Aris Returns (11 page)

“Don’t worry about waking me up. It’s my job to make sure you feel safe all the time.”
Without thinking, she reached to touch his hand. He wrapped his other arm around her,
forcing her to sit on the arm of the chair. “Sarah.” His voice was hoarse and his
eyes locked onto hers.

Shocked at his aggressive embrace, she pulled away from him, putting space between
them. He flirted with her sometimes but he had always showed the utmost respect for
her position as his psychologist until this moment.

He reached for her again, holding his arms wide. “Sarah, please. Just let me hold
you.” Carlos felt out of control in his desire to draw her to him, the need to hold
her in his arms. He was moved by an emotion alien to his nature, as if someone else
had crawled inside his skin.

“Carlos, this is impossible.” Her heart pounded in fear of him and something else
she wasn’t sure she could name. “I am your
therapist.”

“Don’t tell me you don’t feel anything. I know you do.”

“Do. Don’t. It doesn’t matter.” She crossed to the other side of the room. “I am your
therapist. I am here to help you to heal. And please, don’t do that again. It’s impossible.”

He looked at the gas fire. “Alright. I’m sorry. I’m really sorry.” Carlos leaned forward
in the chair, rested his elbows on his knees and clasped his hands. He hung his head.
“I don’t know what came over me.” He looked up at her. “Brother does that sound lame.”
He hoped she didn’t see the apprehension in his eyes; his fear of these strange, overpowering
emotions.

“It’s fine. It didn’t happen, okay?” She fumbled with the remote to adjust the fire.
She didn’t want him to see how nervous she was in his presence. She was astonished
by her desire to fall into his arms. “Am I really that empty,” she thought. She took
the moment to recover her self-control. “Let’s do a mini-session here for you so you
can go home and get some sleep.” She placed the remote on the coffee table, turning
to face him once again. “Where are you living now? Are you back with your family?”

“No. I’m still in the halfway house. I don’t want to go back to those crazy people.
I’m gonna stay straight if it’s the last thing I do. My father hates me. If I go back
there, he’ll drive me nuts.” He was getting agitated just speaking about his family.

“I understand.” She smoothed her jeans with her hands and sat on the coffee table
so she could be close to him while she put him in a hypnotic state yet not close enough
to get comfortable. She motioned him to lie on the sofa. “Here, lie down. Let’s hypnotize
you. It will calm you down so you can go to the halfway house tonight and we both
can get a little rest.”

S
arah finished her last bite of salad just as Maggie stepped inside her office door.
“He’s here.”

“Fine, send him in.” She tossed the empty container into the trash can under her desk,
then moved to the chair by the recliner.

“Hi.” He closed the door behind him. Embarrassed, he looked at the ground when he
spoke.

“Hi.” Her first thought was to make him more comfortable. “Why don’t you lie down
and we’ll start today with a session with Aris.”

“Sounds good to me.” Relieved, he flopped into the recliner and closed his eyes.

#

CARLOS HAVARRO, transcript, session 7, March 26

Now, of course, I know I could have left the cave. Then, I knew nothing of what I
was capable. I did not know if time passed or stood still. I could not see my body
beneath the hides and so I had no knowledge if it was still whole or had returned
to dust. As I told you, there is no such thing as time to a disembodied spirit. I
did not exist so neither did the passing of days or months. The cave was dark, dry
and didn’t change with seasons so I was unaware if it was winter or summer. If centuries
had passed. Or a millennium.”

His words were soft, difficult to hear. Sarah leaned in toward him to make sure she
was able to capture every word on her recorder.

At last, I sensed something or someone outside the cave. Then I sensed sounds, human
rustling and murmuring nearby. I waited anxiously to see if someone might enter.

The noises continued then became intermittent and finally ceased. They were gone.
I had no idea how long it had been since I had seen another soul. I ached for the
sight of just one mortal being. I felt alone, desolate on the earth.

After a time, I know not how long, the silence was broken. Different this time than
the last. First horses, then several humans. There was shouting, scuffling and the
clanging of swords. A sudden hush then the horses galloped away and all was still
for a moment. Then I heard the groan of someone in terrible pain, a shuffling of feet.
A man staggered into the cave. He was covered in blood, his hands grasped a gaping
wound in his side. He fell to the ground where he lay silent, barely breathing.

My bodyless self was drawn toward the dying man, an uncontrollable vacuum sucking
my soulless soul closer and closer to him. I felt his death throes were a part of
my emptiness and a way out of my sorrows. My essence was swallowed by his grisly,
flowing wound. The blood surrounded me and burned me, filling me with ecstasy. Just
as his spirit left his body, mine claimed it. I was again an animated man with arms
and legs and human senses. And I felt my new body was on fire.

The pain of the affliction almost overcame my consciousness but, not knowing how long
I would survive, I refused to lose a moment of this new life. I writhed in agony.
Lifting my head, I stared into my belly and before my eyes, the wound began to close.
Each movement I made created a greater horror of pain yet the gash continued to seal.
I laid my head back on the dirt holding the screams inside my throat, afraid, lest
the killers would return. Slowly and I know not how long I lay there, the pain grew
less and less. After a time, it became bearable and until at last, it ceased. My new
body slept, exhausted yet alive. Yes, somehow, I was alive.

I do not know how long I slept and when I woke, my legs were unsteady as I stood.
To have a body made of flesh. I almost swooned. I was overcome with sensation. I moved
my wrists. I bent my fingers. I turned my hands to look at the palms. I touched my
face. My fingers slid over my cheeks then down to my jaw. The flesh felt soft to my
hands. I had form. I had human form. Then slowly, one tentative step at a time, I
advanced. My eyes ached as I drew near the entrance of the cavern. The daylight was
molten gold. Its glow revealed my new, youthful, strong male body and stoked an unfamiliar
fire in my belly.

