by D. M. Pratt
“I don’t know. I just knew,” Eve said.
“Then you knew her?” Dr. Honoré asked.
“No, I mean I don’t remember,” Eve said.
“Well, she showed up with the book and gave it to me with a message, something about someone would come and when they did, I was to give it to … wait, I wrote a note,” Dr. Honoré said.
Dr. Honoré took the book from Eve and carefully flipped through its delicate, rotting pages searching for the note. As the pages were turned they released a scent of bitter oils and dry wood. It made Eve think of going to church on Sunday with her Grandmother – that smoke they would swing around – frankincense or was it myrrh? She couldn’t remember the name, but the scent memory was as pungent as if it had been yesterday.
“I started to read it, but it’s written in a language so archaic,” Dr. Honoré said, pointing to the open page. “Look. See. I think this is some kind of family tree. It’s written in old English, but I think it was transcribed from some ancient language from these markings. And I saw those symbols on some of the copper Dead Sea Scrolls,” she said, pointing at a series of symbols. “I read about a few places, cities and old Ziggurat temples in Persia long before it became Iran. There are names and people from the Middle East. See this map? That’s Sumer, pre-Samaria and that’s the Euphrates River and the Fertile Crescent and here,” she pointed, “…where the Karkheh and Abs-e Den rivers meet. Anyway I am not a history buff and it bored me so I put it away promising to get back to it, but never did.”
Dr. Honoré turned another page and there, on her stationary, in her handwriting was a note. She opened it, read and looked at Eve. There was a stunned expression etched across her face as she handed Eve the note.
“Impossible.”
“What?” Eve asked.
“She came here two years ago. I … I didn’t know you even existed,” Dr. Honoré said.
Eve took the note and read the words. A woman will come to you. Her name is Eve. Give her this book and tell her … she is first born and is the key. She alone must destroy it.
Eve looked up at Dr. Honoré. “I don’t understand. Are you saying this book and message was for me?” Eve asked.
“I’m not saying anything. I actually don’t know what to say, Eve. I don’t know if this is some bizarre coincidence or … well … I don’t even know if you’re the Eve she told me to give it to.”
“It does seem rather like a coincidence,” Eve said, struggling to make sense of the situation. She remembered the message on the web site under the tiny cuneiform that mentioned her name. Could these be from the same woman?
“The entire incident was odd and this book is even stranger,” Dr. Honoré said.
Eve turned the note over in her hand looking for more information.
“There’s no name or number? Where is she? Who is she? Is there a way to find her? Did she have an accent?” Eve asked, obviously disturbed.
Dr. Honoré closed the book and placed it on her desk. She took Eve’s arm, directing her to the couch and guiding her to sit. She poured Eve a glass of water from an oddly shaped glass pitcher, handed it to her and poured one for her. They drank but Eve’s eyes were locked on the book.
“Eve, look at me.”
Eve’s gaze shifted and she looked into Dr. Honoré›s eyes. She could feel the fear pounding in her heart.
“Eve, why are you here?” Dr. Honoré asked.
“What?”
“Why did you come here today?”
“Things have been happening, my coma, residual effects that might have come from it, the kids, the alligator. I … I haven’t been sleeping. I’ve had these dreams and they don’t make sense.”
“What kind of dreams?”
“We talked about them but now I see people and places and things, horrible things. In the beginning they were weird foggy dreams and then they were nightmares, but now, they happen in the day, visions so encompassing they block my sight and voices,” Eve said. The words blurted out desperate to be heard someplace other than as questions inside her head.
“Voices? What do they say?”
“I don’t know. I don’t understand them,” Eve told her.
“Are they in another language?” She asked.
“No. I don’t think so. Just garbled and distant. Sometimes it feels like I experienced them … and it’s a memory,” Eve explained.
“Things from the past that happened to you?” Dr. Honoré asked.
“Yes! Well, no. I’m not sure. Sometimes they feel like things I remembered happening but don’t know when. I know they didn’t happen. I can’t remember why or where, but they feel like they happened to me.”
“Or maybe they haven’t happened,” Dr. Honoré says. “You asked me about second sight. Prophesy.”
Eve sat in silence grappling with the thought.
“I don’t know. I can’t tell. That’s why I asked if maybe the coma brought on some kind of precognitive ability. And then the alligator dying like that.”
“Alligator?”
“The incident with Cora and the kids at the bayou. I told you. Didn’t I? The alligator looked like it had been killed by a giant foot. The way you or I would step on a big lizard and crush the ba-jesus out of it—bones crushed, guts everywhere,” Eve said.
