The Cornelius Saga Boxed Set

by Tanya R. Taylor

  “Okay.” Mira felt like they were getting somewhere. “Think about a dramatic or life-altering event that might’ve happened to you just before you started having those thoughts.”

  Daniel sat in silence for a while as he worked through his past. “The only ‘dramatic’ thing I can think of from around that time-frame if you can call it dramatic was having to have that heart transplant. I’d suffered from heart problems for a number of years before that and was told surgery was my only hope.”

  He had Mira’s undivided attention. She recalled what Nervy had mentioned about paying close attention to what’s not being said.

  “Although indebted to the donor beyond what words could ever express, I realized that special person had to die in order for me to live. And I couldn’t help but feel terribly guilty for a while since he was so young.”

  “Do you know how he died?” Mira asked.

  “I was told it was a car crash which turned into a massive explosion on the interstate. But the young man didn’t perish in the fire. He’d been ejected from the car on impact. After that, there was a gas leakage and the truck he had run into exploded.”

  “Daniel, have you ever seen a picture of your donor?” Mira’s heart was racing.

  “Yes, I have. As a matter of fact, I’ve always kept a little photo of him in my wallet that his father had given to me. I never wanted to forget that he was someone’s loved one who didn’t deserve to die so young. I felt by carrying it with me everywhere I went, I’d be showing the guy just how grateful I am and always will be. Would you like to see the picture?”

  “I’d love to.”

  He slipped out the photograph and handed it to her.

  Mira gasped. There was absolutely no doubt it was the same man she had seen sliding in and out of Daniel’s body. She gave it back.

  “I don’t know how to tell you this, but I’ve seen this man.”

  The expression on his face revealed he wasn’t sure how to process that disclosure. “You have?”

  She nodded.

  “When? How? You mean… before the wreck?”

  Mira shook her head. “Daniel… his spirit isn’t at rest.”

  “What?”

  “He’s been passing in and out of you.”

  Daniel’s eyes widened with shock. “What’re you saying?”

  “Have you always had that twitching issue I’ve noticed a couple of times?”

  “What twitching issue?” He seemed puzzled.

  “At times, your right cheek has been twitching,” she told him.

  “Mira, I don’t know what you’re talking about. What does twitching anyway have to do with what you said about Jason passing in and out of me, like you say?”

  “His name’s Jason?”

  “McCuthrie!” She heard a reply from a distance.

  Mira looked around the courtyard and spotted the strange man standing near the back gate, approximately two hundred yards away.

  “McCuthrie is his surname, isn’t it?”

  “Uh huh.”

  “Daniel, I have to tell you that you’ve inadvertently taken on some of his actions, habits and experiences that he had when he was alive: The twitching, severe depression, suicidal thoughts.”

  “How do you know this?” He had a look of disbelief. “How do you know the depression and all that isn’t inherently my own? I’ve had a crummy life, so finally getting to the verge of having suicidal thoughts and actually attempting to carry out the deed can’t be too far-fetched to imagine coming from a guy like me.”

  “You’re right. It won’t be far-fetched, but I can tell you that Jason deliberately rammed his vehicle head on into the eighteen-wheeler that night.”

  Stunned, Daniel was at a temporary loss for words.

  “He’d had a couple of drinks that night after leaving the bar, so everyone thought he’d simply lost control of the car. But the truth is… he committed suicide.”

  Daniel stood up and walked off a little. Mira remained seated, hoping he could somehow process what she had told him. “There’s more, Daniel.”

  He shook his head and tried to clear his thoughts before heading back over to the bench. “I don’t know,” he mumbled. “This is a lot to take in already.”

  “I was reluctant to tell you all this, but I knew you needed to know.”

  “And we haven’t gotten to what you saw in my dad’s old house yet,” he said.

  “You remember Nervy commenting about you having something that belonged to someone else and they wanted it back?” She asked.

