Malevolent

by S. Peters Davis

  The smoke encased body of NaNa Rosa bent closer to me, again I shut my eyes.

  My body rifled into the air and hit a wall. I fell to the ground hard, eyes still closed.

  “You’re inside the circle, Sparky,” Jenna said.

  I sat up and looked around.

  “You hit the invisible wall holding Derek hostage. Good thing, it dropped you right back into the circle.”

  NaNa Rosa planted herself in front of Buster, she screamed, “Come to me, my son.”

  The ground rumbled, shaking the earth again, but I stayed seated inside the circle.

  Buster turned toward the slight, yet commanding figure standing beside him. Threads of dark smoke spiraled around her, whipping onto him. His mouth compressed and a power-laden tremor shook through his body.

  “What’s happening?” His face gentled, appearing more like a youthful young man.

  “You are coming home. Now,” NaNa Rosa’s voice thundered deep, vibrating every dark thread encompassing Buster. An explosion of smoke billowed out of him, entering NaNa Rosa’s body. Her body shook and convulsed, but she remained standing.

  She pushed her palms toward the ground and chanted in a rhythm. The drums drew a beat to her tempo. The group swayed in response. Darkness streamed from NaNa Rosa’s palms straight into the earth.

  A light vortex opened the night sky overhead, beaming down on Buster. His body cracked into hundreds of pieces, like a puzzle. Each piece outlined with a bright white light.

  NaNa Rosa chanted melodious words, her hands raising toward the sky. Everyone in the group chanted the same words.

  Tears rolled from my eyes unchecked. My heart flooded with vibrating energy from their voices. Peace enveloped me.

  Grandma Ellie floated down, followed by a mass of shimmering bodies. Her feet landed on the ground in front of the circle, next to Buster’s glowing cracked body. She touched his shoulder, and said, “Your guardian angel is here to take you home, Mark Fenton.”

  A shimmering body separated from the rest, stepping to Buster and touching his face. The gentle countenance of who I assumed must be Mark Fenton appeared and broke away as a glowing orb into the hand of his iridescent guardian angel. The entity ascended skyward.

  A crack of lightning streaked down from the vortex and shattered the rest of Buster’s body into hundreds of glowing orbs. All of the guardian angels behind Grandma Ellie flew forward, clasping an orb, and ascended skyward or soared south, just over the tree line toward the city of D.C.

  When all the shimmering beings disappeared, Grandma Ellie hopped into the circle and giggled, lifting any remnants of darkness left behind. “My dears, you’ve come through this unscathed like a couple of pros. I see the brightest star resonating inside each of you.” She hugged Jenna. “Your safe place is safe once again, as are you.”

  Jenna hugged Grandma again and then disappeared. I figured she went to her safe place. She had missed seeing her parents in the dream plane.

  “Kendra, you’re on the right path. Your heart just told you so.” Grandma’s eyes sparkled the brightest blue and her smile…I missed that smile. “As you can see, I’ve got my hands full of guardians and will be requested to make a full report on all of these rescued souls.”

  “And I thought I knew everything about you, Grandma. You never told me anything about angel energy, or guardians, or the part you play in all of it.” I glanced at Derek. His mouth dropped open. How much of what went on did he actually witness?

  Grandma answered inside my head, “All of it, dear. He received all-seeing eyes tonight so he wouldn’t miss how important you are in this world.”

  NaNa Rosa stood beside Grandma and smiled at me. “I’m in agreement with your grandmother on this, Kendra. You and I should spend some time together.” She smiled and hugged me to her, and then whispered, “You do have a shining star inside you.”

  Chapter Twenty-Two

  Derek

  I dropped to the ground, mostly to gain my bearings. Kendra had conversed with an older woman that I swore floated down from the sky with a pack of sunlit aliens. Jenna came to life during the ritual, she stood right next to Kendra in the circle until the ground shook and Kendra landed outside of the circle.

  Now NaNa Rosa was talking with Kendra, but only moments ago that woman had looked like a smoke-covered zombie, even flew through the air, and then flung me through the air, similar to the special effects of a televised horror show.

