The Gift: Day 06

Jesse had taken Elena from him. The woman had been his for the taking, and he had warned Jesse fairly well in advance to avoid any problems. He had assumed that Jesse would heed his words and understand that Elena was off limits. There were so many women in the world. Why did he have to have this particular one? Daniel had asked himself that question over and over during as he pondered his friend's motives He could only conclude that Jesse was controlling her and bending her to his will. Otherwise, why would she turn away from him? What woman in Castleton Rock could truly resist Daniel?

Daniel felt a cool breeze caress his naked torso as he walked down the hazy Main Street drag of Castleton Rock. His nipples hardened as he looked up into the night sky. The stars were blotted out by the intensity of the light coming from the California Theater just past where the carnival was set up. Helena had established her home there when Daniel had brought her back to Castleton Rock with him. The spectral green and blue mist seeping from the building seemed to have a life of it's own. To Daniel, it seemed to be guarding her sanctuary.

Outside the theater sat hundreds of the town's citizens, now dressed more in simple sheets and togas. Daniel figured Helena wanted to remind herself of home, the place she had grown up in. He knew Helena was old, but the presence of so many throwbacks and recreations of ancient Egyptian and Greek styles was evidence she went further back than he had ever imagined.

The crowd parted for him in reverent silence as he stepped up to the main doors. He looked back at them, all their faces possessed of a ghostly radiance as they watched him. Daniel opened the door and looked away from them. He couldn't help but feel that no matter how much he altered their minds, they would always retain the knowledge that he had committed the act of psychic rape a thousand times over on them. Something in their hollow eyes condemned him through their forced worship at his feet.

Once inside, the powerful aroma of fine incense and fresh plants greeted him. Five women stood by the twin double doors of the main downstairs theater, two standing like sentinels in front of each door. Diane Brewster was among the young women standing guard. He recognized all the girls there as ones from his senior class. They stood naked and covered with individually colored body tattoo designs.

He stopped in front of Diane.

The beautiful and former biology teacher of Castleton Rock High was stripped of her clothes save for a silky wrap of cloth around her hips. Her full breasts were adorned with fluid blue tattoos that complimented her pale, milky complexion. The long, elaborate designs were clearly a mix of Egyptian and Greek influences that followed the natural curves of her body. Her hair had been braided and pulled back from her face. Her eyes, bold and blue looked out straight ahead as she grasped a long wooden bo in her left hand, the base of which was planted firmly in the red carpet of the lobby.

"Daniel," she looked to him with lusty eyes.

"Diane," he smiled and reached out, cupping her breasts in his strong hands, "When Helena releases you I want to see you."

"Yes, Master," she whispered huskily.

He had gotten used to the title of "master." Daniel liked it, and he felt through the last week he had even earned it.

"Is she in?"

"She is expecting you."

Daniel kissed Diane on the lips, a long sensual wet coupling that reminded her not only of his interest in her but also who was in control. Diane reached down and gripped his cock through his pants. The foot long penis he had acquired through the power of the gift was at rest in his pants leg, but the touch of Diane Brewster's needy hands made it stir. Daniel broke the kiss and smiled, "Soon..."

Diane smiled and returned to her watch.

He resisted the urge to turn on the lights as he walked into the theater. Daniel did not like the dark, but also knew that Helena could be very vengeful if even her smallest of wishes were not carried out. She had already killed several people since her arrival, including the Principal Shaver whose only mistake was draping a length of silk on her bed that didn't match the color scheme. It took shaver an hour to die as Daniel had watched Helena slowly boil the man's brain inside his skull. Finally, when the agonizing screams and gurgling pleas for help had silenced Daniel saw her smile. Helena admired her handiwork and walked away from the bloody corpse Principal Shaver with all the compassion of a cowboy motorist passing a dead squirrel on some desolate desert highway.

He knew Helena was still far more powerful than he was and he dared not oppose her. To be truthful, he dared not oppose her yet. It was inevitable that eventually he would have to overthrow her. He didn't like answering to anyone, but for the time being he didn't mind playing it cool as her right hand man. When a bigger kid takes over your sandbox, you wait for the right moment to dispatch her and reclaim what is yours.

