Chapter 25
Echo was beaming from ear to ear as she held her fiancé's hand, walking next to him down the street. They were following some of the National Symphony Orchestra members headed for a local bar to celebrate.
Echo had planned on asking Daniel to marry her during the firework display but he had done that for her. She had Daniel's ring custom made for him in New York City in a small red velvet box tucked inside her cello case when they had walked up the block to the Capital Building that evening.
The couple had been offered a ride to the Capital, but both her and Daniel had declined. It was early evening, beautiful and clear, and Echo remembered how Daniel had been a bit nervous on their walk to the concert.
"Daniel," Echo had said, "what's wrong?"
Echo had been holding his hand and she felt him shivering a little bit as they walked hand in hand. Daniel had turned towards her, a big smile upon his face.
"Lassie," Daniel had said, "it's just that I'm nervous about tonight."
"Why?" Echo had asked, "We both know our parts. We can play them in our sleep."
Daniel had stopped walking and placed the violin case that he was carrying in his left hand on the ground. Releasing Echo's hand Daniel placed both of his hands on her shoulders, turning her around to face him.
"I know. Please don't worry about me," he had told her, "I know that we will be great. I just have other thing on my mind."
Daniel had then taken Echo into an embrace as he whispered into her ear.
"I love you lassie."
"I love you too," Echo had replied kissing him.
Echo squeezed Daniel's hand tighter and leaned her head onto his left shoulder. He turned his head her way and smiled at her. Bringing her right hand that he held in his left hand up to his mouth, he kissed it gently. Echo could clearly see the ring that she had given to him after her initial shock of what he had done wore off.
Daniel had shocked Echo to her very soul earlier that night. Echo let her mind wander back to that time. When the couple was done with their appearance on stage Daniel had escorted her off of the stage. After they had placed their instruments away he had taken her behind the stage to face the Washington Monument.
Placing Echo in front of him and wrapping his arms around her, Daniel laid his head onto her right shoulder. As he caressed the fingers of her left hand he spoke into her right ear.
"Echo," he said gently, "I love you very much. Love hasn't come easy for me. It all started the first day we met when you were eighteen and I was twenty-one in Central Park. I liked you back then. I liked your willingness to help me when I was lost. Showing me how to read the subway map but not hanging on my every move. You know now that I am uncomfortable when women do that to me, but you were different then. You didn't want anything from me. It wasn't until I joined the New Jersey Symphony Orchestra and Neeme Jarvi paired me with you for duets that I went from liking you to admiring you."
"It was then that I learned that you played three different instruments and that the cello wasn't your primary instrument that you started with."
"I remember coming in early for rehearsal one day and hearing this beautiful melody from the piano. I figured it was the guest pianist Orli Shaham when I saw the back of her long brown hair. But after I stopped in the doorway to the stage and watched, I knew it wasn't her."
"The way she played the piano was not right. I remember Orli Shaham's playing style when I sat in the first violin's chair, because I could see her back clearly. Ms. Shaham's playing was nuanced and well-crafted and she was well in sync with her colleagues."
"The woman playing the piano that day wasn't her. That woman's playing was graceful, very romantic, yet strong. Her body movements reflected the emotional content of the music, serenely confident, yet taking time to reflect."
"When the piece was finished I stood there clapping for her and to my surprise you turned around."
Daniel held Echo tighter and took a breath in, before slowly letting it out. Softly he spoke again.
"I stopped clapping when I saw the tears running down your face. I didn't understand then why your combination of "Danny Boy" and "The Fields of Athenry" left you crying, but I do now. When I went to step forward, to say that I was sorry, you took off running up the aisle of the theater. I remember it took Neeme Jarvi to find you as no matter where I looked I could not. He explained to me what had happened to your mum. Somehow in all of that I wanted to find out more about you. I wanted to be your friend."
"Echo you know that I'm sometimes selfish, a little insecure, and I make mistakes. I used to be much worse as a lad. My mum would always tell me growing up that if I wanted to find the right lassie that I had better look to myself first. I had problems that needed to be fixed."
"Daniel," she told me when I was a young teenager and being what she called a "wee beastie", "You are too selfish! You are only interested in yourself. You need to project yourself into the lives of others. Habits, good or bad; are not easily changed. No one is perfect, but trying to hide your selfishness from a potential girlfriend will only work temporarily. Inevitably it will break through and dominate."
"Your mother sounds like a smart woman," Echo said back.
