Read Histories of the Void Garden, Book 1: Pyre of Dreams for Free Online Page B

“How am I supposed to
believe that you are that same man? You’re barely a man
yourself.”
    She was
starting to feel comfortable with her thoughts, confident that this
was not the onset of the end of her mind. She allowed her thoughts
to stretch their legs and race again, trying to fathom how this man
had worked such a devious trick, or better yet, why? What could
anyone possibly stand to gain from all of this? She had nothing of
worth, no great sum of hoarded wealth to pass on to anyone, and
that thought puzzled her more than anything.
    West smiled
gently and nodded, “Let me ask you a question Charlene. You were
coughing just now. When was the last time you coughed without your
chest being wracked with pain?”
    Charlene eased
herself back on the couch, brushing the cushions with her fingers.
She glanced at her lap as she thought about the odd question. She’d
suffered from angina for the past year, that much was true. She
tried to remember if it always hurt when she coughed. She glanced
over to a small table in the corner of the room, a table on which
sat a small jewelry chest in which she kept her nitroglycerin and
beta blockers. She hadn’t taken her medication today, but usually
it didn’t hurt so much to cough when she had taken nitroglycerin.
She answered honestly, “It doesn’t always hurt.”
    West nodded,
“You were coughing pretty bad just now, did it hurt at all?”
    “No.”
    West allowed
her time to think about this before he continued.
    “I need you to
relax Charlene, take some deep breaths and find calm within
yourself.”
    She squinted
and leaned towards him, “I’m not into any of that meditation crap
Mr Yestler. Say what you’ve got to say and be done with it; I’m too
old for this verbal dance.”
    West stood up
and came to sit next to her on the couch, slow and careful, as if
he was approaching a beast of the wild. Charlene moved slightly to
accommodate him and she arched her head away from him disdainfully,
which gave him cause to chuckle gently. “Charlene, I’m not going to
hurt you, don’t worry.” He took her hands in his and held them on
her lap.
    “Charlene, if
you were to drink a glass of water right now with some salt in it,
you would be sick, a little sicker than you would usually expect.
There is nothing wrong with you, you are not ill, however, when you
woke just now, you woke because some small change was working
itself in you.”
    Charlene tried
to back away further on the couch, pressing up against an
embroidered cushion behind her, “What kind of a change? What are
you talking about?” Her fear was obvious and West kept hold of her
hands gently, rubbing the tendons of her fingers in what he hoped
were comforting circles.
    “The first
change would be in your heart. You have had an obstruction that
causes angina?”
    She nodded
nervously in response and West continued, “The first change in you
would be in the coronary arteries, where the blockage would be
loosened. Within the last few minutes, the muscles of your heart
will have changed, almost imperceptibly to you, but you will notice
already that your pain has subsided.” She pulled her hands away
from him and tucked them firmly together on her lap. She didn’t
like what he was saying, and she wished there was a way she could
back out of this altogether, get him to leave her apartment and
forget any of this had happened.
    West sighed,
shoulders heaving a little, prickled by her continued mistrust of
him. “Charlene, you need to understand right now that any change
that has happened to you will do you no harm. If you were to drink
a glass of salty water, you would be sick and your life would
continue as before, except you would probably not suffer any more
from chest pains.”
    “Doctor Sawyers
says I’ll always have chest pains! What have you done? What have
you given me?” She asked.
     
    “Damned leeches!”
Hannah Beach threw a half folded letter on the kitchen table as she
heard the front door close.