“For over four hundred years I’ve been damned to watch the horrors on that island and when Ankou took the body of that doctor I could no longer stay. “
“How did you make your escape?” he questioned.
“Escape,” she chuckled and looked into his eyes. “I would hardly call this an escape.”
“You are here and off the island. It might not be salvation but it has kept you from Ankou and from being ferried to the gates of hell.”
The woman’s lip curled in a disgusted sneer. “Sometimes I wonder which fate is worse.”
Syd stepped closer and could feel the icy air around her. “Then come back to the island with me and help me save my friend and the other souls that are trapped there. Earn your salvation,” he pled.
“And exactly how do I do that?” she questioned incredulously.
“Let me work out the details. Just come back with me.”
The woman stared at him a moment before she vanished before his eyes. The candle in the corner grew dark and the room grew cold and empty, as if no one had been there in a century or more.
He lost her and with her he lost his last hope to save Nigel.
Syd didn’t make it to the pub doors when he was suddenly overtaken by an icy wind and a whisper carried on it. “Ora e necessario salvare tutti e due.”
His body was enveloped in an unearthly chill and he wrapped his arms around himself. “Yes,” he said in response as he stepped outside the doors, “Yes. I suppose that I will have to save us both…save us all.”
He stood in the center of the house with his head held high. He had them all fooled…all but the two older women, but he would win them over soon enough, and if he didn’t, then so be it. He could use the extra souls, and souls as spiritually charged as theirs would bring him some extra amenities, perhaps, dare he dream, release him from his servitude. Maybe he would even be allowed to keep his new body.
“I heard you calling for me so I thought that I should probably return so all of you would quit worrying,” he said in the same charming tone he knew his host would use.
One of the older women, Jorden stepped forward and studied his features. It was a nervous time, for he knew that the host of the body was still alive and could not be completely silenced. And these women were strong.
But Jorden surprised him when she smiled and pulled him in a firm embrace. “We were so worried about you,” she said with genuine relief. “I know that you’ve been disappointed by this experience and all, but don’t run off like that again. This island isn’t safe either spiritually or physically.”
“Don’t worry old mum,” he said, using the first name that the host thought of when he saw her, “I’ll take care of myself.”
Jorden continued to embrace him a moment longer before she released him and stepped back.
He looked around at the faces of the others, which mixed in emotions from confused to relieved to angry, but he was holding his own. So far no one truly suspected and by the time they did it would be too late. “Well I’ve had a hell of a day and I’m tired so I think that I’ll retire to bed for the night.”
He didn’t say anything else but instead headed up the stairs to the room his host shared with the woman, Isis, and laid down in the bed they shared. So far so good. Let them talk amongst themselves downstairs. Even if they figured out that Nigel wasn’t himself so be it. As he thought earlier, he had just over twenty-four hours to keep the humans at bay before he was to deliver all of their souls to the underworld. In spite of all their gadgets, most of which he’d already taken care of, they were no more equipped to deal with him than the people of this island five hundred years ago.
A smile creased his face when he realized that he had just more than one day left and he knew that his rewards would be worth the pain of his purgatory. He only hoped that this would be the last time and that his own soul, no matter how corrupt or even evil, would finally be set free.
“What in the hell was that about?” Matt questioned; not even attempting to hide his confusion. Jorden finally had him convinced that Nigel was possessed, though he wasn’t about to admit it just yet, and now she seemed to believe that he was fine and that it was all a misunderstanding. “I thought you said that he was possessed!”
Jorden shot him a look that silently ordered him to keep his voice down. “And nothing’s changed, in fact, I now know beyond any shadow of a doubt that Nigel isn’t in control of that body.”
“How so?” Jesse questioned.
Jorden looked at the others and shook her head. “He knows that I hate being called ‘old mum’ and wouldn’t call me that no matter how mad he was at me for any reason.”
“Maybe he’s still inside there somewhere and maybe he was trying to give us some kind of sign,” Tony suggested carefully. “I know that I’m no expert on the demonically possessed, but maybe by calling you ‘old mum’ he was trying to tell you that not everything was okay. I mean both entities must already know that we suspect something.”
All of this was way above and beyond Matt’s experience and he quickly started to feel overwhelmed, though when he looked around he could see that the others weren’t faring much better. Even Jorden and Isis were obviously overwhelmed, but Matt knew that they were the two best people to try to get to Nigel.
Matt approached the two women, who had pulled away from the others and stood near the doorway to the dining room. “Is there any way that one or both of your can reach Nigel without…” Matt realized that he didn’t know how to refer to whatever possessed Nigel and he shrugged, “…whatever it is that’s in control of him finding out?”
Jorden shook her head. “This is all pretty new to me but I don’t see how,” she said then headed into the dining room with the other two in tow. “I mean I know that he’s in there. When the entity called me ‘old mum’ it just confirmed it, but I thought that I’d been hearing him almost all day.”
