String of Tears, page 28
Hurricane smiled. “Because of Stefan. He sent you an image of who I was and that I would be there to help, and then, somewhere along the line”—he gazed toward Stefan—“you ended up attacked and out on the highway and then came to be here in the hospital.”
“That attack,” she asked, “I made that up too?”
So much bitterness filled her voice that he leaned over, picked up her hand, kissed it gently, and said, “No, you didn’t. That first attack was brought about by the pearls, physically by the owner of the pearls being induced by the energy of the pearls, making him do it. He’s in a psych ward right now, trying to figure out what happened to him. They have him on tape, stripping you down and taking you out to the highway, leaving you and taking off. Believe me. He’s already more than traumatized by the effects of the pearls, just as you were.”
“And me?”
“You knew what was happening. You knew who was coming for you. You knew it was your mother, and you knew that she already had a way into your energy, simply by birth, by being the person who brought you into this world. It’s a bond that is almost impossible to separate, so you did what you had to do to protect yourself. You built a wall that she couldn’t penetrate. You built a wall that she couldn’t get over or come around in any way. She couldn’t blast through it because you were too strong. Yet, at the same time, you couldn’t figure out how to get back to the world you had left. It was too hard, too confusing. You were in a maze, one spiraling out of control. A maze that you couldn’t find your way through, but you knew that Stefan was sending somebody to help. So when I arrived you knew who I was.”
Her headshake of denial was automatic. Yet his words resonated deep inside. That didn’t stop the confusion roiling through her. “Stefan …” She remembered her call for help to him before all this. “He did more than just tell me that he was sending someone, didn’t he? And when you say that you arrived,” she cried out, “how did you know? How did you find me? Did they help? How? I don’t understand.”
“Stefan and Dr. Maddy have special abilities. They can merge with the aura of an injured person to move through their system to help them. They’ve been here, watching over you the entire time. They also have the ability to travel with another’s energy, … like mine. Like when I went into your maze to find you. That connection allowed us to stay in contact as well.”
He hesitated, looked down at her hand, then back up to stare into Jewel’s bewildered gaze. “It’s what I do. When the storms take over a person,” he explained, “I’m the one who walks through the storm to keep the soul within safe. But, when I arrived, you were in this make-believe world that you had created—for your own safety, mind you. You even made huge orders of Chinese food that you had to overeat. All because you were burning through so much energy in order to keep up the facade and to protect yourself from that world still terrorizing you on the other side of the wall in front of you.
“Still a few of your mother’s nudges, a few spirit pokes, you might say, slipped through, but you were always strong enough to reinforce those blurring edges and to keep the facade going. Although those pokes, those telepathic suggestions were enough to make you move things around, like the necklace. That was your mother’s doing, by the way.” He smiled at Jewel. “But this, where you are right now, this is the real world.”
She felt the shock, … followed by never-ending smaller shocks rippling through her. “Stefan and Dr. Maddy knew?”
He nodded. “And were there nudging you in the direction of reality, as needed. Not that you might see it that way. But Dr. Maddy worked on you constantly to help you return to reality. After all, it was up to you. It had to be your decision, your choice. … And you made it.”
He looked down at her, smiled. “Welcome back.”
Chapter 27
Jewel slowly got up from the hospital bed and almost collapsed. Hurricane immediately reached for her. She looked over at him. “It seems so strange. It’s as if I’ve known you forever.”
He just smiled and didn’t say anything but assisted her to the bathroom. “Are you okay from here?”
She nodded. “I will be, I just … It’s been a hell of a morning.”
“It’s been a hell of a few days. Expect your muscles to be weak, and that sense of weakness will take a couple days to wear off.”
She straightened, nodded, and said, “It’ll be fine. Just give me a few minutes.”
She went to the washroom, surprised when she realized that she was functioning on her own, but the nurse had departed and had left her alone in Hurricane’s care. When she stepped back out again, he assessed her carefully.
“So?”
“I feel better. A lot better.” She looked at him and frowned. “I have so many questions.”
“I know, and we can answer them, but it’ll take a bit of time. I’d like to get you home as soon as we can, but I’m not sure when that’ll be.”
“I don’t think the doctor has any cure for me,” she quipped, with a lopsided smile.
“No, he definitely doesn’t, but, at the same time, we still need clearance, so I can take you home.”
“Where is home anyway? If that studio isn’t really my home …”
“It’s not,” he confirmed, “but your house is though.”
She nodded. “I wonder why I never liked that house?”
“You tell me,” he said, with a chuckle.
“It never felt like home really. It was, I don’t know, I don’t—”
“The one you shared with that boyfriend you broke up with a while back? You stayed because you couldn’t afford to go anywhere else, maybe?”
“Ah. Yeah, that makes sense. It also explains why I spend a lot of time in studios downtown, and working my whole life away in order to heal from it.”
“Your show is coming up in a couple days, and the good news is that you’ll be able to attend.”
