“Here”, the whimpering voice told him her whereabouts, and as the overhead lamp illuminated the room he found her crumpled in a corner as far from the door that she could get trembling and as white as a sheet.

“Whatever’s happened, honey?” Five long strides had him beside her and knelt at her side, one hand resting on her brow the other grappling blindly into his doctor’s bag searching for his stethoscope and a thermometer he knew to be there. Finding both, he shook the latter before placing it beneath her tongue and with his breast watch counted several precious minutes until he was satisfied that he would get an accurate reading. Catherine watched wide eyed but said nothing grateful for his company, placing her utmost trust in this long time friend and family doctor. “Your temperature is high, how long have you been like this, honey?” He asked her checking her for anything. At the back of his mind was the fear that she had been attacked again though he could see no visual injuries that would attest to that possibility.

“All day. Well all afternoon at least.” She whispered. Since his arrival, things had not felt quite so bad, but she was sure that the moment she were alone again…

Catherine shuddered and Peter quick to notice asked, “Want me to call someone honey? Your father perhaps, or Jenny?”

Catherine shook her head. “Just tell me what’s wrong with me, Peter.” Tears glistened on her lashes and spilled over onto her cheeks dragging a fatherly response from Peter. Safe in his arms she snuggled against him happy to feel his arms around her holding her tight and close. Distraught to see her so Peter waited unbearable long moments until her tears dried and he felt fit to prompt her again, “What happened honey, can’t you tell me?”

“I wouldn’t know where to begin.” A forced smile graced Catherine’s lips as she drew back and gazed at him with watery eyes.

“Are you in pain, did you fall, did someone hurt you?” At each question Catherine shook her head and as he finished lamely with, “then what?” she told him, “Peter I know this will sound silly, but there is something inside me.”

“Something inside you!” Peter drew back his attention at once focused on her midriff, “Are you telling me that you think you are pregnant?”

Catherine laughed, it felt so good to laugh and once she started, she found it hard to stop. Shaking her head, she told him, “Oh no, no, Peter, I’m not pregnant.” And laughed some more until what she really felt tugged at her somewhere within to remind her that a baby would have been preferable and explainable.

Wide eyes and trembling lips prompted Peter to draw her close again, “I’m here, honey, I’m here.” Holding her without further question until her trembling subsided and with a determined effort she pulled away from his embrace to tell him in a voice he could barely discern, “Peter, I think I am possessed.”

Had it of been anyone else, Peter would have laughed. In fact, the need to do so bubbled forth and was stopped on the brink before he embarrassed himself. Thus deadly serious he asked her, “Can you explain that Catherine, what exactly is it that you feel inside of you?”

“A heartbeat.” Catherine told him and her words brooked no doubt that she believed that was so.

“A heartbeat. I hear only one Catherine.” Held to her chest the stethoscope spoke no lies.

“I tried that, Peter. Well in a way, I traced my pulse and could feel only one beat, but believe me, and I know it sounds insane, but Peter within I can feel the harmonious beat of another alongside that of my own. I can even hear it drumming in my ears. Peter, its sending me insane. Why are you laughing?”
Peter unable to hold back another moment allowed his laughter to bubble forth, as much from relief as anything else. “Catherine, you have a middle ear infection.” He told her and watched the young woman’s face light up with relief. “A middle ear infection? Oh Peter I feel so foolish!” Life was good again - she was not going mad!

They laughed together, and Peter rummaging through his bag found a few antibiotics that would get her started until the drugstore could make up the prescription the following day. “I’d better just check my theory however.” Peter told the young woman before he put his equipment away and looked into both her ears expecting to see the enflamed ear cannel that would confirm his suspicions, but he found nothing. Perturbed he was undecided what to do, to tell her of his mistake or to suggest that he stayed until he was able to find out exactly what her problem was, but the relief he had seen on her face was too precious to undo. “Tell you what Cathy, instead of antibiotics I’ll leave you a couple of tranquillisers for a good nights sleep, and you can come to the surgery tomorrow. This equipment is as old as the ark, but at the surgery, I have up to the minute machines that will allow me to delve deeper into the ear cannel to locate the problem. Peter knew he was fabricating a story for her benefit and hoped that she would not see through the ruse but his hopes were dashed when cocking her head to one side Catherine asked him pointedly, “Its not my ears is it, Peter? There’s another problem isn’t there?”

