Age of Mystics (Saga of Mystics Book 1) (9 page)

The Craven abode had sunk into the same pitch black they had experienced the night before. After caring for the new addition, Kim Pile, Kate had returned to her worry. There was nothing to see outside, so she had settled down at the dining table, a deep sadness and loneliness covering her. Her sister walked in, bumping into another chair.

“It is going to be okay, Kate,” Kayla had offered, “you will see. Besides, Kim prayed for you.” They both chuckled at this. Their mother was a believer, but neither of the younger women still bought into the beliefs of their youth. They could hear the soft playing of Rich on his guitar. He played well even in the dark. It was what her mother would have called “a blessing” to have him there, playing his soft melodies. It really calmed the nerves.

Kate smiled, though she doubted her sister could see it. “Is it weird that I find that guitar super comforting?”

Out of the darkness, Kayla said, “No. I do too. I think he has a gift. I feel hope, and a little emotional strength just listening to it.”

“Me, too” came her brother-in-law’s voice out of the dark somewhere behind her.

His wife was the first to respond, “Damn it, Ted, make some noise. That was creepy as hell.”

They all chuckled. “Kim and Mom in our room?” Ted asked quietly. There was a long pause. “I can’t hear you nodding honey.” They laughed a little louder.

Kate was actually beginning to feel that everything was actually going to be okay. “Did you talk to Max again?”

“Yeah, a little. She is just the same sweet little girl. This is just bizarre. You know there are seven dogs on the porch now?” Ted’s voice had a hint of pride in it. “They can all stay. Can you imagine if those bastards had got to my little girl? I would have torn them apart also. The dogs are fine in my book.”

Kate felt Ted’s hand on her shoulder. “Don’t be too lovey, that isn’t Kayla you are touching.” They laughed again. “Well, if we are going to all sleep in the living room, I guess we better go find our places so we don’t trip over each other in this dark.”

They all walked into the other room, each with a hand on the shoulder of the person in front of them. “Hey, Rich,” Ted said, “We are going to get situated for the night.”

“Oh, alright,” the pastor said, “You all want me to stop playing so you can get some sleep? I can go back to the kitchen to sleep.”

Kate spoke up, “No, Rich. You can have the loveseat, if you are still sitting on it. I like the recliner over here and Ted and Kayla can take the big couch.” She sat down and everyone heard the foot rest kick out. “Please don’t stop playing. It is really wonderful.”

“You got it, ma’am. I will play for a while longer.” Rich began a beautiful classical piece; he really was a gifted player.

Kate fell asleep pretty quickly. They all fell asleep quickly, and had the most restful sleep. Natalee and Max in Max’s room, Beth and Kim in the master bedroom, and the rest of them in the living room. There was an added feeling of safety with those dogs on the porch. As Kate drifted off, her thoughts slipped into a hope that tomorrow would be a change, that they would learn something, anything.

Loud yelling broke the silence of the night, muffled by the steady patter of rain on everything. Those jerks from across the street had come running after Jenny moments after she darted out of the door of her studio. She was super hungry and didn’t have a lot of energy, and she needed to hide. She lived in a little house on the west-side, even with the weather and the darkness, she thought she could get home in less than two hours. But, right now, she was hiding in the park. She didn’t think they had seen her and she was behind the restrooms, so she hoped they wouldn’t come this way. She waited for a very long time before poking her head around the corner to look for them. She wasn’t really dressed for this. Light shoes and yoga clothes were not really heavy weather clothes, even in late July.

Worse than that, though, in her haste to get away, she had run the wrong way. She needed to cross the street and there was a chance the karate guys would see her when she did that. Her only chance was to go north for a bit through the park, and then head west toward the freeway. She glanced around the corner and quickly dipped her head back behind the structure. The men were across the street, maybe thirty yards away. Or she thought it was them. It was so dark that they were just outlines. She closed her eyes and centered herself and opened them again to see auras. The two men were surrounded with dark brown and the occasional flash of red. She had not found any books or magazines with helpful info on the colors, so she still had no idea what they meant. However, she could see the outlines, which allowed her to track them and was just the kind of thing that would get her out of this.

She tracked their movements, and saw others near the barricade of cars. The first two headed back toward the others, and she snuck out from behind the structure and began to move her way back through the park until she came to the corner of the street her dojo was on and the far end of the park. She turned to look for followers, but there were none. She could make out little flashes of auras at this point, but nothing discernible.
I guess distance is a factor,
she thought to herself. She needed to avoid people, so she kept her aura-awareness up for her walk. There was a pretty good chance she would see someone coming before they saw her. Keeping low she crossed the street. She decided at two blocks to turn west. The pouring rain was still a bit much, but it wasn’t that cold in the summer night, even here at high altitude.

Just before reaching the street she intended to turn, she looked up and saw the shimmer of far off auras coming her way from what she could only assume were the men from the street. She ducked down. For the first time, it occurred to her that others might be able to see auras too. She began to lightly check the doorways, and finally found one open. She slipped inside and quietly turned the lock. She waited for what seemed like forever, but the men never came this far. She leaned against the doorway and rested for a moment. She needed to figure out where she was and see if there was any food here. She searched around with her inner sight and saw no auras, so no people that she was aware of. It was pitch black like everything else was right now.

