I have to speak to Mercy about this as soon as possible because I have a question for her. Since I’ve been regressed, can I start slipping back into regressive states on my own? And if that is the case, how do I stop it?
I heard Aunt Amy’s voice from downstairs, “Tess, I’ve been calling you. We’re leaving for school in thirty-five minutes.”
I’m not a big fan of school but I have to admit that I’m glad to be going there today. After enduring the Tri Town Fair, the Tri Town memorial and ‘the dunking vision’, I want to immerse myself in anything that’s as boring and routine as school. In fact, I crave the mind numbing routine of school!
“Tess, don’t forget your neck brace,” yelled Aunt Amy.
I DID forget. That does it. Today is Total Slob Day, the whole deal, the slippers, sweatpants and t-shirt. At least they’re all clean. I’ll look terrible with that thing around my neck so I may as well be comfortable.
I took a five minute shower, threw everything on and ran downstairs.
As I walked into the kitchen I heard a gasp. I turned around to see Annie gaping at me. “What? What’s wrong?” I felt around my head. “Is there a bug in my hair or something?”
“I can’t believe it, after everything we’ve done for you! You’ve reverted back to your old self already. It’s only been a couple of weeks. Did you even comb your hair?”
I asserted, “As a matter of fact I DID comb my hair.” Well, technically, I did the finger comb but what’s the difference?
Eve chimed in, “She’s just mad cause she lost the bet.”
“What bet?” I asked, frowning.
Eve smirked, “I bet that you’d revert to your old self within two weeks. Annie said it would take a month. You owe me ten dollars, Annie.”
“What?” I screeched.
Aunt Amy came into the kitchen and frowned. “What’re you girls arguing about? By the way, where’s your neck brace, Tess?”
“Aunt Amy, I was thinking that since I don’t have gym today I shouldn’t have to wear it.”
“Tess, march right back upstairs and get that brace. You heard the doctor say that you have to wear it for a full week. Your neck is a rather vulnerable area you know!” Auntie replied, sounding exasperated.
“OK, OK . . . . .”
When I first got to school students stared at my brace, but not for long. There was only so much to see. Between the braces, casts and crutches, there were a number of other students who had injuries on display. Our school was actually rather fortunate. No one died from here, unlike the surrounding high schools.
The principal came on the loud speaker and read the names of the four high school students who did die at the Tri Town Fair. They were from the other two Tri Town schools. The principal talked about the personal stories of each of the students.
As the principal continued to explain that the school board was assessing whether to cancel the upcoming Halloween dance, I could feel a prickling sensation at the back of my neck. I reached under the neck brace and rubbed it, trying to sooth it. It was irritating. After a while, it dawned on me that someone may have been trying to communicate with me. I turned around. No students were looking at me, only the Old Hag English teacher. I’m always forgetting her name, probably because I’ve never liked her. She has a unpleasant aura. It’s a foggy, gloomy gray. I sense a boring, shallow, follower type.
I turned back to the front and closed my eyes for a minute. I started to ruminate about Ian. I wondered what he saw yesterday when he looked out the window. Hopefully, it was too dark, but I’ll find out soon enough. The principal was still droning on about the tragedy and the victims at the fair. I’m certainly sympathetic but I try not to contemplate death because it brings up thoughts of my mom. That’s not helpful right now. I quickly wiped my eyes with the back of my sleeve. Other students in were class openly crying.
The prickling sensation returned with a vengeance. What’s going on? It was like someone was scratching the back of my neck with their nails. I looked around again. I only saw Old Hag English teacher. I turned back to the front.
Then, I heard in my head, “It’s YOU. Go away from here! You are an unwanted incarnate.”
I turned around and to see the Old Hag staring at me with absolute hatred in her eyes. Oh, my, God. It IS her! Old Hag English teacher is a diabole, a bad witch, and she is sending her evil threatening thoughts directly to ME!
“We don’t want you here. Why didn’t you die with them?” Her thoughts shriek in my head. I wish I could shut them out. I felt like putting my hands over my ears, but that would’ve been pointless.
Suddenly I realized that the loudspeaker was no longer on. It was so silent you could hear a pin drop. I looked around. The entire class was watching me and Old Hag English teacher. They knew something was up.
What was that? I could hear, hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm. Where was that coming from? I looked around. It was the girl in the corner. I could tell by her lips that she was humming. She flashed me a grin. I remembered that her name was Abby and she showed up in school about a week ago. I hadn’t taken much notice of her because she was the quiet, unassuming type. She continued humming with a smile on her face. Students were staring at her but seemed very unconcerned. Couldn’t they hear her? They appeared to be getting tired, rubbing their eyes and putting their heads down on their desks. What now? Was she the pied piper?
Old Hag English teacher screamed, “Stop your singing! Stop it NOW!!”
A male voice boomed out from the back of the room, “NO! She will not halt her song. There’s no sense involving the innocent among us.”
Who was that? I turned in the other direction to see Abe standing up, pointing at Old Hag. Abe was Abby’s twin brother. I remember when they first showed up in class one day .last week. It was striking because Abe was the gentle giant and Abby was the meek mouse. There was such a contrast in size, but their personalities were closely aligned.
