Dark Dreams

Chapter Eight

As Tamra soaked in the tub her thoughts turned inwards to how she viewed her life and just what that meant for her, and how she was she going to cope with all the new things happening in her life. She knew that the research into her family and her linage must come before all else, in order to have the life she felt she deserved. She knew some of the problems faced by her family was people hunting them, she just didn’t know for what reasons, she suspected it was due to her abilities and those who family had. But what other reasons could there be to be hunted by so many individuals? She began to drift off to sleep with her mind puzzling out the different things she had learned, and as she began to dream Cedric Stuart kept popping up in her dreams, his habit of trying to do things to make her happy and yet she was leery of him. Tamra didn’t understand why she would be so cautious around him or why her feelings where all over the place when she was near him. She needed more information and in order to accomplish that she had to learn all she could about him, and her family and those hunting her.

Tamra was almost in a deep sleep when a knock on the bedroom door brought her out of the dream state and woke her fully up. “Miss Kelso, its Mrs. Hill, may I come in? the elderly woman asked politely while holding a tray full of food and drink. “Aye ye may come in Mrs. Hill” Tamra responded as she finished her bath in a timely but hurriedly fashion. “I will be right out; I was just having a quick bath” Tamra continued as she rinsed herself off just before stepping out onto the soft mat next to the tub. Snatching up the bathrobe from the back of the door and slipping it on, Tamra had tied it around the waist. With a heavy sigh she reached for the handle to pull open the bathroom door leading out into her bedroom. “I am sorry dear if I interrupted you” Mrs. Hill said quietly as if she might be overheard by someone. “I just wanted to make sure you had your dinner before I retired for the night”, Mrs. Hill had placed the tray of food down on the table by the window, and glanced at Tamra, “dear girl there are clothing in the closet that you can wear, some of them might fit such a lovely young lady as yourself” she said before turning towards the door to leave. “Just a moment Mrs. Hill, but maybe you can answer a few questions for me” Tamra asked her.

Mrs. Hill turned slowly around, a light smile tugging at the corners of her mouth, “what is it, dear child?” she responded politely, a questioning look crossing her aged features. “Have you heard the name Kelso before? Or perhaps ye might have heard McInnis before?” Tamra asked a little quietly, hoping no one was listening at the door. “Ah my dear, I did know the name Kelso from over twenty-three years ago, your parents had their second honeymoon here” Mrs. Hill replied, her gaze held something close to tears as her eyes sparkled from the memory. “Could ye please tell me of m’parents” Tamra anxiously asked her, her fingers twisting at the edges of the bathrobe. “My sweet girl, your parents stayed right here in this room, and I bet if you were to look around the place, you will find items they have hidden in different places” Mrs. Hill replied honestly with a gentle smile causing her to sound like she was laughing slightly.

“Your mother wanted you to discover your families past, the linage and to enjoy the journey along the way” Mrs. Hill had continued as she motioned towards the table with the hot food and drink on it. “Please Miss Kelso sit and enjoy your meal while we talk” she added while she took the chair opposite of Tamra. “Your mother and father spent several summers coming here, even while you and your twin sister were but mere babes in diapers” she continued softly; her thoughts turned inwards while she spoke. “Your mother brought with her a journey on their first visit, one that she asked me to hold on to for you and your sister” with a deep breath, she glanced around the room. “I see your sister still hasn’t made, when do you expect her? Mrs. Hill had asked, her gaze still locked onto the door. “I am sorry Mrs. Hill, but I am the only one left of my family, the rest of them have been in a horrible accident” Tamra said, her voice dropping with notes of sorrow laced it. “I would dare say that they were all murdered, my father, mother, twin sister, and my baby brother” Tamra said with a light shiver almost undetected.

