Echoes of the Past

Chapter 11

David was still staring at Eric in disbelief two hours later, after hearing the explanation … not only from Eric, but also from Madame Gwendolyn. He blinked a few times, but the other two (conscious) people in the room still couldn’t be sure he wasn’t in a catatonic state. He occasionally looked back and forth between the two as they spoke, but no words came forth in reaction.

“Do you get what we’re telling you?” Eric finally yelled as he shook the redhead’s shoulders for effect.

“You think you’re gay, too?!” David shrieked in response.

“That it?” Eric hissed. “That’s all you got from that?”

David gasped in shock and looked at the tabletop. He ran his hands through his hair and groaned. “You mean … those dreams … were …?” he broke off.

“Real?” Eric supplied helpfully. “Well, kind of.”

“You didn’t physically touch each other,” Gwendolyn cut in. “But for all intents and purposes, yes, they were real. Your spirits are bound together for all of eternity … like I said.”

She looked inordinately pleased with herself, especially considering the situation they found themselves in, Eric decided. He through an exasperated glare her way before turning back to the stunned redhead. David’s mouth still hung open and it looked like he was struggling to breathe.

“But … we …?”

“We took turns, at least,” Eric said with a lopsided smile, trying for a bit of levity.

“But all that … PINK!”

The dark-haired man fought back a bark of laughter, reminding himself that the dire circumstances demanded his full, serious attention. Still, some of those outfits brought a smile to his lips all the same.

“What?” David demanded.

“Nothing!”

“You’re playing me … right?” he pleaded.

Eric and Gwendolyn shook their heads.

“But that means that Charlene’s going to win … because I sure as hell don’t know how the fuck to stop her!”

“Not yet you don’t, but you’ll remember,” Eric assured him.

“Oh yeah? How?”

“There is only one way to stop her,” Gwendolyn sighed slanting Eric a disgusted look. “And I would have thought that after all you’ve been through, you’d have figured it out.”

Eric frowned at her in puzzlement. He thought he’d covered all of the bases pretty neatly so far. He’d saved the damsel in distress … well, one of them anyway. The other one, Deirdre, needed to be saved soon too, or Charlene would become strong enough … to do something evil. Well, anyway, he needed to make sure she never figured out he was the one she needed to complete her eternal life’s goal. God, he was sick with the thought of “feeding” her. Gwendolyn stared at him pointedly, but he didn’t understand what she wanted him to say. Finally she grunted.

“How much do you remember about David’s reading?” she demanded.

David and Eric looked at each other in question when David suddenly jumped up like he was shocked.

“Fuck no!” he screamed. “Especially not … like that!”

“What?” Eric asked.

“She wants us to …” David covered his eyes with his fists and shuddered. “We have to … consummate … our bond.”

“What?!”

“It’s the only way,” the older woman explained to the redhead. “By finally completing the bond you negate any past claim she has on Eric.”

“How could she still have a claim on me? It’s been God only knows how many lifetimes since we were … betrothed!”

“Five hundred and two,” she said. “Yet unless you and David finally become one physically, and not just spiritually, she continues to exist and pose a threat.”

“Our … union … will kill her?” David asked quietly.

“Once and for all.”

“How the hell do you know this?” Eric interrupted.

“My spirit guides,” she replied sagely.

“Okay, that it! I want to know the story behind these damned spirit guides!”

“So-called spirit guides,” David added.

“Oh, they’re real,” she smiled serenely. “And Eric believes it, if nothing else. They’ve been right way too many times for him not to. Right, Eric?”

The dark-haired man gulped and looked away. He couldn’t deny that the guides hadn’t steered him wrong so far.

“You could be a hypnotist!” David shot back. “This whole thing could be an elaborate scheme to extort more money out of us!”

“Um …” Eric shook his head.

“Well, I can honestly say I’ve never been so insulted in my life!” she muttered darkly, her eyes now shooting venomous looks at the redhead.

“David, I think …” Eric tried again.

“Too close to home, lady?” David charged.

