered in black meaning ‘he’ was still there roaming the streets. ‘What ever you want her for can‘t be good for anyone’.
His horse snorted and he smiled “at least you agree with me. Come on, something tells me he‘ll be down there for a while.”
He hears leaves rustling on the ‘living-side’, “and it looks like she might need help very shortly.”

~
Back at the mansion, the head butler and maid were finishing up giving Janet a lecture about leaving and not telling any of them where she was.
They left just as the phone rang, it was the librarian.
“I am very sorry for running out like that, I will gladly come back and help clean up” offered Janet.
The librarian said “thank you for the offer, though it seemed to me that when you left the trouble stopped. Is there any chance that I saw you riding away on some sort of black horse or something?”
Janet thought for a moment, considering telling her what happened to her, but shook her head and said “someone kindly lead me away from the library and helped me get back to safety. I did leave my stuff there, would you be so kind as to bring them back to the mansion, I may not get back to the library for a while.”
The librarian agreed to bring her things back to the mansion, and Janet told one of the servants that mainly worked outside to take her things up to her room and hide them from the higher ranked staff.
She grabbed the only thing she had held on to during the chaos, a piece of paper with some names and dates, and walked to the local cemetery, to ask the crypt keeper what he knew.
The cemetery was closed; it appeared to only be open when someone was going to be brought in.
She found a tree that had grown over the wall surrounding the place and climbed over.
On the other side, she started her search for names on the list. She found all but two within a few feet of each other.
She continued to look when she heard someone yell “WHAT DO YOU THINK YOU ARE DOING!” she turned to find the crypt-keeper just a foot away.
She tried to explain, but got tongue-tied.
The man grabbed her by the arm and started to drag her back to the front gate, when she spotted something and pulled free from him.
Next to and behind an old tree were two head stones; one that still looked like it was in one piece and the other broken into several large pieces.
The keeper stopped several feet behind her, apparently very scared of something, so Janet asks him “I can read the first stone but what does the other say. Is it the lost rider.”
She turned, expecting him to be standing there, but saw no one.
She stood up and saw in the distance leaves rustling, almost hiding behind the building and decided to follow.
The leaves lead her past the building, through an opening in the wall and into a forest.
Before she realized it, she had gone quite a ways into the woods, and when she turned around for just a moment when she thought she heard something, then looked forward again, the leaves were gone and she heard nothing to indicate where they had gone to.
She started to panic when she heard the now familiar sound of hoof beats, turned and saw the rider and his horse coming towards her.
She ran up to the horse and grabbed its nose in a hug, happy to see something that at least looked friendly.
She then looked up at the rider and her mouth opened wide in shock.
Over the past few days he had tried to hide his face from her no matter what it took.
Now he looked down at her, and even spoke “you followed the leaves, that can only lead to trouble. Climb on, I’ll take you back to the mansion” and offered his hand.
Janet stared at his hand, then back at him, he spoke to her, she thought that ghost couldn’t talk.
“How can you be talking now?” she asked, with shock in her voice.
The rider gave her a questioning look, which turned into fear.
He turned and looked around, then reach down and grabbed her arm, placing her in the saddle in front of him and stated “if you can hear me then you came to far” then pushed the horse into a full gallop.
They rode for what seemed like hours to Janet, seeing no difference in the trees, and started to doze. She jerked when the horse made a sudden change in the direction it was going. She looked to the rider and was about to ask him what was going on.
He answered before she even spoke, “someone has hexed the woods and won't let us go, plus you shouldn’t fall asleep here, you may not wake”.
She looked at him with wide eyes, ‘not wake up, where could they be that would not allow her to wake up’.
She then started to hear distant cries and screams, and see things moving behind the trees as fast as they were moving.
She felt drawn to them and stared at them for no apparent reason and slowly started to drift off to sleep again and almost fell off the saddle.
The rider reined in his horse and grabbed her before she fell and held her close.
Her eyes fluttered for a moment, then opened, they looked tired and she was starting to shiver.
The rider looked in every direction to try and find an opening.
But the woods seemed so thick and never-ending.
He decided to try something. He let go of the reins and took hold of the saddle-horn, leaned forward and said “lead the way boy, you’re the only one who can” then closed his eyes and held Janet close.
The horse started to walk slowly, then picked up speed till it was almost galloping, making sure not to let its rider or the girl fall off.
The rider almost fearing that he would lose her, when the horse finally broke though the tree line and into sunlight.
He looked at the sun, happy to see the sun shining.
He hears Janet mumbling and groaning. He looks down at her and his own eyes open in surprise.
Seeing Janet in his arms brought back some of his lost memories, of his child and holding her as a baby.
He continues to stare until Janet says, “I think we’re safe. You can let go now” and gently lowers her to the ground.
