Party Of All Parties

When you're in high school and college you get invited to parties every Friday and Saturday nights and, if you're really lucky, maybe one or two on the weekends. Now, the parties can and will range from a quiet get together where everyone discusses the newest books to hit the Barnes & Noble to a frat party where more than a thousand college and high school students will pass through the door and leave a lot drunker than they were when they got there. Of course there were women at the drat parties so, once they got drunk, no one left who didn't have a smile across their face.

The thing was there was another kind of party and that was that hid away. No one would ever admit going there. They were impossible to find and, if you were blessed, you'd get a cell phone 15 minutes before the party started with directions how to find them. All that I heard about them was that the party turned into a freakin' blast and it was a very exclusive crowd.

I was a junior in high school when I started going to the many parties around town and eventually I got the reputation of being young but being one of the strongest party animals in Cleveland. My name is Randall Thornton but everyone who was worth knowing me called me R.T.. In a lot of places if you said you were a friend of R.T.'s you were on the VIP list and you were limited to that crap kids drank...you could get the good stuff that got you drunk in half the time..

About the time I got to college had outgrown even me. I was invited to every party anyone was holding. I went to about half of them and ignored. Then one Friday night I got the call I was waiting for. It was a man giving me direction to a warehouse down in The Flats. “Don't tell anyone else about this. You have to come alone. We have a full night of entertainment planed for tonight,” the voice said. He didn't give me a chance to ask any questions or say anything. He stopped talking and the line went dead.

A friend of mine wasn't standing too far away. He and I had plans to go over to Delta Tau Chi later that night...after all they always had the hottest girls and the most booze but I had other plans.

“Who was that.” he asked. “I didn't hear you say a word,”

I knew that I had to lie and make it a big one. I thought a second and come up with something that he might just believe. “That was the girl from town,” I said. “She calls me all the time to play me her new favorite song.”

“What song was it this time,” he asked with a kind of laugh in his voice.

“I don't know some song by Katy Perry,” I said. “God, I am getting so tired of getting calls from her.” I had to make an excuse to get away from him so I pretended that I was angry. “I'm going over there and tell her face to face that I don't like the music she is sending me and tell her to stop. He offered to go over with me but I told him that it would be better if I went by myself. He reluctantly agreed and told me where he was going to be later that night. Of course I told him that I would meet him but I really wasn’t sure if I would or not.

I had just about 10 minutes to make it 14 blocks so I hopped in my car and took off. I did 60 all the way across town. Running red lights and shooting through stop signs I made it with a couple minutes to spare. Thinking back now I was risking my life just to get to a party but God knows that I made it safe and I was going in.

There was a bouncer at the door and he wasn't checking IDs. When I got to the door he asked for my cell phone so I took it out of my pocket and handed it to him. Now, he never said a word after that. He looked at my received calls and then opened the door and let me in.

Inside it was dark...very dark. There was a string of red neon tubes as well as along the ceiling. On each table was a small candle that lit the entire table. I don't see how but it did. As my eyes cleared I could see more. The walls were decorated in black. I could see the edges of stone but even they were black. Gargoyles watched from every corner of the room and the strangest thing of all...there was a huge vulture resting on a perch on the bar.

I was too busy looking at the decor to notice the people. They were strange to say the least. There were about 200 people in the place and it looked like it was pretty much even. There seemed to be just as many women as there were men. The thing was, outside of a few of us nearly every one of them had pale skin.

“R. T.,” I heard a woman say from the bar. “I am honored to have you at our party. Please mingle and get to know some of us...I am sure you will have fun.”

The thing was I didn't know her. I never even met a woman with the eye color she had. They were pure white. No definition at all...just white spheres and, man, that was freakin' strange.

“We have a full bar,” she continued. “Since this is your first night there is no charge for anything for you.” I thanked her and, just as quickly as she appeared, she disappeared into the crowd.

I got me a Bloody Mary and started walking around. I do have to say that they did have women and they were all sexier than any model I had seen anywhere and they seemed eager to please because there was a constantly a flow of men and women going through a set of doors at the left end of the bar. I had to know so I stopped one of the waitresses and asked her what was behind the door.

She smiled at me and kissed me so hard that she bit my lip. I tasted my blood coming from a small gash on my lip before she answered in a very sexual accent. “Darling,” she said as she licked my blood from her lip. “That room is where you go when you want to experience pure, unlimited nirvana. No one who goes in comes out exactly the same.” Then she kissed me again and I felt her tongue parting my lips. It was the most passionate kiss I ever got from a woman I didn't know.

I hung out for a while and talked to some of the other people. All in all it was a fairly nice party. The people were strange but friendly, like I said the girls were hot and the drinks, although the Bloody Marys tasted funny, were for the most part as good as any bar in town.

A few of the girls tried getting me to go through the door with them but since this was my first time I just wanted to see what the party and the people were like. I was there until about 3 a.m. And when I tried to leave the woman who talked to me when I came in stopped me.

“R. T.., what did you think of my party,” she asked. I told her that I had a lot of fun but I had to go. “We'll have another one next week. I will call you to let you know when and where.” I asked her if I could bring a friend and her answer was short and sweet. “No...you have to be invited. We know your friends and none of them are worthy to be invited. Maybe one day I will invite one of them but not today or tomorrow.”

I didn't say another word except to thank for the invite but before I got out of the door she reminded me that I was not to tell anyone about what I had seen or heard. “We do not want our parties to be known by anyone who is not one of us.” I just nodded my head and got my ass out of there.

It was a hard week for me. I couldn't stand the waiting...waiting for the phone to ring to give me the time and location of the next party.

Of course, my friend was bugging me all week to find out where I disappeared. He was quickly approaching the verge of madness but I never said a word about what I had seen. It was, to a large part, that I was listening to what that woman told me but also I really didn't think that he would believe me and if he did, even just a little bit, he would follow me and try to crash the party and I wasn't sure how they would react to that. It may come down to he, I or both got hurt or even worse. They did seem like nice people but some of the nastiest mass murderers ever seemed like nice people until they were pushed too far and I didn't want to take a chance.

Finally, on Saturday I got the call. The party was being held in the basement of one of the buildings down at Public Square. I knew the building and there was a club on the first floor so, although there would be thousands of people walking around no one would notice anyone walking into the building.

I didn't care about driving. I was going to have a few more drinks so I hopped on the RTA and took the train into town. It was just a 10 minute ride so I was going to have plenty of time to get to the party and maybe find out what all was going on behind that door. The more I had thought about it during the week the more I needed to find out and it was going to be tonight.

I got to the door a full 3 minutes before it was going to be locked. The doorman looked at me and immediately said, “Mr. R.T. It is so very nice to see you tonight. There is so much going on in there I know you will have fun.” I just nodded at him and said that I was sure I would and I went in.

The woman I spoke to the week before wasn't there so I just walked over to the bar and ordered a Bloody Mary. It tasted the same as the ones I had earlier but there was still something strange about them that I just couldn't put my finger on. As soon as I took my second sip a woman walked over to me.

Her skin was pale as the others'. Her hair was long and wild. It was also black. Now, I am not talking about the brown black that most people have. Her hair was indigo blue black. As a matter of fact I could see that there was a few small streaks of actual blue in the front of her hair. She was dressed in all black and it was like a tight cat suit with some studs around the wrists and neck. She also had black eye liner and lipstick to round out her appearance. Wait, I forgot one thing...she had a pair of earrings that were shaped like cobras with faceted rubies in their eyes and their mouths open showing some really nasty looking fangs. Even with all that she was a knockout so I decided to start talking to her.

“Hello R. T.,” she said. I had no idea who she was but I let her keep talking. “I hope that you are having fun so far tonight.” I nodded that I was having fun. She smiled at me and got very close...close enough to whisper in my ear. “Well, if you want we can get together and I know that I will change your life.”

“How,” I asked.

“Just give me 15 minutes and I swear that you will be changed,” she said as her smile got bigger. Then she kissed me more passionately than the woman had the week before but it was oh so much more fun. At least this one didn't bite me but what she did do was get me another Bloody Mary and, as she did, she kissed me again and just walked away.

Now, I was a normal boy. It was so hard not to follow her right then and take her through that door. While I was standing there at least 7 men walked in through that door but the funny thing was only the women came back out. I did notice that some of the women were taking two, maybe three, men into that room.

I was talking to myself. “Is this some kind of a brothel,” I asked. What in the hell was going on in there.

I stood there a couple of hours just watching. It was so strange. I had hosted a lot of parties in my young life but whenever we had a room like that...whoever when it was damn sure to come out. I made sure that nothing this strange ever took place. Something like that could ruin a party goer’s reputation.

During all of that time I was hit on by so many women it was actually silly but I wanted the girl that I had met earlier but I had a lot of trouble finding her. Finally, I was over by the door and she approached me. “Are you ready,” she asked with a big smile on her face. I nodded my head and she opened the door.

Behind the door was a hallway with three black doors on each side. They were black which was a stark contrast to the blood red carpet and walls. We walked to the second door on the left hand side and as she opened it another woman walked out of the room next to it. They shared a slight smile as they passed and from what I could see the lipstick on the one...not mine...was smeared. I had an idea what she was doing but I wasn't since a man never came out of that room...at least not one I could see.

