The Mistress of Black Grove Manor (69 page)

She’d thought for sure she was awake, but maybe not. She took a deep breath.
So what? If it’s a dream it’s a damn interesting one.
She thought. She’d go meet him tonight. There wasn't a time on the note, but it was a dream- this sorta thing would work out the way it was supposed to, right?

As far as dreams go, this one was boring. It felt like she was actually in class taking notes the entire day. And when she arrived home, hungry and tired, she had to come up with an excuse to slip out. Ashley didn’t seem to care either way. She was busy working.

Which didn’t seem very dreamlike- that was
very
lifelike.

Becky wished the dream had managed to update her clothing, she’d have loved to wear something nicer than what she had, or maybe just something new.

But she slipped her wallet into her pocket and headed out the door.

Normally her dreams didn’t detail her walking from one place to the next, but this dream wasn’t like anything else she’d had before. Other than the part where she was in 1949 it felt like real life.

When she came to a stop outside of the cafe she had first met Darian in she looked around. He was nowhere to be see, so she headed inside.

“Hi,” A woman smiled widely. “Just you?”

“Um, yes.” Becky looked around, trying to see if she could spot him. No sign.

She followed the woman to the back of the room and slid into a single person booth as the woman handed her a menu.

“Thank you.” Becky gave her a soft smile before looking down at her menu.

“Hi.”

Becky’s heart skipped a beat as Darian sat down in front of her. He could hear it racing as she stared at him.

“H-hi.” She stammered.

“I’m surprised you came.”

“I had to, I mean… I needed answers.” A smile touched her lips. “Anyways, this is just a dream isn’t it?”

Is that what she thought was going on here? That this was all a dream? Darian bit his lip, wondering if he should tell her the truth.
As soon as I do, her whole life will change.
It was true, but there was no denying that she was meant to be in his life. He hadn’t intended to call to her last night. That was the universe at work here, that was a higher power pushing them together. Darian took a deep breath.
If I don’t tell her the truth then she will only get hurt by someone, or by me. We’ll get pushed together until we finally accept what is going on.

There had been a lot of fatebounds’ who were just friends. Darian knew this, but he knew that when he explained things to her she was going to think it meant they had to be… more.

Darian stared at the woman in front of her. He licked his lips. He didn’t mean it in a hungry way. Her blonde hair was pulled back, and she wore a sweatshirt. She looked simple more than anything. She hadn’t dressed up for him, maybe because she thought it had all been a dream- but he liked that she hadn’t.

He took it as a sign that she was comfortable with him.

“So,” She looked around. “You said you’d explain everything.” She stared at him, waiting.

Darian looked around. It would have been good to get some food in her, not for him but for her. Although he did come prepared for if she hadn’t eaten recently.

“Alright, I need you to come with me though.”

Becky’s brow furrowed.

“Why?”

“Because it’s outside and I need to show you something.”

Okay, it wasn’t a
bad
reason, but still everything in her mind reminded her of what I’d been taught in school. Never let a kidnapper take you to a secondary location.
Do I really think Darian is going to kidnap me?
Becky asked herself.

No, she didn’t. She didn’t actually think he was going to kidnap her, but did people normally think that when they left somewhere with someone?

Still, Becky pushed herself out of the seat and followed Darian out of the building.
I won’t go anywhere else with him.
She promised herself.

By now the sun had set. She hadn’t realized how long she had been in there until now. She looked around. There were cars rolling down the street around them.

“So, what was it you wanted to show me?”

Darian looked around. He reached out and took her hand in his. “This may be… hard on you.”

“Hard on me?”

What the hell was he talking about.

His fingers tightened around Becky, pulling her closer to him. She gasped, trying to pull away as his arms wrapped around Becky. Her heart raced. She tried to push away from him.

He didn’t budge. He just stayed there, holding onto her. His hands felt like cold prick against her body.

Oh god.
She thought, panic setting.

Everything started to spin and her head got light. Dizziness, everything looked like it was spinning. She felt her knees go weak.

Darian held her in his arms, keeping her up right. She tried to push against him, but she could feel herself growing weaker.

Her feet felt like they left the ground for a fraction of a second. She closed her eyes, her stomach turning. She resisted the urge to puke, suddenly glad she hadn’t eaten.

His arms let go of her and Becky fell to the ground. She gasped, her butt hitting the ground. Pain seared through her.

“What the fuck?!” She shouted, her eyes locking on the man in front of her. “What did you do to me?!”

Becky could feel her heart pounding in her chest.

Thump. Thump. Thump.

What had she gotten herself into?

“Look around.” Darian gave her a soft smile.

Becky looked around, forcing herself to look away from the man in front of her. She could still feel her heart racing.

Oh god.

She looked around. They were no longer outside the place they’d first met.

“What the hell did you do?” Was this some kind of trick?

It had to be a prank, an elaborate prank.

There was no way this was real.

Women walked around in kimonos. The buildings… they looked like they were out of the Fung Cue movies that Becky’s Ex had always loved watching. Her jaw dropped.

Somehow no one seemed too nice them.

“Can… how can this be real?”

