by Tony C. Skye
Julianna’s thick eyelashes flutter against the bright light. She reaches up with her right hand and covers her eyes. The young woman’s senses begin pouring information into her fog-ridden mind.
Sand.
“Dammit!”, Julianna curses. She sits up. With a bowed head, she places both of her hands on her forehead to visor away the intrusive light. After what seems like forever, Julianna open her eyes by squinting in order to scan the beach. She looks to her right and then over to her left. She looks right again. Lilith is nowhere to be seen.
“That’s a first,” Julianna mutters. She stands up and looks down. A red see-through gown adorns her body. She smiles. The gown is absolutely gorgeous. Its silky material thickens in all of the right places to prevent unwelcomed eyes from lingering where they do not belong. The lacy design allows the freedom of nudity without the trashiness of slutville. It was a must have whenever she first seen it in one of Devia’s no-no magazines. Problem is, she can’t remember putting it on.
Julianna walks to her right over towards the rock she has secretly dubbed the Lilith Rock. The beach feels empty without the woman’s smoky voice tormenting her in one fashion or another.
After she reaches the rock’s far side, Julianna reaches down to grab her clothes. She notices her fingernails are painted red. She looks down at her feet and sees the same result with her toenails.
“What is going on?”, Julianna complains. Even through the constant aching of her pounding head, she knows she didn’t do this. She hardly ever paints her nails unless it’s like a date or something. And the last time she checked, she was in the non-dateable category. Who would ever date someone found in her predicament? Talk about baggage – she has a lot of it. And trying to explain the whole Mother thing…?
Julianna shakes her head against the impossible thought. She refocuses her efforts by losing the gown for her neatly folded Assassin’s Creed look-alike outfit. After placing the gown on the rock’s surface, Julianna turns and walks the wall’s length until she finds her story. Her green eyes scan over the grim writings.
Aihn xoréé sloié ait Dvhecrehnoi…
Julianna’s head retreats as she mispronounces the last word. She attempts it again.
“Dee-veh-creh-hn-oh-ee.”
She recites a few more times before moving on.
Féch yhni yhnslosté, xoré ecréaiti ait Doizéié…
Tears form within her eyes as she attempts to say the last word aloud.
“Doh-ee-zay-ee-ā,” she quietly speaks while tracing her father’s name. After a few seconds pass by, she decides to make a verbal run over the wall’s latest entry.
“Aihn xoréé sloié ait Dvhecrehnoi,
Féch yhni yhnslosté, xoré ecréaiti ait Doizéié rééh oiétilssto véuté daszibix.”
The young woman’s mind recites the awful reality.
On this day of Julianna,
By her hands, the life of James is ascended unto judgment.
Julianna leans her forehead against the wall’s smooth surface. Fresh tears find their way down her pale cheeks.
“Hey you!”, a smoky voice yells out.
Julianna jerks and quickly turns around. She grabs at her chest where her heart thumps loudly. Lilith is smiling.
“It’s not funny.”
“Oh – I think it is,” Lilith counters only a few steps away from Julianna, “Your child-weeping makes you an easy target.”
“I’m not a child. I killed my father.”
Lilith points to her favored rock, “I’ll just go over here until you decide to stop feeling sorry for yourself.”
The woman with many braids walks towards her rock and waves at the wall with her right hand.
“Go ahead. Cry yourself into oblivion and see if it changes anything for you.”
Julianna’s brows narrow.
“No thanks. You’ve ruined the mood. I’ll wait until I have a good book and some hot chocolate. I would invite you, but uh…Can you drink it?”
Lilith laughs as she rounds the backside of her rock and sits down. She crosses both of her arms over her chest.
“You cannot anger me this time.”
“I wasn’t trying to – just stating a fact is all.”
Lilith grins. She motions with her head towards the right.
“You have visitors.”
Julianna looks towards the earth-line. She sees her parents. They are smiling and waving. Her mom is holding her dad’s left hand with her right.
