Loving You (Remembrance Series, Book 2)

by Cynthia P. O'Neill

  His suit still hanging in the closet, so I knocked on the bathroom door. “Did you plan to dress in the bathroom? Because you left your clothes out here.

  I heard him mumble under his breath. “Do you mind handing it to me, along with my dark socks?”

  I grabbed the suit from its protective zippered bag, realizing that he intended to wear the same suit and tie that he wore the night of our first date. I shook my head realizing this was just another example of how much we thought alike. I was definitely impressed with his choice, since he had no clue what dress I had packed. He cracked the door and stuck his hand out so I could slip him his outfit.

  We still had about thirty mintues before meeting Anderson, so I decided to open up the laptop Gregory had brought with us and look through my purse to find the USB stick I had brought along just in case. I wanted to quickly write down my thoughts for today.

  August 24, 20 - -

  It has been a while since my last journal entry and A LOT has happened! The History Center proved to be a wealth of information, bringing back several memories, including our full names. We were correct in that our middle names were the same throughout our history, together.. It appears that our first names change; but we are always given the same middle name and our last names always begin with a “C” and a “W”. I don’t know how many lives we’ve had throughout the years, but hopefully this will speed up our search on the names in the future.

  I took a leave of absence from work, on doctor’s orders. The stress from Pamela being let go, her followers calling me a “traitor”, the dreams of our Colonial selves, Gregory’s ex accosting me in the parking lot of the History Center, my mother in-law-to-be going crazy with wedding plans and my soon to be sister in-law demanding I give over the ring that Grandpa gave Gregory for me, was just too much to deal with.

  On the upside, we learned that the ring was destined to be mine. Grandpa told us the story on how he came to purchase the ring and it looks like Ray was the shopkeeper who sold it to him. I somehow feel that it is a means of protection and is keeping me safe, for now.

  Gregory swept me away to his parents’ condo in Daytona Beach to relax and unwind for a few days. Grandpa joined us several days later and we all headed up to Philadelphia. He had Gregory work on a PowerPoint presentation for the meeting with another company to acquire some form of technology. Several members of his acquisition team flew with us. I hope Grandpa has good news tonight and that his business meeting was a success.

  We’ve discovered a few things about our past life, here and have had wonderful memories of interacting with the likes of Benjamin Franklin and George Washington, in the past. Douglas’ cousin, Barbara, had some enlightening information, as did my aunt, Destiny.

  One of the most surprising turn of events is that we’re staying in Gregory’s family’s old house. He didn’t recognize the place when he made reservations, because it is called a different name, with a new owner. However, when we were taken to our room, he looked puzzled and realized it was his old room, with the same furniture he’d had in the past–including a desk with a hidden compartment where we found Hannah’s love letters to Aaron.

  During lunch today, I found a box for sale that looked familiar. I believe the box to be mine, or rather Hannah’s. I can’t find an opening to it, yet, but am determined to look at it later, tonight. Aunt Destiny had a similar box, smaller in size, that was also hard to open until Gregory remembered making the box for the earrings Aaron gave Hannah. He was able to pinpoint the right pressure points and release levers in order to get the lid to release, revealing the earrings still inside—in remarkable condition.

  Anderson took us along the Delaware River on the way back to our Bed and Breakfast. We both recognized the area from our dreams and asked him to stop. As soon as we found the wooden posts that had been used to position chairs over the river’s edge, we knew it was where our lives had obviously ended.

  Ray suddenly appeared and swept us back to that time, where we watched the scene from our dreams played out in its entirety. To say that what happened was as bad as the train wreck, is an euphemism. This was a far worse fate for anyone to have to endure: intentional drowning, trying to coerce a confession from innocents.

  The witch had somehow managed to transform her image, along with ours, while placing the colonists under a spell of command with words and demon spirits. I don’t know that I can write any more about it. All I can say is that I’m glad that nightmare is over.

  I do want to make note that we need to make inquiries into the amulet that the witch wears and how possession, through her dark spirited minions, works. I noticed that only certain colonists were able to be possessed, while others had to be placed under a spell. The amulet seems to glow whenever the witch is transforming into a new form; but is it also her source of power? If we destroyed it, would she no longer exist?

  I need to wrap this up. I hear Gregory finishing in the bathroom. We are meeting up with Grandpa for dinner, tonight, and then we will meet up with him and his associates in the morning to fly back home. In one respect, I’ll be happy to be heading home. In another, I’m not excited about going back to wedding planning and work. Not that I don’t want any of it to happen I just wish things could be simpler and normal again, both at work and life.

  I’ll try to post again, soon. If our fated mission should fail to defeat the darkness, then I want to give our next lives the best hope of fighting the witch with as much knowledge as I can.

  I heard the door open, right as I was powering down his laptop. “What are you doing, Jordan?” He walked over toward the desk I was sitting at.

  “I haven’t posted a journal entry in a while and decided I had the time to do a quick update.” I showed him the special USB stick Ray had given me.

  I was just about to get up, when I recalled Ray’s words. “Could you open up the secret compartment on your desk, again? Ray somehow entered my mind while I was finishing up in the bathroom and suggested we hide this and the boxes we received inside the desk, while we’re gone.”

