Mother of Darkwaters: Book one of the Vessel series (63 page)

   “Are you addressing me, child?”

   Julianna lowers her hand and turns around to face Lilith.

   “I never knew the circle around the family’s insignia was made up of two lines,” Julianna responds by parrying the woman’s less than loving tone.

   “At least your eyes can see outside things,” Lilith hatefully answers.

   “Please don’t take this the wrong way…”

   “Stop, child. Every time I hear those words something hurtful always follows. I am in no mood.”

   “Give me your hand,” Lilith orders with a much more bridled tone.

    Julianna briefly pauses before giving up her right hand to accept the seemingly bi-polar woman’s offer. She doesn’t do it out of fear. She does it because Lilith has made the order in a non-threatening manner. It is obvious that the woman before her as no intentions of physically lashing out against her. And if she were, it’s not like Julianna could actually stop her.

   “Close your eyes and imagine the place where you appeared the very first time you arrived here,” Lilith instructs.

   Julianna closes her eyes. Soon as her mind finds the exact location, she nods. A moment later, she opens her eyes with a grunting sound. Her belly sinks while her heart races. Her vision sees only the distortions of bended space and time. Fear wells up within her. Then, in the next instant, the madness stops. She immediately lets go of Lilith and staggers backwards.

   “I was in no mood to walk,” Lilith explains as if it is no big deal. She looks at the wall and fixates her stare. She begins walking.

   “What was that?”, Julianna complains loudly while trying to catch her breath, “What just happened?”

   “You used the physics of this realm to change your location,” Lilith answers as if she is bored with the concept, “Now stop being a child and come over here.”

   “You could have warned me,” Julianna complains while glancing around the area. She easily recognizes the spot as the exact location she had just held within her mind’s eye. 

   “This way is faster.”

   “Besides,” Lilith continues, “You expected a trick. Did you not?”

   Julianna glares at Lilith’s backside, “Have I ever told you how much of a bitch you can be sometimes?”

   Lilith grins.

   Julianna walks the twenty foot distance to where Lilith stands. She crosses her arms while staring at the wall.

   “This is your grams,” Lilith explains while staring at the family’s emblem carved into the wall.

   “So what?”

   Lilith takes a quick step back, reaches out with her right hand, and shoves Julianna forward.

   “Take a closer look.”

   Whenever Julianna regains control over her forward momentum, she whirls around and glares menacingly at Lilith. Lilith raises her brows questioningly.

   “You suck,” Julianna answers the woman’s challenging stare by turning around and walking up to the wall. Again, Lilith grins.

     As Julianna forces her concentration upon the task at hand, she sees something peculiar. She reaches out with her left hand and traces her fingers over the outside circle of the family insignia.

   “The rings are further apart,” Julianna remarks quietly.

   “They are.”

   “But why?”

   “They represent the distance between the two realms,” Lilith answers while watching Julianna trace her fingers over the family’s markings.

   Julianna lowers her hand and turns around with a confused expression upon her face. Lilith turns to her right and begins walking towards the direction of her rock. She continues her explanation as Julianna silently begins following.

   “The first one you seen was Martha’s great, great, great, great,
great
grandmother. From the former to Martha, seven generations have passed – nearly five-hundred years and still counting. Martha’s lines are further apart because she struggles to traverse these two realms. So it is true of many from my bloodline. For Martha, it is too dangerous to come here. She runs a high risk of becoming trapped here while her physical body still lives.”

   Lilith pauses with her communication while changing directions and heading closer to the wall. She reaches up and touches another family emblem engraved into to the wall’s surface.

   “I believe they call that sort of thing a coma, if I am correct.”

   “That’s terrible,” Julianna responds, “Is that why grams refuses to come here?”

   Lilith lowers her hand and turns around. She steps away from the wall and heads towards her rock.

   “It is,” Lilith answers sadly.

   Lilith points behind herself while continuing her journey. She points at the wall where she was just standing.

   “That would be your mother, Theresa.”

