Beasts Awakened

by Full Moon Publishing

  - You were supposed to be back at work since yesterday. Why are you still in this hospital bed?

  The crushing voice of Clifford pierced Alicia's ears and she pivoted her head with a speed she was unaware she could exercise. Their eyes met, Alicia noticed his Bluetooth eyes did not alter much since their last meeting while she was bleeding because of him.

  - I was surprised to see how I help people while they pretend to visit me.

  Alicia confessed in a manner she was not sure the nerving reply Clifford would apply.

  - Good for you. This is for you and I am sure we will see you soon…good day

  - Why are so angry and want to kill everyone?

  Alicia interrupted him before he walked out the door.

  - This is not me pretending to pay you a visit. I just came to apologize and ask how you are doing. That is all. I am not one of your patients.

  Clifford mumbled every word while Alicia caught a glimpse of the shell that cared.

  - Actually, you are. I am the only therapist in the region. I have seen your case…I did not know you had so much anger…

  Clifford whispered to her he was keeping them for his father who isolates Jim on this island without so much a word of warning. Alicia did not try to clean up the false persona, but she introduced herself to him. Clifford advised her it would be a good caution not to talk in front of Gaston. He might reach the wrong conclusion. She invited Clifford to read her cards while she was listening to his articulation. Alicia though to listen to Clifford found herself curious about the heartless man who did not peek, not even once after he pierced her in the belly. Clifford sat at her bedside, a pain place she pulled out to keep him talking. He took off his black cap and put it on the bed-desk, his brown hair was unnatural, his emerald eyes were fixated on the cards and each word from his dry pink lips attracted Alicia attention further into his world. Clifford did not have the diamond Head of his father, but a mix from him and his mother round face. His shoulder did not let much to expect since he had never since his body like a working progress. He was a normal man with man feature enough to guide a thousand girls at his feet. No Spartan shoulders, no Hercules' chest, and no Olympians criteria, yet he was a devil handsome man with an imaginative smile. She had not seen it and he was a man ready to kill for peace and quiet. She was puzzled and intrigued at the same time. She had a new challenge though. She had to break him one way or another.

  - Can't stay long. Work, maybe Thursday. I will pass.

  Alicia smiled with big hope, yet she was feeling his presence already. He was a patient of her caliber to decipher. She was happy, even too much.

  Clifford closed the door behind him and he sighed with the entire workload he had managed to distribute this morning alone. He did not know why, but being in Alicia presence did not feel right or did not feel hostile like everyone in the zone who wanted a piece of him. The peace and quiet and loneliness he required, Alicia could provide it for him. She had all with her and he was in search of them.

  What should he do? He had no clue, but for a starter, he was not going to keep on coming to see her. He just lied to her to leave. He was sure she could deduce that much, but more else, he did not need to cross Gaston path. He warned him to stay away and now he was in his girl room, talking, flirting, and reading her good thoughts. Things were not right. Clifford shook his head off her person and returned to his respective responsibility.

  One fact was for sure. They would meet again and next time, he won't have a choice but to accept her to be his therapist. Like she said, she was the only one in the Company and in the Asia region. So, he was stuck with the woman of his worst enemy. One more disaster was bound to occur after Clifford almost killed Alicia. Sure, Clifford did not hurt Alicia cause she was his primary target, but he did not agree with the bad taste he left at her sublime taste. She was innocent. That much he knew and he did not need anything else, even if she was paradise on Earth.

  Clifford sure still hated his father to drop him in this backward land to survive and to learn his life lessons, but he had no idea he was capable of seeing the truth. Since he came, he worked his butt off in the distribution of letters, contracts, and missives. He had met new people and new environment even though he kept his person away from them. He did not need friends or a woman who could not get her eyes off him. However, he still got his ok be rive in the road. Earning his money and getting to a continent he can live right, even poor. He scored a second job in the unique bar in the old Asia Western. He swiped the counter, swept the floor, prepared the tables, brought waters, and helped Carolina and his father in every little detail. He had liked of the dependence feeling Carolina and his father had expressed as soon as he got everything under control. He cleaned the snows in front of the bar, he found a way to keep the guys from getting drunk and broke out fights every night, and he went for the packages, whichever they might be…

  - Clifford, can you take care of the counter I need to verify some products in the back? Carolina at first ordered him around and he fought her every step of the way, but after a few weeks and a month, all he could respond was…

  - Yeah, I got it…

  At some point, Carolina did not need to tell him to replace her or to guard the cashbox. She moved, and he joined her occupation and continued it or finished it. By then, Clifford could afford his own room and he moved from the motel. He did not want to be a victim of these two throwing him out of the little devil Western hotel that had been in the family for five generation. As much as it got rotten or it got dangerous, Carolina family was one tough people who did not negotiate the simplest gift of an ancestor whoever he was. There were at least three rooms they did not rent anymore, the back pillars required new woods, and the rooms did not sit well with the snows at the bottom of the Motel base. Clifford had demanded Carolina and his father if the renovation plan was a live option, but they did not expect the bar and the motel to make it that long since Omar took it over from his own father at 20 years of age. Now he was climbing the ladder of life to 75 years old. He had quite his fair share of good and bad moments as well as good and bad memories. E did not regret for a second d the good life he led with his wife Janet in this family value.

