6 Fight

“DEMON RAMIE, come to me. Help me in my time of need!”

What the fuck? Where am I?

“You came!”

Miranda?

“Help me, Ramie. They’re after me.”

Who?

“I don’t know. He grabbed me and I ran. There he is!” She was panicked and backing into a corner. This wasn’t good.

“Aye, little miss. You’ll make a fine toffer,” a voice growled. A grizzled man came down the narrow alley toward us. Miranda turned to run again and tripped over her dropped basket. He grabbed her arm in one hand and her waist in the other. The war was fought to end black slavery but no one did much to stop the kidnapping of young women to press them into service in western brothels.

Let me drive.

“What does... ?”

Don’t fight me! I took control of her body so suddenly that Miranda was as startled at her loss of control as at our aggressor’s actions. I slammed an elbow back into our attacker. I lifted my right foot and stomped with Miranda’s sturdy-heeled shoe on the man’s instep. He howled. I spun to face him as he hopped on one foot and saw the knife at his belt. Instead of running, I stepped toward him and grabbed the blade, jabbing it into his stomach. I wrenched it free and jumped back, nearly falling over the stupid basket again.

“If you get that tended to at once, you might not die,” I said with Miranda’s voice. The man looked up at me in horror as he saw his own blood dripping from his knife. He fell. I guessed it was too late for a doctor. If anyone found us, we’d be the ones hung. I scooped up our basket, wiped the blade on his back, and rushed away. I dropped the knife into the basket so it wasn’t visible and walked hurriedly toward the noise of a market.

Miranda! Where are we? The poor girl was in shock.

“Baltimore,” she answered weakly.

I don’t care what city. Do you have a home here? Can we get to it?

“Yes.” She hesitated as we looked around. “That way.” She didn’t move. Fuck! I started walking.

You’d better keep telling me which way to go if you ever want to get home again.

I was a little snappish, but fuck! I’d just killed a man! I wasn’t feeling all that charitable.

What happened back there? Why were you out alone?

“I went to the market to get fish for dinner. A trawler had just come in. I got turned around when I left the market and then that man started chasing me. Then I summoned you and you saved me. Thank you, Demon Ramie.”

Damn it, Miranda. I’m not a demon. You can’t summon me.

“But you came!”

Well, I was coming when I got here but you kinda spoiled that.

“Ramie, I will call you by whatever name you wish. I will hide your presence. You have saved my life and I will ever be your obedient servant.”

I don’t want any obedient servants. Is this the place?

“Yes. We will enter by the kitchen door to give the fish to Charlotte. But ... she’ll see the knife.”

I pulled it out of the basket. Just looking at it made me sick. I tried to give her body back to Miranda but she was as repulsed as I was. We threw up in the alley. And then threw up again.

“Heavens, girl!” a woman said from the kitchen door. “You are ill!”

“Yes, Charlotte,” Miranda said. “I don’t feel well all of a sudden.” She stood and I snatched the knife behind her back. Miranda handed the basket to Charlotte. “Here is the fish.”

“You’ll not be eating this fish tonight. I’ll bring you broth in your room. Go at once and get in bed!”

Miranda and I were only too happy to comply with the cook’s command.

It was over. The adrenalin ebbed from Miranda’s body as we fell onto the bed and fevered shakes replaced it.

I killed a man.

I didn’t feel grown up enough to kill anyone. Why did I have to come back here? Tears ran from our eyes. Miranda felt the same things I had. It might have been my mind driving it, but I’d used her body. Not only was I a murderer, I’d made her one as well. The exhaustion and terror caught up with me and we slept where we landed on the bed.

I heard the latch on the door and quickly shoved the knife under Miranda’s pillow.

“Miranda? I brought you some broth. Charlotte said I should stay here until you drank it all.” Miranda rolled to her back and sat up. I saw the girl for the first time.

Caitlin!

“Thank you, Theresa.” Miranda accepted the cup of broth and brought it to her lips. I looked over the rim into the girl’s eyes.

No, it wasn’t Caitlin. There was no recognition there as I had experienced when I saw Kyle in Washington. It was just the girl’s striking blonde hair and beauty that made me think of my little sister. I thought they were about the same age.

“Charlotte said you were ill on the way back from the market. They would not let me come see you until now.” I rummaged around in Miranda’s head, demanding to know who this girl was. Miranda stayed focused and drank the almost tasteless broth. Might as well have just boiled water out of the bay.

“I do not know what came over me, dear,” Miranda said. “I am sure I will be better soon. I may be asleep when you come to bed.”

“I will be quiet. Father and Miss Dolly want me to sit at dinner with them. I will come to bed afterward. Do you need help getting dressed for bed?”

“No, Theresa. Here. Take the cup and tell Mother and Mr. Jonathon that I am improving. Thank you.” The girl took the cup and leaned in to give Miranda a peck on the cheek. When she was gone, Miranda let out a breath as if she’d been holding it the whole time the girl was in the room.

Who was she?

“Theresa. My stepsister. Please do not possess her! My mother and her father were married in Washington after you possessed me. Where did you go?”

I went home. And I have no desire to possess anyone.

“Did you suffer when you returned? I was upset with you, but I do not wish you to be tormented in hell.”

Miranda, home is the 21st century. If I’m suffering, it is when I am here.

“I am sorry. Demon Ramie, I release you from my summons to return from whence you came.” She sounded so contrite. I couldn’t help feel a fondness for her. I’d just saved her life, I guess.

Please, Miranda. Stop calling me a demon. I already told you that you can’t summon and dismiss me. It just doesn’t work that way.

“Yet you were ... That was ... He was...”

I killed him. I’m so sorry. I didn’t mean to kill him. I just wanted to protect you. Maybe I am a demon.

I was weeping again and the tears flowed down Miranda’s cheeks as she undressed and prepared for bed. My emotions were so out of control. If I’d had my own body I’m sure I would have passed out from overload. I didn’t know how Miranda could handle it. She pulled on a nightgown and then pulled her chemise out from under it. At least she didn’t have a bra to contend with. Her bloomers followed and she slipped beneath the covers of her bed.

“You are right,” Miranda said gently. She spoke aloud. “I know not what kind of spirit you are, but you saved my life. Please accept my apology.”

It’s nothing. I didn’t believe any of it, either. How could I expect you to? Maybe it’s easier to accept a spirit riding in your head than an actual person from a different time.

“Am I a murderer, De ... Ramie? My hand. I took this knife,” she pulled the blade from under her pillow. “I can still feel what it was like to plunge it into him. I will go to hell.”

You had no alternative and no choice. When it was done, it was my hand. If anyone is going to hell it is me. He would have raped and killed us, or even worse have sold us to a brothel.

“Us.”

I’m sorry. It was your body that would have suffered, but what you feel, I feel.

Miranda was still trying to grasp having another person in her head. I’d at least been prepared a little. I knew what to expect, even though I didn’t believe it. Did I believe it now? Or was it all a dream? If only Kyle had confirmed my first trip when I saw him. But he didn’t admit to traveling at all. Damn him!

“Is that called driving?” she asked. She was still working on me being in her body and taking control.

Driving means ... well, in my time we drive cars. I suppose here we have carriage drivers. It’s the one who takes the reins and controls things.