Authors: Almondie Shampine
Instead of genuine greetings of friends who hadn’t seen one another in over 30 years, she was compelled by other feelings instead. She tore the Superman curtains off their rods, grabbed the blanket from his bed, and tossed all of it out the window. She ripped the comic-heroes from his walls, and trashed all his figurines, and was completely out of breath by the time he tackled her to the floor.
“Hello, Aliyah,” he said, his large child-like hazel eyes staring into her own.
“Colton,” she said, awkwardly maneuvering herself out from under him. “Do you remember the day I gave you something to keep safe until I returned for it?”
“You mean the last day I ever saw you when you were pregnant with someone’s child?”
“Yes,” she said humbly.
“You betrayed me. You left me all alone. Wouldn’t even speak to me, made my school life miserable. Then you show up, just like that, asking for a favor. Regardless of all your betrayal, I was there for you, thinking you would remember our friendship, and I never saw you again, but for now.” He grabbed her hands harshly. “It wasn’t my fault, Aliyah. I had to … do those things. If I hadn’t, he was going to hurt you.”
“I know,” she said simply.
“Then why have you punished me ever since? Why were you never my friend ever again? You were the last friend I’ve ever had. I never made another. I did what I did to protect you, and you … you just walked away. You didn’t even care. Every time I tried to talk to you, you wouldn’t listen. You declined me ever walking you to school or walking you home ever again, like it was MY fault for what happened.”
“I tried to protect you, Colton. I made all the excuses for you to go home instead of coming into mine. Those chocolate chip cookies were just too tempting to you,” she said bitterly, perhaps blaming him after all.
“I knew there was something wrong. I wanted to figure out what was going on.”
“Well, you figured it out, didn’t you? And now you’re, what? 42 years old, still living with your parents, unable to move on from that day? It was only a day for you, Colton. That’s it. I stayed away from you so that there would never be another. One stupid day in your life and you’ve let it dominate your entire existence. It wasn’t just one day for me, so why am I moving forward and you’re not, Colton? That’s what I want to know.”
“It wasn’t what happened that day that ruined me, Aliyah, cause as much as I know now, I knew then, that I was doing it for you. I had a choice. I could have run. I could have left you alone. But even at ten years old, I knew he was threatening you, and I didn’t want you being hurt. It was the fact that I went through what I did, did what I did, so as not to have you harmed, and instead of you appreciating that, you turned your back on me and made me feel like it was my fault when my heart and mind told me it wasn’t,” he cried.
“You weren’t the only one that could never have another friend again, Colton. I learned that anyone that got involved in my life would be in danger. You were my friend, my only friend, and you were hurt because of me. I was never going to allow that to happen again. I didn’t betray you, Colton, I was protecting you by keeping you away from me so no one else would ever have to be hurt on my account again,” she explained as gently as her own emotional uprising would allow.
“I could have taken you away from it, though. I could have saved you so that
you
would never have to go through it again. My parents would have taken you in. Both of us, side by side, could have told. They would have fought for you. He would have been taken away and you could have had a better life.”
“Yes, the fantasy sounds so nice, up until the point where he would have killed you and killed your parents, without mercy, just to keep his life the way it was. Your parents would have given in if your life was threatened, just like you would have given in if your parents’ life was threatened. I appreciate your bravado in thinking that you would have been able to save me – God knows, I’ve spent the majority of my life wishing that someone would – but it’s all an underestimation of the evil that evil is capable of to protect itself.
“It will do anything and everything to keep its secrets safe. It will hurt and destroy anything it has to. And unfortunately, all the good people in the world trying to do what’s right aren’t able to truly comprehend the extent of evil that evil is capable of.”
Tears pooled in her eyes. “I’m sorry what happened that day. I’m sorry you felt I betrayed you. I’m sorry for so many things, and all the things I had to do to survive while protecting as many people as possible. I’m sorry you’ve never been able to move past it. Out of all the other days in your life, you’re still allowing one day to dictate your life. It’s time to move past it, Colton. It’s time to end your parents suffering. If you have to talk about it, then talk about it, if it means you’ll get through it. You are not to blame for anything that happened – not that day or my reactions thereafter.”
“I do know one way where I can get past the shame of that day,” he said.
She returned his gaze.
