Awakening

by Catrina Burgess

  He saw me watching him. “Sage.” He took out a lighter and lit one edge of the bundle. He let it burn for a few minutes before blowing out the flames. The fire gone, the bundle emitted a thick white smoke. He gestured with it. “It’s an old Native American trick. The sage cleanses the room.”

  I watched him make his way across the room. He held the sage up high and waved his hand as he walked back and forth across the room. When he was done, he came back to the table and put the sage into the black bowl.

  He then took the lighter and lit each of the candles. Reaching into the bag, he pulled out a bottle and slowly poured the contents into the red bowl. He then pulled out two raven feathers and placed them on either side of the board. He placed two fingers from his left hand into the red bowl, closed his eyes and wrapped his right hand around the medallion. He said a few words in Latin and slowly brought his fingers out and then spread them across the board, smearing reddish black slime against the wood of the board. When he finished, he wiped his fingers against his pants before sitting down.

  He held out his hands across the table. “Now we say a prayer.”

  I stretched out my arms and put my hands in his.

  “You should never use the board alone. It’s best if you use it with two people, preferably a man and a woman.”

  I was never going to use the board again if I could help it.

  Luke tightened his fingers around mine and closed his eyes. “Spirits, let the flames of the candles protect this space. Let all negative energy leave this space. I invite spirits to come through who are helpful. Let those helpful spirits harm none.” He opened his eyes and let go of my hands. “I need you to take a moment and think about your family.”

  I closed my eyes and thought of my mother, my father, and my brother. I tried to recall happier times. I held a picture of them in my mind for a few seconds before opening my eyes.

  Luke gestured to the planchette. “We both put our fingertips on the pointer.”

  The thought of touching the board sent a shiver down my spine.

  “Colina, it’s all right. I promise you, nothing bad will happen.”

  I took a deep breath and put my fingers on the pointer.

  “Make sure your touch is light. We just need to make contact with it.”

  I nodded. “And then we do what?”

  Before I could finish my sentence, the pointer started to move across the board.

  I cried out in surprised and lifted my fingers. The pointer stopped moving.

  “It’s okay. It’s supposed to do that. Put your fingers back on. Trust me.”

  I looked at him and forced my fingers back onto the pointer.

  As soon as I made contact, it began to move again. It circled around the board in the shape of a figure-eight.

  “We’ll start out asking yes and no questions,” Luke advised.

  “Terrific,” I mumbled under my breath.

  “Do you want to start?”

  I shook my head.

  “Think of your family.” He closed his eyes and spoke in a loud voice, “Spirit, are you here?”

  The pointer slowly moved until the word Yes could be seen through the transparent plastic circle.

  Luke opened his eyes and looked down at the pointer. “Thank you, Spirit.” He looked at me. “The spirits like to lie. And they aren’t the best spellers.”

  I laughed. “Really?”

  He shrugged and gave me a half grin then looked back at the board. “Spirit, do you have a message for us?”

  The pointer moved slowly to Yes again.

  “What would you like to tell us?”

  The pointer stopped moving.

  “Spirit, are you still here?” Luke asked.

  Nothing. The pointer didn’t budge.

  The flames on the candles began to flicker, and at the same time a cold chill went down the back of my neck.

  Luke looked around the room and took his hands off the pointer.

  I lifted my fingers. As I did, the planchette started moving on its own. It slowly weaved into a figure-eight again.

  I looked at the board in shock and whispered, “Is that normal?”

  Luke frowned. “No.”

  The pointer started to move faster. And faster. It spun around the board doing figures-eights.

  There was a whooshing noise, and the flames on the candles suddenly rose. The room filled with noise. It sounded like someone humming. The humming grew louder. Another whoosh and the candle flames went even higher.

  I was glued to my chair. I kept looking back and forth from the racing pointer to the candles. “Is this the ‘something else’ you were worried about?” I shouted to be heard over the racket.

