Grace Before Dying Read online

  I walked about ten feet in before pausing to glance back. Yep, I could see the car. I wouldn’t go much further. I needed to see it, to find my way back. I surveyed the area, but there wasn’t a hint, not a clue that anyone else had been here. Not in a very long time. What did I expect to see out here? A Creek village? Some decrepit gravestones, or burial grounds? And then what would I do?

  I wasn’t sure, but I couldn’t leave just yet. Not yet. The familiar tingling of a promised dream walk drew me in. It held me captive. Along with the sensation of goose pimples and the odd feeling in my head and neck, I detected a strange aroma, something familiar yet exotic. Incense? Yes, that’s right. Incense, but not like any I’d smelled before. Woodsy, yet spicy. I could see a wisp of it pass by me. Just a trace of smoke that gradually floated away and dissipated into nothing.

  “Hey? Amara?” I asked without raising my voice too loudly. If it wasn’t Amara I didn’t want a confrontation. I backed away from the place where the wisp vanished. The aroma lingered though. It did not lessen because the wind carried it away. But then another wisp of fragrance swished past me; it became intensely strong for a moment and the odor intrigued me.

  How to describe this unique scent? Sacred? Ancient? I suddenly wished that somehow Ashland could have come too. He would probably be picking up all kinds of spirits. I could see, too, but I had to dream-walk to do it. Dream-walking in the Moonlight Garden was one thing—trying it out here in the wilderness was quite another.

  That’s when I spotted her, a woman, standing perfectly still—like a statue. Taller than me she appeared very much alive with her long dark braids which cascaded over her shoulders. Dressed in a light tan deerskin dress her face remained perfectly immovable, but her lips were pink and her cheeks were slightly reddened as if she’d been running.

  Running for her life.

  But she wasn’t running now. She stood poised between two trees, in mid-stride, her arms in perfect balance as if she were about to take off running again.

  Empty Arms!

  The woman wasn’t White Fire, or Red Revenge, or whatever she wanted to call herself. This was Empty Arms, the woman who had obeyed Kinta’s orders. She’d taken the baby, but where too? Where had they gone?

  And then the strange honey hue appeared like it often did when I dreamed. But I wasn’t asleep. I was wide awake! This isn’t how dream-walking worked for me.

  I couldn’t stop staring at Empty Arms, perfectly frozen in time. Perfectly immovable. Unknowing. Unseeing. Why?

  A branch cracked behind me. Sweat popped out on my forehead. All of a sudden a blast of smothering humidity hit me in the face. I could barely breathe. Barely move. My eyes still on Empty Arms, I forced myself to turn around.

  Just inches from my face was White Fire—but not as I’d seen her in the last dream. Not frail, thin, and sickly. She was strong, her hair tied back in a severe braid, her grimace terrifying.

  And she was covered in blood; from the top of her head to her moccasins. The only thing that wasn’t red was her eyes. They were all white—I could see no pupils at all. I heard Empty Arms scream behind me and there was a loud tumult in the woods. The incense was replaced with the odor or blood and it threatened to sicken me.

  In her hand was a hatchet, small, but also shining with blood. Her white eyes pierced down at me as I crumpled to the ground; strange words filled my ears.

  Hvtvm Cehecares!

  Then she took off running into the forest after Empty Arms without another glance at me. I couldn’t get to my car fast enough. I would crawl there if I had to!

  Her words rang in my mind, strange words, foreign words, but I understood them. I’d never heard that language before in my life, but I knew what it meant. And she meant every word of it.

  I will see you again.

  Chapter Fourteen—Lily

  For some reason, I woke up thinking about my mother. That happened once in a while even though we weren’t close at all. Not in life or death. That didn’t mean I didn’t miss her occasionally, even though she spent a good amount of time during those last days, before she abandoned me, avoiding me completely. She was afraid of me. Terrified.

