The Taen

This story is copyrighted 2005 by Kaereni, may not be excerpted, reprinted, reproduced, or reposted in any form without the express written consent of the author. Visitors to this web site may read or temporarily download pages but are not permitted to modify or re-distribute them.

The story may contain sexual activities and situations that are to be read only by readers above the legal age of consent. All characters are above the age of 18. The story is not to be read in locations where such stories are illegal. If you are not of legal age, or live in the wrong place, please do not read.

The Taken by Kaereni

Act 1 - Mass

Jill sat in the church, her mind a million miles away as the Father Timothy lead the congregation through the mass. Christmas eve and instead of being with friends and family she was sitting in the sparsely populated church listening to the evening mass. "I am so pitiful." she thought to herself as she sat on the hard bench. "Not only am I alone tonight, but, I spend my time in a church listening to some moron asking us to give more to the coffers. Heck, it's not even the midnight Mass." She said and then as people turned to look at her she realized that she had said it out loud. Blushing and ducking her head Jill mumbles a soft sorry and sits there wishing she had somewhere, someone to be with tonight.

She thought about her moving to the big city several years ago after her parents passed on. She had had grand plans back then, a new start, fresh beginnings and most of all a chance to make friends and perhaps that special loved one. Alas, this was not to be. The city overwhelmed her. The hustle and bustle, everyone always in a rush had caused the already shy Jill to retreat into herself.

From the corner of her eye she catches a flash of red. Looking she sees a woman, dressed in a red flowing silk dress glides down the aisle and then move into her row before sitting down a little way from Jill. As the mass drones on she keeps glancing at the woman taking in her beauty. Her raven hair, hands that only Michael Angelo could have sculptured, perfect nails the same "fuck me red" as the dress. Jill's eyes travel over the woman's body, arms and legs. She thinks, "That could only come from countless hours in the gym." Her glances reach the woman's face, a face that belongs on an angel. Somewhere a part of her alarm bells are going off. "It's twenty below outside, snowing like there is no tomorrow and yet the woman wearing a short sleeved dress, and where is her coat? She looks as if she had stepped off a runway from a fashion show for god's sake. Not walked in off the busy streets on Christmas eve in the dirty city."

The eyes, though, are the most striking feature of the woman. "Eyes you could get lost in." Jill thinks to herself finally understand the line. She becomes aware of the woman looking at her, calmly looking at her, appraising her as Jill checks her out. Again she blushes ducking her head and grabs a bible so she can pretend to be doing something else.

She sits there staring down at the words not reading when a smell comes wafting across her. The air smells of promise and forgotten pleasures. "The woman's perfume," Jill thinks inhaling deeply, taking in the scent and basking in the feeling of euphoria it brings. The smell of the woman's perfume fades like the night before the dawning sun. Sneaking a glance at the woman Jill finds her gone. She is alone once more in her row. She looks down again in her minds seeing herself, makeup free, plain mousy brown hair hidden under a knit cap, heavy pea jacket. Looking all the world like the ugly duckling compared to the swan that was beside her for a short time. Jill looks at her hands, "Even my hands and nails are plain and ugly." She holds the bible closed tightly, her eyes closed as the wave of self-pity sweeps over her. Shaking it off she opens the bible and reads the first passage her eyes focus on.

Jesus therefore said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Except ye eat the flesh of the Son of man and drink his blood, ye have not life in yourselves. He that eateth my flesh and drinketh my blood hath eternal life: and I will raise him up at the last day. For my flesh is meat indeed, and my blood is drink indeed. He that eateth my flesh and drinketh my blood abideth in me, and I in him.

Jill had always believed that she could open up the good book and find guidance in her life. She stopped and pondered the words, looking at the page, through it and to a place that only thinkers see. She did not understand how it gave guidance. But Jill didn't seem to understand most of the passages she had read till after whatever "god" was trying to tell her had passed and she had failed somehow. She had the funny feeling she was being watched and looked up find the mass was ending. Confused for a moment she hurriedly closed and replaced the bible and got up to leave. Stopping at the door she thanks the priest for an inspiring mass before braving the icy blast and snow.