  I shook my head in a mad attempt to rid the visions instilled in my memory. Buster, the freak with the giant hinged mouth, had cracked like a puzzle and broke apart into lighted balls. Plus, all the shiny beings from outer space seized a ball off the big guy and zoomed away.

  “Derek?” Kendra leaned down, next to me, her hand grazed my forehead. “Are you all right?”

  I grabbed her hand and pushed to my feet. The light of the fire created a shifting violet hue in her eyes, a mesmerizing effect that appeared unsettling, like everything else from this night.

  “Take a couple deep breaths.” She studied my face, tilting her chin as her lips pressed together. “Grandma Ellie told me that you saw a complete picture of what happened tonight. You’re going to question everything, and you’re also going to feel insane.” She pushed her body into mine and leaned up to whisper in my ear, “Now you know what I see, and I’ve never considered myself insane.”

  Her words and the closeness of her body steadied the rising anxiety but stirred another rising to life. I broke away, too uncomfortable in my head for my body parts to take heed of her persuasive temptation. “I’m pretty sure we drank a strong acting hallucinogen from that cup. And, I’m fairly certain you did not see the same things I just saw.” My brain buzzed with the strange anomalies.

  “We do have things to discuss. One of them being, Buster, who is no longer an issue for Jenna and me, or the teens.” Her eyes went wide. She gasped. “Oh, my gosh. It just occurred to me where the guardian angels took the soul orbs. Is there a way to check in with the FBI’s Children’s Facility?”

  I checked my watch. “It’s one-thirty in the morning. We’re not calling now.” Buster the soul-sucker no longer a threat. Soul orbs? Guardian angels? “Are you considering the souls of the teens made it back to their physical bodies?”

  “Yes, that’s exactly what I’m thinking. We won’t know for certain unless there’s been a significant change in the teenagers behavior.”

  This conversation with Kendra, the words coming from her mouth, the whole scene, everything unfolded like a nightmare. But there was one more question, I asked, “So, what do you think will happen to the prostitute’s souls?”

  “Maybe I should talk some more with NaNa Rosa about them.” Her gaze wandered toward the Voodoo Priestess. “She mentioned staying in contact.”

  I didn’t like the idea of any more contact with NaNa Rosa. The cup we drank from held something illegal. “I want to hear your version of what happened tonight.”

  “Sure. I want to hear your experience as well.”

  “Feel like having a beer with Ray and Luke if they’re still awake?” There was no way I would sound credible describing what I’d seen with that hallucinogen in my system.

  “That’d be great. They should hear the good news.” She grabbed my hand and we left as the others continued to celebrate with drums and dancing around the fire.

  * * *

  Kendra

  Derek told Luke and Ray about the successful night, without going into any detail. Ray and Luke didn’t ask any questions either. Maybe due to the abrupt change of subject, as Derek insisted on a drink to celebrate.

  We drank a couple of beers around the kitchen counter, talking with Ray and Luke about all kinds of stuff, like weather, mowers, gardens, restaurants, movies, and even my books.

  Then Ray announced, “Tressa uncovered the info on Tory’s sister, Kelly. She was murdered. Strangled and dumped into the ocean. The case is still unsolved.”

  “Tory and Kelly need closure, they ne
ed their murderers found and tried.” Probably the beer gave me the abandonment of inhibitions to say what I thought. “Their family and friends, plus the people they worked with, need to know those women didn’t die for nothing.”

  “The thing is, Tory tipped us off to whatever this mountain of madness uncovers. I have a suspicion the buck doesn’t stop with Gimbel,” Derek said. He glanced my way. “We will make a point to find Tory and Kelly’s murderers. I’ll talk to Jackson about it.”

  I sat back and released a breath, and then swallowed the last sip in the beer bottle.

  Everyone else had finished, apparently. Emptied bottles on the counter stood in front of all the guys.

  “Do you two want to talk about what happened at the ritual, or not? We’ve been waiting to hear about it, but you want to talk about everything other than that.” Ray stared at Derek, who stood on the other side of the counter.

