In the Forest of Light and Dark (16 page)

she’ll put a memory erasing spell on them and they’ll forget all about her transgressions.

My Strange Day Off
 

The next day before I had left for school, by a stroke of sheer dumb-luck. I had learned that my mama had plans to drive all the way over to Elmira, to the law offices of Schlizmayer & Brown so she could sign some paperwork about her inheritance. I had already known by that point that my Step Daddy Cade was also not going to be home for most of the day too. He had to take his new truck back to the Ford dealership to have a clicking noise in one of its wheel wells investigated. If, everything played out right. I figured I might be the only one home later on when I came home from school. And, if that were the case. Then hopefully there would be a message from the school attendance office on the answering machine that I could just erase before any chance of my parents having listened to it.
     I had grabbed a quick bowl of cereal and then left my house a little after the usual time that I did every day. Reckoning, that if I just walked around the neighborhood a couple of laps. That would expunge enough time for me to show myself back up at home telling my mama that I had forgotten one of my books.
    I had walked to the end of my street and then started to make my way down Hedgeline Lane. Which ran parallel to Redmond Avenue, where the school was located. I had decided to walk down Hedgeline Lane because at its end it just circled in a big loop back in on itself. Ultimately, taking me not far from where it, and the end of my street came together.
     On my way around the loop which was sporadically lined with homes and empty lots filled with trees. I was once again joined by a few of the neighborhood strays. I counted eight in total as they wove themselves in and out of the boskets that stood in between some of the houses and had seemed to work well as a playground for them.
     Halfway around the loop. I had stopped to sit down on the curb for a while as I played with the cats. Figuring that would help to pass the time. As I sat there I watched as a car approached and then slowly rolled passed me. The car’s driver must have noticed me with all my feline friends revealed by the strange look on his face. It was a look that suggested he thought I must’ve looked like an old harridan who had lost her marbles and spent her days walking the streets with her horde of cats in tow like that cat lady from the Simpsons.
     After a while of playing with the felines. I got back up and walked back home. My tabby friends playing follow-the-leader. When I’d arrived. I slipped back into the kitchen through the sliding glass door off the deck. “What are you doing back home?” my mama, asked as she stood at the kitchen counter buttering a piece of toast. “Just forgot one of my books.” I told her before running upstairs pretending to retrieve it. When I came back down. She then said to me, “Remember, I might not be back until later tonight. So, you might be home by yourself for a while if your step daddy isn’t back yet either.” I replied to her,
“I know.”
somewhat sarcastically
as if she had told me that a hundred times already. Then, I quickly shot back out the door claiming that I had to go or else I’d be late for school.
     I had then started walking back down the street again. When I’d reached its end. I took a look at my phone and saw that it was just before 8 a.m.
Shit,
I thought.
Still have another hour to kill before I meet up with Katelyn over in the village square. What-the-hell can I do for the next hour, where nobody will see that I’m not in school?
    
I supposed I could’ve just ducked off into the woods and had gone to hang out down by the Genesee River for a while. That would have surely killed an hour. But then I thought
about my mama having said something about the people at the cemetery having put my Grandma Lyanna’s headstone in place. So, I just figured I would go see her and see how it looked.
     I had walked the four blocks east it took to get to the cemetery in about five minutes still with three cats in tail. That morning I had brought a sandwich baggy with me that I’d tucked away in my backpack. I had filled it with some of the dry cat food that I’d picked up from a discount store in the village. So I had assumed by then that it was the food that was most likely the culprit as to why the cats stuck with me the whole way and hadn’t lost interest in me yet.
     When I’d arrived at the cemetery. I was almost immediately approached upon by several more cats and even a kitten who was wondering aimlessly. The kitten was a little boy (determined after further examination) and his fur was snow-white. He was the most adorable thing I’d ever seen. As I picked him up, he began meowing at me softly in between periods of purrs. I then held him close to my chest feeling the warmth of his coat. Looking around, his mama was nowhere in sight so I then decided to take him with me as I made my way further down the aisles of graves.
 

