Page Content (OCR)
The Siege - Five him about the strange creatures Amelia had described. “T can’t see them,” Ted called out to Amelia. “Ask them for a name if you can.” The alligator man sounded suspiciously familiar to him, as he thought about a strange series of events he’d endured many years before. “Could it be something like Volmo?” he whispered to Marie, but she shrugged uncertainly. “T don’t hear them talking,” Amelia replied. “But it’s like they’re putting a message into my mind. I see big capital let- ters spelling out a name: RAYMOND.” “What are they doing now?” Marie asked. “Are you still okay?” “Yes,” Amelia said, “and now I’m seeing another word. I think it’s the name of that helicopter thing. It says COMMAND II.” “We've got to help her,” Marie insisted. “This doesn’t feel right.” “T don’t know,” Ted hesitated. “She’s not in any pain, at least. We don’t know what might happen if we try to pull her out of that energy field or whatever it is. Maybe we should wait.” “Are those beings still there?” Marie asked, but before Amelia could answer, the blue light flashed off, and Amelia fell back against the pillow. Marie ran to the bed, and Ted turned on the overhead light, looking around apprehensively. But everything seemed perfectly normal. “T never saw anything like those beings,” Amelia said, clearly shaken. “They didn’t look like spirits, I tell you that! And that helicopter wasn’t normal, either. When you were talking about UFOs and aliens the other day, Ted, I didn’t believe you. But after this, I don’t know. That’s the weirdest thing I’ve ever been through.” As they sat up together, trying to calm one another down and discussing the bizarre events, Marie and Ted were sur- prised to learn that Amelia had not seen the bluish sphere of light around her bed. And then Marie thought about her own odd encounter with unfamiliar beings. Masquerade of Angels 36 The Siege - Five “When I was at Ted’s last year,” she told Amelia, “I think I had a little visit from those guys, too. You remember, Ted?” “Yeah,” he nodded, “how could I forget? You woke me up screaming and kept me up all night, holding your hand and smoking cigarettes.” “Well, you’d have been upset, too,” she replied, “if you’d seen what I did.” And she described the whole event, how the walls disappeared and the two strange beings tried to take her outside. “That all happened while I was with Ted,” she finished, “and now look what’s happened to you, Amelia, with Ted here with us. No, those aren’t any spirits that I know of. I think they showed up because of Ted.” He didn’t argue with her. Like him, both Amelia and Marie had seen the walls or ceiling dissolve and vanish, and they had encountered non-human creatures in unknown craft. Spirits, they all knew, needed neither space ships nor ‘helicopters’ for their travels, but these mysterious beings apparently did. When he returned to Shreveport and told his friends about this latest experience, they were more convinced than ever that Ted was the focus of extraterrestrial interest. Alien activity around Ted was clearly increasing, everyone real- ized. Yet in spite of these events, and in spite of all their read- ing and discussion, no one could truly explain what was going on, or why. The more Ted thought about the situation, the more he felt that he needed help. It frightened him that he had no con- trol over his relationship with the aliens. Marie’s visitors had come unbidden in 1990 at his home, and certainly he and the neighbors hadn’t been asked if they wanted to go for a UFO ride in 1989. Now there was the blue light sphere and Amelia talking to invisible aliens. It was just too much to ignore. He wanted some real answers, and so far the study group had not provided them. Then he remembered what the spirits had taught him, about manifesting the things he needed, and he began visual- izing someone who could bring him help. He decided to place an announcement in a local metaphysical newsletter, Masquerade of Angels 37