The Mark of Cain

DISCOVERY

Chapter 1

He stood naked in the hot shower, his hands caressing his own body, touching, feeling and exploring. Moving slowly at first, but then faster, with urgency while the hot water continued to wash his lean body.  His eyes were tightly shut when eventually soft moans escaped from his trembling lips.  The sensations hit him so suddenly that they forced his naked back against the warm shower wall.

Later that same morning Cain sat uncomfortably at his office desk.  He looked down unhappily at all the papers and documents that needed his immediate attention, but he just couldn’t focus.  His mind went back to the shower scene of barely two hours ago. Was he hoping to find the hash truth about his body, or was he relieved that he had not.

Cain had done just what his parish priest had suggested, that he examine himself while in the shower. Did Father Goh mean well, or did he put the idea into Cain’s head, to do something that was not so natural, against his own free will.  For Cain was brought up proper, in a Catholic family, and had always been strong willed and disciplined.  Anyway, what was done was done.  He had let the hot shower relaxed his muscles and tried his best to feel for any abnormalities that might be on his naked body.  He really wanted to find the reason for the way he had been feeling the last few days.

The truth of the matter was that Cain did not even have a clear memory of his childhood. It wasn’t that so many years had gone by, but rather that he did not want to remember.  For his childhood was too painful, hurtful and disgraceful.  His parents had not loved him, nor wanted him.  They had abandon him at a temple. Other parents had the decency to dispose of their unwanted children at the orphanage where they could grow up with other children.  Oh, no, not his.  They had put him in a temple instead. Imagine a boy growing up among monks.  His only escape was when he was at school.  Those naughty, rebellious boys, and even bullies and perverts were his normal friends. How much he had hated those vegetarian monks.  On his eighteenth birthday he had packed his few belongings and ran away to the city.

What Cain didn’t know, and what his parents did not tell him was to remain a secret, till years later.

Both his father and mother had come from families with connections with the occult.  They were the decedents of mediums and spiritualists.  When Cain was born his parents knew he had a special power, but this very fact would also put his life and theirs in danger. Thus they had made a pack with the temple to raise and protect him without ever disclosing the secret. For the rest of his life, Cain would have a dislike for vegetarian food and a fear of religious quacks.

“Morning Cain, welcome back to the world of the living,” joked his friend Jackson who had the desk next to his. “So, how are you feeling now, after your two days of MC?”

The whole office had been on fire, gossiping about him because Cain was as a rule, healthy, young and strong.  To suddenly take two whole days off, and not even have an explanation from the doctor as to what was wrong with him, was certainly fuel for the flame.

At lunch in the basement staff canteen, again the conversation centred on his absence from work. This time, however, some concrete suggestions were thrown into the group discussion. A woman who was older and maybe wiser, asked, “Did anyone step on your foot recently?  Or did you pick something up from the streets that didn’t belong to you?”

Cain wasn’t sure what she was driving at, so the woman went on to explain that such actions could have put him under a curse.  Some people used these ways to get close physical contact with their victims when they wanted to use a black magic charm. Her idea started a lively debate and more stories began to emerge.

“I know of such a case, when a guy got sick for no apparent reason at all, you know, just like you. When doctors could not do anything for him, he had to visit a shaman.  She used a hard boil egg to rub on his body. The funny thing was that, after a while the white boiled egg turned black, and when she cut it open, there were bloody needles inside.”

Peter, another young man also had his share of stories of the supernatural kind.  He told them about his neighbours, and how the young but poor woman had made a rich man fall in love with her.  “She put a drop of her menstrual blood into his drink! It worked like a charm, because within the month they were married.  Then he died, leaving all his money to her.”

The group of young people were now enjoying themselves with their gore and sick stories.  They had forgotten that they were there to try and help poor Cain figure out what the matter was.  Such things occurred quite frequently in this part of the world and everyone had their own story to tell.

Entertaining as these stories were, Cain was starting to feel more worried. Just last Sunday, during mass, he had come over queer, and the feeling was so strange.  He could not describe the illness, because it was something he had never felt before. The best way he could put it was that someone was walking over his grave.  Well, that was a phrase his grandmother used to say, but Cain felt sure that something or someone was trying to steal his soul from his healthy young body.

Even Father Goh had noticed the way he was slumped in the pew with his face pale and obviously not listening to his sermon, and that was why he had asked Cain to feel and examine himself whilst in the hot shower. Still, Cain could not shake off the uncertainty of the incident; did Father Goh really know just how he was feeling, or was the man of the cloth just putting a dirty though into his young head?

Yes, Cain decided, I should try a shaman.  There is no harm trying and after all these things were quite common here in Borneo.  Once his mind was made up, Cain felt a little better.  He now had a plan, to go out and conquer his demons, but how was he to find a shaman?