by Candy Crum
Rachel and I gasped as a large pink Dogwood that stood on the corner of the street spontaneously engulfed in thick orange and blue flames. Before we could even reach the end of the block, the tree broke in half from the intense heat and completely cut off our turn.
The scream of the Cruze’s brakes sounded out once again as Rachel locked them up on the wet pavement, but it was too late. The front tires managed to climb over the thick trunk, but dangled over the other side as the underbelly came to rest too far from the ground for them to reach the pavement.
“She’s not going to let us leave!” I shouted. My breathing was coming in ragged gasps as I began panicking even more. “What are we going to do?”
My biggest worry was the fire burning beneath us. If we didn’t move soon, the car would explode. Rachel was a pillar of strength as I looked into her eyes, watching as she studied our surroundings. She was calm and cool in situations that required it, even in that one. I envied her that.
“I don’t think it’ll be much of an issue,” Rachel said, putting the car in neutral as she looked into the rearview mirror.
I was about to ask what the hell she might be referring to, but my question was answered before I even had a chance to ask. The rear end of the car rose from the ground, and I turned to see Sydney’s tiny form doing all the heavy lifting. She pushed the car forward and over the tree.
“Now!” Sydney yelled over the noise of the heavy rain and hail.
If there’d been any doubt in my mind, it certainly wasn’t there any longer. As soon as Rachel hit the gas, a large gust of wind slammed into us, momentarily lifting the car on the left two wheels and launching Sydney across the street into a large fence. Once all four tires made contact with pavement, Rachel wasted no time hitting the gas and speeding away.
Ignoring the red light and cutting off several people in the process, Rachel made a hard right onto the main highway that lead out of town. I felt her hand on mine, and I realized that I was still gasping to catch my breath. My throat was on fire because it was so dry, and my head was splitting. All things that I failed to notice during our getaway.
“Rach, how did you know?” I asked as tears began streaming down my face. I couldn’t hold it any longer. That was the most terrifying moment of my life.
“I got a random phone call from someone telling me that you were in danger. She said that you didn’t know her yet, but that you would. She said that if I didn’t listen, you’d either be dead or in grave danger within the hour. I was told exactly where to go and how much time I had to be there. It was the craziest thing. She was right about everything.”
Someone that I didn’t know, but would. I wondered if it was the raven-haired Vampire that I’d seen in my dream.
“Why did she call you and not me?”
“She knew you’d be at the hospital. She knew where you worked. She probably knew you wouldn’t exactly be able to take phone calls.”
“Okay. Well, the new doc turned out to be a damn Vampire. So, surely, she could have sent the message through her. None of this makes sense. Did she give you a name?”
“I don’t know why they contacted me. All I knew was that it was serious. They knew too much about you for it to be fake. And yeah. She said her name was Sayen.”
Something about that name seemed very familiar to me.
“Do you recognize the name?” Rachel asked.
I nodded as my memory returned to me. “Yeah, but it’s not possible. When I helped my paternal grandfather and my uncle record the family tree onto their computers, I saw that name. That was the name of my great-great grandmother. She would have to be over a hundred and twenty years old. More than that, even. Did she sound elderly? Wait… impossible. Don’t bother answering.”
“Well, no. Obviously. She sounded no older than you or me, but Kay, are you really going to dismiss her as unreal or impossible? A woman weighing all of a hundred pounds just picked you up by the throat and tossed you like a football. She did that just before lifting and carrying this big ass car a few feet over a damn tree. All that, mind you, to save us from a woman with some crazy nasty power.”
I nodded again. “I suppose you’re right. This is all just a bit too much to deal with. Yesterday, I was a normal girl with a normal hectic life. Today, I’m not even sure I’m human, or at least even half.”
“We’ll figure this out. I promise.”
