Conjuring Darkness Read online

  “Just checking. I guess you’re straight after all, Lex. I was kind of hoping the rumors were true. I mean if you weren’t then I would have a bunch of questions for you.” Marcie laughed again and walked toward the undisturbed Allie.

  “What!” Lexi cawed. “So now, who is behind this rumor?”

  Marcie continued to stroke Allie’s silky black coat and turned to Lexi. “Who knows? Just look at what other people see when they look at you. You’re never seen with a guy, even though you are hot as hell. You have this subtle mysterious foreign British accent. You have your own business and your own house. Face it, you intimidate the guys around here. So of course, rather than just admitting they are substandard excuses for men, they chose to run their big stupid mouths. Of course that tire changing incident probably has something to do with it also. Remember the way you went all ninja on that guy?” Marcie said as she roared with laughter.

  “How could I forget? I’m sure I’m legendary for my man-hating skills now.”

  “You pepper sprayed him Lex, and kicked his junk all the way to Canada. Legendary is a good word. Legendary ball buster!”

  Lexi remembered the incident that played out shortly after her arrival in town. Her truck had a flat tire, and she found herself stranded on a dark country road. The only light came from the flashlight she placed on the ground. A house was nearby, but was it was dark and quiet and Lexi didn’t think the job required any help. While she was busy working to jack the vehicle up a large shadowy man appeared next to her. He picked up the four way lug wrench that Lexi had left on the ground next to her.

  “You look like you could use a man right about now, little lady.” He said. Lexi turned and was shocked by the menacing appearance of him holding the lug wrench. Instinctively the self-defense training her bother-in-law, Kurt had given her kicked in. She leaned back on one hand, balancing herself on the heel of her bent leg. She lifted her other leg and spun around in a swift sweeping semicircle. Her foot hit the back of his ankle with full force.

  The stranger’s feet flew out from under him as he landed with a grunt. Before he could utter a single curse Lexi had drawn a canister of pepper spray from her bag, and doused him as if she were trying to kill a deadly spider with a can of bug spray. The coup-de-grace was a lightning quick kick to his crotch. In a scene only likely to be watched on a zombie apocalypse movie a woman in an ankle length nightgown ran out of the house, and down the drive toward Lexi. As she neared the car, Lexi noticed the green pasty skin of her face. There was a chorus of children’s screams that followed her like a flock of unseen harpies. They were pleading and begging for his life.

  It became clear to Lexi that the frightening woman had been attempting some sort of badly needed facial, but was interrupted by the commotion outside. She screamed at Lexi, and cursed her as if she were a female demon that she was trying to compel back to hell. The zombie bride gathered her huddled sobbing mass of a crushed husband, and led him back to the house.

  She only turned back once to utter some additional curses to ensure the damnation of Lexi the demon. The children’s pleas had become curses equally as abusive as their mother’s. Her last fading sounds were the orders she screamed at her brood on the porch as she ushered them into the house.

  “But don’t feel too bad,” Marcie continued. “I heard that she threatened him a few times since then. I guess she dragged him out of a bar one night and told him she was going to have that bookstore bitch go crazy on him! So you’ve got all that going for you, Lex.”

  “Don’t worry about me, Marcie. I certainly don’t need a man to get through life, and to be honest, I don’t find them all that entertaining. Take a look at that last date you set me up on. He took me to Mario’s, that trendy new Italian bistro. That was fine, except when the waiter asked if we wanted a cocktail. He started doing tequila shots. TEQUILA SHOTS, Marcie! Who does that at a romantic upscale restaurant? He started to puke for Pete’s sake. I don’t think he ever noticed that I got up and walked out. Thanks, by the way, for picking me up that night.”

  “What are friends for? The list of available guys around here is pretty short. There is one guy you could try out, but from the stories that I’ve heard. Well, let’s just say if you want to get a little from him, you might as well ask for an apology up front and be done with it. Save yourself two minutes of disappointment if you know what I mean. So I guess that just leaves me, baby!” Marcie gave Lexi a quick kiss on her cheek.