She turns back to look at him, expecting him to hide his face, but he doesn’t.
He instead looks at her with a smile on his face, he opens his mouth and acts like he is talking, but then closes his mouth and frowns realizing they were back in her world.
Janet sees his reaction for the fact that he could not talk to her in the real world.
She came around to the side and smiled up at him, he placed a hand on her shoulder and returned the gaze.
Janet looked at him with sympathetic eyes, and thought she might try and tell him what she had learned so far.
“Rider, I know what happened to the family that lived here, they…” but was cut off by a loud howl in the distance, in the direction of the woods.
The rider tipped his hat in a farewell, and rode off into the woods.
Janet watched him for a bit, then walked back to the mansion and to face the house staff, and any possible lecture that came with them.
She was surprised that no one was at the door waiting for her, lecture or not, and got to her room with no one stopping her to ask where she had been.
She found the bag and everything she had left behind when the trouble started, including the book about the Equestreons.
She sat down in the nook by the window and started reading at the beginning.
It began with the first Equestreons that came here and that they found this place, but let someone else get the credit.
They maintained the cattle, and bred horses, that may have been how they got their name.
They supplied the local law enforcement with horses, and helped train the horses when the men were off training themselves.
One generation took great pride in the horses that their family raised, and all learned to ride as soon as their parents allowed them on a horse.
She was near the part that she had schemed earlier and had started to read about the rider in the family, when she hears a sound coming from outside. She leaves her room and goes outside to find the gardener and assistant cook wrapped by the hose. She ran to help them but was stopped by the black paper birds. She blocked them with her arms and started to back towards the road to town, hoping that they would follow her again. When she saw the gate, she turned and ran for town yelling “I’m over here, catch me if you can”, and as planned they followed. She ran trying to dodge people in the street, but came to a halt just as a car came up the street. She turned and saw the swarm on her tail and went down the road the car came. She had to find something to get rid of these things for good. She rounded a corner and saw the same thugs that she ran into the before, and started to change direction, when she saw them motion to go a pacific way. She ran to them and they lead her down some back roads to an old paper shop.
They lead her inside and said, “this is the old printing shop, but they also shredded paper here”, and pointed out a large furnace behind an odd contraption.
They opened a big door to outside that was directly in front of the machine, and Janet stood just outside so the swarm could find her.
When they finally saw her they dived towards her, but she ran inside, then dived behind some boxes, she peered around the box to if they would actually fall for the trap.
They tried to avoid the machine, but it causes a slight vacuum effect at the front, that pulled in the swarm.
They went through the shredder, a masher and a few processes she didn’t want to know about, then finally they were thrown into the furnace.
They screamed and shrieked for a few moments, then silence.
The thugs and Janet closed the doors and went their ways, the thugs looking wide eyes at what they had just witnessed.
With the swarm gone, Janet sat down on a bench to rest.
She leaned back and looked around, she was in a less popular part of town, "as long as no one bothers me, I don’t see a problem,” she thought.
After relaxing on the bench till her bum was num, Janet got up and took a stroll around the area she was in.
It had a tall lamp-post in the center of a somewhat circular group of buildings.
She saw a jewelry appraisal store up ahead, and thought she might glance inside.
As she got closer, she saw an odd looking man exit the building and head down a street.
‘What’s he up to’ she wondered, and decided to follow him to find out. She followed the gray-skinned man past several old stores that looked closed or on the brink of closing.
The man went into a pawn shop, Janet walked up to the window and tried to see through the smog and dirt.
The man talked to the store owner for a few minutes, then took something out of his pocket.
The store owner looked over the item for a moment, placed it on the counter and said something.
The man waved his hand in the air, like he was batting at a fly, then turned and left.
Janet ducked between the buildings and waited for the man to pass.
He stopped for a moment just a few feet from where Janet was hiding.
Janet held her breath as she watched the man stand there not doing anything, hoping he hadn’t seen her.
After what seemed like hours to her, the man walked down the street and turned a corner.
Janet breathed a sigh of relief and pulled herself out of the small opening. She took one last glance down the street, to make sure the man was gone, then went inside the store.
It was a charming store once inside, with trinkets and knickknacks of all sorts.
For the moment she forgot that she wanted to find out what that man had brought.
The shelves were covered with items from different years and places, varying from dragons from Asia from a hundred years ago; to homemade local jewelry that was just a few years old.
She looked around the store for several minutes before the store owner ask, “See something you like.”
She turned sharply, forgetting where she was for a second, then smiled and said, “I’m just looking. Actually, I noticed a man come in here and wondered what he, I assumed, sold.”
The owner shook his and said as he looked for the item “I saw you watching from outside. That’s one reason I leave the windows dirty, to give the costumers some privacy when buying or selling anything.”
As the man looked, a thought crossed her mind ‘why do I want to find out about it’. She just shrugged and took it as a curiosity.
