The Traveler (The Traveler Series, #1)

  "Holy cow! How could your great-great-grandmother Clarice turn away from god and go....incredibly dark in her soul? It frightens and amazes me both and I am not afraid to admit it." Jebidiah interrupted his reading before Bethany could try to read the rest by herself.

  "It's actually quite simple honey. She was quite willful and her own person, but when she loved another, she loved with her whole heart and soul, with every cell of her being. Then, to lose Joseph to death due to war, broke her badly even though she had Daniel and her other to help her through the pain and that helped her to barely hold onto this life and the possibility of loving once again. Remember, the effect our statue had on her? Then having her father so coldly dash her dream of finding love by marrying her off to a rich but cruel and if I am right, abusive man so he could have his trophy wife broke what was left of her dreams and hopes and broke her soul. I can understand how he could turn to the only thing that made her feel safe and loved. She also only wanted to protect Daniel, at any cost to herself." Bethany explained to Jebidiah from the heart as she visualized herself in Clarice's shoes and wondered if she could, in a way, remain as strong as Clarice had.

  "Let us read some more. This thing residing in our coal mind has me quite intrigued. I wish we knew when it came to be or where it came from. She hints at it, but says no more." Jebidiah said softly, wanting to figure out the mystery for himself.

  "Ok, let's. Maybe she'll elaborate a small bit more, who knows." Bethany smiled and moved around until she was comfortable once more then laughed seductively when Jebidiah growled deep and low and her movements. When Bethany was finally comfortable and satisfied in driving her husband crazy, he grabbed the journal and opened it to the page he had marked.

  September 29, 1903

  It has begun....

  The dark one has found a way to escape his world and has come fully into ours via the abandoned coal mine shaft within walking distance from John's farm. I sat on my front porch so that I could have a front seat view of the terror. It flew low in front of my house, the bright light from its eyes caress my body and I close my eyes and open my arms to embrace his love as it shined on me. Moments later, it flew off reading my thoughts and flew straight toward my father's house where it completely terrified my father's young and prissy bride.

  If I kept my eyes closed, I could see through his eyes as he ate away at her soul. I could not suppress my cackle of glee as I watched. I admit my souls is as black as night but my son will be safe so it doesn't matter.

  The dark one was shot at by terrified menfolk in town, some of the most respected and prominent men included. I find it hilarious as his life is tied to mine while he's in our world. As long as I live, he can't be harmed, not even by bullets. He truly is bulletproof. He thanked me for his gifts and let me know he fed incredibly well on all of the darker souls in this town. Souls of the so-called prominent and respected men and women, the hypocrites who have no idea that I'm the darkest of them all.

  The dark one stopped by the Clayton homestead. Making sure Daniel is sound asleep, I walk into the woods behind the house but not too far back. I was completely naked and only carried my nightgown with me. I drop it to the ground and walk right into his loving embrace in all my glory. He welcomes me, opening his exquisite large black and smooth bat like wings embrace me and dims the bright light in his eyes so I can peer into his dark and loving soul and see for myself the great love he has for me. His smooth leathery bat like wings embrace my body and pull me close to his hairy chest as he lays his curved beat and horned head upon my shoulder and snuggles me as I lay worshipping kisses upon his hand. He is half human and half 8th realm of Hell's creation. He is capable of enjoying the pleasures between male and female. I wrap my legs around his waist just under his wings as his body connects with mine in perfect pleasure as he takes over my mind. He allows me to see him as the most beautiful of men and made it so real that his appearance becomes that of a human man, the most exquisite one I have ever seen as he worshipped my body and I worshipped his as we made love under the clear night sky and under lush treetops.

  When we were done, he left to go and feed his mate and I, fully sated and loved, dressed and returned to the homestead long before John came back. I made myself a bed in Daniel's room and slept peacefully in there all night. John can't enter Daniel's room without my permission. Every time he tries, he becomes severely confused and walks away.

  The dark one, through his loving, healed all of my grievous injuries that John has inflicted recently upon my body in his deviancy. I can't wait until tomorrow to hear how terrified everyone was in town and just how crazy they will sound.

  September 30, 1903

  Word of mouth along the gossip mill travels faster than any newspaper. I so enjoyed going into town with Daniel to get supplies only to see everyone cowering around. It brought me incredible joy as those whose souls were eaten, were a bit confused as they recited all their tales. Tales that were highly embellished! I was surprised that news reporters arrived from surrounding areas so quickly. I, of course, had nothing to say to them. It only puts a small cinch in my plans but together, Sarafina and I will run them out of town before nightfall and have them back on their ways home.

  As the mayor, my husband held a town meeting. He ordered every light in every light pole be left burning all night long and that every light in every home be left burning through the night as well to scare the monster away. How little they know, it will only anger him further and the more angry he gets, the more of their souls he will eat! For me, it will only increase the pleasure we will share when he's done each night with his feeding. I may ask the dark one for a ride through the sky just once. I wish to feel his animalistic body beneath mine as well as his power. I know he can spell Daniel for me to keep him asleep through the night and safe from harm.

