Beasts and Burdens (8 page)

He looked at her blankly and shook his head. “Olivia was long gone by the time we knew Cori. Her body was alive, but all independent brain function had stopped. She wasn’t just a host, she was a shell. The sickest part of all of it was that the entity duplicated her mind so perfectly that she didn’t know any different. Right up until the moment I raised my gun to shoot her, she was still pleading to me that she
was
Olivia.”

18

Cori hadn’t expected the sniffling tearful hiccups that wracked her body, but she couldn’t fathom what it would be like for Danato to lose his spouse and Belus to have to kill his friend. It was just too much for her hormone addled brain to take.

“I’m sorry,” she apologized trying to calm herself down. Belus brought her some water and she sipped it. He took a seat beside her and waited for her to settle.

“The part of the entity that was Olivia, or played at being Olivia, is still a part of its cognizance. Her base emotions and desires were retained and have become the foundation for her impulses. Olivia loved and cared for Danato. In that sense, the house is still her, but that couldn’t be further from the truth. Like Danato said, the creature itself is complex, but it can only express itself in simple ways. That’s why if you don’t take care of your home, it will retaliate with little punishments.”

“Is that why Danato’s room is so unadorned and cold? A punishment for his part in…everything.”

Belus thought about that. “At first maybe, but the house also reflects your mood and penchants. I imagine Danato hasn’t been interested in decorating his bedroom in quite some time.”

“You think that my pregnancy has unburied Olivia’s core emotions.”

“That’s my first theory.” Belus nodded and motioned to her rounded belly. “This is something she could never give Danato, and albeit exterior to his bloodline, you are achieving just that.”

“If she loved Danato, she should be happy for him.” Cori tried to rationalize.

“Right, because love always wins over jealousy.” He smirked. “This being isn’t in any way shape or form human, but it is an emotional being. It will not act logically or morally; it will simply react.”

“Why would you allow such a volatile creature into the prison?”

Belus chuckled and squeezed her leg as he got up. “I’m going to put on some coffee. Do you prefer tea?”

She furrowed her brow and opened her mouth to object, but then realized she didn’t have anywhere to go, so she might as well take advantage of Belus’s hospitality. “Do you have decaf?”

19

“Yeah, she’s okay.” Belus looked up at her through the office door. She had been easing her way toward the room since the phone rang. She knew it was Danato on the other end, but she also knew he wouldn’t stay on the line long. “She knows the bulk of it. How did things go after I left…well, that’s better than nothing, I guess…what do you want me to do…I’m already doing that, what else…yes, she understands that…do you want to talk to her?”

Cori perked up and took a long step into the doorway. Belus frowned at the response on the other end, and she cringed.

“Danato,” Belus turned slightly, “she just needs to hear your voice.”

Belus got the answer he wanted and offered her the phone. She jumped over and pressed the receiver to her ear. “Danato?” She said sitting down in Belus’s desk chair.

“Hi, sweetheart,” Danato spoke on the other end and she broke into tears. His voice felt like a lifeline to the real world. She was grateful for Belus’s kindness, but without Danato or Ethan she still felt displaced. 

“Hi,” she managed to squeak back to him. She heard the door to the office shut as Belus left them to speak in private.

“How are you?” he asked with the weight of a thousand apologies lingering in the threshold.  

“Scared and mad,” she whimpered.

“I’m not going to let anything happen to you.”

“I’m not scared for me. I’m scared for you,” she scolded. “Why didn’t you tell me any of this?”

“A hundred reasons that don’t make sense right now.”

“When can I leave here?” Cori picked up a pencil off the desk and rolled it through her fingers.

“We are trying to get her to settle down, so I need you out of sight for a while. Then we can appease her.”

“Appease her?”

“Yes, our common interests must be balanced.”

“When are you coming back?” She pulled open the top drawer of Belus’s desk and slipped the pencil in the long slot meant for it. Along with various writing instruments was a pile of ten gold rings, including her wedding ring.

