Dreamwalker's Bride - Chapter 224

Chapter 224: Strange memories
Mia bit her lip, desperately trying to listen to the conversation the men were having in the other room.

It was a futile endeavor, since the conversation in the kitchen was more than enough to keep her mind occupied.

“Why do you think the name sounds familiar to you?” Her mother was asking.

“I’m not sure. Uncle Trace said he knew him, but Martin sounds a little familiar to me, too. I just can’t place it. It’s like the memory is foggy.” Mia’s shoulders sagged, and she commenced washing dishes even though the sound of sloshing water would make it even harder to listen to what was being said in the next room.

“What memories do you have from when you were young?” Anaisa looked at her niece as she stepped up to the sink. “From back when I first came into the family.”

“I remember you coming to the farm the first time,” Mia smiled, then frowned. “Was Martin there?”

“No,” Anaisa shook her head. “What else can you think of?”

“It’s not important,” Sarah interrupted, but Anaisa frowned.

Mia paused. The next memory she had seemed somewhat blocked off. Should she plunge ahead? She glanced around. Her aunt, mother, and grandmother all busied themselves with kitchen tasks, but all were obviously paying attention to her as well.

It was a common thing when a serious conversation needed to be had, to take a walk or have a simple, thoughtless chore to engage in. Grandma said it lessened the tension because you didn’t feel the pressure to answer right away.

Mia was glad for that right now.

“I suppose… when you came to a dark cave. To get us.” She said quietly, the images just beyond her ability to grasp. “Was that just a dream? Was Martin there?”

“Tell me about the cave, from your memories. You were quite young, so I’d like to get a feel for what you know before I fill in any gaps in the events for you.” Anaisa glanced at Mia’s face with compassion, and Mia breathed a sigh of relief. It wasn’t a dream, it was real?

“We don’t need to go through this,” Sarah fretted. “It’s not good for her.”

“She may be old enough to handle it now,” Grandma advised. “If she can remember, let her.”

Mia was only halfway paying attention to them. Finally, the answers to these garbled, inconsistent memories she had of a peculiar time she slept in a cave!

“I remember arriving there.” Mia closed her eyes for a moment. “I was scared of some men with us, but I don’t know why. It was very dark. Darker than I’ve ever known it to be, anywhere. You and Uncle Trace came, and then we left with some other people.”

Anaisa nodded slowly, and looked at Grandma and Mia’s mother, as if asking for permission to tell more.

Sarah was the first one to speak up.

“We don’t need to go through this.”

“Please, Mama. Please tell me.” Mia pled. When her mother remained silent, her grandmother spoke.

“We were kidnapped, Mia. Some men came to our farm and took us prisoner, and then put us in that cave.”

The information hit Mia like a runaway horse.

“Kidnapped?”

The failure of her memory to keep such an important fact seemed like a betrayal. Were there other terrible things it was keeping from her??

“We were kept in that cave, I’m not even sure how long. We were brought meals and water, and a bucket for waste,” Grandma continued.

“Were we tied up? How did they keep us there? Why?” Mia’s heart was racing with adrenaline as flashing images filtered into her knowledge. “Why don’t I remember it all?”

“You were young, sweetheart,” Sarah wrapped her daughter in a hug. “It was scary, but you were not harmed.”

“Not harmed? Being imprisoned in a cave is not harmful?” Mia shivered.

“If this is too much, we can pause here and continue another time. You are in no danger now from anything that happened then,” Anaisa put a hand on Mia’s shoulder.

“No, I need to know everything, right now,” Mia pushed out of her mother’s arms. “I need to know.”

“Mia,” Grandma commanded her attention, but compassionately. “Breathe deeply. We will tell you, but not if it is going to send you into a panic attack.”

The young woman clenched her fists, feeling both hot and cold at the same time. Feeling as if she were lying against stone in the dark.

“We were tied up,” She realized. “On the journey. And blindfolded.”

It was as if her wrists could feel the bindings there all over again. She began shaking, her fingers grasping the places the ropes had been as if she could remove them now, over ten years later.

“Breathe,” Grandma encouraged.

“It was hard to breathe,” Mia remembered the closeness in the dark. “Why was it hard?”

“Martin kept you enclosed in small cave sections using his magic. He could move and shape stone.” Anaisa filled in quietly. “But you’re safe now. We talked to him, and he let you free.”

“Why?” Mia clenched her fists. “Why?”

The kitchen was quiet fora moment. Anaisa spoke again.

“When I married your uncle, it was because of a very bad man. A distant cousin of mine. Barnabas. He did many, many evil things, including briefly becoming the Count of Oakdown. He was responsible for your kidnapping, as part of a scheme to take over the kingdom.”

Mia was only half listening. Detached, broken images continued to flood into her mind. A man holding a knife to her mother’s throat while her father tried to reason with him. A fire in the cave, throwing creepy shadows on the walls and ceiling.

“Why didn’t you call for help, Grandma?” She asked. “The neighbors would have heard you.”

“I didn’t have magic yet, Mia. I got it in that cave. It went away, but came back slowly a year or two later.”

The information didn’t quite reach Mia in anything more than a vague sensation. Her chest was tight with panic, and the feeling of being trapped was beginning to overwhelm her.

She tried to control her breathing. It was getting harder.

“May I be excused?” She whispered. “I will finish the dishes later.”

“We’ll finish them,” Grandma assured her. “But I’m not certain you being alone is the best thing right now. You look very pale.”

“I’ll be fine,” Mia pasted a tight, stressed smile on her face for the sake of the others. She needed out, and quickly, with as little fuss as possible. “Grandma, would you mind dampening sound around me for a while? I’d like some privacy.”

Her mother looked concerned, but nodded. “You’re excused, Mia.”

The girl fled out the door before anyone could say another word.