Inhumed **** Chapter One Hundred Fifteen

The lapses in time hadn't made any sense, they'd seemed like long dreams.

I stood in the cold weather shivering, Nathaniel stood beside me smoking a cigarette while Kie angrily sat in the back seat of the unmarked patrol car. She had to have led them there and knew about the grounds. Had she incriminated herself? They dug around the trees, it seemed like they were excavating, I would definitely sue afterward. I could see the two trees, they were yet in season and hadn't caught the attention of the officers who were on site. It appeared gloriously lit and was filled with life. If Ayden was underneath the grounds were pleased.

"Long time ago this here used to be a cemetery, ain't no telling what they might dig up," Nathaniel said. He also said how LaDonna had always been afraid to be on the land after nightfall. "She seen some shit and wasn't right in the head after that first baby she had just come up out of nowhere. A lot of people said she belonged to old man Myers, but hell he wasn't her real father no way. I knew all about it, Trena belonged somewhere else."

The officers had begun to complain about needing a digging crew and had not known which tree to dig underneath, but they were tearing up the land. I didn't know how to feel, but my children and I had to survive and from what Lawrence said, we were wealthy by owning the Orchard. In only three months the trees would begin to produce the largest harvest since the 1980's because the grounds were fertilized.

It was a hard decision but I continued to pretend I was clueless.

"Over here! I think I found something!" One of the excavation workers yelled before 3 more men ran to the tree where he dug. I wondered what it was---they were far away from the Tree of Life. The light on his hard hat shined against the tree as he looked upward, out of fear he ran, "SNAKE! WATCH OUT!" A snake hung from the branch above where he stood.

"AW Roland! U puttin' up a fuss about a lil ole snake!?" The sheriff sarcastically asked the man who had hauled ass before he looked up and immediately said, "IT'S A WHOLE FAMILY OF THEM SOMMA BITCHES!"

Nathaniel said they lived on the grounds and LaDonna had been terrified of them. "When she was pregnant with Trenton she was bit and went into labor a week early, they thought she wouldn't make it. It messed with her all her life and something made her turn to drugs but she fought."

"Did Daddy ever baptize her?" I asked while the crew negotiated on coming back in the daylight and keeping the suspect in custody. The Sergeant wanted to continue, they resumed digging while the snakes contently watched. "They only out here looking for old apples," the Sheriff said matter of factly. Nathaniel said he had baptized her, Daddy said he could see something in her as well as saw Cliff's death before it happened. Martin had insisted they carry out the mission.

Nathaniel's words seemed genuine but knowing about the conflict he and Martin had had years ago made me nervous for him. His son had been as gentle as he was but why were his children a part of the Prophecy.

"Ecclesiastes tells us there is nothing new under the sun," He said when I inquired of Twan's relevance. "We've all done things we aren't proud of and the devil comes to devour, Trenton got Antwan tied up with Martin, Pam had took them in---found em on the corner, Donna had just left them. Most question his existence until he proves he's real. Right over there is where Emily Ellis burned alive." He pointed toward a raw area of land where a house once stood. "I cared for Donna, but she wasn't no good to be around my son. She would disappear and come back saying she hadn't known where she had been and had memorized a passage from Deuteronomy 18:10"

I still didn't understand. The crew was cautiously digging, they had come across a metal box of some sort and was trying effortlessly to remove it.

"People knew about the trees a long time ago, but didn't know WHICH trees."

They had dug underneath 3 trees and had only found something under the third one but had many to go.

I recognized one of the officers, he'd pulled me over the night Tobias had been waiting beside the gate. He had also been one of the officers that had come when I was hiding in the shed, I recognized his voice he had spoke about a girls ghost on the land. He appeared afraid of what may have been found and knew Trenton. I was slowly recollecting events and becoming cognitively optimistic---things were beginning to seem like Deja Vu. Influentially Nathaniel suggested I stay and observe, he needing convincing I could see the trees. "Only a dark soul can see the two trees. Louisa McNamara could see, so could your Grandmother. Martin was locked in the shed, his mother lived on the land she'd become accustomed to their way, soon they both could see and had welcomed evil in exchange for riches, the trees produced, the one on the Eastside of the Orchard was beautiful and filled with apples abundantly. Martin's mother was a known seductress. The land was taken from them and given to The Ellis', however Martin has always felt it was his and out of spite he made sure the woman he hated had no parts---he's claimed to have overseen it from the beginning. Your grandfather was behind on the taxes and just like that it was taken from under him, disregarding the stipulations. Elijah said he saw his mother in the middle of the rows on her knees praying. Someone appeared one night, he died the next. Never know when the trees will produce, but on account of my own calculations they produce every 11 years, this occurrence u say u have witnessed would be off course. I must know truthfully, have u saw the trees in season, how has the prophecy been fulfilled?"

Did he not believe me but had just told me some shit about Grandma Hazel Mae praying between the rows. I told him I had no reason to just make it up, I'd become agitated, he sensed the uneasiness in my voice and apologized if he had in any way offended me. What was a dark soul though?

"A demon's child," he said appearing to be frightened by his own words. We are often possessed and don't even know, plainly by showing interest in worldly things, they know what appeals to us. My son wanted children so bad, he would have done anything to get them.

