Billy Austin (A Gathering of Lovers Book 1) Page 2

  A nurse dressed in green put something in his mouth that tasted of rubber.

  “Bite down on this so you don’t hurt your tongue.”

  A man in a blue uniform appeared above him touching a pair of bright probes to his temple, and the world disappeared.

  Chapter 3—Rage

  The exit to the cage had been sprung.

  After six more months of hell the good doctor again proposed a furlough. This time Oscuro reluctantly agreed. He actually enjoyed the visits from the family... most of the inmates had no visitors. Oscuro reveled in watching their eager hollow eyes follow his sister as she meandered up the manicured lawn and into the asylum hallway.

  "Hello, Mr. Johns. I'm glad you could make it. I see you've brought your lovely daughter with you today. Hello, Allison... how are you?"

  Oscuro could hear Dr. Meyers talking with his family through the ventilation duct that ran from the good doctor's office and down into the basement below. It was an ancient building full of secret places that only he managed to ferret out.

  "Hello Dr. Myers."

  "Oh, please do me the courtesy of calling me Harry... I feel as if we're all family here, Allison."

  "Okay, Dr... er, I mean, Dr. Harry... "

  Oscuro could hear the disdain in her voice, a sort of loathing that Allison had managed to raise to an art form. She was saving herself but she liked to tease. It was in the way she walked, how she dressed... even in the little hints she dropped while talking to their old friend Harry Myers.

  "How is Alex doing, Dr. Harry? The last time we were here he wouldn’t speak to me. Is he doing better now?"

  There was a hurt in Allison's tone in which Oscuro reveled. Even though she was the only member of the family he would talk to, he had purposely ignored her. It was all part of his ploy, all part of an elaborate hoax conceived and played out over many years.

  Harry Myers always had a thing for Allison, even when she was just a girl. Oscuro played off the doctor's emotions during their therapy sessions by hinting that he knew about Harry's predilection for young girls without accusing him outright. It was an old technique used by prison wardens to draw information out of inmates.

  "I think it might be of benefit to Alex if we began reintroducing him to the outside world. I'm happy you could be here today with your father, Allison. I've talked to Alex at length and we've decided a weekend furlough might be just the thing to alleviate some of the pressure he's been under lately."

  "Do you mean today?"

  Allison seemed shocked. It disappointed Oscuro to hear it in her voice, the echo of a thousand sorrows how she might be sleeping under the same roof tonight with the man who loved her. He reluctantly hated her for it.

  "Of course he means today, Allison. We talked about this several months ago, remember? Does it bother you to have Alex around?"

  "No, dad, not at all... I guess I'm surprised that they can let him out of here without any supervision. What if something happens, Dr. Myers?"

  "I assure you that Alex has made profound progress over the last few years... so much so that I'm willing to stake my reputation that he is a changed man. I would have no compunction at all in allowing him to visit my home and my family."

  "I'm sure we'll be fine, Harry. His mother has been looking forward to these furloughs as much as we have. She seldom has the time to visit with us."

  Oscuro made it a point to study Dr. Myers even more closely than the doctor examined him. He knew all the proper strings to pull in order to manipulate the man surreptitiously while simultaneously insinuating himself into the doctor's good graces by imitating his mannerisms.

  He could tell Harry Myers saw their father as a problem if he had any hopes of putting the daughter under his wing to show her the ropes. The slimy slug had hopes of bedding her. Of course Oscuro never mentioned his own special relationship with Allison... he knew incestuous liaisons were frowned up at best and criminal in some cases.

  "And how is Maura these days, Allen?"

  "Well, she's doing her level best to come to grips with all this, Harry."

  Oscuro sensed he had better go upstairs to his room... that he would be called to the good doctor's office soon with the miraculous news of his impending departure from Didi Hearsh if only for the weekend.

  Walking up from the basement Oscuro remembered the parties peopled by all manner of celebrities who his mother and father met during the course of their work as big time attorneys in Hollywood. It was nothing to see two dozen movie stars and more attending the Johns' events and the good doctor right in the middle of things, laughing and drinking and carousing.

  "Dr. Myers requests your presence, Alex."

  The orderlies all treated him differentially, as if one word from Oscuro could make or break their careers. They seemed to sense his closer than normal relationship with their boss. Then again, there were times when the help went overboard with a shoddy show of congeniality, like today.

  Allison had grown up. Though she was still just a slip of a girl her face had filled out without losing its innocence and sense of vulnerability. He thought how much he would relish some alone time with her now though from the look in her eyes—the deer in the headlights gawk—Oscuro sensed she might not appreciate it as much as he.

  That she was his sister did not register. He had always thought of Allison as someone adopted... a lost child left on the doorstep and taken in by privileged parents and raised as their own. Even though everyone said how much they looked alike, Oscuro couldn’t see the resemblance.

  Allison would always be his. She belonged to him and him alone. It didn’t matter whether she knew it or not. He had studied every line on her body, the way she moved, and all her innocuous habits that endeared her to him. He spent his generous allowance installing miniature surveillance cameras in Allison's bedroom, the same kind that spies used and the FBI.

