The Lady and the Hound- Divination

by A M Nixon

  “We have to take him to the stones, to draw out the Dark Spirit.” Joseph said.

  Mary looked around for a vehicle and spotted Charlie’s jeep, hidden under some camouflage netting. “Why is Charlie’s jeep hidden here?” She looked at the Major, but before he could answer Joseph responded. “You needn’t bother. Yes, he killed him at the Dark Spirits request. Charlie was asking about you and Hope and he could – no, he would—have went back to get reinforcements.”

  Mary wanted to ask about Charlie’s spirit. “He’s safely at Oapuzi.” She forgot they could read her mind.

  “We might not all fit in this jeep.”

  “Don’t worry about us, we can be there with a thought. You can too, but you can’t take the Major along. Sorry.” With that, Joseph and the disciples left. The only one who remained was Famous. He jumped in to the back of the jeep and gave Mary a look that said, “what are you waiting for.” She shoved the Major in and grabbed the keys from his pocket.

  The road was quiet. She worried that the Dark Spirit would try to intervene. “Do not fear, Mary. I am here.” Famous said. He was an angel after all. The drive didn’t take very long. She had forgotten how close she was to the cottage. After yanking the Major out of the jeep, she practically dragged him over to the stones.

  Joseph and the others were waiting there. “You must place him in the center of the stones, once you do the Dark Spirt will know where he is, and he will come. Then you and Isadore can do your magic with the crystal pendulum.” Joseph said.

  The major started to protest, “The Dark Spirit will think I betrayed him. He’ll kill me.”

  Mary looked to Joseph, not knowing if what he was saying was true or not.

  “He might kill you, and if he does be thankful. We know you were under his control to a point, but you allowed him in and chose to do his bidding. You will have to face the Divine One’s for that. Maybe with your sacrifice, you’ll receive a pardon of sorts.” Joseph said.

  “I have to know. Why the symbol on your hands?” Mary said.

  “We wanted to show the Dark Spirit that we were loyal to him. He appeared to us in the form of a man and he had a ring with a lion’s head with a hand in its mouth. We thought we would honor him by etching it into our hands.” The major said.

  “And eating Uly, that was your idea too?” Mary asked, pursing her lips in disgust.

  “No, I don’t know what made us do that. It was something inside of us, we had to.” He said.

  The Major was perfectly in the center of the stones. Mary didn’t want to take any chances that the Dark Spirit wouldn’t show if his body wasn’t in the exact position. The wind started to pick up and the loose leaves and small twigs were creating a vortex. Mary looked over to Famous and Joseph. They were watching intently, and she heard Joseph in her mind say, “he’s here.” The vortex expanded, as the Dark Spirit made his appearance. His mass resembling thousands of blackish grey souls, swirling around like snakes within the vortex. Smaller dark orbs were flowing into the vortex, as it became increasingly raven-hued.

  Mary held the pendulum and realized she didn’t know what to say. Hold on to the pendulum with all you’ve got, I will do the rest. Isadore said. Mary stretched her arm out with the crystal pendulum tight in her hand. It started to spin, faster and wider. She could barely hold it. Isadore’s spirit came out of her body. She looked back at Mary and told her to hold on no matter what. It was hard for her to do, and the leaves, twigs and brush hitting her face didn’t help.

  The vortex resembled a small tornado, positioned directly over the Major’s body. There was an orange red light. Several bolts of lightning were coming down through the middle of the vortex, branching outwards toward each stone.

  The Dark Spirit spoke to her using telepathy in a strong deep voice. ”Mary, you do not have the will to defeat me. Release the crystal and I will give you your life and everything you could ever want.”

  Before Mary could answer, Isadore came out from behind one of the stones. “You have never defeated me, my love, and you never will.” Isadore held out her arms and the spirit energy shot out of Mary and through the crystal pendulum on to Isadore and out through her arms.

  Isadore sent the energy into the vortex and held it there. Mary was holding the pendulum with all the strength she had. Just when Mary couldn’t hold it any longer, the Dark Spirit had vanished. The wind stopped and the leaves, twigs and brush suddenly dropped to the ground.

  “He’s gone—for now. I can still feel him on this plane. He has not returned to his world as we had hoped. I underestimated his power. We were stronger than he thought, and he has left to collect more of the dark energy from as many spirits as he can. ” Isadore said.

  “What does that mean?” Mary said. “We didn’t have enough spirit energy to send him back. Now he’s went somewhere, only the Divine One’s know, collecting more evil spirits?”

  Isadore looked concerned but acted as if she faced this dilemma every day. Taking her hand and holding it up, with her head cocked to the side, looking to the sky. “I can’t sense where he is, I will have to find him. I will go to the Otherworld and pick up his energy to locate him in this world.” She said.

  Syx appeared. She handed Isadore a parchment, like the one she handed Mary when she gave permission at the grave. Isadore read it and rolled it back up.

