Grace Before Dying

by M. L. Bullock

  Carrie Jo stopped and reached her hand toward the wall but I touched her shoulder.

  “Let’s keep going. I don’t want you to dream here. I think… Did you see that?”

  I saw what could only be described as a huge puff of smoke travel from Lily’s room to the guest room across the hall. The three of us stormed into the room expecting to challenge Clarence but even as we cleared the room the tapping began again in the hallway.

  Carrie Jo squinted at the sound and said, “He’s playing games with us. He is running from us. Why did I feel like he had something to hide? Ashland Stuart, what is going on here? You know more than you are saying, don’t you?”

  “I’m not completely confident that Clarence is a ghost. He’s wicked, Carrie Jo. Let’s go to AJ’s room. Whatever you do, I don’t want either one of you dream walking. I know that was the original plan but I believe it’s a bad idea. I’ve got the feeling and I could feel this all over my body — I get the feeling that it’s a trap. He wants you to dream because if you do you’ll be powerless to stop him. And he is definitely interested in keeping someone.”

  I didn’t tell them that I thought that someone was Lily. What was the sense in terrorizing her? Making her more fearful? I wasn’t going to help him out.

  “Oh yeah. He’s been in here recently. I can smell him. Smells like sulfur. Can you smell that?” I glanced at my wife who nodded her head without hesitation. Lily was the only one that appeared to not smell anything, not at first.

  “Shoot!” She put her hand over her nose as the stench reached her nostrils. “That’s bad. Does that mean we're working with something darker? Or is this just the smell from when he burned?”

  And then he was there. Clarence stood in the corner of the room. His eyes were just as Lily described, the color of the ocean and they had movement to them that couldn’t be described. Everything else was like a normal child. His hair was parted and combed neatly. He looked well fed and healthy, and thankfully not in his death state. His skin and clothing and hair were all grayed out, like a strange sort of print out.

  Yes, that’s right. Like a copy of something. A copy of a real boy.

  I was thinking all these things but I didn’t say them aloud. My wife and niece were with me and I didn’t want to terrify them, still the problem remained. How to get rid of the dark entity, an entity that was pretending to be a child? The only thing I knew how to do was to help him move on. If that was impossible I’d have to call a priest or preacher or someone that dealt with these sorts of things. Strange that this would occur now, now that all the spirits at Seven Sisters were at rest.

  So strange.

  “Lily says your name is Clarence. Is that your name or do they call you something else?”

  He bowed his head slightly as if I had said the most heartbreaking thing to him. All I asked was his name. Another telltale sign that this was not a regular haunting. Again I had to ask myself what sort of mischief had Katrina Valentine gotten herself into to invite such a creature.

  Oh yes. He had been invited. That was why he was following Katrina and by extension now Lily but AJ was his primary target.

  Suddenly his arms shot out to the side and his fists clenched as he realized I knew. I knew his secret. Somehow my psychic medium abilities tapped into his mind and I knew his secret. My niece didn’t realize any of this. She misinterpreted his growl for fear, Carrie Jo watched in horror.

  “Clarence, we really just want to help,” she put her hands up in front of her face and felt around. I realized that she couldn’t see him but then I remembered Lily wasn’t that kind of medium. Clearly she could feel him just not see him.

  “Lily! Step back! He’s not what you think he is!” Carrie Jo reached for her and pulled her away from the corner where he stood. He lifted his head slowly as if he were some sort of strange puppet being operated by an invisible hand or pair of hands.

  “She’s mine! I will not go alone!”

  Lily whimpered as she heard the disembodied voice coming from AJ’s bed. Yes he moved around with lightning speed and he was no longer a sweet little boy. He was a young man wearing janitor’s clothing. I could read his patch, the patch sewn on the front pocket. It read Clarence. I breathed a sigh of relief. Okay, so Clarence was not a little boy but he also wasn’t a dark entity. He was a troubled soul possibly even a person that hurt children.

  “No. Listen to me. Whatever you have done. Whatever crimes you think you have committed, Clarence. It is not too late. There is a way out. You can’t have any more children. What you did to Katrina was wrong. You cannot hurt anyone, anymore. I won’t let you. Carrie Jo go stand in the doorway! Lily stand behind her!”

  My brain was running ninety miles a minute but I felt that this was right. This was the right solution. For some reason Clarence was trapped in this room with me. Carrie Jo was too powerful. Recently she’d upped her game and her meditation and prayer time and her peace level had skyrocketed. I love that about her, always improving. Always trying to find ways to help others even if that meant putting herself in the fire.

  Not this time. This one is on me, Babe, I thought to myself. It might cost me everything because Clarence was strong.

  Oh you have no idea. You have no idea how strong I am. How long I’ve been alive. I will chew you up like lunch meat and spit you out, sissy boy. And when I’m done with you I’ll go for your son. Who knows what I’ll do with these two.

  I ignored his attempts to get my goat and kept my wits about me.

  “Be brave, Clarence. You can do it. Even you need to find peace. Even you need to walk into the light. I’m not your judge, nor do I want to be. I’ll walk with you to the door.”

