Deadly Passion, an Epiphany (15 page)

Lightning startled him, followed by distant thunder. He gazed up at the clear sky and shook his head in confusion. Something fell into the water near him, something big. He started to wade back to shore until he saw someone thrashing wildly not far from him. The lightning and thunder had stopped. Wading quickly to the thrashing and churning person, he reached out to grab him or her. It was a girl. He stood her upright and waited until she calmed down.

He recognized her immediately. “Vera? Vera Johnson?” She was Megan’s best friend. They’d grown up together and gone to school together since kindergarten. Megan and her fiancé were on the same flight to New York with Harry and Georgia and they’d been at the club to help celebrate Megan’s birthday. How Mark had even managed to get underage people into the club was still beyond him. Maybe he knew someone, the bouncer at the door, or maybe he’d paid him to ignore carding the girls.

“Mr. Leigh? Where am I?”

“Here, let me help you out of the water.” He led her to shore. Cassie ran to join them along with some of the other women and Jonas.

“Is she okay?” Cassie asked. “Aren’t you Vera, Megan’s best friend?”

“I’m okay, I think. I’ve got burns all over my body, but otherwise I’m good. Yes, I’m Vera.”

“Burns? I don’t see any,” Harry said while Cassie quickly draped a tunic made from vine twine around Vera’s naked body.

“I was in the hospital. They said I was going to be transported to a special place for burn victims. After my sedative I went to sleep expecting to leave the hospital in the morning, and now suddenly I’m here. I don’t understand,” Vera said while inspecting her arms and feeling her face. “The burns are gone,” she said wonderingly. “But I have no hair. Where am I? What is this place?”

“Are you sure you were in a hospital? A regular hospital with normal nurses and doctors?” Jonas asked.

“What a strange question. Yes, a normal hospital with doctors and nurses,” Vera said, her facial expression one of puzzlement.

“They weren’t alien?”

“If I wasn’t so confused, I’d laugh. They were as human as you and I.”

Cassie urged Vera to go with her to her campsite. “I’ve got food and water. Are you hungry?”

“Thirsty. Right now I need to know where I am. I haven’t seen my parents and my fiancé in months. They wouldn’t let them visit. I had no phone. I’ve felt so cut off from the world.”

Harry walked behind the two women. “Did they give you a reason? Did they tell you what happened to your fiancé?”

“They told me because I had third degree burns all over my body, I was too prone to infection. Even the nurses and doctors wore white suits and masks. They said Chad was okay and not to worry about him. They told me they kept my parents updated as to my progress.”

“How do you know they were human if they wore white suits and masks?” Jonas fired another question at her.

“I could see part of their faces and they spoke proper English. Why do you guys keep asking me weird questions?”

“Vera, we all think we were abducted by aliens. We’re on a different world. When you’re rested and your mind has processed where you are now, you can go along on the next expedition to the jungle and see for yourself,” Jonas said.

“Leave her alone, guys. Let the girl rest a bit,” Cassie told the men. “Come with me, Vera.”

“I’m so confused,” Vera told Cassie after she sat on mat Cassie put on the sand for her. It was made from the large leaves and vines.

“I bet you are. We’ve been here a long time, and we’re still confused and bewildered. Are you tired? Would you like to lie down and sleep?”

“No. They kept me sedated and it feels like I’ve slept half my life away. I’m worried about Chad. Even though they kept telling me that he was okay, I don’t know if I believed them. Or if I believed anything they said.”

When the bomb went off, were you two on the dance floor?” Cassie asked.

“Yes, we were dancing. I remember that Chad was torn from my arms, saw him catapulting away from me, my clothes caught fire, and then I fainted. I woke from an induced coma months later, but they kept sedating me, so I did nothing but sleep. Why do you all think this is an alien world?”

“Think about it, Vera, how you arrived here. Is that normal? Falling from the sky into a lake?”

“No, it’s not. Sorry, my mind is in turmoil.”

Harry joined the two girls. “I wish Megan would have fallen from the sky with you, Vera,” he said. “But I’m glad to see you anyway.”

“I’m very confused, Mr. Leigh.”

“I can believe that. I just arrived here myself to hear that Georgia was here just this morning and then she disappeared.”

“Mrs. Leigh was here?”