The Tree of Knowledge glowed before my eyes, it radiated the night. I stood on the ground, my feet did not ache. I was still uncertain if it had been Kie who had led them there, I decided to inquire by asking an officer who had walked from the area under the trees, he appeared to be sickened as the rest had, they scattered like roaches as their curse words filled the air. What was in the box---"CALL IN THE FBI!" There were bodies buried in the ground at least a few feet in an amateur like manner, more than a few. Had I claimed the land? They were not even close to the two trees that mattered. Many had been buried, a helicopter soon flew overhead. I was up shit's creek if I didn't come up with an explanation for the ritualistic mishap. My question went unanswered as more vehicles could be seen coming down the road before parking on the sides. It was a disaster! I asked another officer, he responded by saying, "Lady in the car said the girl buried her own son, alive under the tree, don't see him only old corpses---girl said third tree on the right."

WHAT?

I didn't believe her.

"Always has been trouble on the ground, so many complaints and incidents over the years but beautiful when in season."

He hadn't seen in season.

"We would never get to the bottom of it, this is disturbing a graveyard but wait til the citizens find out what they been eating all these years. Some of them bodies been out there since I was a kid."

The air soon begin to chill me to the bone, I felt something had been dug up that should have been kept buried. Suddenly they called off the excavation, "GOVERNOR SAID NO DIGGING OUT HERE! IT'S A LANDMARK, TOO MANY BODIES! THIS WAS A CEMETERY---JUST BECAUSE IT'S AN ORCHARD DON'T MEAN IT'S NOT STILL A CEMETERY! CALL IT OFF!" The sheriff yelled, "JUDGE PYLE PUTTING UP A FUSS!"

Denard?

Oh.

Well in that case..."GET THE FUCK OFF OF MY PROPERTY! U WILL PAY FOR THE DAMAGE, I CAN'T EVEN GRIEVE IN FUCKING PEACE!"

The thought of Kerri burying her child alive still lingered, I knew she had to have done it before I went looking for them at the orchard but why, I'd found his pacifier and still had it. I was blocked in and could not leave, somehow I felt Trenton's presence. I inquired about Jennifer as Nathaniel and I walked toward the gate. "She's not the same, too far gone but is a true believer in the Word. She has a gift of sight but a different kind. Trenton had returned and against Martin's wishes he married her. The marriage was annulled finally, but against Trenton's wishes, the judge ruled against her in the divorce settlement, I knew Martin was behind it all. Power."

Had she been righteous? If so how could God allow her to hit rock bottom. "Many think she's homeless, she stands on the corner preaching the word and never accepts money from anyone."

I wondered what would happen next, the excavation was called off, and that too was Martin's doing. My child inside chaotically kicked we were starving, I didn't know where to go but trusted Nathaniel. He advised me to rest so we could leave. He would visit Pam and get the girls. I was happy to know we would be reunited but I felt they were safe and where was Shan and Netta? I needed to know their story. It was midnight and I watched the officers still tape my property. The words opt out and put up floated upward from the black letters that read KEEP OUT, I knew I could not leave but I needed more information from Nathaniel. I suggested we went to a diner, and stood frantically waiting for the vehicles to depart. Ryella could see the trees, so could Twalla...I was disturbed by Nathaniel's words.

"The girls can see them too," I said while standing beside the iron wrought gate referring to the letter, Ryella was afraid.

I could feel Kie's eyes burn through me, I asked Nathaniel if he knew who she was---he did. Martin had visited Haiti and brought her to New Orleans years ago, she'd conceived his son ritualistically, Dario. I wondered about the rest. I needed answers, I craved her son, the separation was lethal. I wondered if it had anything to do with my decision not to go to Florida, I would stay behind and raise my babies.

I wondered the outcome of the excavation, they couldn't just put the bodies back inside of the ground and had no proof Ayden was buried under the tree---for their own sakes, I envisioned them falling dead one by one.

"No one knew for sure, but many believed Martin had something to do with Emily Ellis' death. Not a bone was found, only fine ashes in the debris. Pam, it was something about Martin, she would have done anything for him, after I decided to leave it all alone she hated me for years until she saw it was real. Something, I can't describe it---Sabrina just wouldn't, ya know something was controlling her---and Im a man, just like any other I was weak, she was young. I couldn't control the lust she brought out of me, I needed to leave before shit got out of hand, the last encounter we had I saw. I visited Percy, he told me I had been laying down with a demon. I paid him no mind---I also knew the girls were mine. My son, he began to sleep with her also, I knew what he was up against and warned him too, he was just too far gone. After the demon had used her to bring forth they that were of like images she began to see them for what they were. I began to seek Christian ministry, I knew it was out of my hands. She'd tried to kill them on several occasions---I spared them by taking them, the journey has been rough. My sons, I only have two left but Pam cursed them before they were born, once the womb is contaminated it remains that way, some will never conceive again. I realized the money and the luxury comes with a price that cannot be recompensed monetarily, I traded it all in. Percy had warned me, we were all so young back then and thought Martin was our crusader, I was tired of seeing my mama struggle to make ends meet, so was Percy---he never knew his Mama struggled by choice. Martin had once taken us up on a hill in Keithville and promised us the world. Even after he had gone to Federal Prison Percy was still infatuated by him and his existence, he just couldn't let sleeping dogs lie and knew he would be released. Your mother had run out of options and had gone to see him, u were a small child. One night Percy had fallen victim---Sharon conceived u. When he realized what had happened he tried everything to convince her to abort u, she left and returned with u in her arms, barefoot, her feet were dirty like she had waded in mud, but there u were only a few days old. Percy had raised your sister as his own, he'd told me once about a demon he'd seen in her. What else could he expect, she is the devil's seed."