The Fine Line Book One Between Worlds Series

by Tracee Ford

  “Some of those things haven’t happened to us though,” Matt said relieved.

  “Maybe they won’t,” she replied.

  He vehemently disagreed. “I don’t think so. I think we’ve just been so busy that we haven’t noticed anything like this.”

  After contemplating the information and reading through every shred of paperwork, Matt and Robin returned home. Armed with knowledge of the house and its past offered some security and above all else, an understanding that they lacked before. They felt less apprehensive now.

  Matt dropped Robin off and then left to pick Olivia up from a friend’s house. With much to contemplate, Robin felt she needed a brief escape. She went to the study and worked on some case assignments. Behind the study wall, she heard loud knocking. Startled by the noise, she jumped and then looked toward the ruckus. She ignored it and went back to reading and typing when she felt the hairs on the back of her neck stand up. She felt cold breath all over her body and heard breathing in her ear.

  Calmly she whispered, “We both know what you are. You don’t belong here and you need to leave.”

  Her hair flew up as if she had stepped into a wind tunnel. Still staring at her computer screen, she didn’t turn around for fear of what she may see. She heard the knocking on the wall again, still feeling the freezing cold breath on her neck. “This is not your home,” she whispered. “It’s ours and you need to get out.” Her voice stayed calm and determined even though, deep down, she felt terrified.

  The books she had read about demonic entities explained that it was common for sections of the room or the entire room to become very cold or very hot. She realized these atmospheric changes had occurred frequently in the house.

  To prove to herself that she could be stronger than the darkness that surrounded her body, she switched her computer screen off and prepared to stand. As she reached for the laptop lid to pull it down, she heard deep growls behind her. It was unlike anything she had ever heard before. She froze and then looked up into the darkened screen. The image reflecting back at her took her breath.

  The dark, cloaked figure stood directly behind her. She knew the dark entity had been ushered in by the sinister deeds committed by Mr. Sims. Still she wondered if the entity resided on the land long before the home had been built. By murdering women and stealing innocence, Sims had surely empowered the demon.

  Abruptly Robin turned, but saw nothing. Striving for bravery, she stood and walked out of the room. She walked down the hallway and to the top of the stairs when she heard the kitchen door slam and a conversation between Matt and Olivia rose up the stairs. Relieved that they were home, she continued down the stairs calmly.

  She looked at Matt.

  “I need Olly,” she began.

  “What’s wrong?”

  “Just please trust me,” she said as she held out her hand toward Olivia.

  Matt nodded with approval, so Robin took her hand and led Olivia back up the stairs. They walked into the study with Matt following close behind.

  “Olivia, tell me what you see or feel,” Robin said.

  “I don’t see anything but I can feel anger,” she answered. “Someone is very mad at you, but I don’t see anything.”

  “Olly, where’s Emma?” Robin asked curiously.

  “She’s not here right now. She is afraid to come in the house. I usually see her at night or when the bad one isn’t here. She says that the bad one scares her.”

  Robin nodded. “Thank you,” she said sweetly.

  Olivia looked up. “Can I go now?”

  “Sure.”

  Robin walked downstairs behind Olivia with Matt following.

  “What’s going on?”

  Robin explained exactly what happened just a few moments before they arrived.

  “What does this have to do with Olivia?” he asked.

  “I… I… I can’t explain it right now.”

  “Robin, this is my daughter!” he said angrily.

  “You wouldn’t believe me if I told you.”

  “Try me.”

  “Olly is very extraordinary and let’s leave it at that for right now.”

  “I don’t think so,” he said forcefully. “I want to know what’s going on.”

  “Your daughter is sensitive… to… things that you and I can’t see,” she answered reluctantly.

  “Why aren't I surprised?” he asked irritably. “You and I are going to take a walk,” he said as he took her by the hand.

  “Put a jacket on,” Matt insisted as they made their way to the kitchen. Robin broke from him and put on her windbreaker. Matt still had his coat on and stopped to put his hiking boots on. He grabbed a flashlight from the kitchen cabinet.

  “Olivia, we’re going out back,” he called, “If you need us yell for us.” Matt grabbed Robin’s hand again.

  “Where are we going?” she insisted as they rounded the corner of the house.

  “In the woods; we’re going to find that cemetery.”

  They made their way across the back of the property and into the wooded area.

  “Do you remember what the map said? Where it is?” Matt asked as he looked around.

  “Um, should be over that way,” she answered as she pointed to the far left.

  The sunlight shone through the trees, so they didn’t need the flashlight after all. The wind grew colder as they continued deeper into the woods.

  Soon, they saw it; tall weathered white stones coming up from the ground and a short wrought iron fence served as a perimeter. Robin counted five stones

  Matt took his camera phone from his pocket. Robin didn’t have to ask what he planned to do. He pointed it at the stones and took several pictures. He handed the phone to Robin. She didn’t want to look at the pictures. She watched as Matt bent down in front of the grave markers. He read aloud,

  “Virginia Cleary, Martin Cleary, Leon Cleary…”

  “It’s this one,” Robin said sadly as she pointed to a stone with the carved out lamb on top. “This is hers.” She knelt.