  Suddenly Lily began to weep. She was telling Carrie Jo, “This is what I saw! I saw this in a dream walk! And to me she shouted, “No, Uncle Ashland. It is a trap!” Even as she said the words Clarence the filthy janitor had his hands wrapped around my throat. It was a shocking thing to find myself at the hands of this wretched creature.

  I should’ve prepared better for this battle. I should have prepared…

  Clarence mocked my thoughts by repeating them back to me. Should’ve prepared… Too late now, sissy boy!

  I could see Carrie Jo holding Lily’s hand and without reading her mind knew what she intended to do. “No, Carrie Jo! That’s what he wants? No dreaming!”

  Carrie Jo came towards me with her hands up but Clarence flung her to the ground without even moving his hand. Lily screamed at the top of her lungs while I thrashed about on my son’s bed, the ghost of Clarence on top of me, strangling me.

  Out of nowhere a rock whizzed through the air and landed on Clarence’s back with a thud.

  “No! Get off my Daddy!” AJ appeared in the room. To my surprise, the rock rolled back to him. He picked it up and flung it again, just like I taught him! “No, bad man! Leave him alone! I have Ruby Rock!” And the rock rolled to AJ again. Clarence’s grip on my throat weakened and I could catch my breath. Tears slid down my face as I prayed that they would be safe.

  Even if it cost me everything, let them be safe. Please…

  Lily was still screaming but she ran down the hall and came right back with a similar rock. Seeing that, the ghost of Clarence slid off of me and rolled around on the floor. Lily and AJ pelted him with their rocks over and over again. Finally, he was weakened but not gone. If we let him remain he would return stronger and angrier.

  As I struggled to find the words to say, the procedure to use, my wife squatted down next to Clarence and took his hand. Immediately he changed form. He was no longer wearing a janitor’s outfit but he was burned all over. Burned from head to toe, a melted wreck of pain.

  “I see you, Clarence. I see the real you. You didn’t want to do those things, did you?

  People hurt you and they did them to you but you can stop it. go to the light. You deserve to find peace, Clarence. I know you are weak, you can’t hurt me in this moment but the evil will come back if you don’t hurry. You couldn’t fi
ght it in life but you can now. And once you defeat it, you’ll never have to fight it again. We are going to show you how to do it. Ashland, make the door. Clarence wants to leave—before the evil comes back!”

  Then a tapping occurred on the walls. Footsteps were coming up the stairs too but that was only Detra Ann and Chloe. The tapping was something else altogether.

  It was the evil. The evil that resided in Clarence. White Fire’s stones weakened him but he needed to move on.

  With all my might I imagined a door, a large door with warm yellow light. I put it right next to Clarence. I could see his face changing, the burned skin became healed and he looked like any other living person. He gazed at his hands in shocked surprise. He smiled up at Carrie Jo, his eyes dancing, his face the picture of happiness. Yet the tapping continued and it grew louder.

  “Time to go, Clarence! Go now! The light welcomes you! Go!”

  Clarence was on his feet and standing before the wide open door. I could see nothing beyond the light, but his face…his face relayed his true intention. Clarence wasn’t going to go alone. The devilish man reached for Carrie Jo. She yelled in surprise and fought back but this was not going to end well if some miracle didn’t happen. If he pulled her through she would be gone forever.

  “Carrie Jo!” I tried to erase the door in my mind but it was too well done. I had manifested it too well indeed for now the light beamed even brighter.

  “Mommy!” AJ shrieked as he picked up his rock and threw it at the location of the door. Another blast of light sent shock waves through the room.

  A native American woman, White Fire no doubt peeked her head out and nodded at Carrie Jo. With a strong hand, she spun around with Clarence in her grip. She snatched the collar of his uniform and I watched in horror as the light vanished. It was replaced by inky blackness.

  Clarence wasn’t going to the light. He was going somewhere much darker. I’d been right all along. Clarence had played the game well but he was of the dark sort. I slammed the door shut and the room vibrated for a full five seconds until everything went quiet.

  I clutched my wife in my arms and kissed her forehead. “Are you okay?” I examined her arms and brushed her tears away.

  “Yeah, I’m great.”

  “I’m great too, y’all. What in the world was going on in here?” Detra Ann clutched her baby close and said, “I’ll see you downstairs.” That was her modus operandi lately, to pretend nothing paranormal was happening. She preferred the natural world in all it’s predictable glory. Couldn’t blame her for that. Just like Carrie Jo didn’t think less of Amara because she renounced her gift.

  Maybe I should too. Maybe that was the path forward for us, to live in a normal house with normal kids and have a predictable life.

  Lily and AJ hugged us too. I picked up my son and held Lily tight. My family. I’d do anything for them, even die. Thankfully that had not been required today but someday…well, I would think about that then.

  No. Normal wouldn’t work here. As bad as this event was, normal wouldn’t work for the Stuarts. There was nothing normal about us. But maybe we should take up rock painting.

  And maybe we should spend less time playing T-ball and more time working together to learn more about our strange paranormal world.

