Be Still, My Love

by Deborah J. Hughes

  Hank turned in his seat and narrowed his pale blue eyes in curiosity. “Why you want that, Tess?”

  “I read that sage helps to clear a room of negative energy. I believe there is a lot of negative energy up in the turret room. I’d like to burn some sage up there and see what we can do about getting rid of the ghosts.”

  George stopped what he was doing, placed his hands on the counter and leaned toward me. “You know a lot about that kind of stuff?”

  “No, not a lot. I told you, I read it somewhere. It’s worth a try.”

  Hank stood, patted my shoulder. “Well, you just be careful, little lady. I don’t know why that turret room scares so many people, but I sure don’t want anything to happen to you.” He gave me a wink, waved at George, and headed out the door towards the front of the house.

  George wiped his hands on a towel, opened a door to the left of us that appeared to be a pantry and came out holding a small bundle of dried sage. “Is this enough?”

  I smiled, took the bundle from him, sniffed appreciatively. “Perfect. Thank you.”

  “You sure that is going to solve the problems around here? Hank said Modesta told him that couple was right terrified over what happened to them last night. Don’t you think it would be better to leave well enough alone? I would hate to see things get stirred up around here.”

  “I don’t know if it will solve anything, but it can’t hurt to give it a try.” I headed for the door. “Thanks, George. Can’t wait for dinner!”

  When I got to the living room, Nancy, Jack and Kade were waiting. They all looked relieved when I walked in and I wondered what they were talking about before my arrival. “I got some sage from George. It’s believed that burning this herb will help clear an area of negative energy. I’m going to need a lighter or some matches as well.”

  Kade pulled a lighter out of his pocket. “Got one.”

  “Great. Are we ready then?” Nancy and Jack walked out of the room first and I fell into step with Kade.

  “I walked around the area this morning, checked around the fountain, tried to see if I could find any indication of someone being there last night, but I didn’t find anything.” Kade placed a hand on my back as we started up the stairs. It was such a man thing to do … a thoughtful touch, guiding, protective.

  I tried to ignore his hand but found myself more focused than ever on his touch. It was a struggle to force my attention back to our conversation. “Let’s hope I have better luck then.” When we got to the turret room, I lit the dried sage and waved the fragrant smoke around the room. I also opened the door to the balcony and waved some out there. When the sage burned almost down to my fingers, I set the herb on the parapet wall, let it burn itself out, then crumbled the remains and spread them about the balcony. That done, I brushed off my hands, walked back into the turret room and sat in the rocking chair. Nancy and Jack sat on the small sofa and Kade perched himself on the windowsill next to me.

  “I would like to now have all of us close our eyes and imagine this room bathed in light. A soft, white light.” With eyes closed, I continued to speak softly. “Our imagination is a potent thing and has much influence on the world around us. Our thoughts are as real as the physical objects we see. With our thoughts, we can summon much power. This power you do not think of as real because it is of the mind, but believe me, the power of the mind is incredible, beyond belief. In truth, it is our beliefs that limit its power.” The room was very quiet. I opened my eyes briefly to see if they were following my instructions. They were, or at least appeared to as they had their eyes closed, their faces lifted slightly. Eyes closed again, I continued. “The light that we imagine surrounding this room is a protective light. It is God’s light and it will only allow positive energy to come through.” I took a deep breath and began to relax myself into calm. “I ask that you all not be afraid, that you allow the spirits of those connected to this room to come through and talk to me. Keep your thoughts focused on the room being surrounded with protective white light. You may even feel the energy of the room increase … grow warm, maybe even hear a soft hum.” As for me, I felt the vibration in the room speeding up.

  My belief was that the physical earth plane existed in a dense vibratory state. Physical objects were of the lowest form of energy vibration. The lower the vibration, the harder an object appeared. The higher the vibration, the less substance it contained. Those in spirit vibrated to such a high frequency, that it was not possible for our physical eyes to see them. But if those in the Tri-State lowered their frequency, slowed their vibration, then it was possible. Even more so if we raised our own vibrational awareness. This was done through intense focus and concentration.

