Emily's House: Book 1 of the Akasha Chronicles

Chapter 20: Monasterboice

Chapter 20: Monasterboice

“Jake, you know how to get there?” I asked.

“Sure. We take this street about four miles then we go left. We should be there in another mile or so. Easy.”

We walked on the sidewalk until we ran out of sidewalk then we walked single file along the narrow road. We soon found ourselves in the Irish countryside, the houses thinning out and giving way to fields. We were three young teens alone on an open road. Though we were cloaked in the robe of darkness, I felt exposed.

“Hey guys, maybe we should get off the road,” I said.

“Why?” asked Jake.

“So no one will see us. Three kids out this late carrying a shovel may be a bit out of place, don’t you think? And what if they’re looking for us? I mean, we don’t know, but if our parents called the cops back home and they started looking for us, they may have tracked us to Ireland and so if we get stopped by the town fuzz ... ”

“Yeah, Em’s right,” said Fanny. “We should get off the roads.” Jake nodded his agreement and pointed us in the direction that he thought we should go.

Along the road, there was a low fence made of grey stone that we jumped over pretty easily. After that, it all started going to crap pretty quickly. I mean that literally. We soon found ourselves tripping over small bumps in the grass and trying to dodge cow pies.

“We’re in a frickin' field of cows, Em,” said Fanny. She quickly sidestepped what appeared to be fairly fresh cow poop. The dark of the night may have helped shield us from any onlookers, but it made the travel much more difficult. The only light came from a small sliver of moon that was just starting to creep above the horizon and a single, small flashlight.

After about a half hour of slow going through the cow field, we came to another fence. As we approached it, the reality of our situation began to dawn.

From the road, the stone fences looked about four feet high at most and easy to scale and jump over. But when you get up close to them, they’re not only taller than that, but grown up all around the stone are bramble bushes. What was once an ordinary stone fence became a stone fence with a natural razor wire barrier.

We stood in front of the impenetrable fortress of rock and brambles for a few minutes, speechless. It was getting late. We had spent more time in the shed getting a shovel than we had expected. And with the slow going through the field, it was now after 11:00.

“What now?” asked Jake.

“I’m sorry guys,” I said. “I’m not much good at this whole quest thing. Every idea I have turns to dog poop.” I felt defeated and we’d only just begun.

“No need to apologize, Em,” Jake said. “It was a good idea. How were you supposed to know the Irish protect their cow pie fields with natural razor wire?”

“Okay Jake, stop kissing Emily’s butt long enough to navigate us back to the road.”

We walked along the fence toward the road, climbed over the lower fence then started walking single-file again up the road. After about an hour of walking, I sensed that we weren’t going the right direction.

“Hey Jake, you sure we’re going the right way?” I asked.

“Pretty sure,” he said. “Why do you ask?”

“Well, back there when we were first started out, the moon was coming up in front of us.”

“Yeah.”