Page 2 of The White Stag
Alastair left the table in a huff. I wasn’t going to change my mind about this. He could bring a justice of the peace here and have Ballard witness the ceremony, but he couldn’tforceme to say, “I do.” Not when I was willing to leave everything he offered here to avoid it. That was the only thing he could hold over my head.
And I knew exactly how he felt about me finishing my food. I was given tiny portions for every meal and expected to eat all of it. He kept me hungry, and Ialwaysate it. Iwashungry tonight and loved lamb, but I pushed my plate aside, half eaten, anyway. Alastair had introduced me to this lovely herbal tea. I loved that tea.
I drained my tea and went to my bedroom to sleep. I didn’t give a shit what Alastair said. I wasn’t going to change my mind about this in the morning.
Reagan
Ballard woke me up at the same time every day. It was always after Alastair had eaten breakfast and gone to work. I liked to sleep in. There was no alarm clock in my bedroom, and I wasn’t allowed to have a cellphone, but I tried my hardest to wake up to see Alastair off to work today.
I couldn’tbelieveAlastair had asked me to marry him. He was going to make me so happy. Honestly, it was just the next step after he took me in off the street. Alastair would spoil me rotten, and my future would be nothing but roses.
I looked at the clock on the wall. Damn. I missed Alastair. I wanted to tell him how happy I was and find out about my dress. He had impeccable taste in clothes, and I just knew he would have picked out the perfect wedding dress.
I had a few minutes to kill before Ballard came in with breakfast and my pills. I looked out of my window into the garden. My window was the only one in the house with bars over it, but Alastair was just trying to keep me safe. I loved looking out of this window. Alastair practically lived in a compound. No one was getting in if he didn’t want them to, but it was quite lovely here.
When I looked out of my window, this beautiful, massive white stag was standing underneath the weeping willow. It was looking right at me. I pressed my hand against the glass. Birds and squirrels were the only wildlife I saw outside. The electrified fence outside should have made it impossible for the stag to be here.
I wasn’t thinking about that. There was something about that white stag that called to me. It felt like we had met before, but I couldn’t remember. Ineededto leave here and go to it. Ballard would try to stop me because I wasn’t supposed to go outside this early. And even though I knew White Stags were supposed to be rare and there was some mythology about never harming one, I just had this feeling Ballard would, anyway.
WherewasBallard, anyway? He kept a strict schedule, even if he was sick. He’d come in here to wake me up with breakfast and my pills looking like utter death while wearing a mask, so I didn’t catch anything. He should have been here by now.
I jumped when I heard a thump outside my door. Something was wrong. Ballard was quiet as a mouse, and Alastair didn’t tolerate loud noises. My bedroom door flung open, and two strangers came charging into my bedroom.
I shrieked and grabbed a lamp. I hadn’t really thought about how literally nothing in my bedroom could be used as a weapon until these men burst into my bedroom. I didn’t know what I was looking at. Both men were massive and could easily murder me with their bare hands, but that wasn’t why I was screaming.
They looked right at me, but I couldn’t see their faces. I honestly didn’t know what I was looking at. I might have certain health issues that required me to be on medication for the rest of my life, but my vision had always been perfect. I hadn’t hit my head, but I was definitely looking at two blurry, faceless men.
“I told you this would happen,” one man growled.
“I never said it wouldn’t. I came prepared. Grab her so I can fix it,” the other man said with a deep Scottish accent.
Alastair had alotof money. I wasn’t sure how they knew I was here since most people didn’t, but I had a feeling these faceless men intended to kidnap me for a ransom. I wasn’t going down without a fight.
They both pounced. One man grabbed me. I was fighting like hell to get away. I couldn’t move, but it was almost as if he was trying not to hurt me. The other man got right up in my face, and it was even more unnerving up close.
“Eat a Snickers, Reagan. You aren’t yourself.”
How did he know my name? He reached into a pouch at his belt and blew a strange purple powder in my face. I tried not to breathe it in, but I couldn’t help it. I collapsed as I inhaled but didn’t pass out as soon. Instead, the man holding me gently guided me to the floor and cradled me to his chest.
“We should have just talked to her. Laceflower pollen is intense.”
“Shut it, ya numpty. Look at her. He’s doing much worse to her.”
I couldn’t hear what they were arguing about anymore. My head started pounding, and I became completely unaware of my surroundings.Allof my memories began flooding back to me. Every abusive foster home I’d ended up at came back. When Alastair had found me, it hadn’t been the first time I’d run. And I knew that White Stag. He was a friend. I saw him outside my window when it was safe to run.
It also became crystal clear to me that I’d wanted to run from Alastair for a long time. Marry him? What the actual fuck? He haddonesomething to me to make me wake up thinking I wanted that. He’d been doing something to me for a long time to keep me from running. Alastair said last night I was always disagreeable over dinner. He wasn’t wrong. Whatever he was doing to me wore off by then, and I’d tell him exactly what I was thinking. I forgot all about it when I woke up and thought I was happy here.
When I came back to myself, I could see the men clear as day. One of them had smokey gray skin and curved horns. I could see his tail curling behind him. The other man was inky black and surrounded by smoke. The entirety of his eyes was glowing red. I wasn’t afraid like I was when I couldn’t see their faces. Iknewthem. I flung myself at the horned man.
“Boggie! You found me!”
Boggie was actually Finnan, and the other man, Boogey, was really Cyrus, but it was easier for me to call them that when I was a child. Most kids feared the monsters under their bed, but mine were a lot nicer than the people fostering me. They protected me from them.
Finnan said he was a Bauchan, a type of Scottish hobgoblin, and Cyrus was a Boogeyman. I couldn’t sleep without Finnan’s tail wrapped around my ankle. Cyrus made sure anyone whothoughtabout entering my bedroom for degenerate reasons didn’t. The stag was Oisin. He showed up when it was time to run and always carried me far away on his back.
I hadn’t seen them since I was eleven years old. I was sick under that bridge, begging them to find a way to get my pills, and they kept insisting they were bad for me. I just knew how terrible I felt at that minute. So I asked them to leave me alone, and they gave me space for different reasons.
Finnan left to get a hot meal. Cyrus and Oisin insisted my pills were terrible for me but hated seeing me like that. They thought it would be less stressful for me to taper off it. I didn’t want that. I wanted to stay on it, but they both left to try to get my medication.