Helen Overton
May 1, 1826—February 4, 1834
Beloved daughter
Luke Langdon
April 7, 1847—September 19, 1863
Son
 

These were a few of the names on the graves that I saw as I walked down one of the cemetery aisles. At the time, I couldn’t help but think about how truly weird it was that so many children in this village had died so young over the past three centuries. But then I thought about what I’d heard about Abellona Abbott and the curse she had allegedly placed on the village the day that she died. I mean... The day she’d been murdered. My mind then drifted and I thought of Katelyn. How she had said that she was a witch and could also place curses on people. The whole thing started to give me the creeps, and I found myself hugging the little white kitten even tighter to my chest. Suddenly, there was a series of tiny squeaks that came from him and I’d realized that I might’ve squeezed him a little too tightly. So, I eased up my grasp on him and then began stroking his ivory-colored fur atop his head. Holding him up to my face I gave him a little kiss and told him that I was sorry if I’d hurt him. The last thing I needed was to be not only known around these parts as being a witch. But also for being like that retard Lenny from
Of Mice and Men.
     A little further down the aisles I had stopped walking when I had heard a noise behind me. So, I quickly glanced back to see that, at that moment, I might have had better than a dozen or so strays now following me. It was at that point that I had figured that it might be best if I just give them the baggy of food I was carrying so they’d quit stalking me. I had also not wanted the reputation as being known as the girl who had gotten jumped by a gang of cats in the graveyard. That surely would have put a spoiler on my day. I did, however, hold on to a few pieces of food for the kitten before pouring out the rest on the edge of the access road that was running a few aisles over. I then watched as the cats went upon it instantly forgetting all about me.
     I had quickly moved on. Leaving them behind as they fought each other for the food. Soon, I had made my way to the far end of the cemetery where I could see the peaks of the two weeping willows as they came up over the sloping escarpment in which they based their roots.
     As I got closer to my family’s area of the cemetery I had finished feeding the little kitten the last of the cat food I had for him. (Which I had broken up into little pieces that he could handle.) Then, I watched as his eyes began to close as he drifted off to sleep in my arms from a food coma.
     When I had reached the top of the hill where my family’s plots lay at its bottom. I started to make my way down the ‘S’ curved dirt trail that led to the gravesites. As the trail made its way around the first of the two enormous willows I thought I could hear someone speaking from somewhere down near the bottom. Apprehensively, I crept my way further along the trail hoping that it wasn’t my mama. Then, when I could see the graves come into view. I found myself stopped dead in my tracks. Because it wasn’t my mama’s voice that I had heard, it was Katelyn’s.
No wonder I thought I’d recognized it
, I thought. She was standing at the foot of my grandmother’s grave and it appeared as if she were praying.
     Quickly, I ducked behind the second of the willows and began peering furtively from behind it while trying to see just what it was she was doing.
     Looking just beyond her. I saw that my mama was right, and that the cemetery people had indeed installed the headstone she had ordered for my Grandma Lyanna’s grave. I could also see lying perched upon it was the black cat I’ve come to know as Midnight.
     Keeping quiet, I watched as Katelyn held in her hand the pentagram she wore around her neck. She used it to draw an invisible pentagram over the ground that encompassed my grandmother’s grave. She then spoke in that strange tongue that I couldn’t understand, but her gestures were much like that of a priest. Like how a clergyman would’ve moved his arms in solemn when he blessed you with the sign of the cross.
    