"Aye, Mum is," Daniel replied, "You know it's not hard to find someone who tells you that they love you. Complete strangers tell me that all the time because they are infatuated with my looks. But it's really hard to find someone who actually means it."
"My mum once told me that if you meet a lassie in whose presence you feel a desire to achieve, who inspires you to do your best, and to make the most of yourself, such a lassie is worthy of your love and is awakening love in your heart."
"Echo, meeting you was fate, becoming your friend was a choice, but falling in love with you was beyond my control."
Daniel stopped talking and let silence fall between them. As he stood watching the firework display and listening to the sounds of the National Symphony Orchestra he knew that the time had come. He had to act now before the show capped off with a rendition of Tchaikovsky's "1812 Overtue" complete with live cannon fire. If he waited Echo would be unable to hear him. Daniel stopped caressing Echo's fingers and squeezed her hand before he released it. Quickly he reached into his pants pocket.
Echo could feel Daniel's body tensing up and then he released her hand. This was her chance, but before she could reach for the small handbag she carried Daniel had taken her left hand again in his. She felt him slipping something onto her finger as he spoke into her ear.
"Echo, if I could chose between loving you and breathing I would use my last breath to say I love you."
Daniel released Echo and gently turned her around to face him, kneeling on his right knee as he did so. Now in front of her, he could finally ask the question that he had been wanting to all night.
"My lassie; my love; Doctor Echo Eddington Spengler, will you marry me?"
"Echo," Daniel said bringing her hand away from his mouth, "are you feeling up to this?"
Echo was pulled away from her thoughts of Daniel's proposal.
"Yes," she said raising her head up and off of his shoulder.
"We don't have to do this," Daniel said indicating with a wave of his right hand the people in front of him, "we can go somewhere else to celebrate."
"Daniel," she replied, "as long as where we are going has a dance floor or billiard table I'll be fine."
"You do like dancing don't you?"
"Whenever I get the chance."
Daniel squeezed Echo's hand tighter as they followed the orchestra members around the corner.
Echo smiled. She would have to call her father and speak to him longer on Sunday afternoon. She had only touched base briefly with him when the firework display was over, but it had been too noisy for her to have an intelligent conversation with him.
After saying 'yes' to Daniel, Echo had clumsily opened her small red handbag to offer Daniel her ring.
"I was going to ask you first," Echo told him as she fumbled with the red box opening it accidentally upside down.
"Thank goodness Daniel caught the ring," Echo said to herself as they came to a stop outside a brown bricked building, "that ring would have been hard to replace."
When Daniel had caught the ring that had dropped from the box he had been surprised. He had expected Echo to give him a plain wedding band of silver or gold in color. Maybe a design on it like her father's Celtic ring, but what Echo had done spoke from her heart.
Echo's custom made ring indeed had a design on it but it wasn't Celtic. The design was a set of engraved violins and music notes that ran around the silver band. But what had surprised Daniel the most was the ruby red stone set in the center of the ring. The stone wasn't round in shape either, it was rectangle followed by the two violins on either side and the music notes after that.
Daniel knew that Echo hated the color red, yet he loved it. The ring showed how deeply she cared for him. This was true in another way too. Echo showed it even in the way she was dressed for the night too. Her dress of deep crimson red was something that she never would wear again Daniel knew as he released Echo's hand to dig into his pocket for his identification.
Daniel glanced Echo's way as she opened her handbag for her drivers license. She was a beauty to behold. Her close-fitting, off the shoulder gown was shirred from her bodice to the dropped waist and had ruffles on the edges. The left side panel of her dress was laced with a ribbon and her skirt was asymmetrical in length. The left side being shorter than the right. To complete the look Echo wore a medium heeled open-toed evening shoe and her long hair was expertly done up into curls which were bobby pinned into the top of her head to make a wavy updo look.
As Daniel retrieved his identification back he watched as Echo handed her drivers license over for inspection and noticed that one strand of her hair had come loose on their walk. Pocketing his identification Daniel reached over to tuck the loose strand back into the top of her head.
"Thank you," Echo said as she held still for Daniel to tuck the loose strand back in, "it wasn't meant to last the whole day."
"I should be thanking you," he replied.
"Why?" she questioned taking her drivers license back and dropping it into her handbag.
"You don't know?"
"Know what?"