Cassie nodded. “Yes, she was here with us right from the start until this morning. She’s gone. We can’t find her. Quite a few of our people have disappeared.”

“How?”

“In various ways. Let me explain,” Jonas said, joining them.

Jonas talked for quite a while with Vera listening intently along with Harry. Azim and Dennis had sidled up quietly and sat a little ways away listening. When Jonas stopped, Vera still looked puzzled.

“I’m healed. Except for my hair, there’s no evidence of any of the third degree burns. How’s that possible?”

Harry nodded. “Wait until you hear how I was healed. Like you, I was badly burned and I had a bad head wound. I was told to see Medicine Man. Well, I expected to see some kind of tribal figure. Instead, Medicine Man turned out to be some kind of robot. It fixed me right up. See now why this has to be an alien world?”

“Yeah, aliens are playing mind games with us,” Azim said.

Jonas rubbed his chin thoughtfully. “Everyone that’s been transported to this place had some kind of epiphany. At least some of them did. Not everyone has opened up and laid their soul bare. I think the aliens can read our minds.”

“Where do you think Georgia ended up?” Harry said.

“Who knows. None of the ones that disappeared have come back to tell us,” Cassie told him.

“I hope to God she didn’t end up in a mine or something.”

“It’s way past dinner time my stomach tells me,” Jonas said. “I’m going to cook some fish. That’s all we have, Vera. Fish, fruit and nuts.”

“I’m not really hungry. My stomach is all tied up in knots.”

Harry watched Jonas put wood on the glowing embers and poke it with a stick to get it started. “I guess I’d better learn how to do all that. It’s been a long time since my boy scout days.”

“We all had to learn,” Cassie said. “There’s a young man here, Mik, who’s taught us how to fish and how to start fires. Easiest is to keep the fire going as long as possible so the embers are still hot. Though sometimes, we forget and then we have to start from scratch.”

“Are there no animals in the jungle? Rabbits? Fowl? Birds?”

“No. We haven’t seen anything except one flock of foreign looking birds the one time. It’s a strange world. Wait until it gets dark. You hear all kind of strange sounds and noises, yet we don’t see a living soul or animals. There are also no stars in the sky and the moon is full every night,” Cassie said.

“How can there be a full moon every night? Even if this is an alien world, wouldn’t it rotate, like Earth?”

“You’d think so. Unless it has more than one moon.”

“How often do you go to the jungle?” Harry asked.

“A group of us goes once a day. We’ve made nets out of vines. We carry the nets on poles made from branches and bring back a load of fruit and nuts daily. Since we have no fridges, it would spoil in the warm sun,” Jonas said. “We’ve found a ton of different fruits and something resembling coconuts that have a sweet nectar in them.”

“Here’s one,” Cassie said, and offered Vera half a coconut, except it was black on the outside instead of brown and the fruit inside quite dark.

Vera sipped carefully. “Mm, it tasted quite good.”

“It’s a refreshing change from water. For you new people, we only drink the water from the stream further down the beach. We’ll show you tomorrow where that is.”

“If only Chad were here,” Vera worried.

“Many of us are missing loved ones, dear,” Harry reminded her. He accepted the wooden bowl filled with fish and ate greedily suddenly realizing he was quite hungry. When he was finished and had eaten his fruit, he thanked Jonas and Cassie and found a quiet spot. He lay on the warm sand, his hands under his head. The sky above was black now, and as they’d said, not a star anywhere.
Georgia, where are you, darling? Where did those aliens put you?
Worrying about her, he closed his eyes and allowed his mind to wander to the past.

Six years before the explosion
…

“Harry, isn’t it strange how Dennis, Jack and Colin have disappeared? No one has seen hide nor hair of them for weeks. Their wives are besides themselves.”

“Maybe they ran away,” Harry offered as a solution.

“No. The sheriff found their vehicles parked near the bar, and that’s the last place they were at.”

“Georgia, I wouldn’t worry about it. Maybe they took off with someone, who knows.”

“They were drunk out of their minds, according to witnesses.”

“They must have done something stupid. Maybe they wandered off to the river and fell in. How about dinner? I’m starving.”

“Let me call Megan. I don’t know what’s eating that girl. She’s been staying in her room a lot and been very quiet of late.”

“Let Bobbie get her. Bobbie, go and get your sister.”

