River: The Suicide Forest Part 5

"Yes, you are," Roy said. "Whatever is going on here, I believe you know the answers."

"Well, you're wrong," she said. "Why do you think I have anything to do with it?"

"My father conducted a trance," Steven said. "It indicated you."

Evie turned to her mother. "I told you to never let that kind of thing happen around me!" she yelled at her. "How dare you! You don't know what you're stirring up, mother. You're bringing this all upon yourself!"

"What are you talking about, Evie?" June asked. "They're just trying to help."

"They're doing the opposite!" Evie yelled. "Get out!" she said to Steven and Roy. "Leave, and don't come back!"

"The house is safe while we're here," Steven said. "Your mother has a token."

Edie turned to look at her mother, observing her tightly pressed palms.

"Take it with you when you leave," she said, and grabbed the lunch box, the briefcase, and a tumbler of coffee, and marched out the kitchen door, slamming it as she left.

Steven and Roy turned to June.

"Follow her," June said.

They walked to the door and opened it. A few feet away, Evie was placing the items into her car. She heard the door open and turned to look at them as they approached her.

"Really?" she said. "What do I have to do, call the cops?"

"I guess the cops could inspect the cuts and bruises on your mother's face," Roy said.

"What do you want?" she said.

"We told you," Roy said, "we're trying to help figure out what's in the house."

"Then do it and leave me out of it," she said, getting into the car. Roy stepped over to her car door and stopped it from closing.

"What, you're not going to let me leave?" she said.

"Your son is in danger," Roy said. "You need to stop for a moment and talk with us. There's something you know you're not sharing."

"You have no clue what you're getting into," Evie said. "The best thing you can do is leave and not come back. If you know what's good for you, you'll just move on and pretend you never met any of us."

"Sounds like we're on the right track," Roy said.

"You'll regret those words," Evie said, reaching for the car door handle. "Now get the f.u.c.k away from my car."

Roy stepped away from the car door, and Evie slammed the door shut. She roared the car to life and pulled out of the driveway.

"Well, that didn't go very well," Steven said, watching her drive off.

"She's always been strong-willed," June said. "She's wrong about needing your help, you know. I'm so sorry she spoke to you that way. Please don't abandon me. We do need your help, regardless of what she says."

"Don't worry," Roy said, the confrontation with Evie strengthening his resolve. "We're not going anywhere."

"Perhaps we can collect the lantern and be on our way?" Steven said.

"Oh, yes," June said, turning to go back into the house. "I'll get it for you."

Steven and Roy walked with her back inside the house, and waited in the living room as June retrieved the lantern. She reappeared a moment later, a thin piece of metal in her fingers. She handed it to Steven.

"What's this?" Steven asked. The lantern was squashed flat, the handle broken.

"I'm sorry," June said, "but that's how I found it."

Chapter Four.

Rather than take the Dixon ferry to Gig Harbor, Steven decided to drive around from Seattle. They parked in front of Judith Duke's mansion above the marina and walked to the door, where the maid once again let them in and asked them to wait. They were soon escorted back upstairs, to the same sitting room where they'd met Judith earlier. She sat in the daybed as before. Steven looked at her clothing, trying to detect if it was the same clothes he'd seen her in the last time. He wasn't sure.

"How did it go?" she asked them as they sat.

Steven held up the squashed lantern.

"Oh my," she said.

"Roy conducted the trance as you instructed," Steven said. "It pointed to the daughter. We tried to talk with her, but she wouldn't speak with us."

"So, two dead ends," Roy said.

"No," Judith said, "not dead. But first, let's drink." She had already poured the drinks they'd had last time. Steven wondered if the gla.s.ses had remained on the table by the daybed the entire time. They each took a gla.s.s and downed the liquid, feeling it burn as it went down.

Judith set her empty gla.s.s on the table, and motioned for Steven to pa.s.s her the lantern. She examined it closely.

"Ruined, I presume," Steven said.

"But not destroyed," Judith said. "It still performed its job, even though someone didn't like having it around, apparently."

"You mean you'll still be able to determine what we're dealing with?" Roy asked.

"Would you bring me something from the shelf over there?" Judith asked Roy. "The shelf in the back, behind me. A black velvet bag inside a gla.s.s jar."

Roy rose from his seat and examined the shelf she indicated, looking for the item. He found it, and returned it to Judith, placing the jar on the table next to the gla.s.ses.

"Would you be kind enough to open the jar for me?" Judith asked. "My fingers haven't the strength, I'm afraid."

Roy picked the jar back up, and opened it. The smell of cedar filled the room.

"Isn't it a delightful smell?" Judith asked as she reached into the jar and removed the velvet bag. She opened the cinch on the bag and removed a small wooden planchette, shaped like a heart. In its center was a hole, about an inch in diameter. She reached into the bag once again, and removed a circular gla.s.s piece, which she inserted into the hole in the planchette.

"Now," she said, turning her attention back to the flattened lantern, "let's see what we can see."

