Celtic Rose (41 page)

“Gabriel! That’s not even right! Stop it!” she yelled from the other side. Talus thought that for a small girl, her voice could sure carry. Kalan looked to Gabriel again and showed them what happened. Kallisto had realized Gabriel was in her mind. She looked at the ground and closed her eyes. Talus knew Kallisto and there was no way she was going to open her eyes again until he stopped.

Gabriel started laughing so hard he doubled over. The rest of them joined in. “Darn, I forgot she could feel me.”

Since Gabriel rarely forgot anything important Talus knew he was just picking on her, or maybe he was testing her to see if she could sense him. They finished getting cleaned up and put on the ceremonial clothes before they made their way back around.

The garments they wore were the ancient Celtic clothes with renaissance shirts, and over them were druid robes. What they wore was nothing compared to the girls. The girls came out wearing Celtic dresses. They were white with sheer fabric hanging where the sleeves would be, but there were no sleeves. They each had a type of body necklace that wrapped around below the chest and a line of it hung from that point all the way down to the bottom of the dress. The guys were all dressed alike and so were most of the girls. Ramina was the only one that stood out because she wore a white velvet robe over her shoulders with the hood up. The white color made her face, hair, and eyes seem much darker than normal.

Talus stopped, stunned, as he stared at them. The girls smiled and curtsied for them. They finally went to them and after several compliments and blushing faces they were ready to continue the journey.

They traveled through the corridors of the tomb, following Keira. She flowed along, knowing exactly where to go. With her to guide them, they wouldn’t get lost in the maze. They stepped out of a corridor into a large room. Gabriel, Ramina, Kallisto, and Kalan all sent up electric balls to the different corners of the room. Talus wasn’t sure how they knew to go into different directions, but they did and as the electric balls made it to their designated spots the corridor was lit up brightly. Talus realized the electric balls shouldn’t put out that much light and as he looked around, he noticed gold and jewels everywhere in the room. There were giant golden statues with jewels embedded in them and many different treasures scattered around all over.

“We’re rich!” William yelled as he ran toward the nearest chest of gold and jewels. He started picking up handfuls of the treasure and tossing it up into the air, laughing joyously. Keira ran over to him and grabbed his arm.

“No William! This isn’t our treasure to take. We’re only here for what’s ours and that’s all,” Keira said fiercely.

“It doesn’t belong to anybody.” William yanked his arm from her. “You know as well as I that you can’t take it with you into the other life. Just because a bunch of people believed you could all those years ago doesn’t mean we have to leave it here.”

Keira stared back at him with just as much anger.

“William, we can’t take what isn’t ours. We are not grave robbers. We take what’s ours and that’s it,” Ephiny said, siding with Keira. It lowered William’s anger, but he was still determined.

“No, William, it isn’t ours. We need to leave it,” Kallisto said softly. William was decidedly beaten so he stood, pouting, and they traveled on through the treasure room to their destination. William looked around longingly as he walked along.

In the room past the treasure chamber, there was another large room. That one was empty except for the door on the other side and the markings on the floor. Upon closer inspection of the markings, Talus realized they made up a fivefold Celtic symbol. There were five circles, four around the outside with one circle around the center where they met. There were marks like dots on the symbol. One was in the center of the circle, which was where Ramina would stand. Kalan was to stand directly in front of her on the front circle. Gabriel and the empty dot, which was Keira’s, were on opposite sides of the right circle. Ephiny and William were to stand on the circle opposite each other that was behind Ramina, and Kallisto and Talus were to stand opposite of each other on the circle to the left of Ramina.

Everyone went to their designated spots. Six Toes had followed them in after the danger with the demon was over. He was sitting over to the side watching everything. Talus thought there was more to the cat then feline; sometimes he seemed downright human
.
Lady stayed outside, flying around the tomb. She didn’t like the enclosed spaces.