  “Oh and don’t forget Yoga class tonight! Be there, or die, or something.” Marcie laughed and headed for the door. Lexi whipped Marcie on her ass with a nearby cat toy wand as she walked away. “If I decide to switch teams you are first on my list, Marcie.” Lexi playfully went along with the theme of her joke, and she watched as Marcie blushed and bounced out the door. “Crazy kid.” Lexi whispered.

  Allie jumped down from her perch and leapt up onto the counter. Her tail wrapped around Lexi’s arm, trying to elicit a gift of treats. Lexi stroked Allie Cat’s furry head. “Marcie knows I am not looking for anything, right? We’re good,” she thought to herself. She knows that trust is really hard for me to grant to anyone. After all, she is one person I have allowed myself to open up to, so I know she gets it. When it comes to love, I may not have any experience or know what to look for, but I sure as hell know what I DON’T want. I’ve seen plenty of examples of that misery. Thank God for Marcie. Even a loner like me, needs a best friend like her.

  Lexi glanced in the mirror behind the display case. She felt comfortable with how she looked. She didn’t often wear make-up or spend too much time with her long locks. She wasn’t self-conscious of her body. She had always had a petite frame, but not bony. She had ample sized breasts and a cute face. The feature she admired most was her emerald green eyes, because they looked exactly like her mother’s. Her only complaint was that at 5’2”, she wished she could be a little taller. Lexi never wanted to be a super-model anyway. She preferred her cute rounded features to the scary sunken faces on those high cheek-boned, collagen lipped things that graced the covers of magazines. She was a little embarrassed when she received compliments, but at least it fueled her self-esteem and she was getting better at accepting them.

  The bells on the door announced a visitor and Lexi turned to see who was coming in. She had seen the delivery man a hundred times before and she always wondered the same thing. He seemed much too old the way he huffed and puffed from address to address. He had the look of someone who wished they were doing something else. Maybe it was retirement he looked forward to. Maybe he resented his superiors that were old enough to be his grandchildren. The old man placed a large brightly colored envelope onto the counter and held up a small palm sized piece of technology. After he punched in some numbers, he held the device out to Lexi for an electronic signature. Lexi noticed that the envelope had been badly torn and was taped together. It had black smudge marks that looked like it had been run through broken machinery and then left on a road to be run over by every delivery truck that was able to move.

  A good opportunity for sarcasm was never wasted by Lexi, “Do you normally destroy the packages before delivering them, or is that an extra charge?”

  “Sorry ma’am. That’s just the way it came to me. You have to sign for it. If anything is damaged, you have to claim it online.”

  “I bet it’s a real handy user-friendly process too.” Lexi mumbled, as she looked at the envelope in front of her, curious to see what this could be.

  She thought briefly about the delivery man again as his truck careened around the corner and down the street. She turned her attention to the badly damaged package. What is this? She thought. The senders name is Kate, but why is this coming from an address in Israel? That’s how lives are completely turned upside down by mailmen and delivery people, complete strangers going about their business, never knowing what they have left behind in their wake. This could be the door to adventure or to a nightmare.

  She yanked the thick paper tab that rip
ped a thin plastic ribbon from the envelope. Lexi reached into the newly ripped opening and fished out a handwritten letter. It had been largely destroyed by what she imagined was some mechanical T-Rex that was on a strict diet of important packages. Along with the letter, there was an index card that had a couple of phone numbers and a brass key taped to the back.

  Hah! The Key to adventure! Lexi set the letter down in front of her and saw that it looked like her sister’s familiar neat handwriting, but the lines seemed skewed. Kate would never have skewed her lines like that, unless she was in a hurry. Lexi flattened it out on the counter and began to read. The mangling machine had damaged the letter so badly that Lexi had a difficult time making out all of the words. Some areas were completely illegible and were at best partial sentences.

