Victorian Dreams Pt. 02

“Nothing can save me now I have been lost since I gave myself to him in my moment of weakness, long ago. I have come to tell you to destroy this house and the evil that lives here. The best way would be to get sunlight into the chamber below, but that is too risky, so the next best way is to destroy the house by burning it."

"Burn it to the ground Clarice." She was almost screaminmg at Clarice, as she spoke.

"You must be covert in your action and you must succeed the first time you try. Otherwise you will be destroyed, virgin or not.”

Clarice mother again looked to the east to see the sun is just about to rise and she stands. She runs her hand along the young face of her daughter, and says more.

“You are strong my child. I have seen your strength from the moment I held you in my arms at birth. I never knew what the strength was for, but now I know. You will defeat this menace to mankind, and you will survive. Please always try to remember I love you Clarice. Never underestimate them Clarice. They are cunning in their intent and execution of the evil they desire to unleash.”

“I know you love me mother. I have never doubted this for a moment. I have grown ever respectful of their evil wiles and the guise of their purposes. I will remain cautious as you wish.”

The tears were streaming down Clarice face as she spoke these words, but it is hard to say if she was prepared for what happened next.

Chapter 38

“I am sorry baby, but I must abandon you again. I must look to my soul now. In the end, perhaps we can be together again without you having to go to the Master this way.”

Chirsty walked over to the window and stood facing it as the sun’s first rays streamed over the horizon. Just as the light hit her, she spoke again.

“I love you, baby.”

Then the vaporous form that had once been her mother burst briefly into flames and vanished from the room. The last thing Clarice heard was ‘I love you baby’ then a blood curdling scream as her mother’s vaporous form disappeared in the momentary burst of flame.

Clarice wept in her bed for hours. Though she had presumed her mother dead, the actual conformation of it was more than she had expected. Then the words her mother had said resonated in her mind. ‘You are strong my child’. Even with her mothers words echoing in her mind it still took her several more minutes to compose herself.

She rose, cleaned herself up and dressed, then went to the well and looked in. Just as her mother had said, her body was floating face down in the water 15-20 feet below the lip of the well.

By now the girl had regained the composure that so characterized her strength, and she began to formulate a story to tell the authorities if they should ask why her mother’s body had been in the well for several days without Clarice notifying the authorities she was missing or had fallen into the waters below.

Once she had put together a plausible story, she got into the family car, a Model A Ford, her dad had been so proud of when he drove it home to their flat in New York City, and drove to town to get the constable.

She told the constable her mother had apparently fallen in the well and drowned, and she needed someone to handle the situation. The Deputy that had investigated her father’s death recognized Clarice immediately, so the constable dispatched him to investigate. Not having radios and the like back in those days, he went by the coroner’s office and had a crew follow him out to the house. Clarice was waiting on the verandah when they pulled into the yard, and took them back to the well.

One man was lowered into the water and tied rope around the body of Chirsty Johansson and they hoisted her out.

The crew from the coroner’s office examined the body and pronounced, estimating the time of death as several days earlier from the water logged condition of the body. When the deputy asked why Clarice had not reported her missing earlier, Clarice gave the story she had already concocted.

“Since the death of my father, Mom has been in a deep depression. It isn’t unusual for her to wander off into the woods to be alone and not return for a couple of days. In one of her lucid moments, she apologized to me for being ignored by her and told me not to report her missing unless she was gone for a week or more. She said that way I wouldn’t get entangled in the system and get shipped off to an orphan’s home until I turn 18 next year. Nor have to face the other problems that could arise from her disappearance. She said she needed this time to grieve my lost father. As a dutiful daughter I was compelled to follow her wishes. Besides, she has only been gone for 3 days.”

The story was just plausible enough the deputy bought it. Chirsty’s body had been in the well for longer than three days, but Clarice had listened carefully when the coroner’s assistant had said after about 3 days there was no way to tell how long the body had been in the water.

