Within the Cards

by Donna Altman

  “I heard he got some disease from one of those harlots, he lies with,” the other female spoke. They both looked in Margaret's direction and began to shake their heads and laugh.

  “I hope she doesn’t come down with it next. John will swear up and down that she’s been running with wild men.” Olivia laughed.

  “Well whatever the reason he’s been laid up, I think it’s the devil working, I tell ya. The pure devil.” The other female again expressed her opinion.

  This conversation made Ellie laugh. She tried many times to articulate the southern dialect of these women, but her French Canadian accent would not allow her to express the slow twang of the southern culture.

  We made our home in this great town because the people accepted us and didn’t ask questions about our history. However, I was sure we were the talk of the church social when we did not attend the regular services that many invited us too. I was sure we were not the only ones that didn’t attend. Savannah was a town of many that migrated to its waters for work. We were able to blend in with others from different territories. So we were not seen as different except we didn’t attend church, which was a southern sin.

  That afternoon Ellie and I returned to the farmhouse we recently acquired after the death of one of this grand town’s leaders. No, we didn’t kill this man. He died of natural causes. Ellie and I sat on the front porch as the sun sank in the western sky. She was happy after our visit to the riverfront. We laughed and talked about what we wanted for our future. Ellie started to get up from the wooden swing that crossed the width of the porch, but then she stopped. I knew something was wrong when she turned to face me. The fear in her eyes told me our time would soon end.

  “Ellie, what’s wrong?” I asked as I crossed the porch to her. She stood frozen as she looked in the distant.

  “They’re coming. I have to hide you,” she insisted. She pushed me through the entrance of the house. I remember the wide doorframe because I tried to stretch my arms across the entrance to keep her from crossing the threshold. I was unable to grasp the wooden frame she shoved me through.

  “Ellie, who's coming?” I demanded while following her through the large hallway that stretched from the entrance of the house to the backdoor. The rooms of the house entered on each side of this vast hallway.

  I ran after Ellie as she started down the steps of the back porch. She hadn’t answered my question.

  “Ellie, damn it, answer me,” I demanded again. She stopped once she entered the wooden area behind the house, and she turned to face me. Her beautiful gray eyes were like broken glass. She never showed fear, but her eyes were full of the emotion that wasn’t typical for an immortal.

  “My sisters are near.” She said. Her voice trembled. I pulled her into my arms to comfort her, but she pushed me away from her.

  “We don’t have much time. I have to hide you. If they find us together, they will make me extinguish you.” She turned before she finished her words and headed deeper in the thick wooden area.

  She continued without speaking or answering any question I asked. I trailed behind her until we reached an area that the trees no longer held the Spanish moss. I knew from history that this was a battleground of the Civil war. Blood had shed on this ground because there was no moss that hung like it did from the other trees around this town. These old, powerful limbs didn’t have moss hanging from them because moss didn’t hang where blood had dripped.

  “Daught, I have to bury you here.” She told me. I knew from the expression on her face she realized I thought she had gone mad.

  “You want to do what to me?” I responded.

  “They won’t look for you here. They will not be able to smell your scent among the old blood.” She replied as she touched my face. Her eyes were now soft, and she smiled at me.

  I shook my head not sure of what I should do, but I knew I had to listen to her. Ellie loved me, and she knew her family better than I did. I could not believe we had spent a wonderful day down by the river, and now, I was going to be buried under the earth the blood of heroes from the past once saturated its darkness.

  “What’s going to happen to you?” I asked, pulling her close to me. She smiled and kissed my lips.

  “I will be fine. They’re here to check up on me. They’ll leave after they realize I’m not causing any problems for the witchyres.” She stated.

  “So how long do I have to stay under the earth?” I questions as I looked at the black soil beneath my feet. She followed my glance to the ground.

  “You will know when they're gone, but I’ll come back for you. Then all I have to do is snap my fingers, and you will be clean and as good as new.” She smiled and laughed at the expression on my face.

  “Oh great, you get to spend the next few hours visiting with your family, while I lay in the dirt.” I laughed. She touched my face and smiled.

  “Ok, I’ll lay here and you can visit with them, I dare you” She raised one of her eyebrows as she spoke through a grin.

  “Hmmm,” I mumbled as I looked at the ground.

  “Hurry, they are getting closer. I don’t want them to pick up your scent.” She spoke as she kneeled down and began to dig. I kneeled beside her, and within a few minutes, we had removed the dirt that would be my resting place for the next several hours.

  Ellie stood and looked in the distant. Her expression changed, but she tried to hide it from me. She turned away and stumbled. I knew she wasn’t telling me something, but I hadn’t perfected my ability to read her mind. She was able to block me out of her thoughts.

  “Ok, you have to lay down now. Hurry, they’re almost here.” She instructed me. I lay in the shallow grave that housed insects and worms as she started to push the black earth over my body. She stopped before she covered my face. I will never forget the look in her eyes or the sound of her voice.

  “Daught, do not get out of this grave before I return for you. I mean it.” She demanded. She bent over and kissed me with a long lingering kiss, then stopped and looked up to the distances. She closed her eyes. Her next words, I have held with me for eternity.

