This week's dream cast is brought to you by Bella! This cast is a Poldark inspired cast - and I love love LOVE Poldark :D
Luc - Aidan Turner
Mia - Eleanor Tomlinson
Jacques - Richard Madden
Nico - Adam Brody
Henrietta - Dakota Blue Richards
Louis - Joseph Fiennes
Casper - Luke Bilyk
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Heavy thick clouds rolled inland off the Pacific carrying more snow. Earlier I had wondered why the streets were empty and now I knew why - we were expecting a snow storm. The sky turned bright with a pinkish hue as the snow clouds loomed over Port Cressida and a light flurry of snow carried by the strengthen wind blew past my passenger window. This type of weather could either work for us or against us.
Jacques eyed the sky with a worried expression. "This doesn't look good - Isn't there something you can do about this, Casper?"
"No, there is nothing I can do with a storm that big. We are going to have to work through it, Jacques."
"Urgh, that's great. Fucking just what we need right now."
Leaning forward in my seat I asked, "Why, what's wrong? I thought we were close to the cemetery?"
"We are close," Jacques began. "But the city cemetery is huge. Pretty much every supernatural that has either lived or died in this city ends up being buried there. The whole site is fucking massive. It starts in the middle of the old city quarter and stretches outwards to the border of the Royal parklands. It's nearly a mile long and half a mile wide, which might sound impressive if we didn't need to be bang small in the middle of it. Trying to find our way through the maze of headstones and mausoleums in the middle of blizzard is going to be some serious next level bullshit."
The cemetery seriously couldn't be that big. Weren't supernaturals supposed to be long lived? So why did they have an enormous burial ground.
"How 'full' is the cemetery?" I asked Jacques.
"It's packed. Supernaturals have to be buried in a special place like the city cemetery for two reasons. Firstly so humans don't ever accidentally wander along and stumble upon a corpse or a set of unusual bones. In the past there was a big market for supernatural body parts as they made excellent curiosities for human side shows. You know the kind of 'come see the vampire fang or the werewolf claw for a dollar a peek' kind of crap. And the second reason is that most supernaturals want to avoid having their remains getting stolen and chopped up to be sold on the black market for either quack medicines or worse, black magic. I'd like to say in this age of enlightenment these things don't happen, but they do. And that is why the cemetery is full to bursting."
"Well there must be pathways and signposts that can help guide us."
"There are in the newer parts of the cemetery but not in the older parts. And where we are heading is to the oldest part of the cemetery. We need to avoid the newer parts where the main entrances are. The King has only been dead a few days and preparations for his official funeral and interment into the royal crypt will be underway. With any luck the blizzard will force any workers or mourner to go back home."
"At least that's one thing working in our favour."
We drove a little further and pulled into an empty side street. Jacques abandoned the car in a vacant lot and we continued to the cemetery on foot.
There was still only a few flakes of snow in the air but I could feel the icy cold wind picking up, gradually building its strength. The storm would be here soon.
After cutting across a few cobbled back alleys we arrived at the edge of the city cemetery which was encircled by a wall topped with black wrought iron bars with sharp tips. I eyed up the vicious points at the top of each picket and wondered how the hell we would ever get in without either climbing over and getting torn to pieces, or walking through one of the main entrances and risk being caught.
However this did not seem to bother Casper who started following the wall line like he knew what he was doing. Catching up to him I asked, "Do you have any idea how we are going to get in?"
"There is a break up ahead where part of the wall has been vandalised. We can get through into the cemetery there."
I frowned - how the hell did he know this? This wall must go on for a few miles encircling the entire cemetery. It seemed an eerie coincidence that he just happened to know where a gap in the fence was.
"Okay but if you don't mind me asking, how did you know that the wall was broken in that exact place?"
His eyes flickered downwards like my question had unexpectedly blindsided him, and he replied softly, "I came here to visit my parents a few days after I had broken out of prison. That's how I know about the gap in the wall."
"Oh," I said feeling like I'd over stepped a boundary in to asshole territory. "I'm sorry."
