Daemon Chakra

Merilee tipped bare toes out of her silver camper, pausing for a minute to shake her blonde curls loose from the night of tangled dreams. Lighting on the metal steps that led to the cool morning grass, sparkling baubles tinkled lightly on the layers of her orange skirt as she stretched and breathed in the morning air.

The coolness of autumn wrought chills over her arms as she pulled her white crocheted shawl over her shoulders for warmth and started down to the lake.

Morning dew moistened her feet as she gently padded through the tall grass, playfully letting a hand drop to enjoy the loose strands of green spindles as she passed. All of nature was alive this morning and she thoroughly enjoyed greeting it with the dawn. Mists lilted from murky waters as she sat Indian style on the dock and closed her eyes to enjoy some morning meditation.

Merilee found that her chakras aligned best after a good meditative session in nature and the lake was her favorite place. This time of year, mosquitoes didn't seem such a menace and she was bedding her camper down there for the cold months for just that reason.

Placing the backs of her hands on her knees, she took a deep breath and searched for her center. Drawing from the energy of the lake, she let the serenity of the morning wash over her, and time seemed to still for a moment. As she breathed in the smell of the moss and cypress in the clearing, thoughts of her day pushed their way in. As she thought of the people she would see today, she smiled. She had so many goodies ready for the people at the senior center that she was nearly giddy about the happiness they would feel when they got them. She knew she needed to focus, but it could sometimes be difficult when she had high levels of positive energy going on.

Merilee opened her eyes for a moment and relaxed her shoulders as she viewed the dense forest on the other side of the water. Two ducks spirited themselves over the lake making quacking noises and startled her, but she recovered quickly. Shaking off the intrusive thoughts, she went back to focusing on her center. Her mind drifted into the white as refreshing air washed over her and her breathing evened out. The sounds of nature seemed to disappear until the only noise she heard was the gentle waters lapping at the dock. Serenity seemed to move through her from her bottom right through to the top of her head like warm water slowly filling a basin.

Just as her mind began to clear, something awkward seemed to permeate her focus. As if a cloud began rolling over the sun, her inner vision darkened, and her mouth ran dry. Spiritually, the sensation of running into a brick wall at full speed shocked her system so hard that her eyes flew open.

For a matter of milliseconds, a dark mirror image of herself floated in front of her and the shock made her leap to her feet. The instant that she stood upright, the connection was lost, and she found herself breathing erratically with only the ghost of her breath before her. Seconds crept by like minutes as she stood there gazing at the water, fear clutching at her heart.

This wasn’t some random vision. Something wicked and vile had made its presence known; something that was her, but at the same time, was not. It had been so close she could have touched it with almost no movement, almost like two hands pressed against a window.

Warily looking about now, Merilee could see she was alone and gradually began to get her rhythm back. The sounds of nature had returned, and the sun was already over the trees. As a chill passed through her, she pulled her shawl closer for comfort and started back toward the small ‘67 Airstream Globetrotter that served as her Vardo.

She had gotten the old camper at auction for less than a thousand dollars shortly after she decided to focus on her work with the elderly and downsized to be more mobile. Over the past two years she had turned it into a proper gypsy wagon to fit her nomadic lifestyle and loved being at home.

Once inside, she started cleaning up to get ready for her day. She'd made herbal soup and froze it for Mrs. Dharling, because she’d been under the weather, and she had several pies and cookies baked. She had some hand-crocheted shawls and blankets to keep her senior friends warm and was busy loading things into trunks and carrying them to the bed of her truck for transport to the senior center. Being an activities director at the community senior center kept her so busy with scheduling and administrative duties, that she didn't always have the luxury of interacting with the residents on a daily basis, so she always looked forward to days like these.

Under normal circumstances, Merilee wouldn’t even have the vardo hitched to the truck this late in the season, but due to the Covid-19 outbreak in the nursing home, they had put her event off for October instead of July to give everyone time to heal. It was a lot of work to re-hitch everything and load up, but the elderly so loved her “Gypsy Day” function that she couldn’t bear the thought of letting them down.

Arriving at the facility, Merilee pulled up behind the kitchen where they had parking for semi's that delivered food and linen orders. The nursing home she pulled up to housed the kitchen, dining room and patients who couldn't function on their own. The Senior Center was the large hall in the center of everything where they had activities for both the nursing home and the rest of the assisted living community surrounding the hall. After lunch, she would bring the vardo to that parking lot and open it for the seniors to peer into, and she'd hand out her wares to them while telling stories and reading the tarot for them.