  Cobwebs brushed my face and I smiled. The room felt warm. Safe. Coldness stole through my skin but not in an uncomfortable way. Those in the Tri-State often had to draw on the energy of the physical plane in order to make themselves known, felt, and especially seen. The coldness I felt was them drawing from my energy. They could only do so with my permission. They could not take it otherwise. I began to shiver just slightly. Abigail was near, I could feel her presence as surely as I felt Kade sitting next to me.

  “She is here.” I spoke softly, not wanting to break the calm atmosphere that had settled over the room. Tears filled my eyes as Abigail’s sorrow stole through me. Somehow I had to separate myself from her feelings or I would be too overwhelmed to continue, so strong was her sorrow. “Why are you still here, Abigail?” I spoke out loud for the benefit of the others. Those in spirit could communicate quite easily without the spoken word.

  Abigail’s sorrow flowed around me and tears continued to fill my eyes and spill over. I wanted to sob and had to make an effort not to do so. How to ease her pain? “What can we do, Abigail?” I heard someone sniffle and opened my eyes. Nancy was covering her mouth in an effort to stem the sounds of her crying. Her eyes swam with tears as her gaze met mine. “It’s Abigail you feel, Nancy. She is very sad.” Jack and Kade now had their eyes open as well. Jack put an arm around Nancy and pulled her close.

  Since I didn’t want them to distract me, I closed my eyes again and immediately pictured a girl in my mind. She had long dark hair and wore a simple green dress. Her eyes were almost too big for her face. They were large brown eyes and they were filled with fear. I sensed immediately that Abigail was trying to warn me. I stood and walked to the balcony door. Kade got there ahead of me, blocking my way.

  “You aren’t going out there, Tess.”

  I looked at him but it wasn’t him that I saw. I saw Abigail so strongly in my mind’s eye that I couldn’t even focus my sight on anything but her. Abigail reached for the door. I did the same. Something was drawing her outside. “Please, Kade, come with me if you wish, but let me go out there.”

  Kade stepped back enough to let me open the door. He walked out to the balcony ahead of me and stood near the parapet as if to be sure I didn’t end up going over it. As soon as I cleared the door, it slammed shut behind me. Startled, I turned and tried the knob. Kade was beside me in an instant. I touched his shoulder and fought for calm. “It’s okay. She’s showing me. It’s okay.” I turned and looked toward the shoreline and saw a boy standing on the grassy knoll at the edge of the lawn. He looked to be about nineteen or so. He simply stood there and looked at us, his longish brown hair blowing about in the breeze. I raised a hand, held it toward him and he raised a hand as well. What was keeping them apart? I felt their yearning, understood it, for I had felt such feelings myself … for Mike. Suddenly, the skin on my neck prickled and something cold slid along my spine. The menacing presence was here now as well.

  Abigail swung around and I did the same. Kade stood quite close. He was in full protective mode. I saw him brace himself and glance carefully around him. We were not alone … Kade, Abigail and I. My heart pounded as fear raced across my skin, prickling the hairs on my arms and nape. “What, Abigail? What are you afraid of?”

  “Go away, Tess. Go away!” I heard her voice as c
lear as I heard my own and flinched at the urgency of it. The words themselves were quite disturbing for the message was for me. Only me.

  “No, I’m not leaving.” Why would she want me to leave anyway? I was here to help her. “Why are you here, Abigail?” Something pushed at my back and I tottered off balance. Kade put an arm around me, drew me close. He spoke in my ear.

  “I’m not going to let you fall.”

  I drew comfort from him for just a moment and that weakened my focus. Abigail was gone. The balcony door opened and I saw Nancy and Jack standing in the middle of the room. Nancy’s eyes were wide with fright and Jack looked incredulous. I pulled away from Kade, smiled my thanks, felt like caressing his cheek, which of course I did not do, and walked back into the turret room. “Did you see something?”

  Nancy shook her head. “Yes … no … no, we didn’t see anything, but we heard something. Like scratches in the wall. And then banging and the walls were shaking. You didn’t hear it?”

