By Paula Bianchi –

Emma picked the pendulum book up off the floor and set it down upon her pillow on her bed. She laid the pendulum, she had found lying on the tan carpet, next to it, then, she quickly finished the task of hanging all of Lucy’s jewelry up on the display hooks she had mounted on her bedroom wall.

When Emma was finished, she grabbed the book and pendulum before she plopped down on her bed, crisscrossed her legs in front of her, and began thumbing through the pages. In her left hand, she held the pendulum tightly to her.

Lucy joined Emma on the bed feeling extremely excited by the prospect of finally talking to her daughter. She was loving this new connection she had with her. Leaning in closer, she also wanted to learn how pendulums worked.

Scanning just a short portion of the instructions on how to use a pendulum, Emma impatiently flipped to the page with a picture of a chart to use with the pendulum. The diagram looked like a pie cut into eight pieces by four lines. All of the black lines intersected through a black dot in the center.

The vertical line was labeled ‘yes’ like nodding your head up and down, and the horizontal line was labeled ‘no’ like shaking your head back and forth. Then there were two diagonal lines. The one to the right of the ‘yes’ line was labeled ‘hello’, and the one to the left of the ‘yes’ line was labeled ‘goodbye’.

Lastly, outside of the pictured chart, were two directional arrows. The one to the right, pointing in a clockwise direction, was labeled ‘can’t say’, and the one that pointed counter-clockwise was labeled ‘I love you’.  

Feeling like she was ready, Emma placed the opened book on the bed in front of her. With the thumb and forefinger of her right hand pinching the end of the chain, she dangled the point of the pendulum over the dot in the center of the chart per instructions, but because of her nerves, she couldn’t hold the pendulum still.

Emma quickly adjusted the way she was holding the pendulum by placing both of her elbows on her knees and pinching the chain with her thumbs and forefingers of both hands, below an orange bead.

It worked! The pendulum was completely still as it hung above the dot in the center of the chart.

“Hello?” Emma began. “Mom, are you here?”

This was Lucy’s cue, but she wasn’t quite sure how she was supposed to proceed. She reached out and tried to touch the pendulum, but when it went right through her hand, she noticed that the pendulum moved ever so slightly.

Remembering how she focused her energy to take Justin’s paraphernalia box up into the attic, Lucy began to concentrate on the pendulum. Again, it moved but only slightly.

“Mom, please! I need to know for sure that it was you who left me this necklace.” Emma called out as she fought to hold back the tears that were threatening to fall.

Lucy couldn’t ignore her mothering instincts. She instinctively reached out and placed both her hands-on Emma’s shoulders in an attempt to calm her and connect with her.

“I can feel you, Mom!” Emma exclaimed, as her tears began to trail down her smiling cheeks.

Both mother and daughter felt the tingling sensation of their energies as they mingled together.

All at once, Lucy had an inner knowing of how to move the pendulum. Without letting go of her daughter, she gazed down at the chart and thought, “Hello.”

Suddenly, Lucy could feel her energy coursing down through Emma’s arms, wrists, hands, forefingers, and thumbs. To her amazement, this energy continued down into the chain causing it to quiver and shake all the way down to the pendulum, where suddenly, it began to swing along the ‘hello’ line.

“Oh my God. Hello.” Emma blinked as she tried her best to see through her tears. “Mom, is that you?”

Smiling from ear to ear, Lucy screamed in her head, “Yes!” Slowly, the pendulum changed the direction it was swinging, until, it was swinging along the ‘yes’ line.

“It’s you! I knew I could feel you. Hi, Mom.” Emma said, as she watched the pendulum arc with its swing in a fevered pitch.

Out of nowhere, a dark energy fell upon them. Lucy watched as the pendulum continued to swing along the affirmative line, but she knew she was no longer controlling it. Then, an energy began to materialize between Lucy and Emma causing a deep feeling of oppression in the room.

It was greasy Carl interrupting their mother/daughter moment.

“Get out of here!” Lucy yelled, as she tried her best to get Carl away from her daughter. “You weren’t invited here.” She grunted, with her effort.

“But I was invited.” Carl snickered. “The moment she said, ‘Hello?’, she opened the door for me.” He laughed, pushing Lucy away from Emma.

