“You’re under arrest,” one said. “Go get the sergeant,” he told his companion.
Tom came from the shadows behind the two soldiers with a bayonet in his hand. Mike saw him and realized what he was going to do.
“Stop!” Mike yelled.
Tom shoved the bayonet through the back of one soldier. As the soldier dropped to the floor, the remaining soldier turned to see Tom with a bloody bayonet. Tom did not hesitate, he thrust it into the soldier’s belly. The soldier fell next to his comrade.
Mike and Tom eyeballed each other. Tom still had the bayonet in his hand. This time they both knew it was to the death.
Sarah knew that both men had been weakened by the explosion of the steam cannon, but Mike had one more disadvantage then Tom. His left leg was infected by the bite of a mountain lion and he was wounded in his left side, by the same bayonet.
With all this, Mike lunged first. Tom simply parried clear, turned and, with the fist holding the bayonet, struck Mike hard on the back as he went by. Mike felt the pain from his previous wound shoot through his body.
Tom saw that Mike favored his left leg. He threw a kick to Mike’s left leg, landing it on his wound. Mike howled in pain. Tom threw another kick at the wound in Mike’s chest. Mike caught his foot. Tom swung the bayonet at his chest, but Mike threw him down to the hard plank wood flooring. Ray and Sarah protected Jenny during the fight. Mike’s chest wound started to bleed again. It hurt so much he couldn’t take advantage.
Tom got back up with fire in his eyes. With anger swelling deep inside his core, he lunged the bayonet at Mike. Mike weakly parried his body and Tom reached his arm backwards and grabbed Mike by the head and neck. He spun around to Mike’s side and dropped the bayonet. He used his free arm to pick Mike up. He lifted Mike over his head and slammed him down hard to the ground, cracking the wood plank.
Mike’s breath was knocked out of him. He couldn’t breathe. He lay helplessly on the floor. Ray got up the courage to leave Jenny and help Mike.
Tom stood over Mike, trying to catch his breath, when Ray jumped on his back and tried to take him to the floor where the match would be more evenly fought. Tom spun in circles, disorienting Ray, who was hanging onto his back. Then, like a wrestling match, Tom jumped straight out with his legs and slammed Ray to the floor. Ray was finished. His ribs were broken and he rolled around the floor in agony.
Tom reached down and picked up his bayonet. His attention turned to Mike. He raised the bayonet over his head and was about to end Mike when a heavy object hit the back of his skull. Tom saw stars and the room started to spin. He dropped the bayonet and stood there.
Tom turned to Sarah, dazed. Sarah stood there with a wooden board. She hit him as hard as she could in the back of his head, but that didn’t stop him.
In all his pain, Ray picked up the bayonet and pointed it at Tom.
Tom smacked Sarah across the face, knocking her to the hardwood floor. Tom turned, the wobbly bayonet pointed at him, held by Ray’s trembling hands.
Tom saw the pain on Ray’s face and smiled. Then he heard Sarah get up from the floor. He turned to see what she was up to when Sarah came right at him full force and ran into him, knocking him off balance. He fell backwards onto the bayonet Ray was holding and they all went to the floor. The bayonet just missed Sarah as it came through Tom’s chest. Blood ran onto Ray’s hands.
“Get him off me,” Ray yelled.
Sarah lifted herself up and pulled Treble’s dead body off Ray.
“Teach you to mess with my husband,” Sarah said. She went to Mike’s side. “You okay?”
“I’m still alive,” Mike said.
Sarah took the witch hazel plant and ground it with her bare hands.
“This will stop the bleeding.” She examined Mike’s wound and found the gauze stuffed inside.
“I suppose you did this?” Sarah asked.
“I had to stop the bleeding somehow,” Mike said.
“This herb will do a better job.” She rubbed it into his wound and on the gauze. She pushed the gauze back into his wound.
“Ouch, that hurt,” Mike said. “You better take a look at my leg.”
Sarah ripped Mike’s pants leg to his knee and removed the bandages. The bite was infected. “Good Lord. It’s a wonder you can walk.”
Sarah rubbed the plant into the wound and wrapped it with a strip of her dress. “Wait here and rest, I’ve got a plan.”
“What do you want me to do, Sarah?” Ray asked.
“Hold out your hands,” Sarah told him.
Ray held out his hand. Sarah rubbed the ground-up plant on his hand.
“Rub this on Jenny’s wound and take care of her until I get back.”
“What are you going to do?” Jenny asked.
“I’m going to save us.”
“Be careful. I don’t want to lose my new friend.”
Sarah stood over them, thoughtfully scanning the room. Her blue eyes became watery as she grasped the situation. Her husband and friends were going to die if she didn’t do something. Her mood became grim, but she was determined to save them all. If she went before the Great Council, she could petition to regain her powers. She remembered the elixir her mother told about so long ago. The only way to the council is to drink it. It also could kill you, her mother had said. Now where did she put it?
Sarah remembered. Her mother had hidden it in the tinderbox. Sarah climbed the wooden ladder to the hayloft and crawled through the straw to the corner where the secret compartment lay under the floorboards. She lifted the loose board and leaned it against the roof rafter.