Standing on the steps Jill sees a flash of red off to off to one side through the milling people. She looks closer and sees the woman in red looking at her calmly a faint smile on her lips. Nodding towards the woman she turns to leave. Instead of walking home she finds her body turn back to the woman and walking over to stand on the step below her. Looking up into the vision of beauty, Jill feels her mind slow as she looks into the eyes, those lovely green eyes.

Without thinking, or really understanding what is happening Jill tilts her head, pulls her scarf down and bares her neck. With a smile the woman moves up wraps her arms around her like a long lost lover and lowers her lips to her neck. Jill feels a stinging and then sharpened pains in her neck. Her breath labored, Jill comes up from the fog clouding her mind. She feels the pain growing with each beat of her heart till it feels as if a red hot wire is coursing through her veins. Opening her mouth to scream, she can only give a silent gasp instead. Jill feels her heart slow and finally give out one last hard beat and stop. Darkness closes in as she feels herself fall to the snow covered steps.

Act II -- Wakening

"Cold... so cold..." Jill thinks her mind fuzzy and slow... With dawning realization, she comes awake, "Dead," she says taking a deep breath and sitting up. "Wait... What?" she says confused looking around a semi darkened room. She feels the cold metal bed on her backside and a sheet covering her. Looking around, "a hospital. I must have passed out and they brought me here, good ole father Timothy." She says getting off the bed. She looks closer at her surroundings as her mind comes more aware. "A morgue? I'm in a morgue?" She looks down at the tag on her toe. "Oh my god" she says her voice rising in timbre and volume till the last word is a shriek.

Jill bends down rips the tag off her toe and wrapping the sheet around her like a badly made toga makes her way out into the hall. Looking left and right, she sees a disserted corridor. Turning to the left, Jill walks down the hall looking for her clothes and the doctor that put her in the morgue. As she walks, the tiles cold on her bare feet, she replays the encounter with the woman. Had to be a dream she thinks not believing in vampires and the like.

Silly girl she says shaking her head. "ouch" she says her head feels like her brain is rattling around louse inside. Reaching a hand up she feels a goose egg sized lump on her skull. "Ah... That was it. I slipped and fell and they only thought I was dead or something." She reaches an intersection and nurse's station but no one is there. "Home" that's what I need. She thinks and seeing a fire exit sign further along she heads for it and up the stairs and outside. The snow still falling and if anything she is colder then she had been before. Looking around she sees that she is at Mercy Hospital and it is only a few of blocks from her apartment. Many a night she would be awakened by the sirens of ambulances making their deliveries.

Trudging through the snow she only sees a handful of cabs trolling past like some great yellow sharks in the night. "This has to be the worst Christmas ever" she moans as she walks ignored by the cabs no matter how she tries to signal them. The cold is so intense that she passes beyond shivering to the point where she feels comfortable. Reaching her apartment building she walks up and then reaches her door.

"Key... Oh shit" she says and then turning trudges to the super's apartment to lean on his buzzer. After 5 minutes of buzzing Jill gives up and goes back to her door and tries to bust her way in. Over and over she throws herself against the door only to bounce off. She slowly slides to a heap against the door sobbing in frustration and despair. Sitting there, leaning against the door, Jill realizes she has really got to pee and no matter how much you want to wallow, when you have to go you have to go.

She reaches up to the doorknob and to her shock it turns under her hand. "Doh" She says opening the door and entering into her apartment. Hurrying to the bathroom she sits and tends to business. "Just go to bed. Everything better in the morning," she thinks as she washes her hands. "Forget shower or cleaning up, a warm bed is the thing for me" She says as she walks to the bedroom and crawls under the covers. Hiding her head under the blankets she gives into the sobs that have been filling her.

Jill's dreams are filled with the woman from the mass. The woman's green eyes pulling Jill in and then feeling her kiss of death. Again and again Jill's mind replays it each time waking in a panic and slowly calming down before drifting off once more only to repeat the cycle. Dream, panic, wake breathless over and over, the night lasts a thousand years.