“What’s happening?” Emma asked, as she noticed the shift of energy in the room. “Are you still here with me, Mom?”

To Lucy’s horror, Carl answered yes.

“Leave her alone!” Lucy dove on him, but he pushed her away without hardly any effort at all.

“Sorry, little lady, but I’m not leaving this time.” Carl insisted.

“You wanna bet.” Lucy stared him down before she yelled, “Ben! Help me!”

Immediately, Ben materialized in Emma’s room, and when Carl saw him, he evaporated into nothing causing the pendulum to stop so abruptly as if it had hit a brick wall.

“What’s going on?” Emma intuitively knew something weird was happening. She slammed the book shut and tossed it across the room, then, she got up and took a few steps to her dresser. Opening the jewelry box that sat on top, she dropped the pendulum in closing the lid behind it.

“Where did he go?” Lucy looked at Ben, praying he would know.

“I don’t know. He can hide like that anywhere in the house, but he can’t stop us from ‘feeling’ him.” Ben explained.

“Can you push him out again?” Lucy asked, hoping with all of her heart that he could.

“I can, but it would have to come as a surprise, or he’ll just disappear whenever he sees me.” Ben said.

Emma turned off her bedroom light, then she leaped into bed as fast as she could and pulled the covers up over her head.

“Well, we both know he’s not in here right now.” Lucy said, with much relief. She turned and looked at her daughter. “I don’t want to leave Emma alone as long as that greasy slime is in this house. Would you mind checking around to see if you can find him?”

“I’d be happy to.” Ben turned to leave.

“Wait.” Lucy stopped him before he could disappeared. “I’ve changed my mind. I want to help you look.” Then, she called out, “Dobson! Ava!”

Within a blink of an eye, they both popped into the room.

“Are you okay?” Ava’s voice was filled with concern as she scanned her surroundings for any sign of trouble.

“What happened?” Dobson had spent enough time with Lucy to know when something was up.

“Carl’s back. He’s hiding somewhere in this house.” Lucy shared the terrible news. “Ben thinks he can get him out, but it has to be a surprise attack, or he’ll just disappear.”

“He’s been hanging around outside for so long. Why did he come in now?” Dobson wondered out loud.

“According to Carl, Emma invited him in, when she said, ‘Hello?’ to see if I was here.” Lucy glanced over at her daughter again. It hurt to see her hiding under her blankets. “Before Carl intruded, I was able to say hello to her and let her know it was me.” Lucy’s smile brightened from this treasured memory.  “But I guess we did something wrong because suddenly Carl was there in-between us cutting off our connection.”

Without any warning, a heavy energy entered the room. Lucy shuddered with the realization that it was the same energy she had felt, when Carl was in the room. Instantly, her senses were heightened.

“He’s in here.” Lucy whispered, as she rushed to Emma’s side.

The sound of a menacing laugh echoed throughout the room. Its vibration made the energy feel as thick as Jell-O sending them all on high alert.

“You have to leave this house!” Lucy yelled. “You’re not welcomed here!” Her gaze darted around the room searching for the source of this negative energy, while Ava, Ben, and Dobson did the same.

“Look!” Dobson pointed above the bedroom door.

They all watched as a gray mist began to swirl and undulate as it grew into the familiar misty gray cloud, but it was different now. It was blacker and more threatening than it was before.

“Meet my new friend.” Carl’s disembodied voice called out to them, then he laughed even harder than before.

The sound of Carl’s laughter sent the black cloud swirling around the room knocking books over, sending one of the display hooks, holding Lucy’s jewelry, crashing to the floor, and ripping down a couple of Emma’s posters before it moved through the door and out of site.

In the sudden stillness, Emma slowly pulled her covers down enough to peak at her room. With just a small glimpse of the chaotic mess, she bolted straight up in her bed and screamed, “Dad!!”

Well, that’s it for now. Come back next week for the further adventures of: Lucy in the Afterlife. Thanks for the visit. Stay safe and be well.

Email: Remyel@hotmail.com

If you’d like to read Lucy’s story from the beginning, click this link:

Lucy in the Afterlife: The Beginning.  Take care.