“We’re adults now. I haven’t been able to be with anyone since … what I was made to do. The shame has never left me. You can help me rid of the shame, Aliyah. We can be together, as adults, in the right way, the normal way, when it is no longer shameful. I can touch you and you can touch me, and there won’t be anything wrong with it now.”
He moved toward her and began to grope her.
The only thing she could feel was disgust, but she didn’t want to hurt his feelings. “Colton, stop, please stop. I’ve got a – a boyfriend now. A person that I love, and he wouldn’t – GET YOUR HANDS OFF OF ME!” she screamed, triggered, remembering his ten-year-old self and all the things she didn’t want to remember.
“I came back for the thing I left in your possession a long time ago. Do you still have it?”
He remained dejected for a moment. Then stood and went to his closet.
“Yes, you may think of me whatever you want, but I’ve always stayed true to you. It’s here.”
He presented it to her with two hands. It had taken her a long time to build it, just as quickly to hide it so that it wouldn’t wind up in the wrong hands. A six-inch blade cast in white light, the handle made of the very stone that imprisoned both souls and humans, and the emerald stone she’d stolen from Otherland so many years ago.
She sighed in relief, and then turned to him. “You’re a good – a wonderful person, actually, Colton, but I can’t feel for you anything more than friendship, a past one that long ago dried up. Perhaps things would have been different, if not for that day, but it’s useless reminiscing over such things, because it can never be anything different than what it was and what it now is. I never blamed you, Colton. I’ve moved on with my life, and it’s time you do so as well.”
“So this is goodbye, Aliyah?”
“It is. I’m not going to make any false promises. Coming here has been a very painful experience for me, just as I’m sure it’s been painful for you.”
He blinked away his own tears. “I’m still glad you came. Seeing you, so very alive, it changes things for me. Hearing you tell me it wasn’t my fault – that’s all I’ve needed to hear. I thought you blamed me, and I’ve done nothing but relive that day over and over and over again, thinking of all the things that I could have done differently that would have saved us both.”
“You tried to get me out of there, Colton. I was just too scared to leave. If there’s anyone to blame, it’s me, but I would have been severely punished if I left.” She dropped her blouse momentarily to expose her chest and shoulders – all her scars.
“Is he gone now? Can you finally live your life in peace?”
She held up the blade, shimmering in the light, “Soon. Very soon. It will all be over.”
Chapter 33
This was not happiness. This was not glory, despite what he’d told her. He had no patience for this, and everything he had tried, up to this point, had failed. No matter who he killed, who he tortured, who he made bow before him and call him Dark master, Aliyah was still alive. He couldn’t find any satisfaction in anything as long as she lived. Even stabbing her boyfriend was only temporarily satisfying while he had to spend the next eight hours pacing back and forth in a wine cellar because he didn’t have a single body to possess.
She never faltered. She never gave in. How could she be Light, yet be so much like him? He’d controlled her all throughout her childhood, which should have made her like his first Aliyah, complacent. His true daughter had never fought him. He’d tested her in so many ways, just to prove to him that she really loved him, and she’d do exactly what he wanted, up to a point where he was willing her to fight, to lash out, rebel, something, anything, but there had been nothing, other than her cries for her Mommy.
The second Aliyah would play games, like him. He’d think that he had finally won, finally tamed her, finally made her as complacent as the first, and then she’d do something that would show him how wrong he was. All these years, so many years. He’d think he’d finally gotten her, and she’d pull off something completely unexpected.
Acting like she was giving in and he had the control, then leaving her body and showing him how much more powerful she was over him, when no other human could pull such a stunt, as they remained bound to their human body while that human body lived.
All the fear he’d spent so many years instilling, where was it? She acted completely fearless. How? How could that be? Even he, in his state, was privy to fear and insecurity. Everyone else he dealt with easily crumbled. They willingly chose death or bowed down to him, yet she acted like she had all this goodness at heart, while managing to play the dark games he played at the same time. There were thousands, now, roaming this world, all of them having one order. Get her and bring her to him alive. After everything he’d been through, he was the only one that should get the glory and satisfaction of killing her. He wasn’t willing to share that with anyone else.
***
Lydia tried starting her car, wanting more than anything to get away from these memories of her past, but it wouldn’t start. It revved and revved and revved, but wouldn’t start.
