In the Shadows of Fate

by Rick Jurewicz

  "She didn't stop crying when she let the lawyer take you from her, and you were crying and reaching out for her. Jessup took you, and handed you to a woman that was waiting in an SUV nearby. Victoria looked so much older than she had ever looked before. She was always an elegant woman. Very proper. Very beautiful. Now, she looked 10 years older, and far more frail and distraught than I had ever seen her before. My heart went out to her, and I almost went to her then...but I didn't. Instead, I followed Jessup and the woman that took you as they left town. I followed them for hours on the roads, leading all the way to the small city of Petoskey, not far from your home town of Native Springs. That was where Jessup's law office was. I watched Jessup and the woman take you into the office, and a short time later, a young couple arrived at the office and went inside. It was several minutes later that the man and woman walked out with you in their arms. I followed them as well, now that they had you with them, to what was your old home in Native Springs. Part of me wanted to get out of the car and run to them, plead with them, tell them who I was and what Suzanne wanted. If that didn't work, I thought I might just grab you and run away...but I knew that would never work. They would find me, and I would never be able to even get the chance to see you again. But as I watched them, I could tell, even from afar, how happy they were to have you in their arms. They looked like good, loving people, and somehow I just knew that with those people, you were going to be alright. So, I left you alone and returned to Arlo."

  "Why do you think Victoria used Phillip Jessup? Didn't the Gales already have another lawyer? Harry Thornton?" asked Miranda.

  "Yes. Harry...he has a law practice that he works for here in Arlo still, I think. He was a very shifty character, if you ask me."

  "I met him. His firm takes care of the old Gale properties. He is the one that let me see the house," said Miranda.

  "Really? Odd how things seem to come full circle like that," remarked Aimsley.

  "Do you have any idea why Victoria didn't have Harry handle the adoption? Why she went so far out of town to have it done?" asked Miranda.

  "No, not unless she was trying to protect you from the attention and the press. That would seem like the only reason I can think of, although I would have thought even Harry could've handled something like that," said Aimsley.

  "You said you failed on two promises. What did you mean by that?" asked Miranda.

  "The fact that you are here now, asking about the Gales, is how I failed her again. If I had not sent you that box and the tape, the Gale family would still be a part of your past, which was what Suzanne had wished for," said Aimsley.

  "I don't believe it's a bad thing to want to know where you came from," said Miranda. "But you still haven't told me how the box made it to me...especially to a home that I had only arrived at and seen the very first time the day before the box arrived."

  "I suppose I should tell you how I came into possession of the box and the tape in the first place, and then maybe you can understand the whole picture. After the investigation of the house was completed, myself and the family were allowed to return to the house under supervision and retrieve personal items that could be salvaged. It had been several weeks, and I was there the first day that I could go inside. An officer met me there; Victoria and David had not been back to the house yet themselves. The room that I stayed in was very close to yours, and there had been moderate damage to that area of the house, but a few things were still intact. After I got there, I saw there was really nothing for me worth salvaging. I remembered then about the day before the fire; we had been playing with the video camera, Suzanne and you and I, and I had taken the tape out of the camera. You kept on trying to play with the tape, and Suzanne finally took the tape out of your hands and placed it inside the wooden box that had been sitting on top of the piano that day. I had never seen the box before, and I am not sure Suzanne had either. She just put the tape inside of it to keep it out of your hands and sight.

  "I told the officer then that I had something in the main room that belonged to me, so he escorted me to the hall outside of the main room. Just then, the officer received a call that a fight had broken out at the Buckshot Tavern in town, and he had to go, so he asked me to please hurry and get what I needed. I saw the box, still sitting atop the piano, and instead of grabbing only the video tape inside, I took the whole thing. The officer was in a hurry, so he didn't question it. That was the last time I was at the Gale house."

  "What made you decide to send it to me?" asked Miranda.

  "When I took it, I just wanted to take something to remember you by. There was never any intention of ever trying to do anything else with it. But very soon after I found the box in the attic, I started having these dreams - these terrible nightmares that woke me up almost every night. I thought that maybe it was the stress of the memories of that time playing havoc on my subconscious or something. I consider myself a very rational person, so it never occurred to me at first that the dreams might be...something else..."

  "Something else like how?" asked Miranda. "What do you mean?"

  "This is where things started to shake me up, Miranda," said Aimsley. "I would be having nightmares about that night - the night of the fire. But now, instead of finding you and bringing you safely out of the house, I could only hear you screaming. I could hear you screaming in pain, like you were burning alive.” Aimsley was visibly shaken recalling the dream to Miranda. Miranda seemed to be able to feel the emotion coursing through Aimsley.

  "It went on day after day - night after night - and every day I looked at the box next to the fireplace, and I would want to go and throw it into the fire, but I couldn't. Something I couldn't explain was holding me back. So I prayed for an answer as to what to do. I wasn't sleeping and I was barely eating anything. It was like nothing I had ever experienced. But the night that I prayed for an answer was the first night in over two months that I didn't remember having a dream. It was waking up the next morning though that scared me more than anything that happened before that.”

