“Sandy!” Jill called. “Sandy!”
“Sandy,” Noelle stopped and pointed to Jill.
They could just see Jill’s face over the edge of the building. She was peering out of a broken window in the chapel. Jill waved for them to come over to her. Sandy ran over to Jill. She dropped to her knees.
“What’s wrong?” Sandy asked. “What’s happened?”
“I don’t know,” Jill said. “Something is happening. Jacob made us go down here. He said we were in danger. We keep hearing crashes upstairs and people crying and screaming.”
Without hesitation, Sandy helped the kids into the Chapel. Noelle went over to Katy and the girls hugged. Noelle pulled a doll out of her backpack for the Katy to play with. Not sure what to do with himself, Nash reached for Sandy’s hand. Sandy smiled at him.
“Would you mind checking on Paddie?” Sandy asked Nash.
“You want to talk to Jill alone,” Nash said.
“I want to talk to Jill alone.”
Nash wandered over to Paddie.
“What’s going on?” Sandy whispered.
“I don’t know,” Jill said. “Katy says I have to… you know. She says it’s the only way to get through this… without everyone dying.”
Sandy nodded. The two close friends shared a long look. Jill shook her head.
“I can’t. Never again,” Jill said.
“Just because you didn’t save your father doesn’t mean…”
The women looked up as Mike carried Valerie into the Chapel.
“Please Jill, Valerie’s losing the babies. She’s dying,” Mike said. “Please. Please.”
~~~~~~~~
Friday evening — 6:15 P.M.
Johansen was weakening. To distract Jacob, Johansen began flinging random furniture and heavy objects at him. But Jacob was an expert hockey player. Avoiding a flying Tiffany lamp was no different than avoiding a hockey puck. Jacob jumped and weaved around the flying objects.
Johansen worked to open the kitchen door while holding onto Delphie. The three focuses – Jacob, Delphie and getting Valerie – were too much for him. The demon had to let go of Valerie but refused to let go of Delphie. Jacob heard Mike unlock the door to the tunnels. With any luck, Mike and Valerie were on their way to the hospital.
Jacob pressed his energy forward and Johansen stumbled. For a brief moment, Johansen let go of Delphie. Jacob to create a power vortex around Delphie. Celia flew at Johansen to distract him long enough for the vortex to solidify. The energy spiral burned bright white in the Castle living room. Delphie was safe from any energetic intervention. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Celia join Delphie inside the vortex.
Johansen screamed with rage.
“SHE’S MINE!”
He blew Jacob off his feet. Jacob flew backward. He hit the wall hard enough to knock a hole in the plaster. Johansen flew across the room at Jacob. Taking Johansen’s cue, Jacob took a hockey puck from his back pocket and energetically threw it at Johansen. The puck hit the man on the shoulder. Johansen’s shoulder broke with a satisfying crack.
Johansen reached out his energy to grabbed Jacob’s heart. Jacob deflected him.
“Smart enough to protect a weak heart!” The man gave a maniacal laugh.
Johansen tried to wrap his energy around Jacob’s heart again. Jacob threw the other puck at him. The puck went wild and bounced off the kitchen door. Johansen asserted his will. Decades of rage and prison induced hatred flew at Jacob. Tendrils of the man’s energy wrapped around Jacob’s heart.
Jacob gasped for breath. He fell to the ground.
“NO Marlowe will survive this day!” Johansen yelled.
Jacob reached up his hand. He crashed through ceiling into the second floor breaking Johansen’s hold on him.
“No matter. Time to kill the Marlowe child,” Johansen yelled after Jacob.
~~~~~~~~
Friday evening — 6:15 P.M.
“I haven’t done it since…” Jill started.
“You have to try,” Mike said. “Valerie won’t make it to the hospital. The babies won’t make it. Please. Try.”
Jill felt motion next to her.
“You can do it, Mommy.” Katy’s words resonated inside her.