  Luke’s right hand was wrapped around the medallion, and his lips were moving, but I couldn’t make out what he was saying.

  There was a loud thump from underneath the table. I scooted back in my chair. The table thumped again, and this time the board rose off the surface of the table a few inches.

  I looked over at the mantle where the gypsy’s protection pouch lay. I had taken it off earlier, when we’d returned from the hospital, so I would be open to the spirits. I sorely wished I had it on now.

  “Should I be worried?” I yelled.

  Luke didn’t answer. His full focus was on the board. His expression was grim, and his lips moved faster.

  A book flew off the bookshelf. And then another. There was a loud knock on the wall, and the whole table jumped. All four legs actually came off the ground. I shot out of my chair and stood, not sure what I should do or where I should run. Luke stood, raised his hand, and shouted, “Be gone!”

  The Ouija board flew off the table and slammed into the nearby wall. As it hit the floor, the room went silent. There was another loud whoosh, and the candles went out.

  We stood in the dark, the only sounds my heavy breathing and my heart pounding in my chest--which to me sounded like a jackhammer.

  I heard a clicking sound. Luke’s lighter flared to life in his hand. He went over to the candles and re-lit each one.

  I said, “Let’s not do that again.”

  He walked across the room and picked up the board and the planchette and put them both back on the table.

  He glanced at me. “Are you ready?”

  I took a step back. “You’re nuts. You want to do that again? Seriously?”

  His face was void of expression. “We have to contact your family.”

  It was the last thing I wanted to do. A better plan was to take the board and throw it directly into the fire.

  Luke sat in the chair quietly watching me.

  What choice did I have but to continue? I took a deep breath, walked back to the table and sat down. “I’m ready.”

  Luke got up from the table and re-lit the sage. He walked around the room waving it back and forth again. When he was done, he put the sage into the black bowl. He sat back down and held out his hands.

  I put my hands in his, and once again he said the opening prayer. Then he lifted his fingers and put them on the planchette.

  “Think of your family.”

  I closed my eyes and brought back the images of my family. When I opened my eyes I slowly forced my trembling fingers back onto the pointer. I took a deep breath and nodded.

  Luke asked the room, “Spirit, are you there?”

  The pointer moved slowly to Yes.

  “Spirit, do you have a message for us?”

  The candles flames flickered.

  Here we go again. I braced myself. Any minute the planchette would start doing wild figure-eights, and crazy humming would fill the room.

  The pointer moved around the board and then stopped. As it did, I noticed a light in the corner of the room. A shimmering light that was fading in and out. Shadows from the candles?

  “Colina.” The word was but a whisper on the wind.

  I sucked in a breath, in shock. My voice cracked with emotion. “Mama?” I was up out of my seat and halfway across the room.
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br />   It was my mother. The outline of her body floating in the corner, but I could see through her to the bookshelf on the other side of her.

  “Mama,” I whispered.

  My mother’s gaze focused on me. “Colina, you’re alive.” Her head turned from left to right. “Your father…your brother…?”

  A tear slid down my face. I forced myself to say the words out loud, “Dead. Mama, they’re all dead.”

  She let out a loud, anguished cry. “No. He took them. Where are they? Why can’t I see them?”

  “Mama, we need your help. Do you know who hurt you? Do you know how to find them?” I wanted to find the men who hurt my family so badly I could almost taste it. I wanted them to pay what for they’d taken away from me. I knew my mother, the healer, would never understand my anger. I looked at Luke. “They have Luke’s sister. He needs to find her before they hurt her, like they hurt you.”

  “He took them from me. He took them from me…” My mother sobbed.

  “Mama, can you help us?” I begged.

  My mother’s image flickered in and out. Her sobs grew louder, and the windows shook.

  Luke was beside me. He grabbed my arm. “She can’t help us. She’s too far gone in her grief. It’s all she can focus on. She can’t help us find Darla.”

