Buried Treasure - 6. Part 6

The helicopter shook as it took off. Craig was strapped to a bed in the back and I was sitting beside him belted to my chair. He grabbed my hand and clung on as we reached the height we needed and set off towards Chapmistres View.

“Remind me again why he would head for a community that is made up of witches and vampires. Especially when two of those vampires are the oldest known two on this island.” Craig asked me as we watched the scenery whizz by.

“Well, the first point would be that Chapmistres is the nearest community to us. If he went in the other direction he would have ended up walking for weeks to get to the next nearest community, across empty bogs. Secondly, Chapmistres View has an open door policy and allows anyone to ask for shelter. They will provide free shelter and food for a month until that person can either contribute to the community or decides to move on. However, if they find out a person is a criminal, they will either return that person to the community where they committed the crime, or if that’s not possible they will be turned out of the community and not allowed to return. And I might add they always put them out on the side of the community that backs onto the werewolf compound. The person does have a chance of surviving but they have to move fast and quietly and hope it is not a full moon.”

“Sounds fair to me,” Craig grinned and I laughed.

“Oh, what a view.” I pressed my free hand to the window of the helicopter and took in the view as we flew over Chapmistres View. I could see the council building and the town square that had been marked on the map I had seen. Houses were dotted in what seemed to be a random pattern. There were no defined streets and all the house were detached with some being small with a lot of land around them and others were quite large and had almost no garden space.

I felt Craig shudder, shaking the hand I still held.

I looked down to see he was looking out the same window I had been, but I quickly realized that because of the angle he was laying at he would only be able to see the sky and maybe the top of some of the tallest buildings in the distance.

“What’s up? I can feel you shaking.” I asked, concerned.

“I don’t like heights. I don’t know why but I have always gotten worried, I don’t even like going up stepladders.” By this time he had closed his eyes and his shaking was diminishing a bit.

I moved as much as my belt would allow and managed to grasp his hand with both of mine.

“Everyone is scared of something,” I told him, and we both fell silent as our pilot announced that we would soon be landing.

***

We landed in a large grassy area that was between the main town and the woods. We were met by four healers, two took charge of the stretcher with Craig on it, they used magic to float him down from the helicopter and then between them they carried him off. The other two came to meet me and Cade as we climbed down.

“Hi, we’re the head healers here. I’m Casey and he’s Jamie, but don’t worry we both answer to either name if you have trouble telling us apart.” One of the two identical men said with a smile.

I stood still as Cade introduced us and we set off with the twins to follow where Craig was headed.

We entered a large building and found ourselves in a large reception area. A woman behind the desk was waving at our escorts and they detoured to introduce us.

Sophie insisted that we were signed in (in case of a fire, health and safety, etc…) and that we had name badges, which were just sticky labels that she had written out. With that finally over we were allowed into the main clinic area.

We finally found Craig in a private room, with a pretty young man flitting around fluffing his pillows. Craig was lapping up the attention and was teasing the young man mercilessly.

When he saw us, he called out.

“Jay, Cade, hello and welcome to my private haven.” He gestured grandly around the room. The bed he was laying on was large and looked comfortable, the rest of the room was painted in soothing pastel colors and held a bedside cabinet and a desk in a corner with a TV and jug of water.

“Looks like you’ve landed on your feet again.” I noted as I looked around. The young man had moved off to one side and was trying to edge out the room when Craig noticed him again.

“Oh have you met Louis. He’s my personal nurse for my stay. Isn’t that right, Lou?”

Louis blushed red and tried to mumble a reply. I looked at the young man; he was shorter than me and had black hair that hung over his face obscuring his eyes. He had a piercing through his bottom lip and was wearing eye liner. His clothes were the same uniform I had seen others in, plain trousers and a t-shirt with the clinic logo on it.

“Please I must apologize for whatever he has already said to offend you and whatever he may say before we leave as well. As you may have noticed he doesn’t have much control over his tongue.” I held out my hand, as I spoke, and Louis took it shyly before fleeing the room.

“You need to behave while we’re here.” I snapped at Craig.

“I was just trying to break the ice,” Craig complained.

Before we could argue anymore, the twins came in.

“We’re ready for Craig now!”