But now that I was mortal, and was able to die, I did not want to die. I wanted to spend my life loving my beautiful wife.
Ironic … now I had to put my energy into not dying. Human life was far more fragile than it appeared.
THE END TO THE BEGINNING
I carried Sarah over the threshold of the front door to our apartment as was customary, romantic, and the gentlemanly thing to do.
I swung her around and placed her on the floor before I moved my lips to hers, caressing them with mine, kissing her deeply from the depth of my being.
‘Welcome home Mrs. O’Connell,’ I said against her skin.
‘Mmmm … I like the sound of that Mr. O’Connell,’ she responded.
‘Which … home, or Mrs. O’Connell?’ I asked and kissed her again. I trailed my fingers over her shoulders and back.
‘Mmmm … Mrs. O’Connell. It’s like … we’re married, Mr. O’Connell,’ she said.
I smiled against her neck as I littered it with light kisses.
‘We are Mrs. O’Connell,’ I whispered.
Sarah began to unbutton my shirt.
‘Oh, Mrs. O’Connell, what are you doing?’ My voice was husky as she ran her warm hands over my chest and abdomen, trailing her fingers down to unzip my jeans.
‘I want to treat myself to some eye candy,’ she said, and looked at me through her long eyelashes and licked her lips.
I pressed my mouth to hers, and kissed her as if our joining was as important to my survival as breathing. I walked her backwards until she was flat against the wall.
I moved my hands lower to feel the stockings on her legs and found the lace trim at the top.
‘No garters Mrs. O’Connell,’ I breathed as my lips caressed her neck. My hands explored further upwards until I discovered that she wore nothing else under her skirt.
I lifted her leg up over my hip and pushed into her.
‘Mrs. O’Connell …’ I whispered and began to move inside her.
‘Ohhhhh … Mr. O’Connell…,’ she breathed out with her eyes closed as we shared in the pleasures of intimacy.
She remained against the wall with her eyes closed once I stepped away from her after our love making.
‘Are you okay Mrs. O’Connell?’ I asked her when she still did not move.
‘Hhmmmmmm,’ she replied, breathing out audibly, sounding incoherent.
I pulled her against my body in a hug. ‘I love you,’ I whispered.
‘Hmmmmmmmm,’ she answered once more.
I released her and went to the box prepared by Albert before his death. I had placed it on the table before I left for our wedding day.
I opened it up without a clue as to what Albert could have put in there. He did tend to be unpredictable, even eccentric at times.
I frowned when I picked up a pair of pale blue baby booties, and a matching hat.
Sarah was standing behind me then, with her arms wrapped around me, her hands splayed over my chest.
‘Oh Liam, they are so beautiful. How could Albert have possibly known that I would conceive so soon?’ Sarah held the booties in her hand and ran her fingers over the softness of the wool.
Shocked, I turned and faced her.
‘What?’ I asked.
She took my hand and placed it over her lower abdomen.
‘I am having your baby, Liam,’ she whispered, and connected her eyes to mine.
I stared at her for a moment, before I set my lips upon hers and kissed her with tenderness.
I pulled her into my arms then. ‘You’re having my baby Sarah? I … I love you … I love you,’ I said and held her against me—my spirit soared.
A loud click came from behind me. We both froze at the sound.
It was the click of a loaded gun.
‘Happy, happy families,’ croaked Elliot McEwan. ‘Good for you—adding to the population of the world. Oh and ah … Liam, I loved watching you make love to your wife. Her body is more stunning than I thought it would be,’ he added with humour in his voice.
‘What do you want Elliot?’ I asked in an impassive voice, masking the fury that was building inside of me.
‘Your wife to be mine, and you … dead. Simple really ... ’
I could see him in the reflection of a framed painting on the wall. His ran a hand through his ruffled hair. Dark circles lay under his dark eyes and he made short jerky movements.
As he walked toward us, I angled my body to protect Sarah.
‘I thought that Mr. Milani had helped you with your obsession McEwan,’ I said to keep him talking.
He laughed out loud in an insane manner. ‘He attached probes to my head, took blood from me and hypnotized me at the same time, except, he did not realized that I was one of the fifteen per cent of the population that is unable to be hypnotized. I played along with his little game just to humour him. He still believes that he cured me of my … obsession,’ Elliot McEwan blurted out. He eyed Sarah with lust and ran his hand through his hair again. ‘Aaaaah … watching you fuck her really turned me on. I want her more than ever, and I want her now,’ he said. He walked closer to us until the barrel of the gun rested between my shoulder blades.
Sarah was shaking in my arms, her head under my chin. I wanted to turn around and render Elliot McEwan unconscious, but that would put Sarah and my baby at too much risk. So I wrapped my arms and body around Sarah as much as I could to protect her. If McEwan shot me this way, I would fall towards her and trap her under my body so that I would become a dead weight, protecting Sarah and our baby from the man’s evil desires.
‘Step away from her O’Connell … DO IT!’ he yelled.
‘Sorry McEwan. I don’t like to share what is mine,’ I answered back to him.
