From the Beginning: The Old World

by Kurtz, Timna

  My heart went out to these young people that since Cole ascended on them from nowhere, their lives were turned upside down again. I couldn’t help but feel responsible for that.

  If Jack and I had finished the “dirty work,” as he called it, other survivors would not have been forced to live under Cole’s thumb right now. A large group of innocent people that their entire world collapsed on them, were forced to live on a daily basis with a tyrant and dictator—that I wasn’t brave enough to kill.

  Not far from us, in the dense bush of the swamp, the same determined man kept following us, cautious and prepared…

  * * *

  Chapter 42

  “Well, well, well!!! Look what the cat dragged in!!! Grace!! How nice of you to drop by!” Cole descended from his improvised throne, circling me with a degrading stride, content and full of himself. His hypocritical smile made me sick to my stomach.

  “Let’s cut the phony act, Cole! We both know why I am here, and there is no need to hide either one’s intentions!” I held my chin and stature high against his smug disrespectful face when he checked me from head to toe.

  “I am happy to see you gained some weight. Since the fish returned to the sea and there is plenty of food, we can stop fearing famine. Hmmm… that’s is how I like you, full in the right places!” He caressed my buttocks, grabbing the soft flesh with a swift possessive move.

  “Don’t you dare touch me!!!” My hand flew instinctively, deflecting his hand off me with a short and even quicker move. But before I could make another move, a battalion of spears jumped at me, all aiming at my throat and torso, stopping me from hurting the domineering tyrant.

  “Nice try, Grace. But what exactly did you think you could gain by it? Hmm…? Don’t you think that you are at a slight disadvantage here? There is no Eddie or Jack around to help you now.” He hissed his familiar snake-like whisper that made my skin crawl when he surrounded his circle of warriors that protected him, sadly, with their lives.

  “If only you had a smidge of the qualities that Jack or Eddie had —” I paused for a minute, weighing my words heavily—”I would consider talking to you, but since your actions are all directed to one purpose, I won’t even bother to try and explain my position to you. You will return the baby you kidnapped to me, and I have no intention of negotiating this with you. If you refuse, you will have to bear the consequences of your actions!” I didn’t know how I mastered the courage to tell him what I said, but I was shaking with an uncontrollable rage I couldn’t stop.

  “I can see that since I left the island, leadership has gone to your head. You must be dominating all the sissy men over there, dictating rules to them, deciding who will be the one to warm your bed and body. Suppressed humiliated men—not in my world!” he immediately changed his tone, spitting his venom and rage at me. “In my world, not Jack nor Eddie would survive. There is no room here for soft men who submit to women. If I were Eddie, I would have eliminated Jack a long time ago! And I would punish you over and over again for being a rebellious and a two-timing woman. Eddie, if you can call him a man!” he blurted Eddie’s name with contempt, which caused my blood to boil.

  “Eddie had in one little finger what you will never have in your entire body! And don’t you dare speak his name, as Eddie paid for his inability to release the past with his life! Indeed, he wasn’t as despicable as you, resorting to violence, but he didn’t learn to accept the ways of the new world. Eddie is dead—because he did not understand the opportunity he was given to start a new life and accept the fact that the past is dead! Just like you will be too if you don’t release me and vacate your seat!” I poured my rage and all the pain I still harbored for Eddie’s passing on him.

  “Eddie’s dead?” Cole seemed surprised to hear my words. “Jack cleared him out of the way too so he could have you all to himself?” He viciously insulted, again looking quite pleased with the situation. “That’s what I call a man. He is going to pay for what he did to me anyway, but I have to appreciate him.”

  “I would never put you and Jack in the same equation if I were you. But in Jack’s favor, I will say that he could have killed you and saved us from this entire situation, but he chose to let nature take its course,” I fiercely defended my beloved guardian.

  “As you said, my dear, there are opportunities to be taken, for what you and your blue-eyed lover couldn’t stomach to do, you will now pay the full price, and you will be punished. Tasks should be carried out to the fullest. Now all you will be able to do is be sorry for not killing me when you had the chance!” By now he was gloating.

