by Tony C. Skye
Lilith pauses with her communication while changing directions and heading closer to the wall. She reaches up and touches another family emblem engraved into to the wall’s surface.
“I believe they call that sort of thing a coma, if I am correct.”
“That’s terrible,” Julianna responds, “Is that why grams refuses to come here?”
Lilith lowers her hand and turns around. She steps away from the wall and heads towards her rock.
“It is,” Lilith answers sadly.
Lilith points behind herself while continuing her journey. She points at the wall where she was just standing.
“That would be your mother, Theresa.”
“My mom?”, Julianna answers with a bit of excitement. She walks over to the wall and immediately runs her fingers around the outside circle. The lines are closer than the first insignia she examined. She smiles.
Her eyes are, then, drawn to a triangle within the family’s emblem. It, too, is surrounded by a circle. Only this circle is made up of three lines of curvature. There is some difference, however, from this one and the two she has already examined. The inner circle is wavy – not a perfect circle like the other ones she has seen.
“What’s the triangle mean?”
Lilith turns and sits with her legs crossed upon her rock. She glances to where Julianna’s fingers are now tracing over the triangle.
“It has many meanings, but mainly it refers to direct generational connections. The outer circle would be Martha, the middle – Theresa, and the inner one is you. The spaces in between are your connections to one another.”
Julianna saddens as she sees the larger gap between her mother and herself versus her grandmother and her mom. She fights back her torn emotions by focusing in on the circle representing her.
“Why is mine all wavy?”, Julianna questions.
“It has always represented someone who will split prophecy.”
Julianna turns around with curious eyes.
“I thought mom…”
“Theresa tried,” Lilith quickly interrupts, “But she was not successful. The wall does not reflect what could be. If reflects what has been and what will be.”
“So I will split the prophecy?”
Lilith shakes her head with a smile.
“Wait,” Julianna responds with her head retreating, “I don’t get it. I’m confused.”
Lilith turns to her right and points at the wall, “That is you. Go and take a look.”
Julianna walks towards the direction given. She stops about ten feet past Lilith’s favorite rock and examines the wall. The circles surrounding her personal insignia are made up of wavy lines. She can’t see any separation among them. Reaching up to verify what her eyes are telling her, Julianna is unable to feel anything, but one thick wavy line.
“How can this be? I don’t understand.”
“I had trouble with it, also,” Lilith confesses, “But today, you explained it clearly.”
Julianna turns her attention onto Lilith.
“That doesn’t make any sense. I don’t remember explaining anything. I don’t even know what I’m looking at.”
Lilith smiles before giving her answer, “You came here without the need of drink or death.”
“So…”
“So, my dear child, there is no separation between the realms for you. This means the only danger you can incur is brought on by your own actions. What you do in one place or the other will have the consequences of what may or may not happen to you. But traversing, itself, holds no power over you. Do you understand?”
“Not really, but kinda. I guess.”
“I have seen every generation from my bloodline,” Lilith continues, “I have seen them all. Not one of them has ever had those markings, child. You are the only one. Your presence here has changed the rules.”
“It’s not that difficult.”
Lilith turns her back on Julianna and peers out towards the earth-line.
“For you it is not,” Lilith continues, “But for everyone before you, it has been impossible.”
Lilith turns back around so she can see Julianna. The woman with many braids stares intently before speaking, “I have had many who have desired to please me, but could not because of the rules. I have seen many more who would give anything to come and go freely without the dangers to their physical bodies always looming overhead.”
Lilith pauses – her eyes adore the woman standing by the wall.
“Dear child,” Lilith continues, “Almost all of them have desired to be you. And yet, you have been so eager to rid yourself of the very life they all wished for, but could never obtain.”
Julianna looks down guiltily. The sand around her feet is black. She looks up and scans the beach off in the distance. Everywhere she has touched, the sand remains black with the paintings of her presence. After a few moments, she eventually turns her green emerald gaze back upon Lilith.
“And how many have you desired to please?”
Lilith’s mouth parts slightly. She retreats her head before turning her back upon the young woman.
“I have never desired it,” Lilith states flatly, “It was never a possibility.”
Julianna lifts her left forearm up to her open mouth. She sinks her teeth into her arm and clamps down tightly. She bites until tears begin falling down both of her cheeks. The young woman lowers her arm and quietly walks over to Lilith. She crawls upon the rock and touches the woman’s bare back. Lilith lets out a gasp.
“I want to live,” Julianna whispers adoringly.
* * *
Gale Marshall pushes the button to power down the monitor overseeing Julianna’s room. She flips her shoulder-length curly-brown hair over her right shoulder and turns her attention towards the recorder.
“Did you get it already?”
“Got it,” Alexandria Thompson confirms while tying her sandy-blond hair into a ponytail. She watches the time-loop synchronization she finished setting up on the recorder before turning to look at Gale.
“No one will know any different,” Alexandria informs, “We just can’t forget to switch it all back.”
“How long do we have?”