Chapter Four
One Week Later
The entire week Rachel and I looked through the files that I asked my uncle to email to us. He was curious to know about my sudden interest in the family, since it didn’t have anything to do with college. The less he knew, the better. I told him that I just wanted to learn more about our Native American history. It wasn’t completely a lie. I did want to learn about it. I’d always wanted to. It was my motivation behind the initiation that was omitted. It was safer that way.
There wasn’t much in the files that I didn’t know. Well, at least so far. My mother’s side didn’t have a family tree, which I found annoying in that particular situation. They weren’t even sure what if we were Cherokee, Shawnee, or something else on that side. Helpful. However, I didn’t think it mattered too much given the person I was searching for was on my father’s side.
One thing that I found interesting was that, on my dad’s side, the information stopped with my great-great grandmother, Sayen. There wasn’t anything on her parents or even where she came from. She wasn’t Native American. My great-great grandfather Taima, her husband, was Native American. He was one hundred percent Shawnee. His lineage went back three more generations, all of them from the immediate area.
My granddad, Russell, or as we kids called him, Papaw Fruit – a name that originated from my father when he was a child –, always said our spark came from that ancestry. As I mentioned before, Sayen was not Native American, though she was given a Native American name once she married Taima. So, what made Sayen so special? Why would someone call and pretend to be her? She was just a run of the mill Caucasian woman… Wasn’t she?
I’d never seen pictures. Come to think of it, I’d never even heard her described. All I knew was that she was the one that began our beautifully blended heritage.
My email dinged, and I opened it. My Papaw Fruit had my uncle help him send over more files. Most of the photos were of him when he was a boy, and honestly, I’d never seen anything so adorable. He was so dark complected, and though the photos were black and white, you couldn’t mistake those big, chocolaty brown eyes with thick eye lashes and black-brown hair. My father looked almost identical to him, though a heavier version, and I looked just like my daddy. Apparently, they had strong genes. I imagined that if I had a son or daughter, that he or she would look exactly like me, too.
Rachel and I giggled and awed at how ridiculously cute my grandfather was as a baby and a little boy. It wasn’t until the final photo popped up that the gravity of the situation settled back in and quickly sobered us. It was a photo of my great-great grandparents holding my grandfather as a baby. It was Sayen and Taima.
Chills ran down my spine as I stared into the dark brown eyes of the man that I’d seen standing at the foot of my bed a week ago. It was him, without a doubt. His silvery hair hung over his shoulders in long braids, just as they had last week. The shade of his hair looked exactly like my Papaw Fruit’s today. It wasn’t just grey; it was as silver as the ring on my finger and looked like it was spun of the same material as it gleamed in the bit of light in the photo. Even in the terrible shading of black, white, and grey, I could tell that his dark Native American skin had the slight red glow to it that my father had when he tanned in the summer sun while working in his vegetable garden.
The woman next to him brought absolutely no further comfort as I stared into what could only be described as crystal blue eyes. The photo made them look eerie with the lack of pigment. They appeared to be only a few shades darker than her corneas and looked very icy in color, though the expression was something di
fferent. Emotion was hard to convey in pictures of that time, but I saw nothing but love in her expression.
Examining her further, I saw white hair poking out from under a hat. Impossibly white hair. It reminded me of hers… Khia’s. It rested in a long braid that reached down past her waist. Though her skin was dark, it wasn’t dark like Taima’s. It was obvious that she wasn’t Native American and had never shared a bloodline with one either, but what was she? Her features reminded me of something. Her nose. The cheekbones. It was very telling of where she came from, but I couldn’t place it at the moment.
Looking over, I could see tiny goosebumps on Rachel’s arm as she stared at the photo. Her eyes were just as wide as mine had been. For the first time, I saw something resembling fear in her eyes. There was no questioning it. Sayen looked exactly like Khia. Thinking back, I remembered Khia mentioning something in that dream about being related. Was Sayen the mother of Khia? No… That was impossible. Khia would have been old.
