Mother of Darkwaters: Book one of the Vessel series (82 page)

   “Gariatu Estidium Merné,” Julianna greets with a nod.

   “A child of Lilith,” the voice seems excited. He waves his fingers towards Julianna.

   “Oh my,” the demon speaks again while folding his bony fingers together, “You yet live in your body.”

   Julianna remains silent while the being closes its large eyes. The action is reminiscent of a lizard’s blinking-style. When the Hades Escort opens his eyes, he takes a step back.

   Julianna slightly cocks her head to the left within her curious thought, “Something wrong?”

   “Why are you here, Mother?”

   “I have come for Danny Hammond.”

   “Why would the Mother have need of my charge?”

   “To build my foundation.”

   The being pauses as his mind rummages through Julianna’s thoughts. He is not hurting her, but she can feel what is happening.

   “Stones?”

   “You know of the sub-prophecy then?”

   “Yesss,” the high-pitch tone answers, “You are the topic of many voices recently.”

   “I need him to be freed until your king is finished with me.”

   “What is my benefit?”

   “What is your name?”

   “You cannot send me away, Mother. I am not like the lessers.”

   “I know. I would not attempt something so foolish.”

   “Martrisi,” the demon’s voice pronounces his name as Mar-tree-see.

   Julianna, slowly, lifts her hands so as to not bring the demon’s wrath upon herself. She sees his creepy eyes blink as she closes her own. She begins speaking.

   “Ré zé xoré bélohni ait sloishrié. Shaixoi rééh Martrisi trci féiééstré xoré bélohni ait sloishrié.”

   Her words translate within her mind:

      “I am the Mother of Darkwaters.

       Worthy is Martrisi for blessing the Mother of Darkwaters.”

   Julianna opens her eyes. The demon has his eyes closed. She watches as they quickly open.

   “The boy is yours, Mother,” the demon speaks within her mind with his high-pitched voice, “It seems that my master has promoted me. Very interesting.”

   “Thank you,” Julianna nods with respect, “Are there more of you in there?”

   The demon looks towards the door. Julianna hears scrambled whispering within her mind. The conversation is erratic and undecipherable. She can feel a slight headache coming on. She looks from the door to the being soon as the voices quieten within her mind.

   “The room is clear, Mother,” the being speaks within her mind. He nods once and disappears – a trailing black smoky mist left in his wake.

   Julianna walks over and touches the door with her scalded fingers. It is cool. She passes through. A teenage boy sits in the middle of the room. He is smoldering. His legs are drawn up and his face is buried between his knees. He is whimpering.

   “Danny?”

   The boy doesn’t respond.

   “Danny, is that you?”

   The boy lifts his head. He is burned beyond recognition. The smell of the room is horrendous.

   “Are you…are you an angel?”

   Julianna’s lips tremble.

   “No, I’m a friend. You’re free to go.”

   “They’re – they’re not coming back?”

   Julianna walks over and holds out her left hand, “They won’t be back...promise.”

   The boy’s blackened fingers takes hold of her. He squeezes as she pulls him to his feet. Julianna winces from the pain searing through her hand.

   “Your sister needs to hear from you,” Julianna says while looking at the door. She turns her attention to Danny, “There will be a strange box making noises. You must get close to it for her to hear you. Do you understand?”

   The boy nods. Julianna escorts him through the door and into the hallway. His hand relaxes as she counts her way back to the room with her body in it. She smiles at Danny before passing into the room.

   “Jen,” the teen boy says.

   Julianna sees him attempt a burned smile. She reasons it’s probably his first smile since his physical body died.

   “Do not go anywhere, Danny,” Julianna says while releasing his hand.

   The boy looks at her as she points towards her body, “I will be back shortly, but I won’t be able to see you. Do you understand?”

   The boy looks at the body on the couch and then gazes on the girl in front of him. He nods. Julianna watches as Danny walks up next to his sister. Jennifer appears to be examining her guest’s hands. The Mother of Darkwaters imagines the earth-line…

   Julianna’s eyelids flutter while her mind works to sort out her bearings.

   “Mandie,” Jennifer whispers with a sense of urgency in her tone.

   “My hands,” Julianna complains with a hoarse throat.

