Vanquishing Ghosts (Tess Schafer-Medium)

by Deborah J. Hughes

  It wasn't until we were in bed, Alex at our feet and Dennis on the window seat, that Kade finally brought up the salt. "So what's with the salt in front of the doors and windows? I thought ghosts could come through walls and floors and ceilings or whatever?"

  "It's more symbolic to put the salt around the entrances to places we want free of negative spirits. It sends a clear message to them that they are not welcome. I'm not sure why salt is supposed to help but it does. I'm not going to question it, Kade. I'm just thankful that I know enough to use it."

  "Okay. I'm not going to press the issue. I'm too tired. But I tell you, I hope Mark can really help us tomorrow because we can't live like this every day, Tess."

  "Agreed. We'll figure it out, Kade. Every day we learn just a little more. Eventually we'll know all we need to take care of this once and for all." I pushed up on my forearm and leaned over to give him a kiss. "We are both tired. Let's get some sleep. Alex will warn us if anything comes around but I think we are safe for tonight. I love you."

  "I love you too." Kade wrapped a hand around the back of my head and pulled me to him for another long kiss then let me go. I lifted my mouth from his and we stared at each other for a long quiet moment. There was so much we exchanged in that look. Words weren't necessary.

  Finally I lay down and closed my eyes, glad for the opportunity to rest. We both needed to restore our energy for tomorrow.

  As I succumbed to the world of slumber, I thought I heard the faint sounds of laughter. More in my mind than "out there". The Big Bad was amused by our determination to be rid of him. Let him laugh. His amusement wasn't going to last. Not for long anyway.

  Chapter 16

  Considering everything that's been going on, my dreams were puzzling but not scary. This one was more like a fantasy. I dreamed I was walking across the front yard to my house while the sun shined down upon it like a spotlight. The area outside the edges of the spotlight were dark but I wasn't worried about it. With my face lifted to the sun's warm rays, I made my way up the porch steps but when I started for the door a movement upon it caught my eye and I stopped to watch.

  All the images etched into the door began to move and then lift away. They fluttered in the air around me and I stared in wonder then tried to capture some of them in my hand. But they floated away and I realized they were heading toward the dark. Alarmed, I started chasing them. But they rose higher and higher, out of reach and moving steadily to the edges of the sun's beaming rays.

  Suddenly I started running, round and round the circumference of the spotlight, faster and faster creating a vortex that sucked the symbols back toward me. Some of them settled on my skin and where they landed it tickled and I began to laugh. Until I noticed the spotlight getting smaller and smaller.

  I woke up to a pounding heart and a sense of panic. Oh God! What did it mean?

  "Something wrong?"

  Kade's voice came from across the room and I turned around to find him in the bathroom doorway. He was already showered and dressed. A well-worn pair of blue jeans snuggled his lean frame in such a way that my hands itched to touch him. A dark blue t-shirt showed off his chest and shoulders and the tanned corded muscles in his arms. He was quite the hunk and I marveled that he was mine.

  "You are staring at me like you want to eat me for breakfast." Smiling at the idea, his eyes gleaming with devilment, Kade sauntered over to the bed then leaned over me, pressing his hands into the pillow on either side of my head. "You were sleeping so peacefully ... like Sleeping Beauty. But then you started making the strangest sounds. Did you have a bad dream?"

  "It was sort of magical at first but then it became rather alarming. I'm glad I woke up. That's all I've got to say about it." I reached up and pressed my hands to his face, holding him firmly and pulling him down for a kiss. "Why didn’t you wake me up?"

  Kade let his mouth nibble at mine before meandering across my cheek and nuzzling my neck. "I didn't have the heart to wake you. Sorry." He mumbled the words against my skin sending little thrills of pleasure rippling along my collarbone and down my arm.

  "I wish you woke me before you got out of bed."

  Kade lifted his head to look at me, saw the smoldering passion burning in my eyes and narrowed his own in response. "Don't tempt me. We've lots to do before Mark gets here."