  “I do not intend to make that mistake twice! This time, I am leaving no room for nature to decide. This time, there will be no grace!” I threatened, grinding my teeth.

  “Oh-Ho!! The cat’s out of the bag!” Cole shouted out loud. “You are not here to retrieve the baby, but you came to premeditatedly murder me in cold blood! Not nice, Grace!” he clicked maliciously with his tongue, came closer to me through the spear cage that surrounded me, stroked and then pinched my cheek forcibly, pinning my jaw. “I am so sorry to spoil your plans, but it looks like you will have to give up your revolutionary ideas for now, and join me for a ‘moving’ ceremony you will take part in. After all, being a high priestess you do realize the importance of rituals, and how crucial they are for maintaining the tribe leader’s status, right?! You little dirty whore!” He shoved me to the ground, towering over me with intimidation, grabbing my hair and pulled my head up with a painful tug.

  He then turned to speak to a crowd I couldn’t see from where I was, but I could definitely feel its presence. “Dear friends!” he opened in ridicule, mimicking my speech as I would address my tribe. “Tonight we will embrace a few more new souls, saved as well from the great sea. We shall bless these two women, who made their way to us alone and without protection. We shall also bless the fruit of their loins they brought with them—the cute little baby, Jonathan, and the unborn child of the large amazon woman. These two children shall be raised as my own, and I see in them a sign and omen for the future. These are fertile women, and that is what they will be used for. They will bear my children that will later on succeed me in leading the new world!” He spoke in a decisive and aggressive voice, making sure everyone understood the meaning of his words, looking around at all the eyes gazing at him.

  “Tie the large woman to the totem pole. Give her food and drink so she will not lose her baby. He will be a big strong boy that will become a fearless warrior!” Cole ordered his private battalion what to do with Violet, and turned to leave the place. “Bring the little whore to my cave. I have to teach her a lesson or two about the place of women in the tribe and my new world,” his eyes blazed as he informed me of the coming sweet revenge he had waited so long for. “Something I should have done a long time ago!” he concluded his speech and led the warriors who held me and dragged me by force after him.

  “Violet! Don’t let them tie you up!!” I yelled at her trying to push off the guards, as I managed to escape one of them and hoping to break loose from the other too. “Violet! Run!!!” I called again, but five spears were pointed to her bulging stomach, preventing her from making even a single move.

  “Tie this one too!!” Cole turned back, approached me and slapped me hard, laying his entire force on my face, knocking me to the ground by his powerful slap. My cheek turned red. “You shall learn how to behave tonight, you backstabbing bitch. I shall show you the rightful place of a woman and her two major roles in this world: to be a slave to my whims and a vessel for my seed and my satisfaction. That is what you will be in my world!” He signaled his men to pick me up.

  The slap knocked whatever was left of my wind out of me, and I couldn’t resist any longer. Tears came to my eyes in the face of my burning failure to escape. Cole’s obedient frightened men grabbed me, dragging me with my legs behind my body. As I looked back, I saw Violet being tied up to a big totem pole. I could see the fear in her face, her eyes pleading me to save th
e day, as she was about to be consumed with despair.

  My heart sank. I led us both into the trap and had no idea how we would be able to get out of it. I needed a miracle—and despair started to make its way into my own heart too.

  Cole led us to a place I recognized immediately as the holy center of the island. The familiar shape of the crater I remembered from my vision appeared before my wondering eyes, as I was filled with terror when I saw the Y-shaped altar table with ropes ready to tie me up to the big rock at its corners. Cole’s cave was revealed on one of the walls of the crater. The cave was spacious but had a low ceiling. During the first few seconds, my eyes tried to adjust themselves to the darkness, and all I could hear was feminine voices and the gurgling mumble of a baby, and right after another baby’s voice was sounded!

  After a few more seconds, when my eyes could make out shapes and clear objects in the cave, I realized I was looking at a group of naked, young black women, who were huddled around the two babies I had heard. I had no trouble identifying one baby—his fair skin stood out in the background of these dark-skinned women, it was our sweet Jonathan.

