The Nightmare Game (42 page)

“No. Actually, it’s making it worse.”

“Well, let’s stop talking about it then. Would you
like to be alone? Maybe that would help.”

“Not right now. I’d like it if you could get my
mind on something else.”

“Okay, then, why don’t I take this time to tell
you the tale of our little group? I’m sure you must be curious about who we
are, when we came to live here, and who we used to be. Maybe it’ll help you
decide to stay with us if you know more about who we used to be.”

“I’d love that. You can make it my bedtime story.
I’ve been waiting to hear about it since you promised me yesterday.”

“Very well, my dear,” he said. “Prepare to be
regaled.”

“I’m all ears,” I told him, although in truth I
really wasn’t. As I settled back in the swing, putting my feet up to get more comfortable,
I still couldn’t get my mind off of the “transformation ceremony” to which I
would be bound should I decide to stay. It bothered me tremendously that I
would have to trust this woman with something that I owned and that I had no
choice as to what the object in question would be.

“Arrosha will tell you what you need for the
ceremony,” Ben’s words rang in an endless loop in the back of my consciousness.
“It’s always her decision in the end. She’ll find something of yours to use, I
have no doubt about that.”

 “Alright, Ashley,” Ben began. “I suppose it’s
time now for you to learn a thing or two about our little group. I know I’ve
been throwing a lot at you these last two days, but I think it’s important for
you to learn more about the people you’ll be living with for the rest of your
life, should you stay, or the people you’ll be leaving behind forever, should
you decide to leave. Normally, we wouldn’t be having this conversation at all,
because normally, you would be a part of our group already and there’d be
plenty of time for everybody to tell you their own story in a natural
progression. But since your situation isn’t a normal one and since you don’t
have much time to make up your mind, I guess we have no option but to give you
the crash course. I hope it’ll help in your decision.”

“Great. I can’t wait to hear it,” I told him.

“Okay then, let’s see, where should I even start?
I suppose as good a way as any would be to begin with something simple, so I’ll
just tell you the order in which we arrived and then take it from there.

“As you know, I was the original member of our
group. And for quite a while, I was its sole member. So that I wouldn’t be too
lonely, Arrosha often kept me company whenever I was here at the mansion, and
I’m sure that’s the reason that out of everybody in the group, I’m the closest
to her. When she wasn’t around, I spent most of my time at her townhouse in New
Orleans, where I very soon had quite a long list of casual acquaintances that
kept me from getting too lonesome. It wasn’t hard gathering such a large group
of acquaintances, because I found out almost immediately that when you’re rich
and handsome, people want to meet you. Since those relationships were forbidden
to deepen, though, it wasn’t long, less than a year, before I realized such
shallowness wasn’t enough for me and I began to succumb to great loneliness.
Arrosha hated to see me so sad, so she brought in Geoffrey.

“Oh, his arrival was a glorious time, I have to
tell you, an extended honeymoon for the two of us and one that I wished could
have gone on forever. But status quos being what they are and nearly impossible
to maintain, that time passed as all times must. After a few years, Geoffrey,
being Geoffrey, started to get restless. He began to go off on his own, far too
often and far too long for my taste. I became lonely again during his absences
and since I was born as monogamous as I was gay, taking on another lover was
never an option. It’s true that I could have simply gone into the city, back to
the life of pointless acquaintanceships that I had lead before. It might have
been enough for Geoffrey, but I needed more. I was tired of superficiality and
began to long for a real family life.

“In answer to my prayers, Arrosha brought us Illea.
While she was a teenager of fifteen, once Arrosha erased her trauma, Illea
seemed much younger than her years and was as innocent a small child.

“I couldn’t help but love Illea from the very
beginning because she reminded me so much of my little sister Beth, my very
favorite sibling. Beth, who was eight years younger than myself, was the
sweetest child anyone could ask for. She was the one bright spot in my first
life and I doted on her completely. But we lost her at the age of seven to
rheumatic fever and I was never able get over it. In Illea, it was as if
Arrosha had returned Beth to me in a way, because they were almost identical to
each other in both nature and personality.

“Geoffrey, who had never been a family man before,
came to love that life and took to staying home most of the time. Illea was
very shy at first, but Geoffrey won her over easily with his charm and
entertaining humor, the side of him that I can’t wait for you to meet. We loved
Illea enormously and took to spoiling her excessively. Whenever we’d ask her
what she wanted, we would take such pleasure in watching her eyes light up with
joy when it appeared the next day. Every day was like Christmas and I think
that Arrosha and Santa Claus became one and the same in Illea’s mind there for
awhile, with Geoffrey and I taking on the role of the good elves,” he chuckled,
his eyes twinkling as he thought of those happy times.

