by C. S Luis
“Besides, I don’t want to leave you with my mother. She’s not the best company.” I smiled, wasn’t that the truth.
“Besides, father is sending his private jet for me, I’ll be fine.”
Jet? I gazed over at him.
“Jet. Jeez, what does your father do for a living?”
He chuckled. “His company is in the pharmaceuticals business, as I mentioned. He and my uncle are currently sharing CEO positions since my grandfather took a turn for the worse.”
“I’m sorry to hear that.”
“Don’t be; he’s pretty old. But enough about my family…” He gazed over at me.
“I can’t believe this is it.”
“Will you call me?” He looked sad when I asked.
“Should I?” I was surprised to hear him ask.
“I’m sorry I don’t know if I should. It’s already hard to leave…maybe it’s best that I don’t.”
“But I want you to,” I said.
He looked away; I thought he would cry, his eyes became watery.
“Then what?” his tone became firm and almost angry.
“What do you mean?” I asked.
“I’ll call, we’ll talk, but I won’t see you. I can’t touch you or feel the warmth of your kiss or your arms around me.”
I glanced at him confusedly.
He turned and looked at me.
“I wish you wouldn’t look at me like that,” he said.
“Jimmy,” I tried to speak. He reached over and kissed me deeply. He took my breath away. At the same time, he opened the car door. Pulling away, he sadly stared over at me.
“Go.”
I stared at him, dumbfounded.
“Jimmy?”
“Please go, Claudia. Go…please.” I gathered myself and got out of the car. I stood there for a moment, staring at him. He didn’t look back at me, didn’t move. I think he was trying to cover a few tears. I closed the door and as soon as I did, he accelerated, leaving me alone on the sidewalk.
At once I began to cry, blindly making my way over to my grandfather’s house. I put the key in the lock, but it wouldn’t budge. Then it opened and there stood Michael, looking down at me.
He saw my tears and I reached for his open arms as he pulled me into the house.
What can I say? With Jimmy absent, the dreams got worse. When he was here, I tried to cover the fears with ideas that I was normal, but now with him gone, I was buried in the pain… and the voices grew louder and the nightmares more vivid. Would this ever end?
“Claudia…Claudia…My pet, run, run; he’s coming! He’s coming. You must let me in…you must…I’m the only one that can stop him…”
18
Milton High School
Claudia
Present day Milton High School, December 20, 2013, Friday—
* * *
The school bell rang and students poured from every classroom door. I had started working in the library and main office, after graduation. It’s what kept me distracted and what I enjoyed.
I closed the main office door as I watched them scatter. At the other end of the hallway, Thomas and Sam were busy helping decorate the halls for the party we planned later in the cafeteria. Now that school had ended, it was only a matter of Michael and the others finishing off what needed to be done.
Outside, the day seemed dark and unwelcoming. I hoped with time it would improve. The building was dreadfully quiet and old ghosts seemed to take shape in the long dark hallways, echoing events of the past.
I moved from the door and into the hall, examining the building’s interior. An eerie shiver ran up my spine and I sensed something within me. I felt the atmosphere in the building had changed. In the empty hallway, a voice called out from somewhere far away. It moaned like an old man, and the pipes above whined with life. Then footsteps followed, echoing clearly in the hallways.
I spun around as a dark figure appeared at the end of the hallway. He extended a hand to me, and three familiar faces marched into the corridor like puppets alongside him. He then stepped out of the shadows; his radiant purple colored eyes met me with a smile as his pale face was revealed. Was I dreaming again?
I dreaded sleeping now, knowing he was there, waiting for me in my dreams. But I was awake this time. This was no longer a dream.
"Q?"
His name fell from my mouth, he beckoned me to him. My lips quivered at the very mention of his name.
"My pet…I've returned…for you."
I turned my back but didn't run. Only when I looked back again did I realize there was nothing there. The events of what had happened stuck with me like a nightmare, reoccurring even as I lay awake. I couldn't forget his face and how his eyes seduced me whenever we were close. I wanted to go to him even though I knew better. Why did he want me? Why me?
His answer to me was simple and not what I expected.
"Because you are my wife…you belong to me."
He smiled so handsomely, baring the whites of his teeth. In his eyes, I saw my reflection and I was in Demos. But it was the feeling I felt, the energy overwhelming me each time he was near as if I were connected to him, by mind and now by body. I couldn't resist him, even when I tried, only with the crystal could I push him away. For, without it, I was powerless against him. Why did I feel this connection to him that I so wanted to deny? Were we connected by some evil history or evil destiny I knew nothing of? Some evil plot to render me helpless to this cruel yet handsome being I could not say no to.
"My pet…” his voice said.
I refused to look back. He wasn’t there; he was only in my mind, a cruel, faded memory of the fear that still lingered in my soul. Yet I felt him close, the crystal around my neck was now glowing. Something was happening.
I grasped the crystal; I didn't want to remember anymore. The crystal had shown me things and now it was showing me something more. I heard his voice again, this time it was different.
"My pet…I need you." his masculine voice pleaded.