The man laid the item on the counter and said, “it is unique, that’s all I can say. It has a design that creeps me out, though the man that brought it sent shivers up my spine. He looked, I shouldn’t judge people on how they look, but he didn’t seem right somehow, like he was half-alive. His eyes looked a murky gray and his skin looked ashen gray.”
Janet looked at the necklace, and was oddly drawn to it. She reached out and held it in her hand, feeling its weight and something inside her telling her that she needed it for something.
She put it back on the counter and asked “how much for it?”
The man looked at her with wide eyes and said “I didn’t pay him anything, so you can just have it. No one else would want it.”
With the necklace in her pocket, Janet made her way back to the ‘nicer’ part of town, and then back home.
At the house, the staff had assembled in the study and was discussing whether they should stay here or leave while they still could.
They stopped when they saw Janet standing in the doorway.
The butler stepped forward and said “we believe that it would be best for all if we leave this place and find a house in the country that we would all be happy to live in.”
Janet looked at all the staff, they were scared, but she had to finish what she had started.
She looked at the butler and said, “you may leave, but I started looking for something and I have to finish it. That is the reason I asked to move here. The stories I remember my parents telling me about our family years ago. I had to find out the truth, and find out about the rider that was never found,” she turned and walk out of the room, gathered a few things from her room, and walked out the door.
All the staff could do was watch.
She headed for the library, to think and figure things out.
The librarian said hello as she walked in, but went straight to the desk and pulled out all the books she had on the rider, her ancestors, and the town.
After a few hours, she went to the shelves and looked for any books on ornate medallions.
She sat on a nearby chair in defeat, the booker-keeper saw and suggested the card catalog.
After several more minutes, she found a book about summoning ghosts and releasing forces from the other side.
She flipped through to see if there was a photo of the necklace she had.
Finally, she sat down at her desk and began to read about ‘enchanted charms and jewelry’.
It said that some items were used to seal away powers that should never be tampered with, while others appear when a chant is said or incantation.
The necklace match one that was a seal for something, the entire book mentioned was that it had first been recorded about a thousand years ago and that if used on the reverse side it would close a gate to something or somewhere.
She pulled out the necklace and took another look at the design.
There were two sets of patterns, one raised and one lowered, each following a circular path with its respective height or depth. One set looked like it had been used long ago. The other, though, just as old, yet looked brand new still.
She followed the line of the old pattern with her finger, it felt like splinters were in it, but it was all metal. When she had gone full circle, she felt a small spark and jerked away. ‘How can it hold a charge’ she wondered.
She put it back in her pocket and went back to researching the rider.
He had to have a name, and she was going to find it.
She looked for the book on the desk, then remembered the librarian had put it in her bag. She pulled it out and turned to the page about the rider and when he chose his horse.
It said that he chose his horse after he had seen the horse-troop in action and wanted to be one.
The colt was considered a runt among horses, and the other colts wouldn’t play with him.
But then the boy and the colt worked together every day, and soon the small colt became a large horse.
When he was old enough, he tried out for the troop.
He first failed, but the head of the troop told him how to train and if he did everything he said, that he would likely get in next time.
So he trained every chance he had, with speed riding and high jumping to self-defense, that the farm hands helped with.
On his next try he passed with flying colors, and took the oath to protect added ‘by my name, Bryan Equestreon, I will do everything I can for this town and any other that needs help’.
There was a large party in town, then later at home to congratulate him on his success.
Janet skipped the rest, she knew it well enough, and looked at the list again.
The only names left were - Bryan Equestreon and a man everyone called Barrel.
She thought back to the tombstones, the one in front was for Barrel and just said he was a sharpshooter, the other was in pieces, but she saw a Bry and eon on two of the larger ones.
Janet smiled at what she found and would see to it that her ancestor was honored.
But as she turned to leave, she stopped and looked at the book again.
It said that he went into the woods and never returned.
There was no body found after several days of searching, and the search was halted when a gang war broke out in town that lasted several weeks.
She frowned in thought, she had to find his body and bury it properly with the others in the troop.
Then a thought came to her, the rider must know where his body is, and at the same time she would tell him what she had found out about since he died.
She left, this time with her bag, and thanked the librarian on her way out.
She went home and found some old fabric she could use to keep track of where she had been.
As she headed for the door, she glanced through the doors to the kitchen, and saw the staff standing there talking.
She left before she heard any of it, she had a mission.
She made her way back to the cemetery and found the path, the leaves lead her to, this time she brought markers to find her way back.
After passing several trees, and leaving markers on every tenth or so, she saw a group of creatures standing by a strange archway leading to nowhere.
She waited and watched them to see what they were doing.
The creatures were talking about something, but she was too far away to hear clearly, but once they stopped they stepped through the arch and vanished.