Anyway, she held the door open as I walked in. Inside the walls were the same red as the hallway and inside the room was a bar, a couch and a single candle lighting the room. The funny thing about it was that the flame was not orange/yellow the way most flames are...it was a black flame that still put out enough light that made it easy to see.

“R. T. please sit on the couch.” she said as she crossed the room. “You are going to experience things that you have never dreamed of before.” She smiled as she slowly removed the cat suit and let it fall to the floor. Her body was beautiful to say the least. The light reflected on her skin so that she looked like a living diamond and her bra and panties were made of the sheerest lace I believe could ever be made by man.

I did as she said and walked over to the couch as she walked over to the bar to pour us each a drink. I don't know what it was but the second I drank it all of my senses were heightened to a point where I could hear music coming from the party just as if it had been playing in that room. The only thing was that all of my inhibitions disappeared just as fast.

I laid back on the couch as she walked over and kissed me as her hands held me tight to the back of the couch. “I hope you like this,” she said as she straddled my waist wrapping her legs in with mine. “I really do think that you will like this.” I wanted to say that I was sure I would but I was totally speechless. My eyes closed as my body reacted to her sensuality.

Her nails clawed into my shoulders and I could feel the blood flowing down. She ripped the sleeves off of my shirt and began kissing the wounds, letting her tongue clean the blood that was flowing from my body. Then she tipped my head back and she drove her teeth into the side of my neck. It was very, very painful but it was more erotic than it was hurtful. I could feel my heartbeat and the blood flowing through my arteries. It was warm as it left my body. I wanted her to have all of it. My life was hers. She drank, rather fed, from me for several minutes. I wasn't sure exactly how long but I knew I didn't want it to stop but she did and all she could say was, “Please come and see me again. This will be better every time you come here.” Then she just left, closing the door behind her.

I was there for about 18 minutes until I got my strength back and was able to move. I opened the door and was escorted out of a door. The door opened and I was back in the parking lot near the back of the building. I went back a few more times and I went into the room with a different woman every time. They would feed from me and then leave me just as that first one did.

The last time I went as a guest I found that I didn't want to go into the room with one of women I had seen so often. I had developed a hunger that I could not explain and my skin was not light brown that I was so proud of. It had turned as pale as most of the people attending those parties.

I started taking the young women who had come and did not know what this place was. I would take them and feed from them just as I had been fed upon. Some nights I would feed on 10 or 12 women in one night and that would just barely cure my hunger.

Now, I am not warning you not to come to the party but if you get a strange phone call early on a weekend evening telling you a place and a time for the party of parties....take care. It could be me looking for someone to feed up. I do promise that you will enjoy the experience but your life will never be the same.

© Robert Taylor 2012

“Rakshasa’s Jar”

My grandmother owned a small antique shop down on Cedar Rd, right across from the chocolate shop where I spent most of my time when I was kid but once I turned 12 things changed when my grandmother simply disappeared without a trace.

The police searched for 4 months but to no avail...she was gone and the thing was that she left without closing and locking her store up.

I was one of the first people in the store after she disappeared. There was a ton of dust covering everything. Most of what she sold was purchased from estate auctions all over the state but, despite her efforts, very few things sold. Allegheny Heights was just not the kind of town to be interested in old things so the few sales that she made were to people who were just passing through and saw a quaint little shop and decided to stop in. Thank God for her pension or else she would have most likely starved to death.

Whenever I was out of school for the summer my mom and dad gave me the job of doing an inventory of everything that was in the store. I hated the job 1I could usually find some freaky things that grandma would let me take home so even though I hated the job I loved going through everything she had collected.

So, when she disappeared I got the job of doing a complete inventory of her shop. Of course there were a huge number of ivory, silver and even a few gold thimbles, antique cameras and some paintings by artists no one ever heard of. Yeah, they were beautiful pictures but not really anything anyone would buy. I finally made it to the backroom where she kept the big stuff and her pottery. There were antique appliances, old Grecian statues and one thing that caught my attention...a huge Chinese ginger jar. It was beautiful without a chip in the porcelain and it was inscribed with Chinese characters surrounded by naked mermaids. Grandma put a price tag on it for $12,000 saying that it was more than 1,000 years old. The strange thing was that it had a gold amulet dangling from the lid. I decided to grab both and take them to my bedroom. It took all I had to move it. It was over three feet across and weighed what I thought was a ton but I rolled it as best I could.

When I got home my mom and dad were out at their jobs so I rolled it up the one step in the front of the house. I always complained that I wanted a bedroom on the second or even third floor of a house but at that moment I was so happy that we had a single floor house I could barely contain my pleasure. It actually got a lot easier to roll once I got it into the house and finally into my bedroom. I took it and stood it in the corner of the room. Luckily the lid never came off and there was no discernible damage to it so I covered it up with one of my blankets and went back to the shop to finish the job of counting things.

I got back home about 8:30 and, after quickly eating my dinner, I rushed into my room, closed the door and locked it behind me. I did not want anyone to know about the jar until I was ready to show them.

“What are you doing in there ?” I heard my mom yell from the living room.

I had to think quickly so I pretended to be on the phone. I knew that she had walked from the living room to a spot near my room. “I am working on something with a friend of mine,” I said.

“Working on what,” she asked.

“We have a game tomorrow down at the youth center and we are planning our strategy so we'll win,” I replied. She knew that I played baseball so that sounded like a perfectly good lie that I knew would work.

“Okay,” she replied. “I won't see you when you wake up so good luck with the game.” I knew that excuse would work. Hell, her and dad never went to my games so they wouldn't ever know that I was lying.

I walked over and pulled the blanket off of the jar. It was so shiny and perfect I could not believe it. The lid was on tight. No matter how much I tried it just wouldn't move. I tried heat, vasoline, hair oil and I even went down to the kitchen and tried cooking oil but nothing I tried worked. Finally I grabbed it with a rubber glove my mom used to clean the bathroom with and twisted as hard as I could. I heard a grinding noise as the lid moved just a bit...just enough to let me know that it was working. The more I tried the louder the grinding got until it was so loud that I was sure that mom and dad could hear me but it was moving farther and farther until it came off in my hand.

My heart was beating so loud and pounding so hard that it felt like it was going to come out of my chest. My breathing was heavy as if the air was full of water and I was drowning. I knew that it was not true but my mind could not tell my body that.

I sat down on my bed. My body was shaking. It was almost orgasmic but since I was only 12, didn't like girls and was a virgin. I am using that description not going by my lack experiences. Yes, it was orgasmic. It took almost an hour for all of the excitement to leave my body. I still had the lid in my hand. The inside was covered with mother of pearl and the rainbows that came from it was absolutely beautiful but there was a symbol painted inside. Another Chinese symbol. I had to get them translated and see what this jar was used for.

The next morning I did rubbings of the symbols and took them to a college down in Pittsburgh. I had heard from some of my friends that they taught Mandarin there so they might be able to translate it for me. I went into one of the buildings and saw the name Dr. Lin May Chou...professor of Chinese culture and language. I found his office and when I got there my luck was fantastic...he was sitting behind his desk grading papers or something.

“Doctor Chou,” I asked in a voice that was nervous and yet interested.

He looked at me and smiled. “Yes boy, I am Doctor Chou,” he said with a smile on his face. “How may I help you?” I took the rubbings out of my pocket and handed them to him. He got a stern look on his face as his eyes darted back and forth over the symbols. “Boy, where did you get these?”

I got them from a ginger jar I found in my grandma's shop,” I said. “They are all over the thing surrounded by naked mermaids.”

His face turned white as he looked at the rubbings. “This is the name of Rakshasa, an ancient Chinese demon,” he said. “My guess is that the ginger jar is not a ginger jar at all.” I looked confused...after all I had seen many of these in grandma's shop. This one was bigger but no different from the others. “I think it is some kind of burial jar. They used them back in China to bury the spirits of those who did evil...even more so when the spirit was a demon which is what Rakshasa was...one of the worst there was.”

“Why ?” I asked. “What did he do?”

“He did everything he could to disrupt funerals, torture and steal souls both living and dead and so much more,” he said. “Basically he was a total badass!” Then he asked me if I could bring the jar to his office.

“I had a hard time getting it home,” I said. “I don't think I could get it down here by myself.” He assured me that would be no problem. He would get a few of his graduate students go to my house and pick the vase up. I told him when my parents were working and set up a time to send the students over.

“When you get home,” he said in a very strict voice. “Do not look inside the jar, just put the lid back on and seal it as tight as it was when you found it.” I didn't ask why. He was way too serious to answer any questions I may have so I promised and started leaving for home but before I left I told him that I wanted to be there when he opened it. He reluctantly agreed and I left.

I got home a while later and the jar was still right where I left it. Everything looked the same but for one thing...there was a strange glow coming from the opening of the jar. I was a kind of blue but yet not blue. It looked almost as if someone mixed a deep black with navy blue.

