“But what made the Indian bust explode? If not a ghost, what?” Adam scowled at the empty spot on the mantel where the bust must have been sitting. It still bothered me that I couldn’t remember it.
Heaving a quiet sigh, I motioned toward the sofa. “Mind if I sit down?” I always felt weak after a vision. Kade started to take my arm but dropped his hand. He obviously wasn’t sure if he should touch me or not because I had pulled away from him and hadn’t looked at him since. I couldn’t. The pain in my chest at the thought of losing him was too raw. He’d see it in my eyes, feel the tension in my body and want to know what was going on. I didn’t want to talk about it.
Giving voice to fears often weakens them.
Sheila’s voice popped into my head so strong and loud that I jumped and actually turned my head to look for her. Catching Kade’s inquiring gaze, I shrugged to let him know it was nothing and turned to Mary who sank down beside me on the couch. Adam pushed himself up as we approached and returned to his normal chair of preference. He still didn’t quite trust me. I couldn’t blame him. It was all quite bizarre. “It could be that my being here is rousing up their energy. I’m not sure what these events are about…the picture falling last night and the bust today.”
“Maybe Pop is trying to tell us something,” Mary suggested. “I know you said he’s not haunting us but could he show up just to give us some clues or something?”
“Clues to what?”
Mary gave a choked laugh. “I don’t know, maybe he can tell us how to save the house.”
Dawn sat down in the rocking chair facing us and shook her head sadly. “Nothing but money, and lots of it, is going to save us Mary. You know that.” She glanced at me with a wry smile tugging at her lips. “Think you can conjure up some winning lottery numbers?”
Adam’s head swiveled in my direction, a flare of hope in his dark eyes.
“I’m sorry, but I don’t have that sort of ability. I don’t know that ghosts can manipulate the machines that choose the winning numbers either. If it were possible, it would be happening a lot. You’d see it plastered all over the news.” I splayed my hands as if giving a news flash. “Just in, ‘Psychic comes up with winning lotto numbers!’” I gave a small sympathetic shrug. “Sorry, guys, but I’ve never heard of any such claims.”
The light went out of Adam’s eyes. He glanced away and stared into space. “We’re done.”
How to help them? I hated feeling this helpless. Faced with what they were facing, it all seemed so useless what I was doing. What did it matter if I uncovered the story behind a silly curse? The things that mattered in life were helping people like the Rowans. I wasn’t even contacting any useful spirits for them. Instead I had a pack of Indians chasing me around. But why?
Mary touched my hand to gain my attention and I turned to her. “Would you and Kade like to stay and eat with us? My mom is making a boiled dinner. There’s plenty. She always makes enough to feed an Army when she makes a boiled dinner.”
“A boiled dinner?” Although I was pretty sure I knew what it was, I stalled for time as my eyes searched out Kade’s to see what he wanted to do. He gave a small shrug to let me know it was my call.
“It’s a ham boiled with vegetables. My mom puts potatoes, carrots, cabbage, turnips and onions in hers. The flavors blend very well together.” Mary’s fingers gently squeezed my arm. “Please?” And then, obviously remembering Kade had just arrived in town, her eyes widened in dismay. “Oh…” She looked at Kade then me then waved a hand to erase the invite. “You probably would rather spend some time alone together. I’m sorry…”
“Mary, we would love to stay and have dinner with you.” I grasped her flailing hand. “Truly.”
Mary’s desperate eyes met mine and some of the turmoil in them lessoned. She gave me a ghost of a smile and nodded. “Okay. Great.”
Dawn stood and started for the kitchen. “Wonderful. I’ll just let you visit with each other while I go make a batch of biscuits.”
Adam leaned forward in his chair and caught my eye. “Since you are going to be here awhile, do you think you could find out who is causing all the weird crap going on and put an end to it? If it isn’t Pop, I don’t want any ghosts hanging around blowing things up. At least not until we’ve managed to pack our stuff and vacate the premises.” His expression hardened with contained anger. “Once we leave, you can tell every nasty ghost in existence to come hang out.”