  Gregory’s eyebrows arched as if in disbelief of my words. “Are you sure?”

  “Very.”

  He sat down at the desk, going through the motions to open the secret compartment. He held both boxes and realized that only the smallest one would fit inside the hidden area with the love letters. He placed the box inside and gently closed the door, resetting all the tricks to opening the compartment. He looked through the desk and discovered a false bottom in one of the drawers and placed the box I bought inside it. I was determined to figure how to open it after dinner.

  Gregory stood from the chair and grabbed hold of my hand. “Are you ready to go meet Anderson and have dinner with Grandpa?”

  “I welcome a normal evening and a night out on the town. But, no matter where we are, wherever you are is my favorite place to be.”

  He leaned down, giving me kisses up my neck to just below my earlobe. “I couldn’t have said it better, if I tried. You are the only place I want to be. I love you to no end.”

  I looked up into his eyes, as he pulled back from me. “I love you that much, too.”

  We met Anderson by the front door and headed toward the Four Seasons. The hotel was a sight to behold, filled to the brim with luxury. I felt out of my element, but Gregory comforted me. “It’s just a restaurant, like any other; and you know how down to earth my Grandfather is. Relax, sweetheart and just enjoy the night.”

  We told the hostess we were here to meet Mr. Worthington. She led us to his table and Grandpa stood when we were within a few feet, reaching out to embrace each of us.

  “How have you been enjoying Philadelphia, Jordan?” He asked.

  “I love it, Grandpa. We’ve had amazing food and met some wonderful relatives of ours. I just wish your daughter wasn’t away on business so we could have met her.”

  He nodded. “It would’ve been nice to see Gloria, but she’s traveling through Europe for her work. Although, you may get a cha
nce to meet her in a few weeks. She’ll be passing through Orlando to spend a couple of days with her son, Damien.”

  Grandpa laughed for a moment, leaving me puzzled. “My daughter is a very pleasant person, but her son, let’s just say he’s another story; the black sheep of the family. Gregory here has no problem wanting to work his way up through the company. But, Damien wanted a Vice Presidency right out of college; even demanded it. When I refused, he went to work for one of our competitors and threatened to destroy our company one day.” He shook his head in disgust, before motioning for us to sit.

  We took our seats as Grandpa quickly changed the subject and enlightened Gregory on the meeting. “The group was reluctant to allow us to purchase their technologies and we thought we would be shot down, since Damien’s workplace, Vector Electronics, is also vying for the deal. But, the presentation you put together, showing them how their profit margin would increase with our help, pushed them to sign with us. It will be official come Monday morning. So, tonight we celebrate! Order anything on the menu, it’s my treat.”

  The meal was divine and our topics of conversation ranged from work to wedding details. Grandpa still showed a distaste for the way Gwen was bothering me and promised to talk to his grandson and set things straight. “Don’t put too much into what Gwen says, Jordon. She’s a lot of bark, but no bite, really. However, she does like to ‘stir the pot’ any chance she gets. For some reason, the girl thrives on chaos.” He reached over and squeezed my hand in reassurance.

  I wish I could feel so reassured about Gwen, but something about her spiteful tone was off and somewhat familiar. I shook my head, dispelling the thought.

  Several hours passed before we said goodnight to Grandpa and promised to meet him at the airport in the morning. Anderson seemed to know when we were leaving and had pulled up with the door open for us.

  When we arrived back at the Inn, we told him of our plans and about needing to be picked up by 10 in the morning. “Thank you, Anderson, for all you have done and helped us with. Goodnight.”

  I turned around and glanced up at the window of our room and saw a red haze surrounding it. “I think we have trouble in our room, Gregory. There’s an evil aura eminating from it.”

  We rushed inside and took the stairs as quietly as we could, but with purpose. The door was locked and we used our key to get inside and flipped on the overhead light. The illumination resulted in a horrific howling sound that pained my ears to the point I had to cover them. Gregory pulled me behind him, to protect me from whatever was inside.

  As our eyes adjusted, we saw two floating shadows, most likely servants of the witch, draw back into whatever shadows they could find within the room. In the past, whenever we turned on a light, the shadows would abate. Like the glow of our former selves that appeared at the river, the shadows were driven into the dark corners. As quickly as we could, we began to turn on all the lights and aim them toward every dark corner, until the room was fully lit and the shadows dropped whatever they were holding into a small fire that they must have set in the fireplace, and left the room post haste.

  I sent up a mental request to Ray. Please hear our plea and place a band of security around the room we are staying in. We found two of the witch’s shadows in our room, searching through our things. In my mind I heard I faint response of, It will be done.

  I closed the door, quickly locking it and hoping that Ray and his angel friends would keep them at arms length throughout the night.

  Gregory went to the desk and went through the steps of unlocking it to check for the items that were hidden internally. The love letters from Hannah were still there, along with the box containing the earrings. When he reached for the drawer with the false bottom, he realized that had been compromised and the box was missing.