“I’ll come see you tonight. Please listen to Belus.”

“Okay,” Cori said distracted by the shiny diamond that she missed more than she could have thought possible. “I love you.”

“I love you too, Cori.” The phone clicked off, but no dial tone took its place.

Cori picked up one of the gold bands and stared at it. She was glad that they didn’t have any unnatural pull to her, but nevertheless she couldn’t help but wonder if she would be safer with them on.

She put down the ring, hung up the phone, and left Belus’s office just as she found it.

20

“Everything okay?” Belus said bringing a tray of coffee and cookies over to the coffee table as she came out of the office.

“No, but it’s not any worse than it was before I got on the phone. Are those cookies?”

“Mmm,” Belus answered through his first sip of coffee. “I hear pregnancy gives women an appetite.”

Cori slunk over to the couch and took a seat. They were on the opposite sides from where they started. “I’m surprised you’re letting me have cookies,” she said snatching one off the plate before he could second guess it. It wasn’t store bought, so Belus must have had cooking skills beyond breakfast food.

“First off, I have never been opposed to letting a woman eat.” She giggled through her cookie. “Second, you are nearly to the end, I doubt cookies will hurt you. And thirdly, I think you’ve earned a cookie.”

Cori grabbed another after she washed down her first with her coffee. Belus had made something fancy with cream and sugar already in it, so it wasn’t nearly as distasteful as she expected it to be. She noticed Belus was drinking plain black coffee.

“Aren’t you going to have any?” she asked looking at the plate of cookies.

He shook his head slightly. “I’m not much for sweets.”

“Why do you…” She trailed off realizing she probably already knew the answer to her question. “Danato said he would stop by tonight.”

Belus looked down at his coffee. “Back to your earlier question…” He shifted so he was facing her more and she did likewise, drawing her feet up to get more comfortable. “We refer to this entity as a she for various reasons, but the designation is no more accurate than saying he, it, or they. She isn’t a corporeal being, and never has been. She is simply an energy that exerts its presence through the manipulation of matter.”

He must have sensed that he was losing her because he set down his coffee cup so he could utilize his hand gestures properly—because that was going to help her understand the biochemistry of a nonorganic being.

“Okay, take for example your baby.” Cori looked at her stomach. So far, it wasn’t a baby. It was just a bulge that poked her in the rib cage occasionally. “You are growing a human being unconsciously via intricate cell division that was programmed into your DNA since the dawn of man. You eat food in order to sustain that process.”

“I’m with you so far.” Cori chomped down on another cookie.

“Now, imagine if you could consciously grow a baby without the fixed construct of the DNA blueprint. Imagine if you could grow something other than a human baby.”

“Eww.” She winced, thinking of a horror movie plot.

“No…you don’t understand…this is a metaphor.” He scooted a little closer. She had never seen him quite this enthusiastic about anything. “I’m saying you could manipulate the cells and the DNA. You could create a kitten, or a…spleen, I don’t know. The point is that the female of the species has the unique ability to create brand new life that didn’t exist before.”

“I had a little help…well not little,” she added.

“Cori,” Belus scoffed and laughed. “Can you focus please? This is kind of interesting stuff.”

“Sorry. Okay, so this creature is similar to me, because it can create life.”

“No, well, no. Remember she isn’t corporeal, so she uses her energy to manipulate matter. Like your body divides cells to grow a baby, the creature divides matter to build and create objects, like the house.”

“Doesn’t dividing matter create nuclear energy?”

“Atoms are basically composed of three main ingredients: protons, neutrons, and electrons. Depending on how they are combined, determines the element. She simply splits them and rearranges them how she wants them. She seems to have no trouble with metal, plastic, and brick, but so far she has never made any living organic materials.”

“So, we can’t install her in the Enterprise food replicators yet.”