  "I woke up at my kitchen table with a pen in my hand and a sheet of paper on the table in front of me. On the paper, as clear as can be in handwriting that wasn't mine, but written by the pen in my hand, was the address to your parents new home. I didn't know it at first, but I did a search online and found your brother's Facebook page, and on his page he posted a message on his wall about the new house they had just moved into, and gave the address. I panicked, Miranda. I found the box that I shipped it to you in lying in a pile of boxes I picked up from the supermarket to clean out the attic with. I wrote the address on the box and drove all the way down to St. Ignace, just north of the Mackinaw Bridge, and sent it out. I didn't even want it postmarked from here. I was trying to get it out of my life without having it lead you back here. But apparently, you have your mother’s intelligence. You found your way here anyway. I'm sorry."

  "I need to tell you something as well," said Miranda. "The reason I was at my parent’s home was because I had been having nightmares too. I used to have them all the time as a child, but they stopped for a long time. They only started up again, more intense than ever before, about two and a half months ago."

  "Right about the time I found the box," Aimsley said, her face flushed with a deep fear. She stood up from where she had been sitting and walked towards the doorway into the kitchen, stopping short to steady herself with her hand on the doorframe.

  Miranda stood up and moved in her direction. "Are you okay?"

  "Yes. I'm just, I don't know what any of this means," said Aimsley, turning to face Miranda. "This all seems so impossible."

  "I don't know either, but I believe for some reason I was meant to come here and find you. There's more I need to know though. I spoke to a woman in Galestone named Mary Ann. She and her husband own the Buckshot Tavern. Do you remember her?" asked Miranda.

  "Yes, somewhat. It was so long ago now," said Aimsley.

  "She told me things about Galestone and about the Gale family. At
first everything she told me was of how great the Gales were to the community, but then she realized who I was. Her entire demeanor changed like a switch had been flipped in her. She told me I should leave the town and never come back. She even told me the town almost didn't come to help on the night when the fire broke out. Do you have any idea why the townspeople would react that way?" asked Miranda.

  Aimsley walked slowly back to where she had been sitting before and took her seat again. The look on her face was that of a blank, empty stare. Miranda waited patiently for almost a full minute before she felt she had to wake Aimsley from her stare.

  "Aimsley? Why would a town full of people who praised a family to the rest of the world let them burn to death in their home?" Miranda asked once more.

  Aimsley finally looked at Miranda again. "The Gales had a secret world that they lived in that went back for generations upon generations. I believe it was partly why they came to Point Ridge to begin with, before it became Galestone. Point Ridge was quiet and secluded, away from the crowded, prying eyes of the rest of society. It was what your mother was trying to protect you from, and I believe your grandmother was doing the same thing by sending you away."

  "What do you mean by a 'secret world'? What were they hiding from?" asked Miranda.

  "I don't know the details as to what it was that they believed. I know mostly what I know from what your mother confided in me. When I first signed on to work for the Gales, before I had even met your mother, I had to sign papers that contained a confidentiality agreement. I could not discuss any activities, business, or private affairs that I may find myself privy to. At least that is how I think it was worded. At that time, it was Thornton that wrote up the legal documents," said Aimsley.

  "The business activities around that time were pretty much dead, weren't they?" asked Miranda.

  "I believe they still had their hands in some foreign investments. Mostly stocks and small business ventures overseas. Those were things that I picked up on through certain conversations between Thomas and Edward. But I don't believe it was these things that they were as concerned about. Not only did I have to sign those papers when I began working for the Gales, but I was also given very specific instructions as to when and where I was allowed to go on certain parts of the grounds," said Aimsley.

  "What did they not want you to see?" asked Miranda, her eyes fixed on Aimsley. She was hanging on Aimsley's every word, like a child hearing a frightening ghost story, not sure if they wanted to get to the ending, but knowing they had to hear it through to its chilling conclusion. Aimsley could see the anticipation in her eyes, but only with some reluctance did she push on.

  "There was a pathway behind the house that led into the woods beyond the gardens. It was the only safe passage to an area several hundred feet behind the house that was still on the Gale grounds. On Saturdays, every Saturday in fact, no house staff were allowed to go into the rear grounds of the house, and the trail into the woods was off limits at all times. Edward was the only one to maintain the trail and keep down the overgrowth of vegetation. Sometimes, he would have Suzanne's brother David help him keep trees and large branches that had fallen in storms off the trail, but it was mostly his duty to maintain access to the areas down the trail," Aimsley told Miranda.

  "Do you know what was down the trail?" asked Miranda.