“Come on, we need to get… somewhere, then I’ll explain everything, but if they see us…” He motioned out to the people. “That will ruin everything.”

Ruin? What was she ruining? She didn’t get it.

Darian held his hand out to her. She didn’t see any other option, so she took it.
I mean, I can’t just sit here. If this is a prank I’ll make him admit it to me.

Her heart sank in the pit of her stomach. She’d thought he was actually interested in her. She’d thought that he
liked
her. But now here she was the butt of a bad joke.

Becky felt tears string her eyes. Despite the throbbing pain in her butt she knew it was something deeper- thought she’d never admit that.

Darian grabbed her wrist and pulled her along the streets.

“Don’t touch anyone.” He ordered.

Because that’s not common knowledge.
Even if this was a prank, she had to play along in order to slip him up.

“They can see you if they really try right now, but most of them are too focused on living their own lives. They’d have to look deeper than most people are willing to do.”

“What do you mean?”

Darian took a deep breath and fell silent.

He thought he’d be able to do this. To explain everything, but here he was trying, and failing.
How am I supposed to explain it?
He stopped in front of an ally and turned down it. He looked through the window of a house. No one was there.
Good.

Darian opened the door without any effort- really, no one kept their doors locked in this time, if they even had locks.

He turned to face the woman behind him and stared at her. His eyes locked on her green eyes and he felt himself let go of her.

“What I mean, is that there is a whole other world out there. One that most people can’t see. Some can, but normally it takes effort from them, they have to concentrate and focus their will. They have to
try
to see that world, and most people don’t want to.”

Her brow furrowed as I padded into the house. It was small, hardly even a house.

“Look around you, Becky. What do you see?”

Clay plates, a small wooden table, cots instead of beds.

“I...”

“It’s not the time you grew up in, it’s not even the country. We’re years in the past.” She didn’t say anything for a long time. She just stood there, frozen, staring at me.

“How can you expect me to believe that?”

Danial knew she was right. There was no way he could expect, or even ask, her to believe him.

“Look around you.”

She didn’t. Her eyes locked on mine.

“Why are you doing this?”

It had to cost money, it had to cost a lot of money to put on this show so why were people doing it? It was stupid.

“Becky, I’m not doing anything.”

“Then how did you do this.” She waved her hard around, motioning to everything around them.

“I… I can time travel.” His eyes locked on her and he stared.

Becky started at him blankly. “You’re full of shit.” She muttered breathlessly. How did he actually expect her to believe that?

She looked around. She had to still be dreaming, right?
I totally forgot this was a dream.
She took a deep breath looking around. She had to admit, it looked good- it looked authentic.

It wasn’t overtly pretty like a lot of things would be these days.

It was simple, most of the house was dirty. She looked outside. There were still people walking outside, in groups and alone.

“I wish I could tell you otherwise… I wish you would believe me.” He blew out a deep breath. “No one else had this much trouble.” He muttered, more to himself than her.

“Trouble with what?” Becky raised an eyebrow.

“Their-” He paused and forced a smile over his lips. “No point in worrying about that. Let’s find you some clothes.”

Becky’s eyes widened. “What’s wrong with my clothes?”

“You’re in ancient Japan.” He gave her a soft smile. “If we were going to a Nine Inch Nails concert it would be fine, but we’re not quite in the time of sweatshirts and jeans.”

“What about you?” She raised an eyebrow.

“I’ll be fine. I normally get by with what I’m wearing.” He looked around. “I might need a different coat though.” He muttered.

Without another word he walked over to the beds and rummaged around. After a couple of seconds he pulled out a green silk kimono. “This will have to do.” He gave her a smile and tossed it over to her. She stared at him as she caught it.

“I’m...” She was still trying to process everything. He wanted her to steal someone's clothes? She stared at him, her jaw dropped. “Wait, you expect me to change when you just
stand
there?”

He stared at me blankly, then laughed.

“Of course, I will turn around.”

Becky watched him closely as he turned his back on her. She slipped out of her clothing quickly, not even sure why she was doing it.
Just go with it. If it’s a dream it’s going to happen anyways.

But this dream… she took a deep breath and closed her eyes.

“This isn’t a dream, is it?”

Could she really be willing to admit that there was something more going on here?

“No. It’s not.”

Becky didn’t faint. She didn’t scream, or even try to deny it. Her heart didn’t skip a beat. She just stood there taking it all in.

How could this not be a dream? Or some prank. How could this be real? She was in…
No.
She forced herself to look out the window. The costumes, no not costumes- it was clothing. It looked so beautiful.

She stared down at herself. She looked beautiful in it. She crossed over to the window and peered out at the people passing.

“How is this possible?”

“Come for a walk with me?”  Darian asked, following her to the window. “We um, shouldn’t stay here too long in case someone comes back. We got lucky that no one was in here to begin with.”

He was right. It was past dark, and despite that there were people outside walking around.

“Alright.” Becky didn’t need to know what was going on to know that he probably didn’t own this house.

She let Darian take her hand again and lead the way out of the house.

She took a second to look around. Dirt road. How had she not noticed that before? The road outside the cafe wasn’t dirt. Someone wouldn’t be able to fake that in a prank.