“No,” he said quickly. “I believe that one of the reasons she targeted Olivia, was because she wanted to be a part of creating new life. It’s something that she can’t do. My second theory regarding your attack is more concerning than my first. I think she wants to experience the birth of your child.”

“But that doesn’t fit, because she was trying to kill me.”

Belus pressed his lips into a flat line and nodded. “I hope that’s what she was doing.”

“You would prefer that?”

“Yes, Cori, we can protect you, and repair you, but once she gets inside of your mind, we can’t do anything to help you. She’s like the hermit crab of psychics.”

“But as long as I don’t have any electronics, I should be safe.”

“What about, what Cleos said? Your mind is vulnerable. You have gaps that beg to be filled. I can’t guarantee your safety with basic protocols.”

Cori stood up abruptly and put down her coffee. “I’m putting my rings back on,” she said flatly and waited for Belus to object.

21

Belus stared at her momentarily baffled. He glanced at the office before hardening his gaze on her. “Are you
asking
for my permission?” he asked not hiding his irritation at her
request
.

“Yes, sir,” she mumbled.

“Mmm, a ‘sir’ even. You are earnest aren’t you?” His ire softened and he picked up his coffee for a painstakingly slow drink. “Why didn’t you just take them out of the drawer when you found them?”

“Because you told me not to wear them.” Cori bit back her lips hoping that was the right answer.

“Interesting, and if I tell you that I still don’t want you to wear them.”

She shrugged. “Then I will spend the remainder of the day trying to convince you in the most annoying ways possible.”

“And if that doesn’t work?” He narrowed his eyes at her double dog daring her to challenge his authority.

She sighed and flopped back on the couch. “Then nothing.” She hated conceding to his authority when she so vehemently disagreed with him, but she needed Belus to trust her more than she needed to trust him. 

After a short pause, Belus moved into the office and collected the rings from the drawer. He returned to the couch and dumped the fist-full of rings on the cushion between them. “Did it ever occur to you to ask me if you could have the rings back?”

“Would you have said yes?”

“No,” she
huffed
derisively at him. “But that’s when you would offer me a reason to change my mind.”

Cori looked down at the rings. He wasn’t offering them yet, just displaying them. She needed to choose her words carefully. “These rings prevented me from losing my memory after a wish relocation. I’m not sure how powerful our house creature is, but the genie was referred to as god-like. If I’m going to be in danger, I think I should have the right to defend myself by any means necessary.”

“I have two concerns. Firstly, Ethan is not here to take them off. Secondly, your emotions are very erratic right now. I don’t want to get zapped every time you get pissed off.”

“I guess you’ll just have to call Ethan back if you need them off. And in regards to you getting zapped, just stop pissing me off.” She pinched back her smile, waiting to see if he was going to be amused or not.

He gave her a smile, but it quickly faded. “I don’t like complicating things, but I do agree with your logic.” She reached for the rings, but he put his hand out over them. “You understand this doesn’t change anything. You can’t go back to the house unless one of us is with you.”

“I know.” She took his hand in hers and squeezed it. “I promise. I won’t.”

“Okay.” He relaxed back on the couch and she slipped her rings on. He checked his watch.

Cori smiled slipping her diamond ring back on her finger. Belus tipped his head at her. “I missed that one.” She wiggled her ring finger.

His mouth tipped in amusement. “How about a walk before lunch?”

“Yes, please,” Cori said ready for an activity outside of her new confinement.

22

Cori and Belus stopped at what was formerly the guardhouse. The scattered remnants of the wooden structure were already blending into the surrounding landscaping. “I didn’t even know lightening could do this,” she murmured kicking the upturned soil that now scarred the courtyard.

Belus looked down at it as well. “Metallic ores…” He trailed off. “Efrat has a good deal more power than I realized.”

“Does that mean you can’t help him?”

