The Storyteller of Pain

by Loren Molloy

  “You would leave right now and go live happily ever after with me?” Lily’s said incredulously

  “Oh God yes, Kitten! To wake up to your beautiful face every morning and fall asleep with you in my arms every night. Fuck yes, baby. I have never been so sure of something in my whole life. I just never believed you could want a life with a nobody like me.”

  “Don’t say that! You’re not a nobody!” Lily said furious with him. She scrunched her face up in such a cute way John couldn’t help but laugh and smile.

  “See, even in this moment you are able to bring joy and happiness to my heart. You’re like no other, sweetheart. Only a pure idiot would get a chance with you and not try, with all his heart and soul, to keep it.”

  John couldn’t stand it another second. He needed to kiss her. He needed to hold her tight to him. Lily was about to say something and John interrupted her thoroughly for several minutes. Finally needing air, John broke up their ’make out’ session and held her face in his hands.

  Staring into her eyes he said, “I love you Lily. There’s just too much terrifying crap going on, to wait to tell you. I know it’s probably way too soon to say it, but I mean it more than I can express properly. I love you and I want to spend the rest of our lives, loving you and waking up next to you, kissing you and talking with you. I want to play chess and drink Jack until we’re so old and grey we can’t remember what the heck the game is even called anymore.”

  Lilian giggled at that and blushed from head to toe. She continued staring at their hands intensely. John touched the tip of her chin with his hand bringing her eyes back up to meet his.

  “Please Lily. Let’s just leave and be grateful that we were able to find each other after both living lonely lives. I never thought I’d find someone, you know, especially someone who could make me this happy. Let’s not take this gift we’ve been given for granted.” John just stared pleadingly into her eyes

  John knew it was a futile attempt. She would never agree. She’d never leave. Just as he finished his thought and felt his joy leave him Lily said,

  “Okay.”

  “What?” John exclaimed stunned. There was no way she had just agreed. He had to have heard it wrong.

  “I love you too, John. I might not know a lot about romance or love but I know I love you. I know I don’t want a life without you. I always dreamed of a man loving me and wanting to actually have a life with me. I just never imagined he would be as wonderful, handsome, or loving as you are.

  I don’t want to lose that or trade that for anything and you’re absolutely right. I have no fucking clue how to protect us against them. Help me pack. I don’t really need anything; everything in life can be replaced, except life, the planet, and love.” Lily looked at him sheepishly, hoping for a good reaction.

  “Really, Kitten? You mean it? We can leave right now?” John asked

  Lilian nodded with a huge smile on her face, blushing so hard she was almost a magenta color.

  John hollered a very loud excited ‘Wahooooo’ and jumped in the air. John then lifted Lily in a bear hug and kissed her fiercely while walking them both into her bedroom. There was no way they were leaving without one last, long union in her bed. No one knew what they had decided. They had time.

  Three hours later, Lily was laying in John’s arms both of them exhausted, happy, and completely content with their eyes closed. John’s head was resting against the top of Lilian’s while they both were trying to catch their breath as they listened to the rain outside her window.

  “So... any state in particular you would love to move to Kitten?” He was still worried any second she would change her mind. Maybe she had, already and just hadn’t told him yet.

  “I don’t know. I’ve always wanted to see Oregon. I saw pictures. It looks beautiful.”

  ‘Okay, we’ll go there then,” John said and kissed the crown of her head tenderly.

  “Seriously? Just like that. No discussion. No ‘Well, I always wanted to see...’ “ Lily trailed off when John turned her head so he could look into her eyes.

  “Yes. Just like that. All I want is you. Massachusetts was never my home; neither was Louisiana. For that matter I have never had a real place I’ve called home. In fact, to be honest, I was in an orphanage by the age of 6 and kept getting bounced from one place to another until I turned legal. I don’t care what state I live in, as long as I get to live somewhere with you!” John said and kissed her passionately, pushing back old wounds and tears of a lonely and abandoned kid who’d never believed he’d find someone to call his own. Finally, he was able to look at her again. She just touched his cheek gently.

