Sisters

“There's something I need to tell you…” Shelly signed to her three sisters. They were in their bedroom; the door was closed and the four girls were sitting facing one another on the bed.

“What is it?” Cassandra signed back, speaking as she did so.

Shelly gave a long, steadying sigh. “OK, but you have to promise not to get upset because it's going to be okay... everything is going to be okay. Do you promise?” Shelly’s searching gaze was also reassuring. She never asked a promise of them lightly, so this was serious. Angelina, Adrienne and Cassandra glanced at one another briefly, then all three nodded.

For nine-years-olds, their conversations and behaviour, particularly when they were alone, was extremely tempered and mature for their age. As naturally born quintuplets, the girls were deeply bonded to one another in a way that was unusually strong. From birth, they'd always had a deep connection and a closeness that was strange, wondrous and almost spiritual in nature, and Shelly in particular, although she was deaf, was a gifted psychic with wiccan abilities.

Quietly and expectantly they waited for Shelly to continue...

She took a deep breath, then signed “In four years’ time when we're thirteen years old, I am going to die...”

Cassandra, Angelina, Adrienne, Shelly and Charlotte, were born in the year 2000 in the county of Rowanshire, England. Sadly, Charlotte died after just one day of life in the human physical realm. Their father, grandmother and one of their aunts were deaf and sign language and lip reading was a regular form of communication within their household and within the family. Naturally present from a very young age, by the time the girls were six, sign language was like second nature to them.

When the girls were six, their parents wanted to take them away for a weekend to stay in a static caravan in Whitstable by the sea. Shelly refused to go. She screamed the house down when they tried to make her, and because she’d always been a somewhat quiet, usually accommodating child compared to her lively sisters, in the end they did not go. This was the only time they had ever seen her react with such resistance to something.

A fortunate choice as it turns out, for on the first night, there was a tragedy at the camp site. A camp stove, left unattended for a few minutes late one night had caught fire. The entire caravan went up, destroying the two closest caravans on either side of it as well. An elderly couple had perished in one. The young couple and their baby who were in the caravan where it started had managed to get out. The third caravan had been empty. It was the one the family had booked.

Since the incident at the camp site, the other three sisters began to defer to Shelly's suggestions and wishes, for she was a girl of gifted intelligence that they all recognised. Shelly's learning speed was far beyond her age group and she was quite the child genius. On another level, a secret level beneath the personality she showed to the rest of the world, Shelly was gifted in the sacred art of prophecy and the wiccan way of spellcasting.

It wasn't until Shelly was six, that an understanding of what she was and what she could do came to her. When she'd realised that they would all be killed if they went away on their usual summer holiday, she’d refused to go with such a distressing fit of rage and ferocity that her parents could not ignore such behaviour.

           Shelly was the sister the others looked up to. From a very young age she had predicted many things that came to pass and swore them all to secrecy with regards to this gift of hers.

But this wasn't her only secret. What she hadn't told her sisters was that she had somehow become a bridge between the human physical realm and the spiritual realm, where Charlotte resided. It was Charlotte who had caused the circumstances of the fire at the campsite to come about for she was lonely and envious of her sisters and the living, breathing lives they led. She planned to make further attempts on the girl's lives and because there were no secrets between them, she told this to Shelly. Shelly loved all of her sisters equally and could understand why Charlotte was the way she was and so she made her a promise.

She would join her in her thirteenth year and stay with her for at least seven years if she agreed that Shelly could incarnate into another body and if her sisters found her before they were twenty-one, she could return to life. Considering the size of the world this seemed a highly improbable achievement to Charlotte. A needle in a haystack, so she agreed, but only if she could set certain conditions. Reluctantly, Shelly agreed. If her living sisters failed, Shelly would ascend with her sister to the community of loving souls awaiting them in the spiritual realm and all ties would be cut from the human physical realm. But if they succeeded, Charlotte would have to be content to ascend in peace, alone.

As Shelly would not be able to directly interfere in her sisters lives once she was dead, the only way to ensure their safety was to cast a spell which could only be broken by their failing to adhere to the conditions set by Charlotte, through their own free will. She trusted that they would succeed.

They were aged nine, when she told her sisters of her own death.

“Shelly, don't say that…” Cassandra said solemnly

But Shelly shook her head “You'll have to get used to being without me. In the meantime, we have four years together.” Her sisters stared wordlessly at her. Their young minds having grasped the meaning of her words. “When I'm gone you must stay together, never be parted from one another by distance or time, for long periods. No more than three days or…”

“Why not?” Angelina asked, a small frown appearing on her brow.

“Or what?” Adrienne said, biting her lip nervously

“Or the spell that I cast will be broken. Do as I say and then you will have seven years to find me again. If you do not find me within this time, whatever dreams and ambitions you all have, will never be fulfilled…” She thought about what she knew of their future, if all went well. Cassandra desired to become a dancer, Angelica a writer and Adrienne, an actress. “… When I’m gone from this earthly plane, I'll be with you in spirit. We can contact each other through the special oracle deck I'm designing, which must be used in a specific way. Carry out a reading on every birthday after my death to ensure the spell holds true. Agreed?”

Her sisters agreed, reluctantly. Perhaps because they were so young and innocent of certain unsavoury aspects of the world, that they were able to agree to what felt like simple terms.

“I've designed a special spell which I shall cast before I go. You must promise me sisters. Promise that you'll live together and be together on every birthday until you find me again. Only through your energy being so joined and energised every year, will my spell…”  protect you from Charlotte, “…remain active. We can communicate once a year this way, until you find me. People, desires and opportunities will come your way to attempt to separate the three of you but you must stay together.” She told them the details of what they must do and spelled them. “Do you trust me?” her eyes were bright as she focused on each of them in turn.