  There was no mistaking the dread that filled his eyes. “No, you’re not talking about…”

  Mira nodded slowly. “His heart, Daniel. He wants his heart back. In essence, he wants his life back, but he can’t have it, so he’s trying to frustrate you enough so you can end yours. That way, he’ll feel a little better about not having his anymore.”

  “It can’t be, Mira. None of this can be true!” Daniel exclaimed.

  “I’m sorry,” she said.

  “But he had to agree at one point to have his organs donated whenever he passed away.”

  “True. But I’m pretty sure he had agreed to that before he got so severely depressed.”

  “So what now? What do I do?” His fear was nearly crippling.

  “You have to let him know, in no uncertain terms, that the heart beating inside your chest is yours and that he has no right to what he’s already given up,” Mira replied.

  “Wow!” Daniel held his head. “I can’t believe this is happening.”

  “So, you’ll do it, right? It’s very important that you do. No one can do this for you.”

  “It’s just as simple as that, huh, and he’ll go away?”

  “I truly believe so.”

  He sighed. “Okay, I will. I’ll have a good talk with Jason and hopefully, he’ll see my point. I didn’t expect to get anything like this out of your visit.”

  Mira allowed him a little breathing space. Afterwards, she told him what transpired during her visit to his father’s former residence. Daniel was amazed by what she was able to see and felt she was getting closer to the absolute truth surrounding his mother’s murder.

  9

  _________________

  After a rather exhausting day, Mira stepped out of the shower and couldn’t wait to get to bed. She could hear sleep screaming her name; she switched off the lights and buried herself beneath the covers. The instant she closed her eyes, a heavy-set woman barged through the bedroom door. She was clearly furious. Mira noticed the clothing she wore – a dark gray, long-sleeved blouse, a black skirt and her hair was tucked into a bun. It was Jackie! She opened the handbag which dangled on her forearm and yanked out a large butcher knife. Mira saw her rushing towards her and while attempting to get up to avert what she knew was about to happen, Jackie, having the upper hand size-wise, pinned her down, raised her arm and plunged the knife into her chest. She stabbed her repeatedly – in the neck, face, arms — everywhere she could. Mira was screaming in anguish, thinking only of her child as she felt her very life slipping away. She was gurgling as blood flooded her lungs and seeped through her mouth. Jackie was still stabbing her, but now, she could barely feel the punctures. She was drifting away; her soul peeling away from her wounded body. She was gone.

  Mira awoke in a cold sweat. She sprung up and tossed the sheet off of her, checking her neck, chest, arms - everywhere she had felt the stabbing sensations. An ocean of relief overwhelmed her to see that she hadn’t, in reality, been attacked, and she turned to the side of the bed to get up. That’s when she smelled the subtle odor.

  Getting up quickly, she swung open her room door and the strong scent almost knocked her over. Gas, she thought. “Oh, my God!” She hurried to Daniel’s room and banged on the door. It creaked open and she dashed inside, but didn’t find him.

  Dashing back out into the hallway, she ran from room to room, banging on doors, urging people to get out of the building. She hoped by now, no one had inhale
d so much of the carbon monoxide to the point it had been fatal. Everyone started to open the doors and run out their rooms, many covering their noses with the shirts they were.

  “Hurry! We have to get out of here!” Mira led the way down the stairway. “You two!” She pointed to a couple of young men in their twenties. “Hurry upstairs and bang on the doors to get the people down here. Hurry!”

  She rushed down the stairs only to find Daniel standing there at the foot of the staircase with a lighter in one hand, a cigarette held firmly in the corner of his mouth, and a semi-automatic pistol in the other hand. He had a crazed expression on his face that scared the living daylights out of Mira. And that cheek twitching again was in full force.

  Everyone was in shock.

  “What are you doing, Daniel?” Mira asked.

  “This time I’m going to do it right. There’s no way I can survive this blast,” he said coldly.

