Illusions This time it started with the necklace. It was one of the most beautiful things she had ever seen. Priceless diamonds and rubies, glowing with an inner light, were nestled in handcrafted settings. Pictures, floating in the back of Audra's mind. Pictures of blood flowing through history, agonizing pictures of love dying. Second-hand pain shot through one side of Audra's head. An involuntary moan escaped her tightly closed lips. "No! I can't do this again. I refuse to be responsible for someone else's life. Not again." Instinctively, she knew the stabbing pain belonged to someone else. It subsided as soon as she acknowledged it, leaving behind a dull throb to remind her that it had actually been there and could return any time it chose. Audra pulled an artist's twelve by eighteen-inch pad out of one of the workbench drawers and started to sketch ring and earring designs with trembling fingers. Her pencil flew over the paper, filling the space with bold strokes. A woman's face, a frightened face with large pleading eyes, peered back at Audra from the paper. In the background, a large, foreign-looking house sheltered on three sides by jungle foliage emerged from the slashing lines. Echoing pain streaked through her head again, tearing at her focused thoughts, exposing them to the winds of confusion. The pain was so strong she knew it was a reflection of something very recent, or yet to happen. It was laced with fear. The energy of that fear was almost overwhelming. Audra turned to a clean page and started to work up a more detailed drawing of the beautiful, exotic woman. Large soulful eyes stared at Audra seeming to beseech her help. Audra's hand, of its own volition, wrote the name "Nina" under the portrait. "Help me. Oh, Madre Dios, please help me!" The voice whispered to her. A chill swept through Audra. As Nina's voice started to fade from her mind, a striking masculine face gained strength feature by feature over the softer feminine countenance filling the page. Fear, as real as anything she had ever experienced, pinned her to the chair. She tried to put the pencil down. Her shaking hand wouldn't obey her simple command. Another involuntary stroke of the pencil put hate in the eyes. The pain in the side of her head increased. The pencil dropped from her numbing fingers. Audra cringed at the physical and emotional danger this man represented to her.
Gini's Publisher
Gini's publisher
Wings ePress, Inc.
Illusions available Illusions-March 2003.
Print -ISBN: 1-59088-869-3
Electronic Book-ISBN: 1-59088-168-0
