Feathers (15 page)

             
“What do you mean?” I asked.

             
“Don’t worry about it.  Come on.  I’m taking you home, and that’s that.” Sean said, opening the door for me.

             
I reluctantly slipped inside of the limo, but my mind was still on what he’d told me.  Sean seemed to enjoy speaking in riddles when it suited him.  But this time, he had me intrigued.  An old girl’s school abandoned in some woods?  I didn’t know anything about that one.  And Raziel had never mentioned it before.  How interesting was that?

             
Things ended well that night.  Sean walked me inside and stole a kiss on my forehead before we went in to my father.  No doubt he wasn’t ready to be caught for that one.  Michael himself had waited up for us, and seemed pleased enough with how it had all turned out.  But after Sean left and I said goodnight to my father, I decided that I would do some research on my own on my computer in my room.  In all honesty, I didn’t even have a clue as to where to begin with this place Sean had mentioned. But his words were enough to spur me on.  Sean probably didn’t know it at the time, but I was not the type to let something like that go.  I had to find my answers to such little bits of hidden history.  And after doing quite a few searches on area history, I finally found it.

             
“St. Andrews.” I whispered as I looked at the screen.  It had been located about ten miles south of Madison, and was now sitting as ruins in the deep woods.  The school itself had been open up until around 1939, and was a boarding school for girls by a group of nuns.  According to local legend, it was abandoned after thirteen students were brutally murdered there by a crazed nun.  She’d been very abusive towards them, and eventually butchered them one dark night.  Of course, this lead to legends of hauntings and all there as well, not to mention the devil worshippers that apparently came there every now and then.  Evidence had been found of them, though the worshippers themselves never were. 

             
Reading all of this, I had to wonder if that was what Sean meant by playing Russian roulette there.  Maybe he avoided those people.  But a part of me wasn’t too sure.  Something felt wrong about St. Andrews’ ruins.  It was as though a part of me knew how dangerous this place may have been.  Not to mention with the brutal deaths of those thirteen girls.

             
I went to sleep around two am still thinking about it.  I even ended up having a nightmare.  I woke up screaming, though I honestly couldn’t remember much of the nightmare itself.  More embarrassment for me though that my dad heard my screams too.  It took a lot of convincing for him to believe that it had only been a nightmare.  Guess it was an after effect of Sean’s attack on me months before.  He wasn’t taking chances.

             
That morning, as I sat in the kitchen, I finally decided to ask Michael about St. Andrews.  It was still on my mind, and I wondered if he could tell me anymore about it.  “Hey Dad, have you ever heard of a place called St. Andrews?” I asked softly.

             
“St. Andrews?  Wherever did you hear about that place?” Michael asked, looking up from his paper.

             
I shrugged, playing it cool.  “There were some kids talking about it in one of my classes the other day.  I was wondering about it because they were claiming that it was haunted or something.” I lied.

             
“I suppose it could be, given the past it has.  But I wouldn’t worry too much about it.  It’s abandoned now, and pretty far from here.” Michael told me.

             
I knew I probably wasn’t going to get much more out of him with that, so I just nodded. “Okay.  I was just curious, that’s all.” I said, allowing the subject to drop.

             
All right.  I do admit that in the end, the just curious thing was a huge lie.  But I wasn’t about to let him know how interested I was, or that I’d heard a little about it from Sean.  But, as usual, Michael could see at least a little through me too.  “But that said Mia, I would just leave it be.  St. Andrews isn’t a good place to go exploring, even with others.” he added.

             
How does he do that?  I couldn’t help but wonder.  He must have been able to read my mind, even if just a little bit.  Michael had always been good at guessing what I was thinking.  Sometimes I just felt like he wouldn’t bother because he wanted to allow me my freedom with certain things.  But for the time, I just sucked it up.  “I’m not.  Like I said, I was just curious about it.  That’s all.” I assured him.