He shrugged it off like it was nothing and pointed up ahead of us. "The break is up ahead. It's narrow but we'll be able to squeeze through."
I nodded weakly and fell behind him feeling terrible for prying where I shouldn't. I barely knew Casper but I knew enough about his family history to understand some of the pain and suffering he had gone through when Henrietta had cruelly framed him for Celia's murder. It was clear from his mother's journals that she was heartbroken that he had been accused of murder and sent to prison. Silently I hoped his visit had given him some closure but I knew it wouldn't ever be truly over until Henrietta had been named as the true murderer.
When we came to the gap in the wall the snow was really starting to come down. Big fluffy clumps of snowflakes fell from the sky like tiny pieces of cotton. It was pretty and cute until the wind picked up and then they turned into tiny ice missiles. I pulled Jacques jacket around me tighter and tried to bury my chin into the lapels to protect my skin from the burning cold. Jacques saw me struggling and quickly stepped around me to shield me from the icy blast.
"We shouldn't be making a pregnant lady do this," he said staring daggers at Casper.
Casper threw his hands up and said, "Don't look at me. This was her idea."
"Um, I'm standing right here boys," I said waving my hands at them both. "And now we are here at the cemetery I'm wondering what is your great plan to get Luc here?"
"Well," Casper said climbing on to the wall and sliding through the gap. "It's quite simple – we're going to send him a text."
I stare at him and echo, "A text?"
He nods his head and gestures to me to follow him. I step forward but Jacques pulls me back.
"Are you fucking serious - a text?" he snapped loudly.
Casper winced at the noise and anxiously glances around. "Keep it down, Jacques. There could be groundskeepers and guards lurking about!"
"Oh I'm sorry but I came here under the impression that you had a bit more of sophisticated plan than a fucking text message. Luc is probably losing his shit right now, and you want to send him a text being like 'hey bro, long time no see, let's reconnect'."
"We are not going to sign the text from me, idiot. Look, there is a groundskeeper's office close by with a landline. All I have to do is call Nico and get him to send a message from his phone to Luc saying that he's sorry for going AWOL and to make it up he's found Mia hiding in the royal crypt but he can't get to her, so dear Luc will you please come down to the cemetery and help. Luc won't be able to resist."
Jacques made an enlightened 'oh' sound and released my arm. "So you do have an actual plan."
"Yes I do, oh ye of little faith. And all you two need to do is stand here and wait for me while I make the call to Nico," Casper explained.
"Sounds easy enough," I replied.
"Good stay here and I will be back and then we can get this show on the road," he said and left us.
I climbed through the iron bars onto a floor of moss and ivy. Straightening up I looked around at the dilapidated old part of the cemetery. Lop-sided headstones poked out through mounds of evergreen and the seasonal black cages of dead branches. The occasional sculpted angel would rise above the overgrown wilderness on a tall stone plinth and look down at the sorry state of this neglected part of the cemetery. Clearly all these tombs were long forgotten and unvisited.
Jacques clambered through the railing behind me and shuddered. "I hate graveyards."
"Really, I have always liked them," I replied.
And it was true. Some of my earliest memories were reading the headstones in our local church yard. I would look at the names and the dates, and work out how old that person had been when they had been laid to rest. It was creepy and morbid, but I guess it was a weird fascination with the generations that had lived before me. Perhaps that's why I never found graveyards or cemeteries frightening. Even this cemetery in its ruinous state didn't appear unnerving. Instead it looked magical to me. The way the sky glow from the winter storm threw down its pinkish light on the cemetery below made it look surreal and dreamlike... even beautiful.
Jacques nervously glanced about and said, "I don't like this."
I opened my mouth to reply to him, but I spotted something out the corner of my eye. I turned my head to follow it and caught the movement of a glowing white ethereal walking through the headstones up ahead.
Electricity rippled across my skin and I felt a compulsion to follow it.
"Mia, where the hell are you going?" Jacques called after me.
"Did you see it?" I asked pursuing the mysterious spectre.
"See what?"
"There was a person who just walked between those headstones over there."