The room chilled in response to Adam’s request and a shiver chased through my spine. Oddly, my scalp began to tingle with the rise of energy in the room and it was this that caught my undivided attention. A general belief, and one I accepted, was that our channel to the spirit world resided within the crown chakra, which was one of seven energy centers located within our bodies. The crown chakra resides just above the center of the forehead where the Third Eye, another chakra location, was located. A dear friend whom I’d met when I first started exploring my paranormal ability explained to me about these seven energy centers and though I didn’t explore them as well as I should, I was aware of them and took note when one was activated.
I almost forgot about my chakra work during my two-year pity party. But now it was all coming back to me. The tingling in my scalp slowly moved down through the center of my body making me feel like my insides were speeding up with excitement. I cast my thoughts back to Shay’s teachings and wondered what I needed to do to ensure I kept the channel open and do as Adam just asked.
Thinking of Shay, I felt a pang of regret for letting our communications dwindle to nothing. I met her when I was fourteen. My mother took me to one of her psychic seminars and she singled me out, sending a note requesting to meet with me when the seminar was over. Her name was Shay Storm, her true name, not a pseudonym, and she told me the spirits urged her to make my acquaintance. I was living with my parents in Virginia at the time. Shay, it turned out, lived in Virginia Beach only a short distance from Hampton where we lived. I spent a lot of time with Shay through my teen years, honing my ability and learning a lot about paranormal and supernatural phenomena. When I left to attend college in New York, where Mike and I met, Shay moved to Colorado and we lost touch. I hadn’t thought of her in years. How strange. Considering the influence she had on my life, I wondered how it was that we drifted apart so completely.
It was obvious Kade noticed the drop in temperature for he rubbed at his arm as his observant gaze moved around the room. I could see his skin was broke out with goose bumps and hid my smile. A month ago, he wouldn’t have thought twice about why a room might suddenly get cold. His deep blue eyes met mine and my heart gave a little lurch. He had quite the effect on me. Maybe when two souls meant to be together connected, our Heart Chakras (another energy center) recognized this and reacted? Or maybe it was because my eyes really appreciated what I saw. He grew more handsome the more I came to know him. Attraction and strong feelings did that. But now was not the time to think about it.
“Has Adam’s invitation prompted a visit?” Kade’s brows lifted in question and when Adam drew in a sharp breath, he winked.
Hiding a smile, I looked at Adam and gestured with my hand to gain his attention. He pulled his troubled dark eyes from an intent scan of the fireplace and met mine with an uneasy scowl. He was scared and worried and angry. It wasn’t a good combination. “You didn’t invoke anything, Adam. The spirits that have been active here lately are not haunting your house or trying to hurt you. I really think they might be trying to relay a message.”
Mary gave a small shake of her head, disagreeing with me. “But something has been hanging around this house long before now, Tess. We’ve all noticed little things over the years. You notice we don’t have a dog? Every dog we’ve tried to have goes a little berserk. Our cats are more tolerable but even they get spooked as you’ve seen. It’s just that lately things have become more active.” She waved a hand toward the fireplace to make her point. “We’ve lost two things from that mantel in the past two days. That bu
st exploding like that isn’t normal, Tess. Something more is going on.”
“Maybe their energy is stirred up because of how upset you all are about losing the house,” I suggested gently.
“But what do they care, Tess? They don’t need to live here. They don’t need anything anymore.” Mary stood and paced the room. Her hands twisted together and knotted into fists. “Maybe Pop is upset with us for losing his heritage.” Her eyes glistened with tears. “It doesn’t seem right, losing this place. It should be ours forever, no matter what.”
The energy in the room was increasing with each passing moment. I knew the emotions were so charged it was feeding that energy and I wondered if there was any way to calm it down before it got out of hand. If only I could figure out who was here and why.
Dawn bustled back into the room, a smudge of flour on her cheek. Seeing it, Mary walked over to her and gently brushed it away. “Mom, do you think it’s Pop haunting us?”
