Kit and Tully | Love or Music?

15 - Love or Music?

"Guys," I shout. "I'm going to the passage tomb."

"Don't be stupid, we need to check the river first." Felice's voice cuts angrily through the silent dark.

"I think he's up there," I scream back.

"And if he isn't?"

"We're wasting time," Spike catches Felice's arm. "Let Kit go if she wants."

"Alright." Felice shakes off his hand. "We'll do the river."

I tear across the field, away from them, the dewy black grass soaking my runners.

The passage tomb looms ahead, mysterious and otherworldly, almost as if it really does hold Aonghus captive, deep in an enchanted sleep.

Full moon.

A chill runs through me as the realisation hits me.

Tonight is the true date of Lunasa.

I'm right, I know I am. The Celtic calendar followed the lunar cycle. The ancient festival of Lunasa was held on the night of the full moon. Changing the date to August 1st came later, in the middle ages, an attempt to Christianise the old pagan tradition.

Wings flapping, a solitary crow rises into the sky, scaring the life out of me.

His harsh squawk is a warning.

Go back.

But then I remember Tully, frozen and helpless.

Heart in my mouth, I struggle through the hedge, branches scratching my face, trying to keep me out. My jeans catch and tear on the barbed wire fence, but I keep going.

"Tully," I scream, "I'm coming."

The megalithic mound glows with ancient power.

Tully is in there, I'm sure of it.

So is Aonghus.

Under a solitary hawthorn, skeletal in the moonlight, a jagged opening gapes at me.

A second entrance.

It doesn't exist. Rationally, I know that, but it doesn't matter.

The darkness is poised, waiting with intent, ancient and weary. Aonghus calls me and I can't resist his summons.

I clamp the torch between my teeth and, half crawling, half wriggling, creep inside the cavity.

Fear is hot. It warms you, but I am cold, numb. I no longer know what I am doing, or why.

The tunnel closes tight around me.

There is no backwards, only forwards.

I crawl slowly, losing track of time.

This tunnel is my life.

The air is so stale I can hardly breathe. It reminds me of the decrepit house that's my home. The whole place is so moribund I could die of asphyxiation, weighed down by generations of legally minded Lawless sons. My parents have no idea they are burying me alive with their plans and ambitions for my future. 

Ahead of me, a tiny pinprick of light hovers in the darkness. As I edge closer, it moves ahead, a golden moth, its glow guiding me through the tunnel. The stories of my childhood come back to me, tales of the unwary traveller who strayed from the beaten path, called by enchanted lights, songs and music beckoning them ever closer.

It no longer matters where the moth is leading me, all I can do is follow spellbound. Time has stopped. Past and future mean nothing, there is only an endless present.