I couldn’t shake the thought that there was something wrong. There was a weakness in his voice I had never sensed before, and it troubled me.
Q wasn't weak. If anything, he was vain and stubborn, two words that could perfectly describe him.
So why was he now calling out to me if not to trick me into coming to him? Yet the feeling said otherwise, something else was wrong.
I raced up the stairwell to the second-floor hallway. In the center, a few steps away, a whirlpool had materialized. It beckoned me.
I grabbed hold of the crystal around my neck; it was glowing a bright red, as the portal seemed to be. The whirlpool’s bright light washed over my face, covering the hallway. It resembled waves of water spilling in a wondrous glowing light. From it, I heard his fragile voice calling out to me.
"…I need you. Please come to me…"
I hesitated at first, yet something compelled me to enter. I slowly walked up to it until I was completely consumed by the beautiful red light.
Why was I compelled to obey just like that? I couldn’t explain it but I didn’t hesitate any longer. When I came out, a vast sky spread beyond an ocean with a landscape of greenery to welcome me. Above, the sun beamed over my head, and below, grains of white sand covered the beach. Ahead a jungle of palm trees, tall green plants, and a landscape of mountains far in the distance revealed the beauty of Demos, this world of his.
"My pet, please hurry…" His voice called out.
"Q?" The word poured out of my quivering lips. I held the crystal, the color boldly consuming the contours of my face.
I hurried forward, drawn by the beauty and the life, and concerned by the sound of Q's voice and the feelings I felt for him. The fear completely drained away from me. I feared every second that something was wrong, and that I needed to be by his side.
His voice called out again.
"I need you. Please come to me."
I struggled, lost in the vast plant life, following the sound of Q's voice until
I came out into a clearing and stepped forward. There I saw him in the distance, lying on the ground, he wasn't moving. Above, the vast life of this plane had come to surround him. Witches flew, weeping, unsure of what to do.
"Q?" I cried and raced to his side. I stopped, gripping the crystal in my hand, then finally tossed it to the ground a few steps from me.
I knelt beside him, then lifted him in my arms, planting his head on my lap. Q barely moved, then his eyes slowly opened and he tenderly gazed up at me. His lips parted and a weak desperation made me lean forward.
"I knew you'd come…"
A smile slowly spread on his pale haggard face. I had feared coming, yet something had driven me to his side so hastily.
"Q, what's wrong?" I desperately asked, cradling him close. He moved his right hand to his mouth, agony evident in the movement, biting his lip as if to ease the pain. I realized his lips were glowing beneath his fingers.
"Tell me what's wrong?" I desperately pleaded. Q opened his hand, and for a brief moment, I saw a blister on his palm. Q pulled his hand away as he gazed into my eyes again.
"My pet…I'm dying…" He revealed.
"Dying? How? Why? No, you can't die."
How could this be? It just didn't make sense. Why did I weep like the witches above whose howling cries echoed like ghostly banshees?
Beyond, the greenery began to wither, the skies darkened and seemed to be falling; their color began to fade. Q’s eyes became black like the skies over my head. I wept and brought him close, forcing the color to return to the greenery but it failed each time.
"My pet, listen…nothing can stop this now." His lips quivered, and he trembled in my arms. He was cold to the touch, yet a breath of warmth escaped his pale, colorless mouth.
"NO! I won't let you."
My dedication brought a smile to his face. Oh, why did it hurt so much?
"It's too late for me now, my love---my beautiful Pet--tricia." Q said.
In the distance on the ground, the crystal became bright with color and began covering the air and flowing into the sky.
"I just wanted to see you one last time before I lost you to him…." he whispered, then his eyes rolled back and he fell limp in my arms.
"Q what do you mean him? Q?--NO!"
I held him tightly in my arms, hoping to bring him back.
"Tell me how to save you! Tell me what to do, please!" I cried.
I saw his figure suddenly begin to vaporize into smoke and disappear into the air itself. He reached for me one last time but I couldn't feel him any longer, then he was gone with the wind.
I sat alone in the hallway again, staring at the empty space in my arms where his head had been. I realized what I needed to do. What I felt compelled to do.
"Q!"
19
Dr. Michael McClellan
“Quentin? Here? How?”
“He called to me…” Michael rose from his desk.
“Called to you?”
“I must go to him…he needs me.”
"Are you crazy?" Michael exclaimed as Claudia's large, deep brown eyes gazed at him. She was a beautiful 19-year-old girl with brown waist-length hair and bronze golden skin, who wore a pair of jeans and red Doc Martens. How fast she had grown over the period of time they had been together. Since she had first come to Milton as a stranger and now as his friend. Someone he considered a daughter. He knew she thought the same about him, thought of him as a friend but actually more of a father.
"There is no way I'm letting you go to him. Not after what happened," Michael insisted as he rose from his seat in front of her. But he could see neither his words nor his demeanor had disturbed Claudia Belle one bit. She was bravely determined to get her way. Had she ever feared Quentin as much as he had or any of the others had? It was something he was afraid to ask.
