Fog of Shadows

Part 6

Within an hour, Flinn and Alisea were able to roll the piece of the tree off the ship; making it land in the water with a loud splash. "Boy am I glad this is out of the way now, thanks" thanked Alisea as she gave Flinn a gentle smile; he smiled back at her, "Hey, do you have another broom? I think I could help you with the nails." To this offer, Alisea only waved her hand in a "no thanks" manner. "We'll be fine from here, it's that huge piece of the tree that was giving me a hard time.", "Well it's gone now, are you sure there is nothing I can help you with?" Alisea nodded and turned to the door that led below deck. "If you want you can stay, but I have to see how Floe and Lulu are doing, they have been below deck for a while now."

"I'll come with you, my crew told me to take a break and send me away."

"Just be careful, I don't know what all happened down there." With that they went down the steps that led to the lower deck; at first everything seemed alright with the books and maps seemingly untouched by the storm, the rooms were untouched and so were the smaller storage areas, but once in the cargo hulk the image quickly changed; barrels, boxes and other containers seemed aimlessly strewn about and in the center of it stood Floe, the young octopus monster was already red with anger. From the looks of it, she has already cleared a good portion. "Good job Floe!" said Alisea in a cheerful voice, hoping to calm her friend down. "Good job? Good job! I hardly got anywhere and there is still so much left to do!" in frustration the young monster turned a deep scarlet and kicked one of the empty barrels, causing it to roll to a far corner of the cargo hulk. With a calming sigh she turned to her friends, "I hope you two are doing better than I; what was that splash I heard earlier? I hope it wasn't anything serious."

"Oh no, it was just that piece of tree that lay on deck; I thought I could move it on my own, but I couldn't so I went about cleaning up the nails and then Flinn came and helped me roll it off into the ocean, how about you and Lulu take a break, just be careful when you step on deck, I might have missed a nail or two."

The now calmed and blue octopus smiled at her captain, "Thank you Alisea, Lulu is probably somewhere in the hallway checking for further damage, we won't be gone long, we will just go and get some supplies for fixing the sails, we have found the spares, but not the sewing equipment; it's almost like the storm gobbled them up." With that the octopus left, leaving her captain and the captain of the Aurora alone.

"Why haven't you told them about my offer?" the young captain was confused for he had hoped to be more of use to his girlfriend then he had been all day. "Well the most work that needed to be done was the tree and now it's out of the way, again thanks for helping me." Her smile warmed his heart and caused him to smile back at her, but the smile faded when he realized they would have to slowly make their way to the hospital cabin and once again face that women. The same thought seemed to have crossed her mind too, for her smile faded as well and a grim atmosphere lowered itself upon them.

"I guess we should make our way to her now, I think its best we are there shortly before she wakes up; not that she might panic and cause any more harm." Flinn agreed with her on that, though he had only seen her briefly and hadn't even spoken to her, he had seen enough of her actions to know that, if she were to awaken all alone, or even with the doctor around, that she might throw a temper tantrum and become a danger to her and others. "You are right, but how about we take our time a little when we make our way to her, I just don't feel right about her."

XXXXX

The doctor looked upon the clock that hung above her desk showed her to have enough time to make a quick trip to the library before her patient awoke. Having spent an entire hour examining the strange women in her sleep brought no further clarity and neither had the books in her possessions. Once she thought she had found a sickness or disease fitting to the patient symptoms the women seemed to spur another that crushed the doctor's theory. Writing a quick note upon the door informing any potential visitors of her locations, she made her way. She smiled at how quickly the streets were cleared and the people back to their regular routine, almost as if the storm had never even occurred. To the doctor who had lost so much and gained more than her loss, it was a very uplifting sight that was accompanied by bright sunshine and warm temperature; sadly her mood dampened when she reached the library doors. She hated that place; all year round it was cold, dark and simply felt gloomy compared to the rest of the island, which was odd seeing as there was never anything wrong with the building: the structure was sound, it had plenty of windows and contained some vital information; never the less, to the doctor it always seemed cold and gloomy, but she could never put her finger on as to why? She reminded herself that she had a job to do, and nothing ever came between her and the wellbeing of her patients.

XXXXX

Standing before the door of the hospital cabin, Alisea turned to her boyfriend with a very worried expression. "Flinn, I know you are worried and don't want me to face her on my own, but last time she saw you she had a small panic attack, maybe I should try to face her on my own first, just to see how she is after having cooled down." To him this sounded downright suicidal, the last time she had a panic attack in the works and he felt like he may have just been the straw that broke the camel's back; never the less, he agreed, but told her that as soon as things got weird or dangerous that he would intervene, no matter how sick a feeble the women was.

Inside, the mid-day sun shined in and gave everything a bright a friendly, warm look that was only challenged by the women laying on the bed with her widow-black dress and fiery hair the seemed to burn anyone who touched it. Very cautiously Alisea made her way to the women's bedside; with every creek of the floorboards Alisea's heart began to race faster and faster, fearing that at any moment the women would awaken and attack her like a lion pouncing on its prey. Slowly and silently, the young women began to awaken, giving Alisea a friendly smile when noticing Alisea by her bedside. "I see you kept your promise." The women's voice sounded dry and dusty, but she denied any water offered to her. "But you need it; it will help you get better faster."

"I don't need to get better."

"Alright, if you say so, but may I ask you something, Willow? You don't have to answer; I just want to know in order to help you."

"What is it?"

"Where are you from and what were you running from?"

Willow sighed and turned her marvelous green eyes to the ceiling, "It's a very odd story, and it might disturb you."

"I think I can take it, I just think my friends and I can help you if you explain to us what troubles you were in."

"I once had a normal life, but then something happened to me that I could not control, after that I awoke to a new life where I was forced to do things and hurt people that were once close to me only to be able to live. One day I just snapped and ran away; I thought that I could swim away from my home and just find another island to call my home; shortly after I left my home I must have swum into a storm, next thing I know I wake up to you."

"And who were you running from?" asked Alisea with a sinking feeling in her stomach.

"All you need to know about him is that he is a dark shadow that won't stop at anything to get what he wants, he won't even stop at hurting pretty things like you," answered Willow while turning her glowing emerald eyes to Alisea.

"Where are you from?"

At this Willow closed her eyes as if hoping that naming the place of her origins wouldn't bring any harm upon the innocent and after a long and droning silence she opened her eyes and answered.

"Candle Cove."

XXXXX

After rows and rows of looking through copious amounts of old, dust and sometimes outdated books; Jacklyn had to call in clear defeat. There were a few slivers of light that could have solved the mystery of the strange girl, but after a deeper review of the implied symptoms, the light got extinguished and she was back into the darkness that was the mystery of the strange girl's sickness.