The Bringer

by Jennifer Park

  Ben walked up behind Brynn, “I think you’ll know what you need to do as you go along,” he said putting a hand on her shoulder before walking into the kitchen.

  Brynn was surprised how much the simple gesture of Ben’s touch warmed her. She closed her eyes trying to think. She felt Jerom and Miranda looking at her. They saved her from those demons. They had already spent so much effort on her. She wanted to be this Bringer they talked about even if it was just to thank them for being outside her window to catch her. Mostly she wanted to be the Bringer so they wouldn’t leave her. She couldn’t even look at the possibility of being alone right now. But she’d never felt anything like the power they’d been telling her about. Her parents had never said a word. The only warning they’d ever given her was about never taking off that stupid pendant.

  Her thoughts made her pause. The necklace I yanked off. Could there be something to all this? “I had this necklace,” she said.

  “What does that have to do with anything,” asked Miranda.

  Brynn folded her legs up under her and sat up straighter. “Well, my parents were constantly telling me to never take it off. Not in the shower, not ever, for any reason was I to take off the necklace.”

  Jerom looked at her neck. “It doesn’t look like you have it on now.”

  “I threw it out the window,” she said almost in a whisper, dropping her head and hiding her face in a veil of blonde hair.

  “What was that?” asked Miranda.

  Brynn drew in a breath, pushed her hair back and said, “I threw it out my bedroom window. Tonight, right before you guys showed up. Right before everything…happened.”

  Jerom collapsed back into the couch, “So that was what we felt at the edge of your property. Miranda, you felt it right? That big surge of energy?”

  “I did. That’s when I started running to her house. It was almost like a beacon.”

  Brynn stood up and started pacing in front of the fireplace. “So the necklace, it was some kind of shield?”

  “That would be my guess. It shielded you or we might say warded you from your powers and hid you from the cult at the same time,” said Jerom.

  “Okay, so by taking off the necklace I basically killed my own parents. That’s what you’re telling me. I’m a murderer.”

  Ben walked back into the room holding a tray full of food - sandwiches, cookies, tea and coke. “Wait a minute. Now let’s not blow things out of proportion.”

  “Really. I throw my necklace out my window because I’m ticked off at my parents and demon things come and kill them. What am I blowing out of proportion?”

  “You didn’t kill your parents. The constructs did. You didn’t know what would happen if you took off the necklace, or you would never have taken it off,” Ben added while sliding the tray down onto the coffee table. “You know, that’s probably enough stuff to take in right now. Why don’t we all take a break and eat something. You must be hungry after all the energy you’ve used tonight already.” Ben said motioning to the tray he had just set down.

  Brynn didn’t want to stop pacing. Somehow she felt if she kept moving maybe this nightmare wouldn’t catch up with her.

  “Here Brynn, have some tea,” Ben said offering her a mug.

  “I don’t like tea. I mean what’s the point, it always smells good and then just tastes like hot water.”

  Ben just smiled while holding the mug out to her. Brynn looking sheepish stopped pacing.

  “I’m being rude. I’m sorry. Thank you, Ben,” she said as she sat down on the floor next to the coffee table and took the mug.

  “How is it?” Jim asked, holding up the sugar.

  “Good, comforting, thank you,” she said waving away the sugar.

  Miranda opened a can of coke, “I’m with Brynn, tea just tastes like hot water to me too.”

  Ben laughed around the edge of his mug and offered everyone sandwiches. Talking soon gave way to eating and pondering as they all tried to digest what they had just been through. Miranda had never really used her visions like this before. Sure she had stopped someone from tripping stuff like that. She was really good at finding things that were lost. But this was so much more. She found the Bringer. She saved the Bringer from those demons because of her vision. Unconsciously she sat up a little straighter because she seemed to feel a little bigger.

  Ben pushed the plate of cookies toward Brynn, “I just made these today.”

  “They look good, but for some reason I can’t seem to keep my eyes open any longer.”

  Ben stood up and offered Brynn his hand, which she took. “Why don’t you come with me and I’ll show you the guest room? You can lie down and rest for a couple of hours before you have to leave.”

  “Thanks, but don’t we have a lot to talk about? What we need to do next, stuff like that?” she asked trying to keep from yawning.

  Miranda’s face actually softened a bit and she said, “That’s okay, why don’t you take a little nap. It’s been a pretty hard night for you.”

  Feeling a little relieved, Brynn let Ben lead her down the hall to the guest room.

  “Thanks, Ben,” she said as she saw the bed.

  “You’re welcome, Bringer,” he said softly and she heard the door click shut.

  Chapter 9

  Ben walked back into the front room saying, “Okay the belladonna worked and she’s out. Now what is going on?”

  Jerom sat forward, looking astonished and a little angry, “You drugged her tea. What were you thinking?”

  “I only used a little, just enough to push her over to sleep. Don’t worry. I know what I’m doing. Since when have you become so suspicious?”

  “I’m sorry, it’s just, well, Mom and Dad are on some stupid retreat and they don’t know what’s going on. This has me a little freaked out and I don’t know what I’m doing.” Jerom sighed and rubbed his hands over his face while sinking back into the couch.