Old Hag English teacher yelled, “How dare you! You go away from here. Get out of my room and leave this place.”
Abby’s humming increased in volume. By this time, every student had their head on their desks with their eyes closed, fast asleep.
Abe stated loudly as he pointed at Old Hag, “May you be punished for your action against the sacred one. Malevolence is practiced by those who profess goodness but are innately evil. Stop your blasphemy for it spreads false witness.”
Old Hag English teacher ran across the room toward me, her arms upraised in fists. “You do not command me. You will face the full wrath of our reckoning.” As she came at me waving her skinny arms, she looked really nuts so I dove under my desk.
Abe and Abby quickly made their way over to Old Hag and grabbed both of her arms. Abby’s singing suddenly increased in pitch. I wanted to block my ears. It was painful. She sang as they simply held Old Hag who continued to struggle for a few minutes. Suddenly, she stopped moving and her head dropped. Abe felt her pulse. “Her heart is erratic but it is still beating. I believe she suffered a mild heart attack. Tess, call the office and let them know that she needs help. I’ll put her in her chair. Then we must sit down.” He nodded to Abby. “At that time your song must come to an end.”
Within ten minutes, the students were bleary eyed but sitting up. Old Hag English teacher was being carried off in a gurney to a waiting ambulance. Abby, Abe and I were in our seats, rubbing our eyes and yawning, just like everyone else.
35. Something’s Happening ‘Round Here
The incident with Abe and Abby was weird enough, but there were other strange happenings at school today. A few students I had never noticed before were smiling and nodding at me, as if they were old pals. A girl and a guy I had never spoken to, stopped me in the hall by name, and asked me how I was doing. It was more than friendliness. They were acknowledging a connection with me of some kind. Were they fellow luminars?
Word had also gotten around about the close call Tonya, James and Red had with the lightning. Kids were saying they were lucky
to be alive, that they were just in the wrong place at the wrong time. It was just a freak accident. I even heard some girls talking about how Tonya lost most of her hair because it was “fried off”.
And then something strange occurred to me in the cafeteria line while I was waiting for some food. A lunch lady bumped into me and dumped an entire chafing dish full of taco glop all over my sweats and T-shirt. I was taken aback and looked up to see a beast of a women staring at me. Her name tag said “Helga”. What was most surprising was her reaction. I waited for her apology but I didn’t hear a word. Helga was staring at me with great animosity, as if I just murdered her baby or something. Hey, I was the victim here! A teacher came over with another cafeteria worker to help clean me off. Helga picked up the chafing dish and stomped off without a word. Her hateful expression never changed.
I went to the Lost and Found box in the office to get another pair of lovely ‘worn-by- someone-else’ sweats and bumped into Mercy. After I changed, she went back to the cafeteria with me and we sat in the corner.
“Mercy, why was that Helga woman such a nasty witch to me?” I asked with a sigh of irritation.
Mercy looked at me in disbelief. “Don’t you know, Tess? Cause she really IS a nasty witch! I figured that out my first day of school here last spring. She always gave me a hard time so I learned to avoid her. ”
I was dumbfounded. “She IS?”
“Yeah, she’s totally wacked. I’m surprised they put up with her here. She must have someone bewitched or something,” Mercy said in complete seriousness. Then she added, “Tess, you have to wake up and develop a better sense for these things. As soon as I moved here, I saw a number of bad witches around this place. They’re the diaboles. Some of them deliberately showed themselves to me to flaunt their power, to intimidate me. They viewed me as being vulnerable so they loved to taunt me. I was pretty defenseless at that time.”
“Why are things better for you now?” I questioned.
Mercy looked at me like I was nuts. “Don’t you know? It’s one word, Tess. YOU! When you arrived the dynamics around here changed completely.
“Tess, remember your first day here? You started out with a bang, challenging the head big bad witch, Tonya, in that fight, and YOU WON. On top of that, you won in a very public way. Up to that point the bad ones ran things around here. The good ones, like me, had to keep a low profile if we didn’t want to get our butts kicked.”
“How has that changed?” I inquired, frowning.
“Well, the diaboles can’t take being challenged because they’ve had their way around here for so long. Look at what happened in the cafeteria today with that disturbing Helga witch. Abe also told me what that Old Hag English teacher tried to do to you during class. I had her last year and she was horrible to me, but she never challenged me openly like that. So now, the good witches, the luminars, are having a coming out party here. Haven’t students been revealing themselves to you? You know what that’s about, right?”
“I’m beginning to. I guess I just didn’t want to admit it,” I frowned.
Mercy implored, “Well you better get with the program. Tess, they are the good witches in this place. They know we’ve gotten stronger and that more luminars will be arriving. They don’t have to stay hidden in the shadows anymore. Abe and Abby just came here last week. Their arrival was not a coincidence.”
“Is that why you moved here?” I inquired.
“Yes, it is,” Mercy affirmed.
“How did you know to come here?” I questioned.