Isis dropped in the seat next to her while Matt stood and fumed. “Why didn’t you say something?” he questioned.
“Because I wasn’t sure what it was at the time, but remember when we were next to the cemetery and I grew sick?” she questioned.
Matt remembered all too well; over the last week or so he’d been close to terrified that something might go wrong and Jorden could get hurt and that was one of those times. He nodded. “Of course.”
“I told you that I didn’t think that it was the same as the bell tower and now I know it wasn’t,” she said. “I’m fairly certain that what I was feeling was Nigel and whatever torment he’s experiencing right now.”
Matt thought a moment then looked at Isis, who had grown as pale as fog, and appeared as ill as Jorden had earlier that day. “If that’s the case then why haven’t you picked up on anything?” Matt asked her. “You’re closer to Nigel than any of us, yet you haven’t picked up on anything,” he said then quickly added, “or at least if you have you haven’t told us about it.”
Isis shook her head and looked up at him with red stained eyes. “I don’t know. I can feel everyone here but when I try to reach out and find Nigel he isn’t there.”
“Maybe it’s because you are so close to him, especially of late, that you can’t feel him,” Jorden suggested. “Maybe whatever receptors you have can’t get through to him.”
Isis looked questionably at her. “How so?”
Jorden shrugged and shook her head. “I don’t know, kind of like an emotional jamming device. Maybe you’re so focused on him and trying to feel him you’re overloading your abilities.”
Isis let out a nervous chuckle. “So what are you suggesting? That I simply try to relax and he’ll come to me just like that?”
Jorden continued to look at her friend and mentor. “Maybe,” she said evenly. “You told me once that there were times when you could step outside of yourself and look on things with a wide, unattached eye. Try doing that now.”
Isis’s eyes grew wide. “Here?” she blurted then quickly took in a breath and look
ed past Matt and Jorden to make sure that the others in the living room hadn’t heard her. The last thing she wanted to do was draw attention to herself or their conversation. “I can’t do it here.”
“Why not?” Matt questioned. “It isn’t like you have to be naked…” his brows creased, “…is it?”
Isis laughed in spite of herself.
“I fail to see the humor in the situation,” Jorden said coolly as she shot Matt a scowl.
“You’re right,” Isis agreed then gave a second giggle, “but Nigel would have said the same thing if he were here.”
Jorden gave her a nod. “You’re probably right,” she said. “But now isn’t the time for reminiscing. If I don’t miss my guess, we’re not going to have much time here before we lose Nigel completely.”
Isis quickly grew sober, as did Matt as he took a seat in between the two women. “Do you think you can do it?”
Isis thought a moment and shrugged. “I can as long as I don’t have any interruptions. I need to concentrate and meditate, and it’s going to need to be completely quiet. Aside from finding that kind of atmosphere at either the monastery or the hospital, neither of which is ideal because of the spiritual energy at both, I don’t know where we’ll find that.”
“Hell the entire island is spiritually charged. I’m not sure that there’s anywhere around here where we’ll find that kind of seclusion,” Jorden said and shook her head.
“The cellar,” Matt said absently.
“What?” Isis questioned.
Matt looked at Isis and then Jorden. “The cellar where Jonas stashed his partners’ equipment,” he said with a bit more conviction. “There’s only one way in or out and the only people who know about it are either in this room or unconscious.”
Jorden gave him a nod. “That’s not a bad idea,” she said then looked at Isis. “You think it will work?”
Isis gave her a nod. “It’s worth a try, but there’s one other thing,” she said and kept her steady gaze on Jorden. “I’m going to need your help.”
Jorden gazed curiously at her. “How so? Never in my life would I have ever believed that I have the gifts that I do, and in no way am I disciplined enough to use them the way you do. What can I possibly do to help you?”
Isis took a breath and gave Matt a nervous glance before she set her dark eyes back on Jorden. “I might be able to reach Nigel but you have to remember the entity that’s controlling him. There’s no way I’ll be able to sneak in without it knowing so I’m going to need your help.”
Jorden was more curious than frightened and she leaned in closer. “What exactly do you want me to do?”
Isis took in a deep cleansing breath. “I know that you’re not disciplined but I think that you can contact the entity with your mind. Do it under the guise of trying to reach Nigel. When the entity detects your presence it will lock onto you and that should give me an open door through to Nigel.”
Matt couldn’t stop the nervous chuckle that escaped his lips. “Are you serious?” he questioned. “You want Jorden to bait whatever nasty piece of work has its claws in Nigel? Absolutely not!”
Jorden shot him a nasty glare. “Excuse me?” she questioned. “This isn’t your decision it’s mine.”
“And this is too serious and dangerous to get into a pissing match about my over protectiveness now,” he said bluntly. “I know that you don’t like me stepping in and telling you what you can or cannot do, but you’re out of your mind if you think that I’m going to stand by while some demon or other nasty entity sets its sights on you or anyone else in this group.”