I could feel the gun shaking in his hand. I could also feel Sarah dialling for police on the cell phone in her hands between us.
Elliot McEwan walked away from us with his back towards us. I could see his reflection in the glass of the painting.
I took a short side step with Sarah to get us closer to the sofa chair so that we could use it to protect us from the monster in the house. But he turned, and pointed the gun at me again.
He ran his hand through his hair. He was nervous and highly unpredictable at this point. He turned his head slightly to the left at the sound of the approaching police sirens.
His agitation escalated.
He panicked and pulled the trigger.
I felt the bullet hit me in the back between my shoulder blades. Strangely it didn’t register as pain, just a blow like someone hitting me, but then the searing pain spread throughout me.
I looked at Sarah, and stared at her when I became aware that I was losing consciousness.
We locked our eyes together and fell in what seemed to be slow motion. I buffered my fall on top of her as best as I could with the little strength that remained in me. Once our bodies had settled into their final positions on the floor. I brushed some hair away from her face.
My beautiful Sarah … my baby …
‘I love you for always,’ I said, choking on the blood that I could taste inside my mouth.
Sarah gasped, nearly emptied of her breath. ‘And … I … love you … for always,’ she whispered.
My lips met hers in our final kiss as the blackness crept down over me, like the blanket of the night, except there were no moon or stars.
But, out of nowhere, or perhaps somewhere, there was a light in the darkness ...
And silence ...
But the silence disappeared then, and I seemed to leave my body, watching down upon my human form as I had when I first sighted it to enter it four hundred years ago.
But this scene was gruesome.
A man and a wife slumped on the floor together, bleeding.
No ... not Sarah and our baby ... no ...no ...... NO!
Elliot McEwan squatted beside our bodies, crying with his eyes squeezed shut, agony emblazoned over his face and the gun to his head.
The police b
roke down the door. Wood splintered everywhere. There was shouting, guns held up, and then ... a gunshot; through the head, by his own doing.
Emergency services were everywhere—police, medics tending to us, checking for life signs, stemming blood from flowing from our bodies.
A mask was placed over my mouth, and someone pumped a bag of air to breathe for Sarah ... Noooooo .... nooooooo. My spiritual heart ached and split in two.
I neared the light as I continued my journey away from the physical realm of the Earth. It was so bright that it hurt my eyes. But I was drawn to it by Love.
I was not alone; two others were with me ...
No longer did we wear the cloak of the human body. But we were three lights of spirit about to enter the spiritual realm.
My soul rejoiced when I felt the euphoria of returning home—my real home.
My mother greeted me, then looked to the Lord for permission to speak. Albert was by her side, and a man whom I did not know. But Sarah did. It was her father.
‘Liam my child, welcome back,’ my mother said, smiling into eternity.
She turned to Sarah then. ‘Sarah welcome, but it is not your time. You must return to the Earth with your baby.’
‘But I cannot go without Liam. I cannot …’ Sarah said, and touched my spirit with hers, her spiritual heart overflowing with sorrow.
I looked to my mother in a panicked state.
They couldn’t do this to us. They couldn’t separate us now after it took me such a long time to find her … could they?
I felt Sarah’s spirit slip from mine and fade away until I could see it no more.
The pain of our parting was like having a limb ripped off.
‘Mother,’ I cried, ‘I love her ... I love my son ... I need to be with them …’
She looked at me with deep sympathy. ‘I know son. That is why you have a choice. You are welcome to stay here, or to return to the Earth. Love is everything, and with love, all things are possible. You need to make your choice now Liam, before your Earth body is irreparable. What do you choose?’
‘I choose to be Earthbound. I choose to be a Protector, a Healer. I choose to love Sarah and my son until my final breath on the Earth at a much later date, and then to love them even more deeply after, in the spiritual realm. I will return to you because of my faith …’
As I said these words, I became suspended in animation. Silence surrounded me and I started to retreat, in slow motion at first, until light speed slammed me back into my human body.
There, I was oblivious to the world around me, put into an induced coma while they worked on my wound and supported my life until I could support my life by myself ...
I felt her presence before she placed her hand on mine—Sarah’s hand so soft and warm, tracing circles and spirals on my skin with the lightness of a feather.
‘Hi,’ I said as I woke from the coma, a little groggy, a little foggy.
‘Hi,’ she replied.
Her voice was soft and sang to my soul.
I turned my head towards where her voice was coming from, and struggled to open my eyes. But I did.
But I couldn’t see ... I had no vision.
‘Sarah, is it really you? Are you there?’ I asked. My heart pounded in my chest.
Perhaps this was a dream—no—a nightmare. Being blind, unable to see the beauty of my wife, and the face of my child would be a nightmare …
‘I am here Liam. We are here ... safe and sound,’ she said, her words soothing my erratic heart.
Tears flowed from my useless eyes.
‘I cannot see. Please come closer so that I can touch your face, and your lips, and your hair. I am scared,’ I spluttered while engulfed by the realization that my sight had been taken away from me.
She held my hands with tenderness and lifted them and placed them on either side of her face.
