Mother of Darkwaters: Book one of the Vessel series (15 page)

   Caroline laughs at the enormous height of her last thought's absurdity level. But as the raining water continues to rinse the lather from her body, her amusement washes away with it. A more realistic concept brings its heavy weight into her worrisome eyes.

  
You're a nut job, stupid. That's your answer. Plain and simple. You’re certifiable.

  
10:15 p.m.

   Victoria looks away from the clock as she folds the last of Caroline's bed linen. The girl's comforter, however, still hangs on the clothes line. Victoria's mouth tightens in anger.

  
See Michael. I told you there was a reason we would need the line. Getting you to put it up was like asking you to cut off your hand. Just like everything else. You never did anything without making a big fuss out of it. Except that whore you're with.

   The woman inhales deeply through her nostrils, pauses to hold her breath until it burns, and exhales. She shakes her head.

  
How dare you blame me for your infidelity? My fault lies in ignoring all of the warning signs posted right in my own home. My fault is convincing myself you would stop. Yes, Michael. I knew. It was our daughter who didn't know about her father's indiscretions. She worshiped you. And I thought you might love her enough to stop. But you don't.

   You crushed your little girl's heart. Her spirit is struggling and you just might have caused an avalanche of a break. You selfish bastard.

   Victoria looks around the area. She sees the sofa in the living room.  The woman finds the decorative pillows lying upon it and grabs one. She plants her face into it and lets out a long scream. When she releases her tension, Victoria replaces the pillow where she found it and picks up the bed linen she sat down. She heads upstairs and places the clean sheets and pillowcases into the linen closet. She shuts the door and walks back into Caroline's room.

   The woman scans the bedroom for any would be last minute chores. The mattress leans against the far wall next to the window across the room. It is drying nicely, but was rather stubborn about being cleaned in the first place. Victoria nods to a job well done, steps out into the hall, and pulls Caroline's door closed. She runs security checks through her mind. Able to recall double-checking the front and back door's locks and setting the house alarm, she walks over to the staircase and dims the hall's lighting with a dial attached to the wall.

   Victoria makes her way to her own bedroom. She spots Caroline sleeping where her dad used to. An empty Gatorade bottle sits upon the nightstand. The soup, however, is barely touched.

   Convinced her evening is finally over, Dr. Victoria Reynolds crawls underneath the covers next to her daughter. It doesn’t take long to join Caroline in rhythmic sleep. The two ladies sleep soundly throughout the night. No dreams. No nightmares. Just precious and valuable sleep.

   The next morning goes off without any major snags. Caroline threw up a small fight over seeing a 'head quack' as she so eloquently put it, but she agreed without too much fuss. Victoria attributes her daughter's agreeable nature to last night's fiasco. The poor child had a very rough day, to say the least.  Her daughter's objection mainly centered around seeing a man. And had Victoria been thinking a little more clearly, she would have thought of this obvious angle to begin with.

   Dr. Jason Evans, however, is one of the best in his field. Victoria has never had a single complaint filed against the man. It is a very strong mark in his favor. And one not many other psychiatrists can boast having themselves. But his best quality, according to Victoria, is that he genuinely cares about people. He cares for his patients.

   Dr. Evans isn't too proud to conference other doctors for their advice about a particular diagnosis and or treatment plan concerning his patients. And whenever one of his patients makes a successful step from doctor visits into living their own lives without treatment, Dr. Evans never brags about
his
accomplishment. It is always
their
accomplishment.

   The humble man takes his oath very seriously. It's not an empty mantra for a speech recital. Instead, it is the way Dr. Evans lives his life. As far as Victoria sees it, too many doctors under her authority are more about the money than the patient. But not Dr. Evans.

   In fact, not too long ago, Victoria was forced to reprimand the good doctor for a rumor that turned out to be true. Apparently, Dr. Evans had a few more patients who were unable to pay for their care than the institute allows. Regulations state that there can be no more than two indigent patients for any one doctor. The Human Development and Learning Institute reimburses each doctor accordingly.

