Power

by Theresa Jones

  “Go with you? Are you completely nuts? I have had enough of this. Rick, I don’t know what happened to you, but there is no such thing as ‘power’ not the way you mean it anyways. I will not go anywhere with you. And I can take care of myself. Like I said earlier, it was all just a strange dream. How you found out about it, I have no idea. I came here thinking I would get some answers, but really, I got nothing. Now, if you will kindly leave, I would appreciate it. I would go, but like I said earlier, I am meeting someone else here.”

  As I stood and walked away from him, toward the spot where Alex and I usually met, I heard him almost shout back at me, “Please be careful, darling! You are not safe like this and neither is your family.”

  I stopped and faced him one last time, “Don’t ever threaten my family again or I will call the police on you! Stay away from us!”

  I walked toward the smallest gazebo, fuming at the way I had been sucked into Rick’s story. The wood was old and looked darker than usual now that the sun was dropping in the sky. It was maybe ten feet across, but was shaded completely by several trees which cast eerie shadows across the floor.

  This had been my favorite place to come almost my entire life. I always felt so at peace in this park. It was the place that Alex proposed to me when I was only six months pregnant, where we used to sneak away to cuddle and talk about our futures. That wasn’t going to happen now though. How could any of this be happening? What had happened to him? To us? Just then my little, bright blue phone started vibrating in my pocket, perfectly timed.

  “Hi, babe,” I said into the phone.

  “I’m on my way to the park now. Meet me there,” he said.

  As always. No hello or anything, just demands. Sighing I said, “Fine.”

  Sitting on the middle bench, I waited for Alex to get there. Obviously something had happened to Rick to make him change so much. There could not be any way the things he was telling me were actually true. My life used to be so normal. And other than last night, it still was. I mean the wars going on were crazy, but what did that have to do with me? I sighed again and laid back on the bench.

  I tried to push all the crazy thoughts away and prepare myself for Alex. I couldn’t help but think of the good stuff, our first kiss, how soft and sweet he had been. He was older than me, which was admittedly a huge turn on back then and I remembered when I first had Sam, how he looked at her with complete love and admiration. But then, over the years, he kept pulling away, distancing himself from us. Was it fear? Was it work? I couldn’t guess what was going on inside his head.

  Alex came walking up the path to the gazebo; he always looked so angry nowadays. Noticing me, he veered off the paved walking trail and headed straight for me. I only wished that we were still as close as we used to be.

  “Hello, Alex, how was work?” I figured asking a nice question, showing that I still cared, might distract from the situation.

  “Fine, thanks. Listen, I need to know what is really going on with you, Allison. The way you have been acting lately is not just cops and dreams. Tell me what is going on in that head of yours.” Yeah, like I would actually be able to distract him. He was always so mean now, no more mister nice guy these days.

  Trying to gain some composure, I replied, “Alex, I don’t know why you always think that I am lying to you, but that is exactly it. These dreams have been more than an ordinary nightmare. I am really scared. I have had this same dream over and over again and now this guy we used to know from church when I was like five or something came back and has gone completely insane and says he knows about my dreams and shit. I don’t know what the hell is going on anymore. He was talking about the wars and stuff and he just didn’t make any sense at all.” Obviously any composure I thought I had gained was gone, and I was rambling. I paused for a breath and looked up at him. “What? You don’t believe me?”

  “So this is all about another guy?” It was almost as if he was looking for things to fight about. If I didn’t give him a reason to be upset, he would find one. I swear he had this urge to be the unhappiest person in the world. He had never been one of those happy-go-lucky people, but at least at one time he had been content.

  “Damn it, Alex! Do you listen to anything I say? It is about my dreams. How would some old guy that I haven’t seen in 15 years know anything about them? I don’t need a fight now, I need you. Please, just be here for me!” I pleaded.

  “You need me, now? Obviously you don’t, not if your problems are regarding another man. I so knew it, Allison! I knew there was someone else.”

  Were all men as self-centered and inconsiderate as the one I got stuck with? Heartbroken, I lost the small control I still had. “How can you even think that? I am always trying to be there for you, always trying to see you, trying to be close to you – like we used to be. You are always running away from me. Running to work, or home… anywhere as long as I am not there, right?”

  I was fuming now. When I really needed him, he was trying to turn the situation into some wrong doing on my part. We were both standing now, right up in each other’s faces, shouting. My eyes were starting to tear up, which angered me even more than the things he was saying. I hated showing any weakness in front of him.

  But the watering wouldn’t stop, making me angrier and making them water even more. What a repulsive endless cycle. My head was starting to hurt, right along with the ache in my heart. “Alex, please help me make sense of this!” Choking up, I added, “I need you right now.”

  I didn’t really believe that though. At times I felt like I needed him, but it wasn’t really him that I needed. I wasn’t even sure why we were still trying at this. Or maybe that was the real problem, we both had stopped trying a long time ago.