“Tess, this has been building for a very long time, lifetimes you might say. Remember, that’s the reason Miss Cassie is here, too. It’s why you’re here. Things have been set in motion. Much of it was planned during the time of The Between. We may forget the fine details but we are innately aware of what we must do. We listen to what our hearts and souls are telling us.” Mercy looked at me darkly and added, “Unfortunately, what is not known is the final outcome.”
“But Mercy, you just said that all of these good witches are showing up and it’s really improving the atmosphere around here,” I exclaimed.
Mercy glared at me. “Yes, it is, but didn’t you listen to Miss Cassie? The diaboles are coming here, too. They’ll be showing up in town, in school and in other surrounding towns. In fact, some have probably already arrived. I looked at the attendance list this morning. Do you know what I saw? Ten new students registered here today. Don’t you think that’s a little weird? How many new kids do you think this school normally gets? Perhaps twenty or so in a year, but NOT ten students in one DAY.”
I put my head in my hands and sighed. “I know you’re right. I’m just so sick of this stuff. You don’t even know what happened to me at Ian’s house!”
“Does it have something to do with Tonya and her fried up hair?” Mercy inquired, looking amused.
“Yeah, it does. How did you know?” I asked, stifling a giggle.
“The minute I heard about it I knew it had something to do with you, especially since it occurred in Ian’s front yard. And I have to say, I haven’t laughed so hard in a long time.”
I cleared my throat. “There’s something else I wanted to talk about with you.”
“What?” she asked, her eyebrows drawn together.
“Something happened to me the night before last. It had something to do with my absence yesterday,” I added.
“Your sister told me that you woke up with a bad sore throat,” Mercy stated, staring at me.
I grimaced, “It was more than that. While I was sleeping I had some kind of a vision, or a flashback.” I shook my head. “I don’t think it was simply a dream or a nightmare. It was so real.”
“What was it about?” Mercy asked.
I took a deep breath. It was hard to talk about without bringing back the feeling of choking on water. “It was from the past. I was tied to a chair and I was being dunked in water.”
Mercy’s eyes widened. “You were undergoing the witch water test?”
“Yes, and I could FEEL the water in my throat and my lungs. It was agonizing. I could hear the crowd shouting against me. And there was a man I had seen before. He was one of my accusers.”
She frowned. “When did you see him before?”
“I saw him during one of my regressions. He was the archbishop in Trier, Germany. I remember him because he had the same fanatical look of hatred in his eye, and he wore a strange purple overcoat with a hat.”
“So you believe that you had a flashback to a past event.”
“Yes, I do. So I have a question for you. Since I’ve been hypnotically regressed, is it possible for me to regress on my own without going through hypnosis?”
Mercy stared at me for a minute without answering. She finally said, “I’ve never regressed without hypnosis on my own, but I think it’s possible.”
I frowned. “Why would you think that?”
“After I had undergone several hypnotic regression sessions by my mom she warned me. She said that in rare instances, people have been known to regress to particularly traumatic events on their own.”
“Why didn’t you guys warn me?”
“Tess, I’ve never heard of self regression happening after only two sessions. If something like does that happens, which it usually doesn’t, it’s usually after at least seven or eight hypnotic sessions. My mom would have warned you if she had any idea. I’m sorry, Tess,” Mercy said, touching my hand.
“Mercy, what am I gonna do? What if it happens again? What if I’m not at home? I feel like I could lose it.” I closed my eyes while slightly shaking my head.
Mercy leaned closer and grabbed my arm. “Tess, let’s talk to my mom. She knows her stuff. I’m sure there’s a way this can be controlled. Meanwhile, just keep yourself busy. Try to focus on something else.”
“Oh, yeah, that’s a great idea! What would you suggest?”
“You’ve got plenty to think about!” She smirked.
“What are you talking about?�
� I asked, frowning.
She snorted, “Actually there’re two things. There’s sweet sexy Ian with his six pack abbs or there’s the amazing Will, the smart, handsome geek. Take your pick!”
36. Crazy Brother
As soon as I got home from school, I took a shower and fixed my hair. I planned on visiting Ian, and there’s no way I wanted him to see me in my total slob comfort clothes. I’d be sure to scare him off. Eve and my aunt weren’t around so I removed that awful neck brace. I got ready quickly because I didn’t want to bump into anyone on my way out. The minute I was done, I hopped on my bike and took off.
I tried not to feel too nervous on the way over. I might run into James and he must hate my guts after what happened. Not that I cared, but I know he’ll go for pay back. I’ll have to watch it around him.
I was also wondering about Ian. He was staring right at me from his window the other night. What did he see? He may even ask me a few questions. For example, he may ask me if I caused his brother to be hit by lightning, or did I hurt his dear friend Tonya? He may also ask me how I can roll electricity up into a ball, or did I pull lightning out of the sky? Those are all distinct possibilities. Breathe in, breathe out…. I have to get a hold of myself. This line of thinking isn’t helping. Maybe I should turn right around and go home. Unfortunately, I’m now in Ian’s front yard and it’s too late.
I made an attempt to smooth out my hair as I walked up the front steps. Just as I went to ring the bell the door swung open. I breathed a sigh of relief. It was Mrs. Miller.
A Girl Beyond (War of the Witches Book 2) Page 18