Chapter 21 Chapter 21 Once

"Dodge!" I ran to the beach, breathing heavily.I forgot that he was sick, that his ankle was hurt, and I threw myself into his arms, out of control, sobbing. "What's up? What's up? Heather, what's going on?" "That... that..." I didn't know how to tell him what happened in the bay.I just clung to him harder, hugged his neck tightly, and buried my face in his shoulder.Despite the silence on the beach, I could still hear their screams echoing in my head.Not one iota of the fear I had experienced before was lessened, and I was shaking violently.My pulse was pounding inside me, and even though my clothes were soaked, I felt hot and dry.

My body was hot, and Dodge's was even hotter.His skin seemed to emit heat, reminding me that he was a patient.There was no way he could support my weight.Reluctantly, I pulled away and took a step back, putting distance between us. But now he can see my face.I tried my best to restore my face to its original shape, but my jaw was trembling, and I had to squint my eyes to hold back the tears.I sniffed hard, hoping to calm down. "You'd better sit down," I said in a trembling voice. Dodge ignored my suggestion.He walked up to me, narrowed the distance I just opened, and grabbed my arm.

"Heather, what's the matter? Did you go to the cove?" I couldn't speak at all, so I just nodded. "Have you... found anything?" "I don't know." My voice was distorted, it sounded very weird, I was so excited that I was a little suffocated, "That..." I couldn't speak again, I just panted heavily.Just thinking about the situation just now, I was terrified, fear was like a steel belt, tightly wrapped around my chest. "There's something there." Dodge understood what I was emphasizing. "Stuff? What do you mean?" he asked, his face becoming tense.

"I... I'm not sure either." I shrugged apologetically.At this moment, I began to calm down and regain my sanity.What happened just now seemed...impossible to happen at all.I can no longer be 100% sure about what I see and hear.Is that all my imagination? But…… "Dodge, I found—" I put my left hand in front of him. Dodge narrowed his eyes, but when he saw what I was holding, his eyes widened suddenly.He slowly opened my fingers and took out the brooch. "Where did you find it?" he asked. "On the beach over the bay." "Washed ashore?" He looked a little dubious, "I thought it was possible."

I shake my head. "No, it's just beyond the high tide line, buried under the pebbles." "That's impossible," he muttered. I took a deep breath calmly. "I know." Two dark green eyes stared at me. "Heather, what's wrong?" I told him what happened.I told him that the body had disappeared and there were screams coming from nowhere.How I happened to fall in front of that brooch and pick it up.I didn't look at him as I spoke, afraid to see on his face what Emma had seen on my face before: disbelief. I finished speaking, for a long time, neither of us spoke.I waited a full ten seconds before I could only look into his face.

Doubt was written all over his face. "You don't believe me," I accuse. "I don't think you'll lie." He didn't answer directly. I scowled.That's not the same thing at all. "You think these are all my imaginations." He frowned, and it was easy to read the meaning: Yes, but you don't want to hear that right now. No, that's not the case. "How are you feeling?" he asked.He reached out and put his hand on my forehead.There's no point in doing that, since his body is much hotter than mine. "Are you cold? Still very hot? Do you feel sick to your stomach?"

I dodge his hand. "No." I replied, in a very unfriendly tone. He bit his lip, thinking about my words. "I'm sorry, Heather, it's just that you sound a little—" "It's kind of crazy." I finished what he had to say for him. He looked at me, frowning, apologetic in his eyes. "But this..." he turned the brooch over in his hand, "it's really weird. How did it get there?" "I don't know." I looked at the light reflected from the copper surface and said, "Don't you think this is a strange coincidence?"

"What do you want to say?" "It's right there, in the cove. Maybe... maybe it's all connected." "Relationship?" I paused, not quite sure if I was ready to admit my own theory.It sounds a little crazy even to my ears. "Just think about where we found this," I said, hoping he'd guess what I was thinking so I wouldn't have to say it. "Ishizuka?" "Ishizuka is used for burial." I reminded him. "It was dropped there," he argued. "It must have been dropped recently. It's not even an antiquity."

"It looked very old when you took it out," I retorted. "Yes, but that's because it's dirty. You look at it now. Metal can't stay shiny like this. It fades away after a long time, and it's still exposed." I know he's right, but I still can't let it go. "So many things happened, and they all happened after we found the brooch." "Do you think—" He moved his lips, and I know, even with the bad things coming one after another, I know he's still laughing at me, "You think this brooch is responsible for all this?"

"Since we stole it, I mean, just a few hours later, don't you think it's weird that everything has started to go wrong?" "It's just a coincidence, Heather," he whispered. "That's all." "I don't think so." I said stubbornly.I felt stupid, blushed, but continued firmly, "After we found this thing, Martin disappeared, the Volvo wouldn't start, you sprained your ankle. And then, you throw it away, Darren It disappeared on the beach where it washed up, Emma went crazy, and now I—" I didn't finish, just gritted my teeth.