  Mira took another step down as more than a dozen people anxiously waited behind her on the stairway, some coughing. “Daniel, remember our conversation earlier? You have to fight this; you’re not thinking straight. We’ve got to get out of here. Please step aside and allow these people to leave.”

  “But they can’t,” he said, almost tauntingly, as they heard all the locks around the building snap shut simultaneously. “You wanna try?” He stepped aside.

  Mira proceeded down the stairs, passing him and went over to the door that led out to the courtyard. The lock was firmly in its place. She tried to push it open, but was unable to. A man tried to kick it open, but his efforts were fruitless as it was designed to open from the inside. People were attempting to smash windows for their escape – throwing chairs into them – but they didn’t as much as crack. Mira was looking at Daniel; she could see this Jason guy wiggling inside Daniel’s body.

  Nervy appeared next to Mira. “You know by now this place ain’t haunted, right?” she whispered.

  “I know.” Mira nodded slowly. “He is.”

  Now coughing also, Daniel managed a deep, throaty laugh. The two men who had hurried upstairs to alert the others, lunged at Daniel, spewing profanities and threatening to kill him. But Daniel brandished his gun, reminding them of who was in charge.

  Suddenly, giggles invaded their space and lights in the ceiling began to flicker. They were standing in the room where photographs hung from wall to wall. Mira, now drawn to them, noticed that all eyes in the photographs were on them, darting to and fro across the room and wide smiles covered their faces like those of Cheshire cats.

  Daniel slid the gun into his pocket and held up the lighter. He knew that the amount of gas vapor in the atmosphere would set them all ablaze in an instant, forever destroying the gruesome legacy of his life; forever ending the years of depression; forever setting him free into the afterlife. He envisioned the emotional pain now leaving him forever. After nearly fifty years, he would finally be free.

  “Daniel! Don’t do it!” Mira yelled.

  Everyone was pleading for him to close the lighter and to not do what they could see he was dead set on accomplishing.

  “Daniel,” Mira’s eyes started to well with tears. “I have a little girl at home; her name’s Rosie. Remember? She’s waiting for me to come home soon. Please, put the lighter away.”

  He was standing there, suddenly looking confused.

  “This isn’t you wanting to do this terrible thing. It’s Jason. He wants you dead right along with him, but not just dead – as miserable as he’s been since he died. Don’t listen to his lies, Daniel. He wants you to think you’d finally be at peace if you end it all, but that’s not true. There’s no way you’d be at peace, especially after having stolen the lives of all these innocent people. And there’s no guarantee if you took your own, that you’d find the peace you’ve been yearning for all these years.”

  The twitching had become less prominent, but those eyes were still eerily dark and blank.

  “Think of your mother. Do you think she would want this for you – to end your life without having even lived? You don’t have to be alone in this world. I can help you.”

  Daniel shook his head quickly. “No, you can’t. I know I dragged you all the way here for answers, but they can’t help me no matter what they are. I realize that now. Nothing can erase the past — my past.”

  Mira slowly approached him. “Daniel, I know who killed your mom. I saw it tonight before I smelled the gas.”

  She could see his interest was piqued.

  “The courts had it right all along. Jackie Smith – your dad’s wife – in a fit of rage, came here that fateful night, barged into your mother’s unlocked room and stabbed her to death. I don’t know how she managed to sneak in to the guest house, but I suppose whoever saw her, took her for one of the guests. The one person who was here that night in the lobby and described her was not mistaken. He may not have been one hundred percent sure when he pointed her out and then testified, but he was definitely correct.”

  Daniel was nodding and sobbing. “I knew it!” He shook his head, then turned away, still holding the lighter. A tall, strapping man nearby attempted to rush him, but Mira held out her hand as a gesture that he remained in place.

  Daniel turned and faced Mira again. “You see, I was right. Knowing the truth doesn’t make a bit of difference. My mother’s still dead.”

