To Have A Wandering Soul

Chapter 9

Adrian left Garrett and picked up the plate he had made, he was walking up the stairs when another scream echoed through the house, this one sounding distinctly like Caroline's. Adrian ran the rest of the way up the stairs, abandoning the plate in her room and searching desperately to find her.

It was on the balcony that he finally did, she was standing with her hands covering her mouth staring at something he could not see. He opened the door near as quickly as he could and grabbed her arms, pulling them from her face to make sure she was not hurt, turning her to face him at the same time.

"What happened? Are you hurt?"

With a shaky breath Caroline turned her gaze from Adrian to what she had been looking at before. He followed in suit and saw something that had not been on the balcony ten minutes before when he had checked it.

Lying in a heap against the railing was a man, bloody, bruised, and dead. Adrian immediately recognized the man's red hair, glazed over green eyes and uniform, it was the same man who had beaten him so many days ago.

"He's looking right at me. He knows it's my fault that he's dead," Caroline said, her breath coming in ragged gasps and her voice trembling and far quieter than it usually was.

"No, you didn't kill him."

"I did. He was in that photograph, they know, the king and Mr. Yoski, they know."

"It's going to be okay, come on, let's go inside and call the police."

"Okay, yeah okay."

Glancing back at the dead man on her balcony Caroline walked hesitantly back into her room, almost worried that he would wake up and start attacking her for what she did to him. Adrian took the phone and dialed the nation wide emergency number, explaining the situation to whoever was on the other line.

"They're on their way mistress," he said, suddenly remembering his place.

"Thank you."

Adrian tentatively led Caroline to the bed and helped her sit down, pulling her into his arms where she began to cry. They sat like this until a banging was heard on the window, Caroline screamed again, this time sure that the dead man was going to assault her. In fear of what she might see Caroline pressed her face into Adrian's chest, he hugged her tighter as he glanced over his shoulder.

"There's nothing mistress."

"What?"

"I don't see anything that could have made that noise."

Caroline pulled her head off of Adrian and intently studied the balcony; everything was just as it had been before.

"Wait, there's something on the table."

The one thing Caroline noticed that was different was the addition of something green on the table. She hesitantly stood up and made her way to the door. On the table was a single red poppy, cream-colored paper placed under it. With shaking hands she removed the paper, reading it's contents aloud,

"You're next."

She glanced up at Adrian as her eyes filled with tears and she collapsed into the chair. He knelt on the ground in front of her.

"What's wrong?"

"What's wrong? There's a dead guy on my balcony Adrian and now whoever killed him wants me dead, I don't even know how he got here. I won't survive this," she sniffed as the tears began to roll down her cheeks.

"There has to be something to be done."

"I don't know."

"Why don't you try not to think about it?"

"A fair thought pet, I only wish."

They heard a knock on the door and at Caroline's call a young slave boy led three policemen into the room. Caroline and Adrian both gave statements of what they saw, though his held no value to them. They placed the man into a body bag and vacated as quickly as they could. Directly after Caroline's mother burst into the room and took her daughter into her arms

"Why were the police here sweetie? Tell mama everything."

"There was a body on my balcony."

Martha released her daughter, holding her now at arms length,

"What did you do?"

"I crossed the king and Mr. Yoski," The young woman cried to her mother.

"Oh my dearest how do you know that?"

"That man was the one we took the photographs of. He would probably still be alive if I hadn't published that article."

"What article?"

"The one in the morning paper."

Though she tried Caroline could not seem to keep the tears from spilling from her eyes. This caused her mother to begin crying as she held her child close, now fully understanding the circumstances.

"My baby, I need to talk to your father, you can't stay here."

"I know."

Martha stood and made her way to the door where she stopped and turned back to her daughter who was now in the arms of her loyal dog.

"Caroline, you did the right thing. I'm very proud of you."

Caroline nodded with a sorrowful smile and buried her face into Adrian's chest. She felt him move but thought nothing of it until he spoke out.

"Mistress look."

Caroline took the paper from his hands and read through the article, her eyes widened as she glanced over the end.

Source: Anonymous

A note from the publisher: To our anonymous source, your contribution to the well being of Seban society is greatly appreciated. The risk we know you have taken is not taken in vain, your attempts at bringing our race back to perfection will make the difference you hope, and we wish to be a part of that. Anything else you want published, we will publish for you, for morality, for the people, for Seba.

"What does it mean mistress?"

"It means they want me to write more."

"Will you?"

"I don't know."

Caroline set the paper on the tabletop and leaned back in her chair, casually glancing over at the corner of the cement floor, jumping at the sight of the dead man she had forgotten. She quickly stood up and walked back into her room, sitting instead on the couch. Adrian followed her and sat on the floor in front of her.

"Adrian do you remember where you come from?"

"Do I remember what it was like or where it is?"

"Where it is, do you know that?"

"They told me Ceria, the land to the north of Seba, I think it's separated by a channel."

"It is, the king would never let an unclean country touch Seba's shores."

Adrian nodded and elected to leave the subject where it was, not wanting to anger his young mistress with questions.

"Do you think I should write more for the paper?"

"If it would better the lives of the Sebans and make my mistress happy."

"I have an idea."

"What sort of an idea?"

"An idea to get away from the king."

"I thought you said it was impossible."

"Improbable, it is highly improbable, but I might as well do some good, right?"

"I suppose, but how?"

"You and I pet, we're going to Ceria."