Clarice didn’t seem despondent or depressed on the loss of both her parents in such a short period of time, in fact an almost eerie calm seemed to have a grasp on the girl, yet the deputy had no choice but to set the wheels in motion for Clarice to go to an orphanage.

Since she had stayed at the house for this period of time without adult supervision, and was 17 so less than a year away from majority he decided to let her stay alone at the house and contact the state agency that had jurisdiction on the matter then they would remove her from the house.

Besides the only place the Constable would have to house the girl would be in a jail cell, and the nice deputy couldn’t bring himself to subject her to such squalid conditions as the city jail.

He asked her if she thought she would be all right alone at the house for a day or two until the Child Welfare people could get involved.

“Deputy, I have spent most of the last several weeks alone, whether my mother was here or gone, so I think a few more days won’t be a problem. Besides, I can have the opportunity to get some things in order and my things together.” The answer was factual all things considered yet Clarice thought it might sound a bit rude or flippant, so she quickly apologized.

“I’m sorry deputy, I didn’t mean to sound flip or rude. I am just under a bit of strain right now.”

“That is alright, Miss, I understand.”

The deputy ruled the death an accident, though he did consider suicide as a possibility based on what Clarice had said. Either way there were no suspicious circumstances to be investigated in his observation.

As soon as they left, Clarice set about the plan to burn the house down.

Chapter 39

The day was slipping into darkness, and Haley found herself again self-castigating for wasting another day. Though she had given up on cleaning up and moving to the third floor, she still had things she could be doing downstairs.

She thought the third floor was perhaps a bit too closely linked to the basement chamber for her comfort. Further, she felt her plans for a B n B needed to be on hold until she figured a way to rid the house of the evil. Like Clarice, she had taken on the responsibility of see the evil here was not allowed to reach the rest of the world. That night when she went to bed, she again prayed the 23rd Psalm, and clad in panties and T-shirt as usual, she looked rather comical as she put the alter cloth from the Catholic Church around her neck like a muffler.

She went one step further and emptied one of the apothecary bottles of holy water into a cup at her bedside.

From the best that she could determine, the full moon had just passed, so the likelihood she would receive a visitor in the next week was remote, yet summer thunderclouds formed as the evening progressed and though the storm clouds were passing well south of the house, that didn’t preclude some might not obscure the moon.

Haley recalled the first night of visits had occurred when the phase of the moon wouldn’t have indicated a visit, but storm clouds obscuring the moon’s glow had brought them to her room.

The clouds did apparently obscure the moon, for along about 1 am the common concubines began to float around her room. Apparently their new tactic was to try to scare her into submission.

They had apparently failed with coercion in Clarice case, and Haley was proving to not be any better a prospect, so the common concubines were whirling around the room like spectral zephyrs, plaintively moaning instead of chanting the mantra they were usually heard to utter.

This reminded Haley of the tactic the military had used when they went after Manuel Noriega in Panama, setting up loudspeakers and playing rock music and the chanting of monks unceasingly. It had worked for them, so this new tactic worried the woman and was a bit unnerving.

When one got too close to the bed for Haley’s comfort, she grabbed the cup of holy water and flung it at the spirit, again shouting ‘get the hence, Satan’.

Both zephyrs froze in place when this happened. The one that had been drenched by the holy water, started to bubble like she had been drenched in acid, and slowly dematerialized. The other dematerialized as soon as her sister concubine had gone.

Haley refilled the cup from another bottle of holy water.

A little later, the raven-haired lady materialized at the foot of Haley’s bed. Haley had drifted off to sleep but it was a guarded sleep, and was wide awake the instant the yellowish light appeared in her room, along with the characteristic burnt odor.

The raven-haired lady drifted over beside Haley’s reclining form, to the place she always presented her litany from. She looked down at Haley with a scolding look on her face. Haley just stared back, a defiant look firmly affixed on her face.

After several minutes of this ‘standoff of stares’ the raven-haired woman finally spoke.

