“Please dinnae let me die down here alone. Please dinnae let me die down here alone.”
Tick-tock. Even without an actual clock to mark them, the seconds rang through her mind. Each one like the hourly tolling of the Balmoral clock tower in Edinburgh. Inanely she was reminded how the clock was always three minutes fast. Purposely so, to keep the travelers at the nearby station on time for their trains. Three minutes. One hundred and eighty seconds. She could only pray the travelers she was waiting for would be here in that small amount of time.
Heart knocking against her ribs, a cold sweat on her forehead and the nape of her neck, Aila counted off the seconds and tried to banish the darkness. Her fear.
One hundred and eighty came and went.
At two hundred and six, she heard an animated bark followed by a chiding admonishment.
Even while her heart soared and she blessed the wonders of math, she muttered under her breath, “Do I really sound like that?”
Rab’s excitement turned to vicious barking and Aila braced herself for action. A minute later, the chaos drew closer. Snarls and conversation. Then interestingly, Rab’s barking ceased suddenly. A feminine protest and the sniffing and scratching at the bottom of the door resumed with welcome and healthy enthusiasm. She choked back a sob of relief. “Oh, my sweet baby! Thank God.”
Light flickered beneath the gap. Then, “Open it.”
Aila gripped the dirk and sent up a silent prayer as the door swung open.
“In! In! Into that far corner with you, where I can see you.”
She shrank back into the shadows as the other her passed by dragging with her a far happier Rab. Then Derne’s gaunt profile. With a prayer for courage, Aila leapt onto his scrawny back and held the dagger to his neck. He staggered forward under the impact. His gun came up—
She should have gone for the heart. Bugger it, she was a bitch, not a killer. Either way, she couldn’t let Rab get hurt again. The tip of the dagger slid into his throat with the nauseating resistance of a dull knife through meat. Derne clawed at her hand and Aila swallowed hard and plunged it deep as she could. Blood spurted everywhere. He teetered to the side, turning to stare at her with astonishment on his skeletal face. The fight wasn’t completely gone from him.
“Get the gun!” she yelled at herself, forgiving the stunned expression on her face. Aila could only imagine what her other self was feeling right now.
Rab leapt into action first. He chomped down on Derne’s hand and the old man gurgled in a more beastly fashion than the dog had ever managed.
“Ye should have better acquainted yerself with the possibilities of time travel before ye left me in here,” she snarled into the man’s ear. “Ye’re done.”
She climbed off of him and retrieved the pistol. “Back, Rabbie.” She caught his collar and pulled him off, dropping to her knees to hug him tight. “Good lad. Ye’re such a good baby, aren’t ye?”
“What the actual fuck!” the other her finally exclaimed. “How did ye…? I…?”
“There’s a time travel device in that trunk there.” Aila pointed to the right one. “It’s his.”
“His! He’s from our time?”
“Nay, another, he said. Grab it and I’ll catch ye up.”
Derne convulsed, his breathing akin to gargling. He’d repeatedly called her a stupid girl and perhaps she was, but Aila couldn’t bring herself to finish him off. Either he’d drown in his own blood or from loss of the same. When the other her found the device — one far different than theirs — they retreated into the hall and locked the door behind them. Derne would live or die. When she found the others and returned with back-up, she’d find out which.
“Let’s get out of here.”
* * *
Never in her life had Aila ever had such a shock as she had turning around in that room to see herself attack Derne. According to her friend, Brontë had pulled the same stunt any number of times. She’d never mentioned how disconcerting it was.
To see another version of herself limping and looking like she’d been in a street brawl was beyond disturbing. So much that it took a minute for the shock to wear off and her mind to work again. “What happened? Where’s Rab?YerRab?”
“I think….” There were tears in her taut voice. “I think he died. Derne shot him several times. Let’s get out of this creepy nightmare and I’ll catch ye up before I—”
Fade away.
That had to be unsettling, too. Aila didn’t know how far in the future the other her had been before she turned back time, however once that time was reached, she would disappear to complete the time loop.
Bugger it, time travel was confusing. Beyond that, she’d never considered how distressing it could be.
They hurried back to the ladder and stared up at the opening with dismay. The portal was closed. Not even a splinter of light was visible.
