Chapter 18

The four felt a dizzying sense of dislocation for a few seconds as the room settled into a new configuration. The cushions had vanished, revealing smoothly polished hardwood, covered in slightly tattered throw rugs. A large, four-poster bed occupied the opposite wall. The room was spartan, the draperies on the window moth-eaten. A breeze blew through threadbare curtains.

A woman lay in bed, huddled under blankets despite the warmth of the room and the heat that blew on the late spring breeze.

"What... where are we?" Heather said, immediately lowering her voice when she saw the bed was occupied.

"My room," Mara said, her voice somber. "May, 1969. And no need to speak softly, no one can hear or see you."

"Come on, you can't be serious," Richie cried. "We can't be in 1969!"

"You're not. Think of this as an echo from the past."

The woman stirred on the bed, tossing and turning violently, raven hair spilling over the pillow.

"But that's... !"

"Richie, shut up!" Melinda hissed.

"Richie, please," Jason said.

"You'll understand shortly," Mara said. "All of you. Now, watch."

Richie folded his arms indignantly and sighed dramatically.

The four were startled when the woman in the bed abruptly bolted upright in bed with a loud, frightful gasp, a terrified look on her face. Several of the teens looked from the woman in the bed to Mara.

"Yes, that's me," Mara said.

The younger Mara shook, her eyes darting around the room in abject panic. "Elizabeth!" she shouted. "Elizabeth!"

The door to the hallway burst open, and an older woman ran into the room. She had dark brown hair, tightly curled, and a worried, harried look on her face. As she came around where Jason could see her eyes, he blurted, "That's Elizabeth Jellison, isn't it?"

"Yes," said Mara. She sighed. "I would have gone mad without her."

"I'm so sorry, Mara, I had to take the water off the stove for tea!" Elizabeth cried as she came around the side of the bed. As soon as she sat down at the edge of the bed, the younger Mara clutched at her. Elizabeth immediately hugged Mara to her, Mara burying her head in the older woman's bosom.

Elizabeth cradled Mara's head. "Shh, it's okay, it's okay. It was just another nightmare."

"I-It wasn't a nightmare, Elizabeth," Mara said in a frightened voice. "Not this time."

Elizabeth's expression darkened and she appeared to pause. "Mara..."

Mara abruptly pulled away from the older woman, fire in her eyes despite her fear. "Don't tell me to ignore it, dammit! Or that I'm having flashbacks! You don't know what I went through! I'd know what flashbacks would be like!"

"I don't know because you won't tell me everything," Elizabeth said in exasperation. "I only know bits and pieces of it, and, by the goddess, it's frustrating to me."

"It was another vision, Elizabeth," Mara said in a hollow voice, her eyes taking on a disturbingly haunted look that made the onlooking teens want to cringe. "I-I'm seeing... I'm seeing the future... something's coming, Elizabeth. A darkness."

"Elizabeth had been hearing this from me for some time now," the older Mara commented. "I drove her to her wits end, the poor woman."

Elizabeth sighed and placed a hand on Mara's shoulder. "I know, love. I..."

Mara cut short the older woman's comfort and threw the covers off, revealing a wrinkled nightgown, exactly like the one the older Mara was wearing. She leapt out of bed and walked across the room towards the window, hugging herself tightly. "They're coming every day now. It means something. What happened to me... it wasn't the end... it was just the beginning."

A chilled look came over Elizabeth's face, and she visibly shuddered. "I know," she said very quietly.

Mara whirled around. "You what?"

"I said, I know, Mara."

"You... you believe me? You finally believe me?"

Elizabeth rose to her feet. "What do you want me to say?" she said, her voice quavering, her face anguished. "Yes, I believe you. I've started seeing it myself. But there's nothing I can do. There's nothing you can do."

Mara's expression hardened. "That's where you're wrong, Elizabeth," she said in a low voice. "I can do something. If you'll help me."

Before Elizabeth could respond, Mara came back to the bed and dropped to her knees. She reached under and pulled out a small wooden box with a tiny padlock. The older woman looked on with keen interest.

"She knew I had something under there," the older Mara commented to her charges. "She had been curious about it. She knew it had something to do with my past."

Now the four teens edged closer for a better look.

