Chapter 5...
The girl running through the woods was in Meckenzie's dream again. She ran for her life, something glittering around her neck, something familiar. She dodged branches, leapt over broken trees and bushes. Her breathing heavy, her face contorted into fear, she ran. Then she grabbed some flowers off a plant as she ran past. The flowers, pinkish-purple in color, were immediately consumed by the woman. As she chewed, she continued to run. She came to an archway, no not an archway, a place where the tree branches had grown together in a way to make it look like an archway. As she ran through the archway she disappeared.
The dream didn't stop there as it normally did. The woman appeared again, but now she was under the Trefoil Arch in Central park. The woman stepped out into the park, looking over her shoulder. The light was fading out of the sky in the distance, it was twilight. The woman headed down the pathway towards the streets of New York. As she walked under a lamp in the park, her necklace sparkled. The hearts from the legend of Trefoil hung around the woman's neck in a perfect three leaf clover. And as if in recognition of Meckenzie’s discovery, the woman looked up.
Meckenzie gasped awake. "Mom." The woman in the dream had been Meckenzie's mother, Deidra. She had been running and she had the lockets.
What was she running from? Where was she going? And when had this happened? Or had it even happened at all, maybe it was just a dream and Meckenzie had substituted her mother into the dream. Meckenzie flipped on the light next her bed, suddenly aware that she was sweating and short of breath. It was like she had been running along that path with her mother. She crawled out of bed and headed to the bathroom. As Meckenzie splashed cold water on her face for yet another night, she knew she needed more than anything to talk to Isabel.
If Isabel was really her mother's cousin, then maybe she would know if the dream were true. Was this Meckenzie seeing the past, or was she seeing the future. Perhaps it was all some subconscious illusion that her mind was creating due to lack of sleep.
Meckenzie climbed back into bed hoping to get a few more hours sleep. As she lay in the darkness, memories of her mother came flooding back. Deidra had always seemed very young, never a wrinkle on her face, always a twinkle in her eye. There was something so beautiful about her mother. The way her hair, golden and flowing, had created a gossamer effect. Only more enchanting were her eyes, like the clearest blue of the purest water. She had seemed tall, but tall to child could sometimes not mean tall to a teenager or adult. Her thin frame was strong enough to carry two of her three children on her hips at a time. Even when they were older, Meckenzie could remember being lifted off the ground by her mother so that a kiss could be placed gently on her nose or cheek.
It had seemed like a lifetime ago since Meckenzie had heard her mother softly singing in the garden, or the family had gathered in the sitting room to play games, or she had experienced the love of her beautiful mother. It had been eight years since her mother had sat in this very room braiding Meckenzie's hair or listening to Meckenzie tell stories of her day.
Then one morning without warning, Deidra was gone. When the children had awoken to start their day, their mother was gone without a goodbye. Gone to protect them, but from what?
With this last question, Meckenzie drifted off to sleep. She was not awoken by the dream again this night. She woke instead to the sound of Kellan calling her name.
"Meckenzie, it's time to run."
Meckenzie rolled over to look at the clock in her room. Six a.m. She had slept through most of the night, and she felt alive and well rested. Meckenzie leapt out of bed and quickly changed into her running clothes. Grabbing her iPhone and headphones she headed downstairs.
Kellan and Taggart were waiting for her in the kitchen, already stretching out their muscles.
"Good morning sleepy head." Taggart said with a smile. "How did you sleep?"
Meckenzie smiled, "Amazingly well thank you. Though I did have the dream again. It played out a little more; we can talk about it later."
Taggart and Kellan both seemed surprised that Meckenzie didn't want to recap her dream right then and there. Meckenzie just smiled and stretched some more.
Kellan laughed, grabbed a her iPhone and headphones. "Any of you slackers think you can beat me today," she said as she bounded for the door.
Taggart laughed and headed after her, with Meckenzie right on his heals.
The trips headed into the park. The sun was rising over the horizon. Before long the city would be a bustling lit metropolis. But for now, the trips were alone with the other early morning joggers, pounding their way into another glorious day.
They started their run together, all jogging at a reasonable pace along the trail. Meckenzie could tell that both Kellan and Taggart were holding back to her own pace. Taggart tapped Kellan on the shoulder and motioned for her to go ahead if she wanted. With that, Kellan took off at a much faster pace clipping along through the park almost at a sprint.
Taggart smiled at Meckenzie, "She really is getting fast."
"Yeah, she has been leaving me behind for months now. I would definitely say something is up. Whether we have some kind of super fairy powers, or she has been hitting the juice, Kellan is faster."
Taggart laughed out loud, "Juice? Kellan is way too proud to juice." He paused, thinking to himself. "You want to talk about the dream?"
"When we are all together." Meckenzie stopped. She knew that the revelation that their mom was the woman in the dream would make her seem slightly insane. She really hoped that Isabel would be at the house before school. It wasn't her normal routine to come before the trips went off to school, but somewhere in her mind, Meckenzie wished that Isabel would know that they need answers.
Before Meckenzie knew it, they had clipped out three miles of the run and were heading into the fourth mile. Meckenzie saw the Trefoil Arch up ahead. Taggart was lost in his own iPhone, so Meckenzie tapped him to get his attention. She pointed to the arch ahead. Taggart looked up and shrugged his shoulders.
"I saw someone under the arch yesterday. They were gone by the time I got to the arch though, but I felt like I was being watched."
They both looked at the arch again. Just as they did, something or someone moved in the shadows. Slowing down, they glanced at each other again. Taggart looked at her and back to the arch. He then sped up almost sprinting toward the opening. Meckenzie tried hard to keep up, but was losing ground fast.
While they were still sixty yards away, someone stepped out of the shadows. The stranger was wearing a long flowing cape making their face impossible to see. The person reached next to the arch then grabbed something from the bushes and fled back to the shadows of the arch.
As Taggart reached the entrance to the tunnel under the arch, he stopped. Meckenzie came up behind him gasping for air.
"There is no one here." Taggart managed to say between the gulping of air.
"Did you see them though? Did you see whoever it was come out of the arch and grab something out of these bushes?" Meckenzie leaned over the bushes next the opening of the arch. There to her amazement were the same flowers she had seen in her dream. "Oh my gosh!" She exclaimed.
"What?" Taggart jumped. "What is it?"
Meckenzie broke some the flowers off the bush, holding them in her hand, examining them.
"What? It's just Heather." Taggart responded.
"Let's go back to the house. I'll explain there. This plant was in my dream."
Taggart shook his head and started jogging through the tunnel under the arch. The two of them headed home. Meckenzie knew this was a weird coincidence. Hopefully Isabel would be at the house to help clarify a few things. There were so many things that Isabel needed to tell them, things she had known all these years and kept to herself. Meckenzie hoped she was ready to share her secrets and maybe help them discover the truth in all of this.