Mortal Desire Read online

  I turned my head to the right and caught the sight of flowing red hair. It was Miss Flynn, and she sat alone. She wore the same floral dress from this morning, except she wrapped an elegant shawl around her shoulders.

  I excused myself from the table of elevator dukes and nonchalantly sat beside her. She smelled exquisite, like honeysuckle mixed with the freshness of innocence.

  ‘Excuse me,’ I said in a low voice while I reached across her to some peanuts on the bar.

  She looked at me for a millisecond and smiled slightly out of politeness I assumed. Her mood was low.

  ‘Aren’t you the guy from the elevat—no. You have blue eyes. His were l-light brown or something I-I think,’ she stuttered, frowning and pointing a finger at me.

  I looked into her green delicious eyes and shook my head slightly. It was better that she did not know who I was or what I did. I turned my head away from her and sipped my beverage slowly. I turned my face back to hers and held my drink up to her. I looked into her eyes once more. ‘Here’s to a better day tomorrow,’ I declared.

  She gave me a shy smile and raised her glass and clinked it against mine. ‘Sarah,’ she said as she offered her hand to me.

  ‘Liam,’ I added, and took her hand in mine in greeting.

  Her eyes widened and she took a short sharp breath the moment that our hands touched. I smiled crookedly at her, aware of the powerful force of energy that had just passed between us ... destiny.

  Now it made perfect sense as to why I had been attracted to her. It was magnetism. Our paths were meant to cross. Could it be the red thread from the Chinese proverb that my mother had spoken of?

  ‘Liam, my child, you will meet the One. She was chosen for

  you when your spirit was created. An invisible thread

  connects those who are destined to meet, regardless of time,

  place or circumstance.

  The thread may stretch or tangle, but will never break. You

  will know when you meet her. It will be as if your entire being

  has been charged with a surge of energy.

  Do not ignore the sign that you receive …’

  Sarah would not know of our spiritual connection though. She is an innocent, and knows nothing. She knows not of the unseen spiritual dimensions that co-habit the Earthly sphere.

  But, she has what I want—mortality. Not this Earth physical life of immortality frozen at the same age for centuries that I had been cursed with, not moving forward, not aging, unable to grow old and die a physical death to re-enter the spiritual world.

  I lowered my head and placed another peanut into my mouth. I kept my eyes on the bar. She was itching to talk to me. I could feel it.

  ‘So Liam … where is your girlfriend tonight?’ she asked.

  ‘I am in between gigs at the moment,’ I answered, hoping that she would see my humour.

  ‘Gigs! You call your girlfriends gigs?’ She had venom in her voice.

  Good. I like that about a woman. I turned to face her and simply nodded my head at her with a smirk on my face. ‘Only when they are not keepers,’ I added to quell her fire.

  ‘And have you found any keepers Liam?’ she asked sarcastically.

  I raised my left hand at her and pointed to my bare fourth finger. ‘Does it look that way to you?’ I raised my eyebrows at her and maintained eye contact.

  ‘With an attitude like that you are not likely too, believe me,’ she spat, raising her left eyebrow at me with a look of disdain on her face.

  ‘Your temper seems to match your hair Sarah. I am glad to see that the old adage is true!’ I fired back at her while brushing my thumb over my bottom lip.

  She stared at me then narrowed her eyes at me. She was angry, there was no doubt. She threw the remainder of her drink down her throat, slammed the glass down onto the bar, huffed at me, and left in a storm.

  Well … that went well. Nice to meet you Sarah Flynn! Our paths will meet again. I had made sure of that when our eyes connected.

  I returned to the dukes at the table to the sound of their laughter. They patted my back as I became the butt of their jokes. Ah, an entertaining evening at least, even if it was I that was the entertainment!

  The mist had descended by the time that I had left the bar. Street visibility was low, so much so that the light from the street posts strained to illuminate barely a metre around them.

  I pulled the collar of my coat up to cover my neck and tilted my head forward to avoid eye contact with others walking in the mist of the night. I willed my feet to pick up the pace. I had to be in my apartment by midnight, lest the unthinkable happens, and my Protector seeks me out.

