“I see,” said Marie as she looked at Tom. “And you have been with me always?”
“Yes,” Tom breathed as he looked at her like a father who adores a daughter.
“But everyone here looks young. Did they all die young?” Marie asked.
“No. All spirits have their own image that doesn’t age. It’s the image of us in the prime of our life. I lived to be an old man. Ben here, never lived a day. But don’t let that fool you, he doesn’t act like he was born yesterday!” Tom laughed. “Sorry, couldn’t help myself!” Ben glowered.
“So, how do I get back? I can’t stay here!” Marie exclaimed.
They were all quiet and then Lorenzo spoke. “We don’t know exactly. You aren’t the first to be in two dimensions at once, but you are, so far, the only one to survive it.
The dark Shadows took you for some reason. They snatched you. You have a gift that allows you to be in both places. This gift in you allowed you to see the others while you were in your world. So, I am thinking that this gift will help get you back. We will help you in any way we can,” Lorenzo said and smiled gently at her.
“I need to think,” Marie said. “Give me a little time.” Lorenzo nodded that he understood. She looked around for a place to be alone and then walked away and sat by herself on a step. The men looked at her wishing they knew how to fix this.
“Guys, even if I magically whisked her back into her body, the Shadows would be on her again. We have to figure out why they want her, but she has to learn how to use this gift,” said Lorenzo.
***
Allen sat beside her bed drawing imaginary circles on her arm with his finger. It had been a week. Marie’s parents came and were staying at a local hotel. They all took turns sitting with her in case there was some change. They wanted someone she knew to be there when she woke up.
He thought of that night before over and over trying to figure out if there was something he missed. Their conversation had taken a spiritual tone and she asked if he believed in an afterlife. They had agreed they would try to contact each other. But she wasn’t dead. He body was just perpetually sleeping. The doctor said there was brain activity. She was thinking away in there somewhere, maybe dreaming. He hoped she was having dreams of them being together.
He breathed deeply and picked up his text book and opened it. He tried to read but it was hard to concentrate.
CHAPTER 13 - JENNY
“By and by, have you got the girl all in fits?” A female voice like a songbird, a loud songbird, rang in Marie’s ears. She looked up to see a spitfire small woman with her chestnut hair pulled up and back on her head. She wore a beautiful off-the-shoulder gown of light blue satin that went all the way to the floor. The cut reminded Marie of one she had seen in a museum.
The woman marched right up to Marie and held out a tiny delicate hand, “I’m Jenny, Jenny Helm. Tom is my husband. Nice to meet you. Heard all about you. Have they got you confused and scared to death yet?”
Marie shook her hand lightly. Jenny looked to be only a couple of years older than her. She had the same pale blue-gray eyes that Marie’s grandmother had.
“Um, no, I don’t know, uh…” Marie stammered.
“I’ll take that as a yes,” she shook her head as she said it. “Darlin’ it’ll be okay. Don’t you fret. We just have to figure something out. Have they taken you to go visit your kinfolk yet, or maybe that beau?”
“What? I don’t think…” Marie trailed off confused.
“Good lawdy, a-mighty! TOM!” she hollered over her shoulder. Tom strode over.
“Tom! Do you think it might help her to see something she knows? Let’s take her to see her people so she at least feels better.”
“Well, Jenny, now, that might not be so good for her to see them all upset,” said Tom.
“Well, I don’t reckon she is going to expect them to be having a par-ty with her being ill, but at least she can sooth herself some.” Jenny had a point.
“Ok. That makes sense. Marie, what do you think?” Tom asked.
“I can see Allen and my parents?” she said excitedly.
Jenny winked at Tom.
“Yes, that’s easy to do,” Tom said.
“Well, let’s go!” Marie exclaimed.
“But now, honey, remember that they can’t see or hear you, okay?” Jenny took Marie’s hand and patted her arm as she said it.
Marie deflated a notch, but was still glad to get to go. “So I’m basically a ghost.”
