Ancestral

Council

When Ben finally got home I was getting ready to go upstairs and clean up before dinner. “What the hell happened to you?”

“What do you think? I've been digging up skeletons, of course.” He wasn't amused. I looked around to make sure no one was nearby and added, “I'll tell you all the dirty details in the shower. Want to help me get cleaned up?” We probably spent more time than we should have lathering each other up and scrubbing each other down, but I felt so much better when we were done, and if his massive boner was any indication, I think he enjoyed himself too. As promised, I told him about the door I had discovered. This led to questions about my dreams and vicarious memories. “I'm calling a 'meeting of the council' tonight after dinner,” I told him. It's too much to repeat more than once. I'll give the details then.

I spoke privately with Miss M. and Andi, and thought it best to include Helmut as well. Miss M. wasn't too happy about that, but agreed it was probably for the best. Our meeting was no secret, so when Sylvia asked if she could join in, we invited her to sit down.

“Each one of us here has had varying experiences with the spirits in this building. A lot has happened in the last few days and I need to bring you up to speed with what I have experienced and ask for guidance on how to deal with it all.” I began at the beginning for Sylvia's benefit, but when I started sharing the various visions, dreams, and memories, especially the ones I had since my accident, I had everyone's full attention. When I was done I turned to Andi. “You said there were other spirits here. Who Is the little girl?”

Miss M. broke in, “That's Emma. Little Emma Foster, one of the many children of Captain Foster, the man who built this house.” She looked a little guilty, like she had been keeping a secret and had now been found out. “So many children died of diseases in those days. Poor Emma was only nine when she passed. She was the first of four Fosters who died before the age of ten.”

“How do yo know this?” I asked.

“I've seen their graves, and when I bought the house I did a little research on the original owners.”

“No, I mean how do you know the ghost is Emma?”

“Oh, easy. I've seen her photograph.”

“You...?” I was stunned.

“It's in your museum. An early daguerreotype from the 1850's, shortly after they had set up housekeeping here. She was the first born, and oldest in the photo. The gravestone shows that she died less than two years later. I've seen her. I recognized her face.”

Andi chimed in, “I have seen her also. She seems to be based on the third floor, but has been known to wander throughout. In your dream you saw her in the basement, for example.” She thought for a moment and asked, “In your dream, when you say she was looking at you, was it you or Sylas?

I had to admit I wasn't sure. “I would assume it was Sylas, but it was so direct, almost as if I could hear her thoughts as well as his. Maybe she showed herself to him so I could see her through his eyes. I just don't know.” She nodded.

“I have a question for you.” I asked Andi, “Is she the only other ghost? Are there other spirits in this house?”

She hesitated a moment, and Miss M. interjected, “She's the only one I've ever seen.”

“Yes,” she said, “The only one I've ever seen too, but I think there may be a fourth spirit.”

This time it was Miss M,'s turn to be shocked. “A fourth...Why haven't I...?”

“She's embedded so deep...” Andi tried to explain. “I only have a very faint whiff of her. She is single-minded and powerful. I've only sensed her recently, in the last three or four days to be specific, and I think she is guarding something. As long as it is not disturbed she remains still, but now she seems to be waking up.” She looked at Miss M. apologetically, as if she were somehow responsible.

“Is she dangerous?” I asked.

“I think she can be, I still haven't sensed enough of her to understand...” suddenly she looked up at Ben and he returned her startled expression. They both looked at one of the darkened front windows and we all followed their gaze. The doors and windows were shut, but the curtains moved as if being blown by a gentle breeze. Through the glass we could all see her, the little girl in the nightdress. I recognized her instantly. She smiled and a faint echo of a child's laugh could be heard coming from the third floor. The curtain began moving more violently, obscuring her. She seemed to flicker out in the movement, and as she vanished the curtain came to rest as if it had never been disturbed.

We all sat in silence for a long minute. “You all saw that too, right?” Sylvia was the first to speak. “I mean, I'm not going crazy or anything, am I?”

“No dear,” Andi piped in. “You're not going crazy. I saw it, the little girl. Everybody else?” One by one we all nodded our heads. While Ben and I had been dealing with having connections to the spirits, neither of us had actually seen an apparition before. Of course Andi and Miss M. had already admitted to seeing her before, but Helmut had not yet revealed if he had seen her before.

“I always thought she was a dream,” he said, as if reading my mind. “I knew about the boys, I could actually feel them, but she didn't quite seem real.”

“Well, she is,” Miss M. chided. “Just as real as those precious boys of yours.” She turned to me and added, “She visits me regularly, I think of her as a kind of guardian angel. I mostly see her late at night, but she also tends to appear when I need a boost. She seems to know when I need encouragement and just shows up.”

We all sat in silence for a minute or two, uncertain of where to go from here. Finally Ben said what we were all thinking, “So what's next?”