She walked over to the arch and looked all over it and found nothing.
She then turned to the archway opening, took a deep breath, and walked through.
Something seemed to freeze her to her core, and fell to her knees in exhaustion when she reached the other side.
When she felt warmer she looked around and saw that she had gone to what looked like another world.
She heard voices coming and hid behind a large gnarly tree and peered around.
Some more of those things were walking to the ‘gate’, as she called it, she waited for them to pass, then made her way through the dead area and see if she could the rider.
She finally saw a town just when she thought she could go no further. She walks up to a building and peered around the corner.
Horrifying monsters of every sort ran the town. She turned and closed her eyes, too scared of what she saw.
She headed toward the back ally of the building, hoping it would hide her from those things. She crept as quietly as she could, looking for any sign of the rider or his horse. She soon came to a building that was taking supplies in from the back door, so she hid behind some of the bigger boxes. She could make out what some of them were saying.
“Do ya have any idea what the ‘boss’ has in store?”
“Nope, and I don’t want to find out. Let's just get this stuff inside before the scouts come through.”
She turned when she heard a sound, but only saw his horse nuzzling her back. She patted its nose, but froze when she heard one of the things say, “hey, isn’t that the rider's horse. I thought it chased imps when he wasn’t riding it. Guess it found something more interesting.”
She looked up at the horse, ‘you could lead me to him’ she thought.
She grabbed a black cloth and covered herself with it, then mounted the horse and hoped it would take her to the rider and not the ‘boss’ as those things called whoever.
They walked along for a few minutes, getting looks from things that she didn’t care for, and stopped in front of a bar.
She dismounts and thanked the horse for taking her to where she was and walked inside.
It was utter chaos; an odd smelling liquid was flying everywhere.
Things were fighting off in the corners and they were playing games that she had no interest in trying out.
She made her through the crowd and saw one person that seemed different from the others. When she got closer she realized that it was the rider, and made her way over to him.
She approached the table and asked “may I speak to you in private.”
The rider looked at the black clad person, then opened his eyes in shock “yes, I know a place we won't be bothered”, and dragged her outside and away from everything, and everyone.
When they were far enough, he turned to her and asked, “what are you doing here, don’t you know how dangerous it is?! And to make matters worse, you're alive, I’m surprised no one has smelled you and said something.”
Janet lowered the hood cover and said “I came to tell you I found the locket you bought for your daughter, and that the man that did this to you is somehow still among the living.”
The rider looked at her with wide eyes and a dropped jaw, “he can’t be alive, he lived at the same time as me, and I’m old.”
Janet shook her head and stated, “I said he is among the living, not living himself, he’s like a vampire or a zombie or something. And I know who you are now. You are…” but she was cut off by a scream and screech that seemed to surround them.
The sound wavered from loud to soft, almost like a rhythm, that was making Janet feel drowsy and ill.
She fell to one knee before the rider came over to her and helped to keep her on her feet.
The rider knew he had to get her out of here and whistled for his horse, but nothing happened, he tried again but still nothing.
He started to get nervous when he sees the black fog roll toward them. He stared at the fog and thought ‘you not getting anywhere near her’, and took Janet into his arms and ran for the dead-land and gateway.
As he ran, things in the air started to attack him on his arms, legs and face. He ignored what he could, but stopped when he saw a group of beasts standing in front of the gateway.
The tall one in the group stepped forward and stated “give her to the boss, and we’ll let you go rider.”
His eyes opened, he knew that voice was one of the ‘rough ones’; he yelled back “if he gets her there will be no peace anywhere, here or topside. I will do whatever it takes to stop him.”
He whistled again as loud and high as he could and waited.
This time he heard a loud whinny in the distance, turned and saw his horse breaking through a barricade of monsters to get to them.
Once his horse was next to him, he set Janet down on the saddle, then turned to the fog and said “I will keep you from your goal, no matter what I have to do.” mounted behind her and wrapped one arm around her to hold her up.
The horse turned toward the gateway and ran straight for it, then at the last minute it jumped up and over the ache and through a glowing opening in the air.
On the other side the rider looked around and saw that they were in front of the mansion.
He looked down and expected to see Janet looking around as well.
She looked pale, almost white, and barely moving.
‘Something is wrong’ he thought and took another look around, when he looked up, he saw swirling black clouds overhead, he frowned and turned his horse towards town to find some help for Janet.
In town, people were running everywhere screaming in terror of what they saw in the sky.
He saw one person standing in a doorway and approached her.
He asked, “Janet needs help, would you offer your assistance.”
The lady looked up at him and her face went pale before she said, “you look dead. Wait, did you say Janet” she came around to the side to get a better look, “my word, it is Janet. Bring her into the library, I think I have a first-aid kit inside somewhere.”