“About an hour, but that’s probably pushing it a little. We need to keep it to thirty minutes or less if we can – less conspicuous.”
Gale glances back to the monitor she powered down. She grins. Her friend rotates her office chair and stands up. Gale follows suit and joins her in a walk towards the laundry room.
“Wish I could do that,” Gale comments while her friend and colleague lifts up the divider separating the station from the hallway.
Alexandria laughs, “I’m not sure I wouldn’t become addicted to sleep-aids.”
The two women change pace and go about their business in a more professional-like manner. They enter the laundry room, gather up some supplies, and quickly leave. Heading back towards their patient’s room, Gale visits the last room on the left before approaching the nurse’s station. She retrieves a medical cart and she pushes it out into the hallway. Alexandria places the clean linen they just gathered onto the bottom shelf. Gale looks down the hall as she begins pushing the cart towards the patient’s room.
“You ready for this?”
“As ready as I can be,” Alexandria answers truthfully, “It’s not like I’d rather be doing anything else. I enjoy the idea of cleaning up after women at a brothel. It’s the whole reason I entered the medical field.”
Gale glances to her right, “Let’s just get in, get it done, and be on our way.”
“Oh…that’s the plan. I thought we were going in there to join the party. My mistake.”
Gale shakes her head with a slight grin as they pass the nurse’s station and cross the hallway. She watches Alexandria step up to the door and swipe her security badge through the lock. The locking mechanism clicks right before Alexandria turns the handle. The long hair blond, quietly, opens the door and looks to her left.
“After you,”
Alexandria whispers. She follows up on her words with a devious smile.
Gale rolls her eyes as she pushes the cart in front of her friend. She, playfully, brushes her right arm against Alexandria as she enters into the room. When she stops at the room’s center, she hears the door quietly latch behind her. It is followed by another clicking sound.
Alexandria watches Julianna as she approaches her friend’s left side. The patient seems to be sleeping blissfully.
“Maybe we should wait,” Alexandria whispers, “She’s not under sedation anymore.”
Gale shakes her head, “Not happening. We’re under orders.”
“This is becoming a habit,” Alexandria whispers her complaint.
“Come on,” Gale answers with her own whispering voice, “Let’s just do what we came here for and be done with it.”
Alexandria gives her friend a resentful glance. Her friend smiles while reaching into a box sitting on the cart’s top shelf. After Gale retrieves a pair of blue-latex gloves and begins slipping them on, Alexandria follows her lead and does the same. Together, they walk over to the lone bed in the room. Gale takes the right side and Alexandria takes the left.
“Ready?”
Alexandria nods.
Gale reaches underneath Julianna’s lower back with both hands. She gently lifts upward. Alexandria slips the cloth gown up over the patient’s hips. She takes hold of Julianna’s underwear and carefully slips them down towards the patient’s ankles.
“What the hell?!”, Julianna yells out.
Gale startles and jerks her hands away. Her patient’s back-side slaps against the bare mattress. Alexandria quickly steps back from the bed. Julianna immediately sits up.
“What are you doing?!”, Julianna yells while scrambling backwards. Her back slams against the metal-frame headboard. She reaches down, yanks her panties back up over her hips, and raises her knees towards her chest. Julianna pulls her gown over her legs and wraps both of her arms around them.
“We were with your grandmother earlier,” Alexandria fumbles for words.
“Dammit, Alex,” Gale attempts to cut-off a possible mistake by her friend.
“Where is she?”, Julianna questions while briefly looking at the two-way mirror. Her attention shifts back towards the two women in the room, “I want to see her. Now!”
“Calm down,,” Alexandria does her best to diffuse the situation, “She was with us last time we did this.”
“Last time? My grams has never done something like this. You’re a freakin’ liar.”
“I’m not a liar,” Alexandria defends, “It’s true. We’re only doing what we’ve been told to do.”
“What - molest me?”
“Cleaning you up,” Alexandria counters.
“Alex - shut up,” Gale panics.
Julianna glances to her left. The woman with brown hair has a look of fear about her as she stares at the woman to Julianna’s right.
“Look at her,” Alexandria says while waving her left arm towards Julianna’s defensive position, “She’s terrified.”
Julianna begins to say something, but the woman to her left quickly interrupts.
“You don’t truly understand what it means to disobey the bloodline or you wouldn’t be saying anything.”
Gale continues by holding up her right index finger, “Best case, we never ever advance.”
Gale points her finger towards Alexandria, “Worst case, we disappear and are never heard from again.”
Gale crosses her arms over her chest, “How’s that for being terrified?”
Julianna’s head retreats as she becomes a little intrigued by the awkward conversation between both nurses.
“Well, all I know – if some stranger had their hands all over me while I was trying to sleep, I’d be scared out of mind.”
Alexandria places both of her hands on her hips as she stares at her friend, “You tell me, who wants to wake up and feel like they’re about to be raped? You?”
“That’s just stupid,” Gale answers, “We’re nurses and we’re here to do a job. That’s it. It’s not like we’re standing in her bedroom…”
Julianna raises her left hand slightly. She makes a quiet effort to interrupt the drama, “Excuse me?”
