Hidden Voices (Tess Schafer-Medium)

by Deborah Hughes

  I turned back around and took a cautious step toward Barbara, as I did so Max charged halfway toward me, both sets of teeth bared, the skin around them stretched back in a nasty snarl. Whoever was following me, Max didn’t like him. I stepped to the side to see what Max would do. He did not follow my action. His eyes remained focused to my right.

  Her face paling with concern, Barbara came to her feet and stood rooted to the floor. Her eyes wide with fright, she looked from her dog to me then back to her dog. “Max! Stop.” When his racket didn't let up, Barbara looked back at me and shrugged helplessly. “I don’t understand what’s wrong with him.”

  Goosebumps broke out on my arms and I was glad to be wearing a sweater so Barbara wouldn’t notice. But then her eyes widened with disbelief and she lifted a shaking hand to point at me. My heart thumped hard and painfully. What was she pointing at? And then I knew. She could see my breath frosting in the air. It didn't dissipate until it traveled beyond the frigid cold now surrounding me. Though I was unable to control my shivering, I clenched my teeth to keep them from chattering and fought to tamper my annoyance. Had I not told them to stay outside?

  As I scrambled for ideas on how to handle this situation, Barbara took a couple of steps toward me. Max was a good three feet away from me at this point with hackles raised, teeth bared and his growls low in his throat. His eyes didn’t look frightened however. No, Max was in full defensive mode and when Barbara took a step passed him, his protective instincts kicked in. He charged ahead of her but didn't get far. As soon as he hit the mass of cold air circling me, he let out a yip of surprise, his barking growls grinding to an abrupt halt. Instantly he dropped to a crouch and rolled over in submission. Barbara stopped her advance the moment her dog charged past her and when he dropped to the floor, she crouched down next to him. Although she intended to offer comfort to poor little Max, her hand halted above his quivering body and hovered there.

  “My God, it’s cold as ice!” Barbara glanced up at me, her pale face scrunched with near terror. Her own breath came out in spurts of foggy puffs and noting this, she gave another sound of distress. “What on earth is going on?”

  I turned to my right in order to face whatever entity had followed me inside and closed my eyes to focus. The protective light I tried to imagine into being wasn’t working. A dark swirling mass, agitated and determined to communicate refused to let me force its retreat. A little concerned about the unknown factors here and wondering whether I could trust this situation not to get out of hand, I decided to try and communicate.

  As soon as my resistance to it caved, the bitter cold was gone. Max scrambled to his feet and scurried behind Barbara’s chair. He peeked out just enough to keep an eye on us but stayed put and didn’t make another sound. Barbara stood and took a step back. I didn’t turn to look at her but spoke in as calm a voice as I could muster. I knew that if I appeared unnerved, she’d be much more so.

  “It’s okay, Barbara, someone wants to speak with me. Don’t be afraid. Just give us a moment.” I heard her retreat though she hovered protectively near. Or as near as she dared. I closed my eyes to better concentrate. “Okay,” I said quietly, “What do you want? Who are you?” Nothing happened. I got no message, no sound, no visions, nothing. “You followed me here. What do you want?” Frustrated, I opened my eyes and found a huge bare chest, smooth of hair and covered in blood, a few mere inches from my face. My mouth dropped open in silent disbelief as my eyes moved slowly up and fixed onto the blood-covered face of the big man I’d seen at the Tenney house. It was so unexpected and far too real for my liking. He seemed as solid as anything else in the room and the shock of it frightened me. I took a hasty step back, tripping over the rug Max ruffled up during his charge and falling flat on my butt. Thankfully, the carpet cushioned the bone-jarring impact. During the whole thing, I didn’t take my eyes off him. I didn’t dare.