  Lexi

  I hate to ask you this but I really have no choice. Right now I’m in Haifa Israel visiting Dr. Jakub Meier, but I am on my way to Turkey soon to do some research at the Gobekli Tepe site. I need some help. I know you are settled in your new place and very busy, but you are the only one I can trust. I need you to go back to our place in Arlington. The key that you have received came off of my key chain and it is for the drawer in Kurt’s old desk at the house. In there, is a notebook that has the contact information and the instructions on how to get a hold of a man named Kidd. Kurt had once told me he is the only person that he could trust outside of the country. He said if any of us ever got into something serious, to get a hold of Kidd. (This part was badly damaged and unreadable) Mr. Kidd will help you.

  Go into the safe in my bedroom closet. I had it set to the same numbers as ALWAYS. Inside, there is a very old coin. That is the thing I need you to bring. Do not let anyone see it. Don’t let anyone know you have it. Take as much cash out of the safe as you need.

  That coin is (unreadable) and you need to (unreadable) Haifa Israel.

  Once you get a hold of Mr. Kidd, you need to have him escort you with the coin (unreadable). We cannot use our cell phones. Remember what Kurt told us about cell phones?

  Kidd. To get ahold of Mr. Kidd. You can only call him from the phone on Kurt’s old desk, because it is secure. Use the instructions that Kurt left in case we ever needed help. Tell him that Kurt said it was time to return a favor. Then (unreadable)

  Book a flight (unreadable)

  That old coin is actually a (unreadable)

  Love you, Sis

  “Christ! Really Kate? You can’t call? Were you drunk or asleep when you wrote this?” Lexi shouted loud enough to call Allie to attention and then she looked at the letter again to check the date. Lexi’s heart started to race when she realized that this letter had been written six weeks ago. She grabbed her cell phone and immediately dialed Kate’s cell. A dozen attempts only brought the same response. “Please leave a message after the tone.” No cell phones? What the hell are you involved in, Kate? “Kurt! Of course! No cell phones.”

  She had always thought Kurt allowed his job to cast a shadow of paranoia over their house. Long before snooping by the NSA became fodder for news outlets and activists, Kurt had told them that if ever they had to hide from someone to never use their cell phones. The new smart phones and tablets with all of their features had been a gift to the NSA, and they exploited them to a greater extent than what the news had even reported.

  Kurt told them that the old land lines had been routinely monitored for decades, so they weren’t any better when it came to keeping secrets. He firmly believed that only securely encrypted satellite communications could be trusted, but only to a point. Oh Kate, you had to go and marry a damn spy. Now he’s gone and I have to go round up another one for you.

  For Lexi, this letter was a call to action. She opened her laptop and booked a next day flight to Washington D.C. with a rental car to be ready at the airport. Her next step was to call Marcie.

  Lexi’s mind was running faster than her mouth could articulate her thoughts. “Marcie, I need you tonight. I mean—I need you to come over, meet me at my place around seven and be sure to bring whatever you need to stay over tonight.”

  “Whoa! Hold on. I thought you knew I was joking around today when I said that leaves just me. Well I-.”

  Lexi cut Marcie’s joking voice off in mid-sentence, “Seriously Marcie, something is happening with Kate. I need to fly back to Virginia tomorrow and I could really use your company at my house tonight. Plus, I kind of need you to take care of Allie Cat for me. Not to mention the store and my house. Please?”

  “Of course Lexi, I’ll be there. See ya at seven.”

  After the call, Lexi thought about Marcie. She realized that Marcie was not just her only friend, but her first true friend. She had always read about friendships like that. Girls that bonded like sisters. It seemed strange, but this was what love felt like. Not in an erotic sense, but in the sense that their lives were becoming intertwined.

  She knew that Marcie also brought something special to her life that she had been missing. She showed her that it was just fine to lighten up and express her emotions. They had met one night right after Lexi had bought the bookstore. Lexi was setting up display racks near the front of her new corner bookstore, when a car flew right past the stop sign at the corner. The car slammed directly into the passenger side of a pickup truck.

