The bed rocked beneath me as I sobbed and fell to the floor, my nightdress clinging to my sweaty body. My hair smelled foul and dirty; I was a far cry from the once-proud woman I had been. As I slid to the floor, I tangled myself up in the damp sheets. I rolled away from the bed, happy to be free from whatever horrible thing had the strength to shake it so angrily.
And that’s when I saw the red eyes under the bed and the blackness that surrounded them. So surprised was I, so abjectly terrified, that I screamed as if I were on fire. The black shadow crawled toward me. The figure hissed and spat my name again.
Ademar!
No! This cannot be Jacques! This cannot be!
I could not stop screaming, but neither could I think to move or get away from the being that threatened to choke me to death. That was the thought that came into my mind.
I will strangle you, Ademar!
Suddenly, two hands were pulling me off the ground, not strangling me but dragging me out the door.
“No! No!” I struggled against my unknown visitor.
“Vini avek mwen! Come with me now!” The woman’s voice filled me with relief. This was no dead woman but a living one. She smelled of roses and cedar; her hands were cool, and her hair was streaming down her shoulders. She looked like an angel, yes, an angel sent from heaven. Perhaps God did have mercy on murderers.
“He wants to…kill…me…” I couldn’t help but sob like a child. I couldn’t breathe. I felt my throat constricting as if an invisible hand were strangling me. “Help…me…”
She must have been a very strong woman because she dragged me from the room. We were in the hallway now, and Lafonda’s lovely face was over me. Both women appeared as angels, with strange halos flashing about them. My daughter’s dark eyes stared into mine, and they were full of tears. She was talking and asking me questions, but I could not respond. Out of the corner of my eye, I could see the creature crawling along on the ground. It was in the doorway, and the red eyes still shone with hatred. It had bony fingers with long black claws, a long torso and a head like a snake. I could see no legs or lower body. It was all shadow!
My unknown rescuer looked in the direction I pointed as I struggled for air, my arms flailing. “Stop now. Breathe! You must breathe!” Her face was pale as she turned back to me. Yes, she must have seen it! She must have seen the monster!
“Ale ak ou!” she shouted as her hair brushed my face. As if it heard her, the creature slithered back into my room. It crawled backward away from us, its red eyes never breaking my gaze. The strangulation ceased, but my eyes were closing. Would they close forever? My long-held urine released, and my body felt cold. It was growing colder by the second.
No! Please, God! Do not send me to be with Jacques. I am guilty of many things but surely not deserving of such punishment!
Ademar!
And then there was nothing.
Chapter Fourteen—Carrie Jo
My hands were shaking as Ashland handed me a glass of water. It was cool and comforting and real. I needed all the real I could get right now. I couldn’t have been dream walking for too long because the clock in the hallway was striking midnight; it had been close to eleven when Ashland and Midas went upstairs. I was so tired, completely exhausted, actually, but I couldn’t even think about sleeping right now. I was too keyed up. Not to mention that the pair of ghost hunters were staring at me as if they didn’t know what to think about me. I didn’t either, so I didn’t have any advice to share with them. But Ashland gave me a supportive smile. I think he’d gotten quite used to my strangeness, and I loved him for that.
“What happened to you, Carrie Jo?” Cassidy asked as she sat cross-legged on the floor in front of the couch without her sketchbook. She reminded me of a wild, red-haired fairy. Had she walked through a wind tunnel? Midas sat behind her in the metal chair that he dragged from their makeshift desk.
“I went for a walk,” I said as truthfully as I could. I didn’t feel comfortable being deliberately evasive, but it was better than the alternative. How much was too much information?
“And ended up in the attic? I know you couldn’t have passed us, Carrie Jo. We were all three in the upstairs hallway,” Midas said as he looked at Ashland for confirmation. My husband did not play along. The ghost hunter’s voice relayed his suspicion. “Unless you have hidden entrances in this house. I’ve seen the house plans, you know. The drawings suggest that there are some here at Seven Sisters, although the plans don’t really reveal where.”
“Well, we do have those,” I murmured as I sipped my water.