  At the same time, I went to the fireplace to see what they had thrown in. As he told me about the box, I saw it sitting within the flames. I yelled for Gregory and he rushed over, but, upon further inspection, the box was not burning. He grabbed one of the fireplace tools, the one that looked like a large pair of barbecue tongs, and picked it out of the fire and placed it on the brick area in front of the hearth to let it cool.

  We went ahead and took turns watching the box, as the other got ready for bed. By the time we were ready to turn in for the night, the temperature of the box was cool to the touch. I wanted to know what was so important that the shadows had tried to take it. Gregory picked up the box and sat it down beside me in bed. His brows furrowed and he kept turning the box over in his hands. “I think I, or rather Aaron, made this box for Hannah. If I recall correctly, I went into town looking for some sort of protective finish to put on this box and the guy who sold it to me…” he paused for a moment, before sucking in a deep breath, as if in shock. “Oh my God, Ray sold me some strange oil that I’d never heard of. Natura oil! He told me it would keep the box protected from all of the elements, including time. I thought it a strange description at the time, but purchased it and put it all over the interior and exterior of the box, liberally. That must be why it didn’t burn. He knew!”

  I watched as he turned the box over in his hands and moved the bottom corner of one of the edges that looked to be affixed, out of position. I remembered the next move and reached over to the opposite corner and moved the piece on the top edge. He followed with a hidden button on the bottom of the box that looked like it had been branded into the wood and the box unsealed. He removed the top and we looked inside.

  “These are my letters to you. You had mentioned wanting a special place to keep them so they would be private, only to you; so I made you this box. I asked my father’s wood crafter to show me how to make a box that required a combination to open.”

  I reached inside and held the letters for the first time in centuries. My mind darted back to Hannah reading each letter, a proclomation of love and affection from her Aaron. I sifted through them, wanting to treasure each one, until I stumbled upon the one I had been fearing would be present.

  I quickly handed the suspect letter to Gregory and he confirmed my fears, “We were definitely tricked to going to the river. You received a letter like mine. This is definitely not my handwriting, but a good likeness of it.”

  The letter read much the same as the one Aaron had received:

  When he handed it back to me to put in the pile, it felt warm and I focused on it more closely and began to see an aura of red surrounding it. I was starting to realize that black auras were given off by the witch. But red seemed to signal the dark spirits and a person being under a spell or possession.

  I pulled out another letter that felt like hot coals heaped upon my skin. I dropped it to the floor and watched as a black aura surrounded it. Gregory opened it and held it out for me to read:

  Gregory walked back over to the desk and grabbed his letters and the earring box, before sealing it back up. He placed them and the earrings inside the larger box, with the letters from Aaron and closed it, placing it on the nightstand beside him.

  “We should probably get some sleep. It is approaching midnight and we have to fly out in the morning. Know that I’ll watch over you; however, I only want to dream about wonderful things like our wedding and how we will finally make it to the alter,” he insisted.

  I couldn’t argue with his line of thinking. It had been a very trying day and I was more than ready to sleep and dream of an amazing future with him as my husband. “You won’t have any objections from me. I like the sound of your dreams.”

  We finally laid down, leaving a couple of lights on for safety’s sake and peace of mind. I drifted quickly off to sleep, wrapped in the comfort of his arms and found myself on the edge of a dreamful plane, with him by my side.

  Gregory gave me wonderful visions of taking our vows, dancing our first dance as husband and wife and, to my surprise, he envisioned me with a swollen belly, with his hands gently caressing over it as we looked into our newly decorated nursery. I kept trying to block that idea, not wanting to thi
nk too far ahead just to have the rug pulled out from under us. But, I couldn’t help imagining our wedding day and focused on steering him back to that, where we enjoyed the rest of our slumber and dreams.

  Gregory and I brought our bags down with us to breakfast and had started to check out when Anderson arrived to collect everything for us. While I enjoyed the food and meeting new relatives, I was anxious for our journey back to Daytona Beach and looking forward to seeing my mother again, soon.

  I was quiet on the ride over to the airport, trying to analyze everything and how I felt about it. I could tell Gregory was concerned because he was hovering. If he wasn’t asking how I was doing, he had his arms wrapped around me and had me leaning up against his chest. I imagined he was worried that I might isolate myself by pulling away from him again, like I did when we returned home from Virginia.

  My nerves were still a bit shot from the events of the previous day, but, I wasn’t planning on distancing myself this time. I saw where my attempt to alter our path had been a mistake. Having my life flash before my eyes and being told by Ray that I was “technically” supposed to die in the auto accident, was enough to keep me close to Gregory. I just prayed that we were the destined ones the prophecy spoke of.

  His brow furrowed with confusion when I smirked aloud. “Something wrong?” I just shook my head and waved off his concern.

  Who could have imagined that we would be given an advertisement about a unique store where I would come across Aaron’s love letters to Hannah, contained within a hard to open, difficult to burn box? I was beginning to wonder if the person who sold it to me, Karma, was exactly that, destiny on my part, or a person of divine guidance. Everything seemed so coincidental, as though it were all lined up for us to see and experience. But, how could that be, when Ray said that he couldn’t show us everything, only help keep us on our destined path and make sure we didn’t stray?