'Enjoy this while it lasts,' he thought as he looked around the massive room.

The inner theater had been transformed into a recreation of an ancient Egyptian temple, complete with elaborate paintings on the walls, plants and ferns and exotic draperies of fine cloth (most likely taken from the Import Sewing Shop next to the flower boutique). One of her first acts, as the de facto queen of Castleton Rock, was to make use of her servants to furnish her palace. She had the people of the town bring their fine clothes and furniture to the theater to create her chambers. Her bed, a luxurious four post king sized bed from the mayor's house had been placed in the downstairs theater on the stage in front of the massive movie screen.

'Offerings for the queen,' Daniel mussed silently.

Sitting in an elegant plush antique wing backed chair was Helena herself. She sat casually in her seat, appearing as more a lounging and bored predator than anything else. Her authority was not diminished at all, but there was a certain impatience weighing heavily across her pristine features. She seemed to glow with an angry radiance as the thousands of candles around her burned. Her eyes shifted from their troubled meditation on the back of the theater to Daniel as he walked down the right side aisle of the theater.

"What is it?" Helena asked from the dim light of the stage as the candlelight flickered in an unseen breeze.

"I did everything you asked," Daniel told her. Why did he feel like he was her servant? The words "My Lady" had almost slipped from his mouth at the end of his sentence. He felt the strongest suspicion that if she was particular enough on the subject, she might even have him bowing before her on one knee before all was said and done.

"Good," the beautiful witch said as her unearthly eyes regarded him with a cool internal flame.

"When Jesse comes here," Daniel asked, feeling cold and suddenly unsure of himself, "What will we do?"

"You fear him?"

Daniel held back the sarcasm he felt stinging the back of his throat, "No."

"You will do what you must," Helena said flatly.

"And the gift will choose?" Daniel asked.

"Yes, Daniel," she nodded, almost like a tired mother dealing with a petulant child asking far too many questions, "And the gift will choose."

He sensed her annoyance and decided to back off. She was far too powerful to upset at this point. The possibility that she might have some influence over who received the full power of the gift wasn't lost on him. He reminded himself of that every time he entertained an errant thought of lashing out against her. After spending the last few days as an absolute ruler in Castleton Rock, he was sure that his attitude around her needed adjustment. He was very powerful, that was true. But he wasn't all-powerful.

Not yet anyway.

"He will be here soon," Helena smiled and leaned back in the chair, her silky white robes strangely iridescent in the low lights, "Be ready, Daniel."

"Of course," he smiled and turned on his heel to leave.

"Oh, and Daniel?"

He paused and looked over his shoulder at her, "Yes?"

"Don't underestimate your friend," she reminded him evenly.

"I won't," Daniel assured her. He walked up the long incline of the theater aisle and then out the double doors into the lobby. He could feel Jesse getting closer now. It was entirely possible that he might already be inside the city limits by now. Getting past the wild animals wouldn't be a problem for Jesse. The cops had tried to get through, but then they hadn't been blessed with the gift.

And if Jesse didn't make it through, that was one less problem to deal with.

Daniel stepped out into the night and waited.

***

Jesse stood still as the two large black bears blocked the logging road.

He had driven down the I-5 corridor to Mott Road, the northern most exit into Castleton Rock heading south. The drive had been a surreal experience. The southbound lanes were clogged with cars and impassable even on the shoulder. After a few minutes of debate he decided to see how traffic was on the other side of the concrete dividers.

So he drove along the shoulder of the northbound lanes heading south, which aside from the initial disorientation of driving on the wrong side of the road proved to be easier than he thought it would be. He stayed on the shoulder all the way to Mount Shasta where the traffic lightened up. He was able to cloud the vision of those he passed so they didn't see him until it was too late. Once he was at Mott Road, he pulled off the highway using the onramp for his off ramp.

"Up is down, right is left and black is white," he had said to himself. He hadn't really known what he meant by that, but the phrase carried some special meaning for him as he geared up for his journey.

