Twisted Echoes

by Sheri Lewis Wohl

  Even after the glass of wine was gone, nothing changed. There was more in the kitchen, and maybe she should fill her glass again. She didn’t move. Alone in the dark, nothing even remotely paranormal happened, and she didn’t think more wine was going to change that. Whatever secrets the house had to spill, apparently, it didn’t want to spill them to her. Lorna appeared to be the vessel of choice.

  Renee retraced her steps to the kitchen. She touched the open wine bottle and thought about another glass. Just as quickly, she rejected the idea. The tiny buzz she earned with the first glass would help her sleep even if it didn’t open the door to the household spirits. Sleep was going to have to be enough for now. She found a stopper for the wine bottle, washed up her glass, and turned out the kitchen lights. Back in her room, she slid under the covers and pushed, fighting a reluctant-to-move Clancy for her six inches of the bed.

  *

  From the darkness of the balcony, the Watcher studied her through the windows, the rain blurring her features. Even with the rain distorting her face, she was a pretty woman. The wine had opened her to him and he’d been able to look inside. Her heart was good and she would be useful, though not like the other. The power to part the veil dividing the worlds of the living and the dead was not within her. She would not see the women who longed for peace and could not find it. She would not step into the memories of another to discover the love or the tragedy that brought them to this place. But she would give the other strength, and that was a priceless gift. In fact, it could be the one thing that would bring this all together at last.

  His hopes rose in a way that made his heart lighter. He turned his face to the sky and let the cool rain mingle with his hot tears. Above all, he longed to grant them peace, and to release their souls into heaven. They deserved it, and that it had been denied them was so dreadfully wrong.

  Alone, he had been ineffectual in his quest to right the awful wrong visited upon the women in this very house. But he was no longer alone. Despite the fact they were unaware of the roles they were to play, they would unite in a common quest. All the positive signs to the contrary, he’d worried they would not see or understand their path. Tonight, all worry vanished like a fog that suddenly lifted to let in rays of sunshine.

  Pure hearts. Honorable motives. For eons, he’d been a solitary figure. Then she came and there were two. Today, it changed again. God had smiled on him at last, and now there were three.

  A blast of cold struck him in the face as though a hand slapped him. With a gasp he put his palm against his cheek. The skin was warm to the touch. Fear knotted in his gut. This was not possible. None could touch him. Not in the realm in which he existed. It was his alone.

  He whirled, seeking the source of the assault. He scanned the world around him only to discover nothing and no one. He was alone in the darkness and the rain. A shiver slid down his spine. Time was running out.

  *

  Lorna sat on the edge of her bed and stared at the necklace. In the light of the bedside lamp, it glowed beautiful. In perfect condition, it was as beautiful as if it had been crafted just yesterday. She felt deeply that wasn’t true and there was a bit of research to back it up too. After she’d left Renee and holed up in her bedroom, a little Internet searching had offered up a bit of information. Odd as it seemed given how perfect the piece was, it was an antique. The archive photos placed it at least a hundred years old, probably older.

  Yet something about it wasn’t right. How could something this delicate be so perfect some ten decades down the road? It didn’t make sense. Lorna leaned over and gingerly picked it up. Her hands shook as it lay against her palm. Red and blue beads were strung between the finely carved whalebone, pale and milky in the light of her bedside lamp. Someone had spent many long hours crafting the piece. To her, this felt like a labor of love. It might be her imagination, but then again, it might not. Deep emotion had a way of staying around even in an inanimate object…like a necklace.

  Her fingers still trembling, she rolled the beads between her fingers. When she’d touched it at the beach, everything had swirled dark and crazy before dropping her to the sand. Her knees had buckled so quickly she wouldn’t have been able to stay on her feet no matter how hard she tried. Then, she’d seen the women as if they’d been right in front of her close enough she could have reached out to touch them. The same women she’d seen in the living room.

  By simply listening, Renee had taken a huge burden off her shoulders…sort of. Renee’s claim to be able to see auras was, well, interesting. In the past, anyone who said they had preternatural abilities was written off in her book. She just didn’t believe in that kind of crap.

  Still didn’t want to believe. Except now, her steadfast belief in the natural world was beginning to waver. What had been happening to her since she’d come to this house had only two possible explanations: declining mental capacity or preternatural inclinations. The latter actually seemed to be the better option at the moment.

  And what was with a black streak in her aura? At least that’s the way Renee described it. A spirit trying to connect with her. A couple of weeks ago, she’d have declared it bullshit. Tonight, she wasn’t so quick to call it BS. She didn’t know about swirling colors that surrounded her body; she sure didn’t see anything even if Renee swore they were there. As to the spirit trying to touch her, she was starting to think there could be something to that. The part that bothered her the most was the black streak. Just as she’d researched the necklace, she’d done the same thing with auras. Renee was right; black wasn’t a good thing.

  “What do you want?” she whispered as she stared down at the finely carved whalebone. “What do you want from me?”

  Darkness began to tinge the edges of her vision, and her stomach turned. Her fingers tingled where they tightened around the whalebone beads. It was happening…again.

