The Fine Line Book One Between Worlds Series (35 page)

“
You’re not going to do
this to me now,” she whispered. “You know what’s coming.” She heard
nothing in response. She continued, “You’re not going to beat me.
With the help of my Creator, I’m going to get through
this.”

The room temperature stabilized again. It
felt like progress to her. The entity didn’t attack her this time,
so she stood up and looked in the mirror unsure what might stare
back at her.

She heard Matt coming up the stairs. He
stood in the doorway smiling. She turned to look at him. He wore a
pair of dark washed boot cut jeans, his leather flip flops, and a
burgundy v-neck t-shirt; casually handsome.

“
You look awesome,” she
said as she put a necklace on.

“
You always look awesome,”
he complimented as he walked to her. He reached out for her and
brushed her hair away from her neck, offering a sweet
kiss.

They spent their evening at the movies and
afterward at a sports bar. They were able to leave the perils of
the home just for a few hours to enjoy being in love. The escape,
although short lived, gave them an appreciation for the way things
once were.

When they arrived home, the kitchen door
stood open. Matt grabbed his gun out of his truck. “You stay here,”
he said as he pointed at Robin.

“
No. You’re not leaving me
in here,” she protested.

“
What if someone is in
there?” he whispered.

“
Matthew, you and I both
know that there’s no one in the house; it’s toying with us.” Matt
still had his gun in his hand moving quietly through the house,
Robin following closely behind. Again, the dining room chairs were
turned upside down. The pots and pans had been taken off of the
wrack and put on the island. The lights were flashing on and off as
they continued walking through the house.

Matt had moved the study downstairs into the
parlor. To prevent anymore destruction of pictures and frames,
Robin had purchased digital picture frames. One had been sitting on
Matt’s desk, but now lay in pieces on the parlor floor. They looked
at each other blankly.

“
Matt,” she began, “I need
to ask you something.”

He put his gun on his desk and began
cleaning up the mess.

“
What do you need to
ask?”

Robin crouched down with him making her best
effort to help him clean up.

“
I am going to start the
cleansing tomorrow. I need Olivia’s help to do it. Because she can
communicate with the spirits, I know she can help the three that
are trapped here move on. I know she can’t deal with the demon, but
I just know she can help the others.”

Matt shook his head. “You know how I feel
about that. I don’t want her in the middle of this. She’s still a
child.”

“
Matt, she has a
gift.”

“
What if she gets hurt?”
he asked.

Robin grabbed his hand and her eyes met his.
“You know how much I love her. I’m never going to teach her to be
afraid.”

“
I don’t want her to ever
be afraid,” he agreed.

“
While we’re doing the
cleansing, if you see something or feel something that makes you
uncomfortable, we’ll stop.”

“
The whole damn thing
makes me uncomfortable.”

“
I’ve researched cleansing
very well. I feel like we can do this part without the
investigators.”

He still needed convincing.

“
Please let us try this,”
she pleaded. “I don’t want to move. I want to stay here with
you.”

Fervently he looked into her gentle brown
eyes.

“
I trust you. You know
that.”

“
Then let us do
this.”

Unable to respond verbally, he only
nodded.

****

The next day, after Olivia arrived home,
Matt and Robin decided to talk to Olivia about the plans first.
They sat at the dining room table.

“
I already know,” Olivia
said.

“
Know what?” Matt
asked.

“
I know you need my help
to send the three ghosts into the light.”

“
How did you know
that?”

“
I just know,” she
answered.

Robin looked at Matt.

“
Olivia, are you okay with
this?” Matt asked.

“
I can talk to them and
help them leave, but the scary one… I can’t do that.”

“
We’re not asking you to
deal with that,” Robin said clearly.

“
Can we do this now? I
want to go back to play with Amanda at the O’Bryan’s.”

Both Robin and Matt realized that even
though she possessed the discernment of an adult, she wasn’t one.
Childhood activities were still a priority for her, which was
exactly how they wanted it.

Robin walked to the kitchen and grabbed the
sage, a lighter, and a feather. She asked Matt to open the windows
in the house. She walked into the family room with the sage
burning. She used a feather to spread the sage through the air
hoping to release the spirits in the home.

Robin explained the ritual. She also
explained that if and when they were able to get rid of the demon
she would cleanse the house again but would spread salt on the
land.

Robin looked at Olivia as they stood
quietly. “Can you call them?”

Olivia nodded. “I don’t need to. Emma is
already here.”

Nothing in the room changed. The temperature
remained constant.

“
She says she doesn’t want
to stay long because she’s afraid of it.”

“
Tell her she doesn’t need
to be afraid,” Robin encouraged.

“
She can hear you. She has
always heard you. She really likes you because you remind her of
her mom. She was really sad when Bryan died, too. She said that she
has been very scared.”

Robin nodded. Olivia took over as Robin
continued spreading the sage throughout the room. “Emma,” she said
softly, “you need to go to the light. You’ll be safe there.”

It was quiet for a moment as Matt and Robin
observed. Olivia shrugged. “She says she’s still afraid.” She
continued talking to the little spirit girl. “Emma, the light is
where you need to go.”

Olivia smiled. She nodded. “She sees her mom
and dad.”

Robin’s eyes filled with tears.

“
Go to your family Emma.
They miss you,” Robin interjected.

“
She says she misses them,
but she will miss us, too.” Olivia turned her attention back to
Emma. “You don’t belong here; not anymore. You need to be with your
family. You need to be at peace.” She looked back at Robin and Matt
with a smile across her lips. “She says she is going.” Olivia
turned slightly to the left. “Bye Emma. I’m glad you were my
friend. I will miss you a lot.”

She waived at the empty space in the room.
After a pause, she said.

“
She’s gone.”

