Heir-apparent

Getting a good look around for the first time the building appeared much larger on the inside than it did outside.

Even with close to fifty people milling around, its interior was huge. The heavy textured, oatmeal colored walls and ceiling were accented by peeled and varnish logs giving it a very rustic characteristic. The space had been divided up in a larger number of alcoves, each a safe haven for some priceless bronze sculpture or painting, each flooded with so much light they seemed to glow of their own volition. The curved walls of each alcove offered substantial privacy while flowing smoothly, effortlessly, into the next.

As I looked out over the crowd the back of my head began to throb again, accompanied by the same, faint repeating beep. I thought sure something was wrong. It didn't hurt, it was persistent to the point I couldn't ignore it, it was just there in the background of my thoughts.

"You hear it don't you?" a woman behind me said softly.

I started to turn around to answer her, instantly relieved, I wasn't the only one.

"Don't turn around," she said and shoved something into my back.

"What the hell?" I cursed and began to turn out of irritation alone.

"I mean it, I have a gun and I'll drop you where you stand. You got away once but I guarantee you at this range you won't escape a second time. I've been looking forward to killing you for a long time so I won't hesitate an instant."

The tone in her voice filled me with total belief.

"Who are you?"

"You hear it don't you?" she asked leaning against me to whisper in my ear.

"Hear what?"

"Don't be coy, I know what you are."

"Really? And what am I?"

"You're one of them, you're a fake. Now answer me... you hear it don't you? Down deep in your head you hear it."

"I have no idea what you're talking about," I lied.

"I know what it is and I'd bet all that is Holy you have no idea."

I didn't answer, she was right. I didn't understand what was going on... not the gentle repetitive beep in my head or her with a gun in my back.

"Who are you?" I asked hoping to shift topics.

"I knew it. I knew you would hear it. You're lucky. I had to figure it out myself. It took me more than twelve years to sort things out... to separate what was real from what wasn't. Twelve years to pull myself out of the dark to be rid of the voices. Then it came to me, it was like God was speaking to me and me alone. All I had to do was kill you... all of you and I could be free."

"So you hear a tone and assume that it's God speaking to you?"

"I didn't say it was a tone, now did I?"

"You did."

"No I didn't but knowing you hear it means that I'm right... God does want me to rid the world of you and the others like you."

"You're nuts lady. I don't hear anything," I argued.

"Liar, you hear it. The first time I heard it I thought I was having a stroke or that perhaps I was going mad."

"You've got my vote."

"Always the wise-a*s, huh Ben?" she said shoving the gun harder into my back.

"You have me confused with someone else. My name is Jon... Jon Ironwood."

"You make me sick. I knew Jon when he was alive and he had integrity. He turned Roger's offer down cold."

"Roger?" I asked suddenly filled with confusion.

"What? You thought I didn't know? Oh, I know... I know everything Ben... everything... God told me."

Her mention of Roger threw me off completely. My mind raced trying to decide what to believe and what was her attempt at fishing for information.

"Hear it? Rhythmic, persistent, like a heart beat?"

"Yes," I didn't see any point in continuing the charade, if she knew about Roger, she knew about the tone.

"It means one of yours is here."

"One of mine?"

"Yes, one of yours... one of the monsters is here among us." She hissed in my ear. "There! See him? The man with the pink rose in his lapel."

I scanned the crowd looking for the man she described. At first there were to many people and then I began to concentrate on the faces. Then, bending at the waist a man who was speaking to a woman seated in front of one of the exhibits turned his head in my direction. At the instant our eyes met he nodded his acknowledgement and I did the same and the tone stopped.

My body jerked slightly in surprise.

"See? One of yours. It's the only reason I didn't kill you earlier. That tone in your head... lets you recognize one of your own and they the heir-apparent."

"Heir-apparent?"

"He thinks so but then he doesn't know does he?"

"Doesn't know what?"

"He won't live to see it," she said a moment before shoving me aside, knocking me to the floor.

To my shock she fired her gun... three times in quick succession. The building fell into chaos. People began to scream and run for cover. I scrambled to get to my feet seeing the woman who held me hostage for the first time.

She was thin, dressed in a white formal dress that clung to her body in the most amazing way. She looked like a movie star from the forties with wide collars that were flipped up high above her shoulders. Her auburn hair had been swept up to one side and held in place with a touch of baby's breath. Her face held an odd, serene kind of smile. Her hand, the gun clasped tightly in it, was still extended. Slowly she turned away lowering the gun, placing it in her hand bag and then simply walked away.

Time stood still as I stood to memorize her face and a dozen people now ran for cover between her and me. She stopped, turning to look at me. She reached up to loosen her hair shaking it out to become shoulder length. Incredibly, right before my eyes her hair began to change color becoming black. She lowered her head slightly and then as she looked up her face shifted as if the bones under her skin had begun to rearrange themselves. She suddenly looked like someone else.

She now appeared to be a woman in her fifties. Her face now held crow’s feet and heavy laugh lines that gave her the look of a pretentious socialite. She had aged twenty years right before my eyes.

The dress that clung to her moments before now seemed looser in appearance with more curves at the bottom than the top... the exact opposite of her former self.

I wasn't certain if what I had seen was real or not as time began to move forward for me again.

Chaos was everywhere. The screams of those that sought to escape now flooded over me as the man she shot lay on the floor in a puddle of blood... dead.

Reviews

[Skywise]

Love it, I know I'm coming into this late but its very intriguing, I want to know what they are & is she one of them and if she is why does she feel that killing all of her kind will save her. So many questions that I truly need to know the answer to.

[Tegon Maus]

This is from book 3 of my Eve Series... THE CORDOVIAN EFFECT. This takes place 12 years after book 2... THE WISHING STONE. Ben Harris has died and has become one the Dikika people... a machine. The killer in this story is also one of the Dikika who does not know she is a machine and thinks the voices in her head are God speaking to her and if she eliminates all of them she will have done God's bidding and gain peace of mind.