Ambergris: A Firestorm at a Midnight Mass

The post-funeral condolences from visitors continued well past dinnertime. The guests gradually filtered out of the house as the evening wore on. Around ten o'clock, Grey and Amber made a show of leaving for the few remaining guests. Noticing that they were being followed, Grey continued on to the hotel. After pulling into the lot, their follower disappeared down a side road leading to Red Lake Hunting Lodge. Free of their tail, Grey left the motel lot and headed back toward the town. Out of sight of the house, he turned down a gravel road that led to a field behind the farmhouse. He parked the SUV and waited while Amber slipped back into the house.

The last of the guests to leave were the mayor and his wife, the sheriff and his wife, and the minister and his wife. The minister's wife hesitated at the door for a moment before begrudgingly saying goodbye. "I'll come by in the morning to check up on things," she yelled from the bottom of the porch steps. Then she slipped into the car next to her husband while the Lawrences waved goodbye. Once the house was clear of visitors, Amber let Grey know that it was safe to approach the house.

"Thank you for letting us stay with you," Grey said while nodding to David Lawrence.

"We could use the extra help," Lisa replied, "especially with Michael being so frightened of his gift."

"Your mother Isabel has been helping him accept that he is different," Amber stated.

"My mother has been dead for nearly ten years. She died around the time that Michael was born."

"Which is why she is tied to him," Amber explained.

The last six people to leave the Anderson house gathered at the church in the center of town. Five paths crossed the circular green forming a pentagram with the church located in the middle. The six people put on black robes and formed a circle at the altar. Candles had been lit to cast a glow within the church while the six started a chant that was barely a whisper but gradually rose in volume.

The house had settled in for the night with David and Lisa sleeping in the primary bedroom, Grey taking residence in the guest room, and both Isabel and Amber watching over Michael. A few hours later, the entire house was awakened by Michael screaming. Amber rushed to his bed and hugged the frightened child. Placing her hands on his cheeks, she looked into his eyes and watched the horror that had awakened him replay. "You will forget what you have seen. Go back to sleep. Children need their rest." Michael calmed down and did as he was told.

Lisa entered the room at the moment Amber wiped the vision from his mind. "What did you do?" she demanded.

Amber smiled, but Isabel answered for her. "She took away his horror so that he could rest. She will deal with whatever disturbed his rest." She turned to Amber. "Won't you, dear?" Amber nodded in reply.

Lisa's jaw dropped. "Mother?" she stammered.

"Stay with him until he falls back to sleep. I need to talk to David and Grey." Amber walked outside the room into the hall where the two men stood. "I need the two of you to thoroughly lock down the house. Every window, every door must be shut and locked if possible. Leave no way in. I'm going to deal with what the boy saw." And with that she faded away.

Amber arrived at the motel several minutes before midnight. With Fred's help, she was able to locate the center of the lot on which the motel was located. Standing on the heart of the property, she raised her hands above her head and started her own steady chant. Fred watched her slowly turn with each recitation as a shield formed around her and gradually expanded outward. By midnight, Amber's shield had expanded to cover the whole of the lot the motel stood upon and much of the surrounding woods. The recitation at the church of the Lord's Prayer had strengthened the protection around the village.

Across Red Lake stood Red Lake Lodge, a local hunting lodge, where a group of hunters had also been chanting. Two of the hunters had stayed at the motel the same night that Amber and Grey had been there. They had also attended the burial service and gone on to the house. As midnight approached, the hunters directed their chant against the motel. For a brief moment, a sudden flash of light surrounded the motel, then vanished as Amber's shield bounced the spell back to its source.

When Amber returned to the house, all eyes were pressed against the windows watching the flames lick at the night sky. The night sky lit up when the spell hit the lodge. The flames generated by the fire imp were massive. Volatile gasses exploded out of their tanks from the heat of the fire. The six in the church stopped their prayer chant when the concussions from the fire struck the church, rattling the stained-glass windows. The mayor and sheriff made calls to the volunteer firefighters in the village. It happened so quickly that the hunters inside the lodge were unable to escape the ensuing fire. By the time the firefighters from Red Lake Village were able to respond, there was nothing left of the lodge except smoldering ashes and thirteen charred bodies arranged in a circle.