  “Thank you for telling me.” Lily smiled lovingly at him. She knew how hard it was for orphans and foster kids to tell that secret.

  “Can I ask...you said at the age of 6? What happened?” She wasn’t sure it was ok to pry into it but as a psychoanalyst she just had a burning need to know.

  John let out one sad laugh that sounded more like a grunt and sat up. Some wounds are too big and too painful to be touching another and tell the tale. Lily knew this was one of those stories and was already sorry she asked. She hated to cause him discomfort.

  “Well... old mom went crazy, you see. My pops split when I was only 4. He couldn’t handle crazy, old mom and decided to split and leave me and my older sister in the hands of her. My sister was three years older than me. Weekends were the worst. No six hours away from her. Just a whole weekend of not being allowed to go out of the house while mom drank and got worse.

  I was six when my sister grabbed my hand and dragged me into the bathroom. I can still hear my mother screaming from the opposite part of the house. She was completely gone at this point. Hollering and screaming. My sister opened the bathroom window and forced me out. I landed onto the patio outside, hard, cutting my cheek open and both palms of my hands. My knees were all gashed up as well. I remember looking up to yell at her for pushing me and making me get hurt.

  When I saw her look at me, she was terrified. She said, ‘Run. Run and don’t ever come back!’ She then closed the bathroom window and locked it. I couldn’t understand what she was doing. She wasn’t following me. I could hear mom’s screaming getting louder. I can still hear the door being broken down and she instantly turned to me and screamed, ‘Run’ as loudly as she could.

  The very last image I have of my sister was her screaming at me to run while my mother stabbed her with the kitchen butcher knife. The bathroom window was smeared red after that. I ran as far and as fast as my six year old legs could carry me.

  Everyone knew me as that ‘crazy lady’s kid’ and usually wouldn’t even look at me. That day everyone noticed me. I kept screaming until I was hoarse for someone to go save my sister, ’My mother is killing my sister.’ I remember I kept screaming it and people would look at me and close their shades or doors, but they must have called the police because a police car came and forced me back to my mother’s house.

  I can remember the silence. Thinking it’s too quiet and a child’s hopeful wish...maybe my sister had killed my mom and had escaped, too. She didn’t. My mother came charging out of the house, covered in blood, screaming, One left to kill! When the cops arrested her, she was still screaming, ‘No you can’t take me. I still have one left to kill before the jobs done.’

  In the end...my sister was gone. My mother went to a sanitarium and I went to an orphanage for the rest of my childhood and teen years. Then years later, I wound up working at one.” John just stared down at the blanket covering his lap, not able to speak anymore.

  Lily was stunned. That’s definitely not the story she had anticipated. She knew someone had to have gone into an Asylum but she had not expected that much tragedy and heartache.

  “I’m so truly sorry all that happened to you, but it doesn’t change how I feel about you nor how I think of you. And I am so happy you came to work at Danvers Lunatic Asylum with me. If you didn’t, we wouldn’t be here together, happy together. I love yo
u, John Barkley. You! I wouldn’t trade you for anyone or anything in the world. I know I’m blessed to have found you and nothing from your past will change that fact for me nor my love for you, John.”

  John’s bottom lip was quivering. Too many emotions were crashing over him at once. Love and happiness overcame the rest of them and he kissed her thoroughly, for quite some time before speaking again.

  “So....Oregon, here we come then?” John asked, stroking her hair and down her cheek lovingly.

  “Yes!” Lily said with excitement and happiness.

  “YESSS!” John exclaimed joyfully and loudly, pumping his fist in the air.

  Lily laughed at his excitement.

  “I’ll help you pack!” John said and got out of bed.

  “Okay. Clothes, shoes, bathroom essentials and we’re out of here.”

  It only took them two hours to shower, change, and pack Lily’s things before getting on the road. It was raining pretty hard but neither of them cared. They were off to their new life. They made a quick stop for some of John’s tools and some other essential things, and were back on the road again, quickly. ’This is really happening,’ John thought. ‘We are really on our way to starting a life together. I can’t believe it’.

