At first, I didn't come up with much. None of the mainstream historical sites said much about the location at all, but there was a reason for that. After a little more digging, I found a website run by a group of private historians that tied the area, and possibly Sally's house, to another more famous house in Equality.
The more famous house in Equality was fairly well known as a slave house. I'd visited that house when I was younger, although now it was closed to the public. Most people believe that there was no slavery in the Northern states, but there were exceptions to that.
Slaves who were caught escaping from the South could be held indefinitely by unscrupulous individuals before being returned to their owners. There were places in Southern Illinois where slaves could be leased by mine owners. You couldn't own slaves here after 1825, but you could borrow or rent them.
Somewhere very close to where Sally lived there was a house that was used to hide slaves when the Crenshaws, the owners of the Equality Illinois Slave House, overstepped the laws. They also used it when owners would come looking to reclaim their slaves, and the Crenshaws weren't ready to part with them yet. Whoever lived in the house at the time most likely helped Crenshaw with his business of kidnapping free black people and selling them into slavery in the Southern States as well.
I also found out that there was a good chance that the empty plot of land next to Sally's house was actually a graveyard. It might be the final resting place of more than a hundred slaves who didn't survive the Crenshaws and their associates "business."
Sally hadn't mentioned any of this in her email, and I wondered if she knew. I’d decided to ask her about it the next day. It gave me hope that maybe she wasn’t dealing with a demon but instead had an angry spirit on her hands.
“You need to go to sleep, Lady.” Jezebel had hopped up on the end of my bed and was staring at me judgmentally.
“I know, Jez. It’s hard to sleep. I have so much on my mind.”
“Then try harder. It’s going to be hard for you to stay awake tomorrow if you don’t get some rest.” She said and sashayed across the bed before plopping down next to me. “People need you.”
I shut the laptop and set it on my nightstand. After I had snuggled down under the covers, I scratched her between the ears until Jez was purring loudly. That was all it took, and within minutes the soft buzzing lulled me to sleep.
Chapter Three
The next morning when I woke up, I couldn’t find Abby again. I felt an icy pang in my gut as I realized that probably meant that Irene was outside the house again last night. She hadn’t come in, though, so my protection ward must have worked. It had been a while since I had done the sentinel spell, and I knew that I’d need to refresh it again soon.
I looked out all of my windows and didn’t see Irene anywhere, so she must have left. I wanted to send Esme a text message and ask her if she’d seen anything, but I knew she’d just gone to bed. If she woke up and saw the text, she’d come over to discuss the issue. If she didn’t wake up, she’d see the message later and want to have the same discussion. I’d be checking out Sally’s house later. I thought that Esme had the evening off, so I figured I’d ask her in the evening. Besides, I’m sure that if she had noticed a stranger lurking around my house, she wouldn’t have just gone home and gone to bed. That meant that Irene was here and gone before sunrise. If Abigail would come out of hiding, I could just ask her.
My last two blueberry toaster waffles were calling to Me from the freezer, so I fished them out along with the berries and cream I’d bought for dessert last night. As soon as the waffles were in my toaster oven, Jezebel wandered into the kitchen.
“I was wondering if you were ever going to give me any of that cream,” she said and hopped into a chair.
“Sorry, Jez. I was so stuffed from dinner last night I didn’t have any room for dessert.”
“That’s the way it is with you humans. It’s always about you,” she grumbled.
“I said I was sorry.”
“I’ll forgive you, but only if I get three-quarters of the container.”
“That’s a lot of cream, Jezebel.”
“Yeah, Lady, well you also forgot to feed me last night. You stuffed your gob full of chicken, but did I get any dinner? No. You’ll also note that I didn’t complain because I know you’re going through a lot.”
“Oh gosh. I’m so sorry. Here, you can have the whole thing. I’ll just eat my berries on the waffles with some syrup.” I said and took a dish from the pantry.
“Thanks, Lady. You’re alright.” She said and hopped down to the floor. “I guess.”
We ate our breakfasts together, and I was a little surprised to see that Jezebel finished the entire container of cream. She was passed out on the couch with a full belly when I headed out the door to visit Nate.
I brought the Tupperware of chicken and potatoes with me to give to Lincoln and Helen. One of the nurses was going on break when I arrived, so she took the containers to the break room to heat up for Nathan’s parents. Neither one of them had eaten anything since the day before.
Helen’s energy current had shifted. I was starting pick up little bits of her physical and emotional state. Nathan’s coma had taken its toll on her. I got the sense she needed food and sleep badly. If she felt that poorly, I could only imagine how Lincoln was doing.
They went to the lounge to eat while the charge nurse took me into Nate’s room. She pulled the curtain around the glass walls so we could have a few minutes of privacy.
“He’s doing well enough that I think it would be okay to let you two have some time alone.” She said and patted my shoulder before heading out the door. “Call if you need me.”
I pulled the room's only chair up to the bed and sat down. It was true, Nathan did look better. I don’t know how to describe it other than to say he looked closer to the surface. His skin was warmer too, and there was a slight pink tinge to his cheeks.