“…And who wants to wake up dead?”, Gale verbally parries, “You?”
“Of course not,” Alexandria counters, “But I’ll be damned if I let this girl think she’s about to be raped. We’re just here to…”
Clap-clap-clap!
Alexandria and Gale look towards the head of the bed. Their patient is waving with her left hand.
“Hi,” Julianna greets.
“I - uh - we…”
Julianna interrupts Alexandria by waving her left pointer finger from left to right.
“That’s enough,” Julianna states with an unusual calming tone under her current circumstances. She extends her left arm towards the white-padded steel door, “Get out.”
The young woman looks to her left, “Both of you.”
Alexandria begins to say something, but Gale stops her with a single look. She watches Gale reach for the cart.
“No. Leave it,” Julianna demands calmly, “I can clean myself up.”
Gale nods without turning around. She walks towards the door and swipes her card. The door clicks. She turns the handle.
“Stop,” Alexandria speaks up, “We’re not going anywhere. I don’t care who she is. We’re still under orders and her grandmother isn’t here to say otherwise. I’ll strap her ass down if I have to.”
Gale releases the handle and turns around – her brown eyes lock gazes with her friend, “You don’t understand. We were just ordered.”
“What did you just say?”, Julianna questions.
Gale staggers in a nervous breath as she looks at her patient. Julianna’s arms are crossed and both of her dark eyebrows are raised questioningly. Gale looks at the young woman’s left arm. She stares at the bandages while her mouth begins to move.
“I was there when your arms were checked.”
Julianna looks down at her left arm before looking back up at the nurse.
“That’s where I remember you from. So what of it?”
“You don’t need the wrappings.”
“What?”, Alexandria chimes in, “Sure she does.”
Gale glances to her left and shakes her head.
“But that’s impossible,” Alexandria counters, “I’m the one who sutured her.”
“They’re dissolved.”
“They’re not those kind of stitches, Gale,” Alexandria de-buffs her friend’s claim, “I know for a fact they’re not. They have to be pulled. You know that.”
Gale’s ensuing silence causes Alexandria confusion. She knows her friend would not outright lie over something like this. Yet, the science makes no sense. The blond looks over at Julianna. The dark-hair young woman is already removing the wrapping from her left arm. As the last of the wrappings come off, Alexandria’s jaw drops slightly. Julianna tosses the bandage onto the bed to her right side.
Alexandria begins to move. She desires a closer examination of what her eyes are trying to betray to her mind. Julianna, however, stops her with a warning stare. She holds up her arm and turns her forearm towards Alexandria.
“See?”, Julianna obliges the woman’s curiosity on her own terms, “All better now.”
Alexandria covers her mouth with her right hand. Julianna’s arm is completely void of any stitching. There are no bruises. Nor, any wound of any kind. The only evidence of this patient’s visit is in the single pink scar running the forearm’s length down to her wrist. Alexandria, slowly, lowers her hand from her mouth.
“Who are you?”, Alexandria slowly questions.
“Alex,” Gale quickly speaks up, “That’s enough. It’s time for us to go.”
Alexandria defiantly shakes her head, “I’m not going anywhere until I know what’s going on.”
Julianna lowers her arm. The woman’s defiance arouses
some curiosity within her.
“You’re not scared of me?”, Julianna questions.
“Scared?”, Alexandria seems surprised by her patient’s response, “Why would I be scared? I know I can kick your ass.”
Julianna’s head retreats.
“Alex!”, Gale desperately tries to stop her bumbling idiot of a friend.
“I’m actually amazed,” Alexandria finishes her thought, “How did you heal up so quickly?”
Julianna glances towards the two-way mirror.
“Is my grams out there watching? Is this a test or something?”
“Test?”, Alexandria answers with no real understanding of the patient’s strange response, “No. Your grandmother is with your grandfather. We already told you she was gone.”
Julianna looks towards the door. She might not trust the blond nurse quite yet, but the woman standing by the door is trustworthy. She already has the understanding of who Julianna is.
Gale confirms her friend’s claim by shaking her head silently. Julianna watches for any signs of a lie. She sees none. She turns her attention back towards the nurse with sandy-blond hair. Looking down, Julianna begins un-wrapping her right arm.
“You first,” Julianna speaks without looking up. She takes the room’s silence as her permission to continue.
“I’m no moron. I get what you two were trying to do.”
Julianna pauses as she finishes unbinding her arm from the bandages. She tosses the wrapping on top of the other one lying on her bed. Briefly glancing at her arm, Julianna turns her immediate attention back towards the women standing in front of her.
“So my grams knows about this?”
Both women nod.
“That sucks,” Julianna says more to herself than anyone else. She, quickly, changes the embarrassing thought by focusing her gaze onto Alexandria. The blond woman before her exhibits a lot of self-confidence within her demeanor – the way she stands, the way she speaks, and the way she looks at Julianna without any fear. It is apparent she is stubbornly rebellious.