How did Katelyn know my grandmother?
I thought.
Were they both witches? Did the pentagram I’d seen in my house’s basement have the same meaning as the one Katelyn wore around her neck? Did she and my grandmother use the pentagram in their witchcraft as some sort of shrine? Were Katelyn and my grandmother part of the same cult?
     I then watched Katelyn as she pulled a long needle out of her hair and used it to stab herself in the finger. Which caused me to wince in the process. As she began to bleed
.
She let the drops of blood fall to the ground all around my grandmother’s grave. She then spoke something in that weird, strange language that I couldn’t understand before bowing her head down to the ground. Almost touching it to the still freshly compacted soil. That’s when I had stepped out from behind the weeping willow. I had just about enough of what I was witnessing.
     The black cat—Midnight—stood up from her spot perched atop my grandmother’s headstone and let out a powerful meow as I approached. Katelyn then having been startled spun around to see me standing there behind her.
     As her eyes bulged at the sight of me she asked me right away. “Cera, what are you doing here?”
     “What the hell are you doing here?” I sternly shot back at her. “And what the hell are you doing to my grandmother’s grave?”
     “Your grandmother’s grave?”
Katelyn then asked sounding confused. “What do you mean
your
grandmother’s grave?”
     “That’s my grandmother’s grave you’ve been bleedin’ all over!” I snapped gruffly as I pointed my outstretched finger at the newly erected headstone. Midnight then let out another meow and jumped down from the headstone to begin circling me and rubbing up against my legs like she seemed to like to do.
     “You said your last name was, Singer.” Katelyn then said still looking perplexed.
     “It is.” I answered, stepping towards her as if asserting my dominance. I had become quickly bad-tempered by this point and ready to defend my family’s final resting place. “Singer is
my
step daddy’s last name. My mama’s
is
Barrett
.
Lyanna Barrett is my grandmother. All of these graves down here belong to members of my family.”
     “You’re freaking kidding me, right?
You’re
a Barrett?” Katelyn then asked me sounding flabbergasted. As if she was completely taken aback by my revelation.
     “Yeah… Yeah, I am.” I reiterated forcefully.
     “No wonders everyone in the village...” she then began, but stopped speaking mid-sentence to just stare at me.
     “No wonders everyone in the village, what?” I asked her forcefully as if demanding her to answer me. But she just continued to look at me, staring.
     After a few moments had passed. I began to think that Katelyn was going to remain taciturn forever. As if someone had placed a hex on her ability to speak. But then, I came to the understanding that Katelyn wasn’t even staring at me any longer, but beyond me. And then the reason she had suddenly become so quiet became apparent. When the cacophony of an infinite number of cats behind me started meowing in unison of their own feline expression. I turned around to see them all over the place just like they had done before. But this time they weren’t scattered about and ducking behind the headstones. Like they’d done the last time I was here with my mama and step daddy. This time they all showed themselves behind me and were facing Katelyn like they were my own private Calvary backing me up.
     Katelyn slowly stepped forward, and the cats began to grow louder as more-and-more of them started to shuffle in from in and around the graves and over-grown hillside.
     Midnight still at my feet mewed again and began rubbing herself even more vigorously against my legs while pawing at me. I bent down to pick her up. Holding her opposite the sleeping kitten in my other arm. The rest of the cats stayed behind me still riled up and meowing in an almost perfect harmony.
     “They’re protecting you.” Katelyn said, giving me that mischievous smile of hers. “They know
who
you are. They
know
you’re a Barrett.”
     “What are you talking about?” I responded dismissively. “They’re just a bunch of stray cats. They live here in the cemetery. The place is probably full of mice. They did the exact same thing to me and my mama and step daddy the last time we were here too.”
     “No, they know who you are.” Katelyn reiterated. “They know what blood flows through your veins.” She then turned to nod her head towards my grandmother’s grave.
     “You still haven’t told me what it is you’re doing down here?” I then asked her trying to put the conversation back on her and not me. “What were you doing to my grandmother’s grave with your blood? What were you saying?”
     “Relax,
Cera. I didn’t mean your grandmother or her grave any harm. She was a friend of mine.”
     “Friends, huh...
What kind of friends?”
     Katelyn then said to me speaking very slowly. “Now, don’t take this the wrong way, Cera. But your Grandmother Lyanna had been a witch just like me.”