Andi looked at me and said, “Well, you seem to be the focus of what's going on,” turning to include Ben, she added, “Both of you. What do you think we need to do?”

“I still haven't seen the whole basement. Why not do that?” I really wasn't sure . I had never felt like I was in control of all this, the ghosts were, but given a choice I wanted to do more exploring.

“Tonight?” Miss M. didn't seem happy about that prospect.

“I'm betting that I will recognize the room when I see it,” I said, “And who knows, something else may jump out at me.”

“That's what I'm afraid of.” Ben muttered under his breath.

The lighting in the basement was minimal, only a single bare light bulb in the main room, and the area behind the doors had never been electrified. We grabbed flashlights from the kitchen on our way down, and I led the way with Miss M. bringing up the rear. As we gathered in the center of the room, I asked Ben, “Are the boys here?”

Helmut smirked and said, “They were here last night.”

Sylvia gave voice to her disgust with a kind of guttural gagging sound, and said, “ I hope you cleaned up after yourself.”

Never one to avoid offense, Helmut pointed his flashlight to the floor and said, “Nope, there it is, although I think that one's older, last night's load should be around here somewhere.”

Miss M, grabbed Sylvia's arm and pulled her forward, “Don't mind him. Being vulgar is what he does best.” Miss M. led us to the door, unlocked it, and pulled it open. “I don't think I've been in here for at least a year,” she said as she motioned for each of us to enter. “Watch your heads, the ceiling gets pretty low in places.” As Helmut passed her she slapped him on the shoulder and chided, “Behave yourself, smart ass!” He just chuckled.

The door opened into another halway that turned sharply to the left. Along one wall was a row of brick arches which created niches about eighteen inches deep. These were fitted with shelves. They appeared to have been intended as a kind of pantry, but today they were filled with all manner of junk. Like the garage, there were books and household items, and a wide variety of miscellaneous small objects. The hall extended about fifteen to twenty feet before again turning sharply to the left. This hall was also lined with brick and stone arches, but the openings were walled up with a single door in the center of each arch.

As we wandered through these hallways, Miss M. announced, “None of those doors are locked, feel free to look inside any of them.”

I began to open each door methodically and check inside. The arches that seemed to be nearest the center of the house were all brick. As promised, they were full of old furniture and various other items left behind over the years. The refuse seemed to cover a broader span of time than the garage. Much of it was from the mid to late twentieth century, but there were also some serious antiques mixed in. A lot of late Victorian stuff, and even some late eighteenth century pieces that may have already been old when they were brought in by the original occupants. The arches that seemed to face the front of the building were mostly made of stone. These offered me more hope because I didn't remember seeing brickwork in the dream.

I searched all the rooms and was disappointed. None of them were the room from my dream. It didn't make sense. I had found the secret door easily even though it was supposed to be secret. I expected the stone bedroom to be obvious, and it was nowhere to be found. The others grew bored fairly quickly and began to return to the upper level. Finally Miss M. said to Ben and I, “stay as long as you want and look around. I can leave it open for a few days so you can come down again if you have any more ideas, but I can tell you, I've never seen a room that was all stone down here.” With that she also went upstairs and left us to our own devices.

Once we were alone, I asked Ben, “Can you locate them?”

“I felt them in the main room when we first came down, but nothing back here.”

I asked, “Do you think...At the hospital I asked them to leave us alone until I came looking for them, should I call them?”

“I don't know, having Mark following me all the time and taking me over once or twice was pretty freaky. I'd rather not.”

I didn't see that there was any urgency in finding the room, so I agreed that we would have to solve this one on our own. I reluctantly followed him out of the gallery of arches to the main room of the basement. As I closed the door, I heard the distant giggle of the boys playing somewhere. I suddenly remembered the vision of the arch under the cellar stairs, and turned to Ben. “The arch, remember?” I ran over to the shelves that filled the wall I suspected had a hidden arch in it and stood looking at the wall behind the shelves. It was indeed old, but it was also a bit incongruous. None of the other walls in the basement were finished with wall board. Everything else was stone or brick, and the closed up arches in the gallery were closed up with wide old wooden boards.

The shelves on this wall were lined with a variety of refugees from the hardware store, tools, paint, even some holiday decorations. I extended my hand to reach behind these objects and touch the wallboard, but before I could make contact the shelves started to vibrate. It actually felt like the whole house was shaking. I was caught off guard. Earthquakes were rare in this region. I stepped back and looked at Ben, but he hadn't seemed to notice. He was looking back towards the door I had just shut. The little girl stood in front of the door with her arms by her side and her fists balled up in anger. She was staring directly at me as I stood in front of the wall. She took one step forward and that was enough for Ben. He turned, grabbed my hand, and dragged me up the stairs to the kitchen.