The rider dismounted, lifted Janet off the saddle, and carried her inside.
The librarian cleared off a table to use as a temporary bed and found some blankets and a sleeping bag in a back room.
He gently laid Janet down and helped the librarian cover her with the blankets, then stepped back and let her look her over.
With the librarian taking a look at Janet, the rider looked out the window at the chaos.
Flying creatures started to appear and chase the people that were still outside.
He hung his head; he knew that this was his fault somehow. He started to mutter to himself, till the librarian came up to him and tapped him on the shoulder.
He turned and saw something in her hand, he looked at her when she said “Janet was grasping this in her hand, it appears to be a necklace with an ornate pendant on it. I think she was trying to show it to you.”
He took it in his hand, and his memories came flooding back.
He remembered when he first rode a horse, the energy he felt. The day he chose his horse, it was still a colt, but there was connection the moment he touched him. The days he trained his horse and of the days they trained for the horse-troop. When he took the oath to protect those that could not protect themselves.
The day he met his future wife, how he saved her from muggers, and did so with his own hands. The day they married, and the day their daughter was born, they named her Gwen after the Arthurian tales. They spent days having picnics out on the lawn, and star gazing at night when it was clear.
He also remembered the old woman that gave him the necklace, and said it would bring good fortune to whoever wore it.
He also clearly recalled, the day that everything was taken from him, when the sharpshooter killed him to try and further his own plans. Something dawned on him, that woman hid her face like he did when he first saw Janet.
He turned to the table; Janet lay there covered in blankets just trying to breath. She reminded him of his daughter, when she looked at him the first time with a simple smile she brought back some of those memories.
He stood there, still trying to understand it all, and turned to the librarian “something gave this to me, and I had it the day I lost everything. Janet was carrying it when she went into the other world, and now she looks almost dead herself. I should destroy it, but something tells me that we’ll need it later,” and he stuck the necklace in his pocket.
The moment he did, the color came back to Janet’s face and she opened her eyes.
She sat up with some help, and looked around not knowing what had happened.
She caught sight of what was going on outside and her mouth opened in shock.
She turned to the rider and asks, “What is going on outside? It looks like a mad house.”
The rider glanced outside before answering, “I think that he has started his plan, assuming I am going to give you to him or he will take you by force somehow.”
She looked at him for a second, before she shook her head, and looked at him again “I didn’t finish what I needed to tell you. I know your real name, it’s Bryan.”
He smiled at and added “and my daughter’s name was Gwen, named after Guinevere.”
Her eyes sparkled and took Bryan in a hug that he gladly returned.
He pulled away to say, “I think that necklace that I first bought and then you found caused this, my death and your sudden illness.”
She turned away to think about something, then tried to get off the table.
Bryan and the librarian attempted to stop her. “You just recovered from something, you should rest”.
She looked at him with determination in her eyes “we have to stop this or people could get hurt.”
They stared at each other for several minutes, until Bryan conceded, “all right, but don’t leave my side” he ordered.
They made their way out the back, and after some quiet calling, they found his horse.
Taking back roads, they found their way to the cemetery.
They spotted the markers that Janet had left earlier and followed them to the arch, but were stopped by a group of beasts.
Janet was about to yell at them, when Bryan dismounted and talked to them. “Guys, we need to get back to the other side.”
The one with fangs stepped forward “we didn’t come here to stop you, we came here to help. We knocked out the other guards and have stood here waiting for you so you would have a clear path.” they then moved aside to let them through.
Janet was surprised, and Bryan smiled.
Back on the horse, they rode through the arch; Bryan covered Janet with is arms so she wouldn’t feel the affects as much.
Once they were out, they made their way through a rougher part of the area.
According to Bryan, he remembered taking this path the first time he went topside, and figured that any spirits that came here probably took the same path their first time as well.
With most of the creatures were topside, it made the going easier and they made good time.
They reached the edge of the valley and saw the path that lead to the crumbling building.
Bryan started to lead the horse forward, when Janet leaned back into him and was trying to catch her breath.
He reined in the horse and ask “you alright?”
She held her head when she said, “my head is swimming, if it keeps going I think I might be sick.”
He started to turn the horse around when she grabbed his hand “we’ve come this far, we can’t turn back now.”
He turned the horse back toward the structure and started towards it.
The path grew more desolate as they went, from large gnarly trees and dead shrubs to scattered rocks and small shrubs and stumps.
They came to a point in the path that it took a winding way up a hill, but the path was only a foot or so wide meaning it was a one way ride till they got to the end.
As they rode on, Janet turned her head when she thought she saw a shadow moving behind a large stone off to the side.
She turned back when nothing else showed, and watched as the horse made its way up the narrow path but after it stumbled just a few feet up the path she closed her eyes and leaned in to Bryan to wait out the rest of the ride.