She pulled out the tinderbox and opened it. In the lid was a secret compartment. Sarah had to pry it up with her fingernail. And there it was—the green elixir in a tube with a cork in it. So this is my poison.
She removed the parchment paper with the spell and the hourglass. She turned over the hourglass and let the white crystals of the sands of time fall. As they sparkled through the narrow section of the glass, she read the spell:
Many paths through centuries fall—
If change is what you seek.
Illumination shines true for all—
Fulfillment for the meek.
When she finished the poem, she popped the cork and, with a tear in her eye and sweat running down her forehead, she downed the elixir.
CHAPTER FORTY-EIGHT
Sunday, July 5, 1863
Sarah collapsed on the golden straw and rested her bones. As she lay there she felt the sun caress her face. She thought this was strange because she was indoors. She went to sleep and fell into a deep trance as she began her perilous descent into the nether world of the afterlife.
Suddenly, everything turned black. She couldn’t see. She felt hot flames roaring up her spine. She saw herself consumed by the fire. She was disappearing into a fog.
What could this mean? Am I going crazy? Is this just a dream?
After a few minutes, the fog lifted and the light began to come back. She felt disembodied within space and time as she entered the fourth dimension—the unification of time and space, the realm of the afterlife.
She found herself in the middle of a circle of witches and warlocks. It was the Magnum Concilium, the Great Council of the covenant of all the originals from the beginning of time. She saw her mother there, along with her father. All were seated in a circle. Sarah was in the middle and it felt as if she was being judged.
“Mother,” she cried out. “Where am I?”
“Welcome to the fourth dimension,” said the King of the Covenant. He was seated on what appeared to be a throne, a high-backed, black wooden chair, with red fabric cushions. The wooden rails of the throne were studded with rubies and diamonds. He was dressed in black with a cape lined in red.
Sarah’s mother and father sat quietly and said nothing. They seemed content to watch the proceedings. Sarah frowned and turned her attention to the Warlock King.
“Am I going to die?” Sarah asked.
The King smiled, “You are already dead—but that’s all right my child. You are also alive. It’s just a matter of degrees, but that will be a conversation for another time - on another level.”
Sarah felt faint but stood her ground—if you could call what she was standing on ground.
“We’ve been watching you for a long time now,” the King said.
“Why? What does this mean, Father?” Sarah tried to get a response, but failed. Her father, seated next to her mother, said nothing.
“We all agree. You are ready to join the circle,” the King said.
“But I have a life on Earth.”
“You had a life on Earth.”
“I want to live. I want to finish what I’ve started.”
The King looked sternly at her. “My child, you have two choices. One, stay here with us and gain the collective knowledge of the universe. Or two, go back to your pathetic little existence and fix the timeline of history. But if you choose the latter, you will live in 1863 Gettysburg, while your husband and your new best friends will live without you in the year 2014. Your husband will live his days out in pain of your memory.”
“But why?” Sarah cried.
“There is always a price to be paid, my child. There must be a balance of the scales.”
“What happens to my husband and the timeline if I stay here?”
“History will continue on its present projection. As for your friends, whether they live or die in that century is none of our concern. For life is just an illusion. If they survive, your husband and friends will carry out their lives in the 21st century as if nothing ever happened.”
“If I go back, can I reset history’s timeline back to how it was?”
“Yes, but remember, you will have the memory of lost love. And so will your husband.”
“He did all this to save history. I can’t go against him. I choose to go back.”
“You elevate your husband and friends over yourself? How unselfish, how divine.” The King sank back into his throne. He paused in thought. He then leaned forward and with deliberate slowness he asked, “Is that your choice?”
“Yes.”
“So be it.”
“Wait!” came a cry from the gathering. “May we say goodbye to our child?” It was Sarah’s mother.
“I grant your request,” said the King of the Covenant.
“Thank you, my lord,” Sarah’s mother acknowledged and, along with Sarah’s father, walked to Sarah.
“Are you sure this is what you want?” her mother asked.
“Yes, it really is,” Sarah said.
Her mother leaned in and kissed her on the cheek. Her father was next. He hugged her and kissed her on the cheek also. They both walked back to their seats, leaving Sarah wondering what would happen next.
“Are you ready?” the King asked.
“Yes.”
“May the wonders of your power know no boundaries.”
In an instant, Sarah was gone.
CHAPTER FORTY-NINE
Sunday, July 5, 1863
Sarah emerged from the darkness feeling more powerful than when she had entered. Her powers were back, a gift from the King.
She climbed down from the hayloft, knowing what she needed to do. With a deliberate walk, she went over to Tom Treble’s body. She rolled him over, pulled the bayonet from his back, and wiped it on her dress. Then she went over to Mike and Ray. There was Jenny with her head in Ray’s lap. Sarah bent down, giving Mike a long and tender kiss. And before Mike could say a word, Sarah sliced open her hand with the point of the bayonet.
“What are you doing?” Mike was in shock—Sarah had a look in her eyes that he had never seen before.
Reality sank in and tears filled her eyes, knowing what she was about to do would end her relationship with the one true love of her life—Mike.
