Mother of Darkwaters: Book one of the Vessel series

by Tony C. Skye

  “No grams – the sub-prophecy. Broken bleeding branches, remember?”

  “That’s what it means?”

  Julianna nods within her numbness.

  Martha looks at her granddaughter with confused eyes, “But if it is the way you believe it to be, then I am lost. Because that stone isn’t destroyed.”

  “That’s what makes this so hard. I had it all wrong. And she…”

  Julianna’s voice cracks as she begins sobbing again, “…She died because of me.”

  Martha pauses as fresh tears find their way down her cheeks. She leans back and closes her eyes.

  The woman with red hair speaks, “She was stolen from you by that boy. You didn’t have anything to do with that. The blame belongs with him and him alone. You loved her. I know you did. Don’t allow your mind to lie to you.”

  * * *

  Chapter 22

  When it Snows

  Six months passes with no contact from anyone from California. No Caroline. No Jennifer. No Rebecca. Julianna has had the loneliest winter of her entire life…no Tamara.

  She has spent a lot of time reading through the red books and a little bit of time getting to know the three guys she accidentally adopted from the hospital. Julianna made them say the vows and laughed when they all hit the floor during one of her lessons. But her enjoyment was short-lived, as the sight brought back immediate memories of a time not so long ago.

  She is trying to move on with her life, but is unsure of where it should be moved to. Whenever Tamara was murdered, her plans died alongside the love of her life. Her reason for living was torn away.

  “Ma’am?”

  “Dammit,” Julianna startles. She turns and looks from one of the twelve gazebos in her backyard – a rather common occurrence as of late. The only changes are the gazebos in which she chooses to sit.

  “What have I told you about that?”

  “Sorry ma’am,” Captain Woods replies.

  “What’s up?”

  “We have him, ma’am,” the man with blond hair follows up with a grin.

  “Who?”

  “Him.”

  “Snow?!”, Julianna stands up.

  “He’ll be here in five,” Captain Woods informs.

  Julianna wraps her short arms around the thick man, “You rock, Brian.”

  “Ma’am,” the man accepts her thanks by looking forward as if at attention.

  Julianna steps back, “Minutes?”

  The man nods with enjoyment of the moment held in his eyes.

  “How – how did you..?”

  “Infiltration ma’am. It took us six months to get close enough to use our influence with those in charge. He had been arrested – Central Intelligence.”

  “Arrested? How come I didn’t know about it? There wasn’t anything on the internet or the news. And if you knew, you should have told me, Brian.”

  “Central Intelligence does not make their actions public. I wanted him in hand, ma’am,” Captain Woods explains, “I did not wish to cause you more pain for my failures.”

  “You really make it hard for me to stay mad at you for anything. We need to work on that.”

  Captain Woods grins, “Yes ma’am.”

  “So is he ours?”

  “Hung himself in his cell this morning, ma’am. He is legally dead.”

  “Wow you guys are good.”

  “Thank you, ma’am.”

  “What does he know?”

  “Nothing ma’am. I thought it best to let you figure that part out. We do have a DVD with news footage, newspaper and internet reports, coroner declarations, and footage of his parents when they identified his body.”

  “How’d you..?”

  “Poison ma’am. It lowers the heart rate below detectable levels. Without a machine, there’s no way to know the difference. But he has been given the antidote already.”

  “Hmm,” Julianna ponders. She pats her Captain on his chest before turning her eyes towards her home. She begins walking.

  “Get a T.V. and DVD player down there. After that, no one is allowed in or out.”

  “Yes ma’am…”

  “…It is good to see you again,” Captain Woods says quietly enough that Julianna is unable to hear. He reaches up and touches the ear piece within his right ear. He looks towards the front of the house and begins walking.

  * * *

  Julianna places the large skeleton key into the lock. She turns it to the right and pushes the iron bar door open. Removing her key, she steps inside and closes the heavy door. The young woman walks down the descending ramp. The stone floor leads into complete darkness. As she approaches the inevitable blackness of night, soft blue incandescent lighting illuminates her way down each side of the wall – another one of her many updates before she would move into her castle-mansion.

  She walks past the many cell doors on each side of the long hallway until she reaches the last one on the right. All of the other doors remind Julianna of the kind of door used for jails in the old western movies. But the one she now stands in front of is quite different. It is custom made as per her request.

  She looks at the keypad to the right of the door, presses its code in, and hears a buzz followed by two short clicks. A light above the solid steel door changes from red to green. The door slides to the left and she steps inside. She turns and locates a red button on the wall. She hits it with her open palm and the door closes. The light above it turns from green to red. Julianna begins looking around the room.

  A string of shackles align the right wall. A bleeder table lies six foot in front of them. It is made from beautiful black marble. The left wall has a double aluminum sink and a water hose attached to it – more of Julianna’s much needed upgrades. These upgrades, however, are fairly recent. The hose, itself, is neatly coiled around a spring retractor. Pull and spray.

  Directly in front of Julianna is a pull up bar. It is attached to a hydraulic lift. Currently, the bar’s height is just enough to keep David Snow on his toes. Julianna glares.

