Kamillia still had her head buried in his chest, shaking from head to toe. He sighed at the way she clung to his shirt. On the other hand, he would walk away and suffer the rest of his immortal days if he could just erase the pain and suffering from her being. Brushing her hair with his fingers, he held back the kiss he longed to place on her head.
“Kamillia, you are safe now. I have you.”
She looked up at him then, her face pale and her jaw set. He felt her fear of him, and she looked at him as if she’d seen a ghost. Another round of tears spilled over her cheeks in a heavy rush.
“Breathe, Kamillia. Relax. Nothing is going to hurt you here. You are safe with me alone in our room.”
She shook her head.
“Yes, my sweet Kamillia, you are safe. I have you, and I will protect you from whatever it was.”
She shook her head no again. Then, with her frail shaky voice, she said, “It was you.”
“Me? What are you talking about? I mean, I brought you here, is that what you mean?” He didn’t know why he felt so blasted guilty and felt the need to apologize. Maybe it was latent from the pain he had caused her on the plane with his truthful revelation.
She let go of his shirt and pulled herself up to sitting in front of him. She even smoothed her shirt before sat straight up. With her back rigid, her fingers now curled around the hem of her shirt. He could feel her internal war.
“Kamillia, you don’t have to act tough. I am not a nut-job. I will not hurt you. And, there is nothing that could happen which would change how strong and brave I think you are. You are a fighter, and from what I have heard, you always have been.” He heard her swallow.
“It was you.” This time her deep, urgent tone sent a shiver down his spine.
“It was me what?”
“I put the necklace I made on you.” Her voice was still flat.
“I don’t know what you are taking about. What necklace?”
She took another deep breath and smoothed her shirt a second time. He watched as she shut her eyes and placed her palms gently on her knees like she was going to start meditating.
“At the church, I saw flashes of ghosts or phantoms there, both inside the sanctuary and outside of another cabin, I believe, out in those woods. In the flashes, the whole place looked different.” She huffed out a breath before continuing, “The church kept changing like I was seeing the building in another time. It came to me in three flashes, I think. It looked to be about the sixteen hundreds from the clothing. I only know this because I have done a lot of research of the witch hunts in that time. It was the same period, I’m sure of it. Plus…” She started to cry again, and she started to shiver despite the stuffiness of the room.
“Take your time, Kamillia. I am following you so far.” He didn’t want to say anymore yet, but he had seen this before. Often when he took people to certain places, they would have flashes of a past life they had lived there. Only, Kamillia had been to that church before. He wondered what had been different about today. Regardless, he knew this because the negative energy left from the event they saw could then be cleared by a simple ceremony and forgiveness on the part of the person who had been wronged there. Kamillia, in another life, had been wronged there, he guessed.
Her eyebrows furrowed at him first, then she continued, “I knew the place, as it had been. The first flash I was there in the same old-fashioned dress, like a peasant woman of the time. Well, the woman looked very similar to me, anyway, but I knew us to be the same. Weird… Anyway, I, or she, was sitting in a pew making a necklace out of lead from the druggist.” She stopped again and cocked her head to the side.
“What is it?”
“How did I know the lead came from a druggist? A druggist? Why would I use that term?”
“Don’t worry about it now. Tell me what you saw.” He gripped his hands into fists to stop himself from comforting her with them.
“In another flash, she was in a bedroom, in some cabin off in the woods behind the church. She was, well, with a man there. I could feel it almost. That sounds crazy, maybe I didn’t. Maybe, I was just overwhelmed.”
“Don’t worry about how it sounds. I just need to know.”
Her gaze flashed to his before she began looking through him into her memory. “The next flash, the ghost of me put the necklace on a man. And, when he turned, despite his period clothing, it was you. Exactly you, not some version of you.”
“Me?” He had been calmly following her till then. He searched his mind for a logical explanation. “Me? Are you sure it was me?”
“There is no doubt in my mind, and right now that is saying a lot.”
He shook his head and forced the guilt which now felt like it was choking him. “So, that was the third flash, and is why you screamed and turned to me?”
“I guess there were actually four, then. The fourth one was in the same place, this cabin, but you were gone. It was more predominant, clearer than the earlier images. There were two other men, dressed of some importance. They had me, or her, and they were yelling at her. Even though I couldn’t hear their words, I could feel her fear. No, I was afraid.
Then, the ghost stopped on her way out the door, in shock because I saw you in those woods. I mean she saw you. Even though I didn’t turn, I could see your ghost through her eyes. She was seized by fear for you, and the men pushed her to move her forward. She stumbled and fell right in front of me. When my likeness stood up there were tears on her face, which hovered only inches from mine, but she wasn’t looking at me. I think she was still looking at you. I don’t know how I know that. How could I watch the ghost and know what she had seen? It was more like a memory.”
“Is that all?” He was starting to feel sick.
“Yes. No, wait, I think those assholes pushed her into me, her ghost into my body now.