  Whole days were devoted to watching Allison. Sometimes she would make a scrunchy face to the camera as if she might sense him watching but he could never be certain.

  When he grew older and went away to college—the one his father insisted that he go to—none of the other girls mattered. They flocked around him like flocks of tiny birds all chattering and vying for his affections but he ignored them... all but for the ones who reminded him of Allison.

  A few of them were into his bondage games but in time word seemed to get out that he was a man to take care around, especially if you were blonde and petite. No matter how closely they resembled her they never failed to disappoint him. Their bodies were subtlety different and their mannerisms made them all seem sordid compared to Allison.

  He made a vow. If he managed to escape the asylum he would go to her and straight away reveal the great longing of love that still resided in his heart. She must feel it too. Allison had only been a kid when he was sent away but she came to see him all the time. She was the only person to who he could confide his secrets. He knew she would understand.

  But his plan had gotten sidetracked when he discovered Allison was engaged to be married. It enraged him beyond measure, especially when he discovered it was to one of his old high school buddies. He knew her fiancé Tony was smitten with his sister even back then but he had no idea they had renewed their acquaintance.

  "Alex, turn around and leave your sister alone."

  His father's tone of voice only served to feed Oscuro's anger. He told Tony how the girl he planned on marrying had been intimate with her own brother. No sooner had the words come out of his mouth than his father's arm had snaked out and his fist struck Oscuro square on the nose. It startled him more than hurt. He couldn’t remember his father ever striking him before.

  "I love you, dad."

  He reached out and grabbed the steering wheel to yank it hard to the right. It was as if Oscuro watched someone else doing it, like he was a silent witness to patricide. His father fought to regain control, pulling back to counter Alex's grip. At the appropriate moment Alex let go. The car jumped across the oth
er lane narrowly missing a mini-van before careening over the embankment into the air.

  For a moment the car felt as if it might just take wing. But crazy as he was Oscuro knew cars didn’t fly. A bone-jarring thud reminded him of that eventuality before the car began rolling over multiple times. Shattered glass cascaded over him as he pushed his knees into the dashboard to avoid being thrown from the vehicle as metal and plastic twisted around him like a wicked cocoon piercing his skin, boring into him as he became the car.

  When the world stopped spinning and the car came to rest it was lying upside down better than a hundred yards from the highway. Alex noticed the mini-van they had nearly struck had stopped. The driver was walking towards the wreckage. He realized that his father and Tony had vanished while Allison was bleeding and unconscious in the back seat, hanging from the seat belt that more than likely saved her life. She seemed badly injured.

  Smelling gasoline and knowing flames wouldn’t be far behind, and though some part of Oscuro yearned to risk his life to help his sister, another part of his being told him he had better take advantage of the situation to make his escape. Though he too had been badly injured in the crash Oscuro managed to crawl from the wreckage. He got to his feet and walked away. A mile from the crash site he had accosted a woman who was coming out of her house.

  Knocking her to the ground, taking her keys, and stealing her car—though he could barely draw a breath and when he spit a coppery taste lingered on his tongue—he drove east better than three hundred miles avoiding the highways until the car ran out of gas on some godforsaken back road in the high desert of Nevada. Under snow-capped mountains he limped down the road until he could walk no farther. He crawled along on gravel grating against his knees, his elbows, and his hands, finally collapsing and rolling into a ditch where he stared up at the stars wheeling overhead as he waited to die.

  Though he didn’t close his eyes he dreamed of the day he had begun to call himself by that secret name, Oscuro, the day he had began lusting after Allison, his sister. He had to have her. What's more she had willingly given herself to him. But the darkness within him didn’t want that; it wanted to take her against her will, to torture her, to desecrate her beauty. Out of all that hate and lust, Oscuro was born. He told no one of his secret self, not for years, not until the time was ripe.

  "What are you doing way out here, boy?"

  Oscuro heard the words but he hadn't the strength to turn his head in its direction and so discern the speaker. The face of an old man hovered over him like a balloon tethered to a body.

  "Looks like someone worked you over good. Hold on, son. Let me run and get some help."

  A few minutes later, as he felt hands lifting him out of the ditch where he laid, a luscious darkness closed around Oscuro as he gave himself over to it.

  Chapter 4—Nightmare Mansion

  It was the same dream.

  When she finally found her voice she screamed out, more in frustration than in fright. She could still hear a trickle of laughter dancing away from her ears even as she bolted from bed intending to follow the sounds now quickly fading.

  "Lisa? Are you okay?"

  A soft knock sounded on her bedroom door.

  "Lisa?"

  It took her a few seconds to come to herself, to realize she had been dreaming. Flipping on the bedside lamp she threw back the covers. She was naked and though she wouldn’t mind her friend Allison seeing her that way, she thought better of if. Perhaps now wasn’t the time.

  "Come in, sweetie."

  Lisa called out to her friend as she pulled a blue flannel nightgown over her head.

  "I'm all right."

  The door clicked open. Lisa stifled a gasp as Allison entered the room wearing a translucent nightie that left nothing to the imagination. She looked like a naughty angel.

  "I heard a scream, Lisa."

