The Children of Ankh: Sweet Sleep ☥
Sweet Sleep
By Kim Cormack
In every lifetime, there is a moment. A moment so clear, so
profoundly unique that it stands out against billions of other moments. When
you find a moment such as this one, you pay extra close attention to it. It
will usually contain something that defines you in the future.
Prologue
“Are you certain she’s the
one?” Lily whispered.
Frost replied softly, “Pretty sure, she even
looks a little like Freja. How old do
you think she
is? Four… maybe five years old?”
From the playground, came something remarkable. A little
duplicate of the child lying in the
grass. The other
little angel plopped herself ungracefully onto the
grassy bed next to her sister. They were
mirror images of each other.
Grey
said, “This is quite the unexpected little
glitch... isn't it? What does this mean?
How is this even possible?"
Frost replied, "It's not possible."
Lily glanced at Frost and said, “It definitely
complicates things.”
One
of the freckled little girls noticed the
three Ankh watching. She sprang to her feet and raced
over to the fence and stood on her tippy toes. With a giant grin, she stuck
her chubby little fingers through the rungs of the fence.
“Do you want to come in and
play?” She squeaked.
Lily whispered,
“Aren’t you the most adorable little
thing in the whole wide world.”
“What’s your name? You delightful little
creature,” Grey said with his
thick Aussie accent.
“I’m not a thing or a creature. I'm
a kid. My name is Kayn, that’s my sister Chloe,” she pointed a little
finger adorned with messy
sparkle nail polish at her sister.
The little girl
had sand on her lovely white frilly dress and grass in her hair.
She had a sticker of a frog on her cheek, and she radiated
joy. Chloe sat up. She was
now glaring at them. Chloe was clearly not going
to be the one out of the two
abducted by a random stranger.
Frost appeared to be so captivated by the scrappy child that stood
in front of them. He couldn’t
even manage to speak. He just
stood there beaming like a fool.
“You guys look like movie stars.”
Kayn gushed, and then turned her attention
to her own hand, “I have nail polish
on, see?” she said, her beautiful eyes gleamed with pride as she displayed
her wiggling fingers for the rest
to see.
“Very lovely,”
Lily appraised. Just as a little boy with a mess of dark curls
came running up to the fence
and grabbed Kayn’s arm.
He glared at the group, then
leaned over and whispered in her ear assertively, “Chloe says you’re not supposed to talk to strangers.”
The little girl stated,” Chloe’s not the boss
of me.”She then grasped the fence firmly
and stuck her face right against it with her little upturned nose sticking
right through to the other side.
Frost, quite obviously blown
away by the feisty spirited child touched
one of the little girls dainty fingers through the fence. He
met her gaze, marveling at the innocence and
vibrant intensity that shone back through the chain link
barrier.
His expression changed
briefly as he whispered to
her under his breath. “It’s very important that
you become strong.”
He touched the
tip of her nose with his finger gently.
Chapter 1
The
Moments Before She Sleeps
The humming of Kayn’s blood as it coursed
through her veins seemed to sing along to the steady, almost tribal, beat of
her feet as they pounded rhythmically into the dirt. A veil of earth flowed
behind her; she resembled a flaxen haired angel attempting to outrun a cloud.
The cloud of dust seemed to follow her for a moment or two longer than it should,
with not one whisper of wind in the afternoon air. The smile that spread over
Kayn’s lips while she trained showed that her heart was overflowing with so
much joy that it could not be contained beneath a serious competitive demeanor.
Watching Kayn run was a beautiful thing to behold and people would stop by the
track after school simply to watch her before beginning their long walk home.
Kayn noticed in the moment of clarity that
Kevin was not yet sitting in the grass to watch her run. She could picture
Kevin as he rushed to his locker, and fumbled with the lock in an attempt to
keep the facade going. She wasn't stupid. She didn't actually believe that he
enjoyed watching her run in circles around a track. She knew here was a method
to his madness. Her best friend was madly in love with her twin sister. He had
been addicted to the mere sight of her since kindergarten. To anyone else this
would make no sense, but Kayn understood. She was Kevins friend, and Chloe was
his fantasy.
She could picture him shoving his way past a herd
of students and prying his body through the single doorway that lead the gym.
In her vision of why he was late for their daily routine. He was shoved up
against the wall and his books fell out of his backpack. She found herself
laughing aloud as she ran for thoughts of him always brought a smile to her
face. His organizational skills had always left something to be desired. After
taking a moment to collect his papers, he would zip up his bag and continue on
his quest for his moment in the presence of her twin sister. The unattainable
Chloe Brighton.
She noticed him out of the corner of her eye.
He ran up the hill and unceremoniously plopped himself down in the grass beside
her school bag and things were as they should be. She rounded the corner and
kicked up dust like a champ. She saw him fiddling with his cell phone. He was
going to time her next lap. She flashed by her best friend in a cloud of dust.
Kevin smiled at her through the haze.
Her body, lean and freckled from exposure to
the sun, glinted with sparkles in the sun’s rays. Kayn loved coconut sparkle
tanning spray. She could see it on her clenched fists each time they flashed by
her line of sight. She was a girl with a list of strange little rituals on her
daily to do list. At the beginning of her run, she imagined that she did look magical,
glittering in the sun, but not by the end of her run. By the end of her
training, the glitter tanning spray would cause the track’s dust to stick to
her whole body in a comical way. She would end up looking as though she had
spent her whole afternoon rolling in it, not running on it.
As Kayn took off her blinders, allowing
herself to appreciate the sun’s rays gently whispering across her skin. She
experienced a feeling of pure joy that was transcendent. Kayn kicked up another
cloud to outrun as she rounded the corner. Then came that pleasurable jolt of
electricity that surged through her brain, ignited her soul, and set her afire
with insurmountable joy. This moment in her run had always left Kayn with the
sense that she had been given a gift or anointment of physical power. Her
adrenaline rippled a winding path of pleasure underneath her skin.
Kayn hit the straight stretch feeling such unimaginable,
euphoric, physical ecstasy that she felt baptized by the sweat trickling down
her forehead to the sides of her face. Kayn Brighton was alive in that moment
in a way only a runner could comprehend. Kayn was thankful for that moment, and
every single time the experience had overwhelmed her as it had today; her soul
felt stronger.
Every nerve ending was humming, “Faster, Kayn, go faster.” Kayn was an
athlete born to push the limits of her body, programmed to be a powerhouse.
Runners were a breed of their own; they had their incredible days and their
horrible days in competition. Every day on the track, trail, or wherever a
runner chose to run. The act itself was always a followed by a feeling of spiritual
completion.
