Tears softly rolled down the side of her face. “Be careful.”
Her hand started trembling as the things he told her came to mind. He was a ghost operative. She knew if something went wrong, she would never hear a word. His body wouldn’t ever be returned unless one of the others brought it back, something that he said they very seldom did. She walked in and got her things and walked out. Bobby ran out after her.
Britney heard Bobby and she said, “He said he would be gone a couple weeks. Bobby, I just don’t feel like dancing. Tell the others I will see them in the morning.” Bobby stopped as she called a cab to go back to the hotel. That night, she kissed the baby. “This is from Daddy.” She lay down in the bed and started crying. She felt arms come around her. She turned over and held Bobby tight as she cried.
The receptionist was about to lock the door when Gloria walked in. “Is Sam still here?” Gloria asked.
“In the back office.”
Gloria mumbled out, “Thanks.” As she started towards the back. before the woman could say anything else, Gloria had turned the corner.
Sam was sitting at a desk. She walked in. Sam was reading the computer with a concentrated look on his face. His gaze still locked on the computer, he gestured towards the seat across from his desk. She closed the door slightly hard. He raised an eyebrow but didn’t look away. Gloria walked over and flopped down in the seat. She let out a loud exasperated breath that made Sam smile slightly. “So when are you going to tell me what you are not telling me, Sam?” Gloria said in an agitated tone.
“You mean, more or less, when am I going to ask you what I am not asking you?”
“That too,” she said as she exhaled loudly.
He looked up from the screen. “What happened the night Stanley was shot?”
Not expecting that at all, she said in a confused voice, “Why, Sam?”
“For the archives,” he casually said.
“The archives, Sam. What good are the archives? There are only three dance couples that are dance mates and all of them are retiring this year.”
“Dancing the Tide was thought to be the last book to ever be written by the Dannarr, Gloria. Now anyone who has read that library knows that people of those days put everything theatric a song, a dance, a play. So much of the truth is hidden and amplified played out in impossible tales. Not everyone that is affected by the curse are dancers, Gloria. Two people that knew the library of the Dannarr most were Francois and his daughter Elizabeth Thomas.”
“Don’t bring that woman’s name up at all,” Gloria spat.
Sam shook his head. “I see, still bitter. I suppose her father looking at her mother saying this child wasn’t born to dance then walking out of the door. I guess that is reason to love the ones that he went to and didn’t have shit to do with. The rest of her life. Hell, the girl was even lucky to get anything from the man. To you and Stanley, he was good man to Sabrina. He was a husband and father. Elizabeth held on to him the only way she could. His obsession to find a way to end the curse. Or to beat it made him who he was, Gloria. He was a good friend. To many a good man. But he was not perfect. The curse affects many like her.
“So what? Not many dance mates are in the circuit now? That don’t mean they won’t someday return. The archives help people and those that are affected by the curse. Now what happened the night he was shot?” He set a voice recorder down.
Gloria pressed stop. “First tell me why, Sam, the goddamn truth.” Her tone was demanding and borderline threatening.
Sam leaned back in his seat. “Gloria, I do not need to tell you what Sabrina was. Today, you just confirmed what we have thought for many years. I am not going to bother asking you everything you know. Once you start down the supernatural path, there is no returning to a normal life. It will haunt you until the day you die. If I am keeping something from you, then I have a very good reason not to tell you.”
He leaned forward and pressed record. Gloria started talking, telling him everything she knew and felt and heard. When it was over, she was crying. Sam said, “Now, the night of his last dance, what did you feel, what did you see?”
“Bobby held out his hand. I couldn’t hold back, Sam. I took it. I knew I would put him to shame. The curse was coming to me. I didn’t fight it at all. We never danced to be the best. We always danced because we loved to dance. When I took his hand, I was going to show we were the best. I spun for the fall. Thought I was going to hit the floor. Six men caught me and lifted me up and carried me off the stage. Then, in a moment, I saw Stanley standing in a bright light, a shadow beside him. That was the last thing I saw in my mind.”
“Let me guess. Besides that, you didn’t see anything, but you moved like you were in the air. Like you were holding your partner up with you.”
“Yes, that is it exactly.”
“Thank you, Gloria.”
He turned the recorder off. Gloria reached and turned it back on and said, “Now what are your thoughts? I know you are not saying everything you think.”
Sam smiled. “Your reputation precedes you, Gloria Parker. I am being interviewed by Gloria Parker. Ask your questions. But I warn you, the answers may very well surprise you and you will not like the answers I tell you if the questions I think you are going to ask are asked.”
“You asked me the questions you did for a reason other than just for the archives. What was that reason?”
Sam leaned back in his seat and said cautiously, “Changing the tides is the reference recorded in the archives. Dance mates, soul mates collide with unexpected loves. As I pointed out, Bobby and Britney are very likely to be unexpected loves. They have found their soul mates and dance mates. Each are separate people. You and Stanley were dance mates and unexpected love.” Gloria gave him a confused look.