“It could be your ears, and I should check that matter further before issuing you with antibiotics,” he played for time, “but you are right it might not be an ear infection, it could be something else.” Suddenly he managed to sound more convinced than he felt when he added, “You’re like a daughter to me Catherine. I just want to make sure that’s all. You deserve the very best treatment I can offer you.”

Still, her head slightly cocked Catherine drew her brows together, “I don’t buy it. Peter you are toying with me. If its not an ear infection what do you suppose it is?”

“Honey, I shall need to run some tests. I can’t be completely sure until I do. Is there absolutely no way that you couldn’t be pregnant?”

“Absolutely not, unless this is another immaculate conception in the making. There that’s well and truly told you the status of my womanhood.” Embarrassment turned Catherine’s cheeks a delectable shade of pink that Peter found somehow enchanting.

“Well thank goodness there are a few of you left.” He hoped to make her laugh and succeeded as her state of acute embarrassment turned to giggling girlhood laughter. One he had not heard her utter in a good many years but one all the same that spun him away to a time when he had spent a happy afternoon with Charles and Caroline and their pretty, young daughter in the garden attached to their house.

Together they stood at arms length eyes bright as Peter packed away his things. “Thanks for coming Peter. I appreciate it.” Her heartfelt gratefulness came over in rushing waves, and Peter’s smile intensified. “That’s alright honey, anything for you. Know that, Catherine, I am never put out any time that you need me. Never hesitate okay? I’m only at the other end of that telephone. Now be a good girl and take those tranquillisers. They might make you sleep late so I’ll schedule you an appointment about midday will that be suitable for you?”

“Yes, thanks Peter.” She fingered the two small blue pills he had given her, rolling them over and over in the palm of one hand, sure that the moment he had closed the door behind him, she would do as he asked. A good night’s sleep where she could put everything out of her mind seemed oh so welcoming. However, even before Peter had alighted into the elevator and as Catherine placed the first pill inside her mouth with the intention of following it down with the water she held in the tumbler in her right hand, the telephone rang and she snatched it up with the left. Spitting out the pill she answered the call, “Hello?”

“Cathy?”

“Jen, is that you?”

“Yes, Cathy. I know this might be an absolute indisposition at this hour of the night, but I have a favour to ask of you.” Her friend sounded worried.

Forgetting her own recent problems Catherine vaguely saw herself lay the two blue pills down alongside the tumbler of water as she listened to her friend’s petition. “Stupid thing, I left my bathroom tap running this morning with the plug in the bath and everything is ruined! Catherine, if it wouldn’t be inconvenient, could I stay with you for a few days, just until everything is dried out or replaced?”

Catherine laughed out loud. “Hey, its not funny.” Jenny scolded her friend but could not help a fit of giggles bursting forth, “Okay so it is, well sort of. So can I come?”

“Jenny, as if you need to ask. Come on over. Stay as long as you like. Actually, I’d be glad of the company.”

Never a truer word spoken in jest, for from the moment Catherine replaced the receiver back upon its cradle she felt the first stirrings of another being deep within, and knew that the intruder of her body was awakening from its recent slumber.

Determined that Jenny wouldn’t notice anything amiss, Catherine resolutely forced the feeling away, letting her friend into her apartment with a chuckle. “Just run this thing by me will you Jen. How did you come to leave the plug in the bath and the taps running? Any normal person would, surely turn off the taps to have a bath or pull out the plug when leaving the bath.”

