Sanctity (3 page)

When I came to my parents were kneeling
beside me and I was lying on our living room floor.  We each
had our hands and feet bound and Victor was looming over me.
 Michael was being held by someone directly in front of us.
 

I watched Victor glance over his shoulder
towards him, “What pretty little pets you have,” he said then he
circled me and my family one by one.  “This one especially,”
he yanked me to my knees with a handful of my hair.  “There’s
something about this one in particular.  She seems to have
quite a hold on you Michael.”  Victor turned away from Michael
and looked at me, “How did you know he was in trouble?  I
heard you call out to him; can you hear his thoughts?"

I nodded. 

“Now that’s interesting.  Can you hear
mine?”

I shook my head.   

Victor quietly reflected on it for a moment
then asked, "Have you two ever,” he paused and grinned wickedly,
“exchanged?” 

Michael was visibly angered by this
question.  I thought I knew what Victor meant and so I shook
my head again.

“My, my, but you are quite a little enigma,
now aren't you?" he tilted his head this way and that as he looked
me over.  "Anyway,” Victor shrugged and turned from me to my
mother, “did you know that your friend Michael here, he has
been slipping into your daughter’s room for the past, oh, what,
half a dozen years or so?”

My mother looked horrified as the tears she
fought back began to stream down her cheeks.  I was old enough
to know what Victor was implying and was appalled by what he was
suggesting.  I looked to my mother, “No, it’s not true, don’t
listen to him! Michael,” I immediately regretted using his first
name, “Michael tell them that it’s not true!  You are my
friend.  I have been helping you…Helping you to be strong.”
 

There was something I desperately wanted to
say but I couldn’t find the words to express it.  It was
terribly important that my parents did not think badly of Michael.
They had the same horror-struck expression, though, as they looked
from Victor to his friend to Michael.  Michael hung his head
in bitter acknowledgement of Victor’s words and did not deny his
proclamation.  “You’re a monster!” I angrily spat at him.

Victor laughed, “You’re absolutely
right!  And so is my brother,” my parents eyes followed Victor
as he moved from us and stood beside Michael, “and so is Gavin
here,” he motioned to the man holding Michael.   “We’re
all monsters aren’t we?  She’s got quite a bit of spunk hasn’t
she brother?  Is that why you love her so?  Tell me, is
this,” Victor turned his attention back to me and roughly took my
chin and turned my face so he could look directly into my eyes,
“the one that convinced you that you could live the way you
do?  Is she the one who ties you to your,” I felt Victor
sifting through my thoughts, “sanctity?” He chuckled, “Do you even
though what that means?”  He turned back to Michael, “I wonder
what it would do to you if I took this lovely little lady from
you.” 

“Please, no!” My mother inched towards
me.  “She’s just a little girl, don’t hurt her!  We’ll
give you anything you want,” my mother looked to my father for
confirmation.

“Yes, anything,” my father’s voice
trembled.

Victor laughed at their dismay but
unconcernedly turned back to Michael.  “Maybe I will keep her
for myself once I’ve dealt with her mum and dad…oh, and of course,
with you, dear brother.”

“Why,” Michael asked, “why not just me, let
the family go?”

“Oh, but you see that is what this is all
about, Michael, family.  You are my family and yet here we are
now, worlds apart just as we have always been.  You couldn't
be satisfied with being their favorite, could you?  It wasn't
enough that they loved you for being so much more; for being
everything that I was not.  You turned against me, Michael,
you turned Mother and Father against me.  You took my family,”
he glanced over his shoulder, “and now I am going to take
yours.”  He stepped back and unleashed a horrific blow
striking Michael as hard as he could across his jaw. 

Victor seemed satisfied for the moment and
continued his speech, “Do you know how many times I have wished you
had never been born?  Mother and Father, they kept telling me
how wonderful it would be to have a little brother.  That I
would always have someone to play with, someone who would look up
to me, someone who would be just like me.  Only you weren't
like me, were you Michael? You were never like me!”