  I ascended the steps of my apartment in record time. I never chose to ride the elevator at any time except for work. It was not my favourite place to be. It was so claustrophobic, inescapable, like this human body that I was trapped inside.

  I alighted into the apartment and closed the front door with the faintest of clicks. I stilled when I heard the arrowed voice aimed at me with the precision of a crossbow.

  ‘Where have you been?’ The voice was low and dark with each word pronounced separately, threatening my mind.

  I turned and smiled at Albert to soften his heart. ‘At the bar with my work colleagues Albert. My curfew is midnight, and I am well within the Earthly realms of this time thank-you. How was your day?’ I asked to distract my Protector. He took his job too seriously at times.

  ‘Uneventful, thank-you Liam. And that is the way that I like it as you know. I don’t like picking up the pieces after you. I managed to beat the cat in a staring competition today. I was victorious at last. Matisse was most disgusted, shook her leg and walked off. She is sulking in the reading chair as we speak.’ Albert’s voice was laced with humour.

  ‘Nicely done then. Did you see my meeting with Mr. Bellini today?’ I enquired.

  ‘Yes … it was an interesting ... discussion. Did you extract anything from his mind as you conversed with him?’ Albert raised an eyebrow at me.

  ‘No. His mind was clouded with alcohol, buzzing around killing off some brain cells. I did implant a thought into his mind though. So he may be forthcoming with information when I am summoned to his office next time.’

  ‘Very good Liam. Your mother taught you well. And with that topic, she visited me in a dream last night. I captured it for you to view when you are ready. I placed it in the blue energy mass.’ Albert stood and stretched his hands out. ‘And now I must retire for the evening. You know I need my beauty sleep lad,’ he said raising both eyebrows at me and chuckling to himself.

  ‘Aye, that is for sure. Maybe you should sleep for a century or two?’ I joked with my Protector who had been assigned to me from my embodiment four hundred years ago.

  ‘Aye—there’ll be no cheekiness from you about that. You know we don’t get to choose our body on the Earth. It’s pot luck—except my pot didn’t have any luck in it! Now make haste and prepare for the delta zone of ministering. Something tells me your body’s electrical circuit had a jolt today. You will need to mend the surge of power that is still residing in your veins. Good night Liam!’

  I lowered my head and smirked at Albert’s remark. ‘Night Mr. Castoro—sogni d’oro,’ I called after him.

  ‘Sweet dreams to you too,’ he replied, waving his hand in the air as he disappeared up the stairs.

  I ran my hands through my hair and looked towards the ceiling of the apartment and clenched my teeth. I let out a low growl in frustration.

  How much longer would I have to remain immortal?

  Wasn’t four hundred years enough?

  I closed my eyes and allowed the memory of my last moments with my mother in the spiritual realm come to the forefront of my vision.

  ‘Liam, why must we send you to the Earth?’

  ‘Because I must learn some lessons mamma…’

  ‘Why can’t you learn them here in the celestial realm Liam?’

  ‘Because I am impulsive and keep repea
ting my mistakes

  here. The Earth will provide everything that I need to obtain

  spiritual eternal life..’

  ‘And what will happen if you do not learn courage,

  temperance, wisdom, justice and patience?’

  ‘I will continue to live in the confines as a physical immortal

  on the Earth, unable to become a human mortal to die, and

  unable to enter the spiritual realm as an immortal spirit’.

  ‘Now go away from the Light Liam and enter the dim light

  of the Earth. Albert has been assigned to watch over you.

  Patience Liam, you must learn patience, and remember that

  Love has no boundaries, anything is possible. Until we meet

  again … remember my love for you my son ... I will be here

  waiting for you ...’