  The flickering glow of the fire was the only light in the room. Upon the bed, they were entwined in each other’s arms. The velvet spread in a glorious shade of burgundy was in a pool at their feet. Their voices were low as they kissed and whispered. She didn’t want him to hear.

  “We must leave here, Catherine.” Her need to get away from here was a desperation that almost hurt.

  Shaking her head, Catherine said softly, “My beautiful Tiana, I cannot, for this is my home. It has been the home of my people for more lifetimes than I can count. I would not know how to live without both you and this place.”

  “They will tear us apart.” She knew it would be so. Even together they were not strong enough to fight him.

  “Please, please do not ask me to give up my home. I cannot.”

  She kissed her head and held her close. “I will not do that. I love you, dear Catherine, and I will be at your side always no matter where we are. I will not let them take you away from me. You are my heart.”

  Tears began to streak down Catherine’s face, her sobs quiet in the darkened room. “I cannot leave here. I cannot leave you, and yet I feel danger touching my shoulder. I worry harm will come to us both.”

  The fire crackled as one of the windows crashed open, a strong draft of cold air making them shiver and grab at the velvet spread.

  Tiana pulled the spread up and around Catherine’s shoulders. Tears glittered in her eyes as she gazed upon her. “I will be with you always. I promise.”

  Lorna dropped the necklace, and her room came back into focus. The bed beneath her was soft and warm, the hard wind battering at the closed window. The rest of the house was quiet. Everyone had turned in for the night as darkness had taken the storm even darker, heavier. It was much like the dream or the vision or whatever it was.

  The same heaviness lay on her heart, and she didn’t really know why. Or did she? By all appearances, she was losing her mind. Visions were coming at her like gunfire. Sane people didn’t see the kinds of things she was seeing and hearing.

  As disconcerting as it was, at her core, she felt anything but crazy. Instead, a sense of profou
nd sanity enveloped her. Yeah, she was seeing things…or more precisely, seeing and hearing two women. The same two women over and over. Nothing about it appeared random, and if she were truly losing her mind, surely things would be more chaotic. Right?

  The fact that nothing like this had ever happened to her before coming to this house made her wonder even more about the possibility of other realms. She wasn’t a big fan of the spooky reality shows so popular these days, and yet she questioned if there was something to them that she’d blatantly discounted. Perhaps a little too quick to pass judgment on things she didn’t understand.

  Renee’s claim that her aura showed signs of a spirit connection had her thinking. Maybe there was something to it. At least it was a partial explanation to the things happening to her and why touching things from the past seemed to bring the past into Technicolor reality. Sure sounded better than her losing it.

  The bigger question was: Why her? She wasn’t anyone special and had no claim to any unique abilities. A private life was a perfect life. No visions, no connections, no complications. That’s the way she liked it, especially right now. Getting too connected and too close was how she ended up here in the first place. Maybe some errant spirit thought she was an easy touch, but it would be wrong. All she had to do was keep her mind closed and that should take care of things. That black streak would have no choice but to find another host to bother.

  No time like the present to start being carefully closed up. With a pen, she picked up the necklace from where it had fallen to the bed top and laid it on the nightstand. If she didn’t touch it, no visions. Easy peasy. She opened the bedside table drawer and dropped it off the end of the pen and into the drawer. Take that, spirits.

  With the necklace safely out of the way, she pulled back the covers and slid beneath them. After turning out the lights, she laid back against the pillows. For a long time, she stared at the ceiling watching the play of shadows as they danced.

  Chapter Ten

  Jeremy came into the kitchen before the sun came up. He’d managed a few hours of sleep, though not many. It wasn’t just the fact that in contrast to his apartment in Spokane it was incredibly dark and quiet here. He kept thinking about what Merry had told him, and it was all he could do not to jump up and drive back to Spokane. He wanted to see her face-to-face. No, he needed to see her.

  Over the phone, she didn’t sound completely convinced about how he really felt. How he gave her the impression that he’d be upset over a child was beyond him. More than anything, he wanted to pull her into his arms, kiss her deeply, and tell her how wonderful it was. Once she looked into his eyes, he hoped like hell any doubts she had would disappear.

  A baby? How incredible was that? His childhood had been great, and he’d always known that someday he’d have kids of his own. He hoped they would have the same kind of rough and tumble fun that had made him and Lorna so close. All he had to do was see her and he could make it right.

  When he stepped through the kitchen door, he was smiling broadly but so wrapped up in his own thoughts he didn’t realize at first that the lights were on. Right after he did, he fixated on Lorna sitting cross-legged on a chair, her laptop on the table in front of her. A soda can, a coffee mug, and a box of crackers littered the table in a halo around her computer.

  Geez, how long had she been up? Or had she even gone to bed at all? The obvious clues said she’d been here for hours. Like the fact the coffee carafe was half-full and it didn’t smell fresh either. That pot of coffee had definitely been on the warmer for a while. The acrid scent made him wrinkle his nose.