  “Whatever, Allison, I am not the one who has been running away. Everyone knows how you feel about me now. You don’t even love me anymore. You haven’t in years. I just can’t figure out why. What did I not do for you? I have been here for you and Sam. I have helped support you both. We got engaged just like you wanted. What more do you…”

  He stopped with the abrupt change in my facial expression, from sorrow to complete horror. It was at that exact moment I smelled it again. No, I smelled him again! Him – the bloodcurdling, petrifying man Rick called Damien. This could not be a dream now. All of today had definitely happened. He was really coming. Coming for me! “Oh shit!” I let out under my breath, not really meaning to.

  “What is it, Allison? What?” Finally he seemed truly concerned about my feelings, though now it may be too late.

  “You don’t smell that… that nasty smell?” Scared, I started looking around frantically. “We have to get out of here, now!” I cried, already running toward my car.

  I did not even stop to look behind me to see if Alex was following me. This was my dream coming true, I was running through trees away from him, and I was terrified. No, saying that I was terrified was an understatement. I feared not only for my life, but the anguish that he inflicted on me every time I saw him.

  Then there he was, standing right in front of me with his perfectly white teeth gleaming through his evil smile. I was sure that I would never feel that agony again, yet here it was. My knees buckled under me and I fell on my knees to the ground. How could this be happening, I mean really happening? This could not be possible. Everything around me went black. Just like my dream, my sight was gone. My sense of touch went next. I no longer felt the ground beneath me despite knowing that it was there. I was filled with despair and defeat. Tears streamed down my face. I was more than ready to give up, until I heard my name called twice, once from the husky voice I had just been talking to and once from the older, deeper voice that I knew to be Rick’s.

  Slowly, I felt a calming, hopeful feeling wash over me, like warm water filling up around you in a bathtub. It was different than my dream though. This time it was not coming from my core, or from me at all, it was coming from behind me, and it felt wonderful and safe.

  I vaguely heard voices
around me, though I could not make out what they were saying. I knew that one was Rick, and one was deeper, which was odd because Rick had a very deep voice. This new voice was more like a growl and it was saying something about, “…they die so easily anyway...” And then from Rick, “…leave him out…has no power...” then something else.

  I tried to focus, to clear my mind. The calming hope that surrounded me offered some much needed relief. I used it as an anchor for my wandering consciousness and was finally able to open my eyes, only to wish I hadn’t.

  I saw Damien push forward a pitch black wind, like the purple haze I had seen leave my hands last night. It moved to cover Alex who was laying on the ground writhing in pain, his whole body convulsing in agony.

  I heard someone scream, only to realize later that scream was my own. I was up off the ground now, running to Alex’s side, feeling more like I was watching it happen than making it happen. I felt the strength of my power surge up through my every limb and out to Alex. I had to try to save him – if only I knew how.

  I heard myself screeching, “Stop! Please!” I heard a half chuckle-half snarl come from my right, where, as far as I was concerned, the devil himself stood. The pain from my own power started to grow. It was almost as bad as Damien’s, the anguish it inflicted on me was indescribable. I reached out protectively towards Alex and threw my other hand defensively between him and Damien.

  “God, please help him!” I pleaded, throwing my head up to the sky as everything around me went black again. No sight. No smell. Nothing to hear, taste, or feel. Just black.

  Chapter 4

  Hospital

  Everything was dark. I started to panic until I realized all my other senses had returned. I was lying on something soft and there was a rotten taste in my mouth, like I hadn’t brushed my teeth in days. I could smell the distinct odor of disinfectant and I could hear people talking. I tried harder to listen to what they were saying.

  A man that I had never heard before said, “She will be fine, I promise. She’s all patched up.”

  A second man took in a deep breath as if he was finally calming down, and said, “That is good. Obviously I knew she would be fine, it is just nice to hear.” Then he chuckled. I knew the sound of this man’s voice. Only Rick talks like that, proper and precise. I tried to make my body show that I was awake, but nothing would respond. “And what of the other, the man she called Alex?” he said.

  Alex? What had happened? I tried hard to remember. I met him in the park right after talking to Rick. We had argued briefly, and I had started to cry, which had seriously angered me. I hate crying in front of people, especially Alex.

  I tried to hold back the flood of memories that followed, but once they started, I couldn’t make them stop. Damien had shown up, chased me down, and seriously injured me – well at least my insides. I wasn’t sure if I was physically harmed in any way. But Alex….Tears started streaming down my face; I could feel them as they etched crevasses down my cheeks – Damien had hurt Alex.

  “I am sorry, Rick, he was dead before I got there,” the first man said. His voice was oozing with compassion, sincerely upset about his last statement.

  I tried to scream, I tried to yell or ask for help, but nothing came out. My lips barely separated from each other. I heard a deep gurgling sound, a sound of true loss, just before I started sobbing so loudly it had both men running closer to me. Between sobs I heard Rick call out to me, “Allison? Are you in pain?”

  But I could not answer him. I knew, of course, that he meant physical pain, and in that case, no I was not in any pain. However, there was a pain, deep in my chest. A pain I could not explain. They said that Alex was dead. My fiancé, the father of my daughter, dead. And Sam, what was I going to tell her? The sobs grew louder, and I heard footsteps leaving the room.