My visits with him were only a few minutes long because I wasn’t supposed to be here. Even magic can only go so far when it comes to hospital administration. I spent the time holding his hand and telling him about cooking for his parents. Before I had to go, I told him I loved him and missed him more than any words could express. I wanted to say to him there was a hole in my heart without him, but that seemed so negative.
Just as I was about to pull my hand away and leave, I could swear I felt him squeeze it. My heart started to race, and a line of sweat broke out on my forehead. I thought this could be it and maybe he was waking up. Instead of pushing the call button, I yelled for the charge nurse.
She came rushing in and checked him over, but I’d gotten excited prematurely. He didn’t come to, and she gave me an empathetic smile.
“Sweetie, I don’t want to tell you that it was just a reflex because it might not have been. You might have reached him, but he’s not waking up right now.”
I left the hospital feeling distraught and wrung out, and I was glad that I had a half hour drive ahead of me so I could clear my head. When I got in my Jeep, I sent Chuck a message telling him that I was working today, but that I’d be in the field researching a story. He called me back and said that I didn’t have to work yet, and that I could take a few more days off.
“No, Chuck. The paper needs another story. I made you a promise.”
“But, Lenny, you’ve got so much going on. I don’t want you stretching yourself too thin, dear.” He said kindly.
“It’s good for me to work. I’d just be sitting at home moping around anyway. At least I can keep myself occupied.” I let out a deep sigh.
“I take it that means Nathan is still in the ICU?”
“Yeah, they don’t know when he’ll wake up.”
“Take care of yourself,” Chuck said, and I could almost swear I heard a tinge of my Papa’s voice in his.
The drive was helpful for my mood. Despite all the dark things going on in my life, it was a beautiful day. The sunshine streamed through the trees and
then through my window to warm my skin. It helped chase away the chill that had taken hold of my bones lately. It was a cold that didn’t come from the weather, but the sunlight still helped.
Alexandria, the village Sally live in, looked like a ghost town when I arrived. At one time, it looked like it had been a tourist destination with an Egyptian theme, but the restaurants, shops, and attractions built around the motif had all but collapsed. There was one place left, the Nile Café, that clung to the town’s former glory.
I wondered if the menu was Egyptian themed, but there was no time to find out right now. I decided that I might stop on the way out of town if the restaurant was still open.
Sally’s street was much like mine except that it was a bit longer. There were just a few houses spaced far apart. On her side of the street were three residences, and on the other, there were four. All seven homes were quite large and were each a variation of colonial architecture. Sally and Mrs. Nettle’s houses were well maintained, and two of the houses across the street were as well. The rest appeared to be in various states of abandonment.
Before I knocked on the door, I wandered over to the lot next to Sally’s house that might have been the old slave cemetery. From the sidewalk, it looked like an ordinary sprawl of grass. If I hadn’t stepped on the empty lot, that would have been my final perception of it. There was nothing more to see unless you crossed over.
I say it that way intentionally. It really was like crossing over into a different world. The air felt different, and it was as if not all of the sun could reach me anymore. I looked up and around, and there were no trees that I could see blocking the light.
The grass was mowed, so someone had to tend to this plot of land. How did they do that without sensing the distortion I felt? I looked at the time, and I still had a few minutes before Sally expected me. That gave me enough time to poke around for a bit.
Towards the back of the plot boarding on what looked like a small grove of trees, I found a stone marker. It was hard to read, and I had to get down on my knees for a closer look. There were trees here, so the dim light I had at the front of the plot was almost blotted out entirely. I pulled my cellphone out of my pocket and turned on the flashlight app.
There was a layer of dust and dried leaves covering the top of the stone, so I brushed them away. It wasn’t a headstone, but instead, I’d found a historical marker. Sally hadn’t mentioned it, but at some point, someone had installed a stone that commemorated this place as the final resting place of slaves killed on the reverse underground railroad. The stone read:
This marks the final resting place of over one hundred men, women, and children murdered by the abominable practice of slavery. Their tragic and unnecessary deaths are a stain on our country’s history. We should remember them always, for every life matters. Every soul is a light that no man should have the dominion to extinguish.
There wasn’t any indication that it was put here by the state, local, or national historical society or park service. My gut told me that an amateur historian, who didn’t want the historical significance of this place to go unmarked, had commissioned the stone. Someone didn’t want the people buried here to be forgotten. Interestingly enough, Sally hadn’t mentioned this place in her email.
“Hey! Lenny, is that you?” A voice startled me, and I stood up.
A woman was standing on the sidewalk waving to me. She didn’t move from her place, and I wondered if something was keeping her from walking over to me.
“Yep, that’s me,” I responded and walked towards her. “Are you Sally?”
“Guilty as charged.” She said with a laugh. “What are you doing over there? Did you find something back there?”
Did you find something back there?
