Cliff’s nostrils flared; angered by the thought that surely Lauren knew what she was getting into when they departed. “Well why the hell did you come then?” he asked brashly. “Besides that, Nicole is supposed to be the bait; they don’t know that we know what they’re planning. We get her first!”
The door behind her began to vibrate on its hinges as increasingly strong waves of energy began to emanate from within her core. Realizing that, not only was she allowing what was left of her energy to pour out of her, the thought that she was basically emitting a homing signal struck her harshly. Instantly terrified, Lauren closed her eyes and focused, using the memory of Maggie’s words as a source of comfort. Within seconds, the vibrations had stopped and she opened her eyes to the old man.
“Okay, look, here’s a plan,” she began in a voice demonstrating more control. “We have to get inside and talk to your grandson; it’s the only way. He’s going to have to be the one to get Nicole. My presence there could be like a beacon to the Reapers,” she paused and glanced back to the door, “hell, for all I know I just messed up enough that Iku could be here any second.”
Cliff’s face, stoic and intense, twitched slightly as he nodded his head. “Okay then, we’ve got our plan.” He walked past Lauren and leaned his body against the door. Letting go of his hold on her energy, he faded into obscurity and passed through the door. Once on the other side, he rematerialized and watched as Thad’s eyes rolled into the back of his head. The shock of seeing his dead grandfather standing beside him proved more than his drunken mind could bear, and Cliff watched as Thad’s body fell limp to the floor, falling backwards into the living area.
Lauren stood outside the door, impatiently waiting for it to open, when she heard the thud of Thad’s body on the ground. Suddenly feeling as though she were being watched, she glanced to her right to see a young girl, about eight to nine years old, standing at the end of the hallway.
“Oh shit,” she thought to herself. “How long has she been standing there?”
Quickly flashing a forced smile to the child, she flipped her hand in the air and gave a quick wave. “Hi.”
The little girl waved back, her innocent young face not showing a hint of fear. With her eyes still locked on the little girl, Lauren knocked on the door.
“Uh, Cliff, can I come in now?”
Instantly she could hear the deadbolt turn and the security chain slide off. Before Cliff had the chance, she turned the knob herself. Looking back at the girl, she once more grinned and waved goodbye.
“Bye,” replied the little girl.
In seemingly one motion, Lauren entered the apartment and closed the door behind her. Noticing Thad’s body on the floor, she rolled her eyes.
“Well, we can’t have that, can we?” she said in a matter of fact tone.
“He passed out when he saw me—too much for him,” answered Cliff.
Lauren giggled. “Well if he thought that was too much, he’s in trouble when he meets me, huh?”
Though he knew Lauren was doing her best to make light of the situation, an overwhelming feeling of guilt had taken over the old man. Cliff returned to Thad’s side as Lauren walked by him and into the apartment. As the old man shook Thad carefully in an attempt to wake him up, he could hear Lauren opening cupboard doors in the kitchen. In less than a minute, she had returned with a wet paper towel in hand, the staunch smell of ammonia heavy around her.
“Here,” she said, handing Cliff the paper towel. “Let him sniff this. It should bring him out of it.”
Cliff huffed. “I’ll be damned, poor man’s smellin’ salts.”
As the old man lowered the towel, a drip of ammonia fell to Thad’s top lip, causing an immediate reaction to both the sensation and the smell.
“Thad,” called Cliff, lightly slapping his grandson’s face. “Come on, boy, wake up.”
The spirit and the Shadow watched as Thad’s eyelids began to flutter, his pupils dancing up and down beneath them. Suddenly he erupted from the floor, confused and moaning while rubbing his face.
“What the…,” he stammered. “What the hell happened?” Thad glanced up, his eyes first meeting Lauren’s and then his grandfather’s. He stared at Cliff in disbelief, and slowly made his way to the chair that sat at an angle to the couch, never taking his eyes off the old man. “This can’t be happening. You can’t be real.” Though his words were still slightly slurred, the shock of the moment had quickly sobered him.
Cliff replied softly, unsure of how to appropriately respond. “It’s real, son, and I’m sorry to have met you this way.” He took a careful step towards Thad, but stopped when he recoiled away. Holding his hands up, Cliff tried to comfort him. “It’s okay, boy. It’s okay.” He watched as Thad glanced to Lauren’s hands and realized a secondary source of terror for his grandson. The old man turned to her and could plainly see that her hands, though faint, were still emanating a faint blue light on their backsides. He turned back to Thad. “This is Lauren. She’s a friend of mine. She’s the reason why you can see me, the reason I can be with you right now.”
Thad’s mouth opened, emitting a guttural sound for a second, and then closed. Lauren reached out her right hand to him, revealing the bright red glow from her palm.
“I know this is difficult,” she said to Thad, “but we don’t have a lot of time. We need your help.”
Thad furrowed his brow. “Who—what are you?” he asked, his voice trembling in fear.
“She’s right, we don’t have much time,” said Cliff as he walked to Thad. Standing in front of him, he continued. “You remember that girl in the coffee shop?”
Thad struggled to collect himself enough to remember anything.
Coaxing him forward, Cliff spoke. “You remember, the girl in your vision.”