They reached the building after what seemed like hours to Janet.
Bryan helped her down, but she just sat on the floor trying to relax from being so tense on the ride up.
Bryan didn’t help her by saying “we will have to go back the same.”
She just fell onto her back with a moan.
He laughed at her and turned to the building, it was in a state of disaster, whole towers fallen away, walls that look like they were out with an explosion and wooden boards doubled as window covers.
He shook his head and turned to see Janet getting to her feet to join him in the search of the this place.
The inside looked as bad, maybe worse, than the outside.
Tapestries hung on the walls in shreds, furniture was everywhere and some in pieces, and a few decorations of armor and other metallic items were covered in dust and grime.
Janet was looking sick again, Bryan helped her to sit in what looked like a stable chair.
Bryan counted the doors while he waited for Janet to recover, when he came back, he said, “I count five doors and three more doorways, the doors fell off at some point. But something keeps leading me to take a certain path. When you’re ready, we’ll head on.”
Janet stood up, shakily, and said with little certainty, “I’m ready, lets go.”
Holding her arm to both keep her on her feet and to an eye on her, Bryan leads her to one of the doors that, as he said, something was leading him to.
After several halls and just as many turns, they reached a door that looked to be the only one that was maintained in the whole building.
Setting Janet to lean against the wall, Bryan walks up to the door.
It had ornate carvings in the wood and metal, but no lock or any way to keep anyone out.
He reached out to open the door, but as he grew closer a strange sound got louder.
Backed up a bit and the sound stopped, ‘that how you keep others out’ he thought.
He walked right up to the door, placed both hands on it, and pushed, ignoring the deafening noise coming from the other side.
But once the doors were open the sound made a change to a high-pitched sequel then stopped.
He took a look around and saw a podium in the middle of the room; he walked over and saw a depression on the top that resembled the necklace.
He turned back to point it out to Janet but saw her lying on the floor.
He ran to her and turned her face up, and saw that she looked drained of all color.
When she felt his hand holding her head, she tried to stand, but could hardly keep her hands steady.
He laid her back down and turned back to the podium.
He took out the necklace and saw the mark on it and the podium light up, like they were waiting for each other.
He started to walk over when he hears cackling from everywhere and hears a voice.
“Don’t do it rider, or everything will be lost to you, in more ways than one” the voice wheezed.
Bryan held the necklace tightly in his hand as he said “I’m already dead, what more is there for me?”
The voice wheezed again “I could bring your daughter back, and you two can be together once more.”
Bryan was taken aback, to see his daughter again after so long, it sounded to good to be true.
As he considered what the voice said, he hears Janet moan and turns to see her trying to get up.
She manages to lift her head and say, “your daughter died years before I was born. You would have seen her by now, or she would have tried to find you. He or something is holding you here and keeping you from moving on. We can’t, you can’t let what is this world happen to were the living are, please” and falls back to the floor, pleading under her breathe with what strength she had left.
Bryan nodded, knowing she was right.
‘After all this, I will find my family’ he thought.
He ran up to the podium, and slammed the necklace in to the depression.
At first nothing happened, then slowly the whole room started to shake and parts of the ceiling started to fall to the floor.
Bryan covered his head as he made his back to Janet.
He turned her over, now she looked as white as a sheet.
He picked her up and started to run back the way they came.
They got outside just as the building collapsed, but the shaking continued outside as well.
Bryan had to lean against what was left of the structure to keep his balance and Janet in his arms.
He heard a whinny and turned to see his horse making his way over to them.
Bryan partially walked partway over to his horse and laid Janet across the saddle, he then mounted and held her in a sitting position.
The ground was rising and falling allover the place.
Bryan for a moment thought there was no way out, then spotted an opened.
Holding Janet as close as he could, yelled, “Ok boy, do your stuff, heya,”
The horse sprinted forward, dodging and leaping over the terrain with precision and agility.
Bryan several times had to wrap his free arm around the horse’s neck to keep them both on his back.
After roughing it for what seemed like hours, they reached the dead-land.
It was somewhat quieter here, but the ground still shook.
Bryan, for the first time since they mounted for the ride back, turned to see what was going on, and his eyes opened wide in shock.
Everything was ruble, where the town was, was now a trash heap of all the lumber and anything they used to make it.
Some spikes began to jut out of the ground at different angles, that were followed by ghosts that may have been trapped here when this town was first made.
Bryan sat there and stared at the chaos, and considered what the voice had said and Janet said, he may have been with his daughter, but the world would be like this, and that was not what he stood for, then or now.
He came back from his daze when he hears Janet struggling to breath.
He turns the horse in the direction that the gate should be, but there is nothing but gnarly trees.
He looks in every direction, thinking with everything going on he lost his bearings, but everything else looked right.
