At first she looked startled. Then, when Tonya realized who I was, her expression went from annoyance to that of a hungry cat about to chomp down on a morsel of juicy bird. I also had the sinking feeling that Tonya was the kind that liked to play with its victim before she ate it. Next time, why don't I just run onto a superhighway? At least my ultimate demise would have been quicker. She poked her finger at my sternum. "So, it's YOU!”
"Sorry, didn't mean to bump you,” I said as I took a step back. I noticed that it got real quiet all of a sudden. Where the heck were the teachers when you needed them? They were always around when you didn't want them, but when you were about to get your butt kicked they were hanging out in the teachers’ lounge.
"So you're the BITCH that likes to stick your nose into my business." She closed in on me. I didn’t have much room to back up. The wall was closing in.
"What are you talking about?" As I answered I noticed a growing crowd of kids. How does word get out so fast?
At this point, Tonya had me backed up to the wall. My mind was frantically searching for options. After all, I had no problem sticking up for myself but she's BIG, BAD and SCARY. That's a tough combination to overcome.
"Stop screwing with me, you BITCH", she yelled as she shoved me back hard. The back of my head banged against the wall. She then grabbed a clump of my hair and pulled hard. DAMN THAT HURT.
My chicken feeling suddenly dissipated and flashed into complete rage; the kind that literally turns your field of vision red. How dare she touch me! A strange sensation came over me. I found myself experiencing a bizarre feeling of detachment. Only Tonya was in my sites. Everything else was in the blurry edges. I felt like I was looking through that distorted glass in a peephole. I grabbed for her wrist and held it hard, twisted my hold, and pulled so that I was sure to have her attention. I got in her face and glared at her. I wanted her to FEEL my hatred in her bones. I want her to be frightened at the very sight of me. After all, she is my sworn enemy.
I opened my mouth to tell her off and it came out in a hoarse growl, "The wicked who lie with the devil shall see it and be grieved; he shall gnash with his teeth, and melt away: the desire of the wicked shall perish or her blood I will require from thyne hand.”
As I stood there, I could feel my vision start to return to normal. My God, where did that come from? And my throat hurts. Tonya just stood still - dumbfounded. She turned pure white, like all of the blood had drained out of her face. She was terrified. Suddenly she snatched her arm out of my grip and took off down the hall.
I was dazed. What just happened? Students were filing into the classroom so I blindly followed. I collapsed into my seat. Mrs. Big Hair, my sociology teacher (I still can’t remember her name) was blah blahing about a group project due next week, but I was off in my own world. Why couldn't I remember exactly what happened in the hallway? When I tried I just come up with a gray void. The last thing I could recall was Tonya hurting me. At that time, I figured I was dead meat. As I was sitting there in the classroom, I noticed the student next to me watching me like I had purple skin.
Later on, as I was walking out of school, I still couldn’t fully shake that strange feeling of detachment I experienced with Tonya. Other students were leaving the building like everything was normal. But it wasn’t. I was involved in a fight with Tonya and I lost control of myself. It brought back a flood of thoughts of the other weird stuff that had happened to me recently. I didn’t feel any better when I saw Eve with Rainy and Karen just outside of the school.
Eve pulled me aside. “You OK? Heard you got in a really weird argument with Tonya and she freaked out and took off. What’d you say to her?”
Fortunately, Karen answered for me. “It’s all over school. Some kids that were there thought you were going to get hammered by Tonya, but you grabbed her by the wrist and got in her face and said something to her in some weird creepy voice. Someone said it sounded like you were speaking in tongues or something. After you spoke to her, she took off fast and just left school.”
Rainy grinned and gave me a high five. “Way to go, Tess. I can’t believe you had Tonya running away. No one can believe it. Man, I have to hand it to you. YOU’RE GOOD. What DID you say to her anyway?”
