The Nightmare Game (80 page)

“She never really chose anything,” Edmond replied.
“She didn’t chose to be insane. It was thrust upon her against her will.

“Even so, I am so grateful that at last she is
dead. She’s one nightmare that is finally over.”

“Edmond, is that the end of your story?” I asked
him.

“It’s all I can think to tell you right now,” he
answered.

“There’s still something that I don’t quite
understand,” I told him.

“What’s that, my love?”

“You said the transformations that the Illeaoceans
used were gradual.”

“And you want to know why Arrosha’s
transformations were instantaneous,” he replied. “Yes, you’re right. I did
leave that out, didn’t I? It’s something don’t like to think about only because
I learned it exclusively from the witch’s deepest, most horrible nightmares.
She would always wake from them screaming, but never be able to remember why. I
think her mind protected her from their content. Unfortunately, I was not so
lucky. Not only did I remember the dreams, I would be left remembering the
feelings she associated with them as well.

“To understand her instantaneous
transmogrification abilities, you need to remember that Arrosha was Illeaocea’s
newest creation. She was the result of decades of research and represented many
state-of-the-art technologies. She was the first full success of their genetic
engineering processes and was heavily endowed with the latest and most powerful
defenses of the time.”

“Do you mean she was like a cyborg?” Julian asked.

“In a way, but she was much more organic than
that. Her abilities to transform people far surpassed anything else the
Illeaoceans had invented to that date. The Illeaoceans, while peaceful, did not
always play fair in their attempts to keep that peace. They were also slightly
superior in their attitudes, particularly toward the Malituans. Rather than
fighting their enemy, they developed technologies that would quite literally
bring particularly important or warlike Malituans ‘over to their side’,
changing them into anything they desired, most often Illeaoceans.

“As a creature of unequaled subterfuge, Arrosha
was instilled with the latest Illeaocean technologies, among them the ability
to change a person physically in mere seconds, mentally, within a day, although
her abilities were limited to altering only one individual at a time, or, in
case of an extreme emergency, two at the very most. It was that limitation that
cost the Three Sisters their minds.

“The Malituans, possessing espionage of their own,
too soon got wind of a new super weapon the Illeaoceans had created, though not
the details. Understandably, they were not happy in the least. Arrosha, briefed
on this latest development in the intelligence wars, was aware, at least on
some deep, buried level, that it was her enemies’ less eloquent attempt to
level the playing field that went so horribly wrong and led to the eventual
destruction of the entire continent.

“This was one of the things that drove Arrosha
insane. I think on some level that she could not consciously acknowledge, she
blamed herself for the total destruction of her world.”

In his condition, it took a few days for Edmond to
relay this entire story to us. In the interim, Ben and the rest of the
followers that were still alive regained consciousness. I told them everything
I knew and they felt horribly used for ever having trusted Arrosha.

Max never did regain consciousness. He died in his
coma. The doctors told me that his soft tissues were far larger than his
skeleton could accommodate and were ultimately crushed, but that they’d done
their best to keep him comfortable until the end came. I cried when they told
me about his passing. If it hadn’t been for him, for his last act of
redemption, we would all be dead now and that mad creature that called herself
Arrosha would be one tremendous step closer to fulfilling her insane plans. She
was the one that killed poor Max, turned him into a man so deformed that he
could not survive outside her domain. I took solace in the fact that he had
finally avenged his beloved Gizelle and made Arrosha pay for having killed her.
I knew that Ben and the rest would also have died if she had not restored their
bodies to normal in preparation of feeding off of them. It was with sadness
that I thought back on poor Max, the man whose promising future had been ripped
from him, the man who had been forced into slavery by Rochere and reduced to
the pathetic creature she enjoyed shaping and reshaping to suit her whims. I
wished so that Max had survived, that I would have gotten a chance to meet him
the way that God had made him, the way he was meant to be. In the years to
come, I would think of Max often, about how he’d saved us all, about how he’d
saved the entire world from that horrible creature Arrosha.

Julian and the Trust made good on their promise to
take good care of all of us. After we were each released from the hospital,
they took us to the Trust house, a large mansion in the best section of the garden
district, whose location they made me vow not to disclose, and settled us into
our rooms. My belongings were already waiting for me in my room, along with an
open-ended first class plane ticket replacing the coach passage that I had
purchased in Austin. Those first days were long and lazy, filled with the small
talk of people with a common trauma trying desperately to forget.

The week after Edmond got out of the hospital, I
went with him to revisit the house on Toulouse Street. He found its condition
appalling.

“I can’t believe that Rochere let the house go
this badly. I knew it was in disrepair, and that’s why I made it look beautiful
to my chosen ones when they first saw it. They needed to see my home as a place
in which they would want to stay. But I had no idea that it was this awful.
Knowing it in my mind and seeing its run-down state with my natural eyes are
two very different things indeed.