  Why am I thinking about her this morning? I couldn’t say. She used to say goofy things like, “If you eat all your vegetables at dinner you’ll wake up feeling like a million bucks.”

  One of my other favorites and the one that was ringing in my ears this morning was, “Bullies are more scared of you than you are of them.”

  In my experience, Mom was wrong on both of those subjects. Eating vegetables never made me feel like a million bucks—I had to gag them down-- and bullies weren’t scared of me. Or they hadn’t been before. Living with Aunt CJ and Uncle Ashland changed all that. Yeah, they were different and weird, but they didn’t put up with bullies. Just because you were different didn’t mean you didn’t deserve to live.

  By following their example, at least I managed to stand up to a significant bully in my life and it turned out that Katrina Valentine, my one-time tormentor in chief, would become my best friend.

  And now my best friend was dangerously haunted. Not because of me either. Because she was different, too. That’s why she became a bully in the first place. Katrina was always so afraid someone would find out about her ability. Forget the fact that she showed off from time to time and that Cammie knew all about it.

  I brushed my crazy curls out of my face and sat up in my bed. It was good to be home and away from Clarence and Katrina’s crazy interaction. But I couldn’t just pretend that nothing had happened, that she wasn’t in trouble. I couldn’t avoid her and just do nothing. I had too much Carrie Jo in me for that.

  The enticing scent of bacon led me downstairs to the kitchen. I was disappointed to find that my uncle and cousin were not there—apparently, I missed breakfast, but at least they had kindly left me a few pieces of bacon. I devoured one and took the other two with me as I headed to the Blue Room.

  We spent a lot of time outdoors because our house- yes, Seven Sisters was my house, too-it had lots of beautiful gardens. Outside was just as lovely as inside. But when we did spend time inside, it was usually either in the Blue Room, or the kitchen. There were lots of rooms in this house including Aunt Carrie Jo’s new office, which looked like something out of an old-fashioned movie. Some rooms hardly got used and some doors were rarely opened. I think the old ballroom creeped me out almost as bad as the attic. I didn’t hang around in those rooms.

  But I loved the Blue Room.

  Lots of people loved that room over the centuries. Lots of people and I had met a few of them. This room led to a sumptuous herb garden and when the days were cool and the doors were flung open the aroma that wafted inside was simply amazing. If heaven had a scent, I imagine it would have an herbal component to it.

  Component, meaning a part or element of a larger whole…

  Another vocabulary word that I nailed last week. I was proud of my Language Arts grade. Math? Not so much.

  Uncle Ashland was sitting at the patio table while AJ practiced smacking the T-ball. He wasn’t very good at hitting a ball if you threw it at him, but just perch one on a T-ball stand and he could knock it out of the park. A small park, but he was just a little kid. Being good at sports was important to Uncle Ashland — mostly because he was good at football and everyone expected AJ to be the same way. I wasn’t sure if that would happen or not, but the kid was trying. But in the physical education arena, I was definitely a disappointment.

  I wasn’t even good at tetherball. Who screwed up tetherball?

  “I see you found the bacon. I had to fight the wolves off to keep those few pieces for you. How are you this morning?” Uncle put his newspaper down and sipped his coffee as he studied me.

  “Thank you for the effort. I am doing okay. I’m sorry that I called you in the middle of the night. I must seem like a big old baby calling you to come to pick me up like that.” I crammed the last piece of bacon in my mouth.

  “Lily Bean, d
on’t ever believe that. You call anytime you need me, or your aunt — any time, day or night. That shouldn’t even be a question. You did the right thing by coming home but I am curious about what happened. You didn’t want to talk about it last night, but I need to know. You’re sure nobody hurt you? Nobody harmed you?”

  “Nobody harmed me, Uncle Ashland. Not any living person, anyway.” I rubbed my wrists remembering Clarence’s grip, but I didn’t check for bruises. Thankfully, I was wearing my long-sleeved pajamas this morning.