  “Who’s there?”, the worried murderer speaks from underneath a black cloth hood. Behind him, another room exists. It houses all sorts of fun tools – tools Julianna special ordered about six months ago in hopes for this very day.

  “Radio on,” Julianna commands.

  “Radio on,” a woman’s voice clearly answers back.

  “Load Robbie,” Julianna continues.

  “Robbie has been loaded. Enjoy,” the woman’s voice replies.

  Living dead girl…the song begins its play.

  “Oh, I plan to,” Julianna answers back. She glances around the walls where the stone ceiling meets them. Each wall houses two sets of Cerwin Vegas. The three-way speakers are each complimented with a Bose subwoofer for a total of six subs. The only empty wall is the security wall that houses the steel door – the only way in or out. The sound is thick. And the best part is, Julianna, can make it as loud as she needs it to be.

  “You people can’t do this to me!”, the boy yells out, “I have rights!”

  Julianna’s face hardens. She closes the distance to the pull up bar. She rips off his head covering making sure to take some of his brown hair with it.

  “Ow!”, David complains with an attitude. His eyes have difficulty in adjusting to the light of the room.

  “You’re not even fit to have a first name!”, Julianna yells near to his face. She turns and walks towards the television set. It is positioned by the entrance along the wall to the right side of the door.

  “You will no longer be called David,” Julianna says with a much calmer tone, “Snow is your name.”

  She grabs a chair seated next to the television, turns it to face Snow, and sits. Julianna crosses her legs.

  She lifts her brows questioningly, “Something wrong?”

  “You won’t get away with this,” Snow panics as his eyes alert him to who is in the room with him.

  “Get away with what?”, Julianna questions innocently.

  �
��I want to tell you a story,” Julianna says while dropping the boy’s hood to the floor.

  “Fuck you, dike!”

  “Hmm,” Julianna ponders while tapping the bottom of her lip like Lilith. She winks her left eye, stands up, and walks towards Snow. She feels his body tense as she gently pats his left cheek. He attempts to bite her, but misses.

  “You do like teeth,” Julianna agrees with his unknowing choice.

  The woman enters her unused tool room. Looking around, she spots her first toy.

  “Ah - ha! There you are,” Julianna says while removing the claw trap from its hook.

  She rounds Snow’s left side while taking enough time to enjoy the soft patting of his buttocks. His fear fills the room with intoxication like none other as his eyes lock with the bear trap in her hand.

  “This,” Julianna raises it up and gently kisses the steel trap, “is a customized version.”

  “See this?”, Julianna questions while pointing to an electronic device attached to the gearing system. She lowers the heavy trap to her side.

  “I just push in a set of numbers,” Julianna says playfully, “And the force of pressure per square inch increases. Isn’t that nice?”

  “Please Mandie,” Snow desperately replies, “I am so sorry.”

  “We’ll discuss names later.”

  Julianna winks again with her left eye. Her eyes scan over the murderer’s orange jump suit.

  “Let me see now,” Julianna says while examining his full body suit.

  She sits the trap down within his view, “Be right back.”

  Entering her new favorite room, Julianna retrieves a large pair of scissors.

  “Snip-snip!”, she teases while opening and closing the twelve-inch long industrial blades. She walks out of the room and rounds Snow. She touches the pointed end with her right index finger and jerks her hand away.

  Snow’s lips begin trembling.

  Julianna walks up and snips off a piece of his brown hair. She drags the pointed edges down the right side of his cheek.

  “Ahhh…Someone help me!”

  Julianna quickly pulls the scissors back and shields them with her partially turned body. She coddles her new tool while glaring at the boy having tears in his eyes, “Stop it. You’re scaring her.”

  “You’re fucking crazy – oh God please help me.” Snow fights against the restraints holding his wrists to the bar overhead. When he stops, he yells out within his frustration.

  Julianna tilts her head slightly to the left, “Are you kidding me right now?”

  The boy whimpers as she walks up with her large scissors. She gently pats him on the chest, “Oh now. It gets much worse than this, silly.”

  Snow begins crying as the woman cuts away his protective custody jail uniform. She kicks the orange rags away from the drain underneath his feet, and tosses her scissors on top. Julianna walks over and picks up the bear trap.

  “Finally,” Julianna fakes exhaustion. She examines the boy’s inner thighs, “Feeling a little tiny are we?”

  “Hmm…now which leg was it?”

  Mucous runs out of the boy’s nose as he snorts out his fear.

  “Do you remember?”, Julianna questions with an innocent tone, “I seem to have forgotten.”

  “Don’t do this. I’m begging you.”

  Julianna’s brows narrow, “Did she say that to you?”

  Snow tries to kick away when Julianna marches towards him, but the handcuffs holding him refuses to let go. She wrestles the trap around his right thigh.

  Beep. Beep. Beep.

  “Ahhhh!”, Snow cries out in more pain than he has ever known, “Ahhhh…!”

  “Oops,” Julianna covers her mouth with her right hand, “That might be too much.”

  Beep. Beep. Beep.