Mrs. Hill reached out and lightly touched Tamra’s wrist, her fingers lightly massaging back and forth in a soothing rhythm. “My dearest child your mother was one of the greatest ladies I ever had the privilege knowing” Mrs. Hill had said softly in an attempt to bring a smile to her, or to ease the heartache she knew Tamra must be feeling. “Mrs. Hill, if ye don’t mind I would like to be a lone for a little while before I go to sleep” Tamra said, the notes of sorrow filling her words, though she gazed out the window into dark of night. “I would love to continue this conversation in the morning if ye are willing” she continued, knowing all she wanted to do now was push the plate of food to one side and search the room for any hidden locations that might yield something her that her mother or father might have left for her or her siblings. Rising to her feet she stood there waiting patiently for Mrs. Hill, “of course Miss Kelso, I imagine that you are probably tired this evening” Mrs. hill commented while rising to her feet, she stood there with a tired smile of her own and watched Tamra closely before she led the way over to the door leading out into the hallway. “I am sorry Mrs. Hill, but ye are correct I am more tired than I had thought possible, after all its only nine pm” Tamra said with a soft yawn.

After seeing Mrs. Hill out, Tamra turned on her heals and began a close inspection of the room. She started with the bathroom searching every nick and cranny, pressed anything that looked like it might yield a hidden location, such was the case with a small ornate angel with its lovely wing’s semi folded around its frame. The white and gold angel sat on a small square pedestal and held the washcloths at the side of the sink. Tamra smiled softly as she inspected it extensively before she moved on to its twin near tub. Once more she glanced about the area thoroughly looking over the statue and pedestal hoping to discover something special about it. After hunting for about an hour through the bathroom, she moved onto the bedroom, the treasure hunt for the items her parents had left even if a clue as to where they were located would have been good. She would pause from time to time to snack on the meal that was left for her, after roughly 4 hours of searching the bedroom, the bed and dresser, Tamra had finally hung her head as she walked into the walk-in closet and began to hunt through the room.

She was just about to give up when a small corner of the carpet looked a bit odd, it appeared to have been replaced. Kneeling down Tamra carefully felt the edges of the carpet and gently she pulled to see if it would budge and when it slipped out from under the trim. Tamra used the tips of her fingers to feel just under that portion of the trim and hearing a click, she glanced around the area only she felt the flooring trying to lift, and moving her knees, she lifted a few small planks to reveal a small alcove with a small box concealed inside of it. Tamra very carefully lifted the box up into her lap so she could set everything back into place, and once she completed those tasks, she rose to her feet and walked back out to the bedroom. Sitting down at the table, with the box now sitting right in front of her on the table, Tamra slowly, gently opened the box up to reveal a small necklace. She sat there staring at it, wondering why her mother would have such a lovely piece of jewelry hidden in the room. She carefully examined the heart-shaped necklace for type of clue, from its lovely rose-colored diamond to its rose gold box chain. The filigree surrounding the heart-shaped necklace was so intricate that she studied the flow right up and around the edges of the diamond. To her surprise the diamond felt warm, not like in most jewelry where even the chain would have felt on the cool side of things.

Sitting the necklace on a washcloth next to her right hand, Tamra began to inspect the box, but found nothing more than a plush cushion for the necklace to sit on. She carefully replaced the necklace back into the box, and closing it up, set the box into the nightstand next to the left side of her bed. With a heavy sigh she turned to stare at the half empty plate of food, knowing that she wasn’t going to finish it, she scraped the food off into the trash, then set the plate back onto the table near the window. Turning on her heals Tamra walked over to the light switch and turned off all lights in the room, before climbing into the bed, but for once in her life she didn’t climb under the covers. She laid her head down on the pillow, and closing her eyes, she whispered her goodnight to her parents and siblings before falling asleep with tears spilling down her checks. She knew that somewhere waiting for her was more to her long linage that her parents refused to tell her. While Tamra slept, her tears flowed freely down her cheeks, unchecked as she felt the deep empty void of her life with no family left in the world. No one would even care if she came up missing, or if she ended up dead, the deeper into dreamland she went the worst the nightmares became.

