VOLUME TWO: THE MISSION
Ancient is the tale that is told....
Chapter 7
Sierra woke with a gasp. She sat up in her bed and rubbed her temples, trying to catch her breath. She got out of bed quickly and drew back the curtain from her window. She felt as though something had pulled her out of her sleep. She looked out over the rolling hills where she lived in the country. She sat down on the edge of her bed and stared at the moonlit night. She watched as the leaves in the night's silvery moonlight rustled with a breeze, making a sound almost like waves crashing against the beach.
She looked over her bedside and found the calico cat, whom for some reason she couldn't find a name for, sleeping on top of the Beauty and the Beast story her mother had found in the attic. She looked back out the window farther in to the night towards the lake. She shivered, as she was able to make out its calmness, thinking of a past that she and her family had tried desperately to forget. But nonetheless, she couldn't take her eyes off of it's gentle lapping. She could only see part of it for the garden and the forest blocked most of it. But it was enough. As much as she fought it, the horrible memory came back.
She was only eleven years old. Her mother was pregnant with Geoffry and was bedridden most of the time. It was the summer time and she was playing by the lake. The day was 90 degrees or more and Sierra was watching as her eight year old sister played with the ball they had just gotten a couple of days ago. The ball was one of those marble looking air balls that you got in grocery stores. Sierra got up and called to her.
"I'm going inside for a minute to get some lemonade. You want any?"
"Sure," answered her sister, a mess of auburn curls swinging around her neck. Then she rolled the ball a little closer to the lake's edge.
"Jasmine, whatever you do, don't go near the water. It's dangerous in there. I'll be back." She threw the girl a worried glance then Sierra set off toward the house as fast as her legs could carry her. She went into the house with a gasping breath.
"Sierra, you shouldn't be running that much in this heat," her mother told her as she sat down in a chair with a secretive expression on her face.
She gave her mother a sheepish smile as she went to the fridge, "I like to run... I feel... free. At times I feel like I could run forever. Not think or feel.... just run..." Sierra could still feel the air on her face, the nature around her caressing and overpowering her senses. Comforting her, exciting her, giving her strength... she shrugged it off. " I just came in to get some lemonade for me and Jasmine and Dad. Do you want any?" Sierra asked trying to change the subject.
"Sure," Sierra poured 4 glasses. "Thank you dear." Her mother replied watching her daughter with a keen eye. Sierra smiled and began to bolt out the door in a run one glass in each hand and one held between her chest and arm. "SIERRA!" Sierra turned around in the doorway guiltily. Her mother raised her eyebrows to emphasize her point, "Don't run."
She nodded and turned back, went down the steps and began walking to the lake thinking aloud. "I better check on Jazz before I go to dad, or he'll kill me." Jasmine was her father's favorite of the two, while Sierra was her mother's.
She walked in a fast pace, but was stopped by a movement in the wood. Looking closer she saw a sight she couldn't believe. It was built like a man, but it looked to be half-feline and half-human at the same time... and it was watching her. "Wow," she found herself saying and began walking to it. She felt safe with it for some reason. And surprisingly, it started to come out of the wood to meet her half way. But both were stopped dead in their tracks when Sierra heard yelps and cries coming from the direction of the lake that sounded like they were coming from her sister.
All wonder gone and replaced by dread, she broke out into a dead run across the lawn, made the turn around the wood and garden and she was forced to an immediate stop by the horror of what she saw. She didn't hear the glasses in her hand breaking as they fell from her hands or feel the liquid or shards they sprayed out on her bare toes and the soles of her feet. She heard nothing except her sister's screams and saw nothing but what was in front of her. She was in the lake. She was drowning...
"Help!!!" Jasmine screamed and her pleas became even more passioned at seeing her sister. Her head bobbed up and under the water between yelps. For a long moment Sierra was frozen. Unable to move or speak then all at once her senses came back to her.
