Chapter XVII
Duncan stopped in the town of Grisdale, Washington at the general store and went inside to buy some supplies. He and Caitlin had left the cabin and returned to Seacouver two weeks before her disappearance because they had decided to put her Seacouver house up for sale and it needed to be made ready. Four months after she disappeared and Duncan had followed a lead that took him to Germany, Methos and Amanda had gone to the cabin, removed all of the perishable food and covered the furniture. He had not been back to the cabin since returning to the States. So he knew that he would need just about everything.
With his shopping completed and the trunk and back seat of the T-Bird full of groceries and other household items, Duncan headed out of town. A few miles down the road he slowed the T-Bird and leaned forward as he looked for his turn off.
Duncan brought his car to a stop as soon as he turned onto the dirt road. He opened the car door, stepped out and walked a few feet in front of the T-Bird. He squatted down and examined the newly flattened foliage. Since this road was not a public road nor was it used by the Forestry Service as a fire road, the evidence that someone had been on the road...and recently, too...alarmed him. Just before he and Caitlin had returned to Seacouver, they had found evidence of poachers in the forest surrounding the meadow when Caitlin had come across the remains of a young wolf that had been caught in a steel trap.
He stood up and brushed the dirt off of his hands and looked down the road. A part of him hoped that he would catch a poacher daring to set traps in their forest. He'd see that they never poached ever again. He got back in his car and proceeded to ease along the five miles of road to the meadow.
Duncan stopped suddenly at the edge of the meadow and stared in disbelief. Across the stream, almost in front of the cabin was a car he had never seen before. He scanned the meadow for any signs of its owner but saw no one.
Slowly he drove across the bridge. As he pulled up behind the car he felt the buzz of another Immortal. Instinctively, his hand dropped to his Katana, but then he brought it back up. The meadow was Holy Ground and no Immortal could fight here. But as he got out of the car he grabbed his sword anyway...just in case this Immortal didn't follow the rules of the Game.
As he passed the other car he set his hand on the hood. It was cool indicating that it had been there awhile. If he hadn't felt the Immortal buzz he might have assumed it to be abandoned That's when he noticed that the front door of the cabin was not closed all the way.
Duncan stood looking at the front of the cabin in shock. Somewhere deep inside of him a small voice was telling him to get back in his car and return to Seacouver. He was tempted to listen to the voice because it had been a long time since he fought another Immortal and since his "vacation" at the bottom of a bottle of booze had depleted a good chunk of his strength, he wasn't sure how well he'd fair if this Immortal chose to fight him. But he did know that he wouldn't make it easy for them. He decided not to listen to the voice and cautiously walked toward the cabin.
Kelly sat straight up and looked around, her vision blurred from sleep. At first she wasn't sure what woke her but then it didn't seem as important as the fact that she didn't know where she was. She swung her legs over the side of the bed and looked around and then it all came back to her, and she realized that she had fallen asleep after an emotional breakdown and..."Oh my God," she whispered a look of horror on her face. What had woke was an Immortal buzz which meant the owner of the house must be here.
Kelly looked around the room almost in a panic. Her sword was in the car and she could see nothing with which to defend herself. The bay window didn't open nor did the smaller windows on either side of the bed so there was no escape. The only way out was down the stairs. She was trespassing and the owner had every right to defend her home. The confusion, fear and frustration of the last seven months had taken its toll on her brain. She disparately tried to come up with a plan and all she succeeded in doing was allowing an opening for panic to set in...and it almost did when she heard the sound of a car door close. But she was able to react at the first hint of an idea.
Kelly dashed down the stairs, intending to escape through the kitchen and out the back door. She made it down the stairs, across the doorway and past the fireplace but halfway across the second doorway, the front door creaked and out of the corner of her eye she saw it swing open. She knew she wasn't going to make it.
At that moment her foot caught the edge of the area rug under the dining room table and she lost her balance. She struggled to stay on her feet, which she did, however, she did stagger up against one of the dining chairs, which turned on its casters and hit the table. It turned with the force of her weight pushing it one way and the table pushing it another. It came to a stop with the front of the seat up against the back of Kelly's knees. Gravity pulled her backward another step but her knees hit the chair and she immediately and unexpectedly sat down hard in the chair.
Kelly's reflexes were slow and by the time she reacted and started to get up from the chair, there was a silhouetted person, obviously a man, standing in the doorway between the living room and dining room/study where she was.
Kelly tried one more time to get to her feet She was successful and managed to stand and step away from the table and put the chair between her and the Immortal standing about eight feet away from her.
When Duncan pushed the front door open he caught movement in the study out of the corner of his eyes and when he stepped across the threshold a shadowy figure stopped in the doorway between the living room and the dining room/study. He couldn't see more than a shadowy silhouette because most of the front and back walls of the cabin were actually large floor to ceiling windows and the way the light played throughout the two main downstairs rooms you had to be almost on top of someone to see their features. A shiver ran up his spine as he looked at the small silhouette and was reminded of his nightmare from a couple of nights before.
He began to move toward the silhouette when it tried to turn away and stumbled, falling into the dining table and ended up sitting in one of the dining chairs. By the time he reached the doorway it had gotten to its feet and put a chair between them.
At first he could only stare in surprise when he was able to see who it was. The girl in front of him was the same girl in the pictures in the newspaper and the same girl that had taken his head in his nightmare. Duncan's hands trembled as he stepped further into the study, closer to the girl who looked like a deer caught in the headlights of an oncoming vehicle.
His eyes looked her over from head to toe, taking in every feature. He saved her eyes until last. When he did rest his gaze on her eyes he felt a rush of dizziness wash over him as if he had stepped under a waterfall of warm water. He almost had to grab on to something to keep from falling, but as suddenly as the dizziness had appeared it disappeared. He finally found his voice and raised one hand as if surrendering.
"Who...are you and why are you in my house?" He asked. He needed to hear her voice to be sure. He took a couple more steps closer. The girl moved back pulling the chair with her and keeping it between them. She was definitely terrified.
The silhouette moved toward her and she moved back keeping the chair between them. When he stopped again he was standing in the light from the study windows and she could see who he was.
Not more than six feet in front of her stood the man in the wedding photograph upstairs and the man in all of the dreams, nightmares and "visions" she'd been having for the past seven months.
"You!" Kelly said then, "Who are you?" And she almost added, "and why are you haunting me?" but didn't.
Although she had answered his question with a question, Duncan had his answer. The frightened girl in front of him was his wife. He knew it with every fiber of his being. There was only one problem. She didn't know him. There was no real recognition in her eyes. To the girl in front of him, he was a complete stranger.
Duncan managed to shove his emotions down deep inside allowing logic and common sense to guide his actions.
"I am Duncan MacLeod of the Clan MacLeod," he said in an even, steady yet soft voice.
TO BE CONTINUED