Bad Blood...

A woman lost, angry and afraid, with fragmented images of blood streaming down her face poses her question...

"Mom, tell me the story about my past again. How did I lose my memory?" Shamane Hoffman looks at her mother sitting in front of her mirror. She rests her hands on the older woman's shoulders. Their reflections cast back at them, the changeable eyes intent, looking into the black ones.

"I don't like to think about either of our past. It will probably haunt me for the rest of my life. I just don't know how to handle what happened to you. Our lives are so much entwined and yours nearly destroyed. One never realizes with the blink of an eye, sometimes a whisper or the touch of a hand and your whole life simply change forever and worse, you don't even have a choice the fact that you came back to me is a miracle."

"Please, mom! Tell me what you know about my past."

"Shamane, darling, you must remember on your own. That is the doctor's orders. I can tell you this though. You were captured and trapped for eight years in a cult of women called the Sisterhood. When I found you, you were suffering from amnesia. I am certain it was caused by those dangerous, deceitful and deadly women."

"Mom, the Sisterhood, is it the past you want to forget?"

"I grew up in a world called the Garden of Eden. You were trapped in a world full of shadows and lies. I know you are in limbo, wanting to know your past."

"Darling, you have a second chance. Please, take it. Leave the past alone."

She looks quietly at her mother in the mirror. Her need for answers to her questions, clearly in the reflection of her eyes. Her troubled emotions change her eyes continuously.

"I was reunited with you, but I am no longer innocent. I am moody, aggressive, but at the same time a strangely, instinctive loner. I look at people but I stand aloof and withdrawn from them. Every morning I wake from a dream filled with a whirlpool of images, I don't understand."

"I have a strong sense of déjà vu when I look at the most innocent of things or objects. I can't move forward until I understand my past."

"Tell me about your dreams." Joyce swiveled her chair round to look directly at her daughter.

Needing privacy from her mother's piercing eyes, her pieces of memory come alive, and she goes and stands in the shadows of her bedroom. She looks at her mother but she wasn't really seeing her. Slowly she allows the images to emerge from their hiding place.

"Firstly, when I wake, I look, but I can't see anything. Everything is in darkness, but when I blinked, a house appears. It is in a blazing inferno, right in front of me. I can see the silhouette of people in the house." She paused, trying to comprehend her tale.

"The crackling of wood being eaten by the fire, work on my nerves. Goosebumps all over my body, my heart beating too fast I want to look away but I can't. I dropped to my knees, but I am not certain if it's from fear or fascination."

Shamane is completely unaware she is on the floor. Shivering, she rubs the goose bumps from her arms. Completely entranced by what she sees in front of her eyes, her gaze stayed fixed. Her mouth opened and words poured out.

"Suddenly, the picture change."

"What happened?" Joyce watches her carefully.

"I find myself somewhere else. The place seems very familiar but I can't place it."

"Describe it." Joyce urge softly.

Shamane look so intently, at first it appeared as though she didn't hear a word. Her puzzled tone becomes almost sensual.

"I am looking at a golden orchard alight with small blinking lights. I move deeper into the orchard, the branches gently touch my body."

"The tasty juices of the fruit dripped onto my bare shoulders, making a sweet smelling path between my full breasts and down my spine. My body fills with ecstasy. Smiling, I touch with a finger, tasting the honey. My eyes turn amber than yellow. I can see the desire in them twinkling. I can't see the face from where my eyes are reflecting. Again, the picture change."

Joyce holds her breath, her eyes not wavering from her daughter's face.

"I find myself walking beneath a high moon. My body alive and sensuous, desire sizzling through my veins my aching fingers long to touch another sensuous body. I stop a moment and look into the sky the moon golden."

"Her eyes with no face gleaming in the moonlight. I have no picture of her likeness but I know she was my lover. Our bodies entwined, for in her eyes so close to mine, I could steal the stairs from the heaven above."

Stillness settles within her. The minutes tick by. The only sound in the room their breathing.

"Mom, the dream appears to be romantic but I can feel the darkness just lurking behind the wall in my mind. I want to look beyond the wall, but I am afraid."

"Leave the wall alone for now. Tell me the rest of the dream."

Joyce stands from her chair; move forward and kneels in front of her daughter. She brushes the hair from her face, looking beyond her into the past.

"My fingers link with hers, our flying feet lead us to the silver pool. With the touch of her hand and the brush of her fingers, she reveals to me the perfect picture of golden torso. In all her glory, she dived beneath the gleaming water. She appeared to be gone."

Her body stay coiled on the floor, but her hands reached out to her lover. Her fingers closed, her arms stayed empty.

Joyce sees the twisting of her eyes. She seems troubled by what is to come next.