Jenny looked at her friend as if she might hit her, “Okay clever clogs, it was like this. I didn’t actually get the bath. I was running myself one, when I noticed the time, forgot the bath, hastily dressed and was out of that apartment in a flash. Now okay, you are going to think I never noticed I’d not washed aren’t you? Don’t deny it I know that look. But I did notice and I did remember, only not in time to prevent the bath spilling over and you know those wall to wall carpets that you love so much well they soaked up all the wet right through the apartment. I’ve had men in and out all afternoon, and the place is stripped down to the floorboards, the carpet is ruined and it will take the place at least three days to dry out sufficiently to move back in. Obviously it will be weeks before I can replace the carpeting or the floor will turn mildew and stink.”

Catherine, despite the seriousness of her friend’s predicament couldn’t stop laughing. And Jenny, though feeling she ought to scold her friend started to chuckle also. “So apart from my troubles, what gives?”

Drawing her brows together, Catherine questioned, “Pardon me? What troubles?”

“Now, now Catherine, you can’t spin one past Auntie Jenny, I have a remarkable talent to see through the veneer that you put before you, but underneath I know that something is troubling you.”

Catherine sighed, “And there I was thinking I’d got clean away with it. Come let’s go sit down, and I’ll tell you what’s been happening since we last saw one another.”

The tale took all of one half hour and Jenny was clearly concerned, “So what, you can feel him now? That is right this minute?”

Catherine nodded, “Its going to send me nuts Jen, I can’t cope with something like this. It should be happening to someone like you. I’m sure that you would be able to cope.”

“Probably true, but also true that it’s good that you do know someone like me. I don’t know if you can stop this from happening…” Catherine gasped at that confession and Jenny was quick to reassure her, “never fear, Jenny’s here. I think I might be able to help.”

“How?” Hope flared in Catherine’s heart.

“What we need to do is channel this thing progressively. We know that Vincent is missing, I presume still missing, whether or not we have heard the last of that I do not know, but assuming he is missing then that would be why you are hearing whispers of ‘free me’ echoing along with the feeling of a heart beat. You say that at times the sound is restless at others calm. This could be due to whether he is awake or sleeping, and as wonderful as the respite must be when he is sleeping, I think you have to calm the effects of his waking period and channel his fear into something constructive.”

“That all sounds ominous, Jen.” Catherine told her friend nervously.

“Maybe, but if he is calling for your help then you have no choice but to aid him.”

“That’s all very well, but you remember what he said. He couldn’t feel me inside as I could him.”

Eyes wide Jenny gasped, “You remember that! Just how much of your memory has returned Cathy?”

With a wry grimace Catherine confessed, “Pretty much all of it. I know now that we did go into the tunnels, did meet Jamie, and Para what’s his name and part of Vincent. That is we heard his voice. I have to admit that voice did something to my insides that isn’t repeatable.” Catherine laughed and Jenny joined her, “You too? I thought he’d only had that effect on me.” After a while her laughter subsided, “Seriously, Cathy, how do you view this fellow? I mean I’ve had visions and I know he’s not normal in the sense of everyday living normal, but he has a great spirit and honesty you would probably find hard to locate in any other man. To say he’s probably the only one of his kind, Cathy, to my mind, means more than what it implies.”

Catherine nodded, “But what is he to me? Can you seriously imagine me living happily ever after with a strange looking man that keeps to the shadows in the bowels of the earth? I’m not a night bird Jen you know that. I love to socialise mix with people, I’m not ready to live the beauty and the beast fantasy no matter how it looks.”

“I’ve thought long and hard about that Cathy. One might assume that since you are connected to this man you are soul mates. In truth I would like to think that were so, but stranger things have happened during Samhain, and so I have my own ideas about the relationship between you and Vincent.”

“Okay, I can see you are dying to tell me, so go on, let’s have it.” Catherine leaned back against the back of the sofa and propped herself into a comfortable position with the aid of the cushions there. She had a feeling this might take some time.

