Demicore

Chapter 26

The rest of his human lives seemed so mundane after those memories. He was still a do-gooder. Fireman, policeman, caretaker, homemaker, whatever roll he played he always did his best to leave a positive presence in the world. Disciple of Jesus. That one made him smile. Jesus knew who he was the whole time, even though he himself knew nothing, God was lighting him on fire with the Spirit once again. Giving him the ability to love and trust in Him again.

Finally, his memory arrived to his last life – Erik. His mother, the ex-nun. His father and brother. His wife. His consciousness shook with fear for her. But then, she had always had a strong sense of faith… When he arrived at the part of his life where he opened the portal, it was as though he was looking through someone else’s eyes. He was able to evaluate it. It wasn’t what he had first thought. Instead it had been a time pocket. He could have opened it any time he wanted and no time would have passed inside.

He relived the trials. His daughters, beautiful girls that they were, so very forgiving when his pain kept him from being the father he wanted to be. They were ever trusting in him. He watched again as they grew, as he taught them everything he learned so that they had time together. He relived his medical training, laughing at things that were cutting edge when he learned/developed them and were now so very outdated.

Andrea. He loved her somehow the same and very different than he loved Elizabeth, yet it did not take away from his love for the wife he was trying to save. Andrea was wonderful. She taught him how to live again. She was determined, intelligent, spontaneous, and loved life as much as his girls did.

He hunted the man who had tried to kill everything he loved. They developed cutting edge equipment. Cars, weapons, stealth, even a small plane in the basement with the flight path running out miles under Lake Erie to the other side in a forest so he couldn’t be tracked. It was a huge organization. The four of them took it out from the bottom up… Joey was almost at the top, he had been determined in his own right… Erik felt almost guilty at how much he enjoyed putting the man through the chipper feet first. But then, he had just kidnapped Andy, burned out her eyes, and given several of his lackeys permission to r**e her before killing her.

They had no idea Andy could perform martial arts without her eyes. She had held them off just long enough for re-enforcements to arrive. The cops never figured out what happened. His daughters were ever at his side. He had wanted them to leave for Joey’s demise, but they refused.

They attributed their youth to martial arts. Even Andy had been doing it with them and had kept her youthfulness much longer than most. Even she began to age a little. She began to take pain pills all the time and wear her red silk scarf all the time. Her condition worsened until she was in the hospital on her deathbed. She admitted that God had given her the choice to leave on her own terms because Elizabeth was going to come back.

His heart leapt. He was right. She was coming back! How? He had to bury Andy. It broke his heart and filled it with joy. God. She had spoken to The Almighty and He had said his love would return to him. He redoubled his efforts to figure out how to reopen the portal. Time pocket. And now that he analyzed it, some of the libraries he was in should have had information about the … kids. They hid it from him, he was sure of it. He relived the remaining time until he rejoined his separated parts.

As he came back to himself and shook his head to clear his vision of the room around him, there was one thing nagging at the back of his mind. The blood. There was something about the blood…

When they all went to bed, they thought he would be ready to talk to them in the morning. Elizabeth slept, sure that she would wake back up in her own bed and find this all to be an elaborate dream. Her dreams, however, took a different route. They started pleasant enough, walking through the most beautiful garden she had ever seen or imagined. Even the fragrances seemed somehow better. She visited with a man she could not identify but knew well and cared for. Then something happened. She had no idea what, but the garden fell away into wasteland and her friend was no where to be found. Then she was pursued by another nameless person, hunted, barely able to escape with her life.

She woke in a cold sweat, terrified and searching for anything familiar. The clock said one, but since the rooms were in the basement she had no idea if it was am or pm. She turned on a lamp. Slowly her panic began to subside just a little as she remembered where she was and how she got there. She grabbed a robe and began to wander out of the bedroom.

The dojo was closest. The door was open. Alone in the floor sitting with his legs crossed, was the Demicore who used to be Erik. He was a frightening sight, but she really needed a hug… she decided it was safe to ask for a few minutes of his time, he could go back to what he was doing shortly. Until she could not walk through the open door. She tried again and was stopped again by some force unknown to her. She beat against whatever was holding her back. She yelled out. Still nothing happened. It was as if he could not hear her at all.