  “Ahhhhh!”, Snow screams while the teeth release their tension. The clamp stops with its sharp fangs just below the surface of his skin. His tense body falls limp – whimpers of hopelessness escapes his lips.

  “Better?”, Julianna questions kindly.

  Snow cries.

  Julianna notices the purple coloring within his wrists. She walks over to the left side of the pull up bar and places her foot on a pedal. She lowers the hydraulics until his heels touch down. She walks back into view.

  “How’s that?”

  Snow sobs with his weight shifted to his left leg.

  Julianna smiles, turns, and walks back to her chair by the television. She sits down and crosses her legs.

  “You are probably wondering why I look like a surgeon without a mask,” Julianna says while pulling at her blue scrubs.

  Snow’s eyes refuse to look away from his tormentor.

  Julianna places her left open hand by her mouth, “Little secret. I have a couple of friends studying to become doctors.”

  She lowers her hand, “This should allow us to play for a very, very long time.”

  Snow looks down as new sobs force themselves from his lips.

  “I have learned so much about human anatomy. And I did it all just for you. So thank you.”

  “If you could look this way for just a moment, I think someone made this just for you.”

  Snow’s shoulders shake with each sob as he looks upward. His captor holds up a remote and wiggles it with a smile. She points it at the television set and pushes a button. The television comes on.

  Julianna pushes another button, “All-in-ones, gotta love these things.”

  The boy can barely make out a red dot come to life on the DVD player. The tears and sweat-mix burns his stinging eyes.

  “Radio off,” Julianna commands.

  “Radio off,” a woman’s voice confirms.

  Julianna becomes excited as though there is no care in the world, “You’re going to love this movie. It’s great. I know I did. I don’t understand why it got such bad reviews though. You know how those idgit critics can be sometimes. I really don’t understand how they can get paid so well.”

  Snow watches as the screen comes to life with contents found on the DVD. A broadcast appears. He watches in disbelief as the announcement is made of his faked-suicide. Next, newspaper articles from around the nation fly in and out of view – all retelling the story of his capture and suicide.

  “It’s all a lie – no one will…”

  “Shhh…”, Julianna makes the sound while holding her left index finger over her lips, “No one likes a mouth at the theater. The best part is still coming silly.”

  Snow sees the coroner’s report. Then, to his horror, he watches helplessly while his parents identify his lifeless body. The television turns off. His captor turns to face him.

  “Are they in on it, too?”, Julianna questions.

  “What do you want?’, Snow questions within his despair.

  Julianna stands up and walks towards Snow – chair in hand. She walks around to his backside, positions the chair accordingly, and walks over to the hydraulic pedal. She lowers him to a seated position, walks back into plain view, and points her remote. She presses a button.

  Snow jumps up and smacks his head on the lowered bar. He straddles the chair to avoid touching it. Blood drips from the teeth within the contracted quads of his right leg.

  “See?”, Julianna coaches, “I’m not so bad. I even gave you a chair with teeth. We both know how you like teeth.”

  Snow’s legs tremble from his awkward positioning. He breathes heavily as the inevitable moment quickly approaches. Snow screams as his legs give way and he lands on the electric chair. He begins crying.

  “Oh, you didn’t think I’d leave it on, did you? You’re such a silly boy.”

  “Please just stop this. If you’re going to kill me, just do it.”

  “Kill you?”, Julianna answers with surprise in her voice. She turns and looks at the large clock on the wall above the television. The woman turns back with her arms crossed.

  “We’ve been together for forty-five minutes,” Julianna explains, “And you already want to die. How’s a
girl supposed to feel about that? I’m hurt, Snow.”

  Julianna walks over to the boy who has his head facing downward within his crying. She, slowly, leans in near his right ear and speaks quietly.

  “You have months of this you pathetic boy,” Julianna promises through gritted teeth, “No one is coming. You are dead to this world. And if I ever decide to let you free from this physical world, I am going to show you another one of my secrets. It will be a place where you beg to be back in this chair.”

  “Ahhhhhhhhhh!”, Snow screams out as he jumps up.

  Julianna turns with her remote and walks towards the steel door. She pushes in a code.

  Beep. Click - click.

  The door slides open. Julianna sits the remote on top of the DVD player and pats it lovingly.

  “Night-night,” Julianna says on her way out of the room, “Be careful. I might have forgotten to turn that stupid thing off. Girls have such a terrible time with electronics.”

  Julianna hears whimpering before the steel door closes behind her. She turns to her left and begins ascending the ramp. The woman secretly wonders if this is one of those times that a cigarette smoker might be inclined to light up. She grins.

  * * *

  “Wakie-wakie,” Julianna says cheerfully, “Good morning.”

  Snow jolts awake as Julianna sprays cold well water from her water hose.

  “You need a bath. You stink,” Julianna speaks in her care-free voice while steadily spraying Snow with water, “I just don’t understand why boys find it so difficult to shower. It’s not like they’re going to die.”

  Julianna points the spray at the claw.

  “Ahhh!”, Snow cries out.

  She moves to his front side, “Hold your breath.”

  Snow squints his eyes closed. He attempts to move his oily face from the sting of the spray to no avail.