Demon Girl Part 8

"Dad?"

"Charlene! I was hoping you would call!"

Just hearing his voice again made me feel a little better. I could sense more energy within me too. It was a slow burn, warming me somehow.

"I need to see you," I said straightforwardly.

"Yes, when?"

"Now!"

"Well, I am about an hour away. Should we meet at your work again?"

"Let's just meet at Sulley Park. It's closer."

"Sure, I know where that is. I should be there in about forty five minutes. Is everything okay?"

"It's okay, but we need to talk. There are some things I would like to say to you, in person."

"Okay. You got it. I'll be there. Thanks again, Charlene."

"For what?"

"For giving me a chancea"

I paused at the word; chance. I thought of Delmara. When would I see her again? Was she Jane Chance? Was this my chance at having a relations.h.i.+p with my father?

"I'll see you soon, Dad."

The conversation ended.

It was now nine at night. I went to Sulley Park and waited on the swings for my dad to come. I didn't care if I changed right then and there. I was at my breaking point. I felt like I couldn't keep it in anymorea"this secret inside me, this creature thriving within me.

He pulled up ten minutes after I got there. As he walked up, he called out, "Charlene, you made it."

As he walked over to me, we both took a seat on the bench under the street lamp. Instantly, I felt more and more energy building inside, as if my wings would burst out.

"Why did you leave us?"I started asking him right away.

"Your mothera" He paused. "Your mother wanted me out."

"That's not how I remember it. From what my mother told me you chose to leave."

"You never knew?"

"Knew what? That you abandoned your only daughter for over twenty years? Jesus Christ, Dadaif I should even call you Dad."

"Look," he said raising his hands. "Your mother wanted me out of there. She cheated on me. Did she tell you that?"

"What? Why would she want you out, then? Shouldn't it have been the other way around?"

"Your mother didn't love me anymore, Charlene. It didn't work out between us."

"Why would you want to leave me, your only daughter?"

"Your mother wanted it that way, so, foolishly I stayed away, trying to please hera"in the hope she would take me back. As the time pa.s.sed, and then the years, it just got harder and harder to take. She would mail me a postcard of you as you grew, but after she met Adam, everything stopped. I never heard from her again. I lost track of you."

"You never stopped loving me then?"

"Never, Charlene."

My heart surged with energetic beats, yet I felt a funny feeling on my back. I heard a crack. Dear G.o.d, I was changing right in front of him!

I got up quickly. "I gotta go, Dad, there is something I need to do."

Crack. Crack. My back cracked. It was happening again. I stepped backwards a few steps.

"Well, okayabut will we talk again?"

"Don't knowa" I said, rus.h.i.+ng off.

Chapter Sixteen.

I was fully formed into demon shape again, crouched over in agony. There I hid in the forest until I heard a noise. At first I thought it was a deer or some other animal, but then the shadow got closer.

I looked up and saw Benjamin. "Miss me?" he asked.

Actually, I did, and he knew it. I didn't have to say anything. He picked me up and off we flew back to his lair.

Once we got back to his place of hiding, he placed me on a smooth bed of rock.

"I know it's not as comfortable as the real one, but it will do."

"Thank youa"

"Don't thank me; thank you."

"For what?"

"For giving me purpose."

I pondered on that thought a while. What did Benjamin want with me after all? Maybe he was just looking for a companion, like me, but I wanted to live. He didn't care anymore about his demon form. He was so used to it after so many hundreds of years, it didn't matter to him. Besides, he had become somewhat human anyway.

As he lit a fire, I gazed into the light.

I saw a young man, perhaps the age of twenty-three or twenty-four. He was wearing a seventeenth-century tailored jacket, black slacks and slick knee-high boots. He walked over to his horse and got ready to ride in the middle of the night. There was a full moon as the fog rolled in. He galloped in the forest in search of something or someone. He got off his horse, tied the reins to a tree and walked over to a small pond. He sat down by an old rotted oak tree and looked into his reflection in the pool of water. "Here's to you," he said, and then pulled out a thin vial of liquid from inside his jacket pocket and slurped it down.

