by Merry Brown
I rolled over to drink in her presence, to try to commit her face to memory. Her eyes were still closed and her façade was gone. She, the loveliest creature on planet earth, was lying in my best friend’s sister’s bed, listening to Beethoven’s 9th with me.
Though the room was lit by a small table lamp, the bed glowed from the sun radiating off her skin, her silky hair and now her moonbeam eyes that were open and looking into my soul.
She eased herself up into a sitting position. “That was absolutely incredible. What an amazing Christmas Day.”
“Yeah. The best.”
“My best too,” she said and blushed.
“It’s time, isn’t it?” I said as I sat up and ran my fingers through her hair.
She turned towards me and gently took my hand, kissed it, and then the other one, kissing it front and back. She scooted closer. “I’ve got to go. I’ll be back in about a week.”
“I’ll miss you, of course. Please, though, enjoy your time there, with them.”
“You are so sweet to me.” She scooted even closer, now with a calculating look in her eye. “You know, since I’m traveling via transportation anyway, why don’t you do the honors?”
“What?”
“Kiss me.”
She was serious. I didn’t want her to go, but if she must, why not send her off with a kiss. As I leaned in to say goodbye I asked breathlessly, “This won’t hurt you, right?”
“Not much,” she whispered back.
Not much? I snapped my head back. “Lizzy, will this hurt you?” I asked with more sharpness than intended.
“Just a little, but I think it’s worth it,” she said, still whispering.
“I disagree. I won’t, I can’t hurt you intentionally. Remember what we agreed to?”
“Will, it’s not that big of a deal. Really.”
“It is to me.” I wasn’t going to change my mind. She wouldn’t leave me worse for wear.
She sat back. “Okay then, sweetness. Someday we’ll figure it out, and then I won’t let you off so easily.”
If that ever happens; and another rung of paradise opened in my mind. “I’ll see you soon, Lizzy.”
“Soon.”
She got off the bed and stood in the middle of the bedroom. She put her hands together, as if she was about to pray, shutting her eyes.
As I expected her to disappear she said, “Oh, I almost forgot. Have you been home?”
“Not since you left.”
“Good. Please don’t go there. I’ll explain later. Don’t go, okay?”
“Okay,” I agreed, puzzled
“And I’ll explain. I should know more when I’m back. Don’t make any plans for New Year’s Eve, okay? I plan to spend it with you.”
“Great!”
And on that note she put her hands together again, closed her eyes, and was gone instantly.
Chapter Twenty-Four: ‘Father’
It was December 30th and nearly closing time at work. I was in the back, getting the vacuum cleaner out, when I heard the front door bell chime. I came out of the storeroom expecting to see the last customer of the day.
He was standing at the counter. He hadn’t been here before, as far as I knew.
His back was to me, and I walked towards him, wanting to escape but knowing he wouldn’t be eluded. He turned around and my blood chilled. He just stood there, almost smiling.
“You’re back early,” I said, trying to be civil, trying my best to hide my sudden terror at his appearance.
“I missed you, son. I’ve been away too long,” he said as he tried to look concerned and interested in me.
He was waiting for me to respond. Did he really expect me to say yeah dad, I’ve missed you too?
“So you’re back,” I said, feeling uncomfortable in my skin.
“Yes, son. I arrived a few days ago. Where have you been?”
Why he asked escaped me. He knew, like he happened to know everything I did. I knew he periodically had me followed, but I sometimes wondered if I was bugged too.
“You know I’ve been staying at the Richardsons’,” I responded, not doing a great job of holding back my hatred. Calm down, don’t give him the satisfaction.
“And I see you plan to stay there for a while? In that case, I think I’ll pay them a visit tomorrow to thank them for their generosity.” No smile, no smirk. He didn’t need to show he had me.
“That’s not necessary. I’ll be home later on tonight.”
What a complete jerk! You’d think he’d be grateful the Richardsons gave me a place to stay and adult supervision. Yeah – only in a world where my father was halfway normal and not a total scumbag.
“See you soon, son. Don’t be too late. Maybe in the morning we can plan a trip together, just the two of us,” he said as he walked out the door.
Was he on drugs? What game was he playing?
I knew Lizzy asked me to stay away, but she didn’t know the Richardsons were now in danger. I’d pick up my stuff and go back home. I had no other option.
I went in the back to get the vacuum cleaner when I heard the bell again.
What did he want now? Was he going to make me leave with him? I was seized with the panic he meant to take me away against my will. That my time of playing the fence, trying to blend in and go unnoticed was over. Maybe I was over.
I contemplated bolting out the back, but decided to face my nemesis.
Braced for his wrath, and my fate, I walked confidently back to the showroom floor. I would keep my cool. I would keep my anger and loathing to myself.
I expected him to be staring me down from the counter, but instead of evil, Lizzy was standing there, smiling at first.
“Stop!” she called out when I entered the room.
What? Was she in trouble? Did she see something I couldn’t? Was he here too?
My insides were a mess. I was happy to see her and sick with nerves for our safety.