Sierra yelled, "JASMINE!!!" as loud as she could. She didn't know why... Then she found her footing and ran to the edge of the lake. She saw the pink ball floating in the middle of the lake. It must've gotten in the lake and she went in after despite what Sierra told her. The lake was filled with various depths; some were 2 feet, others 5 feet, while some 9 feet. You could never be sure of your footing.
Her scream was loud enough to attract her father's attention. He came running when he heard it again.
"JASMINE!!!" Sierra called out again, bending down and extending her arm out as far as she could. She couldn't go in to the water; she didn't know how to swim. Jasmine's head went under another time and that was when she stopped calling for help... she was only getting gulps full of water.
"Jasmine, hang on baby!" her father called to her when he arrived.
"I'm sorry..." Jasmine whispered as she went under again eyes locked and pleading with her sister. Only this time she didn't come back up. Her father dove in. He swam to where they last saw her half way out, and he dove down in search. Sierra just stood up and stared at the water. She couldn't cry, speak, or move. She could do nothing but breathe the air that her sister so desperately needed at the moment. Her father came up again for air without her sister. He swam in a circle in search and dove again. He came up with out her again.
"JASMINE!!!" he screamed out to the water. He looked at his daughter on the bank. She just stared at the water with no expression. No pain, no fear, nothing. His brow creased in fury and fright. He dove again and again, then on the seventh time he came up with the small blue form of Jasmine. Her hands, hair, and lags were tangled with weeds and vines. Both of their faces were smudged with the lake's dirty ooze. He swam them both to the bank and lay a motionless, blue body on her back, red strings of hair clinging to her face like red leeches.
"Go get your mother." he told Sierra. But she didn't respond, she just stared at the lake. "GO GET YOUR MOTHER!!!" he yelled at her, She came out of her daze and ran to the house. She told her mother who, five months pregnant at the time, ran to the lake. Sierra didn't follow, instead she ran in a different direction, toward the forest. She ran to a tall, old tree with a hollow in the bottom that lay in the forest's middle.
She sat under it and buried her face in her hands and lap. She cried and after what seemed an eternity she just stopped. She couldn't bear to go back to the lake; she didn't want to see what she knew had passed. Her sister was dead. All because of a glass of lemonade and a ball. It was her fault, she kept telling herself when she could cry no longer. She didn't feel she had a RIGHT to cry. It. Was. Her. Fault. With this thought she just stared straight ahead.
Suddenly her eye was caught by moving object. She figured it was one of those feral cats that seemed to multiply year by year in the forest. She squinted her eyes and looked harder to be sure. Still, bears and wolves weren't uncommon here either, and if there was one about she needed to know. But what she thought she had just imagined was there again. She caught only a glimpse of it. It looked part human, part feline. But as soon as she figured out what it seemed to be, it was gone. She stared longer at the spot and thought she saw two luminous blue eyes peering back at her, with a set of triangular ears from behind a tree.
It aroused her curiosity and for some reason again she wanted to go to it. As if it seemed the... thing was offering comfort. Overwhelming and glorious comfort. She began to sit up and crawl to it, but was distracted by a brush of a furry object against her side. She sat back and looked down seeing a calico kitten looking up at her adoringly. She smiled then quickly looked back at the tree where the figure had been, but it was gone. She looked back down at the kitten who was now joined by a group of kittens and cats, all taking it upon themselves to comfort her by bunting her from all sides. She gladly returned the favor with pets and praise through teary eyes.
A couple hours later only the calico kitten remained, who lay curled up on her lap asleep. All through these hours she thought that every now and then she had again spotted the strange thing. And all it seemed to do was watch her and it also seemed to be... guarding her. Looking out for danger and ready to spring into action to protect her at any second. Even now it seemed that way, even without seeing the eyes or the figure, she felt safe, and began to fall asleep. But she awoke, what seemed minutes later, to a booming above her head like thunder, only so loud it literally shook the ground. Startled, she looked around dazedly not realizing that a blanket had been wrapped around her and the kitten that was now awake as well, was laying on top of it.
