Hey there everyone! Sorry I haven't updated in… a while. What with Christmas and The New Year and getting my NCEA results! Did you know, here in New Zealand, we are the first country to celebrate The New Year? To wake up in the morning and to go to bed at night? Cool huh? Hope everyone is having a relaxing holiday! Here is the next update. Apologies if the chapter is a bit fast… I just wanted to get it all out! Enjoy. X
Dark TimesWalking around in the middle of the night trying to find something that was barely visible during daylight is probably not the BEST idea.
Actually it wasn't even an idea… more of a spontaneous action. But then again, I wasn't exactly known for my thought-out planning. I had a feeling I was just walking around in circles and that this trip would be a WHOLE lot easier during the day, but it couldn't wait that long, not to mention the fact that everyone would follow wondering what the hell I think I am doing.
No… this had to be done now. I had to get to the well. If only I could find it…
To tell you the truth, I don't really mind the dark and plus, the island looked even prettier at night. The moonlight cast shadows of the palm trees and reflected off the ocean in little diamonds. The relaxing sound of waves and the occasional bird almost lulled me to sleep. It was magical. Like off a movie. Except in a movie the main character would not be wandering around in the middle of the night trying to find a hole in the ground because a ghost told her to. That's the life I tell you.
By the time I had passed the same three-branched palm tree for the sixth time I decided to quicken my pace. That was the main reason I chose to jog. The other reason was that I could swear someone was following me. I could hear the crunch of footsteps whenever I stopped.
Hiding behind one of the many palm trees in the area I waited until I could see the manly figure running up the beach. As he ran past I stuck my foot out and the man tripped over it with an 'oomph'.
"Out for a stroll are we?" I kicked the still body, waiting for a reaction.
What I didn't expect was for an arm to shoot out from the figure and wrap around my ankle. A quick jerk of the hand and I was lying on my stomach next to the man.
Rolling over with a groan, I managed to scramble on his back and cover –what I hoped to be his eyes- with my hands. Unfortunately the mystery guy had much more strength then a seventeen-year-old girl, and after flipping himself -and me- over he was at an advantage. Kneeling on my stomach (ouch!), he locked my hands together. Amateur.
As soon as my knee was free I pushed it upwards and was rewarded with a bunch of swear words in…
…Spanish?
"Jesse?!" I cried, crawling over to his hunched body to see the damage I had done.
"Susannah?!" He winced, bent-double.
"Oh god, I am so sorry!" Why does this always happen to me?
After recovering, Jesse looked up at me. "What the hell Susannah? What did you think you were doing?"
"I could ask you the same question!" Slowly getting to my feet I helped him up.
"I was here following you."
"No… I think you were here to knock me out!"
Jesse shook his head. "It's called self-defence. I clearly recall you tripping me over. The reason I'm down here is because I saw you get out of bed and randomly walk down the beach. Of course I followed considering the amount of trouble you get in to."
I walked over to him and gave him a hug.
"What was that for?" Jesse asked, wrapping his arms around me.
I could have said it was because he wasn't wearing a shirt – yes, you read correctly- but instead I said: "Because that is the sweetest thing a guy has ever done for me."
"What is?" He tilted is head so that he could see my face.
"The way you came looking for me. It's totally unnecessary… but all the same totally sweet."
"Well… that's what friends do, don't they? Look out for each other?" I winced. Way to kill a mood.
I untangled my arms from around him as he took a step back. A few silent seconds went by before Jesse cleared his throat. "Why are you out here anyway?"
"Oh… Just out for a stroll…" I took a step back, remembering my original task.
Jesse's eyebrows creased, and he gave me this suspicious look that I didn't like one bit. "You didn't look like you were out for a stroll."
"Well… you know…" I said lamely, taking yet another step away from him.
"No Susannah… I'm afraid I don't know."
Another pace backward. "I just need to be alone." I turned my back on him and walked away.
"Susannah"
I kept on walking. It was hard. There was just something in his voice that was holding me back, making me walk that little bit slower until I stopped.
I could hear him behind me.
