My mind racedas it scrambled for reasonable answers that would pass as sane. “I…I’d been out for a walk one evening and someone attacked me with aknife.”
He noddedthoughtfully. “And why were you dressed in strange clothing?”
I shrugged andwinced from the pain. “I have an obsession with old-worldstuff?”
The doctorhummed and hawed at my weak answers. “We thought, perhaps, you’dbeen under the influence of narcotics, but the tests came backnegative which was good, giving your condition.”
“Mycondition?”
He grinned andflipped to a new page on the chart. “Yes, dear, it was almost tooearly to tell, but you’re pregnant. Hardly two weeks.”
Emotionsboiled in my stomach and began to rise, forcing their way up to mythroat where a silent cry escaped my lips. I could feel the bloodpooling in my face as tears ran from my eyes. No, how could it be?Not only did I lose the love of my life, but I was stuck in adifferent time, far away from him, and pregnant with his child. Achild I could never give answers to when they asked about Daddy. Achild I would have to raise on my own. A child that Henry wouldnever get the chance to see, or touch, or kiss.
The doctorripped a few tissues from the small, yellow box on the side tableand handed them to me. “I take it you weren’t aware?” he said, andI just shook my head. “Well, Dianna, given your injuries and yournew condition, I highly suggest you stay here for a few days forobservation. But we’ve called your aunt and she’ll be heretomorrow, so at least consider staying overnight?”
“Okay, yes,thank you,” I sputtered out over tear-drenched lips.
“Excellent,”he replied and gently pat my leg before standing. “The police areoutside, they’d like to ask you a few questions about yourattacker. Is that alright? Are you up to it?”
“Yes,” I said,“Although, I don’t have much else to say about it. I never, uh,seen the man’s face or anything.”
Lies. Alllies. I’d never be ableto tell the truth of the adventureI had or the tragic loss I just experienced. It’s all a secretburden I’d have to carry with me for the rest of my life. Mystomach clenched as I realized the painful untruths I would nowhave to live with every single day.
The policecame in, two officers, a male and female, and they asked me aseries of questions that I gave short, vague answers to. Why was Iout so late by myself? Why was I wearing strange clothing? Could Idescribe my attacker’s face? What did the weapon look like? Ididn’t give them much to go on, but enough to keep them lookinglong enough to call it a cold case and just file it away.
After they’dfinally left, I laid my head back on the pillow and fell asleepwhile I waited for Aunt Mary’s arrival. It was a dark, empty sleep.No dreams. It was the best I could hope for because I never wantedto face the reality of what my life was becoming.
ChapterTwo – Henry
“Tell me who she is, Henry!” Maria screamed at me, herragged breath spitting all over my bloodied face. It’d been a daynow. A day in this Hell with the devil herself. A day with my limbsbound and my body beaten for answers I would never give.
A day withoutmy Dianna.
She threwanother blow to my face. God, that woman had the strength of anape. My mouth filled with the warm taste of iron and I spat it inher face. “Go back to Hell.”
Her expressiontwisted into a broken grin; half enraged, half conniving. I alwaysthought it was as if two beings resided within Maria; good and bad,sane and insane. The woman should be locked up and studied.
I watched asshe turned a metal poker over in the fireplace, waiting for its tipto glow red. “Where did she come from, Henry?”
I remainedsilent.
“You protecther, yet she’s gone,” Maria continued, prying around the outside.In a moment of weakness, I let a pained expression flicker acrossmy face. But she caught it. “She’s gone, left you behind for me togather up the pieces. No one can love you as I love you, Pet.”
“You haven’tthe slightest idea of what love is,” I muttered.
Her browsraised in surprise. “And you claim to?”
I refused toanswer. It would only give her the tool she needed to dig deeper.If Maria knew that I loved Dianna, it would be the end. But,perhaps, that would be for the best. An end. The end. Butpart of me feared too greatly thatshe’d find a way to Dianna’s future, to destroy the one thing Iloved, and I couldn’t bear the thought.
“I’ll get itfrom you yet,” she half-whispered as she backed away, a disturbingand thoughtful look on her face.
“Get what?” Iscreamed at her.
I still didn’tquite understand what it was she was truly digging for. The womaninsisted on knowing who Dianna was, for obvious reasons. We allwatched as the air around my beloved came to life and dragged herthrough time. The memory of her reaching out to me, my handsstraining to get to her, the cold void left behind in her absence…as if she were never really there to begin with… it all flashedthrough my mind. Sharp, painful memories. Everyone stood frozen inshock and disbelief, only I knew what had truly happened. But thedisbelief still struck me, nonetheless. She was gone, right beforemy very eyes. Taken away from me. The fact that she was safe, myonly comfort.
Maria left theroom and shut the door behind her, leaving me in the dark onceagain. My left eye had swollen shut, rendering me partially blind,but what did it matter? If the beast didn’t pry the informationfrom me she sought… I’d be a dead man in a matter of days.
I could onlyhope.
ChapterThree – Dianna
Dreams are a funny thing. They can be alive with colorand gorgeous imagery or dark and empty, void of… anything at all. Ithink it depends on what you’re going through in life, the actions,the emotions, it all carries through into your sleep. The
