Specter~Chapter 12
To take her mind off Noah, Quinn spent the rest of Sunday afternoon doing research on the internet, trying to connect the dots between Lucinda Q Fabbrae, Samuel F Evans, Arthur Abrams, Rachel Berry, and Finn Hudson. She deduced that the five of them were friends to some degree. She found a history of Battenfield online and looked through old school pictures from the simply named Battenfield School. The class of 1852 was comprised of all the children in all grades. Someone had captioned the picture online with the names of the children.
She noticed that Lucinda and Rachel were side by side with the three boys behind them, all five of them smiling broadly like they were in on some secret joke or something. It was a better picture of Sam; she could see his hand resting on Lucinda's hip. She even noticed Finn Hudson's stepbrother, Kurt Hummel, in the group, looking incredibly bored but impeccably dressed.
She found pictures of Rachel Berry's father, alongside Hiram Berry, at Battenfield's only theater, along with Rachel on stage performing. There were pictures of Finn Hudson's stepfather, Bert Hummel and his son Kurt, at the wagon shop. A dark curly-haired short boy stood next to him, smiling, with funny pointed eyebrows; he was listed as B Anderson. She had not noticed him in the school picture.
To Quinn, they seemed to be a close-knit group of kids in 1852. It must've hit them all hard after the shipwreck and the loss of Sam and Finn. No wonder Artie felt responsible and took Lucinda and Rachel in under his wing after the tragedy.
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She had been working outside on the back patio until she realized the shadows were getting longer, the breeze a bit cooler after the rain had passed, and her laptop battery was dying. She went inside and cleaned up the disastrous lunch from earlier and put together a quick supper and took it upstairs to the suite after setting the alarm. As she climbed the staircase in complete silence, she realized that living in this estate was something she could definitely become accustomed to.
She got comfortable in the suite with the TV turned on for some background noise while eating her turkey sandwich. She picked up some Xerox copies from the library research she did and stared intently at the picture of the crew of the Lizzy Dean. She hit mute on the TV.
"Who is with me? Who scared Noah today? Is it Arthur Abrams because I'm sleeping in your bed? Rachel Berry, again because I'm sleeping in Artie's bed? Finn Hudson? Sam Evans? Lucinda Fabbrae? Who is here with me?" Quinn asked quietly.
She had opened windows in the suite and pushed aside the heavy drapes; a gentle breeze picked up the sheers at the windows and billowed them out into the room. Quinn scooted up against the pillows on the bed and waited.
Sam sat down on the edge of the bed. She had no idea he was that close unless he reached out to her. He stared at her, a beautiful modern-day version of his Lucinda.
"Is it you, Artie?" she asked. Nothing.
"Finn?" Nothing.
"Rachel?" Nothing.
"Lucinda?" Nothing.
"Sam?" He reached for her hands then. She felt the coolness grip her hands, run up her arms to her shoulders.
He leaned into her then, closely, and touched his lips to hers. Her eyes slowly closed to the cool feeling.
She shivered at the feeling on her lips, knowing now who it was, knowing he was kissing her. The feeling coursing through her was icy hot…unusual yet pleasurable.
She opened her eyes and found herself staring back into a pair of blue-green eyes. She broke the kiss, completely terrified, and pushing herself up and off the bed, falling to the floor, watching the apparition of Sam dissipate without her lips on his. The look in his eyes in those brief seconds was one of worry and fear, scared that he had pushed too far. He now knew what would make him appear to her, though.
Quinn was terrified by what she had seen and what she had felt. Kissing him made him appear to her; she could suddenly see him. Before she broke the kiss, she had seen shaggy sandy blonde hair, those incredibly sexy yet lonely blue-green eyes, a funny nose, and full pink lips. When she freaked out and pushed herself off the bed, though, she trembled as she watched the apparition disappear into thin air. Of all the things that had happened to her since coming to the estate, this, by far, was the scariest thing she had experienced.
She pushed up off the floor and sat in an armchair in the corner of the room, her arms wrapped around herself as if she needed to be held.
"Sam? What happened?" she asked, her voice shaking and barely audible.
He floated over to her, kneeling before her. She felt the coolness on her knees, creeping upward, up her thighs, to her wrists, forearms, to her upper arms and finally resting on her shoulders. This time, she made herself relax and found comfort in the cool sensation, waiting for it to land on her lips again, waiting for him to kiss her again.
He moved his hands from her shoulders to her neck, kissing her softly. He needed her, needed her to breathe life into him.
She had to stay calm as she kissed him and he began to appear before her…she needed to stay calm.
As they kissed, the coolness that was his lips gave way to the warmth of his full mouth on hers…she then felt his fingertips on her skin and she hesitantly reached to him…resting her hands on his shoulders.
She could feel him.
It was intense…there was no doubt about that. Her heart pounded as more and more of him appeared before her. He was wearing a white cotton shirt, black pants, boots…what he had been wearing the night he died.
He couldn't let her break the kiss.
"Please…" he whispered, his voice cracking.
She sucked in her breath.
"Don't stop kissing me…" he said to her, their eyes locked on one another.
With his mouth on hers, he quietly murmured, "Lucindy, it's me…"
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She was confused. She wasn't Lucinda Fabbrae! She was Quinn Miller.
"My name is Quinn…I'm not Lucinda…" she mumbled against his lips.
"I think you are…just look in the trunk…" he replied.
I need to pinch myself or scream or wake up! Wake up Quinn! Wake up! she thought feverishly. This can't be real…it can't be happening.
"I've missed you so," he said, moving to press against her.
She pushed her hands against his chest, feeling the cotton of his shirt.
"We're wrong…you're wrong Sam…I'm sorry…" She broke the kiss and ran from the room, locking herself in her bathroom, looking at her wild-eyed self in the mirror. "This is all wrong," she muttered under her breath.
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He was disappointed…heartbroken…when she ran from him. He began to disappear again. Being able to kiss her again, just touch her and speak to her, had made his heart swell. He needed her.
"I think you scared her, Sam," Finn said, appearing alongside Sam. Sam had left the estate to not frighten or worry Quinn any more.
"It's Lucinda, though, I know it's her…she'll come around," Sam said.
"I can't believe you revealed yourself to her," Finn chuckled.
"You would've done the same, would you not? If it was Rachel?"
Finn mulled this over. "I s'pose…what was it like?"
Sam smiled. "Glorious…like nothing had changed…our connection is still there and very much alive…I just hope she comes to believe it."
Finn nudged him in the arm a bit. "I hope so too."
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Quinn finally came out of the bathroom and sat on the giant bed in her pajamas.
"Sam? Are you here?" she asked the room. Nothing happened.
"I'm sorry, Sam…I-I just don't know what to do or what to think or anything…please…"
Still nothing.
"Please don't hate me," she finally mumbled, turning off the lights and TV. She lay back on the bed to try to sleep.
He was back in the room, sitting in the arm chair she had crawled to earlier.
How could I ever hate you? he thought, watching her sleep. I've loved you forever.