Authors: Thomas McDermott
“Oh no! Not again!” She said aloud to no one as the memory of the swarming wings attacking her just yesterday. Another bird joined in the haunting song and then another. Soon the whole flock was screaming at her or so it seemed. She could feel their eyes on her hair and remembered once someone told her that crows were attracted to bright shiny things. She hurried past them when she heard an enormous rumbling that stopped her in her tracks. The flock left the trees en masse and flew over her head and up into the darkening sky. It was an omen. Something dark and dangerous was coming and she thought of the man on the stairs. Soon enough she was inside the warm soft café and sat at the bar with her coffee clutched in both hands. The French voices around her made her feel safe and happy. For a moment everything was perfect except for one thing. She was alone. She had never before in her life experienced this feeling of being utterly alone in the world and it was new and paralyzing and completely unfamiliar. She didn’t know if she should cry or hoist her shoulders back and be stoic about the whole thing. She realized now that until she met Taylor that loneliness had been her constant companion and friend and she never had the chance to compare it to anyone or anything until now. All her life she wanted to live in Paris and show her family and friends that she had made her way in this tough and relentless world. She left her entire life behind her and now suddenly she had an overwhelming desire to share all of this with people she never once considered writing to or speaking to again. Of course she really wanted to share this old beauty with her mother but it was too late for that. Her mother would never know that her only daughter had made her dreams a reality and was suffering the most intense feeling of isolation because of it. She would appreciate the world Sasha moved in but she would have never felt comfortable here and would find herself aching to get back to the white picket fences and the Fourth of July picnics and the endless chores that waited for her at home. She would smile and tell her that she was so happy for Sasha and then return to her dull ordered life and wish the best for her daughter. Her friends would tell her how wonderful it was that she had made such a success at her life while secretly harboring jealousy as their own children had never amounted to much. Sasha sighed and finished her coffee. She was done with the daydreams of Paris with mother. This was reality and she would have to carve out her own happiness. Only now she knew where to begin to find such a thing and she had only one thought now and that was to get to Taylor. It was now dark and a storm was brewing but the darkness seemed to have left her mind. Too much had been happening lately and she felt that her dizziness may have been the beginning of an anxiety attack. She had never had one before but could imagine that this is what it felt like. She was so lost in her thoughts she continued down the wrong road for quite some time and she was pushed into a narrow little walk too close to the river with cars rushing insanely close to her.
“Damn!” She cursed out loud. She had to get back to the hotel with Taylor’s things. He would start to worry about her and leave the safety of the small room to come find her. She couldn’t allow that to happen. She heard thunder and saw a sign up ahead for a pedestrian tunnel that would get her out of this traffic and back in the right direction. “Great!” She said to herself and continued walking. The car fumes were beginning to get to her and though she was no fan of these creepy little tunnels she preferred that to the exhaust and the noise and it looked like it was going to rain any second. She entered the doorway to the tunnel and traipsed down the steps quickly like a ballerina and hummed a cheerful song as she went. Thank God the tunnel as well lit with flourescent bulbs running the length of the claustorphobic tube. It was long and there was no one in it except for herself and she felt good. Almost there. Yes, she could see the doorway at the end. She placed her foot on the first step and froze. Coming down the concrete stairs were three young men dressed all in black. Probably some techno punk kids going to a party and she forced herself to smile. She made eye contact with the first one. He had black eyes without any semblence of a soul. She wanted to scream or run back but instead she remained frozen until he smiled at her and muttered:
“Excusez moi.”
