Chapter 11

Sam was the first to recover from their shock. “There’s a fire in the attic!” he shouted. “The house is on fire! We need to get out of here!”

The smoke got larger, thicker. Sam tugged on Ashley’s arm, but she didn’t budge.

“It doesn’t smell like smoke,” Ashley said.

Sam tilted his head back and took several deep sniffs. She was right. There was no smell of smoke or anything else. He stared at the white smoke or whatever it was. It looked more like mist, or a cloud that seemed to dissolve and then get thicker, slithering and changing shape as it hovered close to the ceiling. Sam and Ashley gawked, scared motionless, hugging each other, bodies pressed together, arms wrapped around one another, cheeks together.

The cloud got bigger. And bigger.

Sam snapped out of his stupor and grabbed Ashley’s wrist. He bolted for the door, dragging her stumbling body at arm’s length behind him as her other arm flayed wildly to keep her balance. The cloud, with the speed of a gust of wind, whooshed down from the ceiling and blocked their path. It happened so fast that Sam was inside it before he knew what had happened. The engulfing cloud stopped him in his tracks. He was inside the cloud, but he felt like it was inside him, tingling his flesh. He released Ashley’s wrist to swat with both hands and arms, like a madman thrashing at a swarm of bees.

Sam finally staggered backward out of the cloud and collapsed on his butt at Ashley’s feet. The cloud lingered ominously above him for a few seconds before whisking back to the ceiling. Ashley crouched behind Sam, clinging onto him, pulling his back against her chest, trembling like she had never before.

“What are you?” Sam shouted at the cloud, shaking a fist in the air in frustration. “What do you want with us?”

There was rumbling in the attic like boxes falling. And then another cloud-like mist seeped through the ceiling and oscillated as it thinned and thickened. Sam and Ashley sat on the floor, cowering together, both shaking.

“Tell them,” a soft, womanly voice said from the new cloud.

Ashley held onto Sam tighter. Now they were hearing things.

The first cloud got thicker and swirled in front of Sam and Ashley like it was agitated, and then it whisked back up to the ceiling. “We don’t want you here,” it said in a man’s voice.

“Why? What did we do to you?” Sam asked.

“You stole our land, our house, our daughter. You took everything from us.”

“Are you going to hurt us?” Ashley asked with a shaky voice. “You hurt my daughter.”

“We caused her no bodily harm,” the man’s voice said.

“You frightened her. She has nightmares. She wakes up screaming. She’s only nine years old. Why are you doing this to her?”

“I told you,” the woman’s voice said. “You went too far this time.”

The man’s voice hmphed before saying, “What about our daughter. Look what they did to her.”

“What did we do?” Sam asked.

The thick cloud swirled again. It spun like a tornado. The other cloud got thicker and changed shape. It expanded, becoming longer. Sam and Ashley watched in awe as it took shape. First a cylinder, then arms, then a head with long, wavy, black hair. Soon they were staring at a shadowy woman in a long-sleeved, old-fashioned dress that came to her ankles floating above them.

“Is your daughter all right?” the woman asked. Her body wasn’t solid and sometimes faded out only to reappear.

“No, she’s traumatized,” Ashley said. “She’s just a child. The only reason we came back here was to get her doll.”

“I’m sorry,” the woman said. “We had a daughter who we couldn’t protect.”

“Where is your daughter?”

The man cloud stormed again. That was the only way to explain it. It turned black like a storm cloud and swirled. Sam expected a bolt of lightning to shoot from it. But it calmed down and, as it faded into white again, it formed the shape of a man. He also wore old-fashioned clothing.

“They killed her,” the man said.

Ashley’s hand flew to her gasping mouth. “Oh my god, who killed her?”

“It was a long time ago.”

“I’m so sorry. I can’t imagine outliving my daughter.”

“We didn’t.”

The woman’s figure became clearer, taking on a more consistent shape, although it didn’t stay still. It was more like the blurred shimmering effect of heat haze, when objects seem wavy viewing them through heated air, like over hot asphalt.

“Edward, tell them,” the woman said.

“I own this land,” the cloud named Edward said.

“I do,” Sam said. “I bought it from—”

“Quiet!” Edward shouted. The cloud surrounding his body was agitated again. “The land was mine. Two hundred and fifty acres. I cleared the land the house sits on with my bare hands and built the house. We had cows and chickens and pigs and grew our food. We were happy, especially when our daughter came. I almost lost my wife that day, but Agnes pulled through. They told us she couldn’t have any more babies, but we accepted that. It was God’s will and we had our beautiful daughter.”

“Is that why you only have one child?” Agnes asked.

“No,” Ashley said, “we are planning on having more.”

The bedroom was silent. Sam wondered if that made sense to people from two hundred years ago. But he didn’t say anything and either did Ashley.

“There was a bad man in town,” Edward said, breaking the silence. “He went by Blacky ... Blacky Johnson. He was an evil man. He got what he wanted with his pistols. Anyone who stood up to him was shot dead. And not always in a fair fight. But there was no law here back then and he got away with it. Blacky Johnson wanted my land, everything that I built with my own hands and sweat. I wouldn’t sell. It was our home. A place to raise a family ... for our daughter. And then a pestilence spread through the farms, killing animals and crops. Everywhere except my farm. Blacky Johnson convinced everyone that we were spared because we were witches.”

“People believed that?” Sam asked, astonished.

“It was a different time. They had to blame someone, so they blamed us. They were an angry mob led by an evil man. They overpowered me in the field and dragged my wife out of the house. They tied us to stakes and piled wood at our feet and lit it. We were burned alive.”