The Past Comes Back

Chapter One

Chapter One
September 15, 2006

         She stood in the middle of the driveway, not sure why she was here or how she had gotten here. Alexis was scared of the house and not sure why. There was not much that scared her. Fear rolled over her in waves leaving her ice cold down to her bones, despite the warm night air. Whatever happened in this house was bad, so bad as to scare her. She slowly walked to the front door that was swinging in the wind. She grabbed the door to stop it swinging and noticed how shaky it was. “Ok, get over it. You are not going to do a bit of good if you run away now.” She told herself this, but her heart kept racing as she pulled the door open and stepped inside.

         Suddenly she fell to the floor as a crushing pain fill her chest. A mocking laughter swirled around her and she began to scream.

         Alexis set upright in bed, the scream dying on her lips as she fumbled for the switch to the lamp beside her bed. Sweat began drying on her face as she finally found the switch and turned on the lamp. Light flooded the small room and she sighed with relief. It was just a dream, she thought as she wiped the sweat from her face. She was in her cabin, safe from whatever had scared her in the dream. She still wasn’t sure what had brought on the fear, but realized it had something to do with that laughter. It was not the laughter of someone having fun. Evil had oozed from that laughter and she shuddered again thinking about it. She pushed the covers back and got out of bed knowing she was not going to get anymore sleep tonight.

         She walked to her desk, opened the bottom drawer and pulled out her journal, a big, purple spiral notebook. She opened the top drawer, took out a pen and walked to the kitchen to turn on the coffee maker she had set up before falling into bed hours before. While the coffee maker brewed, she stared out the window into the dark night. For six months the dream had come to her, causing her loss of sleep and more fear than she had known in her twenty seven years. Why me, she wondered as she had for months. She did not want this. Her aunt Clara called it a gift, but Alexis did not want it. She already had enough to deal with by having to come out here one week a month. Any normal woman bled for one week every month, but Alexis was cursed with being a shape shifter. All the women in her family was cursed the same, involuntarily changing into a certain animal once a month. Alexis changed into a big, black panther which was bloodthirsty and loved the chase, then the kill.

         When she was fifteen and began changing, it was fun, but then she killed a man. No matter how many times she told herself that the man would have raped and killed her, she mourned taking a human life, no matter how bad the person was. She sighed, and turned from the window hearing the familiar gurgling and hiss from the coffee maker signaling the coffee was done. She pulled her favorite coffee mug from the cabinet above her and poured the hot, brown liquid into it. She inhale the rich aroma, took the mug and her journal outside to the porch, pausing to turn on the porch light.

         Alexis sat down on the top step, took a sip of her coffee, set it down beside her and opened her journal. She began writing sure the dream would leave her mind and she would forget important details.
September 15, 2006

         Once again the dream has plagued me. I do not know what it means, but I intend to find out. This is no normal dream but a vision as Clara would call it. Why do I get these visions? I still have found no answer to that question. Clara wants to call it a gift but I call it a curse. I don’t need this in my life. One curse is enough. Being a shape shifter was fun at first but it intrudes upon my dream of being a writer. Publishers don’t understand why I missed deadlines or even book signings. I can’t tell them the truth or else there goes my writing career, as well as my life. I would most probably be locked up in a loony bin never to be free again. It is one thing to tell people that you are a witch, as Clara does, or even that you have visions, but telling them you change into a vicious animal once a month causes people to look at you as a freak and monster. I have seen those looks before, from boyfriends who supposedly loved me.

         Will I ever find that one man who will accept for what I am? I believe not. Most men are not that open minded about the supernatural and would never understand. I fear I will be alone for the rest of my life. Maybe that is a good thing. The less people know the better.


         Alexis closed the journal, set it beside her and picked up her coffee mug. She took a sip as she stared out into the dusty, desert that surrounded her cabin. The night held mystery and danger. She was one of those dangers and as much as she complained about it, she had learned to except it long ago. She would never be able to change it. It was part of her bloodline, a curse put on her family several hundred years ago when her ancestor became pregnant by her brother. Although, the pregnancy was the result of rape, the townspeople back then did not want to year it. They banished her ancestor to the woods outside town, thinking she would never survive, but she did. Alexis was in part proud of her ancestor for being strong enough to stand up for what she knew was right, but mourned how she died. The journals she had read, written by her ancestors over the centuries talked of a man called The Master. There was not much about him only that he killed her kind with a silver knife, the only way known to kill her family.

         Alexis sighed, sipped her coffee again and hoped this man never found her. In the journals several ideas had been tried to kill The Master and all failed. She was not sure she would do any better. Even her own mother had died going up against The Master and Alexis was sure her father as well. He had gone off in a rage when she was six, determined to get revenge for her mother’s death. He had promised to return, but never had. That made her think The Master had killed him as well.

