At the Stroke of Midnight (4 page)

about the whole thing. Why would Troy Thomas ask
me
out? Didn't I know he was

playing me for a fool? I think Margot was jealous that Troy asked me out, just as she'd

been jealous because my bike was prettier than hers."

Olivia shook her head. "I don't know why I even told you that. It has nothing to do

with what happened. The night before my date with Troy, I was driving home from my

part-time job at the Quik Stop. It was late and had been raining off and on all evening. Of

course, it came pouring down before I reached home. I was out on Connolly Road. They

had put down new asphalt a few days before, and the road was covered with an oily

glaze. The rain made it worse. Another car came out of nowhere, and I lost control of

mine, trying to avoid a collision. I ran off the road, slammed into a tree, and knocked

myself unconscious."

He remembered the incident all too well. The car had slid sideways off the road

and crushed the door against a tree. The pouring rain that never touched him had drizzled

through the broken window and splashed across her face. Her hair was darker by then,

much the same color it was now, a rich russet highlighted with copper.

He had reached out to brush the strands back and wipe the water from her pale

brow before he remembered he couldn't or she would be taken. She had moaned and

stirred and her eyelids had fluttered darkly against the whiteness of her skin.

At that moment, love fluttered through him like a butterfly emerging from its

cocoon and growing stronger with each wing beat. It took flight and soared through him,

gliding in and out of every minute corner of his essence. His love for Olivia lifted him up

and happiness followed behind, another winged creature leaving joy and delight in its

wake.

22

The somber and sad duty he performed was not enough to sustain him any longer.

He wanted more and needed more, but everything had been lost to him millennia ago.

Even if he did become merely nothing for his transgression, knowing he had save Olivia

and give her continued life was good enough.

Her laughter, edged with regret, brought him out of his thoughts.

"I never did go out with Troy," she said quietly."I was in the hospital a while. I

had suffered a bad bump on my head. The doctor said I was lucky to be alive. But I

couldn't walk. They said that I should be able to walk, that the accident hadn't damaged

my leg again. My psychiatrist said I had reverted to the accident I'd had when I was

seven. I hadn't been able to walk after that one, so my subconscious didn't think I should

be able to walk after this one either. A few months of therapy and I was back to

normal...well, normal for me. By that time, Troy was dating someone else. I had missed

my chance."

Death looked at her eyes now filled with sadness at all she had missed in life. For

the first time, it occurred to him that he might have done her a disservice. She retained

her life, but at what price? He had inadvertently doomed her to a life of suffering and

disappointments, and it became clear to him why interference was forbidden.

Still, she had persevered. Her inner strength had overcome her physical disability.

Wasn't
life
, even if not perfect, preferable to the alternative? Shouldn't a soul have the

chance to grow and learn before making the journey to the other side?

He conceded it wasn't his place to make the decision. Selfishness--a human trait

he hadn't realized he still had until this moment. Of course, everything always maintained

balance, the bad weighing in along with the good. His own selfish goals had given back

her life three times, so far, but hadn't she become a stronger, better person for it? He had

to believe it was true, or the choice he'd made for himself would be for naught, too.

She didn't act as if she were going to continue speaking. Yet, there was so much

more that needed to be said so they could figure out what or who threatened her this

night. She started to push away from her resting place against the wall.

"What happened to the person who ran you off the road?" he prompted.

Olivia shrugged and leaned back again, closing her eyes briefly. "Nothing. They

never found out who it was. Not that it matters. It was an accident. I gave them a

description of the car. I don't know much about makes and models, but this one was easy.

It was exactly like Margot's."

23

"Your friend?" Surprise tinged the question, but everything fell neatly into place,

making perfect sense to him.

"It wasn't her, of course!" Olivia's hands doubled into fists at her side. "But the car

was the same color and the same shape, the same bent logo on the front of the hood."

He waited but she didn't realize what she had said or its implications. In denial,

she didn't
want
to know the truth.

"You didn't see the driver?"

"No," she answered too quickly. "It was raining too hard and it was too dark. The

headlights glared off the windshield. I couldn't see a thing."

He thought she protested too much. "Did they question your friend?"

"Yes. Yes, they did. I told them not to. I told them it wasn't Margot, and that the

car only
looked
like hers. They insisted and were waiting for her when she got home."

Her brow wrinkled and with a opened hand, unconsciously rubbing her thigh muscle

through layers of tulle and netting. "She had been out in the rain. She'd gone to the

grocery store and got caught in the storm on her way back. She was so angry at me

because they questioned her. I tried to make her understand, I never told them I thought it

was her."

An insistent beep sounded quietly. Olivia looked at her watch, and turned off the

alarm. "It's 11:30. The costume contest and award presentation is at midnight, below in

the bailey. I have to hurry and see what Margot wants. I hope nothing's gone wrong that

has to be fixed for the contest."

Once again, she took the last flight of stairs one at a time. He thought she would

relate the third incident, but she remained silent as they moved upward. Olivia was

running out of time and so was he. Less than thirty minutes by their reckoning.

"Isn't there something else you should tell me?" he prompted gently.