  I squeezed my eyes tighter as I recalled hovering over the human body that I would inhabit. He was in cardiac arrest. His spirit had already left the Earthly realm and had entered the spiritual dimension. His body was in peak physical condition, his dark brown hair was long, about shoulder length and the colour matched his moustache. I estimated that he was probably around thirty years of age. His nose was perfectly straight, lips well formed, his chin and jaw as if sculptured by Alessandro Algardi himself. He was a beautiful human specimen.

  The good doctor was bent over him with an ear trumpet placed on his chest, and remained perfectly still while he listened for signs of life from the body before him. After a minute the doctor straightened up, shook his head and used three fingers and touched his forehead, chest, right shoulder and left, then kissed his three fingers and added “Amen” in a low tone.

  When he turned to leave the room I entered the violent purple vortex stretching and twisting in energy and mass, increasing in velocity until I slammed into the physical solid matter called a human body.

  At once I felt rigid and confined, trapped with no way of escape. My soul was enclosed in a heavy complexity of bones and muscle and tissue, filled with blood, water and gases. The impact of my arrival restarted the heart. The body took a gasp of air.

  Without delay I occupied the heart and the brain of the human body, making them my own. It was my puppet, and would move at my will. I was the new master of this physical concoction of solid, liquid and gaseous matter. I could now achieve the states of learning needed to re-enter the dimension of spiritual eternity.

  While I lay motionless in my human form, making connections to muscle fibres and learning to move the skeletal form, I felt a warm hand on my arm.

  ‘Liam, I am Albert. Do not fear. You must remain as still as death for four days. Then the body will be wrapped and taken to the crypt. From there we will exit to the world to start afresh. Patience my boy, pazienza. All things are in place.’ Albert’s voice was deep and calm. I trusted him in all things. He was my assigned Protector.

  I shook my head to rid my mind of my four hundred year old memory, turned off the light and made my way to my sleeping quarters. I entered the mindless routine of showering and preparing my human body for sleep.

  Once I clambered into bed, I reached for the blue energy mass that hovered in mid-air above my pillow.

  The instant that I touched it, I felt the energy influx awakening my mind, opening the gateway to inter-dimension communication. The beautiful violet colour of my mother’s spirit filled the blue energy mass and I felt her presence with me.

  ‘Liam, time is of the essence, and your time is ebbing away.

  Be careful, don’t get caught in the realm of the perceived

  physical dimension of the Earthly realm as an immortal

  human, unable to return to the Light. It will be like

  self-torture. The Light is your rightful place. You must return

  to the Light. Heed this warning. Time is of the essence ...’

  Her coloured spiritual force faded from the blue energy mass, like the light sets with the sun at twilight. I screwed my eyes shut and clenched my jaw to contain the grunt of pain in my chest that tried to escape when my mother’s energy receded back to the spiritual realm.

  For four hundred years I had been trapped on the Earth sphere engaged as an Earth human, plagued by physical torment, chained to the laws of gravity, and craving to return to the Light, to freedom, to love.

  I breathed deeply and stared at the hovering blue energy mass. I lifted my hand to it and watched as the fourth state of matter arced to my finger tips like bolts of lightning, lighting my entire sleeping chamber like it was daylight. My fingertips tingled under the warmth until the plasma retreated back into the glowing blue energy.

  Then gravity forced my hand to drop to the bed beside me.

  I sighed and wondered how long I would be subject to this living nothingness cut off from my spiritual homeland.

  Patience … and acceptance; those attributes I had learned, but self-control was the essence of temperance, self-control in all things … and I was still working on that one.

  ‘Il coraggio, la temperanza, la saggezza, la giustizia, la pazienza, Courage, temperance, wisdom, justice, patience,’ I whispered to myself, searching for some kind of comfort before I slipped into the unconsciousness of sleep.

  CHAPTER TWELVE

  Blinding light entered through the cracks in the white plantation shutters that covered my windows. I rolled over and placed the pillow over my head, wishing that I had more time to sleep. I chuckled to myself. Sometimes I was such a human! My only wish was that I could die like one. I rose from the bed chamber and sauntered out into the kitchen with my eyes full of sleep. Albert was there staring at me as though I was the walking dead.

