The Crimson Z

by Robert Cloud, Lee Rush, Richard Savage

  Yet his mind was not on his pain long as he saw his mother pull the blanket back over the young woman he had seen that she had been cleaned and her mother had dressed her in one of the white shift dresses that she sometimes wore to rituals. When the blanket fell about the woman's neck, Zachariah's eyes were once again locked upon a face so beautiful he was forgetting to breathe. His head began to get light and his world spun when a massive shocking blow to his back forced him to inhale.

  His father had patted him hard in the back as he walked by and said, “So, Zachariah goes out for water and brings home a woman. I tell you, Rachel, that boy of ours is something special. He is the strongest boy around, wins a competition, still goes to do his chores, and not only does his chores but carries a woman at the same time."

  His father sat down on the rugs as his mother brought out a loaf of bread and a jug of water for the morning meal. Zakarias turned to his son and added, “I bet he already has in his mind to marry this woman too, considering he has not found a bride amongst the village.” Then suddenly he burst into a merry laughter.

  Zachariah felt like he wanted to crawl in a hole. He knew that the merriment was at his expense. His parents had not pushed him to get married, but like any father and mother they had occasionally asked him if he had plans to. After Rachel had given Zakarias the bread and water she looked to her son's hands and frowned, “My son, sometimes you take me too literally. I did not mean for you to actually scrub the skin off your hands. You need these to help your father and do your chores."

  "They will heal mother, besides, it is best that if anyone in the village saw me carry her in that they see I carried out a punishment fully with no slacking."

  Rachel shook her head and went to get some clean cloth, as she turned she added, “Sometimes our son is too wise for his own good. His hands may be permanently scarred from this scrubbing but he is right as well. If a villager saw this woman and him touching her if he did not get punished they could demand he or she be stoned."

  Zakarias nodded, “Rachel, he is right, they will heal, and with your balm and care I am certain they will not scar.” After she had left the room he turned to his son, “Zachariah, your mother worries about you, and when you take her punishments so deeply it hurts her. Sometimes she cries herself to sleep after you have punished yourself like this. Please lighten them a little for her sake."

  Zachariah looked to his father and then to the door his mother had vanished through. He'd had had no idea that he was hurting her by obeying her, “Yes father. I will."

  No more than a moment or two passed but they passed in silence as both men waited for Rachel's return. She quickly entered carrying a bucket and basket that she sat down in front of Zachariah. She pulled a small stool over beside him and sat on the stool. From the basket she took out a jar covered with a leather lid that she untied. Then she took some of the balm from within and generously coated Zachariah's hands with it.

  He tried not to grimace as she worked on his hands but even with the salve the damage he had done was severe. Slowly the healing salve did its work and the pain diminished. Even if it would be several days before his hands were healed at least they would not hurt as badly. Then she took some clean cloth and tore it into strips, wrapping his fingers and then his hands, so that he could use his hands and continue to do the work and chores that he had to do.

  Even though his hands were hurt, the chores could not be left undone and it was his job to do them. He also was still an apprentice to his father so that work too would need to be done. He had no time to rest and let them heal. He would have to work while they healed. Besides it was his own fault they were damaged. He had sinned, and he had carried his mother's punishment further than she had intended. In both cases the damage was because of him, so he would deal with the pain.

  When his mother had finished administering to his hands he joined his father on the rugs and his father tore him a piece from the loaf of bread. Rachel returned from the storage area with a large wedge of cheese and though it was not customary that women sat and ate with the men in the village Zakarias preferred that his wife eat with them so she sat down and took a knife and cut chunks of the cheese and passed first to her husband and then to her son before cutting herself a piece.

  "So, Rachel, what is with our mysterious guest?"

  "Papa,” Rachel said, “I cannot see anything wrong with her. There are no wounds, no bruises, no broken bones, and no lumps upon her head.

  "She seems fine except for her stomach is a little shallow like she has had too little to eat, and her skin a little pale like too little time in the sun.

  "Her heart beats as it should, and her skin is warm to the touch like to should be, not too warm. I still need to wash the grime from her hair, but otherwise she is clean and healthy as best I can tell.” Rachel looked at his father and smiled. Her eyes glistened and Zachariah could see how much she adored his father.

  "It is not a plague? Is it?"

  "No, Papa. There are no signs of any plague I have heard of. Her breathing is normal. It is like she is simply asleep."

  He turned to Zachariah and asked, “And you say you found her lying beside the road?"

  "Yes, father. I thought she was dead at first, but then I saw her breathing. I did not know what else to do but bring her here. I know mother is the best with herbs and medicine and if anyone could help her she could."

  * * * *

  "Papa Zach,” Melanie interrupted his story, “please excuse me, but I have a question."

  "Go ahead, precious.” Zachariah said then he leaned over and kissed her cheek to let her know it was okay that she had interrupted.