The look of fear on Thad’s face melted away. His eyebrows raised and a sudden light of clarity gleamed in his eye.
“Yes, I remember. But how—how did you know about her?” asked Thad.
Cliff grinned playfully and replied with a wink. “Because I was there.”
His face twisting awkwardly, he walked himself back through that morning in his mind. Before he could respond, Cliff spoke again.
“I know you have the gift.”
Thad’s eyes quickly met his grandfather’s. “You do?” he asked.
Cliff nodded with another wink.
Suddenly, the fear within him began to melt and Thad was overcome with a strange feeling of comfort. Finally, someone who could understand him, someone that could help him make sense of the visions he’d been having repeatedly.
“What does it mean?” asked Thad.
“It’s a very special gift that seems to skip a generation in our family,” replied Cliff. “My grand-daddy had it, I had it, and now you’ve got it.”
Shaking his head from side to side, Thad clarified himself. “No, what I mean is, why am I having basically the same vision over and over?”
Cliff scratched at his chin and thought for a moment. “How do you know Nicole?” he asked.
Thad leaned back in the chair, his posture much more relaxed than moments before. “I don’t,” he replied. “I went into the coffee shop that morning and there she was.”
“Do you go there often?” asked Cliff.
“Yeah, just about every morning.”
Cliff took a seat on the edge of the coffee table, and facing Thad replied. “I suppose you’ve seen her more often than you realize. The sight is funny like that. You might not remember her or know her, but somehow your subconscious does.”
Thad leaned forward, placing his elbows on his knees and clasping his hands in front of him. “So what does it mean?”
Cliff glanced to Lauren as he began to speak. “That girl’s in trouble, not because of anything that she did, but because of someone she used to know.” The old man looked back to Thad. “What do you know about me, other than we share a gift?”
Thad’s gaze took on a sudden look of uneasiness. “Not much
. Dad never shared much with me.” He paused, not sure of how his next sentence would be received. “I’ve learned more about you in the last year than ever before, but it wasn’t from him.”
The words cut into Cliff, but he understood. “I doubt he could, son. You see, I never gave him the chance to know me.” His eyes began to well with tears. Cutting off the flow of emotion, Cliff cleared his throat and continued. “What you’ve learned about me in the last year, that have anything to do with what happened in Lincoln?”
Thad nodded his head slowly and replied plainly. “Yes.”
The old man huffed and turned back to Lauren who stood next to the couch behind him. “Life sure is funny, ain’t it?” he asked.
Lauren, standing with her arms folded across her chest, didn’t respond. Her patience was being tried. She knew that this was important to Cliff, to touch base with his grandson and to try to explain everything about the situation, but time was short.
“Do my visions have something to do with that?” asked Thad.
Cliff stood and turned back to his grandson. “In a roundabout way, yes.” The old man turned and walked to a book shelf that held more of Thad’s family pictures. As he spoke with his back to the room, he took an old picture of Thad and Elijah into his hands. “That boy, Test, that I helped in Lincoln, he ain’t the villain that everyone’s made him out to be. The reality of things is that he’s just a young man who was given a gift, too, just like you. As a matter of fact, he’s in much the same spot you probably were years ago.” He turned back to face Thad. “Just like you didn’t have anyone to help you understand the whys and hows of the gift you’d received, Test was just as much in the dark. Just like you are having visions of Nicole, I had visions of Test.”
Thad’s hands were now gripping the armrests of the chair tightly as he listened intently to every word that his grandfather spoke.
“I had to help him. Just like you buying that young girl breakfast and then inviting her to sit with you. You didn’t have to do that, but something inside of you told you it was the right thing to do. Is that right?”
Thad nodded his head and stood to stand face to face with his grandfather. “What’s going to happen to her?” he asked.
“She is going to be used as bait,” replied Cliff.
“For what?” asked Thad.
Pointing to Lauren, Cliff asked her to hold out her hands. “Do you see that?” asked Cliff of Thad. “My friend Lauren here and Test are the same. They were both given the same gift.” Thad turned to marvel at the spectacle. “They were given a gift, just like you and I were given the gift of the sight.” Lauren huffed, scoffing at the fact that Cliff perceived her powers as a gift. “The difference is that their gift is very rare and very powerful. Now, there are two ways that folks can use a gift…”
Her patience exhausted, Lauren finally erupted. “Oh hell, old man!” She grabbed Thad’s shoulder and turned him towards her. “Look, what you or I am is irrelevant. The point is that there are others like me that want me and Test dead. They’re going to use Nicole as bait. Now, unless you go and get her before they do, she will die.”
The fear had returned to Thad’s face as he leaned away from the angered woman that stood before him.
Trying to dial it down, Lauren lowered her eyes to the floor in an effort to appear less dominant as she continued. “Your vision has given us an advantage. The Reapers don’t have any idea that we know their plan, but the longer we stand here talking about it, the better the chance that they will sense that I’m here and then we’ll all be dead.”
Trying to swallow the lump in his throat, Thad forced himself to stay calm. “Okay then,” he replied. “What do you need me to do?”
Cliff felt a sudden surge of excitement rush through him. “You and I will go to her apartment and get her.”
