WitchsSmokeAaron (7 page)

He got up and went to a cabinet that hid a small refrigerator. He brought out two bottles of water and walked back to her to hand her one. He did this to buy time for his responses and to hope that when she took it, she would unwind a little.

She looked at the bottle he held out for a moment, and she took it. She did unwind. She put her feet on the floor, slid back in the seat, and sank down of her tailbone to rest her head against the back of the pillow built into the chair. She held the bottle but did not open it.

“No helpful medical answers, Doctor?”

It was his turn to sigh. “Asa, you are a very intelligent woman. There are no magic medical answers to cure or help my patients. There is just lots of understanding and searching for the answers. You are telling me that, in your mental problem, you have actual contact with someone from your mind, and he made love to you. There are some significant feelings here. Answer me on a couple of things. Do you hear him?”

She finally looked at him. “Yes.”

“Do you smell him?”

She hesitated. “I smell something, the same thing each time.”

“You physically feel him, the same each time?”

No hesitation this time. “I feel him. Solid touch. It is not the same each time. Sometimes it is a hand, sometimes it is his lips, sometimes it is his breath.”

“Is it always sexual?”

“Well, it ends up in sex, but we have been talking also.”

“Is it in the same area of your house?”

“No, it has been on the beach, anywhere in my house, but my outside porch near the fire pit seems to be the best.”

“Has there ever been anyone else around, off in the distance or the chance of being interrupted?”

Now she took time to remember. “No, we were always alone, and I don’t ever remember any chance of anyone being around.”

“Were you asleep?”

“No, never, although I was relaxed with my eyes closed.”

That caused him to pause. “Did you have alcohol?”

She thought for a while. “Maybe once or twice, but not a lot. I am not a big drinker, especially when I am alone.”

He sat back and thought about this issue for a while. She had really handed him one for the books.

“Doctor, you don’t take notes, how do you remember?”

He looked over at her. “Our sessions are taped. It was on the form you filled out when you first came in.” Again, he was in deep thought.

“Asa, I am going to give you a prescription for a mild sedative. I want you to take this daily because I think the stress of your lifestyle has built up in you, and I would like to see you start to really relax. I think the home on the coast is a good idea, but keep busy. I am going to talk over you symptoms with some other doctors, and I would like to see you in a week.”

She reached forward and sat the bottle, unopened down on the table. “You and I know that this is some type of figment of my mind, you just don’t know how to treat it, do you?”

“Asa, I don’t want you worrying about this. You are a very intelligent woman, and I believe you are blessed with an unusually strong imagination, which made you very successful in your business life. But it is working overtime right now and we have to find a way to get it under control. You are not going crazy, you are just having a strange mind controlled flash that is not real. Don’t worry, we will find a way to convince your brain that it is not real, and you can join the rest of us in a normal life again. So get your script filled and make an appointment for early next week, and I will have some answers for you.”

Steve Alissandro was a good and conscientious doctor. He had been practicing long enough to realize that he had not seen it all. He spent the next few days contacting old friends, contacting their recommendations, and researching in books and on the internet.

He ended up in a conference call with a teacher/professor in London and a practicing expert in brain illusions and escaping manifestations. The three-way conversation was exciting and difficult to understand if you were not a part of it.

“How old is the patient?”

“Twenty-eight.”

“What has her sex life been like?”

“Unbelievable and overactive. She is quite beautiful, and from 1 to 10, she would be an 11. She has spent the last few years working at a BDSM club as their best product, and they charge huge rates for her use, so she is booked up for months in advance. She works both ends, Dom and Sub.”

“Is she healthy?”

“Yes, I just got the records on her last check up, absolutely no problems. The only physical complaint she has lodged is that recently she has become unable to have an orgasm. Evidently, this manifested over time and got to the point where nothing she did or any one did to her would create the climax.”

“Has she changed her lifestyle?”

“Yes, she retired, and moved away from her former life.”

Finally, the Professor spoke. “There has been a couple of cases like this. There is a very great scientist in Switzerland that I know of and there is a couple of cases documented, I will send you a link. Anyway, they are learning to live with the contact because when anyone who had this type of contact, this strong, and tried to separate from it, they could not accept it and they either committed suicide or had a complete breakdown. It seems, until we can really find an answer, the person has learned to live with the extra contact in their life. There have been so few cases come to light that there has not been much research yet. I will give you the name of the scientist, and maybe he can give you some insight.”

Steve sat there and then without saying anything to the two men, shut down his computer and started looking up her file to call her. He understood that for the first time in his long practice, he had given the wrong advice to a patient.

* * * *

For the next few days, she did nothing but put her life in order. She called her lawyer and made sure her will was up to date. She called her financial broker and had him transfer everything into long-term investments that would be easy for an heir to handle.

She closed out all of her bank accounts except for one and from this, she paid off all of her bills. She paid off the loan on the Jeep, paid the utilities on the house for three months in advance. The house was already free and clear. She was surprised that there were a couple of repair items she wanted to finish on the house, and she got started, painting the trim outside and ordering new curtains for the bedrooms.

It took several days for this all to get done. The curtains came by FedEx and she was pleased after she got them hung. They were perfect. If she were going to stay, there would be work to the house that she would have to hire an outside contractor to do, but that would not be necessary now.

