Chapter 28
The birds fly in covering our view of each other. They come at us from all angles. The sound of wings beating against each other fills my ears with their chaotic rhythm. I let go of Papa’s hand, trying to use my arm to shield my face. With the other hand I swing my flashlight around knocking birds away, but more replace the one’s that I had cleared. I keep at it until a large group of them rush at me. The ravens push me back. I feel my body thud against somebody else’s.
“Come on, sweetie, we got to get you out of here,” Calista says; somehow managing to whisper in my ear. The chaos seems to have snapped her out of her trance. I try to pull away, not wanting to leave Papa or Sage. “They’ll be all right. It’s you he wants remember?” Calista grabs my hand and leads me blindly towards the general direction of the hall. I cover my head as we push through the birds. They claw and peck at us every chance they get. One grabs a strand of my hair and yanks it.
“Ow!” I cry out. I use one hand to swat at it. I don’t realize that we’re out of the living room until Calista starts pulling me up the stairs. How can she even see? I hear someone cry out in pain. Who was that? What’s happening to Papa? Sage? The others? When we begin to approach the landing the birds begin to thin out as if they are being pulled back for some strange reason. When we reach the landing they stop altogether. I whip around and see the birds staring at us intently. They continue to flap their wings. Ready to attack, but they don’t approach. They act as if the landing is some invisible boundary that they cannot cross. I get a sick feeling in the pit of my stomach. I think they corralled us up here. I turn to tell Calista, “I think they —” Wham! Calista strikes me.
“Ooh.” My head is throbbing. I attempt to rub the sore spot, but I can’t move my hands. Why is that? I open my eyes. I find I can’t move my hands or legs, nor can I speak. My hands and legs are bound. My voice is restricted by a gag. I turn my head a little to the side. My eyes take a moment to adjust. As they focus I see Calista walking around the room. Her back is turned against me. Everything in the room has been pushed back to the walls. What is going on here? I try to make sense of it all. I try to remember the last thing that had happened. That’s when the memory floods back. It all makes sense. The way she could find her way in all the chaos. How she led me upstairs instead of taking me outside. That’s not Calista.
“Yer awake,” George says through Calista carelessly. “Girl, ya ain’t as ignorant as ya look. Now don’t look at me all bamboozled. Ya came on yer own accord,” he says, before clicking his tongue at me.
Calista walks towards me with a canister of lighter fluid and pours it in a circle around me. My only act of defiance is to stare him down, but this only makes him look more self satisfied. He’s going to drag my death out. God, save me!
In fear I begin to pray in my head. Please, God, help me! If you don’t mind, now would be a good time to send one of your angels!
“Filthy whore! God said, ‘— The soul that turneth after such as have familiar spirits, and after wizards, to go a whoring after them, I will set my face against that soul, and will cut him off from among his people.’ And, ‘Thou shalt not suffer a witch to live.’ I believe ya know the consequence of being a witch. Witches burn.”
I flip him off. I’m going to die and he’s already going to torture me to death. What more can he do to me?
George continues, “ ‘— The fearful, and unbelieving, and the abominable, and murderers, and whoremongers, and sorcerers, and idolaters, and all liars, shall have their part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone.’”
He/she lights a match and throws it onto the lighter fluid. Promptly, I am engulfed in a circle of flames. Calista’s eyes are aglow.
Just then I hear a loud crash as the attic door explodes open and in comes Sage. Thank you, God!
The flames are starting to rise. The world seems to freeze. Through the flickering of the flames I can see Sage’s eyes are on me. Horror flashes across his face as he sees my predicament.
Don’t just stand there, do something! I think. The flames are starting to spread towards me. Hurry! I scream in my head.
Crash! Sage’s body slams into Calista as he tackles her to the ground. Sage tries to pin her down, but she manages to wriggle one arm free and scratch him across the face. Sage gets a hold of her arm and regains control.
“Our father —,” Sage says.
“Shut up!” George shrieks.
Just then, Papa and Allan run into the room.
I hear Papa’s voice but there’s no time to celebrate. I’m still in danger of being burned.
“Help!” I cry out only to be muffled by the gag. It hurts to breathe. My nose and throat are stinging. My lungs are on fire. My eyes are watering. Sweat is beading on my forehead. A flame licks at my shoe. Without delay I smother it out. The wall of flames are inching its way towards me. All I can hear is the crackling of the blaze. I feel a tingling sensation on my back. In an effort to kill the spark I roll a little on my back, quenching it. Sizzle.
“Aah!” My hair! I watch helplessly as the flames eat away at my curls. Rashly, I fling about trying to douse the flames but that only makes things worse. Whoosh. A large moving blanket envelops me, suffocating the flames.