“You didn’t tell me this, Eve,” Dr. Honoré said.
Eve felt flustered. A surge of tension rose in her as she struggled to find a logical explanation for a very illogical situation. Eve looked at Dr. Honoré who simply stared at her … expressionless.
“You don’t believe me?” Eve asked.
Dr. Honoré looked at Eve for a very long time.
“Do you believe you?” Dr. Honoré said.
“I don’t know anymore what to believe. Am I losing my mind? I mean could all this be in my imagination?”
“I don’t know either, Eve. Why don’t we talk about your nightmares and your visions? Maybe I can help you interpret some meaning out of the visuals and the sounds you’re experiencing.”
“Like Freud or Jung?”
“Dream interpretation goes much farther back than modern psychiatry. Egypt, Greece, China. They considered dreams as supernatural communications and divine interventions. We can look at Freudian wish fulfillment of the unconscious as well as Jungian objective and subjective of the animus and anima shadow symbols. We do in dreams what we can’t do in life.”
“I would never hurt Cora!” Eve exclaimed.
“But you are angry at her for seducing or allowing Beau to seduce her and creating a child?”
Eve fell silent.
“Eve, we can look at the symbolism behind the images you’re seeing and that can help you understand what your psyche is trying to tell you. Once you crack that you might be able to know why you’re having them.”
“And what happened to the alligator?” Eve asked.
“I think the answers are in your head, Eve, not mine.”
“And that book and note the woman left?” Eve asked.
“I don’t know,” Dr. Honoré said, leaning forward with a look of genuine concern. “We can find out together.”
“I don’t have time for ten years of psychoanalysis,” Eve said falling back against the couch.
“Eve, I can offer you one other suggestion.”
“What?” Eve asked. There was a tremor of hopeless frustration in her voice.
“It’s pretty unconventional,” Dr. Honoré said.
“I’m pretty desperate,” Eve said, holding up the note from the book. “And this, that book and a message on a random website we haven’t even talked about are adding to an already bizarre collection of coincidences,” Eve said.
Eve could feel the tears welling in her eyes and the ache in her heart caused by waves of fear. “Dr. Honoré, I have a man I love and a son I adore. I want … I need to know if I’m insane. Please, tell me what you can do to help me.”
Dr. Honoré leaned forward and took Eve’s hands.
“Then trust me,�
� Dr. Honoré said. “Let me put you under. Allow me to hypnotize you.” Dr. Honoré asked. “You can wake out of the trance anytime you choose. You understand that right?”
Now it was Eve who sat in silence for a long time. With everything that had been going on she had to do something or, if she wasn’t already crazy, she’d surely go out of her mind if it didn’t stop. For herself, her sanity, for Beau and for Philip, she had to know the truth. Finally she spoke, “Do it. Please. But we have to start today.”
Chapter Fifteen
Eve lay on the couch, her eyes closed, her body as relaxed as she could get.
“Breathe in.” There was a pause. “Breathe out,” she heard Dr. Honoré say. “Breathe in.” Again there was a long pause. “Breathe out.”
With each breath she released, sinking deeper and deeper into the warm, soft leather of the couch. It felt smooth against her skin and the tucking in the cushions made her feel comfortable and strangely protected. She was Goldilocks after being lost in the woods and she’d found the baby bear’s bed and it was just right. Another few breaths and she let all her muscles release. The next long deep breath slid out of her, brushing past her lips and taking with it months of tension. She hadn’t realized how much tension she was holding until she let it go. Dr. Honoré’s voice was deep and gentle. Each word sounded more distant, as if she was drifting farther and farther away.
“Are you asleep, Eve?” the doctor asked.
“What?” Eve replied. Her own voice sounding as a sleepy child’s would right before drifting off into sleep. “Yes.”
“Can you hear my voice?”
Eve nodded yes.
“Can you tell me where you are, Eve?” the doctor asked.
Eve’s sleepy face broke into a wondrous smile. “How beautiful,” Eve said.
“Eve, tell me what you see.”
Sunlight fell across Eve’s face as she looked around to see she was standing in the center of a beautiful green field with miles of grass stretched out in every direction. A ring of tall trees encircled her, their leaves blowing in the gentle breeze.
“It’s beautiful. There are trees and grass and a lake,” Eve said in her sleepy voice. She turned her head. “The sun is setting and I hear the birds and smell the flowers, but I can’t see where the sound—” Eve stopped. “Oh.”