"I'm worried about you." He whispered. I turned around and the look on his face… I knew he was serious.
"You don't need to be Jesse" I sighed running a hand through my hair.
He walked over to me and placed a hand on my cheek. "You are different then any other girl Susannah… you don't want to be protected, do you?" He sighed as I shook my head. "Fine. I will accompany you on your 'stroll', not as a guardian, but as a friend." He waited for me to make up my mind as he, seemingly, had made up his.
"No" I replied. "It's too complicated"
"I thought you were just 'going for a walk'?"
"Ok. I won't lie to you anymore. It is most definitely NOT just a walk."
"Then what is it?" He narrowed his chocolate eyes at me.
"I….can't tell you." I sighed rubbing my hands across my face.
He just stood there. Waiting.
"You aren't going to leave are you?"
He flashed his dazzling grin, the one I had seen on many a magazine cover. "Nope."
"Fine I'll tell you." I gave him my meanest look, which isn't all that mean really. "But don't sue me if you run away screaming, trip over a stump and sprain your ankle (it happens)."
"How big IS this secret?" Jesse's eyes widened considerably.
"Big enough that we have to sit down."
Father Dominic was the only- and I mean only- person who knew about my ability. And that's just because he's a mediator too. I mean… ghost whispering is not your everyday hobby. Which is why I haven't even told mum or CeeCee. I had known Jesse for four days, my trust in him ran only so far, but if it would get him to stop nagging me so I could get on with my task I had to tell him.
We both sat cross-legged on the sand as I thought of a place to start my story. Jesse watched me patiently. I must have looked anxious, or nervous, or both because he took my hands in his.
This was also the first time I had told anyone about Savannah. It was nerve-wracking. Jesse squeezed my hand reassuringly. I decided to start my tale from the beginning.
"I saw my first ghost when I was two" I said without pausing. "See ghosts… they have a sort of… glow about them. I guess you could call it spectral. So anyway, there I was… this paranormal lady trying to tell me something, when my mum strode up. I tried to show her that we had company but she wouldn't have a bar of it. I realised she couldn't see it.
"I had pieced parts of my 'gift' together over the following years but the whole thing only started to make sense when my dad died. Coming back to me –unfortunately- as a ghost, he told me who I was. What I was. A mediator. Definition: a person who guides ghosts of humans past to the afterlife. Yes not too sure what that entails. Heaven? Hell? Reincarnation? Stuffed if I know. The dead just come to me with their unfinished business. Whether it is to tell a child that they forgive them or to a neighbour to stop stealing plums off their tree. Problems in general. You name it, ghosts come and ask me to fix it. Usually it involves breaking and entering, sometimes it involves just breaking… a ghosts' nose that is.
"Let's put it this way, ghosts are my own personal paparazzi. I mean, I can touch them and talk to them. So far I know of only one other mediator, the priest back home."
I let it all out in a rush. Pausing for a breath I nervously glanced over at Jesse, wondering why he wasn't miles down the beach already. Either that or pulling out a one-way ticket to wacko ville.
No, he was staring intently at me. "Nombre de dios, Susannah… that was one heck of a story!"
"Oh my god! I'm such an idiot!" I moaned, tearing my hands from his. "What was I thinking? That you would actually believe me?" I got up and walked away.
"Susannah-" I could hear Jesse following me.
"I thought, 'hey Jesse's a decent enough guy… if anyone would be willing to accept me it would be him'"
"Susannah-"
"But I was wrong--"
"SUSANNAH!" Jesse yelled at me with a voice that commanded attention.
"You didn't let me finish! God you can be so infuriating sometimes!" Jesse growled. I bowed my head sheepishly. "I believe you."
"I just told you I can see dead people and you BELIEVE ME?!"
"Yes. Take it or leave it." He smiled, rubbing the back of his neck where some strands of black hair curled up a bit. Tres cute. "I'm pretty sure I would believe almost anything that comes out of your mouth."
"So... you're not like… really creeped out and want to go back to camp, or further… home?" My eyes drifted towards his bare chest. So sue me, a girl in my situation has to have some perks.