  He had to be well over six feet tall considering his chest was at my eye level. He was massive, all muscle and power. And now I could see that he was completely covered in what looked like blood. The man had to have taken a bath in it. Not one part of his skin was visible beneath the red stuff covering him. His hair, the only thing not covered in red, was black as a moonless night. It was quite long and pulled into a high, tight ponytail on the back of his head. On any other man it would look ridiculous, not so on him. His arms, which were folded across his chest, would make Hercules look small in comparison. He stood like a silent, unmovable sentinel. At a distinct disadvantage, prone at his feet as I was, I remained as silent and still as he. The difference was I couldn’t have moved if I wanted to. The only part of my body that seemed capable of movement was my eyes but I kept them firmly locked with his. Since he was looking down at me, the whites of his eyes didn’t stand out in stark contrast to the red coloring like they did when I saw him at the Tenney house.

  My scrambled brain tried to think though I had to work at it. Was it blood or paint? One thing for certain, he was definitely an Indian. As our gazes held, I had an uneasy feeling those black eyes of his were probing deep into my soul. What did he see there?

  His arms dropped to his sides and that somehow helped me break eye contact, leaving me free to look him over. Every freaking inch of him was red, to include the form-fitting pants clinging to his muscular thighs and the boots laced half-way up his calves. The massiveness of him was overwhelming. What on earth did he do to get into that kind of shape? Surely they didn’t conduct weight training back in his time? What would they lift? Logs? Boulders? Why was I thinking such mundane things when the strangest entity I’d ever come across was standing there looking at me? Again I took note of the red stuff covering him. Whatever it was it didn’t appear to be wet. Now that I was free to look, it seemed that it was more like a stain. Did blood dry a bright red like that? I didn’t think so, but I wasn’t certain of much at the moment.

  Now that I didn’t feel so threatened, I calmed enough to really look him over. He wore a necklace around his trunk of a neck. The beads were red, which is why I hadn’t noticed it at first. They were about the size of shelled peanuts. Several more strands of shiny black beads were wrapped around his wrists. They were much smaller, more the size of peas. A clear stone, flat and shaped in a triangle hung just above his forehead. I could now see that the dark strand it hung from was woven into his hair. It was hard to see at first. As I wasn’t a rock expert, I couldn’t be sure what sort of stone it was, a smoky quartz perhaps?

  “Who are you?” I wasn’t sure if I spoke the words out loud. Nothing felt like it was functioning quite right. I couldn’t move, I could barely breathe. My heart was pounding out of control.

  His response was to lift his hands and clap them together. The sound they made was like a booming crack of thunder. It made my teeth rattle and my ears ring. And then he was gone and Max was barking again. I turned my head to see that Barbara now stood next to her chair, having retreated as far as she could possibly go. She stared at me with wide-eyed fright, her mouth open in silent disbelief. She was clutching her necklace so tight her knuckles were white.

  I glanced away and closed my eyes for a moment. I had to gather my wits and then somehow ease Barbara’s fear. For the life of me, I couldn’t say what just happened. The booming sound his hands made when he clapped them together was still ringing in my ears. Had Barbara heard it too? Max had. Realizing that I was still sprawled on the floor, I scrambled to my feet and stalled for time by straightening out my clothes. Finally I turned to Barbara. She must have realized that whatever it was that just happened was now over for her knuckles weren’t white any longer. Her hand, however, still clutched the crucifix dangling around her neck. “Did you see anything?”

  Barbara shook her head. “No. But I heard that…that sound. It was like a clap of thunder.” She glanced around toward the window. “Do you think anyone else heard it?”

  “I have no idea. But it was loud.”

  “What was it?”

  “You didn’t see any
thing at all?” It was hard to believe she didn’t see him as I had for he appeared as solid as the two of us. His image so clear, I was able to look him over at leisure, inspect him carefully. To think he could appear to me as clear as day, as solid as everything else in this room and yet Barbara hadn’t seen him, was inconceivable to me. Did I imagine it all? If I did, what an imagination!

  “I saw our breath. It was like a freezer in here.” Then, before I could respond, she waved her hand to cancel out what she just said. “Well, it was cold over by you. When I stepped back, it wasn’t cold anymore.” She looked down at Max who was now sitting on his back haunches next to her feet, his nose in the air sniffing constantly. His ears were perked up and twitching. He wasn’t quite sure our specter had left the building and was keeping his senses on full alert. “Max saw something.” Barbara looked up, the lines in her face looking deeper than they had before. “You saw something too. What was it?”