   “No kidding – why do you think they’re wrapped?”, Jennifer agrees, “What is going on, Mandie? Who are you?”

   Julianna squints against the lights in the room.

   “Mandie, you better start spilling your guts or I’m stuffing you in my trunk.”

   Julianna grins as she forces her eyes completely open.

   “You won’t think it’s funny whenever I actually do it,” Jennifer says while stepping away from her patient.

   Julianna sits up and looks at her duffle bag. The thought of touching anything sounds like a regrettable endeavor. The pain levels have increased significantly due to the joining of her spirit-soul to her spirit-soul consciousness. There’s nothing excitable about this pain. This pain has its own design – even for an anguisette.

   “Can you dump my bag out and place the spirit box on the coffee table?”

   “The spirit what? What are you blabbing about? Why are your hands like that?”

   Julianna pouts, “Please? A few more minutes and you’ll understand everything – promise.”

   Jennifer stares, but not out of anger – her intentions are much more passive than that. Deep down, she is really thankful that Julianna isn’t screaming anymore. The whole incident had Jennifer nearly scared to death. It was tough to wrap her mind around the insanity of what her ears and eyes were trying to take in. 

   “I don’t even know what I’m supposed to be looking for,” Jennifer says while grabbing the bag and dumping its contents onto her floor. She looks at her spooky guest. The girl on her couch points to a small round object.

    “That’s it,” Julianna instructs, “The switch to turn it on is on the bottom.

   “Whatever you say, Mandie,” Jennifer says while taking hold of the SB7 Spirit Box. She flips the switch to the on position.  

   “Damn that’s loud,” Jennifer complains while sitting the object down as instructed.

   “White noise over multiple frequencies,” Julianna explains, “Put your hand over the top.”

   “Why don’t I just turn it back off?”

   “You can cover it with your hand while it’s on, or we can play a spank-me game. It’s your choice.”

   “You’re disgusting,” Jennifer says while her right hand compliantly covers the speaker. The spirit box quietens.

   “You should be stuffed into my trunk just for saying that you freak.”

   “Danny, say hello to your sister.”

   “What is wrong with you?!”, Jennifer says angrily. She steps back from the box.

   “Hi,” a boy’s voice calls through the air of white noise.

   Jennifer covers her gaping mouth with both of her hands. She shakes her head, “It can’t be.”

   “Jen,” the teenage-sounding tone speaks again.

   Julianna nods as Jennifer looks at her within her confusion. The girl with burned hands begins to reach for the box. Jennifer steps forward and covers the speaker again.

   “What is this, Mandie?”

   “I was burned finding him,” Julianna gives her answer while holding up her hands half-heartedly, “But we’ll discuss that later.”

   Julianna lowers her hands, “Right now, you should probably see if it’s really Danny.” Julianna knows the answer, but can plainly see the doubt racing through Jennifer’s mind; although, it is apparent the cheerleader recognized his voice.

   Jennifer shakes her head, “I don’t know what to say.”

   “Speak from the heart, Jennifer.”

   Julianna sees Jennifer’s brown eyes glisten with the signs of clouding water. The stubborn cheerleader refocuses her pain into anger as she glares.

   Jennifer responds, “Where are we, right now?”

   A moment later, Jennifer speaks again, “See? This is all crap.”

   “Move your hand,” Julianna answers the girl’s sarcasm with a gentle tone.

   “Oh,” Jennifer responds by jerking her hand away.

   “Home,” a voice calls through the noise.

   Jennifer’s right brow lifts slightly as she covers the box again, “That was too easy.”

   “The room,” Jennifer corrects before removing her hand.

   “P-R-one,” the voice answers quietly.”

   Jennifer begins crying as her hand covers the box, “Danny?” She removes it again.

   “Jen, I love you,” the voice sounds more distant than before.

   “I love you,” Jennifer answers. She covers the box while looking at the girl on the couch, “Why is it getting hard to hear him?”

   “It’s his first time,” Julianna answers, “This takes a lot of energy. He is weakening. He won’t be able to respond much longer.”  

   “Am I hurting him?”

   “No, he’s fine. And just because he can’t speak doesn’t mean he is gone.”

