LiTTLE CHERiNE Book 01 - post071

^{That got us all laughing and giving them each a soft loving kiss I settled down to sleep, warmed not only by their physical presence, but by the love I felt from/for them.}

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Chapter Forty Three

It was too close to the holidays for us to find rooms at the hotel we wanted and we started looking elsewhere, when Dommi called her father and asked him to help. Somehow it seems there were a number of cancellations and we had the suites we wanted. Her parents were overjoyed that we would be so near them and asked us to join them for Christmas lunch. Knowing Claire, I bet we are going to have the best ever English Christmas lunch.

We only had a couple of days to go and I wanted Rose to look as good as possible, those unbecoming lines of bitterness gone from her face, so I pushed at the healer, changing my deadline. I suspect the healer could have changed her within hours, but she’d had too many adjustments to make, so I felt that changing her appearance over days would cushion the shock for her.

As it was, she walked around as if in a daze. She had danced with us and then had her questions answered by Alki and Marian. She had not felt any sexual stirrings for many years and was confused by her desperate needs that night. Not having satisfied them and not having been grounded (anchored) back to this world by physical contact, for slightly more than a day she kept floating off. The effects of my healer, including a sort of hyper energy that comes from being at prime health, made it feel as if the floating off feeling were being extended, making it even more confusing for her.

I decided I had to do something about it, since we would be going to the void again. We invited Themi and Pavlo to our home and after the coffee and cakes I asked them whether they would like to go dancing. Pavlo was so pathetically grateful it brought tears to Cherine’s eyes - we had not realised how much he wanted it. Dommi stopped me, asking to speak to us without Pavlo being present. We all told her to say what is on her mind, as it is only fair he also be present. She gave me an exasperated look.

“We cannot do this Roberto. Pavlo is still a child and lives with his parents. If he becomes part of a circle, how will he bear having to be apart from his group? It will be torture. You know what else will happen, how do you think his parents will react if they find out?”

My face drained at the implied threat to our group. In agony I tried to explain myself, using Cherine as my focus, since I could not face Pavlo and the deep disappointment I knew he would be feeling.

“After our setbacks at trying to find new people to create more groups, I thought that an answer might be to recruit youngsters and children. They are more open. I had even thought of bringing your friend Maria-Elena in. But Dommi is right, we cannot do this to them, not if the parents are not part of it. How do we handle this now? Pavlo, please do not look so unhappy, we can still take you dancing, it is just that we have to be careful you do not get locked in to a group.”

“I want be in your group with Cherine.” His eyes were brimming.

I sensed how everyone felt the same pain I did. “Oh God! Themi, we did not think of this. We cannot bear to hurt anyone, but we are going to be responsible for many people suffering. It is bound to happen, especially as the girls mature in appearance, that others out of the group will be attracted to them or even fall in love with them. How do we turn them away without hurting them?”

“It will happen more often than you can imagine Robert. You perhaps do not realise it, unless you have taken a good look at them recently, but not only are they all beautiful, with the perfect health you have given them and the deep feeling of happiness they radiate, they glow and stand out from all other girls I have ever met. Yes, many will love them, even strangers who only get to see them once while they are walking to the shops or having a pastry in some patisserie.”

Since Rose had first arrived I had been projecting almost full time, concealing the fact of Cherine’s pregnancy - though I assumed she must have seen the baby soul within her while in the void. Without warning Cherine blocked my projection and stood in front of Pavlo.

“You must not love me Pavlo. Not like that, not like a man, I already belong with Robert. I love you, but I want you as my brother and friend, can you be that? I want you to be an uncle to my child and love it. I want you to find a woman of your own so that I can be the aunt of your children. Will you?”

He put out his hand and felt her bulging tummy as if not believing what he is seeing. He looked at me and his eyes were full of painful questions.

Rose had also paled, thin white lines ageing her face again. Her religious and moral sensibilities had been affronted - proving, as I had suspected, that she has not tied in what she saw in the void with how things are in this world. It is strange how the mind tricks everyone, creating blind spots for us so that we are not forced to confront facts which make us uncomfortable.

This meeting was turning into a first class disaster. I noticed that all my girls drew to me, psychically, as if we were under attack. Themi sighed and spoke, as if only to Alki. “You kept this hidden from his mother? She has danced with them? Then you better explain to her. It will be good for the young man to hear also.”

He was right, it would not do for me to try to explain to my mother, even if she listened to me, she would be prejudiced by the fact that she sees me, deep inside her, as her little boy. I nodded at Alki, giving him the go-ahead.

He followed what is fast becoming a standard procedure. He reminded her of her dancing with us, shocked her by publicly (and in front of me, which is what mostly embarrassed her - for it is not proper) telling her about her sexual re-awakening, her desperate needs, of how she felt as if she could not settle back in her body. He asked whether she has looked at herself in a mirror recently, has she seen how much younger she looks.

He then launched into the explanations, of how this all started with Cherine, of how deep the love was and is between us, of our slowed metabolisms, how long it will take for the little girls to grow up. He told them of how many times I died because I had been separated from Cherine. Both Rose and Pavlo hung on his words while Cherine monitored their reactions.

I saw Rose secretly glancing at Marian, trying to gauge her reactions to what has happened to her daughter and the pregnancy. Marian must have realised this and interrupted Alki.

“Rose, you must be wondering how can I accept this. I fought it for a long time. I was extremely angry, sick at what he was doing with my little girl. So much happened, we can sit and talk about it later, I will tell you all of it. Rose, I saw what happened to my daughter when she could not be with Robert. I had no choice. Either they stay together or else she dies. Anyway, with these gifts of theirs, there was no way I could separate them. I think my own daughter would have killed me if not for Robert stopping her when I tried to take her away.” She glanced at her daughters’ belly. “I am not happy about her being pregnant. She is far, far too young. Do not blame Robert, she managed to trick him - it is entirely her own fault.”

Nothing they were saying was getting through to her. Rose was disgusted by us. Cherine, with the impatience/impulsiveness of youth, not understanding that people need time for adjusting to such major changes, left my side and went to her mother, sitting by her.

“I’m sorry Robert. We are making too many people unhappy, I can’t take it. I’m breaking up our circle. Goodbye my love.” She leant against her mother as she cut me off. The sudden breaking of the link seared through me as if a hot knife had cut me in two. I screamed as the void re-claimed me. Both Dommi and Wendy had been linked into me and though she did not cut them off they screamed as they felt my agony within themselves and then our contact was severed. Dommi was the first to recover, but Wendy was too young, too new to our kind of experiences, and this was the first time she was having to endure this kind of suffering in me. She panicked and attacked Cherine, stopping as soon as she saw Cherine is also dying. She wailed and it turned into a song of all her pain and grief. She curled up and withdrew into her shell.

My protector went mad, trying to save all of them at the same time and so it abandoned me as I was lowest on the priority list. Dommi came rushing out, looking for me. Even in my agony as the void ate at me I sent her after Cherine. She must save her and the baby. I called to my protector telling it to do my body damage in a specific way.

Alki, Marian and Themi were in a panic, not knowing who to help first or what to do. Rose sat there as if not convinced that any of this was real - until the protector attacked me, my body smashed across the room and blood began to flow from my lips and ears. She knelt by my body and began to sob, trying to hold me as my body jerked about in pain.

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<sup>For those readers who have not understood, when they speak using telepathy, what they say is enclosed within stars, and the thoughts exchanged are in italic.

e.g *Hi, I bet you are wishing you could read thoughts.*?</sup>

I hope you enjoy reading this story of fantasy, adventure and love. Yes, most of all, always of empathy and love.