   “My mom?”, Julianna answers with a bit of excitement. She walks over to the wall and immediately runs her fingers around the outside circle. The lines are closer than the first insignia she examined. She smiles.

   Her eyes are, then, drawn to a triangle within the family’s emblem. It, too, is surrounded by a circle. Only this circle is made up of three lines of curvature. There is some difference, however, from this one and the two she has already examined. The inner circle is wavy – not a perfect circle like the other ones she has seen.

   “What’s the triangle mean?”

   Lilith turns and sits with her legs crossed upon her rock. She glances to where Julianna’s fingers are now tracing over the triangle.

   “It has many meanings, but mainly it refers to direct generational connections. The outer circle would be Martha, the middle – Theresa, and the inner one is you. The spaces in between are your connections to one another.”

   Julianna saddens as she sees the larger gap between her mother and herself versus her grandmother and her mom. She fights back her torn emotions by focusing in on the circle representing her.

   “Why is mine all wavy?”, Julianna questions.

   “It has always represented someone who will split prophecy.”

   Julianna turns around with curious eyes.

   “I thought mom…”

   “Theresa tried,” Lilith quickly interrupts, “But she was not successful. The wall does not reflect what could be. If reflects what has been and what will be.”

   “So
I
will split the prophecy?”

   Lilith shakes her head with a smile.

   “Wait,” Julianna responds with her head retreating, “I don’t get it. I’m confused.”

   Lilith turns to her right and points at the wall, “That is you. Go and take a look.”

   Julianna walks towards the direction given. She stops about ten feet past Lilith’s favorite rock and examines the wall. The circles surrounding her personal insignia are made up of wavy lines. She can’t see any separation among them. Reaching up to verify what her eyes are telling her, Julianna is unable to feel anything, but one thick wavy line.

   “How can this be? I don’t understand.”

   “I had trouble with it, also,” Lilith confesses, “But today, you explained it clearly.”

   Julianna turns her attention onto Lilith.

   “That doesn’t make any sense. I don’t remember explaining anything. I don’t even know what I’m looking at.”

   Lilith smiles before giving her answer, “You came here without the need of drink or death.”

   “So…”

   “So, my dear child, there is no separation between the realms for you. This means the only danger you can incur is brought on by your own actions. What you do in one place or the other will have the consequences of what may or may not happen to you. But traversing, itself, holds no power over you. Do you understand?”

   “Not really, but kinda. I guess.”

   “I have seen every generation from my bloodline,” Lilith continues, “I have seen them all. Not one of them has ever had those markings, child. You are the only one. Your presence here has changed the rules.”

   “It’s not that difficult.”

   Lilith turns her back on Julianna and peers out towards the earth-line.

   “For you it is not,” Lilith continues, “But for everyone before you, it has been impossible.”

   Lilith turns back around so she can see Julianna. The woman with many braids stares intently before speaking, “I have had
many
who have desired to please me, but could not because of the rules. I have seen many more who would give anything to come and go freely without the dangers to their physical bodies always looming overhead.”

   Lilith pauses – her eyes adore the woman standing by the wall.

   “Dear child,” Lilith continues, “Almost all of them have desired to be you. And yet, you have been so eager to rid yourself of the very life they all wished for, but could never obtain.”

   Julianna looks down guiltily. The sand around her feet is black. She looks up and scans the beach off in the distance. Everywhere she has touched, the sand remains black with the paintings of her presence. After a few moments, she eventually turns her green emerald gaze back upon Lilith.

   “And how many have
you
desired to please?”

   Lilith’s mouth parts slightly. She retreats her head before turning her back upon the young woman.

   “I have never desired it,” Lilith states flatly, “It was never a possibility.”

   Julianna lifts her left forearm up to her open mouth. She sinks her teeth into her arm and clamps down tightly. She bites until tears begin falling down both of her cheeks. The young woman lowers her arm and quietly walks over to Lilith. She crawls upon the rock and touches the woman’s bare back. Lilith lets out a gasp.

