Unlocking Adeline (Skeleton Key) (27 page)

I
n high school science we learned about Einstein and his theories about space and time. The whole speed is faster than light theory. How in some messed up way they were also relative. Per the crazy scientist, an object in motion can actually experience time at a slower rate, even when traveling in a light speed pace. I didn’t believe much of this when I was sixteen. I came home one day telling my dad how they needed to re-evaluate that crazy man’s theory. How was it that a universe could rotate on different speeds but all live on the same galaxy just in a slower rate? And how do people believe that? I remember him sitting me down and explaining that in different worlds, they all lay on the same axis just different realms. He told me that as the Earth rotates one way at a speed, other realms rotate the opposite. So there are times, just as the sun and the moon cross over, that certain realms collide. And it allowed for people to cross over. Now you can imagine the look of complete confusion on my face, because whatever he said to me made absolutely
no
sense or had it anything to do with Einstein’s theory. Because what the heck did realms have to do with it? After catching himself in his thoughts, he brushed me off, telling me, that sometimes I just had to believe that there were other worlds out there.

I had to believe that I was also going to fail science.

As Farah pushed me through the door that night, everything in my life took on a slow motion affect. I remember tumbling into my living room, but instead of it being nighttime, it was daylight out. I remember hearing someone ask who was home, and my dad finding me on the floor bleeding terribly. I remember him running to me, but in slow motion. It felt like he was never going to get to me. As he turned me over and saw my wounds, I screamed. The pain was unbearable as it shot through my side. All I could hear were the hollow echoes of my dad’s voice, as he screamed for my mom. I thought about how happy I was to finally see her. That I couldn’t wait to ask her how she was feeling. But the moment her slow moving form entered the living room, her facial expression gutted me. She didn’t look like a mom who was still well on her way to recover. As she looked at her daughter, bleeding out on their living room floor, she looked horrified.

I wanted to tell her it was going to be okay; that I would be fine. But of course I knew better. The way the world was working around me I was not fine. The only thing I was thinking about was how Einstein may have been on to something. Time slows when your life is flashing at the speed of light before you.

“Call 9-1-1!” I heard my dad scream. His muffled words slowly came out. I knew he was going to try and save me, but I wasn’t sure that was possible. I recall feeling his warm hands on my cheek, begging me to stay awake. Making me empty promises that everything was going to be okay. I loved my dad. He was trying to keep me from being scared, because that’s what dad’s do. They lie and pretend everything is going to be okay so their offspring feel protected.

I closed my eyes, and when I opened them again, I saw my mom on the floor next to my dad. She was holding my hand. I smiled at the small feel of her hands. How no matter how much my dad poked at her, she was never able to gain enough weight. How they always said I would be just like my mother, light as an angel. I remember squeezing her hand and reciting that phrase. I remember her breaking down into sobs. I wished I didn’t say it. I didn’t want to upset my mom. I just missed her. I was just so tired.

I closed my eyes once again, and the next time they opened, I was surrounded by people. Paramedics. I recalled one trying to stop the bleeding, and another trying to place a mask over my mouth. I wanted to tell them not to worry about it, that it’s not worth it because I wasn’t going to make it, but when I opened my mouth to talk they covered it with a mask. I bellowed when they lifted me, because my side hurt like a bitch. The slowness of everything in my world at that moment was painfully hard to digest. I just wanted everything to speed up. But it didn’t. The only time I had felt any sort of relief was when I closed my eyes, but then I got yelled at to keep them open. Finally, I decided that I was old enough to make my own decisions so I closed them.

And I kept them closed.

When I finally wake up, I have no sense of time. I don’t know how long I’ve been sleeping, but the slow beep of a machine has me opening my eyes. I turn to see my mom and dad. They are talking to a doctor. My mom is crying. Everything is still so slow, and I struggle to understand what he is saying, but I get the gist.

“We were unable to stop the infection,” I hear the doctor say. I watch my dad comfort my mom while she cries harder into his shoulder.

“—The coloring is something we’ve never seen. We have tried everything. Her body is fighting the antibiotics. Every time we give her something, she seizes. I’m sorry. There is nothing else we can do.”

I want to sit up and tell everyone that I am fine, but when I try to speak, nothing comes out. When I attempt sit up, as much as I feel my body moving mentally, my arms and legs stay still. I don’t know what’s wrong with me. Am I already dead? Stuck in-between death and heaven? Where the afterlife lingers until I am sent up to heaven?

It saddens me that I’m not going to be able to say goodbye to my parents. Tell them that I love them both. Tell my dad I’m not mad about what he did. That I understand. I want to tell him stories of his home and the people I met. Tell him about his hurting mother.

I think about Locke. About us. I wish I was able to tell him I was sorry for giving up so easily. I should have never just let him push me away. I should have done a better job of warning him about Farah. He may not have wanted me, but if I was able to leave him with one thing, it was to know that he was wanted, by me. All of me.