His choice to walk from there had been out of concern for Elena's aunt and because he did not want to be seen by police or anyone else. The black BMW he had "borrowed" from Rosa Morales garage was a precision work of art and definitely stood out no matter where it went. Jesse also doubted very much Rosa or Elena would be pleased with him if something happened to it. He would be lucky if they didn't kill him for taking it, but considering Elena's Volkswagen probably wouldn't survive the trip he took it anyway. He pulled it to the shoulder behind a large road sign and locked it up tight.

The night sky here was alive with the klieg lights from the Cal-Trans crews trying to move the roadblocks on the highway. There was also the strange illumination coming from the center of downtown Castleton Rock. He had no idea what the mist was or how Daniel had created it (if he created it at all) but he knew it was scaring the shit out of people. Looking at it during his long hike scared him half to death. But, it provided fairly good light and saved him from walking off the logging road and falling to his death.

This also made it a little easier to find the trail leading up to the logging road from Siskiyou Avenue, which connected with the onramp a few feet from where he had hidden Rosa Morales BMW. From there, he had followed a hiking trail up into the hills and found the rugged, tire-chewing stretch of road that lined the western side of the canyon. He hadn't been up on this road in years, but it has somehow managed to remain exactly as he remembered it from his childhood. Many times he had gone biking along this rough stretch of isolated back road, always by himself. The entire town could be seen from this place, nestled in the canyon. It was a place he could think and gain perspective on his pre-pubescent and teenage worries.

Now, it was a place he pondered his adult concerns as well.

And, he hoped that because Daniel had never been there with him before it might be a little bit safer to use it. The two angry bears now before him revealed the flaw in his logic. Jesse swallowed hard and raised his hands, palms out. He was beginning to sweat in his clothes. It was a shame too, because he had just bought them at Wal-Mart before he left town to come here. He could feel his blue shirt becoming damp and his tan cargo pants uncomfortable as he stood there, his hiking boots planted in the rusty dirt of the road. Overhead clouds were billowing in, bringing with them the promise of a good-sized thunderstorm.

"Easy," he whispered as he held his hands out to them.

The lead bear, a mother bear from the looks of it, wasn't up on her hind legs yet but she was growling at him. That in and of itself was enough to make Jesse worry about wetting his pants. The feral sound was low in bass and pitch as she pulled back her muzzle to reveal a strong set of gleaming teeth. In the light from the highway and town, he could see her thick dark coat of fur was raised and heckled. The smaller bear, her juvenile cub he figured, was equally as pissed. Jesse calmed his mind and tried to reach out to the animals with his thoughts.

Until now, he had only used his gift to deal with other people and inanimate objects. Opening himself up to the bears agitated state of mind was the equivalent of being shell-shocked from a grenade. The animal was all instinct and emotion and Jesse staggered back a little as he tried to compensate for the sudden rush of boiling attitude. The feelings of protection and anger weren't specifically defined against him, but they were honestly rooted in keeping her cub safe. These powerful emotions had been heightened and increased ten fold by another influence, and Jesse didn't need to ask whom.

"Hey there Big Momma," Jesse smiled and got down on his knees. He thought he remembered somewhere that being taller than a bear made you a threat or some bullshit like that. He reached into the bears minds and began trying to soothe them with the calm he forced himself to feel. The mother bear back up a little, confused and agitated as he penetrated her mind. The juvenile only looked to its mother as they growled and snarled and drooled.

"Easy now," he coaxed them back towards the bushes on the left side of the narrow road. The mother bear sidestepped and then paused, looking at him and trying to figure out just what the hell he was. Jesse could feel her confusion but continued to sedate her. Jesse slowly walked forward on his knees, his hands held out to the bears as he began to pass them. The two animals were now to his left side as closed his eyes and stood up straight.

He could sense the road ahead of him and could see it in the darkness of his closed eyes as he concentrated. Jesse trusted his senses as he turned and began walking backwards, still keeping his face to the bears and his eyes shut tight. The sedation of the wild animals wasn't easy and he began to feel fatigued as he backed his way down the road. He could hear the mother bear grunting and pounding her massive paw against the dirt. He could smell her carrion breath even from his position ten feet away.