Jenny crawled along slowly and tried to make out her surroundings by touch. It was pretty clear that she was on a carpeted floor, low carpet, not shag. Feeling around, she soon came to a counter, it felt like glass, maybe a retail counter? She moved around to the other side of the counter and touched a leg. It was all she could do not to scream out loud. The person was cold to the touch, she knew immediately they were not alive. She didn’t feel anything that might be blood and she inched by the body as best she could.
What is this place?
Jenny searched her mind and tried to picture, store by store, what it could be. Then it hit her, it was the jewelry store. An elderly couple owned it and worked here. She hoped no one had killed one of them, but she was sure that was one of them.
All they have here is antique costume jewelry! There is no reason to rob the place.
She had met the proprietors at city meetings a few times. They were sweet, welcoming, they told her about their shop. They had said something about a display of ancient Middle Eastern jewelry. They were very proud of it, but they had shown her pictures and it was just some gold wristbands and rings with large uncut stones in them. Would someone kill them for this?

But she had only found one, was the other here? She used her inner sight to peer around as she crawled, she needed a line of sight, so she headed toward the back to listen and her hand touched something smooth and round. Her mind was filled with images, first of the Roth’s.
That was their name.
Then other images came to her but she didn’t know how to slow them down. Ancient images, words in other languages, people she had never seen before. It was so shocking, she dropped the bracelet. She knew what it was, she could see it in her hands when she touched it, but her sight of it was like a memory and the hands weren’t hers. She felt around on the floor and found three rings and another bracelet. Nothing happened when she touched them, then she grabbed the first one and nothing happened. Had she imagined all of that?
No.
She hadn’t imagined the auras and they had gone away when she was startled.
I have
to calm myself and reach out with my mind.
Jenny pulled herself into a cross-legged pose and calmed her mind. Opening her eyes, she turned her focus on the items. Two of the rings and one of the bracelets seemed to have memories of their own. She could feel their past on them. She could not control it and tried her best to slow it down, but it was useless. She didn’t know how to do this. She needed to get home and see if any of her yoga books touched on this subject. She was just grateful that she had old-fashioned paper books, instead of only digital books like her friends.

Reaching the back of the room, she found a door and Jenny reached up to turn the handle, but it was locked.

“Is anyone there?” She loudly whispered. “This is Jenny Martinez; I am trying to see if anyone is here.” She said it three or four times, but heard nothing. Not only did no one respond, there was no sound of movement. Depending on how the person died that was lying in the middle of the floor, there might be someone keeping as quiet as possible, or there may be no one there.

“I can’t stay here, it isn’t safe.” She said as much to herself as to any person who might be there. “I am going to leave. Please come out if you are there, I don’t want to leave you if you need someone’s help.” Jenny could hear the strain in her own voice. She was overwhelmed; she was on the brink of a teary breakdown. But, there was still no sound.

Jenny steeled her resolve. She crawled back the way she had come, making sure to only lightly touch the body as she passed it, and pulled herself up by the door. She reached out with her mind, but still no flashes of aura around where she could see. She unlocked the door as quietly as she was able and opened it enough to get out, and then let it shut slowly behind her. She looked down the street to where the men had been coming, but now she could make out no one. The heavy rain was the only sound she could hear. There were houses for the next two blocks, then the other park, where she always ran. She would make her way over, cross the little creek there and head toward home. Anywhere on the other side of the creek would be relatively safe to crash and she needed to find some food fast. She was so hungry.

She crept her way along, keeping low next to cars and peering out with her inner sight all of the time. Occasionally, she would see a flash of aura in the distance, and she would change course to avoid contact. She didn’t know who she would run into out here and couldn’t take the risk. Then she remembered, right next to the park was a little fish taco restaurant she had eaten at once. She made her way in the dark, wet night to that place. It took far longer than it should have, but she was careful. The front door of the restaurant was propped open. She searched through the dark for auras, but nothing was showing. She slipped into the tiny eatery, stopped and listened. She listened inside for movement or voices. She listened outside for the same. All she could hear was rain on the roof and rain on the patio. She crept behind the counter and began feeling around for anything. It took some time, but in a cabinet somewhere behind the counter, Jenny found tortillas. There were packs and packs of both flour and corn tortillas. She ate a whole pack of flour tortillas and was so relieved that she rested and waited.

Jenny was not used to real hunger, not used to going a few days with little to eat. She did not have the experience to know what those who have dealt with hunger know. Her whole body relaxed, her eyelids grew heavy and Jenny fell asleep. Generally, people call it a food coma. Her body was able to relax now that it was fed. Relax it did, she was out so fast it was unlikely she would have been able to stop herself if she had wanted to. As it was, she didn’t want to. This was a wonderful feeling.

Kyle slept in the deep dark of the High School Theater backstage. He slept with restless dreams, with the pictures of the beaten police officer; with images of the nurses mourning outside the hospital; with images of a woman he had just met, and come to like, lying peacefully at the side of the road in her final rest. These were not good images, and they swirled around like water falling down the drain. Around and around they swirled, and grew bright. Brighter and brighter to where he had to almost shade his eyes. He realized he was asleep, but that realization brought him to waking, and he snapped his eyes open.

In that moment, in that fleeting second, Kyle saw the room brightly lit. He saw the other four people in the room in various positions of sleep. He saw the entire space in which they were sleeping, the walls, the floor, the furnishings, the stacked chairs. And then it was pitch dark again, he could see nothing. It had been so fast, but he had seen everything.
Did the power come back on? Did I just imagine that? Am I losing it?
Kyle lay there for a while. He wasn’t sure when he fell back asleep, but it was his Dad who woke him to tell him it was morning.

DAY THREE

“The sky opened up and the sun shone down and they were alone, just that small group. Noah led his family off the ark, and into a new world.”

-Pastor Rich Carson, In Noah’s Days