Chapter 2

Nick looked up in horror. The statue only smiled gently, the eyes reassuring. Something about the look in her eyes made Nick relax. He knew that she wouldn't hurt him. The girl mouthed a name. "Johanna...." she said softly. "My name is Johanna...save me!!!" she exclaimed frantically before the statue returned to it's original stance and the eyes turned back to gray. Nick thought frantically to himself. The inscriptions said that her name was Ariella MacKendrick.......and now she said her name was Johanna. What had happened here? And more importantly, save her from what? What did she need saving from?

Nick noticed that the sun was gone from the sky and that it was getting dark. He pulled the blanket he'd brought around him. He'd decided to sleep out under the starlit sky by the statue and see what kind of dreams he'd have. Maybe tonight he'd be given even a clue to what the whole dream meant.

*
Johanna had been brutally murdered by her stepfather, Geoffrey. He had rigorously hunted the three of them down until he had found them. When he had, he'd cut off all his relatives' heads, even his own son's, and had cut their corpses in half. But Johanna's spirit had not died with her. Her spirit was trapped in Limbo, the land where the lost souls of the world resided. She could now move freely between the future and her own time, and do whatever she wanted in either world. In her own time, she watched as her littlest brother Warren had endured the beatings of his father, but had grown strong. He had grown up into a good and strong man who had had to kill their brother Hugh because he'd gone mad.

In the future world, she watched as a strange yet familiar blond man roamed around the ruins of Falkirk Castle, Lord Tavis Stuart's former stronghold. She had felt a strange yet strong bond with him and had revealed herself to him because of that. His eyes were a bright, vibrant blue yet they were haunted by some unknown yet deep sadness which made her heart weep. She wondered what he had thought of her. Could this be the man from her dreams? Her brow furrowed. He very well could be.

Johanna traveled once again to the land of the future. She would spend the night there and see what her dreams told her. If this was the man from her dreams, the he was the whom she was destined to love and hold and cherish for the rest of their lives. She smiled. Yes, this was the way. If he was the one, then she would be with him...but only if he could save her from the monster who always hunted her in Limbo, her evil stepfather.

*
As Nick slept, the dream began to unfold behind his closed eyes. She was extremely beautiful. With long wavy red-gold hair and wide sea-foam green eyes. But those lovely eyes were wide with terror, and she was running very quickly away from something or someone that was pursuing her.

As she ran, he could see the wolf gaining closer and closer upon her. As the wolf gained closer, it suddenly changed into a large man wearing armor and a helmet carrying an extremely large axe. Nick found that in this dream he could move. So he ran as rapidly as his legs would carry him towards the vicious looking knight and the innocent young girl.

He saw the man pull her around by her hair, so that she was looking into his ruddy face. "You shall pay very dearly for fleeing from my house you daughter of a whore!!" the man exclaimed fiercely. The girl's eyes narrowed. "Stepfather you are on very dangerous ground. Let me go this instant or this blessed land will run red with your essence." she spat back, twisting and writhing in his arms. The man laughed harshly. "That is where you are mistaken my dear Johanna. Your disguise as a Scottish Lady is over now." he replied ferociously.

Johanna's eyes widened in fear. "Geoffrey, I am my mother's daughter. I shall fight you tooth and nail if you plan on killing me!!" she shrieked. Nick admired her courage. He moved silently behind Geoffrey and looked over his shoulder into her blazing eyes. Her eyes widened when she saw him, and it was then that he realized that he could interact with her and with the man. He smiled gently at her before forcefully taking hold of the man's waist and spinning him around to face him.

Upon seeing him, Geoffrey laughed hysterically. "Is this your lover, Johanna de Galtres? Is this your fine Scots Lord?" he asked the girl while laughing. Johanna sneered. "If he were, he would have killed you by now. You know very well that I would never take a lover outside marriage." she replied coolly. Geoffrey stopped laughing. "I think he is your lover, my lady. Then he deserves to watch as I kill you bitch for fleeing my house and taking your cousin and my son and heir with you." he snarled before shaking out of Nick's grip, lifting his axe and carefully cutting a large and gaping gouge across her abdomen. her eyes bugged with shock and she collapsed to the ground beneath her.

Nick was instantly at her side. Johanna looked up at him with pain and an intense love visible in her eyes. She heaved with each breath, yet she smiled gently up at him and caressed his face with her hand. "I want you to know that I have always known of you, and will always and forever love you and no other." she said in a hoarse and barely audible voice. Tears were streaming down Nick's face. "I love you too," he said softly. She then smiled up at him with such an expression of joy and happiness that his heart began to break within him. Then her eyes closed and her head fell to one side.

Nick shook his head. "Noooooooooo!!!" he cried before bursting into tears. He hadn't been crying for very long before he heard Geoffrey begin to laugh behind him. He just smiled evilly at Nick before taking his axe and to Nick's complete horror chopped off her head and cut her body in half. "She was weak anyway." he grumbled before heading off into the woods, wiping the blood on his axe off on a pile of dead leaves.

Nick's eyes snapped open, and he found his body slick with sweat, and tears still apparent on his face. He shivered with the cold, and looked up at the statue. He suddenly bolted upright to a standing position. He looked the statue square in the eye and gasped. It was her, the girl from his dream. Her real name was Johanna de Galtres....and she had been viciously murdered by her own stepfather. He kept staring at the beautiful stone face with the clearly depicted happy eyes and the gentle smile for what seemed like hours before he rose to greet the new day.

*



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