A thought dawned on him, was the podium the link back to the world of the living.
His horse rearing brought him back in time to see that the trees that made the gate were gone, but the way they left last time was still there.
Bryan backed up his horse a few steps, then let out a loud ‘heya’ and sent him into a full gallop.
As they grew closer to the glow, Bryan thought of finally being free from everything and forgetting about this place for good, but that thought was short lived.
The fog rolled in and surrounded them in seconds, scaring the horse, and almost causing Bryan to let go of Janet.
The fog seemed to be trying to climb up and grab them.
Bryan tried to bat it away with his hat, but just moved it to the side before more took its place.
Bryan began to panic, and held Janet close, but she was starting to feel cold to him. He had to do something.
He heard the same voice that he heard in that room “give her to me, and you can be with your daughter, forever.”
Bryan looked at the fog and stated “I wouldn’t give her to you if you made me king of the world.”
Then the glow of the small gate shone brightly, causing the fog to dissolve in the air around them.
When the fog was finally gone, Bryan once again turned his horse to the opening, that was now big enough for them to walk through.
He let his horse trot through, still holding Janet in his arms.
He looked at her, though she looked pale, she looked happy somehow.
He smiled at himself; he beat the boss on the low side and saved the world of the living at the same time.
They reached the mansion after only a few minutes, and were greeted by the staff that had decided to stay, for Janet.
Bryan came to a stop just inside the gates and dismounted.
He gently lifted Janet off the saddle and began to carry her over to the waiting staff.
Though they were afraid of this man, he was holding Janet so they had to trust him.
The butler stepped forward to take Janet inside for any treatment that might be necessary.
Bryan carefully placed Janet in the butler’s arms, and then kissed her forehead.
This shocked the staff, until he turned and showed his face.
Several of the women fainted, but the elder members stared at him.
They knew him from the stories her parents told her so often.
He tipped his hat, walked back to his horse, mounted and left.
Most of the staff just stood there for several hours, while the others took Janet inside and called a doctor.
After several days of constant care from the staff, Janet finally woke up, but couldn’t remember much of what happened over the last several days.
Weeks had passed since Janet had been to that ghost world, and had started to forget what she had seen.
She looked up at the sky and tried to remember the stories that had stopped a few days back, about a swirling cloud and beasts appearing out of thin air.
The staff kept quite whenever she asked, hoping she wouldn’t want to know anymore.
She walked through town in a daze.
Everyone had learned to give her some space sense the staff said what they saw when that man brought her home.
In the library, the librarian was shelving books, when she saw Janet walk by and ran outside to talk to her.
She reached Janet before she turned the corner; she stepped in front of her and asked, “Hey you ok. The last I saw of you was when you and that man left out back and said you were going to the cemetery. Have you seen him recently?”
Janet looked at the ground for a moment, then looked up and asked in a somewhat hushed voice “was he real? Did we do what I think we do? Or was it all a bad dream?”
The librarian looked at her hard before saying “I know I saw something, because I had the security cameras on during the whole event.”
Janet’s eyes opened wide, then she and the librarian ran back to the library started to look through the footage of that day.
They found it quickly and fast forwarded it until the creatures appeared.
The librarian left, leaving Janet to watch the rest.
After several minutes of noise, she saw the rider and everything came back.
The other world, the room in the large structure, and the rider himself.
Janet ran out the front door so fast, she didn’t hear the librarian ask her if she was all right.
She ran straight to the cemetery and found the broken headstone.
Before the crypt keeper could grab her, she pieced it together and it read ‘Bryan Equestreon. Dedicated troop member. Caring son. Loving husband and father’.
She sat down and leaned against the tree that had hidden it for years.
‘I’m halfway there’ she thought.
She got up and headed to the first place she had ‘meet’ the rider.
With some help from a local, she found the dry riverbed and the dividing wall she had seen the teens standing at when the rider saved her.
She looked to the other side and saw trees just yards from the opposite wall.
She stood there for several minutes trying to figure out how to find that spot without getting lost, when she heard someone say “there wasn’t always a river with brick walls here.”
She turned and saw an elderly man walking over to her, he continued “long ago, they just had a sort of tunnel for the water to go through, when there was water of course. There was a lot of ground over that spot; actually there had been a whole wooded area. It was in this area that the rider vanished.”
Janet gasped at what he had just said and asked “can you show me where they found his horse, and just stick around to be my guide while I figure things out.”
The man nodded with a grin on his face and they headed off.
After gathering a crowd that wondered what they were doing, they made it to the spot they had found his horse years ago.
Janet looked around for any kind of sign, and saw the rider in the distance on his horse.
They stared for a moment, then he turned his horse and lead him slowly through the trees.
Janet followed quickly, with everyone just trying to understand why she was here.
They reached the edge after several minutes in the trees, and Janet saw the rider stranding just a few feet away.