The incident between her and that thing had seemed almost romantic, it was drawn to her in a strange way. He feared that perhaps she was drawn to it just as much and that she could not control or deny her connection.
Quentin's pursuit had made her bold and perhaps foolish, Michael thought. She was strong and brave, but at times, very naïve. She was so easily swayed. She was innocent in her ways, always had been. She trusted the wrong people so easily at times.
Michael knew she was already very much possessed by the idea of Quentin. He could see it in her eyes. Something cruel had drawn her to him. Something, he couldn’t explain. That’s why he was afraid for her. Quentin’s diabolical powers had a way of controlling her and he wasn’t sure whether Claudia had some strange attraction to him.
He couldn’t fully understand what was making her influenced so easily. To him, it seemed a curse and he wondered what else she had acquired from the alien. She could read minds and move objects with a single thought on her own. So, it made him nervous to think of what else she could be capable of.
“That thing is far too dangerous,” Michael said in reference to the being, he wasn’t sure himself what to call it.
“His name is Quentin,” Claudia boldly stated.
"Quentin,” Michael seemed to utter, glaring at the way she defended him already.
“And he’s not a thing,” she angrily said again.
“Whatever –I can't let you go."
Michael walked around the desk and over to the window. With a sigh, he turned back toward her.
"Why would you want to go to him? I don't understand. After all that’s happened. After what he tried to do to us, especially to you."
Michael paused for a second to recollect on what had transpired in these hallways a year ago. God, had it been a year already?
“Don’t you remember?” he added, staring right at her, shocked by her indifference to the circumstances.
He had almost lost her forever to that being that tried to kidnap her. Thank goodness for John Slater. If he hadn’t been there, Michael would have surely lost her forever. The question was, why did she want to go to it? Why did it want her? He never asked her such a thing. Did she even know?
They hadn’t really talked about what had transpired, never even sat down and spoke of the incident. Perhaps it was something she didn’t want to recall.
How or why was Quentin suddenly calling out to her, or was there something more she wasn’t telling him? There had been times she had woken up screaming in the middle of the night and he had come to console her and convince her there was no one else in the room.
He had tried to get her to talk about her dreams the morning after but she would brush it off. Her life had changed dramatically and he knew that, even after graduating with honors, she could find nothing to do with herself. She had grown destitute since John had left them, and it could be the reason she had pulled away from him. She had almost refused to go to her school prom.
Then Jimmy Reinhart, came into her life. Michael felt it was the normal she needed. They lasted until Jimmy had to leave. The breakup was hard on Claudia.
Michael liked Jimmy and had wondered whether their relationship would have grown or flourished into something greater if Jimmy hadn’t moved out of state to work with his father. That only set Claudia back again. Had she liked Jimmy?
Michael never really asked her. He felt it wasn’t his business to ask. Besides, he wanted to give her space. He feared giving her so much space was pushing her further from him.
Maybe it was the very reason he didn’t refuse her anything. He was trying to win her back before it was too late. The idea that he would lose her scared him. Or that she would choose to leave. What would stop her? She was an adult now and she could do as she pleased.
If only John was here to talk some sense into her. They hadn’t heard from him in over a year and Michael feared they would never hear from him again. He was their past now. He feared Claudia resented John for leaving.
Claudia sadly looked away, crossing her arms in childish frustration and desperation. He wasn't a fool, he could see it in her eyes that the strange connection between her and this Que
ntin was enough to put everything that had transpired aside and made him wonder what else awaited them.
"My dear, please try to understand. It's impossible. What you ask is... well, dangerous," Michael said, trying to reason with her.
He couldn't bear the thought of her being angry with him but could bear it even less to see her so distressed. He loved her from the moment she had come into his life. It had never been the same for him. To be without her was a pain he could not tolerate.
"Dangerous?" Claudia slightly groaned, raising her voice. It surprised him as she was naturally soft-spoken and she rarely raised her voice to anyone, especially him.
"Dangerous is having Mr. Cortez around," she declared. "That's what's dangerous."
Michael stared into her eyes. She was right. After all the evil Mr. Cortez had done to her, how could he just let him roam the halls of Milton. It wasn't the same thing as having that thing return to Milton. Yet he didn't dare say it out loud. She had a point: why allow that monster?
"Mr. Cortez is only after my money and he’ll do anything to get it. Including exposing our secret to get what he wants. It’s only a matter of time!" she continued before he could get a word in.
"How can we allow it? Why haven’t you done anything?" she angrily snapped. Like it had been all his doing. She had a point, didn’t she? After all, he was her guardian, her protector. So why did her eyes seem to say, “Why haven’t you protected me?”
He couldn't argue with her, for he had no answers. Just as he feared something inside her must be drawing her to Quentin. It was something he couldn't stop or pretend to ignore.
"Something's wrong…I know it, he needs my help. I have to go. I can’t explain it." Her voice softened and became gentle. Sometimes he wondered whether it was her way of having him submit to her wishes, for it was working.
"Why? Why should we care what happens to him? After what he did to this school. What he tried to do to you. I don't trust him," Michael said. "Let him rot."