Melody leaned against the window of the car, but instead of staring at the landscape passing by she had her eyes locked on the reflection of Daniel in the mirror. Her lips were still tingling and she could feel her heart racing in her chest.
Next to the road the signs were counting down the miles to Stonehenge. First it had been five miles, then three and now only one.
She was convinced that the ritual would work, that everything would be fine, that in only half an hour Daniel would be as human as she was, that in half an hour the lovestory between the guardian angel and the girl he was supposed to protect would get it's happy ending.
Daniel didn't seem to be that sure though and the way he kept looking at her as if this would be the last time he would see her scared her more than just a little bit.
"I guess we'll have to find a parking spot somewhere." Max sighed when he entered the overfull parking lot near the monument. "I don't think it'll be that easy." He was more talking to himself than to Daniel or Melody.
Daniel and Melody hadn't said a word during the drive after all.
"If you get a fine for parking somewhere where you're not allowed to park I'll pay it." Melody curled her fingers up and the palms of her hands were sweating. Stonehenge was so near, so close and she didn't have the patience to find a decent spot for the car.
"You've already paid enough, okay?" Max raised his eyebrows, but he did park the car in a spot that wasn't even an official spot. "This one will be on me." He turned the motor off, but Daniel and Melody didn't move.
Melody took a deep breath and her eyes met Daniel's once more through the mirror. She wanted to ask him if he was ready, she wanted to tell him that everything would be fine, but she couldn't. She couldn't open her mouth and say something. She couldn't promise him something she maybe couldn't keep.
"It won't get easier if we keep on waiting here." Max eventually opened his door and rushed to the other side to help Melody out of the car. "The sooner we've got through this, the sooner we know what the rest of this holiday is gonna look like." He forced himself to smile, but even Max seemed to be nervous.
Melody trusted him, believed that he wanted to best for both Daniel and her, but in a way she couldn't help but wonder if there was a part of Max still hoping that everything would go wrong and that Daniel would eventually die.
"Do you need help?" Daniel offered Melody his arm, but Melody raised her eyebrows and shook her head as soon as she could.
"I'm fine." She leaned on her crutch and she stared at the endless grass field stretching out in front of them. She could barely see the stones she knew from pictures and she sighed when she realised that it meant they were further away than she had hoped them to be. She didn't feel like admitting that either though, so she started walking as if this would be the easiest thing she had ever done.
For fifteen minutes they walked in silence. Then they could finally see how huge the stones really were.
Melody held her breath when she could almost touch the holy ground and she turned her face to Daniel to see what he was feeling, to see how he was feeling.
He had his eyes locked on the sacred place and the vein in his neck was visibly beating.
"Are you going to tell us about the ritual or are you simply going to do it?" Melody stood still at only a few metres from the circle.
A couple of people were making pictures with the huge stones and didn't look like they were planning to leave anytime soon.
"I won't be doing it myself." Daniel cleared his throat and he shifted his weight from one leg to the other. "You will be the one doing it." He locked his glance with Melody's and Melody's eyes widened while she felt her heart skipping a beat in her chest.
"I will do it?" She stuttered, almost trembling over her own words and for a second she could barely breath. "I don't even know what to do! What if I mess it up?"
"Calm down, Melody, please, calm down." Daniel rushed towards her and he placed his hands on her shoulders. "I promise that it's a very easy ritual. You don't have to say any hard words. You can do it." He nodded towards her and Melody nodded back.
"Okay, if you say so." She swallowed a few times. "So, what do I need to do?" She took a deep breath and bit her lip.
"First we have to find the stone that catches the first ray of sunshine in the morning." Daniel let his eyes wander over the circle.
"The sun comes up in the east. It has to be one of the stones on the east side." Melody watched how Max hurried to take his phone from the pocket of his jeans to open his compass app.
"It's that side." He pointed at the group of four stones connected to each other by the stone on top. "It has to be one of those."
Melody nodded and she started walking. Next to the first stone she stood still and Daniel kneeled down, his hands clearly searching for something under the stone.
He stood up and shook his head and without needing another word Melody walked towards the next stone and the next one until Daniel held his breath while he showed Melody and Max a silver knife, reflecting the sunlight in an almost blinding way.
"What do I need to do with that?" Melody's voice was trembling, but Daniel didn't answer when he placed the heavy silver knife in her shaking hands. "Daniel?" She looked up at the guardian angel in front of her. "What do I need to do with this knife?" She had read countless books about magical rituals before. She had read about people cutting their hands, about letting blood drop on sacred stones. Was that what she would have to do? Would she have to cut the palm of her hand? Would she have to cut his?
"Now we have to find the exact middle of the circle." Daniel took a few steps, but was forced to stand still when Melody didn't follow. "Melody?" He turned around, but Melody was still staring at the knife in her hands. "We have to go to the middle." He repeated his words and spoke a little louder this time.
"Okay, I'm coming." Melody eventually moved, but she could barely lean on her crutch on the oneven ground and her knees were far from stable because of the nerves and the weight of the knife in her hand.
"This should be it." Daniel stood still next to one of the stones in the grass. "This is where we'll perform the ritual once those people are gone." He nodded at the tourists and Melody quickly hid the knife behind her back.
"Do I need to stay here?" Max had his hands folded behind his back and he shifted his weight from one leg to the other and back constantly.
"Yes." Daniel spoke firmly. "I want you to be near her during the entire ritual until I open my eyes again and will wake up."
If Melody had not been nervous already she would have become nervous right now. "Daniel?" She tried to speak, but her voice was barely a whisper. "What do I have to do with this knife?" Her chest was moving up and down rapidly and Daniel bent his head to avoid her glance.
"You'll have to kill me with it." He cleared his throat while Melody widened her eyes and couldn't breath for at least ten seconds. "You'll have to slit my throat with it."
"I can't do that..." Melody stuttered and she almost felt the knife slipping through her fingers. "I can't kill you. What if you won't wake up? What if it won't work? What if something goes wrong?" She shook her head over and over again and all of a sudden she realised why Daniel had wanted to kiss her at least once, why he had not shown himself until they had reached the hotel, why he had stayed out of sight as long as possible. "I'm not going to kill you!" She couldn't scream, but else she would have done so, even if it had meant that the tourists would have heard her.
Luckily they were slowly walking away from the sacred circle and it was as if everything around Stonehenge all of a sudden fell still. The wind stopped blowing. The birds stopped singing. There was nothing but absolute silence and calm.
"We have come here to do the ritual. You'll have to do it." Daniel spoke softly as if he didn't want to interrupt the world around him. "I promise I will do everything I can to open my eyes again. I promise that you won't be the one killing your own guardian angel. I promise I will come back to you." He nodded at her and Melody stared at the knife in her hand and the guardian angel in front of her.
"You didn't tell me I would have to kill you." She could feel her eyes watering and she took a few deep breaths to keep herself in check. She didn't want to panic. She didn't want to tell Max and Daniel that they had come here for nothing, but that was easier thought than done.
"Would you have stayed with Max at home if you had known?" Daniel grabbed Melody's hands and eventually she shook her head.
She wouldn't have stayed at home. She would have still booked those plane tickets. She would have still tried.
"I already thought so." Daniel smiled at her and he rubbed her knuckles. "I didn't want you to panic before you had to."
"Well, I'm panicking now." Melody swallowed, the tears almost rolling down her cheeks.
"I know and that's okay. As long as in the end you kill me anyway."