Reprise: A Story of Reincarnated Love

REPRISE: Sean Intro. Part 2

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He studied the sketch, as hundreds of times before. Etched in small

script across the bottom corner, the "S LeBeque" revealed it was HIS

work. He lost himself in the face of his lost, many-times lost, love.



She had the perfect heart-shaped face, and the charcoal rendering was

true to the perfect contours of that profile from forehead to

slightly broad cheeks to delicate chin, with no impressionistic

twist. Her eyes were as if alive: light and compelling, serving as

transparent windows not only into her, but also into him—deeply. He

had sketched her from memory, precisely. Her full bottom lip,

slightly parted from her perfect, thin top lip, spoke to him,

whispered to him of joys and pain and loss and recovery. His head

swam. Her gorgeous dark brown shoulder-length hair followed and clung

to the curve of her cheeks. A thin wisp of hair strands swept in an

arc over the corner of one eye and across the bridge of her nose. She

drew him …. image faded … faded … bodiless …. floating ….. flashings

…. it was happening again …. he was going …. there …..



Darkness. Choking darkness. Vast field of grey …. lighter …. pale

blue …. lying on softness ………….



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Military Encampment Near Tarragona, Spain

30 November 1835 Daybreak



Sean again was in the scene, in reality. He was not Sean. The name

always came slowly. Downs … Downs … Frederick Downs. He was Frederick

Downs. An American adventurer, self-conscripted into the French

Foreign Legion at its inception in June of that year, and landed with

his corps at Tarragona in August to undertake military operations in

support of Queen Isabella's claim to the Spanish throne against her

uncle.



Decoy detail. His assignment had been to position a decoy, a female

decoy, over a three-month set-up period to draw out and capture a

mercenary Spanish outlaw, Rivera-Leon, in the employ of Isabella's

uncle. He ambushed Legion troops, fought bitterly with the Spanish

army, and pillaged, looted, and raped his way with his band of

marauders through the villages and towns of the countryside. Downs

was to feign an affair with a beautiful Spanish heiress for whom

Rivera-Leon was known to lust. The culmination of the elaborate plot

was to be this day. Rivera-Leon would come to abduct her, only to

himself be ambushed while he spirited her away, taken captive, and

ultimately executed.



Her name was Felicia. Downs had met and wooed and bedded her in the

early fall. It was all to be a blatant, open affair, sure to garner

the attention of Rivera-Leon' s minions. He would be driven to come

for her in time. Downs was to flaunt his liaison with her, draw

attention to it. She was unaware of the ruse. The operations officers

had insisted on this. One false word or action upon her part during

the abduction would result in her death, and failure of the

operation. It conflicted him terribly, but, he had no choice.



Downs and Felicia had, as not accounted for in the least by the

tactical plan, fallen desperately in love. Downs had known her

before. In past lives. She was the twin soul he was destined to meet,

over and over through eternity. He did not intend to lose her this

time. And, he was at the same committed to succeeding with this

mission. Legion troops lay in wait in caves along the route known to

be used by Rivera-Leon. They would capture him easily in a brief

struggle, free Felicia, and have done with the vicious mercenary.



Downs opened his eyes. He lay in the bed he and Felicia had shared

for months. It was dawn, the light told him. She lay beside him, her

bare thigh draped over one of his under the covers, her cheek near

his shoulder. He lay still, remembering the last time he would have

spoken to her until after the operation. Just hours previously. They

both had had their ways with one another, many times over. Afterward,

as she sat on the bed grinning, slowly licking his gravy from her

lips, and he had enjoyed the feel of her honey lubricating his thighs

as he rubbed them together, they had talked about a future together.

These were blissful, bright moments.



Downs slipped carefully from her and rose from the bed. Intelligence

observations indicated the abduction would occur at daybreak. He

dressed quickly, kissed her fleetingly on her cheek, and left, his

eyes riveted on her until he was through the door. All would be as

planned, he convinced himself.



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Roadside ravine near Tarragona, Spain

31 November 1835 Just prior to Daybreak



Rivera-Leon' s scouts had spied the Legionnaires hunkering down in the

caves. His band swept out of the ravine and rushed the caves. The

Legion company was annihilated. Before he could die from his wounds,

a young officer was tortured hideously by Rivera-Leon' s sadistic

interrogators. He revealed the plot against Rivera-Leon.



Rivera-Leon directed that the abduction would, however, proceed. He

would have his fill of the treacherous Felicia, and then pass her to

his men to finish off at their leisure before killing her.



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Sean shuddered and snapped his eyes open. It was over, once again.

Her face stared at him with longing and question from the charcoal.

He staggered to a chair and collapsed into it, sobbing

uncontrollably. But that he could change everything in one of these

visions. In his grief, he saw the shaping of yet another sketch of

her.