Mother of Darkwaters: Book one of the Vessel series (56 page)

   “The God of Heaven didn’t tell Mary that her child would die when she became pregnant. He mentioned it cryptically.”

   “Oh,” Martha isn’t sure how to respond.

   Julianna stares blankly at the frying pan on the stove.

   “My baby’s father told me that my baby will die. And then he will rise again with the full power of his father.”

   “Oh my.”

   Julianna looks back down to the floor.

   “I don’t want my baby to die.”

   Martha gently squeezes Julianna’s hands. There isn’t anything she can really say to help bring her granddaughter comfort. Being the Mother of Darkwaters is, indeed, a heavy burden – even more so for a seventeen-year-old girl just beginning her life. As Martha struggles to come up with anything worthwhile, Julianna takes it upon herself to move the conversation forward.

   “When the demons are inside of me, I know their intentions in an instant concerning my baby. Some of them want me to die. They don’t agree with their master. My baby’s father uses my knowledge to weed out his subordinates.”

   Martha’s head retreats subtly.

   “You see him often?”

   “Just the one time. It’s my link to the Place of the Dead. That’s his domain. Soon as I know something about the demons from there, he knows it.”

   “Like telepathy?”

   “Kinda. But not really. It’s different than what you and I can do. I can’t really explain it.”

   Julianna pulls her hands away. “I guess it’s like talking without any words or body language – just being able to know something.”

   “I see. Sounds complicated. But I get what you’re trying to say.”

   “It is complicated.”

   “What about the conception thing? Do you have to…?”

   “No grams,” Julianna grins slightly embarrassed, “I don’t have to. It was never about demon sex. It’s not even possible on that level. Not only are we two separate species, we are bound by the laws of two separate realms. We are made alike in a sense. But that’s it. Demons can’t reproduce. And if they could, it would have to be with each other. Not with us. Birds can’t reproduce with fish to make catfish-blue jays. And demons can’t make demon-human babies. If they could, little demon babies would be running around everywhere because demons are extremely lustful.”

   Julianna pauses and lifts her left upper-lip slightly as though she were disgusted by something.

   “Don’t worry, dear. I’m trying to forget it, too. So it boils down to who you choose as a father then?”

   “Umm - yeah. The demons can pass through me like what was supposed to be happening upstairs. Only I haven’t figured out how to do it right. They’re lingering too long and I have to get their name to get rid of them. I am supposed to be a vessel. Or at least my womb is. But that’s not happening right now. And then there is…”

   Martha waits for her granddaughter to finish, but the words never come. Instead, her granddaughter looks away full of shame.

   “And then there is what?”

   “Never mind. It’s not important.”

   From what I see on your face, it
is
important.”

   Julianna struggles within herself to find the courage to say what has been bothering her most of all. She sits silently hoping her grams will let it go. To no avail, her grams sits as silent as she.

   “Fine,” Julianna gives in, “My womb is a stomping ground for demons and I am afraid I will lose my humanity. There. Happy?”

   “Is that what you’re worried about? Your humanity? Let me tell you something about what it means to be a vessel. A vase is a vessel. It can hold flowers, water, or pencils if you want it to. No matter what you stick into that vase, at the end of the day it is still a vase. It doesn’t change because you change the flowers within it. If you lose your humanity, you lose it because you want to lose it. Not because you change the flowers within. Demons or no demons, you are Julianna. And
that
can never change. Do you understand what I am saying or do I need to go on? Cause I can do this all day. This is my forte. I might not be able to pass a demon through me like the interstate, but I sure can call a duck a duck when I spot one.”

   Julianna shakes her head, “I got it, grams.”

   “You’re welcome. Now that you seem to be in such a revealing mood, why don’t you tell me what’s been going on with you and Lilith?”

   Julianna looks up with a disgusted glare, “She’s a liar
and
a perv.”

   “No red key then?”

   “Another lie from Lilith.”

   “What do you mean? The Collection has been passed down for generations upon generations.”