"I start to wonder if I was deceived by trust on the night of the moonlight feast. I believe my seduction was faceless, one touch...one whisper...one kiss. I am hers for eternity. I know that for certain."

She blinks her eyes and focus on her mother. Her expression puzzled.

"I usually wake so violently that I land on the floor, breathless, uncertain, wanting to know more but never seeming to be able to discover what lies beneath the shadows."

She stands up, helping her mother back onto her own feet. Sweat streaming down her face and her body. Taking deep breaths until calmness settled over her. Moving forward, she embraced her mother for a moment.

"Shamane, I can see you are very tense. Why don't you go for a run! This usually makes you more at ease. In the meantime, I am going to have a conversation with your father."

Slipping out the backdoor and leaving the yard, she run ten kilometres outside of Steinkopf. As the time passed, she feels herself slowly coming alive while she continuously keeps pounding the tar road with her sneakers.

Calmness settled slowly in her heart. As she turned around, the first rays of the sun breaks over the horizon. Enjoying the early morning warmth, she wonders what her mother could be talking about with her father.

Joyce looks at her husband. Anger, resentment and a sense of violence surged through her veins. Within the ranks of the Sisterhood, women were superior to men. That was the motto she was taught.

She gave Eric Hoffman, her husband, the benefit of her doubts. She wanted a different life but her path was chosen for her years ago, according to the rules of her family, a family she was once part off. It was a life she hoped her daughter would never experience her hope was misplaced and her worse fear had come alive.

Eric Hoffman looks at his beautiful wife. Fully matured and all woman, but his own secret fears turned him into a selfish bastard. He treads on grounds he knows would someday soon come back to swallow him. His wife and daughter is from a society of women he still can't comprehend even after all these years. He knows he is opening the door to the past but he can't seem to help himself.

"Joyce, did you understand what I am saying?"

"I heard you. But you can't be serious, Eric?"

"I am. I told you before not to question or interfere in my financial business. As the head of this family, I won't go back on my word. It is final. I have spoken."

"And you really think I am going to listen! That holy word of yours means nothing to me, Eric. You made promises to me years ago, but you have kept none." Her voice harsh, angry her eyes dark with barely checked fury.

"Enough "Eric snap, while he feel his skin growing clammy with fear he managed to conceal from his voice and eyes. "You will keep your mouth shut and follow orders. Do you hear me, woman?"

"Like hell will I listen to this nonsense?"

The anger grows rapidly inside her. Her eyes devoid of warmth, only darkness settled in their depths.

"If you insist on going on this path, you will regret it, Eric. Remember who raised me. Remember my past. Do not challenge me. Shamane is my daughter. I nearly lost her once. I won't allow it to ever happen again never!"

"I don't care what you say, Joyce. My decision has been made."

"We have been married for years. I listened to all your nonsense but not today. This is your final warning. Do not proceed on this path."

The anger simmered from her body. The older man feels her heat he recognized the warning, but he stayed stubborn.

"Don't waste your time with threads I already told you, you don't have a say in this matter. I make the choices in this house. I won't go back on my word." He turns and leaves the house.

Joyce throws the cups at the door, to vent her pent-up anger. Moving past the window, she catches sight of her daughter, returning. Her eyes troubled looking at father and daughter one on a path of destruction, the other one searching for answers.

The backdoor open Shamane enters and step onto broken glass, which crunched beneath her sneaker.

"Are you okay, mom?"

"I am fine." Joyce looks at her only daughter. "Did you enjoy your running?"

"I always do." Looking closely, she frowned. "Don't change the subject. Are you certain you are okay? You look a bit flashed. And what's with the broken glass?"

"Your father and I had an argument."

"About what if I may ask?" She taps a glass of water, than swallow a couple of sips, while she keeps her eyes on her mother.

"It's nothing don't worry about it."

"The fact that you told me not to worry really has me worried now.

"I will sort him out when he returns, darling. You go and shower. Then I want you to do some errands for me afterwards."

"The argument was about me, right?"

"Drop the subject, Shamane."

Shamane stare at her mother.

Joyce holds her gaze saying nothing although she feels a bit uneasy underneath her child's direct, piercing look. She knows in her heart; she won't stop until she knows precisely who she was.

"I am not blind, mom. Moments ago, outside, father didn't even look at me he never looks directly at me. As far as I could remember, he never acknowledged me in any way as his daughter. Eugene, my bitter brother, he is the only one father loves and takes note of. Edmund his youngest son, between you and me, we love and trust him. I find our family structure very strange. You can deny it all you want, but my instinct tells this argument was about me. I am beginning to wonder what secrets this family is hiding from me. Whatever it might be, I have a feeling I am the center of it all."