Lucifer's Daughter. V. J. Banis

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СКАЧАТЬ girls settled themselves into quietness and waited, all except Margaret who was beginning to get restless. Allyson nudged her and whispered for her to be still.

      The voice took longer this time, but finally it came from the old woman’s lips.

      “Elizabeth, you have much happiness awaiting you. You will leave your present place of employment shortly and will work for a young executive who will fall in love with you and you with him. You will marry before a year has passed.”

      Elizabeth hooted and clasped her hands to her breast. She giggled across Margaret to Allyson who also clapped her hands with glee. “Oh, Liz, how exciting.” They gushed among themselves for a few moments, then turned their eyes on Julia.

      “Okay, Julia,” Margaret said irritably. “Hurry up and let’s get this over with.”

      “Oh, don’t be such a grouch, Maggie. What are you grousing about? You’re going to have three husbands to Ally’s and my one,” Elizabeth said. Then she turned to Julia. “Go ahead, Julie. Let’s see when and where you’re going to meet your Prince Charming.”

      Julia pulled back. What she had to fear she didn’t know, but there was a strange throbbing deep inside her that was telling her to get out of that tent, to get away from the mysterious voice and the glowing crystal ball that seemed to pulse and radiate from the center of the table.

      “Oh, go on, Julie,” Allyson urged. “You might just as well get your money’s worth.”

      “Sure, Julie. Go ahead. Please,” Elizabeth insisted.

      Reluctantly Julia let Elizabeth lift her hands onto the table. She put them palms down and moved them toward the crystal ball.

      The old woman sat there in silence, her lips still and unmoving. Elizabeth nudged Julia and pushed her hands closer to the glowing crystal ball.

      The old crone sat for a moment longer, then she stirred and her lips moved. “The girl is Julia,” she said. She paused. Her head started to move back and forth, slowly at first and then with more and more deliberateness. “No. The girl is called...,” she stammered. “The girl’s name is not Julia.”

      Allyson, Margaret, and Elizabeth turned and stared at Julia. But Julia was suddenly gazing deep into the crystal ball, entranced, waiting for something of which she was deathly afraid. But she was too frozen to move.

      Julia felt a hot, wet mist envelop her. Out of the corner of her eye she saw him standing just over her shoulder. The air inside the tent grew thicker and heavier. She couldn’t move. She couldn’t cry out. Something, someone was holding shut her mouth and had made her limbs immobile. An unearthly silence descended on her. She felt herself being pressed deeper and deeper into the earth between her feet. She felt herself sinking into oblivion. Silence—dead, thick, heavy silence—permeated the place. Not a breath of air stirred as she sat there waiting...waiting...waiting.

      Suddenly the old woman groaned. Her tired, ageless eyes went wide with terror. “No!” she shrieked. “No! Go away!” Her head fell back, her eyes dropped closed. Then her body went rigid. “No—” she shrieked again. “Go away! Go away!” She waved her hands in front of her as if warding off a swarm of locusts. “Go! Leave me! Go! Go!”

      Then with an agonizing moan, her body swayed and toppled backward. She fell unconscious to the floor.

      Three of the girls screamed. Julia sat engulfed in her stupor. She just stared into the crystal ball. Then, with a dull thud, the ball in the center of the table shattered into fragments.

      Julia moaned. Then, like the old gypsy, she fell into a dead faint.

      CHAPTER THREE

      When her eyelids fluttered and opened, Julia saw she was still inside the tent. It was lit more brightly now, and her three companions were clustered around her. Elizabeth was patting her wrists. Allyson had managed to find a towel and some cold water which she was applying to Julia’s forehead. Margaret just stood looking down with obvious disapproval.

      “She’s coming round,” Elizabeth said.

      “Thank goodness. Julie. Julie,” Allyson said softly. “Are you all right?”

      “What happened?”

      “You fainted.”

      “Oh, yes, I remember,” Julia tried to focus on her surroundings. She saw the dreary interior and the draped table. Her eyes lingered on the shattered pieces of crystal that lay scattered on the cloth. She did not want to stay here; the place represented something bad, something evil. From out of nowhere the words someone had called to her returned: “Evil!” No, she could not stay here. She had to get away.

      She tried to sit up but Elizabeth eased her back. “Rest for a minute. The gypsy woman has gone to get the park’s nurse.”

      “No, please,” Julia protested. “I don’t want a nurse. I’m fine. I just want to get out of here.”

      “You must rest, Julie. You’re obviously not well.”

      “I had a simple dizzy spell. I suppose it was the after-effects of that roller coaster ride.” She knew perfectly well it was not the roller coaster ride that had made her faint. It had been something very different. Precisely what had caused her to pass out she couldn’t be certain. Everything was fuzzy inside her head. She rubbed her temples. She tried to think of what had happened to her, but for a time nothing registered except the word “evil” being repeated over and over inside her brain.

      Who had called her evil? What had happened? She thought back, forcing her mind to retrace as much time as it could. In the distance she heard the music of the carousel and remembered standing watching it spinning and spinning, waiting for the girls to wave to her. She remembered the terror that gripped her as the car of the roller coaster roared and raced up and down and around its tracks, its screeching, clanging wheels propelling them to speeds faster than the wind.

      Cautiously she turned her memory to the old gypsy woman. She began to tremble inside. It had been the old gypsy woman who’d called her evil. She remembered now. She had said Julia Carson was not her real name. Gradually everything started to shift back into perspective.

      “A face,” she said aloud. She sat up, pushing Elizabeth away. “There was a man’s face in the crystal ball...and then it shattered.”

      “You obviously knocked it off its little pedestal,” Allyson said. “It cracked and fell into several pieces.”

      “I’ll bet anything that old gypsy will insist you pay for it,” Margaret said, sounding disgruntled.

      “Oh, Margaret,” Elizabeth admonished. “The gypsy will expect no such thing. Poor thing fainted too,” she added, turning back to Julia. “Do you remember, Julie? She wasn’t passed out very long, however. She stirred almost immediately. Then, when she saw you with your head on the table, she told us to lift you over onto this divan and she rushed out to find the nurse.”

      Allyson dabbed Julia’s forehead. “What do you suppose the gypsy meant when she said your name wasn’t Julia?” she asked.

      Julia frowned. “Yes, I remember her telling me that. I don’t know what she could have meant.” Julia purposely laughed, hoping to make light of the situation. “Of course, you all know I was an orphan, so my real name СКАЧАТЬ