  “But if I talk to her…”

  He shook his head. “Her spirit might stay like this forever, focused on her loss. She may eventually move past it, but how long will that take? Years, centuries?” He exploded with anger.

  Centuries. My mother’s spirit forced to roam the ether sea for centuries? The thought sent chills down my spine. I took a step forward, my arms outstretched. She had to move on. I couldn’t handle the thought of my mother stuck forever in the abyss of in between.

  “Mama, you‘ve got to go to the light. Mama, do you see a light?”

  A crack of lightning lit up the dark sky outside. A few seconds behind it, a loud roar of thunder.

  My mother looked at me, her eyes filled with sadness. “Colina...”

  “Yes, Mama. I can hear you.” Tears were streaming down my face.

  Panic filled my mother’s face. “Colina!”

  “Mama, I’m here. I’m right here.”

  My mother turned away from me, and her image flickered. When she turned back, fear blazed from her eyes. “Colina, baby, listen to me. They’re coming for you. They’re right outside. They’re coming.”

  Another crack of lightning and my mother’s image started to disappear, but her voice rang out, “Run, baby girl. Do you hear me? Run!”

  “Mama!” I raced to the spot where her spirit had just been.

  Luke grabbed me. “There are men outside. We have to go.”

  I didn’t care about anything but seeing my mother again. “Mama,” I sobbed.

  “We have to get out of here!” Luke’s arms circled my waist, and he dragged me from the living room. He pulled me into Pagan’s bedroom and slammed the door.

  I was crying. My whole body shook as the tears streamed down my face.

  Luke opened the bedroom window, then picked me up and carried me out and over the window sill. He dropped me gently to the ground beside him.

  I was frozen, unable to move or think. Images of my mother flashed through my mind--the gun aiming at her head, the bullet tearing into her body, her blood bursting against the wall behind her. Those lifeless eyes staring into me as she fell to the ground.

  “Mama,” I whispered.

  The slap came hard and fast across my cheek.

  My hand came up to cradle my face. I stood stunned.

  Luke pulled me hard toward him. “Colina, we have to get out of here. There are men. I saw them out the window when the lightning flashed. Three, maybe four of them advancing on the house.” He let me go and looked frantically around us. “We need to get out of here. Now.”

  The wind blew my hair around my face. Rain fell hard from the sky. The men who’d killed my family were inside Pagan’s house. The last thing I wanted to do was run. I wanted to rip out their eyes. I wanted to see them bleed, and I wanted them to die.

  He pointed into the dark. “I know this area. We can go across the field. Find a place to hide.”

  I heard crashing and loud banging from the house. I turned back toward the house. I had no plan in mind. I was just filled with rage. Anger I could no longer control took me over.

  Luke grabbed me and shoved me in the opposite direction, away from the house.

  The sounds from within the house grew louder. I struggled against him. I didn’t want to run--I wanted to stay and fight.

  “What are you doing?” He grunted, trying to control me.

  “Those men killed my family!”

  “It’s suicide to go against them now. You haven’t finished the rituals. You have no power. We don’t know what we’re facing.”

  Somewhere through the red haze pounding in my head, Luke reached me. He was right. I didn’t want to die senselessly. I wasn’t even sure these were the right men. Had they had a hand in my family’s murder, or were they just someone else’s lackeys? I needed to think, to plan, to make sure I made the right people pay--which meant right now I needed to stay alive.

  I followed him, stumbling as we moved across uneven ground.

  Glass broke behind us. I turned and watched lights crisscrossing across the ground.

  “They have flashlights,” Luke’s voice was low but urgent. “They’re coming. We have to hurry.”

  And then there were more lights, but these were colorful, and they moved above the ground. They floated up into the sky and swirled around. Then in a flash, they streaked across the night and headed in our direction.

  Luke let go of my hand.

  I stopped next to him.

  He shoved me forward. “Colina, run.”

  “I’m not leaving you!”

  “Run,” he demanded. “Get moving.”