   It wasn't like Dr. Evans was trying to charge HDLI for these extra patients. But rather, the man was paying for their care out of his own pocket. The other doctors who caught wind of his extra patients were unaware of this fact. They immediately gathered up a mini doctor-mob and basically stormed Victoria's office. The only things they were missing were their torches and pitchforks.

   As bad as Victoria didn't like it, they were right. Dr. Jason Evans was in breach of contract because of his heavy load. His jealous colleagues had them both in a corner. And there was nothing she could do about it. Except of course, Victoria had free reign with the punishment in this particular case. After all, none of Dr. Evan's actions fell under any requirements for suspensions, license revoking hearings, or an outright firing. So like a good little boss, Victoria called Dr. Evans into her office to punish him properly.

   She explained the situation to him. The man full of honesty and integrity admitted to everything. She had suspected he'd do this. And whenever he admitted that he'd keep doing it if he had to...well, she suspected that as well.

   When Victoria gave him the business card with the name of the charity she had created, she thought for a brief moment he was going to cry. And if the doctor-mob would have caught wind of a cry session, Victoria and Jason both would have probably been lynched in a dessert somewhere.

   With Michael removing himself from her life like he did and Caroline getting ready to go to Stanford University, Victoria was unable to put much into the donation pile. But after she made a few phone calls, the charity had received over one-hundred eighty- thousand dollars and was still counting whenever she handed him the card.

   Not only would this cover his current patients, but it would cover many more in the future. And with the character of Dr. Evan's heart, Victoria knew beyond any doubt that he would never misuse any of the funding.

   So yes, Victoria reprimanded Dr. Evans just like a good little boss. But no, she would not punish him as per mob rules. And there was absolutely nothing the lot of them could do about it either.

 
click.

   “Good morning clutz,” Rebecca Hindsworth greets her bff as she enters the car.

   Caroline fastens her seat belt, “Better.”

   “Any more Kruegar dreams?”, the curvy blond pries, “And don't lie to me.”

   “No, I slept really good,” Caroline spits out a half-truth.

   Rebecca scrutinizes her bff for any tell-tales of a fib, “Hmm. You're either being truthful or you've gotten better at lying.”

   “What's the latest on our target?”, Caroline changes the subject.

   Rebecca nods her head, “Lie.”

   “No, Becca. I really did sleep good last night,” Caroline defends.

   Rebecca smiles and winks her right eye, “I believe you. Just double-checking.”

   Caroline grins as she shakes her head. She pulls down the mirrored visor on the passenger side of Rebecca's blue Mustang. She fixes her long hair into a cute top-side pony tail while Rebecca puts the stick shift into first gear.

   “Let's go conquer the day,” the blond signals their departure as the rear tires chirp in response to her heavy use of accelerator pedal.

   Caroline enjoys listening to Becca ramble on about the latest information and steamy buzz of West Hills High. It takes her into a comfortable world of normalcy. A life in which she understands. A life that makes sense.

    She particularly enjoys hearing about David Snow's demands on wanting a date with their friend Tamara. The look on Tamara's face must have been priceless. And the fact that Tamara has a boyfriend really adds to the drama. But more importantly, her willingness to do so speaks highly of her devotion to the sisterhood of the S.V.C. Friends like her are hard to come by. This is why only four of them are considered a part of the inner-circle sisterhood. The rest of the sixteen are just Senior Varsity Cheerleaders.

   Whenever Caroline hears about a second target on the S.V.C. hit list, she is only slightly surprised to find out it is the girl in the older model brown truck – the same truck Rebecca nearly hit yesterday. And yes, it
was
Rebecca's fault. But there's no telling Rebecca Hindsworth anything of the sort.

   “Basically, Tamara gets to claim herself another submissive in exchange for the date with David Snow,” Rebecca proudly boasts about her planning skills.

