“That’s okay Debbie, I guess I’ve become sort of attached to this place. All it needs is a good coat of paint and a new mattress. Oh, and ask Lukor about installing cable TV.”
Debbie couldn’t help but smile in the face of Leslie’s courage and humor. “I’ll see what I can do.”
Debbie walked across the corridor. She made the same offer to Gwen and Marci, especially Gwen. She too decided to stay and try to help. What an amazing little girl. Debbie moved on down the corridor preaching to any of the slaves who were still awake. She spoke of the revolution to come, of fighting for their freedom, fighting at the side of the wulvers. Her message was one of hope.
It was well over an hour before she once more returned to the home of Lukor and Kadra. She found Lukor and David talking over the stone table.
“We’ve had an interesting discussion,” noted Lukor, “but it is late.” He looked to Kadra. “I’m too tired ta take these two back to their cells. I suppose we can trust them not ta try and escape.”
“I swear we won’t try to escape,” responded Debbie, almost pleading.
“I figured as much,” continued Lukor, a smile coming to his face. “I placed several furs on the floor fer yer bed. Sleep well humans.”
Lukor and Kadra retreated arm in arm to their bedroom, drawing the curtains composed of brown cave beast hide behind them. For a moment Debbie and David only gazed into each other’s eyes, then they sat together upon the soft furs. Debbie caressed David’s chin.
“To sit by your side, just the two of us,” she whispered. “How I’ve dreamt of it, but I never believed it could happen. I love you, David.”
David’s smile broadened. “I love you too, Debbie, you can’t imagine how much. How much I’ve thought of you, when I’ve laid there without you in my cell, knowing you were only a short way up the hallway. So close, but you might as well have been on the other side of the world. It tore me apart. I’ve never loved like this. I guess I’ve never loved anyone before, not really.” He smiled, “What a place to meet.”
They both chuckled, falling back onto the soft fur. They kissed, it filled their hearts with ecstasy. David ran his finger gently down Debbie’s neck across her chest. It brought forth a gentle sigh and shiver of delight from his loving companion.
“Meeting you has been the only good thing that’s happened to me here,” she replied, drawing closer. “Maybe this has all happened to us for a reason, to bring us together.”
“But all we can do here is die together,” sighed David. “Don’t you see, tomorrow I may well be gone back to Earth. You need to come with me. When I get there I’ll tell this Dr. Wilson to send you along too. They don’t need you here. They have Abaddon and Lenar.”
“I can’t go with you, not yet,” insisted Debbie, trying her best to smile. “Remember the dream I told you about?”
“A dream,” he objected, his expression growing increasingly grim. “It may be nothing more than that. Anyway, you’ve done your part. You’ve gotta come with me.”
Why couldn’t she? She could return with David. She knew she could. When the door opened for David there would be room for her too, all she had to do was say the word. “I can’t,” she replied, after a few seconds of indecision. “David, I’ve got to stay for a while longer, I’ve things to do. Lukor and Kadra need me. David I can’t go just yet. I promise, it will only be for a few days, then we’ll be together again, for the rest of our lives. What’s happened to us can’t be allowed to happen to anyone else. You’ve done your time in hell, it’s time for you to be free.”
“Tonight might be our only night together,” mourned David, a trace of dampness around his eyes.”
They held on tightly to one another for a long time, seeking the strength that they could only gain from each other. For a few hours their hell was transformed into heaven, and their suffering, their longing, was replaced by joy. On that precious evening, they became each other’s only reality.
David awoke to a strange dizzying sensation. He still had his arm around Debbie but he had the sensation he was somewhere else too, like Debbie was nothing more than a dream. “No, not now,” he whispered. “Debbie.”
She didn’t respond. In fact, she seemed to be fading into an ever brightening mist.
“David,” said a voice out of the mist. “David.”
David knew that voice. It was his mother’s voice. “Mom?” he answered.