“Would you like me to explain what happened to you? I have seen this type of thing before; although I am unsure you will like the answer. The only thing I am not sure of is why you inserted me in there, too. I guess, you could just be replacing whoever it really was… I don’t know. Do you want my explanation of the rest of what happened to you today?”
“Why not? I think I am catching on anyway. It is like my books are all coming true. Let me guess, I was the poor woman who got taken in a past life, and I was in love with you in one of yours.”
The slight roll of her eyes and her expressionless voice did not cover up the slight tremble in her tone.
“That can’t be, though me there could be the connection, the thing that changed to make you see this life today. Still, I know nothing about any of the lives I lived. Regardless, what you guessed about seeing your past life is probably right.”
Her body remained stiff, but the corners of her mouth softened into a half smile. Her sleepy eyes carried a pool of love for him in them.
“Not that the events of the day gave you much choice, but I am relieved to have you talking to me again.” Something tingled over his neck distracting him from her facial response to his admission.
“Luca, what are you not saying?”
“He is coming.”
“Oh, who now?” Her voice had raised an octave, but retained the harsh tones of disbelief mingled with exhausted disgust. “Why can we not get two minutes rest?”
“Unfortunately, I fear you just had them. No one is going to hurt you, Kamillia. You will like Ahti, but I am leery myself wondering why he is contacting me again so soon rather than simply sending me a sign.”
Chapter Eight
“Don’t be alarmed,” Luca had moved in close and whispered to her. A moment later, a subtle knock filled the room. Without any window open, wind blew through the room, billowing the strange robe of the older man suddenly standing there. When the figure bowed at them, a wave of prodigious peace claimed her. Such a foreign concept after these last few days she had to consider it before she was able to define it.
A complete peace, full of love and assurance currently, deeply moved h
er. She had never known such a primitive, absolute contentment on her own in this life. Despite herself, she relished the moment, notwithstanding the stranger staring at her with sparkling silver eyes to match the silvery white of his hair and the shimmer of his white robe.
“Hello, Ahti,” Luca addressed the man. Just before his appearance, she had sensed Luca’s initial reservations and felt a brief moment of confusion. His warning to her had come without a phone call or a message to alert him to this man’s coming. “Kamillia, let me introduce you to Ahti. His name means one who can sing sand into pearls. The longer you are in his presence the more you will see why this name is so appropriate.”
“Hello,” was the only word that came out as she found herself distracted by Luca radiating the same peace as she felt from Ahti.
“Luca, Kamillia, please pardon my abrupt arrival. I was called by the energy change surrounding Luca. The beneficial power he carries with him, which is essential to his abilities, started to fade right before your travels, and his aura has darkened considerably in the past hour. I need for you to explain to me what is going on as you understand it, so I can try to help you with your mission.” His voice was so elegant. It seemed to carry all the right tones and pitches, with the fluctuations always staying in the same parameters, like well recorded music. It reminded her of the Baroque her Poppie always played.
A stab of anxiety from Luca startled her, and the feeling vanished just as quickly, overridden by the pervasive tranquility in the room. So, she watched Luca, awaiting his next move. It came slowly as he turned from her on the bed and stood to face the old man. Another stab hit her when she saw his fingers straighten aside his thighs, but it faded just as quickly as his fingers relaxed.
“Luca,” Ahti continued, his lilting voice filling the room. “You know the importance of this mission. It is no more or no less than any other one you have ever been given. Nevertheless, in hundreds of years, I have never felt such base emotions from you. Please don’t feel any guilt. Each Watcher stands the possibility of going through such a mission as this one eventually. Each of you is granted immortality for a reason unknown to you. It all comes about for one purpose, to restore The River to its original balanced state, aligning the Earth with the Divine. I know many Watchers believe they were chosen because they did something heroic to earn them this position. That is true in some cases only.”
When he paused, Kamillia dared ask, “Should I leave to give you two some privacy?”
Although, she did not felt unwelcome, it seemed this was going to get personal fast. Fully aware her peace stemmed from the man in front of her, her rational human mind still had trouble believing the whole immortal, Watcher thing. It unnerved her to think the doubts while not feeling the emotions that should accompany such thoughts. While she reveled in the tranquility he brought, the expanse between her thoughts and feelings made her feel a certain loss of control.
“No, Kamillia, I need you to stay and hear me out if you will. What I have to say involves you, too. Once I explain it all to you both, you will understand your missions fully and why you were sent here. I warn you, this will be a lot to take in. So, please Luca, you should return to your seat beside Kamillia.”
Luca robotically did as Ahti said, flashing her only a brief, stone-faced glance. With the intense flashes of emotions she kept getting from him, she thought to be relieved
Ahti calmed them both. She braced herself for more of the unusual to come. Almost tired of fighting it now, she opened her mind, thinking it would be better to not examine it all as she listened.
“The point I was trying to make is Watchers are chosen for all sorts of different reasons. It is best not to question the why of it all, because the why is not as important as the difference a Watcher can make once chosen. Sometimes, the Watcher himself, when he was a human, was a part of some dark event that contributed to the negative energy at a portal. In some cases, especially since our Rivers become more and more polluted as time goes, the Watcher is then called to forgive and to help clear the portal.”