She faltered, almost missing the step, and he caught her by the elbow. She righted

herself, and he let her go, forcing the impressions of her death away. Unfortunately, he

didn't see how she died. As with the cat called Midnight, it was a feeling more than an

image, the solemn lifting of her soul from her body. He quickly checked her hourglass

again, but her fate hadn't changed. Nothing he'd done so far would save her.

"They say..." she began in a whisper, then squared her shoulders and spoke in a

clear, strong voice. "Oh, they
say
I imagine the limp and the pain. They call it

psychosomatic. I've created the illusion that I'm injured. The operations and therapy

24

worked years ago. There's nothing wrong with my leg at all. How can they say that when

I know what I feel?"

It wasn't what he'd meant, but it confirmed his suspicions. Olivia had to face her

fears and learn the truth before her fate played out.

"When does it happen?" he asked.

"What do you mean?" She resumed her ascent and he followed closely behind.

"When do you experience the pain?"

She shrugged. "Only occasionally. It comes and goes."

She wasn't making it easy. "When was the last time, before tonight?"

"I-I don't really remember," she said sharply.

"Don't you?"

"I said I didn't."

"Yesterday?" he persisted.

"No."

"The day before?"

She shook her head.

"The day before that?"

"I don't remember that far back!" She sounded annoyed. "If it did happen, I

couldn't say if it was Tuesday or Wednesday."

He had to force her to recall the incident or she would never make the connection.

"Did you work at the castle Tuesday or Wednesday?"

"We've worked at the castle every day for the past two weeks," she said. She

seemed slight agitated by his relentless questions. "In the evenings, of course. All of us

have jobs during the day."

"I see," he murmured. He decided to give her a few moments to calm down.

They had reached the catwalk and a cool night breeze blew over them. The sky

was still clear, filled only with stars.

"Margot!" she called out, peering down the empty walkway and rubbing her thigh

again. "I should have known she wouldn't be here. I don't have time for this."

Aware their time was running out, he took a step toward her. "Did anything out of

the ordinary happen Tuesday or Wednesday?"

She grimaced and limped down the catwalk. "Lots of things happen that are out of

the ordinary. We've been working on a castle. A castle isn't ordinary."

25

"But did anything specific happen?"

"Why are you asking me all these questions? I-I..." She moved farther away from

him, glancing back at him every other step until she finally stopped and turned around to

face him from a distance. "I don't even know who you are. I shouldn't have allowed you

to come with me to a secluded area with no one else around. I thought Margot would be

here."

"I won't harm you, Olivia," he promised.

"But I don't know that. I think you should leave now and join the party

downstairs." She limped backward. "If you don't, I'll call for help."

He wanted to rush to her and comfort her, but any movement toward her would

only frighten her more. He backed to the top of the stairs. "I'll stay here. I won't come

near you again. What happened last week, Olivia?"

"Wednesday," she whispered and her face screwed up in pain.

"What happened Wednesday?" he said slowly, careful not to alarm her again.

"Margot...Margot, of course. Isn't it always Margot?" Olivia slumped against the

wall. "At the last minute, she brought in some Halloween decorations she'd found. The

committee had decided in detail weeks ago how we were going to decorate. We'd drawn

up a plan and bought everything we needed. Everyone had agreed, even Margot, on the

design. We had half the stuff put up when Margot brings in these decorations she'd found

and demanded we use them too. She thought they were
utterly perfect.
" She'd changed

her tone of voice on the last two words, flawlessly imitating the nasal whine of the

woman he'd seen with Olivia earlier. "They weren't utterly perfect. They were utterly

ugly. The rest of the committee brushed her off, but of course you can't just brush off

Margot."

"What did she do?" He didn't have to check her hourglass. The stroke of midnight

drew nigh, and he sensed one of the last grains slip through.

"Do? Oh, Margot never
does
anything. She sulks and acts as if her world is

coming to an end over something as silly as Halloween decorations." Olivia shook her

head again and again. "I shouldn't be saying these things. Margot is my friend. She's been

my friend forever."

"She doesn't sound like a very good friend." Each second ticked closer to

midnight, and Olivia's fate would be sealed. Still, he would not take her, no matter what

his
fate might be. "What else happened that night?"

26

"It was the strangest thing." She looked up at him quickly, her brown eyes

sparkling in the starlight. "You're right. My leg started to hurt while Margot was throwing

her tantrum. Later, after she'd calmed down and we were decorating the catwalk together,

we were talking like the old friends we'd always been. The pain had all but disappeared."

"And?" he urged. More seconds ticked by, and another grain plunged to the

bottom of the glass.

"I fell. I was leaning over, like this." She walked to the stone balustrade running

the length of the catwalk and bent to touch the crepe streamers. "We were fastening the

decorations and, suddenly, I felt myself go over. My leg must have given out and I lost

my balance. I was extremely fortunate. All the cardboard boxes and packing material had

been left in a pile down in the bailey. I fell into it and suffered only a few bruises and

scratches."

He'd been there, of course. Although the fall itself wasn't fatal, her heart had

failed. The terror of falling would have caused her death if he could have brought himself

to touch her. He'd knelt beside her and waited. Because he hadn't touched her, her heart

had started again on its own. Her youth and vitality had ensured no permanent damage.

He didn't immediately vanish, although the dying of others called to him. He