             
I spent the rest of the morning just lying around after that.  But as evening fell, I began feeling restless.  Raziel had been home most of the day, trying to recover from the night before.  He’d stayed up a lot later then me apparently.  And I couldn’t reach Sean.  Apparently, he was sleeping the day away too.  So I decided that maybe I should get out for a while.  In all honesty, I had no idea of where I was heading when I got in my car.  I ended up going several places.  Eventually, I found myself at the old church a few miles from town.  I searched the gravestones until I found the ones for my grandparents on my dad’s side.  I had been there before, though I’d never really paid much attention to them.  But this evening, I had felt like exploring a little bit.  But as I looked at the dates, I was surprised to realize that my grandmother on the Renaldi side had died pretty young.  She was only in her mid thirties.  It made me wonder what had happened to her.  Also, I noticed another stone under a tree nearby that was partially hidden under cut grass, roughly about ten feet away from my grandparents.  Walking over, I wiped it off and looked at it.

             
Noel Renaldi.

             
I squinted my eyes a bit as I studied it.  I had never heard of Noel before.  Yet, she had the same birth date as Gabrielle.  But she’d died at only sixteen.  I couldn’t help but wonder who she was.  Michael had never mentioned her before.  And when I thought about it, I couldn’t recall Raphael or Gabrielle doing so either.  But it looked like she could’ve been Gabrielle’s twin.  Yet, she was also removed from the other Renaldi graves somewhat.  Even Raziel’s mother Maya was buried right beside my grandparents.  Why was Noel so far away?

             
I barely heard the footsteps walking up near me at first.  “This is a surprise.” I finally heard the familiar voice say.

             
I quickly stood up and turned to see Raphael there.  Instinctively, I pushed the grass back over the stone to pretend I’d never seen it.  “Uncle Raphael.  I didn’t know you were coming here too.” I said, though it kind of came out dumb.  That’s shock for you.

             
“I stop by occasionally to pay my respects.  It’s the least I could do.” Raphael said.  I watched as he walked over and looked down at the graves of my grandparents.

             
I quietly walked over beside him.  “It’s funny.  I can’t even remember Grandpa.” I admitted.  I was actually looking to make small talk so that he wouldn’t suspect anything.

             
“You wouldn’t.  You and Raziel were only about two when he passed away.” Raphael said.

             
“And Grandma died so young.  Was she sick?” I asked.

             
“No.” Raphael answered.  “At least, not sick in the sense that you’re thinking.  But she was very unstable.  And she ended up taking her own life.”

             
Now that one I didn’t know either.  “Grandma killed herself?” I whispered.

             
“Yes.  It was a long time ago, right after we found out that you and Raziel were going to be born.  But you shouldn’t worry about it too much.  What’s done is done, and there’s nothing we can do to change it now.  We simply have to learn to move forward.” Raphael told me.

             
“I see.” I said.  He did have a point there.  It made me consider trying to call my mother.  I hated to think of something happening to her without me at least trying now to reach out to her.

             
“By the way, Michael told me that you mentioned hearing about St. Andrews.  You aren’t really considering going there, are you?” Raphael asked, looking over at me.

             
Against, I felt tiny under that dark gaze.  Raphael had very dark eyes, which were a stark contrast to his white blond hair and pale skin.  He was the only Renaldi with them.  And it made him pretty damn intimidating at times.  “Not really.  I was just curious about why people still talk about it.” I confessed.

             
“I know you probably won’t listen, but it’s in your best interest not to go there.  The fox is one thing, but St. Andrews is another for what lurks there on occasion.  Sean is broken.  That thing will not be.” Raphael warned me.

             
“What thing?” I dared ask.

             
But Raphael just shrugged.  “Let’s just say it’s nothing you’d ever want around you.  We’ll leave it at that.  For now, why don’t you go on home?  If you aren’t back there when Michael gets back, he’s going to worry now.” he told me.