Dawn heaved a sigh and patted her daughter’s lingering hand before she walked over to the rocking chair she was sitting in earlier and sank into it. “No. But something is here. I can feel it.” She gave an exaggerated shiver and rubbed her arms. “Is it chilly in here or is it just me?”
Adam’s scowl deepened. “It’s chilly.”
“Okay, if you are all willing, let’s try to contact it and see what it wants.” I wasn’t sure it was a good idea to invite this right now but something needed to be done. Especially as this family had enough to deal with already.
“It?” Mary’s voice squeaked in alarm and I realized my mistake.
“Sorry, I just refer to spirits as an it sometimes until I know their gender.” I smiled at Mary to ease her mind and gave a small chuckle in an attempt to lighten the atmosphere. “Let’s not go all Stephen King here and start imagining crazy and bizarre things.”
Kade laughed softly and I turned to him at the sound. I loved his laugh. I loved his voice. I loved so many things about him. And that scared me more than whatever was making busts explode and the room go cold. “Are you game for it, Kade?”
He nodded in grave seriousness and that made everything seem so normal. Like what we were about to do was nothing out of the ordinary. “Whatever you think best, Tess. I’m with you.”
I glanced at Mary who nodded at my silent question, then Adam who also gave a short nod of approval and finally settled my gaze on Dawn. I would let her make the decision. After a long hesitation in which I was pretty sure an intense internal argument was taking place, Dawn capitulated. She shook her head decisively and grasped the arms of her chair as if bracing for impact. “Let’s do it.”
Feeling somewhat apprehensive and trying not to show it, I gave a nod. “Good then. Let’s prepare.” I could only hope we were doing the right thing.
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
Everyone looked at me expectantly, awaiting instructions, so I stood and glanced around to see how best to do this. “Let’s gather some chairs into a circle, close enough that we can hold hands.” Everyone went into action as they grabbed five chairs that were easy to maneuver and situated them in the spacious area between the sofa and the fireplace. While the others arranged the chairs, Mary pushed the large easy chair where Adam always sat and a couple end tables out of the way. We all then sat down and linked hands. Kade sat to my right, Mary on my left. Beside Mary was her mother then Adam who sat on the other side of Kade. The circle was complete.
Because it was early in the day, there was quite a bit of light coming from the windows. Mary had pulled the curtains closed but it wasn’t dark by any means. Not that having light was a problem because it wasn’t, but it usually effected a better mood to have the lighting low. I usually liked to have a candle lit to give everyone something to focus on but decided to forgo that this time around. I had a feeling the entities hanging around us were strong enough to put in an appearance even if everyone’s focus wasn’t particularly strong.
“Okay, before we begin, I want you all to understand what we are going to do and what you might expect.” Remembering the last séance I conducted, I was hoping to better prepare them for anything. “We’ll begin with a prayer. I do this to ensure God is in control of any communication we may invoke. Just to be sure, I always ask everyone to envision a bright light surrounding our circle. I want you to think of this imaginary light as God’s protection. When it comes to the spiritual realm, our imagination is as real as the physical world around us. This protective light acts as a barrier to negative entities, to anything harmful or bad that lurks on the other side looking for openings into our world. Séances are just such openings. Any time communication takes place between our world and theirs, a sort of portal is opened. We need to be responsible with this portal and not allow any old thing to come through it.” I glanced at each of the four people around me. Their gazes were focused on me, trusting and unwavering. “You understand so far?” Everyone nodded except for Kade. He squeezed my hand and I turned to smile at him (we’d been through this before) and then returned my focus to the others. “Try as often as you can to focus on seeing the light surrounding us in your mind’s eye. That keeps the energy we put into the light very strong. I will then ask for the spirits who have been trying to get our attention to come through. Again, we are allowing only those who are here for our well-being and theirs to come through and communicate with us. We are not inviting or allowing anything harmful or hurtful to enter our circle, so please don’t be afraid.”
“But what if it’s a negative force that’s been doing all the crap lately?” Adam asked.