“No, despite the immensity of it, he still uses his own internal energy to distribute the power. Efrat may be a very key factor in this prison someday. If we can reign in his temper tantrums and get him to focus.”

Cori nodded in agreement. “He’s just very bitter. His life has been stolen from him.”

“Yes, I know Cori, but just like you and Ethan did, he needs to embrace this new life.”

“It’s not the same, Belus.” Cori wasn’t sure why she was defending him, perhaps because he wasn’t there to do it himself. “He didn’t just lose his friends and family and home, he lost himself. I still remember what he was like before all this. He was like Daniel: a loyal friend, flirtatious to a fault.”

Belus nodded. “Yes, but what you don’t recognize is that Daniel was once like he is now: hostile and petulant. I got through to Daniel. I don’t think I’ll have trouble with Efrat.”

“What do you mean that Efrat may be a very key factor?”

Belus nodded to her home in the distance. It was on the southwest edge of the compound looking ominous—if that was possible. “Her.” He started walking again and Cori followed. “We didn’t bring her here, the house entity. She is a schism in time, space, whatever. Technically I don’t think that she is supposed to exist at all.” Belus paused in thought.

“About two centuries ago she was discovered. Her power at that time was limited. Her manifestations were simply the duplication of small objects. Hikers would fall asleep with one backpack and wake up with two. One tent, turned into two. It was myth more than anything, until one young man, Roland Latham—our founder if you will—got the idea to duplicate diamonds.”

“Diamonds?” Cori said immediately wondering why she wasn’t covered in them if the house could duplicate them.

“She duplicated the look of it, but for all intents and purposes it was glass. She didn’t understand what he wanted. He wanted the exact mineral replicate, and to her, looks like a diamond was good enough, and I imagine took up a great deal less energy to make. It was a disappointment, but it was the first step in understanding that she was intelligent, and not just a phantasm miracle.”

“So, he didn’t get super rich?”

“No, he did, he just had to do it the long way. He duplicated household goods, and tools. He was an excellent salesman. When he purchased his first automobile, he thought that his production would skyrocket since he could make faster and more frequent trips, but of course the creature was limited on energy. Can’t make a baby without cookies.” Belus nodded to her belly and she instinctively started petting her bulbous front.

“He didn’t start making real progress until about ten years later. It was during a lightning storm one night that the she duplicated his car…300 times. He woke up in a parking lot.” Belus paused to let her react to that number.

“That’s why you think Efrat can help us.”

Belus shrugged not willing to commit to his theory yet. “That was when he realized electricity was the key. She needs energy to do what she does.”

“You mean like the time bubble? Wait does she...” Cori saw the tiniest smirk on Belus’s face. “She’s the entity that controls the time bubble too?”

Belus rocked his hand back and forth. “To some extent, she
is
the time bubble. You see when this place was originally built, it was meant to be a factory. They built the building around her. At that time, the edges of the bubble were in constant flux, and far from identifiable. Considering that stepping through the bubble puts you in an entirely different place, you can imagine how long the construction process took.

“Over the years of feeding the bubble with energy, she has offered us more exhibitions of her power: the elevators, the office, the house. I imagine they would have continued to increase her feed, if they hadn’t discovered in the 1920’s that she can inhabit minds. Some connection between artificial sound waves and brain waves, but we really don’t understand it all that well. In 1923 the first moratorium was placed on electronic media devices. That of course didn’t mean everyone was going to listen though.

“It took a few decades and a few deaths, but they finally figured her out. She’s an explorer. She’s in a fixed position; peeking through a hole into this world, and she desperately wants to interact with us, but since we are organic she can’t do it the way she wants to. She doesn’t copy things anymore, that parlor trick is old hat to her. She creates new surroundings based on what she discerns from us. She is perceptive to a fault.”

Cori hadn’t realized it, but they had gravitated toward the house. She doubted the house would come alive and eat her, but she was very reluctant to get any closer. Belus stared at the house for a long moment before turning back to head home.