The House Ch. 07

"Sir! The woman, she's running in the woods!"

Aaron whirled around, "Where is she?" Aaron asked even as he vanished.

"Follow me!" Henry said.

By the time they got to the spot where Henry had last seen her, Minerva was gone."

"She was just here!" Henry insisted as he looked around. "She was hurt so she couldn't have gone far." he added.

Aaron could hear Dwight as he called out for Minerva and felt a flash of anger that he quickly pushed away. Minerva's safety depended on him remaining in control of his emotions, and he was coming to realize that more than Minerva depended on his figuring out the full extent of his power, but first things first.

Dwight arrived at the same spot where Aaron and Henry stood and looked around. "Minerva!" he called again and took off. Henry went in another direction while Aaron went in another neither of them speaking, unlike Dwight, they wouldn't need for her to respond.

******

Minerva fell but quickly got up, her ankle hurt like a bitch but she had to keep moving. Intellectually, she knew that she had to stop running and wait for Dwight but she couldn't stop. Minerva dug deep to find the will power to stop but she had used up her reserves and kept running until she came into a clearing.

After several minutes, she no longer heard Dwight calling her and she wondered about it, he wasn't that far behind her that he couldn't have caught up with her. She was also noticing the quiet, she was hearing none of the night sounds that she associated with the outdoors, and it also dawned on her that the voices were silent as well.

Minerva looked around her trying to get her bearings but it was too dark to see and it all looked alike to her, she could have come from any direction she realized.

"Dwight!" she screamed at the top of her lungs.

******

"Minerva!" Dwight called out again and waited for a response. "Where are you?" Dwight whispered as he did a slow 360 degree turn. He had almost completed his turn when his eye caught sight of a familiar landmark. It was a tree with an oddly shaped trunk, it had grown over the past twenty-five years but it was the same tree. It marked the entrance to a part of the woods that he had always been afraid to enter; it had always felt evil and dark to him. The other kids always claimed that they never felt anything bad about that part of the woods and went there frequently to partying the large clearing that could hold up to forty people.

The last time he had been here was when he was eighteen, there was going to be a 'pot' party that his then girlfriend wanted to go to. Dwight wasn't into smoking or drinking but Liza his girlfriend had bugged him so badly about it that he relented and told her that they would go. He spent the evening constantly looking around him until finally he left leaving his girlfriend to find her own way home when she refused to leave with him.

He still remembered the feeling that he had as he approached the tree, it was the same as now, fear, anxiety and loathing. He would have preferred to be on the front line anywhere as opposed to being here, he also knew that this was where Minerva had gone, she was in the old party spot.

******

Aaron and Henry stood next to Dwight unseen they had arrived at the spot just after Dwight did. Aaron had never been to this part of the woods although he owned it. Actually, there were plenty of places in his woods that he had no knowledge of and he determined that after this was over, that he was going to change that. Aaron was surprised to feel the fear and anxiety that poured from Dwight and realized that this was a very bad place. Dwight, he realized knew this place and like Dwight, he knew that Minerva was in there somewhere. Whoever or whatever it was that wanted her had claimed this part of his woods and had been there for a very long time. That would explain the power but not how Aaron wasn't aware of its presence.

"Damn it!" Aaron swore as he understood how it could have happened. Until Minerva, he had no interest in the woods and claiming what was his. In his neglect, he had allowed the entity to get a firm hold on this part of the woods and it was going to be difficult to get it out. It also brought up a question, why hadn't it tried to take control of more of the woods?

Sadie appeared next to him and shuddered when she realized where they were.

"Sadie, do you know this place?" Aaron asked hoping that they wouldn't have to do the yes and no questioning."

"Yessir, I does." she replied.

"What is it?" he asked.

"I don't know exactly." Sadie replied. "I jus know it been here for a long time. Some folks are bothered by it and some folks aint."

"Do you know what happened here?" Aaron asked.

"They says that lots of colored people was hung in that clearing' and that it was an Indian burial ground that be inside of it but I don' know if that be true or not. Is your woman in there?" Sadie asked nervously.

"Yes, what did you find out about Millicent?" Aaron asked as he peered into the dark woods where Minerva was.

"Well, the elders give me the power to send her away and they say that I can help you with everything except tellin' you how to be with your woman." Sadie replied.

Aaron looked down at her and gave her a grateful smile, "Thank you and if we don't get Minerva out of there, I may not have a woman to be with." he added grimly.

"Mr. Aaron, one more thing, the man, he can't go in there; he'll die if he do and there won't be anyway to save him."

Aaron looked over at Dwight and then dismissed him.

"Dwight, you are to leave these woods and go to the house. Wait there and do not come back here under any circumstances." Aaron commanded.

Dwight looked around as if trying to locate where the voice had come from but recognized it as Aaron's. He looked back at the oddly shaped tree and took a step toward it.

"Dwight! Leave now!" Aaron said.

Dwight hesitated for a few seconds before turning to walk away.

Millicent watched Dwight walk away and pouted, he would have been such fun to play with but "one must sacrifice!" she murmured to herself as she vanished into the clearing.

******

Minerva stood in the center of the clearing not knowing what to do, she decided that she couldn't be too far from the car but which direction was it? If she started walking and went deeper into the woods, Dwight might not ever find her and what if she fell again? "Another night in these fucking woods." Minerva said as she sat on the ground.

She was totally unaware that as she sat, she was being encircled by various beings and spirits. The master being, a huge muscularly built man stood in front of her and assessed her. He could fully understand why Aaron was so taken by her, she was beautiful, built the way a woman should be built and she had courage.

"Hello Minerva, welcome." he said in her head.