Since she would need to start at the nursing home, she entered through the service entrance behind the kitchen, where she handed the pies off to an orderly, Kevin. Slices of those were to be served with lunch, at which time she would circulate with her guitar and sing ballads to them while they ate and played with tambourines. Entering the vast kitchen, she offered half a smile to a big woman in black scrubs standing at a dough hook, gyrating noisily while making bread. Merilee took the frozen herbal soup container to one of the microwaves lining the big silver table in the back, and as she was slipping it into the microwave Ms. Bertha came up next to her.

“Everything ok, hun?” She asked.

“Sure!” Merilee answered, looking at Bertha oddly. “Why do you ask?”

“You don’t seem your chipper self is all. Something seems… off, or down, or something.”

“I’m sorry.” She responded to the older woman, curious as to what had given her that vibe. “I guess maybe I’m a little rushed this morning. My meditation was interrupted and probably I’m just not feeling as centered today.”

Bertha chuckled, patting her on the shoulder and returning to the mixing machine.

“Well, I hope you get your good juju back.” she told her.

“Thanks, Ms. Bertha.” Merilee chimed, taking the steaming container from the microwave and heading down the hall toward Mrs. Dharling’s room.

The light in the hall dimmed as she entered, which might seem odd any other day. The doors to all the rooms were closed except for Mrs. Dharling’s at the far end. With her heart hammering for some reason, Merilee slowly made her way down the hall. Dreamlike, she knew deep down that something was wrong, but she didn’t know what it was. She likened the feeling to being in a strange place and trying to find your way out before anyone could see you.

Shaking her head, she determined to get ahold of herself.

“Mrs. Dharling?” She called out into the silent hall as she approached the door. Ordinarily, the sweet voice would lilt out into the hall and welcome her, but today, it was silent as the grave. She didn’t like the thought of that.

“Mrs. Dharling?” She asked again as she poked her head around the door frame.

Erica Dharling sat in her wheelchair next to the window, staring out at the sun. Glossy eyes made her seem very far away in thought. Taking a sigh of relief, Merliee walked over to the nightstand and put down the soup. She straightened the covers and fluffed the pillows before turning to greet her elderly friend. Just as their eyes met, realization of some form or other swept through Mrs. Dharling and before Merilee could say anything, the old woman took on a defensive look and leaned forward.

“Get out.” She nearly growled.

“Mrs. Dharling!” Merilee said in disappointment as she reached out to try and pat her hands. The elderly woman snatched her hands away and screamed at her.

“You heard me! Get out! Do you honestly think I don’t see it?”

“See what?” Merilee asked, mortified by this response. She feared that someone had given her friend the wrong meds, or the wrong dose, and turned to go grab her chart off the door. As she pulled it down to look it over, Mrs. Dharling continued shouting at her.

“That dark thing over your shoulder!” She screamed. “Don’t act like you don’t know it’s there! Dammit I said get OUT!” she screamed running at Merilee with her wheelchair.

“Oh my god!” She shouted running out the door and closing it quickly behind her.

“I know you’re out there!” The old woman screamed through the bubbled glass window. “Get away from me!”

Going over the chart as she walked down the hall, Merilee could see that the rounds with meds weren’t due for another couple of hours and everything else seemed normal.

"Hmm." she said out loud.

As she continued down the hallway, she could hear the old woman slam the soup dish onto the floor, still screaming. Rather than make matters worse by going back, she grabbed Kevin in the hall and asked him to check on Mrs. Dharling when he got the chance.

“She’s not herself this morning.” She told him, handing him the clipboard. “She threw the soup on the floor.”

“Weird for her.” Kevin remarked laying the chart on top of the laundry cart he had been pushing.

“You can say that again.” Merilee responded with an easy smile. “Let me know how she comes out will you? You know she’s my favorite.”

“Will do.” He answered, smiling. “I’ll catch her up in a little while after laundry duties. That’ll give her a chance to simmer down.”

“Thanks Kev.”

“Think nothing of it.” He called over his shoulder as he pushed the wash bin down the hall toward the laundry.

Smiling, Merilee started toward the truck for her guitar, worried about Erica and hoping they could sort out what happened to her.

As Merilee entered the dining room, every senior in the room stopped eating and looked up at her in fear.

Offering up a timid smile, Merilee put the guitar strap over her shoulder and sat down on a bench to tune it, trying not to look at all the eyes upon her. As she plunked strings, and turned the keys, an older gentleman stood up.

"What are you doing here?" He demanded to know.