She smiled back at him but the moment he spoke she could hear the intention in his voice. This is what the birds were warning her about. This was the danger at hand. The birds had been screaming;”Go back! Go back!” only she had been too self absorbed to hear it. It was too late now for she had ignored the warnings to go back to the garden where she would have been safe. She took a deep breath and allowed the men to pass. But they did not pass. The first one was the tallest with sallow yellow skin and those black eyes. The other two looked like brothers with dark skin and olive green eyes. They would have been good looking if they cleaned themselves up a bit and took out half a dozen of the peircings all over their faces. Maybe they were in a band but deep inside she knew they were not. She turned to go and breathed a sigh of relief as her toe reached the first step. And then it happened. A hand reached out and grabbed her hair pulling her backwards. Sasha screamed. She couldn’t help it and the scream echoed down the long corridor. For a moment the lights flickered as if responding to the distress filling the tunnel. Sasha was pulled backwards and then without warning the hand flung her around and smashed her head against the dirty tile. Sasha saw darkness and then a white light and then nothing. Her body slumped to the ground but she was not there at all. A light flickered and Sasha strained to see a candle burning on the ground before her. A vision? No, this was too real to be a dream. She could feel the dirt floor with her bare feet and she could see the figure of the samurai before her. The sword in her hand glimmered with the light of the flame. Sasha screamed again knowing what she had to do and with a leap she cut the candle flame off the wick plunging her and her opponent into obscurity. Then she snapped his neck quickly and with a sense of pride and pierced his heart with her sword. Suddenly she was back in the tunnel and her eyes opened to see the tall one hovering over her body. Her shirt had been torn open but her bra was still in place. He was prying her legs open trying to remove her panties. She looked at him and smiled. She knew what she had to do. She screamed again but this time it wasn’t in fear or anger but avarice. The scream raced down the tube and as it did the lights extinguished themselves one by one until they were surrounded by blackness.
“This is gonna be easy.” Sasha laughed in the creep’s face. She slid out from underneath the startled boy with ease and her spiky heel found his temple with no problem. She could practically see the outline of his face just from the sound of his labored breathing. She suddenly remembered the words of her beloved teacher.
“Closer your eyes and you will see.” And she did see. The heel did it’s work temporarily paralyzing him. He groaned like a wounded animal and that is exactly what he was at the moment. She listened for the other two and realized she was more excited and alive than she had felt ever since her mother died. She was enjoying this! Right behind her. She spun around without effort and kicked the first one in the head. As her foot came down she took her fist and jammed it between the legs of the other boy.
“Fuck! What the fuck lady?” They definitely weren’t French. He had a slight English accent and Sasha reached for the voice and her fingers clasped around the skinny throat squeezing his Adam’s apple just so and as she secured her grip with her right hand her left leg found the guy on the ground who was grabbing his head. Her heel targeted his eardrum this time and insinuated itself with speed and precision. He had no idea what was happening to him only that his ear hurt more than anything he had ever felt before in his short rebellious life.
“One move asshole and I shatter your eardrum. Got it?” She was enjoying her new found power and it felt as if all the hatred and rage accumulated over a lifetime of playing the good girl had finally found an outlet. Then without warning she felt incredibly weak as if all her energy had been sucked out of her. She threw the last man standing into the wall smashing the back of his head into the same tile which had moments ago caused her to blackout. She ran up the stairs while buttoning her blouse. It’s funny the things one does in a crisis. She smoothed her hair and made herself presentable again. Her legs were becoming heavy and her vision started to blur.
“You’ve got to be kidding….” She felt an overwhelming desire to lay down there on the sidewalk. She remembered her teacher again.
“Fall down six times stand up seven.” His kind eyes peering out at her through the depths of his wise soul. Oh how she had loved her teacher! She began remembering other things as well. The monastery on the mountainside. The other samurai she had trained with. The endless hours of meditating on cold stone floors ignoring the searing pain that ran through her tired body. Mind over matter. The hunger and the gratitude of a small bowl of rice at the end of the day filled with training and more training came back to her with startling clarity. It was all there like a missing piece of her mind. It swirled about her threatening to devour her. She looked up and tried to focus her eyes on something.
“What’s happening to me?” She whispered. Was this the beginning of madness maybe inherited from her mother? Darkness was rapid in it’s approach. The last thing she remembered was the man in black. The man on the stairs with the expensive clothing was supporting her as she was sinking away into oblivion. He was telling her something but she was far too gone to grasp it’s meaning. His lips were moving and sounds were coming out but they meant nothing to her.