  Lexi ran out to the scene while simultaneously hitting the speed dial key for 911 on her phone. Marcie slipped out of the driver’s seat of the truck apparently unhurt, but badly shaken. The driver of the speeding car was instantly killed. Lexi never saw who she was or what she looked like as her body was crumpled and twisted under the wreckage that had previously been the steering column and dash.

  While firefighters and paramedics worked around the badly wrecked car to determine if anyone else had been inside, Lexi sat on the curb with Marcie. She did her best to comfort the sobbing girl, until a paramedic came over and checked on her. Marcie told Lexi that she had just moved to Dillon, just as Lexi had done. Before long Marcie was running the store on the days that Lexi was busy at the college, and on other days she worked as a barista at the coffee shop across the street from the bookstore. To use Marcie’s words, they had literally met by accident and became companions for life.

  The next thing for Lexi to do was to start searching the internet for the place that Kate mentioned, Gobekli Tepe. She had heard about it but knew little about it, other than that it was some sort of ancient ruin site in Turkey. After wading through a plethora of UFO and alien theories that frustrated her internet search, she focused on the type of research her sister would have taken into account. From the peer-reviewed archaeology journals available she was surprised to learn that it had only recently been excavated.

  All of the experts were still trying to learn exactly what Gobekli Tepe was. So far their conclusions were simply speculation, since the original builders left no written text behind and no other historical records of other cultures mentioned this place. Most of the experts seemed to agree that Gobekli Tepe was at one time a cultic center, inhabited by the religious elite of some unknown culture in the ancient Mesopotamian region that went through Iraq, part of Syria, and part of Turkey. There were mystical and sacred items found within the circular walled structures, including large T-shaped stone monoliths that had been covered with carvings of intricately designed animals, as well as what appeared to be sacrificial altars.

  Lexi looked through her inventory list and found a couple of reference books on cultures associated with Mesopotamia. She remembered how her sister would always drone on about the history of the Fertile Crescent and how it was the location of the biblical Garden of Eden. Over the millennia this area was the home to the Sumerians, as well as the Akkadian and the Babylonian Empires.

  After feeling overwhelmed by the sheer volume of information Lexi wished she would have paid closer attention to her sister’s incessant lectures, because she still only had a vague memory of hearing about the region and those cultures. By mid-afternoon, Lexi had her fill of history studies and c
losed her shop. She cradled Allie in her arms, and with a trove of books in her bag, she headed home for the day.

  Chapter Two

  The setting sun cast its magic spell through the window and Lexi’s living room transformed into a mystical place, bathed in orange light that was tinged with rose and purple. The old drab room was her favorite place to lay back on her couch and daydream, like she did when she was just a young girl. She had been transported back in time to an age where one would expect to find a magical fairy in a mystical forest. Her reverie was abruptly shattered as Marcie’s voice called through the front screen door. “Hi Lex, I’m here!”

  “Hey Marcie! Come on in. I’m in the living room.” Lexi invited her to join her on the couch.

  Marcie asked “So what is-.”

  Lexi cut her off. “Just wait, I love these last few minutes of the day.”

  Marcie quietly obliged, until the room darkened. “So, you went home and got stoned?”

  “No, goofball! I have always taken just a little time every day to relax my mind and stop thinking. The best I can anyway. It is sort of hypnotic or trancelike and it seems like it pulls the stress out of my head. I guess I’m just weird like that, but it helps me to focus better.”

  “Alright Lexi. Well, when you’re done hypnotizing yourself, let me know. Then can you tell me what is going on?”

  Lexi went over the events that happened earlier in the day and the mysterious letter that arrived. As Lexi’s best friend, she already knew about Kate and Kurt and had learned the biography of Lexi’s life.

  “What is so mysterious about it, Lex? Think about it. She went off on her research trip, realized that the coin back home was something that might fit in over there and wants you to bring it over. You’re the only other person that can get it from the safe or even go into her house. Am I right? She probably doesn’t trust it to go in the mail and she wants you to come over and do a little sisterly bonding over a pile of old rocks. Hey! Maybe that coin is worth millions or something!”