  "It is just that in all the legends of Vampires I have ever heard they were like they were dead. They had no heartbeat, they were cold. Sometimes they would even sleep in coffins so that people would think they were dead and leave them alone.” Melanie's eyes were glistening, Zachariah could not tell if it was from the tale or from her love for him but he let her continue her question. “Why is Lilith's condition so different?"

  He smiled at her, “Very perceptive of you, sweetheart. Maybe it would be a good idea for me to cover a few vampire facts to the best of my discoveries anyway. However, before I begin let me say that there are many myths and legends and though some have truth at their foundations some are nothing more than falsehoods. Holy Water does not affect a vampire of any kind. Icons like crosses do not work to protect a person from a vampire if the person does not have true faith in their God, and even then it is not the icon as much as it is the faith. A Christian whose faith is not Cross centered will get no protection from a cross at all, the words of the Bible and their own faith are more protection to them. Yet a Catholic who is not true to his faith will also get no help from the Cross. So many of the myths are just that; myths.

  "Now, including Lilith, and she is a lone specimen in her species, there are several species of Vampire. Lilith prefers to call herself by the Hebrew term Wampyr, so we will use it to define her species as separate and distinct from the other two. When Lilith was cursed she was very much alive. She had eaten from the tree of Life, and she had never died. God did not kill her. So I think her curse kept her in this living state. She still was not able to see the sun, and she still had to drink blood or life's fluids as the other vampires but she had some advantages in that she was indistinguishable from a living person.

  "As far as the other species of vampires, they all have one very important thing in common. They were all dead before they became vampires. They are animated corpses, the undead.

  "Lilith never died, she was the undying. Had it not been for the love I had for her she could not have killed her flesh form, but even then it did not kill her spirit or release it to go to the next realm. She is still trapped here."

  Melanie looked at him. He could see something like pride in her eyes and yet bewilderment, then she asked one more question. “Papa Zach, how do you know all this? How would you know for certainty the way you do that thi
s is true?"

  "I don't know if everything Lilith has told me is true or not. I do know about the species of the vampires. That has to do with the magic in the stone and it is one of the reasons I know it is good."

  Melanie sat forward and placed her chin on her hands. Zachariah could see that she was very interested in hearing all he had to tell her about vampires. He smiled at her, halfway suspecting that if she had a library at home it was filled mostly with fictional stories of vampires and maybe a few non-fiction books upon the myths of them as well. He sensed she was excited to get some information from someone that had firsthand knowledge. He knew she would not like his response, “Sweetie, that is part of another story for another time. There are too many things I have to tell you about Lilith and I could get lost telling you all the side details. So for that answer you will have to wait.” He was right. He saw her lips curl in a pout, a pout he could not resist as he leaned forward and kissed her lips. She returned the sweet kiss and then sat up and waited patiently for him to continue.

  He looked at her a moment, his heart enraptured by her. “Oh!” he interjected, “I remembered there is something I wanted to tell you about my mother and father.

  Melanie brightened, he did not think it was possible for a person to glow but she truly seemed to be glowing she was so happy.

  "Rachel had called Zakarias Papa from the day they were married.

  "He was ten years older than her but it was not because of their differences in age that she called him that. She had felt the need to show him a profound respect and the only way she could was to call him the same thing she had called the only other man in her life she had respected, her father.

  "When she had asked if it was okay to call him Papa he had told her it would be an honor for her father was a great man. They were always happy, and there were even times late at night I would hear my father slip and call her Mama.” Zachariah smiled at the memory of the sound of his parents’ lovemaking when he was young. It no longer embarrassed him but brought a warm feeling to his heart that his house had been so filled with love.

  He turned to Melanie and added, “That was why I was so honored when you asked to call me Papa. It was in a way like you were showing the same respect for me that my mother showed to my father."

  Melanie rose up, wrapped her arms around Zachariah's neck and whispered, “I love you, Papa” then she kissed him hard. When she released her hold Zachariah had to think to begin breathing again. He smiled at her.

  After a moment of them both smiling at each other he said, “Now where was I, oh yes, I had just told my father I had brought Lilith to our house because if anyone could help her I knew my mother could."

  * * * *

  Zakarias nodded, “You did right, my son.

  "Now if she will wake up, maybe we can find out more about her.” He turned to Rachel, “Any idea when she might awake?"

  "No, Papa,” she said. “It could be today, it could be tomorrow, it could be days from now.

  "I know she has not eaten so I am boiling a stock of some meat and vegetables now. I will strain off the broth, let it cool and then spoon it to her. Hopefully her body is hungry enough that it will take it even in her sleep. This way I can keep her alive until she awakes. If not, then without food and water she could die, even tonight."

  Zachariah felt his heart sink. There was no way that the Creator could allow this woman to come into his life and then be taken away so quickly. She had to be able to eat. He stood and felt the eyes of his father upon him. Zakarias said, “Son, you have not finished your meal."

  "Father, I have chores that still need to be done. Besides I am not hungry. May I be about my chores?” He was praying inside that his father would not deny him the chance to step away, he could not bear to remain inside right then and he fought to hold the sigh when he saw his father's head nod and permission was granted. Quickly he knelt and kissed the top of his mother's head and then went outside.