After they took their places, Ramina stepped into the middle of the fivefold. As soon as she was in place, a hum of energy echoed throughout the circle. It seemed to travel around the circles and made its way back to Ramina. As soon as it got back to her, there was a blast of energy that took Talus’ breath away. Looking around at the others, he noticed they were gasping for breath as well. Ramina started to speak, like she suddenly knew exactly what to say.

Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives; he who seeks finds; and to him who knocks, the door will be opened.
She kept repeating the scripture over and over. Talus recognized the words immediately. They were the verses of Ask, Seek, Knock in Matthew of the Bible, chapter seven verses seven and eight.

As she kept repeating, the air in the tomb started to pick up like the wind of a storm. It blew so hard Talus reached out to Kallisto and Ephiny. They grabbed his hands and reached on the other sides of themselves. Kallisto grabbed Kalan and Ephiny grabbed William. William reached for Keira who took hold of his hand and Gabriel’s, and then Gabriel and Kalan clasped hands. As soon as the circle was closed with them more power shot through the circle. The wind in the tomb picked up immensely and they stood grasping each other and squinting into the wind. Ramina raised her arms up never varying in her chant. Her eyes started to glow blue–it looked like the electricity she used was coming through her eyes instead of her hands. The key on the back of her neck started to shine and seemed to detach from her neck and float up to hover above her. It looked like a hologram.

Electricity sparked in Ramina’s eyes like lightening as it shot into the key above her. The door started to radiate. The power in the circle escalated and it was as if they were caught in a tornado. They came up off the ground and started spinning around Ramina. Still, even with the violent spinning, the circle of handholding never broke as they spun faster and faster around Ramina, who floated up with them but stayed stationary in the middle. The door started to open but none of them could go to it since they were in the air. Talus began to wonder if the door would stay open when she was done. Keira’s eyes and tattoos glowed green in contrast with Ramina’s power.

“Six Toes, you must get it before the door closes. It will close if Ramina stops,” Keira yelled, eyes still bright. Six Toes immediately obeyed. He ran in the door and was gone for a bit, but finally he came out with a necklace around his neck and a yellowed piece of parchment in his mouth. Ramina started to waver in her speech. She seemed to be in a lot of pain as she forced herself to keep the door open.

“Six Toes is out, Ramina, we have what we need; let go now!” Ephiny yelled. Ramina stopped mid-speech and all of a sudden the wind stopped and everyone dropped. They yelled out as they fell, but started laughing and hugging those next to them when they were down. Keira ran over to Six Toes to get the artifact. The necklace looked just as Talus remembered it from the dream. It wasn’t even covered in dust like you’d expect one to be since it’d been locked up for so long, but then again he guessed when it was as tightly locked up as that was not even dirt could get in. Keira was looking over the parchment as Kallisto and Talus sat holding each other, still laughing. None of them were paying any attention to Kalan and Ramina until Kalan screamed out. They turned to find Ramina hadn’t moved from where she dropped. Kalan had gone over to her and tried to get her to open her eyes but she wouldn’t, or couldn’t. Talus ran over to her with the others and bent down to check her pulse. It was there but it was very faint. They needed to get her to a hospital fast.

***

They’d taken Ramina as fast as they could to the nearest town. They had a pretty good hospital and worked on her for hours but couldn’t do anything for her. She was still alive but she needed a ventilator to breathe. Eventually, they had a helicopter flown in to medi-flight her to the airport, and another helicopter then flew her from the Phoenix airport to the hospital. Kalan went with her but the rest of them had to wait for another flight to get back.

They made it back to Arizona and went straight to the hospital. Ramina’s father had met Kalan and Ramina there. He came out and let them know there wasn’t any change, because Kalan wouldn’t leave her side. Talus understood completely, knowing if it had been Kallisto in there he would do the same.

The doctors were going to keep monitoring her and try to find something to do to bring her back, but they weren’t hopeful. They couldn’t even figure out how she landed in the coma in the first place. Since they were unaware that curses even existed, they couldn’t tell them what really happened.