         Alexis shook her head, not allowing her thoughts to go there. Thinking about her parents brought great sadness that they could not be here to share her successes. At least she had Clara, who was her best friend and had been mother and father to her since her father left. She picked up her journal, stood and walked back into the house. She laid her things on the kitchen table, pour a fresh cup of coffee and was about to walk into the living room, intent on getting some writing done when the phone rang.

          Clara was the only person who knew the phone number here and Alexis wondered what could be so important her aunt had to call her. She walked over to the kitchen door and answered the phone on the second ring. “Hello?”

          “Alexis, it’s Melinda. Clara was attack sometime this morning and is on the way to the hospital. How soon can you get here?”

         Fear rushed through Alexis and for a second she could not speak. She found her voice, holding back the tears that threatened. “Give me two hours.”

         Alexis hung up the phone, grabbed her journal, rushed to the bedroom to grab her keys and quickly walked outside to her car, a purple Dodge Neon. She was in such a hurry and worried about Clara, she did not stop to look around when she felt as if someone was watching her. A lone figure stood hidden in the shadow of a small mesquite tree. He smiled knowingly. The Master was going to be happy. He had found the one he was searching. He watched her drive away, then turned and walked slowly back to his car parked two miles from the cabin. Today was turning out to be a good day for him. Soon, he would be rich and could live wherever he wanted.


         Two hours later, Alexis rushed in the emergency room waiting room looking around for Melinda. Melinda was waving frantically across the room and Alexis rushed over. They walked toward the elevators as Melinda filled her in on what happened. “I woke up around three o’clock feeling as if something was wrong and since I knew you were at the cabin, I thought I would check on Clara. When I got to your house, the door was half open, and Clara was lying on the floor in a pool of blood. I made sure she was still alive, then called nine-one-one. The doctors took her up to surgery, because they said it looked like some of her organs of be stabbed and she is bleeding badly. They are going to try to stop the bleeding, but it doesn’t look good.”

         Alexis only nodded afraid that if she spoke, she would begin crying and never stop. Both women were silent as they stepped into the elevator, each lost in their own thoughts. Alexis was praying hard that she would not lose the only family she had left. She was not sure what she would do if Clara died. She pushed back the urge to change into the panther and run free, to get away from all the pain and worry. To do so meant death to all in this hospital and probably death to her as well.

         Melinda plastered a worried look on her face, deep inside she could care less if Clara lived. For too many years she had heard the other woman talk about how her telepathy was a gift, but Melinda did not want it. She hated hearing other people’s thoughts in her head, especially if those thoughts were about her. Usually men wanted to take her to bed, while women wanted to mar her face for being so beautiful. Plus, things were happening that threatened all she worked for. She could feel it deep with in her and knew she was going to have to do something about it soon. She sighed and glanced at Alexis glad the other woman could not hear her thoughts. She would be shocked about the secret Melinda had kept all these years. She had never even told Alexis and planned to keep it that way, no matter the cost.


         Three hours later, Alexis was pacing the surgery floor waiting room, hoping the doctor would come to tell her something soon. She did not want to wait. She wanted to rush into the O.R. and demand they tell her something, but knew that would get her kicked out of the hospital. That would live Clara alone and Alexis was not about to let that happen. She sighed shakily and tried to keep the tears that threatened to fall. To give into them now meant she was giving up and she was not about to do that. She looked over at Melinda sitting in a chair beside the door and wondered how she could be so calm.

         Alexis and Melinda had been friends for years, since grade school and shared everything. Alexis had told Melinda what she was and Melinda had accepted her, never saying she was a freak or a monster. She considered Melinda a sister and knew Melinda felt the same. She was about to walk to the window when she heard her name called. She turned and saw a man in green, bloodstained scrubs standing at the door. She swayed when she saw the bloodstains, sure that was her aunt’s blood. She walked over steeling herself for bad news but hoping for the best.

         The man looked grim, and Alexis wondered if that meant Clara was dead. She barely felt Melinda put an arm around her, as she looked the man in the eye. “Ms. Davenport, I am Dr. Collins, one of the surgeons who operated on your aunt. We got all the bleeding stopped and she is stabilized for now. We found several internal injuries and were able to repair those. We should know more in a few days.”

         “Can I see her?”

         Dr. Collins nodded. “Right now she is in recovery but when she is moved to a room, I will have nurse come get you. I must warn you, she is on a ventilator to help her breath right now, and she may not look like the person you know.”

         Alexis nodded. “I understand. Thank you, Dr.”

         She sank into the chair beside her, put her head in her hands and finally let the tears come.