N. Walters: Mark of the Bear

Kellsie stopped, wondering if she was making a mistake trying to leave or if she should just hear the old guy out. She really should just hurry by and make a run for her car. This was starting to get creepy. But something in the man’s gaze stopped her. Sincerity. Concern. As if he had something very important he wanted to impart to her.

“You are headed toward great evil.”

She rolled her eyes and sighed. So much for her intuition. She really didn’t have time for this. Some days she wondered if she had some kind of invisible sign tattooed on her forehead. For some unknown reason, all the crazies seemed attracted to her—the homeless people, the drug addicts, those who lived in their own reality. Didn’t matter where she went, they seemed to find her. You’d think she’d be used to it by now.

She tried to be kind and respectful to all of them. If she hadn’t gotten lucky in her early days, she could have easily been among their ranks. She never forgot that. But some days it was simply a pain in the ass.

Kellsie glanced at her watch and winced. It was later than she’d hoped. At this rate it was going to be dark by the time she got to the movie set. “Excuse me, but I really need to get going.” She started to push by him.

“The bear is strong with you. You wear his mark.”

His words stopped her cold and a shiver raced down her spine. Slowly, she turned to stare down at him. “What did you say?”

His face was set in stern lines and his eyes were deadly serious. “You have powerful bear magic. Strong. You will need it.”

Kellsie shook her head, not understanding what he meant. How could this guy know about her connection to the bear? And what did he mean about bearing his mark? He couldn’t know about her tattoo. That was impossible.

As soon as she thought it, commonsense kicked in and told her it was impossible. There was no way he could know. It was nothing more than a lucky guess. He probably had something he wanted to sell her.

“Look. I really need to go and I don’t have the money to buy anything, okay.” That was technically a lie. She had money. She just didn’t want to spend it on useless trinkets.

Kellsie wrapped her fingers around her purse strap until her knuckles turned white. She wanted to leave but couldn’t get her feet to get with the program. Nothing, not the thought of being late nor being totally creeped out could propel her forward.

She held her breath, waiting to hear what he had to say next. Almost not wanting to hear it.

He narrowed his eyes and his frown deepened. “I am not selling anything.”

Great, now she’d offended the guy. She huffed out a breath. Why did she even care? She hadn’t started this exchange.

He held out his hand. A leather thong hung from his fingers and on the end was a large claw of some sort.

Kellsie stared at it, mesmerized as it swung back and forth.

“It is from the bear. A strong, powerful creature, one who lived a long life before going back to Mother Earth and Father Sky.”

“It’s beautiful.” No, that wasn’t quite right. It was powerful. Compelling. She’d never worn fur in her life. She was guilty of wearing leather, but who wasn’t? Certainly she’d never imagined wearing any other part of an animal, let alone a claw, but suddenly she wanted this necklace. She wondered if it was even legal to possess something like that.

“Sit.” The man motioned to the chair across from him.

She hesitated, chewing on her bottom lip. “I don’t have much time.” Truthfully, she didn’t have any to spare, but for some reason she felt compelled to slide onto the seat across from him.

He smiled. “This will not take long.” He reached across the table and took her hand. His skin was dark, his fingers gnarled. They looked so strange and foreign wrapped around her smooth white flesh. The necklace still dangled in his other hand.

“You have been tested by life and it has made you strong. You are a loner.”

His words brought a gripping tightness to her chest and a lump to her throat. Somehow this stranger had summed up her entire life in two sentences. She wanted to look away from him but couldn’t break free from his penetrating gaze. There was a power of some sort emanating from him, something that drew her even as she wanted to run away from it.

“That time is coming to an end. A new chapter of your life is beginning. You will be tested by the greatest darkness.”

That was so not what she wanted to hear. And why was she even listening to this guy? She didn’t even know his name.

He continued, his voice low and melodic, lulling her. “But you will not be alone. A warrior will come to you, one strong and pure of heart. You will heal one another or you will both perish.”

That certainly didn’t sound promising. She wasn’t about to trust any man, especially not one she hadn’t even met yet. She gently disengaged her hand from the stranger. Even though she didn’t believe anything he was saying, she didn’t want to offend the old guy. “Thanks for the warning, but I have to go.”

She pushed back the chair, her appetite gone. The road and her movie role beckoned.

“Take this.” He thrust the necklace toward her. “The bear magic is strong and will help protect you.”

She held out her hands. “I’m sorry. I really don’t have money to spare to buy it.” Better he think she was poor than for him to be offended or hurt by her refusal.

Damn, you’d think all those years of living on her own, of working in a cutthroat industry would have made her hard. But underneath the tough exterior she was a marshmallow, wanting to believe the best in people even when they continually disappointed her. She’d worked hard to erect the shell of protection around her heart and had no intention of letting it drop for any reason.

He shook his head, making his long hair sway. “A present.” His voice rang with a quiet dignity. He stood and pressed it into her hand. He turned and walked away, his shoulders unbent by age.

He left the café behind, the door closing quietly behind him. Through the window, she watched him walk toward the woods.

Stunned, Kellsie stared down at the necklace she held tight in her hand. “What the hell just happened?” She shook herself, feeling as though she’d momentarily drifted off into a dream. She had no idea what the heck the old guy meant and had no time to figure it out. She stuffed the necklace in her pocket and hurried back to the gift-shop area.

The clerk was still there reading her magazine. Kellsie knew she should let it go, but couldn’t. “Excuse me, could you tell me who that old man was?”

The woman shot her a quizzical look. “What man?”

“The old guy who just left.”

She put aside her magazine and leaned forward to look out the window. Kellsie glanced outside, but there was no trace of the man. He was gone, swallowed up by the surrounding forest. The clerk shrugged. “I didn’t see anyone come in but you.”

A shiver raced down Kellsie’s spine and goose bumps rose on her forearms. Weird. The woman was probably just too caught up in her reading to notice him. That’s all it was.

Settling the matter in her head, Kellsie put all thoughts of the man aside. It was nothing more than two strangers crossing paths in life. The woman was staring at her expectantly. Kellsie offered her a smile. “I need directions.”

An hour later, she pulled off the side of the road to check her directions once again. She should be at the movie set in the next ten minutes. She shut off her car, killing the music that blared from her speakers. Silence surrounded her. The view was breathtaking with the sun setting behind majestic mountains surrounded by thick woods. She could see a lake off in the distance. It was the perfect setting for a horror movie.