Tears ran down Robin’s face as she continued
with the ritual. They moved about the house together. When they
walked outside, Olivia stopped. She stood on the porch
motionless.

“
There’s a woman here. She
says she wants to go, too.” Olivia nodded. “Yes, that light is for
you. You can go.” There was a pause. Olivia smiled. “I’ll tell
them.”

Olivia turned to Robin and Matt.

“
She says she is sorry for
scaring both of you. She said she just wanted to be close to
people. She said Mr. Sims promised her everything would be okay,
but he lied. She said she stayed because he wouldn’t let her go
into the light.”

“
What about Sims? Where is
he?” Matt asked.

“
Sims won’t come to me,”
Olivia replied.

“
What do you mean?” he
asked.

“
He’s in the basement. He
won’t come.”

“
We’re going to the
basement,” Matt insisted.

Robin and Matt followed Olivia to the
basement. They stood in the middle of the basement.

“
Mr. Sims,” Olivia
started, “I can see you. I can help you.”

Robin and Matt continued watching, awestruck
by the divine gift Olivia displayed.

“
He says you know all
about him,” she continued. “He says that he’s done so many bad
things that he’s afraid he will be punished in the
light.”

“
He has to leave,” Matt
said sternly. “We don’t want him here anymore.”

“
He sees the light. He
says he doesn’t want to see what is there. He says he is sorry for
everything he’s done to those women and to us. He says that the
dark thing took over his mind.”

Matt just stood silently.

“
Mr. Sims,” she continued,
“there is peace in the light. No… you have to go. This is not your
house anymore.” She sighed. “If there’s judgment, then that’s
something you’ll have to face… Leave now…”

Silence fell and then Olivia said,

“
He’s gone.”

After Olivia confirmed that the spirits were
gone, Robin sprinkled salt in the corners of each room. She then
walked outside letting the breeze carry the sage across the land.
Afterward, she salted each corner of the property.

Finally, the three roaming spirits found
peace. Still, a greater problem existed and the Gregory family
needed help facing it head on. The dark entity still occupied the
house.

For Robin and Matt, the fine line Richard
spoke of had never been clearer for either of them. It became
evident how blurred the barriers were between this world and the
next. The fine line between the afterlife and this earth; between
spiritual things and non-spiritual things; all of these dividers
seemed to be easily conquered with faith.

Matt impatiently waited on Jennifer’s call.
Weeks had passed since the investigation. He sat in his office
contemplating everything that had happened. All this time he
believed there could be nothing more than this life; there could be
no heaven, no hell; nothing. He realized how wrong he had been. He
still wasn’t completely convinced of things, but he certainly
believed there was some kind of hell because at times he felt like
he had been living in it.

Matt looked through his wallet for the
business card from the Ghost Hunters. Before he found it, his phone
vibrated in his pocket. He looked down at the touch screen. It was
Jennifer. “This is Dr. Gregory,” he answered.

“
Dr. Gregory. This is
Jennifer with Midwest Ghost Hunters.”

“
I was wondering if we’d
ever hear from you again,” he responded curtly.

“
I apologize for the
delay, but the minister I needed to track down was on a missionary
trip. He returned this past weekend. I discussed your situation
with him and he has agreed to come to your home.”

“
Good. When can we do
this?” he asked anxiously.

“
He said he can come
tomorrow if you like. The team is going to video record the
exorcism.”

“
That’s fine. I just want
this over with so we can get on with our lives.”

“
We will also work on
getting rid of the other three spirits.”

“
That’s already been dealt
with,” he continued. “My daughter took care of that.”

“
That’s wonderful!”
Jennifer exclaimed.

That evening after dinner and after Olivia
went to bed, Robin and Matt sat on the porch swinging. The couple
remained quiet, holding hands. Matt peered over at Robin. Behind
her, he could see into the living room. Standing in the window was
the large black entity. He turned his body toward it. He saw what
he perceived to be its face with red, glowing, hate-filled eyes.
The darkness started taking shape. The solidification caused more
concern.

“
You can’t have her,” he
blurted out.

Robin jumped.

“
What?”

“
She has more faith than I
could ever have and that’s why you hate her. I won’t let you steal
my wife.”

“
It’s here isn’t
it?”

He nodded.

****

Jennifer and the team arrived at 4:30 p.m.
the next day. Cameras, video equipment, and wires ran throughout
the house. Pastor Dean Williams walked into the home and when he
did, Matt and Robin felt the tension building.

The Pastor wanted to walk through the home
first. Jennifer followed him. The others waited patiently in the
living room.

After the walk-through, everyone was asked
to come upstairs to the former study. The couch that once sat in
the parlor seated 4, so Matt, Olivia, Robin, and Jennifer sat
there. The others stood at different places about the room. The
pastor smiled as he began the ceremony.

“
The gospel of Mark talks
about the incredible miracle of Jesus and how he cast out a legion
of demons from a man who was possessed. The demons struggled
against the authority of Christ, but they could not win. The Bible
teaches us that ‘Greater is he that is in you,’ and what this means
is that if we have faith, that faith takes control of us and we
don’t need to be fearful. The spirit and the authority of God is
much greater than any demon. We are taught to pray with authority
and submit ourselves to the Lord. We are told to resist the devil,
and he will flee. Let us pray.”

Everyone bowed reverently. Matt felt
completely out of his element. He didn’t know what to think or do.
Instead of listening to the pastor’s prayer, he said a prayer of
his own:

Dear God or Creator or whoever you are, I
don’t know what all of this means. I don’t understand any of it.
Here I am an educated man and everything this guy just said is
foreign to me. But I need your help. We need your help. If you are
real, please help us beat this. Help us win against whatever is
here. Please. I am begging you to help us.