“Everything came so easy for you didn’t it?
Everything I struggled with just came naturally for you. Do you
have any idea how humiliating it was to have you for a little
brother? How painful it was? I hated you so much! I hated you for
coming between Mother, Father and I and for making them realize
just how unremarkable I was. They never loved me the way they loved
you! I needed them more than you did but they looked right through
me.”

“You’re wrong, Victor. They loved you just as
much you just wouldn’t let them show it.”

“Bull shit!” Victor seized Michael by the
throat, “When did you ever hear anything but praise from them? Ever
once did you hear the words I wish you would be more like your
brother?”

Michael reluctantly shook his head.

“Well I heard them! Every damn day of my
life! Why can’t you be more like Michael?” Victor mimicked
Margaret’s voice perfectly. “If it weren’t for you I never would
have…”

Victor took a deep breath and his tone
hinted at regret, “Why didn’t you tell them? You knew what it was
doing to me, how bitter and angry I had become. You saw me that
day. I knew you were there and I let you see knowing, hoping, you
would go straight to Mother and tell what I had done and that she
would understand.  I imagined her telling me that she loved me
and that she would help me and that I wouldn’t have to be that way
anymore.”

“I was too young, Victor, I honestly didn’t
know what to do.  I wanted to protect you. I didn’t want you
to get in trouble.  You made me promise,” Michael’s voice
shook with remorse.

 “You knew what to do! You always knew
what to do!  You just didn’t want Mother to help me.”

“That’s not true,” Michael whispered.

“You were just too selfish to let her,”
Victor persisted.  He rocked back and forth on his heels, “It
could have been different then, it might not have been too late
then.”

“It’s not too late now,” Michael
implored.

“Oh, but it is, more so
than ever!  This is what 
you
 forced me to become! 
The sorrows I had then are the pleasures I enjoy now,” his eyes
brightened with a sadistic glow, “thanks to Gavin here.  He
found me, he took me in, took pity on me and showed me that I had
nothing to regret.  He gave me this great gift and now, well,
the only regret I have now is that I shared it with
you.”

Victor grew more and more anxious as he
turned his thoughts over.  He began pacing back and forth in
the slight row between where Michael was being held and where my
family and I were kneeling.  “I thought changing you would be
my revenge.  What better retribution could I have wished for
than to turn Saint Michael, here, into a sinner?”  Then
abruptly he stopped in front of me and looked me in the eye. 
He had his back to Michael as he asked, “how many people have you
killed Michael?”

My heart sunk, I knew that was not the way
Michael lived, not since we met, “Michael is not a killer,” my eyes
flooded with tears and I thought of Brenda.

“Oh?  Michael, why
don’t you tell your little 
friend
 here how many lives have
slipped past your lips.  Better yet,” he said reflectively,
“tell her how many times you’ve wished it were her life flowing
through your veins!”  Victor’s words seemed to hang ominously
in the air.

I peered around Victor so I could see
Michael’s face.  He was devastated and I could feel the truth
of what Victor had said in his mind; weakened as he was Michael was
unable to conceal it from me.  I never knew he struggled with
me the same way he would with anyone else.

My mother was sobbing, my father looking
from one of us to the next in shocking disbelief.  

“I won’t be cheated!  How dare you
convince him to turn against his nature!  The righteous
Michael will not prevail because of you!”  Victor turned in
fury to face my mother, father and I.  “Let’s see now,
Eanie…Meanie… oh, hell, Mo!!”  Victor put a knee into my
father’s back and forced his head to a brutal angle.

Michael must have known what he was planning
to do but before he could struggle free and stop him Victor opened
my father’s throat.  I could only watch in horror as my father
fell to the ground.  I saw the terror on my mother’s face and
the frenzied anger that was taking over Michael.  I watched as
he broke free from Gavin and savagely drew his life from him. 
Even through the delirious haze of losing my father I could see the
transformation in Michael.  His wounds were healing at an
exponential rate and he had a murderous expression as he stepped
towards Victor.

Michael managed to knock him aside and to
get to my mother.  He freed her as best he could in the short
time before Victor recovered.  He told her to hurry, to get me
and run.  Victor was on him and I knew Michael couldn’t stop
him, that he was trying to buy us more time.  Victor, he was
just so strong!  As my mother and I ran in one direction,
Michael ran in the other hoping to draw Victor away from us.