“It’s alright Sasha. I know what’s happenign to you and you are going to be just fine.” He said this in a flat comforting voice. It caused Sasha to smile and before her eyes closed their heavy lids she looked at him for a brief moment of sanity and she whispered.
“I knew it was you.” With that she was gone.
“Of course you did darling.” His hand brushed the hair out of her face and he scooped her up gracefully and placed her into the back of his car while ignoring the look of shock on the driver’s face. “Take us home.” Was all he said to the chauffer who had recovered his standing and muttered professionally.
“Right away sir.” He closed the door on the unconscious woman in the back seat and jumped into the driver’s seat to whisk them off into the cool, damp Parisian night.
MOTHER OF GODS
Ellen stared out of the window of her pretty room in Orleans. She knew that Celine would be coming back from Paris soon and she hoped that she was bringing good news with her. She understood that Celine was protecting her. She’d already been absconded once and they couldn’t take the chance of that happening a second time. Celine had told her awful stories of corporate intrigue and dangerous happening to the most innocent of people Ellen shrank away in horror thinking that she had barely escaped such a sinister ending herself. She even understood why Celine didn’t tell her that she was transporting her to the country out of harm’s way. The less Ellen knew the better off everyone would be at least that is what they all kept telling her. Celine had been overly generous financially over the whole escapade as long as Ellen signed the confidentiality papers she was pretty much on her way to being wealthy. She was flustered at the amount that Celine threw carelessly into her checking account just for being so patient and good natured about the whole thing. The isolation was beginning to be more than just an inconvenience and Ellen found herself dreaming of her tacky lovely little apartment filled with all her sentimental knick knacks. She knew her few friends would begin to miss her and the other people in the aparment building would surely wonder how such a quiet and responsible woman could just disappear overnight. Also she was bored. She was used to doing a million things at Celgen and now there was nothing for her to do except read and watch television and eat the fattening meals made by the insipid Sophie. Ellen knew that Sophie spoke English as she heard her talking to Celine the other day though she always pretended she didn’t know a word of her language whenever she had any contact with Ellen. It was maddening. She couldn’t tell on her to Celine without sounding petty and ungrateful and she knew that Celine liked this peasant enormously. She trusted the care of this fabulous house to the fat middle aged woman and that had to mean something. She looked out the window and watched the sun setting across the rolling countryside. Soon it would be dark and she would hear the strange sounds coming from the woods nearby. They were awful cries and when she asked about them she was told that it was a deer or moose in their mating rituals. She had never heard of such a thing and had always been a city girl, knowing nothing of the country. The sounds frightened her every night. It sounded like someone crying out in angst and terror and loneliness. It was the most awful sound she had ever heard. She couldn’t sleep until the cries faded away into the morning light and she began to take long naps during the day to catch up on her sleep and help make the time pass more quickly. Celine had given her full access to the lab and at first it was fun to go down to the fabled laboratories and observe all the serious and efficient workers creating the new products. But after a day or two of that she started to feel like she was just an unwelcome intruder in the way. She really hoped Celine would let her go back to Paris tonight but she had been warned that they might have to wait until the launch of the new product. That thought she could not bear and she would have to transfer some of her work out here before she went mad. She sat there watching the sun set hoping that something would happen; anything at all.
She didn’t have to wait too long. Sophie came in to announce dinner in the dining room and Ellen had to admit that she was hungry. It must be the country air that was making her appetite grow as she had accepted every rich meal that the maid brought to her. She had never eaten so well in her life and she knew she would have to start exercising or she might lose her little figure of which she was so fond. She wasn’t pretty but she was skinny and in Paris that counted for something. She followed Sophie down the noisy old stairs into the formal dining room. The long table was set lavishly with two large candlestichks on each end brigning a sumptuous light to the room. Celine was seated at the head of the table dressed in a gray dress of the simplest of cuts. Like everything she wore it was perfect for her body and accented her fine curves. Her hair was gathered low in a ponytail with loose strands floating about her head like a shimmery halo. Celine smiled as Ellen sat down at the opposite side of the table.