"Oh lassie," Daniel said taking her hand once again into his, "you have given me everything tonight. The way you are dressed, the ring you had made for me, everything speaks from your heart. And yet the only thing I can give to you is my love. I couldn't even afford a ring for you."
"Daniel," Echo said squeezing his hand tight, "the ring that my father gave to you is more than enough. It is so special to me."
"Why?"
"Didn't my father tell you?"
"Tell me what?" Daniel asked, "Egon told me that the ring belonged to your mother. That is all."
"Yes, Daniel, this wedding ring did belong to my mother, but what you don't know is that both my father and I thought the ring was lost when she died."
Echo raised her head up and looked Daniel in the eye, "You see Mother put the ring on every morning before we left the house. The day that she was killed I saw Mother put the ring on before we left for NYC. When she dropped me off at Aunt Dana's apartment she still had it on."
"When the twin towers came down and the rescue workers went through the debris there were items found and returned to their next of kin. My father was hoping for anything from Mother, but nothing was found."
"So then how did Egon end up with it?"
"That's what I want to know," Echo said as she followed Daniel into the building.
Daniel could see that there was a counter with bar stools on one side and bench tables on the other. He followed the other orchestra members over to one of the bench tables and let Echo slide in first before he sat down next to her.
Daniel couldn't help but notice how the table that they were at had a glass counter top to it, but what impressed him the most was the original design of a sailboat's hull that made up the base of their table.
Having lived all of his life next to the ocean Daniel knew what the stripped out hull of a sailboat looked like all too well. This one had been diminished by years of neglect and probably boatyard scavengers, yet it was expertly redone into a beautiful work of art.
Looking up, Daniel glanced around the bar. In the back, through an open door, he could hear music and see people dancing. Smiling he knew that was where Echo and him would end up before the night was over. To his left was the bar's counter that was made to look like the side of a boat. The counter ran the length of the room with a gold colored foot rail on the bottom. The bar's counter was mahogany in color with a glossy finish worthy of a yacht. There was a sink and cabinets behind the bar also. The cabinets had nautical hardware like you would find on a boat, including sailing cleats. In the center, over the bar was a television, which had beadboard panels behind it. One of the orchestra members leaned across the table and spoke to Daniel.
"Mr. McQuarrie," he said, "I see that the bar has caught your eye. Just so you know Davita Nowland of "Nauticals of Marblehead" in Massachusetts designed that bar. The boat hull is salvaged from a 1952 Hinckley sailboat. Ms. Nowland is a nautical reclamation expert who specializes in transforming nautical salvage material into useful objects."
"She does beautiful work," Daniel said above the noise of the music as the orchestra member leaned back and motioned for the waitress to come over to their table.
Soon a heavily pregnant woman appeared before them. Daniel could see that she was dressed in black pants and a cream colored top with her red hair done up into a ponytail. She handed them menus and took their order for drinks. As she walked away Daniel couldn't stop himself from looking at her. He elbowed Echo in her side and indicated with his head what he wanted her to look at. He knew that here in the states pregnant women worked, yet something was wrong with the waitress.
Echo looked where Daniel was indicating and nodded her head in agreement. She knew that Daniel had always wondered why pregnant women had to work. She had explained that sometime there was no other choice. The problems of today's society forced many women out into the work force. Some because they wanted to be there and others out of necessity. This one looked like the latter. She was young, not yet thirty if Echo had to guess, but the thinness of her face and arms told Echo everything that she needed to know.
Having worked in the emergency room Echo had seen the lowest of human society come through its doors. Those too sick and poor to even afford health care, let alone having the money to buy food. She had seen a single mother and her three children come in one night when the mother was in labor. The oldest of her children was no more than ten years of age. The children hadn't eaten in two days and Echo made sure that they got some food. The whole family was homeless and living on the streets of NYC. She wasn't officially allowed to help the family because of her position at work, but unofficially she and her father had found out their story and had set them up with a trust fund anonymously.
The last time that her father and her had checked in on the family they were doing better. They now lived in a two bedroom apartment in Newark, NJ and the mother was working in a grocery store during school hours. Not the nicest of neighborhoods in Echo's eyes but the mother was just happy she had a room over her children's heads.
Leaning over, Echo spoke into Daniel's ear, "Live simply so other people can simply live."
Echo pulled her head away as Daniel turned her way. He knew what she was talking about and smiled at her. Above the Spengler's back door hung a wooden plaque. Engraved into the wood was a saying.
"Live simply so other people can simply live."
