Deadly Passion, an Epiphany

by Gabriella Bradley

  His thoughts drifted back to Megan. He missed her so much. Where was his sweet girl? Did she survive the explosion? No, impossible. He’d seen how terribly hurt she was and how the fire consumed her before everything went black. His heart ached as if a thousand needles were stabbing it. Tears threatened but he swallowed hard.

  It took forever but finally the guards opened the door and slipped out. Quick as a flash, Mark sat on the side of the bed, took his boots off, and stuffed the pile of clean clothing under the blanket. He had no clue if it resembled a body but it would have to do. He really didn’t have anything else except one change of clean clothing left for them every day.

  Carrying his boots he crept softly to the door and opened it as little as possible, then slipped through and closed it. He quickly put his boots back on and ran to the toilets. Carol was there, waiting for him. He held a finger to his lips and motioned her to follow him. They ran as fast as they could without making too much noise. Mark knew exactly where he was going. The cave was just off an old abandoned tunnel. He stopped for a moment once they were inside the tunnel. Light emanating from the adjacent tunnel lit the entrance dimly. He held his hand out to Carol and pulled her along. He’d counted the steps to the cave. Once inside the cave, he dared to whisper.

  “We’re in the cave now. Hold my hand but stay close. I know exactly what to avoid and how far to go.”

  “Mark, I’m scared. It’s blacker than black in here. I can’t see a thing.”

  Mark chuckled. “You? Scared? C’mon, woman. You don’t have a scared bone in your body.” He tugged gently at her hand and counted his steps looking up as they walked. He stopped suddenly.

  “Look up,” he said softly.

  “I see it,” Carol said, sounding excited now. “How do we get up there?”

  “For you, easy. You can stand on my shoulders. When you’re inside, place your hands flat on either side of the tunnel and your feet on either side. Push hard. This isn’t going to be easy.”

  “How about you? How will you get in there?”

  “Don’t worry. I’m crouching down. Now feel for my shoulders and put your feet on them.” He felt Carol place her feet on his shoulders. She hung onto his head for dear life. He stood up slowly. “Let go of my head and reach up, Carol. You should be almost inside the tunnel if you stand.”

  She didn’t weigh much, so he could finally stand upright. He was tall and if he reached, he could feel the edge of the hole.

  “I’m in,” Carol said.

  “Now start going up, a little at a time. I’ll be right below you soon.” He waited, heard her muttering under her breath several times, heard her foot slip once or twice, but she struggled on and up. He wished he could see something but had to guess where she was before he could start his climb.

  Feeling behind him, he rolled the big rock he’d found the day before, beneath the hole. It took all his muscle power because the rock was huge. Climbing on top of it, he was three quarter of the way inside the tunnel. He crouched as much as he could and jumped hoping and praying he wouldn’t fall. Slamming both hands against the side of the tunnel, he felt his feet barely reach the edge of the hole. He pushed against the sides with all his might and managed to lift one foot, then the other.

  Mark let out his breath and started the climb. “Carol, I’m inside. How are you doing?”

  “It’s hard, but bit by bit I’m climbing.”

  “Good, keep it up. We can’t stop. I’ve got no idea how far it is to that bit of light, but we can’t risk losing ground and time. Once they discover we’re gone—“

  “I know. You realize that if I fall, I’ll take you with me.”

  “So, don’t fall.”

  “I think I know a better way. If we lean our back against the wall and put our hands flat on either side of our bodies, our feet on the other wall, I think we’d climb faster and it’s safer.”

  “Mm, you’re smart.” Mark tried her way and yes, found that he could get up the tunnel easier that way. In a way it was fortunate that the tunnel was so narrow.

  Slowly, as they climbed, the light above became brighter and bigger. It spurred them on, gave them hope that they’d make it.

  Mark’s heart beat faster when a ray of sunlight lit up Carol above him. “Carol, sunshine. I can see you.”

