Mother of Darkwaters: Book one of the Vessel series (68 page)

   “No can do, Julianna,” a woman’s voice defies her weak command.

   Two sets of hands man-handle her ragdoll body by flipping her onto her back. She bats at them, but is quickly subdued.

   “Ssstop…”, Julianna demands in a barely audible voice.

   “Is there a tub nearby?”, a stranger’s voice swirls within the fog of Julianna’s sleepy mind.

   “Yes,” another voice responds. Julianna recognizes it as her grams.

   “Let’s get her in there,” the voice that does not belong speaks again.

   Julianna attempts to open her eyes, but they are too heavy. Large hands find their way underneath her and lift her into the air effortlessly. She feels as though she is floating upon a magical carpet while being whisked away down the hallway leading to the washroom.

   “Put her in the tub. We can take it from there.”

   Julianna hears the sounds of water as her body is gently seated into the tub. The forthcoming warm water begins to wrap itself around her chilled body. It comforts like a sleeping bag on a cool autumn’s morning.

   “Uh…ssstop,” Julianna begs as hands begin maneuvering her body while stealing her clothing.

   “Not going to happen, Julianna,” a second stranger’s voice informs, “Do you have this under control?”

   “She’s worn out,” the other stranger replies, “She won’t be a problem.”

   “Okay. I’ve got the room,” the second stranger speaks again, “I’ll get the saline ready once I get it all cleaned up. Give me about thirty minutes.”

   “Ssstop it,” Julianna commands while pushing at a hand trying to suffocate her with a wet washcloth. She immediately feels an arm force her hands into the water. It stops in a locked position underneath her breasts. She attempts to raise her arms back up out of the water, but can’t. Her attacker is too strong.

   “You suck,” Julianna quietly complains while giving up.

   “I love you, too,” the stranger’s womanly voice reflects her slight amusement.

   Julianna spits against the washcloth wiping away the scum of her sickness. When she realizes her attacker is rubbing her own saliva all over her face, she decides it was a terrible idea. The young woman, then, relaxes and calms herself by giving up the pointless fight.

   After leaving his granddaughter in the tub, Frank returns to Julianna’s bedroom. The wretched smell fills the room’s air. His wife sits at the desk across the room. She is holding the half empty bottle of Nyquil.

   “Do you think it’s another attempt?”, Martha sadly questions.

   Frank shakes his head, “I don’t.”

   The man points at the bottle, “It would be empty if she were trying something like that. I’m with the nurses on this one. I think she overdosed by accident. She didn’t take into account the prescription the doctor put her on.”

   “She definitely overdosed,” a woman’s voice says while approaching Frank’s backside, “But she’s going to be fine.”

   The woman rounds Frank and looks directly at Martha. She sees a stack of fresh linen on the desk’s top next to her.

   “Replacement bed-linen?”

   “Yes. I’ve already bagged up everything. I’ll wash it up later,” Martha says while looking over towards Julianna’s bed, “The mattress seems fine.”

   The nurse looks at the floor next to the bed’s left side and then glances back to Martha, “I’m going to need some rags, a mop, and some cleaning supplies. If you don’t have them, that’s okay. One of us can run out and pick it all up.”

   Martha points towards the adjacent hall next to the one leading to the washroom, “You can find all of that stuff in the cleaning closet. Just follow the hall to the kitchen. The cleaning closet is the one in the far left of the room.”

   “Thank you,” the nurse responds while turning to look at the hallway on the left.

   “Let’s go upstairs,” Frank speaks to his wife, “These women were chosen by Julia for a reason. We should probably give them some space to work.”

   Martha looks at Frank. The woman sits the medicine bottle on the desk and then stands. She glances over at the nurse making her way to the hallway that leads to the kitchen.

   “Gale.”

   The nurse stops and turns around.

   Martha continues, “You two are the first to ever be in here without my supervision.”

   The nurse watches Martha walk up next to her husband and take hold of his right hand. Her red hair is frizzy from her morning bed head. Her blue eyes tell the story of mental exhaustion.

   “Take care of her,” Martha says before looking into her husband’s eyes.

   Gale sees Frank smile a comforting grin before turning to escort his wife up the stairs.