“Don’t Call Me Baby,” by Madison Avenue was
cranked in Kayn’s ears. She kept pace to the beat, feeling powerful and strong.
Kayn grinned and made eye contact as she ran past her best friend Kevin,
signaling her acknowledgement of his presence.
Kevin sat listening to his music, plucking the
long, green strands of grass out of the ground by their roots. Kevin glanced up
from his grass picking duties the next time he saw Kayn approach and waved at
her. He displayed a giant charming toothy grin. It was a funny thing that he
had done since kindergarten. It never failed to induce laughter. She
acknowledged that she had seen him sitting there being a goof by shaking her
head and smiling with her eyes.
Kayn started walking to cool down her
overheated body. Her heart began to thump and pound in her chest like an act of
defiance to her now walking feet. Kayn licked the sweat from her upper lip,
tasting its salty, pleasurable reward. She took her track dust covered hand and
wiped her forehead to keep the stinging sweat from her eyes. Kayn wiped the
sweat on her shorts noticing the streaks of dirt mixed with sweat and wondered
if she had a streak of dust across her forehead.
Kayn turned in one fluid movement
to greet Kevin, whose grassy scent signaled his arrival by her side. His giant
grin told her that her face was most certainly covered in dirt, but he didn’t
mention it to her. He always cheered for her as if she had just won the
Olympics or something equally spectacular. Kayn yanked the earbud from one of
her ears.
“Holy crap,” Kevin yelled. “That’s your best time this year. You are
going to kick serious butt at the finals next month.”
“You know my earbuds are out, Kevin; I can hear
you.” Kayn spoke quietly.
“Oh, you think you’re pretty cool because you’re fast. Well, young lady,
plenty of people are fast, but how many people can do this?” Kevin retorted. He
did a peculiar dance that involved a twirl and some kind of running man move as
he laughed at her mortification.
“Please,
stop,” Kayn said as she surveyed the track and surrounding area for witnesses.
Kayn
Brighton was a pretty girl, but she really had no clue how beautiful she could
be. Her naturally curly, wheat colored hair was damp with perspiration and
always in a messy ponytail. Kevin often had told her with her face speckled
with freckles and her cute nose streaked with mud, that she resembled an
Amazonian sized forest nymph.
Kevin jogged beside Kayn now in order to keep
up with her and was struggling because she walked with long, model length
strides. He used to be the most adorable little boy on the planet, but there
was a point where he stopped feeling adorable. That was when she had surpassed
him in height. It was around the end of seventh grade. As a joke, their mothers
had been plotting their nuptials since the second grade, so that was a
complication that they had not anticipated.
Kevin had been in a painfully
awkward, acne covered stage for at least three years now. He was still
adorable, although possibly only to Kayn. However, she did notice that Kevin’s
skin was looking pretty clear today. Kayn smiled at him as he valiantly
attempted to run as fast as she was walking. Kayn affliction was very
different. Kayn was invisible. To her this was a good thing. It was her
preference to blend into the crowd.
“You are awesome. I mean that, and I’m totally
not saying that to butter you up so you’ll put a good word in with your
sister,” Kevin said with a grin that spread from ear to ear.
She
loved him to death, but she had been letting him down easy for ten years now.
She gave him a pat on the shoulder and then flung her arm around him.
She slowed down to a casual stroll
and sweetly said, “There’s just this one problem, muffin. My sister is way too
advanced for you.”
“Right… That’s what you say to all
the guys stalking your twin sister,” he countered with a grin at the cleverly
creative way of calling her sister slutty.
Kayn choked on a laugh and said,
“Yes, as a matter of fact it is exactly what I say to every single one of them.
I was forced to come up with one token line that I use with everyone. It just
saves time, darling.”
Kevin’s face crinkled into a
dimpled grin and he shook his head feigning his distaste. He responded in a
flirtatious voice, “I can’t believe that after all these years, I am merely a
number to you.”
She displayed a giant smile at his
attempt at innuendo. Maybe she would have even been a little flattered if the
conversation had been directed towards her.
Kayn
gave Kevin a friendly pat on the shoulder and said, “Just do yourself a favor;
take a hint. She is not the right girl for you.” Kayn slapped him on the butt. She
teased, “At least have the decency to warn me if you ever find yourself wanting
to wear my sister as a skin coat. I can try to get you some help.” Kevin let
out a small yelp, and he jumped from the sting of her hand. He shot a dirty
look back in her direction.
Kayn took on a fake serious tone and
said, “How hard can it be to arrange an intervention or a creepy exorcism or
something in your honor. I would hate to have to visit my best friend in a
padded cell somewhere.” She sent him a sweet, innocent look and waited for his
inevitable comeback.
“You’re really very clever, Candy
Kayn. You should have a comedy show or something,” he shot back at her.
“It would be hilarious if it wasn't
the truth,” Kayn challenged.
Kayn’s twin sister, Chloe Brighton,
was the perfected version of her. She was stylish and always the picture of
popularity and perfection. Her twin was described with words like captivating,
stunning, and provocative. Kayn, on the other hand, was blandly described as
cute, funny, and a good runner. It didn’t seem very fair; however, she loved
her sister with blind acceptance. They had always been extremely close but definitely
did not hang out in the same crowd. To be honest, Kayn had no crowd at all; it
was really just her and Kevin.
The only boys who ever had shown an
interest in Kayn were usually after her sister Chloe. Kayn, being less
sophisticated, would always fall for their games. She would think, maybe this
time the guy liked her. She would talk to them on the phone for a while, and
then inevitably they would ask to come over to hang out or maybe do some
homework together. Kayn would invite them over and right when her heart would
begin to flutter with the romantic possibilities of a goodnight kiss or how
incredible it would be to have an actual boyfriend, it would happen. They would
make their intentions obvious by saying something like, “Because we are such
good friends could you introduce me to your sister Chloe?”
Friends… an uncomplicated word, it
was also a word that Kayn had begun to hate at a very young age because of her
sister Chloe. That one single word had felt like the wind from a breath that
would blow out every single candle she had kept lit inside of her heart her
whole young life to date.
Kayn would be blatantly lying if she
said that the constantly repeating scenario didn’t breed some resentment toward
her sister. Still, she would never let it show. Not once had she ever freaked
out at her sister for stealing her imaginary boyfriends or simply for being completely
morally bankrupt.
Kayn had learned at a very young age
that Chloe didn’t follow the same ethical or moral codes that most people
followed. Kayn had this thing called a conscience which included guilt and a
little voice in her ear that repeated until she chose to listen to it, “Don’t do it, Kayn.” She was pretty sure
the voice talking to Chloe said, “Do it,”
every single time and there was really no need for sentiment or morality in
Chloe’s universe.
