Chapter 65 - Sixty Five
The moment the carriage stopped, Eric didn’t wait for Mr. Rye to open the door. He threw it open himself and raced out towards the inn, his heart pounding with a singular, desperate purpose: find Delia.
Just as he left the shelter of the carriage, the heavens opened up. The rain started, not as a gentle drizzle, but as a sudden, violent downpour that instantly soaked his coat and plastered his hair to his head. He was just a few feet from the warm, dry light of the inn’s entrance, but he couldn’t move. He froze, his feet suddenly as heavy as lead.
The world around him seemed to sharpen, to transform. He could smell the damp earth turning to mud beneath his feet. He could smell the thick, familiar scent of hay from the nearby stables. He could hear the nervous stomping and whinnying of horses unsettled by the storm. Each sensation was a key, unlocking a dark room in his memory he had kept sealed for years.
Eric swallowed hard, his throat tight. He tried to force his legs to move forward, to take that last step into the inn, but he couldn’t. The muscles in his body refused to obey.
A flashback, sharp and vivid, rung in his mind, drowning out the present.
Rain, just like this, hammering on the roof of a dark, cavernous horse stall. The smell of wet hay and fear. A small boy, no older than ten, is crying, his small body covered in dust and hay. He’s huddled in a corner, cuddling himself as he stares at a still shadow of a broken figure lying on the ground just outside the stall door.
"Philip! Philip, wake up!" the small boy cries, his voice thin and reedy. "Someone help us! Please, help my brother!"
The events of that terrible day started playing in Eric’s head, a relentless, torturous film. His breathing grew shallow, then quickened into ragged gasps. His whole body began to shake, an uncontrollable tremor that started in his hands and spread through his entire frame.
Then, a figure appeared before him in the rain, an ghost formed from his own guilt. It was himself, his younger self, his face pale as he gave Eric an accusatory glare.