  “Can you call your parents?” asked Ben.

  “No. This is a marriage retreat and they backpacked in for like three days just to get to this place. My parents are so…”

  Ben interrupted, “Enough said. Stop right there before you say something you shouldn’t. Okay, parents not available. Do you really think she’s the Bringer?” Ben sat down in the chair by the couch.

  “That’s the real question, isn’t it,” said Jerom, “I’ve been thinking about it since I caught her falling out of the window. If she is the Bringer then things are about to get really intense.”

  Jerom started tapping his leg lightly with his fingertips. He did it when he was nervous, he knew this but he couldn’t seem to stop.

  “Why now? I mean, why after all these years, does the Bringer show up now?” Ben asked. He went over to the fireplace and used a poker to stir up the fire. He placed another log on the fire before turning around.

  “Weird, huh. The cult’s been killing people this whole time and now suddenly the Bringer’s here,” said Miranda. She pulled the quilt off the back of the couch and snuggled into it.

  “Well, Dad said there have been a lot of Bringers. She’s not the first. They show up when something big is about to happen,” said Jerom. Now he started tapping his toe on the floor too.

  “I felt that surge you talked about earlier,” said Ben. “You know the one that happened when she took off her necklace. I could feel her. Miranda, you said it was kind of like a beacon. That’s not a bad way to describe it.”

  Jerom got up and started pacing, “I thought we could feel her because we were right there on her property. A beacon...well, the handler sure felt it. She was there almost instantly. Do you think Brynn is still putting out this beacon?”

  “I don’t think so. I mean I couldn’t feel anything after that first initial...I guess I would call it an announcement. Like the Bringer was being announced to the world. But, I bet the cult and every member of the Family heard it.”

  “Do you think our parents heard it?” asked Miranda.

  “I’m sure t
hey did. They are probably hiking out from wherever they went right now.”

  Jerom relaxed just slightly and stopped pacing. “Maybe you’re right. I hope so. Okay, well maybe we’re safe for the moment then if you don’t think she’s still sending out a beacon. I wouldn’t want those constructs on our heels all the way back to Salem.”

  “So do you think this will spark the Gathering?” asked Miranda. She’d always loved the idea of the Gathering. Her mom and dad talked about the Gathering sometimes. How it would be so amazing. The Bringer would come calling out to the witches. They would all gather around the Bringer and work together to fight the darkness. Her parents would talk about how all the witches powers would compliment each other. Each witch adding their special talents to the whole.

  “Wouldn’t that be great,” mused Ben. “Not having to hide anymore, all the witches living together as a community again. I would love that. I wonder if the old stories are true. You know the ones where the weather witches would keep the storms or the droughts from ruining the crops. Or how the warding witches kept the communities safe. I always loved hearing about the seer witches. They’d watch the stars or scry using those big flat bowls. You and your parents are the only other members of the Family that I know of. I’ve always wanted to live and work altogether. We haven’t been able to be like that since before the trials.”

  “Yeah, after the Salem Witch Trials the whole Family kind of went underground at that point,” said Miranda.

  “Mom says that our great, great whatever grandparents split up and there really hasn’t been any contact with each other since,” added Jerom.

  “It’s true. It was to keep us all safe. We couldn’t give up other members of the Family if we didn’t know who they were or where they were. The Bringer could change things though. This could get really interesting,” said Ben.

  Miranda shivered at the implications, a little out of excitement, but also, quite a bit from fear. Jerom sat beside her and put his arm around her pulling her close. “Well, Bringer or not, the handlers want her. They could have killed her along with her parents, but they didn’t. They were trying to take her alive,” he said.

  “Is it getting colder in here or am I just making that up?” asked Miranda. “Look at my breath. It’s coming out all frosty. That really shouldn’t be happening in August should it?”

  Jerom and Ben could see their breath too.

  “Okay that’s really weird. Maybe I should check on Brynn,” said Jerom.

  Chapter 10

  Brynn was having the strangest dream. She thought for a moment that she had woken up in Ben’s guest room. She noticed a light coming though the blinds at the window. In her dream she got up and went over to the window and parted the blinds with her fingers.

  The glow was coming from a shipwreck on the beach below Ben’s house. Without taking her eyes off the ship, Brynn fumbled around until she managed to pull up the blinds. She leaned in closer to the window trying to make sense of what she was seeing. It was an old sailing ship. The sails, tattered and torn, were hanging in shreds to the crosspieces of the mast. The ship was made of wood and on one side more toward the back was a large jagged hole. The front of the ship was splintered and broken and the whole thing was lying over on its side, wounded.

  There were women running back and forth down the length of the ship searching. Brynn wondered what they were looking for, probably their children. Bodies were laid out on what little shoreline there was. Men were trying to retrieve as much from the broken ship as they could.

  Then, suddenly, all the people turned and looked up at her. Brynn stopped and looked around the room to see if there was a light on in the room. The room was dark. They shouldn’t be able to see me, she thought, but it feels like they are looking right at me. Brynn shivered from the chill that ran up her spine and wished she would wake up.

