Jerrod backed up, trying to hide from the scene he was about to relive. He watched as his father, the man he loved and respected, slowly turned the handle of the door to the bedroom. It was a moment frozen in time.
A moment, Jerrod could never forget.
“WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU TWO DOING?!” his Father shouted at the two half naked figures on the bed, “OH, MY GOD! MAUREEN?! JERROD?! MY GOD!”
Laura inched away from her lover with disgust, “You....and your mother? That’s disgusting!”
“You don’t understand,” Jerrod said, through his tears, “I...I...I’m not even sure I do. I was young...so young, and she was...”
“YOUR MOTHER!” Laura spat.
“I know,” he said meekly.
“YOU UNHOLY WHORE!” Jerrod’s father continued with his rampage.
“Richard, please,” Maureen cried, trying to dress, “I can explain everything. Please let me explain.”
“Time for explaining is over!” Richard said through his tears, “You are a pervertion to all that’s righteous. And for that...you must pay.”
He walked over to their closet and reached into a shoe box that he kept up on the top shelf. Slowly, and methodically he pulled out a small revolver, pointing it at his hysterical wife. Jerrod, who was only eight, backed into the corner, eyes wide with fear.
Daddy was going to punish Mommy today.
“Richard,” she pulled her knees up into her chest, “P-please don’t do this. Please. I’ll be good, I swear. This will never happen again, I promise. Please.”
“You’re right,” he said, aiming the gun at his wife’s head, “it won’t.”
BANG
Two minutes later, Richard Barns; Insurance Salesman, husband to Maureen, and father to Jerrod, turned the gun on himself.
BANG
Leaving the group in stunned silence.
“My god,” Laura said, touching his arm, “I never knew.”
“I never told anyone this,” Jerrod hitched a sigh, “I just got dressed and waited for someone to find me. I was only eight. I didn’t know what I was doing was wrong. I mean...it was my mother. She was supposed to love me and protect me.”
As they stood in silence, the scenery changed again.
“Now what?” Joyce sighed, as the images took form.
Slowly their surroundings came into focus. They were standing on a cobblestone road, amid chaos. Several large trucks were lined up along the street, and several more people were lined up along the trucks. Their faces were that of the tired, weary and frightened. they were the faces of the Holocaust.
And standing off in the shadows, was Karl. At least, the military version of the man.
“Nein,” he shook his head, “Not this. Please. Anything but this.”
“What is this?” Joyce asked.
Karl sighed sadly, “A horrible mistake. And a terrible crime.”
“ATTENTION!” A voice boomed over the crowds, “ATTENTION! RELOCATION WILL BEGIN IN TWENTY MINUTES PLEASE GATHER YOUR BELONGINGS AND WAIT IN YOUR DESIGNATED AREAS.”
“Karl,” a pretty, young woman said to the uniformed man, “this is wrong. I have heard stories about these relocation camps-”
“Don’t worry, Mien Geliebten,” he tried to reassure her, “It won’t be for long. And when all of this is over, we can be together again.”
“Can we?” she shook her head, “You’re a German soldier, and I’m a Jew. You can’t be loyal to both.”
“This is ridiculous,” he huffed, “All this talk about ‘supposed’ atrocities, are nothing but anti-German slander. It isn’t true.”
“Then, why do I have to be relocated?”
Karl looked down at the cobblestone and said nothing.
Joyce shook her head, “You didn’t know what was going on?”
“No,” he said honestly, “very few of us really did. We just closed our eyes and ears, not wanting to really know. How could I have been so blind?”
“What happened to her?” Jerrod asked.
“I don’t know,” Karl sighed, watching his other self bid farewell to the woman he loved, “I was transported to the crystal before I could ever find out. But several years later, a man came into the crystal. He told me of the atrocities that occurred. The death camps, the mass murders...I didn’t believe him at first. But, after a while, it made sense. It was then, I realized I sent my love to her death. You see, the relocation camp she was supposed to go to, was named Dachau.”
“Oh god,” Joyce let out a strangled murmur.
The young woman cried out, as she was led to the back of one of the large trucks, “Karl! Please! Don’t let them take me away! Don’t let them kill me!”