  Matt knelt down with her and traced the engraved stone with his fingertips.

  “Our angel, Emma Elaine Cleary,’” he read.

  “How sad.”

  She looked over at Matt who too seemed saddened.

  He stood and grabbed her hand helping her to her feet. They headed back out of the woods.

  As they neared the house, a blood curdling scream cut through the air. They ran to the porch and into the house. Olivia stood in the kitchen frozen against the countertop.

  “What’s wrong?” Matt said running to her. “Are you hurt?”

  Tears poured down her face. “I saw it again!”

  “What did you see?” he said as he frantically looked around.

  “It was here again! It talked to me this time! It really scared me! It told me how much it hates Robin. It told me it hates her baby, too. It told me that it wants Robin to bleed just like the others.”

  She trembled as Matt took her into his arms cradling her. Walking to the couch, Robin felt his glare penetrate through her. She felt responsible.

  Finally calmed, Olivia fell asleep that night in the master bedroom with Cookie close by. Robin and Matt sat downstairs in the dining room.

  “I don’t know how much longer I can do this,” he said lifelessly.

  “What do you want to do? I will do whatever you say,” she assured him.

  “I want to know what is happening with my daughter, Robin. I want you to tell me. So, be honest with me now.”

  “Matt, I believe that Olivia is clairvoyant.”

  “And what exactly does that mean?”

  “It means that she can communicate with the other side.”

  “Other side? Robin, you’re going to have to speak English.”

  “She can communicate with and see the dead. She can help them.”

  Matt’s jaw dropped.

  “I don’t believe this. How could you do this to her?”

  “I didn’t do anything!
It’s her gift. She’s had it all along, but when she was sexually abused, I think that it grew stronger. She’s always been able to see Emma. Don’t you remember?”

  Robin told Matt about the things that had happened. She concluded with

  “You should be proud of her. She understands her gift and has embraced it quite well. I know she can help people as she grows older.”

  Matt ran his hands through his hair, just as he always did when he was angry or nervous.

  “This situation just continues to get even more bizarre. Just when I think we’ve reached the outer limits of insanity, something proves me wrong. Damn it Robin!”

  She reached across the table and held out her hands.

  “I am sorry you’re angry.”

  He nodded as he put his hands in hers.

  “I just feel like sometimes the things you tell me have its roots in mysticism and nothing more. It all sounds so made up. I didn’t mean to overreact. I just refuse to put the house up for sale because of all of this. If I do that, then I feel like we’ve lost.”

  “This isn’t a contest or a game. Matthew, this is a serious problem. It’s bigger than us. The only way to make it through this is with faith,” she explained.

  “I still find all of this very hard to believe.”

  “How can you deny your sight? You said to me a long ago that if you couldn’t see it or touch it, you couldn’t believe in it. Well, Matt, you’ve seen it; more than once.”

  “I don’t know. I guess I still believe logic can prevail. And for the record, I also have a real problem with what Olivia is doing. I just don’t understand it.”

  “That’s what faith is all about. You don’t have to understand anything. You just have to open your mind and your heart. Learn to have faith that the Creator will bring you through hardship. With that faith you ultimately believe that the Creator exists. That’s really all it takes. Children are very open to spirituality because they embrace things with a child’s mind; unconditional acceptance. As children grow older...as we grow older, any abilities we may have possessed are usually killed by religious doctrine or our parents telling us that ghosts aren’t real or skepticism of some sort.”

  “But I don’t believe in this ‘Creator,’ Robin, that’s the problem.”

  “Let me pose it to you like this. If evil exists, which I actually didn’t believe until now, then we know it only makes sense that good exists, right?”

  “I don’t know anything for sure anymore. I really don’t. I never thought I’d have to live through something like this.” He pulled away and took a deep breath.

  “Let me see your cell phone,” Robin continued.

  “The pictures; I’d almost forgotten.” He took his camera phone from his pocket and opened the application. He stared.

  “I don’t believe it.”

  Robin stood and walked to him. She looked at the screen over his shoulder. They were awestruck by what they saw. One of the photos filled the screen with lights and unexplainable orbs floating through the air. Another one of the photographs featured a transparent figure. Small in stature, the figure appeared to be a little girl with a red bow in her hair, but that wasn’t the unbelievable part. Behind her, several feet away, stood a large, dark, ominous figure that didn’t even touch the ground. It had no eyes, no limbs, and no other features.

  “Save these,” she suggested. “They will be very useful.”

  Chapter Fourteen

  Only Human

  The first nine weeks of school for Olivia yielded A’s and B’s. She joined the basketball team at the suggestion of her therapist. Work schedules were adjusted once again to accommodate for the activities.

  January marked Robin’s fifth month of pregnancy. The life inside of Robin’s body became more alive. The flutters of movement caused the unbreakable bond of motherhood to form.

  Robin and Matt sat on the bleachers waiting for the basketball game to start. She reached over into the bag of popcorn Matt held in his hand.

  “Craving salt, again?” he asked.

  “Always,” she answered as she grinned.

  “At least it’s not bananas and peanut butter sandwiches again.”