“Whenever Geoffrey and I took her into the city,
we’d take her shopping and buy her anything she wanted. Oh, how Illea loved to
shop back then. You see, Ashley, while Arrosha will give us anything for the
asking, she also gives us a generous allowance to use in the outside world; she
understands very well that sometimes it’s the actual shopping that’s the most
fun.

“The three of us had so much fun in those first
few years. We’d take Illea everywhere, from zoos and fairgrounds to concerts,
plays and movies. Later on, we’d go clubbing and listen to the local bands. We
traveled greatly outside of New Orleans in those days, flying to New York and
San Francisco, to England and to Europe. Arrosha arranged for limousines to
take us to and from the airports; we always flew first class and we always
stayed only at the very best hotels. And no matter where we went, she always
made sure to supply us with enough of our water to last us through the trip. We
were such a happy little family for awhile, so very self-contained. It was such
a lovely, innocent time, and we adored Illea as if she were our very own
daughter.”

“Since she’d had no schooling in her life before,
I began to take on the role of Illea’s teacher. My love of books came in very
handy, then, I have to tell you. She was so bright and easy to teach and soon
her mind began to grow and to catch up with her body. All too soon, it was her
time then to become restless for more than just the company of Geoffrey and
myself. She needed a boyfriend, so Arrosha brought in Ricky, who was chosen
specifically to suit Illea’s tastes. They were introduced as soon as the
transformation ceremony was over. To say that it was love at first sight would
be a gross understatement, and they’ve been a couple ever since.

“After that, Arrosha began gradually to add to our
little group over the years. Robert was next. Then Antonio and Kenny arrived
within a couple of months of each other. Timothy was the last man to join our
group about a year ago. Finally a few months ago, the Three Sisters were added
and then a few days ago, you showed up.

“Okay, Ashley,” Ben said after taking a deep drink
of water, “Now that you know our time line, it’s time for me to tell you some
deeply personal things about who we were before we came to this mansion. This
is where it starts to get heavy. Since you’ve seen the evidence of her
miracles, today you’ll be able to accept what I’m going to tell you. You need
to know that what she’s done for us goes far beyond amusements and cosmetic
improvements.

“Now, please don’t think that I’m telling tales
out of school. After Arrosha gave you her official approval this morning, we
had a group meeting to discuss this very subject. Every person here gave me
their permission to tell you their story because we want you to know us for who
we really are. I have to warn you in advance that none of our stories are
pretty because weren’t always the way you see us now. Before Arrosha rescued
us, we were far from fashion plates and we certainly didn’t lead charmed lives.
Quite the opposite was true, as a matter of fact. We were society’s unwanted.
Of course, it’s not who we are anymore, but as with anyone else, our pasts have
definitely left their imprints upon our psyches. None of us begrudges it,
however, since we all know just how lucky we are to have been chosen. I like to
think that our past lives makes us more, that it makes us better than we would
have been had we been simply born beautiful and privileged. In our meeting, the
others expressed hope that in hearing our stories, you’d feel as if you’d come
to know us better and in so doing, that maybe you wouldn’t want to leave us.
Most importantly, however, we feel that if you realized how far we’ve come as a
direct result of what Arrosha has done for us, it would help you to see the
extent of Arrosha’s power and to understand why we know that she is the true
Goddess.

“As I tell you this, you’ll understand why I
couldn’t have told you any of this stuff yesterday. You would never have
believed me then. Now that you’ve seen and experienced the magic that exists
here for yourself, you should be able to accept our stories in full. It is the
truth of who we are.

“Before Arrosha came into our lives, we were a
collection of broken people, either from accident of birth or as a result of
the cruelty and madness of others. There’s not one of us at this mansion who
was not damaged in mind or in body or both. Ashley, take a look at that piece
on the wall over there, the water fountain.”

“Okay.”

