Stonecutter Pt. 03

Most children born to two moonlighters are just ordinary people, or strong Lamplighters, but usually very, very long lived. If they have children with a moonlighter, there is a small chance that their offspring will be a "true-blood" that is someone like me who turns red in the moonlight and can cause the change in himself or herself and their lover.

Once in a very long time, the offspring who seem like very normal people, have sex with another normal offspring...so it appears just two "normals" having lunar love... Except that the child is a full fledged moonlighter! That is incredibly rare That is what happened to me. That is why I have never really been accepted into moonlighter society. I am not a "pure blood". I have wondered if my folks made love in the moonlight? But I was not "pure" like most moonlighters.

It may have contributed to my wife leaving me, and causing the first ever moonlighter divorce. But even that imagined slight on my part doesn't explain a totally unannounced challenge. I feel like I'm constantly trying to prove myself, and for what? My wife hates me, and I rarely get to see any of my children, or grand kids. In moonlighter circles, I am a pariah. Not too many know what I can do, or about my great wealth. I hid just about everything. I was just a lowly stonecutter to everyone. If people knew that I was a billionaire they would treat me way different from the way I am treated. Fuck 'em. I tell them nothing. None of their damn business. I get way more respect from the ghosts.

Why did she not tell me about the challenge? Maybe she was just ashamed of me. She really didn't know me in France. In our moonlighter society, challenge is announced, or it is considered assault or even murder. As a known challenge can be avoided by giving up the woman in question (which I would be more than happy to do so), a surprise attack cannot be so denied. It was also considered very poor sport.

I had been bloodied twice, and both attackers had survived. I was victorious twice. But the thought that perhaps it was better to just divorce and let her leave... Yes, I was more than happy to see her leave me alone and go back to the arms of her French lover/consort/husband. Fuck him, he deserves the bitch. I just don't know how to get her out of my soul. Maybe she wants me to die for the same reason, to remove the inconvenience of loving me in her heart and mind and her very soul, same as me. I could feel her presence in the next room. I could feel her unease at me finding out that she was planning on my death. I had a special surprise for the love of my life.

Moonlighters are gifted and I don't mean smart. My darling bitch has been given "God's touch" which is the laying on of hands, and a rapid healing process takes place. It takes a lot out of her, the more severe the injury or illness, the longer the recovery time for her. Simple cuts and bruises require only minutes, a food poisoning takes her a half hour to replenish her healing energy. Something like my head injury, where she really has to get down and concentrate, four to eight hours of recovery time for her. It was a very good gift.

My gift is not the ability to see and communicate with ghosts, although it was really more like a curse in the beginning. No my gift is very subtle. I mess with people's memory. I don't change anything at all. I make people remember IN EXCRUCIATINGLY MINUTE EXACTNESS whatever thing they try so hard to forget. When I curse you, you will never, ever forget.

I don't need to touch you, or to speak to you, or even to know what awful thing you did or didn't do. Your own mind picks the most suppressed horrible thing that you did and brings it back in ultra fine detail. It's not something I do lightly. If I use the power full force, I can reduce a man to quivering jelly, or even to a suicidal mess. I don't like making people remember what they have so carefully buried in their minds. If I ever met a saint, it would be no big deal to them.

The worse a person is, the more this curse works on them. Evil people are great at burying bad memories. I can remind them with a glance. If I really make them remember too many horrible truths, I can make them go catatonic. Their brain freezes up just like a cheap laptop! This can be permanent.

If someone has taken the time to seek out other's forgiveness, and has worked through their own issues, my ability won't bother them too much. Not many people have taken the time to gain real forgiveness, or forgive themselves for their bad actions. The only people who seem immune to my ability are the true crazies. Schizophrenic patients, who have no idea what a repressed memory is, they seem to enjoy reliving evil doings! Shit they love my gift.

The only nice part of my "gift" or curse was the Alzheimer's patients. I know giving someone a bad memory in clarity was not nice, but I was able to adjust my ability to just help them recover what memory they had left, and that was rewarding. Sometimes it was not possible as the disease progressed, but I was happy when I could help. That they could remember a loved one for a little while was rewarding. Sometimes they were too far gone. That was the sad part.

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I did not trust her at all. She had deceived me for more than two centuries! Or maybe she had deceived herself. I had not seen fit to ask her back. I had avoided her for many decades. Did she know that I knew about the treachery? How could she not know? Every single time she endured the change, it was like a knife in my chest. It must have hurt her as well.

So why did she want to return to me? My money? All she had to do was ask. No, this was something else. She wanted me to experience pain for whatever reason. Huge unrelenting pain. What the hell? WHY?

What did I do to her? Saved her life, and then found out she was a whore. She had been cheating on me even before the stupid French revolution. I had to find out the hard way. Then I had to choose to fight to retrieve the bitch, or walk away. I walked after seeing her and him together. She obviously loved him much, much more than me. I remember her face in climax with him. So be it. It is what it is, and as cheaters they deserved each other. I did not check up on them, but I would bet a king's ransom that they BOTH cheated on each other! Ha! There is some karma! I avoided so much drama and bullshit. There are too many good folks to love, why worry about the assholes? I simply moved on, cut her out of my life. And she pushed herself back in my life like a car wreck. Worst of all, I loved her so much right then it hurt me.

I felt the three Spanish women in the hallway, and went to the little break room. There was Consuela, fat ass mom to Beatrice and Maria -all of whom were praying for me. All three women were so happy to see me. How had I made such an impression on these gentle souls? I had only spoken to each of the women briefly as they did their job cleaning up after me and my entourage. I told them the truth in my limited Spanish, and they laughed at me. They thought I was just some kind of storyteller. I even told them about my speaking to ghosts and my memory gift. They laughed even harder.

They did not believe me. All they wanted was to fuck me. So I fucked all three. After it was done, I asked them to remember a happy time, and I gave them all a taste of my gift. They were all flabbergasted at me. I told all three if they wanted to meet the red devil, be naked in the moonlight on the roof deck on the night of the full moon. I told them what would happen and I said if I made them pregnant they could come live with me in the US. I guess I had to call my lawyers.

Connie said the kitchen was to be hers, and hers alone. I told her I did not want her to be my cook and slave. She said she loved to cook, and both daughters agreed with her. They would be in charge of the kitchen- period! All three would face the danger in the moonlight. I had to make more phone calls to lawyers and I got a hold of my moonlight doctor and his team. They cost me a fortune, but they were worth every penny. There was an almost full moon tonight and I was on edge. I could smell the Frenchman and I was sure that he could smell me. Even if I did not survive the fight, I was fairly sure he would take all of the women. So no matter what, they would be ok. Or at least they had a good sporting chance.

I prepared my will. No use being unprepared. The bulk of my fortune went to my kids and grandchildren. I did leave the bitch a couple of million dollars and a trust fund for her lifetime. At least for the time until she went through the change again. After that, she was on her own.

I said my goodbyes. I went to sleep. I was going to need it. At nine o' clock, I stepped into the moonlight and started to turn red. I was losing my mind. I saw a spinning hammed headed to my face. I caught it easily. The fight was on.