Doctor Who_ Wolfsbane - Jac Rayner [38]
I had family far away, I remembered, family in England.
A cousin. Blood of my mother or father, I could not think, but I was certain of the knowledge. I had not met this cousin, but I could hear my mother‟s voice speaking to me: „If anything should happen to us, liebchen, then go to your cousin Hester in England. There you will be safe, and she will care for you.‟ And so I knew the ties of blood would be strong.
In England I would be safe. In England, my family would protect me. In England, there were no others of my kind to sense me, no Schutzstaffel to make me kill, I left the forest. I had no passport, no papers, but I was determined. I crossed the border into Austria, travelled through Switzerland and to France. There I crossed in a ship to England, to Dover. I could feel the blood of my family calling to me all the while, and finally I found them.
I hitched lifts, and I walked, and I slept under hedgerows, but I found them eventually. What was I to say? I was scared as I walked up the path to their house, not scared as I had been hiding in the Wiessee hotel, but scared of rejection after my long trip. But I need not have feared. I knocked on the door. An old gentleman opened it, and I asked for Hester - I knew no other name. And this lady came to the door. „I am Emmeline,‟ I said, trying to find the words to explain. But she grasped me in her arms and sobbed and laughed, and said that I was the image of my sweet mother, so how could she not know who I was? And she took me into the house, and gave me food and wine, and told me I must stay with her for as long as I needed.
I thought then how lucky I was. They were not of my kind, of course - as I have said, there are few of our kind outside Germany, and none in England - and I thought Hester a strange old woman and George a fool, but they welcomed me with open arms and fed me and kept me safe. I did not know then what they would do to me.
I also did not know that Britain itself did not want to feed me and keep me safe. They ask for papers, they ask for forms to be filled in. I am not a refugee, they say. I know I am, but cannot tell them this - they cannot know what I am. They will not allow me to stay for ever, they say. They will send me back to Germany. I know I can hide again, but I do not want to. I do not want to be alone with no human company. I began to search for a husband, so Britain and England would accept me as one of their own. I did not find one. There was a young man I met briefly, and I had hopes for him - but I travel forwards in time; I will return to my arrival in England.
I have said that my kind has a connection to the land. We are creatures built from earth and blood, and nature knows us. But the land slept. It acknowledged us faintly, like a lover grunting in his sleep; fed us and protected us when it could.
It has been many centuries since the land was awake.
But here... suddenly, there were rumblings from the earth.
Two full moons came and went, and each time the beast rose stronger in me. On the day after I would hear tales of sheep killed in the night, and I would remember what I had done. It was hard for me then; the English villagers grew suspicious.
And then the girl died... but it was the first night of the full moon, when I still knew myself. And I knew that I had not killed her. But who would believe that, if they found out what I was? More than that, I could feel the land starting to wake beneath me. This was ancient magic, the harnessing of nature against its will. The human blood was feeding it. I am of earth and blood, and I could feel it. If there was more blood, and more magic, the land would rise fully. I would not be safe; whoever