“But it already has, and this may be our only chance to reach Nigel,” Jorden said calmly then turned to Isis. “I’ll do it. Just tell me how.”
Isis explained to Jorden how to focus her energy on their way down to the cellar. Fog clung to the ground as they rounded the house and headed for the cellar door, taking candles from the cottage with them.
Isis formed a circle with the candles on the floor and sat inside then motioned for Jorden to do the same, however before she could take a step forward Matt grabbed her hand and stopped her. “You don’t have to do this,” he said in a hushed tone. “We can find another way.”
Jorden smiled and shook her head. “Not in time I’m afraid,” she said and squeezed his hand. “I’ll be fine.”
Matt wanted to believe her but couldn’t and it took every ounce of control he had not to grab her, throw her over his shoulder and haul her off to the dock and the boat, and get her as far from the island as was humanly possible. At the same time he knew that she was right and even if he had managed to get her free of the island, something told him that it wouldn’t be over and that they would have to see this through to the end.
Jorden took a seat across from Isis and did exactly as she was told.
And Matt stepped back, helpless to do anything but watch as Jorden put her soul in danger. This was his nightmare; one he’d experienced since the day he’d arrived. Often times the circumstances were different and he had to admit that none of the nightmares were quite like this had started out, but they always ended the same. Some evil entity took control of Jorden’s body and stole her soul. And he couldn’t shake the feeling that he just might lose her for good and if that happened, he wasn’t sure that he would be able to go on himself.
Where Nigel stood it was cold to the point where he felt as though he was encased in an iceberg; unable to move and unable to get warm…and it was dark. But there was something near. He could neither hear nor see it, but he could feel something growing near, and unlike the hell he’d been in for God knows how long, this felt welcoming.
“Nigel” was carried on a breeze that swept around him like a warm blanket and suddenly he didn’t feel as abandoned as he’d had just moments…or was it days…ago.
“Isis,” he said when he felt that familiar warmth wrap around him and he embraced it and himself. “Where are you?”
“I’m close,” the breeze whispered back to him.
“Please help me. I can’t stay here any longer, it’s killing me.”
“Shh,” the breeze hushed and with it he could feel warm strokes down his back, just as he’d felt on the night they made love. “You must hang on and be strong.”
She didn’t know what she was asking and he didn’t know if he could comply. He felt so close to his own death now, just as he had so many years ago and that’s when it hit him. That’s where he was being held…in his own hellish past, stuck between the dead and the living, only this time he didn’t know if he would come back. He had to wonder if this was his eternity.
“Do you know who is holding you? Do you know who is in control of your body?”
It seemed like he’d been on the inside looking out of a very narrow peep hole and seeing very little. Rare were the times when he heard anything but his own cries of torment for what felt like an eternity. “No,” he said finally. “It doesn’t speak to me, but it’s cold. So very cold.”
“We will come for you but you must remain strong,” her whisper said then the breeze turned into an icy torrent that pulled Nigel back towards his solitude. “Stay with us. I need you…” he heard whispered before the warmth completely vanished.
“Isis?” he called out but received no answer.
Once again he was alone and the agony that surrounded him was more than he could bear. More than anything he wanted to feel Isis’s warm embrace around him once again and that thought could… or rather would have to sustain him. Just for how long he could hold on was uncertain and in the back of his mind he feared that it couldn’t hold him long enough.
Jorden had never known such cold in her life, not even when her parents took her to Alaska and lost her in the snowy terrain outside of Fairbanks when they headed up there to visit her Aunt Carrie and Uncle Samuel. She was lost for just over five hours and was hypothermic with minor bouts of frostbite on her hands and feet, but she survived that and she would survive this.
The hardest thin
g was to appear as though she was looking for Nigel’s consciousness when she was, in fact, trying to fish out whatever demon was in control of him. Scared didn’t begin to cover what she felt and it was hard to hide it, so she did the only thing she could…she didn’t. If the demon was going to try to torment her in any way at least she’d know what to expect…or so she hoped. Like Isis had told her, she kept her fears near but not out in the open and not buried so deep that the demon would find more than she wanted it to. It was key that she kept the demon away from her soul.
There was no light to guide her path, no warmth to indicate life and nothing that appealed to any of her senses. It was almost like being in a sensory deprivation tank and having all of her senses obscured from what surrounded her. She could hear, see, taste and smell nothing while all she could feel was the icy air that surrounded her.
There was a distant rumble, or so she thought, and she turned to see if she could note where it was coming from but she was unsteady. The fact that she could not see played with her balance, though she was certain that other forces were at work. Aside from the frigid air she could feel something else; something worse than the unforgiving chill.
“Who’s there?” she called out while her echo bounced back at her. “Nigel is that you?”
There was another distant rumble, like thunder, and for just a moment she thought that she could hear a growl of a laugh.
“Nigel if that’s you, you need to answer me!” she demanded “Now!”
The rumble grew louder as did the laugh.
The Haunting of Isola Forte di Lorenzo Page 29