             
Looking back on that, I knew I was beginning to understand how protective Raphael was by nature.  I later found out that Michael had mentioned my speaking of St. Andrews, but he had not asked him to say anything to it.  Raphael had taken it upon himself to find and speak to me personally about it, and warn me away from the danger such a place could have.  Perhaps I should have been grateful then.  But at the time, I’ll admit that I was just a stupid kid.

             
I did go home that evening though, just as Raphael requested.  But my mind remained on what had been said and what I’d seen.  St. Andrews, my grandmother’s suicide, and that strange grave of a Renaldi that no one had ever mentioned.  All of it remained with me, though I found that I could not ask Michael about anymore of it.  And in the end, I was to find myself more then determined to understand all I could.

Thirteen

             
The days would come to pass, and before we knew it, summer had come.  After school let out, I spent most of my time hanging around with Raziel and Anna.  And at the Jameson and the cemetery.  By then, those two places had become like second homes to me when I couldn’t be with the others.  The cemetery was more of a place I found myself going to in the evenings though.  I had taken up the hobby of stone rubbing, and there were many old and unique stones in there.  I also began trying to tend to Noel’s neglected grave.  Though I couldn’t make myself ask about her, I found that I was drawn to her mystery.  She was my age when she died, and maybe had never gotten her wings.  I found myself thinking that perhaps now I could live a full life for her.  Yes, I’ve always been sentimental like that in the end.

             
As for going to Jameson, that was for a far different reason.  I wanted to keep visiting with Sean.  With no school, he was working there with his mother.  And, as silly as it sounds, it didn’t sit with me too well that I wouldn’t be able to see him as often.  That was part of the reason he also visited me in the night as a fox.  Like that first night, he’d lay in fox form beside me and sleep.  But by the time the sun rose, he was always gone.

             
Needless to say, it was pretty easy for me to deepen my friendship with him by then.  And with my being there, I’d had the chance to come to know Sara Morrison as well.  In all honesty, I don’t think I’d realized a lot of things about her when I’d first met her.  For one, her age.  Sara herself was only thirty years old.  That meant that she’d had Sean when she was fourteen.  It was kind of hard for me to wrap my mind around that one.  At fourteen, I was just beginning to understand a lot of things about my female body, and boys didn’t even really interest me yet.  For her to fall in love with this spirit fox who would be Sean’s father and have a child with him more then amazed me.

             
Sara herself was actually a very small woman.  Like me, she wasn’t very tall, maybe only around 5’1’.  Sean inherited his green eyes and black hair from her.  Sara had beautiful long hair that was the color of the darkest night, just like Sean.  I imagined that she must have been gorgeous as a teen, because she was still so pretty now.  But for how pretty she was, she didn’t speak much about her past when it was brought up either.  The most she’d told me shortly after school let out and I was visiting there with them was that Sean’s father was a very powerful fox, and that he had died two years before.  Sean himself would be the one to tell me a little more about his dad later.  He said that his given name had been Sage.  Apparently, he was one of the more powerful foxes in the Spirit Realms.  He was a nine tail, which meant that he was over nine thousand years old.  Also, he was silver.  This actually made him very unusual from what Sean said, because most foxes gain a silver coloring only when they reach the nine thousand year mark.  Sage had apparently been born with such coloring. 

             
“So, is that supposed to be considered a sign of his greatness then?” I’d asked him.

             
Sean had just smiled.  “Always been my opinion.” he’d answered.

             
How Sage died was pretty sad really.  From what Sean told me, Sage apparently had many enemies he’d made in his thousands of years because of his thieving ways.  He was a master thief, able to steal just about anything without hesitation or being caught.  But back when he was younger, he’d apparently stolen from the wrong creature.  While Sean wouldn’t tell me exactly what this creature was, it was supposed to be one of the most powerful in the Spirit Realms.  For that, a mark was put on Sage’s head.  It had taken thousands of years, but this creature eventually did find him.  And to save his family from it, Sage offered himself to be killed.