  “No. Tell me where the sound came from?”

  Jack pointed to the wall behind the sofa. “The banging came from there.” He didn’t know what to make of it and shook his head. “Something is in the wall. Something big.”

  I walked to the sofa, rested my knees on the cushion and lay my hand on the wall behind it. A shiver passed through me, my sense of awareness heightened. I looked at Jack. “What’s behind this wall?”

  “Shouldn’t be anything behind that wall, maybe some empty space,” Jack said. “The wall here connects to the turret stairs. If you opened this wall…all you should see is the roof. Go down the stairs one level, beneath where that part of the roof covers and there is a room. Used to be a bedroom I think. We use it for storage. The ceiling slants because it’s below the roof. It may have been an attic at one time until they added on the turret.”

  “Can you show me that room?”

  Nancy seemed only too happy to leave, she headed for the stairs with a sense of purpose and we all followed her. Once we were all gathered in the downstairs hall, Jack pulled out a ring of keys and opened a door next to the one that led up to the turret. He flipped a switch on the wall next to the door and the room within lit with light. It was a long and narrow room. As Jack said, the entire ceiling slanted sharply because of the roof. On this end, you could stand straight, but the rest of the room narrowed to just about four feet in height. There were no windows. A few boxes and plastic bins were stacked neatly against the high part of the wall. I walked into the room and looked carefully at the ceiling. Slowly, I turned and looked at the wall that ran adjacent to the turret stairs. A large mirror hung on that wall. It looked very old and very heavy.

  “That was there when we moved in. Didn’t make sense to move it as we had no intention of using it or the room for anything other than storage,” Jack said.

  “You don’t know what this room was used for in the past?” I asked.

  Nancy stood at the door, she didn’t come in and neither did Kade. “I think the Morgans used this room as a play room for the kids when they were little. I don’t know what it was used for before that.”

  My instincts told me this room held significance. But what? How? “Do you keep this door locked at all times? Can anyone else come in here?”

  “The door is always locked,” Jack said. “I have the only key.”

  “Do you think something happened in here too, Tess?” Nancy looked ill at the very thought.

  “No.” Something bad did not happen here, yet the room held significance in some way. I had no clue as to what that significance was. I walked out of the room and Jack pulled the door closed and locked it. “I think things will be quiet in the turret for now. Your guests should be okay, Nancy. Really.”

  Nancy looked relieved. “But, you really didn’t communicate with her much did you?”

  “No, I didn’t. I feel Abigail is trying to warn us. That is why she is so active, why her energy is stirred up. The fact that I got that message–that she wants us to be careful … well, I think she will be quiet for a while.” I didn’t clarify that the warning was more specifically for me. If I divulged that bit of information, I was worried Nancy and Jack would have me packed and off the property before night fell.

  “What was the pounding in the wall all about?” Jack asked. Clearly this was his first brush with the ghost. Other than his hearing Nathan’s distress call from the beach.

  “I don’t know. Maybe it was to get your attention. You were pretty skeptical when we started out.” I smiled to show Jack I meant no criticism.

  Jack sighed, rubbed the back of his neck. “Well, I got the message, now what?”

  “I’m not sure. I’m going to go out to the garden in a bit … sit near the fountain. If I get anything else, I’ll be sure to tell you.”

  We all walked down to the first floor. Nancy gave me a hug, told me she’d talk with me later and headed for the front desk where Modesta hovered anxiously. Jack bid us farewell and headed for his office. That left Kade and me. We turned together and walked down the hall to the back door and out into the garden.

  “I’m going to go work on one of my paintings. It’s a commissioned piece and I have to get it done. You going to be okay here?” Kade pulled his cell phone from his pocket, checked his signal. “Have your phone on you?”

  “No, I left it in my cottage but I’ll go get it. I need to make a couple calls anyway. I’m sure my friends are wondering why I haven’t called them yet.” We walked together down the path toward our cottages. “I’ll call if anything happens but I think it’s going to be quiet for a while.”

  Kade stopped where our paths separated and touched my hand, grabbed it and squeezed gently. “Please don’t hesitate to call … for whatever reason.”