As I walked the rest of the way across the plot towards her, I couldn’t help but wonder why she’d asked me that. It reminded me of when I was a kid, and I’d ask Aunt Kara if she’d found whatever mess I’d made or disaster I’d caused. I was trying to gauge whether I was in trouble yet. Of course, if she hadn’t found the evidence of my crime, all I’d done was tip her off to the fact that I’d done something devious. Did Sally know what was here and had hoped I wouldn’t find it? Or, did she genuinely not know where she was living?
“There’s a historical marker back there. It’s just as you get to the tree line.” I said and stepped onto the sidewalk.
The world shifted again. Everything was brighter, the air was clearer, and I could hear birds singing in the trees. I hadn’t heard them while I was in the graveyard even though I’d actually been closer to them than I was standing on the sidewalk with Sally.
“I’ve never been back there.” She said. “I know the lot is right next to mine, but for some reason, I’ve never been on it. I couldn’t tell you why.”
I had an idea. Whatever it was that made the graveyard feel so dark and heavy must keep people away on some sort of subconscious level. How else could you explain a person never stepping foot on the empty lot next to their home?
“The grass is mowed,” I said. “If you don’t mow it, do you know who does?”
“Hmm,” Sally said and thought about the question for a moment. “I believe there is an older gentleman that comes around once a week when the weather is warm and mows it. I usually wouldn’t see him because he comes during the day, but one time I was home sick from work on the same day he mowed the grass.”
“Do you remember what he looked like?”
“Not really. I didn’t watch him, but I do remember seeing him get out of his truck and start the lawnmower. He had his back turned to me, but he was tall and probably in his early sixties. He was thin and had a full head of silver hair. But, I never got a good look at his face. Otherwise, I might be able to tell you who he was. Alexandria is a tiny town after all.”
“We should go in. Are you ready for me to look around your house?” I said hopefully.
“Sure. Let’s go.” Sally said, and I believe she’d already forgotten about the historical marker.
That was a good thing because I didn’t want to reveal much to her about it just yet. I had a feeling that the information might change her presentation of the house, and I’d wanted her to tell me about her experiences and show me around without knowing the history of the house if that was still possible.
Sally lead me in through the front door, and the first thing I noticed was that all of the lights in the house were turned off. I’d have thought that if she was expecting company, she’d at least have the lights on. The inside of the house was much like the graveyard next door. The light outside didn’t seem to penetrate the windows.
“It’s dark in here, I know,” Sally said, and I hated that even a normal could read my thoughts.
I had to find a way to keep people out of my head. The only explanation I could think of for why I’d been such an open book was that it was some sort of cosmic balance I had to pay for my powers. It was annoying, and even with Kizzy’s help, I wasn’t able to keep people out entirely.
“Why don’t we turn on some lights,” I said, and I had to admit that this place was already giving me the creeps.
I looked around and tried to see past the haze of dread that seemed to permeate the air. I swallowed hard and had to force myself to step from the entry hall into the formal living room. Every fiber of my being wanted to run out of this house, and I had no idea how Sally came home to this place every day. The only explanation I had was that she couldn’t feel it as deeply as I could. Up to that point, I’d never wished away my newfound intuition, but just then I wanted to be oblivious to the darkness in her home.
“I don’t know,” Sally said. “I think we’ll have better luck luring it out with it dark in the house.”
I didn’t have a counter argument to that, but I’d really wished I did. Sally seemed very calm considering everything she’d said she’d been through. I started to wonder if I’d been lured into some sort of trap.
Of course, she could have just been feeling bra
ver because she wasn’t all alone, and she’d finally found someone, me, who would at least listen to her.
I nodded my head yes and walked deeper into the house. I wondered what I would do if there was a demon here and it attacked us. I could protect Sally and myself with magic, but that would have meant revealing myself to someone who might not have kept my secret.
After making my way all the way down the hall, I found myself crossing a doorway into a large kitchen. Every step I took, I winced because I kept expecting something to happen. There was this overwhelming feeling in the atmosphere that something was about to happen, but the tension just kept building.
It’s like that moment in a horror movie when you know that something is about to jump out and scare you, but the scare doesn’t come. So, you just keep holding your breath and waiting for relief. I almost wanted to see something scary because it would have been a respite from the suffocating tightness building in my chest and mind.
“How do you live here?” I asked through clenched teeth.
“What do you mean? What’s going on?” Sally sounded worried by my question, but I got the distinct impression she couldn’t feel what I did.
I debated on what I should tell her. Sally didn’t know about my paranormal nature. She just thought that I was an investigative reporter.
“I’m sensitive to things,” I said, and it wasn’t a complete lie. “I have been for a while. It’s not something I advertise.”
I wouldn’t normally tell a stranger anything about my powers, but since this woman was convinced that she had a demon infesting her home, I at least knew that she believed in the supernatural.
Chapter Four
The feeling of overwhelming dread eased a little as I explored Sally’s house. She didn’t want to separate, but I thought it might be better if we did. I left her in the kitchen while I made my way upstairs.
Brewing Boys Page 3