Yeah, I was curious...how could I not be? I was a boy and that had to have been the strangest thing I had ever seen but instead of looking I placed the lid gently on top and pressed down to seal it to the rim of the jar. When I finished that I twisted and pulled on it to make sure that it was sealed tight. It was.

That night I didn't get much sleep. I kept dreaming about Rakshasa. In my dreams he would dig up the graves of the newly dead and hide the bodies many miles away so that they could never be found or I would see him going into childrens hospitals, leaning over the children and sucking their souls right out of their young bodies....leaving them for the nurses to find on their next rounds. No matter what the dreams were they came to me every time I closed my eyes and they were as realistic as if I were there watching what he was doing and everything he did was worse that the thing before and all of them combined made a story that ever Wes Craven could not conjure up.

I woke up sometime around seven and before my eyes were fully opened I looked at the jar and then around my room. On my mirror were scratched the words 我希望我的鑽石. Now, I could never read Chinese other than to order General Tao's Chicken but some how I knew what those words said and they said, “I want my diamond.” I just looked at it for a moment and then thought it best to write them down so I could show the professor when I got to his office.

My folks left around 8:30 and the students showed up some time around ten so it was safe for them to take the jar and haul it back to the university. I'd be damned if they were going to leave me so as they were closing the back of the truck I ran and jumped in the front seat.

“You aren't supposed to go with us,” one of them yelled.

I was determined that if the jar was going so was I. “That jar isn't going anywhere if I can't go with it,” I yelled right back at him.

“The professor...,” he started.

“The professor said that I could be there when that thing was opened and I want to make sure I am,” I yelled.

Now, I am not sure if I won the argument or if he just gave up because he mumbled something, got in the car and we started off for Pittsburgh. It wasn't that far of a distance but it felt longer because they didn't speak and they had some hokey religion program that promised salvation for anyone willing to give the pastor $1,000 and it sounded like he was promising sainthood for a donation of $2,500. It was all a crock of shit. I knew it...pretty much everyone on the planet knew it but the moron driving the truck took it as gospel.

We finally got to the university and I walked with the guys as they carried the jar inside. Dr. Chou was there waiting. He was dressed in a white lab coat with some kind of velvet gloves which I assumed was to keep his body acid from touching the surface.

“I did some more research on those rubbings,” he said. “It is definitely a jar that the ancients thought would hold the spirit of Rakshasa. It got lost some time around 900 years ago and ended up in a couple independent collections over the year. There were always stories but nothing was ever proven and no one was allowed to study the jar until now thanks to you.” Then he looked at me and asked me if I had looked inside. Of course I said no since I hadn't and I didn't tell him about the message or the glow from inside the jar...at least not then.

They put the jar on a low table. The students started making their own rubbings and measurements of the cap, the circumference and the weight. Then Dr. Chou started playing around the lid. It was holding tight and the tighter it was the more he tried to force it open. Both he and his students were groaning hard and breathing harder that people should but it didn't move.

“Move away,” I said as I walked up to the jar. They all backed away and I put my hands on both sides of the lid and gently squeezed as I turned the lid right for a few millimeters and then to the left and it came off easy...very easy. I stood there holding it as the other just glared at me for knowing how to do it. But that didn't seem to stop them. As soon as the lid was off they all gathered around but not too close to see what was hidden inside. Dr. Chou was the first one to actually look inside.

“Give me a flashlight,” he yelled. One of the students brought one for him. He lit it and he stuck his head almost all of the way inside before he had any kind of reaction. When he finally had one we watched him back away and I was sure that he did some kind of dance but he said he didn't but the way his feet were moving it could only have been a dance. It took his like 15 minutes to calm down but when he did we heard all about what he had seen.

“Doctor, what was it, what did you see,” I asked with a burst of adrenaline.

“Canopic jars,” he said with a voice still straining from the excitement. “It has a half a dozen of them in there. I saw them I saw them all. They were jade...the deepest green jade I had ever seen and the lids were carved in the shape of different dragon heads. One was just freshly carved it looked like...maybe some time in the last couple of years.”

“My grandma has had that thing for five years I think,” I said. “I just know she never put it out for sale and no one was allowed to touch it.”

The doctor went back over to the jar and started removing the canopic jars one by one, setting them on a nearby table for more research on what their engravings said and why they were in a ginger jar in the first place. Then, while he was removing the last jar he let out a yell so loud it almost shattered the jar. “I found it,” he yelled. “I found it!”

“Found what,” I asked.

“I had heard about it since I was a freshman in college. I always thought that it was just a legend but now it is here in my lab. I cannot believe my pure luck,” he was yelling as he ran around the room while bouncing off of the walls. Then he did something I'd never expect....he ran over and gave me a kiss on the cheek.

“What is it,” I yelled back as I backed away from him.

He reached into the jar and felt around for a second before he pulled it back out and when he did he was holding a large diamond that was blacker than even the midnight sky out in the desert. Smiling he said as he held it out, “This has got to be the Diamond of the Gods. It is said to hold all of the powers of the Chinese gods when the ancient peoples turned against them.”

“Doctor,” I said in a very nervous voice. “There was a message on my mirror this morning that said "I want my diamond.”

Suddenly his face turned white...whiter than even the clouds outside. “When you opened the jar did you see anything strange,” he asked.

“Not when I opened it,” I said.

“When then, boy,” he yelled at me. “When did you see it?”

I stood there for a minute. Yes, I was getting more and more scared with every second that passed. “When I went to close it,” I said nearly in tears. “There was a glow and a mist that came out of the top and disappeared. I thought it was just dust from the jar being so old.”

“Glowing dust,” he asked. It was easy to see that he was getting angry with me.

“I didn't know,” I said. “I never opened anything like that before."

“Do you know what you did,” he asked. “Do you?” I just stood there shaking but I managed to shake my head enough to let him know the answer. I didn't know what I had done. “You released Rakshasa. You let the stealer of souls out into the world.”

Just then the ginger jar shattered and the canopic jars flew across the lab. No one was near it and no one could explain how or why the jar broke as we were all too busy trying to keep the canopic jars from breaking. We gathered all six of them and placed them on one of the smaller tables and wrapped them in bubble wrap just to make sure that they were safe.

We didn't notice at the time but a door in the far wall slowly opened. Now, I knew that door had a squeak in the hinges. I had come through that door earlier but now it was totally silent. The doctor and his assistant were busy picking up the shards of the ginger jar while I was looking at the carvings in the canopic jars. They were beautiful to say the least and for a young boy the images were just too fantastic for words. I just stood there and stared for probably 15 minutes.

In a split second a figured appeared out of empty space. It was ghastly to look at. It had ruby red hair surrounding an oriental face. Horns protruded into the air and each sent a sulfuric smoke into the air. Its hands were burnt so badly that it was hard to call them hands they were more like paws with claws that measured at least 6 inches in length. Its eyes,..I will never forget those eyes. They were glowing green...the same green as the canopic jars but they were transparent. Standing there I could see right into the back of his skull. The funny thing was...he didn't have a mouth...at least not one that I could see and that, despite everything else, was the freakiest thing about this creature.

“Can you see that,” I asked in a strangely calm voice. I know I should have been freaking out...you know... running around, yelling, but I didn't feel that. Everyone in the room looked at me as if I was crazy and pretty much in unison they all asked me what in the hell I was talking about. I pointed and said, “Right there! You can't see that....thing standing there?”

Dr Chou told me that there was nothing in the room but I knew better, I could see it, Whatever it was it walked by me without even looking at me. “What are you doing ?” I asked as it walked farther and farther from me and towards the table where Dr. Chou and the others were working. “What are you doing ?” I asked again in a firmer voice and again it just ignored me but Dr. Chou shouted back to me that he was looking at that diamond he found in the jar.

When he said that I could see the creature's ears perk up so, at that moment, I knew who it was and what it was after. “Rakshasa,” I yelled as loud as I could and as I did it turned slightly and its eyes locked onto mine for just a second before it turned back to Dr. Chou. I saw in its eyes that it was the creature who was locked in the jar for 1,000 years...it was the demon and it wanted that stone.

“Boy, will you be quiet for just a moment,” Dr. Chou yelled back at me. "I have to be extremely careful with these artifacts. I will be just a few minutes and then I will talk to you."

As soon as he finished talking Rakshara stood directly behind him, He wasn't in the posture he was when he walked in. It was almost looking at a cat stalking a bird. It was like watching a cougar hunt a small mouse and the mouse didn't know it was behind him.

“Dr. Chou,” I yelled but as I did Rakshara raised his hand and just one of his claws touched Dr. Chou on the shoulder and I watched him fall, gasping for breath and finally withering into dust and the creature just smiled and it was almost as if I heard it laughing.

“No,” I screamed as I ran over to the doctor. He was just a pile of dust. No skin, no muscles, no bones...just a pile of dust.

I looked up and saw Rakshasa reaching toward the table. I guessed that he was going to steal the diamond and take all of the powers locked inside of it. I also knew one thing : since all of the students had taken off when Chou collapsed,. I had to be the one to get the diamond and I had to do it fast.

It seemed as if it didn't notice me any longer, if it even noticed me at all. I was able to move around without it looking at me to see where I was or what I was doing so I slowly walked up to the table. He had just reached for the diamond when I stepped between it and the diamond, snatching it from the tabe and running across the room with it. It was then that he started watching me.

