so much time on the other side WHO Aisling (Ashley Rosewood) OT Flynnwood (Flynn Rosewood) WHAT Aisling is caught in the storm with unfortunate consequences. It’s up to Flynn to find her. WHERE Empty House, Cherry Tree Road WHEN August 10, 11:30 AM RATING PG-13 for impalement and death?
During her time in Havenwood, Aisling had developed quite the affection for the old, abandoned, forgotten things scattered around the town. Aidan simply shook his head with a soft chuckle whenever he’d see the princess suddenly absorbed in a dusty old tome hiding in the back corner, or the lonely old woman waiting on her front porch for friends long-dead.
It had proven to be a window into the mortal world that provided insight Aisling would otherwise have been hard-pressed to discover elsewhere. The histories of the little town and its inhabitants fascinated her, and she was beginning to understand why her brother had come to be so enamored of this realm. The long lives of the fae could become predictably stable and dull, but here, generations lived and died in a few short decades - and with that dynamic flow, the town changed as well.
Today she had proven extra adventurous, having come upon an old, empty house on the edge of town. The road had begun to feel empty a few blocks earlier, the houses becoming further and further apart. This house was alone on its block, looming over the barren yard surrounded by a chain link fence. Staring up at it, Aidan was suddenly overtaken by a moment of apprehension.
“Princess,” he said, reaching out to hold Aisling by the wrist as she moved to duck through an opening in the chain link. “Perhaps it would be safer not to trespass.”
“It’s just a house,” Aisling replied brightly, giving him a reassuring smile. “What harm ever came from a house?”
He released her wrist and followed her through the fence, all the while keeping a wary eye on the structure. It seemed sound enough, and by the architecture, he guessed it was newer construction than some of the other houses in the area. But the boarded up windows and dead silence hovering over them still gave him pause, especially when Aisling found the unsealed door in the back and stepped inside. He followed close behind, giving one last glance to the sky which had improbably started to darken overhead.
Aisling tried the first lightswitch she encountered, only to find that the electricity had been shut off. With a shrug, she simply used her magic instead - as it was just her and Aidan, with the chance of encountering a human slim-to-none - to create a small, glowing orb that bobbed along over their heads. It cast a warm, honey-colored hue to the bare walls, making it feel deceptively cozy.
“This house is incomplete,” Aisling marveled as they left the mostly-finished kitchen for a hallway that hadn’t had any sheetrock installed yet, leaving the pipes and wiring exposed within the plywood framing. “Who would leave it this way?”
“I don’t know, princess,” Aidan answered, grateful that the pipes seemed to be made of plastic. The idea of being trapped in a cage of iron did not sit well with him.
The hallway opened up into a spacious foyer, the ceiling two stories overhead. Aidan froze as his eyes were drawn upward to the elaborate chandelier overhead, intricate scrolls and posts of wrought iron suspended by a chain. He moved to grab Aisling and shepherd her out of the house, but the princess had already skipped ahead to the old piano on the other side of the floor.
“I think we should leave,” he told her, brusquely crossing the space between them, never once taking his eyes from the chandelier. “It’s too dangerous here.”
“What’s life without a little danger?” Aisling asked, running her fingers along the grain of the wood. She threw a mischievous grin back at him. “The chandelier won’t go anywhere. I promise.”
She lay her head down on the lid of the piano, closing her eyes as she inhaled the scent of the veneer, humming softly to feel the resonance. Her fingers traveled the length of the lid, guiding her toward the keyboard. The first key she pressed on made no sound, nor the did the next, or the next. Perplexed, she finally resorted to smashing down on as many ivory keys as she could, a few of them giving strangled, tinny noises.
“How strange,” she murmured, lifting the lid to examine the inside of the instrument. She summoned the orb of light to her, and only then did Aidan realize how dark it had grown outside. The wind already seemed to be howling through the unfinished walls, the framing beginning to creak and sway ever so minutely.
“Princess, we really should go,” he insisted again. “It sounds as though a storm has taken hold.”
“But look at this!” she replied, waving him over. “This whole plate has cracked in two! Have you ever seen such a thing?”
“Princess -”
His words were lost as the storm suddenly snapped open every door and window in the house, the wind fierce enough to strip the boards right off. Dust began to fall as the whole house began to shake violently, twisting and warping as shoddy construction began to give way to the elements. Suddenly terrified, Aisling had removed herself from under the lid, reaching out to take Aidan’s hand when they heard the sickening snap above them.
There was no time to react. The impact knocked Aisling flat on her back, leaving her stunned and breathless. Then the burning began. Pinned beneath one side of the massive chandelier, she was unable to sit up or maneuver herself out from underneath. At every point it made contact with her skin, it burned, but it was worse in her abdomen. Blindly, she let her left hand wander down the length of her torso, until she discovered why; a particularly sharp segment had pierced her through, just under her ribcage.
“Aid…” she gasped, but with it now so hard to breath, she could barely form her guard’s name. She reached with her right hand, feeling his fingertips brush against hers. It took some effort, but she managed to turn her head to face him, only to stop breathing at the sight.
The bulk of the iron structure had fallen on him, piercing him through throat and various other points. She knew instantly from the vacancy behind his eyes that he was gone, and she shut her eyes tightly. I should have listened to him, she told herself, furious with her own need to push the boundaries of sense. If I had listened, this would never have happened. Now Aidan is dead, and I am going to die here, and Flynnwood -
Her eyes flew open as she thought of her brother. If the storm was severe enough to cause the house to crumble around them, she could only imagine how bad it was outside for the rest of the town. Flynn would certainly have his hands full managing the situation, but eventually he would realize she wasn’t there. But she hadn’t told him where they were going. Nobody knew. It could be days before anyone thought to check the old, abandoned house.
She shut her eyes, trying to keep breathing as her body began to be overwhelmed with the pain of the iron starting to spread across her body. Dreamwalking was difficult enough when comfortable, and she had little expectation that her brother would even be asleep for her to reach him. Still, she had precious few other options. Letting herself fall into a deep slumber was difficult, even with her magic. But once she found herself in the dreamspace, she sent out her message, like a homing beacon for her brother to encounter.