   “The girl has no idea what she's in for,” Caroline states, “Tamara will make a point of humiliating her every day.”

   “And it serves the skank right for threatening me in front of Mr. Tolbert's class,” Rebecca responds venomously.

   Caroline wasn't there, so she's not going to try and judge the situation. But becoming a Tamara's Submissive is
not
a good thing. It's a punishment which spans over the entire school year. Regardless of any sympathy she may feel towards the doomed girl, Caroline will always support the sisterhood above all others. This was the point of their blood oath this past summer:

  
By our blood – We are bonded.

   For our bond – We now bleed.

   We will drink from each other's blood.

  
United together within The Sisterhood.

   This simple spell was mainly performed out of a fun curiosity. Some weird book Rebecca purchased online had the unification spell within its pages. But what seemed innocent enough, quickly became a little more serious when they had each other's bloody index fingers inside of their mouths. The four of them never talk about the events in detail. They each pretend nothing strange happened. But it did. And every one of them has been changed by it.

   Caroline knows for a fact her bff knew she had been lied to. It's part of the unification spell. It's how it works. But beyond this, Caroline has been experiencing strange dreams, violent fantasies, increasing sexual desires, and unexplainable physical strength. She isn't so sure the rest of them have been affected like this. Not like her.

   Instead, they all seem to be tip-toeing around her. Caroline doesn't like to see them this way. Even Rebecca has started showing signs of being afraid of her. And if there is any moment in her life in which she needs her friends, it is now. Especially, after her rotten father abandoned her and her mother.

   All of the girls – except Caroline – have been sexually active for quite a while now. Jennifer since her sophomore year, Rebecca since her junior year, and Tamara all the way back to the eighth grade. In fact, it is Tamara who has been the biggest influence and source of information for the rest of them. But not
that
night.

   The unification spell required some strange symbols on the floor marked out with chalk. Some candles were lit and an odd concoction was burned. It was made from some sort of herbal mixture that Caroline still doesn’t understand.

   The girls had to stand naked around a circle with the symbols made of chalk. Not a really big deal for them. Cheerleaders change clothes and take showers around each other all the time. They've even been known to help each other out with waxing sometimes. But none of it is ever sexual. It's all business…cheerleader business.

   They all like boys. Even 'The Last Virgin' , Caroline, as her friends have aliased her. That's not the issue. Never has been. Never will be. But the oddity of that night is the issue. None of them is able to explain exactly what happened. And none of them really care to. They'd just soon forget about it. But they can't. It's too traumatic to forget – too confusing to understand. So they have agreed not to speak on it…
ever
.

   Rebecca went first since the crazy idea was all hers to begin with. She made a cut with the ceremonial dagger required by the book. As her right index finger bled, she was to write her initials on any part of the body she freely chose. No hints or clues. Just wing it. Or as the book more specifically indicated, 'By your heart you shall choose.' And that's what Rebecca did.

   “Across your heart because we love as one,” Rebecca spoke each time while her bloody initials painted each girl's upper left chest.

   Tamara went next, “Across your belly because our soul is one.”

   Then Jennifer, “Across your lips because our breath is one.”

   Finally, Caroline painted her initials, “Across your forehead because we think as one.”

   Unfortunately, the girls misjudged the amount of blood required for such a thing as this. They each had to cut themselves in the same wound. Why, Caroline still doesn't know. But that's what Rebecca said had to be done. And the second cut had a much sharper sting to it. In fact, it hurt like hell.

   After they painted each other, it was time to step inside the circle and finish the ceremony. They recite their oath and began with the tasting of each other's blood via a dripping index finger inside of someone's mouth. Caroline's legs began trembling with heat and excitement – as did the rest of the girls. Whenever they finished, they stood there holding hands…bloody hands which started exploring. And for the next two hours, the girls did things they will never speak about to anyone at any time. Not even to each other. Not now. Not ever.