  Allison stepped closer to her to gather her in tender loving arms. Lisa nearly swooned.

  "You're still trembling, my love."

  "I'm sorry I woke you, Allison. I had another one of those dreams. It's this house. It has so many memories."

  "I wasn't sleeping so no worries there. You know me. I never sleep at night. Come on, lay back down with me. I'll stay with you for the rest of the night."

  "I'd love that... thank you, sweetie."

  Allison Johns showed up at the tavern where Lisa worked a year ago. The first moment she saw her, Lisa fell straight away in love with the pretty blonde girl from the southern part of the state. She talked her boss at Twenty Nine Katz into hiring Allison and later that day brought the girl home with her to rent a room. They had lived together ever since.

  Allison seemed as taken with the old Victorian as Lisa was the first time she saw it. The house sat close to the sea shore, an imposing structure three stories tall, topped with an old-time slate room as well as what the locals called a widow's walk. Legend had it that the house had been built by a seafaring captain back in the late nineteen century. When he and his ship disappeared during a fierce storm his widow had kept watch from the top of the house for the rest of her days.

  Lisa discovered the house while on vacation in northern California. It was her first trip to the ocean. She told Richard, her husband, that she wanted to live close to the sea side. When he laughed, making a joke out of her desire, she snapped at him. She was sure he suggested looking at area homes only to appease her.

  The Realtor gave them bad directions to the Victorian so it took them over an hour to find it. Richard hated the house. He said it would cost far more to fix up than the place was worth. He was sure a bulldozer might be the best thing that could happen to it. The first time she saw it Lisa gasped out loud. Looking at it, Lisa couldn’t believe they actually had a chance to buy the home. She never imagined living in a house so grand even if it did belong to another time and place.

  After she and Richard purchased the home, she had found an old telescope lingering in dust and cobwebs in one of the rooms of the attic. She had cleaned it up and going up to the still extant widow's walk she often kept watch for her truck-driving husband when it was nearly time for his return. Spying him, she'd rush down and be waiting to leap into his arms the moment his big rig appeared in the driveway.

  Lisa loved showing off the house to her new friend the first day she brought Allison home with her. Even though it was crumbling with age the old house stood on a solid foundation and it was full of secret passages and hidden stairways and intricately carved woodwork with twelve foot high ceilings. The windows and doors were all oversized, as if a giant once lived there. When sunshine poured through the eastern stained glass it threw a kaleidoscope of colors across the rooms.

  "I see people sometimes."

  Lisa whispered to Allison as they walked through the house hand in hand, as if exploring it together for the first time.

  "Out of the corners of my eyes, but when I look there is no one there. I remember when we found the house I had the same feelings. Each time we walked into a room it seemed as if someone was there, watching us."

  "Like ghosts?"

  Allison had seemed intrigued by the notion.

  "A house this old, well, there must have been lots of people who lived here. Maybe parts of their spirits are still here. Do you think so, Lisa?"

  "I like to believe that, yes. Richard always made fun of me for thinking so. He said there are no such things as ghosts. He said when we die, we just blink out of existence. I never argued with him but I always thought otherwise. I mean, I'm not religious; I don't believe in heaven and hell, but I do think there is a part of us that goes on after death. Call it our soul or our psychic energy, I don’t know, but something remains."

  "Oh, I love this orchard, Lisa!"

  They had walked out the back door down through the hoary trees and wild rose gardens awash in moonlight and memories. All alone there in the night Lisa thought how she had never felt closer to another human being in her life. Allison seemed to read her mind.

&nbs
p; "I love you, Lisa. You know that, right?"

  Allison had confided her feelings to Lisa the first night they spent together, drinking and talking far into the night. And though Lisa wanted more than anything to take the girl into her arms to kiss her and undress her bit by precious bit she was afraid of where it might lead.

  "I know, Allison."

  She had touched Allison's face with trembling fingers.

  "I think I'm in love with you too. Give me some time, okay? I've never felt this way before. Look at me. I'm shaking, Allison."

  Lately, the old Victorian had lost its charm for Lisa. Every time she drove up the driveway she remembered her loss. Life was empty of meaning. She went through the motions only because she didn’t know what else to do. Instead of feeling at home there, Lisa perceived something sinister lurking in the dark corners just before she flicked on the light switch. Even her dreams were full of dread and portents.

  Now, with Allison lying soft and warm and oh so close by her side, arms and legs intertwined, Lisa longed once again to kiss her deeply and tenderly, to explore her tender body with excited mouth and eager hands. But the memory of her nightmare intruded on her lust making her feel guilty for even considering such a thing.

  Chapter 5—Rebirth

  He had no idea where he was but he sensed movement.

  Opening his eyes to splintered daylight seeping through drawn blinds he found he was lying in a bed, more of a sofa, a love seat really, from the way his legs dangled off the end of the cushions. His breathing seemed constricted. Though he tried he was unable to take a deep breath to cough up the phlegm rattling in his throat. When he attempted sitting up pain shot through his whole body; despite himself he groaned out loud.

  The feel of motion ceased. A few seconds later a face of an old man appeared over him. The face seemed familiar but he couldn’t quite understand why.