Midas tapped his fingers on the back of the chair as he studied me. “I see. And you have one that leads to the attic?” I studied Ashland for a minute as if to say, Should I tell them? He took my hand as I did my best to explain my strange paranormal ability to the pair. After I offered up the reality of my situation, both Cassidy and Midas sat in stunned silence. It was obvious that they didn’t know how to proceed. Sure, they’d seen orbs, apparitions and God only knows what else, but they’d never met anyone like me. Neither one of them had heard of a psychic dreamer before, and never anyone that could actually dream walk while awake. That didn’t bother me as much as I expected.
“Just to be clear,” Midas said as he cleared his throat, “there are hidden passageways in the house.”
Ashland said, “Not anymore. There used to be several, but we’ve nailed them all shut now. There were too many places where children could get lost, and it’s not safe.”
Midas answered in a gruff voice, “I don’t mean this to sound like a scolding; that’s really not what it is. But if you two can’t be completely honest with us, then I don’t know how I’m supposed to help you. Please, tell us everything and don’t leave anything out, no matter how farfetched you think it may sound to us. I promise you, we have heard things you probably wouldn’t believe either. I want to believe you, but you aren’t making it easy.”
Cassidy twisted her long red hair as she watched me. She was studying me with a strange intensity. I knew without her saying so that she would be drawing me; it was like she was memorizing every line of my face. I was sure I wasn’t looking my best right now, and her scrutiny made me feel uncomfortable, but she was such a nice person that I chose to overlook her unnerving study.
“Okay. Fair enough. Here’s the truth: I can go into dreams even when I’m not asleep. It’s a kind of psychic knowing, a type of clairvoyance but in a very focused manner.”
Midas swallowed and said, “Explain that, please. I know what a psychic knower is, but I’ve never heard of dream walking.”
“I don’t think there are many of us, or at least I’ve not met many. Just one besides my family. My mother could do it, my son and niece can, and so can I.”
“What’s it like, Carrie Jo?”
“It’s like seeing reruns of things that happened before. But not mundane things, normally. Past events from people in this house. I can experience them like I am them sometimes; other times, I just watch them like an invisible person.”
“During these dream walking sessions, you actually move around geographically? Isn’t that dangerous? Do you wake up outside Seven Sisters? How can you possibly know how these portals are connected?” Cassidy continued twisting her hair. Her eyes were wide and fearful. I could tell she was afraid for me.
“I don’t know how all that works, but I always land home just fine. Usually just in another part of the house. Like tonight. When Jacinta was strangled, I woke up in the attic. Well, you know that part. You all found me there.”
“So she was strangled,” Cassidy said as her hand went to her throat. “The lady with the dark hair.” I nodded, but neither of us said anything else.
Midas shook his head like he really wasn’t sure what to do with this information. “Does the dream walking only happen here at Seven Sisters? Have you been able to do this all your life?”
“Not like this. The actual dream walking only began recently. Well, pretty recently. But my dr
eams have always been very vivid and very intense. Just ask Ashland.”
Cassidy asked quietly, “You saw who was up there, didn’t you? Not just that lady. I can usually get a bead on who is haunting a place, but it’s different here. There are—no, were—so many. And they are all tangled up, like they’re caught in a spiritual spider web.”
“Yes, I saw something from Jacinta’s viewpoint, and I’ve never seen anything like it. It was a thing, not a straight-up ghost.”
Cassidy snapped her fingers as if she just remembered something important. “Can I show you my sketches? Can you tell me if what I’ve drawn is what you saw?”
“Yes, I’ll never forget what I saw.” I sipped my water and put the glass on the table beside me. Midas’ intense stare was making me uneasy. Ashland’s arm went around my shoulders protectively.
Cassidy handed me her sketchbook, but I already knew what I would find there. I’d already taken a peek at her work. The black-as-coal apparition with the red eyes was nowhere in there. As I went through the pictures, both Ashland and I recognized some of the faces and I told her as much.