 . 

Ambergris: A Night at a Motel

The Wayside Inn was a small motel just down the road from the diner. It had ten rooms, three of which had been rented out for the night. Grey parked the SUV beneath the carport in front of the rental office and went inside. The night manager had just handed him the room key when Amber entered. "I thought I told you to wait in the car," he said without turning to face her.

"I'm bored," she said while looking over some brochures advertising local attractions. "And I'm hungry."

"You just ate," Grey stated. "Now get back in the car. I have our room key. You can watch television." Turning to the night manager, he intoned, "Please tell me there's a TV in the room. It's one of the few distractions that keep her out of trouble." The night manager nodded and Grey smiled, "Thank you."

Grey sighed with relief when he settled into the driver's seat. "You should not have gone in there. There's something about the night manager. I can't quite put my finger on it."

Grey backed the SUV into the space in from of room 106 and shut off the engine. He opened the hatch and grabbed the bags while Amber opened the door from inside the room. While he placed the luggage on the racks provided, she plopped down on the bed closest to the door. By the time he was done using the bathroom, she was sound asleep. He pulled the quilt off his bed and covered her with it before going outside for a walk.

Rooms 108 and 109 had been rented out to the hunters. Both men were busy preparing their guns for the early morning hunt while a porn movie played in the background. The men had decidedly different tastes when it came to sexual fantasies. Grey smiled. He wondered if Room 108 knew that Room 109 was into gay porn. Not that it mattered. After confirming that Room 110 was vacant, he started to walk back toward the rental office. Along the way, he checked in on his sleeping partner.

Grey stopped at Room 103. He was tempted to knock, but couldn't think of a good reason for doing so. He pressed his ear against the window to the room and listened. What he heard convinced him that they were busy making their own porn and he moved on. He stood for several minutes outside Room 101. The front windows had been painted black. He walked around to the back of the building. The bathroom window had also been painted black. A square of plywood had been jammed against the window where a corner of the glass had been broken. Grey walked down the length of the building, quickly examining each bathroom window as he walked past. Satisfied that the motel was relatively secure, he went back to his room.

In the early morning hours, Grey startled awake from a noise outside. He rose from the chair where he had slept and ran outside. "If I were you, I'd put her down - gently - and apologize."

"I caught this creature leaving the room. Who knows what mischief she was up to." The night manager slowly lowered Amber to the ground and loosened his grip around her neck.

Amber smiled. "Apology not necessary. I was just making sure that nothing had snuck into the adjoining rooms. The couple are all nicely tucked in. No sign of trouble, just the seem sense of foreboding. I don't think their trouble is here, despite Freddy being a bloodsucker."

"Freddy?" Grey turned to the night manager.

"Freidrich Miller," the night manager replied.

"I take it you live, so to speak, in Room 101 during the day?"

"I also don't prey on my guests," he replied.

Amber stared at the mist rolling out of the forest. "I may have spoken too soon." Her amber eyes focused on a large shadow hidden in the mist. "What is that?"

The night manager laughed. "That is an old friend, a shadow-walker."

"I feel like I've fallen into a children's game." Amber sang, "One of these things is not like the others..." 

"...One of these things just doesn't belong." Grey found himself finishing the lyrics. "That would be you."

A large black bear emerged from the mist. The sound of a pump-action shotgun being cocked drew everyone's attention. Before the owner could fire, Amber was standing in front of him, speaking in a strange tone. "This is a dream. There is no bear. You will go back to your room and put away your gun. Then you will settle into your bed. You will not remember the dream when you wake up. Now go." As the hunter turned and left, the black bear slowly melted into a raven-haired woman. 

"Justine Blackbear owns the motel. I work for her," Freddy explained to Grey. Turning to face Justine, "how was the party?"

"No one died," she sighed before continuing, "I should have left last night. I hate sleeping on a couch." Nodding toward Grey, "who's the day-walker?"

"My name is Grey Walker. And, yes, my last name is actually Walker. I'm a private investigator on my way home, or I was until I got side-tracked. Amber, my companion, sensed that a young couple was in danger."

"Ah, the imp." Justine smiled. "She's one of the good ones?"