Jenny nodded and smiled a motherly smile at her. Tom took Marie’s hand, paused briefly and gave her a smile of sympathy and the two of them flashed away.
***
Allen was asleep, hunched over Marie’s bed with his arms crossed under his head. The beep of the IV was droning on in hopes anyone might hear it. It was surreal to Marie to see herself lying in the bed and yet be standing in the shadow in the corner. She looked at Tom as if for permission to move. Tom nodded.
She walked over to Allen and ruffled her fingers through his light brown hair. Her hand didn’t actually come in contact with his hair though. It was just air. She couldn’t really touch him. Her hand went right through him and it was disconcerting. Being here made everything that she couldn’t see before clear now. She was outside of real life, at least her mind was. Her body reclined on a bed. Her hair had been brushed to the right and she never brushed her hair that way, or maybe, she had just never looked at herself from another person’s eyes. It was like hearing your voice on a recording. It seemed foreign. Even though she would have thought it was like looking in a mirror, it was like looking at a stranger. What if this body woke up and walked away and left her in this other world unattached to reality. Worse yet, could some other spirit claim her body? ‘Oh no, they won’t!’ She thought with a flash of anger.
Allen said something in his sleep. Marie turned to look at him. He was getting restless. She knelt down beside him and tried to put her arms around him. There was nothing solid to hold. Not even the chair or the bed was solid to her. She was just floating in this parallel world. She wasn’t even really standing on the floor.
“No! Marie!” Allen grumbled in his sleep.
“I’m right here, Allen! I love you! It’ll be okay!” Marie tried to sooth him. He did calm down and breathe easier. Marie looked at Tom quizzically.
“Can he hear me?” she asked Tom.
Tom moved forward a step. “To some degree. We have been able to make suggestions to the new ones, that’s what we call you all. And, we can tell that you think about it and either choose to follow the suggestion or not. So, talk to him. He will likely understand somewhere in his mind. Oddly, that is just what the doctors have been telling him about you.”
Marie looked back at Allen. “Allen, I’m okay. I’m not sure how to fix this, but I know it’ll be okay. I need you to be strong for me. Don’t give up! I love you and I need you!”
Allen’s eyes opened. He looked at Marie in the bed. He had a look of hope in his eyes, but then he grimaced. “It was just a dream!” he muttered. He sighed and looked at her lying on the bed.
“Marie, what happened to you? Where are you in there? Can you even hear me? I feel so stupid talking to you like this. The doctor said it would help, that they have seen it bring people out of this. I just wish I knew what was wrong? How did this happen?” He sighed and rubbed his eyes.
“Your mom and dad are here in town. They will be here soon. Your mom looks at me like this is my fault. I have wracked my brain thinking about the day before, if there was anything that happened, and I can’t think of any reason for this. I think your mom thinks I hurt you or something. I love you, Marie! Why can’t she see that?”
There was desperation in his voice. Marie thought that he must feel so alone. She had never seen him like this and it broke her heart. She wanted so much to hug him. She looked at Tom for a suggestion.
He let out a large sigh. “Such is the dilemma of our kind. We feel so much for the ones we protect and we can d
o so little. It’s up to them to find their own strength. I have watched you cry. Once in high school, you were so upset and I really worried about you. Your friend had turned on you. I just stayed with you and talked. I tried to remind you of things you find beautiful. And, well, we also fight the shadows that try to take the very life right out of you.”
“Oh! I forgot they are here, too! I’ve seen them slithering around people! Are they here now?” she asked and looked around. She saw a movement in the corner of her eye and saw a handsome, tall man with dark hair and piercing dark eyes intensely fixed on her step out from the shadows. He smiled warmly. “Hello, Marie. I’m Jacob. So nice to be able to have a conversation with you. I won’t say meet you, because I have known you for some time now.” He smiled warmly again putting her at ease.
Marie stood up and walked over to him, looking him up and down. She looked at Tom who nodded that Jacob was safe.
“Jacob. You are Allen’s Protector?” she asked.