I feel a pair of hands tuck the blanket so that it’s hugging my body. The blanket is then removed. Papa is standing over me, to my right Allan is in the process of stomping out the last embers as he has doused the flames with another moving blanket. Calista is still being pinned down by Sage, but she is no longer struggling. I believe she’s knocked out.
Papa pulls my gag off, he then pulls out his knife and unbinds me. Thank God, that’s over!
I give Papa a quick hug.
“Are you hurt?”
“No. Is she dead?” I ask looking over to where Calista/George is at.
“No, she’s just out cold.”
“Sorry to break up the family reunion, but I’m going to need your assistance. Marimar you are going to help say the prayer,” Allan says. I race over to him. He takes off his backpack and pulls out a box of salt, candles, a smudge stick, and a lighter. He hands me the box of salt. He directs me to go around in a circle and pour it around Sage and Calista. As I begin, Calista’s eyes pop open. He/she thrashes in Sage’s arms so much that Papa has to step in and help him. When I’m finished with the salt Allan has me light candles around the circle, leaving a gap for the boys to exit out of.
“Okay, now on the count of three, Mr. Utt, Sage, you are going to let go of her and step out of the circle.”
“What?” the three of us turn to him and ask. Did I hear him correctly? He wants them to let go?
“Are you f**king crazy?” Sage asks. I did hear him correctly.
“Trust me, he can’t cross.” They still look unsure, but they get ready to move. “One … two.” Everybody is tense. “Three. Do it now!”
They both let go and jump out of the circle. Calista supernaturally rises to her feet. I jump back as she runs towards me only to be knocked down on her back by an invisible wall. It worked! She spits on the ground in frustration. Papa and Sage walk towards me and take defensive positions on either side of me. A moment of relief washes over me, only to be broken.
“This can’t hold me,” he shouts. We pull back, but Papa keeps my hand. He’s probably never going to let me out of his sight again.
“We’re not done,” Allan remarks shakily. He places the remaining candles in the gap the men escaped through outside the salt. He then slips out of his pocket a piece of paper and hands it to me. “Read this. Everybody repeat after her.”
“We ask Father God and Mother Earth for your love to flow in and shield this place. For neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities nor powers, nor things present nor things to come, nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to divi
de us from the love of God and the Goddess which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. We ask for Jesus Christ’s blood that was sacrificed for our sins to be upon us now and that the Father and the Mother’s armor will be on all of us in this place and all who dwell within. We ask for your warring angels to guard the North, South, East, and West of us. For the ‘Angels of the Lord encamps all around those who fear Him, and delivers them.’”
“Shut up ya bitch!” George screams directly at me. The entire time we’ve been praying he’s been hurling obscenities at each member of our party in an attempt to break our concentration.
“We cut with the sword of God all blasphemous souls and sin ties between George and this house, its’ contents, the land and its’ contents, all his personal items, and all those who dwell within. We release George to the Lord Jesus.”
“No, no, damn ya’ll, no! I ain’t going. Ya’ll can’t make me!”
“Keep going.”
“And we command all negative spirits to follow you into the abyss in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.”
“Shut up!”
“I cover all blood that was shed with the Lord Jesus. Let reign in the home, peace in the name of Jesus Christ. For Jesus once said, ‘Peace I leave with you, my peace I give to you; not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid.’”
“Now everyone close your eyes and take a deep breath. Good. Now on your next inhale, I want you to count up to ten filling in your lungs. When you exhale, I want everyone to imagine a door appearing inside the circle. See the color of the door, what it’s made out of,” Allan instructs.
“Ya’ll er gonna pay for this!”
“Imagine the door opening and a brilliant white light shining out of it, feel the warmth on your skin and the radiating peace and love seeping into your body. Now imagine George leaving through it. Marimar, tell George to leave.”
“Please don’t do this!” George begs, “The light burns! Yer sending me straight to hell!”
My knees are almost buckling with fear as I say, “George I want you to leave. I’m sorry but this is not your home any longer, this is mine and you no longer have any business here. You’ve suffered enough. I think it’s time for you to rest. I know your family hurt you, but that was a long time ago. It wasn’t your fault they did those things to you. It was your parents. God does not want you to be in pain, you’re only hurting yourself by staying here. Go to the light! Please, George, go to the light!”
“Nooo!” George lets out one final, plaintive cry.
Calista’s body slumps to the floor.
“Calista?” Allan asks. Everybody leans forward. Did it work? Calista sits up unsteadily.
“Where am I?” she asks, still dazed.
“Wait, how do we know it’s not a trick?” Papa asks.
“If it’s a trick she won’t be able to pass the salt,” Allan responds calmly.
“What’s going on? What happened?” she asks disoriented.
“Calista, if you will come towards us,” Allan asks. Papa wraps his arm protectively around me. Sage is standing between Calista and me, blocking her. Everybody backs away as Calista attempts to exit the circle. She crosses the circle of salt. Calista’s back! It worked!