  "Never forget me, I will come back for you, I love you too much to forget you.” The look on her face told me something was wrong. She pushed the ground over my face. I wanted to dig out of the cold, dark silences, but I couldn't disobey.

  Hours passed, and Ellie did not return. I knew when her sisters left just as she told me I would. I laid and waited for her, but she didn’t return. I did not know what to do. If I disobeyed her, she would be angry with me, but I knew something was wrong because she had not returned. It only took me a few minutes to decide I would handle her wraith later. I dug my way out of the earth and returned to the house.

  When I walked into the large hallway, I did not feel her presence. I tried to concentrate, but I could not pull her thoughts to mine. I looked through the rooms, but I knew I would not find her. I went out on the front porch and sat on the swing that we shared a few hours ago. Ellie was gone, and all I could do was sit and wait. I didn’t know where to look for her. She didn’t leave a clue as to where her sister might have taken her.

  For many days, I sat and waited for Ellie to return, but she never arrived. I walked the banks of the river hoping she would find me as she did the first night we were together. My mind would not focus on anything but her. I was lost and didn’t know how to find my way.

  Chapter Seven

  WALK ALONE

  It had been several hours, since I saw Ellie in class today, I thought about going to look for her, but I knew this would appear to her as being pushy, and I had already pressed my luck with her. She already thought I was insane. I didn’t want to add stalker to the list. I would have to wait to see her again in class tomorrow, but patience was not one of my more powerful abilities. I continued to lie in my bed and think of Ellie’s past.

  It was a century plus sixty years ago, that Ellie’s clan allowed her to be free. She walked the earth alone. She was an outsider to her clan and wa
s never accepted by others. Humans were too fragile to be a part of her existence, although she tried to fit into their world. She would never be safe within the hybrid clans of the vampires, nor would the witches and wizards protect her. She was alone, part mortal, part immortal and didn’t fit in either world.

  Many men were attracted to her beauty, but she knew they could not withstand her strength and power. Not to mention, they would totally freak if they found out she was immortal. They could gaze at her beauty, but for them she was off-limits. Their gazes would have to be from a distant. All she would allow them to see was a shy timid girl, which was far from the true Ellie.

  In this time, men dominated women. They saw them, but these women had no voice. If they spoke out without permission men saw them as witches, and they didn’t tolerate this. Little did the humans realize the beauty they sought after was the exact thing they fears.

  Humans felt scared in this time of witches and mysterious things they didn’t understand. When humans didn’t understand something, they did the only thing that came natural. They destroyed their fear.

  Ellie saw many of the witch trials in Massachusetts. She watched many of her part-genetic relations burn at the stake. Some females stood accused, but they had no actual power. Nonetheless, they were burnt for no more than being different from the others. These were bodies she could feed on in hopes to relieve them of the pain of death from burning alive. These times were strange and dangerous for those that were different and those that were not of human existence.

  Ellie told me of the times when the people of this time caught her, but she was able to disappear before they sentenced her to death. However, there was one time they put her on trial. This time she could not escape. She was trying to fit into the human world of normality. They bound her with ropes and ignited her. To the human’s surprise, when they set her ablaze to carry out her punishment of conviction of being a witch, she glowed brightly and beautifully. No fire could burn her. She was not a purebred witch. She was immortal, and she could not be killed. She recalled the terror in the bystander’s eyes when her body engulfed in flames but made no attempt to burn. The ropes that bound her incinerated, as well as the clothing she worn, but her body stood untouched by the flames. As she stood before the crowd that was full of fear and hate, she knew she could not exist among the mortals anymore. She was not human. She was what they feared. The humans looked upon her naked body that didn’t burn. Some screamed in fear while others yelled “witch, witch.”

  This public display of immortality further outraged the witches and wizards. Their kind could not withstand the heat of the flames, and they saw this act as a mockery. This outrage made the wounds of her crossbred ancestors deeper within the witch and wizard clan. It was as if she were flaunting her ability to live when other purebred witches perished in the fires of death. With the rage that brewed after Elizabeth’s annihilation, this display made their hatred grow.

  The news of this display had also made it to the vampires, but they were more intrigued with what this crossbreed had done. They likened the terror it set forth in the mortal world, and they used this outrage only to learn that fire would not be a proper weapon against their enemy, the Witchyres. Her sisters were not pleased with her public accounts of immorality. Their displeasure wasn’t because they cared what mere humans thought, but because this made it harder to hunt if humans heard about this display. Mortals would fear anyone they didn’t see as familiar.

  She was alone in a world that accepted nothing she was. She walked the earth of endless time looking only for the weakened by death to feed. Occasionally, she would encounter nomads that rebelled against one clan or another. These nomads consist of any immortal, but most often were vampires that for one reason or another had separated from their clan and walked alone, as well. They only used her to satisfy their greed to lure the humans into their trap. She was too trusting or maybe just too lonely. Her inherited beauty was an easy attraction to lustful human males. In the end, she would be repulsed at the carnage the nomads would carry out on unsuspecting humans. It sickened her. She longed for a better existence. If she could pray, she would pray to a god that her clan taught her never listened to the soulless. She would pray for her immortality to end, and she would rebuke her very birth.

