The four of them stood motionless in the closet. Henry looked at Tom and said, “It’s got to be Hester. You and I will go out there and help Marguerite.” He looked at Jenny and Ben, “You two keep looking. The watch is the only thing that can save us.” They all nodded and Tom and Henry darted through the bedroom wall.
In the living room, Hester was hovering over Marguerite who was writhing on the floor trying to fight off the spell. Marie was standing beside Hester in her trance, droopy eyed and expressionless. Hester was reciting her incantation with a horrible grin on her face.
“Marie! Remember your anger! Throw it at her. They took Allen away from you!”
Marie looked at Marguerite with apathy. A tear rolled down her cheek for Allen.
“Yes, that’s it, Marie! Remember how it used to be when you were happy and they all stole it from you! Now give her your anger! They stole your Allen!” Hester growled.
Marie’s face changed to a sadistic scowl and she raised her arms to focus the blast at the young woman lying on the ground.
Henry lurched forward and placed himself between Marie and Marguerite. Marie’s expression changed to one of confusion.
“You idiot!” Hester blasted at Marie. “Destroy them!”
Tom joined Henry and the four of them began attacking, sending waves of positive and negative energy at each other. Marguerite was able to regain her composure and joined the fight. Bill slept peacefully in the chair completely unaware of the war raging around him. The rolling white noise of the waves crashing down on the beach were like a lullaby. Seagulls swooped and turned silently on the breeze. It was a perfect afternoon for a nap.
Beside Bill, both Tom and Henry were throwing waves of blasts at Hester. Any ordinary Shadow would be fleeing already, but she was easily deflecting them. Marguerite, her long skirt swishing around her ankles, was working on Marie with enough success to make it a tie of volleys.
Outside a Shadow that was creeping along the balcony formed into a young man with wild hair and glazed eyes. He inched toward Bill, trying not to be seen by anyone in the room, and whispered to Bill to wake up. Bill stirred, blinked sleepily and looked around. The room was quiet and the sea breeze softly caressed his cheek and ruffled his blond hair.
“Call Nancy and tell her how unfair it is that you are here alone working. She sits idly while you toil. There is no need for her to be there and you here. She is being selfish. You deserve better than this!” The Shadow hissed in his ear while the commotion raged on. The air around Bill wavered as the evil forces permeated him but he saw nothing. Realizing he was lonely, he furrowed his brow and let the feeling sink in.
Now in a huff, Bill got up and walked over to the phone hanging on the kitchen wall and began to dial Marie’s room at the hospital. Nancy picked up and you could hear her talking on the other end of the line.
“Hello? Bill? Is that you? Are you okay?”
“No!” he yelled. “Now you are going to come home this minute. There are bills to pay and I am here with all of this on my back. You could be working, too, you know! Marie is fine with the nurses. You come home now and I mean it!”
“Bill? This isn’t like you. What’s going on?” Nancy said.
“You heard me! I said come home now!” With that he hung up the phone without waiting for a response. He walked into the bedroom fuming. Jenny and Ben were still searching the closet when they saw him stomp into the room with a scowl. The Shadow was still on his trail whispering lies about Nancy.
Bill opened a door on the front of the night table next to the bed. Inside was a shoe box with a pink ribbon tying it closed. Bill tore off the ribbon and through it on the floor. He swiped at the lid and it went flying. Inside, wrapped in white tissue paper was a pair of antique slippers. Bill tore off the tissue and let the box fall, holding both slippers with one hand. He opened the drawer next to the bed and pulled out a pair of scissors and started cutting the slippers into shreds. The antique satin material easily gave way to the scissors demands. As he turned them in his hand, the gold watch fell from inside one of them. It hit the carpet, snapped open, bounced under the bed, unnoticed by Bill. He continued to cut the slippers into tiny pieces. Satin and sequins littered the floor on Nancy’s side of the bed.
Jenny saw all this happening and was shocked. Bill was generally a very happy, easy-going person. He loved Nancy with all his heart and would never do anything to make her sad. This was not like him at all. Then Jenny saw the watch, with its gold chain following it like the leash on a lost dog, fall to the carpet and silently bounce under the bedcover and out of sight. She flashed across the room and under the bed. There it was.