“Don’t worry, we’ll answer all your questions later,” Allan promises. “Just in case, keep your eyes on her,” he whispers to Sage.
“It’s safer if you stick with me,” Sage says to Calista, looping his arm with hers.
“Okay,” Calista answers.
“Now we will smudge,” Allan says, holding up the smudge stick. “This will make certain he won’t come back.” He pulls out a shell from his backpack and then a feather. With a shaky hand he lights the smudge stick over the shell. He allows the stick to smolder. He fans the smoke onto me starting from my feet to my head and from my front to my back. He then hands me the shell and the feather and directs me to fan the smoke onto each of them the same way he did me. He instructs me to chant, ‘All negative energy, I command you to leave in the name of the Divines’, for the duration of the smudging.
Allan has me go around the room counter clockwise smudging every corner, while the gang gathers their stuff. Allan, Papa, and I go through every room; working our way from the attic, to the second floor, then the cellar, and finally to the front of the house until every nook and cranny in the whole house is filled with smoke. Allan opens the front door for me.
“All negative energy, I command you to leave now!” Allan has me wave the smoke out for a minute longer before I’m allowed to snuff out the stick.
“It’s gone,” he pronounces wearily.
Nobody says anything. We stand unspeaking, unmoving, staring at the open door, watching as the last remnants of the smoke disperses into the dark sky taking with it the spirit of my tormenter and emptying the house of the dark shroud that had been hanging over the house and my family since we moved here. It’s gone.
The air is light, peaceful. I feel … relief but shouldn’t I be ecstatic? I feel sort of happy, I can’t deny that, but strangely … mostly I feel exhausted. But there’s something else … some feeling I can’t explain … something I can’t seem to shake. I think that maybe, I’m just … in shock. I mean it felt like this would never end and now it’s just … over? It’s almost unbelievable.
All of a sudden, I feel myself being lifted in the air. The next thing I know I’m being swung around; held tightly in Sage’s arms. He’s laughing and is in high spirits. He puts me back on the ground. And then it happens. Before I can react, he kisses me.
For a fleeting moment his warm lips are pressed against mine and I feel that shock of ecstasy I had been missing and then ... Papa pulls him back from his shirt collar separating us.
“Not on my watch.”
Sage’s eyes widen as the realization of what he had just done hits him. “I-I —”
“Sage, give me a hand with the equipment?” Calista asks mercifully. She walks over and loops her arm with his. She sneaks me a wink.
Thank you, I think. She nods in reply.
“Right,” he says relieved. He avoids making eye contact with Papa as do I.
“I’m going to go help them … a, yeah.” I reach on my tip-toes and give Papa a quick kiss and a hug before I follow after them.
Epilogue
One Month Later…
Life is great. Texas is growing on me. Well, Sage is anyways. I still can’t stand the heat and I long for the mountains. It took almost a week to clean up the mess. It was actually entertaining watching Papa try to make up stories for the window repairman who kept finding blood and feathers. I think that’s why he and Sage did all the other repairs themselves. Papa kept him so busy we never saw each other when he was around. Luckily, Mama made sure we had some time together, but not too much so Papa wouldn’t freak. It was great having Sage under the same roof while it lasted. Two weeks ago he moved out. Papa has a court date for him to be declared independent and a friend at work had a rental property in town he was willing to let Sage and Oscar rent. Sage’s mom agreed to let Oscar live with Sage and let Sage adopt him when he turns eighteen in exchange for keeping Bubba out of jail.
Sunshine is back to her normal self, totally unfazed, except she no longer has any invisible friends. Thank God. It was truly a blessing that she was spared from almost all of the horrific events by her ability, like most children, to sleep through anything. Mama and Papa still have nightmares and Mama won’t be alone in the house. Papa is doing better now that Sage has moved out. He was like Jekyll and Hyde. They were like father and son, or best friends, while they were working together. Then when I was around they would both become all awkward and Papa would glare at him every time he looked at me. Papa actually had the nerve to install a motion sensor on Sage’s bedroom door across the hall.
; Every night for the first two weeks I could hear Papa making the floorboards creak around the corner anytime Sage got up at night to use the bathroom. Luckily, Mama warned me about it and I, in turn, warned Sage. On the first night of installation Sage figured out how to get passed the motion sensors by moving really, really slowly. He tripped it on purpose every so often to throw Papa off. Enough said.
Papa and Sage now get along great when we’re with the family, but when Sage and I go out alone he still gives us the third degree. And I’m not allowed to go to his place, but that’s okay. I can wait until I’m eighteen.
