Birth of Jaiden (14 page)

The guards released his
wrists from the cuffs. When he was finally free, he slumped to the
ground with a sort of relieved weakness.

The two guards grabbed his
wrists and yanked him to his feet, which caused him to cry out in
pain. Silently, they dragged him, one on each side, up the stairs.
They let his body thump each stair as they ascended. The pain was
so excruciating in his wrists, back, and chest that he passed
out.

When he woke, he lay in
what looked like an emergency room. There were hospital beds side
by side with green curtains separating them. Little machines sat
next to each bed along with a metal stand holding an IV
bag.

He lay in one of the beds
with only his boxer shorts on and no blanket. He saw that his
wrists had been wrapped and he could feel that his wounds on his
back had been taken care of, as had the ones on his
chest.

Further observation of the
room told him that he was still in the caves; the walls and floor
were covered with plastic sheeting. He guessed that was their way
of trying to make the place more sterile.

When he realized that he
was not tied down to the bed, he sat up quickly. A little too
quickly. He waited a few seconds until his head cleared and the
room stopped spinning, then he swung his feet over the edge and
started to get off the bed.

A deep voice stopped him.
“I wouldn’t do that if I were you.”

Stewart froze.

A man with light brown
hair and a doctor’s coat appeared in front of him. “You would never
find your way out of here even if you did get out of this
room.”

Stewart was far from
surprised to see this man. He knew they wouldn’t leave him unbound
and unsupervised. Silently, he lifted his feet back up onto the bed
and laid his head back down on the pillows.

“
So,” the doctor said,
“you are a quiet one, eh?”

Stewart remained silent,
and the doctor didn’t say anything else to him. Instead, he took a
radio out of his jacket, pushed the button on the side and said,
“He’s awake.”

Then put the radio back
into the pocket of his white doctors’ coat.

Stewart wondered who he
was talking to but didn’t say so. He closed his eyes and figured he
would pretend to sleep. Maybe then, they would leave him alone. He
heard the doctor sit down at a little desk he had set up in the
corner of the room.

A moment later, he heard
someone else enter the room.

“
Here is the meal that
Malcolm ordered for the prisoner.”

“
Set it down there,” the
doctor replied.

Stewart heard papers and
things being moved around before the tray was placed on the desk.
Then, whoever had brought the meal left. Even though he was
famished, he managed to keep his eyes shut.

“
I know you want to eat
this, so you may as well open your eyes,” the doctor
said.

Stewart did. As much as he
wanted to be defiant, he was
hungry
. Also, the more he ate, the more strength he
would get for his attempt to escape.

He opened his eyes. The
first thing he saw was the doctor standing over him. Stewart let
the doctor help him sit up and then waited for him to bring the
tray. The doctor placed it on his lap; there was a giant
cheeseburger with the works, French fries, and cola in a plastic
cup with a straw.

Stewart wasn’t able to
restrain himself any longer; he picked up the cheeseburger and dug
into it. The doctor went back to sit down and watch Stewart devour
the cheeseburger in a matter of minutes.

When he was done, the
doctor removed the tray from his lap and told him to rest. Stewart
didn’t want to rest but his eyes were heavy with exhaustion. He
lapsed into a deep sleep. Briefly, during his unconsciousness, he
heard a male voice asking the doctor if he was ready.

“
Not yet,” the doctor
answered. “He lost too much blood. It will be a while before he is
ready.”

“
All right,” the other
voice answered. “I’ll tell Malcolm.”

The source of the voice
left the room and Stewart fell back to sleep, wondering what he
needed to be ready for.

15

Alex and Danielle sat in
silence and stared out at the night sky. Alex realized how easy it
was for them to simply enjoy each other’s company. After a while,
he asked, “Have you ever been in love?”

“
Once,” she answered
without looking at him.

“
When and with
whom?”

“
That,
Alex
, is none of your business.”

“
I told you
mine.”

“
No.” Danielle was
firm.

“
Come on,
Danielle.”

“
Stop it, Alex, I told you
I don’t want to talk about it.”

“
All right,
fine
, I’ll stop.”

“
Good.”

They fell silent again and
listened to the creatures of the night. Crickets made their cricket
noises and frogs croaked in turn. Occasionally, they heard a car
pass in the distance, and a soft breeze stroked their hair and
faces while they gently swung back and forth.

Eventually, Danielle broke
the silence.

“
I was nineteen,” she
whispered.

Curiosity kept Alex quiet.
He wanted to hear her story.

“
As you know, when I was alive,
I came from a wealthy and upstanding family. I lived in a lovely
home and was a
proper
young woman. My parents arranged for me to be married to a
man that I did not love…a man that I did not even know. I couldn’t
refuse; it was just the way things were back then. It happened all
the time and women spent their lives in service and misery with
abusive, horrible men, who did not love them either.

I married him and lived a
life of solitude. I never left the house because I was afraid that
someone would see my bruises. Each and every night when we went to
bed, I could only close my eyes and try to take myself somewhere
else. I thought for sure that one day he would kill me, but still I
stayed, for my parents and their precious money and stature I
stayed.

Then, one day while I was
sitting by my bedroom window and staring down into our beautiful
gardens, I saw a man down there.

He was wearing a hat with
a huge brim. It seemed as if the rays of sunlight we shining down
directly onto him. In an earth covered hand, he held a small spade
to help him make room for a bunch of yellow daffodils.