  “I won’t.” I gently pulled my hand away, my face hot with embarrassment. Why his touch should bother me I don’t know. I didn’t like that I reacted in any way at all. I needed to do something with that hand and erase the feeling of his touch, so I pushed my hair back from my face. “I’ll see you at dinner if not before then.”

  “Okay, Tess.” Kade headed for his cottage and I turned toward mine but then hesitated a moment and looked back toward the house. Raymond was working on the fountain again. He sat on the ground, the pump in his hand and a perplexed look on his handsome face. Hank stood next to him, saw me looking their way and tipped his hat in greeting. I waved back and turned away. If they were going to work in the garden, then I should head for the shore. I wanted to be alone for a while and get my thoughts together. It rattled me that Abigail’s warning was meant for me. Did my presence here upset them? Or maybe it upset someone else? Maybe it was my ability that had things all stirred up. I couldn’t shake the feeling that someone didn’t want me contacting the Tri-State. At the very least, they didn’t want me talking to Abigail and that worried me. It worried me a lot.

  CHAPTER FIFTEEN

  When I got to my cottage, I grabbed my cell phone and noticed the battery was low. Obviously calling both Fran and Marly was not going to be possible, as I had no illusions that either of them would be content with a quick call. It had to be Marly then because I really wanted to hear how she and the baby were doing.

  The first part of our conversation was all about the baby, but then Marly began drilling me with questions. She wanted to know about everything, the resort, everyone I'd met. Marly was nothing if not persistent. She wanted to know every detail about the haunting and was particularly intrigued when I mentioned Kade. She had to know all about him. I did not want Marly to get any ideas about Kade or misconstrue our relationship, so I answered her questions guardedly. Leave it to her to pick up on that. It was a relief to have the excuse of the phone battery dying to end our conversation. Heaving a long sigh because I was getting that confused feeling again and I hated confusion, I took a deep calming breath, plugged my phone into the charger, grabbed a bottled water from the fridge and headed for the door.

  Ideally I was hoping to sit near the fountain awhile b
ut a quick check informed me that Raymond was still working on it. I didn’t see Hank. That left the shoreline. But as I looked in that direction, I didn't really feel any pull to walk there. Then my gaze traveled over the grassy area that followed along the shoreline, more specifically, the knoll where I had seen the boy earlier when communicating with Abigail. Feeling a sense of purpose, I headed for the spot where Nathan had been standing. I was quite sure it was him that I had seen. When I got there, however, I felt nothing. No stirrings of anything. Disappointed but not surprised, I turned my attention toward the high point of the peninsula. It was a sharp rise to about ten feet above the shore and then sloped down on the other side toward an area thick with brush and brambles. Beyond that were tall pines that separated Sea Willow Haven from the next property and I could see glimpses of a large white house through the trees. No surprise there for all the homes along the shore were huge mansion type structures. Only the very wealthy could afford to live along Maine’s vast oceanfront.

  When I finally reached the top of the peninsula, I leaned against a scraggly, twisted pine tree clinging precariously to the edge of the point. A slight breeze was blowing and I lifted my face to it, enjoying the fresh salty scent. My peaceful enjoyment lasted only a moment before a chill quivered across my back and I swung around. Though I saw nothing behind me, I felt a presence so strong it amazed me I could not see it. Keeping my mind as clear as possible, I moved away from the tree. The fact I felt a presence made me feel the area held significance of some sort. As I stood there trying to figure out my next move, I noticed a large flat rock lying on the grass a couple feet in front of me. It didn’t look like it had been there all that long. I walked over to it and again felt a chill. My eyes scanned the area. An old stump protruded a short distance away and next to it a brown patch of grass about the same size as the rock lying at my feet. I started toward it and felt the ground shake beneath my feet. Curious, I took another step. The excitement racing through me told me I was about to make an important discovery. I took another step and the ground suddenly began to give way. Frightened, I tried to take a step back but a cold mass of air pushed against me and set me off balance. As I struggled to remain standing, another shove took care of it.