  The people were glowing like the ship. They looked haggard, soaked through. The women were in tattered dresses, the kind Brynn thought of as being from colonial times. The men were dressed in coats and big shirts with lace at the collar and cuffs. They started to glide up toward her, to the window.

  It’s really time to wake up, she thought, so she slapped her cheek, hard. Nothing changed. The hair on the back of her neck stood up.

  Brynn closed her eyes in the hopes that when she opened them, she would wake up in the bed and not at the window. She squeezed her eyes closed tightly and held them shut for a second. She slowly started to open her eyes. First all she saw were her lashes, but she could tell that she wasn’t in bed, even with her eyes closed. She opened her eyes all the way then, quickly, fearing that whatever the ghost things out there were, they might already be inside the room with her.

  She realized that what she was seeing was no dream. She was awake. The ghost shipwreck, the glowing people it must all be real. Just like she was really standing at the window not lying in bed dreaming. And a glowing, ghost-like man really was gliding toward her.

  She took several steps back as he seemed to flow right through the wall and into the room. He didn’t seem solid, a little translucent. Brynn had a sudden urge to wave her hand through the man standing in front of her but stopped herself. She stifled a giggle at her thoughts and then wondered why she wasn’t totally terrified.

  “Bringer, Bringer, avenge us,” the man standing in front of her said slowly and painfully. The way he appeared to struggle to push out his words and the way his hand stretched out to her was totally creeping her out. She started shaking and turned to run from the room when a hand on her arm stopped her.

  “No. You must listen. Listen to me,” he cried, his words coming through easier.

  “What do you mean, I don’t know what you want?” she couldn’t get the words out quickly enough. She looked down at his hand on her arm and shuddered.

  “How can you be touching me, aren’t you a ghost or something?” and she backed up until she was pressed against the wall, pulling away from his touch.

  “Listen to me,” was all he said. “I’ll show you.”

  “Oh, I don’t think so! I don’t want to see anything that you have to show me. Go back to your ghost ship or whatever.”

  Against her wishes her head started to fill with images, one coming right after another as if watching a movie in fast forward. She couldn’t understand what he was trying to show her and the movement of the images playing in her mind was making her sick to her stomach. She lost her balance and stumbled to the floor.

  “I don’t understand. It’s…it’s too fast,” she struggled to say. The images running through her mind slowed to a bearable speed and she started to make sense of what she was seeing. A sailing ship filled with people talking and walking on the deck. Sailors were adjusting the lines, swinging in and out of the sails and climbing up and down the masts. The side of the ship was painted with the name, “Flying Star.”

  The lookout shouted, “Ship on the horizon.” People made their way to the back of the ship, hanging off the railing excited about the oncoming vessel.

  The images in Brynn’s mind jumped forward from scene to scene, slowing again when she saw the new ship closing in fast. The men and women standing on deck were waving and shouting at the new ship and then the flag of the ship started to lower. The people stopped shouting looked around with apprehension on their faces. Everyone was still and then a woman screamed as a new flag was raised. The background of the flag was black and in the center of the fabric was a skeleton aiming a spear at a bleeding heart.

  Brynn heard shouting from the men and screaming from the women.

  “Get below!”

  “Load your weapons!”

  The men took cover behind the deck railing, waiting. Explosions rocked the Flying Star as it was hit broadside by cannonballs. Men went flying, thrown by the blast. Another cannonball hit right at the waterline blowing chunks of wood and plumes of water into the air. The sea poured into the bottom of the ship and it started to list.

  Men in ragged loose-fitting
pants leapt across the distance between the two ships, swords and flint-lock pistols out. They fired a round into the defenders bringing down several. The colonialists fired back. One round per pistol and then they dropped their guns and pulled out swords.

  The pirates rushed forward and slashed right through the defenders. There was so much blood that the men were slipping and sliding across the deck. The scene got blurry with smoke from cannon fire and pistol shot. The invaders ran below deck and the scene shifted in Brynn’s mind.

  It was very dark and smoky below. Women and children were hiding wherever they could find a place; behind small tables, under the bunks built into the hull, in the corners. The pirates were vicious, dragging mothers into the open to be raped in front of their children. Portholes were being opened and children were being thrown through them to the ocean below.

  The present swam back into Brynn’s view as she came out of the trance. Her head was pounding with pain. She struggled to stand but her legs wouldn’t hold her and she slumped to the floor.

  “We were all killed. Those pirates robbed us of our lives, our virtue and those of us they didn’t kill at the time of attack were slowly worked and starved and raped to death later.”

  Warm tears streamed down Brynn’s face as she tried to digest all that she’d seen.

  “I’m not sure what you want me to do. It’s horrible what happened to you, but why are you showing this to me?”

  “Okay now, that is enough of that, Jonas!” said a short plump woman in a long calico dress and apron who appeared suddenly in the room.

  “This be none of your business, Miriam,” Jonas shook his finger at Miriam. “We must tell our tale. The world must know what happened. These foul murderers must be stopped. We will be avenged!”

  “I’m sure you have been avenged after all this time. Why don’t you just cross over and leave us all in peace. You’ve scared this poor girl to bits,” said Miriam smiling gently down at Brynn. “You know dear, you can make them leave, you just have to tell them to go.”