At first glance Daniel thought that the saying was a little difficult to grasp, but after looking at it and having Echo quote it, the saying became crystal clear as to what it meant. Echo would quote this saying to him when he wanted to buy something that wasn't a necessity of life. As he turned his head back to watch the waitress talking to the bartender he got a funny feeling. The bartender was much older than the waitress and it looked to him like they were arguing, but with the music playing Daniel couldn't hear them.
"Daniel in almost everything we do, there is an effect upon someone else in the world," his father told him one time, "Just being wise to this fact can separate you from the herd."
Even Echo had put it differently to him.
"I just want everyone to be able to live comfortably and mindfully, within their means, while having a minimal negative affect on the rest of the people on this planet."
Daniel watched as the waitress turned around and stormed away from the bartender. No matter what people did for a living, they were still people and had the same desires and dreams of anyone else. He shook his head and looked back to Echo. He knew that kindness began with just one person.
"We all share the earth together, regardless of age, creed, sex, or the size of our wallets," his mother told him once. "If we just do our best to keep that in mind and be kind to one another then we would all be better off."
Apparently the bartender didn't see it that way. Daniel had seen hatred in the man's face and he wondered what the man's problem was as he took Echo's hand into his.
"I don't like the look of our waitress," Echo said leaning into Daniel's ear so he could hear her.
"Why?" Daniel questioned back.
"She is too far along," Echo stated looking over the back of their bench table to see the waitress retreating out the front door.
"She is carrying her baby in her pelvis region," Echo said when she brought her head back to Daniel's ear, "that's a sure sign that she is going to go into labor sooner than later."
"I want to talk to her," Echo said as she motioned for Daniel to get up, "I just want to make sure that she is okay."
"Do you want me to come with you?" Daniel asked as he got up to allow Echo room to get out.
"I'll be fine," Echo stated kissing Daniel before turning to walk towards the front door, "just save a dance for me."
"Haste ye back!" Daniel called after her.
Echo stopped walking and turned back towards Daniel and smiled. He had lived in the states for many years and still he didn't know how to say goodbye to her.
"I will," she called back before she headed out the door.
A cool wind stirred Echo's hair and a strand came loose to cross her eyes temporarily blinding her. Taking her right hand she pushed the strand back and tucked it behind her right ear. She couldn't see the waitress at all and didn't know where she could have gone. Turning to her left she saw an alleyway between the two buildings and started walking towards it.
As Echo neared the alleyway she thought she heard a faint crying sound and slowed her pace. She came to a full stop and turned to face the darken alleyway. To her right was a large green garbage bin and to her left sitting on a cement step, outside a door to another store, was the waitress that Echo had been looking for. The waitress was indeed crying with her knees drawn up to her chest and her head buried between them. Not wanting to scare her away Echo called out.
"Hello?"
The waitress looked up, startled that someone had found her, and quickly got to her feet.
"Can I talk to you?" Echo asked as she took a step forward, "I'm a doctor. I want to make sure that you're okay. You look like you are going to have that baby soon."
The waitress held still for a moment, but when Echo took another step towards her she turned around and fled down the alleyway.
"No!" Echo called out, "Wait! I just want to talk to you!"
Echo went to follow the waitress but when she took another step forward into the darkened alleyway she hesitated. A cold, dark, menacing feeling came over her and she couldn't move. Echo felt something, someone, watching her from the alleyway but all she saw was the waitress turning the corner at the end of the building.
Paralyzed Echo felt a presence come up behind her. She could feel its breath on the back of her neck. Everything inside of her screamed to get away and yet she couldn't move. Then just as suddenly as the presence had appeared it disappeared and she felt something grab her left arm.
Echo screamed and tried to get away realizing that she could now move.
"Echo," a voice said that she knew, "it's me, Daniel."
Echo turned towards the voice, relief flooding over her as she threw herself into Daniel's arms. He gathered her into his chest and held her tight.
"Echo," he said, "I'm sorry I startled you. I thought you heard me calling you. You've been gone an hour."
Echo shivered in Daniel's embrace. There was no way that she had been gone an hour. By her recollection she had only been gone for five minutes. Ten at the most, but she wasn't wearing a watch tonight. Was Daniel correct in his assumption?
"Are you sure Daniel?" Echo questioned as she felt him start to guide her back to the bar.
"Yes," he replied, "The waitress came back to take our food order so I figured you were done talking to her. When you didn't come back I asked the waitress if she had seen you and she told me no."