  - My mother's name is Jeannette and she is a quiet woman with plenty of advice to give.

  - Yeah, next you would tell me that Jeannette Grandvue is your mother.

  Clifford did not add a word, but without thinking, he did not intend to have his family for him to owe.

  - Of course not,…do not be silly…

  Clifford lied and once more he was close to being a man for his own account. All he had ever dreamed was a reality, but as well as the freedom and the wanting feeling of everyone who was counting on him. He learned a crucial truth. Freedom was also loneliness. He found himself in need of companionship and for once, he was not looking for a simple one night stand. He was looking for the real deal. He had considered Carolina, but she was a fine young woman without a bright future. Yet, she had the potential to rival any feminine creature he had known his youth during his hanging out season. He had never had a true relationship with anyone. He did not have one with his father, even less with women who were difficult to catch up. He did not even have to consider Alicia. She was forbidden and she was out of the question. Although he could not keep a good relationship going, he began to identify a thousand reasons they failed and the first place and he was not ready to count Alicia as one of his failures. He almost killed her and now, she might be her victim.

  Friday was Clifford day off and even though he would like to be downstairs serving drinks, wiping the counter, and enjoying the happiness of others through his naked eyes, he preferred to remain in his new room close to the Motel about fifteen minutes of walk. He could hear the good noises of fading music if he concentrated. Well, he had always heard them since he moved to this recent place because his room was as quiet as no one ever had lived there. The owner was happy he finally scored one of the silent types even if he did not talk to hi
m at all. As long as it did not bother the neighborhood and other residents, Clifford was fine. This community was not that different from the Motel and the bar. The only difference, Clifford had a little additional space to lie down, roll, and workout during his free time. He did not have TV or he did, but he passed his ultimatum with the owner to find a better place for it. His only distraction was admiring ants that were working day and night, the howling of crickets, and the faint light of nature fly. It would have taken him a brand new Mustang of the recent year to make him happy and celebrate his birthday way before it was due. Now, he could not understand he had no need for these materials. Not that Asia gave him the opportunity to use them, but he did not care anymore. He had better priority to worry about and a new life to initiate away from Asia, more precise, away from his family, above all his father. He did not intend to forgive him and I had no idea if he would ever see him again for his own count. Thinking about his mother thought was a challenge. He did not want to have her in his mind. It was hurtful and he could not keep her too long. If he did, he would commit a bad choice and it might come and bite him in the flat butt.

  - Carolina...

  Alicia had not seen her old best friend who did not accept her to steal Gaston from her about ten years ago. Of course, they had crossed the path and had noticed one another, but it had been ten years since they talked and they fought over a man for it.

  - Alicia…

  Carolina was a young woman as equal as Alicia, but some reasons always put the men in Alicia's way. Carolina came in second place or even if they saw Carolina, she just the first taste before they flew straight for Alicia. At the beginning of their friendship, Carolina did not notice no young men ready to steal her best friend and so did Alicia. Gaston had always been seen as the right guy for every woman in Asia. From his youth age, he was already a strong man with the right virtue of a real husband. He was a charmer as much as a troublemaker, but he knew how to work. No one could replace him in the factory, not even the new guy who wanted to kill Alicia. Gaston was the pure profile of King Leonidas with a black golden hair, pride to be a man in every sense of the word, starting with his straight shoulder line, his back wall with plenty of scars to mark his invitation in the cult he had been attending, his muscles seemed rather natural than forced upon him. He was at ease using any part of his body, especially the one he pressed against any women lips. Most young girls in the high school knew what Gaston's lips tasted like. His diamond face said much of his anger and his uncontrollable temper. His deep black eyes would not crave you with fear. You would meet him in person. His cheekbone was flat. No wonder he did not like to smile and he was always on the move. He had met the girls together and Carolina was the obvious choice, except Helene did not like her.

  - She is too extravagant. I do not like her for you.

  Helene put it on her own words. If Gaston was king Leonidas, Helene was the Queen because her words were law.

  The truth was Carolina was not Alicia. Like Clifford mother, Alicia had obeyed the rules of the house until the day she went to college. Carolina, she knew what she wanted and Gaston was one of the prices. She had figured it out better than Carolina that she was not angry at her for taking Gaston. Instead, she was angry at her because she let Helene came between them and no girl had such power unless one of the victims let the effect slide. Alicia did not protest when Helene forbid Gaston from seeing Carolina again. Carolina stood up to Helene, waiting for Alicia to back her up. However, Alicia did not do what she should have according to Carolina and since that day, until this night. Neither of them had exchanged greetings, less alone a "hey old friend…"

  - Can I ask you something?