She held the planchette up to her face, and looked through the gla.s.s piece at the lantern. She turned it back and forth several times. Steven looked at Roy, and Roy looked back at him, shrugging.

"Interesting," she said, continuing to turn the lantern under the gla.s.s.

"What do you see?" Steven asked, anxious to know.

"I'm not quite done," she said. "Give me a moment more. What happened in the trance?" she asked Roy as she continued to examine the lantern.

"I saw only the daughter," Roy said. "She has the gift, but won't use it. Some kind of blow out with her father years ago. We talked to her, but she wouldn't tell us anything."

"She thinks you two are stirring up trouble," Judith said, her eye still at the planchette.

"Yes, I think so," Roy said. "Doesn't seem to care that her mother and her son are in danger."

"That's because she's already resigned herself to their fate," Judith said.

"How do you know that?" Steven asked.

"I could tell by the look on her face," Judith said. "In the trance. By the way, your father is quite well endowed."

"You could see his trance?" Steven asked. "Some kind of remote viewing?"

"So quick," she said. "Breathtaking."

"Why didn't you tell us?" Steven asked.

"Roy would never have taken his clothes off if I had told you," Judith said.

Steven looked over at Roy. He was fuming.

"So there's the proverbial good news and bad news," Judith said. "First the good. The lantern worked, and we have an idea of what we're dealing with. There are three ent.i.ties in the house. Two of them are minor and unnamed. Now the bad news. The third is named Aka Manah. He's major. He's the one you'll have to worry about."

"Aka Manah?" Steven repeated. "Should we study up on him?"

"Most of what you'll read in books is inaccurate," Judith said, finally dropping the lantern and the planchette, "unless you can find the writings of someone who has fought him before. Here's what you need to know. He's extremely dangerous because he controls thought. He will confuse his victims as to right and wrong, and cause them to engage in horrific behavior as though they thought it was the correct thing to do."

"Do you think he might be influencing the daughter?" Steven asked.

"Possibly," Judith said. "But you'll have to figure out his intent. He doesn't show up often, but when he does, it's for a substantial prize. The fact that he's there, as well as two other demons, suggests there's something very valuable in the house that he wants. He's usually successful at getting what he wants."

"What can we do?" Steven asked.

"Well," she said, "I won't lie to you. You stand little chance of stopping Aka Manah. You might scare off the other two, but he's been around for thousands of years and he's far more powerful than any of us. I would try to find out what he wants, and give it to him."

"Any suggestions on how to find that out?" Steven asked.

"That don't involve nudity?" Roy added.

"So sweet of you to give an old lady a thrill," Judith said. "And so hirsute, too."

"Any suggestions?" Steven repeated. "Can we just ask him? It?"

"No," Judith said. "I would advise you strongly against communicating with him. To communicate, you have to open yourself up to both send and receive. What you receive will most certainly be designed to ruin your thinking and to turn you to his purposes. It's not worth it, especially when you're dealing with something as powerful as this."

"Then it's the daughter," Roy said.

"Exactly right," Judith said. "You must bring her to your way of thinking so that she will cooperate with you. The trance pointed to her for a reason. If you find that out, you may learn what Aka Manah wants."

"That's going to be a challenge," Steven said. "She's very much against the gift."

"There are many ways to influence someone," Judith said.

"I have some ideas we can try," Roy said.

"That'll be the easy part," Judith said. "Once you know what he wants, dealing with Aka Manah will require some careful stepping. If he gets in, what he can do to your mind could put you in an asylum, or worse. I cannot emphasize that enough. You must be cautious."

"What about defenses?" Steven asked. "Anything we can do to protect ourselves? Protection?"

"You can drink protection," Judith said, "and it should help at least temporarily. But you can't turn off your brain. He'll eventually get in if he wants to."

"You said they were afraid of Steven," Roy said, "last time we were here. What about that?"

"Ah yes," Judith said, sitting up on her daybed. "You're not aware of it?" she asked Steven.

"No," Steven said.

"Look," she said, handing him the planchette. He took it, and looked through the gla.s.s. He didn't see anything.

"Enter the River," she said.

Steven slipped into the flow, feeling the movement of it wash over him. He looked through the gla.s.s portion of the planchette again, and saw a red glow emanating from his skin. With horror, he saw a marking on the top of his hand it looked like two diamonds, next to each other. They glowed brightly red. He pa.s.sed the planchette to his left hand, and saw the same pattern on his right hand. He looked up at Judith.

"What does it mean?" he asked her.

"What do you see?" Roy asked, concerned.

"I'm red," he told Roy. "And there's diamonds on my hands. The shape of two diamonds. Bright red."

"Those are aposematic marks," Judith said. "They warn others about you."

"Warn others?" Steven said. "No one's ever said anything to me about this before."

"I should have been more specific," Judith said. "They warn the evil about you. Just like those orange tree frogs that are poisonous to snakes. The orange warns the snake. It knows not to touch the frog because of the visible warning nature provided."