Curious, Elizabeth stepped further into the dimly lit room, her eyes taking in the older woman, her face lined with deep wrinkles and loose skin that hung in ripples of flesh. Her milky white eyes appeared to look through Elizabeth and a a silky red bandanna wrapped around her head holding back grey hair that peaked out slightly. Hesitant, Elizabeth cleared her throat several times, “I’m sorry to disturb you but I was wondering if it could be possible to borrow your phone. I’ll pay for the call if it’s a problem.”
“It’s no problem my child, but I don’t believe that is the true reason you were sent to me.”
The comment struck a nerve in Elizabeth, her hesitation gone, now frustrated with all that had just happened she gritted her teeth as she replied, “I wasn’t sent. I’ve been separated from my friend and I just wish to get back to my hotel.”
The old woman, calm, while she replied, “I hear you my child. I also hear the fear and frustration in your voice. So, please, sit down. Let me help. Nothing that is here can harm you. Instead, I can give you answers to the questions you seek.”
The thought of explaining further exhausted Elizabeth, she finally just shook her head in defeat as she sat down heavily on the red velvet chair, sinking into the soft cushion watching as shadows flicked on the walls from several candles that burned throughout the room giving it an odd sense of warmth.
“So how long have you been doing this?”
“Doing what my child?”
“Fortune telling. Are you not a fortune teller?”
The old gypsy laughed, “Fortune teller. What is this name one gives another. If telling another that which they do not know is a fortune teller, then that is what I am. A teller of secrets, a teller of truths, a teller of one’s destiny.”
Elizabeth was surprised when the gypsy’s words filled her with a desperate need as she leaned forward, her voice dropping to a whisper as if an unseen force was in the room that could stop her from asking questions of her unknown past which were buried deep in her unconscious mind. Her voice strained while tears gathered in her throat from the unbridled urgency to know the answers. An unfathomable trust towards this stranger propelled her forward into this phantom environment.
The gypsy’s hands were soft and comforting when she reached across the table to reassure Elizabeth that she could do what was asked, she could and would help Elizabeth find that which was lost. The jewels on her fingers flickered in the candlelight which created a spellbinding shimmer. Elizabeth found herself removed from reality while she watched the translucent light reflect off the rings and then unable to fully comprehend what was in front of her as the glass globe swirled with a grayish smoke that cleared slowly to images flickering in and out of view like a dying florescent bulb. The gypsy’s voice became a distant murmur while Elizabeth struggled to look up and away from the globe, finding herself slip into a confused state of alter reality, before, finally looking up into the gypsy’s intense milky white eyes, which appeared to be looking within her.
Frowning, Elizabeth shook her head in an attempt to shake away the other worldly feeling, her heart beating erratically as she finds herself unable to look away from the hypnotic haze. Her stomach flipped in apprehension when she sensed the gypsy stripping away her physical essence and instead speaking to her soul, her words sad as they forewarned Elizabeth that with the answers she sought came a price that must be paid. Still confused, Elizabeth nodded her head in a hesitant confirmation, while a sensation of standing on the edge of cliff about to step into a black abyss overcame her. She knew somehow that she had no way of turning back from what was, that her life could never be the same and what she was about to learn would change the very fiber of who she was.
The old woman nodded, as if she saw Elizabeth affirmation, her voice a hum while her fingertips skimmed the glass globe in front of them. “I see secrets-so many secrets, shrouded in fear and love… created out of desperation, so a life lost, could be found again.”
Elizabeth’s breath caught in her throat when the gypsy’s eyes looked up once more her voice full of sadness. “This deception was not designed to harm you but to protect you as it filled a deep void of sorrow. ”
At that moment, Elizabeth sensed rather than felt an electrical surge fill the room while she watched without feeling, her mind absorbed the knowledge of the gypsy’s words which continued without pause, “I also see another who loved you deeply taken from you violently. The evil that took her from you is near.”
Then, as if a switch went on, the gypsy’s milky white eyes seemed to focus on Elizabeth intensely, her words now filled with a desperation, as she leaned forward taking Elizabeth’s fingers within her own, fingers which earlier had been soft and gentle now were cold, firm, and bony which gave Elizabeth the sensation that a skeleton now gripped her hands. Elizabeth felt danger now just beneath the surface of the gypsy’s words, which broke her from the trance she had been in, and while fear crept back into her heart, an urge to break from the gypsy’s grip filled her. “He has found you once more. You will no longer be safe. Events that are-yet to happen will bring you closer to his evil when all that your mind has hidden will be revealed.”
The gypsy’s words were terrifying, yet Elizabeth could not find the strength to break free as she found herself once more pulled into the web of words the gypsy spun around her, which became infused with questions that had plagued her for the last nine years, the answers kept safe by her subconscious that Elizabeth was only able to get hints of in her nightmares.Elizabeth was only mildly surprised when she heard her voice, a soft shrill, ask the questions she had always left unsaid, “What of the weeping willow?...who am I?” The words forced through the lump in her throat. “Who is the man in my dream, in the street, on the yacht? I feel they are the same. Please you must tell me.” Elizabeth pleaded as her voice rose in panic.