The giant self-contained universe
that seemed to revolve completely around Chloe was simply amazing. One could
stand with mouth agape for hours listening to the stories of horrific events
that Chloe had caused during a 24-hour period of time. It was as though her
sister were protected in her own little snow globe completely by herself and
life surrounded her. Once in a while someone stirred up her water, but it
simply revolved around her like everything else did, never really touching her
or swirling her around to lose a second of her control. Chloe was completely
unaffected by the world around her and stood unwavering through life’s
currents.
Kayn
couldn’t get really get mad at the
boys who fell
for Chloe because she truly believed
her sister had the mythical powers
of a siren. Chloe was alluring, enticing, and seemed to have
catnip for men on her
somewhere. Kayn often had felt like patting her down and checking
her pockets. She wondered how all
of this game had ended up in one of the babies and
not the other. They were in the
same womb after all, and it
didn’t really seem fair.
Kevin was
one person whose opinion she valued.
She could vent to him, and he understood.
He understood the power that
her sister held. They would joke about it on a regular basis,
but as soon as Chloe was in a ten-foot radius of him, he wasn't able
to tell you his own name. It
infuriated her to no end.
She stopped walking, and
she looked behind her. The track was
empty, but she
couldn't shake the feeling that she
was being watched.
She shivered as a gust of wind seemed
to run a trail down the track behind her stirring the dust
up into the air. I need a rest. I overworked myself today, she thought.
She shook her head as she looked
up at the trees that surrounded
the span of the track. They
were completely still. It was
smoking hot outside. She knew
a random cold spot in the middle
of a sweltering hot track was more
than a little bit strange. Kayn turned her attention back to her friend in an attempt to hush the nagging voice
in the back of her mind that was
repeating the words Something’s wrong.
“Did
someone walk over your grave?”
Kevin whispered in Kayn’s ear,
breaking the silence between them. She smiled at his quote from Grandma Winnie. One of the token things Kevin’s grandmother always said if someone shivered
in her presence. Kevin’s granny always
said a sneeze was a ghost walking
through you. If you shivered, she
would say that someone had walked over your grave. The retort
was always, “But I’m not dead, Granny.” Granny would answer with, “If only you knew how
irrelevant the word dead actually
is in the grande scheme of things.”
Kevin’s grandmother
seemed to have a direct line to the
spirit world. Nearly All of her random thoughts were more
than a wee bit creepy. Sometimes his grandmother would spend hours just
chatting with Kayn about her dreams.
Granny Winnie was a quirky, warm,
witty woman that had treasured her from day one. Kayn was a faithful member of Team Granny because she unlike the rest of the
planet seemed to despise her sister Chloe. Granny
Winnie couldn’t even breathe when Chloe was in the same room.
Granny would pretend to gasp for
oxygen or make some kind of foul
stench related declaration referring to Chloe. She was believable enough
to cause a “perfect in her own mind” Chloe to smell her own armpits. Chloe, being completely void of respect for her elders
or pretty much
anybody else, would refer to
her as a crazy old bat or a witch.
Often Granny Winnie would call
Chloe out on an evil deed or two as if she
could read her mind.
Strange weather we’ve been
having lately, Kayn thought as she watched
the clear blue
sky change in a matter of moments from completely cloudless to a powder of fluffy white clouds. She could smell the scent
of the fresh cut grass; it
was almost overpowering
to her senses. It was so potent
that it was
a little strange that she hadn’t
noticed it until right this second.
The pair walked quietly
for a second more when Kayn looked
down at her feet; as she shuffled through the grass the sounds
seemed to amplify. She could hear the
grass rustling under her feet;
it crackled loudly and whispered softly in her steps. Something feels off today. Kevin’s feet came into her line of sight. She raised
her eyebrows at him and pointed
to his untied shoelaces. Kevin bent over in front of her to tie up his shoes.
Kayn
began to speak as if she were
reading his obituary. “I can see the paper
now; it would read something like this: Kevin
Smith was a wonderful boy, so smart
and good looking
but a little clumsy. Had he
only tied his shoes he wouldn't have fallen down the
stairs and found himself impaled on a janitor’s broom. Remember kids—tie your
shoes—safety first.”
“Have I told you that you’re
an asshole yet today?” Kevin stated when she
finished her latest version of his obituary. Kayn didn’t have a comeback.
She glanced behind her and then from side
to side. She couldn’t shake the unnerving feeling that something was coming. There
was a hollow ache in her chest. A strange feeling
that lingered each time she swallowed.
Kevin leaned in to
Kayn’s ear and whispered, “You sure you’re okay because you’re starting to creep me out a bit with this cagey behavior.”
Kevin’s warm
breath in her ear made Kayn shiver again. Everything seemed heightened. She had the
strangest urge to lean over and kiss
him square on the lips. She was
obviously going a little bit crazy
today. Low blood sugar or something.
She replied, “No... just over tired
I guess.”
“The way you’re swinging your head around, young
lady, is frankly a little creepy,” Kevin said, raising his eyebrows in her direction
in a moderately concerned fashion.
He twirled around in a circle and added, “Nobody is coming, I swear.”
“I
know,” Kayn answered, “I’m feeling a little
off. Maybe I’m coming down with something?”
“We
should be more worried about
your cagey behavior today causing a nasty case
of whiplash.”
Kevin flung his arm
around her shoulder and gave her a buddy-like squeeze. “You
go have a shower,
muffin; you’re kind of sweaty and
nasty. What do you do?
Do you cover
yourself in bloody honey
before you go for a run?”
Kevin
chuckled as he smelled his hands and groaned, “Ewww, that’s not honey.”
Kayn
sparred, “There you go talking all
dirty again, literally; it’s kind
of hot, all this talk of toxins
and waste.”
“What
was your boyfriends’ name again, Kayn?” Kevin asked innocently.
They were walking
together, and she gave him a solid
shove in jest.
“You should call
up your invisible girlfriend and ask her what
her name is love monkey,” she said
and winked.
“I have a girlfriend. Her name is Chloe. She just doesn’t
know it yet,”
he teased.
He couldn’t help himself. She knew this.
He was well
aware that constant
talk of her sister irritated her to no end. It was
his easy smack down in a comedy standoff.
“Do
you know what
the difference between you and a stalker is?” she responded sweetly.
“Do tell, oh wise and
mighty stalking connoisseur,”
he sighed.
“It's whether or
not you’re wearing my sister’s stolen thong
underwear right now,” she said.