  “Wow, this rain is horrible. I can hardly see two feet in front of the car,” Lily said.

  The rain had really picked up. There was massive thunder crashing, and seconds later blasts of lightning. Suddenly, all Lily could say was, “The book knows we’re leaving, and boy is it pissed.”

  “Yeah, I know. We’re almost out of here and away from this storm,” John said, speaking louder as the rain began to get deafening from the raindrops hitting the roof of the truck.

  “You’re right. Only two more miles and the sign for Route 1 should be coming up. It’s smooth sailing from there.”

  “Sailing is closer to accurate than I’d like. These puddles are more like lakes I’m driving through. These puddles get much higher Kitten, we’re going to need a boat not a car.” John was really worried now. The roads were flooding fast. Up ahead flashing lights flooded the air. John’s heart sank, and he thought, ‘We aren’t getting out of here.’ He could already feel it.

  “Oh God, NO!” Lily cried out. There was a very good reason Lily was so upset.

  John was forced to stop when the cop blocking the road came to the car window.

  “There’s no leaving town today, folks. Haven’t you been listening to the radio?! Massachusetts is having the worst flood since 1850! All the bridges are out and the roads are flooded. It’s statewide!”

  There were massive sandbags piled high, trying to keep the water back, but the county’s beloved iconic bridge was completely gone, washed away by the massive flood.

  “Statewide?” John exclaimed.

  “Mayor Cowing declared a State of Public Emergency! The Connecticut River continues to rise at the rate of a foot an hour! The river is higher even than during the disastrous floods of 1927! You have to turn around and go to Danvers Lunatic Asylum!”

  “WHAT?!” John and Lily both yelled, shouting over the roaring sounds of the rain.

  “I’m sorry folks. Everyone in Danvers County is supposed to go to the American Legion building but that’s been filled, and now, so are all the churches. Anyone found still out in this weather, must go to Danvers Lunatic Asylum. Look I know who you both are from living in town. You both work there. You have every right to go there!

  Besides, it’s the biggest place, with the highest walls, and it was built on that great big hill. It’s least likely to have any flooding. Folks...we lost over 80 people in the flood of ‘27. This flood has already claimed more than that. I can’t allow you to be another victim of this disaster. Dying by a flood is a gruesome way to go folks. Please turn around and go to the Asylum immediately.” With that the cop turned around and went back to his car.

  John started to have a panic attack. “They won’t let us leave! I was so stupid to think they would let you leave. Why did I think for even a second they would let me take you away from here?! WHY?!” John was yelling and gasping for air at the same time. He kept hitting the steering wheel in fury. They were trapped.

  Natural disaster or Demonic Force? Lily wasn’t sure if she was questioning the floods true nature or deciding which would be a better death.

  They turned around and began driving toward the Asylum in stony silence. Neither of them knew what to do. John forced himself to breathe slowly but it wasn’t really working. The cop was trailing behind them, making sure they were going straight to the hospital. All John could think was, ’trapped in a flooded state within a Lunatic Asylum filled with demons...great!’

  John couldn’t even bother asking what they were going to do. He knew there wasn’t an answer she could give him that would bring any comfort. John wanted to hold her hand but with the roads as flooded as they were already, he had to hold onto his steering wheel with all his might, just to keep from crashing.

  The closer they got, the more fear pounded through their veins. Every time the lightning struck, the Asylum would be illuminated in such a ghastly, ominous way Lily couldn’t help but remark to John, “I feel like we are suddenly on our way to Dracula’s castle. I never noticed before just how much the Asylum looks like a terrifying castle.”

  “Tonight, it looks like something that would come straight out of that horror movie, Nosferatu,” John said, freaked out.