“When Arrosha found it, it was smashed into a
thousand pieces and yet she’s restored it as if it was never been broken.
There’s not a crack on it now, not a seam, nothing missing. You see, Arrosha
has incredible and marvelous powers of reconstruction; she makes things and
people whole again, better even than new. She did the same thing for this
fabulous fountain that she did for me and all the rest of us. She put us each
back together again and made us far better than we ever were before. This is
what we mean by being transformed, because we were quite literally changed into
something better. You’ve experienced some of it yourself, as you’ve become
younger, thinner and fitter. As remarkable as that is, it’s small change
compared with the transformation that the rest of us have had. You are still
basically yourself, albeit an enhanced version. We, on the other hand, have
been changed completely. We’re all products of the miracle of Arrosha’s
transformations and have little resemblance to our former selves. She gave us a
beauty and grace beyond our wildest dreams. She took away our pain, our
personal demons, and brought us joy instead. We’re all whole now, we’re are
healed, both in body and in mind. She took our broken bodies, souls, spirits
and turned them into beauty incarnate. I don’t say this to brag, it’s just that
before Arrosha found us and changed us, we all thought of ourselves, in one way
or another, as ugly. I hope that you’ll remember that and please indulge us if
we’re a little prideful of our looks from time to time.

“We’re all rescue cases, in one way or another; we
were desperate people leading desperate lives. Everyone here has a different
story, but none of them are good. Despite what we are now, our little group
actually began as a motley collection of society’s disenfranchised and
castaways. We were not beautiful, not even pretty, just invisible. In one way
or another, we’d all been given up for dead or worse. We were the lost and the
forgotten before Arrosha found and rescued us. She changed us then, erasing our
horrors, our pain and our pasts. In their places she gave us these young,
beautiful bodies and this perfect, idyllic existence which should go on forever,
because we never get old, Ashley and we never get sick. It’s why we accept her
as our Goddess, for who could perform such miracles except the divine? Who we
are now is a direct testament to Arrosha, to her powers and her benevolence.”

“Were your first lives really that bad?” I asked,
using the term I’d learned from Ben.

“Oh, yes. Although we fell into several
categories, in one way or another, we were all dying. Most of us were hopeless
medical or psychiatric cases and victims of either terrible diseases or abuse.
One of us was a homeless junkie and chronic alcoholic, and several were forced
into prostitution and drug addiction.”

“That’s awful,” I said, shocked at hearing the
truth of these people that seemed as if they had never had an “off” day in their
entire lives.

“Robert, Kenny, Antonio and Timothy were all born
with disabling afflictions. Robert was severely deformed with
neurofibromatosis, the cystic disease that’s commonly known as the Elephant Man
disease and his was a particularly nasty case. He seldom got out at all, so his
familiarity with the outside world was incredibly limited. Other than
interactions with health care workers, his socialization came almost entirely
from old movies. He was so isolated that these movies became his world, much
more real to him than the world outside his window. During first essence, he
envisioned himself as a romantic leading man, so that’s what his mind used as a
pattern after during the transformation ceremony.”

“Okay, now his romanticism makes sense to me,” I
said.

“I knew it would, once you knew his history. Now,
Timothy, on the other hand, was crippled all of his life by a terrible case of
cerebral palsy and both Kenny and Antonio were end-stage ALS sufferers. To look
at them now, you would never know. Arrosha changed them all into the handsome,
healthy, young and strong men that you see today.”

“That’s incredible,” I said, amazed. Even though
the fountain of youth effects would have been beyond belief if I had not
experienced them firsthand, they paled in comparison to the story that Ben was
telling me now. It was incredible to think that Arrosha could do things of that
scope.

“Oh, yes, Ashley. We’re all of us walking, talking
miracles.”

“What about the rest of you?”

“Illea was horribly scarred by a past so traumatic
that she even asked Arrosha to rename her.”

“Really?”

“Oh, yes. Her story is terrible. Do you remember I
mentioned the music box that’s in the room you share?”

“The one she used for the transformation ceremony,
right?”

“Yes. It belonged to her mother, who inherited it
from Illea’s grandmother. Her mother had intended to give it to Illea when her
daughter got older, but she never had the chance, because she disappeared
without warning when Illea was very young, barely six years of age. Her mother
was the only good thing in her life, always protecting her from Illea’s
extremely abusive stepfather. Illea always loved her mother and knew that she
would never have left of her own free will, even though the stepfather continually
insisted that she’d abandoned them because Illea had become too much of a
burden. He claimed that his wife would have remained had Illea never been born
at all. At the hands of her stepfather, Illea was a victim of extreme abuse,
mental, physical, sexual. Almost every day, she would run into the woods and
hide, watching and listening intently for any sign of her father’s coming home,
hoping she could stay awake long enough for him to pass out so that she could
sneak back into her bed before he woke up the next afternoon, praying that he
wouldn’t come looking for her. But after several years, even through the cloud
of his drunkenness, he eventually found all of her hiding places and eventually
imprisoned her inside the house. While Illea had begun life as an
extraordinarily beautiful child, her stepfather beat her so badly and so often
that it permanently altered her features, turning her face into a mask that was
nothing but a testimony to his own vileness.”