She attempted to wrestle
with Kevin a bit in order to catch a stealth look
down the back of his shorts.
“Hey, hey, simmer down. I swear I will yell rape. I'm
going commando. Pulling my
shorts off is not a great idea,” he laughed
as he fended her off.
“Like
you could handle me,” She chuckled.
She cringed with pain
as she shifted her bag to her other shoulder.
It always had
twenty pounds of books in it. She could never
memorize her locker combination. She was
utterly horrible with numbers. That was
her excuse. The real reason probably
being that she
would be obliged to speak to the vapid girls
that hung out around her locker.
She liked to be left alone in her own little world. Kevin grabbed her heavy bag off of her without saying a word.
“Hey,
I’ll have you know that I have
been going commando since my first wedgie in fifth grade. Once they grab
for underwear and don’t find
any, they get
very afraid and back right
off,”He chuckled.
Kayn doubled
over into a fit of giggles. She chuckled, “I honestly
don't doubt that for a second.”
“You
learn lots of little things that help you maneuver
through geekdom unscathed if you’re crafty, you
know,” he said
as they started walking again.
Kevin
was carrying both of their bags. She knew he
was being tough,
but she knew
how heavy her bag was. She
smiled and took
her bag back. It was in these
sweet little moments that she
wondered, Could they be something more? Would he ever make a move
on her? She wasn't sure if her friend
Kevin knew any moves. If he
ever had a second
where he had
allowed the thought to cross his mind, she had
probably reacted as she had a bit
earlier. She would have assumed it
was some kind
of joke. He caught her staring and knit his brow.
This was stupid. What was she even
thinking? She was hormonal or something today. He was
her friend.
Kayn was beginning to grow tired of the
fact that more
and more of their conversations had become centered around her sister.
She shot a somewhat
disapproving glance at Kevin and
said pleasantly, “Let’s stop talking about Chloe all of the time.
Frankly, I’m sick of it.”
“Shush,”
he said as he
put one finger directly over her pursed lips. “You
know not to speak of her
voodoo powers.”
The phrase “Chloe has a boyfriend” was easily compared to cursing out
loud in the Brighton household.
Her sister would find herself
running like she was on fire from every
boy she had
ever attempted to date. Seemingly normal
boys would gradually lose their marbles. It was as if
the pressure of being close to her would make their
sanity unfold like a reversal of an origami swan. It would start with a vehicle outside of the house in the
middle of the night, and rapidly
escalate. Once Chloe grew bored or
annoyed by their obsessive behavior. She inevitably dumped
them cold.
On occasion, random guys would break into their house and steal
objects that belonged to her.
In the beginning, the police thought
Chloe must be doing something to bring
this on herself, but after she went in for
a couple interviews at the police station
and full grown
men couldn’t help but fawn all
over her sister. They all understood what
Kayn had always known.
“We shouldn't even be
joking about this stuff. The breakups with the last three or
four of her boyfriends turned
out to be pretty damn scary situations,”
she said in a hushed tone. The last thing Kayn needed was to be caught talking
about it by one of her sisters
minions.
Kevin turned
and gave her a strange look that said, think about what you just
said for a second,
and they both
broke into a fit of giggles.
A giant stinging slap followed on her spandex running short covered butt.
There stood Chloe. Kayns infamous,
and moderately evil twin. A
living breathing cover girl commercial gracing us with her
badass presence. Chloe smiled
at her, and gave a slight glance acknowledging Kevins presence. He turned
ten shades of red as though she had whispered
something dirty in his ear. He’s completely pathetic, Kayn thought, shaking her head.
Chloe
threw an arm around her, then jumped away
saying, “Ewww, yuck, gross, you’re all sweaty
and nasty. Listen, you
backstabbing witch with a B, I’m
not feeling that hot today. I’m
on my way home. Do you need
a ride?” She said.
Chloe
always donned a giant, gorgeous, show
stopping smile. It was like every
moment of her life was one strange, endless,
beauty pageant.
She had a sarcastic
sense of humor that Kayn never took
seriously. “I’m not going home. I'm going
to go have a shower, and then
go to Kevin’s house for dinner,” Kayn replied.
Chloe
leaned over and kissed her sister’s
sweaty cheek, quietly whispering, “Yes, go have that
shower.”
Chloe
sighed, “I’m grounded again for
no good reason.
I will see you later Sis.”
“Shocking,”
Kevin murmured as they walked away.
Kayn
suspected that her sister Chloe got herself grounded on purpose. Just to have a forced
break from her social responsibilities. If there were medals in the
Olympic games doled out for
groundings achieved in a three-year period
of time. Her sister Chloe had the equivalent of a gold medal.
“Bye,
Kevy.” Chloe yelled behind her as she
flounced off.
“Yup, voodoo powers,”
Kevin whispered to Kayn.
“I
heard that Kevin. You're a little stinker,” she yelled back.
Kayn
smiled at Kevin, casually adding, “I bet when
you thought of sexy nicknames she would call you in your fantasies,
little stinker wasn’t one of
them.”
She couldn’t help herself; he’d left it
wide open, and
she was on a roll. Kevin turned around and socked
her in the arm.
She stopped, turned
around, and said, “Seriously, you hit me. I can’t believe you would do that.”
She glared at him and feigning pain rubbed her arm looking
genuinely upset.
“I was just kidding. I didn’t
actually hurt you, did I?” Kevin whispered.
He knew he
had been had
when Kayn’s serious look crumbled into a grin, and she
said, “Woman abuse,” she smoked him on the arm twice
as hard.
“What
woman? I don’t see a woman anywhere
around here. Oh, you mean you?”
he countered as he rubbed his still throbbing
arm. Kevin pretended to be looking around for
a moment.
“I
will butt you out like a cigarette, little man!” She made
a fist for a joke duel.
Kevin
glared at her. Oh, no—the expression. Game over. Whoops...She
had gone too
far. It was all fun
and games until she made one too
many short jokes
with Kevin.
“I
am not little,” he said. Kevin stomped towards the covered entrance to the facility.
“Okay,
how about vertically challenged,”
Kayn said innocently.
She was digging
her own grave, and she knew
it. Kevin could argue for hours. He
could debate something forever
and wear anyone out.
“I
might look short to an Amazonian
like you,” he countered.
“Touché,”
she said smiling.
She did know
better than to push it anymore because if he kept
it up, the laughter
she had been
trying to suppress would escape.
“I am still growing,” he said
as his voice cracked a little. Kayn doubled over laughing. She couldn’t help it with the
well-timed voice crack.
“Can
you please be done laughing now,”
Kevin said as they walked into the fitness
center.