He took my chin in his hand and lifted it so my green eyes met his brown ones. "In answer to the first, yes… I am slightly freaked out. But no, I don't want to leave. Then again… that could be because I don't know the way back." He laughed.
I was pleasantly shocked -but shocked none the less- at Jesse's reaction to the whole thing. Oh well… he IS one-of-a-kind.
"Now I have a question for you." His eyebrows creased. "How is any of that ghost busting-"
"Mediation" I corrected him.
"Yes, meditation relate to what you are doing here... at night… in your pajamas?"
I laughed in spite of myself.
I knew I could trust Jesse… now. "I –partly- auditioned to come to Island X so that I could get away from ghosts but the first night here I came across a particularly disturbed one… Savannah Al Zahrani… You should know her, after all she does- sorry DID- run in your circle."
Jesse nodded, albeit dumb-foundedly.
I then proceeded to tell him about Savannahs' late night visits, how I really got my swollen ankle – the first time at least – and blah, blah, blah. I ended with her message at the well.
Jesse let out a deep breath. He looked disturbed. He probably went out with her.
But he agreed with me part-ways.
"Ok yes querida, I understand that it is important but can't it wait until the morning at least? I'm pretty sure the bastardo who hid it down there in the first place wouldn't want it to be found." He said the word bastardo with such venom… Let's just say that if I was the subject of Jesse's anger I would run.
"Feel free to leave Jesse, it isn't everyone's cup of tea but it is mine. I've been swimming in that damn cup of tea ever since I was born a mediator. It's my job Jesse. And yes… it has to be done… tonight."
I looked up at Jesse.
"C'mon then." He sighed, not seeming to happy about the prospect at all. I smiled like a lovesick puppy and trailed after him.
"Feel free to add insight into the position of the well on this beach, seeing as I have been wandering around in circles for the past half-an-hour." I told him.
"I know. I was following you. Remember?" How come everytime I'm around Jesse he makes me feel like a complete idiot? Everytime. I suppose love does that to you…
He took my hand in his. "This way."
I wasn't used to being led around by men… especially not macho men like Jesse. I didn't fancy it overly considering I had the expertise on this particular endemic.
I couldn't help being pleasantly surprised though, when Jesse proclaimed that we had reached the spot where the well was hidden. Now that I was thinking about it… that stump did look a little familiar. I gave it a wide birth and the evils as we passed it.
"Just a quick question" Jesse said, "I didn't see anything suspicious at the well before… it's only a small room, where could something be hidden in it?"
I grabbed a hold of the trap-door handle and pulled. "There is always – ugh – a secret – pant – passage – ugh –Jesse." I stood back up, muscles creaking, admitting defeat. "Haven't you seen the movies?" I wiped my brow. "They must have locked the trap-door it's so hard to--"
I started to say before I realised that Jesse had bent down and opened the entrance to the well in one, swift movement.
"Hmmm…" I pondered, "I must have weakened it for you…"
"Sure querida, anything you say." Jesse laughed as he disappeared down the hole.
"Incoming!" I yelled as I leapt down. Jesse's strong arms caught me as I came down. We both squinted into the darkness.
"This wouldhave been a lot easier during daylight hours." Jesse frowned.
I patted the dirt walls around the room to check for hidden doors. "But it's so much more fun in the dark!"
"Can you at least pretend like you're a normal teenager?" Jesse's voice sounded quite amused as he wandered to the other side of the well. I could hear him brushing the sand and dirt away from the walls.
The dirt fell away like sand most of the time, so you could imagine how sick I was of coughing it up out of my lungs every second.
After about ten minutes I started to lose hope that, even if we did find a secret door, we wouldn't be able to tell it was one – what with all the erosion-ditches already occupying a lot of space in the walls. Then Jesse called me over.
"I think… I think this might be it." He had his fingers on a line in the wall and his other hand flat on the dirt. I felt the wall. It certainly didn't feel like sand or soil. The line Jesse had his fingers on ran all the way to his nose, trailed along a bit further left, then plummeted down back to the ground. It was shaped like a door. I searched for a handle with my hands. There was none.