Breathing in a haphazard manner, I explored her face with my fingers—her lips, and her hair, her neck and shoulders.
‘Kiss me Sarah. I want to feel your lips on mine, please,’ I said in desperation, as I struggled in the darkness to hold on to something that I was familiar with.
And then her lips were there, brushing against mine, sucking, kissing with a depth of emotion, and love.
She pulled away and my heart settled. She held my hand and placed it against her growing womb.
‘Our son is strong Liam. I feel so blessed that you will get to meet him, that you are still here to be his daddy,’ she whispered. She wiggled in beside me on the bed and placed her head on my chest.
I felt her tears drop onto my skin and run down my side. She traced her finger over my left pectoral muscle, in a continuous pattern.
‘Liam, you have a scar now where the bullet went through. If it makes you feel any better, I have a matching one here.’
I shook my head from side to side. I never wanted her to get hurt.
She took hold of my fingers and moved them to touch the top of one of her breasts. I could feel the raised scaring of her skin. It was the shape of a figure of eight, except on its side.
I raised my eyebrows in disbelief. It was so like the symbol of immortality.
‘At least we have matching scars,’ I said, trying to find my sense of humour.
And then I quietened as a deep sadness overcame me.
‘Liam, talk to me,’ she said, and stroked the side of my face. She wiped away the tear that had rolled away from my eye.
‘I … I will understand, if … you choose to leave me. I am damaged. I am no good anymore. I don’t want to be a burden to you and our son. Do not feel that you are obliged to stay with me because you are my wife. I never want you to feel trapped. It would kill me if you became miserable because you stayed with me. I want you to be happy, and, if that means leaving me, then I will accept it. I love you more than my own life Sarah,’ I tried to explain to her without releasing tears, but failed miserably.
‘For better, for worse, for richer, for poorer, in sickness and in health, until death do us part,’ she whispered to me before kissing me, taking my breath away. ‘I love you more than my life Liam. So, that means you are stuck with me, if that is okay.’
I kissed the top of her head as she snuggled next to me, and drifted off to sleep in my arms.
Her warmness and her beating heart comforted me for now, before my anger and self-pity would begin.
I closed my eyes to try and sleep with her by my side. The blackness was the same; eyes open or closed.
But closing my eyelids messaged my brain to shut-down. And I did, meditating, focusing on the journey to my higher self:
Il coraggio, la temperanza, la saggezza, la giustizia, la pazienza, courage, temperance, wisdom, justice, patience ... and love, the greatest of these is love, I repeated into the depths of my consciousness, finding comfort and solace.
And I found something else that I did not expect: the blue energy mass from the celestial realm in a vision.
I reached for it in my darkness and pulled it towards me, feeling it energize me, lifting me higher, healing. I saw the fourth state of matter as it arced to my finger tips like balls of lightning.
And then the blue mass of energy changed colour. It faded away, taking my happiness with it, until it became brilliant with the colour of violet, energizing me again, and surrounding me with Love and Light.
It awakened the gateway to my mind and opened it to receive inter-dimensional communication.
Violet was the colour of my mother’s spirit, and it saturated the blue mass until little presence of blue was left. I sucked in a breath, overwhelmed by my mother’s presence with me.
‘Mother, I am blind…’
Her eyes were full of sorrow.
‘Liam, my son, your spirit is placed inside the body like a
rough diamond, and must be polished, or the lustre of it will
never appear. These are plans of good and not harm. Without
your sight, you see through your other senses, and what
you
will see, will astound you. You will become a healer as you
wish ... and then, when you least expect it, your eyesight will
be restored. Weather the storm with patience and courage ...
and kindness ...’
‘Yes Mother ... ’
I breathed in the words that my mother had spoken, and floated in the heavenly presence of Peace that came with her.
‘Mother, I want to protect my family? But I will fail without
my sight. Please tell me what to do…’
‘Liam my darling, protection is not only a physical act.
Protection is a spiritual act also. Prayer—it is the most
powerful weapon you can use ... and love, love protects ...’
‘Yes Mother…’’
‘Everything you need will come to you … at the perfect time
my son….’
‘Yes Mother ... thank-you ...’
‘Life is a gift Liam ... no matter what your circumstances,
unwrap it …’
‘Yes mother …’
The violet light receded from me then, followed by the blue light, leaving me to the dark world of the prison of my Earthly body, trapped like a bird in a cage. The storm had started, and I had entered it.
Tears streaked down my face as I thought of my three lives in one; as the immortal, the mortal, and as the blind mortal, who was prophesied to see life more clearly than ever before.
Was I blessed, or cursed?
I choose blessed.
For in everything there is a purpose. There are no mistakes ... and the best things in life are unseen as they work for our greater good.
Il coraggio, la temperanza, la saggezza, la giustizia, la pazienza —courage, temperance, wisdom, justice, patience ... and love,
the greatest of these is love.
For, it is but a short time that we are as a mortal on the Earth.
For eternity in the spiritual world has no end, and no suffering…
*~*~*~*~*
Also by Alexander Bryn
The Keeper
please enjoy an excerpt ...
Mortal Desire Page 21