I was thinking of how to answer that when Edger from Robotics came up and added his two cents. “Tess, you were great today! I was waiting for class when I heard Tonya yelling something at you. Next thing I know, you were grabbing her, and then you were in her face. And, what was that language? It almost sounded like an old witches’ spell or something. And your voice! You talked like a zombie from the 17th century. Were there zombies back then? I never heard talk like that. You ought to think about joining the drama club. Ha, ha, Tonya is superstitious. You got her number. How funny is that?”
15. Head Voices
I was getting bored. It was Saturday late in the day. My cousins had gone off to work at some school carwash for the Rah Rah Booster Club, or something like that. I’m not really into that school spirit stuff so I decided I’d take my grandpa’s old bike and head off in another direction today. I wanted to see if anything else was familiar to me. Gram is pleased with my fascination with this town because she’s always talking to me about “the old Hamilton place” or “the oldest congregational church in the country”, etc. She loves old stuff too, which is why she spends much of her time in her “Victorian rose garden” as she calls it.
Grandma mentioned a house that George Washington was rumored to have slept in so I headed in that direction. She commented that some of the old houses down this way are not really old. They’re just built to look old. You can tell the authentic old homesteads because the windows aren’t straight. When I view an old home, I wonder what families lived there over the years. Was there a crazy family history? Did anyone die there? Were the people happy or sad? The houses with the really tiny X windows fascinate me the most because they’re from the 1600s. That was a rough time to be alive here. Miss Cassie mentioned the witch hunts. Grandma brought up the other fear that plagued people: the attacks by the Native Americans.
As I continued on towards the outskirts of the town center, I started to notice newer houses and buildings. That must be the town middle school the next street over. It was funny how you could always tell when a building was a school, even before you saw playgrounds or playing fields. I didn’t know if it was the size or shape of the buildings or what. Most schools were built in the 60s or70s and were pretty ugly. I also saw a gang of kids playing basketball. From here, they didn’t look elementary age.
The closer I got, the more I realized they looked more like high school or beyond. Tough looking kids. I wondered who they were. I figured I’d ride up and check them out from an angle so that they wouldn’t notice me. They all looked pretty involved in their game anyway. Did I know them from the high school? Oh, crap…, my nemesis Tonya, AND, Bully Boy from my volleyball game. Tonya and another girl I’ve seen around school had their backs to me just watching the guys play. It was definitely time to turn around and go back in the other direction. Why ask for trouble?
I started riding away when I feel an odd sensation, almost like a vibration or a buzzing sound at the back of my head. Startled, I stopped and looked behind me. It was Tonya’s eyes drilling holes in the back of my head. She had positioned herself so her body was facing me. She was trying to look real tough, standing there with her right fist on her hip.
When I turned around, she gave me the evil eye. I could see murky gray smoke and flashes of dark reddish purple around her. It almost looked like she was on fire, but that was her aura. She was angry, nasty, messed up, bad tempered.
What was she doing? She was looking at me as if she was trying to say something. ‘What are you doing here?’ Were those her thoughts? Is she speaking to me through my mind?
‘What’s your problem?’ I sent my thoughts back to her. Guess she received them because she’s pointing her finger at me like she’s all tough.
“Go away!” S
he sends to me. Her eyes look like daggers.
I think I’m taking her advice. I didn’t want a hassle with her now, especially since I was a bit outnumbered, so I turned around and left. Something about her triggered a fury in me. Why did she affect me so? It’s understandable that I would really dislike her, but I feel such an intense hatred for her. I couldn’t think of any person, other than Frank, who could elicit such feelings in me. And now it seemed that I had an ability to communicate with her through some kind of mental telepathy. Why HER? I didn’t want any kind of a connection to her.
16. Living Tree
It was getting to be late so I decided to start heading toward home. I took a circular route back to check out another part of town. I passed a large open field near the center of town when I decided to stop there for a few minutes and take a break.
Near the middle of the field was a gigantic, misshapen oak tree that looked ancient. The leaves were tinged with the orangey red colors of the fall. Around two edges of the field was a falling down stone wall. There was an old ramshackle house behind the far wall that appeared to be deserted. I walked over to the tree and sat down by its roots under the canopy of leaves and leaned against the bark. I put my head back and closed my eyes. The sun was getting low but I could feel it’s warmth on my face through an opening in the leaves. It felt soooo good.