When she woke suddenly just after sundown to harsh rapid knocking on her door, “Miss Kelso are you awake? Are you there?” Mrs. Hill called out a bit out of breath, and to Tamra’s surprise she was having difficulty waking up. “Aye Mrs. Hill I am here” Tamra replied sleepily as she tried to drag herself off the bed to answer the door. Tamra managed to open the door after fumbling with the strange style lock, wrapped in her bathrobe that she had forgotten to take off the night before. “What is it Mrs. Hill?” she asked while looking up and down the hallway before rubbing her eyes. “Miss Kelso, you have been asleep all day, I was beginning to worry that something might have happened to you” Mrs. Hill replied with a note of anxiety in her tone. “Please come inside” Tamra asked gently, while stepping back to allow the elderly woman entrance into the room. “I am fine Mrs. Hill; I just didn’t realize that I was so exhausted last night when I checked in here” Tamra continued watching Mrs. Hill walk into the room holding a small tray of various foods. “Miss Kelso, dear you need to eat something as you haven’t eaten all day” Mrs. Hill replied a little worriedly “Well dear girl that is all well and good, but there has been trouble in the village and I got worried that maybe the trouble had followed you here” she continued softly, her words a mere thread of sound.

Tamra stopped in the middle of closing the door to stare at Mrs. Hill in disbelief, with trembling fingers she slowly pushed the door closed and locked it up tightly, “how can that be?” Tamra asked quietly, “no one even knows who I am here in the village” she continued, while rubbing her arms lightly a nervous sign that spoke volumes to Mrs. Hill. “Miss Kelso please have a seat over by the window, and relax I am sure that its probably someone either you or your parents knew” Mrs. Hill said gently. She walked over and set the tray of food and drink down on the table and choose seat closest to the window. Mrs. Hill sat there watching Tamra pace back and forth for a few minutes before Tamra ultimately chose to sit across from Mrs. Hill. Tamra looked over the tray of food where she spotted the small leather-bound journal sitting neatly to the left side of the plate “what is this journal all about Mrs. Hill?” She asked her while trailing her fingers along the n=binding of the book, feeling its softness and wondering who could have written in it so long ago. “That’s the journal your mother kept while she stayed here and my Inn” Mrs. Hill answered thoughtfully. “I thought that you might like to read what she had put into her journal, and all the fun items that she had done while she was here in our village so long ago” she told Tamra with a slight smile, remembering all the fun that Tamra’s parents had brought to the village.

Tamra continued to run her fingers over the journal a bad habit that she had picked up from her father when there was something he knew he needed to handle but was more than willing to hear others out. Or when he wasn’t sure if he wanted to read the item but knew he had to in order to figure things out, and here Tamra was doing the exact same things. “Mrs. Hill could you please tell me what time the library is open?” she tentatively asked, “and if there is internet anywhere in the village that I could connect up to for research” Tamra continued, knowing that no matter what she would search for answers on her parent. “Miss Kelso there is internet everywhere here in the village, we are not in the stone ages, however we do feel that nature and all its beauty should be what shines, not the lines or other more ugliness of humanity” Mrs. Hill replied, a bit disappointed that Tamra just had to ask. “Well Mrs. Hill it just looked as if you all wanted to stay true to nature with as little of a footprint as possible is all I was thinking” Tamra replied a little worried that she had hurt Mrs. Hill’s feelings.

“While it is true my dear that we believe in being as true to nature as one can get, we still want to have the same things the rest of the worlds has” Mrs. Hill replied with a light chuckle. “Yet most of the cabling is underground and therefore the trees and other floral items can thrive above ground just like the roots can flourish underground” Mrs. Hill continued. Tamra shivered slightly while Mrs. Hill spoke with enthusiasm about their life in the village. When a sudden crashing noise happened from somewhere in the at the Inn, Tamra jumped and spun to face the door. Half expecting it to come crashing down as she heard his voice yelling through out the Bed and Breakfast style inn. “Oh, Tamra where are you?” The male voice boomed through the place, the footsteps growing ever louder as the person hunted throughout the building, going room by room until he had stopped in front of her door. “Tamra Kelso this is you last chance to come out of the Inn” the voice boomed, anyone within hearing distance of it could tell the man was extremely angry with her.

