by J. Thorn
Summon her.
Lori tossed her purse on the kitchen table. She grabbed the key ring hanging by the back door, the one to Dom’s toolshed out back. She traipsed through the snow and ice to the shed where she removed a twelve-foot piece of nylon rope. Lori locked the shed and put the key ring back in its place. She walked across the kitchen floor, leaving puddles of snow to mix with the tears dripping from her face.
There was no need to be angry at Hank or to blame Michelle. The powers were far greater than Lori could imagine. Hank would not be any more likely to resist them than she would.
Lori carried the rope down the steps and into the basement. She left the clean laundry stacked inside the basket on top of the dryer so Dom and the boys would have clean clothes for the coming week. She even made sure their black sport coats were ironed and hanging in the front of their closets for the funeral.
She grabbed the stepstool wedged between the washer and dryer, opened it and climbed two steps until she could reach the rafters above. She fished the nylon rope through and tied it with several knots. Lori looked around the room and gave up trying to keep the tears from falling. She sobbed, feeling selfish for not fighting alongside Hank and for mourning her own loss instead of thinking about how it would affect her family.
Summon her.
Each command brought the rope closer to her neck. Lori put her head through the noose and pulled it snug beneath her chin.
She stood on the top step so her head was a foot from the ceiling. She stood there for ten minutes, paralyzed at the precipice of death. She thought of her husband and her children while the phantom voices pummeled her, trying to force her out of the noose in order to assist Hank in the summoning. Lori smiled and decided she had to do it. Not taking her own life would be at the expense of her children's lives.
“I love you, Dom. I love you, David. I love you, Danny.”
As the cacophony of voices rattled in her skull, Lori held love for her family in her heart and stepped off the stool. The noose tightened and snapped her neck.
Lori pushed the nylon rope from her shoulder and let the noose coil on the ground like a dead snake. She stepped out of the rope and looked up at the decaying branch overhead, shaking her head. Her eyes darted about the empty forest as her heart raced. She was no longer in her basement, no longer amongst the living.
She drew a breath, wincing at the pain in her throat as her lungs tried to pull in more oxygen. She smiled at the joy of being alive, until the faces of her sons surfaced. Like a leaf at the mercy of the wind, the images of her family floated from Lori’s reach. Worry rushed back in as she struggled to find a connection, a reason for being here.
She walked in silence over branches sprawled on the ground and on to a rough path that wound itself farther into the forest. Lori heard a slight rustle of leaves underneath her feet. The sun hung at an odd angle, tossing a bland shaft of light ahead, most of the rays never reaching the ground. Lori looked to the right and saw tattered, yellow caution tape dangling from the trunks of ancient oaks.
Lori was dead, her body swinging from the noose in her basement. Yet she was here, dropped into a reversion in an alternate universe, a purgatory for those who seek a path to redemption.
Chapter 38
The Next Day (December 7, 2014)
“Lori is dead. Dom found her hanging from a noose in their basement,” Martha said.
“What? When?” Hank asked.
“When he got home from work. About two hours ago. He’s taking the kids to her mother’s.”
Hank sat back on the couch and shook his head. He could not choose one emotion to ride. They collided inside of his stomach like marbles. He wanted to be angry with Lori for reasons that would not make sense to Martha. At the same time, he felt relief for her. Lori would not have to face the coming storm.
“Why? Did she leave a note?” Hank asked, knowing full well why she killed herself.
“Nothing,” Martha said.
Fred came down the steps after making sure Corey brushed his teeth and was in bed. He put his arm around Martha as he sat next to her on the couch, across from Hank.
“Lori was a great kid. Woman,” Fred said. “God, she was a woman with her own family...”
Hank remained quiet as Fred trailed off.
“Just days before Michelle’s anniversary,” Martha said.
“Seems a bit of a coincidence.”
“I had nothing to do with it,” Hank said.
“We didn’t say you did,” Fred said.
Silence smothered the room.
“We need to talk,” Martha said.
“Tomorrow. We can talk tomorrow,” Hank said.
Fred began to speak but Martha hushed him.
“Fine. We’ll talk tomorrow. Go take a hot shower and get some rest. You’ll feel much better in the morning.”
Hank nodded and took Martha’s advice, heading up the stairs and leaving Fred and Martha alone.
“He’s made up his mind,” Fred said.
“I know. That’s why I didn’t bother engaging him. He’s decided. The only thing we can do now is make sure the Order is as prepared as possible. It's been many years, but we’re on the verge of a summoning.”
Chapter 39
The Next Day (December 8, 2014)
When Corey came down the steps and saw his grandparents huddled around their coffee cups at the kitchen table, he knew something was wrong. Instead of being greeted by the cheery morning wishes, Fred and Martha gave him tired, plastic smiles. Snow was falling and it seemed to accumulate with the coming sorrow. Tomorrow was the day Corey was dreading, the day he knew his grandparents feared as well. Corey did not feel his dad’s presence in the house and Fred confirmed it when he spoke.
“Morning, son. You seen your dad yet today?”
Corey looked at the table.