He seemed to care for
those flowers like they were his children. I watched him take off
his hat and pull a stained white handkerchief out of the back
pocket of his trousers. Then, he set the spade on the ground and
stood; he turned in the direction of my window and wiped the
glistening sweat from his forehead.

At that moment, he looked
up. Our eyes met and something stirred inside me, something I had
never felt before. Yet, even with the distance between us, I knew
that if I could see his green eyes from the window, he could see my
discolored face, so I turned away in shame.

Every day after that, I
would sit in my window and watch him tend to the flowers and
plants; he showed them so much care. His hands were gentle and
loving when he handled them. I could tell by watching him that he
was a good man.

Each evening after supper,
I would take a walk through the garden. On one particular evening,
I found a single red rose lying atop a stone bench, the same bench
where I always sat to read.

I looked around and saw no
one but I knew who had left it. I took one petal from the bloom,
then placed the rest of the flower on a bush. After a while, I
started to receive poetry which he had written along with roses.
They were mostly small, one-liners, but beautiful.

I could not throw them
away. Unable to bear even the thought of not keeping his beautiful
poems, I would fold them up as small as I could and shove them down
inside my corset. Then, when I had a moment alone in my room, I
would put them into a secret box that held my petals and
poems…”

When she paused, Alex
exclaimed, “Danielle, what a great love story! So, what happened?
Did you ever get to speak to him?”

“
No, I never got the
chance.” She looked down into her lap.

“
What happened?

“
My husband…he found my
sacred box of treasures and assumed I was having an
affair.”

“
What did he
do?

“
We argued and he beat me,
of course. Only that time, when I drifted into unconsciousness…I
never woke up.”

“
Oh, Danielle.”

Alex took her into his
arms. She had said it all so simply, like it was not uncommon for a
man to beat his wife to death. She had never spoken of how she had
died and he had never pushed her. The subject of your death was
usually something most didn’t want to talk about.

Danielle leaned her dark
head on Alex’s shoulder, but her composure remained. “Do you see
now why I didn’t want to talk about it?

“
Yes, yes, I understand. I
am so sorry.” He felt terrible for asking her to tell him about
it.

“
Don’t be sorry, Alex, it
was a long time ago and if I had lived, I would have had to live
with that man forever.”

“
No,” he insisted. “You
could have run away. I know you would have found a way to be with
him.” Alex spoke urgently, as if she could run off and find him
that very second.

She shook her head. “No,
my husband would have found me; there was nowhere I could have
gone. Let’s not dwell on it. It’s just the way things
go.”

The door behind them
opened and Jeremiah came out onto the porch.

“
It’s getting close now.”
He pulled a chair up close to the swing.

Alex realized nobody knew
of anything appropriate to talk about, so once again they sat in
silence. After some time had passed, the sky started to lighten.
Alex had to fight the urge to take flight and run into the
house.

Jeremiah stood and handed
Alex a pair of extremely dark sunglasses. “Here, you might need
these.”

Alex thanked him and put
them on.

Jeremiah looked at Alex
and said, “Here we go.”

Danielle took his hand and
rose from the swing with Alex in tow. Jeremiah went to Alex’s other
side. They stood together, watched the sky and anxiously awaited
the arrival of the sun, Alex’s enemy.

Electric tingles of
nervousness that vampires seldom feel traveled through Alex’s body.
The colossal sky slowly turned from black, to gray, and even more
slowly to blue.

They kept their thoughts
to themselves as they waited in silence. Alex squeezed Danielle’s
hand and thought of how all those years, with all of his hopes and
dreams, he had never thought he’d ever get to see another sunrise,
the thing he wanted more than anything.

Slivers of clouds mingled
together in a pastel dance of pinks, purples, and hazy oranges,
then parted again and made way for the huge ball of fire that rose
into the sky. Every emotion took its turn with Alex. Excitement
replaced the nervousness and he wondered how a dead heart could
beat so wildly. As the tip of the sun rose, his eyes slammed shut
in pain.

“
Aaaahhhh!”

His free hand flew up to
his head while a million tiny knives stabbed into his
brain.

“
Alex! Are you ok?”
Danielle asked.

“
I’m fine.” He pried his eyes
open slowly, trying to give them time to adjust. There was no way
anyone could spend years in darkness and
not
feel tremendous pain with their first
glimpse of sunlight. The burning continued intensely, but he had
every intention of seeing this through.

While the sun rose ever so
slowly, he felt joy spreading within him but it also felt like
there was a molten warmth spreading there as well. Determined to
ignore any feelings of discomfort, he kept his eyes on the expanse
before him.

The sun made its final
assent when a volcano erupted inside of him and filled his veins
with scorching lava.

“
Noooo!” Alex cried out
and clutched his free hand to his stomach.

“
Jeremiah! His hands!”
Now, Danielle’s voice was close to hysteric. Even as Alex crumpled
to the ground, she would not let go of his hand.

His skin felt like
bubbling hot wax. He wrenched his eyes away from the sunrise to
look at his hands and saw large smoking burns on his skin. His
mouth opened to scream, yet nothing came out.

Alex quickly returned his
eyes to the sky. He didn’t care that he was burning or that he
couldn’t speak; it seemed as if every feeling and thought faded
into the background. He knew he was in some kind of trouble, yet,
to him, it was all happening in slow motion.

Alex refused to look away
from the sun.

“
Alex! Close your eyes!”
Jeremiah hollered at him.