Fatebound

Chapter Four ~ Tour Guides

Later that day Brea had found a nice place to sit at a cafe that overlooked the ocean.

The sky was overcast again, but Brea had always thought there was a certain beauty to grey clouds, there was just nothing like the refreshing feeling of rain on your face and the wind in your hair, and there was no better time to write than when it was raining.

She had brought her mother's journal with her and as she waited for her lunch to come she decided to read over the first entry once again.

Wednesday the 13th of January 2000.

When I first arrived in Skye a sort of feeling swept over me. That feeling you get when you've lived in a busy city all your life and once you get to the countryside, you realise exactly what you've been missing. It's like the air is fresher here, the grass is greener and everything is just so much more beautiful.

Brea felt, as she read the words, that she somehow knew exactly what her mother had meant.

I met someone today...

The entry continued.

A charming man who managed to catch me before I could topple over with my bags at the bus stop.

Brea laughed as she couldn't help but to remember her own embarrassing incident the other day.

He said he was a tour guide, the very same one I had booked a tour with for my trip to Skye!

The journal continued.

Could this be fate? It might just be my hopelessly romantic soul, but I swear I felt sparks fly, and now I can't seem to get him off of my mind. He gave me his number, I simply must remember to call him sometime while I'm here.

Anyway, I'll write more about my adventures here soon!

-M

Brea smiled softly as her eyes began to water with unshed tears.

Following in her mothers footsteps in order to feel closer to her was just one of the reasons that Brea had made the journey to Scotland.

She had also admittedly pondered attempting to find her farther.

Though she was still little on the fence about weather she really wanted to meet him, and what she would do if she actually did, she knew that if she didn't do it now, she simply never would and she might regret that later on.

When her mother had passed away Brea had realised very quickly that no one knows how much time they might have left, so she was intent on living her life to the fullest, and making sure that to the best of her ability, the deepest questions she had would be answered.

Her mother had told her stories when she was young about the adventures she had had in Scotland, but it hadn't been until Brea was ten that she had begun to ask questions about her father. It was than that her mother had agreed to tell her at least, a little bit more.

She had told Brea that she had met her farther in Skye, that he had been a tour guide and had seemed to be a really good man at the time.

She had told Brea how she had fallen in love with him very quickly and that she had never loved another man quite as much as she had loved him. But no matter how much Brea had asked her, her mother had never been willing to share exactly why she had left and why he had not been a part of their lives ever since.

Brea had learned rather quickly to stop asking, she hated to see the pain in her mother's eyes whenever she did.

But when her mother had died, along with the journal she had left Brea and her life's savings, which Brea had no idea what she would do with yet, she had also left her daughter a letter in which she had expressed her wish for Brea to get her questions answered.

Brea had cried more than she ever had when she had read that note. What her mother had said had driven her to do exactly what she had advised. Brea had bought her flight tickets the very next day and before she knew it she was following her heart and beginning to make her own fate. All-Beit she didn't quite know what that fate would be yet, but just as her mother said, perhaps it would find her.

But the thought of actually looking for her farther sent chills of apprehension up Brea's spine. After all, her mother had never told her the full story about her and her father. She had never told Brea exactly why she had left.... but she didn't think that she would have advised her in her note to find the answers Brea had always been seeking, if she didn't have, at least, some hope herself, that things might turn out ok.

The only issue was, that she didn't have much information to go on. She knew her farther is, or for that matter was, a tour guide and she knew that her mother had met him in Skye, but in the journal entries she had flicked through so far, any time her mother had named him, she had gone back to the journal later on to scribble it out.

Brea couldn't help but to feel the sinking feeling of dread that came with the knowledge that whatever had happened between them had been awful enough for her mother to never want to even see his name again. She had tried flicking through the rest of the pages of the book, without spoiling herself too much about the rest of her mother's adventures, but the same thing had occurred every time she had mentioned him. His name was always crossed out.

Brea wondered why her mother hadn't told her more in her letter, but she figured that she had probably still felt the sting of what could have been if she had stayed in Skye, especially in her last moments... so she really couldn't blame her for that.

Brea didn't even know if her father would still be living in Skye, for all she knew he might not even be alive. All she had been able to gather from her mothers journal so far is that he used to be a tour guide. But still, she felt that she had to at least try to find him.

Her mother had wanted Brea to find her answers, and no matter what the outcome was, that's just was she was going to do.

After Brea had finished her lunch, she decided to start her search by asking in the towns souvenir shop. She had noticed when she had walked past it previously that it had advertisements stuck up on the store window.

Some of them where for your general jobs like local plumbing or mowing services, but the ones that had caught Brea's eye where the adds for tours you could take around the Isle. The flyers all said that you could purchase tickets for them inside of the shop and Brea was hoping as such that she might be able to find her first clue there.

But alas, when she had asked, she had quickly found that her luck was already running low.

The shopkeeper had said that there were many tour guides around Skye, mainly due to the large amount of tourists that came by the island each year.

"It's the best way to get your buck around here." He had said as he wished her the best of luck in her search. But already Brea was feeling pretty hopeless about it all.

If there was really that many tour guides in Skye, than how was she supposed to find her farther? It would be like searching for a needle in a haystack, but she couldn't give up now, she simply had to keep trying.

So she drew out the pamphlets she had collected from the souvenir shop, and picked one at random.

"Haunted Skye" It read.

"A tour that will spook your socks off!"

Brea couldn't help but to laugh at the second line, it was rather cheesy, almost like it had been written by someone in their sixties, but still, she figured it was as good a place to continue her search as any. So with the thought of creepy ghosts in mind, Brea booked the tickets for that very night and hoped it might lead her to her next clue.