  I waved a hand toward the chairs. “Could we sit, Barbara? I really feel like I need to sit down.”

  Barbara nodded toward the chair next to hers then plopped down in her own as if her legs had suddenly given out on her. “I’m sorry, dear, of course we should sit.” She glanced behind me. “It is really gone?”

  I sank down into the chair with a grateful sigh and allowed myself to relax against the cushions. My bones felt like they had just turned to Jello. That encounter completely sapped me of energy. “It was the bl … red-faced guy from the Tenney house.”

  “The Indian? Is he going to haunt me now?” Barbara’s face paled even more than it already was. I worried she might pass out.

  “No. He was here to give me a message. He’s gone and I assure you, he’s not going to hang out here at your inn.”

  “I should hope not. Poor Max couldn’t handle that, not at all.”

  Max? I think she came out of this worse than he did but I didn’t say anything. “I felt him following me. He was at Mary’s house too.” But not Rid’s I noted to myself.

  “What was his message?”

  I pulled a “beats the heck out of me” face and shrugged my shoulders. “He didn’t say anything. The loud noise you heard happened when he clapped his hands together. That’s when he disappeared.”

  “But you said he was here to give you a message. If he didn’t give you a message, then he will be back!” Barbara began fiddling with her crucifix again.

  “Barbara, he wants my attention. I’m not sure why but I’ll figure it out.” I hoped. “In any case, he isn’t dangerous.”

  “But why did Max react to him that way? I’ve never seen him snarl like that.”

  “He’s a big man and he’s powerful. By that, I mean his energy is strong. Max was reacting to the strength of his energy. It’s rather overwhelming. Max took it as a threat.”

  “Why did Max go down on his back like that when he got close to you?”

  “He was submitting to the energy. He recognized that the spirit was the Alpha Male and he bowed to it.”

  “Alpha Male?”

  Maybe I used to watch too much of the Dog Whisperer back in the day when I was first training Tootsie. “The leader in a dog pack is called the Alpha Male. Dogs respond to the strongest energy that’s around them. You are his Alpha Male right now. Gender has nothing to do with it when it comes to humans. In a dog pack, it’s usually a male that leads. But as I was saying, you are in charge of him and he accepts your authority. He was protecting you from an unknown energy when the spirit came in the room with me. When Max got close to it, though, he recognized that the spirit was the stronger person in the room and he bowed to it.”

  “So it wasn’t trying to hurt Max?”

  “No. I don’t even know if he realized Max was even here. He kept his gaze fixed on me the whole time. He didn’t move in a threatening manner. I don’t know what that loud clap was all about. Maybe he was trying to show me how powerful he is. I don’t know, Barbara, but I hope to find out. I’m sorry it happened. I tried to make him stay outside.” No way was I going to tell her that there was a whole league of spirits just beyond her door. I could still feel their presence. They expected something from me. But what? Was it because of the beads and the stone? My finding them might have got their attention. What was my keeping them going to do?

  Barbara continued to fiddle with her crucifix, her expression troubled. “You said it was the man from the Tenney house. Now that you’ve seen him again, do you still think he’s an Indian? Do you still feel that way now that you’ve seen him again?”

  “Yes. He was covered in a red stain of some sort.”

  Barbara’s brows lifted in interest. “So you think he was a Red Paint Indian?”

  “I want to say yes but that makes no sense.” I was really going to have to mull over this a lot more. Why would an Indian from a tribe that went extinct thousands of years ago suddenly start haunting me? Since he showed up before the beads were in my possession, I knew they couldn’t be the reason he was bothering me. Besides, I truly believe he meant for me to discover them. But why? “Maybe he isn’t a Red Paint Indian. Maybe he’s from a tribe that copied that particular trait.”

  “Did he have any other marks on him?”