“Stop!” Eric yelled, drawing two pairs of eyes to him. When he was sure he had their attention, he turned to his best friend. “Her guides are real. I know they are.”

“But …”

“David, you saw what Charlene did to Annie earlier.”

“She could be in on it! They both could!”

“She carried Annie like a fucking rag doll! And you and I have been trying to wake her forever. Nothing we do … shake, smack, pinch her … nothing wakes her up! She couldn’t possibly be that good an actress!”

“So maybe to be sure she stayed out she drugged herself!”

“Oh, come on!” Eric shouted, clearly at the end of his patience now. “That’s too elaborate for anyone to agree to. And you’re forgetting something!”

“What’s that?” David demanded.

“Gwendolyn hasn’t taken any money from me. In fact, the only time we paid her anything was when you came for the reading.”

David looked skeptical but Eric shrugged and nodded. “Nothing?” he asked.

“Not a dime,” the dark-haired man confirmed.

“But you took on an extra job!”

“Not to pay Gwendolyn!”

“Then why?”

“To have an excuse not to see Annie so much!”

“Annie was your girlfriend though,” David said, lifting an eyebrow.

“By that time I remembered the dreams,” Eric sighed, looking away with a blush. “And she just didn’t … do anything for me anymore.”

How could he tell his best friend that he actually no longer minded this whole destiny thing? That he looked forward to falling asleep every night because he could finally spend some quality romantic time with someone who felt so right … especially since said “right” one didn’t remember a thing in the waking hours and was completely oblivious to his best friend’s inner torment. His eyes must have said something though, because David’s suddenly flew wise and he wriggled around so much on his chair that he fell off it and, and landed on the floor wit a thud.

“I’ll take that as my apology,” Gwendolyn said softly with a superior smile.

----------------------------------------

Charlene smirked as she bent over the limp body of her new power base. The girl moaned in the aftermath of an incredible training session of pain and pleasure. She’d far surpassed even the witch’s greatest expectations … much, much more satisfactory than Annie. Which reminded her … she needed to break her former slave and send her mind into oblivion. Sad, really,” she sighed to herself as she locked Deirdre’s handcuffs back into place and left her naked and vulnerable on the pillowed floor. No one would find her anyway, she reasoned. She had no ties … no job at the moment … no one to come looking for her.

Charlene had marveled at her luck in finding the young orphan, newly graduated from high school and new to town as well. Fate must still be smiling upon her plan. She nearly creamed her pants when the sweet young thing had told her story the night they’d met, when Charlene happened upon her at the unemployment office. Really, she’d found it a better than the bars … where’d she’d found Annie. It was so easy to convince Deirdre she needed a personal assistant, too. The naïve young thing had no idea how powerful her spirit was, and Charlene looked very forward to breaking it.

Charlene hummed a tune to herself as she locked the basement door behind her and walked into the living room, expecting to find Annie bound on the sofa where’d she’d left her. Her shock at not seeing her there was only surpassed by her rage.

“No!” she shouted … at no one, but it felt good to shout it just the same.

She hadn’t left on her own. Charlene would have felt the blonde’s awakening and stopped her before she could even think of where she was. Charlene searched her mind and felt Annie’s continued sleep. The spell had not been broken, so she was still vulnerable. No. Annie had to have help leaving here. And there was only one person she could think of who was daring enough to have made away with her slave without her knowledge. Of course, she was concentrating on Deirdre for a very long period of time. But the young woman turned out to be a handful on her first day as the witch’s slave, putting up quite a fight before finally submitting to her new mistress’ will. In fact, Charlene felt more satisfaction from hearing that word from Deirdre’s lips than in all the time she’d heard it from Annie … and the one before her. Deirdre would give her enough power to work the final spell that would disable Eric’s power enough to keep him from saving David from her.

But Annie could pose a problem should she wake and tell him what she knew before she had enough time to drain Deirdre. It would take months of intense training before she had enough power to do the spell. And she couldn’t keep her unconscious indefinitely or break her from afar. She needed her near. She needed to find her slave soon, too. Annie wouldn’t remain asleep for very much longer. Her plans to take over the world would be ruined if she woke.