The gypsy waved a hand in front of Elizabeth to stop her barrage of questions. “There are some things that I cannot tell. I can only show you the path that can lead you to the truth.”
“The truth?!” Elizabeth laughed sarcastically “that is what I cannot find. It is what eludes me and what my mother hides from me.”
“No one person can tell you the entire truth. Only you can find all the answers.”
“But how?”
“By being open to all that may seem impossible. A great lie has been told you. This lie has consumed and shielded you from the evil. But in doing so, has hid a life taken. You have seen glimpses of this in your dreams.”
Frustrated with all the answers hidden in riddles, Elizabeth leaned forward, “Stop, please, stop with the riddles. I’m no good with riddles. What can you tell me that I can understand? Tell me, who the hell that man was; the man in the crowd, whose voice I’ve heard many times in my dreams?” Her voice shook with uncontrollable anger and fear, “Then tell me; Why? Why do I feel like I have been here when I have been told I haven’t?”
“You have the answers you seek. When you are ready your mind’s eye will give you the answers.”
Elizabeth fell forward onto the table, which was cool against her cheek. “No, no. Don’t you understand? My memory is lost, I cannot remember. But, I need to know. Can’t you understand I need to know?” her voice barely above a whisper, spoken to no one yet also to anyone that would listen.
“I do understand.” The woman said, her voice calm and soothing. “And your wish shall be granted, and all you have forgotten, will be returned.” But upon saying the words the gypsy wrinkled face clouded in sadness once more when she shook her head. “But, also understand that with that wish, comes a price.”
“What kind of price?”
“I can not tell you that.” The gypsy said with a sad shake of her head. “Only that your wish will be granted soon.”
“How soon?”
“You will meet a man who will help you when all that you lost is found. When the past meets the present. He is
a man who has lived a life in shadows, deception is his way of life.”
“What does he look like? How will I know this man?”
“Your soul will know.”
“What?” Elizabeth asked in confusion and shock. Then the irony of the moment filled her when she faced her own gullibility lifting her hand in surrender, “Your soul will know. That’s just great. I’m sorry lady or whoever you are, but if you are talking about reincarnation? Well...I can’t believe I’m sitting here listening to this garbage.” Elizabeth said in disgust as she moved to stand. “You really must think I’m desperate to believe...”
Elizabeth’s movement paused when the old woman’s gnarled aged spotted hands gripped her arm. “I’m sorry my child. I did not mean to distress you. But I say what I know and say what I see.”
Frustrated, Elizabeth shook off the gypsy’s hand as she stood up, “Well say what you say or know... or whatever, with some other sucker because I’m going to go find myself a cab and get back to my hotel. Besides, my mother was right about this place...”
The old woman brushed aside Elizabeth words. “Sit my child, we must finish that which has been started.”
At that moment the globe in front of them seemed to come alive with a fast and furious swirling grayish mist, which then cleared once more. Confused, Elizabeth leaned forward in an attempt to comprehend the parlor trick while an image started to show itself within the glass.
Elizabeth’s heart, a beat within her throat, while she watched in disbelief and suspense as her dream came alive in front of her. A pond glistened in the distance as if a thousand diamonds were scattered across its surface. Then she saw herself sitting on a wooden swing hung by ropes, beneath a weeping willow tree, its long tentacle branches blew gently around her. A laughing child sat in her lap, facing her, while they swung high within the branches, the child’s arms and legs wrapped securely around her as the sunlight broke through around them.
A disconnect filled Elizabeth when she lifted a hand to her lips where the child’s soft curls seemed to tickle her lips. A small laugh escaped her while she attempted to comprehend the contentment she felt at that moment, her fear gone once more as she felt the overwhelming love towards the child in her arms. Not wanting to look away, afraid if she did the vision would disappear. It was such a pleasant moment.
But like the nightmares that had plagued Elizabeth for so many years, the pleasant vision had to end, a chill entered the room. Elizabeth lifted her hands in an attempt to rub the cold from her arms while she looked around for the source, startled when she saw the gypsy frozen in place.
Elizabeth’s heart felt heavy, sensing an evil entered the room; the sun gone from the globe and replaced by a dark gloom. The swing now empty. A woman in white weeping under the weeping willow tree, dirt under her nails, blood dripping from her hair. Sadness and fear overcame Elizabeth, incomprehensible when an immaculately dressed man stood in the shadows. The only visible part on his face a pair of golden yellow eyes that appear too stare into her soul.
Then just as suddenly, the room she sat in seemed to evaporate around her, finding herself now more than an observer but an active participant in the vision she had seen in the globe; her stomach dropped along with the swing. The weeping willow enveloped her, her mind unable to escape the nightmare as it took her along its hallucinating roller-coaster ride. Her mind was attempting, but unable to fully comprehend, what was happening. An old run down Victorian style home appeared before her, the white paint aged and peeling. Her eyes were drawn to the widows’ peak where a small oval window sat. It’s the attic, a make believe world full of treasures to be discovered, an escape from a life on the run. “How did she know it was a life on the run?” Elizabeth was reeling from her random thoughts and the visions assaulting her confused mind.