  “I will need more spirits for when I locate him. While I’m away, I will need you and the others to get at least twice the amount of spirits we’ve collected so far. Go to the places he may go. We want to get the spirits before he does. We can convert them to our side easily with a promise to go to Oapuzi. Which means you will need to house the ones that are already in you for a while longer. You can handle that, right?” Isadore said.

  “I think so. I’ve never done this before, at least not that I remember. With you being out of my body now, does that mean I can’t collect the spirits?” Mary said.

  “You will have Famous and Joseph with you. With their energy around you, you will be able to call the spirits as you have done before.”

  Joseph stepped forward. “We will help you with that Mary, it’s important Isadore go to the Otherworld without you. It would be too much of a boon for the Dark Spirit to have the two of you in his realm. We can’t take that chance.”

  Isadore opened the scroll. “This is an ancient scripture, written by the Divine One’s. I must go to the cavern and call the Archangel Haneal who governs the moon. Since this is the first night of the full moon, her energy is the strongest. These words will summon her to me, and she will give me what I need to get to the Otherworld. I can get there by myself, but I won’t have protection from the dark energy once in that realm, wanting to lure me back in as it’s Queen. Archangel Haneal will be with me to keep that from happening.” She transformed into her Bat persona and flew towards the opening in the cavern.

  Mary, with the help of Famous and Joseph, could handle calling the spirits. Now that she knew what to do, it was easy enough. She could talk anybody into anything when she worked in sales, all she had to do now was talk a spirit into fighting the Dark Spirt with her and they’d receive a one-way ticket to their form of heaven. What spirit wouldn’t want that chance? She knew the spirits who had given up hope of ever going to the heaven of their belief would be the better choice. She knew from her own experience, had she not been given a second chance, she may have been a rogue spirit, after Famous and his disciples tore her to shreds. She was going to “that place long forgotten,” to use Famous’s words. She would have left in spirit form and hid out, if she could, to avoid such a place. Maybe the place long forgotten is where you go when you’re a spirit without the light to guide you home.

  “It’s true, Joseph said, it’s a place without the light and it’s awfully hard to find once you are there. Not impossible, but extremely difficult.”

  Mary wanted to go to locations she knew spirits like that roam. She had a few places in mind.

  There was an abandoned house near the cot
tage. She learned about it from Hank, the mailman, after she asked him about the local history of Old Gap. He spoke of a house that was believed to be haunted by a spirit of a man who killed his family. When the realtor attempted to sell the house, buyers heard noises and had objects thrown at them. If it wasn’t working for the Dark Spirit, she would try to recruit it. Mary wanted those spirits who were in “that place long forgotten.”

  They only had a few hours to round up as many spirits as they could. Even with the ability to teleport themselves, it may take longer if there were spirits who needed some convincing. Mary was trying to get used to the teleportation process. It was the same sensation she had when she was a child, being pushed on a swing, the higher it went, the larger the butterflies, then you were at your destination. It would be nice to be able to do that when she gets back to a normal life—though she doubted she would ever have that.

  Mary and the angels of death arrived at the house at Lottie Carlyle lane. Its shutters were partially unhinged, its windows broken. To Mary, the house seemed gloomy and unloved, isolated and abandoned. A soul resided there, a dark blue tinge of a spirit in the space in front of the broken bay window. She walked into the house; the front door no longer shut properly. It stood in the same spot, not moving as it must have watched her approach. At first, it threw one of the broken shutters towards her.

  “Now, listen to me. I’m in spirit right now and can’t be killed, or injured, so throwing things won’t make me leave.” Mary shouted. “I can see you as clearly as that shutter you threw.”

  “You can?” the spirit said. “Yes, I am here to help you, and I’m not leaving until you hear me out. What’s your name?”

  “Clarence Baker.” The spirit said, in a quivering puny voice.

  “Clarence, I have a proposition for you. Would you like to leave this place and go to what most people call heaven?” Mary said.

  “Why? Why would God allow me to go there when I killed my family?” Clarence said.

  “Well, that’s a good question. It’s your lucky day. You get a get-out-of-jail-free card.

  Clarence floated to where Mary was standing. “What does that mean.”

  Mary rolled her eyes, “You never played Monopoly, did you?”

  “No.”

  “It means that you did horrible things to your loved ones, and you will be judged if you join me. But in helping us, you will partially redeem yourself and your soul will be able to move on. And if you’re lucky you may get to see your family again.” Mary said. There seemed to be a glimmer of hope in his dark blue translucent face.

  “I’ve been here for so long. Once I shot myself, and became a spirit, my mind cleared, and I was able to see my past. I was Schizophrenic when I was alive, and I refused to take my medication. That’s what led me to do the unthinkable. If I could take it back I would, but I can’t. I could see the souls of my family; they were angry at first. But later their expression changed. A beam of light came, and they went into it. The light beam stayed for a while and I was so sure it wasn’t for me, that I ran to the basement and hid there for years.”

  She wanted to embrace him. He didn’t know what he was doing, the mental illness took that away from him. That’s why Famous and his disciples didn’t visit him after his suicide.

  “You were not responsible for what you did in this life because you didn’t know you were doing it due to your illness. Will you help us Clarence?”