“The Trust told me that they found the boxes with
both of the talismans in the room where Virginia took you,” he told me. “Julian
asked me if I wanted them and I said no, that the Trust should hang onto them
now. I know he only asked out of politeness, but I feel that I’ve been the
amulets guardian for long enough. I’m very tired. It’s someone else’s turn now.”

“I couldn’t agree more,” I said. “By the way, do
you feel like you’re getting used to our modern world?”

“It takes a lot of adjustment,” he replied. “Even
though my knowledge was intellectually kept up-to-date by the connections I had
made with different people, experiencing this new era first-hand is quite a
different matter. Even our ride over here was a bit frightening. It was too
fast. Everything here is too fast. There hardly seems time to think in this new
day and age. When it comes down to it, I’m just a man from another time and I
don’t know if it’s even possible for me to acclimate fully to this new century.
Ashley, I promise you that I’ll do my absolute best to become a man of this
age.”

“Don’t. I love you just the way you are. I hope
you never succeed because I want you to remain the man I fell in love with.
And, to tell the truth, if it makes you feel any better, I don’t feel like I’ve
fully acclimated to this new century either. For all intents and purposes, I
still feel stuck in the latter part of the twentieth century.”

“We’ll be out of step with the world together
then,” he said, wrapping his thick wool coat around him even tighter.

“Edmond,” I said. “Are you cold? It’s actually
pretty pleasant today.”

“I’m okay. It’s just that I can’t seem to get warm
anymore.”

I walked up to him and wrapped my arms around him.
It felt good to be able to touch him now. He felt so solid, so tangible.
Touching him made it seem even more real that we had actually defeated Arrosha
and won. The battle had been so hard and seemed so long that I had to keep
reminding myself that this was reality now, not just another of Arrosha’s
illusions in her make-believe dimension.

“I’m going to restore the house to make it look
even lovelier than it was when I lived here. I want it to match the illusion of
beauty that it was when you first laid eyes on it. I have the money, you know.
In talking with Julian, it seems that I find myself even more wealthy today
than I was when Arrosha imprisoned me. Not only did the Trust manage to retain
my property, but it seems that my quite sizable fortune is now even more
sizeable.”

“Well, I guess that goes to show you what the
power of almost two hundred years of compound interest will do for you,” I
joked.

“Indeed,” he replied. “I couldn’t wrap my head
around how much money I have now until Julian explained to me that money isn’t
worth nearly what it used to be. When he told me what the equivalent would have
been in 1830 pounds, it was much less staggering. It’s funny, but in all that
time of connecting with people, no one ever mentioned much about money.”

“I guess they had other things on their minds.”

He smiled. “Yes, I suppose they did. Ashley, I
feel I need to tell you that once I restore this house, I’m going to sell it. I
would never be able to live there again, not after everything that’s happened.”

“I don’t blame you. I don’t think I could either.”

“I’m going to need another house in which to live.
I need to start over somewhere else. Ashley, will you help me find a new home?
“

“Of course. I’ll be happy to help you pick one
out.”

“I don’t know anyone that I trust more than you.
You rescued me, saved me from that witch and the hellish prison in which she
kept me enslaved. I’ve been drawn to you for years, calling you for decades
before the connection was strong enough and events were synchronized enough
actually to bring you to me.

“Ashley, when you pick out my house, I’d like it
to be a place that you truly love, because I want it to be your home, also.”

“Edmond, are you asking me to move in with you?”

“Much more than that, Ashley.” He reached into his
jacket pocket and pulled out a small box. “Julian tells me this is how one goes
about this these days,” he said, handing it to me.

I opened the box and it contained a beautiful
diamond ring set in gold.

“Illea and Ben helped me pick it out. I hope you
like it.”

“It’s absolutely beautiful. I love it. Does it
mean what I think it means?”

“It means that I hope dearly that you would
consent to be my wife.”

I wanted to throw my arms around him and say yes,
but instead I asked him to kiss me.

“Edmond, we haven’t had a chance to be intimate
since we left the hospital,” I told him. “Everything’s been so busy and we’ve
been surrounded by so many people since we defeated Arrosha. I’d like a kiss.
It would let me know that everything between us was real. Before I give you an
answer, I just need to know that what passed between us was more than just a
dream.”

“It would be my pleasure.”