"That can't be right," Echo replied as she raised her head up off of Daniel's chest to walk by his side.
"I just saw her a minute ago. Right there!" Echo said taking her hand away from Daniel to point behind her.
"Echo," Daniel said as he stopped walking.
Turning around and taking her face into his hands he continued, "I'm telling you the truth. You've been gone an hour and I got worried. What were you looking at down the alley?"
Echo dropped her eyes to the ground and shivered. She hadn't been looking at anything in the alleyway, but what she had felt had been a physical feeling of dread. She knew that something had her, but she was unable to do anything about it.
From her dealings with her father's work Echo knew that there was a spiritual realm which shared space with the physical world and that the two seemed to cross paths now and again. These paranormal apparitions would interact with living beings in either a good or negative way. When the spook, specter, poltergeist, or phantom began to terrorize people that's when her father and his friends went into action.
But her past experiences with the supernatural was in no way what she had felt tonight. And she just couldn't explain to Daniel what had happened to her just now either.
"Nothing," Echo finally said looking up into Daniel's eyes, "nothing at all. You just caught me daydreaming. That's all."
Echo smiled weakly at Daniel as he released her face and took her right hand into his.
"Come on lassie," he said as he started walking back towards the bar, "our food is getting cold."
"Alright," Echo replied as she rested her head onto his shoulder trying to push the feeling of impending doom from her mind.
Echo knew that she wanted to talk to Peter later. He always seemed to help calm her troubled mind. As they neared the door to the bar she couldn't get the feeling that someone was watching her out of her mind. She stopped briefly in the doorway and glanced behind her. As before, nothing was there and she hurried through the door and into the bar.
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"Yer oot yer face!"
"What?!" Echo shouted back to Daniel.
Daniel just shook his head and tried to pull Echo away from the man that she was dancing with. She was very uncoordinated and louder than usual. Echo pulled away from Daniel and staggered back into her dance partner.
"She yours?" the man asked catching Echo before she crashed to the floor.
"Aye," Daniel replied reaching for Echo again only to have her duck under his arm and slip away from him.
"She's my fiancée," Daniel said sighing as he watched her stagger across the dance floor.
He had been trying to get Echo to go back to the hotel with him for ten minutes now and it looked like she wasn't going to be cooperating with him any time soon.
"She's trashed bro," the man said before turning and walking away.
"Aye that she is," Daniel muttered to himself.
Echo was feeling absolutely wonderful right now as she tried to skip across the dance floor turning around to see Daniel watching her. She wasn't quite sure where she was or why Daniel wasn't following her and it didn't matter. She was very relaxed and happy. "In fact extremely happy for the first time in my life," she thought. She felt confident that she could do anything and wanted Daniel to come and join her in a dance. Not thinking that he could hear her above the roar of the music she shouted at him.
"Oy, Daniel let's dance!"
Daniel watched as Echo turned around and tried to climb up on one of the pillars in the middle of the room. "How did this happen?" he asked himself. He was pretty sure that Egon was going to kill him when he told him. Shaking his head he started walking over to where she was. As he was doing so two men, who were bouncers, came over to tell Echo to get down. Daniel watched as Echo gave them the "finger" and told them to go "procreate" with themselves. "This isn't like her at all," Daniel said to himself. Walking up to Echo he saw that the bouncers were finally able to convince her to come down as he came to a stop in front of the trio.
As Echo came down she staggered forward and fell into a heap at Daniel's feet. Looking up she saw him and smiled.
"Hey Daniel," she slurred out, "Want to dance?"
Echo clumsily got to her feet, but once she was up she fell into one of the bouncers. Looking up into the man's face she started laughing uncontrollably before she stopped short. Swallowing the bile that had risen to her mouth she closed her eyes tightly trying to get the room to stop spinning.
"She's a little tipsy," the bouncer said to Daniel as he placed his arm around Echo to help support her.
"At least she's a happy drunk," the other bouncer said, "but I am still going to have to ask her to leave."
"I understand," Daniel replied as he took Echo's other side and helped the bouncer to walk her out of the bar.
Placing Echo onto the bench outside the door of the bar the bouncer straightened up.
"I'm going to call a taxi for you," the bouncer said.
"Thenk ye," Daniel said as he sat down next to Echo.
"Your accent, Scottish?" the bouncer asked placing a hand on the door to the bar.
"Aye," Daniel replied as Echo started shaking.