Her palm filled with blood. She let it spill onto the floor, making a circle. She started to chant as she scratched a pentagram inside the circle with the bayonet.
“What are you doing?” Ray asked nervously.
“Put Jenny into this circle,” Sarah said in a determined voice.
Ray didn’t question. He tried to drag Jenny into the circle, but his ribs hurt so bad he stopped. “Can’t do it,” he moaned.
Mike mustered strength to get up. He worked through his pain and helped Ray pull Jenny into the circle.
“Okay, now what?” Mike asked, grimacing in pain.
“I need you two outside.”
“Are you crazy? The whole Union Army is looking for us!” Mike said.
“I’m not going out there,” Ray said.
“It will be all right, trust me,” Sarah told them.
Mike saw the tears in her eyes. “What are you about to do?”
Sarah wiped at her tears. “I need you outside. For this to work, you can’t be in the barn.”
“I don’t know about this, Mike.”
“Come on, Ray, it’ll be all right.”
Mike and Ray helped each other to the door. Ray developed nausea just thinking about what might be waiting for them outside.
“Stop. I can’t go out there.”
“Ray, do you trust Sarah?” Mike asked.
Deep down, Ray knew that he did. “Yes.”
“Okay then, let’s go outside.”
In his weakened state, Mike leaned hard against Ray. Sarah helped them to the door. Ray felt a knot in the pit of his stomach when it was time to open the door. He looked at Sarah, who was holding on to Mike, and found a bit of intestinal fortitude to open the door. Ray helped Mike, who was barely able to stand, get outside to the road.
Sarah helped them out to Emmitsburg Road, where a strange quiet hung over the area. No one was around. No soldiers—nothing. They seemed to be between the light and the shadow. A black and white world with shades of gray.
“What is this, the Twilight Zone?” Mike asked in his weakened condition. He would have fallen over if Ray hadn’t been holding him.
“Yeah, what is this?” Ray asked.
“You’re in Flatland. A stage of the fourth dimension,” Sarah said with authority. She put the bayonet to her hand once more and made it bleed.
“Stop that, will you?” Mike pleaded.
Sarah didn’t answer. She started another chant and made another circle with a pentagram on the opposite side of the dirt road from the barn, this time in the grass.
“Get in the circle,” Sarah said sadly.
“What? Why?” Ray asked.
“Just do it. There is no time to explain.” Sarah’s eyes watered again.
Ray put Mike down in the tall grass. Sarah kissed him on the lips one last time and walked toward the barn. Ray started to walk over to Sarah.
“No, no—you stay too. Don’t leave the protection of the circle under any circumstances.” With tears flowing, Sarah turned and went back to the barn’s side door. She turned to have one last look at her true love.
“Why are you crying?” Ray asked.
Without saying a word, Sarah wiped her tears, went inside the barn, and closed the door.
Ray became nervous. He was holding Mike, whose eyes were barely open. Something bad is going to happen. Why else would she cry?
Inside the barn, Sarah made sure Tom Treble was completely outside the circle and that Jenny was completely inside, when she began to recite a poem:
“I petition thee for thine inheritance. I have awakened and been enlightened—the price for my quarry has been fulfilled. The righteous shall prevail—the ungodly will perish.”
A humming sound came first. Then the barn began to shake and the boards began to rattle. The exterior boards started to come apart. Light was beaming through them from all directions. The noise level rose and the ground began to tremble. The corners of the barn were pitched black against the brilliant light coming from the wallboards. The barn shuddered and exploded in a flash of blue light.
CHAPTER FIFTY
Mike and Ray were watching when the barn be
gan to shake. The boards looked like they were coming apart. The nails began to pull out as the barn shuddered. A brilliant flash of blue light came from inside the barn.
The last thing Mike and Ray saw was that bright blue light as their heads fell backwards and both went unconscious.
***
Mike rose first from what seemed to be a deep sleep. He opened his eyes and found himself next to Ray. He shoved him. “Wake up.”
Mike heard birds singing in the distance and crickets chirping. Then an insect flew past his face and he swatted at it.
Ray got up, scratching his head. “What happened?”
“We must have fallen asleep.”
They were outside the big red barn on the side of the road. They looked around. Mike saw his 1974 yellow and brown Ford Bronco that they had driven to the reenactment, was parked up the road.
Mike looked across the open field opposite the barn where Pickett’s Charge had taken place. Mike was having a deja’vu moment.
“You okay, Mike?” Ray asked.
“What the hell just happened?” Mike said.
“This is where that nurse hit the Confederate reenactor,” Ray remembered. “We came down to check out the accident scene.”
“I remember!” Mike put his hand to the side of his head. “The girl in white was up the road a ways, she was standing in the middle of the street. I almost hit her.”
“Yes, that’s right. And we wanted to check inside the barn to see if there was any gold there,” Ray recalled.
Mike’s memory flashed and turned to the red barn. He spotted the side door and had another deja’vu moment. “I think the girl in white entered here.” He walked over to the door with Ray right behind. Mike reached out to open the door and a familiar voice called out.
“Wait.”
Mike stopped and slowly turned around. Standing there tall and breathing was Gordon, wearing Union blue with red artillery piping.
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