Forsaken by Keary Taylor Page A

distinctly
recognized the handwriting.
    Cole.
    My head spun and little black dots
started forming on the outskirts of my vision. I then realized that
I wasn’t breathing. My heart pounded and the sound of its
thundering raged in my ears. My hands started shaking, making me
nearly drop the envelopes.
    I was terrified, horrified, but
surprisingly, I was raging angry. Everything Cole had done to me,
done to Sal, done to Alex, came rushing back at me and hit me like
a punch in the face.
    Before I even realized what I was
doing, I had counted to eighty-one under my breath.
    So I hadn’t just been paranoid. Cole
was still around. He had been watching me, closer than I could have
ever realized. Sometime he had been in the house or had slipped
into the bookstore and put the envelopes into my purse.
    He could still be here right
now.
    “ Cole?” I said aloud with
a quivering voice. My system felt suddenly saturated with
panic.
    But I didn’t feel any eyes on me like
I had the past few weeks.
    I could only pray I really was
alone.
    I opened the letter with the wax seal.
I checked to make sure no one had entered the bookstore and that no
one was around the front of the building. I leaned against the
counter and pulled a yellowed piece of paper out. My eyes quickly
glanced over it but froze at the date written in the
corner.
    1 June, 1759
     
    I supposed the date should not have
struck me as strongly as it did. I remembered Cole saying something
about how he had not walked this Earth in a few hundred years. The
reality that Cole had lived hundreds of years ago had not really
occurred to me.
     
    My Dearest,
    Let me begin by first
apologizing again for the things that happened with your father
yesterday. I promise that I did not mean to anger him. Sometimes my
temper seems to get the best of me. Please tell him again that I am
sorry and that I take back what I said. I don’t think that he fully
believed me when I said so myself.
    I did not get a moment of
sleep all last night. As I stared up at the ceiling all I saw was
that horrific scene of me making a fool of myself but more front
and center was the horrified look that crossed your face. It was
well deserved and warranted. I regret every breath I took that was
used to produce the words that came out of my mouth.
    Please, my dearest, I beg
of you another chance to make it up to you. Your father never need
know of me again, nor James. Even through all the times I have
begged you to end it with him, through all the times you have told
me that you simply can’t, I will gladly desist if you will simply
give me another chance.
    I need you, my darling. I
cannot live without you. Please.
     
    Yours, always and
forever,
    Cole
     
    I could only stare at the page for a
long moment after I finished reading. The laughter that suddenly
burst from my chest startled me, it was so bizarre. It was amazing,
that even though Cole had lived over 250 years ago, he was still
exactly the same. Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. Charming, yet hiding a
monster inside. Always wanting what wasn’t his and willing to do
anything to get it.
    It was out of pure and simple morbid
curiosity that I pulled out the other letter. This one was
obviously a woman’s handwriting.
    8 June, 1759
     
    I cannot even begin to
describe the horror that filled me as I watched you and my father
argue over what was best for my future. Father would not speak to
me for two full days afterward. He would barely even look me in the
eye and when he did it was with the utmost disappointment. He told
James of it, I don’t know why I should have expected anything else,
father tells James everything. I don’t think James took it as
seriously as it actually was. He brushed it off without a second
thought, for which I am grateful. The engagement is still
on.
    I find that I cannot stop
thinking of you though. The way you whispered those words in my ear
that night haunts my every thought. The way you touched me in the
moonlight in the barn sends my