Following her example, Jenny too, made herself comfortable and with one leg folded beneath her so that she might sit sideways on the sofa and thus facing her friend, Jenny launched into her theory.

“We don’t know that Vincent has never been connected to anyone in his life before, but it’s a sure bet that he hasn’t, simply by his reaction to it. And it would appear that this Paracelsus fellow has been a constant threat to both Vincent and the tunnel dwellers for a good many years. You know I’m a great believer in returning a favour and I think that’s true of most of us. I also believe that unwittingly our conscience also bares this responsibility. Strangely, for years, I have had a disturbing dream about a man who wears a cloak to hide his face from people and he has lived in seclusion so as not to frighten others. There are times when I have felt his pain and his sorrow at who he is, and the things that are denied to him that any other normal person takes for granted. Now why do you suppose I should know about him but it is you, my very best friend that has this remarkable connection with him?”

“Your theory is interesting Jen, but that bit loses me. Why should I have the connection and not you?”

“Because of the timing. That night Cathy, the one when you went to the theatre with me I might add…” Jenny watched her friend’s eyes light up and knew she was making the connection.

“I don’t think I need say anymore.” Jenny told her, and Catherine confirmed her suspicions, “You asked me to pop back to your apartment because you had forgotten your portfolio. Ordinarily you would have done that yourself but just at the moment you deemed it possible to leave, Mr Ogashi arrived unexpected and said his visit to the function was unscheduled because he had a plane to catch. One I might add that had been put on as an extra due to the amount of passengers requiring a flight to Barbados that day. Oh Jen, everything that day was out of the ordinary. I went in place of you and I was attacked and left for dead in the park. Those men didn’t care who they attacked, I just happened to be in the parking lot at the wrong moment. Had I not it would have been you, and it would have been you that Vincent rescued from the park…” Catherine gasped as the full import hit her and she and Jenny whispered together, “On the night of Samhain!”

“So you are his soul mate!” The relief in Catherine’s voice was definite and Jenny laughed, “Not so fast. Neither of us are his soul mate, Cathy. Some how in some way Vincent would have needed a saviour at some time in his life, and someone that could rescue him where without them he would never have been found. And I don’t know I might be wrong, but that night when he touched you by saving your life in the park you were bewitched because of the night that it was, and due to having me as your friend your conscience appeals to mine to help you understand what has happened to you. And the reason?” Jenny laughed, “There has to be a reason doesn’t there?” Catherine shrugged though her heart thudded in anticipation of the revelation to the crux of the matter, “Well I think its this.” Jenny drove her point home.

“Vincent was to need someone that could be connected to him in such a way that the person would be able to be guided by his fears, his cries for help in such a way that no one else would have been able to manage. Catherine with your training, and your connections in the field of law, and with me as your friend and my gift, we together provided for Vincent possibly the only way that he was ever going to be free of his tormentor and in so doing rescue him from those that mean him harm. Your conscience, Cathy, it wants to return the favour. He saved your life and now you will save his. And after that? Who knows, that will largely depend on the pair of you, but I know this that once the debt is paid you will no longer feel connected to him if you do not desire to be. Our lives are set as a tapestry ahead of us Cathy, all we have to do is fill in the colours. What happened that night was meant to happen and since it missed me, we are joint conspirators instead. So I tell you again Cathy, channel the feelings that come from him, and lead the way girl. Only you have the ability to know where he is, that’s assuming he’s been moved from the place where Paracelsus held us.” Her last comment elicited a gasp from Catherine. “I’d hoped that was a dream. Do you mean it was true, that it actually happened?” Jenny nodded, “I wasn’t sure if you had remembered that yet. Yes, Cathy, unfortunately Paracelsus broke in here and gave us something that allowed him to frogmarch us out of here and to his domain without any hassle. There he placed us in chains and used us to draw Vincent to the place, where once achieved he brought us back here under the same influence, gave us an added dose on arrival and whether it was set to make us forget or kill us we do not know. What we do know is that he set us free only to hold on to Vincent for whatever means he had plotted and whether Vincent is still there or not, only you can reveal.”

