Paranormal Summer (Indigo Moon Rising) (25 page)

"Are you okay, dear?" GG asked her as she sat down.

"Yes, much better. Thank you," Jillian said, still clutching the tissue in her hand.

"Honey, please don't worry. We aren't," GG said. He put his arm around his wife. We've gone through this before. And this time we will most likely follow the same course of treatment. It is a critical decision. That is why we had the picnic. We asked for the opinions of our friends, and luckily, we all have the same ideals about health and healing. We will either go away for a while to a spa where Lois can be treated holistically, or if it looks like we have enough resources here, then we will make this the treatment center like we did before."

"Now you have Doreen and Thomas, Elise and Seelie, and the three of us, I am sure we can make a difference!" Sonya said, volunteering them.

"Yes, absolutely, you can count me in for anything, whether you decide to stay home or go away," Jillian said.

"Oh, that's wonderful!" Lois said with a big smile on her face. There were no tears in her or GG's eyes. But Ryan was a different story.

He looked sad, lost, hurt, angry, shocked, and unable to grasp what was going on. There were too many emotions going on inside of him at one time. Jillian tugged on his sleeve and led him outside. She motioned for him to follow her around the back, behind the barn.

"Okay, what is it? What are you thinking? What are you feeling?" She started yelling at him.

He looked at her like she was crazy, and he started yelling, too. He started yelling about his parents, how they could be so thoughtless and uncaring, how they were going to keep things going on the farm, and how could God do this to such a fantastic woman again? He went on and on. What good are gifts if you can't use them? How he was supposed to help? He felt as if he meant nothing in the world to anyone. He was getting hoarse from all of the yelling. He exhausted himself, falling to his knees. Jillian knelt down and held him as long as his tears flowed.

After Ryan regained his composure, he and Jillian walked back to the house. GG, Lois and Sonya were still talking in the living room, and Sonya had the photo album open.

"Check it out; GG was just filling me in on some family history. You are gonna love this!" Sonya said holding a piece of paper in her hands. Looking at GG she asked, "Can you tell them what you told me about this piece of paper?" She held onto it and did not show it to Ryan and Jillian.

"Well, all of my family originates from here, all the way back since the late 1700's. They owned hundreds and hundreds of acres of the mountains, mostly all wooded land, and kept to themselves pretty much. One of my grandfathers, I don't know how many greats it was, but George Masterson and his wife Winifred had four children. Their oldest was Jasper, and they had a set of twin girls, Miranda and Emmy, and the youngest son’s name was Harry.     Jasper and his wife Caroline had no children. Harry moved out west and was never heard from. Miranda was wild and vicious, and Emmy was gentle and weak. When they got to be of age, Miranda was deeded 80 acres up there of wooded hills, and good panning streams, and Emmy got 80 acres right down here with a cabin, part wooded, and part cleared to farm. Seems that Miranda took up with some man who used to hunt in the mountains, and he was married. Now she was more of an animal than anything else, a wild child, and nobody actually knew what kind of crazy stuff she was doing up there. Some said that she had sold her soul. She got herself pregnant, which was nobody's business. But, shortly after that, Emmy, who lived alone down here, found herself expecting, too. She said someone stormed into her cabin one night and, well, they didn't use the word rape back then, but that's what it was.

Miranda had a little baby girl, Phoebe, and Emmy had two little girls, Gianna and Elizabeth. Jasper took sick and died. Gianna went to live with Jaspers widow because Emmy couldn't take care of two babies on her own. When Emmy's girl was a little over a year old, someone accused her of killing her baby. The sheriff went to make sure the baby was all right, but they couldn't find her. Emmy ran off, making her look guilty. Nobody ever saw her again, except that not too long after that Miranda swore that Emmy had come back from the grave and had stolen something from her, and so she cursed her and all that was hers. But everybody knew that Miranda was just downright crazy and jealous. She lived out her years in the mountains with her little Phoebe and two more      children that followed. She never wed, but she was that kind of woman. So we do have relations around here, mostly spread throughout the mountains, but we just don't want to go out and stir up any trouble, never know what you'll find, so we keep to ourselves," GG said, taking the piece of paper from Sonya and handing it to Ryan.

Jillian and Ryan were sitting together. They looked at an old copy of a hand drawn sketch of a young woman. Ryan's jaw dropped as he stared at it. No doubt in his mind, this is Emmy.

"You know this is all so fascinating," Sonya started, "but when I touched that piece of paper, before I even looked at it, I saw something. It was like those vintage paper dolls, the ones you dress up, except it was as if the paper had been folded, and cut so that there was a mirror image. So when you opened it up, there was one girl in a white dress on the top, and another, on the bottom in black."

"That would pretty much sum up the two girls," GG said.

"Well now, I best be getting back to the kitchen," Lois said. "Maybe next time you come back I can show you what I have worked out in GG's family history. I have almost entirely filled in the family tree. There are all kinds of other historical records,      personal items and lots more photos that I have in my sewing room. There are some truly surprising things in this family skeletons you know, so much more I am sure you will find fascinating," she said and headed for the kitchen.

GG stood up and looked at Ryan. "I am sorry we didn't include you in all of what was going on," GG said. "We didn't want you to worry; we still have a lot to figure out. I promise we will involve you in all of the details from here forward. God knows you take on so many responsibilities as it is, when you honestly shouldn't have to. If only your father would.... well," he said, shaking his head and looking down.