I staggered as the brilliance met my eyes. It caused a greater pain than the burning
in my gut. I fell to my knees and crawled to the shelter of a rock over hang. Curling
into a fetal ball, I wrapped one arm over my eyes for protection against the sun not
seen for five hundred years and the other around my abdomen, a shield against the
driving hunger.

I lay there in the shadow until the sun disappeared from the horizon. The night birds
began their song and only then was I able to lift my eyes towards the heavens. It
was glorious. Deep, black space. Cool night air. I stood and stretched my arms to
the full moon that rose in the east and breathed in the scent of the night. The darkness
saturated the very bones of my precious new body.

My mind raced with questions. Where was I? How much time had passed? What was the
year?

As I gazed at the stars, my thirst grew stronger and lashed out as a raging beast.
A beast driven by a savage hunger. A hunger for blood.

Silence filled the room. Sarah took a deep breath, and then spoke. “Human blood?”

Yes
I could smell it in the air. I crept toward what was left of a camp. Did it belong
to the poor unfortunate whose body I now inhabited? The smells told me it did. And
my need to drink enveloped me. I burned in agony. The pain blinded my eyes and my
soul, yet through it, my tracking sense was more acute than that of a stalking wolf.

I knelt to examine deep gouges in the earth made by horses’ hooves
.
Yes,
men and their mounts. I rose and saw signs of a scuffle near his bloodied and torn
sleeping pallet. Suddenly, it was clear. Bandits. This body that now was mine had
been besieged by bandits in the night; they pilfered his purse then took his life.
I could smell the stench of them throughout the meager camp.

Rage erupted within me fueled by a frenzied desire for human blood that heretofore
I never knew existed.

My senses were a hundred fold strong. A thousand. More strong than the number of stars
in the sky. I turned to follow their trail. I would kill to feed and to avenge the
departed soul whose body I inhabited. I tracked the criminals without hindrance. I
stalked them the next night as they sat by their campfire and drank wine from a filthy
animal skin. I watched from the darkness as they became sodden with drink and their
minds and their songs turned into discordant melodies. At last, the light of the flames
burned low. One by one, they ended their night in their own personal stupor. I waited
patiently, quietly, watching as each one of the half dozen men fell into his own final
sleep.

Just before dawn, at the deepest time of their slumber, I crept into the camp. The
fire was mere embers and cast no more than a ghostly golden glow on those sleeping
closest to it.

Unable to control the monster that drove my ungodly thirst, I feasted. One after another,
I drained them. Silently. Deadly. Joyfully. I took their lives as I drained their
warm, red blood and left their dead bodies to the elements. I fed quietly, with deadly
speed until, at last, none was left alive. The blood lust left me. Satiated at last,
I stood quietly, surveying my work. I grimaced at the grisly sight before me, then
crept through the trees finding a sheltered spot off any path. There I rested in silence
and considered my lot.

I did not choose my new life. It was forced upon me without consent. I shuddered at
what I had become. As I looked at the red stains on my hands and covering my clothes,
I understood my true future for the first time. I was driven to drink blood. It was
primal. There was no
alternative. I was a savage and would be for all eternity. I was alone, without country
or family or friends. It was a desolate truth I faced on that morning and I felt I
could not endure it. I know not how long I sat in solitary meditation.

At last, the forlorn stillness was broken by the sounds of bird song. I looked around
me at the morning light shining on the dew soaked leaves and grass; the scent of fresh,
black earth filled my nostrils. A ray of sun came through the deep green leaves of
the oak trees and warmed me.

I was alive. I had consciousness, a presence, flesh and blood. The body I inhabited
was young and strong. I recalled my life as a warrior in the army of Alexander. Overcome
with blood lust in every battle, I slaughtered without remorse, killing on command.
For those actions, I was acclaimed and exalted. How was that murder any more just
than that of the slain bandits? Dead is dead. The only difference was consuming their
blood and that I must do to continue my existence.

I sat without moving until the sun disappeared from above the trees. The soft light
of evening settled over the forest and the air grew cool. A day of profound contemplation
behind me, I was at last at peace. There was no changing my fate. I was exactly what
I was, no more and no less.

I was a cold one. A blood drinker. A vampire.

#

There was only the sound of her breathing as the tip of the waning moon peeked over
the skyline. She couldn’t speak. Plagued by the same questions over and over, was
it true or just imagination? What was the purpose of his story? When her eyes were
able to focus on Carlos through the thick dark of the room, she saw his perfect, white
teeth as his peaceful smile reflected in the moonlight.

“Sarah, you have been without a question for a very long time.”
He broke the long, shadowed silence.
“Have I frightened you with my story?”
The deep voice showed concern.
“I don’t want to frighten you.”
He paused then spoke again,
“Yes. Yes I do.”

The lights from the office windows that filled the tall buildings
surrounding them were the only lights that illuminated the room. Carlos lay still
as a corpse.

Her voice shook as she answered. “You want to frighten me?”

“I want to frighten you so badly that you never call me again. That you turn this
man out of your office and out of your life.”

“But why? I’m certainly not a threat to you.”

“No, yet I pose an enormous threat to you.”

“What kind of threat could you possibly make toward me?”

“Once you understand my past, you will know why I cling to Carlos so desperately,
through him I have a channel to you. I have searched through time for you and now,
I have found you.”
Then he laughed.
“But for now, I will confound you and be in your every thought.”
Again, he whispered,
“And remember this always, we will, once again, be joined.”

#

Sarah was stunned. She couldn’t move. Her breath came in short gasps. What did he
mean? “Once again be joined,” she whispered? She stared out the window at the darkening
sky.