The anger in my heart was getting hotter and hotter, and I was so angry that Dao Qi didn't believe my words.At that time, Emma told her crazy story, and he didn't laugh at her like that.Why can't he take my words into consideration? "Heather—" I didn't let him finish, and I'm sure he'd try to convince me that I was just talking crazy. "Dodge, what if we... awakened something?" "Heather, there's nothing." Dodge leaned forward in his chair, forcing my gaze. "It's just us here. Maybe—" "It's not that I have a rich imagination." I shouted, "It may be... the situation you mentioned. A member of the Druids." "That's just a story, Heather!" Dodge exclaimed.He took a deep breath, obviously trying to control his emotions, "Look, I think you think you're seeing what you say you're seeing." He said, and I stared at his words so carefully, "Maybe You can't tell what's real and what's not right now. I mean, when I was in the dark, for a moment, I didn't even know where I was." "I'm not sick." I repeated stubbornly. "You may be sick, you just don't know it yet," he insisted. "I think I'm fine too, and I corrected myself when I was sick. Heather—" He held out a hand and rubbed His forehead, now, was covered with crystal beads of sweat, "—Heather, what you're talking about is superstition. What ghosts, flesh. I mean, just last night, you said that Ai Ma lost her mind. Now, do you think she's right?" "I don't know." I said vaguely.I'm not ready to be on the same side as Emma.I didn't see what she said, but maybe I would like to think about it with a more open mind.But she... she's so unstable right now, it's hard to believe anything she says. "I'm not crazy." I didn't hear Emma come out of the tent, and when I heard her voice and turned my head away, she was standing a few feet behind us. "Emma, ​​you're awake." Dodge said, his tone of fake cheer, and I knew he and I were thinking the same question: How long had Emma been standing there listening? "I'm not insane." She said again, and took a few steps forward, making no sound of footsteps on the sand, "The thing I saw is real, it's there." We watched in silence as she walked around the fire pit and slowly settled into one of the spare chairs.She was wearing the clothes I had helped her put on, only now rumpled, with the coat hanging baggy and showing one shoulder.Her hair is messed up, it's not the "I just woke up" kind of casual style, I know, it will take her hours to get that effect, and at the moment, she doesn't seem to know what she looks like, Doesn't care what she looks like.At least half of the makeup she put on a day ago is now gone. She's much older than I've seen her before.This oldness was in her eyes: as if she had witnessed something truly terrible.There was fear and sadness and resignation in those eyes, and I didn't like to look into those eyes.However, I couldn't look back. "Tell me what you saw again," I demanded. At this moment, she has calmed down a lot. I hope to get some more specific details. After all, Dodge and I are just pieced together a rough story based on the few words she said in hysteria last night. Emma didn't answer.She looked at me with a strange look, her head was tilted to one side, and the muscles around her eyes were slightly tensed. "What happened?" she asked me. "what?" "Something happened to you. What was it? Was it in the cove, did you go back? Did you see anything?" "I'm not sure." "Speak quickly," she ordered. I told my story again.Emma's eyes widened, not only in surprise but also in horror, and then she looked satisfied and resigned. "I told you so," she said when I finished.Then, with even greater emotion, she repeated, "I told you so!" “I didn’t see . . . anything.” I insisted that my experience validated her story, which made me uncomfortable because her version was so uncanny. "But you think something is wrong. I heard what you just said." I just opened my mouth to argue, and she said again. "I don't know." I whispered sadly, realizing that Dodge was watching me closely.I gasped. "I think we should get out of here." No objection. As tempting as it was to spend our last hours on the beach in a tent, we were reluctant to leave the fire.Not just for warmth, but I was so cold, the chill was deep in my bones, and Dodge was shaking uncontrollably, he was so hot that everything felt cold, although I kept holding his shoulders, desperately trying to make him feel cold. Come warm up. We huddled together by the fire.Everything around us was gray and ominous.Gradually, the gray began to turn black, and the darkness was so unfriendly and threatening. We didn't talk too much.After seemingly returning to normal just now, Emma was back in her own world, humming and watching the flames.As for Dodge, it seemed as if the only thing he could do was stay awake, and I tried several times to get him to lie down, but he wouldn't.I didn't insist either.Although he is weak, dizzy, and unconscious at the moment, as long as he is there, it is a great comfort to me.As for myself, I was scrutinizing the brooch, not missing a single detail.I turned it sideways, and by the flickering firelight, the pattern on the brooch was clearly illuminated.I also twisted it back and forth, trying to make out what the curves and shapes meant.Although this small ring is small, it is about the size of my palm. I am not sure why, but I still think that everything that happened, if not caused by it, has something to do with it. But those symbols are eccentric.Illegal, but not scribbled.Undeterred, I continued to decipher, turning the brooch over and looking at it from a different angle, trying to decipher the rings and irregular horns. "Look at this," I said slowly, squinting at the brooch, "if you look at it from the right angle, it looks a little human here." "What?" Dodge turned to look at me, eyes half-closed, jaw trembling.He sniffs and pulls the second coat tighter, but still looks at where I'm pointing. "Look at this brooch," I said, and he sighed, and I pretended not to notice, "Look at this part." I held it up for him to look at.Instead of looking at it from the close distance between us, he took it out of my hand.I watched him turn the brooch upside down. "Perhaps," he said. "You mean this part of the flame?" "Flame?" I blinked. "What flame?" "Here it is." He pointed to a jagged glyph I couldn't decipher. "They represent fire, right?" I can't be sure, since the patterns don't look like flames to me at all, but I remember Dodge pointing out that the place was a cairn with ease, and I just saw a pile of stones. "Of course." I whispered. "The patterns look like gifts." Gift?I took the brooch back from his hand.I don't see where the "gift" is. "where?" "Here." He reached over and ran one finger over the lower half of the brooch, opposite the man who was apparently surrounded by fire. "See? That's a jug or something. A spear or an ax... can't tell. But they must be offerings." "An offering?" I repeated, trying not to give off the fact that this was the first time I'd heard the word in my life. "Yes, you know, it's a sacrifice to the gods." "Hmm." How did he know these things? "So... this could be a god?" I pointed to the one I saw. Dodge pouted. "I don't think so. He's surrounded by fire after all. Unless he's an evil god. Maybe a devil." "Evil..." Countless thoughts flashed through my mind for a while.I went back to the figure of the scribbled line, and the jagged shape that Dodge said was flame. "Or, these could be—" I narrowed my eyes, connecting the lines in my head, "wings?" "Yes." Dodge raised one shoulder and shrugged. "Flames, wings." He paused and thought for a moment, "It might even be waves."