He pointed down, then vanished in the wind.
Janet knew what he meant, and turned to the crowd and asked “do any of you know if they search this area for the missing rider.”
Everyone looked at each other before the elderly man said “no. By the time we had reached this spot to search, that gang war broke out. We forgot to finish the search.”
Janet walked over to the man and looked at everyone when she said, “I think it's time to finish that search. If you gather a search team, I believe you will find the remains of the lost rider, not disturbed since the one that killed him left him there that day long ago.”
Everyone was shocked by what she said, but got to work.
When the team did search the drop off area, they found bones and some tattered clothes that matched what the rider had worn that day.
With the crypt keeper, butler and Janet overseeing things, they buried the rider with his fellow troopers and they moved his wife’s grave so they were together again.
When they had finished, everyone left, except Janet.
She looked at the headstones, happy that the greatest mystery in her family had been solved and the ghost stories put to bed. She walked over to the headstone of the sharpshooter and took it in her hands. She started to leave when she saw the crypt keeper watching her. She opened her mouth to ask something, but he just smiled and waved his hand for her to go. She smiled back and made her way to the edge of the woods.
She stood there looking at the drop off and thought about what she was doing, when she heard branches breaking and turned to see a horrifying sight.
The gray-skinned man now looked like a skeleton with almost not enough skin.
He began to hobble over to her, making her begin to back up to try and avoid him.
He reached out a hand that he jerked back when he heard a horse whinny and suddenly saw the rider standing between him and Janet.
Janet breathed a sigh of relief and said, “I didn’t think I would ever see you again, but you have excellent timing. Now keep an eye on him while I finish what we started.” she walked up to the edge again and threw the headstone over the edge.
The man’s screams made Janet cringe and cover her ears.
The rider warped his arms around her until the sound was gone, and they both looked where the man had just been standing.
All that was left was a little necklace with the design of a Pegasus-Unicorn on it.
The rider walked over and picked it up, and for a moment he looked real/human.
He turned back to Janet and stated “this is what I wanted to give my daughter, and now I will give it to her.” he then walked over and placed the necklace around Janet’s neck.
He placed his hand on her shoulder as he stated, “now she has the gift that was always meant for her, my great-great-great granddaughter.”
She looked at the necklace, then at Bryan with eyes filled with tears of joy.
They hugged and didn’t notice that some leaves had kicked up and had started to whirl around them.
When they settled again, the two looked and saw that they were back at the cemetery, and waiting by the tree were Bryan’s wife and child.
He ran to them and lifted Gwen into his arms and kissed his wife.
He then turned back to Janet and waved to her, along with the rest of his family.
She waved back as they slowly faded with the sun breaking through the clouds.
She stood there with tears in her eyes and streaming down her face.
She dried her face and made her back to the mansion, she knew that the staff would want to leave as soon as possible, and she had promised that once she was done, they could move elsewhere.
When she walked up to the front door, she was greeted by several of the maids acting very excited.
They pulled her into the study were a smiling butler and head maid were waiting.
Janet, looking very confused, asked, “What’s going on?”
The butler cleared his throat and said “a group has found your parents and once they are deemed fit they will make their way back here, to you.”
Janet’s jaw dropped open and new tears started to flow. Her parents were alive and coming home.
She collapsed on a nearby sofa and cried, and she wasn’t sure why.
One of the younger maids held her as she cried, until she fell asleep.
The butler carried her upstairs to her room and let the maid help her get dressed for bed, then laid her down to sleep and fully recover from everything that had happened since they came here.
Before the sun came up one morning, Janet awoke to a voice calling her name.
She sat up and saw Bryan at the end of her bed.
She looked at him with a mix of confusion and worry because he was here.
He laughed and said, “I came to see how you’re doing. And to say that all your family members from the past are proud of you and what you accomplished.”
Janet tucked her knees under her chin and said “thank you for telling me. Since you’re here I’ll tell you the great news. My parents will be home by this weekend, and we’re going on a beach holiday that might last a whole month if we want.”
He smiled and stated “I think that whoever planed to break the wall separating the two worlds thought that if they took your parents that no one could get in their way, but it looks like they were wrong. Your parents may not remember the past few years, they may be a painful blur, so don’t push anything, ok. But now I think I should go and you should go back to sleep.”
Janet giggled and lay back down, but watched as Bryan change into a sparkling dust that hovered in the middle of the room for a second then vanish.
She grinned and said ‘goodnight’ before falling back to sleep.
The weekend finally came, but not soon enough for Janet.
She greeted her parents at the gate, grabbing them both in hugs that none of them wanted to end.
They gave the staff free run of the place while they were on their vacation.
Janet and her parents picnicked on the beach every chance they had, and Janet wore the necklace that Bryan gave her whenever she could.