  He had magic. I could see spirits, talk to them, but that was all I could do. I didn’t have any way to protect myself, not yet. No way I could help him in a fight. There was no weapon around I could grab. Those men were coming. Luke was going to stand against them, and there was nothing I could do to help.

  “Run.” This time he pleaded.

  I took a step, and then another, until I stood in front of him. I reached up, touched his cheek, and then I rose up on my toes and kissed him. His lips were soft against mine. He caressed my hair. I kissed him again, and then forced myself to move away. He was standing there, facing the house. His hands were clenched into fists. I couldn’t help him. I turned and headed into the darkness. I ran.

  Chapter Ten

  Down, Down I Fall

  I pushed through bushes and stumbled across tall grass. Crossing several fields, I could still hear voices shouting behind me. The rain poured, and lightning streaked across the sky. I had no idea where I was going as I made my way in the dark, and every time lightning flashed, I tried to take in as much as I could of the landscape. I climbed over a wooden fence, crossed another pasture, and kept moving forward. A noise sounded close by, and I dove behind a bush and threw myself on the ground. I held my breath waiting to be captured. Nothing. No sound of footsteps, no sign of flashlights. The night was now silent, except for the occasional crash of thunder overhead. I didn’t know how far I’d gone, but I was sure I wasn’t far enough from the house to be completely safe.

  I forced myself back on my feet. The rain was now coming down in sheets. Drenched, I pushed my hair from my face and wrapped my arms around myself for warmth. I was cold, scared, and worried about Luke.

  Was he still alive? A sob escaped. He’d be facing three, maybe four men. And who knew how powerful their magic might be? An image of Luke flashed before my eyes. His body lying lifeless on the ground. I shook my head and forced the dark thoughts away. He would survive. I refused to consider any other possibility.

  More lightning raced across the sky. I pushed through a thick row of thorny bushes that scratched my face
and arms, and as I made my way into another pasture, suddenly the ground gave way beneath me.

  I reached out, grabbing for anything, but there was only empty space. I fell a long way before slamming hard against the surface of…water? I plunged down into cold, wet darkness. The shock of the cold forced the oxygen from my lungs. My head went under, and my momentum carried me down. I kicked my feet, my lungs near bursting for air. I struggled to go up, to break the surface. When I didn’t think I could survive a moment longer, I found myself bobbing above the water’s surface. I could breathe again. I sucked in oxygen, sweet oxygen and frantically moved my arms, trying to stay afloat. I did my best to swim as my clothes, heavy with water, pulled me back down.

  I looked up and saw lightning zigzagging across the sky. How far had I fallen? Ten feet? Twelve feet? I kicked forward, reached out, and made contact with smooth stone. My fingers followed the stone around. A perfect circle--I had fallen into a well. I looked up at the sky again as I brushed against the smooth rock. There were no handholds. No way to climb up and out. The water was cold. A chill seeped into my bones, and I began to shiver. I forced down the panic and tried to stay calm.

  And I realized I wasn’t alone.

  An unnatural chill ran down the back of my neck. A breeze moved past me, and I had the sense that whatever hovered near me wasn’t of this world.

  I heard a whisper. My ears strained to make out the words, but there were none, at least none I could decipher. More noises that didn’t sound human. Then a growl to my right.

  I spun around in the water. “Who are you?” My words were forced out between chattering teeth.

  Another growl, this one louder and closer.

  “What do you want?” Desperately, I tread water, trying to keep my head above the surface.

  “You” echoed in the darkness, and as it rang out, something grabbed my foot and yanked me under.

  I kicked hard, forcing myself back up. I broke the surface and sucked in a mouthful of air only to be pulled under again. Whatever had me was strong. I kicked and struggled, frantic to break free from its grip. I couldn’t breathe. I did a couple of hard scissor kicks and for a moment my head bobbed above the water again. I sucked in another lungful of air before it dragged me under.