Jill dropped to her knees. Envisioning the most beautiful thing she’d ever seen, sunlight through of the archangel Raphael stained glass window, Jill let the light fill her. She rubbed her hands together.
“I…”
“Please try,” Mike begged.
Closing her eyes, Jill placed her hands on Valerie’s belly. Her mind flooded with images. She saw that one child was already dead. The other was alive and hanging on through the contractions. Jill used her breath to blow her healing light into Valerie’s womb. The contractions slowed. Jill directed the healing light to the dead baby but no spark of life was left to receive it.
Another Marlowe male had been killed by Johansen.
When the contractions and bleeding stopped, Jill let go. Looking up, she was surprised to see everyone standing around her. Little Paddie put his arm over her shoulder. Katy kissed her cheek.
“I’m sorry, Mike. You’ve lost a baby,” Jill said. “I couldn’t revive him.”
Valerie woke with a gasp. Clutching to Mike, she began to sob.
“She should be all right now,” Jill said. “I think I need to go.”
“Go Jill. I’ll stay with the kids,” Sandy said. “You can do this.”
Jill turned to run out the door.
“Mommy?”
Katy ran into her mother’s arms. For just a moment, all movement in their world slowed to a stop. The mother and child held each other tight. Feeling pressure to leave, Jill let go. She set Katy down.
“Love you, Katy-baby,” Jill said at the same moment Katy said, “Love you, Mommy.”
Jill touched Katy’s hair one last time then ran out of the room. Jill ran down the stairs and into the tunnel. She made a sharp turn and jogged up the stairs to the kitchen door. She unlocked the security for the door. Running into the kitchen, she saw that Mike had blocked the doors to the living room.
Just then there was a crash in the living room. Something bounced off the kitchen door. Jill tried to move the table. She pulled and pushed but the table was too heavy for her. There was no way she was going through either of those doors.
She couldn’t get to the stairwell to go through her loft apartment. She couldn’t gain access from the second floor. She spun in place. She’d just have to go around. She pulled a key from a hook and unlocked the back door. She ran across the deck and around the house.
~~~~~~~~
Friday evening — 6:25 P.M.
After looking around the Chapel, Sandy shook her head.
“We’re not safe here,” Sandy said.
“What do you mean? No one knows we’re here,” Mike said.
“There’s only one entrance that we can’t really lock. We can’t close off the window and if we did, there are other windows. No, we’re not safe here,” Sandy said. “I can feel it in my bones. Trust me. I’m no psychic. I’ve just been in this type of situation. A lot. Can you carry Val?”
Mike nodded.
“Anyone know of a better hiding place?” Sandy asked.
“There’s a wine cellar,” Nash said. He blushed deep red. “I’m not supposed to know anything about it.”
“I don’t know anything about it,” Mike said.
“Delphie wanted to get something from the tunnels. I told her I would get it but she said no. She was so weird that I… watched on the security tapes,” Nash said. “We were making dinner together a few months ago.”
“Have you been there?” Sandy asked.
Ashamed, Nash hung his head and nodded.
“Why don’t I know about it?” Mike asked.
“Do you ever cook?” Sandy asked.
“Never,” Mike said.
Sandy dug around in her purse and gave Mike some pills.
“Tylenol,” Sandy said. “Do
we have water?”
“In the wine cellar,” Nash said. “Delphie keeps everything there. Cheese. Wine. Chocolates. Champagne and fancy water.”
“Let’s go,” Sandy said. “Nash, help Paddie. Noelle, help Katy. We have to move…”
The children ran from the Chapel.
“Fast.”
Mike lifted Valerie and carried her out the door. Feeling a little sheepish, Sandy closed the chapel door and followed the children into the tunnels.
~~~~~~~~
Friday evening — 6:45 P.M.
“No matter,” Johansen. “Time to kill the Marlowe child.”
“NO!” Jacob yelled. He jumped from the second floor on top of Johansen.
But he was too late.
The Castle rocked with the explosion. The entire wing bowed forward then backward. The hallway broke open exposing a doorway at the end of Honey’s rooms.
