Was it Freaky Friday all of a sudden? Had Vee and I switched bodies in the attic? “Do you hear yourself? You’re supposed to be the logical one. What you’re suggesting—you know it’s impossible.”
I expected her to answer defensively. Instead, she lifted her chin, her posture strong and confident as she replied, “This isn’t about what I know. It’s about what I feel, deep inside. It’s about my destiny.”
“You make your own destiny in this world. You can be anything, do anything.”
“Then I choose to believe in Doon.” With a deliberate step onto the bridge, Vee disappeared from the lamplight. As if someone cued spooky special effects, tendrils of mist began to curl over the sides of the Brig o’ Doon from the riverbank below.
In the darkness, I could hear her measured tread on the stones. While I waited, the mists swirled and thickened, devouring the bridge until Vee’s footsteps became muffled and then vanished altogether. Had she paused halfway across?
“Vee? Quit messing around.”
The silence was as dense as the curtain of fog that’d sprung up out of nowhere.
“Vee?”
“Kenna?” She sounded miles away, but I would’ve recognized her panic at any distance.
“Hold on. I’m coming!” Using the wall as a guide, I began walking carefully across the bridge. After a few steps, I lost all sense of relative space. Realizing I could easily pass her in the oblivion, I called her name.
Her reply, while still distorted, sounded closer. “Here—”
I shuffled blindly forward, hands thrust in front of me. “Where are you?”
“I’m here.” Her voice reverberated stage left. Turning in that direction, I stepped toward the center of the bridge. At first there was nothing but impenetrable mist, and then a disembodied hand reached for me. Vee’s hand. Only it glowed blood red—like something from a horror movie. And mine, the hand that reached for hers, burned alien green.
“Ken!” Vee gasped. She pulled me closer until we could see one another clearly in the strange light. “Look!” She lifted our intertwined hands, our rings blazing between our bodies. “This enough proof for you?”
Too much. My lungs burned as my body went momentarily catatonic. I sucked in a shaky breath, wondering at the wheezy sounds coming from my throat. “This is not happening.”
She met my eyes above the glowing rings. “I know you don’t want to believe in anything you can’t see or touch. I’m scared too. But we’re supposed to see this through. I know we are. Do you trust me?”
I wanted to say no, but Vee’s certainty in the midst of the creepiness compelled me to admit the truth. “Yes.”
“Try to believe.” When I nodded, she let go of my hand. “Put your palm against mine.”
As soon as our rings touched, they glowed impossibly bright, like stage spots. Soon the red and green fused into a brilliant white beam that refracted through the mist like a prism. Fear kicked my heart into overdrive as I closed my eyes against the onslaught of blinding light.
Vee’s voice, perfectly calm and clear as a bell, spoke reassuringly in my ear. “It’s going to be okay.”
Then the light vanished. In its absence, spots floated across my vision. Breaking my connection with Vee, I stepped back to examine my ring. To my great relief, it wasn’t glowing green. It looked deceptively normal—like an antique handed down by a relative. Nothing more.
After a moment of contemplation, Vee said quietly, “I suppose you’re going to tell me you didn’t see that.”
“No.” Something had definitely happened. But even if our rings lit up like Christmas, it hadn’t changed anything.
“You see?” Her reverent tone held no accusation as she spoke. “The rings are special.”
“But it doesn’t mean Doon is real. We’re still lost in the fog on an old bridge in the middle of the night. In Alloway.”