The Messenger: Mortal Beloved Time Travel Romance, #1

by Pamela DuMond

  I reached it and shook it, hard. But it wouldn’t open. “Hello!” I hollered. “I need help. Someone help me, please.” Something slid across my foot, and I jumped. The snake wrapped itself around my ankle, and circled up my leg. I screamed again.

  Help didn’t seem to be coming, so I flung myself at the gate, and crashed through it. And just like that, I was standing in the doorway that led to my family’s kitchen, in my real life.

  Holy smokes. I was back!

  * * *

  My seven-year-old half sister Jane picked all the vegetables out of her omelet and methodically pushed them to the side of her plate.

  “Eat your veggies, Jane,” Sophie said.

  “No,” she said.

  I brushed fire smudges and dirt from my face. Raked my fingers through my hair. And checked out my leg. No snake. Definitely no snake. I walked into our kitchen.

  “Hey,” I said. Like, I’d never been gone. Like, life was normal.

  “Vegetables will help you grow healthy and live a long life,” Sophie said.

  “Don’t think so,” Jane replied.

  “Eat half the green stuff, and we’ll call it a day.” Dad looked at his watch.

  Squee! I was definitely home. I was back with my family. I never appreciated them until we were separated.

  “I missed you guys like crazy,” I said. “I love you all so much. I’m sorry I didn’t say it before. Where’s my omelet? Oh, you wouldn’t believe what I was dreaming.”

  I looked around the table. There were place settings for three people. Not four. There were three chairs. One occupied by Dad, one by Sophie, and one by Jane. A fourth chair sat in the corner of the kitchen; a wilted plant plopped on it.

  “I hate broccoli,” Jane said. “And, I won’t eat it.”

  Dad and Sophie shared a look.

  “Hey,” I said. “Jane’s always been a picky eater. She hates broccoli, carrots, and anything that could possibly be in a salad. Why does this surprise you?”

  Sophie pushed back her chair, got up, and grabbed Jane’s plate. She took it to the kitchen sink, and rinsed it off. “You’re going to the babysitter’s.” She opened the dishwasher, stuck the plate in the rack, and closed it.

  “Do I have to? I want to go see Madeline.”

  “You already said goodbye to Madeline, sweetie. We talked about how Madeline might be going to live with her mama, today, in heaven.”

  What?

  “No!” Jane pushed back her chair, and stormed out of the kitchen.

  Dad leaned his elbows on the table and collapsed his head into his hands.

  “Hello!” I hollered, and jumped up and down in front of my dad. “I’m back. I’m here!”

  He got up off his chair and walked through me.

  I shuddered.

  He wrapped his hands around Sophie’s waist. She had a small baby bump. “Taking Madeline off life support is the toughest decision we’ve ever made,” he whispered.

  Take me off life support?

  Dad wiped a tear from his eye. “I just don’t think she’s going to make it. After all she’s been through—she’s not the toughest kid in the world.”

  “Maybe she will.” Sophie wiped away a few tears of her own. “I told my office no more trips, until a year after our baby’s born. They agreed. I keep full salary. I just don’t travel.”

  “I love you.” Dad kissed Sophie gently. “I’m going to get a few of Maddie’s favorite things.” He left the room.

  “Sophie!” I cried. “Don’t do this.” I stood directly in front of her, inches from her face. “Please. I’m here. Really, I am.” I waved my hands in front of her. Patted her cheeks with my hands.

  Sophie leaned back against the kitchen sink and rubbed her stomach. Just like Elizabeth used to do. She closed her eyes, and tilted her face toward the heavens. “I miss you Madeline,” she said. “I miss your spirit and how funny you are. I miss everything you bring to this family. I wish I could say I’d be okay with you dying. But honestly—I’m not. So, when the doctors disconnect you today, I want you to fight. I want you to stay alive. Do you hear me? Fight, Madeline.”

  The thing was? I’d never been much of a fighter.

  * * *

  I blinked, and the next thing I knew I lay in a field filled with wildflowers. I gazed up at the pretty blue sky spotted with a few white clouds that danced across it. I remember this field, because Mama and I had danced here before, spinning in circles and giggling like we shared the funniest joke.