Ahti looked down for a second, giving Kamillia her first sense of the news he had to bear being bad. In opposition to her thought, she didn’t sense a moment’s disturbance in his emotions.
“You two knew each other in a past life, which today’s events briefly revealed to you.”
“It was me Kamillia gave the necklace to in her vision?” Luca grabbed her hand startling her, and she was relieved to find no sound had left her throat when she jumped.
“Yes, Luca. The connection you two made in a previous life connected your souls so that they have continued to call out for each other through the decades, crossing even the barriers of time and realms. You are both called now to find forgiveness to clear the portal here. First, you may have to forgive yourself, and then you may have to forgive each other, and last you will have to forgive the others involved who acted out of their own corruption.”
Ahti came to his knees in front of them both, cupping his hands around their joined ones. “The connection of your souls is so strong. I know you have both felt it since you first met. You feel like you have known and loved each other forever, even though in this time in history you are virtual strangers who exist on two different realms. The future remains, as always, unveiled to us. I wish I had some answers of what is to come for you both, but I don’t. Instructions come to us of age from the Divine when they need to be acted upon. There are no warnings and no reasons given. It is not for us to know, and it would be ungrateful of us to ask.
“You must both heed to this condition,” he continued. “This will be the toughest part of your mission, to come to accept your future as uncertain, to act apart from the concerns of what ifs. You must also come to peace with what was and what is now, as well as what is unknown to come. Just live in this moment, and be grateful for every minute of it. This is so important to the clearing here. Negative emotions of any kind will hinder your progress. Live now, work now, even love each other now with no questions of the future or the past. I do not know what will happen once it is all over.
“Luca may have to return to The River, and Kamillia you may have to return to your life alone. This cannot be an issue. Please, this is so important. Train your minds to see only the moment you are in. Release all thoughts and emotions about the future when they creep up. Luca, this is your most personal mission ever.”
Kamillia began to feel numb, actually rigid, like the wind had been knocked out of her repeatedly. Yet, she couldn’t even react to it all while Ahti calmed them. His presence was so much stronger than both of theirs, and it left her confused and subdued in an empty sort of way. She knew if she could, she would fear the backlash once Ahti’s calm left them.
“Now, the story of your past,” he went on when neither of them spoke. “This I can give you, so you know the job which is to be done. In this place, in the time of the witch hunts, was a hunt never made public between a coven and the Mastema. Kamillia was Alessandrina. Luca was Luca, it being his last life as a human. And unfortunately, your story of love ends in your early deaths, I am sorry to say.”
Kamillia felt her breath catch in her lungs, and welcomed Luca’s hand when it landed on her back and started to rub in tiny circles there. A profound sadness lingered in the background of her emotions now, despite Ahti’s presence.
“Luca,” Ahti continued, “was captivated by Alessandrina’s beauty, it is said. But, others would claim she drew him to her for carnal purposes by means of the black arts. She was accused of buying lead from the druggist to make a chain and then speaking words over it to make him lust after her.”
“The necklace I saw myself put on Luca.” Kamillia said, surprised to hear her words out loud.
“Yes, you see, even then you were star-crossed lovers by the time you met. This, of course, does not mean you were not meant to be. Your souls have spent centuries trying to reconnect, and I can feel them still crying out for each other now.” His head shook side to side for a minute, and Ka
millia followed his gaze as he looked at nothing on the ceiling. Of course, Alessandrina, much like Kamillia today, was accused of being a witch to suit others purposes.”
“But, Luca said I am a witch, was I then, too?”
“It is not of importance to either story. You were falsely accused both times, having not done what you were accused of. You actually having or not having the powers to do magic is inconsequential.”
Kamillia swore she felt the first slight faltering in his peaceful presence.
He sighed deeply before continuing, “Luca ran from his cover in the trees that day to save her from the hunters. Then, right there, in the basement of that church you were in today, they began by torturing her before him in hopes of gaining a confession from one of them. I am sure this was more torture for him than anything else they could have done to him. I am told he struggled against his confinements, injuring himself horribly. If the case had gone to the courts, he would have been sentenced, too, because he had tried to free a witch, and therefore was deemed bewitched and unsaveable. Yet, for whatever reasons these men had, instead of putting them through any public trial or death, they took the two of them back to that cabin, tied them to the beds, and they burned them alive together. The fire was seen as a horrible accident, a tragedy.”
She watched Ahti take a few deep breaths, and calm poured over her once again. “When you go to clear, you may have to do so both in the woods where the cabin stood and in the basement of the church. I would start with the latter.”
No one spoke for a few minutes as Kamillia wrestled with the feelings which seemed to fight what now felt like a true illusion of serenity. The idea of the witch hunts always bothered her. She had thought it was the gruesomeness of this period in history that turned her stomach. Having tried a few times to write such stories, she had been stopped by the research. She had no idea what to do with the information that she had in another life, actually lived such horrors. If she was truly a witch now, then she had to wonder if she was truly a witch back then, too.
A Cursed All Hallows' Eve Page 160