FicWad

Sav and I were looking through old newspaper clippings, and anything else that we could get our hands on, but we just couldn't find anything. I hadn't realised that we were making so much noise until the Librarian came over to us. "Could you two please quiet down?" she asked us.

"Sorry Ma'am," I replied.

"Thank you."

"Could we ask you a question?" Sav asked.

"Sure. What?" she replied.

"We're looking for any information on this castle," he continued, showing her a picture.

"Oh my," she said.

"What is it?" I wanted to know.

"You really should stay away from there."

"But we can't," I said, "I have been dreaming about that castle, and I want to know why."

"Follow me please," she said.

We got up from our table and followed her to the back room. "Sit down please." We did as she asked. "Here is what I know about the castle," she began, "A long time ago, there was a king. He ruled over us with the largest of hearts."

Sav and I exchanged quick glances before looking back to her.

"Everything was great, until one of the locales decided that he wanted the throne for himself. One day, he and a group of men that he put together, attacked the castle and killed everyone inside it, including the king."

"Why did he do that?" I asked.

"Because the king was not of local descent. He was English."

"Sort of a racist thing?" Sav asked.

"Yes," she replied.

"I'm still as confused as ever," I said.

"Let me continue on," she replied, "When the English learned of what had happened, they sent over their bravest knight. Not only to seek revenge for the death of the king, but also for the Scottish, who didn't want anything to do with the new king. The two enemies had a tremendous fight. The new king was soon killed by the knight, but before the king's death, he made one last attack, which was too fateful".

"I'm glad that I'm living now," Sav said to me.

"This is a picture of our famous knight," she said, handing me a picture.

"Holy shit!" I said.

"Hey, that's they guy in the picture at the castle," Sav noted.

"Yes it is," the librarian said, "That picture was put in the castle as a tribute to him."

"But he looks an awful lot like Joe," Sav said.

"I noticed that when you both walked in today," she said.

"What does this have to do with my dreams?" I asked.

"Plenty," she replied, "That cross you wear, where did you get it?"

"My Mum," I replied.

"May I see it?"

I took it off and handed it to her. She studied it very carefully. "This is the cross," she said, softly. Sav and I barely heard her.

"What?" Sav asked.

"This was our king's cross. It was given to the knight, our saviour, as a good luck charm."

"What does that mean?" I asked.

"It means that there is royalty in your family," she replied.

"That's crazy," I said.

"It may sound so, but it's true. It seems to me that there is some unfinished business between the two, and you are the one to finish it."

Sav and I were stunned. "What could I do?" I asked, after a minute.

"You must rid the castle of the evil that still resides there," she replied.

"Ok," I said, in disbelief.

"I know you don't believe me at that moment, but you will in time. I also sense that you lost someone pretty close to both of you recently."

My jaw dropped open. Sav gasped when she said that. "Yes," he said.

"This person's spirit will be guiding the both of you along your quest."

With that, she handed me back my cross and left.

I put my head in my hands. I looked over at Sav, who was shaking his head slowly. "I need a break," I finally said, getting up from the table, "Let's head back to the hotel." Sav nodded.

We walked out to our car. "Do you believe that?" Sav asked after a couple of minutes.

"Believe it? I'm still digesting it," I replied.

We got back to the hotel after a couple of hours of driving. We looked at the bar, then at each other, nodded and went in.

***

We got back to our room. I unlocked the door, and walked inside. There were Phil and Rick, sitting on the couch watching the tube. "What the bloody hell?" I gasped.

"Hey there mates!" Phil said.

"Hey. When did you two get here?" Sav asked.

"A couple of hours ago," Rick stated, "You didn't think we'd be here, did you?"

"No, not really," I said.

"So what's up?" Phil asked, taking the papers from Sav.

We sat them down and told them everything that had happened so far. Everything but last night, that is. "Cool. You guys believe her?" Rick asked.

I shook my head no, but Sav nodded. "Looks like you two are confused," Phil said. There, I nodded.

"You know Joe. It's amazing with this pic," Phil began, before I cut him off.

"Yeah, yeah, I know," I replied, sarcastically. I got up from my chair and went over to the window.

It was starting to rain. I was getting emotional. I closed my eyes and took a deep breath, to relax myself. Right now, I was trying to be the strong for the group. I looked back over at them. They were talking about who knows what, but I could see the sadness that they were trying to hide. When the subject turned to Steve, Phil abruptly got up and went into the kitchen.

I followed him in there. "You ok?" I asked him.

"Yes," he replied. I could hear his voice shaking. I reached over and gave him a hug. He turned into me and cried. By this time the others had come in to see what was going on. I glanced at them quickly, before turning my attention back to Phil. After a few minutes, he started to relax.

"Feel better?" I asked him. He nodded and let go of me.

"Come on Phil. Let's go back to our room, and I'll help you get settled in. You need a nap," Rick said.

"Thanks Joe. I needed that," he said to me, before leaving.

"I'll call you later for dinner," Rick told us.

"Ok," Sav said, and walked them to the door.

"Is he alright?" Sav asked me after coming back in.

"He'll be fine," I said, holding back my own tears, "Now, let's see if we can straighten out all this information that we have."

As I walked by him, he grabbed me by the waist, and gave me a kiss.

"Will you knock it off," I told him.

"Nope," he replied.

"I REALLY need to find you a woman," I said, laughing.

"Don't want one," he said.

"Your nuts," I replied.

"Yep. Nuts about you."

"Rick stop," I said.

"You can't tell me that last night wasn't fun," Sav replied.

"Well, true, I can't, BUT, what about Karla?" I asked.

"What about her," he whispered against my neck.

"I'm planning on marrying her," I responded.

"She's always getting in the way," he replied.

"Are you jealous?" I had to ask him.

"Me jealous? That's a laugh," he said, as he let go of me, and started walking away.

I followed him into the other room. "You are! Your jealous of Karla!" I said, in disbelief.

"What can she do that I can't do?" he wanted to know.

I stepped back. It sounded like he was getting very defensive on me. "Well, Um.....," I began.

"Can't think of anything can you?" he replied.

"Give me a minute."

"Well?" he asked.

"I'll think of something," I said.

He sat down at the table and started shuffling through the papers. I was getting nervous. I've never known Sav to act like this before. I sat down next to him.

"Sav, what is going on?" I asked him.

"Nuthin'," he replied. I lifted his face to mine, so I could see him eye to eye. "What is it?"

"Have you ever thought that maybe I wanted to be with you?" he asked me.

"But you are," I replied, "we're great friends."

"But that's just it. Just friends," he said.

"What's wrong with that?" I asked him.

"Nothing, but last night didn't mean anything to you, did it?"

"Sav, of course it did, but,..." I started.

"But you don't want me that way," he finished.

"No Rick. That's not true," I said, "but I do have Karla to think about."

"At least I can have kids," he said before going into another room. That hurt my feelings.

Without a word, I got up, grabbed the keys for the room, and left.