  Carolina lifted up her head as well as her thick brows to sign an attentive possibility.

  - Where is Clifford? I heard he worked here but I do not see him.

  Alicia sent her green eyes in every direction and old corner of the bar Carolina had shown her when they were little.

  - He asked for the night off since you were coming with your boyfriend and his band of outlaws.

  Carolina pointed them to the table, next to the counter on the left side.

  - What? I do not get it…

  Alicia soprano voice did not get far but Carolina had adjusted her large ears to her tone a long time ago. She had no problem.picking up her words.

  - That would not be the first time….

  Alicia pretended to speak but Carolina interrupted her in the vague moment she hesitated to start the dispute she should have had long ago, but some reasons Alicia had always imagined Carolina was right and she failed her. She had never found the courage to close that chapter of their life, even in this precise moment.

  - Listen, Clifford worked here and at the Grandvue Company, it would be good if you can keep your dog on a leash until he leaves. He won't stay and you can go back to your boring life before he landed here. Would that satisfy you? (Alicia could not press her lips to articulate a word.) Good, now if you excuse me, I have customers to serve.

  Alicia lifted up her hand to grab Carolina but it was too late. Helene walked into the Motel and everyone saluted the Queen of Discord. She was good at it and she did not even need a lesson from the old Loki for this.

  - So, are we here to party or what?

  Helene embraced the night and everyone embraced her and Carolina just got pissed way above before she crashed her night after she blew Alicia off with her conflict of feelings.

  - Why do I even bother?

  Carolina thought out loud but the words remained inside her soul while she was contemplating Gaston who could not get Alicia lips away from his in a drunken state. Carolina sighed hard and a cloud of sadness with a feature from the past filled her oval face. For a minute, she believes she dropped a single tear for Alicia. She might have been the one in this situation, kissing Gaston like crazy and dancing all over the bar, but Alicia. She was the exception to the rule. She was supposed to encounter the charming Prince and ran with him in the Chariot while admiring the rainbow sunset and taking forever for her sweet lips to touch his. She could only imagine how rough Gaston might be with her in an actual bed. Did she even get to experience the true meaning of making love for the first time or did she masturbate first before he crushed her into submission with his damaging stick? As much as Carolina wanted to be a victim of the bad stuff she could witness in her old days, she could not take The sight of Alicia with him. He was too painful. She walked away and tapped into the old source of their youth to remember the good Alicia who dreamed every night her charming Prince would be coming.

  - He will take me in his arms, kiss me, and I will hold his neck and we will fly on the magic carpet to his castle where we will live happily ever after.

  Young Carolina burst into laughs and Alicia followed. Carolina smirked once again of these good old days, but she was nomore the naive girl she was when Helene came between them and Alicia had been influenced enough not to see her reality with Gaston. He would never marry her, ever.

  Chapter 5

  - Clifford, I am going to need your help…the orders we …Clifford…Clifford…

  Carolina froze the minute she did not see Clifford and the bar and motel were closed shut. Clifford did not transformation into someone new. He was someone new and he did not need anyone to remind him he had become a man in the two weeks he had been crossing the little street of the Asia region. Sure, snows made it difficult but he got his head around the idea snow was part of his life and their life, speaking of the Asian people. After a month, Carolina was not afraid to let the entrance opening key to him for the bar and the motel. He would be in front of the door exactly at 4:30 AM and not a minute too late. Then, when Carolina noticed the bar and motel doors where still in their previous state, the way she left them shit after the long night these allegedly workers partied to die. She was sure Clifford would not take long to neglect his responsibility and return to his old ways. Carolina slapped her hand over her forehead, placed everything in some perfect
position, and she decided to run to Clifford and tell him a few more truths while snatching the keys out of his hands. Nevertheless, Carolina dreamed he would have a perfectly good explanation for his current inexplicit behavior. She wished it with a filled heart of good reasons.

  - Carolina…

  The owner of the current renting place pronounced Carolina name, which was odd since she had no connection with him, either of rivalry or of friendship. She was aware this place must have an owner, but she did not get to call his name at her turn. She was clueless.

  - Yes, do I know you?

  Carolina responded with a question, but the man was not interested in replying her concern for her identity.

  - Did Clifford go to work this morning? He was supposed to pay me the rent like he did last month. Yet, this morning, I can't locate him. His room was clean and in one piece.

  Carolina widened her silver-grey eyes, breathed a good amount of blend air, and opened her lips halfway indicating there was one possible outcome where Clifford disappeared without a trace.

  - He is gone.