She found a chair, put her head between her knees and began to hum. The tune turned soothing, very high and soft, sweet and calm. My father not in sight; seeing her and hearing her music brought me back to myself.
My adrenaline switched to its resting state as my heart found its steady rhythm again.
I stood in the doorway of the stockroom until her song finished. I wanted to go to her, to hold her and comfort her. Instead, she stood up and said clearly with authority, “Peace.”
And then I knew what happened. It was me, stupid me. She came home early and expected to find the me she knew, the kinder, gentler, less angry Will. What she got was the Will of boiling anger and hate.
Her guard was probably down, and so I basically attacked her with all the hideous thoughts I have of my father.
This realization sent me into self-loathing mode, which was incredibly counter-productive. I put my head down, closed my eyes, trying to get a hold of myself.
I didn’t hear her walk across the floor, but before she touched me, running her fingers down my back, I smelled her clean orange-blossom scent.
“Will, what is it? What’s wrong?”
I looked into her caring eyes and was at a loss. If I told her the truth, she’d make me promise to not go home. If I didn’t go home tonight, he’d follow through on his promise and visit the Richardsons. And I could not allow that. I would not allow that.
But could I lie to her? I mean, wouldn’t she know if I tried anyway?
“It’s my father. I was thinking about him.” This was true, in a way. Just not the whole truth.
“I’m sorry. Do you want to talk about it?”
“Not really.”
I wanted to lighten the mood, steer the conversation away from this land mine. “Hey, you’re back early. What a pleasant surprise.” My pleasure was still tainted with the stress of my father’s arrival. My mouth still tasted bitter. She knew something was off.
“Yep, and I came right over to see you. Hope that was alright.”
“Of course. The day I’m not thrilled to
see you is the day I die. Did you have a nice time?”
“I guess you could say that.”
“What did you do?” In my mind I guess I thought she was at some kind of fancy spa. I knew that wasn’t really what she was up to, but I had no base for comparison.
“Well, I slept a lot, and got loads of advice. In fact, are you almost done here?”
“Yeah. I just need to finish-up and we can go.”
“Great. I’m starving. If you don’t have any plans, mind if we grab something to eat then head back to my place?”
“Sounds great to me. Should we take both cars, or do you want me to drive?”
“I don’t have my car with me.” She saw the direction of my mind and rolled her eyes. “No, I don’t just go popping in and out of places – it’s a little more complicated than that, the bending of space and all. My brother dropped me off on the way to the grocery store. We were out of milk.”
Her causal combination of the mundane and supernatural always threw me for a loop. She was flesh and blood and a superhero. I could get my mind around the flesh part or the uber part, but not the mix.
She helped me close up the shop and we went for pizza. She wasn’t kidding, she was hungry. I’d never seen her eat so much in one sitting.
“So, what’d you talk about, what kinds of advice did you get?”
“I met up with a few of my sisters I hadn’t seen in a while.”
I wondered what “a while” meant to her. “And how are they?”
She laughed and said, “Just fine. Thank you for asking.”
“So . . . do you feel like sharing more about your time there?” I knew she wanted to talk to me about it, so why did it feel like I was pulling teeth?
“Not here. Let’s go back to my place.”
The mood between us was still playful, but I could feel the tension rising in her. Her carefree actions were just surface, show. Something was brewing beneath that would pull me down. She had something awful to tell me.
I didn’t want to hear it, didn’t want to know. But it wasn’t in my nature to run. I was not a runner, though I wish I were tonight—first from my father and now from this threat she carried in her heart.
We listened to music on the way to her place. Silence between us. Too much silence.
“We’re here,” I said as I turned off the car.
More silence.
“You can tell me now, whatever it is.” I turned to her, trying to see what was coming.
Tears were streaming down her face. “We had a council meeting while I was there.”
“And they said we couldn’t be together,” I growled. I knew it.
The heat from my anger started fogging the windows.
“No, nothing like that. They would never do that. Counsels are not for that purpose. I’m getting off the point.” Her tears were beginning to dry up.
I felt a sense of profound relief. Whatever was wrong, then, could be faced and dealt with, together. My relief only served to renew her tears.
“What’s wrong, Lizzy? Don’t worry, we’ll face it together.”
“No we won’t. You’ll, you’ll hate me.”
“What? Don’t you ever say that, Lizzy.” There was nothing in this world, or out of it, that could bring that state of affairs about.
“I’m so sorry, Will, more than you know. It breaks my heart, you have no idea. We can’t be together.”
“Enough! I will not go through this again, Lizzy. You and I, we are together. Period. Now out with it. What’s going on?”
“It’s too much, too much. How can you stand me after you know?” Her face melted my rising frustration. She was shaking.
I could tell she wasn’t going to tell me easily, though she would tell.
“Let me make this as easy on you as possible,” I said, wanting desperately to take away her pain. “Does this have to do with what happened at the council?”
Her eyes red, still shining with the grace of countless stars, looked up to mine, searching for something in them.