Mara placed the box on the bed. She clutched at her neck, yanking at a thin gold chain that encircled it, snapping the chain easily. Using the key that had been threaded onto the chain, she unlocked the box and paused, taking a deep breath. With trembling hands she opened it and stared fearfully at the contents.

"I can't see it!" Melinda complained.

"Patience," the older Mara said.

The younger Mara started to reach into the box and stopped herself. "I can't." She looked away, shoving the box towards Elizabeth. "You take it. Carefully."

Elizabeth nervously peered over into the box, reached in, and withdrew what appeared to be several broad leaves, pressed and dried, still attached to a withered stem. She handled it delicately, as it was brittle, cradling it in her palms. She furrowed her brow as she examined it. "What is it?" she asked, but there was already fear creeping into her voice.

"Elizabeth was a witch," the older Mara said. "A damn good one. She knew every herb there was. She didn't know that one. That scared her."

The younger Mara heaved a small sob. "The plant," she said in a tiny voice. "The one... the one the Loner used... t-to make the drug..."

The others shifted nervously.

Tears came to Mara's eyes and she drew in a deep breath. "The drug he used on me and the others... to keep us enslaved."

"A drug," Elizabeth said in a weak voice. Her hands trembled and she looked as if she wanted to recoil from what she held. "It enslaved you? H-how much? How badly?"

Mara stood up and hugged herself tightly again, her gaze dropping to the floor. "Completely," she said in a shaky voice. "No will of your own. None. You do what you're told. You feel what you're told to feel. He used it to keep me and four others as his private sex slaves."

"By the goddess..." Elizabeth murmured in shock.

Mara looked up, her eyes taking on a haunted look again. Melinda's eyes shimmered, and she bumped into Jason. The next second she was clutching at him. A surprised Jason tentatively put his arm around her.

"We were happy and care free," Mara said with a smile devoid of warmth or humor. "Joyfully tending to his every sexual need."

"Stop," Elizabeth cried.

"We delighted in his attentions, we submitted to everything he wanted."

"Stop it!"

"Perfect, perky little slaves."

"Enough!" Elizabeth shouted.

Mara turned. "I thought you wanted to know, Elizabeth."

"I-I've heard enough." She held out her hands. "Take this back from me."

"No. You need it for what I want."

"I want to destroy it!"

"No!" Mara shouted. "Don't damage it! It's the last of its kind. Or at least the last in the wild."

Elizabeth gave Mara stricken look. "Is there more of this out there?" she asked fearfully. "Does someone else have it?"

"The answer to the first question is no. If there was, do you think I would be languishing in this house? I'd be out trying to destroy it! No, that's all that's left of the Loner's supply. He was growing them in the backyard behind the tavern. As to the second question, yes, someone else has it."

"Who?"

"The government."

Elizabeth looked on in confusion.

"One of his girls died," Mara explained. "She always had problems with the drug. Had trouble keeping the first doses down. She finally reacted badly to his latest batch and went into shock. He covered it up badly. The police tracked him down, and he blew his brains out when they came for him. The police had no idea we were there, since he kept us down in the chambers under the tavern."

Elizabeth frowned at this. "Chambers? What chambers?"

Mara gave a bark of cynical laughter. "I'm disappointed, Elizabeth. You should read up on Haven history. Or did you not know there used to be one of the largest whorehouses this side of the Mississippi at that spot?"

Elizabeth shook her head. From the looks the teens exchanged, they did not know this either.

"It operated during the 1880s," Mara explained. "Closed up around the turn of the century. Chambers are still there, though. He used them to keep us. The Loner stopped coming for us after he killed himself. The drug started to wear off. And that's when most of us figured out the worst of it, Elizabeth. You remember everything. Everything. Every act he had us perform. Every humiliation. Every degradation. For nine years. We knew what had happened to us.

"And the sickest part of it, Elizabeth? We didn't want to be free. It was too horrible knowing what we were forced to do. We wanted more of the drug. We wanted to go under again. It was easier to cope that way."

Jason shivered as he recalled his conversation with the elder Elizabeth. The others were also looking very spooked at this point. Richie's face was drained of color as badly as Elizabeth's.