“These are ghosts that have been here before. This is Christine Cottonwood; she’s at peace right now, but she has been known to turn up when something happens with the kids. She’s very protective and very sweet. This is Lafonda Delarosa; I don’t believe she would be malicious. The way it works is if you’re good in life, you are good in death. If you’re evil in life, that doesn’t change when you die.”
“That hasn’t always been the case for me,” Midas shared cryptically.
I continued to flip through the sketchbook. “Jacinta believed she saw a monster, and I have to agree with her. This thing under the bed, it was very real to her. It was charcoal-black with rough snakelike skin. It had these two red eyes, kind of long arms and no lower body.” Cassidy began to sketch away as I described the being. “It looked like it was coming up out of the floor, but I can’t be sure. Sometimes what I see is obscured or different because of whose eyes I’m looking through.” Even though Jacinta did not have clean hands, she certainly did not deserve to be tormented by whatever it was that targeted her. “She believed that her old lover, her husband’s brother, wanted revenge. I’m not sure that’s correct, but it might be something to go on.”
The four of us sat in stunned silence for a little while; I think we were all waiting to detect any other sounds or happenings. I heard nothing, and the feelings of anxiety and fear were subsiding now. Thankfully, those would remain in Jacinta’s world. What I had experienced had not crossed over into my time because if it had I’m sure this thing would have manifested itself. Maybe it was exhausted? I knew it took a lot of energy for apparitions to show themselves. This was a kind of apparition, wasn’t it?
“Although I hate to leave, I think we should. We will do more tomorrow when we have the full team here. Take my advice, Ashland, Carrie Jo. Stay down here tonight. I don’t want to promote fear or make things harder for you, but I think it would be a wise idea for you guys to camp out here in the Blue Room. Except for Carrie Jo’s walk, nothing much has happened in this room tonight. I’m willing to go on a little faith and say this entity probably doesn’t like this room. It really is the lightest room in the house right now.”
Cassidy began to stuff her supplies back into her book bag. She wasn’t saying much, but I could tell she wanted to tell me something. “What is it, Cassidy?”
“I’m usually not wrong about my drawings. The fact that I wasn’t able to capture this creature with a sketch bothers me. Not because I have to be right all the time but because I feel like this, whatever it is, is playing games with us. Thanks to you, I know what to look for, but this is highly unusual for me. I think it is taunting me. Taunting us all. I don’t know. I’m probably just tired, but I do agree with Midas. I would feel better if you two stayed down here tonight. In fact, I will go one further. I think you should get a hotel room. But that’s just me.”
Her thoughtful answer surprised me, but I didn’t want to go anywhere. Seven Sisters was my home, and we’d done so much fighting already to keep it that I wasn’t willing to give even one inch to this thing.
Thankfully, Ashland agreed with me. “I appreciate the concern, but we are not going anywhere. We will do as you ask, though, and crash here in the Blue Room. I will text Rachel in the morning and ask her to keep the kids a few more days. It’s clear to me that we won’t be wrapping this up anytime soon. Thank you again, Midas and Cassidy, for coming. It means a lot to us to have you here.”
The two men shook hands, and Midas spoke quietly to Ashland while Cassidy and I led the way to the front door. She was still quiet and clearly concerned about what she had shared. I felt like I needed to put her mind at ease. “We’ll be just fine tonight. My friend sent us some candles that are supposed to be useful for protection. We will put one in the doorway and one in the window. Don’t worry about us.”
“Just don’t go for any walks while we are gone. This thing is some kind of trickster. Yeah, I can feel that. Don’t trust it. Don’t trust anything coming out of the supernatural realm right now because this trickster is working hard to put you in a bad position. I don’t know why I’m saying this; I don’t have the kind of abilities Sierra or Beverly have, but I mean this. Avoid dreaming and dream walking as much as you can right now. You are really open to these other dimensions, places—whatever you want to call them—and that’s a good thing most of the time. But the fact that you’re so open and the presence of this trickster in your home could put you at risk.”