It started toward me at a pace a lot faster than it was using when it walked in. It was growling loud and that kind of sounded like a bear who was protecting its cubs and its mouth was fully open. For the first time I got to see into its mouth. Yeah, there were long sharp teeth on the edges but the rest of its upper mouth was filled with barbs that looked a lot like a collection of the sewing needles my grandma used to sew with. Its eyes, I will never forget his eyes, they weren't the color that I had seen earlier...they were glowing brightly and the color was something that I could not comprehend. It was truly terrifying.

I just stood there holding the rock. It was a lot warmer than it was when I picked it up and it kept heating up until it was burning the flesh from my hand but, even through the pain, I kept my hand wrapped tightly around it. Rashasa was no more than ten feet away from me when the pain got to be too much for me. By now I could smell my flesh burning so I opened my hand and the diamond )fell to the floor shattering into a lot of pieces when it hit the hardwood floor. As it did Rashasa screamed in pain and he back off.

At the same time I looked and saw the canopic jars shaking. They made such a loud noise that I fell to the floor with my hands covering my ears but that didn't help. The noise was so loud that even through my hands I was sure that my brain was going to explode. I could feel blood flowing from my ears and nose. The noise got louder and louder until I heard a number of small explosions. I counted six in all. Then I heard something strange...six voices in different languages and they were all yelling at the creature.

I looked and I saw someone who looked like the pictures in my history book when we were studying ancient China. Another was dressed like a Greek soldier and yet another looked like someone who had stepped out of 12^th Century Britain. The last figure I saw was a woman dressed in modern day clothes. She looked familiar but I wasn't sure who she was.

“Demon,” the British man said. “Turn and face us.” He stood still except that he had pulled his sword and was holding it before him. The rest did the same, except for the modern woman who just put on a show of her bravery. “You have kept us too long,” he continued.

It turned toward them and started running right at them. It was growling louder than it was when it was after me. It seemed to have one thing on its mind and that was to kill everyone in the room.

The British man stepped forward and shoved his sword into the chest of the creature. He twisted the blade while the others used their weapons to slash and stab the creature. Rakshasa swung its claws back and forth trying to slice his enemies and its bites were so powerful that I could feel them way across the room. But its claws and teeth never found a target despite several attacks. While he was trying the British man stabbed again and again, each time deeper and more powerful. Finally the creature fell onto the floor and after one more growl he turned into dust and was blown away in a breeze.

I crawled out of my hiding place and ran over and kicked the last bits of dust across the room.

The British man came of and offered me his sword. “You were brave, son,” he said. 'Not many men would have been able to do what you did. Live your life with honor and you will be as a brave of a man as you are a boy.” I looked at the sword and it looked very familiar. I thought about it a minute before I looked at the sword and then at the man.

“Your majesty,” I said. “Are you?”

“Yes,” he replied/

“And is this?

“Yes boy, you are holding my sword,” he said. “It has served me well and I want you to have it to protect you and help you be brave throughout your life.” He walked back over to me and touched the sword. He smiled and talking to the sword. “Excaliber, protect this boy as you have me.” Then he just turned and walked away. I knew at that moment who I was talking to. I had met King Arthur of Camelot.

One by one each of the six faded away until was standing there facing the woman. She walked to me and said, “You do not know me, do you?” I told her that I had never seen her in my life. She was young and dressed like a woman right out of World War 2. She had an accent that I had heard all of my life.

I looked closer at her and saw into her eyes. “Grandma,” I said as she wrapped her arms around me. Then she whispered in my ear telling me that, yes, she was my grandma and that she was going to a much better place now that she had been saved. I knew I should have been sad but I actually felt happy. Then she told me one other thing before she too faded away.

I took the ginger jar home that day. I made sure that the lid was always kept far away from the jar. I had it for about a week before I talked to my mom and dad and told them everything that happened and what Grandma had told me. We took it to the post office, packed it up and sent it to a museum in Hong Kong. Of course, the lid was sent separately. We didn't want to take any chances.

Me, I still run that little store my grandma owned. It is doing well and I always keep a picture of my grandma on a shelf behind me. That way I know that she will be there if I need her.

Oh yeah, I forgot about Excaliber. I still have it after all these years. It is stored in a velvet lined box in my bedroom and when I have a son...he will get Excaliber when I die and I just hope that it does as good for him as it did for me.

© Robert Taylor 2012

The Ultimate Beer Experience

There is a place just south of town. I love going there because it brings in beers from all over the world. Some of them even have so much alcohol that the state would consider them whiskeys but they are beer. I have gotten drunk from bears from Turkey, China and even a beer from Wales that would knock you out cold if you drank more than two of them within a 24 hour period.

One evening me and a friend of mine named Julio went out there to try a new beer that we heard that they just received. All we knew was that it was from Marrakesh Morocco and that it was so much stronger than any other beer in the world...and that we had to try!

When we got there we asked to see that miracle beer. The bartender showed us a little bottle filled with a thick black liquid. We were in shock especially when we found out that a four ounce bottle would cost us $15. Now, I thought that I have paid the price for beer. Sometimes $25 for a 32 ounce bottle when I was in Montreal but never any where near that high in the states...until now.

Julio and I both ordered one but before the bartender would give them to us he handed us a liability waiver to sign. This was something else neither Julio nor I had ever experienced but of course we both signed...we had done a lot of stupid things in our lives. Oftentimes we missed death by a matter of millimeters or seconds but hey...that was our lives. So we whipped out $60 and ordered two of the beers each.

I will tell you the first drink nearly knocked me on my ass, It actually did Julio and he took a good five minutes to get back up on the bar stool. Man, that stuff had a kick to it.

We looked up to where the mirror was...why there is usually a mirror in bars I'll never know...but there was a sign that said, “Only two Moroccan beer sold per person during any one day.” That was a warning but Julio and I took it as a challenge...just as we always did! Our wives, more than once, said that we were little boys in men's bodies. I guess they were right. We had to drink three of them damn drinks.

It took us a while but we managed to finish them and man, we had a buzz on you would not believe unless you experienced it but we weren't drunk enough not to figure out a plan to get a third bottle for each of us.

The plan was that Julio was going to go to the other end of the bar and pick a fight with the biggest guy he could find and when the bartender went down to break it up I would sneak behind the bar and get the beers. It pretty much worked as planned and I did get out of the place with the beers but poor Julio got his ass royally kicked. He was so bad that when we met down the street a few minutes later he was laughing and pouring blood out of his mouth from several teeth being knocked out but that didn't phase him so we went back to my place to finish off those two last beers.

We sat on the couch and I reached over for the bottle opener that I always kept on the table next to the couch. They opened rather easily and we didn't take small drinks this time, we just chugged down every drop we had.

Now, from now on in this story I am telling you what happed to me since Julio disappeared and was found down at the corner of Main and Fifth Streets doing an Irish jig, naked and standing on a mail box. To this day we never did find his clothes.

I just laid back on the couch...at least I thought I did but when I closed my eyes I saw the most amazing place. It was brightly colored with multicolored trees, bright orange grass and birds that glowed and left a trail when they flew by.

I walked down a path that took me past a small stream. Well, at least the water was the same color. I looked and for some reason I was dressed as an Indian. I have no idea why...I am of German/Welsh decent and there has never been an Indian in my family ever. I was wearing a loincloth, a deerskin vest with brightly colored designs and a headband with just one feather. In my hand was a spear with a couple dozen scalps tied to it. A look at my face showed that I was painted up but it was not the Indian paint I always seen on TV. Rather, this paint kinda looked like the kind the amusement park artists paint on a kid's face when they want to look like cat.

“What in the Hell,” I asked even though I did not see anyone around to answer the question. “Where am I,” I yelled as I started moving down a path the seemed to glow a bright iridescent green. Look around that was a strange color since nothing else was green.

I was walking down the path but I noticed that I wasn't moving. The ground, the trees, the bushes and the grass were kinda flowing around me as I moved but I was not going anywhere. Even any animals I scared up were running down the trail but they were not moving anywhere either. Believe me, I wasn't drunk anymore but I sure as hell wished I was.

Down the way I saw what looked like a house. Maybe I could talk to the person who lived there and ask them what was going on. It was a nice looking cottage, kind of like the ones I saw in Lord Of The Rings. It was huge for a cottage. I was thinking if they had an extra bedroom I could crash there for the night but a strange thing happened...the closer I walked toward it the smaller it got until it was no more than three inches tall. There was someone home since I saw smoke coming out of the chimney. I knelt down and used my pinky to knock on the door. I heard some scampering and the door opened.

“Who are you and what do you want,” the little man asked. He was holding a musket which I assumed was loaded. Now, I knew it wouldn't hurt mt me but I was cautious just in case. “I asked who are you and what do you want,” he yelled. I saw that he was getting pissed so I gave him my name and explained that I have no idea what I wanted and that I didn't even know where I was.

“All I know is that I was at home and then I was here,” I said as I was still kneeling. “Can you tell me where I am?”

“How in the Hell would I know where you are,” he yelled as he started pointing the musket at me.