  ***

  This time it was the sun that woke me, its bright yellow light beat down on me and warmed me all over. I caught a distinct whiff of antiseptic and assumed I was still most likely in a hospital. I could hear people talking far away, but the only noise close by was a radio program reconfirming that the world was still on the brink of war.

  I felt like I had been lying in the same position for days. Despite my protesting body, I pushed myself onto my side, desperate to find out one thing – Samantha – how was she? Was she okay? Did she know about Alex yet? How could I ever tell her what happened?

  I threw my legs over the side of the bed and forced my arms to push me up into a sitting position. Once I was sitting, I opened my eyes and noticed that I was in fact in a hospital room.

  An IV stabbed into my left arm and wires attached me, from various parts of my body, to a number of different machines. There was a curtain separating me from the rest of the room, a TV hanging from the ceiling, and a window to my left. In the left hand corner was a large, old, greenish chair holding an attractive man that knew I had never seen before. He was sleeping at an awkward angle, with his head hanging over one side and his knees bunched up in the other, almost in the fetal position. It seemed so strange that this stranger would be sleeping in my hospital room.

  I realized I couldn’t just get up and walk around thanks to the opening in the back of the dress, so I scooted back into the pillows stacked around me, trying to devise a plan for how I was going to get out of here. Inevitably, during my awkward shifting, I sat on a small rectangular box that was attached to the bed, which naturally turned on the TV and in turn woke up the stranger in the corner… oh, the bliss of clumsiness.

  “Oh, you woke up?” the stranger asked. “How are you feeling, Allison?” He used my name like he knew me. Did I know this man? I racked my brain trying to remember, but there was nothing at all familiar about the way he looked. His voice, however, I knew from somewhere.

  “Um, I’m not really sure. Do I know you?” I figured if he was here this whole time and knew my name, I at least deserved to know who he was. And there was no point beating around the bush.

  “Oh, I’m sorry. My name is David. I work with Rick.” Like that was explanation enough. After I sighed, he asked, “Are you in any pain?” Though he seemed as if he already knew the answer to that, the inherent concern in his tone helped me figure out where I knew his voice from – he was the other man talking to Rick when I woke the first time.

  “No,” I answered, then revised by adding, “a little dizzy and confused is all.”

  “Sorry, I’m sure you are very confused. Would you like me to fill in some blanks for you?” he offered.

  What an absurd question. One would think the answer was obvious, but I nodded my head when he didn’t go on. “I would like to know where I am, how long I was asleep, why you are here, where Rick is, and most importantly how Sam is… please.” I figured I should at least be polite about it. I wanted answers, and this time I would not leave until I was satisfied.

  “Okay,” he started, “you are in the local hospital and you have been asleep for just over two days. I am here because Rick is not. He had to leave to take care of some business and he asked me to apologize for his absence.” Rick was gone? Why didn’t I find that surprising.

  “And as for your last question, most importantly, Samantha is fine. She and your mother are aware of your whereabouts. They have both been here to see you while you were asleep,” he paused, as if to allow me to take the answers in, then continued sarcastically, “Anything else?” He gestured to the TV. “The world hasn’t ended yet…”

  “Funny. Well I’m glad it hasn’t ended… yet.” I added the extra emphasis on the yet.

  I shifted slightly in the bed and reached over to pick up the remote to turn off the noise coming from the TV. “I know…” Sighing, I tried to figure out how to word this right. “I heard you and Rick talking, so I know about Alex.” I took a deep breath and continued, “Does Sam know?” I tried to keep my face serious and stone hard. I wouldn’t allow myself to cry. Not now, not here.

  He looked at me for a very long time without speaking. I wished I cou
ld read his mind and find out what was going on in his head, but right when I was going to ask him, he answered me. “Yes, she does know. When exactly did you hear me and Rick talking, may I ask?”

  “Well, I’m not sure really. Sometime before I woke up completely. I was already here though, because I could smell the hospital.” Thinking about that, he did not say anything for a while, so I added, “So, can you try to explain everything to me, please? I remember most of it, but…” remembering that night, I started shaking. I could hardly believe everything that was happening now.

  He looked at me like he was studying me. I lowered my head and stared at my hands as my fingers twined together. Maybe he was having just as hard a time figuring me out as I was trying to figure him out. “Sure. What was the last thing you remember?”

  “I remember talking with Rick, then meeting Alex, then…” I stopped, not knowing exactly what had actually happened after that. I knew Damien had come, but did this stranger know about him? Or would he think I was crazy if I tried to explain the things Damien could do?

  “Okay, do you remember Damien?” Well, he answered that question.

  After I nodded, he continued, “The way Rick told it was that Damien came and tried to kill you. Alex came running after you, as did Rick. Alex was powerless, so he was an easy target for Damien. People like Damien care about nothing and no one but themselves. He wanted you dead and killing Alex made that easier for him. Rick was trying to shield you when Damien started killing Alex, but when you saw what was happening to Alex you used your own power to try to save him by forcing Damien away. The power of pure love is hard for him to stand. Lack of training left you defenseless against your own power though, and you nearly killed yourself. You had power from three people within your body. That amount of power is deadly. If I had not arrived when I did, you would have suffered nearly the exact same death as Alex.”