by Jeremy Marr
Coleena allowed Jago to walk to the center of her spacious, one-room house before commanding him to stop. She sat down on one of the two chairs placed next to the large rectangular wooden table set up against the center of the left wall.
“Jago, darling,” she started, “did you like the way your cave looked yesterday?”
“Yes,” Jago said in a monotone voice.
Coleena looked proud, and beamed a smile at him. “I did all the work myself, and I did not even wake up that precious gift of a son you have. He truly is a dear, sweet child.
“I carried the water bucket for six hours as I walked up there, with the food sack tied to my waist. Six hours of walking up a mountain, and I did not even spill one drop of the liquid.” She had lied to Jago, but something small and insignificant, as minor details did not bother her at all. Why should he need to know she had ‘acquired’ help; the same helper who made the newest addition to her back-yard graveyard.
“Do you know why I did that, Jago?” she asked him.
“I wish not wish to displease you,” Jago said in the same dull, one-pitch voice, “but I do not know why.”
“Then you did not read my note?” she asked, while raising one eyebrow.
“No, I did not,” he droned out.
“Where is it?” she followed, in a cold voice.
He reached in his pocket and produced the note that, up until now, had been placed there and forgotten about. When she saw the folded goatskin parchment appear, she smiled and clapped almost child-like. “You brought it, how wonderful!” she exclaimed. “Now that we are together again, and I have made you mine, it really doesn’t matter, but since I went through all the trouble to write it, why don’t you read it?”
Coleena sat back within her chair and crossed her legs as she placed her hands over the top knee. Jago unfolded the note and held it up to his face. His lips started to move as he mouthed out what he read in his mind.
“Out loud,” Coleena snarled at him.
Jago looked back up to the beginning of the note and started again, aloud this time.
((((()))))
“Brendon-Jago, my dearest friend, this is Jodeen-Coleena. I realize many years have passed since you saw me last, I can only hope that you have not forgotten me like a wild flower seen years ago in passing. I have had many opportunities to embrace you with my eyes from behind the safety of my window’s curtains during the comings and goings of the visits to your family. But had I not, I do not think your face would disappear from my memories for as long as I am alive.”
((((()))))
“Stop right there,” Coleena interrupted, halting his words with no effort. He stopped not only because of the words that were spoken, but because it was SHE who had spoken them. “If you were whole, you may have questioned how I have learned to write. How few people know how to read and write, Brendon-Jago? Hmmmmm? I think you never knew I could, did you?”
Jago, still holding the paper up by his face, simply agreed that he did not know.
“My family’s ancestors have been passing the secret of reading and writing down the family tree since the OneWhoBroughtUs gave us this land. It comes straight from the very first OneTrueDaughter. We can get back to that in a bit. I want to hear the rest of the note, now.
He continued reading.
((((()))))
“Brendon-Jago, I need to see you again and very soon for time is running out. If you had ever loved me as you once claimed to have, what feels like an eternity ago, then you will make haste to me now for the lives of many depend greatly on you. Every second that passes before we talk is one more cry of anguish that will be heard, and it will be placed on your soul for your non-swift reaction. I cleaned your cave and restocked both your food supply and your water as a token of good faith in you.
Do what is right. If you do not wish to see me, at least come home to your family. I believe something bad may happen to them.
Your childhood friend, Coleena.”
((((()))))
A moment passed, full of emptiness with not even a flicker of movement from Coleena or Jago.
“Well?” she asked him. “What did you think of my writing skills? I impress myself sometimes, you know.”
“It was written as well as the OneWhoBroughtUs would have done,” she heard him reply, still in the reading position with the note suspended inches from his face.
“Then that is why are you still looking at it?” she snapped. “You are beginning to annoy me, Jago. I feel as though you are mocking me in some way.” She knew full well why he was “stuck” in that position, and would be until she told him to move. So powerful was her gift and she left nothing to chance when she took him for her own. As he opened up his mouth to answer the question asked of him, she spoke again. “Never mind that, we don’t have much time, and there is much to talk about. Unfortunately, for me, I am going to need you back as you once were to fully understand the grand scope of things.
“You can have your free will back, your memories at will, your thoughts, feelings, and emotions, as well. You will remember everything that has happened this afternoon, even those memories I took from you.
“You are still mine, and will be forever. For what must be done, you must be acting as if you are under your own free will, and I would like to believe that you would want to do it freely. Due to the importance of the matter, however, you will have one chance and one chance only. You will have to remember that if you do not wish to do it with your free will intact, then I will be forced to take it from you once again. It is something I am willing to do for the cause of Darkness.
“You may remember all, now.”