     “No! She wasn’t.” I said curtly letting her have it. “There’s no such thing as witches. You people in this village are all fuckin’ nuts
with this crap!” As I shouted this at Katelyn. I remembered for a moment that it had seemed like the sky suddenly grew dark. Like it was going to clabber up and squirt all over us.
     “I’m afraid she was, Cera.” Katelyn obstinately said to me in response as she slowly took a few more steps towards me. “And, a powerful witch too. She taught me everything I know. And she was the only one in this village who could keep Abellona Abbott at bay all these years. She protected this village from her. Your grandmother is the only reason any of these people is alive today.”
     “What the hell are you talkin’ about?” I asked again. Surely sounding contemptuous. But before Katelyn could even answer I went on. “Abellona is just some poor girl who the sick assholes around here murdered because they were such ignorant douche bags. She was never a witch. There is no such thing as witchcraft. There is no curse on the heads of the children in this village. And, my grandmother was
never
a witch either, and neither are you.”
     “Abellona Abbott is real, Cera.” Katelyn continued on. Now using a softer tone as if to try to mollify me. “She has done horribly wicked things to this village over almost the past three centuries. Horribly Wicked Things! She has a grudge against your family. A vendetta. And she won’t stop until you’re either all dead or have left this village permanently. She’ll continue to kill off the children of Mount Harrison until none of them are left, and then she’ll go to work on all the adults who remain here. It’s her way of strong-arming the people of this village into driving you Barretts out, or even exterminating your family altogether.”
     “That’s ridiculous.” I said having felt completely incredulous to what she’d just told me.
     “
Is
it ridiculous? You’ve heard of what happened to the Mather family, right?” Katelyn then asked quizzically. As if she was planning to tie what had happened to that mother and her poor four children to Abellona. And then she did. “They lived just a couple of blocks over from your Grandmother Lyanna’s house. Or, should I say your house now? Anyways, three little boys, Keith, Michael, and Aaron all killed in that car accident the other night during that bad storm. They died along with their little sister Miranda, only four-years-old. But
their mother survived the crash with only superficial wounds. Why do you think that is?”
     “
I don’t know?”
I said sarcastically. “
These things just happen.”
     “No,
they don’t
. Not here.” Katelyn said in response and then began looking across the creek at the forest beyond as if she could see something in it. Something hiding among the trees that she could sense watching us. “These things don’t just happen here because of some kind of coincidence. These things are far too numerous an occurrence around here. Abellona let Stacy Mather, the mother of those children live because that’s her way of punishing the people of this village for what they did to her. She wants the people of Mount Harrison to suffer dearly. Suffer before she ultimately kills them and takes their souls.”
     “Yeah, well, that’s a good story an-all, but it’s a little far-fetched for this Southern girl.” I said blowing Katelyn off. “Now if you would’ve told me a story about a swamp ape killin’ your goats or the Chupacabra stealin’ your chickens, you might’ve had me. But, a mountain witch killin’ all the kids in this village because she’s pissed off at my family for some reason. Not to mention my grandmother being the good witch of the North, and you being a witch too. Oh, and better not forget that the villagers are planning to mob together with a two hundred eighty some-odd-year-old dead girl to try to evict me and my family out of our new home...
Well,
I think I’ve heard about enough.”
     “It’s true, Cera.” Katelyn pleaded, trying to convince me. “Why do you think you have such a hard time making friends here? Not just with people like Keri Mahan, Hallie Dune, and Laurie Altman, but I’m sure with everyone you’ve met here so far other than me. And it’s not just you, is it? Your mama’s been having a hard time here too, hasn’t she?”
     “
Well, I don’t see you with many friends, now do I?”
I abruptly shot back at her.
     “No, you don’t. And, you won’t either. I like you, am in Abellona’s crosshairs. I was friends with your Grandmother Lyanna. I was what you might call an apprentice to her. But I’ll never have the power she had. The gift was never given to me. Never endowed to my family like it was with yours. At best all I can do is take advantage of the knowledge your grandmother was gracious enough to bestow upon me and use it to protect myself and those around me. Even then I don’t know if it will do me any good. But it’s kept me from becoming one of