  A soft, mechanical, rhythmic noise that sounded like a complete breath—a long slow inhale and a low exhale—hummed in the background. That is—if a machine could breathe.

  I stretched my arms over my head. Even though I was still in my colonial clothes, I felt happy, light, almost giddy. Then I saw the strangest thing: the dead colonists from the Endicott settlement were alive and healthy, walking past me, and going about their outdoor work. They carried buckets and shovels. Maybe they were gardening.

  “Hello,” I said to the young colonial women whose neck had been caked in blood the first time I saw her. Her neck was now perfect: long, thin, and completely intact. “I remember you.”

  She smiled at me shyly, and placed two buckets of dirt next to me. “It is very exciting, yes?”

  “What’s exciting?” I asked.

  The guy who had the hideous burns on his arm, walked past me healthy and unscathed. He carried a shovel and winked at me. “The news that you get to be with your soul mate, for an eternity,” he said.

  “I get to be with Samuel, forever?” Feeling giddy morphed into feeling euphoric. I didn’t even care when the colonists from the Endicott settlement dug their shovels into the buckets of dirt and pitched soil onto my body.

  Because I got to be with Samuel—forever.

  The soft, rhythmic, machine-breathing sounds stopped.

  And, I drifted. I was maybe fifty feet up in the air looking down at my very still, white face, my body wearing a colonial dress, covered in dirt. I could hear everything; see everything. The colonists seem satisfied, and walked off. Except for the girl.

  She placed a few sprigs of lavender and sage on my chest, kissed my cheek, and whispered into my ear, “It is not over, yet. You can still fight. Only if you want. I did not get that chance.”

  She left. I lay on that field filled with wildflowers. I smelled burnt sage, lavender, and freshly baked, chocolate chip cookies. It felt like it was time to finally be free. When something white, small, and feathery dove through the air past me toward the earth.

  A small white bird fluttered next to my body. What was this thing doing? Didn’t matter. I was out of here. That’s when I felt a pinch on my leg. This stupid bird was pecking me.

  It jabbed my thigh. Nipped my ankle. “You’d better flippin’ stop it!” I said, when suddenly I was sucked from the skies back into my body on the ground.

  The bird hovered over me, dived, and pecked my arm. “Ouch!” I fought it off, my arms flailing. I think I nailed it as it stopped pestering me for a few seconds. Then, that dang bird dove in and pecked my ear.

  “Madeline!” Samuel whispered. But his voice was so far away. I bolted upright, brushed the dirt off me, and looked around the meadow. It was beautiful. But something was wrong: I wasn’t breathing.

  Stupid anxiety. I should probably breathe. I inhaled. Ouch. My lungs felt like they were glued together. I exhaled and took another breath. This time it felt like my lungs were ripping open.

  I heard a woman’s voice chant, “Sa. Ta. Na. Ma. Sa. Ta. Na. Ma.”

  The earth tipped underneath me, and I was falling. My biggest fear. I grabbed onto the flowers but they slid through my fingers. I clawed the earth, as the rest of my body seemed to be caught up in some kind of insane wind, blowing me like a speck of dust in a storm.

  Angeni said, “Let go.”

  The earth turned again. Now the land was over my head, and my legs dangled into a dark abyss. I hung on with all my strength as the winds buffeted me.


  “I’m scared!”

  “Let go.”

  Really. What did I have to lose at this point?

  I let go.

  I dropped from the earth above me, fell through the winds that whirled around me, and catapulted past the colonial people watching me from the sidelines. The nice girl smiled and clapped her hands.

  I heard Pachelbel’s Canon play as I fell through a rainbow of colors in a gorgeous, Atlantic sunrise, and saw the sandy beach coming up far too quickly. I was going to hit hard. Really hard. I squeezed my eyes shut.

  Chapter 26

  I touched down on the ground, soft as a feather.

  My eyes fluttered open. “Sa. Ta. Na. Ma.” Angeni twirled next to me in her tiny, dark hut. I lay on the floor. I felt something light and ticklish on my chest, reached for it, and felt feathers, bones. I lifted Angeni’s gorgeous necklace up in the air. It reminded me of the bird, but that wasn’t possible.

