Evangelina Green (20 page)

"What is it Lina? Are you okay?" Although
she sounded frantic, she looked calm and serene. Lina felt
something was up but now was not the time.

"I believe I just heard from Victor, in my
mind! He spoke in my mind! And as cool as that is...it’s what he
said that has me excited! They’re safe! Tashi is alive! He said
they are unharmed and he would contact me tomorrow at the same
time. Oh Netta! She’s okay! We can find her and bring her
home!”

They were both crying by that time, but it
was tears of relief and love for each other. The two of them danced
a happy dance, ate breakfast and settled down into a routine they’d
established. Netta had to rest often so her schedule was flexible,
but she was responsible for the kitchen, including dishes. Lina
washed them today—needing the mindless work to think through
things. She finished quickly and started for the attic.

No need to put it off any longer, so she
climbed the stairs to the locked door near her room. She checked on
Netta and told her she would be in the attic if anything came up.
The door had always been locked as a rule, and Lina now wondered
why? She knew Grams had always said it was just full of junk, and
keeping the door locked kept the mice out. Lina shook her head now
at that lame excuse, thinking there had to be another reason and
she was determined to find out. She was also a little frightened to
find out. Taking a deep breath, she unlocked the huge, heavy oak
door with the one and only key.

"Need to have a couple
more made. If we lose this one, we’ll have to chop the door down to
get in…or out.” She mentally made another list of things to
do.
That was for later
, she admonished herself. "For now, I have to know what’s up
here. I just have to know."

The long narrow stairs
were lit by one bare bulb and naturally it cast a shadowy light.
Why did everything lately have to remind her of
slasher
movies? She climbed with
tentative steps, eyes wild and looking for anything that might harm
her. She felt relatively safe when at the top, as she saw windows
lighting the rest of the space and several other bare bulbs helping
to chase away the other shadows. There really was a lot of junk up
here but it seemed there were treasures also. She found picture
albums she intended to take downstairs to go through with Netta and
Tashi when—not if—but
when
she came home.

Far in the back there was a stockpile of
children’s furniture, bedding, clothing, and toys. Some of them had
to be antique and surprisingly in really good shape. Lina
immediately thought of the shop in town and added to her to-do
list. She’d have Netta go through them later to see if they even
wanted to sell them in the first place, because it would be a
family decision.

She spent another hour or so digging through
dust and cobwebs from the last 100 years and came up with quite a
few items she thought might help solve the mystery of the
mansion.

Netta was up and around when Lina came
downstairs with her treasures. She stopped dead in her tracks,
gawked at Lina with a frightened look, eyes wide, then immediately
started laughing out loud.

"What?” Lina asked indignantly until she
turned to look in the small mirror at the bottom of the stairs.

“
OMG I look like a
ghoul!”

She started laughing herself—at the cobwebs
in her hair the dust on her face. Some of it was streaked across
her eyes, as it had mixed with her sweat. Her hair stood on end in
places, from her wiping her face with her arm. She looked a fright!
No wonder Netta looked afraid at first. She was almost
unrecognizable with all that dust and dirt covering her! They both
exploded into giggles and had to sit on the floor to keep from
falling down with exhaustion. The laughter in the mansion lately
had an almost nervous quality to it, but it helped, a lot.

"So? What did you
find
oh grimy one
?" Netta prodded.

"Quite a bit actually. There are huge, heavy
furniture pieces up there that could very well be antiques and
clothing—I’m sure it’s vintage. Tons of papers I’ll have to go
through and pictures! Look at these Netta. I’m sure that’s Grams as
a girl! Can’t wait to see what else is in there!”

Apparently the excitement was contagious as
Netta scurried over for a closer look and squealed with delight
when she found a picture of Tashi and Lina as teens, sitting on the
steps out front.

"I’d almost forgotten about this picture!
Tashi took it with her new camera that had the timer thingy on it.
She loved that camera. That was the summer you had that awful fat
camp trip, remember, Netta? I'll bet Tashi still has that camera.
That was the day Grams..." She swallowed hard and stopped. "I miss
Grams."

The two sisters spent the rest of the day
looking through the photo albums, finding treasure after treasure.
These were worth more than any money, gold, or jewels. This was a
connection, to each other and to their shared past. None of the
sisters knew their fathers. With the pictures they were beginning
to see an odd sort of pattern and after a couple of hours, Lina sat
up to ease her aching muscles and looked at Netta. She saw
similarities that their mothers didn’t have. It dawned on her but
she shook her head—doubting the thoughts she was having.

"Netta? Do you think we have the same
dad?”

Netta glanced her way and almost
whispered.

"I was wondering the same thing." They
closed the albums and rose together.

"Tea... definitely tea time and I’m
starving! How about you, Lina?”

There were tears in her
eyes, she was trying to be cheerful and upbeat. The knowledge that
they might actually be
real
sisters...not just adopted
summer sisters
was just too much to
handle right now.

One article that caught
their eye was about Mr. and Mrs. Timothy Boxx, being awarded the
mansion in a drawing. They were given free use of the house and
grounds for as long as they lived and as long as they maintained
the property. The mansion had been a bed and breakfast up to that
point. Boxx was Gramps & Gram’s last name. They’d known as kids
that they weren’t really their
grandparents
but at least they now
knew how they came to live at the mansion.

The Boxx’s closed the
B&B and were quoted in the news article as saying they would be
starting a school for young ladies. Now, the question was why were
only these three girls, Lina, Netta and Tashi, the
only
ones there every
summer? How did their separate mothers know to send them here? This
was just another mystery to add to the ever-growing list of
unknowns.

“
Time for a break.” Lina
just took Netta’s hand in hers as they walked to the
kitchen.

"What is it with us and tea?" They both just
shrugged their shoulders, smiled at each other and walked on. They
just liked tea.