Their time was running shorter and shorter for the curse. They started to decipher what they’d need to do in the next life from the parchment they took from the tomb. Kalan didn’t care what they did. Kallisto tried to get him to leave to take a shower, eat, and get some rest but he wouldn’t hear of it. He blew her off several times and even yelled at her a few times. She took it really hard. She tried to stay away from him for a week but they both ended up getting sick and she ended up having to stay in the hospital with him for about two weeks. They both decided it’d be best if she came in for visits every day so that wouldn’t happen again. He treated her a lot better after that, but it was still rough on both of them.

The doctors finally said Ramina was in a vegetative state and she’d never wake up again. William and Kallisto even tried using the power on her several times but it never seemed to work. Ramina’s father went back and forth about pulling the plug. He didn’t want to, but after much prayer, he decided her soul was no longer there and they were just keeping her body alive. He finally decided to pull the plug. Kalan went into a rage and tried to attack the doctors and Ramina’s father, but Gabriel went in and grabbed him before he could do too much damage and dragged him out, kicking and screaming. Ramina died almost immediately after they pulled the plug. Kalan fought with Gabriel in the hallway, but as he heard the flat line sound from the monitor, he broke down and Gabriel held him while he cried. Kallisto went to him, crying as well, and they held each other. They surrounded them and let the river flow, but it did nothing to soothe the sorrow and grief.

Chapter 21

On the day of Ramina’s funeral, they gathered at the cemetery for the burial. The pastor read from the Bible while they stood, crying and holding each other, except for Kalan. He wouldn’t let any of them touch him during the service. As they lowered her casket into the grave, Kallisto tried to hug Kalan and he pushed her away. He ran out further into the cemetery before any of them could stop him. They tried to call him back but it was no use, he was gone. Kallisto heard him scream as they walked back to the cars. She tried to run to him but Gabriel stopped her.

“He just needs to be alone right now, Kallisto. Let him deal with the pain and he’ll come back to us when he’s ready.” Gabriel cupped her face in his hands and looked into her eyes. “Either way, he won’t feel this way for long. Your eyes are mostly green. There’s only a very thin line of brown around them now. We have a couple of days at the most.” Gabriel sighed and put his arm around her as they walked to the car. Talus grabbed her hand. Keira went to the other side of Gabriel and he put his arm around her as well. William and Ephiny followed closely behind, holding each other.

Back at the house they didn’t do anything but spend time together. They waited, hoping Kalan would come in, but it didn’t look like Kallisto would see him again before the curse took them. She and Talus sat in the living room with everyone else for most of the day, watching television and playing games. There was no sign of Kalan for the whole day.

It’d gotten late and they decided to retire for the night. Since time was so short, Gabriel didn’t throw a fit when Talus went into Kallisto’s room and Ephiny went into William’s. Keira also followed Gabriel to his room. They were all close together that way.

Kallisto’s room was next to William’s, and William’s was next to Gabriel’s, so they stayed in close quarters. Sometime in the night, Kallisto was awakened by the sound of heavy footsteps and sobbing. Kalan was coming up the stairs, and instead of going into one of the rooms close to the group, he went all the way to the other end of the hall. She got up and went to the door, wanting to give him comfort, but as she stepped out, she saw him standing in front of Ramina’s room, staring into it. As Kallisto started walking toward him, he looked at her. The look was a mixture of sadness, confusion, and anger rolled into one. He put his hands up, signaling her to stop, and then turned away and went as far as he could from the rest of them. He opened the door to Ephiny’s room and looked inside, and when he noticed she wasn’t there, he went in and closed the door. Kallisto stood crying, wanting more than anything to hold her brother and give him just a little comfort, but he was distancing himself as far away as he could.

Talus realized she was gone and went to the hallway looking for her. He walked over to her, putting his hands on her shoulders.

“Did Kalan come home?” Talus asked knowingly.