“Me neither. He left this,” Fred said, nodding to a sheet of paper on the table. “It wasn’t addressed to anyone in particular, but I think it was meant for all of us.”
Martha took her hands off of her coffee mug. She reached out for Fred’s hand on one side and Corey’s on the other.
Fred cleared his throat and read from the paper lying on the table next to his coffee.
“We all knew this day was coming. I’ve been feeling it like an ache in my bones, one that gets more and more painful each day. There’s no point in pretending any more. I know what the people in this town do and why they do it, and you know what I have to do. I know you can’t physically stop me because this is my fate. I’ve got to do this of my own free will. I wish you wouldn’t worry. I’ve got it under control. I’ve been doing research and talking to people. Professionals. I’ve run the odds and they’re better than you think. The ones who did a summoning before me, they didn’t know. They were too emotional. Not me. I’ve put my feelings aside so my mathematical, analytical mind is sharp. I can do this successfully. I can bring back your daughter, my wife, your mother. We’ll be a family again.
“It’ll take time to adjust. We’ve got a year to catch up on, but we’ll be fine. We’ll live our life the way it was supposed to be. Corey can finally start to heal. I know you’ll try to use him against me. Not in a cruel, vindictive way, but out of misplaced love. You think it’ll be a disaster, that Michelle will turn into a demon or some malevolent creature, but she won’t. I’ve studied the death map and I understand how to minimize the chance of that happening. So trust me. And Corey is just beginning to realize the powers he has within. He’s not ready for this, not ready for the stress. Please don’t put him in that situation.”
Fred paused to clear his throat again.
“I love my son more than anything. I never got to tell Michelle I loved her, but if it were just that, I wouldn’t be doing this. I’d let her rest. But I can’t permit my child to suffer like this. It's not fair and if I can do anything to heal him, I will. I’m begging you. Please leave Corey out of this. He has his own free will and when the time comes, he will exercise it. P
lease don’t get in his way.”
Martha wiped a tear from her eye before Fred finished reading the note.
“I’ll see you at the observatory tomorrow night. No matter what happens, I want you to know how grateful I am for everything you both did for me and Corey. Most men make jokes about their in-laws. I don’t. I love you like my own parents and I know you’ll do what’s best for us too, even if the three of us don’t agree on what that’s going to be. I love you, Fred and Martha. I love you, Corey.”
Fred folded the note into thirds and pushed it away from the edge of the table. Martha shook her head and looked at Corey.
“We understand the position you’re in. It's not fair but neither is life. Your Grandpa and I, we’re going to respect you and your dad’s wishes. We’re not going to actively push you in one direction or another. We just want you to be informed about what’s at stake. We’re going to take you to Dr. Singleton’s office today and you’ll be in a session unlike any other. He’s going to share a memory with you, a summoning from the past so you can understand how it could happen with your mom. After that, you’ll be free to make up your own mind. Is that okay with you?”
Corey nodded.
Fred pushed away from the table. “I’ll call the office.”
Chapter 40
Like most tragic events in any small town, news of Lori’s suicide ripped through Cleveland Heights with the force of a lake effect blizzard. The phone calls came from old friends and co-workers.
Fred couldn’t quite wrap his head around his emotions. After Hank left, Fred collapsed on the couch and Martha sat next to him in silent support, knowing the last thing he’d want to do was talk about it. Fred mourned the loss of another life, a daughter, a wife, a mother. But he also wrestled with the guilt that he missed his own daughter more and somehow mourning Lori felt contrived, an obligation.
He turned it over in his head and felt it in his gut, but Fred was unwilling to speak the words for fear that doing so would make it true.
Hank had something to do with Lori’s suicide.
Fred knew Hank had been meeting Lori. Whispers from around town suggested an illicit motivation, but Fred knew better. Hank wasn’t romantically interested in Lori, but Fred wished it had been the case. A broken heart would heal.
Fred pulled himself together. He stood and followed Martha and Corey to the car. They rode in silence.
Fred dropped Corey and Martha off at the main entrance of Singleton’s office so he could park the car and steal five more minutes of solitude. He threw an obligatory smile at the young security guard at the welcome desk before turning down the hallway to find Martha.
She was sitting in the far corner of the waiting room where a brash, young single mother shouted at her baby daddy from inside of a flat screen television mounted above. The talk show host stepped between her and the man when she decided to stick her finger in the baby daddy’s face.
Fred walked over and tried to turn the television off, but he couldn’t find a button anywhere on the beveled plastic frame, so he turned and faced Martha.
“They call this television,” Fred said.
Martha smiled and patted the seat of the chair. “Sit,” she said.
Fred dropped into the chair and closed his eyes, exhaling through his nose.
“Soon,” Fred said. “The end is coming.”
“That’s what I want to talk to you about,” Martha said.
“I hope we don’t have to hunt.”
“Not that. Something else.”
“Don’t be coy, Martha. We’re both too old for games.”
“I want you to make me a promise.”
Fred leaned forward with his hands on his knees and turned his eyes toward her.
“Anything. You know that.”
“In the worst-case scenario, if there is no other choice, I believe we make the sacrifice. Together. We give our lives to protect Corey from the demon, if that’s what it takes.”