A cab stopped beside her, “Looks like you’re stranded. I’ll get you to where you need to go, free of charge. I’ve got a daughter your age; I wouldn’t ever want her to wind up stranded.”
“Go away,” Lydia said tiredly, opening the hood of her car. Idiots. Couldn’t they have thought of something better than to unscrew her distributor cap and pull the plugs, like she wouldn’t know by now? Apparently they were all mechanically dis-inclined, less they would have come up with something better.
She got her car going. It wasn’t five minutes later before an unknown number was coming through her phone. “Aliyah, your son’s been kidnapped.”
She hung up on him. “Not very creative, are you, Dwayne? She said aloud.
Until a car playing chicken drove her off the road into a corn field.
“I am so sorry. My wife is very pissed off at me right now. She was exploding my phone, and I was trying to settle her down when -.”
“Save it.”
“No, it’s my fault. I want to make it up to you. I’ll give you a ride to where you were headed.” Grr, too bad his Mel Gibson face and body was possessed.
“No thank you. I’ll walk,” she said.
“It’s no problem at all. Truly, it’s my fault. The least I can do is give you a ride.”
“The least you can do is get back in your car and drive away.”
“Then I’ll walk with you.”
“Do you seriously want me to kill you? If Dwayne, or the dark master, as you call him, wants me, he can come get me himself.”
Five minutes later, police sirens entered the picture.
“We see there’s been an accident. License and registration, put your hands on the car, so we can search you for illegal substances.”
“This the best you can do, Dwayne?” she yelled. Then placed the emerald knife against their bodies, instantly evacuating the Dark souls possessing their bodies.
All this just to get to her son – and Jacob, too, - to ensure their safety.
CHAPTER 34
By the time she arrived, the staff were running wild, not wanting to be liable for the escaped patient. Jacob texted her with an address. The Ramada Inn. Seriously? Since when did he have money? Otherland didn’t exactly provide it when they sent things here.
She went to the room number he provided and knocked on the door. “Jacob, why did you leave the -?”
She heard giggles. She found him on the bed, four girls giggling over him, one rubbing his feet, another dressing his wound, one providing him food, and the other drink. Lydia stomped her foot with a growl. The room trembled, and the curtains gushed outward, effectively running the shrieking girls out of the room.
“What do you think you’re doing, Jacob?”
“You’d be amazed how excited people get and how much they want to serve you when they learn you’re a Light knight. Jealous, Aliyah?”
“Any one of those girls could have been possessed. They could have kidnapped my son, or, or stabbed you again,” she lectured while locking doors and closing the drapes.
He shook his head. “You’re forgetting that I can sense darkness. It’s how I wound up here. One of the Doctor’s at the hospital was possessed and I think he’d put me down for every possible surgery in existence. He was trying to put me under, so I escaped.”
“How are you paying for this?”
“I’m not. Everything’s, let’s say, on the house.”
A knock sounded at the door. “Room Service.”
“Right on time. The service here is spectacular. Do you mind getting that?”
A female staff walked in, pushing the food cart, piled impossibly high for a person to eat. “Thank you, good soul,” he said gently, looking into her eyes.
“So it is true,” she gasped, touching her heart. “You are an angel sent from above to save us all.”
“A Light knight sent from Otherland. It’s a common misconception,” he said arrogantly.
“It’s been a pleasure serving you, Light knight. If there is anything, anything else I can do to service you. I would be honored. My name is Mindy.”
“Thank you, Mindy, your kindness will be rewarded.”
Lydia crossed her arms while watching Mindy happily skip out of there, humming a song. “More like it’s on the ‘big house’. Aren’t you supposed to stay inconspicuous and not reveal yourself for who or what you are? Aren’t those the Bylaws?”
“Everything has changed. With the Dark souls flaunting themselves, causing fear and havoc everywhere they go, people need hope more than ever.”
Lydia raised both her brows. “By rubbing your feet?”
He grinned. “What? She insisted. It’s not in me to break their hearts.”
“Oh, I’m sure they offered to rub a lot more than your feet.”
“I’ve never seen you jealous before, Aliyah. I think I like it.”
“I’m not jealous,” she declared. “I’m turned off by your recent cocky behaviors, like you’re God’s gift to the world.”
“Well, I kind of am, Aliyah,” he smirked.
