Beyond the Eyes: YA Paranormal Romance

by Rebekkah Ford

  * * *

  “This sucks,” I complained after we went through the last box in the attic. I stood, swiping a cobweb out of my way and screamed when I thought I saw a spider crawling on my fingers. Rubbing my hand against my jeans, I jumped around.

  Nathan shook his head, laughing to himself like he couldn’t believe how ridiculous I was being. I think he was even slightly annoyed, but I didn’t care because spiders were creepy and I didn’t like them.

  “You’re fine, Paige. There wasn’t a spider in it.”

  “How do you know?” I screeched, flinging my arms in the air.

  “Because it was a cobweb.”

  “Maybe Aosoth was wrong about my father.” I roughly swiped my hand across my cheek, feeling like something crawled on it.

  “You need to get over your fear of spiders or the dark spirits might use it to their advantage,” Nathan said, smacking the dirt off his hands.

  I rolled my eyes. “Nu-huh.”

  He peeked at me from beneath his lashes, his lips curving into an ornery smile. I took a couple cautious steps back, recognizing the devious look on his face. And then the next thing I knew, he had me slung over his shoulder.

  “They’re going to put you in a big box full of spiders,” he teased.

  “No. They’re. Not,” I half screamed and laughed.

  He flipped me upside down, acting like he was going to lower me into a box. I grabbed his legs, pushing my body weight against his. He tripped backwards, knocking a metal cabinet over, and then swiftly lifted me to my feet, right before the cabinet fell to the floor with a loud bang. I latched onto his arm and flinched.

  “Are you all right?” He glanced at the cabinet, then at me. “I’m sorry.”

  “That’s okay,” I said, amazed he knocked it over. “I don’t even know why this cabinet is up here. It must have taken at least two guys to haul it.”

  Nathan was staring at the floor where the cabinet used to be. I stepped beside him and followed his gaze but didn’t see anything except for a knot hole in the wooden plank floor. He moved to it and knelt. As I took a closer look, I noticed it was a shorter piece of wood flushed in between with the rest of the planks.

  “What are you doing?” I bent next to him as he hooked his pinky in the hole and gasped when he lifted it. He set the plank aside and got on his hands and knees to look inside.

  “I think it’s a secret compartment,” he said.

  “Why do you think that?” My heart pounded nervously against my chest as I wondered if we finally found something.

  “Because for one, there’s no installation, and for another”–he reached his hand inside and pulled out what looked like a brown leather journal–“because of this.” He grinned.

  “Holy crap!” I snatched the journal from him. “Is there anything else in there?”

  He checked again. “No, only that.”

  I watched him put the cabinet back while I brushed the dirt off the journal and found myself struggling with whether to open it or not. I knew I had to, but did I really want to know what was written inside? The curious part of me did, but the other part of me was terrified.

  I sat on a crate with the journal in my lap and stared at it, wondering why Mom would hide this from me. What did she know? I guess I was wrong about her being uninventive.

  Nathan sat beside me. “Are you going to open it?”

  “I’m afraid of what’s written inside,” I said apprehensively.

  “It’s okay. Whatever is in it, we’ll deal with it together.”

  “Do you think we should move everything out of the attic and see if there’s anything else under the floor?” I really didn’t want to and became overwhelmed thinking about it, but if we had to I would.

  He shook his head. “I don’t think it’s necessary. We moved everything we went through, except for the metal cabinet.”

  I hung my head, causing my hair to fall forward, curtaining my face. I stared at the journal, telling myself I could do this, fingering the leather cord around it, but I still wasn’t able to untie it.

  Nathan tucked a lock of hair behind my ear and leaned forward. “Do you want me to open it?” His expression was sympathetic.

  I handed him the journal and watched with bated breath as he unwounded the cord and opened it. His eyes skimmed across the pages, his face becoming more and more intrigued. I couldn’t take the suspense any longer.

  “What does it say?” I leaned closer and saw the words “Qumran caves.”

  “This is interesting,” he said and continued to read. “He wrote the Israeli Antiquities Authority was in the Judean Desert looking for scrolls. He also mentioned the Qumran caves. He speculates a couple of Arab kids came across a cave in one of the barren hills and found some historic treasures they sold in the black market. He thinks one of them was the ring.”