CHAPTER SIXTEEN

That evening was cool and comfortable as the
two sisters sat on the porch. The workmen had really done a good
job restoring the porch and railings. It looked new, in an antique
sort of way.

Lina was lost in thought as Netta looked
over the porch and lawns. She was content. She was almost happy.
There was just the nagging at the back of Lina’s mind that
something was missing. Just out of reach. Just out of sight.

Victor had reported in that morning as
promised and had no news. He and Tashi were alive and as of yet,
unharmed but his voice held some concern. There was nothing to do
just yet. They couldn’t find a vampire and their sister being held
by a witch. Not without help and while Keaton was trying to obtain
just that, they waited and the level of tension grew.

They kept busy with the things from the
attic. Lina was the list maker so she was in charge of inventory
and cataloging. Netta examined the pieces and determined their
selling value. Some things could not be priced, as they were
history and the sisters wanted to keep those.

They would enlist some of the workmen later
to haul some of the heavier pieces down to the first floor. It was
keeping them occupied but their minds were always touching on
Tashi. She might be safe and unharmed but she could not be happy!
They knew Tashi well enough to know she would be fuming at being
held against her will and surely driving her captors nuts! She was
a sweetheart most of the time but get on her bad side… Look out!
Netta suddenly went very still. Lina swiveled her chair to see why
and was death-still herself. In front of them, like a projection,
was a cave or dungeon scene and they could see Tashi!

She was ghostlike. They could see through
her and in the background they saw Victor! The vision wavered, but
not before Lina and Netta both cried out Tashi's name. Their sister
turned to them in shock and then smiled.

"We’re fine. I love you. Come find us,
please?"

There was no sound but they could read her
lips and understood. They could see Victor trying to cover her
nudity and protect her by causing her image to be fuzzy like they
show faces of those people on TV who don’t want to be identified.
It helped soothe their nerves and made them feel a little more
comfortable, knowing Victor was taking care of Tashi. Suddenly the
chills running up their spines became downright cold when they saw
someone moving toward them from the very back of the vision.

It was Martiss the witch! She looked like
death-warmed-over and she was not happy. Victor said something and
moved his hands in a pattern in front of his face and the vision
disappeared. Lina and Netta just gaped at each other in silence.
Comfort. Fear. Anger. Anxiety. All these emotions were swirling in
their hearts with just one short vision.

Where was the cave? How could they find it?
What in the world did the witch want with Tashi? Lina felt panic
rising and had to take several deep breaths, in an attempt to calm
herself. She had to be strong for the both of them. They both sat
still for several minutes until Netta broke the silence.

"Let’s keep working. We know we have to
wait, we have to have a plan and we know she’s still alive and...”
her voice cracked in sorrow. Lina hugged her tight and kissed the
top of her head.

"We’ll get through this, we’ll get her
back." Hoping all the time she wasn’t lying to her sister just to
make herself feel better.

They worked the rest of
the afternoon and had several large pieces moved to the dining room
area. Lina wasn’t sure what the room would be after construction
and remodeling was done. For now it served as a staging area for
the
to-be-dealt-with-later
things.

The new kitchen cabinets had arrived and sat
in boxes near the front window. Several old rugs from surrounding
rooms were rolled up, stacked against the wall and covered with a
sheet to keep dirt and dust from settling on them. Now, the
antiques from the attic were lined up against the only remaining
wall. It was crowded but they could still walk through easily on
their way to the kitchen.

They washed up a bit, started a chicken in
the old oven and began preparing vegetables for a salad. Seemed
neither had much of an appetite but common sense kicked in. Lina
needed to eat to keep up her strength and she was actually trying
to gain some of her weight back. She knew Keaton saw her as skinny
and she wanted to be what...to be less skinny? Maybe try to be
beautiful for him? Could she be beautiful? Would he care? Should
she care? Maybe, yeah.

In the meantime Netta, although looking
better, needed nourishment to keep her alive, and Lina saw that as
her main responsibility. Sweetened iced tea, a southern staple, was
refreshing as they sat down some time later and in a comfortable
silence ate their tasty meal.

Netta couldn’t shake the feeling of being
watched and now decided she’d better say something to someone. She
hated how people in the movies never told others of things
troubling them. Waiting until it was either completely too late or
the information at that point would be moot.

"Lina, I don’t want to sound paranoid, but I
have this unshakable feeling of being watched. Especially now.”

Lina choked on a mouthful of salad, started
coughing and turning red. Netta was behind her in seconds, patting
her on the back making sure she could breathe.

"I’m fine,” she said through coughs, “fine
now, but I was just contemplating how to bring up the
subject...because I feel the hairs on my neck standing on end,
right this minute. Can you feel where it’s coming from?" Netta
looked at her sister as if she’d grown another head.

"Why would I be able to feel that?” She
really didn’t know how much power she held inside.

Netta didn’t want to tell Lina about the man
she met in her dreams. That was personal and none of her business.
But he was there in every dream, the same man, every time.

"I’ve been having dreams lately about a man,
but this doesn’t feel like him. He’s warm and kind to me and he
only comes around when I’m sleeping." Lina gasped at this bit of
news.

"You’ve been keeping this from me? We never
keep secrets from one another and this might be something we could
use to find Tashi? And what if...you hadn't told me and something
happened and you could...”

Lina broke off as her voice cracked and her
eyes swam in tears. She was blinking quickly, trying to stem the
flow. Netta was mortified and felt guilty but just then felt a
brush of cool air against her cheek, a bit of courage, a signal
that she was not alone in this.

"I didn’t tell you because it’s a dream,
Lina and it’s, well...it’s personal and I didn’t think you’d want
to hear the details." She drew quote marks in the air. Obviously,
Lina understood and blushed.