Jillian moaned and tossed fitfully in the bed. She longed for a drink, anything to cool the burning fever and pain ripping through her throat.
She forced her eyes open. A flickering kerosene lamp illuminated the room in wavering light. A pungent tendril of smoke floated up the clear glass chimney. Jill looked toward the plastered white ceiling. Small uneven dark stains marked the lamp's previous trek around the room. Tatted lace curtains hung over the six pane sea window. Moonlight reflected off the rain spattered glass.
Memory floated through her mind. Gideon Bolt had brought her here. He had brought her food and then she had drifted off to sleep. But it had been light then.
Had she slept so long.
"I must be going out of my mind." She told herself. "Or he drugged me."
She swung her legs over the bed and sat up. Her throat burned like fire and she couldn't seem to concentrate.
He must have drugged her.
Jillian sat there, gripping the edge of the bed, staring at the wall. Then a milky apparition floated before her. It was a woman. Her face and upper body were clearly defined, the rest of her faded away into nothing. It was Molly.
"Molly?" Jillian managed to croak out. The effort made her throat burn as if she were swallowing live embers. She raised her hand to touch her friend but her fingertips went right through her.
Molly's form shifted and thinned out then it became more solid. She was mouthing something, but Jillian could hear nothing.
Jillian shivered and then she heard a whispery voice in the room.
Beware, Jillian, beware the dark eyed man by the sea.
)