I still have nightmares; mostly about the cleansing night … when it went bad. Calista called again today. She said I can expect to keep having bad dreams because it was a very traumatic experience, but that they should become less frequent and less severe in time. That gives me something to look forward to. She even told me how I can get rid of them faster, but here’s the catch. To do so I’d have to accept my gifts and learn more about the spiritual realm. She’s really anxious to have me start training with her. I keep putting her off though, as I really don’t think I want to help spirits “cross over” after my first mission as A Daughter of Light.
Calista told me the team has all but recovered. Except Lawson, who suffered a detached retina. They were able to reattach it, but he lost some of his peripheral vision and has a nasty scar.
On a different note, Sage is working almost every night trying to save up enough for the rent, furniture, and legal fees. He’s working late again tonight so I’ll see him in the morning when he picks up Oscar — we watch him when Sage is working and my parents babysit when we go out.
I’m still healing from some of the wounds George gave me, so tonight I’m going to bed early so I look rested when I see Sage in the morning. Sunshine is already asleep and Trevor is snoring next to her. Please let me sleep through the night.…
“Marisol!” I scream terrified by what the creature is doing to her. I can’t run. I can’t move. I’m helpless. Invisible bonds keep me from her.
“Mawimaw,” she sobs, “Mawimaw, help me!” she whales. The sickly gray creature just smiles; revealing its jagged yellow teeth. Marisol is suspended a few inches off the ground appearing as if bound by invisible ropes. The lanky emaciated creature circles around her as if evaluating its prey, coming to a stop directly in front of her. It grabs her top jaw with one hand and with the other it grabs her bottom. What the hell is it doing?
“Leave her alone!” I scream. The creature pulls her jaws apart. Marisol screams and wails. The corners of her mouth start tearing apart. Noooo!!! “You bastard!” Marisol’s eyes widen in terror. Tears pour out. The demon’s body contorts as it pulls itself into her through her mouth. Marisol? What is it doing to her? Marisol convulses as her joints pop in out of place, and her bones snap and reconfigure. It’s killing her from the inside. I watch as horns pierce through and extend from her scalp, blood pours out from the perforations. Her fingers lengthen, claws rip through her skin replacing her fingertips. My Sunshine’s legs elongate and bow like a dog standing on its hind legs. Her eyes roll back and only the blank whites are showing. Then a set of inhuman glowing red eyes roll down in their place and stare back at me. The monster smiles and then it bolts straight at me.
I awaken from my own scream. Fresh tears stream down my face blurring my vision as my eyes try to make sense of my surroundings. Through my tears I can still see it is dark out. I hope I didn’t wake Mama and Papa as I do most nights. I don’t have to worry about waking up Marisol, nothing ever wakes her up. I don’t hear anyone coming, so I guess I’m good. I turn over and my fingers feel for Marisol’s body but all I find is the still warm bedding.
“Marisol?” I call out. I sit up ramrod straight only to see a small figure standing at the foot of my bed. “Marisol?” I ask nervously. No answer. What if it’s not Marisol? But who else could it be? George is gone. Is it possible she could be sleep walking? I keep my eyes on the figure as I reach, with a shaky hand, for my flashlight on the bedside table. I turn it on in the direction of the figure, revealing Marisol.
I let out a sigh of relief. “Sunshine, you scared me. Did I wake you up?” She doesn’t answer but stares at me with a strange expression. She’s standing perfectly still; her head is tilted to the side. Her skin is ashen and her face is beginning to twitch. She keeps her eyes fastened with mine, unblinking.
“What are you doing out of bed?” I ask. I am beginning to think I am still trapped in a nightmare.
“How did you like your nightmare?” Marisol asks, grinning.
“How did you know I had a nightmare?”
“Because I gave it to you,” she answers sweetly, “did you understand it?”
“What?” Her lisp, what the f**k happened to her …?
Marisol’s features distort and a demonic voice spews from her mouth, “We have begun!”
END OF BOOK ONE
Acknowledgments:
Thank you Adonai (God), Jesus, and his Angels, for guiding us along in this endeavor.
Thank you to Joseph and Annabel, our lovely models, for allowing us to put their photographed images on the cover.
A special thanks to our number one fans, our parents, who encouraged us to finish what we started and helped us on our way!
About Us:
Hi, we are three sisters Marité, Sheníe, and Taís. The three of us with our parents live in a small western town in Texas with our six furry babies, five dogs — four stubborn poodles and an adopted hound dog who thinks he is a poodle — and a rescued black kitten who thinks they are her pride. My identical twin sister Sheníe and I (Marité) have attended college and have both made the President’s List as well as won an award in our college’s creative writing contest. Meanwhile, Taís is being homeschooled as we once were and in her free time she enjoys composing piano pieces. Together, we are hard at work writing our second novel during the day and conjuring scary ideas during the night; something that comes easily since all three of us are ironically terrified of the dark.
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