"Hi John!" Merilee responded as she rose and strummed the strings for a second to make sure everything sounded right. "Today's gypsy day!" She said. In the past whenever she said that, rounds of cheers went up but today, everyone sat looking at her as if she had three heads on her shoulders or something.

"What's wrong?" She asked, concern pressing down upon her like a dark cloud.

"You are!" Someone from the back of the room shouted.

"Hey now!" A man's voice came from behind Merilee causing her to spin around. "That's not nice!" he scolded them. "Behave and eat your lunches!"

The Senior Center Nursing Assistant, Chad, stood in the doorway with a box of small tambourines he'd scored from a Dollar Tree. It was his job to give them to the residents so that they could participate as Merilee played for them.

"Where do you want these?" he asked her, bright blue eyes sparkling.

Taken aback by his kindness after the morning she'd had, Merilee caught herself thinking how irritated she was that the residents were giving her what for but still listened to Chad.

"Any where's fine, I guess." she answered, uncomfortable with the hard knot in her heart that formed even as Chad carried the box to the piano and sat it down.

"I hope there's enough." He said, smiling at her and dusting his hands on the pantleg of his blue scrubs. "I had to go to three different places, and I bought all they had. I guess we'll just have to make due."

"I don't think they want to participate, Chad." She remarked with a snide tone on his name. "So I doubt it matters if there's enough."

"What?" He asked, unprepared to hear anything like that come out of Merilee.

"Oh my goodness! I'm so sorry." She quickly amended herself. "I'm clearly not myself today." She added, even though in the back of her mind, dark thoughts began to stir; thoughts about Chad taking over her room... and paying dearly for it.

"No worries, Miss Merilee. I'll be on my rounds if you need any help." With a quick smile, he was out the door none the wiser, but as Merilee turned to look at the elderly people, chewing and staring a hole right through her, something evil stirred in her psyche.

She recalled the vision from the early morning meditation and decided it best to go back to her camper and calm down. There was no reason to be this angry, and she couldn't understand what had gotten into her. At that particular moment, all she wanted to do was get through the day without squashing their elderly heads like melons under her feet.

'What a fine mash for wine a bunch of soft brains would be.' She caught herself thinking and a morose smile crept over her face.

Pulling the guitar off and putting it back in the case, she locked the lid down and took a deep breath. As she turned, John was standing right behind Merilee, startling her.

"No one here wants you. No one likes you." He growled into her face. His asparagus-ridden breath stunk and the wrinkles on his face seemed to deepen, making Merilee's heart race as she turned her face from his breath.

"Get out." he demanded.

The man was keeping his voice low so as not to alert the staff, but Merilee's anger began to bubble within her.

"Sit down and eat your lunch! You old coot." Merilee responded in kind, her face menacing. Frightened by the response, John rushed to his seat, picking up his fork and scooping mashed potatoes into his mouth hurriedly so as not to disappoint her further.

Satisfied with his reaction, she picked up the guitar to leave and heard Kevin screaming down the hall. The screams were coming from Mrs. Dharling's room, but Merilee had no interest in what had happened to the old witch. Whatever it was, it was less than she deserved in her mind. Just as she made to open the door and leave, the old man was standing behind her again, pulling on the guitar case.

"Don't turn your back on us. We loved Merilee. I don't know what you did with her, but you're not getting outta here without an explanation."

Spinning on her heel, Merilee dropped the guitar case, suddenly overtaken by the need to kill John.

"I don't owe you anything." She nearly spat the words. As John began backing away, fires of rage consumed Merilee. "I have consumed stars, walked with Gods, eaten in the garden before time and I will not be belittled by some mortal old man who stinks of vegetables!" She shouted.

With suddenness, immense power rushed through her veins and Merilee knew her inner self for the first time. The deep hidden chakra in the core of her being had awakened and there was hell to pay.

Her eyes rolled into gold flames and she grabbed John by the shoulders, incinerating him on contact. The other people rose from their tables and began rushing around to try and get away, but she had locked all of the entrances. In seconds, her flames pierced each one, incinerating flesh from bone. Screams erupted through the center and Merilee reveled in the sound as she calmly walked to her truck.

Sliding into the front seat, she smiled, taking a deep cleansing breath. For the first time, her chakras were aligned and she could breathe freely. Sirens permeated the air as she drove away, watching the flames in her side mirrors. Merilee grinned wickedly at the inferno, her eyes filled with gold flames of satisfaction as she drove away into the sunset.

"Hmm." She thought aloud. "I wonder if there's another nursing home close by looking for an activities director?"

Then looking at herself in the mirror she was over-swept with joy at the thought of all the wine she could make with a fresh mash of soft brains.