The Darkened Path: The Witch Of Lone Oak

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Author’s foreword:

It has taken me a very long 18 months to finish this second work of my life, there have been many challenges and some disastrous setbacks to the point where for a while I was considering never writing this at all! I do hope that you all find this second installment of The Darkened Path to be of a engaging and entertaining experience! Welcome again to The Darkened Path and Blessed Be! For the recipes, formulae, spells and instructions that are mentioned in this book, please refer to The Darkened Path, Shades Of Darkness by S.M.Tillson.

Table of Contents

Chapter 1: Sanctuary and Salvation

Chapter 2: Death and Rebirth

Chapter 3: Healing and Renewal

Chapter 4: Enduring Bonds and Bleeding Hearts

Chapter 5: Soul bonds and Separation.

Chapter 1: Sanctuary and Salvation

July 2011 came. Soon after I made my very small and carefully hidden, request for Goddess and God to assist me, I received in the mail two approvals for an apartment. Grandmother came shuffling into the garage that I and my son were housed in, and briskly handed me my mail with a look that signified she was not the least happy. One was in Morristown, TN, and a thrill of awareness jolted me when I opened the letter and started reading it.

It was far enough away from the family that I might have a chance at rebuilding my own life, and provide Adam the chances at what I didn’t have as a child, that he would not have to be treated and subjected to the same kind of twisted and warped familial drama and torment that I had went through.

I was not going to raise my son in the same way that my past life had went and around the people that would see that it happened that way if I allowed it. Recently I had made a trip with my grandparents, to see my Father, he was finally on a heavily medicated and dried out path of normal life, or at least as much could be done for him considering he was still not in full control of his mental faculties, there was no going back to what we called a normal life for him, he would never be allowed to live on his own or be alone again or care just for himself, he was too far gone for that. He was declared disabled and drew benefits and the Veteran’s Affairs Hospital and Rehabilitation center where he was housed, allowed him to claim he was homeless because he did not want to come back to my grandmother’s house again, he was given a job that paid a wage, a room to live in, and doctors and staff to see to his medical needs and to watch over him.

It had been eighteen months since he had been admitted, and just maybe he had a chance to live out the rest of his life in relative safety and emotional and physical security.

Grandmother was not remotely pleased that I was leaving, she did not want me to move out, in the back of her mind, she had this idea she was going to get us to live with her, and claim us on her taxes for that year, which I was not going to allow to happen because I felt like the money would just go to her and we would never see a dime of it. She was originally going to do this with my Father, but since he got approved for social security she couldn’t claim him on anything.

This made me see some things about my Grandmother that I had not clearly noticed before, and some other memories of my past clicked into place and suddenly made a lot of sense. She was going to try and use me and my son as a means to pad her bank account, to pay off her own debts and credit issues, and we would not be given our share of it. This was what had happened to all the child support money my Father had paid out of his taxes for years and why I never got to see any of it going towards my needs and welfare all those years I lived with her.

She was going to do this to her own family that had no means of financial support at all, I still did not have a job, and only had my tax money from the past filing, and what benefits I now drew. She did not know at that time, that Jeremy and I had made a agreement for him to do the same thing the next following tax season, as me and Adam had lived in his home long enough the past year that he could legally claim us, and I was already set to receive Adam’s portion from it when January 2012 came around.

I had a ray of happiness finally light my life, Jeremy was upholding his agreement to bring me Jasmin for summer vacation, and I finally got to have my precious baby again after a mind numbing three months and this spurred me into action towards moving and getting my own place and sorting out my mess of a life. My Grandmother stalled for time and picked a lot of arguments with me that I hotly and stoutly defended myself from, she tried every way in her power to keep me from moving.

Grandfather’s truck broke down, there went another week, I only had thirty days to claim my apartment and time was ticking by and I was itching and chomping at the bit to get over there. The Goddess and Higher Powers smiled on me, and I was finally allowed to start moving in at the end of July, I had paid the deposit and to have my utilities on, and I now had both of my kids, with me, Jeremy had brought Jasmin two weeks before that, and I was shocked at the changes I saw in him, physically, on the outside, he looked as sick as I felt inside, he was very thin, had huge dark circles in his flat and emotionless eyes, and when I tried to be near him for any reason he shut himself off emotionally and physically and became stiff, silent, and unyielding.

No matter what he might have felt or thought inside at seeing us again, he was not going to allow us to know or understand any of it even though to my eyes it was clear as day and I saw through him anyway. Being without us was hurting him and breaking him just as much as it had me, but he forced himself to stay away and never come back, or allow himself to think or feel anything towards us. He was still going to shut us out of his life, go on without us, and leave everything behind no matter what it cost him.

At the end of July 2011, I moved into my new apartment, it had a musty, soured dirt smell permeating the entire living space, and one of the first things I did was a massive full scale Cleansing Ritual. people all around me that knew me, from distant family members, to people I didn’t even know, were suddenly very giving and generous towards helping to get things for my household that I needed, I felt like something was finally going right after almost a year of life altering hardships.

Grandmother was very bitter and angry over the fact I insisted on moving and not being anywhere near the family or any of their problems and issues, I was not going to be a part of it, it was not my life and not my responsibility to deal with, I had more than enough of my own personal hurdles to overcome, and getting myself dragged back into their lives was not going to help me or get me very far.