Karl turned away from the scene and let out a sob, “I-I can’t watch this anymore. She was everything to me...and I just let her die! Please, let’s go from here.”
The images swirled around again, and settled in an office building.
Joyce looked around and said in amazement, “This is Hank’s old office.”
Jerrod turned to Laura, who was white as a sheet and sneered, “So, my LOVE. What nasty little secrets have you got hidden?”
Wesely stood over the prone forms of Giles, and the others. Very carefully he examined the black, oddly shaped crystal at the center of the pentagram. He shook his head and sighed, “I can’t believe Mr. Giles would be a part of this.”
“A part of what?” Willow asked, concerned.
The young Watcher stood up and reverted to his “lecture” mode, “This crystal is the Soul Gem. A magical prison for a powerful demon called Garoth, the Soul Eater.”
“Why do I not like that name?” Oz asked.
Wesley found an old book in his satchel, and opened it to a marked page, “Because, the name is quite appropriate,” he said, showing the two teens the picture of the soul eater.
“Um, that demon is in there?” Willow cocked her head, “he’s so...big?”
“And ugly,” Oz chimed in, “with big sharp claws and...for once, can’t we fight a demon named Fluffy the Killer Bunny?”
“WE can’t do much of anything,” Wesley sighed, turning the page, “Buffy and the others are trapped inside the Gem, if we try to open the crystal to release their souls...”
“Then Garoth will be released too.” Willow nodded in understanding, “But he doesn’t have a body to go into, right? I mean, it’s just a soul in there.”
“Um, hon?” Oz pointed out, “Remember when I told you that the ‘new guy’ died, and is not dead anymore?”
“Yeah?”
“Then Garoth has found a host,” Wesley paled, “I have to do some more research. I only know the basics, but if my memory serves me right, if the crystal is opened, then Garoth will be released...in the body of this man.”
“So, if we don’t open the crystal, then we’ll be safe.” Oz said.
“And Buffy, Giles and Mrs. Summers will never be free,” Willow’s shoulders slumped.
“Now don’t worry,” Wesley tried to encourage her, “As long as they stay free of the demon, their bodies will live on. And that will give us time to come up with a plan.”
“What if they get caught?” Oz asked.
Wesley turned back toward the bodies, “Then they die.”
“They died because of you?!” Giles growled, squeezing Ethan’s throat in a deadly grip.
“Now Ripper,” Ethan squawked, trying desperately to breath through the constriction, “let’s not do anything rash.”
“Rash?!” Giles’ face was so close to his ‘former’ lover’s, that they were almost touching, “My Father, Grandmother, friends...Jenny. People I cared about...all gone, because of your petty jealousy...and you don’t want me to do anything rash?! What gave you the right to destroy so many innocent lives the way you did?!”
“I was young,” Ethan choked out, “I was angry,” he averted his eyes and whispered, “I was hurt.”
That remark stopped Giles cold. He released Ethan, who fell to his knees gasping for precious air, “You were what?”
“I was hurt, Rupert,” Ethan continued to look down at the ground, “I though we had something. I thought we *were* something. And you just left. You said I was dangerous, Ripper, but you were right along side me. And for a while, it was great...”
“Yes,” Giles agreed, “but when I couldn’t look at myself in the mirror any longer, I knew it was time to get out. Sex, drugs and magic were all the same to you, Ethan. One high, after another...”
“So...”
“So?” Giles shook his head, “So, people were getting hurt because of it. People we called friends. It lost it’s appeal the night Randall died.”
“But you didn’t have to leave,” Ethan muttered, “I would have changed.”
“You?!” Giles said, incredulously, “Ethan, you’re incapable of change. Let’s be honest, mate. Would you have really changed your ways and given up magic?”
Ethan thought about it for a moment and sighed, “No, I suppose not. But did you give up magic? I’ve seen you cast a spell or two since then...”
“Yes,” he agreed, as the scene before them faded to a country road, “but I only cast spells to help people...not to serve Chaos. *That* is the difference.”
Francois looked around at the tranquil background and asked, “What happened? Where are we now?”
“We have made it passed the first level,” Joao explained, “WE have confronted our guilt and sins.”
“Now what?” Ethan asked.
The young woman sighed and said, “Now we face our fears.”
|
|