I must have fallen asleep for a while because I woke up to an increased wind and a darkening sky. While I was becoming more cognizant of my surroundings, I realized that some of the background wind noises were getting a little loud, almost to the point of seeming unnatural. At first, I thought it was just the wind stirring up branches and dry leaves. Then the noise seemed to morph into the undertones of human–like noises. It sounded like someone was moaning, “Please noooooooooo……………………,” Save meeeeeeee…………………” I sat very still and listened. I swear I could hear whole words now. “Curses on you…….. “, “You bring evil….”, “Please help me....” .
Was someone talking? Was this all in my head? I looked around. There was no one. There were just lengthening shadows everywhere. I’ve got to be imagining it. But then, the sounds started up again and they seemed so real. The branches of the tree were whipping around in the wind. The swaying movements made the tree appear as if it was alive.
I had to get the away from here! I rose up to leave but I just couldn’t seem to get the courage to climb on my bike and ride across the grass to the street; it was way across the shadowed field and the noise was all around me. The chorus of whispering voices seemed louder. “MY CONSCIOUS IS CLEAR……, MAY YOU GO TO HELL…, THE DAY OF DOOM IS HERE…, THERE IS A FIRE IN YOUR MIDST…,YOU ARE DAMNED FOR ALL ETERNITY….”
I shook my head, trying to wake up from this nightmare. It was horrifying! You could hear the terror in their voices. I curled myself up into a ball and blocked my ears to no avail. Who were they? As far as I could see, this field was empty except for me. And worst of all, I could feel their anguish deep in the pit of my stomach.
I didn’t know how long I was there when I felt someone tap me lightly on the shoulder and I heard a low voice say, “Are you OK?”
“Whaaat?” I jumped. At least the voice sounded normal. I turned my head slightly and peered out. He looked normal, too. “I don’t know,” I whispered.
“You don’t look so good. Did something happen to you?” he asked.
I looked around and listened. It was quiet. The wind died down. No voices. Since it was getting dark, you could see the lights of houses in the area. Between the lights and his calm voice, I started to feel better. I finally looked at him. He was a normal looking kind of guy; that is, he wasn’t a ghost or spirit of some sort. In fact, now that I could really see him, it was hard to miss how striking he was, even in this diminished light. I took a couple of deep breaths to calm myself down and finally answered him in an unsteady voice, “I just came here to sit under the tree and take a break when I started hearing strange noises.”
“Strange noises? What kind of noises?” he inquired, head cocked to one side.
“The wind started picking up. I know this seems crazy but the wind almost sounded like voices,” I responded, starting to feel like an idiot.
“Really? Voices, huh? I have heard that this tree is haunted, you know. In fact, it’s called ‘The Tree of the Living Spirits’.”
“Why is it called that?”
He shrugged. “I don’t know. It’s been called that for as long as I can remember. Like I said, some people say that it’s haunted.” He smiled while he said this. Now that I was calming down, I was able to get a better look at him. He had beautiful dark blue eyes. I wish I could see his aura but it was too dark.
He stretched out his hand and I let him pull me up. His warmth made me realize how cold it was. “You are freezing, girl!” He took off his leather jacket and put it around my shoulders. I felt a little shaky walking. He steered me by holding my arm closely. “My pick-up is right over here. Why don’t I drive you home? It’s way too dark for you to ride a bike now, plus you almost look like you’re in shock. You’re shivering and you look very pale. I can throw your bike in the back.”
I looked at him thinking, who is this guy? He was certainly nice to look at. Nice shoulders, dark hair hanging slightly over his eyes, very attractive smile. Should I let him drive me home? I got myself together enough to say, “By the way, my name is Tessie Littleton. And you are?”
“Ian Miller. Born and bred here in Woodley.” He brushed the hair out of his eyes as he spoke.
