Page 9.
Nothing escapes the watchful eye’s of Madre Maria but she knew when the seeds of real love were planted by God and his angels, she approved of the flowers that were beginning to grow in the garden of life between these two. As most of the people of the mission now slept Father Mendez knelt in front of the alter at the missions church and gave thanks for the safety of the mission and prayed no further harm would come to it’s people. Candles flickered near the statue of the Blessed Virgin Mary who stood looking down at the priest as he prayed while Madre Maria silently knelt in a pew next to him and recited the rosary to herself. Scratch remained with Jade that evening as Juan walked her back to her room that she shared with the quiet one and after one more kiss good night Juan departed. Jade turned the door handle as her heart still glowed with that evenings events but as she and Scratch entered her room something was wrong. The quiet one was nowhere to be found except for a note left on her bed that note read, “ My hand or she dies, tell no one and come alone to the beach near the Topaz at midnight tonight”.
Jade stood stunned and dropped the note to the ground but quickly regained herself choosing strength over fear. It was that same strength that sustained her as well as the other girls that survived their torturous journey aboard the Topaz. But now there was no time to waste over the past and it was her and her alone that would once again face Finley and this time it would have to be their last. Jade scooped up Scratch into her arms and nuzzled the three legged champion with her nose and cheeks as a tears ran down her face disappearing into Scratch‘s shiny coat. She laid him gently down on her bed and quietly closed the heavy wooded door to her behind and secretly left the mission unnoticed under the cover of darkness. Jade walked swiftly passed the corn field, orchards and the vineyard and managed to locate the spot near the creek where she buried the ivory hand. She searched and searched for the turtle shaped stone at times crawling in the dark with only some help from a half lit moon.
A great horned owl hooted nearby as Jade finally discovered the stone and now held the ivory hand still wrapped in a cloth. Jade now made her way west toward the sea and it was almost two hours before she began to smell the thick salt air and then hear the crashing of waves as she neared the cliffs that overlooked the beach. Screams and jeers with whistles and laughter echoed from the beach as Jade fell to her belly and inched her way closer to the edge of a sandy cliff and looked over. There stripped naked and tied to a wood cross was the quiet one, her head lowered and her face bloodied she wept as Finley waved a fiery torch near her body and laughed. Jade watched as Finley stoked a large fire that whirled near the quiet one as true hatred began to pulse throughout her soul. Suddenly two dark shadows appeared beside her and she turned like a lioness with tooth and claw and her eye's flashed like lightning , but it was Juan and Scratch who laid down beside her as Reina stood in the shadows a safe distance away
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