Free Harvest by Steve Merrifield Page A

instantly
understood the feeling: Emily had been on this spot and she had
seen something that night – something that had caught her interest
then terrified her.
    It took all of Rachel’s
control not to scream, not at the feeling she experienced, but at
what was there with her – somehow within the residue of emotions
from that night something was looking back into her mind.
    It dragged
its presence through her head like glass raking her flesh as it
reached into her.
    The attack tore viciously at
her psyche sending her reeling, staggering to one side. The instant
she left the space that had been indicated by Claire’s mum and Amy,
the emotions and the presence were gone.
    Emily had been on this
spot, moments before she had disappeared. Someone else had been
there too. Yet Rachel thought that to call it a person wasn't
right; it wasn’t a “someone”, but a “some thing” ’. Whatever “It” was, and whatever had happened, Amy had
seen it all.
    In her lifetime, Rachel had
sensed more spirits than she could count or recall, even those
spirits whose humanity had been whittled away by their torment and
anger, but she had never experienced anything like the “thing” she
had just encountered. Whatever it was, it was powerful, like a
thundering avalanche of raw undeveloped emotion. There was also no
language to the thoughts. It had been animal-like. Purely
primal.
    It had felt
malevolent... Evil.
    “ You
got something didn’t you!” Claire leaned close and looked about her
as if she too would see something, some new clue that had been
imperceptible until Rachel had unlocked it. “What did you
see? Is she...”
    Claire’s words trailed off.
Rachel knew what Claire couldn’t ask but longed to know. Rachel was
glad to have set her boundaries, for the detachment she had felt
from the doll told her that Emily’s connection to this world had
ended. She couldn’t find her words or gather herself from her
experience and was relieved at the stupor she found herself in.
Claire’s face sharpened into concern at Rachel’s bloodless
appearance. Rachel’s focus widened as the numbness of the shock
subsided and she became aware of a cold clammy veil on her body,
and her arms and her legs became rooting weights. She allowed
Claire to support her arm and guide her stumbling feet down the
hall into the lounge.
    Despite being seated,
Rachel swayed slightly and Claire embraced her to support her. The
care and intimacy of the action left Rachel uneasy considering the
knowledge she had about her daughter but couldn’t share. “I’m sorry, Claire.” She decided to
escape with a broad truth. “I couldn’t get any idea of
what happened.” Rachel felt Claire’s arm slide from her
shoulder as she moved to crouch at her feet, but any relief at
being free of Claire’s kind gesture was short lived.
    Rachel knew from what
Claire had said that the phenomenon had occurred around Amy after
Emily’s disappearance. Rachel now knew from her experience that
something unnatural had been present during Emily’s disappearance. Did the connection indicate a pattern? Did that mean this
wasn’t over? Did that mean Amy wasn’t safe, and might share her
sister’s fate? They were questions that she couldn’t share with the
family yet she imagined they were also Claire’s fears and
nightmares.
    If Claire’s idea that it was a spirit that had “taken” the child were to be
believed, then how was it possible? Where had she gone? Rachel’s
defiant inner self was riled, how could “it” be stopped from doing it again? Rachel shrugged off her fear and anger for Amy’s safety, what
Claire believed went against everything Rachel understood. It bordered on Hollywood
fiction – if not the beliefs of insanity.
    “ I
think you were right, something was here with Emily,” Rachel
reluctantly and diplomatically conceded before the tug-of-war in
her head could drag her in another direction. “I can’t say what
happened that night. I don’t