She knocked him upside the head with one of the eight fluffy pillows on the bed. “This just isn’t like you is all I’m saying. Both worlds are falling apart and you’re living it up, happy as can be, happier than I’ve ever seen you before.”
“Well, what can I say? I’m a man in love. Love changes people.”
“In love with yourself. I should have just let you die. That’d wipe that arrogant grin right off your face.”
“You’ve been very touchy lately. I miss seeing you smile. I’ve decided my new duty is to make you smile.”
“Oh, now suddenly you’re making your own orders? I would pay a lot of money to witness your next consultation with the High master.” And at this, she did smile.
“Where you going now?”
“To find Dwayne and end this.”
He swiped his hand and shut the door she was trying to open. “Jacob, let . me . out,” she struggled with the door.
“All work and no play doesn’t keep the evil possessed Doctor’s at bay. From here on out, we need to stay together. It’s all part of the Prophecy that you refuse to listen to. I can sense darkness. You cannot.”
“That’s why I’m just choosing to not trust anyone. Do you know what I had to go through to get back here? My car was dismantled. A possessed cab driver tried getting me to get in the car with him. Then I was run off the road, where yet another possessed driver tried to get me in his car. Then police officers came and were going to handcuff me and place me in the back of their vehicle. They’re everywhere now, Jacob. No where is safe anymore.”
“All the more reason for us to stick together. Did you get the stone piece you were looking for?”
She inhaled sharply, “How did you know about that?”
“Because I’m the one that had to convince the elders it was not in your possession. You were such a feisty teenager. Nothing but trouble. Caused me so much grief.”
“So you lied?”
“No, it wasn’t in your possession, was it? You’d hidden it. I wouldn’t call that a lie.”
“An omission of significant information. Why’d you let me keep it if you knew I’d taken it?”
“My duty above all things has been to protect you. You didn’t take it to pawn it for some quick cash. Everything you’ve done has already been prewritten. All this time you’ve been fulfilling a destiny you knew nothing about. I am absolutely amazed by you, Aliyah, always have been. I admire you. Sometimes we have to do things on the surface that seem wrong, but if it’s for a greater good, then the reason behind the action is measured more strongly than the action itself. May I see it?”
Carefully, she wielded the knife, placing it on the blanket. “Don’t touch it. I don’t know what it will do to you.”
“The blade is embalmed in white light. It cannot harm me.”
“But the stone handle might. It’s constructed from the very stone meant to imprison, keep in, or keep out, both human and spiritual forms. Then the blue emerald from the Lightness, preservation -.”
“Purification,” he finished.
“Exactly.”
Unexpectedly, he kissed her full on the mouth. “It has been the greatest honor knowing you and my greatest duty to being a part of the fulfilling of your destiny.”
“Hmmm, past tense. Why are you talking like I’m not going to see you again?” she said alarmed.
“Did it sound like that? Sorry, the – uh – kiss disturbed my senses. Let me serve you tonight, Aliyah.” He maneuvered around her and began rubbing her back.
“No, you’re injured.”
“I’m fine,” he said.
“Then in that case, we have work to do,” she stood.
“I can’t. I’m injured.”
“Well which is it, Jacob? Are you injured or aren’t you?” She stood with her hand at her hip.
“I’m too injured to get into one of the largest spiritual battles I’ve probably ever before confronted, but I’m not too injured to spend the evening pampering you. The worlds will still be falling apart tomorrow. Simply ridding of Dwayne is not going to fix everything. It will just eliminate the one problem of his being your worst fear.”
“People are dying, Jacob.” She resisted the glass of wine he tried to hand her and began pacing the floors.
“And people will still be dying, Aliyah. You need food, replenishment, nourishment, a good night’s rest. You need to recover your strength … and your objectivity.”
“What do you mean my objectivity?” she sat again.
“Remember what I just said about how the reasons behind our actions are measured more strongly than our actions? If you go after Dwayne with vengeance, anger, hate, those strong emotions will disrupt your other senses. The reason for why he has failed over and over and over again is because he’s not being objective. He’s letting emotion fire him up, and he has serious, serious anger issues.”
“Believe me, I know,” she said.
“If you go after him in the same way, you will fail, because your reasons would be no better than his own. You have to be in the right state of mind, body, and soul, to succeed. It’s the only way.”
