It was a dark and stormy night, the first of many she would experience. Having moved into the house just a month before, she didn't know how sound the electrical actually was. She inherited the house from her late previously unknown great uncle, and was still finding out who he was and about his life there. She was in bed reading when the light on her bedside stand went out. She thought to herself, 'well, that answers that question. Must be a tree down somewhere.' She replaced the bookmark, closed it, and placed it beside her on the bed next to the pillow. She stopped for a moment and thought about where her flashlight was. She closed her eyes, then opened them slowly so they would become accustomed to the darkness. She moved out of the bed, grabbed her robe off the end, wrapped it around her, and slid her feet into her slippers.
She cautiously put her hands out in front of her, found the front edge of her nightstand, the knob on the front of the little drawer, opened it and found the flashlight stashed there, safely tucked in the front of the drawer. She went to turn it on, to no avail, curious, she thought, she had just replaced those batteries when she moved in, and hadn't used the flashlight at all since. Tucking the flashlight into her robe pocket, she made her way to the wardrobe cautiously, opening the right side door and finding the bottom drawer, pulled out another flashlight. She tried to turn it on as well, and nothing. 'Wow, she thought, this one too, even with fresh batteries.' She put the other flashlight in her other pocket and headed to the linen closet in the hallway, slowly and surely, as she didn't want to fall down the stairs. She found the closet door, opened it, reached down on the bottom shelf to find her emergency lantern kit. Taking it out, she opened it, it was a simple thing, an old doctor's bag with tapered candles, a brass candle holder with a handle, wax catcher and light reflector, a large and small box of matches. Other things in there were several 3 inch pillar candles, six candle plates with edges to keep the wax in, and a snuffer, She felt around in the bag to make sure everything was there, closed the closet door and took the bag back to the bedroom.
She set the bag on the bed, opened it and put a taper candle on the brass holder, found the large box of matches and set the candle alight. She took the brass candle holder and 3 of the pillar candles and went downstairs to the phone. Placing a pillar candle on the table next to the phone, she put the brass one there as well and tried to dial the electric company. Picking up the receiver, there was no dial tone. Leaving the pillar candle there, she took the brass one into the kitchen, placed it on the countertop and proceeded to replace the batteries in the flashlights with ones fresh from the package.
Once the flashlights were working, she carefully snuffed out the candle, left another pillar candle in the kitchen and headed to the basement to find the fuse or circuit breaker box. She descended the kitchen/basement stairs and found the box. Suddenly she heard creaking on the stairs. 'Funny', she thought, 'I'm the only one home.' She opened the box, checked the breakers and found one that had tripped, reset it and turned it on. She closed the box and turned around, looking through the basement with her flashlight. Nothing unusual there.
She headed back up the stairs to the kitchen and just as she closed the basement door, the door to the kitchen slammed open with the wind. She spun around, then went and closed and locked the door. 'Interesting', she thought, 'I don't remember leaving it unlocked, nevermind open.' She turned around and gasped as the lighting lit up the kitchen and there was a silhouette of a very tall man, standing in the doorway. She screamed and backed up against the wall, staring at him, she could see he wasn't fully there, he was seventy-five percent transparent, but she could see he was wearing a kilt and sash, and a sword. He was looking at her with such love in his eyes, she felt no malice from him. He seemed to be beckoning her to follow him as his shape moved back into the hallway. She followed, tentatively, shining the flashlight on the floor, she could see where his boots would be touching the floor, but there was no sound as he walked.
Not being one to shirk a mystery, she continued to follow him, up the stairs, past her own bedroom door to the one beside it, but she noticed there was an unusual distance between the two doors. He glided through the second door and she almost walked into the door to follow, then opened it and went inside to find him waiting for her at the back right corner, where there looked to be just a wall. There didn't appear to be a door or anything, but she could see the fringe of the area rug moving as if blown by a breeze. She put her hand on the wall and felt along the chair rail until she felt what could only be described as a seam running perpendicular to the rail. She felt around it and tried to move it, upwards, downwards, left and right, nothing worked.
She noticed the man moved closer to her, her hand got sort of an icy warm feeling as he put his hand over hers and pushed her thumb in on the piece of rail. A door unlatched and swung in revealing a staircase. The man glided up the staircase, stopped halfway at the landing and turned to see if she would follow. She followed him up the stairs and into a loft room with one window, from which she could see all of the property, including the barn. The window was slightly ajar, which is what caused the wind to go down the stairs and make the rug fringe move.
As she shone the flashlight around the room, she could see it was decorated in rich leather furniture and what could only be described as male items. Leather bound books, journals by the looks of it, including one left open on the desk with a fountain pen laid in the center of it. She could see the pen had allowed the ink to run out of it onto the pages of the book where it was open. She closed the window to stop the storm from sending rain and wind in and ruffling the pages and the dirt in the air. He moved over next to her, looked at her, then looked at the journal. He put his still transparent hand over it, then motioned for the wooden bookshelf next to the desk. He pointed to a certain journal, and as she reached for it, her hand moved through his, it was no longer cold, but a warmth, as if from a fireplace. She looked at him and he returned her gaze as she pulled the book out. She shone the flashlight and began reading from the journal, he put his hand across the book again then pointed to the back of the book. She flipped the pages until she got to the back cover and he pointed to the words written on the back page just inside the cover.
She read aloud the words, 'ma silver queen, shinin doun, thare's a tremble o fear i ma soul. Ma bonnie lass be long asleep, while danger near daes roll. Brin her back tae me, ma queen moon, sae we may once again be joinit.' She looked at him, he was still near her, with eyes closed as if waiting for something to happen. He opened one eye, then the other, looked at his still-transparent hands, then at her. He pointed to her then to himself. She said the words aloud again, but differently. 'ma silver queen, shinin doun, thare's a tremble o fear in ma soul. Ma bonnie lad be long asleep, while danger near daes roll. Brin him back tae me, ma queen moon, so we may once again be joinit.'
The man stepped back away from her and with the next bolt of lightning, which blinded her, lit up the room and rolled the thunder, her flashlight went out and he became solid. He walked over and touched her shoulder slightly. She turned to look at him, she looked him up and down, at his tartan kilt, shining sword and sash. She reached out to touch him, then held back. He took her hand in his two warm hands and only spoke four words to her, 'Thank ye ma love.'