“He’s coming around,” said another voice, this one that of a man. “Connie, increase the field strength just a bit more.”
Debbie vanished even as the brightness increased. David opened his eyes to see his mother, Ann Tomlinson, standing over him, tears streaming from her eyes.
There was a man there too who appeared to be in his late-sixties. He was smiling broadly. “Can you hear me, David?”
“Yes,” said David in a weak voice. “You must be Doctor Wilson.”
“That’s right David,” said Wilson. “I’m pleased to meet you.”
“Likewise,” said David, turning to his mother. “I’m home. I’ve missed you so much, you and dad.”
David’s mother hesitated. “I’ve missed you too, thank God you’re home.” She leaned down to plant a kiss on his cheek. “I was so afraid I’d never talk to you again.”
David trembled. “Dad is dead, isn’t he?”
“Yes,” said his mother.
“I knew it,” replied David. “He died trying to save me. He destroyed the crystal ball that had taken my soul.”
Ann seemed shocked. “He was talking crazy before he went off to Nevada. He said something about some fortune teller and her crystal ball, about getting her to release you one way or another.”
“He succeeded,” said David. “He bought me time. He came to me in a dream and told me all about it.”
“In a dream?” said Ann. “Dear, you’re still a little confused.”
David felt a slight sting on his arm. He looked over to see a nurse he already recognized. “Hi Claudia, it’s good to see you again.”
“Same here,” said Claudia. “Thank you for being there for me. I don’t know how I would have made it through without you and Debbie.”
“That injection might leave you feeling a little sick to your stomach for an hour or so but it will pass,” assured Wilson. “It has some of the side effects of chemotherapy, but they don’t last long. It will break the connection between you and that body you had on the other side. The drells will have no hold on you, not anymore. We need to get you down to the lab for a few routine tests. Then I’ll be prescribing physical therapy to get your muscles and bones operating again. It will take some time but you’ll be back on your feet. You’ll be able to head back to California in a few days and put this all behind you.”
David nodded. “Right.”
“I’d like to take him back tomorrow afternoon,” announced Ann. “I have plane reservations.”
“I don’t know if I’d do that,” cautioned Wilson. “I’d really like to keep him under observation for at least another three days, to be on the safe side. There could be side effects, complications, he might be better off here. Anyway, he’s really in no condition right now to travel. He needs to take it easy.”
“We will see what the morning brings,” said Ann, as David was disconnected from the FENS unit and placed on a gurney for the trip to the lab. His mother traveled by his side.
“His mother seems to be in denial,” observed Ron, stepping from the control room.
“She just can’t accept that there are supernatural aspects to this coma that David was in,” replied Wilson. “She was that way on the entire plane trip here. The concept shatters her version of reality so she rejects it. I finally just gave up trying to explain it to her. The important thing is that she has her son back.”
“Now all we have to do is protect him from the drells,” noted Ron.
“Yes,” said Wilson. “Your aunt seems to think that if we moved him back to California the drells would probably lose tra
ck of him.”
“What do you think?” Ron asked.
“I think that won’t be my decision to make. That will be his mother’s,” noted Wilson. “At this point it’s out of my hands. I can’t make him stay here.”
“But you think he should remain here for a few days,” deduced Ron.
Wilson nodded. “At least. I think he should, for Debbie’s sake.”
The tests dragged on for nearly three hours and it was past ten in the evening when David, now in a wheel chair, was taken to his room. It was as he was wheeled past room 124 that David seemed suddenly galvanized.
“Mom, I’ve got to go in there,” David said. “That’s where Debbie is.”
“The Debbie Dr. Wilson was telling me about,” deduced Ann.
“Yes,” confirmed David. He looked to Claudia, who was wheeling him.
“I’m sure Dr. Wilson wouldn’t mind,” said Claudia, “but just for a minute.” She paused. “That is if it’s alright with your mother.”