“Then I’ll ask for someone to come through that can help us understand who has been bothering you and why and ask for their help in sending the entity away so that it doesn’t bother you anymore.” Mary’s cold hand trembled in mine and I squeezed it gently. “You okay to do this, Mary?”
Mary’s dark eyes were apprehensive but determined as they met mine. “Yes. I trust you, Tess. I know we’ll be fine.”
I nodded my appreciation for her confidence in me then continued to explain what we could be in for. “You may notice the room drop in temperature. It’s already done so as you’ve noticed but it could get worse. I am not sure why this phenomenon occurs. It isn’t always the case. Sometimes people feel warmth. You might notice a rise in the energy around us…a sort of silent buzz in the air. The hairs on your arms and at the back of your neck may rise. You might feel chills down your back and get the feeling that someone is standing near you. Do not be afraid. If you feel something or hear something, tell me. Acknowledging what you feel often helps you to relax a little, especially if you share those feelings.” I had to pause here to gauge everyone’s comfort level. Although the Rowans appeared somewhat apprehensive, they also looked eager and excited. It was fear that I hoped to keep at bay.
"You all need to understand that this is our world, not theirs. We are in control here, not them. They only can come into control if you let them. I’m not going to allow that.” I again let my eyes meet with each of the Rowans. Their trusting gazes did not waver from mine. Even Adam seemed enthralled and willing to trust me. “Sometimes they move things. Do not let this alarm you. They are just trying to validate their presence. It is something they are often compelled to do because the first thing we want to do is reason away what is happening and question whether or not we are really making contact with a spiritual entity.”
“Has anyone ever been hurt from a séance?” Dawn asked. She didn’t sound worried, more curious than anything.
Figuring she was thinking about the bust and how it exploded, it was a legitimate question. “No. Not during any of my séances and I’ve never heard of any harm that has happened to others either.”
Satisfied with that answer, Dawn nodded and gave her children’s hands a noticeable squeeze. “We are ready to do this.”
“I need you to understand that often the communication with the spirits is largely through my thoughts. You probably won’t hear anything. I can only tell you t
hat I understand the difference between them and me. Their voice is a distinctly different one from my own internal voice.” I tried to think how best to explain the process I went through. “Have any of you ever had a thought enter your mind that didn’t sound like your voice and you actually wondered where the thought came from?” All four of my séance mates nodded their heads. I had to hide a smile that Kade had done so as well. We’d talked about this during our many discussions over the past couple of weeks. I figured he was participating to encourage the others to do the same. “Well that was probably a spirit guide talking to you or one of your guardian angels. It sort of works like that.”
“So, we probably won’t see anything?” Looking much relieved, Mary’s tight grip relaxed a little.
“Most likely you won’t see anything but that doesn’t mean you won’t.” When Mary’s hand tensed again, I squeezed it gently to reassure her. “There really isn’t anything to fear.” I glanced around the table, meeting everyone’s eyes. “Whatever happens, do not break the circle. Keep a tight hold on each other. When a circle breaks, the focus usually goes away and that often severs the communication. Besides, we all draw from and give energy to each other while holding hands.”
Satisfied that I had done all I could to prepare them, I closed my eyes and drew in a deep breath, letting it out slowly. Once I felt calm and centered, I opened my eyes just a tad and focused on the shiny wood floor in the center of our circle. “Okay, let’s begin. I want you all to close your eyes and imagine a light glowing brightly just above our heads, bathing us in its brilliance. Again, I stress this to you because I want you to truly understand that this light is God’s protective force and nothing negative can come through it.” A quick glance told me that everyone seemed to be accepting my instructions without question. Good. After a moment of quiet, I spoke in a hushed voice. “Let us all say The Lord’s Prayer together.” I considered this particular prayer a powerful one and so included it in all spiritual communication attempts like this one. Once we finished reciting the prayer, the room went silent. The grandfather clock in the hallway next to the entrance sounded loud, its steady tick tock almost hypnotic in its monotonous litany.
Hidden Voices (Tess Schafer-Medium) Page 21