Act III - Puzzles

Morning comes and Jill still feeling chilled staggers into the bathroom for a hot shower. Cleaning up she feels her head and feels that the lump has gone down. She goes to the mirror and examines her neck, "nothing there." Feeling refreshed she dresses, turns on the coffee, and then goes to see what Santa brought her.

Under the pitiful 3-foot tree she sees the gift she had bought herself. Sitting on the couch she pulls the box to herself. Unwrapping it she finds the puzzle she had bought. "For me? How did you know?" she asks the air as if she were talking to the sender of the gift. She sets it down and then notices a small present that was hidden behind her box. A small box the size you would put a ring in wrapped with red foil. Picking it up confused she sees the tag saying, "Jill" in golden ink. She unwraps the gift and sees that it in fact a ring box compete with velvet covering. Opening it she picks the object out and looks at it. "A key?"

Jill holds up the key looking at it confused and then it comes back to her in a flash. The woman bending over her saying, "When you get home a gift, and puzzle. I know how you love puzzles."

Jill holds the key tightly as if willing the answer to its puzzle to come to her, but it does no good. She looks at the key but it looks no different than any other door key she had seen other than its reddish tint. She takes it, the card and box and sets them on top of the television. Jill holds the card a moment more and says looking off in the distance, "thank you" softly. In her mind she can see the woman look up and towards her and saying a silky voice, "you are welcome Jill"

She shakes the fantasy from her mind's eye and goes back to her puzzle. The day that had started so depressing now seems bright and exciting. The woman had nailed it on the head. Jill loved puzzles. Not just puzzle boxes but all types of brain teasers. She picks up her coffee and puzzle box and goes to the dining table to open it and pour the pieces out of the table. Inside Jull sees a piece of paper folded. She picks up the paper and eyes widening reads it, "Jill, I am sure you will love this puzzle better." in gold writing.

She drops the paper as if burned and picks up the box to examine it once more. No, no other openings other than the ones she made. She picks up the note and reads it again, her mind almost in a panic. Getting up she hurries over to the front door and sees it is still locked from the night before. Jill grabs the key, other box and stuff and takes it with her back to the table. She goes and gets a pad of paper and then writes down, "How did she get in? How did she switch the puzzle without it showing? How did she add the note to the sealed box? What does the key open? Who is she?" She examines the two notes again and conforms that the writing is the same. She mulls over the questions a while and not finding answers turns to the puzzle.

As she sorts the pieces Jill realizes that it is defiantly not the one that she bought. "The answer's here. I know it" she says as she starts putting the outer edges together. Throughout the day Jill sits hunched over the puzzle. Her coffee goes cold; she does not get up or eat as she works on the puzzle. Several times during the day the phone rings but other than to look dumbly at the phone Jill pays no mind to it. It is nothing more than a distraction.

It is late night when Jill finishes the puzzle. Never before had she sat so long unmoving or did a puzzle in a single sitting. She had always in the past lingered over it through several days. When at last finished Jill sits up feeling the crick in her back and looks at the picture as a whole. Pushing her chair back away from the table as if pushing away from a rattlesnake she moans and says "no" in a wailing tone. "Oh no... It can't be..." she reaches out to touch the puzzle stroking it like a child, reaching for comfort from a memory. She looks at the key picks it up and the memories come flooding back to her from her past.

Act IV - Past

The bathroom, the tub, the blood, the woman, like still images flashed on the screen that is her mind's eye. Jill's mind flashed to the start of the nightmare and ran through it like an old horror flick on the late, late show on Saturday night.

Jill had been eight at the time, a family vacation, a week long camping trip to the mountains. Packing the station wagon, leaving home to go on what dad called the grand adventure. Jill smiles at the memory hearing her dad's voice. The sing along, and games of I-spy with mom and dad as they left home far behind. Sitting at the kitchen table, she remembers the drive. Winding up through the foothills, the other cars left far behind, seeing Bambi and her mom on the side of the road, all drove home the feeling of being in a different world.