“She has to be related to the other one,” Rachel said. “There’s just… It’s impossible for her not to be.”
“I was just thinking the same thing,” I replied. My voice reflected my emotion. I wasn’t upset, angry, or sad. I was – indifferent. I was numb. I had no idea what I should think at that moment.
“You realize what that means, though, don’t you?” she asked, a compassionate expression on her face.
I nodded. “If Sayen is related – then so am I.”
Rachel nodded, then nodded again. Silence filled the room. Somehow, it was deafening.
“I don’t think I want to look at this mess anymore,” I said.
“I don’t think I can either. That was definitely the last straw. I’d been fighting my eyes burning and the major migraine, but that was all I could take. We need a break. We can get back to this tomorrow. What do you say?”
I felt terrible when I looked into Rachel’s light brown eyes. They were slightly glassy with strain from all the reading we’d been doing online and through the family journals. Her dark blonde hair was thrown back in a sloppy bun, and her medium toned skin didn’t have the same healthy glow that it normally did. Even her clothes looked uncomfortable at that point. I’d been running her to death with all that mess and hadn’t thought much about it because of my obsession. Some friend I was…
“Did you have anything in mind for this break?” I asked.
Her eyes met mine. “Drinks. Lots and lots of drinks. Loud music certainly wouldn’t hurt.”
My nose scrunched up. I wasn’t the most exciting person in the world, though it seemed that I might be forced into that direction with the recent changes my life had taken on.
“How about Louisville?” she asked.
The crinkles in my nose deepened. Louisville was roughly an hour and a half away from my house and, while I was definitely up for getting my friend out to relax a bit, I really didn’t want to drive over an hour to do so. Hell, would she even survive the drive? She looked like she’d pass out. The fear was also there that I had no idea what could happen within that timeframe. An hour was a long time. That was a big distance to be away from home.
“Are you sure you feel up to it? You look like you’re about to die. No offence. I mean, hi! I’m Kailah. You’re gorgeous!”
She smiled. “Nice try. And I feel like crap because of this headache. If I go take something for it, get a crazy hot shower, and get some food in me, I’ll feel good as new. We’ve not left your house in a week. I don’t even think we have proper groceries anymore. We’ve both been too scared to go anywhere, but I really think it’s fine. I think we’ll be okay.”
I nodded. She’d been through hell with me, she’d saved my life, and she never questioned anything. I wouldn’t have told her no, regardless of what she wanted to do, though I might have asked for a different location.
“I can’t say no to you,” I said, smiling.
Rachel was suddenly filled with life. “Thank you! I’ve had a shitty couple of weeks. Mom is scaring the hell out of me. She keeps getting sick, and she doesn’t know why. There’s also that I found Jeff in bed with another woman, and I haven’t spoken to him since, though he’s been texting me the past two days, harassing me. Then there’s this stuff with you. I’m trying not to show it, but I’m freaking out. I know my life is full of drama and stress, but your life… Holy hell. I don’t even know how to even begin to classify that. Your life is in danger. You’re at risk. You need me to be good and ready, but I can’t be that way all the time. Like anyone else, I get tired. Worn down.”
“I know that. Don’t worry about it. I need a night out, too. Besides, you know how I am. I grunt and groan, and I never want to go…”
“But when you do, you always feel better,” she said, finishing my sentence.
I nodded my head. “Exactly. So, this will be fun! I just know it.”
She shook her head as she stared at the computer. “I still can’t get over that. It’s been a week, and we had nothing. Zero. Today, we get a single photo that tells us a hell of a lot, but still nothing. If you ask me, after that right there, I think we both need to get piss-face drunk.”
I smiled. She certainly wasn’t wrong.
“By the way,” I said, shutting off the computer screen, so she’d quit looking at it. She was dwelling more than I was. “Who the hell came up with that term anyway? Piss-face drunk… That sounds terrible.”
She laughed. “I don’t know. It sounds gross, but that’s what I plan to be tonight.”