  “I know. Looking up, we still have quite a ways to go, but it’s getting lighter all the time.”

  They climbed steadily. It became harder because the higher they climbed, the more the walls became damp, and then quite wet. It was everything they could do to stay wedged between the walls and not slip.

  Mark looked up and saw the light just feet away from them. “Carol, we’re almost there.”

  “Yes, just a few more feet.”

  Mark waited until she reached the edge and watched her slowly disappear from his sight. He continued on until he, too, reached the edge of the hole. A hand appeared over the side and Carol’s grinning face looked down at him.

  “Grab my hand. I can’t believe we made it,” she said, beaming from ear to ear.

  Once on top, he could hardly comprehend that they’d made it and he was looking at green grass and a blue sky. Sweat dripped off his forehead, stinging his eyes. He wiped his forehead, his face and took a few steps forward. Taking a deep breath, he relished the fresh air. Tearing his shirt off, he raised his hands to the sky. “Thank you, God!” he shouted.

  “Oh, my God. Look at your back!”

  “I can’t see my back, silly woman. What’s wrong with it?”

  “You’ve scraped the skin off your back. You’re bleeding.”

  “Mm, I don’t feel any pain. Turn around. Your shirt is torn to ribbons and you’re bleeding, too.”

  Carol nodded. “From the rough rock wall in the tunnel. I don’t care. We’re free. Maybe it’s a dream. I can hardly believe it’s all real.”

  Mark dropped down on the tall grass, flattening it. “You’re damn right it’s real. I can smell this grass.”

  “I wonder where we are,” Carol said, inspecting her bleeding hands.

  Mark stood, held his hand above his eyes and gazed around. “I see some kind of forest far away. Over there is a rocky ledge. I’m going to take a look.”

  He walked to the ledge, with Carol following him. They stood on the edge and looked down a steep cliff. “Damn, a beach, water, and I see people down there.”

  “Yeah, and I see ropes to get down. I don’t think my hands can handle it, though.”

  Mark looked at his own hands that were just as raw and bleeding. “My shirt might be in shreds, but I can tear it in strips and wrap them around my hands. Damn, I’m going down.”

  Carol didn’t waste a second. She took her shirt off, heedless of her naked breasts. They had not provided her with bras. Tearing strips off the tattered shirt, she bound her hands. She tried to tie the remainder around her breasts, but it didn’t work very well.

  Mark was first to go. The big knots in the ropes, which looked to be made from vines, were footholds. His hands hurt like crazy now, but he didn’t care. When he was close to the beach, he jumped to see a group of people watching them. Carol soon joined him, covering her breasts with her arms. She’d lost the material she’d wound around her breasts as she was descending.

  A man approached them from the back of the group. “Mark? Mark Engler?”

  “Harry? Good God, is that really you? Where’s Megan?”

  “She’s not here, Mark, but man, am I happy to see you. That gives me hope that my Megan is alive and well and someplace else on this godforsaken alien planet.”

  “Alien?” Mark looked at the lake, the beach, the way everyone was dressed. “You reckon this is an alien planet? And how did you get here? How long have you been here? Who are all these other people?”

  “Who is your friend, Mark?”

  “Oh, sorry. This is Carol. She is a coworker from the mine. Carol, this is Harry, my fiancee’s father.”

  “Hello, Carol. Let’s get you something to co
ver yourself. Both of you, come with me. Why don’t you take a dip in the lake and get cleaned up first. We can talk later.”

  Mark took his boots off and walked into the tepid lake water. “This feels like a little piece of heaven,” he told Carol, who’d followed him.

  “Mark!” she shouted.

  He swiveled to face her. “What?”

  “Your hands, your back, it’s all healed.”

  “Huh?” He held his hands up and inspected them. Gone were the cuts, the raw bleeding flesh. “How’s that possible?”

  “I’ll be damned if I know, but if this is alien territory, anything could happen.”

  “You believe in that kind of stuff?”