“How did you..?”
“I can always find my bloodline. Theresa did the rest. I…”
Lilith quits speaking to Julianna’s backside. The young woman is already jogging towards the earth-line. Lilith smiles and leans back.
* * *
“Hello there, sleeping beauty,” a woman’s voice penetrates through the dim lighting of Julianna’s bedroom. The exhausted woman blinks her eyes and makes an attempt to reach up to wipe away the crust from her eyes.
“Ow,” Julianna complains while looking at her arm. An intravenous needle is inserted into the top-side of her hand.
“Here, let me get that for you.”
Julianna watches Gale dip a facecloth into a silver bin. The nurse brings it over and begins wiping her face clean with the warm rag. When Gale finishes, Julianna attempts a weak apology.
“Thanks for the help.”
“You’re welcome,” Gale answers as if it’s no big deal. She puts the rag into a plastic bag and turns around to look at her patient, “Alex is asleep by the pool. She’s in love.”
Julianna grins.
“You’ll be fine. The iv is saline solution. You’re almost done with it. I can remove it here in a few minutes.”
The nurse with brown hair reaches into her nurse’s apron. She pulls out a half-empty bottle of Nyquil and a prescription of Amoxapine.
“You overdosed.”
Julianna nods, “I kinda figured that.”
Gale slips the medications back into her pouch, “Didn’t Dr. Shelby explain the dangers of mixing your meds with alcohol?”
“Yeah, but I didn’t actually think a little bit of cough syrup could be the death of me.”
Gale scrutinizes her patient’s eyes for any tell-tale signs of a lie.
“Did you miss your room that badly?”
Julianna’s eyes widen, “You wouldn’t.”
“That depends.”
“On what? I’ll do anything. Just don’t send me back there. Please.”
“Was it suicide?”
Julianna shakes her head emphatically, “No. I swear it. I just misjudged it, that’s all.”
Gale sees no signs of any lies. She points her right pointer finger at Julianna.
“This is your only warning.”
“Got it,” Julianna answers with a hint of relief.
“Good. I’m going to go and get Alex. I might have to drag her out of here kicking and screaming.”
Julianna smiles before noticing her painted nails. She pulls down her covers and sees her red sleep gown.
“Alex and I got bored. Hope you don’t mind about the nails.”
Julianna covers herself back up and looks at Gale.
“This might sound strange, but did I wake up when you guys did this?”
Gale nods, “You’ve been in and out since we got here.”
Julianna nods before closing her eyes again. Her head isn’t throbbing, but there is definitely a pronounced headache at work.
“I’m going after Alex,” Gale informs while heading towards the hall leading to the washroom.
Julianna doesn’t say anything, but is grateful for her new friends. She thinks about her latest visit to the Place of the Dead – the time she got to spend with her parents. It was wonderful. Her dad’s head is back to normal because he’s at peace. Her mom is happy because he is there with her. And above all, she is forgiven by them both. She hasn’t felt this much love since they were all a family together – a family that fought horrible secrets to keep their clue
less daughter safe.
* * *
“Can’t we just lace her iv with morphine?”
Julianna’s head retreats as her ears catch a conversation not meant for her.
“Give it up, Alex. It’s over,” Gale’s voice echoes down the hallway.
“Just a little bit. Only enough to knock her out for the night.”
“We don’t have any morphine. Stop it.”
“That’s beside the point.”
Gale and Alexandria enter Julianna’s bedroom. Gale heads over to Julianna’s bed and begins removing the needle from her hand. Julianna looks at Alexandria and grins.
“The pool’s nice, huh?”
“I’m jealous,” the woman with sandy-blond hair agrees.
“You could buy one instead of going to school,” Gale says while winking at Julianna. The nurse refers to the two bank accounts Julianna set up for their college fund while she was in the hospital. Five-hundred thousand dollars apiece to be exact.
“Not in this lifetime. I actually want to be a doctor.”