  I had to force myself not to laugh outright at these people who still believe the lights burning will keep them safe from the dark one. After tonight, they will know differently. My sweet Daniel played on my lap blissfully unaware and uncaring. He is my precious loving and happy baby boy.

  Later that night....

  I once again sat on my porch and rocked in the nude, my eyes closed as the dark one ate happily away as he overfilled himself tonight and me, well, I had one heck of a good laugh. My favorite parts from tonight were first, Dr. Alcott. The dark one's bright eyes woke him up from a deep sleep as the dark one perched on the window sill. Doc thought he was half human and half beast with bat's wings. He believed the light was from a horn on his head. The heavenly scent of burning coal and hellfire that belongs to the dark one brought the old Doc to the point where he passed out. Not that he would admit to it, to anyone.

  Ah, then he visited my father at the bank. He was in his office just as I told the dark one he would be. My dark lover promised to scare him a bit more than usual for me. I loved watching it happen! My father, Peter Dunn, the worst hypocrite of them all, was working on accounts in his office at the Van Meter Bank, which he owns. The back entrance unlocked itself thanks to Sarafina's dark magic. The dark one stomped around the bank terrifying my father.

  Father loaded his shotgun with badly shaking hands while the dark one was approaching him. The dark one screeched so loudly he blew out one of father's ear drums making him half deaf and mad with fear. Father attempted to shoot my dark lover at point blank range. the shot affecting him non and served to make him even more angry. My dark lover nearly ate all of my father's soul. He left him only enough soul to allow his descent into a dark and crazed form of insanity. It was only a matter of time before he was shipped off to the county poor farm/insane asylum. His prissy young new wife is doomed either way. His little wife has no idea that when he dies or is court ordered to the poor farm, either way, she will be penniless. Everything was left to Daniel in his will. He'd never changed it and now he'd be too insane for any court to allow him to try now.

  When my dark lover was overly full, he once again met me in the woods having sensed my
desire to fly. I climbed on his back and then he flew us high in the sky for a spell before returning and making beautiful love. I know he is my true soul mate and I yearn for him every moment we are apart, so in love with him, am I. He promised the next night to do the same to John and yet worse for his harming me again. John will not live much longer and soon Sarafina will raise Daniel and help him with his traveler gifts and raise him as I always planned to. He will be well loved and cared for. They will raise him in my father's house, where he was always most happy.

  October 2, 1903

  Half the town's people appear to be suffering what some are calling mass hallucinations due to something in the water. The newspapers, far and wide are having a heyday with the story as some believe and some ridicule. The storylines in the newspapers include, "This monster like a maniac's dream," "Giant winged monster terrorizes small Iowa town of Van Meter," "Monster of awful form," and "Truth or mass hallucination?" They were all quite entertaining and fantastical as the townsfolk greatly embellish what really happened so as to save face.

  October 3,1903

  This is the last night my dark lover can enter our world. He will bring his mate to meet me briefly before they separate for the night to feed. She will head to the next town while he finishes with our town and my husband John especially.

  He left the shaft of the coal mine early as I warned him through our connection that some of the menfolk from town planned to camp out at the base of the coal mine shaft and would stay there and armed until they killed him. This caused my dark lover and his mate to leave earlier than usual. I met with and embraced his mate. She poured love into my dark soul as well.

  Before they returned to their world, they both fed on John's soul until only a sliver remained. As he silently screamed for life, I made sure he knew as he lay dying that he knew I was the one behind it all. Then I laughed in his face having gotten my payback on the bastard. He would die childless and my son would become the richest man in Van Meter. Everyone will have to answer to my son! I wish I could live to see it but the dark one has confirmed I will die young. I am not afraid to die. I know my soul will be reunited with my dark lover and his mate in the Eighth realm of Hell.

  When the dark one and his mate returned to their realm at dawn, the cowardly menfolk boarded up the old abandoned coal mine as if he could still return to our world.

  October 4, 1903

  That little bastard had a visitor before he died today, one that took a letter to the court. Sarafina ran over here to warn me that I was being declared insane and possessed. John claimed to have seen me with my dark lover in the woods making love and claimed that he saw me riding on the dark one's back. Sarafina's husband is at court disputing the charges but I gather all paper documents that she will need, to care for David and see to his future. She has been told where my mother's jewelry is and will take control of this journal and see to John's burial. I now sit and await my fate at the hands of these hypocrites. Next thing, they will be calling me a witch a well as possessed.

  October 5, 1903

  Clarice Dunn Clayton, beautiful friend and loving mother was taken by the police wrongly and without any trial to the insane asylum today. Daniel lives with my husband and I now.