  Angeni stopped twirling, sighed, and took her necklace from me. “You are back.” She stroked my cheek. “Why did you take the dark medicine?”

  “What’s the dark medicine?” I rubbed my head. “Is this what a hangover feels like?”

  “No. It is what nearly dying from poison feels like,” Angeni said. “You traveled. But you did it with poison, and it almost killed you. If you travel with the dark medicine, and do not return, you vanish. Forever. No infinity. No re-birth. Bringing you back this time was much more difficult than the other times. Do not do this again.” She frowned and tucked her necklace away under the bench with the furs on top.

  “But I was worried about Samuel and—”

  “And what? Decided to heap more anguish upon his soul, than he already experiences? He loves you. He knows this is a nearly impossible love. But Samuel loves purely.”

  I flashed to that awful sight of him being whipped. “Is he okay?”

  “He will heal.” She reached for her medicine bag. “Who gave you the dark medicine?”

  “Oh. Um.” If I told her that it was Tobias, he would not only get in trouble, but he would cause even more for me. I would deal with Tobias on my own. But not until my head stopped spinning, and my stomach felt less queasy.

  “I think I already know who. The same person who told the Reverend about the necklace Samuel made for you.” Angeni handed me some leaves. “Chew on these. They will help your stomach sickness.”

  “Tobias told the Reverend?” I asked.

  She nodded. “Who else? Samuel only shared his feelings about you and making your totem necklace with Tobias and myself. The only people he trusts.”

  My totem necklace? Tobias had ratted us out to the Reverend knowing full well Samuel would be whipped?

  Angeni kissed me on my cheek. “You are a good girl. Daniel will escort you to Elizabeth’s home.” She opened the skins to her hut, and there was Daniel, plain as day.

  “You missed the courier!” Daniel exclaimed. “General Jebediah and our troops return tomorrow. There was a bloody battle. Not everyone survived. There are wounded.”

  “Then, there is much to prepare.” Angeni pulled a fur pelt from under the bench and wrapped it around her shoulders. I spotted her necklace and some deerskin clothes.

  “Where are you going?” I asked.

  “A stubborn young man refuses to leave that horse. But he needs food and medicine. As well as news about you.”

  * * *

  Daniel and I walked through the garrison. It wasn’t nighttime yet, but I guess Angeni wanted him to accompany me in case I pitched over dead. I asked him to tell me what it was like to guard the gates. That made him happy. He went into detailed explanation while I thought about my next step.

  Telling the Reverend and destroying my necklace was awful. Maybe Tobias didn’t think Samuel would be physically punished. After all, I wasn’t. Maybe in all fairness, Tobias hadn’t meant to poison me.

  Maybe he just wanted me to travel. Leave this place, this time. Leave him, Samuel, and everyone else alone. But I didn’t really believe that. I think Tobias was planning more evil. And I needed to know what that was.

  Tomorrow the garrison would be filled with more people. There’d be increased commotion, but there would also be more eyes. There was no time. I realized what I had to do. And I had to do it tonight.

  “That’s fascinating, Daniel,” I interrupted. Frankly, he could have been pontificating about hunchback whales, ’cause I’m not sure I heard a word he said. “We must go back to Angeni’s. I forgot the, uh, blanket that she wanted me to give Elizabeth.” The blanket that would hide everything I was going to borrow from Angeni.

  Then, I had one more detour to check on Nathan. I knew he wouldn’t be in the barn. But I needed to stash what I had borrowed in the pile of blankets that lay on the floor in the corner.

  * * *

  Once Elizabeth heard the news that her beloved Jebediah was alive and coming home, she finally relaxed. I waited until she slept soundly to sneak out of the house. I carried a small candle resting in a metal cup, and a tiny wooden bowl I’d filled with dirt.

  I made my way quietly to the barn. Placed the candle on the ground far from anything that looked overtly flammable. I stripped off my dress, and dropped it onto the cold floor next to my feet. I wiggled out of the ridiculous undergarments, yanked the white cap from my hair, and tossed it on the heap of clothes.