  “No. But he was wearing a necklace made of red beads and he was wearing several beaded chains around both wrists. The chains were made of very small black beads. He had a clear stone, like a quartz crystal, shaped like a triangle here.” I pointed to the center of my forehead just below the hairline. “It was held there by a thread that was woven into his hair, which by the way, was the only thing on him not covered in red. It was black and pulled up in a ponytail.” I yanked my hair up, pulling it near the top back of my head to demonstrate. “Rather strange place for a man to have a ponytail don’t you think?”

  Barbara looked fascinated. Scared too, but mostly fascinated. “What was he wearing?”

  “Pants of some sort. They fit like a second skin and were as red as he was. He wore boots that laced almost up to his knees. They were form-fitting as well.”

  “I wonder why I couldn’t see him? Was he hazy like a ghost?”

  “No. He looked as solid as you and me. That’s why I thought maybe you could see him.”

  “I’m thinking I’m glad I didn’t.” Barbara fell back against her chair. She looked very tired all of a sudden. “I think I would have fainted dead away if I’d seen him.” Then she straightened up, looking at me with concern. “He didn’t push you did he?”

  “No. I was startled to see him looking so real and standing so close. I took a step back and tripped over the rug.”

  “Are you okay?”

  “I’m fine.” A yawn escaped me at that moment and Barbara stood up. “We should get some rest. You have your young man coming tomorrow and you’ve had quite the day. I wanted to hear how your visit went with Rid and with Dawn’s family but we’ll talk tomorrow.”

  Nodding in agreement with the plan, I stood as well and followed her toward the stairs. Since Barbara’s room was on the first floor, she paused at the foot of the stairs to give me a hug. “We’ll be okay tonight then?”

  “We’ll be okay. He’s not dangerous, Barbara. But in any case, he’s gone.” She nodded acceptance of my assurance and smiled for the first time since I stepped through the door. “Try and have a good night then, dear.”

  “I will, Barbara, thank you.” I started up the stairs then stopped. “Kade said he’d be here early. If I know him it will be near the crack of dawn and…”

  Barbara raised a hand to stop me from saying anything further. “No worries, Tess. As I told you earlier, he can come anytime he wants. If he’s early enough, he can have breakfast with us.” She smiled like she hoped that was the case then added, “Ted is going to have breakfast with us before he heads out. His plane leaves at ten so I told him I’d have breakfast ready by seven.”

  Ted! I’d forgotten all about him. “Speaking of Ted, where is he tonight?” Surely if he’d been in his room, he would have come out when Ma
x started all that racket.

  “He said he’d be in late. One of his associates flew in at the Bangor airport this afternoon. Ted said they had a lot of paperwork to prepare for tomorrow morning.” She looked excited. “The associate is here to close the deal on the Tenney house. They are going to buy it and I’m so happy about that.” And then she smiled as the tension from the encounter we’d just gone through gave way to new thoughts. “The people here in this town will be glad to see it restored and in use again.”

  “That’s wonderful, Barbara. I’m glad. It looks like it can be a grand house.”

  “Yes, well, let’s hope it isn’t chock full of ghosts. Especially big red ones that clap so loud it sounds like thunder!” We both laughed at that, relieving our stress. I waved a hand and trotted up the stairs. It was getting late, I was tired and drained, and I couldn’t wait for tomorrow to arrive. Kade would be here in the morning. It felt like I hadn’t seen him in ages. Two whole days. If two days felt so long, what was it going to be like when I went back to New York? My insides cringed at the thought and I pushed it from my mind. I didn’t want to think about that right now. All I wanted was to enjoy the time we did have together. I had so much to tell him. Hopefully, between the two of us, we would come up with a good plan to solve this bizarre mystery. It seemed to be so much more than a cursed tombstone now. But what? Whatever it was, I had a very strong feeling it was going to be a doozy.

  CHAPTER TWELVE

  Although I had a lot to think about and mull over, I found I could hardly keep my eyes open when I finally fell into bed. I put my lethargy down to the strange encounter with the red man. I didn’t know what to call him at this point. Maybe Kade could help me come up with a good name.