“So I’m supposed to just relax and enjoy myself to the background noise of people screaming and suffering?”
He flicked his hand and the radio turned on. Delilah. 98.7. “No, you’re supposed to relax and enjoy yourself to the background noise of a beautiful soul that inspires the world with hope, faith, and love. They’ve been running her shows 24/7 since this calamity started, broadcasting it everywhere. “Now please, drink. Take the edge off. You’re killing your body and your strength with all your anxieties.”
Finally, she took the glass of wine. He walked to the door, placing the ‘Do Not Disturb’ paper over the door knob.
She chuckled, “And I’m the one that doesn’t have pure intentions?”
“It’s just to keep my lovely servants away.”
“You do realize that a possessed human isn’t going to read the sign and be like, ‘Okay, I’ll just come back later,’” she joked.
“Help me move this dresser. My spiritual energies can only handle up to 50 pounds.”
“You better keep working out then,” she said, lifting the hand that wasn’t holding the wine to maneuver the dresser in front of the door.
“What you did with Dwayne’s possessed body amazed me. The guy had to have been 300-350 lbs and you flung him around like he weighed no more than a feather. I didn’t know you had it in you.”
“I didn’t either, but I figured it was worth the try, which, by the way, was fueled by anger, so it apparently allowed me to be more powerful.”
“So you can just leave your body at will?”
Aliyah put the wine glass down, and her body instantly dropped. “Over here,” she said, and he saw her shimmering by the bathroom door.
“How are you able to do that?” he said in awe, while she returned to her body.
“I learned how to do it when I was a kid. I would wait, and if I heard the footsteps, I would leave my body and stand across the room.”
“You would watch?” he said tightly in pain.
“If I didn’t, then I would not have been able to remember it, so I would not have been able to prepare myself for the next time.”
“Do you believe that bad things happen to good people for a good reason?”
“Well I certainly wouldn’t have caused so much distress in Otherland if not for those things happening. I feel like my entire life has been a consequence of those bad things.” She sighed heavily. “I’m ready to hear about this Prophecy you’ve been trying so hard to tell me about.”
She poured herself another glass of wine.
“You need to eat something. I’ve, unfortunately, had very little time to spend with you in the human world, so I do not know those simple things, like, what your favorite food is? Your favorite song. Your favorite color. What movie you’ve watched more than any other. I’d like to spend this evening learning everything I can about you. The kitchen was very generous for supplying one of everything on the menu.”
“Pizza would have sufficed. That is the one food you can never go wrong with. Everyone in this world loves pizza.”
“I didn’t just order one of everything for you. I, myself, have had very little time to experience this world as human. I do not recall any bed time stories, or the parents that I once had that brought me into this world. I do not know what music I like, or what food I like best.
“I could say my favorite color is white, but that is too simplified, as it doesn’t excite me the way looking into your eyes, and all its swirling beautiful blues and greens does. Or the rosy pink of your lips. Or the brown speckles on your nose and beneath your eyes that seem to have been painted perfectly to accentuate the peach of your face. I love the golden color of your hair, and it always amused me when every time I saw you when you were a teenager, your fingernails would always be different colors.”
“Then you began putting different colors on your face, purple on your eyelids, pink on your lips, always and ever-changing.”
Lydia began feeling a bit warm. “How many glasses of wine have you had?” she inquired testily.
“One. Why?”
“Alcohol, like morphine, impairs your senses and makes you say and do things you wouldn’t ordinarily say or do. I think one glass is plenty enough for you, as you probably have the tolerance of a 13-year-old.”
“Have you recognized that every time I’m trying to say something nice to you or tell you how I feel that you come up with one excuse or another as to why I’m not legitimate?”
“Yes, I have. It just makes me uncomfortable to hear those things.”
“Why? Once upon a time you wanted nothing more than for me to love you. Now, you’re averse to it when I’m trying to give it to you.”
“I didn’t just want you to love me. I wanted you to choose to stay with me in the human world. This is the longest you’ve ever been in the human world at one time, and I think it’s having major impacts with that human mentality thing.”
“You mean that I’m finally feeling what humans feel,” he stated.
“Yes,” she murmured.
“Perhaps I would have made different decisions if I had known then what I know now,” he whispered.