  All too quickly reality had to intrude on a perfect moment. "You're right. Hang here while I go shower?"

  "I'm not leaving you alone until this house is cleared of ghosts."

  "Well, cleared from the Big Bad anyway. I'm not sure I want all of them to go."

  "Tess..."

  I put a finger to his lips. "I'm a medium. Do you think I'll be happy living in a completely ghost free house?"

  "Yes. You can call spirits to you whenever you want, you don't need them living here."

  He straightened up and headed for the patio doors. "I'm going to go out and enjoy some fresh air. While I’m at it, I’m going to perch on the railing and draw." He grabbed his sketchpad and a couple pencils stored on his designated dresser and headed out the door. I watched him do exactly what he said he was going to do and then slid out of bed and headed for the bathroom. The house was warm and comfortable. Now for it to stay that way until Mark got here!

  After a breakfast of Buckwheat pancakes mixed with nuts and berries, Kade and I did a walk-through of the house. The three guest bedrooms, one of which was actually set up for such while the remaining two were nothing more than storage rooms, were checked first since we were in them the least.We made sure Mark could easily maneuver around the rooms then shut the doors. Someday I'd have to get furniture for the other two rooms and then, hopefully, guests to fill them every now and then.

  The rest of the house was in pretty good order. We were particularly careful to inspect the living room but avoided going near the fireplace. Most everything was unpacked and placed and I have to say that my home was looking really nice. Of course, with it being so much bigger than my last house, it seemed practically empty. It wouldn't stay that way for long. Kade and I were already planning shopping sprees to Maine's many and varied antique shops and flea markets.

  Alex followed along as we conducted our walk-through but he didn't appear to be all that comfortable. He treaded cautiously, his ears perked and alert, his sharp eyes darting everywhere. I had no idea where Dennis was. Kade let him out of our room when he got up and we hadn’t seen him since. Probably off mousing or whatever it is he did to fill his day.

  When we reached the attic, Alex ran to the spot where the afternoon sun always landed and laid down. Right now, however, the sun’s rays landed on a spot closer to the window. I checked it curiously. Clear. No colors, no shadowed dividing lines. The atmosphere in the attic really was quite peaceful and I stood for a moment to enjoy it, absorbing its positive energy and wishing I knew why it felt so much nicer up here.

  The tickle of cobwebs on my face made me smile for I loved it when Sheila’s spirit mingled with mine. I closed my eyes and enjoyed a quiet moment of communion with her. Though she said nothing, I knew she was helping me gather my energies. Preparing me spiritually for later.

  Kade must have had an idea what I was doing because he quietly left the attic though I heard him enter the bedroom nearest to the stairs. He was staying close.

  Please help us send the Big Bad one off to a place that doesn't involve my home or anyone else's.

  Sheila didn't answer me but she didn't have to. She'd help however she could. Taking comfort in that knowledge, I withdrew from our connection and joined Kade downstairs.

  He was in the one guest room I actually had furniture for. It was the corner room opposite from mine facing the back side of the house. It had four windows, two facing the back and two facing the side. I thought it was one of the most interesting of the three rooms and so decided to set it up first.

  I rubbed my hands together and prepared to do some work. "What can I do?"

  Kade motioned to an antique dresser sporting a three-way
mirror that stood in the center of the room. No doubt something must have spooked the movers for them to leave it there. "If you want to give me a hand with this thing, you can then go ahead and make the bed while I hang the curtains and these pictures you've got stacked against the wall."

  Once we had it against the wall between the two windows facing the side of the house, I stood back to ensure it was properly centered and just as I did so a movement in the mirror caught my attention. Behind me was the door to the hallway and someone was standing on the threshold looking in at us. She disappeared the moment I noticed her so I didn’t get a good look, but I saw enough to know it was a girl. My senses went on alert as I swung around and scanned the area. Although I couldn’t see her, I knew she was not gone. I turned back to Kade who was preparing to thread curtain panels onto a curtain rod.