“With our lives…” the three said immediately. 

It was a question she had asked them many times and their replies were always the same, ever since they were six and she had saved them from the caravan situation. They followed her lead without question even if it seemed strange to be doing so. She was always making things for the four of them. Always thinking of the four of them and they knew that she always had their best interests at heart.

           Although they were heartbroken to learn of her impending death, having learned to trust her predictions and her advice, when she tells her sisters that she will perish at thirteen, and prophecies her reincarnation seven years later, aged twenty-one, they believe her and get some relief from this.

Shelly had foreseen that her being reborn could only occur if her sisters kept her gifts a secret, stayed together and found her as her reincarnated self, before their twenty-first birthday, or none of them would achieve their dreams and Shelly would be lost to them forever.

All of this was because Charlotte hated being dead and had become jealous of the lives her sisters led. Shelly, having been communicating with Charlotte since they were three years old, realised that the only way she could stop her from finding ways to harm her sisters, was to give up part of her own her life for them and then whilst she was with her, she would try to persuade Charlotte that dogging the others was not a good way to be, dead or alive... She needed release. Shelly could give that to her with the right guidance and love.

She made the deal with Charlotte.

“I agree on one condition…” she said, gently taking her dead sister’s hand in her own “If they find me reborn within seven years, you must promise to leave us all be. I shall continue my link with you and join you every year on our birthday in the spiritual realm, if you promise to let the rest of us live our lives...” Charlotte agreed.

With her gift of foresight, Shelly had seen the two paths of her sisters’ lives. In one life, she saw that with Charlotte’s interference and without her to guide them, the guilt, heartbreak and grief takes them all on paths that end quite horribly. Angelina gets into a pattern of dating abusive men, one of which she marries and he eventually kills her. Adrienne becomes addicted to drugs and ends up on the game, until she goes into rehab, finds a new path and withdraws from normal life by joining a strange, close-knit, cult with dubious intentions. Charlotte enjoys a life that is happy and fulfilled, but it is cut short when she dies of cancer aged forty-six. Shelly does not want such futures for her sisters. In the other life, Shelly, having cast the spell upon her siblings to prevent such outcomes, ensured that they overcame their loss by channelling their energies appropriately into creativity. As part of the spell, due to the conditions Charlotte set, Shelly has to tie aspects of their lives together to ensure that they remain close or the spell would be broken. Then it will be up to the three to find their sister in her new form.

When they were ten, auditions were being held at the local theatre for a Christmas musical which would be performed by children. The production was being organised by a stage school who offered scholarships to talented youngsters. Shelly told her sisters that they would all become involved with the show, which would be a first step to their desired futures. A dancing role for Cassandra, a back stage helper role for Angelica who wished to volunteer, and Adrienne in one of the acting roles. All three were successful on the day and after the show had finished its run, all three were awarded scholarships. Cassandra and Adrienne went to a stage school, whilst Angelina was tutored in her writing through several courses for young authors, whilst attending regular, secondary school. At first, the three were concerned about their sister not having her own ambition to follow, but she assured them that it was meant to be that way as she had a different path to follow.

           In the years that followed in their own way, each of the sisters kept their eyes open in case they met their reborn sister, but it seemed impossible. As their twenty-first birthday in 2021 was fast approaching, they began to lose hope...

A week before their birthday, Cassandra was due to get married, one week after their birthday, Adrienne was to sign with an agency who had secured her a lead film role in a big movie, whilst Angelina was to sign a contract to have her first book published. Though they had looked everywhere for the spirit of their sister, they were disappointed that they had failed.

On the evening before Cassandra’s wedding, they finally discovered the reborn sister they had been searching for.

Alma, the groom’s blind cousin, had travelled over from the west indies with other family members to attend the wedding, as well as to visit England for the first time.  Upon entering the room where the sisters were sat with mixed emotions around celebrating the wedding and contemplating their failure, the young woman introduced herself

“Sorry I'm late... I'm as blind as a bat and this place is totally unfamiliar. I'm Alma… Mark’s sister.” She was guided into the room by the best man, who then left.

“Right, which one of you is the bride to be, and which of you are the bridesmaids?” she asked, holding up her hands ready to feel their faces. The three sisters glanced at one another, and then stepped forwards. There was something about Alma, which made them feel immediately that there was a bond of some special sort between them. They introduced themselves.

“Wait…” Cassandra suddenly said. “This may sound strange but may we four join hands a moment?” They stood close and did so. A wave of spiritual energy rippled through them all and for long moments the four young women stood together, eyes closed.

When they opened their eyes, Alma gasped in shocked surprise. Somehow, mysteriously, she had regained her sight. Stunned, she looked around her in wonder and disbelief, trembling as she did so. The sisters guided her to a chair and after a long moment Alma explained that she hadn’t been born blind. She had an accident when she was thirteen and was blinded. Though the doctors said there was nothing physically wrong with her, suspecting that for some psychological reason, she could no longer see.

All four women, understood that something surreal had taken place. There was a strong, connection they all felt and all immediately understood what it meant.

“Oh my god. It's Shelly. Our sister! You’ve come back to us…” Angelina exclaimed. Her face alight with delight. The four hugged one another tightly, tears of joy streaming down their faces.

“Indeed, I have… I have returned to you. But my name is Alma” she said meaningfully. “The secret of Shelly must remain a secret…” The four women hugged and cried and laughed together. Knowing that their dreams would now be fulfilled.

In the spiritual realm, Charlotte ascended into the warm embrace of the family members who had gone before, who were waiting to welcome her with love.