“I really thought it was a dream.” Catherine whispered, “Poor Vincent, he needs rescuing. But Jen, I can’t do it alone.” Jenny was elated, she’d expected all manner of negation from Catherine, and to hear her actually utter words that showed a conscious need to help Vincent moved her.

“That’s alright Cathy, no one was expecting you to. What we need to do now is go down into the tunnels, rally round some help and get this show on the road. Tonight if possible.”

That did it!

“Tonight! Jenny you can’t be serious, its way to late.”

“I shouldn’t think those in the tunnels are getting much sleep Cathy, and we are wide awake. I for one couldn’t sleep with all this hanging over me, and you can’t tell me that he has stopped troubling you inside?”

Catherine shook her head and told Jenny something quite amazing, “I know this sounds ridiculous Jen, but all the while you were talking it was like he was listening. And I can feel his hope renewed, Jen I can feel his hope renewed, its awesome!”

“That’s it then. Come get dressed Cathy, and find the flashlights, for who are we to let him down?”

Strangely, excitement began to build inside Catherine, and amazingly, she knew that only half of it came from her.

Without Vincent’s presence among them, tunnel security had been stepped up, and the two women were encountered the moment they entered the storm drain.

“Who’s that?” Both ladies froze, they hadn’t even made it to the sliding door before they found themselves blinded by torchlight yet before either had time to run back outside for fear it was some mugger lurking there, they both heard a comforting voice that they recognised.
“Oh its you two, come to shoot up have we?” Jamie asked sarcastically. “Or have we suddenly remembered the way down here?”

“The latter.” Catherine chose to ignore the first comment. She had never, and would never take drugs and hated any reference to the fact that she might, still she let it go. Jamie was probably right, there were only a few plausible reasons why two women should wander inside a storm drain at that late hour and none of them had anything to do with socialising, or getting out of the wind. Such places were not safe at any time of the day, least of all after dark.

“So, tell me.” Catherine heard the faint hope in Jamie’s question and responded quickly, “I’ve remembered everything, and what’s more I think I can take you to where Vincent is being held.”

Derisively Jamie laughed, “And what makes you think he is still missing?”

Her first thought was to ask, “Isn’t he?” But Catherine dismissed that. He wouldn’t still be calling for help if he were back home, so she replied, “He’s calling to me, I know he needs help.”

“I don’t believe you!” Jamie snapped about to impart something malicious when Jenny cut in, “Catherine is telling the truth. We were there when Paracelsus brought Vincent down. We don’t know what happened after that, but that much I can remember. And Catherine can lead you to where Vincent is being held. You’ve got to believe us!”

“And why should I? How do I know that you don’t work for Paracelsus. After all you and he arrived in the tunnels at the same time that night. He used you to get to Vincent, and why? Why you? Why not one of us? It would have made more sense, Vincent doesn’t even know you!”

Jenny had asked herself that same question many times but now was not the time for that part of her theory, Catherine wouldn’t want to know that just yet.

“Look, we don’t know why, only that it is. And okay so you don’t have to believe us, but what other leads have you got? Please rally round some of your strongest men and women and let Catherine show you the way. Vincent will, through Catherine guide rescuers to where he is being held captive. Only don’t take all night, something tells me that we have to act now.”

“Don’t threaten me. We will do this at our own pace. Now wait here and I will send word. You’re right about one thing, you are our only lead so far, but don’t go thinking we trust you. You will be watched every inch of the way.” Hand to the mechanism shielding the tunnels from the three of them, Jamie opened the huge metal door, stepped inside and closed it after her. All Jenny and Catherine could do now was wait until the troops had amassed together and then begin the journey that would hopefully lead them to where Vincent was being held.

To be continued in part ten.

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