  Robin became restless and her tailbone started hurting. She wiggled and squirmed on the hard, wooden bleacher.

  “Back hurt?” he asked

  She nodded.

  “It’s only going to get worse.”

  “Thanks for the encouragement Dr. Gregory,” she said sarcastically.

  Unexpectedly, she felt claustrophobic so she got to her feet. She made her way down the bleachers and to the exit walking out into the cool air. To her surprise, Robin saw Audrey standing beside Matt’s truck. Robin looked twice to make sure she wasn’t hallucinating.

  Puzzled by the unexpected visit, she smiled and walked toward Audrey. The parking lot lights were bright and the beams bounced off of her dark hair.

  “Robin,” Audrey began, “can I talk to you for a moment?”

  “Sure,” she answered as she got closer. “What are you doing here?”

  “I just couldn’t stay silent any longer.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “You deserve to know the truth. You deserve to know that Matt and I are in love.”

  Robin’s face fell. A pit formed in her center. She shook her head in refusal.

  “It’s true,” Audrey continued. “It’s been going on for some time now. Surely, you have to know.”

  Logic returned to Robin momentarily. Surely what Audrey said had to be impossible. Matt’s hours had gotten better. There had been no more late nights at the hospital and no more long hours. Yet, a shred of doubt existed and from that doubt grew the seed of mistrust. In her mind’s eye she imagined Matt being seduced by Audrey and giving in. She imagined them throwing caution aside, Matt’s hand gliding across his desk, throwing everything onto the floor, and them making love in his office. It made her physically sick.

  “I kept trying to convince him that it was wrong. He kept promising me we’d tell you. Then you got pregnant,” Audrey persisted.

  “I don’t believe you,” she said. She hoped her spoken words would convince herself. She choked back her emotions.

  “I couldn’t keep it a secret anymore. I knew once I told you, you’d leave him. You’re a good, respectable woman. You want honesty from your husband, just like any wife does. It’s because of his dishonesty that I knew you wouldn’t stay with him once I told you.”

  Her eyes opened wider.

  “So, you just want me to disappear?”

  “Well, of course not. You are carrying his baby. But, think about it. Do you want to stay with someone like that? Someone like him?”

  Robin threw up her hands.

  “I need to think and you need to leave.”

  Audrey smiled.

  “I just wanted you to know. I love him. This isn’t some half-assed fling. I want to spend the rest of my life with him. And he loves me just as much as I love him.”

  “Leave!” she shouted.

  Robin’s hands trembled as she pulled her phone from her coat pocket. Quickly, she sent Wendy a text message. She demanded that Wendy pick her up in the parking lot. Confusion, betrayal, heartbreak; those feelings wrapped around her like a snake preparing to devour its prey. Blinded by raw emotion, she didn’t even tell Matt that Wendy would be picking her up. She didn’t want to see his face. She couldn’t get Audrey’s horrible words out of her head and she certainly couldn’t get the image of Audrey and Matt having sex out of her mind either.

  Wendy was there in less than 10 minutes. They drove back to Terri’s place. Tears were all Robin could offer; she couldn’t speak or explain anything.

  As she sat in the kitchen at the apartment, Wendy made tea.

  “Honey,” she began, “you have to tell me what’s going on.” She paused. “Damn it, tell me what is going on!”

  Robin continued crying. Each time she tried to speak, the tears overpowered her body making it impossible for her
to talk. Finally, however, she told Wendy everything Audrey said.

  Wendy merely shook her head.

  “I don’t believe one word of it. Not Matt.”

  Robin shrugged. The silence broke when Robin’s cell phone rang. She refused to answer it.

  It wasn’t long before Wendy’s cell phone rang. She answered it, stood, and walked out of the room leaving Robin alone with her insecurities.

  After hours of talking, wondering, and crying, Robin finally fell asleep on the couch.

  ****

  The room was dark. A single light shone on a gentleman sitting behind a small, shiny metal table. His back faced her. The man looked familiar even if she couldn’t see his face, but something drew Robin closer. She felt obsessed with discovering the man’s identity. Slowly, she walked to him.

  She couldn’t ignore the vastness of the black room. It suffocated her. Closer and closer she came to the man. Walking to the front of the table, she saw his unmistakable and familiar features; Matt. His complexion gray, but the glimmer in his eyes made her fall in love with him all over again. From behind him, out of the darkness, came pale, bony hands. The long fingers twisted into his hair. His eyes closed as the terrifying fingers penetrated his skull. His eyes quickly opened and then everything went black. Then a door appeared. It looked so far away.

  There was light coming out from around the door. She walked to it craving the light. Without warning, the door flung open. The wandering woman from the field near Pikeview Manor revealed herself. The house stood behind the woman.

  “He is faithful,” the woman began. “Doubt will take what belongs to you. She’s a liar!” she shouted.

  In an instant, scenes of life flashed before Robin on a movie screen. All of the images contained Matt and Audrey. Quietly, Robin observed Audrey’s gestures and demeanor. She displayed treachery. Robin felt a hand on her should and she turned. The woman, behind her now, her black hair whirling about wildly, spoke yet again.