   “Not the Collection, grams. The keys that lock the Collection’s colors, they are the lie.”

   “They can’t be. They’re required to move throughout the Collection.”

   “Have you ever heard of anyone reading a red book?”

   “No.”

   “If no one has read one, then who has ever written in one?”

   Martha’s right hand covers her mouth, “It can’t be.”

   Julianna grins, “It’s not.”

   “Oh,” Martha lowers her hand, “Why would you say something like that?”

   Julianna laughs, “That’s for all the times you’ve been so mean to me.”

   “I was never
that
mean.”

   “Oh - yes you were,” Julianna counters playfully.

   “Okay,” Martha admits, “Maybe just a little.”

   “Maybe just a lot,” Julianna disagrees with a smile of her own.

   Martha gets up from the table, “We’re going out to eat. I think you need a break from playing with those lying demons. I see your humanity is starting to slip away.”

   Julianna’s jaw drops as she stands up.

   “Grams, that’s awful.”

   “Well dear, I reckon that puts me back on top now doesn’t it?”

   Julianna gives her grams a chastising stare.

   “After your shower we’ll get a bite to eat,” Martha informs, “I’ll clean up in here.”

   “Deal,” Julianna agrees with a single nod. She turns and heads towards her bedroom. As tired as she is, hunger drives her more. Another infamous morning with her grams at the I-hop sounds good. In fact, pancakes smothered in strawberries sound perfect right about now.

   Maybe, if she both feels up to it and her grams seems to be processing everything okay, she will divulge everything she knows about the red key. But as of now, the morning has bared plenty of chaos as it is. And as far as she is concerned, there
is
such a thing as too much.

   After her shower, Julianna gets dressed and heads upstairs to the library. She finds her grandmother standing over the scene of the crime with a spray bottle in hand. Martha squirts its contents onto the coffee stain.

   “Need any help?”

   “Just doing what the carpet cleaners told me to do before their arrival.”

   Julianna’s belly rumbles. Martha makes a final squirt and looks up at her approaching granddaughter.

   “I hate to do this to you, but I asked Frank to go get us something. The carpet cleaners are already on their way.”

   “No, that’s okay,” Julianna lies.

   “You could finish your story about the red key while we wait,” Martha gives the hungry teen an invite.

   Julianna nervously glances to her right.  

   “Why did you just look at the black door?”

   Julianna guiltily shifts her emerald eyes towards her grams.

    “Because.”

    “Because why?”, Martha entertains her granddaughter’s playful tone.

    Julianna pulls out the Lilith diamond from underneath her blue tee-shirt. She begins walking towards the forbidden door.

   “It’s probably better if I just show you.”

   “Show me what?”, Martha questions  as she begins following Julia.

   Julianna closes the distance between herself and the mysterious-looking door.

   “This,” the teen states right before using her right hand to push on a black square block at the door’s right perimeter. Its design sports a perfect square with an isosceles triangle within its center.  

   Next, Martha watches her granddaughter move to the door’s left side and push on another stone block. Its engravings are the exact opposite of the previous. In this case, a larger isosceles triangle houses a perfect square within its center.

   Julianna’s next move is towards a stone located next to the door’s upper right side. Martha quietly observes the teen reach up and push in a block with the same exact markings as the Lilith diamond. A small door within the door’s center slides upward.

   For her finale, Julianna slips the necklace carrying the Lilith diamond over her head. She removes the diamond and places it into the reserved slot within the open cubby hole. She takes a step back as the small door closes and hides the diamond. Sounds of stone and stone gears begin filling the room’s ambience.

   “You ever seen inside?”

   “No. No one has seen inside it since it was created,” Martha answers while her eyes remain glued to the door. The massive black stone moves outward roughly twelve inches before turning upward. Whenever it locks into place, the stone door acts as an overhang guiding its visitors into the open chamber beneath it. Julianna walks inside with Martha close behind.

   “It was really nasty in here the first time I come in,” Julianna explains. She points to a trough of sand lining the far wall, “That stuff was everywhere.”