“Usually we merely try to persuade someone like you of the advantages and the eternal rewards of coming into the service of the Master. But you have become overly aggressive. Your assault on my sister, cannot go unpunished, so I am here to punish you for your transgressions.”

As the concubine spoke, Haley felt herself levitating off the bed and a deep fear began to grip her. She began reciting the 23rd Psalm as she rose higher off the bed, the covering blankets slipping slowly from her body. When she started reciting the 23rd Psalm, the raven-haired Lady started to laugh hysterically, throwing her head back, and cackling like a witch in the middle of an incantation, not looking at Haley as the bed covers slipped off to reveal the makeshift muffler, of the alter vestment, the young woman wore.

When she recomposed herself and looked back in Haley’s direction, the religious garment was completely visible around the young woman’s neck and trailing down across her body and dangling between her legs as she hung horizontally suspended in mid air.

When the raven-haired lady saw the religious cloth, she gasped as if hit by an unseen fist in the solar plexus. She almost doubled over from the force of the unseen force that had assailed her standing form.

Haley dropped back to the bed and the raven-haired lady disappeared almost instantaneously.

Haley grew fearful as she lay there contemplating the events of the last couple of hours. Clarice had said the minions were of limited powers, yet they seemed to be growing stronger and getting aggressive themselves in their approach to Haley’s increased resistance.

Tears streamed down her face, more from exhaustion than fear. An adrenaline hangover was just starting to make its presence known, and Haley was justifiably scared. She had no way of knowing the extent of what might occur now that she had evoked the wrath of the evil beings that occupied her home.

As she lay there weeping and wondering to what extent they could assault her, the form of Clarice materialized.

She hovered over to the side of the bed and tenderly wiped away the tears from Haley’s face and spoke gently to the woman.

“Do not be unduly fearful. They cannot go beyond what they have done thus far. There powers are limited as I have said and they are at the limits of these powers. As long as you avoid the chamber and the Master, they can do you no harm. Their tactic now is to scare you into his service.”

Haley responded, “Well it’s working. They are scaring the weebies out of me.” Her response was perhaps an attempt to lighten an already frightening situation. Clarice had eased her fears somewhat, and this was just Haley’s way of recomposing herself.

The injection of a certain amount of levity into the events seemed almost objectionable in retrospect to Haley, but it had served the purpose intended by steadying Haley’s frayed nerves

“Do not fear them further. Do not lose sight of the respect you must have for their wily ways, but do not fear them. You have done as I have told you and increased in the things that represent the Holy Father. You have used them effectively and they have protected you. Continue to rely on them for protection, for they will not fail you.”

Haley understood now that her understanding of the meaning of the cryptic phrase ‘things that represent the Holy Father’ had been accurate. She still sought confirmation, though.

“So the understanding I have gained is correct then?” she asked the angelic girl who hovered over her. Haley’s head had cleared of the confusion that had accompanied the abject terror she had felt moments earlier. Now she sought to gain a better understanding in hopes that might allay her fears completely.

“Yes, your understanding of what will protect you is accurate. Now you must increase in that understanding and decide what this knowledge will do to help you defeat the evil, not just hold it at bay. For as long as the evil exists, you and anyone else who dwells here in the night are not safe, and each time they win a new servant to their hoards they grow stronger. If one of these should be a virgin, the wickedness of their strength will again be released on the world, with no protection from the purifying effect of the daylight.”

Haley considered the words Clarice had said ‘For as long as the evil exists, you and anyone else who dwells here in the night are not safe’. This confirmed Haley’s feelings of putting her plans for the B n B on hold.

“I will again remain vigilant for you throughout this night so you can rest. Sleep now my friend. Sleep.” Clarice hand tenderly stroked Haley’s hair like a mother tenderly caressing her child. Clarice had steadily become more motherly as her visits to Haley progressed.

This was comforting to Haley, but she couldn’t understand why the two forces couldn’t do battle and leave the all but helpless humans out of it.

Haley felt the weariness slip up and overtake her as she nestled back down into the bed and the drained feeling of an adrenaline hangover overtook her. Just before she slipped off to sleep she thought to ask.