Oh, how he hated the lies. Many a time at night he’d been so tempted to tell Georgia
everything, but he kept his lips shut tight. His nights were so restless. Quite often, Georgia wondered why he wasn’t in the mood for sex anymore, thought he was losing the urge, and he’d tried, but couldn’t. What he’d done wouldn’t leave his mind, his soul, his heart. It ate at him. When Georgia started to worry that he was having an affair, he’d gone to the doctor and got a prescription for those pills. But his mind wasn’t into making love. He went through the mechanics, sometimes for a few hours because the pills made him super horny, but nothing was the same anymore.

He worried about Megan, at how quiet she’d become. How little
time she spent having fun. Even Vera worried about her and mentioned it to Georgia several times.

He hated the deceit, the lies, hated living with himself, but did nothing about it.

Eventually, life went on in their small town. The three men, though not completely forgotten, were given up on as lost, their wives going on with their lives. No one really missed them. Or so he thought, until one day he heard Dennis’s boy talking about his missing father.

“My Dad might have been a bastard at times and a drunk, but I wish he’d come home,” the twelve year old told his friend.

Harry’s heart had thumped in his chest and ached for the lad.
Too late. Too late
. That little voice in his brain kept repeating it.

Facing his demons…

And now here he was on some godforsaken alien planet and unbelievably, he’d faced one of his victims. Though he regretted what he’d done, his mind still tried to justify his actions. If the men had gone to jail, their children still wouldn’t have had a father, and more than probably been disgusted with them. By shooting the men and having them supposedly go missing, at least their children didn’t have to live with the knowledge that their fathers were rapists.

Regrets…

Dennis pulled the large leaf over his body and tried to sleep, but the demons in his mind wouldn’t let him. He still struggled with the guilt, the regrets, and the sight of the pretty, helpless teenager’s face haunted him. If only he could tell her how sorry he was, but that could probably never happen. And Harry would never ever forgive him. He’d never liked Harry much. He didn’t really know why, except the man had become so pious and didn’t want to go to the bar with them. Once, they’d all been friends, but Harry became the serious one.

There was so little he remembered about that night, except the one clear vision, of the thrashing and screaming youngster. What kind of devil had possessed him that night? Had possessed all of them? And Harry said he’d shot the three of them and buried them? How was that possible? He wouldn’t be here if that were so. Was Harry at the bar that evening? He couldn’t remember. He doubted it. Harry never went to the bar after he got together with Georgia. Beautiful Georgia, the girl they’d all wanted but she’d chosen Harry over them. He’d never gotten over his crush on her and he didn’t think Jack and Colin had either. First there was Chris. The four of them had often talked about her and how they’d all wanted to date her, but she’d been with Chris forever.

And then Chris joined the army and he’d died a hero’s death. Hope had flared within him, and he knew his friends felt the same. But she’d chosen Harry, Chris’s best friend, and they married almost right away because Harry got her knocked up. They’d been so angry, so jealous. Was that part of why he’d participated in the rape of their daughter? Revenge? Was that really fair? After all, Georgia had a right to choose which man she wanted to be with. The girl wasn’t at fault, had no part in their history. It was cruel. It was callous. It was cowardly. If only he could make it right.

A strange sensation crept over his body. His skin prickled all over and he felt lightheaded.
What’s happening?
He tried to sit up, but his limbs wouldn’t cooperate. He floated, his mind numbed and his body swirled as if in a mixer. Slowly, he floated down and down until he felt something.

Taking a deep breath, he opened his eyes to quickly close them again to the startling brightness surrounding him. His fingers dug into the sand, only there was no sand, just soft material beneath him. Carefully, he opened his eyes again. He was in a room, a room so white it was almost hurtful to the eyes. He lay on a soft mattress and was covered by a soft comforter. To his left was a wall of windows. Staring at the glass wall, he sat up and carefully placed his feet on a cool, marble floor. He stood, the vine skirt he’d had on gone. Instead he was dressed in a pair of yellow pants and a tunic. Walking to the window wall, he looked out at a sea of lit windows. Towering over every building was a tower so high, he had to crane his neck to see the top of it. A large cone on the top rotated slowly. It almost resembled an ice cream cone. A light so bright it lit the sky for miles shone from it.