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down with
books. It morphed into a picture of me in a dark room, developing
photographs. Last, I witnessed a vision of me in a long gown,
showing what I guessed to be art critics around an art exhibit.
    Let me help you, and you can be happy again.
Will you accept my assistance?
    Although I knew the vision wasn’t real, I
clung to it with all my might. Letting go meant returning to this
cold, unforgiving life I’d been stuck in for two weeks. I missed
feeling as alive as I did in these hallucinations. I wanted this
entity’s help, didn’t I? No one else had any answers for me.
    All of a sudden, a solid figure crashed into
me. I sensed the entity trying to maintain his hold, but I was
swept off my feet and carried away.
     

 
    Chapter
Eight
     
    Everything hurt. The emotions the man
implanted in me continued to flow, a residual haunting of being
alive. Longing reverberated through me. I didn’t have a clue what
this new entity was. Sitting up, I held my head to make it stop
spinning, only to find Jackson sitting beside me. His sandy hair
fell forward, brushing his jaw, and he regarded me with a solemn
blue-eyed stare, holding my hands tightly in his.
    “You’re lucky I stopped it when I did.”
    I squinted at him. “How did I get
inside?”
    We were in the attic, on my old bed, and
light from a full moon streamed in through the window. My feet
itched with the desire to run down the stairs and into the yard, to
call out to the being and say “yes, help me”. Realistically, I
should find out more about it first. Had it always been here? Was
it connected to the other ghostly activities centered on my
land?
    Jackson interrupted my musings. “You froze,
staring off into space, laughing and smiling at things that weren’t
there. Nothing I did recaptured your attention. So I interrupted
and carried you up here.”
    Carried me, like the pitiful damsel in
distress I was. Seriously, I hated people having to take care of me
or come to my rescue. I wasn’t ungrateful, just unused to it. It
was like my life splintered around me, pieces flying off into
space, pieces I couldn’t grab hold of again. Then, the moment I
thought I’d have a chance to return to normal, someone messed it
up. Someone came in and snatched a genuine opportunity right out of
my hands.
    I sent Jackson a cold look. “It wanted to
help me. To give me back my life.”
    He flinched, loosening his grip. “And if you
believe that, you’re no better than Catherine. You asked for my
help, so listen to me when I say nothing that thing offers will
come without a price. A price you cannot afford to pay.”
    “How do you know this?”
    “Because it is what controlled Catherine.”
Jackson shook his head. “You must be careful. I learned once it is
often the sweetest, prettiest bloom that is the most deceitful, the
one carrying the most deadly toxins.”
    I scowled. The warm glow from my visions was
still too fresh for me to let go of. Jackson didn’t need to hear
about how my curiosity had only been piqued. I had to be cautious.
Once he heard I actually harbored intentions of contacting this
entity again he’d probably lock me up and throw away the key.
    “This one is male,” I muttered. “Different
than what I’ve seen before.”
    “There are two,” he shared grudgingly. “A
male and a female. The one you just experienced feeds off a
spirit’s will, offering irresistible temptations. It needs a host,
such as what Catherine provided with your stepmother. It must be
searching for another since she succeeded in taking your body.
These beings are old.” His voice trailed off at the last part.
    “Older than you? I mean, were they here
before Catherine’s family?” I tried to digest the fact some creepy
soul sucker had been plaguing my ancestors possibly since the
beginning and just offered to fix all the wrongs in my life. Maybe
a malicious spirit followed them over from Ireland, where I’d
traced our roots.
    Jackson interrupted my train of