   “We will,” Gale attempts to comfort the woman with words, “And we’ll be the ones to wash everything up. You try and get some rest.”

   Martha pats her husband’s gentle tugging hand with her right. She silently allows him to lead her up the stairs and out of the library. And for the first time ever, Martha walks the length of the candelabra hallway with the doors to the Collection left wide open.  

   Julianna’s thick eyelashes flutter against the bright light. She reaches up with her right hand and covers her eyes. The young woman’s senses begin pouring information into her fog-ridden mind.

  
Sand.

   “Dammit!”, Julianna curses. She sits up. With a bowed head, she places both of her hands on her forehead to visor away the intrusive light. After what seems like forever, Julianna open her eyes by squinting in order to scan the beach. She looks to her right and then over to her left. She looks right again. Lilith is nowhere to be seen.

“That’s a first,” Julianna mutters. She stands up and looks down. A red see-through gown adorns her body. She smiles. The gown is absolutely gorgeous. Its silky material thickens in all of the right places to prevent unwelcomed eyes from lingering where they do not belong. The lacy design allows the freedom of nudity without the trashiness of slutville. It was a must have whenever she first seen it in one of Devia’s no-no magazines. Problem is, she can’t remember putting it on.

   Julianna walks to her right over towards the rock she has secretly dubbed the
Lilith Rock
. The beach feels empty without the woman’s smoky voice tormenting her in one fashion or another.

   After she reaches the rock’s far side, Julianna reaches down to grab her clothes. She notices her fingernails are painted red. She looks down at her feet and sees the same result with her toenails.

   “What is going on?”, Julianna complains. Even through the constant aching of her pounding head, she knows she didn’t do this. She hardly ever paints her nails unless it’s like a date or something. And the last time she checked, she was in the non-dateable category. Who would ever date someone found in her predicament? Talk about baggage – she has a lot of it. And trying to explain the whole Mother thing…?

   Julianna shakes her head against the impossible thought. She refocuses her efforts by losing the gown for her neatly folded
Assassin’s Creed
look-alike outfit. After placing the gown on the rock’s surface, Julianna turns and walks the wall’s length until she finds her story. Her green eyes scan over the grim writings.

  
Aihn xoréé sloié ait Dvhecrehnoi…

Julianna’s head retreats as she mispronounces the last word. She attempts it again.

   “Dee-veh-creh-hn-oh-ee.”

   She recites a few more times before moving on.

  
Féch yhni yhnslosté, xoré ecréaiti ait Doizéié…

   Tears form within her eyes as she attempts to say the last word aloud.

   “Doh-ee-zay-ee-ā,” she quietly speaks while tracing her father’s name. After a few seconds pass by, she decides to make a verbal run over the wall’s latest entry.

   “Aihn xoréé sloié ait Dvhecrehnoi,

      Féch yhni yhnslosté, xoré ecréaiti ait Doizéié rééh oiétilssto véuté daszibix.”

   The young woman’s mind recites the awful reality.

  
On this day of Julianna,

      By her hands, the life of James is ascended unto judgment.

   Julianna leans her forehead against the wall’s smooth surface. Fresh tears find their way down her pale cheeks.

   “Hey you!”, a smoky voice yells out.

   Julianna jerks and quickly turns around. She grabs at her chest where her heart thumps loudly. Lilith is smiling.

   “It’s not funny.”

   “Oh – I think it is,” Lilith counters only a few steps away from Julianna, “Your child-weeping makes you an easy target.”

   “I’m not a child. I killed my father.”

   Lilith points to her favored rock, “I’ll just go over here until you decide to stop feeling sorry for yourself.”

   The woman with many braids walks towards her rock and waves at the wall with her right hand.

   “Go ahead. Cry yourself into oblivion and see if it changes anything for you.”

   Julianna’s brows narrow.

   “No thanks. You’ve ruined the mood. I’ll wait until I have a good book and some hot chocolate. I would invite you, but uh…Can you drink it?”

   Lilith laughs as she rounds the backside of her rock and sits down. She crosses both of her arms over her chest.

   “You cannot anger me this time.”

   “I wasn’t trying to – just stating a fact is all.”