  Chapter Eight

  He paused outside the door only long enough to kneel and lift the yoke to his shoulder. Then he carried it around back and began his chores. Watering the livestock and then making certain that grain was spread in the bins for them to eat. Once that was done he turned and walked to the stand of trees that separated his father's property from the rest of the village and entered the woods. The woods extended into a much deeper forest that ran to the west and south of the village and Zachariah soon found the path that he had been following since he had turned twelve.

  On that day he had decided to runaway from home. His father had punished him and told him he could not begin studying the basics of being a jeweler for another year because he had not gotten his chores done on time. It had not been his fault. It had been one of those competitions that Tobiah had demanded he do. So Zachariah had put some of his things upon a cloth and tied the corner of the cloth together and then threw it over his shoulder and into the woods he had trudged. He had been lost in less than a half hour, but had come across this path that some animal had made. So he had followed it in hopes that it would take him out of the woods but instead it had taken him even deeper.

  Eventually it led him to a small spring where he had gotten a fresh drink of water and some fresh red berries to eat. Then he saw it. It was like nothing he had seen. It was a large flat rock, nearly round, and almost completely flat. He had christened it table rock, and set his pack down and went to sleep on the rock. While asleep he'd had a dream of a lady with long black hair coming to him and singing him a song, but he never saw her face. From that day on whenever he had any spare time Zachariah would come to the stone bearing tools. He began to work on the stone to make it smoother, and rounder, so that when the lady came it would be ready for her. For three years he had kept it up, but when he turned fifteen it suddenly seemed like a childish thing to do so he had stopped.

  Now Zachariah headed straight to that stone. Was this the woman of his dream? He was not certain if she was or not but when he got to the stone he looked at it. Then he stripped off all his clothing and laid them on the ground and climbed onto the rock. Kneeling upon the cold stone he looked up into the sky and prayed, “Lord, I pray to you, do not take this woman. I have never felt love before and I now know what love is. I truly love this woman. Please, Lord. Let her live."

  Then Zachariah wept. He wept well past the rising of the sun. Thunder sounded in the distance and he felt the cold splash of rain land gently at first upon his skin, then within moments it was a downpour drenching him. Zachariah rose and gathered his clothing, they too were soaked but it would not do to return naked so he dressed before turning toward his father's house.

  As he walked into his father's house he saw his father had left but his mother was seated beside the woman and was just about to stand. She turned and looked at him. Her eyes filled with worry. His heart sank and then her words came, “Zachariah, you are going to get sick. Get out of those wet clothes and get dried. Then once you are warm join your father in the shop. He is expecting you."

  His eyes darted past her to the woman, and he heard his mother add, “Don't you worry about her. She has a healthy appetite. She drank two full bowls of the broth. Even if she does not wake for days she will not starve or die of thirst. All we have to worry about now is whether or not her mind will be healthy when she wakes.” Then he felt her hands pushing him toward his room. “Now get out of those wet clothes, you foolish boy. I do not need to be tending to two patients."

  He turned, and his heart was already lighter. God had heard his prayers. Zachariah was out of the wet clothes dried and out to join his father in a matter of only a few moments. His hair was still wet, but he wrapped a cloth around his head to keep any water from dripping into the smelting pot while he helped to melt down the silver for the lesson his father was going to teach that day.

  As with every lesson his father taught, Zachariah got so wrapped up in it that he did not notice the time pass. His hands did not feel the heat; his body did not notice the strai
n. It was as if this was what he had been born to do and by the end of the day he had actually forged his first pieces of silver jewelry. They were not elaborate, not much more than simple bands that he had taken a small tool and added a little decorative scrollwork with while they were still warm. His father looked at them and smiled, “My boy, you will make a fine jeweler someday. For today I think you deserve a promotion. I promote you to apprentice second grade. Tomorrow we will begin teaching you how to make settings for gemstones upon your pieces."

  Zachariah smiled. He did not feel he was ready for the raise in rank but he had learned never to argue with his father so he accepted his father's praise. Together they carried his first two rings into the house for his mother to see.

  He was disappointed to see that the woman was still asleep but her breathing was steadier and that filled his heart with peace for now he had hope she would live. As they ate he could hear his parents talking but his mind was not upon their words and more times than not his eyes were upon their sleeping guest. He had no idea how long the room had been quiet but he suddenly looked at his parents and they were both staring at him. As he tried to say something they burst into laughter. Rachel said, “I think our son has found someone his heart belongs to even before he has seen her eyes or heard her voice."

  Then his father added as best he could between his laughs, “Careful, boy, you need to know a woman before you love her. There could be a viper in that woman's spirit and she might have venom in her words."

  Rachel's eyes turned to Zakarias and she said with a hint of playful hurt in her voice, “Papa!"

  He laughed and pulled her into his arms and hugged her tight, “Not you, my wife, but you know it is true. Some women can think of nothing better to do than to find a nastier or meaner way to sting someone with the words they speak."