“But you were the first person I have seen since I got here,” I said.

“Well, you got here didn't you,” he asked but before I could answer he continued. “I am sure that you will find your way down the right path.”

“Let me guess...follow the yellow brick road,” I said sarcastically. He didn't laugh or even respond. He just turned and went back into his house. Again I asked out loud...”Where in the Hell am I?” He shouted something in the house but I couldn't make it out so I just found the path again and started walking.

It wasn't far down the path when I noticed that there were two men standing. Blocking the road. I knew from their dress that they were Egyptian guards. “Halt,” the bigger of the two said. “You must be judged.”

“Judged,” I ask.

The smaller of the guards walked over to me and placed his hand on my chest. “Oisirrus told us that you would be coming,” as he reached his hand in my chest he said and pulled my beating heart heart from my chest and held it in the air.

I felt no pain and I was still alive but confused. “What in the...,” I started to ask but I remembered that part of entering the underworld was that you had to pass several tests.

The larger of the two brought out a scale and feather. “The weight of your heart must weight equal to this feather for you to pass,” he said as he set the feather onto the scale. “If you have not lived with honor in your life your heart will be too heavy for the scale.” He took my heart from the other guard and placed it on the scale and then placed the feather on the other side.

I don't know why but I was scared. “What is going on,” I asked as the scale swung back and forth. “I am not dead. My heart is in my chest. I can feel it beating. You are nothing but an illusion.” By now I was screaming my head off but the guards were not listening to me. They were watching the scale. “I do not want to be here.” The scale stopped moving and, yes my heart was heavier than the feather. “That cannot be,” I yelled. “I have never done anything wrong!”

They looked at the scalps and then at the spear I was carrying. “What about those,” one of them asked. “I am sure that you had to kill someone to get those.”

“I never killed anyone,” I yelled. “You can ask anyone who knows me. I am a very peaceful person” By now the fear My feelings had turned to pure panic. I had no idea what these two were going to do or what the punishment was for failing the test.

“You may not pass to the land of those who lived with honor,” they said in unison. “You are condemned...”

“Here it goes,” I said under by breath.

“...to continue on this path so that you may purify your soul and then return to us for judgment,” he said without paying any attention to my mumblings. “You will have one more chance and then your soul will be vanquished to wander the void for all eternity.” They parted and opened the path for me to continue but before I left they grabbed me and shoved my heart back into my chest. I thank them...yes, I am a sarcastic ass...and once again started on my way.

I walked about 10 minutes before I looked at my chest, There was no pain, no wound and no blood. I wasn't far so I turned around and looked. The soldiers was gone and so was the parts of the path I had just walked.

I still hadn't figured out what was going on. Was I dead? I hoped not but I do have to say that if I was this place had some possibilities...if I could find someone who didn't want to kill me or take my soul but now there was a question that I couldn't answer or even take a guess at...what was coming next? “How much of this am I going to have to do,” I asked knowing that I most likely not going to get an answer.

“You have to prove yourself before you can relax,” a voice said from behind me. “At the end of your journey you will learn the truth of life that you must always keep with you.”

I turned and saw what I guessed was an old man standing in front of me wearing a tattered robe with a golden collar and belt and no shoes. He looked like an old hippie I knew when I lived in San Francisco. “Who the hell are you,” I asked.

“You don't remember me,” he asked and he looked like I hurt his feelings. “You passed by my shop everyday for nearly ten years. Everyday I would give you a cup of special tea but you never came in the store so we just talked on the street.”

Oh my God, I thought. That was the old hippie....I knew he looked familiar but I heard he died years ago.

“Remember all those times I told you about the region between life and death,” he asked. I was shaking but not enough to keep me from telling him that I remembered some of it but I really never paid much attention. “This is one of those regions,” he continued. You will meet someone on this journey who will help you find the truth.”

“That isn't you,” I asked.

“No, I am not the one. Just continue down this path and make the right decisions and he will appear,” he said.

One question please....why am..I,” I started to ask but he faded into nothingness before I could finish asking him any more questions. It was then that I looked around...all of the bright colors. The trees, the clouds and everything else was gone. Everything was the same as it was in my normal reality except that it was dark, very dark but I could still see everything.

I stood there for it seemed to be an hour when I looked into a star filled sky. As I watched a large meteor shot across the sky. It was close and bright enough to make enough light so that the night turned into day and the tops of the trees swayed in the breeze as the meteor passed by. The thing I noticed was that it was flying directly over the path I was traveling. A couple of seconds later I saw a bright flash from just over the hill and then the blast wave hit me and send me flying at least twenty feet back down the path I had just covered.

The entire area was burning and the air was filling with a thick black smoke. I could see the heat in the air but I could not feel it and, despite the smoke, I was still able to breathe easily. As I started down the trail again the smoke parted for me and closed again and the closed once I passed. Yeah, it was strange but wherever I was strange seemed to be the norm so I just accepted it.

I got up to the top of the hill and there was a burning crater on the other side. It was big and the heat must have been incredible because most of the rocks as well as the ground was molten. It was bright red with yellow flames shooting into the sky but the path wasn't affected. I stepped between the flames. The ground was bubbling around me and I could feel the boiling just inches beneath my feet. I could smell the sulfur from the liquid but it wasn't making me feel sick and I still had no trouble breathing.

I kept walking. Despite of everything it was more like a walk in the town's square than it was walking through Hell...at least the Hell that all those preacher men always talked about.

As I reached the crest of the crater I was shocked. The inside of the crater was burning more fiercely than anywhere in the area. The flames were no longer the red/yellow I had walked through. They were blue/white and the smoke coming from them wasn't much cooler.

The path led into the crater so I did what I was told...I followed it. I could not believe the damage inside there. I had been to the crater in Arizona but, despite the sheer mass of it, I could never visualize this type of anything ever happening on Earth.

I walked over the final ridge and saw something I never expected to see...a cool spot in the middle of all that fire. There were trees, bushes and everything that had been destroyed when the meteor hit the ground. I walked into the middle and looked around. It was...normal...at least more normal than anything else I had seen or felt for the last two hours.

“Young man, drop your spear,” a figure said as it stepped from the flames. It, rather he, walked from the flames followed by two other men. They were dressed is robes that were actually beyond any description I could ever write but one thing I saw plain as day was that each of the men were wearing Indian war bonnets and they were grander than anything any chief ever wore. Even the feathers which covered the bonnets were fantastic. They were every color in the spectrum but brighter and more vibrant than any colors I had ever seen. It almost looked as if they were granted to those three men but the sun god himself.

I looked at them with a mixture of awe and confusion. “Where did you come from,” I asked.

“We have been with you from the second you were born,” one of them said. “We are your guardian angels sent to protect you and guide you through your life.”

I was even more confused than I was before. “But I am not an Indi...Native American,” I said. “My blood is European.”

“That does not matter,” another of them said. “All being on the planet are children of Mother Earth and are all seen as equal by us. Humans are the same as the lowly slug that crawls through the gardens. Every one of them deserve and receive guidance and protection from us.” I just nodded as he continued. “We have watched as you made mistakes in your life by not listening to that hidden voice in your head such as drinking something that you have no idea what it was made from.

I thought back and remembered that I was told that I could only drink two of them beers but I took a third one. “I am sorry that I did not listen to you,” I said as humility flowed through my veins. Then I asked them a question as I lowered my head. “Am I dead,” I asked. I know that it was blunt but I had to know.

“No, you are not dead,” they said. “This was a warning to you that your life is worth something and that the behavior you take part in does not show the respect that Mother Earth’s creation deserves. We will be watching you from now on. When you see a hawk circling above it will be us. When you see a sparrow looking for seeds that will be us and when you see a cat sitting on a window sill that will be us so remember what we have said on this day and you will be allowed to live a full life.

I swore right then and there that I would change and they must have believed me because there was a flash of light and I found myself awake and standing up. The problem was I was naked in the middle of Times Square having my arms pulled behind and handcuffs locked so I couldn't move I was arrested for public nudity and fined $300 which I happily paid so I was released.

I have straightened my life out....somewhat. I still chase women and I do still drink beer but now I never try anything I have never heard of. My main drink now is good old Coors and maybe a Jack and Coke once in a while but no matter what I remember what I was told...that I was being watched and protected by everything on Earth and that kept me going through the next 50 years.

Lliana's Chamber

I was 11 when I got my first computer. I remember it was an old DOS machine. It wasn't the best one available as a matter of fact it wasn't even close. I think my dad bought it for me from some guy building them in his garage but it worked well enough for me. I used to do all the usual stuff with it...played games, wrote up my school papers and chatted with kids all over the world. That was all fine with me until that day in 1991 when my life changed.

It was Christmas Eve and I was in my room playing on the computer just trying to find someone...anyone to talk to. I signed on as usual and went to this site...I don't remember the name now or even if it still exists.

Anyway, I signed on and waited for a couple hours after my bedtime. Yeah, my mom would come up and check if I was asleep or not but I had a key on my computer where it would black out the screen but still stay on. I could always hear her coming and I would always hit that key and just climb under the blankets until she left....usually after a couple minutes of looking at me to make sure I wasn't faking it.