“I haven’t seen you around school. Do you go to the high school in town?” I asked him, still trying to quell my shaking voice.
“Actually, I graduated last year. I’m in college this year so I’m not always around.” He exuded a sense of calm as he spoke. I think he was trying to make me feel OK.
What’s the harm in accepting a ride? He’s certainly been a nice guy. After all, I can’t ride my bike home now since it’s too dark. “I guess I can go with you. Thanks so much for your help. Thank God you came along when you did.” Then I glanced over at him and asked, “By the way, how did you happen to see me, it’s getting so dark out?”
“I was looking for my dog, Bennie. When he leaves the yard he frequently heads over this way. In fact, I did pick him the next street over and got him in the back of the pick-up but I knew something was up because he jumped out and ran back in this direction. He was really whining like crazy so I decided to look around. That’s when I saw you under the tree. I’m glad I listened to him.” He smiled at me. His habit of sweeping his hair out of his eyes was kind of endearing. It made him seem a little self-conscious, an attribute that’s usually lacking in attractive guys.
“Well, hope you don’t think I’m some kind of a freak. I’ve never heard noises like that before.” As I talked to him I tried to smooth out my wild hair and straighten my clothes a little. I didn’t want my appearance to contribute to his already sketchy impression of me. He was being nice and reassuring, but inside he probably figured I was nuts and couldn’t wait to get rid of me.
He deftly lifted my bike and placed it in the back of his pick-up with his dog. I went over to pat Bennie on the nose. He accepted my pat but then he moved back to the corner of the truck bed. Ian swung open the passenger door and helped me up. He got in and started it up, set the heat on high and turned to me, “So Tessie, where do you live?”
“I think I’m about three streets down that way,” I said as I pointed.
“So are you feeling all right now? I was worried for a few minutes there, but I see a little color in your cheeks and you’re looking better.” His deep blue eyes continued to study me.
“Yeah, I’m better. I’ll be OK.” I’m a little uncomfortable with this kind of attention. He’s been very nice about this though. Some people would make you feel like a fool.
“Tess, I presume you’re new in town. I know I’ve never seen you at the high school last year and you said that you THINK you are
about three streets over. When did you move here?” He asked.
“It’s been about three weeks since we moved in with my grandma, Edwina Drake. Her house is on Pratt Street, right off South Main Street. In fact, we’re almost there.” I gestured toward our house. I could see someone, probably my aunt, peering out the window. With everything that happened, I forgot about my aunt and grandma. They won’t be too happy with me. How am I going to explain this?
Ian pulled into my driveway, got out of the truck and walked around to help me down. Wow! He is so nice. I reluctantly gave him back his soft worn leather jacket. It smelled like Ian looked; a fresh, outdoorsy leathery smell. He was reaching in for the bike when Auntie and Grandma came running out. Darn.
“Theresa, where have you been?” My aunt said that while she was looking at both of us suspiciously.
“Aunt Amy, calm down. I would like to introduce both of you to Ian Miller. I got lost a few blocks away and he was kind enough to stop and help me out.” Ian immediately went over to my aunt and grandma and politely shook their hands. “I’m pleased to meet you,” said Ian immediately. “I was very happy to help out a damsel in distress. My dog got lost and practically led me to her. You can thank Bennie here.”
Gram was stern, “Tess, you had us worried sick! You must show more consideration.”
My aunt’s expression softened. “Thank you so much Ian. I am familiar with Woodley, but Tessie likes to explore the area and she’s new here. She’s always been a bit too curious, causing her to get into scrapes ever since she was little.”
“Aunt Amy, I’m OK now. There’s nothing for you to worry about. I’ll be in the house in just a couple of minutes, OK?” I looked at her pointedly. In other words, Auntie and Gram, can you please leave?
Fortunately, my aunt murmured her thank you, said good bye and went inside with Gram following, muttering all the way. I was hoping I could see Ian again and I wouldn’t have a chance if they were hanging out here while he left.
A Girl Beyond (War of the Witches Book 2) Page 7