   Jennifer’s bottom lip trembles as she studies green eyes of comfort and understanding. Julianna smiles and nods towards the box.

   “I’m sorry I wasn’t there, Danny. I should have known. It was all my fault. I’m so - so sorry.”

    Julianna watches as Jennifer removes her shaky hand from the SB7 Spirit Box. The cheerleader weeps while staring at the source of the white noise. Julianna isn’t sure if Jennifer is actually expecting an answer. Maybe the cheerleader just needed to say those words. Regardless, Julianna can clearly see she made the right choice in doing this. Her screaming and throbbing hands are well worth the scene before her.

   A moment later, a voice answers, “My fault, Jen – mine. Love you, too...”

Danny’s voice trails into the distance, “…My doll-bird.”

   Jennifer laughs through her tears.

   “He needs some time,” Julianna informs reverently.

   Jennifer sniffles with a partial-smile. She picks up the box, turns it off, and sits it back down. Her eyes linger – within the growing silence – upon the guest sitting on her couch. She lips the words:
thank you
.

   Julianna returns her gratitude with a quiet version of:
you’re welcome
.

   After Jennifer calms, she places the dumped contents back into the duffle bag. Her guest gives her the SB7 Spirit Box as a gift, but with special instructions. 

   1.)
Always test the voice that speaks through.

   2.)
Never trust their words until they have proven themselves.

   3.)
Don’t use the same test question.

   4.) Above all,
don’t live her life with the object.
That is, she had to make a promise to only use it upon rare occasion. The box could not become her new sleep buddy, as it were. Jennifer, gladly, accepted the terms.

   “If you don’t mind me asking,” Julianna inquires after setting the rules for spirit conversations, “what is PR1?”

   Jennifer grins, “Party Room One.”

   “Oh I see.”

   “See what?”

   “I didn’t do this out of fun, Jennifer. You need to lay off the drugs. Your life is too important to trash it away.”

   “I already made that decision” Jennifer replies, “I thought you knew that. Aren’t you going to be my sponsor or something?”

   “Just making sure.”

   Jennifer motions towards Julianna’s wrapped hands, “Care to explain?”

   Julianna nods, “You’ve earned the truth.” She pauses before beginning her explanation, “My name is Julianna – not Mandie.”

   Jennifer looks questioningly, “Why the lie?”

   “I’m from a royal bloodline.”

   “Pfft.”

   “No, I’m serious.”

   Jennifer crosses her arms.

   “You drive around in a rust bucket.”

   “I don’t like people knowing who I am or where I’m from.”

   “And exactly where are you from – Julianna is it?”

   “New Orleans.”

   “Like Louisiana, New Orleans?”

   Julianna chuckles, “That’s the one.”

   Jennifer’s head retreats, “Now I
know
you’re lying. There’s no royal anything in Louisiana. Nothing I’ve heard of, anyway.”

    “My family is a secret. We have to be. Too many enemies.”

   “Enemies? You Al-Qaeda, Isis, or something?”

   “A terrorist?”

   “Yeah - you a terrorist?”

   “Oh gawd no. I’m the mother of the antichrist.”

   “Ha-ha-ha,” Jennifer laughs.

   Julianna stares blankly.

   “Um - you trying to be serious right now?”

   “The prophecy calls me
Mother of Darkwaters
.”

   “Of course. The prophecy. How could I forget?”

   “Only those involved know of its existence. The Christians know a very minimal version of it.”

   “Okay,” Jennifer replies, “You sure you didn’t drop some LSD or something?”

   “I’m trying to explain everything to you.”

   “With lies? You didn’t really expect me to buy into this, did you?”

  Julianna opens her mouth to say something, but Jennifer cuts her off.

   “Look – I appreciate what you did with my brother. And the shock factor of that horrid needle you gave me was a serious wake up call. But really – mother of the antichrist? Are you freakin’ kidding me?”

   Julianna holds up her wrapped hands, “This happened when I found your brother. I can traverse the Place of the Dead. You probably know it as hell.” She lowers her hands back down, “Hades Escorts were having their way with him. Lucky for the both of you, they hadn’t tossed him into the fire yet. I couldn’t have got him out of that.”

   Jennifer scrutinizes Julianna’s green eyes.

   “Wait - you
are
serious.”