  “I love you, family.” I said as we tidied up AJ’s room.

  “Dinner’s on me,” Carrie Jo said. “Who’s up for Chinese? Babe?”

  “Sounds great. I’ll be there in a minute.” She kissed my cheek and hurried the kids out of the room. She lingered in the doorway a minute and I studied her. I loved everything about her. Her wild curly hair, her expressive green eyes, her happy attitude about life. She was the woman of my dreams. I had everything I wanted and I felt extremely grateful. My eyes were wet with tears but I tried not to shed them and I didn’t share the reason for them. I couldn’t do that.

  One day, but not today. Today was for joy.

  “Don’t wait too long, Ashland Stuart. I have a hankering for hibachi shrimp. A strong hankering,” she said flirtatiously as she rubbed her stomach briefly and left me staring after her.

  What was she trying to say? I’d share with her. Wait…could it be true? Were we…

  “Carrie Jo? That’s not fair!” I called after her but she popped back in the doorway.

  “Come on, Ashland. Leave the dead alone for a while. I want you to meet someone.” She took my hand and put it on her stomach. I couldn’t feel anything but I knew he was there.

  Another boy for Ashland and Carrie Jo.

  He would be amazing and I knew I would get to see his face.

  At least there was that.

  And that was all that mattered.

  Author’s Note

  Thank you for returning with me to Gracefield. I hope you enjoyed Grace Before Dying, Book Three in the Gracefield Hauntings Series. I thoroughly enjoyed exploring the characters in my series. Although Amara Cooper has chosen a different path from Carrie Jo I loved telling a part of her story. It stands to reason that not all dream catchers would want to embrace this unusual gift.

  To Amara, dream catching is not her number one priority. That would be getting her life together and I respect that. I hope that one day she will be all in on the whole dream catching thing. Who knows? Maybe we will see Amara reappear, ready to take center stage and dream with all her might. But that’s up to her. Personally, I know quite a few people with abilities who don’t use them. Not dream catching per se but I believe in all sorts of things. You don’t have to and that’s okay with me. I am not judging Amara or anyone. She’s just not Carrie Jo who completely loves dreaming.

  What about you? Are there any dreamers out there? Besides me? I believe that there are and people don’t talk about it like they used to. In other cultures and other times in history, dreaming was crucial to knowing how to proceed with one’s life. A dream could help you determine your purpose. I’m happy to say that I believe that the importance of dreams is beginning to reemerge in the collective psyche.

  Lucid dreaming and the other types of dreams — like the fictional kinds recorded in these books and also the Seven Sisters, Idlewood, and Return to Seven Sisters Series can be terrifying, even for the experienced dreamer. Absolutely terrifying. It makes sense to me (and hopefully to you as well) that not everyone would welcome it or embrace it. Like Amara who for now has stepped away from further exploration. To her credit, Amara had experienced enough tragedy in her life and wanted nothing more than love, light, and simplicity.

  Let me go on record as saying there is nothing wrong with that. Not even in the “real world.” So I happily bid Amara farewell and I hope and pray that one day we will meet her again.

  But only if she wants that.

  At the same time, I am so glad that Carrie Jo did not make the same decision. Fearless, frazzled, and yet cute as a button CJ will probably never quit. Gifting the rock to AJ says a lot about her too. Her poor kid, doubly blessed with the skills of a dream catcher and a psychic medium, is far too little to be overwhelmed with such heavy duties. He needed a break, I think. We need AJ to be safe. We need him to have a happy childhood. I wanted that for him and as I had the power to give it, I did.

  When AJ gets older, he’ll be a badass. I’m sure of it.

  Carrie Jo is now fully engaged in her restoration work, she and Ashland love what they are doing but you know what they say, once a dream catcher….

  We may see more of them in the future but for now, these three books complete the story of Gracefield. Amara’s ghosts have been laid to rest. Amara Cooper can rest easy and Carrie Jo can dive into her second love which is traditional researching. And of course Ashland, her family, and Seven Sisters.

  Lily Rose Stuart is another story. Her amazing story is only beginning and I am certain we will read more about her and her experiences in the future. I’m not sure how far out that might be but let’s give Lily time to find her wings. Like AJ she needs to grow up a little too. Wouldn’t it be awesome if in a few year
s we returned to find Lily working with her gifts in new and unexpected ways?

  It has been a joy to bring to you all of the Carrie Jo works from Seven Sisters to Idlewood to Return to Seven Sisters and now to Gracefield.

  So much joy for me —so many ghosts to talk to. I loved each character, even the naughty ones — Isla Beaumont most of all. They breathed life into me and got me through some of the toughest times of my life. You may have already heard the story but in case you haven’t…

  Coming home from the hospital daily after sitting with my brother, I would grab the keyboard and begin banging away at my ghost story. Watching him battle multiple sclerosis, seeing all the changes in him physically and spiritually was one of the hardest things I have ever had to do. I did not want to witness that but I was honored to be there with him to encourage him, to push him along. I wish now that I had done a better job of journaling my experience; of recording the moments we shared.