Katlin heard her yell and ran down the stairs to find out what the matter was. Upon figuring out what the general crisis was, she attempted to walk through the doorway herself and found it just as blocked as her mother had.

“Mom, its lunchtime. Come eat with us,” Katlin offered, hoping to buy some time to figure out what was going on.

“What are you having?” Elizabeth asked out of habit more than anything.

“Taco salad. Seemed liked a nice, light lunch type thing…” Katlin was still distracted.

“Who made it?”

“I did, why? Well, Sonya chopped the veggies.”

“Good,” Elizabeth still sounded like she wasn’t entirely there, “Sonya puts in too much pepper heat when she makes it. Takes after her father in that way…” she trailed off and allowed her gaze to return to the open doorway. “Let me at least brush my hair before I come upstairs.” Katlin released her mother to go restrain her long blonde hair before coming upstairs for a meal that she must need by now, the psychiatrist in her working overtime to figure out what was happening.

When Elizabeth had her hair pulled up, she tread softly up the stairs turning at the familiar landing to take the final two steps into the small kitchen. She paused for a second to look out at the vast expanse of yard and forestry beyond that before sitting down to prepare her bowl. It wasn’t like taking it in for the first time. No, this was quite different. This was looking at it all being very altered from her memory in a whole new light than from the first time.

Somehow everything being completely different than it should have been – than it was – only a few months ago seemed more… appropriate? These two grown women that were her small children not so long ago seemed to be able to take everything in stride. They sat at the table, eating a meal they had prepared, talking about ghosts, Demicore, science, and magic like it happened every day for them. Or at least that’s how it sounded to her.

“Hot!” she swallowed hard and reached for her drink. “I thought you said Sonya didn’t make this!”

“I didn’t,” Sonya told her as she took another bite. “But Katlin did do a good job of it.”

“Are you kidding?!” Elizabeth asked, “This is so hot I can’t eat it!”

“Here,” Katlin said, handing her a glass of milk and crunching up more chips, “This will help disperse some of the heat. Between this and adding some more veggies you should be ok.”

She felt like she drank about a gallon of milk, but she managed to get the meal down. They tried to make small talk about the weather and how it would be changing soon but even that turned their minds back to the basement and what was going on down there. (Someone made a comment about hunting, which turned into wondering just how that would change with such a natural hunter living with them now.)

Elizabeth and Sonya did dishes. Katlin was reminded of a lady from the early 1900’s by her mother wandering around with her hair up in that robe. This had officially been the most odd summer ever… and soon the leaves would be changing. She suggested that they sit down and veg for a while watching movies and spending girl time while they waited for Erik to be done with whatever it was he was doing down there.

“…You know, since we missed so much of this during my growing up years.”

“Uh-huh,” Elizabeth replied slyly, “I know a distraction technique when I see one, but I’m game for it. Anyone have any nail polish?” They all giggled, popped pop corn, put in an old film and relaxed in the living room trying to forget the worlds of chaos that had come into their lives.

Several hours, drinks, and a couple of movies later the whole house shook. They could hear his scream in anguish. Sonya was closest to the stairs, so the first to get down to the dojo. It had to be huge to cause the place to shake that way and that scream… Still, the force that held them out of the room stood fast. They could see clearly the tears and that he was physically unharmed, but that was the only comfort they were offered. No matter how they beat against and pushed on it, the invisible force did not budge. Only when it appeared that whatever had caused his pain to begin with did they allow their efforts to subside.

Exhausted and confused, they wandered back upstairs wondering just how long this was really going to take and what all he was going through down there. The girls also griped that he could have chosen a location that wouldn’t interfere with their daily training. They decided to resume their martial arts the following day outside.

That night Elizabeth dreamt again of being pursued. It felt like she was moving through time, though, constantly fighting and ever on edge. She told her daughters about it over breakfast and put it out of her mind as they went outside to dedicate time to martial arts, as became their daily routine.

Katlin was banned from cooking when she put so much pepper in the potatoes that they turned a shade of grey and still thought they needed more. Her omelets were worse. Elizabeth’s dreams became darker, as though a shadow loomed over her head all the time. The most disturbing thing that happened over the next week, though, was that each of them seemed to be hallucinating just a little.