“What is it, Eve?”
“The hospital. I see Thibodaux Hospital.”
“What are you doing at the hospital?”
In the blink of an eye Eve went from the grassy field to standing inches away from the front of the door that led to the tower. She reached out her hand and placed it on the brass doorknob. The orb felt cold and as solid and real as if she were right there touching it. She could feel the chill of the metal. Her fingers traced the carved face raised in the metal. The face looked up at her and smiled invitingly. Eve looked at it and turned the knob. She pushed open the door and without taking a step, the room appeared around her. It had its black and white floor and circular stairway that led to an upper balcony. She looked up and saw the windows that ringed the entry filled with afternoon light. Eve walked, listening to the click, click, click of her heels on the hard surface of the floor. In the distance, she heard the voices of children singing a song. She knew the melody but the words were unfamiliar to her. She followed the sound, not climbing the stairs, but turning down a hallway and watching as the light outside shifted. The space fell into darker and darker shadows until the next thing she knew it was night. There, in the play of shadow and light, she could see rows of closed doors, each with a small observation window.
“I’ve been here before,” she told Dr. Honoré. “But I’m not sure when or why.”
Eve walked past the third door on the left and heard a voice.
“Get out!” the voice whispered.
Eve turned. She looked through the small glass portal into the room and saw Azura, the girl she had seen that day at the hospital. Azura was sitting with her son.
“Get out before it’s too late. It’s too late for me and my son, but if you hurry maybe, just maybe, you can save Philip.”
“How did you know my son’s name? Why are you in here?” Eve asked her.
“I’m here because I have no choice. I’m here for the same reason that you’re here,” Azura said. “The truth of why they have returned.”
Eve looked at her. All she could think of was that she should be afraid, but she wasn’t because she was only in her own mind exploring her own thoughts. Eve turned back to the door and tried to turn the handle. It was locked. She heard a sound and turned to face another long hallway that suddenly lay before her on the left. The hall stretched out and as she stared the end of it expanded, extending longer than it had been even the few seconds before. Eve looked up and saw the light from the globes that hung above her; they began to sway as if caught by a tremor or a wind. Their motion created eerie shadows that rose and fell on the floor and walls before her, moving as if each shadow were alive. The lights flickered off, then on. When they illuminated, a man stood at the far end staring at her—waiting for her. He was very tall and muscular with a full head of dark hair, narrow eyes, a broad nose and full lips. She didn’t remember taking a step and yet, in the blink of an eye, she stood right next to him.
Eve shared every detail of her journey.
“Ask him who he is,” she heard Dr. Honoré’s voice say.
“Who are you? What do you want from me?” Eve asked the man.
He did not speak. She watched his face slowly lower close to hers. She felt his breath on her skin and saw his lips press against hers as he ever so gently kissed her. The kiss was long and slow and it had a kindness that made her feel good.
“I’m glad you came,” he said, and kissed her gently again. “Do you know why you’re here?”
“No, I don’t,” she replied.
“Who are you talking to,” said Dr. Honoré’s disembodied voice.
“Remember, Eve. Remember who you are,” the man said. “We have all been waiting for you.”
He kissed her again. This time the kiss was harder, deeper and much longer. It was filled with more passion than Eve could ever remember from any kiss she had received in her life. Still, she wasn’t afraid.
“I don’t remember? Please tell me why I’m here?” she asked.
His hands slipped up inside her blouse and in one motion he unloosed and pushed her bra away. He filled his hands with her breasts and squeezed them gently but firmly, leaning down once again to kiss her mouth. His hands were warm and large and his fingers were long. They squeezed, massaged, rubbed and pinched at her nipples until they rose to attention. One hand slipped down her side and under her skirt. He grabbed the inside of her thigh and, slowly gliding up her leg, his thumb brushed her clitoris as he cupped her ass and pulled her into him.
“I want you to stop until you tell me who you are and what’s happening,” Eve said, her breath deepening with each caress.
He didn’t speak. He kissed her again, this time letting his tongue slide, warm and wet, into her mouth. Eve closed her eyes and released a reluctant sigh of surprised pleasure. She put her hands on his biceps; her intention was to push him away and demand answers, but when she opened her eyes she was lying on her back staring up at a light. She tried to move, but couldn’t. She turned to look at her hand only to see that restraints held her wrists. Eve lifted her head and looked down, she was naked. Her hands and her feet were tied, her legs spread. Eve turned her head and saw standing in the dim shadows of the room at least six men. All were tall. All were young, fit and handsome, and all were naked. All were about the same size and from their features she thought that perhaps they could be brothers or cousins. The odd similarity made her think they were definitely related. The table or altar that held her was perfectly warmed and made of stone that felt amazingly comfortable and relaxing.