Continually, he talked to her, and she ignored him. She finally dug out an IPod and put the ear pods in, turned up the music, and wore them day and night. She felt his hand and ran from it, she felt his kisses and took cold showers and continued to work.

One day, she actually felt the ear pods jerked from her head.

“Sweet one, why are you not talking to me, not letting me please you? I miss you so much. You have come to be the center of my life. I need you.” His voice was behind her, his breath on her neck, the smell of sandalwood and cinnamon surrounded her, and she closed her eyes.

She let out a long sigh and felt a tear move slowly down one cheek. “Because you are not real, and I cannot stand the thought of letting them lock me up or pouring chemicals into me that will make me someone else.”

She opened her eyes and looked over at the table where her purse, her backpack, and the script from the doctor all lay neatly in a row.

“Oh, my love, I have ruined something again. For centuries, it has been my curse because I ruin everything I touch, but I do not want to ruin you. I need you.”

She laughed. She had created an illusion that needed her. The doctor would have a great deal to say about that.

“I cannot make you go away because you give me what no other person can give me, my climax. I have made such a complete fantasy that I have made myself need it and made it need me.” She felt the breath move her hair as she heard the long deep sigh.

“Little one, let me tell you my story, maybe it will help.”

She shrugged her shoulders, almost in defeat. “Sure, I will listen to my apparition tell me a story.”

“There were four of us, four handsome brawny brothers born to a monarch who spoiled us and was too proud of what his loins had turned out. We fought hard, drank hard, wenched hard, and did what we pleased. If anyone were foolish enough to complain, they suffered, not us. But finally, we stepped over the line once too often. We violated a young virgin, left her pregnant, not sure which of us the seed belonged to, and forgot her. But her mother did not forget, and her mother gave us a curse. She was a very strong witch.”

Asa started to laugh in a dangerous, out of her mind sound. “I am really beyond help. Kings and witches. God, if there is one, has left me long ago.”

“I thought the same thing when I woke up to find out I was smoke. My curse was to live until I did an entirely selfless and good act. Except I could only move as smoke, I could only form a small portion of my body at any one time. I did some evil things at first because I was so angry. Then I did nothing but float around and watch the world change. Finally, I tried to do some good. I did some, but it was not entirely that one act needed to make me whole. I never had a relationship with anyone until I came to this spot and met you. Now you are trying to shut me out. I can’t stand it. I need you.”

She left the house, running. She lost a shoe and kicked off the other and pulled her sweatshirt off as she reached the beach. The wind was blowing up heavy waves today and the water was coming in higher on the sand, leaving debris and dirty foam as it was pulled back by the heavy undertow.

* * * *

He swirled as smoke around her head, confused as to what she was doing. He had never seen her go into the water before, and she still had on a shirt and her jeans which would be too heavy in the water that would be cold.

* * * *

She did not stop, as she knew if she hesitated, she might be too frightened to finish what she wanted to do, and what she wanted to do was finish her life. She continued to push into the cold water, and it reached a point where she could not run, as it became difficult to move her feet as the water drove her back and then forward. The cold water was finally above her knees and then above the bend of her legs, and the wet jeans made movement slower and slower, but now the water was taking over and pulling her. She moved forward and reached a point where she was waist deep, and then a large wave crested over her, she was flung backwards, her arms flying out and before she went under, she saw his face above her.

She thought he was saying
no
over and over, but the water had her at last, the undertow was pulling her down, and the waves were pushing her back against the bottom. She was now beyond the sand and felt the sharp points of rock and shellfish against her back, and she still held her breath. She did not want to, she wanted to fall into the arms of blackness and the cold water, and finally her lungs began to ache, so she knew it was beyond her control.

Air pressed out of her as she saw the dirty water surge around her, her hair was caught in an upswing, and she lost sight as it blocked the light, but she thought she saw his face with pain in his eyes. Then she knew she needed air and was grateful because she would draw in the salty, stormed-filled water and have peace at last.

* * * *

He fought her. He swirled around her, and called out to her. With only one hand, he could not pull her from the grip of the seawater. He went to the surface, with his face he gulped another breath and went back down to her and had almost lost her as the tumultuous waves were turning her over and over, first away and then back towards the shore. He saw the bubbles escaping her mouth and knew she would soon draw in the seawater and drown here in front of him, and he could do nothing about it.

Going to the surface, he gasped another deep breath and went down to her, forming his hand, he caught her hair and then let her sink to the bottom as the last bubbles left her body and her eyes closed. Then he formed his head, forced his mouth over hers and gave her the air from his lungs.

He knew he would die, now in this water without his air, but he was ready. He had lived too long with this curse and an exchange of his life for hers was an easy decision. With a final deep push, he filled her lungs and watched her body float upward with the air inside her as he blacked out while the water took the place of the air in his own lungs. He smiled and waited to go onward, hoping the strength of that last wave would push her body up on the beach.

Chapter Seven

“Come on, damn it, open your eyes. I can feel you breathing. You can’t leave me now.”

He heard voices. Was this the place at the end of the light?

“Easy, Miss, the EMT people will be here any minute.”

He was cold and wet and felt stones and shells and sand punching him in the back, but he was aware that he was breathing. How was this possible? Finally, he opened his eyes, but it was hard to see. There was so much light, and there were fuzzy shapes moving in and out.