“A doctor who drugs her patients up so she can take advantage of them?”
Gale laughs at Julianna’s remark. Alexandria looks at her bff.
“What are you laughing at? You’re the one who wanted to play doll house with your patient. That’s like some weird mortician fetish thing.”
“You helped,” Gale reminds while placing a band aid over the wound left behind by the needle. Julianna’s hand begins swirling with black dots. Gale stares at the unusual scene.
“Sorry, I forgot,” Gale says while forcing her eyes upward.
“It’s okay.”
Gale pats Julianna on the shoulder, “We start back to school in the fall.”
Julianna nods.
“What your lovely doctor wannabe is trying to say,” Alexandria chimes in, “Is that we won’t be around to save the day. Try not to get yourself killed while we’re gone.”
Julianna pulls her covers off and sits up on the edge of the bed.
“I won’t,” she answers, “And thank you both for everything.”
Alexandria points at her gown, “Your wardrobe kills. Sexy and tasteful.”
Julianna blushes, “Expensive.”
“I bet. I don’t remember seeing anything like that at the stores I can shop at,” Alexandria admits.
“Don’t listen to her,” Gale counters while packing up their supplies, “Alex spends more money on her clothes than she has finances. You can believe that. I’ve never even seen her step foot inside of a wholesale store.”
“Sure I have,” Alexandria rebuttals her friend’s claim while helping out with the packing, “They have great choices on toilet paper.”
Julianna laughs. Gale gives her an amused look.
“You guys can come over on Saturdays and go swimming if you like,” Julianna decides to give them an open invitation.
“Done,” Alexandria quickly answers.
Gale rolls her eyes playfully.
“You can bring some friends with you,” Julianna continues, “But they must be trustworthy.”
“I might bring my boyfriend along, if that’s okay?”, Alexandria answers, “He knows not to piss me off. If he steps out of line, he doesn’t get the va-jay-jay.”
Julianna blushes again.
“That’s disgusting,” Gale puts her two cents in, “No one here wants to hear about your nasty fungus trap.”
Julianna laughs.
“See how mean she is?”, Alexandria’s voice makes her sound like the helpless victim.
“Does he have any brothers?”
Alexandria shakes her head, “Sorry.”
“It’s okay, just thought I’d ask.”
Gale turns and faces her best friend. She places her right hand on her hip while holding her left out towards Julianna – palm upward.
“Well my boyfriend doesn’t have just one brother. He has two of them,” Gale gloats. She follows up by poking her tongue out at Alexandria.
Alexandria looks at Julianna, “See what I mean? She’s just plain evil.”
Gale looks over at Julianna, “I’ll see what I can do.”
“What time do you want us here?”
Julianna looks at Alexandria, “Any time after nine in the morning is fine. But you need to call me by Wednesday to let me know how many of you are coming – in case someone needs to stay the night or something. Upstairs has to be off limits unless you guys are alone.”
“You don’t have to worry about that with Alex,” Gale says, “She’d never trade a pool for a book.”
“Mean I tell you,” Alexandria counters halfheartedly, “Just cruel and mean.” The skinny woman immediately notices a troubled look on Julianna’s face instead of the expected smile she was looking for.
“What’s the matter?”
“Um… I need complete secrecy,” Julianna confesses, “No one can know…”
“Oh, don’t worry about that,” Alexandria quickly interrupts, “No one knows anything. Not our boyfriends. Not our parents. No one, but Network. And as far as the library’s concerned, I’m not even sure the Network understands just how large it is. They never mentioned it in our training, anyway.”
Julianna looks at Gale.
“She’s right,” Gale supports her friend’s claim, “The Network made it sound like it was made up of a few stone tablets. I was more than a little surprised when I first seen it.”
“Yeah it’s large,” Julianna admits, “A lot of reading.”
“Your secret’s always safe with us,” Alexandria reconfirms, “Besides, we’re not trying to take a trip to the roach motel anytime soon.”