She stopped and asked, “Charles and Lucas? Are they real?” As Hurricane stared at her steadily, her shoulders sagged. “They were part of my imagination then?”
“Yes, … and no,” he shared gently. “They were your stepbrothers, and, as it turns out, you were very close to them.”
“Were very close to them?” she asked.
“No, you still are, but, when you created this world,” he explained, “you needed to bring somebody along who cared for you and cared about you, so you brought them.”
She stared at him for a long moment. “The human brain is amazing,” she noted absentmindedly.
Just then a knock came on her hospital room door, and the doctor stepped in. He studied her from the doorway. “Awfully good to see you like this. Honestly I thought you were a goner.”
“Honestly I thought I was too,” she said, with a half smile.
He laughed at the joke and quickly checked her over. “You need to take it easy, maybe see a doctor if you get any weird symptoms or anything. But otherwise you’re good to go.”
“Thank you,” she replied warmly.
“We’ll need to come up with some clothes. You came in without a stitch on.” He looked over at Hurricane. “Will you look after her for the next few days?”
“I will,” he stated. “Don’t worry. She won’t be alone, and I’ve got the clothes covered.”
“Good.” He shook his head. “I’ve seen some pretty weird things in my time, but this one was way too far out there for me. Anyway I’ll go sign the forms, and you’ll be good to go home.” Then, just like that, he was gone.
She smiled after him. “I guess we continuously confound medical science, don’t we?”
“Every time,” Hurricane confirmed, with feeling. “However, they have their place in this world too.”
“If you say so.” She hopped up to her feet, stretched, and noted, “I feel okay.”
He nodded. “You’ll start to feel better and better, as every hour comes along and you get stronger.”
“You mentioned clothes?”
He smiled and pointed to the bag on the floor. “We were hoping we could get you back out again, so I came prepared.”
“In that case, I’ll get dressed right now, so we can get out of here.”
“I’ll go take care of the paperwork,” he offered, then hesitated at the doorway.
“I’m not going anywhere,” she stated.
“Good. Nobody’ll understand if you do.”
“No, I know, and I’m not even sure I understand.”
He nodded. “Exactly. We can deal with more questions when we get home, but let’s get out of here first.”
By the time she was dressed, Hurricane had the paperwork taken care of, and they were outside. She asked, “What do you have for a vehicle?”
“I have a Jeep.”
She laughed. “Did I create that on my own?”
“Maybe, but most guys in my world drive Jeeps.”
As she got up to it, she noted it was black too. She shook her head. “Some of this is a little too uncanny.”
“I know. Don’t worry about it though. This is your real life.”
He led the way to her house, and, as they got out, she looked at it, frowning. “I think it’s time to move.”
“I think so too,” he agreed. “I’m not sure what the connection was for you to be here, but I’d say that connection is dead.”
She walked inside, looked around, and noted, “It’s sparse, bare even.”
“Yes. Apparently your boyfriend took most of his furniture when he left, and you never replaced it because you were so busy with your show.”
“Great, well, at least I knew what the priority was,” she said lightly.
“Absolutely.”
“Besides, the good news is there won’t be that much to move.”
He burst out laughing at that. “Do you want to stay here? Even for tonight? That’s the next question. The whole world is your oyster, really, so you can move wherever you want to be.”
She turned, then looked at him. “One of the things that you’re not saying is where you live.”
“I travel all over the place,” he replied. “However, I live in Maine, most recently.”
“I’m partial to Seattle, I think,” she mentioned.
“Okay, any particular reason?”
“No, I’m not sure. Maybe I just want to travel for a bit?”
“We can do that too.”
She hesitated and looked up at him. “We? We haven’t really spoken about us.”
“We haven’t had a chance.”
“You were always that mainstay in my world, telling me that I would get through this.”
Hurricane nodded. “Yep, I had no idea that you were actually real or that your world wasn’t real.”
She laughed. “Yeah, that is definitely a mind-bender, even for me. What about the police?”
“Nothing left to be done at this point. As far as they’re concerned, it’s a closed case, and, yes, we will work at giving the man who kidnapped you some proper help.”
“What about the pearls?”
Hesitating, he added, “In exchange for getting him the help, we’ve taken possession of the pearls, and they will be safely contained. Although they’re broken, I presume they can’t be revitalized with energy again. However, I don’t want to take a chance, so they’ve gone into the museum, with the other artifacts of dark energy.”
She let out a slow breath. “I’m really happy to hear that.” She looked around, smiled, and shook her head. “I don’t even want to stay here for another minute. I don’t feel that I live here at all.”
“You don’t,” he confirmed, “but some clothing is here and a few personal items. If you want, we can pack it up and put it in storage, then go wherever you want.”
She nodded. “What about the other women? The women trapped in the pearls?”
“The connection is gone, but I would suggest that maybe, if you were up for it at some point, I could get the pearls back out again, then we could take the necklace and bracelet to this woman in New Orleans and see if she has a way of freeing the women.”
