The Adventure of the Post-Traumatic Redemption

The Adventure of the Post-Traumatic Redemption

  Kevin L. O'Brien

  +++

  Text Copyright 2013 by Kevin L. O'Brien

  Cover design and typography copyright 2013 by Kevin L. O'Brien

  Black Chancery font distributed under a free use license by Doug Miles

  +++

  License Notes

  Please consider writing a review for this book on the retailer's website.

  If you see any misspellings or typographical errors, please notify Kevin L. O'Brien using one of his online social networks. Thank you.

  +++

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents, including those based on the real world, are either products of the imagination of Kevin L. O'Brien or used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

  Because some ebook platforms do not support special characters, certain words may appear misspelled, but this was done deliberately to avoid the problem of the platforms deleting the characters. Also, the LRF platform used by older models of the Sony Reader does not permit the use of links to external URLs, whereas the PDB platform used by Palm reading devices does not support any form of linking whatsoever.

  +++

  Table of Contents

  Preface

  Post-Traumatic Redemption

  Biography of Pastor John Sjauken

  About the Author

  Other Books by Kevin L. O'Brien

  Connect with Kevin L. O'Brien

  Sample Excerpts

  +++

  Preface

  I'm writing a story in which Eile is turned into a vampire, and Sunny and Medb must ask their nemesis, the mad scientist Dr. Mabuse, to cure her. It will lead to other stories involving Team Girl interacting with vampires, including them befriending the 500-year old Giovanna Mencia Borgia, who appears as young as they do.

  However, being cured doesn't always mean the ordeal is over. Considering how vampires live, learning to cope with the memories can be more traumatic than performing the acts in the first place.

  This story takes place in July of 2009, barely five months after the events in "Masie's Mind". It also introduces a new character, Pastor John E. Sjauken, who will appear in other stories. Eile seeks his advice on how to deal with her guilt, but in the process reveals a deeper, more personal fear.

  I give fair warning: Pastor Sjauken quotes from the Bible several times, in case you are offended by what appears to be Christian moralizing and proselytizing. But if you give the story a chance, you may be pleasantly surprised by the end.

  Back to TOC

  +++

  Eile came into the foyer carrying a tray loaded down with a coffee service, a plate of small sandwiches, and a cake as the doorbell rang. Sunny ran for the front door and threw it open.

  "Pastor Sjauken!" she squealed, and threw her arms around him in a bear hug. For his part, the elderly man just smiled and patted the back of her head.

  "Geezus, Sunny, let 'im breath!"

  Sunny giggled and let him go.

  "Come in, come in!" Sunny gushed, pulling on his arm. He did as he was told and Sunny closed the door. The Rev. John E. Sjauken was a head taller than Sunny, with a fit build on an average frame. He had short, ash-gray hair combed over the top of his head, with fallow-brown eyes behind black-rimmed glasses in a rectangular face with soft, grandfatherly features and clean-shaven, light tan skin. He wore the clothes of a Lutheran pastor, including the collar, with a silver cross on a gold chain suspended from a vest pocket, but Eile didn't know what his denomination was. Sometimes she thought he didn't belong to any.

  They both followed her into the living room and watched as she placed the tray on the coffee table in front of the sectional sofa.

  "Please, sit down," Sunny urged, gesturing towards the sofa, "make yourself at home!"

  "I'm glad you could come over, John," Eile said.

  "Don't mention it," he replied in a low tenor. "There's nothing I wouldn't do for my two favorite parishioners."

  Eile smiled as Sunny grinned. They weren't really that. He had no church, not that they went to one. He ran a homeless shelter downtown. It wasn't very big, but he catered to three dozen single mothers with their children. However, he had been their spiritual advisor since they first met him at the beginning of the year.

  He moved around the table and sat in the middle of the long section. Eile sat down beside him on his left as Sunny sat on his right. She reached for the coffee pot to pour, but hesitated when she saw Sunny.

  "Could you leave us alone? Please?"

  Sunny gave her a wide-eyed look of surprise.

  "I'd like ta talk to John by myself. Please?"

  "Um, sure," Sunny said in a hesitant manner as she stood up, her face screwed into a confused look. "Okay. I'll...go start dinner. You will stay, won't you Pastor?"

  Sjauken looked up at her. "I'm sorry, I can't, I have to get back to the shelter before tonight. But I'd like another invitation soon."

  "Yeah, sure, anytime." She looked a little hurt at the dual rejection. She headed out of the living room, but hesitated at the entry, looking back. Eile gave her a small wave, and she left.

  "So, what can I do for you?" Sjauken asked as she poured him coffee.

  "Sugar; cream?"

  "Just black, thank you."

  She handed him the cup. "Sandwich?"

  "Please."

  She placed a half-dozen on a plate and set it in front of him. "Help yerself to some cake."

  "Thank you; after the sandwiches, if I'm not full."

  "I see you don't have yer Bible." She often thought he looked naked without it.

  "I didn't think you asked me over for a religious lesson." He then smiled, and his eyes twinkled. "Tell me how I can help."

  She sighed and gave him a chagrinned look. "I'm procrastinating, aren't I?"

  "A little, but take your time." He took a sip of coffee.

  He ate a sandwich while she poured a cup for herself, and added cream and a lump. Then she leaned back in the sofa as she stirred the coffee.

  "Did Mayv tell you about what happened to me recently?"

  "Yes." There was no need for either of them to elaborate. She had been turned into a Vampire, and it was only by the grace of God and the genius of Mabuse that she was cured.

  "I assume that's what you'd like to talk about. Frankly, I'm surprised you'd feel the need to call on me. You've always struck me as a solid, level-headed, down-to-earth young woman. I figured you could find a way to deal with it on your own."

  She grinned. "Heh, I could run a month on a compliment like that." But then she sobered. "It's not that easy, or simple. I mean, I...did things...as a Vampire; things I hated, things that give me nightmares...." She had awakened the previous night, screaming. Sunny had held her while she calmed down, had soothed and caressed her while singing a lullaby until she fell asleep again, like a baby in its mother's arms.

  "How much do you remember?" His tone was gentle.

  She had to force herself to say it in a hoarse voice. "Everything. I remember every face, the taste of their blood, their fear, their life slipping away..." She inhaled sharply as she cut off her words with a guttural grunt. She had to fight to keep from crying. She'd already cried once, the first night she had returned home, when the guilt and horror overwhelmed her. Sunny had held her until it passed. She had saved her life; had she been alone, she would have sliced her wrists.

  He nodded. "That's a hard burden to bear. I've counseled war veterans who could remember every person they killed, some of them civilians, even children."

  "No
ne of mine have died, so far, thank God, though some came very close. Mayv's been payin' their hospital expenses, otherwise some of them might not've made it. But none of yer soldiers did what I did. I attacked people in cold blood, fed on them, left them to bleed ta death. I was a monster."

  "You really believe you were a monster?"

  "What else could I've been?"

  "A victim. You were turned against your will, and the Hunger left you with no control over your actions."

  "Is that any excuse?"

  "How do you mean?"

  "I shoulda been strong enough ta resist."

  "As I understand it, the parasites suppressed your memory and personality. You couldn't remember who you were or even that you had a previous life. That left you vulnerable to Cornelia's conditioning."

  "But there was a brief time when I did remember, when I was normal again. I coulda ended it right then, but I didn't."

  "Ended it?"

  "Yeah, I shoulda drowned myself, or stepped in front of a bus--"

  "Ending one's life is never an answer."

  "Even if it'll save