Sam continued, “Don’t look at me like that, Gloria. To be honest, I am surprised that you didn’t figure that out. You thought it was the curse, but how many lived under the curse had a relationship like the two of you did? Stanley could hold you, touch you, even make love to you anytime he wanted. Now that may not have happened, but if he wanted to, he could have. Could he not?”
“Yes, Sam, but—”
Sam abruptly said, “Bobby is the same way with her. You saw Stanley, you felt the curse the night he died. That was the sign of the tide changing. Just like the last time. It always happens. When the two unexpected loves die together, that is when things change. Let the records show a possible new order member. Gloria, there is far more to this curse than most know. The supernatural exists in many ways. It is hidden from the world. The curse is part of the supernatural. I will not get into all of that. What I am going to say, some are things you know already. Changing of the tides is an event that happens within the curse.
“Something happened long ago. Here are the truth and facts without any speculation. Someone deceived the God of the Dance. Now many will say the God of the Dance is one of the muses. That is correct. But a god is and can be what a god wants to be. If the muse wants to be a man, then it is a man. If it wants to be a woman, then it is a woman. If it wants to be an animal, it is an animal.
“What we know is someone deceived the god into teaching them to dance. Then they said they were a better dancer than the muse. Then on the day they were to ascend to be with the god, they lie with another in the temple of the God of the Dance. That is why the God of the Dance started the curse. Also, whoever did this was having sex with a nun or priest or the God of the Dreams. If anyone gives you more information other than that, then all they are doing is speculating.
“This too is a known fact about the curse; it is also filled with many gaps. A village of the cursed lived together. It was a rather large village. The dancers kept a perfect record of many things that happened. They vowed to start a quest to end the curse after an event took place. The God of the Damned got very angry and was about to destroy them all.
“Many have tried to end the curse and all that have failed have joined the damned. But the ones that have come the closest are unexpected loves.
“This is the first in many things. The passing of the tide always is done with the unexpected loves dying together. In the event like this where the two of you were apart, the other just died from a broken heart. You are the very first to survive. But we have a speculation about that. Bobby and Britney have not actually become unexpected loves. There is always at least one expected love among the cursed always. Some we know about, others we do not. Until the two of you brought them into the picture, we did not know about them.
“They have all the signs they can change from friends to lovers in a heartbeat. More than that pain could transform them into dance mates. It is odd for the two of them to be as close as they appear to be and have not ventured into sex to complete the unexpected love. I am willing to bet they have come close several times but have not gone all the way for one reason or another. The Order of the Dance hid the library to a custodian. Someone who is born to dance but due to health reasons can’t dance is the custodian.”
“Julie Chandler,” Gloria said softly
Sam nodded. “Precisely. The Order of the Dance are those that watch after the dancers under the curse if they know about the curse or not. If a couple knows about the curse, the other dancers that know about the curse will do as you and Stanley did. Help the new ones to the curse. If a couple under the curse does not know they are cursed, we just watch. The survival rate to those that do not know is much greater than those that do know.”
Gloria folded her arms across her chest and leaned back and abruptly said, “False entry, Mr. Bluefield, very well knows The Order of the Dance plays a much larger role with in the supernatural faction of the dance.”
Sam gave her a curious look. “For the record, that information was not false. The Order of the Dance is not what the former members once were. Only three members of the order are present. Three council members along with thirty guards are more inactive than active.” Looking at Gloria, Sam said, “Something tells me that Stanley knew far more about the curse than we suspected. He had to have known they were unexpected loves. He was not as blind as you. Maybe that is not what I wanted to say. He knew more than you, Gloria.”
He paused for a moment as if to consider something. “Some things about the curse are not publicly known among those that know about the curse and are under the curse.” Gloria gave him a hard glance. The tone in his voice said what he was about to say next was going to hit like a ton of bricks.
Sam continued to speak. “We tell everyone an untruth. This is fact: when a dance mate dies, leaving the other alive, a new dance mate is chosen is one theory. Another is we have several dance mates to increase the odds of those that are born to dance find a dance mate. It is said that a dance mate who is in love with a soul mate when a dance mate dies, if the survivor joins with the mate of another while they are under the curse, the survivor will see a vision of a dance mate for them.”
“I am not going to do it, Sam. So don’t even ask. That life is far behind me now. I am in love with my husband. I am doing this to help their dance mates, no other reason,” she said in a tone of finality.
Sam stood up and walked around the desk. He sat down on it, one foot on the floor, another hanging on the side of the desk. “Gloria, you need to find him. Let’s take a look at what is happening in your life. You lost him. Anyone that knows you knew you didn’t want anything, more than you wanted to die. What did you do, Gloria? You turned to his soul mate for comfort. You wanted her love to fill the emptiness in your life.”
How did you know that? Gloria thought as she looked away from him. Sam continued to speak. “It worked but not completely. Next, you will turn to the love that is in her life to help fill the void in your heart. Insecurity is growing inside of you. When they complete the bond of unexpected love, Gloria, I do not know what that is going to do to you inside, emotionally, mentally, and physically. It isn’t a matter of if they complete it. It is a matter of when.”