Fred nodded and exhaled through his nose again.
“Of course. Tomorrow could be our time of transition to whatever is beyond all of this. There’s nobody I want to be with but you. If it goes that way, we go together.”
Martha leaned over and put a tight kiss on Fred’s lips.
“We’ve had a good life together. If it ends tomorrow, I’ll die knowing that.”
“I love you,” Fred said.
“I love you, too.”
Chapter 41
“Relax.”
Corey collapsed on the bed where Dr. Singleton once monitored his sleep. But this time Dr. Lisander was in the room as well. Corey believed what his grandmother told him. He was about to learn all there was to know about a summoning so he could decide for himself what to do. Corey dreamed of the day when he would be an adult. He fantasized about eating bags of cookies for dinner and wearing the same pair of underwear for a week. But all of those perks of adulthood were now trivial compared to what he was about to experience. Corey would be provided with a choice, the option to bring his dead mother back to life and risk everything, or to go against his father, the man trying to reunite the family. Corey feared losing his father if they could not bring back his mother. Dad would die of grief and Corey would be responsible for it.
Before Singleton spoke, Corey decided being an adult sucked.
“We’re going to start the same way,” Singleton said. “But instead of sleeping, I’m going to have you communicate with Dr. Lisander.”
Singleton saw Corey’s eyes glance at Sonya sitting on a chair next to his bed.
“Not in the normal way. We’re going to tap into your heightened awareness. Dr. Lisander has it too. It's the only way you’ll fully understand what happens during a summoning. You’ll feel it in a way words could never describe. It’ll be as if you were there with us all those years ago.”
Sonya sat silently with her legs crossed. Strands of hair fell from the side of her head, frizzled and distraught. Her eyes were swollen to slits beneath her forehead and blood stained her skin.
Corey’s eyes scanned Sonya’s bruises.
“I’m fine,” she said. “Just a bit of a scuffle. You should see the other guy.”
Corey didn’t laugh.
“We’re going to start the therapy session the same way we always do, then I’ll guide you. Is that okay?”
He nodded.
“Good. Dr. Singleton will go behind the glass to dim the lights and then we’ll begin. I’ll be here. Nothing bad will happen to you. We’re going to feel this as if we lived it, like a memory, but nothing is happening to us. I need you to understand no matter how real it feels, it's only a memory you haven’t experienced yet.”
Singleton stood and walked to the only door in the room and shut it behind him. Sonya leaned back in the chair and Corey closed his eyes as the lights dimmed.
Corey felt a pressure above his eyes like a sinus infection. He could tell Dr. Lisander was inside of his head, but she wasn’t speaking to him remotely. Based on his previous sessions with Dr. Lisander, the sequence of events would not play like a movie. Those were misconceptions about experiencing paranormal activity reinforced by Hollywood that applied to only a handful of people in real life. Most individuals with non-local perception felt it like Corey, as if it were a memory with certain sensations. The feeling was not a linear replay of events.
The pressure turned into fear and Corey felt it in his stomach. He sensed a conversation between a man and his lover, the man summoning her in the same way his father planned to do for his mother. She was there and Corey could feel the emotion between them. Despite the laws of physics and the common perception that death was the end, it clearly wasn’t. They spoke like lovers, like two people reconnecting after a year apart. Corey felt a tinge of happiness, longing and regret.
The memory changed again. The summoner, the one Corey could now identify as Dr. Singleton, began to plead. He felt the man’s mannerisms in the memory and his non-local perception allowed him to correctly label i
t as fear and frustration. Singleton felt the summoning slipping away as his lover faded. But instead of thinning like a waning snowstorm, another force began to fill the void. This transformation made Corey shudder. The incoming energy was dark, cold and violent. It felt like guttural fear, the most primal instinct left inside of a civilized human.
And then, as if instantly changing, what was left of the lover was swallowed by a higher power. Corey felt Singleton now knew his time with his deceased lover was gone, but the transformation happened faster than he could manage.
The boy shuddered and shook and he opened his eyes to see Dr. Lisander staring back at him.
“Breathe,” she said.
Corey’s tongue stuck to the side of his mouth. As the lights came up in the room, he felt his eyes burn. He looked at Sonya, unsure if he wanted to cry or embrace her.
“Deep breaths. It’s over.”
But it wasn’t over. Corey felt a wave of vertigo and the pressure behind his eyes returned. He was heading back into his mind for another memory, but this time Dr. Lisander would not be there to guide him. This time, Corey would see the evil contained by the portal without Singleton or Lisander. He was about to be on his own.
Chapter 42
Corey felt the damp chill of a basement and a deep sadness within. Again, he was unable to “see” so much as he could feel. This was a woman who was deeply and horribly injured, but not in the flesh. This woman had her soul scoured from the inside out, leaving nothing but a frail, rotten shell.
He felt the finality in the memory. She was taking her own life in order to sacrifice for the greater good. Corey felt the opposite wavelengths from his father. His dad was convinced he could manage the cosmic forces at play and this woman knew she never could. In fact, she felt a hopelessness for humanity, even with her own suicide, and saw it as the best of two shitty choices.