“At your service, my dear.” He stated gallantly and bowed holding a pretend hat.
“Hm. So you, and Tom, have been with me and Allen all this year that we have known each other?” she asked curiously.
Jacob answered, “That’s correct. And Ben, I trust you have met Ben.”
“Yes, I have.” She absently answered and thought back to all of the time she has been with Allen. “So, that day, at the reservoir, Tom, when I fell in, you all were there?”
Jacob looked at Tom, who answered, “I was away on assignment, but Ben was your Protector and he rescued you with great skill. Allen jumped into the water and the shadows tried to pull him under, too, and Jacob pulled Allen out.”
“I see,” she said as she tried to piece this new information into her memory.
In a quick burst of movement, Marie saw Jacob quickly move behind Allen. As soon as Marie turned to look a shadow formed and grew behind Allen and materialized into a haggard man with deep creases in his face. His hair was stringy and wild. He lunged at Allen, who sat completely unaware of anything. Jacob leapt forward and swiped at the figure. Tom joined Jacob while Marie watched them both with horror. She could do nothing to protect Allen.
It was a ‘distract and attack’ move, though, a shadow crept along the floor near Marie’s foot. She felt the cool mist around her foot and leapt away. The shadow grew in size and kept moving toward her. She screamed.
Almost on cue, a nurse came in the room, but Marie instantly realized the nurse could not see any of this battle.
The nurse convulsed and shivered. “Oh! There’s a chill in here!” She pulled the blanket up higher on Marie’s body in the bed. She asked Allen if he had seen any changes.
The hand-to-hand combat around the bedside continued. Marie tried to stomp on the shadow which did nothing. Jacob and Tom fought the Dark Shadow man on the other side near Allen.
The nurse paused and looked around, seeming to sense something, but shook it off. Marie caught sight of something odd on the woman’s shoulders, a shadow crept around her neck. The woman’s expression changed and she looked sideways at Allen.
“You young people will never learn!” the nurse hissed oddly. Allen looked at her horrified and confused. Then the nurse did something that Marie couldn’t fathom: she took a syringe from her pocket, uncapped it, and smiled a ghoulish grin. Allen was about to leap to cover Marie, thinking surely the nurse was about to kill her. The nurse registered his thoughts and laughed a deep guttural laugh. Marie saw the shadow around the nurse’s neck tighten and then in swift movement, the nurse jabbed the syringe in her own arm and pushed the plunger. Everyone in the room turned to see the nurse fall dead in front of Allen.
Dark shadows seeped up through the floor and surrounded the fallen nurse whose spirit stood up looking rather surprised. She looked at the crowd around her and then the surprised look turned to a knowing smile. The shadows took her spirit away and the fighting in the room continued while Allen ran from the room calling for help.
There was a flash in the room. Marie raised her forearm to protect her eyes. Then she saw Henry, Jenny, and Ben was there, too. The shadows were out-numbered and they faded from sight.
With a big sigh, Tom said, “Whew! Ok, so the shadows are on a mission. Sheez!”
“Lorenzo told us and we came right away,” said Henry. “We need to do some training with Marie. She is obviously a hot target for them.”
Marie looked at Allen with concern, “But why are they going after him and what about that nurse? What in the world?” she asked.
“That’s easy! To get to you! They are in a frenzy. The nurse was sitting prey. She has probably been going their way for some time and the hyped energy in this room sent her careening their way. It a shame. The shadows probably hoped she would take out Marie’s body,” said Ben.
“I’m going to stay here with Jacob a while. You all go back to the Gathering and work on some things,” said Jacob. They all nodded. Tom took Marie’s hand. A bright light glowed around her and seemed to consume them.
CHAPTER 14 – LIFE IN THE OTHER WORLD
Back at the Gathering, Marie sat by herself again to think. It was becoming clear to her what she was dealing with. Jenny was right, it had helped her to see Allen and to see how she was “different” now. It was also abundantly clear that she and everyone she cared about were in danger. Apparently the dark shadows had a great deal of power to get people to fling themselves over the cliff of sanity.