  “Why not? It sure as hell would explain how I suddenly woke up in a mine.”

  Mark left the water and joined Harry, who was waiting for them. Carol wasn’t far behind.

  “Here is a grass skirt for you and a top, Carol. The women have become quite handy since we’ve been here.”

  “Thanks.” She quickly wound the strip of braided twine around her breasts. “I’m suddenly starving hungry. Do you guys have food?”

  “Yes. Lake’s full of fish and the jungle abundant with fruit trees and nuts. The women will get you some food. Let’s go and talk. Many of us here have stories to tell, and I’m anxious to hear yours, Mark.”

  They’d talked a long time in between nibbling on fish, fruit and nuts. Mark finally told Harry he was exhausted.

  “Most of us just sleep on the beach. We use huge leaves as blankets, but there’s really no need. The weather here is always the same. Just pick a spot away from all the chatter and go rest.”

  Mark found a quiet spot. Carol wanted to stay and talk a while longer, but tomorrow was another day. If there is even a tomorrow, a little nagging voice in his mind repeated over a few times. There has to be. And now that I know that Harry is here, and Georgia is alive, Cassie, Jonas, even if they’ve disappeared, there’s hope that Megan is somewhere on this alien world.

  Chapter Nineteen

  Revealing her inner turmoil…

  Megan sat quietly and listened to her fellow inmates, as she called herself and them. Though she was no longer in a hospital and was completely healed, she felt like a prisoner. She couldn’t go anywhere. There was no telephone, no way to communicate with the outside world. There were no computers, and with no Internet access, it was as if she’d gone back to the stone ages. She couldn’t understand any of it. Why she had to stay there so long when her body was healed. She missed Mark so much, and her parents, and Vera. If only she could get in touch with them.

  “Megan, your turn. You’ve told us almost everything about your life, but something is still missing that you need to share,” Dr. Snow interrupted her thoughts.

  “Her life sounds pretty boring,” a man called Terry said. “You sure she needs to share anything else?”

  “None of you have shared the one thing that is keeping you here. Something that happened in your lives, a traumatic event, something that has eaten at you, given you bad dreams.”

  “What do you mean, keeping us here?” Megan asked.

  “Until you’ve opened up completely, you can’t move on,” Dr. Snow told them.

  Megan thought about his words and decided to share her inner demons. She wanted to move on, if that meant being reunited with her family and Mark. “When I was thirteen, I was raped viciously by three men.”

  “Megan, I’m so sorry,” Dr. Snow said. Several in the group murmured among themselves. “Have you forgiven them?”

  “Forgiven? I was a girl, for Christ sake! Should I forgive them?”

  “Have you forgiven yourself?”

  “I didn’t do anything wrong. What’s there to forgive?”

  “What about the men, Megan? How did they act afterward?”

  “They disappeared mysteriously.”

  “That’s very interesting. Did you tell anyone about what happened?”

  “Yes, my father. No one else ever knew.”

  “Why do you think these men raped you?”

  “They were drunk out of their minds. I don’t think they realized what they were doing.”

  “And you never told your mother, the police, anyone else?”

  “No.”

  “Do you think that’s right?”

  “No. I should have gone straight to the police instead of going home.”

  “So when you came home, you told your father, but why didn’t you ever tell your mother?”

  “Mom wasn’t home and Dad made me promise never to tell her.”

  “What did you do after you told your father?”

  “I showered and went to bed.”

  “Did your father go to the authorities?”

  “No. He left the house not long after I went to bed.”

  “And the men disappeared. What do you think happened to them? Do you think they ran away?”

  Megan faced her biggest demon that had haunted her for years. She’d confessed to her father, and he’d left the house not long after. Then the three men disappeared. “I think my father went after them,” she said in a small voice.

  “And deep down, you were afraid your father had made the men disappear, right?”

  “Yes.”

  “So you’ve been living with this for the last six years. If those men are really remorseful for what they did, could you forgive them?”