  "Kade, I just saw someone in the doorway."

  Without questioning it or hesitating for a second more, Kade propped the curtain rod against the wall and headed for the door. Alex lay on a braided rug next to the bed and though he lifted his head and whined, he made no move to follow his hero.

  Placing my mental light around us and saying a quick prayer, I headed after Kade. He walked the length of the hallway, opening doors and checking each room. Since he had to know he wasn’t going to see anything, I wondered what he was looking for. Once he reached the stairwell to the first floor, he stopped and turned to look at me.

  "I don't feel anything ... no cold, no stink, no uneasy feeling."

  Above us the floor creaked. She must have gone to the attic. Kade and I looked up, glanced at each other then rushed to the attic stairs. The door at the top of them was open. I distinctly remember closing it only about five minutes ago.

  Alex somehow knew our intent and beat us to the stairs. We marveled that he was rushing toward the entity instead of away from it. But then as we hurried up the stairs, I knew it wasn't the Big Bad. Whoever was currently in the house with us ... it wasn't bad.

  As soon as we stepped into the attic a variety of comforting smells assaulted our senses. It was like a garden come inside. I drew in the aromas and found them soothing, exhilarating and empowering.

  "Do you smell anything, Kade?"

  Alex lied down in that one spot again and rolled over onto his back. His head lolled this way and that as his body squirmed in pure enjoyment. If I didn’t know any better, I’d swear he was being scratched.

  "I smell flowers, herbs of all sorts,” Kade murmured. “Yet I don't find it overpowering or the least unpleasant."

  "Do you see, Alex?" I whispered the words so as not to draw the dog's attention to us.

  "Someone is with him." Kade watched for a moment then turned back to the door. "Obviously we've nothing to worry about up here. I'm more concerned about the Big Bad making a reappearance downstairs. Why don't we hang in the Sun Room until lunch? I would like to get started on my painting. I've got my sketches ready and have been itching to get at it all morning."

  Kade was right. Whatever entity hung out up here, it wasn't anything to worry about. But who was it and why couldn't I see her? I felt her of course, but I couldn't make a connection and that bothered me. "Someday, I hope you reveal yourself to me." I spoke to her softly then turned and left the room. Alex did not follow me.

  Kade stood waiting for me at the bottom of the stairs and when I was close enough, he took my hand and we laced our fingers together. In companionable silence, each of us lost in our own thoughts, we headed for the second set of stairs.

  It wasn’t until we passed the living room that Kade broke the silence. "So how is your story coming along? With all the excitement last night, we didn't get to talk about our projects all that much."

  We entered the Sun Room and instead of going to our respective work areas, we went to the sofa and sat down. Our hands still entwined, we sat snuggled together.

  "I think Naylee was an herbalist, Kade. She had dried herbs and flowers hanging by bundles everywhere. She had containers holding more stuff and there was bark and twigs scattered around the room. I saw it all so clearly in my mind while I was typing it. There were shelves and shelves of tins and jars holding grains and seeds and mixtures."

  "You said that girl who was in love with the guy in the Buck family was an herbalist. Remember? Is it her?"

  "She died young though, Kade. Naylee is old."

  "Then she must be the "young one" that Naylee is addressing. Maybe it's that girl she's talking about."

  "Yes." This was the second time Kade was making that connection and I think he had it right. If that was indeed the case, how interesting to have my haunting tie in to Mary’s.

  I learned a lot of her family history while helping Mary and her family with their ghostly troubles. In fact, her spirits tied in to the supposed cursed monument of Bucksport's town founder Jonathan Buck, which was what drew me to Bucksport in the first place.

  The girl Kade and I thought might be the “young one” is Isidora. She was born in secret and her mother Isabelle, a gifted psychic, died during her birth. Where she grew up no one knew but when she was a teenager, she came back to Bucksport and fell in love with a boy named Elijah, a distant relative of Jonathan Buck's. He betrayed her somehow and she died. How he betrayed her and how she died I did not know.