  I shivered and wondered; could I do this? I knew I was meant to be with one soul: Samuel. I was in love with him, and amazed he loved me in return—flaws and all.

  I pulled on the buckskin breeches and tunic that I had borrowed from Angeni’s hut. I tied a black rag around my head, and shoved my hair up underneath it. I saw Angeni’s necklace lying on the floor, and I picked it up.

  It was wild, and beautiful, and fierce. Exactly, how I needed to feel tonight. I knew it was Angeni’s totem. Mine had been destroyed. Maybe, she wouldn’t mind if I borrowed it—for just one night.

  I draped it over my head and shoved Abigail’s clothes behind a bale of hay. When I returned in a couple of hours, I’d change into that costume, and go back to being a proper colonial girl. Right now—I wasn’t going to be all that proper.

  I reached for the wooden bowl filled with the dark earth. Spat on my fingers and poked them into the clay. Pulled out dark chunks and rubbed them on my face, hands, and feet. I held up the candle in the metallic cup, and tried to view my reflection.

  I didn’t look anything like Abigail in 1675, or Madeline in my real life. I wasn’t sure if I looked like a Messenger, a warrior, or a fool. Maybe all of them rolled into one person. Yeah. That sounded like me.

  I still had anxiety, but I had to find out what Tobias was doing in the woods at night. What was he planning next? I could not let him hurt Samuel, ever again.

  I took a deep breath, and squeezed out of the barn’s door.

  Chapter 27

  I crouched barefoot against the side of the barn. A break in the thick cloud cover overhead revealed a new moon. I watched and waited for Tobias. It didn’t take that long.

  He walked silently along the fence’s perimeter. How was he going to get past the guard? Daniel wasn’t on duty tonight. Was the guard in on his plot as well?

  Tobias dropped to his knees next to a squat, sawed-off tree trunk. He eyeballed the area, searching for anyone who might be watching. I doubted he even considered looking for me, the colonial girl with delusions. The girl his best friend had fallen for. The girl he had poisoned.

  Tobias pushed the tree trunk aside and dropped into a hole in the earth underneath it. His hand reached up as he pulled the trunk back over the hole. I waited a few moments, and followed him. He was obviously on a mission.

  So was I.

  I crouched and ran, pulled the trunk aside, and dropped into the hole. I found myself in an earthen tunnel propped up with tree branches. I couldn’t see its other end. I gritted my teeth, pulled the trunk back across its opening, and was in complete darkness.

  I crawled on my stomach, pu
lling myself forward with my hands. I really hoped there weren’t bugs down here. What if this thing gave way, and I was buried alive in dirt?

  I crawled for possibly the longest minutes of my life ’till I saw whispers of moonlight peeking through what looked like a thicket of weeds and skinny branches.

  I wriggled forward, peered out, and spotted Tobias far away in the distance. I waited a long moment then pushed on the branches. They gave way easily, and I pulled myself out onto solid ground.

  * * *

  I pursued Tobias from as far away as I possibly could, without losing sight of him. I had an idea where he was going.

  He walked quickly on a narrow dirt path that rimmed brown, battered, dying corn fields, that were probably once filled with tall, fresh crops planted and tended to by the Indian women, and eventually farmed by colonial men.

  Recently, these fields had been beaten down in a battle during King Philip’s War. The bodies of the injured and dying men that fell here were both Native and colonists.

  Despite the chilly weather, there was a reason I went barefoot. I didn’t want the sound of clunky shoes to give me away. When I tripped over something abandoned in the field, flew forward, but managed to stay upright.

  The thing I tripped over wasn’t very big. It felt dense under my foot, a little gooey and crusty. The stench of rotting meat, with a pinch of sweetness hit my nostrils. I crouched to avoid keeling over. I peered at the thing I tripped on that lay right in front of me: it was dull and shiny all at the same time. I reached down, touched it, and rolled it over: it was the remains of a human arm.

  I gagged and recoiled. I couldn’t see if the color of the skin was dark or light. It didn’t matter, because the sunlight would confirm this arm was gray, black, chewed on by animals, and devoured by insects. So much for societal differences and whose politics history had proven right.