  Sarafina Black

  October 1, 1913

  It is with great sadness that I write the final entry in my best friend's journal. The dark one predicted it would happen and through visits over these past years, Clarice knew this as well and made peace with it bravely. But, I never will. I will curse the Doctor who killed my best friend. Clarice was murdered this morning by the Doctor who felt she was insane and possessed. He went against our wishes and without us knowing, he preformed electroshock therapy only or so he claimed. Clarice did have marks from a lobotomy as well even if they deny it. She died five hours after the procedure was complete. One day Daniel and his descendents will keep the pact alive and will feed the dark one in honor of his mother.

  Bethany flipped through the rest of the journal's blank pages only to find there were two pages at the very end containing a letter to her? There is no way in Hell that's possible! She decides to read the very last entry herself.

  August 1, 1973

  Dearest Bethany,

  My beautiful great granddaughter. I wish I was able to talk to you in person, just once, before I give you this message of foreboding and warning. This life you have is not meant to be, not as it is now anyway. I watched you born and your childhood years. Just as the journal allows the traveler to travel into the past, the dark one can allow us glimpses into the future. I have had enough glimpses to know this life you are building with Jebidiah Cole does not end well sweet girl, not if you continue on the path you are on now.

  Your soul mate, Jebidiah, while you have given him the gift of the future, he is not a traveler and therefore cannot remain in your world for long before the universe rights itself again. The universe does feel the break you made in it and you will also be punished for it Bethany. At the end of this journal is a newspaper clipping if my son has not hidden it from you. It details the horrific car accident you both will die in at the end of the summer in 2014.

  Now, not all is hopeless my dear. I spent my whole life to find out the truth and now that I have I will hide this journal from my son Peter so he can't stop your destiny as it must be. Peter has read this journal but, he knows nothing of my letter in here to you and for that I am grateful. I know if he had, he would have burned this journal long ago. I, on the other hand, fell deeply in love with you, sweetie, from the moment I first laid eyes on you. I would rather you live a long life in a different time period than die after a short one in this life. You see, as a traveler you can move backward in time without ripping into the universe but, your soul mate is not one and therefore he cannot move forward without ripping into the universe.

  Contained within the last entry of this journal is a dark and dangerous path. Should you choose to take it, it will mean a long and fulfilled life for yourself and for your soul mate Jebidiah but it is not without great sacrifice. The dark one can be trapped in the past with my mother at the insane asylum and eventually killed by the townsfolk in her time as should have been done back then.

  This will require you to appeal to his sense of grandiosity by allowing him to read the journal entry where mother speaks of loving him and making love to him the first time. The pages are cursed in such a way that when he and he alone reads them, he will be transported back in time and trapped with mother. Do not leave the journal behind! Then get out of there as fast as you can before his mate realizes what happened and comes after you.

  Once that is done you only have two days before it will be too late for you to travel back in time with Jebidiah to his time where he belongs to the last moment you were there.

  Your life with Jebidiah will not be the modern one you are used to but you will become part of it immediately after you burn the two journals. There and in that time you will be able to have a long life full of love at his side and a large family, my beautiful great-granddaughter.. If you do not, you will both die due to the dark one's influence at the end of your summer. Take what you have learned in your modern world and use it to your advantage and build up wealth for your own descendents to be well cared for one day and enjoy your lives. Take a day or two to think it over first because once you are in the past, our line from myself to your parents will cease to exist to repair your going back in time, this is the sacrifice I spoke about and it is a great one. Your parents and sister or the chance to have a long life with your soul mate. Choose what is best for you sweetheart. Your family will be born again just into a different line with a different family and you will have never existed.

  With all my love, I beg your forgiveness for my mother and for her poor decisions that have placed you in this predicament you are in now. I will always love you, Great Grandfather Daniel Clayton.

  P.S. ~ When you reach the past and Jebidiah's time, make sure you burn those journals immediately into as
h so they can never be used again or all will unravel the fabric of time and space.

  Bethany and Jebidiah both sat speechless, not knowing what to say after reading all of that. She is skeptical and almost believes that her great-grandfather went crazy just as his mother did before him. Out of pure curiosity, she looks to the back of the journal and finds a hidden pocket under the back flap. Inside it, there is indeed a newspaper clipping of some sort.

  "I'm afraid to open it Jebidiah." Bethany said barely above a whisper as the hand that held it shook badly.

  "Go ahead my love, I am here with you....always. No matter what you decide, live or die, I am blessed to have had this time with you." Jebidiah said and she felt tears fall onto her hair from his beautiful eyes. "For better or worse we are in this together forever more." He whispered in her ear when she hesitated.

  Bethany lifted the newspaper clipping closer to her face and allowed the journal to fall to her lap. Her heart pounded in her chest, chills of fear raced up and down her spine, her hand felt like ice and the resulting silence around them was deafening in itself. The only noise, is the crinkling of newspaper as her hands shook even more fiercely while she unfolded it slowly and carefully.

  Bethany is unable to contain her gasp of fear when she sees the headline and the images of the crash as well as their engagement photo right there in black and white. The clipping slipped right out of her hands as she began to hyperventilate. Hearing about it and seeing it in print was two vastly different things. But before Jebidiah can pick it up to look at it, Bethany grabbed it and clutched it to her chest.