  “Nosferatu? What’s that?” Lily asked

  “You didn’t see it? It came out 7 years ago. It was this scary, silent horror movie and it had this castle in a place called, Transylvania. A demon-man, who would drank people’s blood, lived there. They called him ‘Nosferatu’, a vampire. The whole thing is silent but it was totally creepy,” John said

  “Thanks! That’s the kinda images I need in my head right now,” Lily said sarcastically

  “I’m sorry. I just can’t believe you didn’t see it.”

  “7 years ago, I turned 21. I had just gotten hired at the creepy castle we now have to be trapped in. I’ve never seen a movie, and before that I was too young.”

  “Shit! Sorry Kitten. I forgot,” John said disappointedly.

  “It’s okay. In the grand scheme of things, right now that doesn’t matter at all. What does matter is how the fuck we are going to stay safe in there!” Lily said as she pointed to the Asylum. Lightning flashed just as she did so, making the castle look even more ominous and terrifying.

  “I feel like we are charging into battle without any weapons, armor, or reinforcements, towards a fortress of evil,” John exclaimed frustrated

  “We are,” Lily said quietly, as they drove through the entrance.

  The last time she was here, a demon tried to have her killed. Her arm still hurt from it. This time they knew what they were up against, without a doubt, but they had no plan.

  They were greeted by Old Max, who looked very grim. “Sorry to see you under these conditions, Dr. SinClair. I had hoped my man John here would have brought you to the American Legion right away,” Old Max said with a furious, pointed look at John.

  “It’s not John’s fault. I wasn’t able to be moved until only a short bit ago. I was too scared and wasn’t going to leave the house when John finally forced me to leave. We were on the way, when the officer brought us here,” Lily said thinking on her feet.

  “Why would the crown jewel of the hospital go anywhere other than her own place of business, especially when we indeed are understaffed as it is? Why would she ever think of going anywhere other than the highest elevation point, which is this proud hospital?” Dr Page appeared from the darken doorway with an evil grin on his face. The disdain and sarcasm was plain to see.

  “Doctor Page. How nice to see you,” Lily lied brilliantly

  “Lilian. You look well,” Dr. Page said with a slightly confused look to his eyes.

  “Yes. Being able to rest has really restored me and has helped me to recover very quickly. Luckily, there was my bl
ood type available right away for a transfusion, otherwise I could have died,” Lilian said, unflinchingly at Dr. Page. She needed to see how he reacted. Pissed was an understatement, to say the least.

  “Yes. I am so glad to hear that my little Lily here is safe and sound. Right, dear Lily?” Charles asked her while stroking her cheek. The touch was like a violent, nasty electrical current that ran through Lily’s whole body. She didn’t like it and shuttered outwardly and took a large step away, at the same time.

  “Let’s get one thing perfectly clear. I am not now nor will I ever be your little Lily!” Lily exclaimed fiercely at him. Disgust plain in her eyes now.

  Charles looked absolutely shocked and completely confused. It was like he couldn’t believe she wasn’t happy with him touching her. He seemed completely confounded for a moment as to why she wasn’t totally besotted with him. It only took a second for the look to disappear behind his mask of boredom.

  “Well, so much for being nice,” Dr Page said in a forced bored tone. He turned to walk away from them and then turned back again quickly. Startling her for just a moment.

  Charles smiled at his slight achievement before saying, “Oh yes by the way, Dr. SinClair, I wanted to let you know. Since you have been resting and recovering away from this hospital, two of your patients have died. Good day.” With that Dr. Page began to walk away, forcing Lily to chase after him.

  “What do you mean two of my patients have died?” Lily demanded

  Charles halted and looked pointedly at her. “What part of died are you not grasping?” Charles said snidely

  “The part where two of them were my patients? The part where that’s all the information you think is valid!” Lily said furious

  “What else is there you need to know?” Charles said with a nasty smirk and continued to walk, again forcing her to walk with him or be left standing there.

  John followed behind her, not speaking a word. He wasn’t losing sight of her for anything under the sun. Certainly not while she was with the Deadly Dr. Page, who he was seriously considering murdering the moment they were behind any closed door.