Thad nodded his head in agreement. “And what about you,” he asked, motioning towards Lauren.
“You boys will have to take care of this on your own,” she replied in a blasé tone. “I’m going to stay here and get some rest; try to recharge.”
“But what if these,” Thad paused, trying to recall the name that the woman used. “What if these Reapers show up? What do we do then?”
Resting a hand on his grandson’s shoulder, Cliff replied ominously. “We pray, son. We pray.”
The room grew eerily silent and the air became still as Cliff rubbed his chin, seemingly avoiding another detail.
Realizing the old man’s dilemma, Lauren spoke up. “You want to tell him or should I?”
Cliff glared at her, his bushy eyebrows forking downward on his brow.
“Tell me what?” asked Thad nervously.
Cliff shoved his hands into his pockets, stretching his back as he replied. “I’ll be with you, but I won’t be able to help.”
Thad winced with confusion. “I don’t understand?” he replied.
“The only reason I can stand here like I am now, is because Lauren is providing the energy that it takes for me to exist on this side. Lauren won’t be coming with us, so I’m going to have to be a silent partner.” Cliff gave Thad a wink though the look on his face held none of the comfort that it normally accompanied it.
Visually rattled by his grandfather’s words, Thad wiped the beads of sweat that had accumulated on his forehead. “Well,” he replied sarcastically. “Perfect then.”
“Right,” quipped Lauren as she took Thad’s elbow and began to lead him to the door. “You boys had better get going then.”
“Just a min…,” began Cliff, but suddenly his form began to fade from view.
Lauren stopped releasing pulses, and waved with her fingers as the old man disappeared into the back drop of the room. “Sorry, Cliff, but we’ve talked enough. It’s time for you to go to work.” Lauren turned and opened the door, all but pushing Thad into the hallway. As she released his elbow, she turned him to her and spoke sincerely. “You have to do this. More than one life is at stake.” Thad nodded his head in understanding. As he turned to walk away, Lauren grabbed his arm once more. “One more thing,” she said.
“Yeah, what’s that?” replied Thad.
Uncharacteristically, Lauren answered. “Be careful.”
Chapter 9
The afternoon had passed and early evening had come to be with little fanfare. Test and Alyssa had spent most of the afternoon lounging in front of the fire, the two of them wrapped up in snuggly blankets.
Sitting next to Test with her knees pulled to her chest, Alyssa watched him as he slept, her mind racing in fifty different directions. She’d thought about many things, most notably her own funeral. She’d wondered what it had been like, who’d attended, and what her shell of a body looked like as it lay in the casket. It was so difficult for her to comprehend and understand. Throughout her life, she had been the one on the side of the living, communicating with those that had lost their lives. Some of them didn’t realize that they were dead and, for the life of her, she could not understand how they were unable to see it. Now that she was one of those on the other side, everything was confusing, especially since she had chosen to spend so much of her time with those still among the living. The lines between worlds were so blurred that, at times, she had essentially forgotten that she was, in fact, dead.
With her eyes focused on the smoldering embers within the fireplace, she was awakened from her worries by Test suddenly screaming in his sleep. The furniture in the room began to vibrate on the hardwood floors and she quickly jumped to her knees, trying to shake him from his nightmare. As his eyes sprung open, a fierce red light replaced the black of his pupils, the sight of which caused Alyssa to gasp. Within the red, small, bright, hot white flashes of light seemed to erupt from underneath, looking something like bubbles rising from the bottom of a boiling pot of water.
“Test, wake up!” she shouted as she gripped the sides of his head in her hands. “It’s me! I’m here!”
Test’s teeth were clenched and his body was tense as if he were havin
g a seizure.
“Test!” Alyssa shouted once more.
The blankets flew off of him as he exploded from the floor and up six feet into the air, the pulse so strong that the wooden planks beneath him fractured. He landed in a crouched position, appearing to be ready to attack. His bare chest appeared to be burning with red light from the inside out.
Alyssa released herself from his energy just in time to avoid being thrown across the room by his sudden explosion of movement. Hovering just between worlds, she made herself visible to him, but just barely. She stood several feet away from him with her hands in the air, speaking in the most comforting voice that her frightened state would allow.
“It was just a dream, Test. Take a breath and calm down.” His devil red eyes failed to fade as he looked around the room, and the furniture continued to dance on the floor. She could now see the waves of energy from his torso radiating through the room, and watched helplessly as pictures fell from the walls. “Look at me!” she shouted, his eyes immediately coming to hers. She took a careful step forward, and reached out to him. “It’s okay. Just breathe,” she begged. “It was just a dream.”
Test began to stand upright, his palms held out to his side like a gun fighter ready to draw. With his chest heaving, the red pulses racing from his torso and down his arms began to slow until their rhythm matched that of his breaths. Gradually, the light in his eyes faded until the black of his pupils returned to normal. He stood in silence, carefully surveying his surroundings; his mouth agape drawing in deep breaths.
Alyssa closed the distance between them, and timidly reached out to touch his cheek. After an initial flinch, Test allowed her to touch him.
The Reverence of One: Book Three of the Shadow Series Page 7