A gleam of soft golden light reflected from the edge. It was etched in thin delicate lines into a graceful pattern of swirls and rosettes. A heavy chain looped through the ribbed pin’s link. When it fell, the pin was pressed and it had snapped open to reveal a white clock face with raised gold numbers. The delicate black minute and hour hand unaffectedly showed the world it was 5:25.
Ben joined Jenny under the bed as they tried to latch onto the energy imbued in the watch to be able to pick it up. Without mortal bodies, energy was all they had.
The yelling and grunting continued in the living room. Bill moved into the closet and began to pull out Nancy’s dresses. He cut them into long thin shreds and let the shreds fall to the floor in a colorful heap. The Shadow was delighted and continued whispering in Bill’s ear.
“Let’s both focus a blast into the watch and see if that does anything. Okay?” said Ben.
“Okay,” said Jenny. “One, two, three!” They both concentrated a ray of emotional energy into the pocket watch. At first nothing happened, but then it was as if the energy overflowed the object and poured onto the floor below it, raising it up like a toy boat in a bathtub. It floated.
In a detached, methodical way, trying not to change the energy flow, Ben said, “Okay, let’s try to push it out from under the bed.” A resonating sound filled the air, like the vibration on a small bell but it didn’t quietly dissipate. Instead the sound seemed to grow in intensity. They moved it by the force of their will with the positive energy into the center of the room and about 3 feet off the ground. The sound of the ringing grew even louder.
Jenny and Ben were concentrating so hard, they did not notice another soul flash next to them. A short, charming girl with pale blond curls and bright blue eyes crinkled in a perpetual friendly smile. She wore a calico print prairie dress with little blue and white flowers dotting the design. She smiled when she saw the watch.
“Well, looky here! Like a beacon, it called me with the ringing,” she stepped closer to it as it floated in the air. “Who’re y’all?” she batted her eyelashes and looked at them like unexpected company had arrived on her porch. Jenny managed to split her concentration two ways to keep the watch afloat and sneak side glances at the newcomer.
“I’m Jenny Pope and this fella is Ben. We are trying to get this watch in the other room to use it to defeat one mad Shadow and release my granddaughter who is actually still a live one. Makes sense? That’s the quick version.” And then she added, “And who might you be?”
“Well, I’m Sarah Elizabeth and that is my watch. It called to me.”
“Well, doggone, sugar! You’re my grandbaby, too!” excitedly added Jenny. “Help us out here and blast some power into the watch.”
“What? Oh, yes!” Sarah Elizabeth added her contribution and the watch steadied. The ringing got louder. The watch began to cast a golden glow around it. At the point when it seemed deafening, a sonic burst erupted from the watch and escaped outward in a sphere of golden light. The Shadow that had been tormenting Bill was knocked down. Within a few seconds, it gathered its wits and disappeared. Bill looked around the closet, turning this way and that and looking at his hands. He vaguely recalled cutting up the dresses and but could not understand why. He turned and saw the slippers in tiny pieces on the carpet and felt a wave of grief and remorse. Nancy had cherished them. She would be heart-
broken.
“Wow! Did you see that?” asked Ben.
“Yeah!” said Sarah amazed. “How did you all figure this out?”
“It was Henry! He is pretty smart, that boy!” said Jenny.
Out in the living room, Hester was gaining ground. Marie had Marguerite and Tom nearly subdued in a crouch on the floor. Her power of destruction as a Live One gave her an upper hand. It was just enough for Hester to hold back Henry with one hand and start her incantation at the same time.
Mon frère, mon foe.
Your forever is gone.
I will be here, but you, not so.
Sempiternal Ruination!
As Hester spoke her spell, Marie could hear, far, far away, Allen praying for her. His pleading, weeping voice carried over time and space like a messenger searching for her.
“Please, Marie. Be strong.
Come back to me. I’m waiting for you.
I love you more than I can say.
