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I’m getting stronger every day, and I will fight back. You can count on it. Thank God for Barbara’s help. Without her, I might have gone to my own grave never being able to release my guilt and solve the mystery that plagued me all those years. Thinking fondly of his friend, Ted reached for the phone and dialed Barbara. Several members of his study group were eager to work with her, too, having been witness to Ted’s trauma and recovery after his regressions. They had also seen a shift in his attitude, away from the tentative acceptance of the aliens, as benevolent superiors coming to aid humanity, and towards uncertainty and skepticism about the aliens’ true intentions. This change made his friends concerned about the nature of their own experiences, although Ted had not shared the details of his recollections with the group. He told them only that what he had learned had been shocking, painful, and extremely disappointing. His friends tried but were not suc- cessful in learning anything more from him, as he insisted the information should be reserved until the others had gone through their own regressions. “T don’t want to influence what you might see or how you might feel about it,” Ted explained when pressed to discuss his memories. “And besides, just because my experiences weren’t what I hoped they would be, that doesn’t mean yours won’t be positive. You should just go through it and decide for yourself what it means.” Ted heard the receiver lift, and when Barbara answered the call, Ted said, “Greetings from the alien capital of the world.” ‘lm so glad it’s you,” she said, immediately recognizing his voice. “I was thinking of you this morning. Has anything happened? You haven’t had another experience, have you?” “Actually, things have been pretty calm for me lately,” Ted told her, “but I got a call from a woman whose family lives out in the country, and they’ve got quite an interesting story. I’d like for you to talk with her sometime.” “Sure,” Barbara said. “Can you fill me in a little?” Ted briefly recounted the tale, involving UFOs over the Masquerade of Angels 240 farm seen by the family and by two deputy sheriffs who answered their call for help. “Did they have any abnormal reactions or missing time?” Barbara asked. “Not at first,” he replied, “but soon after they started going through some pretty strange things. The most disturb- ing result has been the change in her teenaged son. He’s become reclusive, he’s failing in school, and now he won’t even attend classes. He’s been examined for drug use, but he was clean, and his mother doesn’t know what to do now. He hardly ever leaves his room, he doesn’t sleep at night, and when he does sleep in the day, he insists on keeping a gun in the bed. She can tell you all about it when you speak to her. They’ re looking for help, and I know they’re suspicious that whatever may have happened wasn’t too good, especially for her son.” “Of course I’ll talk to her,” Barbara answered. “In fact, I'd like to document the family’s case for my research. It sounds worth exploring, since there was outside confirmation of the UFO by the deputies. “But you know, Ted, I’ve found so little in this field that is positive that I really don’t know what to tell people any more, unless I lie outright, and I can’t do that. I guess the best thing is just to tell them that we have to keep working together and researching the material, that right now we don’t know enough to confirm their suspicions. But the kind of problems you’ ve described are familiar. I see them all the time in my investigations, and a few other researchers have told me of similarities in their work.” “T called for another reason, too,” Ted said. “ Barbara, can we arrange for you to come down here and work with my support group? Several of them very much want to have a session with you, and it would be easier all around for us to bring you here, rather than five or six people going up to Oklahoma.” “For you, my friend, I’d be glad to come,” Barbara agreed, and soon the visit was arranged. Ted set up a schedule of interviews and regressions for his friends. Each of them had a specific reason for wanting Masquerade of Angels 241 The Light - Twenty-Four The Light - Twenty-Four