“We could wait. Eventually she will leave him alone, but we’d need to hide or the Protector would spot us. Maybe we need to get some help since you can’t disappear into shadow.” Hester glared at Marie as she said the last part as though Marie were flawed.
Marie watched the mother as Hester jabbered on. The mother’s pants leg was ripped and blood from a gash had created an oblong stain on her thigh along the jagged rip. Marie heard sirens in between the barking in the distance.
“Well come on, you dope! This isn’t going to go anywhere soon. We need to get on with my plan and stop playing around! Everything I try is getting fouled up.” Hester jerked at Marie’s arm and frowned. A small bright flash illuminated and the two were gone.
This time they appeared back at the Shadows’ Lair, the desolate dirt and rock place where Hester had first taken Marie. As soon as they arrived, Shadows came forward from all directions toward them. As the first ones got close, they tried to pick at Marie and pull on her.
“Quit, you idiots!” Hester slapped and stamped at the Shadows who inched back reluctantly. Hester seemed very annoyed with everything now. Within a minute, a crowd of thousands of haggard-looking souls had materialized. They looked like they were in physical pain. Marie realized it was not physical pain, but rather a state of anger and sadness combined. They all stood, wavering a bit, as though they might be gone in an instant.
“Now listen to me!” Hester boomed. “We find ourselves in a very fortunate situation. This could tip the scales for us. We have,” she cautiously continued looking at Marie, “on our side, this young woman whose body still lives on the other side. We all know the living ones have far greater power than us, but don’t know it. Idiots!” she murmured this last word under her breath.
“I have had her out there already creating mayhem with great ease. Even a Protector could not stop what she set in motion.” Hester seemed delighted in herself at this, taking full credit.
“What we need to do now is seize the moment in unity. If we all work together at the same time, we can over-throw the Protectors and dominate! We can seek the vengeance we deserve! You can squash the ones that held you down! Some of you have been waiting for centuries for this moment. Now, the sins of the fathers can visit their sons and their sons.” Hester was rallying the crowd and their groans and cheers were rising in one voice. Marie watched with detached interest. None of it mattered to her.
“So, my friends of ages, comrades! Let us go forth now and seek our revenge! Go now!” The Shadows, worked up into a frenzy, started flashing out and soon none were left there but Hester and Marie. Hester turned to Marie and said, “Now darling, your time has come. With them creating mayhem, we will have an easier time. The Protectors will all be distracted. Let’s go.”
CHAPTER 21 – FIGHTING AND CHAOS
Allen pulled into the parking space at the hospital. The small hospital parking lot was full. Allen was lucky to find a space at the far end. He climbed out of the jeep and shut the door, then looked up to the second floor. He could see Marie’s window. Every time he crossed the parking lot, he looked up, hoping to see her standing at the window watching for him. As usual, the smoke colored, tinted glass showed nothing but a reflection of the little puffy clouds that randomly dotted the blue sky. It was a warm day for May but still a cool breeze blew through the little canyon in which the hospital was located. The terrain behind the hospital and across the road was covered with new grasses and black oaks with young leaves.
As Allen approached the doorway, he could here Marie’s parents inside talking. Her mom was very animated and annoyed.
“Bill, I cannot just live here in these infernal, backwoods hills forever! We have got to get her transferred closer to home!” Nancy fussed. “I can’t get any work done here. I have clients waiting on me and they won’t wait forever. It’s ridiculous that we are still here. I certainly think we could find a more progressive hospital near LA. Who knows where they got these doctors!”
“Alright, Sweetheart, I’ll see what I can find out when I get back home tomorrow. Just don’t worry about it right now. You’re going to get yourself all upset.” Marie’s dad said.
There was a momentary silence. Allen closed his eyes and mustered his strength. He took a breath and went in the room.
“Oh, Allen.” Nancy said with a sort of resignation. “How good of you to come by.” Allen bit his tongue. He didn’t just happen to stop by. He’d put his entire life on hold to stay close to Marie.