She'd heard that booming before. Last night. It was followed by a normal thunderclap and rain started to sprinkle, then became a downpour. The kitten clung to her. She looked around for shelter and upon seeing the hollow in the tree gathered the kitten and blanket in her arms and ran for it. Now she had no choice but to wait for the storm to go away or at least let up enough for her to go home.
Finally it stopped when the night came and she finally made her way home leaving the kitten behind. Wet and miserable, sad and a little dazed, she stepped through the door, blanket draped around her. Her mother was there, sitting in a chair crying. She looked up, at first it seemed as though she didn't recognize her, then the expression changed suddenly and she became overcome with convulsive sobs. She ran to Sierra, "Thank God!"
She grabbed Sierra in a hug so tight her small ribs hurt. She said between tears, "Don't EVER do that again Sierra!"
Sierra wasn't sure what she meant but the thought of confusion fled when her mother began rocking her in her arms. Sierra put her arms around her mom's neck listening as her mother said again in a choked whisper," Don't ever do that again Sierra. I don't want to lose you too."
Now she understood, "I'm sorry..." , Sierra mumbled almost frightened by this amount of emotion on her mother's part.
Her mother continued to rock her and cry as she hugged her. Finally, Sierra's father came through the door. He looked at the two and turned all his attention solely on Sierra. His face was emotionless, drained. Upon noticing him there, her mother let go of her. He spoke eerily even, pointing a finger at the auburn haired girl dripping cold, dirty water on an immaculate floor.
"You were responsible for your sister Sierra. Now she's dead. Dead because you left her alone when you shouldn't have. Dead because you wouldn't go in and save her. Her death is YOUR fault, and I'll never forgive you for it."
Then he walked to a cupboard and pulled out a bottle of clear liquid that spelled VODKA. He undid the lid and tipped it to his lips and went into the living room. Her mother sat kneeling, horrified. How could he actually believe that their child's death was Sierra's fault? She looked back at the girl who stared at the doorway to the living room stricken. She grabbed her by the shoulders.
"Sierra, look at me," she took Sierra's face in her hands, "look at me. Jasmine's death is NOT your fault. Do you understand me? You couldn't have known it was going to happen. You couldn't have gone in after her, you would've drowned too. IT'S NOT YOUR FAULT."
Sierra burst out crying and clung to her mother's neck mumbling, "I just wanted to get us some lemonade. I told her not to go near..." , then Sierra couldn't talk anymore. Her throat was stopped with tears of grief and guilt. Her mother kept telling her it wasn't her fault and that it would be all right. But every time Sierra found a voice the words were always the same.
Her father had kept his word. He never seemed to have forgiven her for what Sierra now realized was indeed NOT her fault. Though still at times she did blame herself. thinking of what she could've done to prevent it from it happening in the first place. If she just hadn't left her in the first place, or had taken her with her.
Sierra tried to push the memory out of her mind. She only had twice since Jasmine's death gone back to the lake. Now, overcome with the horrors she had come to know that day she buried her face in her hands in sobs much the same way as she had the day it happened. The cat awakened and forced its way on her shivering lap. She held it close to her and let it's rhythmic purring calm her. In gasps she looked back at the , then something caught her eye.
A silvery flash near the garden. It looked like a cat but then it didn't. She looked closer and didn't see anything. She shook her head then got up and went to the front of her bed to lay down noticing for the first time that the blanket on her bed was the very one she had mysteriously acquired that day of sorrow. She laid down covering herself up with it as much as breathing would allow. She had to get some sleep. She closed her eyes noticing the blanket's strange, unique flowery scent that it always had and could never be washed out.
Her eyes flew open suddenly when she had finally realized what it was that had awakened her. It was a clap of thunder as loud and shaking as that first night she had heard it on that fatal day of tears and sadness.