             
When Sean told me about that, I began to understand why Sara didn’t talk a lot about Sage and what had happened.  I couldn’t have imagined what that must have been like for her, knowing that the one she loved so dearly was getting himself killed for her and their son’s sake.  Sara was a very kind person at heart, and she had admitted to me that Sage was everything to her, just like Sean.  He had saved her, had loved her no matter what.  Maybe the union between a fox and a human was strange, even unheard of, but they’d been happy.  It had been a beautiful fifteen years for her.  And in the end, she never wanted to forget.

             
When one really considers the heart, I guess nothing else matters but the love it feels.  I honestly believed that in being around the ones I was.  My father and his family.  Even Sean and Sara.  They were all different, but love remained the same.  It made me seriously consider just how much of this unseen world intersected with our own everyday.  Maybe there was a lot more to life then I’d ever imagined.

             
That particular day I had been trying to spend outside.  It was a very beautiful summer afternoon, and finally not too hot.  I’d driven around for a while, then decided to check out some of the trails near Madison.  Raziel and I had taken them before, and they seemed like the perfect place to take some of my art supplies and do some sketching.  I parked in the usual spot we’d always come to before, then took the small trail into the woods.  Normally, I would’ve come out there with Raziel, but I hadn’t been able to reach him that morning. I didn’t see where the harm in this was though.  I’d been on these trails before.  And Madison was once again a safe place.

             
I could hear birds singing as I walked, and the sunlight was streaming thru the trees.  I couldn’t help but smile to myself.  Even though my back hurt a little, I didn’t really pay much attention to it as I walked.  I had woken up with that slight back pain that morning, but I didn’t see anything different.  I wondered if maybe this was the beginning for when I would be getting my wings, though I wasn’t too worried.  I wasn’t going to let it stop me.  After all, once I did get my wings, I’d be stuck inside until I learned how to control and hide them.

             
I didn’t think too much about how far I was walking.  But all of a sudden, I realized that I didn’t recognize where I was.  I stopped for a moment, then looked around.  To my surprise, I saw some old concrete stairs leading up the hill near me.  That’s different, I thought as I walked over to them.  They looked very old, and parts of them were cracked from vegetation growing thru them.  I pulled out my phone to see if maybe I could use it to find my location.  GPS is a beautiful thing, huh?  But to my dismay, I found that I had no signal.  “Damn it.” I muttered, shoving it back into my pocket.

             
Looking back down the path, I considered trying to retrace my steps.  I could probably figure out how to get back to my car.  But as I looked back at the stairs, I reasoned that maybe I wouldn’t have to.  Maybe these stairs were part of this pathway, and led to another trail.  So, being a stupid kid I was, I decided to just go ahead and climb them to see what I could find.

             
The stairway was actually pretty long and narrow.  I counted around fifty steps before I finally reached the top.  To my surprise, there was another old trail up there.  Quietly, I began walking down it.  As I walked, I realized that here and there I saw some old bricks and other debris.  But it wasn’t until I came to another stone structure sitting several feet to the side of the trail that I realized something was up here.  I walked over to take a closer look.  Most of it was collapsed, but it looked like some of what might have been a cellar was open.  Peering down into it, I felt a chill go thru me.  I took a few steps back and looked around.  The woods were awful quiet now, and felt almost eerie.  I moved to the standing side of the building to see what I could find there, but there was nothing to tell me of what it might have been.  Okay, I thought.  Maybe I should just keep walking.

             
I got back on the trail and continued to follow it.  But several minutes later, I stopped as another structure loomed in front of me.  It looked like a giant cross mounted on a stone.  I quickly moved in front of it.  Seeing it up close, I shivered a little.  The cross was so weathered that it literally looked black.  Suddenly, I was very aware of where I must have been.  This was part of the ruins of St. Andrews.  I recalled very well when Raziel told me a bit more about it that there was supposed to be a large black cross near the entrance to the ruins.