   “It has been transported a few times,” Martha informs.

   “We are now standing inside,” Julianna proudly points out.

   “Yes, we are,” Martha agrees. The older woman feels a division within herself. On one hand, she has always wondered what it would be like to see inside. Now that she is here, she is able to enjoy the history of such an old place. On the other hand, however, she is extremely nervous about the stone altar shaped into a woman’s body in the center of the room.

   Julianna watches her grandmother’s blue eyes scan the trough underneath the altar.

   “Yeah, I had to clean that up and put fresh water in it.”

   Julianna, then, points to a stone tub against the left wall, “And that’s where the last part occurs.”

   “What last part,” Martha’s brows lift slightly, “What
is
this place exactly?”

   “The humanity thing,” Julianna answers. She points to a stone block above the tub. It extends outward from the rest of the wall.

   “The red key was in here all along.”

   Martha looks at the inscription below the protruded stone. The words are written in the language of Lilith:
Yhciéh ait oifébhn ait sleéhecbhnste
.

   The woman recites their meaning quietly, “House of abomination of desolations.”

Martha pauses with doubt. Her head retreats slightly.

   “Like the Hebrew texts?”, Martha relays her thoughts to her granddaughter.

   “Yeah,” Julianna agrees while reaching into her front right jeans pocket. She pulls out a red key and shows it to her grams, “Only,
I’m
the house…or my womb to be more precise.”

   Martha’s gaze returns to the stone altar. A sign of disgust covers her face.

   “Don’t worry grams, I’m still a virgin.”

   “Then what’s it for?”, Martha doubts her granddaughter’s words.

   Julianna points to an urn in the far back left corner of the room, “It has black sand in it.”

   “The part about Matt was true. But that’s where the information stopped. Lilith
did
lie to me about the red key. She made it sound like the key would just magically appear in my hand after I did what she told me to do. But he told me where it was and how to get it. Standing right next to Lilith, he gave me the knowledge as though I had always known it. And he was talking about something completely different with his mouth.”

   “He told…you mean…Oh….
him
.”

   Julianna nods. She points to the water underneath the altar, “That’s where the earring went. After I put it in, I had to use the water to wet my body.”

   Pointing at the trough against the far wall, Julianna continues, “That has white sand in it. Afterwards, I had to cover myself in that sand.”

   Julianna motions with her eyes over to the urn having black sand inside it. Her gaze, then, shifts towards the bottom of the altar where her legs would have been.

   Martha exhales a sigh of relief as she puts the equation together. The urn is designed to fit in the gap of the altar. Julianna’s legs would have been wrapped around the outside of it. When Martha first seen the large altar, however, she thought Lilith’s story was true. It sure did appear that way.

   “I moistened the white sand where my belly is and then covered it with the black sand.”

   Julianna stares for a minute before finishing her thought.

   “I had to lay there until it dried.”

   Julianna clears her throat as her eyes drifts towards the empty stone tub. She lingers with a solemn stare.

   “Are you okay?”

   Julianna shakes her head once as a tear finds its way down her left cheek.

   “It was full of clean water. I poured holy water from a church into it.”

   As Julianna stares blankly with eyes of sadness, Martha finds her own eyes beginning to water.

   Julianna turns her gaze towards the three large stones making up the staircase that leads into the tub. A second tear finds its way down her right cheek as she explains their meaning.

   “When I reached the top, I said, ‘God in Heaven, I stand before you now covered in the blood of an innocent – one who was yours. I took his life because he loved you...’”

   Tears find their home on Julianna’s face as they converge into a steady stream. She vaguely notices her grandmother’s sniffle in the background. 

    “…I raised my hands above my head as I stepped into the water blessed by his priests. I said, ‘As I wash this filthy blood from my body, so I wash my soul from all that you are, all that you love, and all that you call holy. My being – my entire being, I give freely to the one who will work tirelessly to see your destruction. Gariatu Estidium Merné.’”