“The Chapel!” Jacob yelled.
Johansen gave another maniacal laugh.
Enraged, Jacob flew at Johansen. But Johansen was ready for him. Johansen threw a massive attack at Jacob’s injured heart. Johansen gave another maniacal laugh. Clutching his chest, Jacob fell to the ground. Johansen stepped closer to Jacob. The man’s entire attention was focused on destroying Jacob Marlowe.
“Stop that,” Jill said.
She swung the hockey stick with all her might. The stick hit Johansen in the back of his head. He stumbled and fell but did not release his focus on Jacob.
“Crazy old man,” Jill said.
Jill reached down to put her hand on the back of Johansen’s neck. She thought of the love that surrounded her from her circle of friends, her Katy-baby, Jacob, his family, her family, their family. She forced the healing light into Johansen. She watched his anguish, black despair and desperate need for power wilt and turn to dust.
She searched for the good inside the old man. Somewhere deep inside, she found a tiny kernel of love. The rest had slipped away a long time ago. She opened her eyes to find herself touching a husk.
Johansen was gone.
Jill rushed to Jacob’s side.
“Katy.” Clutching his chest, Jacob gasped.
“She wasn’t in the Chapel,” Jill said. “I looked in when I came around. The room was empty when he blew it up.”
She moved to touch his heart when Delphie let out a terrible scream. Delphie writhed on the floor.
“Go,” Jacob said. “I can wait.”
Jill ran to Delphie. When she reached for her, Delphie began to have seizures. Jacob rushed to Jill’s side. He held Delphie while Jill tried to soothe Delphie’s brain.
Jill shook her head.
“I can’t… She’s having a stroke. I can’t stop it.”
Jacob wrapped himself around Delphie’s body and whispered in her ear:
“Please don’t leave.”
CHAPTER EIGHTY-NINE
The glorious light
Friday evening — 6:15 P.M.
Delphie almost collapsed with relief when Johansen released her. In the last few hours, he had been brutal with her. She wasn’t sure if the old man was getting careless or simply didn’t care if he hurt her. At one point, she wondered if he wanted to destroy her psychic capacity. Her mind and body felt battered and bruised.
Jacob’s vortex, the vortex she’d taught him to make just two month’s ago, brought further relief. She was safe! She was finally safe! Like standing behind an opaque crystal, she could only make out the vague, blurry images of Jacob and Johansen fighting.
Then BAM! The explosion in the Chapel rocked the very foundation of the Castle. Her heart pounded in terror. The Chapel had been her spiritual home since Celia bought the Castle for her. Even though Celia assured her that Katy was not inside, Delphie couldn’t calm her racing heart. Something awful was going to happen. She just knew it.
Watching through the opaque vortex, she made out Johansen and Jacob fighting. She’d never expected Johansen to be so out of control. For the life of her, she couldn’t understand what he wanted.
“That’s because you refused to believe he wants to kill every Marlowe,” Celia said. “You have to believe there’s some good inside him.”
Delphie nodded. She had to believe there was some good inside him. After all, he’d been her protector, the only father she’d had from the time she was six years old until Celia saved her when she was sixteen. In some ways, she loved him. If he was pure evil, what did that make her? Was she evil of her connection to him?
Delphie saw the short blurry person moving carrying the enormous stick move toward Johansen.
“That’s Jill,” Celia said. “You must have gotten through to Jill.”
“Not me,” Delphie said. “Must have been Katy.”
They watched Johansen fall. The blurry figure bent over Johansen and the vortex collapsed.
At that moment she felt a tearing, ripping sensation in her mind, her eyes filled with the most spectacular light. The beautiful orange, yellow and white light consumed all thought and feeling.
She heard herself scream. The light blocked out the figure of Celia. She vaguely heard Celia calling for her. She felt her body fall to the floor.
Surrounded in the gorgeous light, Delphie felt no pain, no loss, only joy. She was enraptured. Life slowed to a stand still and the light grew from within her and around her.