"I'm just passing through, baby," he said quietly. His heart was thumping smoothly in his chest and yet he felt like he might keel over dead from a heart attack at any moment. The strange calm of his body against the fear he was suppressing created an almost unbearable tension. He focused and reminded himself if the animals caught him off guard, they would attack.

Jesse shivered as he inhaled deeply, his sweat soaked shirt catching a cool breeze that rustled the cedar and pine trees around him. His eyes jolted open as the sounds of snapping twigs and branches assaulted his ears. He looked and saw the bears tearing off through the woods, running away from him. Jesse smiled and laughed nervously as he realized that he was out of danger for the moment. The noisy reports of their exit into the woods, heading down the side of the hill towards the riverbed, echoed through the canyon. Jesse wrinkled his nose as he caught a whiff of the acrid chemical smell lacing the breeze.

"Daniel, you asshole," he muttered.

As he continued on, he wondered just how bad the pesticide spill had been. He thought back to his junior high school years, remembering when the railroad running through Castleton Rock had been under the thumb of Southern Pacific. One of their trains had jumped the tracks near Cantara Loop and dumped a toxic pesticide in the river back in the early nineties, killing just about every fish, plant and animal that lived along the river banks. The resulting lawsuits put the outfit under and if he remembered right, they got bought out by Union Pacific.

Jesse wondered if they would fare better than their predecessors?

He reached the high point of the logging trail with out further incident and was able to looked down into town. The bluish-green haze floating over the city was thick and obscured everything but the shapes of the buildings. He could make out the California Theater and to the north he could see where the Memorial Bridge had been. It was strange seeing the bridge gone, a massive chasm of open space where a sturdy and well-known landmark had once been. Jesse shook his head and quietly mourned the bridge and the poisoned river.

"Good job, Dan," he said out loud and stepped to the edge of the logging road. He looked down into the murky shadows of the hillside and steeled himself for the long climb down. He figured it would take him a half hour to reach the bottom of the hill and he hoped his memory had been accurate of the road. If he were right, he would step out onto Butterfly Avenue. The avenue ran along a mile-stretch of the river in the middle of town as the very bottom of the riverbed canyon. It was the lowest point in Castleton Rock and probably the easiest way to enter town undetected from this side of the canyon. He could see sporadic lights from the houses along the avenue and he hoped that no one was out and about.

"Okay then," he whispered to himself and began climbing down the hillside, his boots slipping and sliding on the thick layers of brown leaves left behind from numerous winters past. He knew he was making far too much noise as he made his descent. Small twigs snapped and bushes rustled as he tried to control his climb down. Though it might have just been him being overly paranoid, it felt as thought the town itself was watching him and waiting for him to enter.

Finally, he reached the bottom of the hill and stepped out on Butterfly Avenue. The familiar roar of the Sacramento River was gone. In its place was a silence unlike any he had ever heard before. There were occasional car horns honking from the highway further away and the faint echoes of heavy machinery down south in the canyon trying to clear the train crash. Jesse felt like some half-assed astronaut stepping into an oddly familiar and yet strange new world.

"Like the fucking 'Twilight Zone'," he said to himself.

He looked up at the sky and marveled at the simple beauty of the luminescent haze hovering over the city. He wondered if Daniel was causing the light show or if it were something far more sinister?

The street was dark, all the sodium lamps burnt out or shattered. In the eerie light he could see broken glass glinting and litter scattered across the sidewalks and blacktop. As he walked he came upon an overturned car that was still smoldering. Black smoke lazily wafted out from the dented and smashed hood as the left rear tire spun slowly. The stench of the chemical spill was stronger here, underscored by the smell of gasoline. It may have been bad here, but he knew it was even worse further down river. At least here, there wasn't any pesticide spilled.

When he arrived at the small bridge that connected Butterfly Avenue with Sacramento Avenue, the sadly diminished remains of the river trickling by in a channel too wide for it he saw that the light was brighter towards where the theater was up on Main Street. There still was no sign of any people here on the lower street, but he could feel Daniel all around him. And there was something else he couldn't quite identify as well. It was equally as potent as Daniel, if not more powerful.