by Jill Sanders
He even went for a walk to the end of the road and back. The four miles would have to hold him over for now, seeing as he felt winded and tired by the time he climbed the porch stairs.
When he walked in, he smiled upon seeing Brea in the kitchen, making breakfast.
“Making dinner for breakfast?” he asked when he saw the steaks in the pan.
She chuckled and shook her head. “No, steak and eggs is breakfast.”
“Right.” He smiled. “You won’t hear me complaining.” He took a bottle of water from the fridge and drank half of it down.
“Should you be taking long walks so soon?” she asked, flipping a steak.
“Sure, I’ve never felt better.” He smiled, and rolled his shoulders, only feeling a slight twinge when he did. “Not bad.”
“So, I thought we’d swing by the library again. There’s a lot of microfiche I didn’t get to.”
“Seriously? What do you hope to learn?”
“I don’t know.” She flipped the thin steaks out of the pan and onto two plates with scrambled eggs and set a plate in front of him. “I’m hoping to find something that can shed some light on what’s going on. Why everything is happening. What really happened to my aunt.”
He took a bite of the steak and moaned with pleasure. “Well, if you keep feeding me like this, you can count me in for anything.”
Four hours later, he felt his eyeballs were going to pop out of their sockets. They had gone through stacks of small black film, reading old newspaper articles.
“I can’t believe that this is how people used to do research for papers.” He shook his head and flipped to another page. “Hang on.” He leaned back. “Here’s the article about your aunt.”
Brea swung her chair towards his and read along over his shoulder.
“It says here that your aunt drowned at the lake. That her body was never found.”
“Marshal Lake,” she read over his shoulder. “That’s a few miles out of town.” She turned to him. “Up for a drive?”
Just then more thunder sounded and her shoulders slumped.
“Maybe tomorrow.” He reached out and brushed a strand of hair away from her forehead. “Don’t worry, we’ll figure this out.”
She nodded. “Let’s print a copy of this so we can take it with us.”
“How about we take a break from all this, get some take-out, and rent a movie online.”
She smiled. “Now you’re reading my mind.”
His eyes got huge and he put a finger to her temple, then his. “I see a night of good Chinese take-out, a cheesy chick flick, and all-night lovemaking.” He leaned in and placed a slow, passionate kiss on her lips.
“Your powers are truly amazing.” She laughed as she started gathering up her notes.
The Chinese place was closed due to a grease fire, so they grabbed a few burgers from the diner instead.
When they walked into the house, he set the take-out bag on the bar, then went and got them each a beer.
“Looks like we’ll need a run into the store soon.” He set the beer down in front of her and she looked at him like he had two heads.
He reached out to touch her hand, but she yanked it away and screamed.
“No!”
Her eyes turned a lighter shade of silver and she started to disappear. He stood there in complete shock as she faded.
It took him approximately two seconds to react. First, he blinked to make sure he wasn’t hallucinating. Then he reached out and touched thin air.
He called Xtina, Mike, Jess, and Jacob in a panic, and by the time they arrived, he was in full denial mode.
“What the hell just happened?” he asked when he opened the door.
“Why are you asking us?” Jacob said, stepping in and scanning the room.
“One minute we were there, about to have a beer and dinner, then poof.”
“Did she actually go poof?” Jess asked, causing everyone to look at her. “What?” She shrugged.
“No. She just faded.” He felt sick to his stomach. “She sparkled, then I blinked and she was gone.”
“Did she say anything before she… left?” Xtina asked.
“She said no. Just no.” He sat down, then immediately got up and took a swig of his beer.
“So, we need to go over everything.” Xtina sat down, followed by Jess. “Jess and I were talking, and we’re pretty sure that her being able to control her ability plays a pretty big part in all this.”
“Yeah, we talked about that some.”
“Is there anything you can tell us? What was she doing before? What were you talking about?” Jacob grabbed a beer and tossed one to Mike.
“We were talking about… well, nothing really. We had just gotten back from getting food at the diner.” He ran his hands through his hair.
“What were you talking about specifically?” Xtina said.
“We had been talking about finding out about her aunt drowning at the lake.”
Suddenly, the air in the room sizzled.
“No!” Brea continued to say from the chair at the bar.
“What happened?” Brea said, staring across the room at everyone.
Ethan rushed over, tipping over his beer, and wrapped his arms around her. “Don’t you ever scare me like that again.”
By the way he was holding her, she knew he’d been just as scared as she was.
“You disappeared,” he said, still holding her. “For almost an hour.”
“An hour?” She felt her stomach roll and everything in the room spun. Next thing she knew, she was waking up on the sofa with five set of eyes looking down at her.
“Sorry.” She tried to sit up, but several hands reached out and held her still.
Jess thrust a bottle of water in her face. “Drink.”
She took several drinks and immediately started to feel better.
“I’m fine.” She sat up, and this time everyone stood back.
“Where did you go?” It was Jess who asked.
“The lake. One minute I was there”—her eyes moved to the chair where she’d been sitting— “and the next I was standing on the edge of a lake.” She looked down at her dirty shoes and closed her eyes on a groan. She had been there. This time, it wasn’t a dream.