Victor sensed what Michael was up to though
and dropped the chase almost before it began.  I glanced
behind me and saw that Michael was trying to cut him off but he was
too late.  Victor quickly caught us.  He seized my mother
in one arm and me in the other.  “Ah, now this is a bit of a
pickle,” Victor chuckled.  “You’d like to save them both,
wouldn’t you?  Oh, but Mum here doesn’t really concern you,
does she?  You don’t care about her except that she matters to
this one,” he shook me by my arm.  “So how do we go about
this, hmm?” he teased.  He took one long look at Michael,
tossed his head back and laughed.  It all happened so fast;
Victor bent over my mother as Michael lunged for me but he couldn’t
reach either of us in time.  The pain that coursed through me
reminded me of a glass falling to the floor.  My body felt
like it had shattered into a million tiny pieces as it struck a
nearby tree with all the force of Victor’s wrath behind
it. 

Michael tackled Victor and I saw them
tumbling in the snow as I fell to the ground.  The realization
of what Victor had done subdued Michael and he agonizingly dragged
himself to where I was lying.  Victor seemed to be savoring
the moment, “It’s too late,” he assured him as Michael approached
me.  I was still alive though. I could feel my breath bubbling
up and out of my mouth.  Michael gathered me into his arms and
ran into the woods, Victor seconds behind us calling, “There’s no
halfway Michael!  You can’t save her!”

I remember him cradling me as he ran and
something else, something my mind refused to accept, something it
didn’t want me to remember.

The images began to fade away.  My head
was aching as I sat in the shower and I started to come to. 
For a moment my thoughts shifted back to the present and I was
again picturing Michael in the kitchen relaying the story to his
mother.  He slunk to the floor his arms clutching his mother’s
knees, “Oh, Mother, what have I done!!  I never wanted
this.  I never wanted any of this!  Oh, God, Mr. and Mrs.
Davis, how could I have let Victor do this?”  He was utterly
distraught.

“Michael, oh, Michael!” Margaret was holding
him and stroking his hair.  “I’m so sorry.  Please don’t
blame yourself, you mustn’t.”

“Why mustn’t I,” he lifted his head, a
ferocious expression coloring his face; “I am a killer!!  In
order for me to live, others must die!!”

“No, no, Michael, you don’t believe that,
you know it’s not true!!  Victor killed that family, not
you.  You saved the girl, Michael.”

“You saved the girl, Michael.” 
Margaret’s words were ringing in my head as I shook free from the
daze I was in to find myself still clutching my knees with the
water  crashing all around me.

My mind was reluctant to acknowledge the
possibility of what I envisioned but my heart was heavy with the
truth of it.  I felt like I had to confront Michael and
Margaret.  I desperately needed to know if what I saw was real
or just some wild imaginings from an overtaxed mind.  I
extinguished the jets and stepped out of the shower.  I draped
myself in one of the larger bath towels and wrapped my hair in one
of the smaller ones as I made my way to the bedroom. 

I stooped at the bathroom doorway and
retrieved the clothes I had piled there.   Unsure of what
I should do with them, I brought them with me and placed them on
one of the window seats.  There was an outfit laid out on the
bed for me.  The pants and top were a handful of sizes too big
so I made an effort to roll and cuff them into the right
proportions.  Margaret was thoughtful enough to include a belt
with the ensemble and I cinched it as much as it would allow and
fastened it about my waist.

 I took the towel from my hair then
heard a gentle rap on the door.  I felt the tears gathering
behind my eyes as I moved to open it.  Margaret was standing
there with the warmest, most sincere smile but I could sense a
great sadness in her eyes as well. 

“Are you feeling fresher?” She was making an
effort to sound light but there was no mistaking that she had
something important that she wanted to talk to me about. 

“Margaret?”  I initiated the
conversation instead.

“Yes Elayna?”

“I think…” I paused unsure how to put my
thoughts into words, “I think I know…I think I know why Michael
brought me here.”