Ann just nodded. They entered the room to find Debbie and Leslie lying in their beds, both attached to tubes through which they were fed intravenously.
“She looks so pale,” said David, almost in tears. “She helped keep me alive while I was over there. Her love helped me endure.”
“It’s all a little bit hard for me to understand,” admitted Ann, glancing at the comatose young woman. “All that fantasy stuff you told Dr. Wilson during the tests, and now wanting to see a girl you’ve never met. This whole thing has me near wits end.” Ann struggled to hold back the tears that would only further agitate her son.
“Mom, I love her,” replied David. “You don’t know how much we’ve been through together.” He gazed upon the quiet motionless form in the bed before him, and as he did so, tears came to his eyes. He had come home to his father’s death, and now this. He hadn’t realized that his homecoming would hold so much sorrow. He reached out with a trembling hand to stroke Debbie’s forehead. “Mom, you’d love her too if you only got to know her.”
“I’m sure I would, dear,” Ann replied, kissing her son on the cheek. “I’m so thankful to have you back, it’s a miracle.”
“It’s late, the two of you need to get some rest,” came a voice from behind them.
Dr. Wilson placed a strong arm over his patient’s shoulder. “It’s been a remarkable night. You have come through the procedure amazingly well.”
“I’m very grateful to you and Dr. Griego,” replied Ann. “You’ve given me back my son. I only wish David’s father could have been here to see David whole again.”
Wilson shook his head sadly. They had paid a high price to recover this lost soul, higher than he had expected, and the price might very well go higher before this whole thing was said and done. “He was a fine man.” Wilson glanced at Debbie and then back at David. He recalled all that this young man had said into the microphone just a few hours ago. He pondered his tale of suffering and torment, and of a sweet innocent love affair born in hell. “I think I know how you feel. Don’t worry, the two of you will be seeing each other again soon.”
David looked to the doctor, tears still in his eyes. “You believed my story, didn’t you Dr. Wilson?”
“Yes of course I did,” he replied. “You and your mother need to get some sleep, you’ve got a plane to Fresno to catch tomorrow afternoon.” He turned to David’s mother. Still I wish that I could convince you to delay your departure.”
Ann shook her head. “We’ve been all over this before, Doctor Wilson. David has a good doctor in Fresno. He will be in good hands. The issue is closed.”
Claudia wheeled David to his bed in room 126. Ann Tomlinson was alarmed when she found Sybil scrolling a chalk circle about David’s bed.
“What sort of thing is this anyway?” she asked, in a tone that spoke of a growing frustration with the superstition that surrounded her.
“A magical circle,” replied Sybil, looking toward the pair only momentarily. Almost immediately she seemed to realize that such an answer would only anger Ann. She attempted to reword her response. “This chalk is composed of iridium and osmium, rare elements, totally non-toxic to us. It won’t hurt your son in the least. It will, however, protect him.”
“Protect him from what?” asked Ann.
“From the powers of the evil ones, from the drells,” said Sybil.
“This has gone too far,” Ann replied angrily. “Is this a hospital or some sort of insane asylum where the nuts run loose?”
“Don’t be so hasty,” replied Sybil in a calm tone, as she rose from her labors. “Your husband believed.”
“What do you know of my husband?” retorted Ann. “He was a good man, and I’ll not have his memory profaned by the likes of you.”
“I’m not profaning, you see, he understood. He sought to save the life of your son. He is a hero in our war against the evil of the drells.” Sybil walked slowly around the circle, placing the chalk within the pocket of her white robe. “The circle is complete, and you’ll be safe within it, should the drells return.”
“Get out!” cried Ann in a trembling voice.
“That was my intention,” assured Sybil, walking from the room.
“Mom, why won’t you listen?” asked David, reaching for his mother’s arm.
Ann turned back toward her son, her anger dissipated. “Because this is all nonsense, I mean, this sort of thing doesn’t happen.”