That made perfect sense. I promised her I would not intentionally dream walk during the rest of the investigation. I wasn’t sure how much I could actually do to prevent a walk, but in the interest of protecting myself and keeping peace with the paranormal team, I agreed. As we said our goodbyes, I felt a strange sort of peace come over me. No, we didn’t have any answers, not yet. We hadn’t seen the ugliest part of whatever this was, but I felt like we were in good company. Henri had come through for us in a big way. Again I found myself wondering if we shouldn’t have called the big man and invited him to attend, but I knew Detra Ann would never have forgiven me for that. She was doing her best to steer clear of anything paranormal, and I had to respect that.
As we watched them drive away, I felt tired. Kind of empty. But as tired as I was, I couldn’t take the chance that I would dream. Ashland and I went upstairs to change our clothes and get ready for bed. Just as a precaution I took a sleeping pill, one that had been prescribed to me a long time ago. I wasn’t even sure it had any potency left in it, but I had to give it a try.
“Ashland, I want to stay in our room tonight. Let’s just put the candles in here.”
“You heard what Midas said. Don’t you think we should stay downstairs?”
I shook my head as I put my hair up in a messy bun. “As long as you’re with me, I’ll be just fine.” I cracked a playful smile at him and added, “But if you’re afraid…”
“Whatever. Let’s light those candles and get to bed. Did you happen to bring them up, or should I go get them?”
“You’ll have to get them. We’ll need some matches too, babe.”
He looked uncertain but opened the door. “If you hear anything, just shout.”
“I’m fine, Ashland. Just don’t trip over cameras or cords.”
I rubbed pleasant-smelling lavender lotion on my hands and feet as I waited for Ashland. It was a gift from Detra Ann that was supposed to help with sleep. I was willing to give it a try tonight. It didn’t take long, and I quietly breathed a sigh of relief at seeing him return. We set the candles by the door, and I lit them. But then I had second thoughts, an irrational fear. But maybe it wasn’t really irrational. What if we burned the house down trying to keep the evil spirits out? Cassidy did warn me that this thing was a trickster.
I blew the candles out, and Ashland said, “What are you doing?”
“We can’t leave open flames burning in here. What are we
thinking? Let’s just leave the candles where they are. On second thought, let’s do this instead.” I grabbed the dresser and began shoving it toward the door. I was very sure that creatures like this apparition didn’t need doorways, but having the dresser in front of the door as a kind of barrier made me feel a little better. We put the unlit candles on top.
Ashland and I crawled into bed, both of us exhausted but neither one of us sleeping. We chatted a little while and not about ghosts. Soon he was sleeping peacefully, his light snoring letting me know that all was well in his quiet repose. I was beginning to feel the effects of the sleeping pill and wanted to close my eyes too, but I couldn’t be sure that I wouldn’t dream. In the end, the sleeping pill won. I felt myself drifting off into that other world, a world I knew well. It was my second home, the place I felt the most comfortable—the most alive.
No. That’s not true. I feel most at home with my family, with Ashland. I can’t do this! Not like this!
I was supposed to sleep, not dream! Before I knew it, I was stepping into the world where the trickster roamed. I would be at its mercy in my current condition.
Fight it, Carrie Jo! You don’t have to dream. The dream world doesn’t control you; you control it.
Yeah, that sounded good, but I knew it wasn’t the truth. It had never been the truth. All I could do was try to stay awake. Maybe if I woke up Ashland. Maybe…
And then, despite my best intentions, I was dreaming.
Chapter Fifteen—Jacinta
“Mama, it was just a dream. You are exhausted and half-starved. What would Papa say if he saw you like this? A bath and some rest will have you feeling better in no time.”
I burst into tears at the mention of Nobel. I murmured a tired response, but I could not bring myself to look Lafonda in the eyes. Eyes that looked so much like her father’s. Lady Rose was here in the ladies’ parlor too. She wasn’t engaged in our conversation, but I had no doubt she was observing everything. Having her close brought me peace. She knew what I saw was real—she’d spoken to it. She’d commanded it to leave me be. I was so tired, but to sleep…to return to that room? That I could not do. And despite my daughter’s attempts to shove me back into my prison, I refused to go. She could not compel me to return. Nobody could do that.
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