She felt soft hands on her head. And Jill entered the light.
She smiled at Jill. She even said hello. But Jill couldn’t hear her. Jill looked worried, frightened even. Delphie tried to tell Jill not to be afraid of the light.
“Please don’t leave.”
Jacob. She heard his voice. She’d said those words to him when he was inside his mother. Don’t leave. She’d repeated them all of his life and now he was saying them back to her.
Couldn’t he see the light? Why wasn’t he with her inside the light?
Jacob was her child. The one she loved the most. The child she’d saved from certain death. Even Celia, who loved him completely, said he was really her child, her son, her prodigy.
Why couldn’t he see the light?
From her position in the light, she watched Johansen’s soul leave his body. Unnoticed and unloved, he simply moved on. No one would miss him. No one would even know he’d lived. There were no bee hives to tell that he’d died. No garden that would go to seed. No tears, no grief, no loss. He was simply there one moment — alive and evil — and gone the very next moment. Like dust, his soul dissipated on the wind.
Filled by the joyous light, she waved to him. Good-bye old man. May your next life be filled with joy.
Where was Celia? Why couldn’t she see Celia? She called for her best friend by her earth name – Celia! She called for her by her soul name – Naomi. Come join me in the light.
She felt a desperate longing for Celia.
And for Sam. Where was Sam? Sam would love this light. Sam would tell her all the colors and laugh at her confusion. Where was Sam?
And Katy? Where was the child she thanked the Goddess she lived long enough to meet? The baby she’d tricked Jacob into creating. Katy would never exist if not for her intervention. Where was her Katherine?
Alone.
She was desperately and completely alone.
Even the beautiful joyous light couldn’t take away the horrible knowledge that she was completely and totally alone.
Where were her dogs? She longed for the touch of Scooter’s fuzzy ears or to hear Sarah big bark or to feel Buster’s wet nose. They should be here, right here, with her.
In that moment, longing for the touch of the dogs, Delphie realized that she was dead. She’d died on the floor of the Castle. Delphie was overcome with grief.
She had loved life more than anyone else she’d ever met.
And she was dead.
There would be no one to pray for her transition. She’d have to make it on her own.
Alone.
Forever.
Until life or good will or some bea
utiful Goddess or powerful God would allow her to know Celia, Sam, Jill, Katy, Jacob, Valerie and Mike again. She keened with grief for the loss of her own precious life.
A figure appeared on the horizon.
Who are you?
Are you an angel?
Can I stay to say one last good-bye?
Please.
I haven’t seen Valerie or Mike. And my dogs will miss me. And I need to visit my bees. They will disperse if I don’t go and say good-bye. And what about my gardens? They haven’t been turned for the early spring. The grass will overtake them and in a few months time they will disappear.
Please. May I spend one day or one month or maybe a year in my Castle?
Don’t make me leave the Castle and all the people I love.
Please don’t make me leave.
The angel laughed. The laughter was like crystal bells on some far away church. The sound shattered the light like loud sound waves through glass. The world came into view.
“Sleep now,” the angel said. “You are safe.”
And Delphie slept.
~~~~~~~~
Friday evening — 6:55 P.M.
Jill shook her head.
“I can’t… She’s having a stroke. I can’t stop it.”
Jacob wrapped himself around Delphie’s body and whispered in her ear:
“Please don’t leave.”
Jill did the only thing she could think of doing. She put Delphie’s head in her lap and placed her hands around Delphie’s ears. Maybe she could keep the damage from getting too severe. She blew light and love into broken and bleeding arteries. Jill didn’t have the heart to give up.
She couldn’t give up.
She wouldn’t give up.
Her entire focus was on Delphie’s brain and the blood seeping from her arteries. Out of a corner of her eye, she saw Jacob shift, then felt hands on her shoulders. Her brother Steve and sister Megan put a hand on each of her shoulders. With their touch, they pumped their meager healing energy into Jill.
Her capacity rose. And still it was not enough to save Delphie. This precious woman was beginning to fade.
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