“I’ll see you outside in fifteen minutes, you sexy
stud,” she whispered,
sultry as a porn star. Kayn was
still grinning as she pushed through the door to the
girls’ changing room.
“Quit mocking me,
Amazonian woman,” he yelled dramatically from behind her.
As she
entered the changing room, Kevin’s last joking retort bounced off the marvelous
acoustics of the concrete and tile room.
Her feet were still throbbing from her well worn shoes. The
tiles on the floor were icy
and soothed her aching feet. In a matter of months, she had already
worn her shoes out from running. She knew
they didn't have the money
to replace her running shoes every five minutes.
Both of her parents had jobs, but
she knew that
they were barely
making ends meet. She decided
she would wait awhile before telling her mom. She dropped her shoes.
The sound as they landed on the
tiles echoed. It repeated a few
times as if someone had dropped more
than one pair of shoes.
Kayn was just dying to sing
in the shower but was afraid
that someone would walk in on
her. She pulled her tank top and
bra off and looked into the mirror.
With a clear view of the room around her, she could see that
nobody else was there. She was alone.
She thought of Kevin waiting.
Then she remembered
that there was a coffee machine in the lobby by the
pool. Kevin was probably having a coffee and ogling
the girls swim
team; he was
fine.
Kayn
stripped down and stood naked in front
of the mirror for a second. She
pulled her hair out of her
ponytail, and it fell in damp loose
ringlets across her bare shoulders. She tilted
her head to one side and posed seductively with a smile as she surveyed
her reflection.
Kayn Brighton was
not hard to look at, and she knew
that she was
a pretty girl. Maybe I should start wearing makeup to school, she thought.
It frustrated her a little, being the
funny kind of dorky twin. Her face was
freckled and tanned from hours upon hours of training in the hot
sun. In the winter time, all
of her freckles went away, and her skin
was porcelain white. I could look
just like Chloe if I wanted to, Kayn thought, sucking in her cheeks and then plastering
a giant pageant style smile across her face.
Kayn walked
toward the shower stalls. She stopped and
glanced over her shoulder at
her reflection in the mirror. The conversation
with her sister flashed through
her memory. Chloe
was feeling sick today; that’s
what was going
on then. Kayn quite often had sympathy
illness whenever her twin wasn’t feeling one hundred percent.
Kayn turned
around, pulled the plastic curtain
to the shower, and leaned in to turn
on the water. It began to tap
dance against the bottom of the stall, and when it
was just the
right temperature she stepped inside.
She smiled as the water beat
against her weary muscles. She began to lather
herself up with the nice
scented pump soap. Today was her lucky day;
a fresh full dispenser of soap, shampoo, and conditioner. She didn’t even have
to reach down and find her own
in the bottom of her gym bag.
With her favorite
running song still going through her mind, she started humming
a few bars and
then began to sing the words.
Just then she
heard the door
open, and she
became silent. She hurried through,
rinsing herself off, and towel dried her hair.
She ran her brush through her hair and put it
back in a ponytail. As she passed by the
mirror again, she wondered if
Chloe ever wanted to be more like her. She quickly blew off that
completely nutty idea.
Kayn was
five minutes younger than her
sister Chloe, but her twin acted five years
older. Kayn had no voodoo powers with men; she was
awkward and definitely possessed no game at all.
She wondered if she asked
Chloe how she did it if she would she teach
her something…anything. It
would be nice to have someone
ask her on a date before she was eighty years
old.
Kayn had to
admit it bugged
her that Kevin obsessed about Chloe, not that she seriously
liked him or anything because that was most
definitely not a good move friendship-wise; there was that ominous word
again…friends.
Kayn towel dried her back again,
feeling trickles of water from
her still damp hair trail down her back. She stepped
into her underwear and wondered why her mind
kept travelling the road back
to questioning her feelings for Kevin today. Kayn shook the thought
out of her head and whipped her clothes back on. She grabbed
her bag and hurried out the door,
hoping he wasn’t
too frustrated waiting for her. She forced
open the door
with an over-exaggerated grunting sound.
Kevin was sitting on the railing
waiting patiently and looking up
at the sky with his mouth agape in a totally comical way.
Kayn
walked up beside him and teased, “Trying to catch flies?”
“Always,” Kevin sparred
with a dimpled grin and quick wit.
“What
are we looking at?” Kayn said as she stared
up toward the heavens and made
the same open-mouth face of awe.
“Come
with me, and I’ll show you,” Kevin laughed. He grabbed her hand,
and they started
to walk toward the field.
Kayn had lived this moment a thousand times. Kevin lay down in the grass, and
she lay beside him.
“Oh, wow I get it; look at how
fast the clouds
are moving. I noticed that earlier; it’s
almost creepy. I wonder if there’s
a storm coming or something?” Kayn whispered.
As Kayn lay peacefully in the grass, suddenly a sharp pain seared
through her core. She grabbed her stomach, sucked a deep breath
in and gasped, “What the hell was
that?”
“You okay, Brighton?” He sat
up and touched
her arm.
Kayn
winced again and doubled over,
her insides afire with another
strange penetrating pain. Kevin placed his hand on her stomach, watching her face calm. The pain
disappeared again as quickly as it had
begun.
He looked at her and
stated, “You probably need a big glass
of water, maybe some dinner?”
She stood up, trying
to shake off a sense of impending danger that had been replaying in her mind. With the pain
suddenly gone, she said, “Yeah, that’s
probably it.”
“Did
you skip lunch
again?” he scolded
with a disapproving look on his face.
“I
do believe that
I did not eat lunch today.”
There
was a very simple
explanation for the sharp undefined
pain that she
had experienced. Kayn was often practicing
at lunchtime and would forget
to eat. She felt the urge to look
behind her again. She looked around in every
direction trying to shake off the uncomfortable
feeling that had been plaguing her all afternoon. Something in her mind was still
whispering, Be careful, Kayn.
She shook off the anxious
feeling, remembering that the last
horror movie that she had
watched with Kevin only days earlier had
taken place at a lake. There they stood
by the turn off to Lakeshore
Drive. It’s all in my mind, Kayn thought. She started to laugh
a little at her seriously
overactive imagination. Kevin had
looked a little concerned earlier, but he
now had obviously
recalled the hillbilly
cannibal movie that they had watched
the week before. He kneeled in the
grass and picked
up a handful of it and he smelled
it.
“Just what I thought,”
he said looking
seriously concerned now.
“What is it?” she asked.
“It’s hillbilly urine; we had better get our tasty selves home
before they come to eat us,” Kevin said, pointing toward home proving if
there was ever any doubt that
he had no acting ability at all.