"It was a stupid thing to do, I know, but that is how I did it," Benjamin said.

"Poison?"

"None other!"

"You do like that phrase don't you."

"Well, what else shall I say?"

"Please, Benjamin, not now."

"Yes, you are right. Not now. You must rest. I'll be here when you wake."

I curled up again and closed my eyes. I could no longer think. I was still drained from everything that had happened to me; with Jesse, with my Dada"with everything basically. Benjamin was right. I did need to rest, to regain my strength, but the depression of being in my demon form again overwhelmed me. Just when I thought it was over, I got sucked down to an even deeper low. Dawn was breaking as the sun cut the earth with its light, and I still wasn't changing back again. It was slower now. The sun burned into my eyelids, yet it felt strangely good. Slowly, I drifted off to sleep.

I awoke in a bed of silken sheets. The room was dimly lit by the dying flames in the fireplace, and I could hear soft cla.s.sical music playing in the background. There he stood in the corner of the room with his back turned. I couldn't make out who it was. His hair was long and wavy as he wore a tattered white s.h.i.+rt and black trousers.

"Are you comfortable?" he asked.

As I sat up in bed, he turned around and walked closer to me. The man I had been staring at was the same man as in the visions of Benjamin's previous life.

"Benjamin?"

"Yes, my love?"

Dear G.o.d, I thought. Was this another dream? Another vision?

As I limbered up, weak and barely able to move, I started to glide myself to the mirror. Beside the bed was a night stand with a wash basin. The ornate china bowl was filled with fresh water, and the fire heated the room in a soft, warm glow.

Once I got close enough, I looked into the mirror. My hair was a dark raven-like color, long and curling at the ends. I was dressed in a sheer white nightgown and could see through my clothes as the fire illuminated my body. Who was I? Whoever I was, she was beautiful, and then I suddenly remembered the visions from beforea"the first time Benjamin showed me.

"Beth, you must rest now," Benjamin said, guiding me back to the bed.

I was too weak to argue. I couldn't tell if it was another dream or whether I was possessing Beth's body.

He took my hands and sat down beside me, caressing my skin and hair.

"I know," he said. "You don't have to speak."

I thought of being trapped in Sarah's body again, but this time it was different. I could feel everything and maneuver Beth's body like it was my own.

He laid me on the bed and bent down beside me. "I love you more than you will ever knowa" he whispered in my ear.

Then we kissed.

Slowly, he moved his hands down my body, unb.u.t.toning my gown. As he peeled off the layers of my clothing, he began to kiss me down my neck and chest.

"Noawaita"

It all felt so real. Was it? I had to tell Benjamin that I wasn't Beth. I was trapped inside her body. This can't be happening, I thought.

"Shhait's all right. I know," he whispered.

"But, Benjamin, I'm nota"

"Shhayou are with me now, and you are safe."

He crawled above my body and continued to kiss and caress me. It felt incredibly good, but I felt sinful I hadn't told him who I truly was underneath the layers of Beth's skin. Somehow he knew.

As he crawled in bed beside me and under the covers, he placed his warm body against mine. Softly he molded himself onto my bare skin as the two of us made love.

"So, was the dream good?" Benjamin asked as he stoked the fire. We were still in his lair.

I sat up, holding my head. "Was that a dream?"

"No, actually, it wasn't," he said with a smile.

"What was it then?"

"It was my gift to you. Did you enjoy it?"

"Benjamin, stop! I am just trying to figure all this out."

He gave me a glazed look and then turned away. He looked down and into a pool of water on the ground. "I thought you would like to know..." He paused for a few moments.

"Know what? What was it you wanted me to know? That you could seduce me in my dreams, or whatever you call it to be?"

"You didn't stop me from doing it. I thought you wanted to know more of me."

"I doabut not necessarily like that."

I got up and caressed his shoulder. "It must have been hard on youalosing her like that."

"I see her everywhere I go. She is in all things untouched. She is the sky and the falling snow. I feel her presence sometimes when I am aloneaand then I think of you."

I was surprised he was speaking so vulnerably. He looked saddened by the very words he spoke, and yet so beautiful as his large eyes peered through me.