  “You’re right,” Mira said. “But you don’t have to be. She doesn’t want you – her only son – to die this way. She wants you to move on and live your life with the truth in your heart. And remember, it’s your heart. It doesn’t belong to Jason anymore. You’ve got to tell him that once and for all and he has to leave you alone. Only you can make that happen, Daniel.”

  Everyone anxiously watched the tense exchange between Mira and this man who was obviously hurting. Mira could see the internal struggle he had, as well as the silhouette of the lost soul slightly easing in and out of Daniel’s frame.

  “Tell him, Daniel!” Mira demanded. “Tell him now, before he drags you to Hell right along with him!”

  Daniel’s finger was on the trigger of the lighter and everyone watched in horror as he seemed to grip it even more firmly. Women were screaming and crying; men begging him not to do it. Eyes in the photographs were still eagerly scanning the room. Daniel squeezed his eyes tightly and everyone, including Mira, braced themselves for the inevitable when suddenly, Daniel snapped the lighter closed, then moments later, bent over and vomited what looked like buckets of charcoal on the floor. Mira watched as the black spirit of Jason McCuthrie left through his mouth and crashed through a nearby window, shattering the glass into a million pieces. All the windows and doors flew open simultaneously and Daniel slumped to the floor as the guests ran out of the building. Mira went over and helped him up and out to the front yard. They were both coughing heavily.

  Emergency help was summoned to the scene and everyone was transported to the local hospital for toxic gas inhalation. Wade and Norma rushed there upon hearing the shocking news and were at Mira’s side.

  “I can’t believe I didn’t see it coming!” Wade felt like kicking himself.

  “You couldn’t have known he was that sick, Wade.” Mira said weakly. Her throat was a bit inflamed.

  “It was a bad idea to begin with.” He shook his head. “I should’ve never encouraged you to get involved with his issues. In fact, I should’ve never mentioned anything about you. It would’ve been best if he’d sought some other means of help.”

  “But he did. Nothing worked for him before. At least now, he’s free.”

  “But at what cost?” Wade posed.

  “I’m sure all the guests of New Life will be just fine,” Mira said. “Even though it was a really close call, everyone survived.”

  “Mira’s right, honey,” Norma assured her husband. “Everyone survived, and Daniel has a new start now. Funny how he named his place New Life.”

  “Ironic,” Mira noted. “I wonder what they’re gonna do with him.” She was obvious
ly concerned.

  “I don’t know. He’ll likely be charged with something,” Wade responded. “There were a lot of witnesses, so I doubt he’ll get off scot-free.”

  “We have to do something before I leave.”

  “We?” Wade grimaced. “Haven’t you had enough excitement already?”

  “I need you to look up some information for me. You’ve been living on this island long enough, so, I suppose you’d know how to go about it.”

  Wade listened carefully to what Mira had to say.

  10

  _________________

  Like all the other guests at New Life, Mira had to wait for the all clear before being allowed to re-enter the premises. Norma returned home to relieve the baby-sitter while Wade accompanied his sister back to the guest house to retrieve her belongings.

  After Mira finished packing, Wade picked up her luggage.

  “You got him his answers, Sis. I must admit, it almost cost you your life, but you did it.” He gave her a big hug.

  “Thanks.” Mira smiled. “I guess it’s time to go – to your place.”

  As they headed for the door, she stopped and looked once more at the room where two lives had crossed – one lost in the heat of passion, and both forever destroyed because of their love for and loyalty to the same man.

  Mira could still see the blood-drenched sheets as Ellen lay there helplessly; her last thoughts being that of the future welfare of her son. She could feel the spirit of the woman so strongly. If only Daniel understood how much his mother loved him and desired, above everything, that he have a good life, in spite of her not being there physically.

  “Would you please tell him?” Ellen stood across the room; her corpse still sprawled on the bed. She literally glowed in a dazzling white gown and those beautiful, hazel eyes of hers appeared ten times more radiant.