A faint glow shone from the lines. Or I suppose… the doorframe.
"This is it." I spoke so suddenly and confidently Jesse stepped back. "Push on it" I told him, ramming my shoulder into the door. Jesse stepped back further and then ran at the wall. It was enough to send a shower of sand tumbling at us and –to our great joy- cause the door to swing open. It was clearly made of wood.
"Perfect" I sighed, grabbing Jesse's hand. "Let's go.
The hallway was windy, smelt musty, and required a lot of bending on Jesse's part.
"Why couldn't someone make the ceiling just a bit further away from the ground?!" He moaned.
"Why don't you shrink a bit instead?" I had to let go of his hand as the passageway also required single file. "Stop complaining. At least there isn't any spiders." I shivered.
"Bugs I can withstand. A cramped-up back, I cannot." His voice echoed down the tunnel, reverberating off the walls.
After what seemed like forever of nothing but darkness, we came to a split in the path. We knew this because Jesse carried on straight and crashed into the barrier separating both ways.
"Aren't we lucky" Jesse exclaimed at the sight. Crap was all I thought. Who knows where each one leads? If we took the wrong one…
The same ghostly glow that alerted me to the door, shone at the end of the right tunnel. A single finger beckoned.
"This way" I tugged Jesse and headed right.
"But what if-"
"Jesse, trust me. I know." I turned around to look at him. At least I thought I was looking at him. It was very dark. Try shutting your eyes, then multiply that blackness by one million and you'll see what we are dealing with.
The thing was, I didn't know. Not really. But my 'little hunch' was all we had.
The smell in this corridor was of something rotten. Occasionally roots would dangle from the cave ceiling and bugs –to my sheer horror- scuttled along the dirt floor. Other then the creepy-crawlies, all that could be heard was our footsteps and erratic breathing.
The right tunnel led us straight for what seemed like a decade, until we came to another split. This time we had three options.
"Carry on straight." I sighed without hesitation, following the light. I know that may sound ominous to some, but not to Susannah Simon. Mediator.
Just as I was thinking about how much I had in common with Nancy Drew, I fell down a hole.
Yes, Susannah Simon, Mediator, fell down a hole. Because she wasn't looking where she was going. It wasn't much of a fall but still… I felt stupid.
"Susannah!" I could hear Jesse's voice from above. Like a god. I damn sexy one.
I rose to my feet. "Ouch!" I winced upon finding that my ankle hurt… again… funny that. "I'm fine!" I shouted back. "You should come down here, it's quite nice." I brushed myself off. Jesse ignored me. Obviously he didn't appreciate my humor.
"There is no way past this hole, I think we are meant to fall down it." He didn't sound very convinced though.
"Well they could at least put up a warning sign or something." I grumbled searching for my guide. Not far off from where I was standing, stood a glowing figure. "Jump down Jesse!" I commanded, keeping an eye on our paranormal companion. The light from her body shone like the sun along the passageway. I squinted like a newborn baby. You would too if you had only seen darkness and shadows for hours.
I heard a thump next to me. I leapt back.
"You almost gave me a heart attack Jesse!" I usually refrained from saying that since my dad really did die of one, but hell… He shocked me.
"Sorry, I couldn't exactly see where I was going." He stood up and stretched out his back.
"What do you mean you can't-" I started to say before realising that, of course he couldn't see the ghosts' glow. Duh. Speaking of the devil….
I turned around to check if she was still there. Thank goodness she was.
"We are almost there!" I ran up to Savannah but before I could reach her, she was gone.
In her place lay a flashlight. Jesse picked it up.
"This would have been handy a few hours ago" He turned it on, still grumbling about the unfairness of it all.
I had been preparing myself for what we would see when we got to the end of our escapade. But it still shocked me to the point that I almost screamed.
There it was….
…. Savannah's rotting corpse.
So there it is folks. Hope you liked it. I think it was my longest chapter yet. I think. I will be making some shout-outs in the next chappie.
Lots of hugs,
Reba
xxx