   “I want to live,” Julianna whispers adoringly.

   Gale Marshall pushes the button to power down the monitor overseeing Julianna’s room. She flips her shoulder-length curly-brown hair over her right shoulder and turns her attention towards the recorder.

   “Did you get it already?”

   “Got it,” Alexandria Thompson confirms while tying her sandy-blond hair into a ponytail. She watches the time-loop synchronization she finished setting up on the recorder before turning to look at Gale.

   “No one will know any different,” Alexandria informs, “We just can’t forget to switch it all back.”

   “How long do we have?”

   “About an hour, but that’s probably pushing it a little. We need to keep it to thirty minutes or less if we can – less conspicuous.”

   Gale glances back to the monitor she powered down. She grins. Her friend rotates her office chair and stands up. Gale follows suit and joins her in a walk towards the laundry room.

   “Wish I could do that,” Gale comments while her friend and colleague lifts up the divider separating the station from the hallway.

   Alexandria laughs, “I’m not sure I wouldn’t become addicted to sleep-aids.”

   The two women change pace and go about their business in a more professional-like manner. They enter the laundry room, gather up some supplies, and quickly leave. Heading back towards their patient’s room, Gale visits the last room on the left before approaching the nurse’s station. She retrieves a medical cart and she pushes it out into the hallway. Alexandria places the clean linen they just gathered onto the bottom shelf. Gale looks down the hall as she begins pushing the cart towards the patient’s room.

   “You ready for this?”

   “As ready as I can be,” Alexandria answers truthfully, “It’s not like I’d rather be doing anything else. I enjoy the idea of cleaning up after women at a brothel. It’s the whole reason I entered the medical field.”

   Gale glances to her right, “Let’s just get in, get it done, and be on our way.”

   “Oh…
that’s
the plan. I thought we were going in there to join the party. My mistake.”

    Gale shakes her head with a slight grin as they pass the nurse’s station and cross the hallway. She watches Alexandria step up to the door and swipe her security badge through the lock. The locking mechanism clicks right before Alexandria turns the handle. The long hair blond, quietly, opens the door and looks to her left.

   “After you,” Alexandria whispers. She follows up on her words with a devious smile.

   Gale rolls her eyes as she pushes the cart in front of her friend. She, playfully, brushes her right arm against Alexandria as she enters into the room. When she stops at the room’s center, she hears the door quietly latch behind her. It is followed by another clicking sound.

   Alexandria watches Julianna as she approaches her friend’s left side. The patient seems to be sleeping blissfully.

   “Maybe we should wait,” Alexandria whispers, “She’s not under sedation anymore.”

   Gale shakes her head, “Not happening. We’re under orders.”

   “This is becoming a habit,” Alexandria whispers her complaint.

   “Come on,” Gale answers with her own whispering voice, “Let’s just do what we came here for and be done with it.”

   Alexandria gives her friend a resentful glance. Her friend smiles while reaching into a box sitting on the cart’s top shelf. After Gale retrieves a pair of blue-latex gloves and begins slipping them on, Alexandria follows her lead and does the same. Together, they walk over to the lone bed in the room.  Gale takes the right side and Alexandria takes the left.

   “Ready?”

   Alexandria nods.

   Gale reaches underneath Julianna’s lower back with both hands. She gently lifts upward. Alexandria slips the cloth gown up over the patient’s hips. She takes hold of Julianna’s underwear and carefully slips them down towards the patient’s ankles.

   “What the hell?!”, Julianna yells out.

   Gale startles and jerks her hands away. Her patient’s back-side slaps against the bare mattress. Alexandria quickly steps back from the bed. Julianna immediately sits up.

   “What are you doing?!”, Julianna yells while scrambling backwards. Her back slams against the metal-frame headboard. She reaches down, yanks her panties back up over her hips, and raises her knees towards her chest. Julianna pulls her gown over her legs and wraps both of her arms around them.

   “We were with your grandmother earlier,” Alexandria fumbles for words.