Read Online Shadow of the Past by Thacher Cleveland - Free Book Online

signs of what was about to come.
    This one had been a doozy. The
specifics were fading fast, but she could see Mark in the center of
it. Just focusing on the details made her shiver, but if she had to
make a guess she figured she’d been shown something that was
coming, not what has happening.
    She got out of bed, put on her robe and
headed for the kitchen. She noticed the time and knew that it’d be
too late to call to make sure he was okay. The last thing she
wanted to do was deal with that ogre of an Uncle that he lived
with. Even when Martha was alive she’d only talked to him a few
times, but it was enough to know that they wouldn’t ever like each
other beyond strained small talk.
    What she needed to do was get something
to drink, take some deep cleansing breaths and get some sleep.
After some focused meditation in the morning she could tell Mark
whatever she could remember about her dream and what she thought
was going to happen.
    The smell of something burning stopped
her in her tracks, hand on the refrigerator door. She wondered for
a second if she’d left the stove on when something peeled itself
from the darkness and grabbed hold of her wrist, crushing it. The
sound of breaking bones echoed through the room and electric
piranhas ran riot up her arm.
    Her wrist twisted upwards, raising her
arm and dropping her to her knees in pain. She looked at the hand
covered in swirling black smoke clamped to her wrist, watching it
swirl and writhe like a living thing. Two points of fire began to
blaze in front of her. She forgot about the pain in her wrist, but
she suddenly remembered her dream and why she had been
screaming.
     
    “I’m here,” he said, kneeling back in
front of the furnace. The fire in his eyes blazed brighter than
before. “I’ve brought it for You.”
    He drew the blade from its sheath.
Drops of blood pooled on its edges, ready to spill to the floor,
but he held them there with sheer force of will. He took the blade
and stuck it gently in the pile of ashes in the furnace’s chamber.
The blood ran down the blade, congealing in the ash.
    After several seconds there was a
rustle in the ashes. The warm breeze was back, joined by the sizzle
and pop of fire trying to spark to life. The flames in him pulled
back, healing his body as fire and smoke rolled down the blade and
into the furnace, feeding and nurturing the newborn
flame.
    There was a rush of warm air and the
fire caught, lighting the basement and filling it with the acrid
smell of burning blood.
    He pulled the blade from the chamber
and slid it back home in the sheath, placing it in front of the
furnace and leaning forward as close as the heat would allow. He
drew a deep breath, taking the aroma into his lungs and savoring
it. He peered into the flames, eyes wide and tears running down his
cheeks from the stinging heat.
    “I see You. And I will make him see you
too, and remember your glory.”
     

Chapter Eight
     
    Mark sprang out of bed like it was
Super Christmas New Years Vacation Field Hockey Skirts for Forever
Day. Better than that, it was Date Day. Not “Gee Whiz Do You Like
Me if So Check This Box” Date Day, but “We Totally Made Out Last
Night and It Was Awesome Let’s Never Stop Doing That” Date
Day.
    He showered and dressed, actually
looking at clothes before putting them on. It seemed like some of
them went better with other ones. He brushed and combed his hair,
debating the placement of each strand as if he were some sort of
hairologist.
    There was a moment, looking in the
mirror, when he felt something turn in his stomach. It shook him
more than the nerves he’d felt last night and he had to grab the
edge of the sink to steady himself. The joy the promise of this day
brought was faltering under the intensity of what he’d remembered
and seen yesterday and now he could feel something else in there,
half remembered and gnawing away at him.
    “Not today,” he said, forcing it back
down in his mind. “Any other day,