“Elizabeth, I’ve searched for you for more than 300 years.”
“I’ve always been with you, Terra.”
“Is this real, Elizabeth? Are you real?”
“The world you left behind with your body is the dream. This is reality. This is as it was and as it will be.”
“Elizabeth, I have so many questions for you. Please tell me how can I turn back into my former self?”
Elizabeth flickered and pixelated. “Terra, it’s coming.” And then she was gone.
I found myself in Abigail’s cell. The fluorescent lights flickered before extinguishing. The hissing shadows turned into screams. Abigail sat curled up on the corner of her cot, huddled inside a blanket, rocking back and forth, her hands covering her ears. Elizabeth had once told me the eyes are the windows to the soul, I believed that phrase meant we are what we see but there is more to it. The ancient Egyptians placed gold coins on the eyelids of the dead to pay the ferryman who would lead them across the river Styx but also to keep lost souls from entering and reanimating the body. “I am with you,” I screamed above the voices to Abigail.
She opened her eyes. She saw my true light and took it into her body. “Terra, I can feel you inside me.”
“I’m here to protect you, Abigail. Don’t be afraid. Be strong.”
“The screams, Terra, they’re maddening. Make them stop. Make them stop.”
I could feel tentacles and talons scraping at our body. Flesh tearing. I raised Abigail’s hands. Through her, I was a witch again. I screamed. “Darkness fear the light. I am Terra Rowan.”
A bright light exploded from Abigail’s fingertips. Distorted creatures screamed in agony and slithered into the crevices hidden within the walls. “Rest now, Abigail. I will keep watch. You are safe.” I could feel our body was exhausted. She lay down. I sang to her until she fell asleep. I kept one eye open.
“Terra, breathe, Terra.”
I sat upright, gasping air. My heart began beating again.
“Terra, dead. Terra, dead.” Pixel’s voice filled my ears and then he licked me frantically on my head.
I blinked my eyes. “Where am I, Pixel?”
“Terra, bad things. Hurt Terra.”
I glanced around. It took me a minute to recognize my surroundings. We were in the alley behind the Leaf & Page, hidden behind the dumpster. I shook my head. “How’d we get here?”
“Terra, me pull Terra. Me save you.”
“Save me from what?”
“Inside dark.” Pixel stuttered.
“You OK, Pixel?”
“It comes. Take you.”
I tried looking inside Pixel’s mind but I could not pierce the veil. Instead I hugged him. “Thank you, Pixel.”
“Me hungry.” He jumped off the garbage cans onto the kitchen windowsill and scratched the pane. Mrs. Twiggs flew open the window.
“What are you two doing out there? Come on in and eat before we open.” She let us in the back door. Pixel wandered through her legs, meowing softly. I heard him chanting, “Bacon. Bacon. Bacon.” Seemingly to understand him, Mrs. Twiggs placed a plate of steaming bacon on the floor. I, too, was ravenous. My body had taken quite a shock. As we ate, I watched Mrs. Twiggs wind the cuckoo clock above the cash register and whisper good morning to her picture of Albert.
“My, look at the time,” she said then flipped the sign from closed to open. Mrs. Tangledwood came down the stairs.
“I just spoke to Mr. Bridgestone. They’re going to release Abigail today. They don’t have any evidence to charge her,” she said.
Abigail’s Release
Pixel and I waited outside the police station. My head pounded. All my joints were on fire. It was the first time in my life as either a witch or a cat that I felt the effects of age. Leaving my body had spent my life source. I would never be the same.
It was lunchtime and the square was bustling with traffic. Cars circled searching for elusive parking spaces, people streamed by on their way to one of the many downtown eateries. Pixel and I stood by the statue of George Vanderbilt across from the police station. My head felt fuzzy. I felt as though I was drifting between two worlds. Something that Elizabeth said still bothered me, that this world was the dream and the other reality. I couldn’t imagine what she meant.
Mrs. Tangledwood flung open the door followed by Mrs. Twiggs and a disheveled Abigail. She was pale white. She, too, was spent from the night. She walked past me and climbed into Mrs. Tangledwood’s Bentley without acknowledging me. I was confused. Why was she ignoring me? Mrs. Twiggs opened the back door to let Pixel and I in. Then she climbed in beside us. We all rode in silence until Mrs. Twiggs found her voice.
“I’ve fixed a room for you over the store until you feel better.”
“I want to get out of this city,” Abigail said, her arms wrapped around herself.
Abigail gave Mrs. Tangledwood directions to the cabin, as no GPS of this world could lead us there. The dirt road up the side of Black Mountain is a treacherous route by car. At times the narrow path was only as wide as the width of the Bentley’s axles. A sheer drop a hundred feet into the gulley kept unwanted visitors away and magic kept away the rest. We reached the stream, the Bentley came to a dead stop.
“What’s wrong?” Mrs. Twiggs asked from the back seat.
“The stream is swollen. The road is washed out,” Abigail said.
I jumped up onto the headrest to see for myself, it was as Abigail said, no way to pass. It had not rained in days and we had easily traversed the shallow stream that circled the cabin just a few nights ago.
“I can walk from here,” Abigail said as she opened the door and walked toward the water.
Mrs. Tangledwood looked over her shoulder at me. I then whispered in her ear, “Tomorrow night,” which she understood. “She’ll be fine. Thank you for the ride,” I said.
Pixel and I caught up to Abigail who was sitting on a log near the water’s edge. I could hear the Bentley’s tires kicking up stones as it headed back down the mountain. Abigail stood up and walked into the water or onto the water. Her boots glided along the top of the fast moving stream, never dipping beneath the surface. I looked down to the bottom, it was nearly 4 or maybe 5 feet deep. Pixel dove in. His belly bounced off the tips of the white caps and then he was upright and walking on water next to Abigail. I followed. We reached the cabin at twilight, exhausted. Abigail fell onto the cot and covered herself. Pixel looked at me with sad eyes, “Terra, me worried.”
“Sleep, Pixel, I’ll keep watch.”
Tracker
“Me scared, Terra gone, Me scared,” Pixel’s cries reached my ears as I crossed the stream back to our cabin. The minute he saw me, he ran knocking me over and biting my neck. He knocked the squirming trout out of my mouth. “You home. You home.”
“Pixel, I just went to find food,” I told him.
“Abigail no feel good.”
“Yes, I know. Pixel I’m going to need your help,” I said, pushing him off me.
“Me help?”
“Yes, we’re having a gathering tonight.”
“Party?” Pixel asked.
“Sort of.”
“Cookies?”
“Yes, like at Mrs. Twiggs, a gathering of the Biltmore ladies.”
“Smell funny,” Pixel said.
“Yes, the ladies with the perfume.”
“Pixel no like.”
“Pixel, this is very important. We need the ladies to help us with Abigail. I’m counting on you.”
“Me familiar.”
“Yes, Pixel, you’re my familiar and I trust you.”
“Pixel love Terra.”
“Thank you, Pixel,” I told him as we approached the cabin.
Abigail came outside, stretching and yawning. “Where have you been? Pixel has been yelling and grunting all morning.”
“You need to eat. You need to regain your strength,” I told her. “Mrs. Tangledwood is calling a special meeting of the Biltmore Society. They’re coming to the cabin tonight.”