Gloria stood. “I will cross that bridge when it happens.” She started towards the door.
Sam said, “You need to think of your children, Gloria. If this made life better, then it wouldn’t be called a curse.” Gloria closed the door behind her hard.
Sam picked up the recorder and said, “Gloria Parker is the most talented and powerful female dancer known on record. As mentioned earlier, Stanley knew more about the curse than she did. Gloria didn’t say anything, I get the idea that was what she hoped we believe. The other day, she shouted out before thinking ‘I know that dance, Stanley, I know that dance.’ The way she said it was as if he was in the room with her. Something tells me he is not completely gone. She needs to bond with another, she needs to rejoin the cursed before she ventures into things beyond her knowledge or power. If she does not, then she needs to be eliminated for the sake of all born to dance. The possibility lingers that she could have started a dance from the library. I am positive that if she did, she wouldn’t have survived the dance. Depending on which dance she did, and the reason behind the dance will be lost forever. It could very well be that after her death from failing to complete the dance, she returned to the past. So much could be possible, but not enough evidence at present to start actions for an investigation. I will monitor her and all close to her. If what I am suspecting is true, before she is eliminated, remove me from place of power. I will not watch, nor will I sit back and do nothing. End of report.”
Chapter 14
Searching for the truth
The next day, they went to the studio. Sam called Bobby to his office. Bobby sat down. Sam said, “I am recording something for the archives. I have few questions for you. The night you bonded with Nicole, what happened that night?” Bobby started talking and Sam listened. When he was done speaking, Sam sat in silence with a concentrated look on his face.
After a few moments, Bobby said, “Can I go now?”
Sam looked up at him with an intense glare as he spoke in a soft shallow voice. “I am not a fool, boy. Your sex life is honestly none of my business. I know that too. You went to the room with a healthy young beautiful woman, and all you did was hold her.”
Sam slid the recorder closer to Bobby and said, “You are the first man in the history of bonding that did not do anything with a woman the night of the bonding. Records of men and boys raping sisters, mothers, aunts are recorded in the archives. So don’t think I buy that. Now you may have raped her, had sex with another or whatever, and you think I will call the authorities. But that is nothing but a lie.”
Bobby shifted uneasily in his seat, and Sam said, “Now let’s try this once more. What did you do the night you bonded with Nicole?”
Bobby stood and walked out of the room. Sam spoke to Nicole and she said mostly everything that Bobby said, and she had sex with Ivan that night. He talked to Ivan and he said the same thing Gloria told Sam about the night Britney bonded with Ivan. Ivan admitted he had sex with Nicole. They all left that afternoon. The next morning, he called Britney into his office. She sat down in a chair and he said, “I have some questions. Starting with the night the two of you bonded.
Britney stated, “I rubbed myself on Stanley until he came. I even came several times myself. I took a shower, he ate me, and we went to bed. Anything else?”
Sam was surprised at how she spoke to him. He gave her a cur
ious look. “What made you come out and say that?”
“Because all you people worry about is how we feel when we fuck or do sexual things. That’s it. You say leave everything on the dance floor. But not once has anyone started to teach that to us. If you want me to tell you the size of his dick, I didn’t measure it. Or the length of his tongue. I didn’t measure that either,” Britney said angrily.
She got up and Sam said, “What do you say you tell me what I want to know, and I will tell you what you want to know.”
Britney laughed. “You don’t know what I want to know.” She started to walk away.
Sam opened a book and read, “They bonded; I know they did. She walked away from him. She saw me tonight. Keeping this a secret is too dangerous for her. Gloria was a witness to this. But she doesn’t remember the old tales that Momma use to tell us. Hell, they were crazy. I am frightened, and I do not know what to do. So, for now, I will remain silent until I figure out what to do.”
Sam looked up and Britney was glaring at him. Sam said in a calm tone, “Now you know how he heard you. You started a challenge when you walked away from your dance mate. When you bonded the dance with your mate and then your soul to Stanley’s. That is how you know he heard you. Would you like to know why he walked away? Now sit down and answer my questions. I will answer the one you want to know the most. Why he walked away.”
Britney smiled and said with a voice of rage, “Sam, at one time, everything you said would have had my attention. But this ain’t that time anymore. I loved him, Sam. I still do love him very much. I gave him my all. I did.” She let out a sarcastic laugh with the same tone. “You say he heard; I know he did. You say he walked away; I know he did. But here is the thing. That was then and this now. Here is a good question for you. Can you tell me how he could walk back into my life?”
Sam didn’t say anything. Britney said, “I didn’t think so. But here is something I want you to know. I loved him, and he will always have a special place in my heart. But if he could walk back into my life right now, I would be happy for our daughter to know her real father. Sad for him because I would not leave my husband for him. So you see, Sam, we both know he walked away from me.”
Love and Beyond Part 3 Page 17