Suddenly opening her eyes Echo leaned forward to vomit on the sidewalk at her feet.
"You're in for a rough night fellow," the bouncer replied before he opened the door and entered the bar.
"Ah can agree wi' 'at," Daniel muttered to himself as he helped Echo to lean back onto the bench.
Moaning, Echo closed her eyes.
"Daniel?" she questioned as she placed the palms of her hands onto her temples.
"Ah am reit haur."
"What?!" Echo shouted back at him before she regretted it and rubbed her temples.
"Right here lassie," Daniel tried again placing a hand on her left leg.
"Don't… feel… well…," Echo slurred out.
Echo's stomach was doing somersaults and she took her hands away from her head to learn forward once again. Opening her eyes she vomited onto the sidewalk a second time.
"Ah can see 'at."
"What?!" Echo shouted again getting mad that she couldn't understand him correctly.
"I can see that," Daniel quietly said into her ear.
Daniel helped Echo to sit back onto the bench once again as the door to the bar opened. This time the bartender came out.
"We've called a taxi for you," the man said to Daniel.
Echo heard part of the conversation. Something about a taxi and she reached for her handbag. When her hand came to rest upon the empty bench beside her, she panicked. Trying to get to her feet she called out.
"My handbag!"
Daniel stood up and gently pushed Echo back onto the bench.
"Ah gie ye a hain," he told her.
"What?!" she shouted.
Echo closed her eyes once again as the street started to spin this time. Deciding it was better to be in a prone position she lied down on the bench.
"I'll give you a hand Echo," Daniel replied, "please keep the heid."
"What?!"
"Never mind lassie," Daniel said turning his attention to the bartender.
"Look, can you get her handbag for me?" he asked, "I don't want to leave her alone."
"I don't know what it looks like," the bartender replied, "It would take me longer than you to find it. I'll stay here with her and you go back inside. When the taxi gets here I'll hold it for you."
Daniel nodded his thanks and went inside the bar. When he had left the bartender walked over to where Echo lie. Reaching into his pocket he pulled out a small black bag, but before he could open it a hand was placed onto his arm.
"You have done well Jack," a voice said into his ear, "she belongs to me now."
Jack Hardemeyer turned to look behind him. He could see Lord Vigo smiling cruelly down on him.
"Yes, My Lord," Jack said as he bowed his head and stepped out of the God's way.
Jack watched as Lord Vigo raised his right hand up and pointed it towards Echo. Soon a red bolt of light came out of his palm and slowly wrapped itself around the woman lifting her up.
"Come," Lord Vigo said as he pulled his hand back towards his body.
Echo did as she was told walking in a trance towards the God. When she passed Vigo and continued on down the street the God turned towards Jack.
"Take care of her friend," Vigo snared at Jack, "and find that girl you came with too. I don't know where she went, but she can't stay here."
"Yes, My Lord," Jack said bowing his head towards the God.
Echo had been feeling sick to her stomach and then something incredible happened. A warm, comfortable feeling came over her. Almost like she was falling asleep. It felt good, delightfully blissful, comfortable, and stress-free; like submerging herself in a pleasantly warm spa.
Echo began to lose her mind into rambling half-thoughts and impressions as she got up off of the bench and started walking away. She noticed that her breathing had slowed down and her muscles were relaxed as she continued to walk down the street. All sense of the passage of time became distorted and she felt a pleasant, almost euphoric state of peace as she continued walking with her head held high.
But just as quickly as the feeling of comfort had come upon Echo it disappeared. That earlier feeling of dread, that she had felt, came upon her again and she stopped walking. Paralyzed now with fear she felt someone come up and stop behind her. She could feel their breath on her neck. She wanted to scream for help but found she couldn't open her mouth. Echo panicked as the person wrapped their right arm around her, grabbing her left breast and pulling her against their chest.
"I think I will have you first," a man's voice hissed into her ear, "before I give you to my love."
Echo tried to break away from the man but could not as he ran a hand down her left leg and up the inside of her skirt. She opened her mouth, screaming for Daniel, but no sound came out.
"Sleep," the man said as he put his mouth on Echo's neck kissing it roughly.
Suddenly Echo's vision started going black. She felt like a reflection of herself. She tried to blink away her blurry vision. Her head and body felt heavy. She couldn't stand up straight and started to lean backwards into the man's body. She heard an echo of a voice calling her name. It was Daniel's voice calling to her as she slowly lost consciousness.