Now, I was lucky to have the computer but we could not afford a camera to go with so for me chat was without pictures.

I got back on as soon as my mom left the room and there was someone sending a request to chat with me. Her screen name was littleblonde11. That sounded interesting so I quickly accepted it and when I did there was a lot of static and white noise coming from my screen and speakers but through all that I saw the image of a young girl. She was cute to say the least.

“Hello Randy, it is very nice to meet you,” she said with a deep southern accent. Her picture was extremely hard to see. The snow was heavy and the signal was broken up. I guess it was because of my dial-up connection but no matter what I was happy to hear her voice.

We spent the entire night chatting. Her name was Lliana. She was 11 just like me with dark brown hair, light blue eyes and the cutest freckles I had ever seen and, being in the 6^th grade I saw quite a few but her's were the best. She was taking the same classes I was and she was good at geography just like I was. She was a single child and really didn't want any siblings. I had three sisters and I didn't want them either.

“Randy, I do have something to tell you,”she said. I didn't know what it was but it didn't sound like it was going to be good. “I have been sick since the day I was born. I spend my life in a room that is sealed off from the rest of the world. You are the first person I have talked to in more than 4 years.” I could hear the tears in her voice as she continued. “The one thing I have always wanted for Christmas was to just touch another person and see them outside of this screen.”

It was so sad what she was saying...so very sad. I was sitting there crying my eyes out. I wanted to be with her just to talk or maybe play a game with her but there was no way I could get down there by Christmas Day. I wanted to, believe me I wanted to but it just wasn't possible.

The sun was coming up so I told her that I had to get off line and get some sleep. She asked me what the sun looked like. I told her it was bright orange behind some velvet clouds. “That sounds so beautiful, she said. “I wish I could see it with you.” I almost asked her if she had ever seen the sun but before I had the chance she was gone.

I looked for her again every night for the next year. I thought I saw her a couple times but it wasn't her. It happened to be another girl from across town who looked amazingly like her. Needless to say I never spoke to her. I was looking for only one person and that was Lliana but it almost as if she had simply vanished.

Christmas Eve came around again and again I was at the computer looking for Lliana but this time, after I had sat there through 3 hours and a hundred people wishing me Merry Christmas the snow and static started again and once again I saw Lliana smiling at me. Her picture was grainy and worse than it was the year before but I was happy that I was still able to see her even if it was hard. She was just the same as she was the year before.

We talked all through the night. I really did not want her to leave but, by the time we were done talking, the sun was rising. She looked tired so I painfully said farewell and we both turned off our computers at the same time but she stayed in my mind and dream.

That went on for years but the video was getting worse and worse until I could no longer see her but I could still hear her voice and at least that kept me happy.

The last time I talked to her was Christmas 2011. It had been 20 years and we had never met except through the computer. Her voice was week and I had the feeling that was going to be the last time I would be able to talk to her so I asked her what her address was. She was reluctant but by the time we signed out she had given it to me and I was making plans to go and see her.

“Please don't be shocked at what you see when we meet,” she said before we signed out. “I am not what you are expecting.”

“Lliana, I am sure that you are as beautiful as you were when we first started talking,” I said.

By now my feelings had grown for her. I didn't just look forward to talking to her...I based my whole life for the few hours we talked every year. My thoughts had turned to her alone. It was like I was obsessed with a woman I had never met. How could that be. To my mind it was perfectly normal but to others it was strange. I went to the airport, got a flight to Tallahassee and soon I was on my way.

I got there about 9 in the morning. The sun was shining as bright as could be. I thought that it was going to be a nice day. I left the terminal, flagged down a cab,, gave him the address and we started out. We drove out of town and headed down some back road. It was about 45 minutes until we reached the address. I looked over and saw a glass building with one entrance and a chain link fence surrounding the whole property.

“What is this place,” I asked.

“It's a hospital for people who cannot be cured,” he responded. “Most of the people who go in never come out.”

So many thoughts ran through my head. Was Lliana dying? What could she possibly have that would put her in a place like that? Is she still alive?

The cab moved slowly through the gate. There were guards there who looked at us carefully but didn't stop us. It was a long driveway but we finally made it to the front. As soon as I got out a nurse was there to escort me inside.

“Welcome to the Angels Hospital of Mercy,” she said with a smile.

I thanked her. As we walked she took time to tell me about the work of the hospital and I told her about my yearly conversations with Lliana. Lliana must have been a favorite at the hospital because she started telling how she was a sweet girl who never gave them any trouble. She walked me down past ward after ward. The doors were all closed and locked so I couldn't see what was inside but what I did see was that there was a security guard outside of each door.

We walked by door after door. They all looked the same until we got to one that had a sign on the front...”Ward 73”...it said. There was a guard there but the nurse just walked up to him and said a couple words before he opened the door and let us in. On the inside were a number of cryogenic tubes. Some were blue and others were pink. I counted each of them on each side of the hallway.

“What are these,” I asked.

“They are where we keep our patients in the hope that one day we will find a cure for whatever illnesses they have,” she said.

“You mean...,”

“No, they are all alive, just sleeping. This way they can survive for extended periods as long as we keep them in their chamber.” Then she asked the question I was hoping she would. “Would you like to meet Lliana,” she asked.

I paused for a moment before I said that was what I had traveled so many miles to do. I got a little excited as we walked down the hallway.

It was so cold in there by the time we made it down to Lliana I was shivering and holding my arms tight to my chest in an effort to keep warm. Finally we stopped and I was looking at Lliana's face. It had not changed a bit since the first time I talked to her...she was still that cute little girl I had met so long ago. I just stood there and looked at her. She had the slightest smile on her face. I guessed that she was smiling because I said that I was coming and she was frozen like that.

The nurse asked me again if I was sure I wanted to meet Lliana and I said yes I did. I was not going to lie to a little girl. It was then that I noticed a small counter on the front of the door. It read 000001. As soon as I saw that the nurse was on a radio telling someone somewhere to open 73-37. With that I heard a set of clicks and the door swung open.

Her eyes opened and her smile got bigger as I called her name. “Yes, I am Lliana,” she said. Are you the one I have been talking to?” I nodded my head yes as the nurse helped her out of her chamber. “You are much older than I imagined.”

“Lliana,” I laughed. “You are much younger than I thought you would be.” I started toward her and she backed away. “Darling, I just want to give you a hug.” With that she walked toward me and we hugged. It was so glorious.

“Is that a hug,” she asked. I said that it WAS a hug and you greeted people you like with a hug. “You like me?”

“Lliana, I have talked to you for so long. I needed to meet you and hug you,” I said as I held her close. She tightened her hug so much I was nearly choking me. “Yes, Lliana, I do like you...I like you a lot,”

“I am happy,” she said with the biggest smile I had ever seen. We spent the next several hours just sitting together, hugging a lot and talking about her and her dreams and wishes but all too son it was over. I walked back with her to her chamber. “May I ask one more question?”

“Sure,” I said. My voice was cracking but I made sure not to show what I was feeling.

“Is today Christmas Eve?”

“Yes Lliana, today is Christmas Eve,” I said but it was the 10^th of January but I was going to make that day Christmas Eve and let her be a little happy.

Lliana started to cry. “This is the best Christmas present I have ever gotten,” she said. Then with a bit of a giggle between her tears she said, “As a matter of fact this is the only Christmas present I have ever gotten.” I couldn't help myself I started crying like a baby. The last thing we said to each other before they closed the door was both the same words...”I love you.” Then the door closed and the counter dropped to 000000 and the lights in her chamber went dark.

The nurse's head lowered and she began to cry. She didn't have to say a word but she explained that Lliana was only allowed so many days out of her chamber and those few hours with me were her last day. I broke down, slamming my hands on the chamber in a vain effort to wake her up but she looked so angelic, peaceful and happy I was hoping that she would come back but at the same time I was hoping she wouldn't.

There was no one to claim the body...her family had given up on decades before...so I claimed her and buried her right next to my mother in our family plot. I was the only person at her funeral but that didn't matter at least she knew that she was loved before she died.

Years later I got married and had a baby girl. My wife insisted on the name Stephanie but I was more vocal and finally she was name Lliana. I never told my wife where I got the name but she was a girl with dark brown hair, light blue eyes and the cutest freckles. Lliana lived on and she lived a happy life. I mad sure of that.

Lincoln's Assassination

It was back in 1974. I was just a young boy at the time. I was on a little league baseball league team and my newspaper route was making me enough money for all the Twinkies I wanted. I hadn't discovered what the true meaning of the boy/girl relationship but I did think that Georgia Gordon was cute but not in the way I would think she would be cute a few years later. I guess I was just a normal boy...I was normal until a cold winter night when everything changed.

That night I went to bed around 9:00 but didn't fall asleep until sometime around 11:30. I know what time it was because I could hear my dad listening to The Late Show in the other room. Yeah, he yelled at me but by then my eyes were closing and I didn't really pay any attention to anything he said anyway.

I remember that I had some really interesting dreams that night. They ranged from pleasant to the worst nightmares I could ever think of but I stayed asleep. I had school in the morning and a test in math sometime in the morning so I wanted to be sharp when that came around.