“Is there any way I can call you to come visit me?”

“I am here most of the time, and if the Master’s minions aren’t here just speak my name and I will become visible to you.”

“You are Clarice, right?”

“Yes, I am the spirit of the girl Clarice.”

“Thank you.” Haley murmured as a warm feeling stole over her and she drifted off to sleep Haley dreamed as the night slipped inexorably toward morning. In her dream she saw two creatures, both beasts in their own right, though one was definitely good while the other was so hideous it no doubt was a manifestation of evil.

They did battle in her dream, neither clearly gaining advantage over the other in the end. What was clear was the destruction of the things around them as they battled for supremacy.

As the sun drifted through the window the next morning, Haley awoke refreshed. Her dream had served to answer her question as to why the two entities of good and evil couldn’t do war with each other and leave man out of it. So it was clear to Haley now she must become a warrior and assume the mantle of responsibility as Clarice had decades earlier.

She must attempt to do what the younger girl had failed and not allow the rest of humanity be assailed by the evil that would come if the terror in her basement were allowed to slip the chains of darkness.

As she arose to greet the day, her mind started to work on the things Clarice had said to her the night before and how the holy water and the alter vestment had served her against the minions of evil. Her mind was working on a way to defeat them permanently and not just hold then at bay as Clarice had said. The thoughts weighed heavy on her mind and the mantle of responsibility she had assumed grew heavy as she pondered the facts known to her.

Haley decided it was time to go to the Chamber in the basement of the house. Surely if the Judeo-Christian religious trappings helped her in the bedroom, they would help her in the chamber. Besides was not the sunlight untenable to the minions and the Master. Had Clarice herself not visited safely in the daytime and the constables deputy when he had investigated Christian Johansson’s death. So Haley figured if she took adequate precautions, she could safely go to the chamber. Besides if she was to formulate a plan to defeat the evil there, she needed to ‘case the joint’.

She started by rereading Clarice account of her nighttime visit as a prisoner of the ogres and her visit the next day on her own. She made a list of the things she wanted to check out while she was there, because she only wanted to have to go one time. She decided she would go at 1 pm. The day was clear so the sun would be at its brightest and at 1 pm would have just crossed the crest of the house so it would be on the west side, shining in the basement windows.

She took one of her T-shirts and soaked it in holy water along with the alter vestment. She was almost out of Holy Water and made a mental note to get more.

At 12:30, she went to her room, and put on the overalls she wore when working on the house and the wet t-shirt soaked in Holy Water. Haley rarely wore a bra on the weekends and her breasts were outlined with prominence when she put the wet T-shirt on, and she blushed as she looked at herself in the mirror, for though it was a warm summer day, the coolness of the wet T-shirt had her nipples standing erect like pencil erasers against the shirts thin cotton fabric. As her blush diminished, she told herself she should have chosen a color other than white for her shirt, but then reminded herself that no one would see her, and that such childish thoughts were inappropriate considering the mission she was about to embark on, and that she needed to focus her mind on the dangers that could lie ahead.

After she made herself focus and concentrate on what she needed to do in the chamber, she wrapped the alter vestment around her shoulders like a stole and decided to secure it with a safety pin.

Chapter 40

She was dressed, crosses around her neck and waist, holy water soaked T-shirt and alter vestment on her upper body. She thought about it a moment and dipped her fingers into the holy water remaining in the basin and dripped holy water from her fingers onto the legs of her overalls so her lower body had some ‘protection’. She went over the mental list of things she wanted to check out and got the flashlight she had purchased from the tool chest in the room she used as a utility room. She was as ready as she was going to be she figured and it was 1 o’clock so she headed for the basement stair. She started to tremble as she began her descent toward danger. After a minute she stopped and scolded her self.

“Haley Louise Baxter, you have taken every precaution you can and if you are wrong there is nothing you can do about it but find out. You can’t fix things if you don’t know how, so get a grip girl.”