“Yes, please,” she agreed, spinning on a dime. “I would really like that.”
“Okay. I already mentioned it to Stefan, and he thinks it’s a good idea. I just don’t know when would be a good time.”
“No time like the present,” she said immediately.
He nodded. “I could get behind that.”
She looked around and shook her head. “I really don’t want to stay here. Are you okay to go to a hotel for the night?”
“Absolutely.”
They quickly packed up what little bit she wanted, then she looked back at the residence and murmured, “It feels to me that I only lived here halfway before.”
“Maybe you only lived halfway period, looking for whatever was missing in your life,” he suggested. “The good news is, you found it.”
“Yeah.” She smiled, reaching out a hand. “I found you.”
“Absolutely,” he agreed. “But also your artwork, and knowing it was all there, this sense of waiting, … that feeling should be gone.”
“It is gone,” she muttered. “It’s a weird sensation. I feel almost too calm.”
When they checked into a hotel, she looked around and smiled. “This honestly feels far more comfortable than that house.”
He nodded and didn’t say anything.
She walked over closer and said, “But one thing I do want to make sure of, no matter what.”
“What’s that?”
She looped her arms around his neck and asked, “Remember when we were in that storm and when you kissed me?” He nodded, his arms coming around her. “That felt like a blending, in a way that sex has never felt like.”
He burst out laughing at that. “So true, but, at the same time, I’m pretty sure we can recreate it while making love.”
“Yeah?” she asked, her eyes twinkling. “In that case, I’m all for trying.”
He hesitated.
She tapped his lips and immediately argued with his silence. “Nope, I’m fine. I wouldn’t mention it if you’ll continue to worry about me,” she declared in a scolding voice.
“What? What if I just wanted to say that you should have a couple days bed rest?”
“Oh, I like that idea very much,” she said, taking him toward the bed. “Bed rest sounds perfect.”
He burst out laughing and quickly reached for the buttons on his shirt. “In that case, I didn’t even need to bring you any clothes to the hospital.”
“I still had to get out of there wearing something,” she noted. “Let’s get settled, and then we’ll have to order in some food later. Maybe a lot of food.”
“Oh, don’t tell me. Chinese?”
“Yep, absolutely., I love the stuff.” She grinned at him. “Unless you want pizza.”
“Maybe pizza, or we could do Chinese food for real this time.”
She stopped and looked at him in wonder. “It felt so real.”
Hurricane nodded. “Believe me. For me too. I was constantly amazed at the abilities you had.”
“All that doubt in your eyes, what was that?”
“That was you,” he replied, with a chuckle. “Knowing that something was fake about everything going on, but not having the wherewithal to understand how and why.”
“So even then I was trying to figure it out?” Jewel asked him.
“Absolutely,” he murmured. He walked up behind her, his chest bare. “You want to finish undressing, or shall I take over?”
She turned and found him standing there in just his boxers. She quickly shucked her clothing, until she was standing in front of him, wearing nothing.
His eyebrows shot up. “Some bruising,” he noted, gently touching her ribs.
She stopped, looked at him, and nodded. “That’s right. I had all this bruising show up.”
“Yes, in the other realm, you had all this bruising show up. But, in this one, not so much. More of it was lividity from lying on your side.”
She winced at that term. “It would have been lividity, if I had actually died.”
“Exactly,” he agreed.
“Talk about a mind bender.”
“I know, and we’ll probably still be bringing up things years from now, trying to find an explanation for them.”
“Will we find one for everything?” she asked.
“Not likely,” he murmured, as he stepped up and wrapped his arms around her. “Some things are just mysteries that need to stay mysteries.”
“Like the power my mother wielded?”
“Yes, though I don’t know if you realize your mother worked as a prostitute, forced to the streets because she didn’t have enough money to keep you in food and diapers. That type of work was something she could do, but she became very twisted, angry, hateful. She ended up with some very difficult clients—johns, if you will—who hurt her badly. That hurt and pain is what sent her on this pathway.”
“Do we think she killed everybody in that necklace?”
“I think she came upon a killer who was murdering other friends of hers, other prostitutes, and during the process of him trying to kill her,” he guessed cautiously, “I think she killed him instead. At that point she snapped, but I don’t know any of that for sure.”
She nodded thoughtfully. “I guess that is a part of the mystery that we may never know.”
“Unfortunately, yes,” he stated, “and sometimes we just have to be okay with that.”
She looped her arms around him, kissed him gently, and said, “As long as you’re there to help me get through some of this when it gets rough, I’m totally okay with it.”
“I wasn’t planning on going anywhere.”
“Except that apparently your job takes you all over the place.” And then she frowned. “Or was that all made up too?”
“No, it wasn’t made up,” he stated. “I do travel all around, and you can come with me, or you can stay wherever it is that we choose to call home.”
“And there really is an us, right? I’m not just in this all alone?” She hated the weakness in her voice and the insecurity it revealed.