It was Mrs. Hill who moved first shooing Tamra into the bathroom as she walked towards the door to open it. After making sure that Tamra couldn’t be seen by anyone on the other side of the door, she pulled it, “how can I help you Sir?” she inquired of him. “I want Miss Tamra Kelso” he hollered at the woman, “as you can clearly see the person you are looking for isn’t here in this room, the guest who was in here checked out early today” Mrs. Hill replied with her arms folded neatly across her chest. “Now if you will excuse me, I need finish my dinner so I can get this room ready for any future guests who will be checking in later this week.” She continued with a terse tone to her words. The man pushed past her and forced his way into the suite, he took a huge glance around the room, including in the walk-in closet, when he turned on his heals and left the room cussing under his breath. He knew he needed to find her and quickly something he had to set out to do the moment he had heard of her family’s problems.

He knew the information that was past to him only a couple of days ago was solid, but unless he found her, then there might be huge trouble for the world over, and no one knew that. He continued to hunt through the bed and breakfast while yelling for her, he could tell that she was still there, her scent was all over the place. If he could only find her then maybe, just maybe he could protect her and teach what she needed to know, but first he needed to find her and fast. He stood just outside of the small bed and breakfast and glanced around the place upon seeing a good spot to sit to watch the place, he strode over to the bench. Glancing up at the rather large, tall tree that stood behind the bench, he spun sharply on his left heal, and gracefully lowered himself onto the bench seat.

While Tamra was getting herself dressed in the walk-in closet, Mrs. Hill was busy cleaning the room and making up the bed, she paused near the window a few times. She had noticed that the man who had been roaming her bed and breakfast was sitting on her bench outside, shaking her head she had gathered up the trash. Once she looked back over the room knowing it needed a good vacuuming, she headed over to the door that led out into the hall. “Tamra let me know when your done and I will be happy to get you to the library” Mrs. Hill had called out. As Tamra slowly returned from the walk-in closet she glanced around the room, knowing that her items were back at Cedric’s place she really had nothing to collect other than her dirty clothes. With a heavy sigh walked into the bathroom to glance into the mirror to see her reflection and how her hair looked after her bath. Tamra lightly ran her fingers through her long straight hair to try and make it look a more brushed. “Miss Kelso, this way please, hurry before he decides to return to properly inspect this room for you” Mrs. Hill spoke softly just in case he was anywhere near the door. “Aye Mrs. Hill, and please call me Tamra” she replied softly “just show me how to escape in case he returns for me” she continued while glancing around the room one last time.

“I will Tamra, just promise me you will be careful” Mrs. Hill replied, leaning down she picked up the bag of trash and led Tamra back into the closet. Moving the clothes aside to reveal a small safe, she entered a combination and pressing the center of the dial a portion of the wall opened up. “If you remember to press the center of the dial dear you will always find the hidden passageway” Mrs. Hill told Tamra as she stepped through the small doorway. The pair walked in silence through the passage and down to the first floor, with a slight sigh Mrs. Hill turned a corner and pressing a small stone to the right side of the alcove, which looked to have a lamp sitting in it, the wall opened up and they stepped out into the kitchen. “This way Tamra, your parents used this on their last trip here years ago” Mrs. Hill said with a sad tone.

Stepping out on to the back porch the pair glanced around the back garden area “If you stay on the path marked D you will come up on the library in roughly fifteen minutes or so” Mrs. Hill whispered to her. Reaching out Mrs. Hill set her hand lightly on to Tamra’s arm and gave a gentle squeeze with a light smile she motioned to Tamra to wait just a few seconds, and with that Mrs. Hill stepped off the back porch and walked out to the main trash bin to toss out the trash. She glanced around the garden before she motioned to Tamra to head on out into the garden. With a soft sigh Mrs. Hill walked back into the bed and breakfast, as she watched Tamra leave.