  “Yes, tell me what I need to do.”

  Mary sent him a telepathic message asking for his permission to become one of the team of spirits. She raised her arms and he became an orb that changed from dark blue to white and joined the others. When Mary met with Joseph, she asked him why Clarence’s orb was dark blue. “It was because he believed himself as unworthy. The color of someone’s spirit will change according to the light inside them. No light: they are always a darker shade of blue.”

  Wanting to rescue more soul’s like Clarence’s, Mary knew there was a prison nearby that was shut down many years earlier. It had a reputation for spirit activity. It was the Moundsville Penitentiary. There would certainly be spirits there that were looking for redemption thinking they would never get it.

  Mary, Famous and Joseph teleported to the prison and ended up at a grassy area with several small white signs that must have been the graves of the inmates that died there. She didn’t see spirits out by their graves.

  “Joseph, isn’t it unusual we don’t see one spirit out here? I would think there would be at least three or four. The history of this place would assume that much, with the riots and all those executions right here on the premises.” Mary said.

  “We need to go inside the building. I know there is a spirit here.” Joseph said and he led them inside one end of the structure to the main hospital section. There was a sign with the words ‘death row.’ They walked to the execution area. There was indeed a spirit residing there. They watched as he was read last rites and given the chance to speak his last words.

  “I’m innocent” was all he said as he was ceremoniously hung. Mary was not expecting his head to fly off his body, as if cut by a guillotine, as the noose fully extended with his weight. Afterward, the spirit was standing at the gallows holding his head. He was dressed in a dark grey prison uniform. He seemed to know why Mary was there.

  “We were asked by the Dark Spirit to join him, and most of the guys went.” The spirit said.

  Mary asked for his name. “Frank.”

  “Why didn’t you go with him Frank? You could have been out of this place and not reliving your death over and over.”

  Frank stepped closer and steadied his head on his shoulders. “I’m innocent. I have always been innocent. I didn’t kill my wife. It was an accident.” As his anger rose and he stomped his feet. “No one believed me, and I was killed by the state. I figured there must not be a God if he could let me be judged, and hung, for something I didn’t do. So, to hell with him. When the light came, I didn’t go.” He had his arms crossed in defiance. “I worked myself up, getting angrier and angrier. The Dark Spirit said that my anger was what called him here. I knew right then, as the Dark Spirit spoke to me, that if he could exist, then there must be a God. I figured I could ask him myself why he let me stay here like this, holding my head.” Frank said.

  “He, she, they, or as I call them, the Divine One’s, didn’t let you stay here holding your head. You did that to yourself. They sent you the light, and you refused to enter it. That’s on you Frank.” Mary said.

  “The Dark Sprit told of a woman who would come here who would be with the other side. He said I would have to go with him willingly and I decided to wait for you instead. I still want to ask them why I was hung when I get there.” He said.

  “It’s going to be awhile, you understand, you will need to use your energy to help us fight the Dark Spirit first, right?”

  “Yes,” frank said. And I know, I have to go willingly.” Mary raised her arms and called Franks spirit, his orb was an orange yellow color, which changed to a pale white. After Frank went into Mary willingly, she asked Joseph about the color. “He died an innocent man. He was surrounded by negative dark energy. When he refused to go into the light, he doomed himself, but not because he was guilty but because he thought the Divine One’s has abandoned him. His orb was the color of anger, not repentance.” Joseph said.

  “Our next stop is an old burial ground from the 1700’s. It will be overgrown with weeds and debris, but we might be able to find some noble spirits who’ve been through a civil war battle or two. I went there when I was a child. It’s right on the Kentucky line near a river but I can’t remember its name.” Mary said.

  “It’s the Gauley river.” Joseph said. When they arrived at the cemetery grounds, the graves were over overgrown with weeds and small trees. No one had touched the expansive grounds for over 20 years. It was sad to see the neglect, but Mary knew she could always come back and do something about it later. They heard clanging of old iron gates, ev
en though the gates hadn’t been operational for years. Mary could see a few horses in the corner of what used to be a park within the cemetery. They were neighing, faint at first then getting progressively louder until the neigh resembled a scream. The horses were flaring their nostrils with their tales high when Mary and Joseph walked over to them.

  “There are horses here? How come they didn’t go to Oapuzi automatically? Mary asked, irritated that animals didn’t go directly upon death.

  “They chose to stay. Even animals get the choice to stay on Earth or go to Oapuzi. Freewill, remember.” Joseph said.

  Mary immediately asked the horses using telepathy, if they would like to join her. They said they would, gratefully. The cemetery used to have a caretaker who would come and mow the lawn and prune the trees. It was grand back in their day, and they wanted to stay in the sanctuary, not worrying about food or water, enjoying the open field that was once a part of the cemetery. When that changed, they didn’t know how to leave until Mary, Famous and Joseph arrived.

  “Can we bring them with us? They’ve agreed to help with our cause.” Mary asked Joseph.

  “Yes, I think they will do fine. Their orbs are a brilliant bright white, we could use that energy.” And so, the two thoroughbreds joined the team.