  “Tell me what happened. AJ will be busy for a bit. Way to go, son! He’s determined to win his next game. Start at the top and tell me the whole story.”

  My go-to response would be to offer an uninterested shrug and keep the details to myself, but I needed his advice and he was a physical medium. Where to begin though?

  Sure, Uncle Ashland indeed knew mediums and dream catchers and the like, but fire starters? I might be stretching the bounds of his understanding by telling him about Katrina’s abilities. Firestarters were rare. She told me that and I had to believe her because I knew no others.

  “As I said, uncle. Nobody hurt me; no one living that is.” I brushed away the bits of bacon on my face and wiped my hands on my pajamas. I had to change my clothing and get dressed for the day anyway, so I didn’t mind smelling like bacon grease for a few minutes. “Katrina is like me. She’s an oddball at our school, I think that’s why she was a bully at first. She was too afraid someone would know. She didn’t want anyone to find out about her secret.”

  “And what is her secret?”

  “Katrina Valentine is a firestarter, Uncle Ashland. She can burn things with her mind. And not like the movies--she does not have to go into a rage or be angry. She can be perfectly happy and burn things just fine. She has to focus though and doing it makes her feel groggy, but she can do it. I have seen her catch the grass on fire behind her house.”

  “I see.”

  Did he believe me? “I know it for a fact and I hope you believe me.”

  Uncle Ashland leaned across the table with his arms folded. His eyes blue and friendly were riveted on mine. “Of course I believe you. Why wouldn’t I? Keep going. Tell me what happened? Did you dream over there? What did Aunt CJ tell you about that?”

  Uncle Ashland was right; she did warn me, but I confessed that I’d ignored her warning in the name of helping a friend. He let it go, but I was sure I would hear about it later.

  AJ didn’t bother us for a full half-hour and by that time I explained it all to him. I told him that Katrina suspected her brother of trying to poison her, but in my dream walk I saw Clarence influencing Katrina to poison herself — and she didn’t even know it was happening! That blew my uncle away, but there was more to share. I told him about Clarence and what I’d seen at the school. How he had been mistreated and abused, bullied into doing something bad. I told my uncle about how Clarence had set the paint rags on fire and the other boys had trapped him in the basement. And that’s where he died. He couldn’t get out and wanted more than anything for me to take his place. Or Katrina.

  Come to think of it, Clarence would probably prefer Katrina since she was a fire starter and he died by fire.

  “I’m sorry to hear all that, but you can’t go back Lily Bean. It’s not safe for you. It’s not safe at all. How open is her mother to her daughter’s abilities? Will she be willing to allow someone to come in and investigate?” He rubbed at his lips as he thought about all this.

  “I don’t know. I’m not that close with her mother. She seems nice enough, but I’ve never had a conversation with her about ghosts. Hey! I know what! Maybe she would allow you to come and walk the place, but I think the real activity is at the school. That’s where it started. He found us both at the school and he’s coming after us. I think once he’s done with Katrina, once he’s done with for good, he might come after someone else. He has to be stopped!” I wanted to say AJ, but I couldn’t handle seeing the look of fear growing in my uncle’s eyes. Yes, my uncle was afraid. Afraid for Katrina and me. And AJ, too, but he didn’t know he was in danger.

  Instead, I said, “We need to help that family, Uncle Ashland. I need to, but I don’t know how.”

  His warm smile let me know that he was moved to help me. “We can’t help anyone if they don’t want our help. Let’s wait until Carrie Jo gets back and we’ll talk to her. She’s good at this sort of thing. Way better at it than I am. You know that. Heck, AJ even knows that.”

  Here’s where I inserted my unimpressed shrug. “Katrina’s my best friend, Uncle Ash. How am I supposed to just hang around and wait? She’s drinking poison and isn’t even aware of it. It’s not her fault that this is happening to her. It’s not like she opened a door with a ritual or anything that would attract such a malevolent spirit. She got noticed by Clarence. That’s all she’s done wrong.”