  Derek’s eyes appeared unyielding, hard to get the lay of his mood. But his silence finally gave it away.

  “It’s okay if you want to wait. Ray and I stayed up in case we were needed. But, we’re all good to talk about it tomorrow,” Luke added.

  “I gotta get things straight on how everything went down with Kendra first.” Derek’s gaze dropped toward the counter for a moment, and then made the round to everyone, stopping on me. “I already told you that Buster is no longer, so the threat of a soul-sucker disappeared tonight. Our reason for the celebratory drinks.”

  “Good enough. See you in the morning,” Ray said as he slid off the barstool and headed for the stairway. “I’ll make breakfast in the morning. Plan on it being a late one.”

  Luke followed Ray up the steps to the extra bedrooms.

  Derek came around the counter and stopped next to my barstool. He leaned toward me, his breath warmed my neck.

  I closed my eyes, into the moment, as his lips left moist imprints up my neck, along my jaw, and ended over my mouth.

  “We should talk,” he said against my lips, making them tremble.

  Exhausted, check, a little drunk, check, a lot turned on, big check. I would hate me tonight if I did not wake up beside him in the morning, but I also would hate me in the morning for going to bed with him and not clearing the air about what happened tonight. He needed to believe what he witnessed as true.

  I broke away from his luscious lips, curious about my own sanity in doing so. “You have questions. I have answers. Let’s talk…we need to.”

  He grabbed my hand and drew me into him as my body slid from the barstool. “You have no idea how much I want to make wild, passionate love to you right now. I’m thinking it’s the one activity that will set my rationality level straight.”

  “That rationality level is exactly what we will talk about. Want to sit on your porch?” I didn’t want Ray or Luke to overhear any of the conversation as I figured Derek wouldn’t care to share.

  “Go on out, I’ll grab a couple more beers.”

  A three-foot knotty pine wall and ledge board took up three sides of the room. The top half of the walls were windows and screens almost as high as the roof. The painted neutral-colored concrete floor blended well with the wicker furniture and walls. I didn’t turn on the light as one of the yard lights illuminated the room perfectly. A few opened windows allowed a nice cool breeze. I grabbed a blanket from the back of a chair and wrapped it around me, and then sat on the wicker couch.

  Derek walked in with a couple open beers, a box of cheese crackers, and a bag of mixed nuts. “I’m famished. Thought you might be hungry, too.” He handed me a beer and plopped the rest on the coffee table in front of the couch.

  I waited until he got settled next to me, and then said, “Tell me what you saw tonight.”

  “No. I’m not comfortable with the thought that anything I saw tonight was actually anything more than a crazy hallucination. Let me hear it from you first.” He leaned back into the couch cushion and leveled his gaze at me. The dim lighting made his eyes a stormy-haze of blue.

  I blinked so as not to get lost in them, took a swig of beer, and decided I’d give my version of what happened. I started with what NaNa Rosa said to me when we first met and she held my hand. “NaNa Rosa read my mind. She knew about Mark Fenton and his tour in Viet Nam. She told me that the darkness would be cleared from me and Jenna, and also from Mark.”

  His brows raised with that little tidbit, but he said nothing.

  I took another sip of beer, sat back, and word-fed the rest of the night to him from my point of view, leaving nothing out. I included descriptive visuals, Jenna parts, my grandmother’s, the guardians, the soul orbs, Buster, the dark entity inside NaNa Rosa, every part of the ceremony, and then I came to the end when my grandmother left.

  I sipped my beer, which was close to empty, and studied his face.

  His eyes, glassy and stoic, verified his expression, but his continued silence worried me most.

  “Do you have any questions? Anything you want me to explain? If I can.” I chuckled, hoping to get some kind of response or reaction from him.

  He took one of those deep man-breaths, emptied his beer and set the bottle on the table. His focus went outside and wandered along the trees as I waited for him to come back around to me.

  We sat in silence for at least fifteen minutes, the longest minutes of my life, and then he turned toward me but his gaze never met mine.