“You screamed, no,” Ethan said, his hands closing around hers.
“I felt like I was going to go, but…” She shook her head. “I couldn’t control it.”
“You pushed my hand away.” Ethan shifted when she sat up.
“I… I didn’t want to drag you.” She looked around at everyone. “I’m not even sure I can.”
The entire room was silent and she could feel the energy building.
“I’ll heat up your burgers,” Jess said, breaking into the silence.
“Actually, I’m not hungry anymore. But, I could use a drink.”
Jacob and Mike both shoved their beers in her face, and she laughed. “Thanks.” She reached over and grabbed the bottle from Ethan and took a swallow.
“How about I run into town and grab us all some burgers and fries?” Jacob suggested. “Then we can figure out what this is all about.”
“I’ll go with,” Jess said, moving towards the door without waiting.
By the time they returned, the entire vibe in the room had changed.
Everyone was on a mission. Even her. She’d flipped open her tablet and had taken notes on every detail she could remember as everyone talked around her.
“Okay,” Mike said as everyone started eating their food. “Why don’t you tell us what you saw at the lake. Did you see the entity?” He shook his head. “I mean your aunt?”
“Why did you call my aunt an entity and not a ghost?” Everyone in the room stopped eating and turned towards Mike.
“Well, there’s a difference.” He started to explain, then looked at Xtina. “She showed me.”
Xtina set down her burger. “Your aunt isn’t dead.”
Everyone in the room talked at the same time, th
rowing questions at Xtina, who held up her hands until everyone was quiet again.
“There are differences between ghosts and your aunt. When I touch, so to speak, someone who has passed, I can’t touch their minds. I get flooded with emotions—anger, fear, happiness, loneliness, and so on.”
“And with my aunt?”
“There’s more…” She tapped the side of her head. “So much more up there.”
“Like?” Jacob asked.
“Memories,” Xtina said.
Brea visibly shivered. “And ghosts… not that I’m saying they exist, but ghosts don’t have memories?”
“No,” both Mike and Xtina answered.
“What about the vision we had?” Jess asked. “You know, seeing her in the water?”
Mike, Jacob, Xtina, and Jess all had sour looks on.
“What’s this about water?” Ethan asked as his eyes met hers.
Mike looked towards Xtina. “Before the shit hit the fan a few weeks ago, we were all sitting around, kind of like we are now.”
“We were toasting to something, and wham-o,” Jess added. “We all had the same vision.”
“All of you?” she asked, looking around at the four of them.
“I wasn’t there,” Jacob said, holding up his hands.
“I wonder…” Jess said, looking down at her beer. She held it up and shrugged. “Worth a try.”
One by one, everyone gathered around the coffee table and held their drinks inches from one another.
“Ready?” Xtina asked. Everyone nodded in turn, then clinked their bottles together.
Nothing happened.
“Well, that was fun,” Jacob said sarcastically as he sat back down.
“There has to be a reason it worked before,” Xtina said, biting her bottom lip.
“What else had we done?” Mike asked.
“Well, it was wine last time, not beer,” Jess supplied.
“And they were in my mother’s good crystal glasses. Remember? They shattered.”
“Crystal,” Jess and Xtina said at the same time.
“Mike?” Xtina turned to him.
“Way ahead of you,” he said, hobbling towards the kitchen. “I think I might have some. I bought some Dorset bar glasses at an antique shop a while back.” He set one down from the cupboard and smiled. “A set of eight.”
“I’ll pour the wine,” Jess said, pulling a bottle from the fridge.
Chapter 14
The energy in the room was so high, Ethan felt the hairs on his arm rise.
“We doing this?” he asked, holding his own glass inches from everyone else’s.
“What exactly are we expecting to happen?” Jacob asked.
“Something,” Jess said, shrugging. “At least we’re trying.”
“What? To knock ourselves out again just to see a ghost?” Mike said, shaking his head.
“Well, at least it’s something,” Xtina said and held up her glass. “Ready?”
Everyone nodded.
“May our friendship never fail, may we always be kind, I’ll post your bail, if you post mine.” Jess smiled and moved her glass to everyone else’s.
At the moment the six glasses connected, a flash almost blinded him as the fine crystal shattered in his hand. A strong wave of power spiked through Ethan’s bones.
Suddenly, he was standing in a field. He turned and started walking towards Brea, who was standing a few feet away. As he walked towards her, she turned to him.
“You have to let me go.” Her silver eyes were determined. Then suddenly she vanished, and he was left alone.
Then as fast as he’d arrived, he was pulled back to his brother’s living room.
Everyone else was still gazing blankly into space.
He reached over and touched Brea’s face. She felt cold, but she was breathing normally. So was everyone else, as far as he could tell.
One by one, they came back to themselves.
“That was odd,” Jacob said, reaching for his beer.
“Last time everyone saw the same thing.” Xtina looked around. “What did you see this time?” She turned to Jess.
“Oh no, I’m not going first.” She shook her head and leaned back, crossing her arms over her chest.