  "There was one day when we were all in the backyard; it was you, your mother and I. You started walking towards the trail, and I told you we weren't supposed to go back there, but Suzanne said it would be alright if we took a walk down the trail. So, the three of us walked on, and the trail seemed to go on and on. I was sure that you would get tired of walking, but you just kept going along farther and farther down the path. Suzanne and I kept looking at each other, smiling and laughing about your energy and enthusiasm. Finally, we came to an open clearing. In the center of the clearing was a large, round cement slab that measured probably, oh, I'd say 30 feet across. Around the outer edge of the circle were several strange markings that looked as if they had been carved into the stone slab. I couldn't make them out as anything that I had ever seen before. They looked like they could have been writing of some kind, but nothing that made sense to me. There was a hole in the center of the slab about five feet in diameter, full of ashes, like there had been fires burned in that spot.”

  “When I first saw it, I was surprised that something like that had been built way back there. It looked like it had been there for a very long time, probably as long as the house itself had been there. I glanced back at Suzanne. The look on her face changed to a look of apprehensive concern. The smile that she had carried all the way down the trail had left her face. I could almost see a flash of fear in her eyes, and when she could tell that I noticed the look on her face, she forced the smile back just as fast. She was trying to cover up the feelings going on behind her false smile. I knew her well enough that I could tell what was going on in her head. She knew that fact all too well. Before I could say anything though, Victoria came rushing down the path.”

  "I remember Victoria saying, 'Suzanne! What do you think you are doing, bringing them down here!? Can you imagine what your father might do if he found out?'"

  "Suzanne told her that she meant no harm. That Miranda wanted to explore. I don't think it was you, Miranda, that she was concerned about seeing down the trail. Victoria gave me a sharp glance, but I don't believe she was angry with me. I think the look was meant for Suzanne, more out of concern for me than anything else."

  "Did you think that you might be in some sort of danger?" asked Miranda.

  "No. At least I didn't believe so at the time. As long as I was important enough for Suzanne to have around to help with you, I doubt they would have let me go. As far as any other kind of danger, at the time I had no reason to think so."

  "Did you ever feel threatened by anyone in the family?" asked Miranda.

  "No, your family - all of them - seemed to be good people. They were all very good to me, right up until the very end," said Aimsley.

  "Then why would the townspeople not want to help them?" asked Miranda.

  "People have a tendency to fear what they don't understand. Even through the Gale’s best efforts, it was rumored that some of the people who worked for the Gales both before and after the mines closed down saw and heard things that they weren't supposed to. It didn't even matter what the truth was. Once the whispers started through the town, there was no stopping the rumor mill. It mostly started shortly after the mines closed. It didn't matter what people chose to believe when things were going good, as long as everyone was kept fat and happy. But when things turned around in the other direction, people let their superstitious sides run wild. Some people said the family was cursed because of 'dark dealings', and that was why the mines had to be closed. Other people spoke of cults and devil worship. The rumors went on for years before I had even come to work for the family. Over time, I think a lot of people just ignored what was said. They wrote it off to people being bitter about losing jobs and such. But many long timers in the town never forgot what was said by those who had seen or heard things on the Gale estate."

  "Was Daryl Grimes one of those people?" asked Miranda. She could tell that hearing the name made Aimsley uneasy.

  "Grimes started working on the grounds a short time after Suzanne found out she was pregnant. I don't know much about him even now, except that he was a sick and disturbed man. Even then, when he was working for the Gales, he was quiet and kept to himself. When I did have to speak to him for anything, he was always very short tempered and not sociable in the least. But I honestly never took him for the sort that would try to murder an entire family, and me along with them," said Aimsley.

  "Do you know what went on back in the woods? Do you thing Grimes knew?" asked Miranda.

  "I don't know what Grimes knew, or what he thought he knew. I don't believe money was the issue when he was let go. I overheard Thomas and Edward talking one night about Grimes snooping around where he s
houldn't be. I walked through the kitchen to get you a snack before bed, and they stopped talking about it, but I pretended that I didn't hear anything. The next day, Grimes wasn't at work. Later, I was told by Thomas that they weren't able to keep him on any longer, and that I was welcomed to stay as long as I liked. I never even saw Grimes again until after he was arrested," said Aimsley.

  "You said my mother, Suzanne, confided things in you. Did any of what she confided have to do with what went on back in the woods?" asked Miranda.

  Aimsley stood up again, and walked to a window in the living room, gazing out into the trees of the vacant lot next to her home.

  "Miranda, maybe I've said too much as it is. Maybe it should just be enough to know you came from a mother who loved you more than life itself. This is not a road Suzanne would have wanted you to wander down."

  "I have had strange dreams and nightmares for as long as I remember. I have no memory whatsoever of my life before the parents I have now. And you having dreams, too? I have to know what was going on with that family. I know that it sounds crazy, and what about this doesn't? I am starting to think that if the Gale family was into something dark - or maybe even something supernatural - if whatever that was may have found its way to me, I need to know what that is," said Miranda, pleading for answers from Aimsley.

  Aimsley turned around to face Miranda, determined to stand her ground and end this conversation for Miranda's sake. But she saw both the determination and the fear in Miranda's eyes, a look that brought to life the image of Suzanne before her once again. Even though Suzanne had wanted none of this for Miranda, it was something else that fueled the fire that brought Miranda to her.