I was determined to rebuild my life into something I could manage on my own, without much help from anyone for any reason, I wanted no personal debts or chains attached to me and they were not going to hold the things they had done for me over my head like a hangman’s noose. I had never asked them to help me, they done everything on their own accord and then turned and expected me to owe them my life for it. They were always trying to involve me into their schemes and tainted methods of living and I wanted no part of that, knowing that if I became involved it was not going to go well for me. I believed that if you went out of your way to help someone of your own free will then there was no reason why you should need to be paid back or to hassle someone into giving something they did not have.

Favors and charitable actions should not have any strings or chains attached to them. If you have much more than you need and someone else has nothing, then you should be gracious and generous and share what you have and be content inside yourself that you helped someone in need, not turn around and say that you did this and did that and for another and were never given anything in return and trying to lay some kind of power trip and guilt and shame on another for not being able to give you back what you freely gave for them.

When I got my daughter back from Jeremy, I noticed some changes I did not approve of, she looked skinny and stressed out and had this air of unhappiness that made my heart ache. Despite what Jeremy tried to make me believe, she was not doing as well emotionally and physically as she should have been, his life and whatever it was he was doing up there with himself, his new girlfriend and his life in general was impacting how he was raising her and I made a point to tell him what I felt about it and I really did not consider or care if he liked it or not.

My child was depressed, and unhappy, and not coping too well without me in her life. His only response was I’ll take care of it, she’s fine. And every time she said anything about me not being in her life to him, he told her that That’s just how it is and it’s not going to work that way. Of course he could not explain to her why I was not there anymore, but trying to blow it off entirely was not helping a child that didn’t understand at all and him refusing to acknowledge his daughter’s feelings or making a solid attempt at making it better for her was not helping either of them.

Jasmin also exhibited some behaviors and habits I definitely did not approve of, that was a direct influence from his girlfriend and how she conducted herself around Jeremy and other people, and I was very upset and angry over it and that resulted in an argument about whether or not she should be allowed to be any part of Jasmin’s life if this was how my child was going to behave and act. If she wanted to be part of my child’s life for any reason she had best be acting and speaking and conducting herself, in a appropriate manner and that included him too.

Whatever he was doing and not doing around my daughter he needed to open his eyes and ears and pay closer attention to what sort of influence it had on her and make some adjustments. It did not help me any that I despised that woman with a black and fierce passion that I had not felt for anyone in a long time, something about her made my blood boil and my skin twitch. I felt she was trying to be something for them she would never even come close to achieving to be and she had no right or reason to even try it or believe she was going to eventually achieve it.

She would not, or ever come close to, being the replacement of what I was and had been for them, she would never have that type of place in his and my child’s life and she wasn’t any closer to it then than she had tried to be before, from what I understood. I suppose I should have felt pity or sorrow for her but I didn’t, she knew what she was doing and what she wanted, so now she had it, and probably would realizing the same things I had to realize. She might actually love my ex-husband and my daughter, but I personally hope she realizes in time what will probably not be, and she makes a smart decision in time.

I don’t know why or how it really came to be that they ended up together, or what she done so well for him that I had not already done or tried to do, it’s rather odd that she is the same birth sign as me, and that in certain ways she acts and thinks similarly to me if I look at it closely enough and actually pay attention. Someday I will know for sure all the details, until then I will be content with what I already know about the situation.

Grandmother was still fuming at me over leaving. Nagging and harping on how I should have stayed there and allowed them to take care of me. She was not happy she did not have full control and command on my life anymore, or that of my children. She now had my father to contend with and take care of, he had been released back out of the hospital, and I felt she had her hands in that situation and she had found a way to make it so that she could have him back with her and he ended up moving back in with her again after a failed attempt at living on his own.

He had now moved into the garage where I had once stayed. He allowed her to have his social security funds and other government benefits as payment for him living there, again there was something else she somehow gained control and use over, that money was supposed to had been used for his care and welfare, but I hardly believe that was all what it was used for. He lived in a haze of blank eyed , physically dead drunkenness, he was a corpse that breathed, but his mind was broken and long gone, then, he had a stroke and then he was unable to walk or stand properly and was then bedridden, unable to tend to even the most basic of vital needs.

Grandmother was the one whom bought the vodka, a quart at a time, to give him for pain medicine and essentially enabling him to die, and it appalled me that doctors he saw also knew this and knew what she was doing to him but they done nothing to stop it even though they had enough power to do so. He had signed papers denying anyone the right and reasons to get him medical treatments and emergency care, now the only thing he could do was waste away and slowly die from the poison that she gave him out of her sick idealism of pity. Grandmother rode me hard and brutally about the fact I did not go to see him or allow my son to spend any time with him, and I would not allow him to move in with me.

I was not about to allow that kind of situation to take over my life and make my child to have to go through what I had went through. Her antics and behavior towards him and his situation disgusted and sickened me, all she saw was that he was sick and pitiful and helpless, he needed someone to care for him, she would not see the facts or open her eyes and mind to everything that he had put all of us through for 54 years. She purposely put aside and forgot all of the misery and pain he had put me through.

I felt like it was not my responsibility or place to do this thing for her. She wanted to dump him on my life and make me deal with her tragedy and suffering because she didn’t want to have to deal with it. She would call me, ranting and rambling about she wished he would just hurry and die so she would not have to deal with him anymore, she nearly drove me into not speaking to her or anything because every time she called she wanted to rip my head off about what kind of person I was being about letting her deal with him,.

I was accused