  “Jonathan!!” I called out in joy, again trying to break loose of the hands that were holding me to embrace our tribe’s smiling beloved child. I was happy to see he was playing without fear of those surrounding him, and instantly noticed the second baby I heard who played with Jonathan, only he was dark, like the women that surrounded them.

  Cole approached and picked up the two babies, and I couldn’t stop my body from shivering due to the fear and loathing I felt from this man’s mere actions.

  “I have always wanted plenty of boys!” Cole shared with me, and for a minute seemed excited by the two tender children in his arms. “Now I have the son of an Arab witch, a son from the black witch priestess, and soon to be born a big, strong like an ox boy from Violet, the amazon. In no time, I will also have the son the high priestess of the new world!” He returned the children to the black women’s lap and turned into another niche, its opening probably leading to another space in the cave. His voice was sounded from within, echoing with intimidation at whoever was in there with him: “You see?! I told you it would work! The slut priestess swallowed the bait and came here! Soon you will be able to hold your son. Now get up on your feet and do what I told you to do! Or else—you know what will happen to your son if you don’t follow my instructions!” A few seconds later a full-bodied woman came out of the niche, and walked hunching and humiliated after Cole. She was short and wide, and her eyes were so white around the pupils it seemed almost inhuman. I recognized her immediately as the black witch from my dreams. She came close and looked at me with a look I couldn’t decipher. Her gaze passed shivers down my spine, as her hands passed on my lower abdomen, as she felt me up, checking and pressing. A few seconds later, she turned to Cole and informed him: “She is ready for you! Ready to carry the child who will become the great leader of the new world!”

  * * *

  Chapter 43

  “Ma-Ma, Ma-Ma!!” Jonathan’s voice penetrated my impaired dazed consciousness once I realized Cole’s malicious and horrifying plan. The little baby approached me crawling on all fours with a wide smile, once he recognized me, and started calling me as he did the first time I saw him in my dream.

  “Jonathan,” I wanted to extend my arms to him so badly, but my hands were bound, and held by Cole’s guards. My eyes filled with tears, as helplessness took over me. I smiled at the little baby as tears rolled down my cheeks in a silent cry.

  One of the black women came and took him back. Jonathan started resisting and crying, which intensified my sense of helplessness and incompetence even more. My awakening sense of guilt slowly penetrated my mind as I realized that I had run out of chances to bring him back to his mother and to the world he knew and loved.

  The black witch picked Jonathan up and sat down to breastfeed him. To my joy, he accepted the invitation willingly and clung to her breasts, taking comfort in the familiar suckling motion, even though it wasn’t Jamila.

  I looked at the familiar sight of a mother breastfeeding her baby and remembered that my Idan suckled with pleasure until a late age, and how I had enjoyed breastfeeding him. I remembered how it gave me such a maternal bliss. Suddenly I felt the weird dizziness returning to climb up my spine, sending currents to my own breasts as if I wanted to nurse again too.

  “Don’t worry, Grace. Soon you too will be able to commit to breastfeeding when you give birth to our first son,” Cole saw my pining looks and recognized my maternal yearning in them.

  As I heard his words the nice dizzy spell I felt gave way to horror and nausea, my stomach turned, and bile came up my throat—as I vomited what was left in my digestive system, because since the lunch I had twenty-four hours before then, I didn’t eat at all.

  “Grace! It is not very nice of you to mess up my quarters like this,” he scolded me with a voice filled with fake empathy, joking at my expense.

  The black witch signaled with her head to one of the young women, and she immediately fetched me water to drink and clean myself. I looked at her without saying anything, and she looked back at me with a gaze that was filled with pain and sadness. I suddenly realized that she was captive as well, a prisoner just like me. With her dark look, she told me of her baby that was held hostage in Cole’s cruel hands, and that she was forced to do rituals and pagan ceremonies to help him establish his rule of tyranny.

  Cole noticed our eye contact and severed the connection between us, stopping the information that flowed from one woman to another. He approached the young woman holding the drinking vessel with which she had given me water and knocked it to the floor, spilling the water I barely had a chance to drink. But it was enough to revive me a little.