“Do you all need anything? I could go get you some lunch?” Allen offered hoping she would eschew any of his suggestions and decide they would leave for a while to get their own food.
“How kind of you to offer, but we just ate.” The silence in the room hung like the sky before a tornado, eerily quiet and slightly green.
Seeing no change in Marie, Allen went to the window and leaned against the window sill. He could see the black top of his Jeep dully reflecting sunlight with wavering smudges of reality cascading down the hood where the heat was radiating off the metal. Never one to not stand his ground, he decided to just confront them.
“So when I came in I heard you say you are going to have her transferred to LA?” he said with the same calmness that you’d use to discuss the weather. Inside his mind was reeling, but no hint was showing in his expression.
Nancy didn’t move in any way except to move her eyes toward Allen and slightly raise her chin. This was her choice to make and she was not backing down.
“Yes. There are better medical facilities closer to home.” She used just one very logical, irrefutable argument deciding that was all that was necessary.
“That is true. I would expect so. Do you have anyone to stay with her when you are working? I mean, don’t you think it’s a good idea to have someone with her all the time so if she wakes up she won’t be upset. She won’t know where she is.” Allen asserted.
“I’m confident a good nursing staff will take that into consideration. There’s no need for anyone else.” With that she almost turned up the corners of her mouth.
Allen didn’t want to play this card, but he felt he had no other choice, “What if she is upset that you pushed me away. I don’t think she would like you butting in and running off her fiancé’.” He hadn’t planned to tweak the truth that much but he was losing his ground. If Nancy and Bill had Marie transferred, it would be very hard for him to follow with no job. LA was a great deal more expensive. He would never talk his parents into funding him while he sat around Marie’s hospital room for who knows how long. And, after all, he was going to propose about this time when they were on their cross-country trip. They were really just one little yes away from being engaged.
Not Allen nor Nancy could see it, but Shadows were creeping into the room like water over the side of a boat. Jacob, Lucinda and a Protector behind Bill sprang into action, but they were terribly outnumbered. The Shadows immediately transformed into the ghastly forms of the angry souls who possessed them and began hand to hand combat with the Protectors. The problem was, there were just too many for the three Protectors to subdue. Two evil souls seemed to be contradicting each other over Nancy’s head. One was saying that Marie would hate her forever for meddling and the other was telling her she was entirely in the right for putting that pertinent young man in his place, after all, she knew Marie far longer than he did.
Nancy looked confused for a minute, not sure what to say next. Bill stepped in and stood between Nancy and Allen. “Now look here, we will do anything we want with our daughter. You are perfectly welcome to visit Marie in a hospital in LA just like you are here. Do I make myself clear?” Bill stood up straight with his hands on his hips daring Allen to challenge him.
Allen’s eyes never left Bill’s as he considered his options, “That’s your choice. I will move to LA.” After a pause to show he was not being pushed away, Allen said, “Would you do me the courtesy of letting me know prior to her being transferred? I’m sure you understand. You wouldn�
�t care to come here and find an empty room.”
Nancy regained her composure enough to speak again, “Of course, if you’re around. I hear you have been busy with a girl named… Lydia? She came by looking for you yesterday.” Her words lingered on the air falsely maligning Allen.
It was all Allen could take. He walked over to Marie and caressed back the hair on her face and kissed her forehead. “Lydia… is delusional,” he sternly said to Nancy. Then turned to Marie, “I love you, Marie. I’ll be back later. Stay strong.” He breathed a sigh of resignation and left the room.
Jacob left with Allen, looking over his shoulder at the mayhem going on in that room. Poor Lucinda and Bill’s Protector were giving a good fight but who knows how it would turn out.
In the hallway, Jacob noticed Shadows and evil souls everywhere. The new souls were easily falling prey to their influence. Some were arguing to the point of shoving each other. The hospital staff were either fighting or laying around on hospital beds or in break rooms doing nothing. It was as if everyone had given in to their selfish wants with no consideration for others or responsibility. A patient was crying out in pain and no one was tending him. The cafeteria staff started throwing trays of food into rooms showing their frustration with the job. Coaxed, of course, by the evil souls suggestions. A doctor and a nurse had given in to their lustful desires and let go of all propriety and were stripping in an empty patient room with the door open.