  ‘Welcome to the land of the living Liam O’Connell. Your breakfast awaits you—it is about to be devoured by the manipulative cat as we speak.’

  I looked over at the table. Matisse was sitting on the dining chair like a human, eyes focused, ears pointing forward and a paw about to swipe a piece of bacon off the plate. I walked over to her and pushed her off the chair and sat down, but then fed her a little bacon to satisfy her predatory skills. Matisse with the bacon blues was not a good sight to suffer, and the assault on one’s ears was akin to torture.

  Albert joined me at the table. He looked at me like I had forgotten something important.

  ‘Put me out of my misery Albert. What have I done, or not done?’ I questioned and cocked an eyebrow at him.

  ‘I want to know of the message from your mother Liam,’ he replied. He pierced my eyes with his.

  I looked at my cup of tea, picked it up and took a sip. ‘She told me that time is running out,’ I replied in a quiet voice. No eye contact.

  ‘Indeed it is. You cannot dilly dally and meander your way through immortality on the Earth Liam—it is not meant to be. And I for one do not want to be locked upon the physical realm of the Earth for eternity. It tortures me as it is!’

  I looked at Albert in all of his physical ugliness. I could see how difficult it must be for him to be accepted by the human society that is so bent upon shallow vanity. It took a very special person to look beyond the outer human shell and into the beauty of his heart and mind. I was no doubt still his only friend, beside the cat that tried to dominate him.

  ‘Yes. I am aware of the short comings of life on the Earth. Not only do we battle the physical heaviness of the cumbersome body, we battle the daily judgment from others, purely based on our looks. Please accept my apology for forcing the human life upon you Albert. It cannot be pleasant for you.’

  ‘Liam … as your Protector, it is not my happiness that I seek, but yours. But I do accept your apology none the less ... thank-you.’ Albert’s voice was quiet. He looked into my eyes then deeper, into my soul and spirit.

  I nodded towards him and then tucked into my breakfast, grateful that Albert had become such a great cook. Goodness knows that he has had four hundred years to perfect his culinary skills. His initial attempts to cook human food when we first arrived upon th
e Earth left much to be desired.

  I stood and bowed to Albert before I left the table to prepare for the day’s work, as was customary to give thanks to one whom had served.

  While I dressed, the twelve days remaining to achieve Mr. Bellini’s goal ruminated around in my mind. I wondered if Mr. Bellini could see what was coming his way. I wanted to believe that is was impossible to see into the future. But I knew better, for Albert was gifted with visions of the future. I, on the other hand, was simply the instrument for things to flow and change. To me it just seemed to fall into place perfectly, like the missing jigsaw pieces. But to Albert, it was what was pre-destined.

  I pulled the white t-shirt over my head and onto my shoulders, and stopped. I looked at the scar on my left pectoral muscle. It was like the numeral eight, except on its side—depicting no end—a continuous circle of life.

  It symbolized my immortality.

  I was a marked man.

  Only immortals knew the sign, and I had no intention of revealing myself to another immortal. It was better left that Albert and I were the only ones who knew our history, being and future. To become involved with another immortal would be the nail in the coffin ensuring that I live forever on the Earth, as long as it remained before its final destruction, unable to enter as a spiritual being into the spiritual realm.

  I shook my head, repulsed at the fact that Earth immortality was revered by some Earth humans. Unknown to them it was a curse. If only they knew the depth and breadth of being subject to eternity on the Earth and its ramifications and shortcomings, they would not seek it. And I certainly had no intention of remaining a prisoner of the curse.

  I picked up my work satchel and hung it across my shoulder and chest before I entered the kitchen to wish Albert a good day.

  Then, just as I put my hand on the front door of the apartment, Albert called out over his shoulder, ‘Wear your acid wash jeans to work today Liam. They will serve you well later!’

  I turned to look at him. He remained standing at the sink washing the dishes. He made no attempt to turn and make eye contact with me. After a moment I took a deep breath and returned to my room to change into the said jeans, shaking my head in wonder about the sudden order to change.