“Where are you?” she heard Dr. Honoré’s voice echoing farther away than before.
“I’m in a room with se
veral men watching something happen. I am watching them, but at the same time I think I am watching myself,” Eve said tilting her head as if trying to grasp the out-of-body experience she was having. She was observing what was unfolding as if it were happening to someone else.
“As long as you don’t feel in danger, watch and see what they show you Eve. Don’t be afraid to ask questions,” Dr. Honoré’s voice told her.
“Why are we here?” she asked the man who had kissed her.
“Let us show you what you can do,” he said.
She couldn’t move so she calmly watched. The first man gently kissed her. He leaned over her and looked into her eyes. Just as Eve was about to ask another question he covered her mouth with his. Again he delivered a long passion-filled kiss. He pressed his full, firm lips onto her lips. At the same time she felt warm breath against the skin on her chest as multiple lips, tongues and mouths kissed her, sensually covering each of her breasts, her shoulders and stomach with kisses. She could feel the men kissing her flesh, sucking, licking and gently biting her breasts and nipples. Hands were squeezing and massaging her arms and legs, adding wet kisses in between each touch. She felt their lips pinching tiny mounds of her flesh, a half dozen mouths sucking, licking and kissing all over her while she was being artfully kissed on the lips. She felt hands lift her hips and wet, warm fingers tracing and teasing every orifice on her body. The sensation, though erotic and pleasurable, sent a wave of fear crashing over her. Eve tried to move. She could not. She began to struggle. Eve opened her mouth to scream, but her cries were muffled inside the kisses of the first man and with everything that was happening to her body, her cries melted into moans of pleasure. Her body trembled with pleasure as a dozen fingers caressed every inch of her skin. She was being readied, teased, but she could see no one moving to enter her. Their only purpose is to tantalize me, she thought. Her breathing quickened more. She could hear Dr. Honoré, but now her voice was so far away her words were inaudible.
Eve turned her head and looked around her as best she could between the gentle kisses on her lips. Suddenly, at the end of the table, a gray mist swirled, transitioning from its formless shape into solid flesh. He was a man, bigger than the others, just as naked and well-built, but much more generously well hung. In the shadowy lights of this now wall-less room his flesh shifted through an array of different colors. He was so tall his face was hidden in black shadows where the light could not reach. He watched for a long time, allowing the others to coax her into a state of quivering passion. His erection was slowly, methodically growing, thickening, and hardening. Her breasts heaved, her nipples, with each lick and nibble, stood up taught and hard. Her vulva swelled, seething hot and wet, holding her in pure pleasure. Finally, the man at the end of the table reached out with his long sinewy fingers to touch her feet. His hands were as hot as if warmed by a great fire and his touch sent a rush of energy that ran from her toes to the top of her head. Her body arched and her breasts filled the mouths of two of the other men. They sucked harder. Another kiss from the first man met her lips. She could feel the big man crawl up onto the table. The men who had been fondling and licking her just outside her clitoris receded, bowing their heads in reverence so the big man could brush his face along the inside of her legs. The energy his body exuded caused the fine gold hairs on her body to stand straight as if to reach for his touch. As he moved closer he kissed, licked and sucked on her from her toes, to her feet and up her calves. His huge hands squeezed her thighs. As he left one area the other men returned to continue their caressing and kissing. She didn’t know where one man started and the other ended. She felt the large one push his face deeper between her legs. She wanted to look but she was completely blocked. She felt his hot breath and hotter tongue slide over each part of her very wet mound. His tongue entered inside her and explored, tasting her. Eve shivered as she felt teeth pressing against her, each tiny, tender bite, one more arousing than the next, came from her chorus of men. The fever building in her body heightened. She felt the big man’s tongue slip out and his fingers slip in and open her. She felt two more fingers, wet and hot, push inside, slide out. He pushed in again and again and again. A wash of warm wet flooded from her. Eve was in orgasm, but not a single, powerful warp-your-mind orgasm. She was in multiple waves of pleasure that sent ripples of orgasms washing over her entire body again and again, building and vibrating as if a current of raw pleasure had been released. She knew this was only the beginning as each of the men turned up the dial of what was yet to come.