“Let’s
get out of here, you geek,” Kayn said shaking her head at him and smiling.
“Okay,
let’s go to my house. It’s got
to be like five by now; dinner’s
probably on the table,” Kevin said and smiled again.
They looked at each
other and smiled
and started running through the field before the trails.
This was the
ritual race home they’d had
since they had first been allowed
out of their yards alone as children. Kevin had always been sneaky.
He knew using
fair play there was no possible
way to beat Kayn in a race. He shoved
her over per usual, and she fell with a gentle
thud into the grass.
“Cheater,” she yelled, out of breath as he kept running
away from her. She lay sprawled dramatically in the grass laughing.
Kevin was laughing
hysterically as he covered a good twenty feet.
“Cheater,” she yelled again and slowly
rose to her feet spitting out the freshly mown grass from her mouth.
She would let him win; it was
good for him to win sometimes. Kayn could take one for the
team today, especially to see him this happy.
Kevin let
out an obnoxiously loud cheer as he vaulted
over the fence to his yard. He raised
his arms in a silent fake fanfare and
took a bow. He had never
once won graciously in the whole ten years
of their friendship.
Sure enough, they walked
inside Kevin’s house to the amazing smells of his mother’s cooking. Her stomach began to grumble
loudly the second
that they walked
into the house. The delicious aroma
of Kevins mothers cooking filled her senses.
Kevin’s
mom greeted her with a giant bear hug and
said, “Hello there, beautiful. Go wash
your hands and I’m not going to ask
you why you
are both just covered in grass.”
His mom raised her eyebrows curiously and added, “We are at the table ready
to eat so hurry
up, you two.”
She glanced
into the mirror and pulled the
grass out of her hair letting a little smile
escape as she washed her hands in the bathroom sink.
She started giggling as she thought
about how wrong it looked when
two teenagers of the opposite sex showed
up covered in grass. Well, anyone else—with them platonic
wrestling would be completely
normal. Kayn was sure that if
her dad walked in and they were
wrestling on her bed. He wouldn’t even flinch.
Kayn sat at
her usual spot at the table with his family. Kevins family mirrored her own. They were always
cracking jokes, and talking loudly
about their day.
She loved everything about the Smith house, from the mismatched
frames filled with family photos in the dining room to the extremely
outdated green shag carpet in the living
room. The living
room was completed
with a mismatched, yet cozy, couch set with two fluffy lounging felines that could always
be easily seen from the dining room table.
Kayn swore they had not moved an inch
in years.
Kevin’s
granny sat at the end of the table,
her wispy white hair wildly
untamed. Kayn could envision Kevin’s grandmother as a beautiful younger woman. There was a black and white picture in the hallway. Beautiful didn’t quite encompass
Granny in her youth, for she had been
enchanting. She had rich crimson
curls and exquisitely
structured high cheek bones. There was obvious
power, and immeasurable
strength of spirit in her innocent wide doe eyes. Physically she
looked as thin and frail as a newborn
fawn. She had untold stories in her eyes. She was
a girl with many secrets. The chapters
were written in the creases of her smile. She was
not the picture of pin up perfection, but she had
an unexplainable quality that made
you curious. You wanted to know
more about her with one look
into her eyes. Granny had worn the same
shade of dark blood burgundy lipstick even then. She always
wore lipstick ten shades too dark, and
her teeth were worn, yellowed from age, always seeming to have something stuck in them. If she got
some false teeth
it would make her look ten years younger,
but she didn’t
seem to care in the least. She
stared at Kayn the whole meal without speaking a single word to her. It was
very unusual.
Kayn
couldn’t help herself; she said, “Is there something wrong?”
“You
know something is amiss, don’t you?” Granny whispered. It was
as if she were
afraid of the words that might slip from her lips.
“Kayn had some stomach pain
earlier; she’s probably coming down with the flu or something,” Kevin answered for her.
“Perhaps,”
Granny Winnie replied.
She glanced back
down at her plate. Granny looked a little
bit ill herself today. It looked
as though she had more to say,
but for once
remained silent.
She looked directly
into Kayn’s eyes with unmasked sadness
and said, “Always listen to your instincts, child. They are never
wrong.”
As Kayn was preparing
to leave, Granny stood up and made
her way over to Kayn, hugging
her so tightly that she had to squirm
away in order to breath.
Granny leaned in and
whispered something in Kayn’s ear,
“You survive. You fight hard.”
Granny
Winnie always said very strange, random,
and sometimes ominous things. Kayn knew that there would be a
three-hour long conversation
about spiritual things if she asked
her what she meant.
Kayn excused
herself to go to the bathroom. She attempted
to call home on her cell. It went
straight to voicemail. Chloe was probably on
the phone; heaven forbid she ever had
some kind of crisis and needed
to talk to her own parents.
Chloe had
a cell phone, too, but was
always grounded from it; yet they still
let her talk on the landline which meant nobody else could get through;
heaven forbid, someone spend two dollars on an extra line or
call waiting.
She sat on the toilet
trying her mom’s cell; she was obviously
going to be a few minutes late tonight. Then she put
her phone down after leaving a message and sneaked down the
hall to Kevin’s room for a quick prank
or two before she went home.
Kevin’s mom gave
her a bag with some fresh eggs in it
for her mom. It was starting to get
dark, so Kevin’s dad offered to drop
her off at home. She thanked him with a huge hug as she got
out of the car. The air smelled
amazing, like cherry blossoms
in full bloom. It must have been
raining while they were eating
dinner.
Kayn stepped
out of the car, into a puddle, and twisted
her ankle. Of course, she thought.
Soaked foot, eggs and school
bag in hand, she limped up the
steep driveway toward the front door.
The door was
partially open which was not normal. However
it was a little
windy out and quite normal for
the door to be unlocked, so maybe
it was left
ajar, flung open by the wind?
She turned around to see that Kevin’s dad had
driven away. Kayn felt off, apprehensive as she walked toward the door that seemed
to have a life of its own. The door
shifted from cracked open then almost shut
again with the wind. She looked
at her cell phone. It was a quarter
after eight. This was obviously a prank. They had left
the front door
open, and entrance
lights off to freak her out.
Chloe was probably hiding around the corner. Practical jokes were an almost
daily occurrence in the Brighton household.
It was almost dark
outside. She stopped again for
a second time, feeling uneasy for
some reason as she walked up the
long gravel driveway. Her heart felt tight, and
her chest felt hollow as she paused
again. The surrounding
giant trees made it extra dark
in her yard. The slivers of light flashed
through the trees as they moved in the wind.