             
For a moment, I wasn’t sure of what I should do.  I was hopelessly lost now, my phone wasn’t working, and now I was in a place that everyone had warned me to stay away from.  Raphael himself had said that this place was very dangerous. Yet, there I was.  But it wasn’t like I had many choices either.  I had to find my way out.  And I was sure that somewhere near here, there had to be a highway or something.  So I decided to continue on and just be cautious.  I kept my phone in my hand, and kept glancing at it to see if I could get a signal.  But it seemed I was still too far out for the time being.  I was on my own.

             
The path leading to the ruins of St. Andrews was pretty well worn, and not covered up like one might think with grasses and leaves.  It wasn’t long before I found myself looking at a crumbling old building.  I had to admit, I was intrigued.  The thing sat there like a grey ghost, to put it in a poetic sense.  Curiosity was getting the best of me by then, so I decided to take a bit to explore.  I had plenty of daylight left.  It was only three.  And I couldn’t see where a little bit of exploring would hurt anything.

             
It took me a bit to find a door I could pry open enough to squeeze into.  Inside was very dank and smelled of must and mold.  The floors were littered with debris, and there were holes in the walls.  I quietly walked down the hallway, being careful about where I stepped.  I could hear my footsteps echo a little with each step.  There were remnants of old papers on the walls, and in some of the rooms, I could see old desks.  I eventually slipped into one of those rooms to have a closer look.  A lot of the desks were broken, and others were covered with thick dust.  The chalkboard had been written on in ugly, almost violent handwriting.

             
All good children must always listen
.

             
Something about that was pretty creepy to me.  Walking over to it, I couldn’t help but study it.  It didn’t look new.  The crazed nun?  I wondered.

             
At that time, I had the distinct feeling that there was something there.  Out of the corner of my eye, I thought I saw a dark shape sitting at one of the desks.  I turned quickly, but there was nothing there.  Walking over to the desk, I could see it was covered in dust.  But under it, it looked like something had been etched into the wood.  I used my shirt to wipe the dust back, and gasped at what I saw.  Etched in with dark dried blood were two words.

             
Help Me.

             
I quickly made my way out of that room, moving down the hallway to try and find the door I’d come in thru.  I felt a little more then frightened now.  The stories I’d read kept going thru my mind, and the place was so dark and nasty looking.  Finding another door at the end of that hall, I quickly managed to pry it open and slipped through it, hoping it lead to outside.  But it wasn’t.  Instead, I was in another darkened room.  I pulled out my phone as I leaned on the wall and checked the reception again.  I actually had a bar.  Sighing in relief, I decided to call Raziel.  He knew where this place was, though I wasn’t sure if he’d ever been inside of it.  Or at least he’d claimed to know when he heard about me asking.  Either way, I was hoping he could guide me out of there.  “Please pick up.” I whispered as it rang.

             
But as it did, I became aware of a strange sound.  It sounded like something had splashed.  Looking ahead of me, I could see in the dim light seeping through the windows that I was in what looked like an old pool area.  The pool itself there looked nasty.  I kept the phone up to my ear as I carefully walked over and looked at the grimy water.  Finally, there was an answer on the other end of the line.  “Hey, where are you?  I’ve been trying to reach you for an hour.” Raziel said.

             
“And you didn’t answer your phone all morning.” I snapped back.  “Look, I need help.  I’m lost.”

             
“Lost?  How’d you end up doing that?” Raziel asked, sounding pretty surprised.

             
“If I knew that, I wouldn’t be lost, right?  I was walking the trails we took last summer, and I somehow got myself lost.  And I think I’m at St. Andrews.” I replied dryly.

             
“Wait a minute.  St. Andrews?  Are you sure?” Raziel said.  It sounded like he’d just stood up and pushed a chair back.

             
“Yes.  St. Andrews.  I’m in what looks like an old school, and I passed a big black looking cross when I came up here.” I told him.

             
“No, no, no.  That’s not good at all.  You need to get out of there right now.” Raziel said.

             
“Raziel?” I said, not quite understanding why he was getting so upset.

             
“Listen to me Mia.  St. Andrews is very, very dangerous.  You need to get out of there as fast as you can.” Raziel told me.