Jacob noticed a man with crazy black hair and wild eyes telling Allen he ‘should go back there and just kill them. Then he wouldn’t have to deal with them anymore.’
“Whoa, whoa, whoa, Buster! What the hell are you doing?” Jacob leapt forward to push the soul away. The man just looked a Jacob and laughed.
“You can’t stop us. We have the power now.” With that, the evil soul took off after another person.
***
Hester’s plan seemed simple. She had thought about it for a long time. There were two steps. First she needed to kill any living descendant of Tom and Jenny. That would be Nancy, baby George, and George’s mother. Then, she would need to purge all the souls of Tom and Jenny’s descendants from the ‘other’ world. She had seen ceremonies in her time performed by runaway slaves from the Caribbean. She had dabbled in splitting a soul from its body before but the body usually dies. Just once she was able to take over the body herself for a short time, but it didn’t go well. This was her plan for Marie. At the end, when she no longer needed Marie’s power of life, she would purge Marie’s soul and steal her body. It would surely work this time because she was smarter now. It would be the perfect avenging of her pain. All of Tom and Jenny and their progeny would be obliterated and Hester would have a new chance at life and love in a young woman’s body. Maybe she would let Allen love her and she would finally be happy.
CHAPTER 22 – OVER THE SIDE
Allen’s head was reeling with anger about their decision and the accusation of unfaithfulness to Marie. With a stiff expression, he stomped out to his Jeep and got in. He buckled his seat belt and turned on the engine. The radio blared and he didn’t even notice. His mind was carrying on an argumentative monologue from the stress of all this. He’d just rented the apartment the week before. He actually planned to just stay at that apartment for school next year, too. He’d envisioned Marie waking up and them getting past all this. They could live in the apartment and go to school. It was just two doors down from Sam and Ellen. They could even walk to Main Street.
Now he would need to quickly repack and prepare to move 6 hours away to a huge metropolis. He had never lived in a large town. Even Lexington was barely the size of a suburb of LA. How would he afford it? What if he couldn’t find anything right away? How long was this coma going to last anyway.
Then he remembered, maybe she was stuck. He just couldn’t shake the sneaking suspicion that she was stuck and couldn’t get home. But what can I do to find her? He thought. He needed more information. This was definitely not his area of expertise. As he pondered this thought, an image of the incense store came to mind. Jacob had been whispering in his ear. Allen thought . . .
That’s it! That bizarre lady at the incense store. She was talking to Marie about some ghost that followed her around. If anyone knew something, it would be her. Allen put the Jeep in reverse and set out in the direction of Soulsbyville. He didn’t have much time.
Along the way, Shadows kept climbing into the Jeep and trying to distract Allen. They would whisper thoughts in his mind, crazy thoughts. Crash into the tree! Hit that pedestrian! Go faster! Allen was having a hard time keeping his thoughts straight. He figured it was fatigue setting in.
Jacob would shove them away or blast them with positive energy, but they kept coming. He noticed that people he passed on the street were also being attacked by several Shadows and the Protectors were in full battle mode. It appeared that the Protectors were outnumbered four to one in almost all the cases.
Allen was making his way outside the city limits of Sonora and, although there was less population around them, the Shadows never let up. Allen was approaching a curve in the road as the mountain went up in elevation. The Shadow was putting images in his mind of Marie fighting for her life, cut and bruised and bleeding. Just for a minute, he lost track of space and time and all he could see was Marie before him. The Jeep continued straight instead of turning in the curve and, before Jacob had a chance to fight off another Shadow and warn Allen, the Jeep careened out into thin air. Allen immediately realized his mistake but it was too late. It wasn’t a terribly high drop, but still the impact of falling 50 feet straight into the pine forest below was enough to destroy the vehicle and severely batter Allen.