I pointed across to where I had seen the figure and continued to follow it. Jacques called after me again but something in my head forced me to ignore him and told me that this was more important - I needed to follow this person.
Treading carefully through the vines and brambles I reached the place where I had seen her. I spun around looking for her and saw nothing, but then I noticed something in the distance, elevated high upon a small mound, a yew tree. My mind flashed back to the vision I had of Celia running towards a yew tree and digging at the ground with her bare hands, trying to reach something that seemed to be more precious to her than words could ever express.
"There," I said pointing at the tree. "We need to go there."
"That's not part of the plan, Mia," Jacques said.
No it wasn't but I needed to go there, I needed to find what had been taken from me...
Suddenly I didn't feel like myself and in a moment of unexplained madness I took off, running towards the tree. Behind me I could hear Jacques yelling but I ignored him only focused on one thing - getting to that tree.
I ran across the uneven ground in leaps and bounds, covering the distance between me and the tree in seconds. Immediately I dropped to my knees and began clawing at spot in front of the tree. I didn't know why I was doing it but deep down I knew I had to do it – I had to rescue whatever had been hidden from me.
Within seconds Jacques had caught up to me. He grabbed my hands in his and yelled, "Are you crazy! The ground is nearly frozen solid. You'll rip the nails from your fingers at the rate you were going."
"There is something in there, Jacques. Something I have to find," I tried to explain.
"Okay," he groaned. "Give me a minute, I think I tripped over a shovel back there. A shovel is going to make easier and quicker work of cutting through that ground than your bare hands."
"Fine, but please be quick," I said.
He released my hands and disappeared back through the bramble to get a shovel. I remained kneeling on the cold hard ground, staring at the spot I had seen so many times in my dreams before. There was something beneath that soil, something that Celia had been desperate to get to. I pressed an open hand over the earth and felt a strange energy ripple through my fingertips. Shivering I withdrew my hand away and waited for Jacques to return.
Moments later he emerged through the brambles wielding a shovel. He took one look at me and said, "Where do you want me to dig?"
I pointed to the exact spot and he took the shovel and drove it hard into the cold earth. He leaned backwards against the handle and the ground splintered opened. With a quick heaving motion he removed the first shovel of earth. Nervously I stared into the small hole and saw nothing but dirt, stones and exposed roots.
"You need to dig deeper," I instructed him.
He hesitated for a moment, perhaps he thought I was mad and that this was all a great waste of time, but he choose to follow my order and continued to dig. I sat next to the hole watching his progress, re-examining the hole every time he dug that little bit deeper.
There was something in the ground calling to me, compelling me to dig deep and free it. Finally his spade caught something and there was a loud thud.
"What is it?" I asked.
Jacques leaned down and pulled a small wooden box from the mud.
I took the box from Jacques hands and examined it. The box was stained black from years of being buried in the ground and the wood seemed swollen with damp. I ran my fingers over it impatiently and found a metal clasp. The clasp was stiff but with a bit of force I managed to open it. I tried opening the lid but found the box was too swollen with water to be opened.
Jacques reached out his hand and said, "Here, let me try."
I reluctantly gave him the box and with great care he managed to open the lid. He reached inside and lifted out a small parcel of cloth that was discoloured and worn. I stared at the small parcel and suddenly felt like my heart was being ripped into pieces.
Jacques carefully took the mysterious parcel and started to unwind the cloth. Tears that didn't feel like my own began streaming from my eyes. He opened the final fold and my heart fell to pieces as I saw the tiny fragile bones of a premature baby sitting in the palm of his hand.
"Oh God," I gasped unable to breathe. "That's why Celia is so tormented - she's been looking for her baby."
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Hi angels,
Sorry for the late update. I was really busy with work last week and I managed to crack a rib from coughing so much (yes, you can crack a rib from coughing to much #CrazyAsthmaProblems). So my week has been crappy and pain filled. But I did make a long update to try and compensate.
Over the next few chapters things are starting to fall into place, so I'm interested in what all your theories are!
Let me know what you think in the comment section below!
xXx