  Suddenly my cousin reappeared and must’ve been listening in on our conversation. “Make the ghost leave us alone, Daddy,” AJ said with a sad smile. “You can do it. Now watch me hit the ball! You watch me, okay?”

  As he put the ball on the T-ball stand I smiled hopefully at my uncle.

  “I know it’s asking a lot, but AJ is right. You can make the ghost leave Katrina—and all of us alone. Please?”

  Uncle Ashland asked the question I was hoping he wouldn’t. “It’s worse than you’re telling me, isn’t it? He’s coming for AJ, too?”

  I slowly nodded my head and watched as he swore under his breath.

  “Fine. We won’t wait, but I’m not sure going to Mrs. Valentine and explaining to her what’s happening will help us. That’s a Carrie Jo thing. But talk to your friend. Katrina needs to be the one to do that. However, since the ghost has been here at Seven Sisters I think I might be able to find him. I’ll try at least, but you keep AJ occupied. I don’t want him in the middle of all of this. He’s too young to deal with such issues.”

  I didn’t remind my uncle that the issues, as he put them, didn’t care how old a medium was — the dead wanted our help and some of them were pretty persistent about it.

  Including this one.

  “We’ve been out here a while so there is a good chance that if there is a ghost hanging around Seven Sisters this afternoon, then they would’ve probably made their way down here. What ghost can resist interacting with three mediums? I’ll start searching out here and work my way inside. Your job, as I said, is to keep AJ out of the house. Got it?”

  “I think I can keep a little kid occupied. I’ll call you if I need you, but are you going to be okay? Don’t you need me to come with you? I guess AJ is too old to take a nap. If AJ would take a nap then you and I could go walk together.” I was serious about my proposition, but I could tell by the expression on my uncle’s face that it was a no go.

  “Fine. Just holler at me if you need me. He’s very persistent, Uncle Ashland. He’s not like a regular ghost. He’s different and in some way I don’t understand.” I shivered as I said those words.

  “What do you mean by that? Different how?”

  I tried to describe the boy’s strange appearance, his deep blue eyes that tended to swirl like two whirlpools. And the ghost’s faded out skin and clothing, and that weird feeling that he gave me. No. There wasn’t a chance he was like a normal ghost. Clarence was something…

  Altogether different.

  But I had no chance to warn him. AJ was calling me repeatedly. Apparently, it was my turn at bat! With a worried glance at my uncle’s back, I watched Uncle Ashland walk into Seven Sisters. His hands were on his hips as they always were when he was thinking hard. He disappeared into the house and I couldn’t see him anymore.

  I can’t explain why, but tears came to my eyes. A strange thought.

  I would never see Uncle Ashland again.

  Chapter Fifteen—Carrie Jo

  I was sure I looked quite a sight when I got out of the car. Amara waited for me on the porch along with another woman that I’d not met yet. I dusted off my jeans
and slung my purse up on my shoulder.

  “Did your car stall? I thought I saw car lights. Are you okay?” Amara came down the steps to greet me, her lovely dark eyes sympathetic and worried.

  “No, my car is fine. I was just looking around. I hope you don’t mind?” I guess it was the fact that a stranger was there that deterred me from going full throttle and telling her everything I knew. That Red Revenge chased Empty Arms through the woods on her property and the ghost was determined to find her child. No matter what.

  I will see you again.

  Was that a promise or threat? I couldn’t say, but we were about to find out.

  “Carrie Jo, this is my friend Gennifer. She was one of my father’s nurses. We kind of hit it off and we’ve been friends ever since. She knows about what’s happening here at my home. I invited her to be here.” Amara hugged me briefly and joined Gennifer on the steps. They squeezed hands momentarily and I got the vibe that they may be more than friends. Gennifer’s expression was one of concern and she had every right to feel that way. “Let’s go inside. It looks like it might rain.”