"I found those leaves after I starting coming out of it, near where he used to brew up the drug in the back of the chambers," Mara continued, her eyes wide and staring as if reliving it in her mind. "Or that's what's left of what I found. I was so d-desperate to go back under, to forget, that I-I tried chewing the leaves, but it only made me sick."

Melinda momentarily looked as if she were going to be sick herself, remembering how much she wanted to go back under briefly after what Richie had done to her.

"I hid the rest. I'm not sure why. Maybe I had the crazy idea to brew the stuff myself. Anyway, it didn't matter. One of the other girls went up the stairs and started to claw and scratch at that door. Finally a cop revisiting the scene heard us and found us. And then the feds came."

Jason's eyes opened wide, his heart skipping a beat.

"It was a few days later, I think," Mara said in a somber voice. "They swooped down and spirited away the plants he was growing in the back, everything was that wasn't nailed down in the house, and threatened the cops into silence. You know the routine. National security and all that."

"But where did they take the plants?" Elizabeth demanded. "Where??"

Mara shrugged. "My guess would be the base outside town, since it used to be a lab back then, but who knows where it's gone by now."

Heather shuddered.

"Great goddess, they can't be trusted with that!" Elizabeth cried.

"I can't do anything about that, Elizabeth."

"And why do you still have this? How did you..."

"I went back," Mara said. "After those two years of rehab. I was drawn back to the place. I found the leaves, right where I had hidden them. The feds had missed it."

Elizabeth looked back down at the leaves and paled.

"Listen to me, Elizabeth!" Mara cried, rounding on the older woman. "Something good can come out of this! This drug... it screwed with my mind... I was the only one to come out of it with some sanity. After we were taken from the chambers and the drug wore off completely, two of the others committed suicide. Another went clinically insane. And then there was me. I didn't understand why I was able to recover until now, until I started having these visions. There's got to be a reason for this! You know there has to be!"

Elizabeth was silent for a long moment. "What would you have me do?" she asked in a low, frightened voice, as if already scared of what the answer will be.

"Elizabeth, you told me yourself, there are forces at work in this town," Mara said, sitting back down on the bed, looking to Elizabeth with a pleading expression on her face. "Those forces are stirring, you said. And you're right. I've seen it. And it's not pretty. The power in those leaves you hold, it's present everywhere in this town. Those plants are just one manifestation of it, isn't it? Isn't it?!"

Elizabeth swallowed. "I-If the forces somehow converged," she started in a shaky voice. "Y-yes, it could. Maybe. And only if..."

"Not 'if', Elizabeth. You know for a fact that they do. The lines of force converge right at that tavern."

Elizabeth paused, then her mouth dropped open in shock, and then indignation. "You looked at my journal! My private journal! Mara, how could you?!"

"Because you'd never tell me yourself if you knew what I'm planning."

"I'm not sure I want to hear it anymore!"

"You're going to anyway," Mara snapped. "Listen, Elizabeth. Something is coming. A darkness. An evil. People are going to find this power and use it. If the forces keep surging like you said in your journal they would..."

"Damn you, Mara!" Elizabeth muttered darkly.

"... then it's going to manifest in other ways, and people will find it, and others will succumb to it. Unless someone can resist it. If they can resist it and turn away from it, they may be able to help stop this!"

Elizabeth said nothing. The unspoken question was "how". The four teens had an idea, for they had already experienced it. And as the realization of what passing this "test" really meant started to dawn on them, they began to look uneasy.

"In your journal, you said this house sits right on one of the strongest lines of force, I want to make this house into a... a proving ground... a sort of test... or a trap, if they fail the test."

Elizabeth look down at the leaves in her hands, making a face as if she suddenly felt soiled.

"Attract people that want the power," Mara said in a lower voice, her eyes intense. "Let them taste it. Let them wallow in it for a bit. See what they're willing to do to get it."

The teens exchanged guilty looks.

"And if they still want it, Mara?" Elizabeth said, her face hard. "What then?"

"Give it to them, but limit their total control to a few people. A few token slaves to occupy them. A little extra power to control another person or two after that as they need it. It will keep them out of the way, stop them from trying to gain greater power. Their permanent slaves will be a distraction to them, and eventually a burden, like it was for the Loner in the end."

"I can't do this, Elizabeth."

"Yes, you can! You can distill the power from those leaves and imbue it in the house!"