They lived in a beautiful area but very
isolated. Kayn shoved her cell back in her pocket,
and pocket dialed
Kevin by accident. She stepped toward the darkened
doorway’s threshold and paused for a moment
again before pushing the doorway completely open
“I’m home,” Kayn yelled
as she walked in the door, kicking
off her shoes and dropping her school bag.
She tried clicking on the front hall
light; it was
burned out or something. Kayn
had seen lights
on upstairs as she walked up the
driveway, so she knew the
power wasn’t out. It’s just a burned out light bulb,
she thought.
As Kayn tried to pull off her wet socks, she
tried to balance on one leg, but a small
stab of pain from her freshly
twisted ankle caused her to put her hand against the wall
in order to balance herself.
Her hand slid off the wall, and
she struggled to pull her second soaking wet sock off.
She massaged her ankle
for a second and noticing it
was swollen, said aloud, “Great, there goes the track
meet.”
“Kevin’s
mom gave us eggs,” she said, speaking
in almost a whisper, suddenly aware that
she seemed to be alone in the house.
Where would they have gone this
late? Her mind began to sort through the possible scenarios.
“Mom…Dad?”
she called out from the front doorway.
Kayn
was answered by silence, and then
touching the wall, she felt
the stickiness on her hand. She held
her hand up to the faint sliver of light
streaming through the trees that made it
to the doorway. The palm of
her hand was covered in blood. Ripples of
adrenaline coursed through her body. She felt as if
thousands of spiders had run
across the surface her skin. Kayn froze for
a split second, paralyzed
with fear, shivers of terror crawling across her flesh. She started to gingerly
step backwards out the door. She saw
movement in the form of a dark figure
in the hallway.
She heard her sister’s voice scream, “Run, Kayn.” It was raw,
primal, and shrill.
She turned and
ran, bringing the eggs in her hand
with her. She knew that someone was behind her. She could sense them there. She knew there was
no time to look
behind her. Kayn ran with no rhyme or reason
in the direction that she was
pointed in. She slipped in the wet
grass, turned around somehow, and
then she saw
the opening to the trails in the
distance. It seemed to beckon her toward its mouth.
The neighbor behind them was closer
than the neighbors on either side of them, making the trails
a somehow logical yet illogical split second decision. Kayn wasn’t able to think or
breathe, and her basic animalistic instinct for survival was
guiding her.
She had let go
of the bag of eggs halfway across the back lawn,
throwing them behind her, hoping
to slow her attacker. Kayn sprinted toward the trail’s opening, its entrance overgrown with foliage. She
burst through the branches which had partially hidden the
familiar pathway. The branches of the prickle
filled blackberry bush tore at her flesh as she pushed through.
The pain heightened
her survival instinct which now possessed her. It was only
that which drove her forward.
Kayn barreled into the overgrown trail,
forcing her way through where she instinctually remembered the trail
had been. She
had played in these trails as a child. She had
found a place to hide a thousand times, but there was no
time for strategy
or thought. The crunching of leaves and twigs in the
pathway behind her told her he
was close; far
too close to do anything but react.
Kayn slipped in the mud again, skidding
yet not falling. She ignored the
stinging of her knees, thrusting her body with a violent jolt as if
starting a run on the track. Kayn had
now lost that
precious half a second lead; it
had allowed her hunter to close the
space between them.
Her heart pounded in her chest threatening to burst right through her skin as her tired legs propelled
her body through the winding bike trail. The rocks and
clay mud cut
her bare feet. The sharp reaching
twigs and branches
slashed at her legs, and the prickle
bushes sliced at her flesh.
“You
have to run faster, Kayn, run faster,” her sister’s voice mind screeched
inside of Kayn’s terror driven
mind.
Kayn heard the branches crunching
behind her; the dark figure’s rhythm, as steady as the rhythm
of her running. He was so close behind her that she could feel
his breath on her hair and neck as he
panted. He was
almost touching her. He was so fast, inhumanly fast;
she needed a rush of adrenaline to edge her ahead.
Kayn could see
lights from someone’s house peeking through the trees. She was going
to make it, she thought as her bare feet pounded
over the rocks and twigs slashing
at her ankles and legs; she was
almost there. She drove herself forward knowing she
had only a half
second lead from the hunter that
pursued her. She was
almost to safety…just
over the creek. Her bare feet hit
the small wooden
bridge…she was almost there.
Kayn felt the elation of victory
as she was about to burst through the bushes when she
felt heat plunge
into her back. Her eyes widened in terror as the knife plunged
into her again; its blade seared a molten trail
of excruciating pain through her body.
A sweaty hand
muffled her gasp of shock as she sunk to her knees
in disbelief.
Her captor’s arms
were slick with perspiration; like a python, they constricted around her neck crushing her larynx. Screaming and
pleading for her life was now impossible.
He continuously brought her
to the brink of strangulation
and then shook
her awake, harshly reviving her.
Kayn tried
to close her eyes; maybe he would believe
her to be gone. He would leave her in the trails
to bleed alone, allow her to slip peacefully away, becoming
one with the forest floor around her. Instead every time her eyes
slipped shut she felt the
slicing, searing pain of his knife again and
again in her stomach and chest until her eyes opened wide
with terror. The next pain stole
Kayn’s breath causing blood to sputter from her mouth. She gazed
ahead of her and through the trees which were glimmering in flashing flickering light; she saw
a figure in the distance.
Help me, oh, God, please help me; see me, please,
I’m right here,
Kayn’s mind screamed. She could see his shadow on his patio through the trees in the luminescence
of his porch lights; he was so close. A man
was on the back
porch having a cigarette.
He punched her stomach or cut her…she
was unable to distinguish one kind of brutality from another…only
that something was searing a hot excruciating fire through her stomach. He’s killing me…please, her soul pleaded as her vision blurred from her tears. Kayn
couldn’t speak; she tried to scream; her throat crushed, the
only sound she
could make was a gurgling as she choked and
sputtered out her own blood.
Why, why are you doing this to me? Her mind cried to the
stranger who breathed quickly with joyous excitement and stimulation in her ear. She felt the
competing rhythms of their pounding hearts, her back against his chest. She saw the
twigs and rocks
on the forest floor around her. Kayn could smell damp moss and the
scent of tree sap and the sweet
metallic taste of her own blood.
On her hands,
she could feel the warm stickiness
that she bled
out into the dirt, trickling down her arms as it escaped from her body. Her clothing was heavily soaked
in her essence that moistened the earth
around her. He let her go for a second;
she landed on all fours and tried
to crawl away, but she couldn’t will her body to move forward.