“I’ll go get ready. Meet me back here when you’re through?” I asked.
Rachel almost squealed with delight. She was getting even more excited as time passed. “I’ll be back as soon as I’m ready!” With that, she quickly kissed the top of my head and made her hasty retreat.
Truth be told, I was terrified. I had a bad feeling, and I couldn’t shake it. I’d been so terrified that day at the hospital that it completely changed me. At least, that’s what made sense. The thought of leaving made me sick. I didn’t want to go anywhere, but living that way was unhealthy. So, very unhealthy. I wasn’t going to allow anything to control me. I wouldn’t let this beat me, strange as all of it was.
I made my way into the large walk-in closet in my bedroom. The air warmed and a deep calm settled in me. It was very strange after how intense my emotions had just been. It was like every fear I’d ever had just washed away.
Something softly brushed across my arm. I turned to see what had touched me, and jumped. My jolted reaction was only temporary as the calm fell over me again. A warm smile spread across the face of the spirit of my great-great grandfather standing before me. His dark brown eyes mirroring the happy expression.
“Taima,” I said. It was the only word that managed to escape me.
Chapter Five
Taima pointed to his heart and opened his mouth to speak, but was still unable to say anything, just as he’d been a week before. I saw his brows furrow a bit as he took a step forward and closed the distance between us. My entire body trembled as my breathing began to increase. While my emotions were very calm, it seemed as though my body hadn’t gotten the memo. It was still reacting to his presence.
Peripheral movement caught my attention as his hand slowly moved to rest on the side of my face. My shaky body and heavy breathing slowed as the warmth of his hand washed through me. I’d always been told that spirits were cold, but he was something else. It was like he held the sun itself within him. There was absolutely nothing to fear from that man. He was as pure and gentle as a summer breeze. If there was peace on the other side, if there was an eternity of bliss, the comfort that he placed over me must have been what it felt like.
As his hand rested on my cheek, I realized that I could feel energy radiating from him. I felt his hand as if it existed in the physical realm. It felt… powerful.
“You know what’s happening to me, yes?” I asked.
His smile turned sad as regret filled his eyes. It was the same look a mothe
r gives to her child when she has to break the news that the family pet had died. It was a devastated expression of pity and remorse.
When I looked away from the sting of his eyes and down to his broad, bare chest, I noticed a large scar over his heart. Unable to stop myself, I rested my hand on the closed wound. Everything around me began to swirl, and I saw streaks of color and light moving around me. It only lasted for a few moments, though it felt like an eternity.
Everything abruptly stopped, and I found myself standing in the middle of a radiant pasture. The resplendent greens of the grass and trees were far more intense than anything I’d ever seen. The sky was a brilliant blue and the few clouds that occupied its vast beauty were very puffy and flawless white. It was so warm. The sun was shining and there was a gentle breeze blowing through the tall grass.
Ahead of me, I saw a beautiful young woman about my age with incredibly long, snow-white hair. I wanted to run away, but the intense calm that I felt with Taima held strong. Her eyes pierced mine, though her expression was kind and gentle.
She wore a long, flowing white gown. It looked like robes rather than a gown. Roman, maybe Egyptian. Her hair and clothing was a great contrast to her creamy, dark olive-toned complexion.
“This is Sayen. Your great-great grandmother.” Taima spoke, his English heavily accented because of his own Native language. “She is only part of the illusion that I’ve created for you, so you won’t be able to interact with her. I simply wanted you to see her for yourself. There is never anything to fear from her. She is as pure as the day is long.”
I turned away from Sayen to face Taima, who had taken on the form of a young man. He still wore his traditional Native American clothing, but he was no older than me. His hair was the same black-brown that I had, and his eyes were just as warm, but the lines around them had vanished.
Taima was suddenly lost in thought as he looked off in the distance at the beauty that was once his wife. She was so young, so beautiful.