  “Everything that happened last week, with Jenna’s accident, how you saw her ghost, saw other ghosts. I mean all of the dead people you talked to, even in the prison with Vince Merretti, I compartmentalized in my head so I could accept it, even though I didn’t necessarily believe it.”

  Burning pushed on the backs of my eyes. Everything spewing from his mouth headed south and would be so much worse if I ended up blubbering like an idiot. I’d been through this part so many times before in my life, what would be one more non-believer that I’d never see again for the rest of my life? Truly. My throat dried around the growing lump.

  Derek continued, like a relentless thundering waterfall, “And then the whole Buster thing, with the soul-sucker and the prostitute souls taking over the girl’s bodies because their souls were consumed. Throw in a Voodoo Priestess, Bertellia, and your grandmother…and now angels?” He shook his head, again his focus traveled to the outer limits of his property.

  Tears streamed out of my eyes and I fought back the sob hell-bent on escaping. I dropped the blanket beside me and walked out of the porch into the backyard, following the path to the little cottage. My chest hurt, and not from the soul mark, something else spilled away and left me feeling so alone.

  The squeezing sensation around my heart brought another onslaught of tears. I made it inside the cottage, closed the door, and dropped to the floor. Desperate sadness overwhelmed, and I succumbed.

  * * *

  Banging on the door rattled me awake. I opened my eyes and looked around the room, deciphering where I’d fallen asleep.

  “Kendra? You in there?”

  Tressa?

  The door creaked open and Tressa walked inside. She gasped. Her attention dropped to me, on the floor. “Oh my, gosh.” She rushed over and bent to her knees. “Did you fall? What hurts?” Then she studied my face. “Oh, goodness.” She leaned back. “Tell me what happened last night. Derek looks like hell, and he’s not talking. He’s acting like he lost his last friend.”

  I could imagine what I looked like because…who cries themselves to sleep and looks good the next morning, especially after sleeping on the floor? “Let’s just say, we had a great celebration over the defeat of the soul-sucker, Buster. Yay.” My words came across pretty lame, even to my ears. “And, the voodoo ritual might have been a bit too much for Derek to accept.”

  Tressa stood and gave me a hand up. “Ray made breakfast. Hungry? How about some coffee?”

  “I’ll be there in a minute. I’m going to wash up and change my clothes.” I headed to the bathroom and stopped. “Are we going in to meet with Jackson?” />
  “It’s Saturday. He gave our team the weekend off. In fact, he’s on his way to report a few things. Like some good news from the Children’s Rehabilitation Center.” She grinned. “I have some news of my own about the case…well, the potential case. So, guess we are meeting with Jackson, but it’s going to be in Derek’s kitchen.”

  “Okay, sounds good. I’ll be in shortly.”

  Tressa walked out as I went into the bathroom. Everyone would want to know the whole story about what happened last night. I’d give the really short version.

  A shot of vanilla scented the air.

  “Hey, you look like hell.” Jenna stood beside me in the bathroom mirror. An eyebrow arched high.

  “Derek saw everything last night, and his reaction disturbed me. I thought we were past all the non-believer crap, and it seems we’re not.” I grabbed my toothbrush and slathered some toothpaste over it.

  “What do you mean, he saw everything?”

  “Grandma gave him all-seeing eyes last night so he could see what I saw. So, he’d understand and accept what I talk about as truth.”

  I quickly brushed my teeth while Jenna yammered.

  “He kept shaking his head, blinking and rubbing his eyes, and at one point he pinched his arm. All things a person might do if they are in disbelief at what’s happening around them.” Jenna jutted her hip and propped a hand on it. “Think about the first time you saw a ghost. The fear that comes with realizing there’s something other than the reality we’re all programmed to know and accept.”

  I rinsed my mouth and set aside the toothbrush. “I never realized the ghosts were ghosts until…well until I did. But, by then, I never had an issue with it. Simply life as I’d come to know it. I was more or less programmed to accept ghosts as my normal reality. So, I can only imagine the feelings that you’re describing. But, being on the other side of the coin, well, it’s hurtful to be labeled a freak just because I see things that others can’t.”