  Now I was thinking along these lines, it all started making sense. "I'm willing to bet that Naylee was believed to be a witch because of her herbs and potions and whatever she created. You are so right that Isidora could very well be the young one she is teaching her art to. Isidora was also known as a healer and herbalist. She, too, was called a witch, which is how that stupid curse on Buck's monument got started."

  Feeling restless with energy, I stood and paced around the room. It always helped me to think. Thoughts in motion, body in motion. "Naylee mentions that the young one is in love. If she's talking about Isidora then the man she's referring to is Elijah." My heart started pounding with rapid excitement. I was on to something here.

  "Sounds like you need to get writing again, Tess. Maybe more of the puzzle will turn up."

  "How about your drawing? How's it coming along?" I didn't want everything to center around me. Kade's concerns and activities were just as important.

  "Quite well. I captured the moonlight and the shadowed silhouettes perfectly I think." He pushed himself up from the sofa and headed for his easel. "And now that I'm thinking about it, it's time to get to work."

  Nodding in agreement, I went straight to my desk and sat down. It was time to write and learn a little more about Naylee and her young one.

  Naylee was in deep communion with the spirits when the young one charged through the door. She was excited with joy, her aura bright with love and Naylee faced her with a solemn heart knowing she was about to take that joy away.

  “What's wrong? You do not look well." The young one rushed to Naylee's side and knelt next to her. "Tell me what's wrong."

  "The darkness pushes in and steals my visions. I cannot tell you this night, my young one, what will come."

  "But you know something?"

  The young one's bright aura dimmed. Naylee clutched at the pouch in hands still nimble after all these years and yet the weakest they had ever been. Her magick was failing against The Dark. She was tired. She did not have the strength or the focus she needed to face him. Now was his time. His. And that meant it could not be theirs. Not now.

  It hurt in her heart what this meant for the young one. Her soul was pure but her thoughts were clouded by concerns that drew her attention away from the battle with the dark. Naylee heaved a silent, weary sigh. Sometimes the cost of love was high. It was the fate of her line. Someday, someone would break the karmic chain which ended always, in this way. Naylee had hoped the young one would be the answer. But her heart went elsewhere and her sight was shadowed by he whom she loved and he that hated her.

  "We must prepare to battle him tonight, my dear young one."

  Naylee's young charge stood and backed away
, her head shaking in denial for what she knew was truth. "I will not. I am not ready. Besides, this time all will end well. He loves me, Naylee. And he comes tonight to declare his love. I know it."

  "The one who will come is not the one you hope. If he makes it to our door, we will not be strong enough to battle him."

  A racket of agitated screeches broke the silence. Birds. Scores of them. They filled the trees surrounding their cabin and the young one ran to the window. "Crows! Oh no! Oh no, Naylee! The garden ... it is full of crows!"

  “Then he is here." Naylee struggled to her feet and the young one ran to assist her.

  "We must warn..."

  "No time."

  The birds sounded again in one loud outcry then silence.

  The young one’s grip tightened on Naylee’s arm. "What do we do? It might not be The Dark One. It might be ..."

  "Stop. You argue against what you know. This is wasting our time. We must try to hold him away. You must be strong against him. You must, my dear young one."

  "Okay. I can do this. We are the chosen ... part of the Creator. We can do this."

  Naylee watched as the young one's aura brightened to a high glow and hope surged in her tired heart. The more the young one spoke, the more confident she grew and the stronger her light became. It lit up the room and blinded Naylee's failing eyes. Drawing strength from the young one's energy, Naylee squeeze her hand. "Where there are two or more and they become one then victory is won." Perhaps she was wrong. Maybe she underestimated the young one's feelings.

  The door rattled with a series of pounding knocks and the young one pulled away to answer it, her face lit with excitement. "It's him, Naylee! It's him!" She ran to the door and flung it open but the man who stood in the doorway was not who she expected and for a moment she stood uncertain, her light retracting, closing tight around her and keeping away from the dark that encircled him.

  "Who are you and what do you want?"