  Megan had to think long and hard about that question. “I don’t want to talk about it anymore. I’d like to go back to my room now.”

  Once in her room, she lay on the bed with her hands under her head. Dr. Snow had made the past resurface. Now, after telling Dr. Snow and the group what had haunted her for so long, she thought long and hard and had to admit it wasn’t the rape that troubled her. It was the fear that her father had made the three men disappear. It was a deep-rooted fear. Now that it surfaced in full, the thought that had troubled her most, the thought she’d buried so deep and never dared to face or voice, whispered in her mind. “He killed them,” she said softly. “I’m sure of it, because I heard him come back and when I looked out of my window, I saw him carrying his shotgun. And it’s my fault. If I’d gone to the cops instead of home, Dad wouldn’t have done anything. The three men would have been arrested and gone to jail. But I was so ashamed and so scared for Dad. The whole town would have known if I’d gone to the police or told Mom…” Tears soaked her cheeks. Her father was a murderer because of her. How could she ever forgive herself? She loved her father too much to tell anyone of her suspicion because it surely would have taken her father out of their lives. Neither did she dare ask her father, afraid of his answer. Would he even have told her the truth?

  Sleep wouldn’t come. She tossed and turned, her mind a whirlpool of thoughts. She finally reached for the nightlight, turned it on, and sat on the side of her bed, her body damp from perspiration. “I should have gone to the authorities, even if it would have led to Dad’s arrest,” she whispered softly.

  You were still a child…

  Megan startled. Had she really heard that voice, or was it the voice in her head speaking? Bright light filled the room, a flash of lightning as if the electricity shorted out. Its brilliance hurt her eyes so she closed them. Strange enough, she didn’t feel scared.

  She floated near the ceiling of her room. Below her, she saw her bed, the rumpled bedding, the nightstand, until she began to spin faster and faster. It was the strangest dream she’d ever had, but she didn’t want it to end because she felt wonderful, light, like a bird.

  Somehow she passed through the ceiling and floated high above the buildings below. The vortex of light spun faster and faster, engulfed her, until she became super dizzy and drowsy.

  Falling…

  Megan felt the rush flow through her veins, her stomach, as she seemed to hurtle through the air, the vortex sending her spiraling down. Experiencing the same excitement as she’d felt on the rides at a fair, it was exhilarating, weird, sensational, and scary
at the same time. She couldn’t think, had no idea what was happening until she landed on a cloud.

  Well, it felt like a cloud. She opened her eyes. The bright luminous light faded and she found herself in a different room. What had happened to her old room? Which section of Midhaven was this? The room was beautiful, the bed beneath her the softest she’d ever experienced. Gazing around at the white walls and the pastel paintings, she sighed and sat on the edge. Her feet touched a floor that appeared to be made of frosted glass. Facing her was a window wall.

  Walking slowly to the window, she gazed out of it at the dark sky, the sea of lights emanating from buildings, and the tall building that towered over everything. Atop there was a cone shaped glass dome that revolved slowly. Its bright light was like a beacon. Slowly it changed colors from white to pink to green and all the rainbow pastel colors blending as the dome rotated.

  “Gorgeous,” she muttered, “But what is this place?”

  Turning around she inspected the room. The furnishings were sparse. A bed, a night table, lights that radiated from the ceiling that also appeared to be made from glass. Turning back to the window she noticed her reflection suddenly. Gone were the jeans and top she’d been wearing. Instead, she was dressed in the softest of gowns, Light blue and Grecian style, it draped in gentle folds to her ankles. Her feet were now clad in silver sandals. The material felt similar to a chiffon. Her hair was back to normal and hung in long golden waves to her waist.

  A voice, coming from nowhere, sounded through the room. It startled her and she spun around to see a panel open to a brightly lit corridor. People walked past, women dressed similar to her and men in tunics, all of various pastel colors.

  “Dinner is served in the blue dining room. Please follow the blue line.”