Then a voice in the distance, barely audible, called her name, yet not her name, which created an urgency to turn away from the vision. At the same time, another voice told her to stay, find the truth, to not turn away. Just as darkness overcame the light, the monster from her dreams just beyond the fringe of her vision, crept closer. Her legs leaden and unable to move as the shadows crept closer to her, enclosing her in their blackened nightmare.
“Fight!” Elizabeth heard clearly above the panic beat of her heart.
Shaking her head negatively, she turned away from the blackness, “No, no I’m not ready. Don’t make me see. I’m not ready to see.” A weeping sounded in the background, “I’m sorry, I thought I was ready, but I’m not...not like this” The monster ever closer, “Please, please, please....”
Then the moment gone as quickly as it had come, Elizabeth found her body slouched across the gypsy’s table, her cheeks wet. She slowly opened her eyes to the darkened room, her tongue darted out to taste the salty moisture of her tears. Confused, she lifted her body to look around candlelight flickering off the walls of the murky room, the globe in front of her now void and clear of all visions.
Not being able to understand what had just happened to her, Elizabeth jerked away from the table her body falling backwards as she reached out to brace herself against the fall. Her chair crashed against the floor when she quickly rolled to her feet. Unable to look away or move away from the gypsy, whose milky eyes now looked beyond her, Elizabeth legs were stiff and numb, as she whispered, “what have you done to me?”
“I have shown you that which only the blackness of night has shown you, I have shown you the path to the truth.”
“What if I don’t want to take the path?”
The gypsy’s eyes once more focused eerily on Elizabeth when she answered without expression, “You cannot escape that which will be.”
Shaking her head against the words, Elizabeth felt madness settle down around her, while she backed out and away from the gypsy and into the street now void of people. Where she was going at this point meant nothing, the only thing that mattered was that she was away from the gypsy and visions that meant everything and nothing. She ran until her breath came out in sharp painful gasps, her body fell against the cold brick wall as she sank onto her haunches, sobs racked her body, while her heart burst with pain.
A knowledge of understanding overtook her as she saw that which she did not want to see, knew what the old gypsy had said was true, she herself had seen such a premonition, had seen it and dismissed it from her mind. But now, rocking slowly in this dark damp alleyway, Elizabeth knew she could no longer ignore her past. It was inevitable, the past had found her once more and no amount of power could turn it back.
Chapter 8
When Elizabeth was finally able to get her emotions back under control, she stepped cautiously back out onto the deserted street, exhaling her breath slowly in an attempt to keep calm and not panic with the situation she was in. Disoriented and needing to find a phone, she turned in the direction she thought she had come, everything looking unfamiliar. Irritated at her directional challenged personality, then irritated further when her mother’s words rang in her ears, “Something bad will happen to you, I feel it in my bones, if you take this trip.” She had ignored her mother”s fears then, but now she was wondering if her mother was right after all, anxious while peering into the dark corners of the ally way.
Elizabeth found herself wishing she had not let the mystery and hypnotic atmosphere of the gypsy shop pull her in, but instead been firm and more insistent on a phone. Upset that she had left her cell in the hotel room, even though it didn’t get very good reception here, but she may have found a spot in her wonderings where it could have worked. But, then again, she had never planned on being separated from Aurora and wandering aimlessly in the streets of New Orleans either. Determined, she quickened her steps; which then quickly started to wane with every turn she made and with no payphone in sight, stressed that with all the new technology she would not be able to find a working payphone. To add to her stress, Elizabeth began wondering how she was going to explain th
is to Aurora without sounding like she had gone crazy. Aurora most likely is pissed at her right now for disappearing, having made a pact with her just before they had left on their trip that they wouldn’t leave without letting the other person know where they were going. Thinking at the time it was for her benefit since Aurora had no problem wandering off without letting Elizabeth know where she went; having done it at college parties they had gone to on more than one occasion. Then again, maybe Aurora wasn’t worried about her, having grown up with hippie parents who had the free spirit mentality and instilled it into Aurora at a young age. Oh, boy. She could just hear it now.
Different explanations played through Elizabeth’s mind, yet all of them sounded a bit far fetched even to her. It might just be easier to tell Aurora that she met a guy and went off to have crazy, wild sex with him. Elizabeth shook her head with the implausible explanation, something she could never picture herself doing. Aurora would find it crazy also.
Oh my god, she had to stop thinking like this. She had to find that phone. Was there no phones left for a person to use, if they didn’t have a cell?
Elizabeth stopped to get her bearings, and too refocus on the problem at hand; her eyes wandered the street absently wondering if perhaps she might be going a bit mad. She was prone for it, after all, with her inability to remember the first twelve years of her life. Even though she was told that amnesia does happen and it doesn’t mean you’re crazy. Good lord, she had to stop berating herself it was not helping the situation. Her thoughts paused when she spotted a bar sign ahead. Knowing that they most likely would have a phone, she rushed her steps to almost a run. The sign became a beacon of hope that she would get out of this situation.
Secrets of the Weeping Willow Page 5