She couldn’t breathe.
Now on her knees, her breath came in short
labored attempts. She tried to grasp
ahold of the ground with her
fingertips. His hot repulsive
breath and quiet
laughter echoed in her ear again and
then he began
whispering things that Kayn couldn’t understand. His hot sweaty body
was behind her pressing
against her back. She felt her stomach churning, revulsion mixed with blinding pain.
She tried one last
struggling movement to get away from his grasp, and then
suddenly felt some horribly blinding pain across
her head and face. The lights
flickered and then went out.
In the woods lay a bleeding
angel in all her glory. Her arms posed
gracefully above her head, and her hair soaked
in the mud, blood, and feces
in which she lay. Dying, fading into the other
realm, her form was christened by the rain as though
the trees had begun to weep upon her for the brutality
she had endured.
There was someone waiting in the trails;
a dark presence lingered nearby waiting for her to regain consciousness.
Kayn awoke
in frigid darkness. The pain that
pulsated through her seemed
to recycle in waves until it began to slowly
dull and became
a tolerable numbness. She struggled to open
and focus her eyes. She could smell
a familiar scent; it smelled overpoweringly sweet but somehow
like metal. Kayn could taste the sweet repulsive
flavor of it in her mouth; it made
her want to vomit.
She was lying in mud,
and she felt
hot stickiness behind her. She suddenly remembered
what that taste
had been. It
was her own blood that she
could taste inside of her mouth. Kayn could not manage a single breath. Shuddering,
she began to relive the brutality that
she had experienced.
Her mind began feeding her slivers, flashes of inhuman savagery. Her mind numb and disoriented
from blood loss clicked
through scattered memories
from her childhood.
Help me, please, her mind
pleaded into the forest through the tapping sounds of the rain
tapping the branches above where she lay. They
seemed to be shielding her, and
as her vision came into focus she imagined the lush green
branches above as giant arms. They protected
her, covering her from the elements allowing her one last peaceful moment.
They are beautiful,
she thought. Her mind wandered through mystical visions of the majestic
cedar trees alive and somehow capable of offering her protection. The calm smile
on her face that had been contorted with anguish signaled his essence back to her.
Her
vision came into focus and once
again the trees came to life. They
cackled and mocked her." You’re going to die, you
silly bitch," they chanted.
They waved their branches, howling as the wind
whistled through the trails which had suddenly
become icy cold.
Kayn’s consciousness snapped back to reality; she had lost a lot of blood…none of this was real.
A man stood by that
same tree whose imaginary arms had
shielded her from the rain, still waiting, veiled in mist. The change
in temperature had caused the forest
floor to come alive with a dancing mist that seemed to add a thickness
to the tapping sound of the rain drops.
Writhing in
the mud, Kayn willed her body to move; her fingers clawed at the ground
around her until she was spent. She lay
in stillness for a moment, feeling like a half dead animal
waiting to be finished off by
its hunter. She concentrated on each breath…in and out…a little air. She was
alive. It felt like she was
breathing through a straw and somebody had
pinched the end.
The streams of light from the moon that had
been dancing through the dark stormy
clouds had now
vanished, leaving only a cold dark night with no final visions
of beauty. Kayn longed for some light
but was left
with only the flickering of
blurry dark images. She couldn’t see anything in the absence of light
and began to panic again, for she
could feel her grasp on her life being absorbed
into the mist. I’m so scared; I don’t
want to die; please help me, her soul sobbed. The
only answer was the crackling quiet sound of the
rain.
Kayn couldn’t see
anything at all now with her vision clouded with tears, so she had
to stop herself from crying.
Her head pounded with the blinding pain that had abruptly returned. She could sense that he was still
nearby watching her. His dark
shadow loomed in the distance as it
had in the hallway
of her house.
Please, please, no more, Kayn begged in her mind as he came
closer to her, standing a few
feet away from her now, watching with his head tilted to one side. Her heart was
begging, please don’t hurt
me anymore.
Kayn was trying to wriggle, but no movement
came from her now. She willed herself to grasp at the moist
cold earth with her fingers. She was
unable to move at all; now her body
was nothing more than a broken shell. How cruel
for her mind to still see; to still desire life
at this point. Kayn looked into his eyes. In them, one easily read desperate
plea, why are you doing this
to me?
She was so cold
her body gave an involuntary shudder. Kayn realized then that she
was naked, completely
exposed to the elements. Why was
she naked? Her eyes were full
of tears again; she felt instant,
almost overwhelming shame. Kayn could still feel the sticky
heat behind her as her blood drained from her body, soaking into the dirt.
The pain in her head began to numb
as the lights through the trees began to flicker again.
The dark mass of her violator suddenly appeared beside her, leaning in so close
that she could smell his putrid breath,
moist over her face. Every hair on her body was standing
on end. The electrical power between Kayn and the man in the
dark was like a charge.
He ran a finger
over her exposed breast and said, “You were never to be born; this situation had
to be corrected.”
Kayn
saw his knife glint in the light
from the moon. It was raised
above her chest. Yes, she thought, let it be over now. She
shut her eyes as the knife sliced into her chest. Kayn opened her eyes again with acceptance;
she felt no more pain.
She stared deeply
into his eyes as hers filled
with tears.
He tried to regain
his composure and with a voice thick with emotion
he said, “To this life unto the
next.”
He slowly began
to cut some kind of symbol on the skin on Kayn’s chest above her heart. She lay limp
in his arms, still conscious of what was happening, yet
free from the pain and fear
now. He pulled
her close to cradle her naked body in his arms like a baby, rocking her broken, violated flesh in his arms, stroking her blood soaked hair. He
began to sob as if he were
repentant in some way for how he
had tortured her.
As her vision flickered one last time, the
man was gone;
it was her mother
looking into her eyes. Her mother’s eyes were
filled with so much love that
it seemed to release her from her pain and fear as it
had when she
was a small child. Her mother cradled her as a baby, rocking her back and forth.
She was safe
now in her mother’s arms. She was
at peace. Mommy, her heart sang,
you’re here to save me.
The warmth of her mother’s love enveloped her tortured soul. She looked
into her mother’s eyes. She touched Kayn’s face and started
to sing a song that she had
sung to her every night when she
was very small.
Sleep, sweet
sleep till the morning
Just dream away
and close your eyes
My love you’ll be safe until the morning
Sleeping in my heart, all through the night
Although bad dreams come to scare
you
My love will scare them all away
My heart…
The lights flickered, the pain went
away, and her mother was holding
her, singing: “Sleep, sweet sleep.”
The Beginning