What amazed her most was that she had lived for 19 years and never realized this whole other world existed right beside her. Not only that it was there, but that the actions of those beings could have a direct impact on her and other people’s lives.
Why on earth did they want her? She was just a regular girl. She wasn’t out trying to fight for world peace or evangelize the sinners.
Henry had been wracking his brain, as well. He noticed the look of turmoil on Marie’s face across the portico and walked over to her.
“There is more to this that you may not know,” Henry said as he squatted down beside her.
She looked up at him questioningly. “Go on,” she said.
He sat down on the step beside her. “Have you noticed anything about the group you are hanging around with?” he said.
“Oh, besides the fact that you’re all ghosts?” she said indignantly.
He laughed and said, “Yeah, besides that. Have you noticed that we all have a slight resemblance to each other?”
“Huh?” She looked at them huddled with their heads together a few yards away. “I guess so. I mean, there isn’t a lot of diversity there. Jenny reminds me of my grandmother and Ben could be my brother.” She paused. “Are you saying we are all related?”
“Bingo! Tom could hash it all out better than I could, but, well, what do you know about your ancestry?” said Henry.
“Well, there’s my parents and grandparents. Before that, I have heard stories about a grandmother way back named Sarah Elizabeth. I suppose that’s about it.” Marie said and thought hard to think of anything else.
“That’s pretty typical. Most people are like that. But you should know, you come from a line of people that were persistent and determined. They had strong ideals and would risk everything for them. Most of all, they loved fiercely.” Henry said.
“Henry, are you related to me, too?” Marie inquired.
“Yes, not directly. I would be an uncle way back. I died as a little boy. But Tom and Jenny were my parents. You are a direct descendant of them. They were amazing in life just like now. Fighters. They fought for freedom and for what was right. They forged a home in a wilderness that is now a thriving town in Kentucky. They lost me in the process and it nearly paralyzed them, but nothing can slow down a heart like theirs for long. Dad was a captain in the Revolutionary war and mom, despite the ball gown, could single-handedly run a fort of settlers. I swear the Indians that attacked the fort were afraid of her. I wouldn’t want to be in her path when she’s angry.” Henry laughed.
>
“I see. So how does Sarah Elizabeth fit in?” Marie asked.
“She is later down the line, when the land was settled. She stood her ground for love despite her father who vehemently opposed the marriage. But that is just like her and all the rest of us. Our hearts often over-ride reason. I suppose that’s why so many of us choose to join the Protectors rather than moving on to the great Destination. We can’t let go of those we love.”
“Hm, so, could there be something in us that makes the dark Shadows want to take us out?” Marie wondered.
“Maybe. I don’t know. Anything is possible,” Henry said.
“You’d think that kind of a rift in a family would split it apart. How did Sarah and her dad’s relationship change?” she said.
“Well,” he paused to think, “it wasn’t good, but it wasn’t ruined. They didn’t talk for a long time. It was a small town so it’s not like they were hiding from each other. It grieved him greatly when he heard how they struggled with the crops. Farming can be hit or miss. Sarah’s husband only had a small farm that he homesteaded. But he built the house for them. It was cozy. He was a good man and loved Sarah very much. It was a big change for Sarah who had grown up the daughter of a wealthy rail road owner. But nothing could keep her from the love of her life.”
Marie thought about and then said, “Allen said that my mom was giving him grief. Sounds like she isn’t on his band wagon, either. What if it’s a repeat? What if this happens a lot in our family and I am the current player in this repeat performance? I wonder what the cost is to the dark Shadows when we repeatedly choose love over sense or even just over our parents’ choices for us,” Marie thought out loud.
Lorenzo walked up and sat down next to her. “I can tell you what.” He paused and looked into Marie’s eyes. Marie felt like she could see all eternity in his eyes. She had never met anyone with such a calm, loving countenance.
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