In the courtyard of the house on Toulouse Street,
the man of my dreams drew me into his arms and we kissed. Our connection had
not faded. When our lips touched, it was as if a jolt of electricity passed
between us. The kiss lasted a long time. It was long and hard and soft and
smooth and everything in between. I tasted him, I felt him, I knew him from
that kiss. It was the first time we had touched intimately in real life and the
impact was overwhelming. I felt as if my brain would explode with sheer
pleasure and wanting. The heat within me became a consuming fire, a fire that,
the more it was fed, the hotter it burned. More than anything, I knew I wanted
him, body, mind and soul, from that point forward. Never, in my entire life,
had a kiss meant so much to me. Never again, I knew, would a kiss ever again
mean so much. As we kissed so deeply and passionately, I realized that in all
my life before this moment, I had only ever tasted stale remnants of what I was
now feeling. For decades, I had awaited the “real thing” and now, unbelievably,
here it was. I was aware of nothing except Edmond until that kiss finally
ended, leaving me to know that I loved him more now than I had ever loved him
before. Now he was no longer only in my dreams, now he was real. We were both
real and we loved each other. I wanted to marry him and there was not a doubt
in my mind that said otherwise.

“Yes, Edmond. I’ll marry you. I can’t think of
anything I would like to do more.”

“Wonderful. Ashley, you’ve made me the most happy
man in the world.”

As we hugged, he said, “As we kissed, I just
realized that I can’t look into your mind any longer.”

“Still want to marry me?” I asked.

“Of course,” was his answer.

“Then maybe it’s for the best that you can’t look
into my mind,” I said. “I can finally keep some mystery with you now.”

As if he finally realized that the weight of the
world had quite literally been lifted from his shoulders, Edmond laughed. It
was the first time I’d actually heard him laugh. His laugh was rich and
spontaneous. I loved it.

Later that week, I went back Austin, where I quit
my job, hired a cleaning crew to pack my belongings and clear out my house, and
said good-bye to a number of people. I told Carolyne that if she oversaw the
sale of my house, she could keep whatever profits that came from it. My family
were finally back from their cruise, so I called them to tell them about Edmond
and that he and I were getting married. They were surprised and a little
concerned that I was marrying someone I had just met and that I was moving to
New Orleans, but I put their minds to rest as best I could. At my age, I
suppose they were just happy that I was getting married at all. When I called
Edmond to tell him that I’d taken care of everything that I could, he told me
that the Trust had arranged a chartered flight for Samson, Delilah and myself
to make bringing them to Louisiana easier for me.

Edmond and I were married in Hawaii within the
next few weeks. Since it was his first experience with it, Edmond was amazed at
air travel. We also flew in my family and Carolyne, all of whom immediately
loved Edmond once they’d met him. Julian, Troy, a few of the Trust members and
all of the survivors of Arrosha’s group also joined us for the wedding. Edmond
and I honeymooned on Kauai for three weeks, then returned home to New Orleans,
and we bought a lovely home around the block from the Trust, where the group
still stays and probably will continue to live for a very long time. They’ve
all remained our best friends, visiting us and going out with us often. They’ve
tried hard to get on with their lives and even with the help of the therapist
that the Trust has provided us, some have had more success than others. Illea
and Ricky are doing well and are even looking for a place of their own now.
Timothy, Antonio and Kenny have all gone back to college and Robert is engaged.
Of everyone, Ben is having the most trouble, but then he was the one that had
to face the greatest betrayal. Beyond both Geoffrey and Arrosha, I think he
felt that he let himself down. He’s afraid to trust again, but of late he’s
been doing a little better. He’s been doing a lot of volunteer work with people
and animals and I’m sure it’s just a matter of time before he’s able to love
someone again.

My family comes to visit us often, as does
Carolyne. My mom usually stays with us in the winter now, since the cold in the
North was starting to bother her, but she goes back in the late spring in order
to get away from the hot, humid New Orleans summers. The real fairy tale come
true in my life is that everyone loves Edmond and that he in turn adores them.
It was a real stroke of luck, for I know how rare that can be. I’ve chalked it
up to his missing having any family around him at all, alone for so long in his
stasis prison.

Edmond and I live a wonderful life now, a quiet
life. we’re glad to say. We’re helping Brenda with her university expenses and
board, so that she could quit working and concentrate on getting her degree. As
a result, she soon got her bachelor’s and is finishing up her master’s. She’s
now looking into a program that offers a doctorate.

On the home front, besides Samson and Delilah, we
got a third cat and a couple of dogs, all rescues. Our lives are happy and
thankfully uneventful. For a time, I enjoyed introducing Edmond to the
inventions that he missed while he was being held prisoner, such as telephones
and cell phones, movies, television and the internet. While he continues to be
amazed at them all, he enjoys them nonetheless. About six months after we were
married, his strength and stamina had returned to the point at which he began to
be bored with doing nothing, so, with the Trust’s help, he put his vast fortune
to good use by starting a philanthropic non-profit organization that helps many
worthy causes and individuals. He was horrified to see the devastation that
Hurricane Katrina ravaged upon the city and concerned to see how much work
there was still left to be done, so he and I, along with Ben and the others,
became involved with helping the city rebuild the less noticed, more forgotten
areas.