  “What’s got you up so early?” he asked as he thought about pouring himself a cup of the sludge in the carafe in spite of the strong odor. He changed his mind after he picked up the pot and got a good strong whiff. It was way worse close up, and no way was he putting that sludge in his body. He dumped it down the drain and began making a fresh pot.

  “Doing a little digging.” She didn’t look up from her computer, just reached over for her coffee mug and sipped while her eyes still scanned the computer screen.

  “What kind of digging? You working on a new project?” She was a technical writer who always had more work than she could handle. It was one of the perks of being good, reasonable, and punctual. With an impressive list of clients who were always sending work her way, Lorna had carved out a niche for herself in a competitive market.

  She still didn’t look up. “Not exactly. This is more personal.”

  He pulled out a chair and sat at the table. “Care to share?”

  Finally, she looked up at him. His question as to whether she’d been at this all night was answered by the dusky circles beneath her eyes.

  He studied her face. “Did you go to bed at all?”

  She shrugged. “Sure I did. Got an hour or two.”

  An hour maybe. “Seriously? That doesn’t count as going to bed. That’s a nap.”

  “Nap. Sleep. All the same. Besides, I couldn’t turn my brain off and didn’t see the point in tossing and turning when I could be doing something more constructive.”

  “Well then, you gotta tell me what’s so fascinating you opted to blow off a whole night’s sleep. Not like you to give up the zzz’s.”

  She turned her gaze away from him, and for a long time didn’t say a word. Finally, she said slowly, “I don’t know…”

  The smell of freshly brewed coffee filled the room, and sun began to stream through the window, a great sight after the stormy night. Together with his excitement over the baby, he should be feeling on top of the world. The vibes rolling off his sister, however, set him back. “Lorna, it’s me. You’ve told me everything since before I could even talk.”

  That brought a ghost of a smile to her face and banished the weariness around her eyes in a heartbeat. Better. “True story, but if I tell you this, you might have me committed.”

  “Naw,” he said with a big smile, hoping to encourage her to share whatever concerned her enough to forfeit a full night’s sleep. “Not until I have you sign everything over to me first.”

  Her laugh sounded wonderful. “Gold digger.”

  He nodded and gave her a thumbs up. His uneasiness faded. This was sounding like the sister he knew and loved. “Yup, guilty as charged. Now seriously, sister, what are you up to?”

  Her smile vanished and her eyes grew serious again. “You really are going to think I’m nuts, Jeremy, and I won’t blame you a bit. At first, I thought I was losing it too. Things took a turn yesterday, and while I still don’t understand what’s happening, I’m pretty certain now that I’m not ready for the psych ward.”

  “Honey, don’t mean to burst your bubble, but you’ve been ready for the psych ward since we were kids. I love you anyway ’cause we’re family.”

  “Ha ha. Seriously, J, this is some crazy shit that’s real and not real all at the same time.”

  His news was going to have to wait. Lorna was so obviously troubled by something, and he needed to be here for her. Dramatic wasn’t her style. Neither was mysterious. He’d listen and they’d figure it out together just like they’d always done.

  He put a hand on her shoulder. “I love crazy shit, so tell me.”

  *

  As much as she’d wanted to make the call last night, Renee opted to be a good friend and wait until a decent hour in the morning. As far as she was concerned, this was a decent hour. She picked up her cell phone and punched in her friend Mia’s number. If anyone could give her insight and clarification on everything happening around here it was Mia.

  “A glorious morning to you, my little strawberry sunshine.”

  “Mia, you make me laugh.”

  “Of course I do. It’s one of my gifts. Now, where are you? I drove by your place or what’s left of it. That horrid fire was a tragedy of monumental proportions, but you will be fine.”

  “You think?”

  “You know better than to ask me that. I know you’ll be fine. What has you calling me before my second
cup of tea?”

  “I have a friend…”

  “Why, yes, you do.”

  “Not that kind of friend.”

  “Not yet.”

  “Mia…”

  Her laughter was full of joy. “All right, all right, explain so I know how to help you.”

  Renee told her about everything from the tainted auras to the visions Lorna shared with her last night. When she finished, she asked, “What do you think?”

  “First, your friend. She’s psychic, or have you figured that out already?”

  “I had an inkling.”

  “More than an inkling. She’s got it and she’s tapped into what I think are trapped spirits in that house. Until she was in an environment that was rife with spirit presence, her talents hadn’t manifested themselves. Has she had a recent traumatic event?”

  “From what little Mom has told me, she just got out of a long-term relationship and it was quite painful.”

  “That would do it. You couple extreme emotion with a psychic talent and spirits who need help and there you have it. She’s come into her own, and the spirits are trying to reach out to her. There’s always a reason, and she has to find out what it is before she’ll find peace in that house.”

  “Wow, that’s quite a charge.”

  “She’s up to the task. I can feel it.”

  “You don’t even know her.”

  “I know you, and even from this distance away, I sense what you do. She’s special, Renee, as are you.”

  “You’re prejudiced because you like me.”

  “I am at that. I’m also right. My only caution to you is to be careful with your heart. Love is near and you can embrace it and let it change your life.”

  “Or?”

  “Or you can turn away and regret it for the rest of your life.”