Sometime during the night I felt someone in my room. Of course I thought it was my dad checking whether I was sleeping or not but then something strange happened...I felt myself being lifted into the air. I wanted to open my eyes but somehow I didn't need to, I could see everything around me. I saw my bed drop away beneath me and, as I did, I saw myself floating between the boards of the ceiling and then through the roof and into the air.

Above me I could see a brilliant blue light. It was some distance away and I was moving toward it at what was by now a very high rate of speed. The strange thing was, yes there was a strange thing, I could not feel the wind around me as I traveled. It was as if there was a shield around me blocking me from feeling anything. I didn't even feel the emotions I should be feeling. I was completely calm and relaxed.

It took what I guessed was about fifteen minutes to reach the light and when I did the center of the light looked like it dissolved and I was moved into the abyss. Once I was inside I was escorted down a long hallway and into a room with twenty or thirty people but they were not like the people at home and they weren't the Greys I had heard so much about in the science fiction movies and some of the books I had read over the years.

They had a face that looked human but their eyes were white and their skin was a pastel blue. They had a very small mouth that never opened or closed, their noses were just slits in the front of their face and their hair was thick with silver/blue coloring to it. Yes, they were different but they seemed calm and friendly and did not scare me at all.

I was fed. It was like grilled beef but it tasted different and it came with a glowing blue drink with some kind of fruit floating in it. I was hungry...there was no way I couldn't say that I wasn't so I sat down and devoured everything they put in front of me. There were a lot of new tastes but I liked every one of them so my “dinner” went down fairly quickly but with the last sip of the drink I started feeling tired and dizzy. It wasn't more than a couple minutes before I was sound asleep.

I woke up on a soft bed. It took me a while to get my bearings but I saw a room that was designed for comfort. I was just laying there when one of the creatures walked in and stood next to me.

“I hope we did not hurt you,” he said. Then he explained that I had a small chip implanted in the back of my neck that would allow me to understand them and they would be able to understand what I was saying and what I was thinking.

Reaching back to the back of my neck I expected to feel a wound or something...maybe some stitches...but there was nothing. “Where did you put it,” I asked. “I don't feel anything.”

“We don't create wounds,” he said. “Our technology heals as soon as the procedure is completed. We have examined you and took the information we were sent for. Now, we will place you anywhere or anywhen you wish to go.”

My one wish was to get the chance to get to meet my favorite president Abraham Lincoln. I asked him if he could arrange that and he said that it would not be a problem.

The next thing I knew I was standing on an old cobblestone street. I looked around and saw soldiers walking through the narrow streets. Horses lined the streets...some were fastened to all kinds of carts and wagons while others simply had a saddle and stood by metal hitching posts that lined the streets.

I knew what I thought I was seeing but I knew that it couldn't be real. How could it be real? The last thing I remembered was a world filled with hippies and soldiers either returning or leaving for Vietnam and their uniforms weren't blue and there sure weren't any horses tied to anything...at least not that I had ever seen..

The first person I saw walking up to me was a soldier. I saw by his stripes that he was some kind of sergeant. “Sir,” I started as he looked down at me, “Can you tell me where I am?”

“Boy, you are in Washington City in the District of Columbia,” he replied with a smile. “Where did you think you were?”

“Sir, I am from New Jersey,” I answered.

“Boy, you had better head back to your parents,” he said as he knelt down to face me. “The president will be coming by here soon and whenever he travels people crowd around him and sometimes kids get hurt.” He walked me over to the side of the road, patted me on the back and sent me on my way but before I left I asked him who the president was and he quickly replied that it was President Lincoln....President Abraham Lincoln.

As he started leaving I stopped him for one more moment. “Sir, may I ask one more question,” I asked/ He told me that I could ask him anything and I asked him what the date was. He smiled and told me that it was April 14^th.” I stood there in shock before I asked him the other question I needed to know. “Sir, what year is it?”

“Young man, I would get your parents to take you to a doctor,” he said pointing to a hospital just down the street. “You should know this information unless you were hurt in some way. Please boy, go get your head checked out.”

“Sir, what year is it,” I was irritated at having to ask again.

“Boy, calm down,” he said. “It is 1865.” Then, as soon as he told me, he said that he had to get his horse. He was expected down in Virginia by sunset...something about helping the slaves get resettled. He bid me a farewell and reminded me to get to a doctor and then he left into an assembled crowd of people.

I thought a minute...April 14^th 1865. I knew that date. I learned it in school, It was the day Lincoln was shot over at Ford's Theater. He was going to be shot that evening. I knew that I had to do something to warn him....tell him not to go to the theater but how could I do that? Then I thought that he must be at the White House so I got my bearings and headed down the street and on to Pennsylvania Blvd.

It was just a few blocks and suddenly I turned the corner and I was there. I was standing in front of the White House. It was surrounded by soldiers both on foot and on horseback. I could see that they were more heavily armed that any soldiers I had seen anywhere and any time. I stopped one soldier, a private I think, and asked him what was going on.

“There is a rumor going on that some rebels were going to come into the city and we wanted to make sure that President Lincoln was safe,” he said.

“He isn't the only one,” I whispered.

“What was that boy,” he asked in a stern voice.

“Sir, I said that he might not be the only one,” I said. “There may be others who may be targets.” He heard me but he just blew me off. Maybe the officers already knew about all oif the targets but after I had a chance to think about it why would anyone take the thoughts of a kid or even a private seriously?

I didn't say anything else. I just walked toward the gate. I was stopped before I even got close and was told to leave the area or face arrest. I tried explaining that I had an important message for the president. Once again I was shooed off and told that the president wasn't seeing anyone at that moment. I tried explaining that it was a matter of life and death but they didn't want to hear any of it. I tried a couple more times but when I had a rifle pointed at me I knew that I would have to give up trying...at least at the White House.

The Ford Theater wasn't too far away and I remembered that was where the president and his wife was going to be that night so I ran over there and checked the doors. They were still locked and, across the poster, was a banner that read “SOLD OUT!”

I went around and checked the stage doors, the fire doors and basically every entrance I could think of but they were all locked. Several of the actors were outside talking. Some were talking about that evening's performance while others were talking about going to dinner after the show and after they had heard what the president said whether he enjoyed the show or not. I guess actors haven't changed over the centuries...they were still interested in the reviews of their shows.

“Boy, what are you doing here,” one of the actors asked.

“I have heard so much about the play and I really wanted to see it but it is sold out,” I said looking as disappointed as I could. He turned and asked if any of the actors had any tickets. I was lucky one had a single ticket in his pocket and he was more than happy to give it to me and I gratefully accepted it. I had another stroke of luck with that ticket. It was an aisle seat in the back row of the theater. So, I took the ticket, put it in my pocket and walked up to the front of the theater.

There was a huge line at the front door so I took my place and waited. It took about 45 minutes before the door opened and we were allowed in. I walked slowly until an usher came over and took me to my seat. My luck continued. I looked aver and I was no more than 20 feet from the president's box. Of course he was not there yet but the box was covered with red,white and blue bunting and behind his seats were a pair of American flags. They had the 13 stripes but only 35 stars. Yeah, they looked strange but then I remembered that the country was smaller back then.

Someone took the seat across the aisle from me. I looked carefully and cautiously then I recognized the man from my history books...it was John Wilkes Booth. He was sitting their calmly excape his eyes were darting back and forth. I knew that he was watching for the president and I knew that Lincoln would be in soon.

Suddenly the orchestra started playing some song that I never heard and everyone stood and looked up toward the box. There were soldiers in the audience and they snapped to attention and saluted. I was a Boy Scout at the time so I did the same thing .

The first person to walk behind was Lincoln's bodyguard who looked straight at Booth when he walked by. He was followed by Mrs. Lincoln, a man named Harris and lastly the president and Major Rathburn.

Booth became skittish as the group entered the box and the bodyguard took up his position.

I sat there and pretended to watch the play but my eyes were locked on Booth but not enough so that he would notice.

Finally, the intermission came and I watched the bodyguard check the door and then leave. On the way out I saw him and Booth lock eyes on each other and Booth had a slight smile on his face and I swear to this day Booth nodded. I wasn't aware then but I learned in history class that the bodyguard went over to a nearby pub and was drinking during the play.

It only took a couple minutes before Booth stood up and started walking toward Lincoln's box. When I saw him move I got and followed him up the stairs to the president's box. Just before he reached for the door I tugged on his coat and asked if I could have an autograph Believe it or not...Booth had such an ego that he stopped and signed one for me and started talking about his career. I knew if I kept him talking long enough someone, anyone would come up and stop him from entering and shooting Lincoln.

He talked to me for just a couple minutes but it felt like it was forever.

Finally, he excused himself from me. I tried to keep him talking but he got a stone cold look on his face. He treated me as if I was no more than a flea on his coat...I was not there anymore.

As he turned I started running down the stairs to get help. I was about half way down when I heard the single gunshot, the audience scream and Booth yell Sic Semper Tyrannis and he was gone. People ran up the stairs but Lincoln had already been severely wounded by the gun shot.