   Lilith grins. She motions with her head towards the right.

   “You have visitors.”

   Julianna looks towards the earth-line. She sees her parents. They are smiling and waving. Her mom is holding her dad’s left hand with her right.

   “How did you..?”

   “I can always find my bloodline. Theresa did the rest. I…”

   Lilith quits speaking to Julianna’s backside. The young woman is already jogging towards the earth-line. Lilith smiles and leans back.

   “Hello there, sleeping beauty,” a woman’s voice penetrates through the dim lighting of Julianna’s bedroom. The exhausted woman blinks her eyes and makes an attempt to reach up to wipe away the crust from her eyes.

   “Ow,” Julianna complains while looking at her arm. An intravenous needle is inserted into the top-side of her hand.

   “Here, let me get that for you.”

   Julianna watches Gale dip a facecloth into a silver bin. The nurse brings it over and begins wiping her face clean with the warm rag. When Gale finishes, Julianna attempts a weak apology.

   “Thanks for the help.”

   “You’re welcome,” Gale answers as if it’s no big deal. She puts the rag into a plastic bag and turns around to look at her patient, “Alex is asleep by the pool. She’s in love.”

   Julianna grins.

   “You’ll be fine. The iv is saline solution. You’re almost done with it. I can remove it here in a few minutes.”

   The nurse with brown hair reaches into her nurse’s apron. She pulls out a half-empty bottle of Nyquil and a prescription of Amoxapine.

   “You overdosed.”

   Julianna nods, “I kinda figured that.”

   Gale slips the medications back into her pouch, “Didn’t Dr. Shelby explain the dangers of mixing your meds with alcohol?” 

    “Yeah, but I didn’t actually think a little bit of cough syrup could be the death of me.”

   Gale scrutinizes her patient’s eyes for any tell-tale signs of a lie.

   “Did you miss your room that badly?”

   Julianna’s eyes widen, “You wouldn’t.”

   “That depends.”

   “On what? I’ll do anything. Just don’t send me back there. Please.”

   “Was it suicide?”

   Julianna shakes her head emphatically, “No. I swear it. I just misjudged it, that’s all.”

   Gale sees no signs of any lies. She points her right pointer finger at Julianna.

   “This is your
only
warning.”

   “Got it,” Julianna answers with a hint of relief.

   “Good. I’m going to go and get Alex. I might have to drag her out of here kicking and screaming.”

   Julianna smiles before noticing her painted nails. She pulls down her covers and sees her red sleep gown.

   “Alex and I got bored. Hope you don’t mind about the nails.”

   Julianna covers herself back up and looks at Gale.

   “This might sound strange, but did I wake up when you guys did this?”

   Gale nods, “You’ve been in and out since we got here.”

   Julianna nods before closing her eyes again. Her head isn’t throbbing, but there is definitely a pronounced headache at work.

   “I’m going after Alex,” Gale informs while heading towards the hall leading to the washroom.

   Julianna doesn’t say anything, but is grateful for her new friends. She thinks about her latest visit to the Place of the Dead – the time she got to spend with her parents. It was wonderful. Her dad’s head is back to normal because he’s at peace. Her mom is happy because he is there with her. And above all, she is forgiven by them both. She hasn’t felt this much love since they were all a family together – a family that fought horrible secrets to keep their clueless daughter safe.

   “Can’t we just lace her iv with morphine?”

   Julianna’s head retreats as her ears catch a conversation not meant for her.

   “Give it up, Alex. It’s over,” Gale’s voice echoes down the hallway.

   “Just a little bit. Only enough to knock her out for the night.”

   “We don’t have any morphine. Stop it.”

   “That’s beside the point.”

   Gale and Alexandria enter Julianna’s bedroom. Gale heads over to Julianna’s bed and begins removing the needle from her hand. Julianna looks at Alexandria and grins.

   “The pool’s nice, huh?”

   “I’m jealous,” the woman with sandy-blond hair agrees.

   “You could buy one instead of going to school,” Gale says while winking at Julianna. The nurse refers to the two bank accounts Julianna set up for their college fund while she was in the hospital. Five-hundred thousand dollars apiece to be exact.