"I understand." Ryan said and hugged his grandpa. GG then followed behind his wife to the kitchen.

Ryan stood there, looking lost, which wasn't like him. "Well, first things first. I don't know if we can still contact Emmy or not, and I don't want to bother her since her drama is over, so I have an idea how we can find out about that book Deryk found in the cabin. We go to Emmy's book," he said, motioning for the girls to follow him. They all went upstairs to his bedroom, and he opened a dresser drawer. He pulled out Emmy's book and the notebook he had used while trying to decipher it, and grabbed some pens from the desk drawer. He sat down on the floor, and the girls sat, too. He handed them paper and pens.

"Sonya, you know what you did with that piece of paper, with the drawing? You could see something when you were holding it? That is psychometry. Getting information from the energy of an object. Now, each of us needs to hold the book. It has Emmy's energies in it. Write down anything you see, hear, feel, smell, anything at all, no matter how farfetched it seems. And then we will compare notes."

The three took turns holding the book and writing. It was fascinating to see their faces as they received the information. There was no smiling, but a lot of heartache and shaking of heads.

"Jillian, what did you get?" Ryan asked, hoping they all had some of the same answers.

"First of all, I want to say, this was not fun. I didn't enjoy it, but it does explain a lot of what I have experienced my whole life, about touching someone else's things. Well, the first thing I saw was the face of a man looking down at me, I was on my back. I was scared to death. I tried fighting him off, but he was too strong. He was dirty and vulgar. I didn't know if he was going to kill me when he was done. I felt like...like how could someone do something like that to another human being? Then I saw what must have been the mob, coming after me, and I was running for my life. I lived outside, surrounded by rocks and in a cave, returning to the cabin a few times. But I lived off the land, eating what I could from the woods. I kept watch so no one would see me. Then I saw what must have been Miranda’s cabin in the mountains. It was falling apart. I watched it until I was sure no one was around, and then I snuck in. I saw Miranda’s book. I felt overwhelming sadness, like that lost feeling. I grabbed the book and a pouch, and I ran down the mountain back to my cabin. Then I saw both books. It was like I could see under the floorboards. They were a distance apart, and each one had like a force field around it. My book was pulsating white, like to keep the other book away from it. The other book was bigger and darker. It had a black energy around it, and it seemed like it wanted to suck the life of the other book into it. And I was looking at my hand. There was a gold heart, or I think maybe it was a locket. Then I felt like I was walking into a cave. I think I know where that is. It's on my aunt’s property. I went into the cave with some sort of locket. And it went black, like a black sheet was thrown over my head. That was enough for me," Jillian said shaking her whole body, as if the feeling needed to leave her.

Sonya said, “I just kept seeing the same types of things over and over. It was like Emmy's book was glowing white and green and gold, and felt high, and the other book was moldy and had roots. It was stinky and had a sound like a low note on a cello. It seemed like that all around the books were herbs, candles, moonlight and words. That is what they had in common. I saw the written word '
INTENTION'
, like the paper dolls, mirror image, white on top, black on the bottom. Oh yeah. I saw Miranda, and she was scary. She was pulsating with anger, like she had no respect for anyone or anything, and her insides were blocked up and sticky. There were all kinds of voices, but I don't know whose they were, because I couldn't understand them. Kinda like your mosquitoes." She said to Ryan, "What did you get?"

"I saw...Pliney Howard. Can that be right? I saw him busting the door in at Emmy's cabin. I heard her screaming. I remember the first time I saw him at the edge of the woods, in the vision at the cabin, and he saw what happened to Elizabeth. He had followed his wife to the cabin. He was afraid she was going to find out what he had done to Emmy. He realized that Elizabeth must have been his. When he saw her in the muck, he figured this was how to end everything. He would blame Emmy for killing her own daughter. That's why he threw the lantern onto Emmy's cabin. But, I also saw him in bed with Miranda. They must have been lovers. Then I saw Deryk's ugly face in a mirror. Most likely they are the same type of person," he said.

"Or maybe they are related," Sonya said, not thinking.

"Why would you say that?” Jillian asked.

"I don't know. I just kinda saw their wrists tied together with a red ribbon or something, same blood, like connected," Sonya said, raising her eyebrows.

"Somehow Deryk knew about the cabin. Who would have told him? When I went there for the first time a few weeks ago, by myself, no one saw me. I didn't even know who the property belonged to. I just kept getting this nagging feeling, of needing to explore it. Now I know it must have been Emmy asking for help," Ryan said.

"Deryk. He was coming down the mountain. He wants what rightfully belongs to them," Sonya said, staring off into space.

"Down the mountain?" Jillian said shaking her head.

"Yeah, it’s like he is literally running down the mountain, to get what they want," Sonya said with her eyes wide open. "He has been shown a hand drawn map of the mountains, and the property with the woods on it. The place where the cabin sits, it has an X there."

"So somebody showed him a map? Somebody from the mountains, in the family? What belongs to them? Oh, no, do you mean the book belongs to them? No way," Jillian said.

"Okay, what are the chances that Deryk is a descendant of Miranda, and he came looking for the book to take it back to whomever in the hills?" Sonya said. Again, things were just flowing out of her mouth.

"Just as likely as I am a descendant of Emmy's, the one who found her cabin, then found her book and helped her cross into the light," Ryan said, feeling sick.