Tamra took off running as fast as she could, her heart pounding in her chest so hard she thought she might drop dead from a heart attack. She hadn’t stopped running until the thin deer trail had a sudden left turn towards the city, she knew she needed to shift but she had never done that on the run, or at least she didn’t remember doing it while running. Once she paused and shifted over to her sleek black panther, a deep growl followed by her hissing with anger and frustration though the night. Did Tamra take off running again towards the village, but only after she had managed to climb up into the arboreal highway of branches, vines, leaves and other floral items. Once outside of the library did Tamra manage to glace around still feeling and hearing her own heart beating overly loudly did, she jump down behind a large tree, with a mixture of other plants. Her body shifting back into her human one, Tamra glanced around once more before making a mad dash up the library steps, gripping the handle tightly, she glanced around the place and gently turning the knob she had noticed that the door opened inward easy enough.

Stepping inside the library with its low lighting, Tamra felt grateful that there was just enough lights lit to see where she was going, and to her surprise the library looked modern. With its high ceilings and very tall bookcases, she began wandering through the many different isles of books looking for the location of their computers. When she noticed a small room towards the back, peaking inside of it she found the laptops and hoping that they were for public use, Tamra sat down and turned one on. To her surprise it came up on the internet just as Mrs. Hill had told her. She entered her mother’s name, Lorraine McCain and her fathers name Jacob Kelso and their wedding date June 10, 1990, to see if there was anything on the pair. While she waited for the search to run its course, she looked for a printer and any paper they might have for it. When she heard the main door close and heavy footsteps walking towards her, she froze in mid-step and glanced towards the noise.

“Tamra, I know you are in here, we need to talk” the voice came calling down the many rows of books, to her horror it was that same male voice from the small bed and breakfast. “What is it ye wish to talk about” she replied haughtily while slowly moving around the library looking for another way out. “Perhaps if we saw each other face to face it might help you to understand just who it is that you are speaking with” he replied rather harshly, but by the sound of his voice he was getting closer to her location with each step. “I am not looking to talk to anyone new at the moment Sir” she said hotly as her back bumped into a bookcase. “There are so many things that my brother wanted you to know, and I know where he hid some of the items that your mother left for you” he replied with a light sigh. Tamra shook her head as winced at her stupid mistake just as a book fell off the bookcase shelves.

Just as Tamra bent down to pick up the book, she noticed a dark set of outdoor boots stopping at the end of the bookcase. He stood there staring at her, his dark brown eyes looking every inch like her fathers. She began to wonder just how he knew her family and why did he look vaguely familiar. Standing up to her full height of five feet six inches tall, anyone could see she couldn’t have weighed more than ninety-five pounds, and with a shake of his head, he took one more step towards her letting the light shine down on him more, to show off his jet-black hair that had streaks of grey in it.” Don’t I know ye Sir?” Tamra asked him in a rush, her fingers gripping down on the book she was holding.

He reached out and lightly took the book from her fingers, and set it aside “yes Tam you do me” he said “though its been a number of years since we have seen each other” he continued “the last time we saw each other you and your twin sister had just been dropped off at my house while your mother and father went to the hospital” he spoke with sadness lacing his words “it was the day your youngest brother had been born, and it was a joyous occasion for all of us” his fingers lightly brushed against her shoulder as he turned towards two chairs in the back where she had been sitting doing her search. He motioned towards them and waited to see what she would do, if she led him into the room or chose another location to sit, “what do I call ye?” Tamra asked him quietly as she turned towards a small alcove near a small window with its two small chairs and table.

“My name is Phelan Kelso; I am your uncle and sworn protector of your mother’s clan” he said lightly but knowing that his half brother Jacob was the pride and joy of his family. He only wanted what was best for all of them even and that included Tamra herself. “There is so much to tell you and so little time niece, but I do want you to know that there someone out there who is impersonating me but if you ask him what species he is, he won’t be able to tell you that he is a day walker like I am.” He said to her while looking her directly in the eyes. It had caused a slight shiver over her body, one he noticed but hadn’t commented on as he was trying to get her to think back to a special day, one he knew she would remember. “Was that the time we spent playing board games in the panic rooms?” she asked him, hoping if it was truly her uncle, he would know the moment she spoke of “yes it was, and do you remember what game it was that you loved so much?” replied thoughtfully.