The next morning, Talim woke up just like people do in the movies when they wake up from a nightmare. She got up screaming. I, who miraculously did fall asleep at some point that night, had let my head rest on her. Naturally, when she got up, she caused a domino effect, in which I fell on the floor, and woke up.
It took a while before Talim realized what just happened. When she did, she apologized: "I'm sorry! Please, try to understand!"
"Well, it's not like I once woke you up in a better way!" was my response.
A little smile appeared on her face.
The lady of the house had heard both the scream and the thud. She got in the room to check.
"What happened here?"
"Nothing!" Talim replied, "I just had a bad dream!"
The lady understood, but when she saw me lying on the floor, I could tell she was having the wrong idea.
"Don't ask" I told her with a cynical tone.
"What have you two been up to? And don't think of lying to me!" she said.
Luckily, the stranger who had helped us before came in.
"Take it easy! They've come from far away, and the girl had fainted. Show some respect for them!"
The lady listened to her husband. She left the room, but kept looking stern at me. When the door was shut, I could hear the man say: "Why won't you fix them some breakfast?"
The lady replied: "Breakfast? It's two pm! If they would've gotten up earlier..."
Those two could go on like that for a while, so we didn't pay much attention to the rest of their conversation. Instead, I had some things to say to Talim.
"So about where..."
"I saw them!" Talim interrupted.
"You saw who?" I asked.
"Everyone who died here! I saw how they lived, how they were treated, how they were killed..."
That explained why her dreams appeared so intense. I tried to get her to keep her mind off it, but I had to do it slowly: "It must have been some nightmare!"
Talim hadn't finished just yet: "All the rage... it even surpasses the sword's evil! I can't sense it!"
I was about to tell her I had figured out a way to find the sword, but she still wasn't finished. "I can't deal with such power alone!"
I wasn't sure whether I liked the sound of that.
"You didn't leave me last night! I even felt your hand!"
I wasn't sure whether I should tell her I had let go at some point, she might misunderstand.
"Even when you let go, I still knew you were there! Your presence made my dreams bearable!"
Never before had anyone said something like that to me.
Talim still wasn't finished: "If we're going to do this, I really need your help more then ever."
There you have it, I thought to myself. A girl that's physically stronger than I am, needs my help. My protection maybe. I'm the only one of us two who knew I can't be of that kind of help.
"Look, Talim. I..." I started to speak, but she wouldn't let me finish.
"You won't leave me, will you!?" she pleaded.
Here I am, in the most haunted town in the world, where I can freak out every second, and I'm requested to help someone who would suit more as someone to guard over me rather than the other way around. I was not so sure whether I'm up for it, given all the ghost stories I've ever read. On the other hand, I didn't want Talim to feel insecure either. I looked into her eyes. She looked at me pleading. I wondered whether she could read the fear in my eyes. I looked away, and began to talk about my little discovery last night.
"Er... last night... I couldn't fall asleep!" I started, "I... er... I noticed that the fragments started to glow. I thought they did that because they were close to the sword. This way I may have found out where the sword is!"
"You have? Where?" she suddenly turned into a child waiting for a bedtime story.
"Myrtles Plantation!" I answered, "It's a so-called bed and breakfast. It is also known to be the most haunted house in America!"
"So if anywhere, we should be looking over there for the sword?" Talim asked.
"You sure you're up for it?" I almost tried to talk her out of it. I realize that I've seen many things before, but those are nothing compared to what I might see in that house.
"What are you so afraid of?" Talim asked, "You didn't sense their anger like I did!"
"No." I replied, "But I've read about that place! Hand prints appearing on the mirrors, some tune that someone keeps playing on the piano, objects that replace themselves, footsteps on the stairs, pictures that move,... I'm surprised that place is still active at all!"
"It still is?" Talim asked.
"Yes!" I said as if this were a disgrace of some kind.
"Then we can't just enter and do what we have to, can we?" she said as if she didn't hear what I just said.
This I didn't understand. She said she might not be able to handle any of this, and now she didn't seem to be afraid at all. If I were still a bit of a skeptic, I wouldn't even believe there was any ghost in that house. But Talim seemed so determined to get in, and find the sword. What was it that I could say?
