“Huh?” I asked, not caring if I pissed him off or not.
“You lost me on that one as well, Christopher,” Ryan admitted, crossing his arms over his chest. Apparently, he didn’t like what he thought Christopher was saying.
Christopher sighed as he shook his head like both of us were stupid. “What does a spirit lack?” he asked me in particular.
“Life,” I answered almost immediately.
“Ah, yes,” he said as he held his index finger up like he was about to scold me. “The power of life, the blood of life, is an immense power, an all-encompassing current of energy. If you lend your life current to the deceased, their power and energy shall increase.”
“Lend her life current to the deceased?” Ryan repeated, frowning all the while as he narrowed his eyes. “What are you suggestin’?”
Christopher scowled at him. “I suggest nothing!” he called out histrionically. His silly shirt billowed as he lifted his arm and did a strange little wave thing. He looked like a lost Pirate of Penzance. “I am merely responding to the lady’s question,” he added after calming down.
I wasn’t sure what I thought about lending my life current to Drake. I didn’t even really know what that meant, but based on Christopher’s reaction to Ryan’s inquiry, I also didn’t dare ask. Instead, I thought about the alternative. “If everything continues as it is now, what will happen to Drake?”
Christopher nodded as if the question were a fair one and faced me, pausing for a few seconds. He sighed as if it were a difficult answer for him to explain, and dropped his eyes to the ground before looking at me again. He exhaled heavily. “He will simply be absorbed into the power of the entity, thereby further strengthening it.”
I nodded in silent understanding, promising myself and Drake that I wouldn’t allow that to happen to him. Because at the end of the day, it didn’t matter if Drake was alive or dead, a ghost or corporeal; he was my friend and that was all that mattered to me. And now that Christopher had more or less provided proof that Drake wasn’t just a figment of my imagination, I was even more determined. “And you don’t know anything about the entity? How did it get here? How could it become so powerful?” I asked.
Christopher shook his head. “I cannot answer your questions at this stage. The threat is too great for me to drop my defenses,” he said with his nose in the air. “I cannot delve too deeply for my own safety.” He held up his index finger again. “But, suffice it to say that whatever this threat is, it is quite a hefty one.” He checked around himself and reached out as if he were pointing at or touching something only seen to him. “I can feel rivulets of its energy flowing through the air, the ground.” He eyed me again. “It tries to attach itself to you, but as of yet, it is unsuccessful. This Drake spirit purports himself to be your…protector of sorts.” He nodded while saying this, as though someone were streaming the information to him as he said it to me. “The entity realizes this, which is why it attacks Drake. It seeks to remove him as an obstacle.” He fell silent for a moment and peered at me again. “Ultimately, however, it wants you.” He was quiet again as he nodded and then faced me. “It has already attacked you, left its mark.” Then he brought his fingertips to his neck while he spied mine, nodding once he saw the bruise. “This Drake character protected you, stopped this entity from further harming you.”
I nodded immediately. “Yes.” I swallowed hard and made the decision that I would fight for Drake. In the same way that he had taken it upon himself to be my protector, now it was time to return the favor.
“Then the answer is simple,” Ryan interjected, shaking his head like he’d heard enough. “She won’t live here anymore! She sells this house and she moves!”
Christopher shook his head and chuckled mirthlessly as he paid attention to petting his dog. “The answer is not quite so easy, I’m afraid,” he said to Ryan.
“I can’t move,” I answered at the same time. This house was a part of me and no matter how diseased it was, I wouldn’t flee with my tail between my legs. I would fight this negative power, if not for my own sake, then for Drake’s. Just as Drake had come to my defense, I needed and wanted to come to his.
“The entity has targeted her, seeking her out for a purpose only known to it,” Christopher continued as he closed his eyes again and started to nod. “It senses a deep-seated connection between it and you,” he finished at last, opening his eyes as he focused on me.
“A connection to me?” I repeated, completely failing to see how that could be. What was worse, the very idea made me feel sick to my stomach. “How is that even possible?”
Christopher raised his left brow and cocked his head to the side. “You might be surprised.”
“Then how do I find out what this connection is?” I continued.
“Perhaps it is time to research your genealogy,” Christopher responded, his tone of voice and his general air one of boredom.
“My genealogy?” I repeated, shaking my head. “I don’t even know where to start!”
“I always suggest Ancestry.com to my clients, as the answers can usually be found there,” Christopher answered before he turned to face Ryan. He motioned for Ryan to hand him the black cape that still hung over Ryan’s arm. Ryan handed it to him, and Christopher simply shook his head and motioned to his back. He asked, “Would you kindly do the honors for me?”
Ryan smiled and laid the cape across Christopher’s shoulders as the smaller, pudgier man started for the hallway. “I am beginning to tire, which means I must leave this place to ensure my safety.” He turned back toward me and cleared his throat. “Find the answers you require regarding your connection to this home and this malevolence,” he started. “When you have found the information you seek, I will instruct you on your next action.”
14
I spent the next morning on my laptop at the neighborhood Starbucks. I hopped on Ancestry.com and started my search. After entering my first and last name, my age, and my e-mail address, I decided to skip the free trial and pay the twenty bucks for one month because I figured I’d probably need it. I mean, who knew how long this research would take me?
I entered my mother’s full name, her date of birth, and her birthplace, then was prompted for information regarding my maternal grandfather that I didn’t have. Great, I was off to a wonderful start…I skipped that field and clicked “Enter” and was bombarded with a list of names that matched my mother’s. The first one had a little green leaf in the corner which was supposedly the closest match to my mother as far as the website was concerned, so I clicked it. And wouldn’t you know, it was right. I added my mother’s profile to my family tree and started a search on my grandmother.
I didn’t get far. And I wasn’t very surprised. As far as my mother’s family went, I didn’t know much about them. All I did know was that my mom had left home at the age of seventeen, never to return again. She and her family weren’t close by any stretch of the imagination, which meant I knew next to nothing about any of them. I’d never even met my grandparents, but I did know my grandmother’s name was Esther and my mother, who had never married, carried the last name of Clark, so I figured Esther was Esther Clark.
I entered as much into the space provided and the website returned a long list of what seemed like a million Esther Clarks. I clicked on the first few links but couldn’t make any associations with the information returned. Stumped for a few seconds, I then decided to do a search on someone I did have a bit of information on: my Great-Aunt Myra. From all the paperwork on the house, I remembered that Myra’s full name was Myra Jennings.