  Her sisters often checked up on her during her voyage alone. They popped in and out of her life, taunting her and making her feel even more isolated than before. She never felt as if she belonged to her family. Of course, since she left me, I felt the same isolation. Her sister often ridiculed her for being a weak replica of her grandmother Elizabeth. Ellie was an original. She knew the compassion her grandmother felt for her grandfather. She heard others joke and laugh about her grandparents weak act of love. She longed for the love they shared. It was a love that had no boundaries, and a love that knew no race. A love that she knew was part of her existence.

  She walked for fifty years through the torment and danger of revilement and the loneliness of never having companionship. There were times loneliness would make her doubt her own beliefs. She considered several times to recount her beliefs of love and compassion and return to her witchyre clan. However, she knew she could never live in the incestuous world of reproducing for power and numbers.

  This was the way of her life as she walked along the shores of the Cuban harbor in February of Eighteen ninety-nine, knowing her existence would torture her for the years known as forever. She walked along the harbor in a flowing black dress made of silk. The bodice had crimson red silk inlays that made the silkiness of her skin appear smoother as it glowed in the moonlight. She wore a corset that made her already tiny waistline look almost nonexistent. Her breast slightly rose, showing the cleavage where the neckline of the dress dipped down, but masks the white flesh with black lace. Ellie’s hair was in the style of that time called a Coiffure, ringlets of loose hair hanging around her face. The blackness of her hair and the beauty of her face made the moon blush. It could hold no match to this angel.

  Ellie heard an explosion in the distance that interrupted her loneliness. Within seconds, she was at the site of the blazing inferno. She knew this was an opportunity to feast on the near deceased humans. She found many freshly lifeless bodies, and she extracted the blood from their bodies. It only took seconds for her to deplete the eight pints of liquid scarlet she needed to remain strong. Then she crossed my path, as I sank into the abyss. She pulled me from my near watery grave. I was different. She found her reason to release the loneliness; she found her life companion. Our eyes met, and those iced eyes didn’t feast on me. She had other intentions. Her life would no longer be lonely. She had found what she hoped would be her lifelong companion. She hoped she would no longer have to walk this earth in the dark loneliness by herself. This was the night I was reborn into the Immortal world.

  Chapter Eight

  SECOND SIGHTING

  I couldn’t wait to get to class this morning, eager to see her again. I wasn’t sure if I had some time-warped illusion that she was in class yesterday. I waited for one student after another to file in the classroom, but none of them was Ellie. I started to convince myself that my century of hope was a mind trick created to torture my stability with disillusion. It was almost time for this session to start. Mr. Dundford stood at the lecture bench preparing to start the hour long monotone, repetition of pass mishaps of govern men. He cleared his throat to begin his session. I looked around, but she wasn’t there. I knew I hadn’t dreamed yesterday because I don’t dream. Although, I clearly saw every inch of the room from all angles without turning I glanced around as humans do to check the door.

  Had my presents repelled her from continuing this class? I scanned the thoughts around me hoping to pick hers up somewhere near the building. All I could hear was the thoughts of others. What I heard made me sick. That brunette male was talking about seeing Ellie last night. He laughed about how she wanted to do obscene things with him. It made me want to get out of this seat and suck the blood o
ut of his neck before I twisted it to hear the crunching of the bones. The females were talking about what a bore she was. They didn’t know the true Ellie. She was never a bore. She made each of these females appear to be ragdolls. These dolls had no faces in the sight of hers as a porcelain doll worth millions. She had ten times the personality of any of these ordinary human females.

  Mr. Dundford began to call the roll. My fears of never seeing her again returned, building resentment of this immortality that cursed me. I wanted to be human, so death would find me fast and quick. It was like a painful, lonely walk of suffering and punishments for assignments uncompleted. It was worse than when she left the first time. This time my hopes of her return were apprehensive. I waited for decades for her, and she hadn’t appeared. Had she ever appeared? Would she ever appear? Was I the insane vampire my mind had decided when I imagined her yesterday? She wasn’t here. No, this could not be true. I knew I had not imaged her yesterday. She wasn’t an illusion.

  Mr. Dundford’s voice pulled me back to reality. Again, in the strange reverse way he called the roll starting with her name.

  “Eleanor?” he called. There was no answer.

  “Eleanor?” Once more, he called the name that I so hoped to hear a respond. He looked up from the podium and glanced over the students that sat in front of him. I wanted to jump up and scream, “Give her a few more minutes,” but I sat in my seat like a statue.

  My head lowered in defeat as I stared at the buttons on my linen black shirt. This discouraging moment wasn’t what I had expected this morning when I dressed for class. Once again, my existence felt crushed. I raised my head to accept the point in purgatory I was sentenced.

  At once, a wisp of roses, lilac, and lavender filled the air next to me. I looked up, and the room was still as if the clock had stopped ticking. Everyone in the room froze in place.