“The council confirmed what I already knew. Though we don’t like to stray from our primary purpose, we do not look away from the wraiths when they flaunt their poison, especially when we find one of their nests.”
“So what does that mean? Do you have to go away and fight or something?” I was trying to understand her angst. She had already told me she fought sometimes. And why would this cause me to hate her?
“You don’t understand. You don’t see. I told you not to go back to your house for a reason, for the same reason I wouldn’t go there again, alone. I had to talk to my brothers and sisters to make certain. The reinforcements are on their way, and many are here already.”
Her eyes swept her driveway and street. When we pulled up I was lost in thought and didn’t notice all the cars.
“We are going to plan tonight and fight tomorrow or the next, when the rest come.”
“What are you fighting? It sounds unusual.”
“It is. Only on rare occasion do we come across a nest so large and organized. Someone very old must be in control, old and powerful. Typically we uncover a group of five, even ten. They are easily dealt with. This will not be so easy.”
Her tears were done; she was in serious mode.
We got out of the car and walked toward her house. Before we got to the front door she stopped and turned to me. Her face became bleak. “I have a lot to tell you, explain. I must talk to you, tell you about the creature you call ‘father.’”
Chapter Twenty-Five: Wraiths
My father. He was the source of evil and angst in my world. We had no houseplants after the crash because, I concluded, his very existence was toxic, and all living things knew it – and few could survive in his presence.
I survived, but just barely. In the beginning, when my mom and sister died, I looked to him for comfort. I looked to my dad to tell me life goes on, that my mom and sister would want me to carry on. I looked to him to figure out how to deal with the loss of so much love. I was looking in the wrong place.
It was as if he never knew or cared for his own wife and daughter. Maybe he’s in denial, I told myself. I kept waiting for my dad to come back to life, to deal with the unimaginable. If he couldn’t do it for himself, surely he was enough of an adult to do it for his two surviving sons? Apparently not.
The day my brother was buried was the last day I called him dad. It was then I witnessed what I have come to expect, his total and complete loss of humanity.
Matthew was dead. The funeral was horrible. How could anyone verbalize this tragedy? How could my big brother be summed up in words?
On the way to the gravesite, as our limo followed the casket, my father looked over at me. He saw the tears streaming down my face and said, “Oh please. Be a man. Don’t you dare embarrass me.”
We arrived at the cemetery; he threw me a disgusted look and said, “I mean it. Here, drink yourself sober.” He threw me a bottle of vodka and out he went.
That day I officially buried my dad when they lowered Matthew into the ground.
As Lizzy walked me into her house, I noticed the numbers of visiting siblings had swelled to at least 20.
She sat on the couch and pulled me down beside her. My mind felt hazy, like it feels when I wake in the morning and try to put the pieces of a dream together.
Her sisters and brothers filed in, taking spots on the floor once the furniture was full. The ones I’d never seen before eyed me with open curiosity.
That was such a weird thing about her family. Just looking at them made you want to open up, as if they were your sweet old Aunt and you were standing in her kitchen eating homemade cookies.
Lizzy took my hand and began to trace the lines and imperfections. Then she began, slowly.
“Will, you know a lot of our story, and I know you’re aware there’s much you don’t know.”
I nodded my head.
She looked to her sister Eva with pleading eyes. Eva got up from her chair and st
ood by the fireplace. “Welcome Will, it’s been a while since I’ve seen you.”
“Hey,” I said back, seeing the story would be coming from her.
“My sister told you our primary mission and also of our encounters with the vile. She told you we fight these creatures, the wraiths. Well, “fight” is not the best word because it’s never been a contest, ever.
“You see, the wraiths are evil, horrid creatures that prey on the weakness of the Knowers. They encourage dissent and all forms of wickedness. Because of their own wickedness, they can’t live in communities of their own.
“Since the beginning we’ve encountered the wraiths one-on-one. We’d come across one feeding on the poor soul of a Knower and cast it back. For the longest time these wraiths were invisible to the humans they’d attack.
“A while ago an old wraith that’s long eluded us developed the technique of reanimating fresh corpses. Once a Knower was dead, it was able to take control of the body and insert itself in the Knowers’ life.
“You can only imagine the kind of havoc that brought. Many times the family and friends had no idea their loved one had been in a fatal – near fatal from their perspective – accident, or if they had been nursing a dying loved one, they rejoiced at the full and unexpected recovery – at first. When the person arose from what was their deathbed, they were totally different—all goodness drained from them, only evil remaining.
“The wraiths found it inconvenient to deal with the shock and disappointment of the families and communities into which they now found themselves, so they often opted to reanimate the newly dead who here homeless or so far from home that no one knew them.
“They can’t stay in the bodies infinitely because the bodies don’t appear to age but they eventually decay internally, forcing the wraith out. If they stayed in one place too long, people would begin to notice that their face didn’t change, hair never grew, and so on.
“Once they became embodied, they wormed their way into the Knowers’ civilization like never before. We began to encounter more and more of them, some even banded together to accomplish their goal. But, it wasn’t until the 20th century that the biggest change occurred.