“Please mom, do just this one thing for me. Stay in the circle with me tonight, please.”
Ann hesitated for a moment. She gazed at her son’s worried expression and smiled. “I’ll do it for your peace of mind, but for no other reason. I’ll be glad when we get back home. Your father, God rest his soul, made sure that we’d be well taken care of in the event of his death. He had as good life insurance policy. Despite all that has happened we might at last be able to get back to a normal life.”
Normal? David wondered what that word meant. His world would never be the same again. The only person that might make this new life bearable for him was Debbie. On paper she was just over in the next room but in reality she might as well have been on another planet. Perhaps she was.
Chapter 19
Debbie awoke to find David gone. She scanned the room and then the pile of furs they had laid upon. Here she found the clothes he had worn but he was gone. It was then that she understood. She began to cry, though she wasn’t sure if they were tears of grief or tears of joy. He had gone home. He was safe. Now it would fall to her to make sure that he would continue to be safe before she too could make the journey home.
It was but a few minutes later that Kadra parted the curtains and saw that David was gone. She understood immediately. “He has departed to the land of our forefathers?”
Debbie nodded. “Sometime during the night, I don’t know when.”
“Surely tis for the best,” said Kadra, placing her arm about Debbie. “It will be better for him to be there. Our path here is likely to be a very difficult one.” Kadra paused. “Lukor and I have a task for you. Lukor has ordered that all of the humans be released from their shackles. The blacksmiths have begun the task of forging the removable ones. It will take much of the day. In the meantime, you must tell your people of what has happened. You must convince them to fight at our sides in this battle against the drells. It will take all of us working together if we are to emerge victorious.”
“I will,” said Debbie. “But my people are tired and weak, nearly starved. I don’t think that they are up to a fight.”
“They have to be,” said Kadra. “I have seen to it that they were fed bountifully this morning, three times their normal rations, and far better food at that. They will have this day to rest, tomorrow as well.” Kadra hesitated before continuing. “Something is very wrong, child, I can sense it. The drells are about to do something terrible.”
“How do you know?” asked Debbie.
“I can sense the thoughts of the other priestesses sometimes,” said Kadra. �
�Tis part of the training they put me through. They are up to something.”
“Do you think they know what we’re planning?” Debbie asked.
“No, not yet, I think,” replied Kadra. “I have learned to shield some of my thoughts from them. But they will know and soon.”
Lukor emerged from the bedroom. He wore his leather armor and his sword. He appeared to be dressed for battle. “Is she ready?” he asked impatiently. “We need to be on our way.”
Kadra turned to Lukor, frustration in her eyes. “She will be once she has had time to wash and dress. Then we shall all eat. Only then shall she be going. We have time, Lukor.”
Lukor shook his head. “There are things that need done, woman.”
“And they will get done in time,” replied Kadra.
The argument might have gone further had it not been for the arrival of one of Lukor’s lieutenants at the door.
“Captain, a detachment of Lord Malfacian’s men has arrived in the tunnel,” said the lieutenant, who seemed almost panicked.
“I was not expecting them for months,” said Lukor. “What is it that his merchants wish to trade this time?”
“No, you don’t understand,” said the lieutenant. “These are not merchants. They are warriors, at least a hundred of em. They wear the red uniform of his elite guards. They are demanding that we surrender up at least two dozen of the slaves to them.”
“Two dozen?” confirmed Lukor. “Never have they asked for so many. What do they offer us in return?”
“Nothing,” said the lieutenant.
“Not acceptable!” roared Lukor. “That is not going to happen!”
“They say they are required by the drells for some sort of game,” continued the lieutenant. “I really don’t understand. But they had a list of names. Some of them were the humans you took with you to the crystal cave. But there were two that they couldn’t find; Debbie Langmuir and David Tomlinson.” The lieutenant’s eyes scanned the room, looked to Debbie. “Oh my!”
The Realm of the Drells Page 27