We have a life together. Don’t give up.”
Marie turned to Hester as she said the last two words and turned her fury toward her. All the white hot energy of emotion she felt welled inside her like a bubbling volcano. Marie stretched out her left arm toward Hester and, with all her mind could focus, she released that wave down her arm and released it.
Instead of tearing apart Henry, as Hester had planned, a horrific ripping sound like fabric pulled apart with your bare hands filled the air. Hester was jolted out of her confident reverie by the turn of events. She realized Marie was much more powerful than she had imagined. They all, Henry, Tom, Marguerite and Hester, looked around wildly for the source. A black seam appeared in the air in the middle of the room and began to tear open. The torn edges of reality were flapping like flames of fire. There was a whooshing noise as though the very air in the house was being sucked inside the seam. It widened and they could all feel the pull coming from it. The nothingness inside the rip created a vacuum force that would devour anything close to it.
Tom lunged at Marie to protect her from being pulled in. Henry was the closest to it and, unable to brace himself was pulled inside the void and disappeared. Marguerite had been behind Hester who was losing her footing. Marguerite gracefully lifted her tiny foot and set it squarely on Hester’s backside and gave it a shove. Hester screamed and disappeared inside the rip.
Jenny, Ben and Sarah came in with the watch hanging in the air between them. Its ringing was the only thing louder than the hurricane wind sucking into the rift. Tom looked up to see where the ringing sound was coming from.
“Tom! Help us!” said Jenny. Tom added a blast of energy to the watch. The glowing antique watch made a deafening sound. It was like vibrating glass ringing under your fingertip as you rubbed across the opening of a crystal goblet, only so loud no other sound could now be heard in the room. Marguerite and Marie looked on in awe as they tried to not be carried into the rift.
The ringing reaching a deafening pitch before another sonic boom exploded in the room. The sphere of golden glow expanded, covering everyone and everything.
The rift sealed closed and Marie fell limp in Tom’s arms. It was over. Hester was gone, but so was Henry.
PART III
CHAPTER 28 – FREE, BUT STILL LOST
They all collapsed in each other’s arms.
“Oh, Tom. We have lost him again. It’s happened all over again.” Jenny wept. Tom held her and shed a tear as well. The scab on that old wound ripped open again.
“Tom, Jenny. Ben!” Marie started to wake up from the long trance. She looked around. “This is my parent’s house!” She got up and ran into the bedroom looking for her mom and dad. Her father was sitting on the side of the bed, still grimacing, holding strips of cut cloth and bits of silk and sequins.
She sat by him, but he couldn’t see her. “Oh, Daddy!” She cried. I miss you so much. I wish I could just hug you one more time. It’ll be okay. It’s just stuff.” Marie looked around the room. She felt like she had been gone for a very long time. Not just from home, but from everything. The trance Hester had her in was a prison, but now she was free. She felt stronger than she ever had. So much made sense now. All the times when she felt like she wasn’t alone growing up, all the times she thought had been serendipitous good fortune, it wasn’t just luck or intuition. There was a deep connection between real life and this other world and the living have an incredible ability to influence the battle between good and evil and they don’t even know it.
Allen’s prayer reached her all the way into the time between life and the afterlife. Together they defeated Hester: a formidable enemy that wanted to destroy lives and souls with wild abandon. Marie remembered the look on Hester’s face just before the rift opened. She had looked right at her. She looked… surprised. Yes, she was surprised, Marie thought. She didn’t expect me to be that strong. Hester had spent 200 plus years practicing her powers to crush the dreams of those she hated. Marie was a teenager. Nineteen years old and, with the power of love, had surprised old Hester Farr. Marie felt a surge of euphoria. She felt like she could do anything! She stood up and stretched and twirled around the room. It felt so good to be free from the depression and Hester forcing her to do horrible things to people.
She stopped spinning and thought for a minute. Why had Hester been able to force her to do that? She knew she could easily fight off Hester now. What had changed? The only difference she could think of was that she knew it now. She had been unaware before.