"I can't!" Elizabeth wailed. "Your scheme won't work without an intelligence behind it! I can't give it that with just a few magic spells!"

There was a long pause. Finally, Mara said, "I'll be the intelligence."

Elizabeth gave Mara a horrified look.

"You can do it, Elizabeth. I know you can."

The older woman started shaking her head.

"You can. I've read your journal. The past research you've done on spirits and hauntings."

"I can't, Mara."

"Can't? Or won't?"

"Both!" Elizabeth cried. "Mara, you can't be the intelligence behind it! Your spirit cannot reside in your body and in the house. It can only be one or the other."

Mara paused again and stood up. "All right."

Elizabeth stared, her eyes glazed.

"How soon can you do it?"

"Mara, no! You'll die!"

"I already died thirteen years ago!" Mara screamed.

Elizabeth fell starkly silent.

Tears welled up in Mara's eyes and trickled down her face. "You think this is really me? You think this is what I was when I was kidnapped by him at seventeen? You think the real Mara would conjure up insane schemes like this?!"

She pinched viciously at her own arm. "This isn't me! This is a shell! That's all I am anymore! The Loner destroyed what was me in 1957, when I had been under the drug for a full year. That was when I started to come out of it, just a little, when I was reaching the end of one dose and he was a little late in giving me the next one. Had I come out just a little more, I would have killed myself. That's when I knew I had died."

Horror-struck, Melinda covered her mouth with her hand. Jason's arm tightened reflexively around her, but his own eyes misted as well. Richie clandestinely turned his head and wiped at his eyes when he thought no one was looking. Heather was simply too shocked to react.

"So you're just completing the job, Elizabeth," Mara said in a softer voice. "The one the Loner started in 1956 when he first kidnapped me. I don't want to live anymore. I haven't wanted to live any more for the past year. If I had not been having these visions... if I had not wanted to know what they meant... I would have killed myself already."

Elizabeth lowered her eyes and heaved a slow, despondent sigh.

Mara came up to her and slid an arm around her shoulders. "You have to do this for me. It's the only way to stop it."

"I don't want to," Elizabeth said in a shaky voice.

"I know. But you will."

Very slowly, Elizabeth nodded. "May the goddess forgive me for it," she sobbed.

As Mara drew the now crying Elizabeth to her, the room began to shimmer again. The younger Mara, Elizabeth, and the other contents of the room faded and vanished from sight, leaving the room as it was before.

"And of course, you know the rest," the older Mara said softly. "Which brings us to the present."

"No."

Everyone turned and looked at Heather.

"No?" Mara inquired.

Heather started shaking her head, backing away, her face a mask of fear. "I can't."

"Can't what, Heather?"

"Whatever you expect us to do! I can't do it!"

"I don't understand," Melinda said. "What are you talking about?"

"I'm not doing it either!" Richie shouted. "No fucking way! No chance!"

"What??" Melinda demanded.

"Melinda, remember what they said," Jason explained, an edge of impatience in his voice. "Mara wanted to test people to help stop whatever is coming to this town. We passed the test, so..."

"But... but not us, right?" Melinda cried. "She doesn't mean us! We're... we're just kids! She means our parents. We go tell our parents about this and they..."

"No, Melinda," Mara said. "You cannot tell your parents. They're part of the problem. Your parents are already touched by the darkness."

Melinda looked taken aback. Heather surged forward, her hands clenched into fists. "You liar!" she screamed at Mara.

"Jason, when you did your research," Mara said, without taking her steady gaze from Heather. "Did you locate where the tavern was?"

"Um, it's not around anymore," Jason replied after a moment's hesitation. "It was torn down."

"Yes, but what's there now? At the convergence of these forces?"

"Oh, it's the Li'l Missy Inn. Why?"

Heather paled.

Melinda swallowed hard. "No, come on," she said in a small voice. "That's where... where Mom works, that can't... Heather? Heather, what's wrong?!"

Heather had turned away from the others. Her face was in her hands, and she was sobbing softly.

"Melinda, it's not important right now," Mara said quickly.

"Like hell it's not!" Melinda cried.

"Melinda, Heather, it's not the same thing," Mara said loudly. "Yes, your mother is affected by this, but it's not the same as what we're dealing with here. Not exactly. She'll probably be okay."