Ethan didn’t know Jess very well, but he was pretty sure there was no way she was going to change her mind.
“Fine, I’ll go first.” Xtina took a drink of her beer. “I was back in the silo.” He saw her shiver as his brother reached over and took her hand in his.
“And?” Jess asked.
“I was in a different room. One I don’t remember.” Her eyes went to Brea. “What did you see, Mike?”
“I was back in the silo too, in the missile area. There was water in the bottom of it like before.”
Jacob spoke up, “I was at the lake. That’s it.” He turned and looked at Jess. “You were there.”
“Yeah,” Jess sighed. “I was.”
Ethan watched as something passed between the two of them. Then everyone turned towards him.
“I was in a field.” When everyone continued to wait, he added, “The moon.”
“What about it?” Jacob asked.
“It was a sliver.”
“Was it waxing?” Jess asked.
“What kind of question is that?” Jacob turned to her.
She shrugged. “A normal one.” She looked around. “Was it a waxing crescent or a waning crescent?”
“Who knows the difference?” he asked.
Again, everyone just looked at her until she sighed. “Which way was it cupped?” She held her hands up in two cups. “This way or that?”
“I don’t remember.”
Jess pulled out her phone, typed a few things, and turned it around. “This is a waxing crescent. It happens after a new moon. This is waning crescent. It happens before a new moon. We can estimate when this is going to happen.”
“That one, I guess.” He nodded. “To be honest, I didn’t really pay attention. Brea was there, then she wasn’t.”
“The next waxing crescent is in two weeks,” Jess said, looking down at her phone.
Everyone was silent for a while.
Then, everyone turned to Brea.
“What did you see?” Xtina asked.
“I…” She swallowed a sip of her wine, then got up and walked to the fireplace and reached towards the warmth. “I didn’t see anything,” she said with her back to the group.
“What does that mean?” Ethan asked, looking around the room at everyone else.
“I don’t know, but…” She shook her head. “Nothing happened.”
“Strange. Why would we all see something but not you?” Mike asked.
“Does any of this really make sense?” she asked and looked down at her hands.
Everyone shrugged as they looked at one another.
“I need another beer.” Jacob walked to the fridge and opened it. “You’re out.” He looked over at Jess. “Why don’t we call it?”
Everyone looked at Jess.
Xtina jumped in. “You two?” She balked. “Are together?”
“No!” Jess stood up. “He drove me here.” She walked over and picked up her coat. “What?” she said to Xtina. “He was at the coffee shop.”
Ethan glanced at Jacob and saw the truth in his eyes. He held in a chuckle.
“Whatever,” Xtina said, smiling. “We’d better go let Rose out.” She stood and helped Mike up.
After everyone left, Ethan turned towards Brea. She was still standing at the fireplace, her arms wrapped around herself.
“So,” he said, setting his feet up on the coffee table, “want to tell me what you really saw?”
Her eyes moved to his. “What do you mean?”
“We may have actually only met a few days ago, but up here”—he tapped his head— “I’ve known you a lot longer. And you’re not a very good liar.”
She sat next to him and tucked her feet up under her.
“I was in the field.” H
er eyes met his and he thought he saw sadness behind them. “Then, I was in the tunnel.”
“A tunnel?”
“Yeah.” She closed her eyes and leaned her head back. “I’ve been there before.”
“For real?”
“No, yes.” She shook her head. “In a vision.”
“And?” He pulled her close, seeing that she was getting frustrated.
She relaxed against his chest. “Something was off, like I wasn’t supposed to be there. Like something didn’t want me to be there.” She shivered, so he wrapped his arms around her.
“I watched you disappear from the field,” he said, running his hand over her hair.
“I saw that too. I try to fight it, like I have some sort of control over it.”
“If Jess is correct, we have two weeks.” He pulled her closer and brushed a kiss over her hair.
“How’s your shoulder?” she asked.
“Fine.” He smiled, knowing that the worst of the pain was over. “I was lucky.”
She surprised him by twisting around and straddling him. She leaned in and placed a kiss on his lips, slowly running her hands over his chest. “Yes, you are.”
Brea needed to get her mind off of what she’d seen and the best way to do that was to fill her mind and body with Ethan.
Straddling him felt so good. His hands went to her hips, and he dug his nails into her soft skin as he pulled her clothes off her slowly. When they were both naked and lying in front of the fire, she finally felt in control again.
She hovered over him, her hands sprawled on his chest.
“Ethan.” She smiled down at him.
He pulled her down and ran his lips over hers.
The fire crackled as she enjoyed him. Heat spread throughout her entire system. Her eyes met his as the pleasure pulsed throughout her system.
“Let go,” he said next to her ear. “Just let go.” How could she deny him? She moved over him until he filled her and soon she felt herself slipping.
By morning, she was feeling a little more centered. She’d been thrown off by everything she’d seen yesterday. Learning about her aunt.
She needed a new plan of attack. Something that would help her in her research.
She planned to look over her notes again that day, maybe talk to Ethan about some of the other things she’d found out. But for now, she was going to enjoy the feel of him lying next to her.