I feel like I simply blink, but when I open my eyes once again, the doctor is gone and my parents are both next to me. “What do you mean, the key? Did she have it?” That’s my mom. I can tell her sweet voice even through the echoing slowness.

“It was next to her on her on the floor. I need to take her back. That’s the only way she has a chance to survive.” My dad’s voice a muffled echo.

“But, Richard, you can’t. Look what they did to her. They will just kill her.”

“If I don’t, she is already dead. It’s the only way.”

My last thought is to beg, because I don’t want to go back. He doesn’t want me there and I no longer want to be his burden.

T
he constant banging of reconstructing the woodshed chips away at my sanity. Each thrust of the hammer, or the digging, is a slam to my pounding head, reminding me of the poor choices I made with the whiskey last night. And the night before that. But the reason why I took down the whole bottle comes to mind and my anger sets in tenfold.

The only woman I ever let in and she tricked me. Embedded herself deep inside me and tore out my insides. I was willing to give her everything: a life where she would want for nothing. She would never be sad again, under my protection. I would show her every damn day how important she had become to me. All the emotions I couldn’t even explain to myself yet. But I would show her. Love her.

But the whole time, behind my back, she had been making plans to betray me.
This is yer fault. Ye threw her at yer brother.
I dip my head down, trying to rub out the throbbing headache in my temples. I told her she would be a better fit with him. Now I’m gutted that she chose him.
But I just thought after what we had shared. What she gave me.
I couldn’t bear to listen to any more of her excuses. Her lies. I couldn’t get the image that Farah built for me out of my head. So I shut down and allowed the anger to take its course. I did the one thing I knew she would want. I gave her an out, and she took it.

My eyes blaze again at the thought. She left me. I gave something to her and she broke it. My trust. I said some bastard things to her. I helped push her out the door. But I couldn’t think straight after all that Farah had told me: rumors that she had chosen him and bragged about it around town. She had been with my brother.

The puzzling part that I couldn’t piece together was I did go to see Greta. She confirmed Addie had been with her all night.
But why would Farah lie to me?
It still didn’t explain the poison. She stood there acting innocent, as if only I was to blame. How could she run off with my brother after giving herself fully to me? Giving me the purest gift.

She’s no innocent
.

I anger myself more at the thought. Then after everything, she expected me to wrap her up in sweet endearments, believing her and begging her to stay. Did she think I would confess my love for her? That… that… I can’t even bring myself to call her something negative. I slam my hands on the wooden surface, throwing the papers off my desk.

She just left. After everything, and I can’t even bear a negative name for her. More banging sounds, this time, from the closed Captain’s door.

“Oh heavens, what do ye want?!” I yell.

The door opens and my brother walks through, as leisurely as a normal summer’s day. “I must say, Brother, ye have been quite the treat these past few days. Have ye not been feeling well?” he pokes.

“And what’s it to ye?” I busy myself with tidying up my desk. I can’t bear to look at him. I can’t bear the image of him touching her, smelling her. Everything only I was meant to do.

“I was actually just going to point out that maybe ye should go find her and force her back here,” he suggests.

“Why? So ye can continue yer courtship? Have more secret hideaways with her? If ye want her, then ye go get her,” I bark, wanting to smash my fists into his pretty face.

It doesn’t help my anger that he begins to laugh. “Secret hideaways? And where do ye get this humorous nonsense from?” The fire in my eyes answer for me. “Ahhh, the nightly disappearing act. She didn’t tell ye, did she?”

“Tell me what, that she was spending her nights doing God knows what with ye? No, she didn’t need to. She was caught and forced to admit it. Not that she did that either.”

He laughs again, and I snap. “Ye will not be laughing when I put my fist through yer nose. Now unless ye have something of importance to say to me, GET OUT!”

“Oh, Brother, I must admit that I find it gratifying to finally see ye in love with a woman. And yer one lucky bastard that it’s her.”

“I do not time have time for riddles, Brother. Ye won, now leave.”

“Oh, Lockelan, she knows I’m not her match. She’s known for some time. Mother told her the first day she was here. Only the chosen ones who bear the mark will be bonded together. It’s never been about who wins. She knows it’s always been ye. And she knows my heart lies with Maria. The other night, she covered for me so I was able to spend the night with her, and not look like the fraud taking up a mistress before I am even done messing with ye.”

My chest tightens. My hands clench tightly to my sides, I can probably snap a bone in my own hand. “So what are ye saying?” I demand.

“That Addie chose ye, a long time ago. She knew I was just a decoy to get ye to open yer damn eyes. She went along with it, because ye were being such an arse. She enjoyed poking at ye some, which I actually found admirable in her. She chose to stay, did ye know that? Or did ye chase her off with yer unkind words before she was able to tell ye? Poor lass was scared ye would turn her down. But I told her ye would be relieved to hear her decision. That ye would practically fall to ye knees for her. I guess I was wrong with that, aye?”