  “Don’t you even think of trying to communicate with my priestess!” he roared at me in rage. “You despicable shameless woman! Subversive and rebellious! You are already trying to sway her mind and turn her against me? Not so fast my dear,” he took control of himself and stood towering above me, regaining his sense of power again. “And you—my black priestess,” he turned to her, “I’m reminding you, know your place! And what will be the fate of your son if you try to rebel or hurt me in any way!” He took hold of her little baby and gave him to one of the younger women who had followed Cole’s orders with a sad face, as they all had, scared and forced to comply with all his whims.

  “Finish nursing the white baby and start preparing the fertilization ceremony!” he ordered her with supremacy, enjoying the terrified look in her eyes. “And don’t forget to make your special oil. I want no surprises or setbacks during the ceremony—is that clear?!” He raised his arm as if he was about to hit her, and she cringed in a protective position, ready to absorb the blow.

  “Don’t touch her!!! You sick freak!!” I lashed out when I saw what he intended to do, stopping his raised arm. “If you touch her, me or any other woman, I swear your revenge will pale compared to what I will drop on you!!!” My body stretched the ropes that were binding my hands when I tried to fight that awful contemptible man.

  “You are not a man, you are not even an animal! You are a low, disgusting vermin!! I should have crushed you and stepped on you when I had the chance! I won’t let you hurt another man or woman anymore, and especially not innocent babies who did you no wrong! Ever—Do you hear me??!! I will never carry your baby, and I shall never give birth to it—” The raised arm turned and slapped me over my face again, severing my angry oath in a thrust, knocking me to the floor again. I tasted blood as my lip tore.

  “You will not threaten me! You are forgetting your place, you insignificant little woman! The only reason I am keeping you alive is the baby that you will carry in your womb! This is the prophesy of the black priestess: The most powerful man in the world will have and take the great priestess, and they shall bear a child that will rule the world with a strong and painful hand. You were right when you said that the past is wiped clean, and we now have the op
portunity to create a new world. New as I see it. New as it should be—with one absolute ruler that is bowed to by all. This is the only way to lead the human race. People only understand force—and you know this Grace! ‘Only love shall sprout love’—ha!” He snorted with contempt, ruling out his most hated expression. “We’ve already seen how much love, love brings us. Besides pain—love has nothing to give. Look how all you loved was taken away from you. Lost. But, that will be nothing compared to the pain you will experience when I tear away your baby from your arms, seconds after you give birth to him, after he will grow inside of you for nine months, and you have developed your unconditional maternal love for him. I will not even let you breastfeed him—you will watch him being passed on to another woman’s arms, suckling from her breast milk that has no mother’s love in it. He will not get to feel your loving and comforting body. He will only feel the night’s chill in a little crib, and so he will harden, and grow up to be a man with no feelings or sensitivity. You, however, will die in agony, tormented by your love—because that is what love gave to the world, the twisted pain we are made to feel when our loved ones are taken away from us!” He took a breath and stood up, walking as if he was Julius Caesar himself, or Napoleon at least.

  “Not only will you carry my son in your womb, but afterward you will be forced to become my slave, doomed to taste humiliation until you beg me on your hands and knees that I kill you and free you from your hellish fate!” he continued to lay down his horrifying vision of a black future for humanity and mine in particular. “I suggest you rest until the ceremony. I wouldn’t want you to completely exhaust yourself, otherwise where’s the pleasure in vanquishing and humiliating you?” He smiled his most vicious and snake-like smile. “You are about to be humiliated on this altar for everyone to see, and so they will all know that a new king is about to come into the world. It is not for me that I seek the monarchy. I am a humble man, Grace. I shall not be around for many more years, which is why I need to produce an heir that will be able to take on the difficult task of running the world. What did you think? That I will leave you to lead and quietly walk away? Ho – No! No way! I am here to stay, and my seed and the seeds of my sons after me will rule you, your children and your grandchildren with force! Prepare the altar and the temple ring! Come on! Get to it! You little low lives,” he commanded with mean yells on his subjects, then projected a humiliating spit that landed on my face, and left the place.