Despite being grabbed by people I was passing as I ran down the stairs I finally made it out to the street and across to a building on the other side of the street. It was just a few minutes later that Lincoln was carried in by several of the audience members. Mrs. Lincoln was crying as were many of the people who were carrying the president.

It wasn't hard to get into the room where they carried Lincoln. There were doctors, statesmen and soldiers coming and going as if nothing had happened so I just walked in with the others. Lincoln was laying on the bed. His head was bleeding badly and some of the men were trying to stop it without much avail. Mrs. Lincoln was crying as she sat next to her husband. I worked my way over until I was right next to the head of the bed. Lincoln's eyes were open. I looked at him and I uttered the words “Mr. President.”

He was nearly completely unconscious but his eyes opened slightly more than a slit. I was crying but then I saw his lips more. It was barely discernible but I swear that he said “Hello.” At that second I saw a bright light and I was back on the alien ship.

“What did you do,” I yelled. “I went back to save him to help the world.”

“Young man,” the one alien said. “You asked if you could speak with that man. We gave you the chance to do that.”

I was crying hard when I said, “But I went back to warn him. I wanted to save his life.”

“That is not possible,” he responded. “The death of that man is a fixed point in your species history. It can and will never be able to be changed. He was too important and his death was a major event. We are sorry but you cannot change that.” He was as serious as anyone I had ever seen and there was not discussion after that.

Immediately following that I was once again surrounded by a bright white light and I found myself back in my bed and the clock beside my bed read 11:35. It was still dark outside so I knew that. Despite all the time I spent in the 1860's I had only been gone a mere 5 minutes.

Then I remember the last thing the alien said while the light surrounded me. He said, ”The memories of what you have seen will remain with you. Share them when you feel that the time is right.” So, after nearly 40 years I am sharing my story. I just hope that someone, anyone will believe me...if not I won't worry. I will keep telling it as the rue story of Lincoln's assassination and I know it is the truth and that is all that matters.

Hellstrom

My name is Allen. Don't bother asking me about my last name...I don't think I ever had one. I was born in a breeding farm out in Essex County and, as soon as I was born, I was taken and placed in a school called Hellstrom Academy.

I had nurses taking care of me all day and all night. That I learned from some of the other kids but what I saw when I got older it was the perfect place for a baby to be raised. They played classical music all of the time and those nurses made sure that no baby cried more than thirty seconds before they took care of any need the baby wanted. When I saw that I realized how lucky I was to be raised in such a place.

The first thing that I really remember was the year of my fifth birthday. Everyone born that year was removed from the dorms we shared while we were younger. I was one of the first to go. I remember being taken to a room with a nurse who came over and comforted me. She played with me for a little while and then I was taken into a room filled with doctors and other nurses. “Allen,” one said, “just relax and you'll be done in a few minutes.”

I was relaxed. Why shouldn't I be I was always treated well why would this be any different. Another nurse came and removed my trousers and laid me on a small bed. She came over with a needle and told that I would feel a little pain and then I wouldn't feel anything. She placed the tip of the needle against my groin and slid it into mt skin very gently. She was right, there was no real pain. Then a doctor came over and a few seconds later I was walked out of the room and into another where I was told to rest. But, before I was allowed to lay down the nurse came over and injected something into my wrist. That hurt worse than whatever it was that they did before but I was a big boy and didn't cry...even though I really wanted to.

All of the time we were at Hellstrom we were ostracized by a lot of the kids who went to school there. I found out when I was sixteen why. Most of the students attending were from the upper-crust families of the area. Their parents paid about 60,000 pounds a year for their kids to attend school there. We, on the on the other hand were clones created from drug addicts, homeless people and prostitutes from around the country. They were paid fifty pounds for their cells and then sent packing. That bothered some of us but there wasn't anything we could do about it so I just accepted it and went on with my life.

Now, I had two friends back then...Jessica was one of them and Stew was the other. They were both brought into the room within a couple minutes after I was and they both got the same shot that I did. We rested for a couple hours before Stew and I were taken to a room we were going to share until we turned eighteen. Jessica was taken to another building. Stew and I assumed that she was placed with the girls but we weren't sure.

Occasionally they would let us go into town once we got a little older and it was there where Stew and Jessica started building a relationship. It was something but above all...the three of us stuck together.

Now, going back a bit we were separated when we hit our eighteenth year. I was sent to Southampton, Stew went to Embelton and Jessica went to St. Ives but before we left we were told why we were born and what purpose we had in life and that was to become a cara...short for carrier. We were to travel the country, making sure to visit the farm communities and become infected with any and all diseases we could find and then we were to be used as organ donors for the upper classes in the major cities...especially royalty during our 20th year.

We were given stipends from the government to live on. Mine was a little over 500 pounds a month which meant that I was poor but better off than a lot of others who were jailed for living on the streets.

I heard stories of caras living through two or three donations. By that time they were usually drained and barely alive. I thought that they looked like zombies but they were alive and that was good enough. There were a few who died during their first donations and a rare few who lived long enough to make it to their fourth donation. By that time they were not released...none of us were ever released...they were locked into a room and starved to death which wasn't hard because they were nothing but walking skeletons anyway.

Stew was the first to make a donation. If I remember right he donated his right lung to some rich woman who was 57 years old and spent her entire life smoking pot and drinking. Stew's lung was her fourth transplant. The big thing was that Stew came through it fine and was back to normal in just a couple weeks.

Jessica got the next call. Her first “job” was to donate her fallopian tubes and uterus some 25 year old who was unable to have kids. I guess that the doctors either forgot or didn't know that we were sterilized when we were kids but she was told that she had to do it so she did as she was told.

Me, for some reason I wasn't getting the message for me to take my place. Yeah, I gave blood on a fairly regular basis so that the antibodies I developed when I was a kid could cure some really nasty diseases. Thinking back I remember being with dying people who suffered from things like plague, AIDS and so many other diseases that I could not remember all of them. For some reason, unlike the people I was with, I never caught and of the diseases I was exposed to and neither did any of the others I was with. Jessica one time caught the flu from someone she was with and they treated her like a leper until she recovered but, for those two weeks Stew and I spent every moment with her including sleeping in beds that were pushed next to hers. We got the germs alright but we never got sick...not in the least.

I heard that Stew had his second donation. It was one of his kidneys this time, It went to a woman who should have died. She was 70 years old and was living on tubes but her husband paid for the kidney so Stew gave it up. He had trouble after that one. He had to use a walker and had a tank of oxygen with him at all times. That lasted a little over a month until he had his third donation.
 

I was there as the doctors put him to sleep. He looked at me and smiled just before he went under. They removed half of his liver. I didn't know who it was for and I didn't really care. They made the initial incision and two minutes later the liver was on its way to the next room. Suddenly, every alarm in the room started going off at the same time. Stew started waking up. The first thing he did was look at me. There was a tear running down his cheek as he took a deep breath and his soul left his body. The doctors didn't try to revive him. They just turned off the machines and walked out of the room. Stew was there uncovered and all alone but, for him, the torture of making donations was over.

Me and Jessica got together a couple weeks later. She hadn't heard about Stew. She broke down crying and she was crying hard. I didn't know it at the time but, despite the fact that I was in love with her, she had strong feelings of love for Stew and they had since they were friends when they were kids. I know it was bad time but I told her how I felt about her and she smiled. She was actually happy about it and of course that made me happy. Then she told me why.

There were always rumors that floated around Hellstrom but 99% of them weren't true but she told me that one she heard was true and was that if two caras got married they would be given a few extra years together just to be able to spend some time together before they started giving donations. “That would for for us,” she said with a smile so we went into town the next day and got a marriage license and got married. The next day we headed off to Hellstrom to get our forbearance.

It took use three days to get to Hellstrom by train and bus. When we got there we saw so many young people who were just like we were...learning that their lives would be in total service to the upper class. They all smiled at us as we walked by. We smiled back but inside our hearts were breaking for them...especially the littlest ones.

We had called ahead so the director of Hellstrom was waiting for us at the entrance to the building. She hugged us and gave a welcome that we never expected..she was crying as she wrapped her arms around us but before we said a word she told us what we didn't want to hear. The forbearance was just a myth and that we were being sent back to the places that they has assigned us. That moment we just thanked her and left. Yes, we were disappointed but we weren't done yet.

I thought for a moment. I remembered that I saw people coming and going to France on a regular basis. “Jessica,” I said, “Don't ask questions just come with me. She did as I said and we headed to Southampton where we boarded a ship to the mainland. I heard that the French didn't have the caras program there so we could live out our lives happy and free from donations.
 

We lived in a little town on the French coast for more than twenty years. We ran into a few Hellstorm “graduates.” I guess they had heard about how we got away. After a while we ran into a 19 year old girl who told us the best new we ever thought we could hear...Hellstrom was closed by the British government because of the cruelty they were inflicting on kids in the caras program after there was a rash of deaths in the complex. All of the rest of the kids were adopted to good families and were living happy lives.

We sat and cried and we both said the same thing...”It was too bad Stew didn't live to see this.” We both know that he is happy at the news no matter where he was and that he would have been holding a party to celebrate. That was just the kind of guy he was and we both loved, and missed, him for it.