“You got that right,” Gale agrees.
“I would never hurt you guys.”
“Not you,” Gale clarifies, “Network. They take oath breaking very seriously.”
Julianna nods. She doesn’t know everything about the Network. But the limited knowledge gained while in the hospital has helped to place the organization into a much clearer perspective. Granted, she already had learned some small things from her grandfather, Frank. They consisted of the Network’s inner-workings and information concerning the bloodline’s wealth. But until her trip to the hospital, Julianna hadn’t learned that much about the membership side of the Network. She was born into it, not invited.
Her first personal contact was through Frank while she was at the hospital. He helped her to get into touch with someone he, himself, trusted without question. The first characteristic she noticed about this man was that he acted just like Charles Stevens, the security guard. Mindless, emotionless, robotic cyborgs – that is how she categorizes their behavior. But the one thing she does like is their easy access to all sorts of cool stuff. Stuff like guns that she has only seen in video games.
During her brief stay at the hospital – after her outburst – Julianna approached Frank with the idea of her intentions concerning her father. Of course Frank attempted to talk her out of it. But whenever she reminded him about the incident concerning Matt’s date night, her grandfather quickly came around.
Frank made the decision to have her trained. It took some fancy speech on his part, but he finally got her grams on board with the idea. However, he left out the whole she needs to learn how to handle herself because she is going to kill her daddy part. But that’s neither here nor there.
Each night while staying at the hotel where teenagers slowly die inside, Gale and Alexandria would loop the feed to her room. Frank and Charles would then sneak her out of the hospital through the underground passageway. Martha said it had to be this way to keep up the facade of her medical treatment. It was the only way she would agree to the two hours of firearm’s training over at the Network’s training facility.
The Network is a lot of things. It is a living, breathing entity completely separate from the bloodline; yet, its very purpose is symbiotic in nature. The Network’s very foundation is based upon the bloodline and the needs of the family. Any questionable actions by the fa
mily, however, such as Julianna’s recent suicide attempt, could in essence bring about turmoil and uncertainty within the various ranks of the Network. This is why her grams had been so emphatic about keeping up the appearance of her treatment among the majority of personnel involved in her case.
Dr. Shelby is one such person. He is high-ranking within the Network, and any negative rumors among the higher ups could spell trouble for the family. The doctor would be risking his very life in doing so, but as Frank has pointed out to Julianna, people are just people. And people make mistakes.
But all of this is the political side of the Network. Julianna could care-a-less about this stuff. As far as she is concerned, it’s just a branch off of the scene she had to endure at her birthday party. She is more interested in the security and military side of things. This is where all of the cool toys come from – toys like her .09 mm Beretta.
Her assigned trainer was initially against her choice in weapon. He said it was too much gun for a beginner, but Julianna got the feeling it was more of a sexist response. She didn’t have to counter the man though. Her grandfather quickly jumped in with that scary warning look he can sometimes muster up on his face. The shaken trainer just nodded and accepted Frank’s silent ultimatum without any fight. She hasn’t been able to prove anything, but from what little she has witnessed, Julianna believes her grandfather can be quite vicious when the need arises. Furthermore, it is an obvious fact that the Network understands the man’s potential for damaging violence. They are eager to disengage when Frank Dermott gives them the choice.
The weapon’s training she has been receiving has been a rush of an experience. The feel of the gun within her hand is weighted with the power it holds by a single squeeze of the trigger. The power yielded is like nothing she has ever known before. It is the power to change someone’s mind in an instant – the power over life and death. But this is just a small piece of the puzzle.
Until she shot it for the first time, Julianna had no idea that a part of her had always been missing. Her .09 mm Beretta is like a twin sister separated from her at birth, but now reunited. In fact, Julianna has been tossing around the idea of adding a third sibling to the long lost reunion – a matching Beretta. But like her grandfather has told her, she must first learn how to shoot with her right hand. And this is proving to be more difficult than she had imagined.
