My muscles ached as I tried to roll over and open my eyes. Was I dead? It felt as though I had run and never stopped. I managed to open my eyes a bit and saw her beautiful face looking at me with that concerned look. I was trying to give her a name, but it wouldn’t come. I heard something make a loud bang in the distance and she jumped. Maddy jumped. Ah there it was; how could I forget my beautiful Madeline.

“You should have never made her do it! She wasn’t part of the deal!” I could hear a man screaming in the next room.

“Your wife isn’t here to take up her part of this deal, so your daughter must unless you want to go back to debtor’s prison.” I heard the calm reply.

I could hear in the silence my father seething. His anger was usually the smoldering kind. He was like a storm that would thunder and lightning but never rain.

“Now please go to the services by the fountain, you have a soldier to be.“ I heard the sneer in her voice. I could hear her footfalls coming across the floor and Maddy motioned for me to close my eyes again.

“How is she?” I heard her ask.

“Still sleeping Mother. It took a lot out of her.” Maddy’s voice was strained.

I listened to her mother walk back out of the room, and I opened my eyes. This time, it was easier. The more I moved the looser my muscles became and the ache started to diminish. I tried to say thank you, but it came out a garbled hoarse mess. I had forgotten the Dead had been speaking. That is why we were here. Trapped in servitude for a debt. A debt my Mother’s Father had left them with. I remember the worry in my parent’s eyes. I remember the prison but vaguely. I was too little. I just remember hunger. Maddy brought me back by gently brushing some hair from my face.

“Want to play tag before I have to go work on my needlepoint?” Maddy said with an impish grin. I moved my legs to see if I could stand, and then nodded. She smiled and took off, and I followed. She was giggling and I was smiling, I never could catch her. I could feel my nightshirt catch in the breeze. The door was open in the front, which is the only time air moved in this house. We rounded the corner and came to a stop at the front stairs. There were two men on the middle flight following Maddy’s Mother. They had bright red hair, and wore riding trousers, so they must have come quite a ways. The younger of the two looked down and caught us staring. He smiled in a most unpleasant way. Maddy moved to stand in front of me. The man laughed.

“So are ya the wee bitch I am to marry?” A cold rod went through my spine.

Maddy’s Mother motioned me to step out, and I did. The man-child laughed again.

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“A bit scrawny, but she will do.” Then he looked at me and said, “Me Mum had the gift, so we are to have Bairns with it too." His smile was wide.

Now I knew why my Father had sat weeping by my bedside all last night. The debt had fallen to me. My Father was wearing out, he couldn’t continue channeling forever. The gift used a body up. This morning was my first. This afternoon would be my Father’s last. He had told me goodbye last night. So I would know I was on my own. Maddy took my hand and ran us out the door. She was crying.

“If she is to marry you now, then we will never be together again.” Maddy sobbed. I hugged her. It was all I could do. My voice was still not my own quite yet. Then her demeanor changed, “Meet me by the canal in back by the forlorn Angel.”

I nodded yes and Maddy went back into the house. I walked slowly to the Angel, that sad stone specter that sat upon a mournful woman’s grave. Sometimes I swear I could hear her moan. I sat in her lap because it always offered me an odd comfort after my Mother’s death. This time, I could see tears fall from her eyes. I cried too.

Maddy shook me awake. I tried to make a sound, but my throat had still not recovered. Father never said it would be like this. She took my hand and I followed her to the canal, the sides overgrown now with thick bushes. It fed the farmlands beyond from the lake up in the hills. There was a little boat. Barely big enough for us two. I got in after she had sat down to steady it. I saw the pile of blankets under her feet. I sat in the front and she began to row. She went as fast as she could, and I turned so that the branches would not hit my face, but I could feel them on my side.

We stopped outside an old mausoleum, mostly granite with marble trim. The old Iron Gate was latched but not locked, and the door was ajar. I hesitated, but Maddy urged me on. She pulled some blankets out of the boat and brought them inside after I stepped through the door. I shivered. She handed me a flask.

“Drink it all, it will warm you up.” is all she said. Then she busied laying blankets on the sarcophagus that would be our bed tonight.

I finished the flask and felt a rush of warmth. My face tingled, and I started to feel sleepy. I crawled up onto the makeshift bed. I felt Maddy crawl in after me. She was drinking her own flask.

“I promise I will protect you. No one will hurt you or take you away, ever.” Maddy whispered as I yawned and settled into her. I nodded off as I could feel the cold seep once again deep into my bones, and felt Maddy's last exhale of breath on my neck, as my breath shallowed also. I smiled and wrapped her arms around me tighter.