The strangeness of how her parents became quiet and sat there looking forward, not listening to her as the NPR radio faded out. Turning up a side road, the station wagon leaving a dust trail swirling behind them as she leans forward shaking her mother's shoulder, "mom? Are we there yet? I got to go bathroom." But her mother makes no reply; it's as if she were not even in the car. Jill sits back and plays with her doll frowning. As the car slows she looks up excitedly to see the campground but instead finds they are pulling past an iron fence with spikes, around the manicured lawn, to come to rest before a huge house.

Like any other child Jill did not wait for her parents to exit the car. She jumped out and looked around, the sunset caught her eyes, and how the sky turned all reds and pinks. The twinkling of the early stars which had been hiding in the city is now showing to their full glory. She turns to point them out her mom but stops looking at both her parents still in their seats in confusion. "Why are you sitting there?" She calls back to the car.

Her parents open their doors and get out of the car. Moving like robots they march up to the front door without a backwards glance to Jill. She follows them tears welling up in her eyes, "Mom? Dad? Did I do something wrong?" she asks them as she follows the non-responsive couple. Without stopping they open the front door and enter the house leaving the front door open behind them.

Confused and hurt she trails along behind like a homeless puppy looking for a handout. "But where is the campground? I thought we were going camping" Jill says catching up and tugging on her mother's arm. Her mother pretends she is not even there not responding to Jill's words or tugging.

"What have we here" a woman's voice, pleasant and refined but with something else that makes Jill uneasy says from the far side of the foyer. "Close the door dear." The woman's voice says as Jill looks towards the voice.

"Yes mam" Jill says, and turns to close the front door. She had always been taught to respect her elders. As she starts walking back she gets a funny feeling in her head. It's like when she would wade and minnows would come nibble at her legs but this time it feels as if they are in her head. She walks back to stand between her parents, her hand reaching up to grasp her mother's unresponsive hand.

"How delightful" The woman says walking forward. "Such a strong little mind you have, but not strong enough... I think we will have a wonderful time together Jill." Jill looks at the woman and then feels herself falling, her world spinning, and blacking out. The last thing she sees is the woman's eyes boring into hers.

Jill wakes and finds herself lying in a bed with a canopy. The bedroom looks like something that a fairytale princess would have. It was larger than her living room back home. She feels the urge still there of having to go to the bathroom and gets up. She looks and sees she is dressed in a cotton nightgown. She had never owned a nightgown like this one before. "Mommy got it for me." She says and then not finding an attached bathroom goes down the hall opening doors and peaking in.

Opening a door, she sees a tile floor instead of the wooden ones elsewhere. Seeing the light is on and the sounds of splashing water Jill calls out, "excuse me."

"Yes Jill?" The woman's voice replies from inside the room

"I have to go." Jill says doing the potty dance at the door.

"Come in dear where I can see you."

Jill enters the bathroom and the sight that greets her eyes causes her bladder to cut loose. She sees her parents hanging over the tub head down, like a pair of deer, their fingers trailing into the reddish water. Blood is still flowing from their slit necks, down their arms tainting the water. The woman, leaning back in the bath tub a champagne flute filled with the reddish water at her lips.

The woman watches Jill's expression and smells the sharp tang of her urine and laughs as she sips the blood water mix. She holds out her hand to Jill, pulling her forward, "your turn." She stands and gets out the tub the red water absorbing into her skin instead of running off. She removes Jill's nightgown and helps her in to the tub. Kneeling next to it she washes the shocked young girl in her own parents' blood. Once finished the woman dries Jill, and leads her back to the bedroom tucking her in. Jill lays there her mind numb in deep shock barely aware as the sun rises starting a new day.

Act V - The Accident

Jill wakes to the sounds of a crash and screams of tortured metal. In an eye blink something comes flying towards her only to stop inches away from her head. She sits up looking at it blinking sleep from her eyes. A log? Her mind fuzzily asks. She looks around seeing the car, several large logs pushing in through the windshield. Her parents nowhere to be found. "Mommy? Dad?" she calls smelling the first hint of smoke. Screaming the panic filling her, Jill tries the door and then when it does not budge pounding on the window.

With a whoosh she sees flames spring up around the car, a voice, a man's, calling out "anyone in there?" Jill screams louder crying and pounding at the door and window.