There was a moment of quiet airborne flying where the Jeep made an arc in the resistance-free space. Allen sat horrified, waiting to see if he would survive. There was nothing he could do to help himself in the face of his unfortunate future. What seemed like minutes to Allen was really only a matter of seconds. The Jeep’s front grill hit the ground first, jolting Allen forward, straining against the seatbelt that stalwartly held him in place and yet cut into his collar bone so hard it snapped. His head jerked forward with the impact. The forward force of the vehicle and pull of gravity propelled it end over end three times. During the second flip, which was a bit askew and left leaning, Allen hit his head on the side window and it knocked him unconscious. His body then limply flung in whatever direction the car compelled him. Jacob worked frantically to cushion impacts however he could. It was not an accurate science, but energy could be used to absorb a force.
When the Jeep came to a crashing stop upside down against the trunk of a tree, Allen hung like a bat with his arms hanging and his hands touching the ground below the cover. The radio still blared and the engine was hissing steam. Thank goodness his seatbelt was on and had kept him from being thrown. The roll bars had kept him from being crushed even though the black cover was shredded from rolling end over end. Jacob tried to awaken him but Allen was out cold. He didn’t want to leave him with all the shadows looming but he wondered if anyone had seen the car go over the side.
Ben flashed in at that moment. He knelt down and looked inside the Jeep and saw Allen hanging upside down and Jacob squatting on the roof trying to decide what to do.
“Heard you were in a bit of trouble,” Ben said studying the situation.
“Just in time! He is breathing but I think there are internal injuries. We need to get help!” Jacob stepped out and looked up the hill. Ben followed his gaze to the cut in the hillside where the road must be.
“Woo-wee! What a ride!” Ben let out.
“Uh yeah. A real E-ticket.” Jacob said unimpressed referring to Disney World’s ticket to ride the best rides. Ben had no idea what he was talking about but assumed an E-ticket was a great thing.
Jacob continued, “You go up there and tell someone to look down here. I’ll stay here. The Shadows have gone crazy for some reason, so I don’t want to leave him alone.” As he said thi
s he stomped on a Shadow hovering over the dirt heading toward the Jeep.
“Okay! Be right back.” Ben flashed away to the top of the hill. He stood on the side of the rode and looked down at the Jeep. It was clearly visible if you were standing there looking over the side. He noted that if you were in a car, you would never see it. Allen would likely be there for days without medical care. The shock alone would kill him if the Shadows didn’t. Ben flashed up one side of the road looking for a car. None was in sight. He flashed back the other way. Sure enough, coming out of Sonora, was a telephone truck. The driver was sipping a cola and eating French fries as he drove. Ben got in close and whispered, “What if a car fell off the road at a curve? A person would be stranded for days. Look here, a curve coming up. Slow down. Pull over. Look over the side to see if there is anything down there.”
The man took the suggestions easily. He pulled over, stowed his soda can in the molded plastic cup holder hanging from his door by the window, and got out, leaving the door ajar. He looked a little confused as though he didn’t know why he was doing this. At the edge, he peered over the side and stopped cold. His hunch was dead on. There was a vehicle upside down, engine hissing and radio blaring. Oh my god! He jumped to the left and right trying to figure out what to do first: radio for help or try to shimmy down the hillside to help. He decided to radio first and then head down. He reached in the truck and grabbed the CB radio.
After getting through to the Sonora Fire Department, he started making his way down the hill, sliding as much as crawling. Ben had kept him from completely sliding down the hill. He finally reached the Jeep and nervously peered into the passenger window. Jacob and Ben were watching nearby.
“Ho!” the man said out loud. “Hey buddy? Can you hear me?” the telephone man gingerly reached in and felt for a pulse on Allen’s neck. It was faint but there. Not wanting to cause him further injury, he decided it would be best to wait for the paramedics. There didn’t seem to be any immediate danger. He turned the ignition key and turned off the car. The radio immediately silenced.
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