  “Why would he think that? And why would he be able to figure this out and not the immortals or the dark spirits?” It didn’t make sense. I mean, seriously, people have been searching for it for thousands of years, yet my father–a simple human–came up with this possibility.

  Nathan lifted his eyes to mine. “Have you ever searched and searched for something and couldn’t find it, yet someone else was able to with no problem?”

  “Yeah,” I said, getting his point. “Like when I couldn’t find my keys the other day and you found them.”

  “Exactly,” he said. “And your father must have done some extensive research in order to come to the answer. He probably even faked his own identity in order to obtain the information he has in this book. Frankly, I think your father was quite clever.”

  I smiled. “I think so too. But why would the kids sell the ring when they could have used it to control the dark spirits?”

  “They probably didn’t realize what they had, and there’s more to it than just wearing the ring. You have to know how to use it in order for it to work, like what incantations to use.” He fanned the pages, revealing blank paper, making me realize my father didn’t get to finish what he had set out to do.

  “Do you think any of this can help us?”

  Nathan went back to reading the journal, too captivated to acknowledge my question. I leaned next to him, trying to read what he was reading, but I couldn’t understand it. My father’s sloppy penmanship wasn’t easy to read and appeared to be written in a frenzy. There were a lot of scattered notes and references that made my head spin in complete disarray.

  “What are the Essenes?” I asked when that word caught my attention.

  He remained quiet.

  I elbowed his side. “Hey, are you going to answer me, or should I leave you alone?”

  He closed the journal and wound the leather cord around it.

  “Sorry,” he said and shook it in the air. “But I could easily get lost in this.”

  I lifted my eyebrows and nodded. “I see that, and I’m glad you can understand it because I don’t.”

  “Do you mind if I hang onto this and read it later?”

  “No, I don’t mind, but I’d like for you to answer my question.”

  He looked down, scratched his head, and tilted his face to me, half smiling. “Um, what was it you asked me?”

  “About the Essenes,” I reminded him.

  “Oh, right,” he said, now remembering. “They were a Jewish sect who lived in Qumran, secluded from the general population. They lived in piety and believed in the absence of personal property and money. They had a strict observance of the Sabbath and devoted themselves to charity and studying the books of the elders. They also preserved secrets. Your father thinks they had the ring, along with other treasures, but they hid them in the caves, during the great revolt against the Romans.”

  “Why would they have this stuff if they didn’t believe in personal property?”

  “Because they believed the angels chose them to protect it.”

  “Interesting,” I murmured, staring off into space.

  He stood. “Yes, it is. They used t
o pray daily to the angels and were supposedly attuned to them.”

  I followed him down the stairs as he went on about the Essenes developing the field of angelology and how their beliefs were deeply rooted into mysticism. I imagined them in simple white garments and sandals, living out in the desert with no air conditioning or running water, and realized how domesticated and spoiled we as people have become. We used to live out there in the elements without a problem, but now, a lot of us would probably die if we had to. I thought, the human race was now equivalent to a house cat and chuckled to myself.

  “What’s so funny?” he asked. I told him, and he laughed. “That’s good, Paige, and so true. You know, I grew up using an outhouse, and we had no electricity. We also hunted and fished for most of our food.”

  I lifted my hair into a ponytail and wiped the sweat off the back of my neck, trying to imagine Nathan living that kind of life.

  “I keep forgetting how old you really are and how you grew up. I bet it was wonderful, but inconvenient at the same time.” I thought about having to go outside to use an outhouse in the cold or rain. Now that would totally suck ass.

  “It was wonderful, and how we lived was a normal way of life, nobody thought differently of it, and something catastrophic had to happen in order for us to have a sense of inconvenience.”

  “Yeah, well, I’m glad you know how to live that way in case a time comes when we might have to, because I wouldn’t know what to do.”

  He placed his hand on my cheek. “You don’t ever have to worry. I’ll always take care of you.” The fervent emotion in his eyes left no doubt in his words.

  I turned my face and kissed his hand. “I’m going to go take a shower.”

  “Okay, I’ll take one after you, and afterwards we’ll see about supper and getting things together for your mom’s arrival tomorrow.”

  “All right.” I bounced on my tiptoes and gave him a quick kiss.

  When I was in my room, getting my stuff to take into the bathroom, I decided to confront Mom about my father and wouldn’t let her leave until she gave me some answers. She wasn’t going to shut me out, not this time.

  Chapter Seventeen

  Mom’s Answers