Chapter Twelve: The Blessed Curse — Part 4

The Second Core Subtext, Memory Transference. Part 4 . . .

Pearl kissed Sissy gently on the neck, nibbled on her ear. Rising and dressing, Pearl went to her bedroom and began to pack. She did it with what Mother had always called her ‘Goddess’ powers, the contents of the room vanishing off to some other place, a place that Pearl felt was somewhere in her mind, a place she could take anything from or put anything in, any time she chose. Mother, now an elderly woman, paced at the door, not knowing what to say. Her red-headed daughter and savior of her only biological heir was leaving, apparently for good. The lover of her child was leaving a young broken hearted teenager behind for others to heal. Sighing, she put a gentle hand on Pearl’s shoulder.

“If you must leave, won’t you take her?” Mother asked.

“Perhaps I should, but if I do, I cannot promise we will ever be able to return.” Pearl admitted.

“But you’re a Goddess. Why can’t you return whenever you want?” Mother said.

“I am no Goddess, or at least, I am not the Goddess you consider me to be. I have weaknesses and flaws, and I have sorrow at leaving.” Pearl cried then. “Promise me that I will always be your daughter.”

Mother clucked and pulled Pearl close to her. “You’ll always be my daughter. I’ll ask you one more time, can you not take your sister with you?”

Pearl stepped out onto the porch, the throbbing siren’s song in her mind, low and brutally male, drawing at her sexually, spiritually, tearing at her to the core. She would be gone soon, if she stayed under its influence. But if she left, she might find herself. The voice, she was certain, would have its limits: she would travel past that limit, as far as she could go; she would travel seeking somebody who could explain to her who she was, and why this man had such power over her. It would be lonely, and she considered her mother’s words — wise words of an old woman not long for this world. Father, who had, for the most part, been a quiet, stable part of Pearl’s life, would not let himself see that Pearl was leaving. Like Mother, he had aged in a way that Pearl felt unnatural: Growing gray and wrinkled, his joints failing, his mind wandering into shadows. Pearl hadn’t aged in all of Sissy’s growing up, yet Sissy was growing and aging with some predictability. This worried her, was part of what kept her from taking Sissy with her — the thought of watching Sissy age and die in a way that seemed so abnormal to her.

“Only if father allows it.” Pearl said.

Father had come out onto the porch. “Why so sad, love?” He asked, smoking a pipe, living peacefully in denial, but for a few moments more.

“It’s time for me to leave. Mother would like me to take Sissy away, and in her foolish youth, Sissy wants to go. I will be going to the other side of the stars. I cannot promise that I will return.”

“Has it gotten so bad?” Father asked, concerned.

“The other voice grows more persistent and more powerful over time. Father, there is another with powers like mine. I don’t know his intentions toward the world, but I am certain of his intentions toward me.” Pearl said. “I must hurry now. Somehow he knows that I am planning to leave. He grows stronger with the rising sun.”

“Take Sissy with you. Keep her safe.” Father said, after some consideration.

He alone had seen times of war. He could feel such times coming. Mother and Father held Pearl close and Sissy kissed the aging couple one last time.

“Be safe child.” Mother said, looking away from her daughter’s embrace.

Pearl was quick to scold her father. “Don’t smoke, Papa. It’s killing you, and without me here to heal you, you won’t last another year with that stuff biting at your lungs.” Pearl found she could smell the dead and mutated cells in his lungs, nose and throat. She healed him of them, one last time.

“Okay. I won’t smoke.” Father said, and quit that moment.

With a small backpack of her most prized and durable possessions Sissy followed Pearl out of the village. Pearl had come of age, and heading out into the world was part of that. She had no need to hike to the village perimeter, but she wanted to make certain that Sissy could leave it all behind. Seeking by instinct something she knew she might never find, she cast her thoughts out, seeking another of her kind, seeking to head away from that other who called to her. Her love for her family and her simple village life had kept her too long, she realized, as the urge to leave had been growing since long before that Other had discovered her. Her mind, cast out as it was, braced across the actions and desires of that Other, and in seeing him for the deadly, handsome creature he was, she shivered.