“Knowledge really is power!” Marie thought out loud. Like a baby elephant taught she didn’t have the strength to break free, she had lived chained up by her own lack of understanding. Before she had been pulled into the other world, she had no idea and bumped weakly through the universe amusing herself. But now, now her eyes were opened to what was most important and how much power is at our fingertips to protect and love.
Bill stood up after gathering all the pieces on the floor. He put them in the box and sat back on the bed. Tears pooled in his eyes. “How can I fix this? I can’t repair them. She loved them.”
Marie sat down beside him. “Dad, she loved them because you got them for her. She loved them because they helped her dream that maybe once a young lady wore them in a ballroom in a beautiful gown as a man like yourself waltzed her around in circles as they fell madly in love and nothing else mattered. It’s not just these particular slippers. It’s the dream of chivalrous love. It’s the day dream of you loving her that matters to her. You and mom are what matters. You all, and Allen.” She paused. “Allen! I have to see Allen!”
She got up and ran back into the other room. The memories of what happened while she was in the trance were surfacing in her mind at lightning speed.
Sarah Elizabeth was helping Marguerite get her strength back. They used the watch to fill the space with golden light and heal their depleted strength.
“The watch!” Marie said.
Sarah Elizabeth stepped up. “Yes, honey, my watch has touched us all through so many generations. The love and connection we feel is transferred through it and back out again stronger.”
“You’re Sarah Elizabeth? I have always admired you. You know we talk about you and how true to your heart you were.” said Marie.
Sarah laughed a tinkling laugh like little bells. “Oh my honey, I didn’t do anything worth admiring. You just have to stay true to who you are. Live with your heart. Listen to your head, but live with your heart. It’s not always easy, but there’s no other way to find true joy.”
“Sarah showed up just in time and helped snapp you out of that trance Hester had you in. You were quite the charmer a few minute ago” Tom said making a scowl of a face.
“I’m so sorry. I didn’t want to do what she had me do. She told me she would kill Allen if I didn’t follow her. She did something to me. I could feel all of her emotions and it was so overwhelming. Then I was powerless to even think.” Marie felt so bad.
“Its okay, Marie. That Hester was one mean soul.” Said J
enny. “Now my Henry is gone again. Oh, I’ll miss him.”
“What? No! Hester was using that spell to kill souls, not just bodies.” Marie said sadly. “What can we do?”
“I need to talk to Lorenzo about all this. Jenny, you come, too.” Said Tom.
“I have to see Allen. Ben will you take me?” asked Marie.
“Sure, Marie. You’re my job.” Ben said as he hugged Tom and Jenny.
“Yes, Marie, go to Allen. Follow your heart and you’ll be free. Remember that the love will save you. I need to go now,” Sarah Elizabeth said.
“I’ve heard that,” Marie said remembering the lady at the incense shop. Marie saw the watch laying on the ground and reached down and picked it up. They all stared at her. It made no sense, she should not have been able to move an object. It was clear she was caught in both worlds.
“It must because she is still a live one,” said Jenny. “Or maybe she is truly different. Put it on, Marie. Keep it with you. It will protect you if you need it again.” Marie opened the loop of chain and ducked her head through. The gold pocket watch glimmered in the light as the sun set over the ocean horizon. Bill had ambled in and was now sitting in the brown chair again. He thought he saw something twinkle in the air, but decided he must be seeing a reflection from outside. He decided he had better call Nancy and make sure she is okay after their last phone conversation.
Jenny saw Bill notice the twinkle of light. “I think the watch has crossed over into our world. It’s as though it’s invisible to Bill.” Her eyebrows furloughed as she tried to figure out how this could happen. “Marie, you are a horse of a different color. You are here and you shouldn’t be. The watch seems to float between both worlds around you. And you can throw a love zap like nobody’s business! I can’t explain how you do it, but I’m sure proud of you, baby girl!”
Marie hugged Sarah Elizabeth before she flashed away. Then she hugged Jenny and smiled. “I love you, Grandma Jenny.” She took hold of Ben’s arm and a silent flash of light carried them all away.
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