Page 67 of Deep Within Me
Except for one individual—a woman.
Zeke’s mouth went dry. He took the two photos, placing them next to each other. The same woman was in each, nearly two centuries apart. She hadn’t changed a bit. Hadn’t aged past her sixty or so years.
No. It wasn’t possible.
Zeke stared at Isabel’s image in all of the pictures. It had to be a trick. She’d done this on Photoshop.
As though she’d read his mind, or perhaps his expression, she murmured, “The tales the elders have told about the Others—that we’ve walked among you in your earthly form—aren’t simply myths, Zeke. I’ve been with your clan from the start, well before you were known as Comanche. I was sent here to watch over all of you, to make certain your people protected the land and heritage we provided, that you didn’t dishonor your gift of prophecy or us.”
Zeke forced down a swallow and shook his head. “This is a trick.” He shoved the photos away. Several fell to the floor. “You did this on a computer.”
“Have you ever seen me looking any different than I do now?” she asked.
“This is a damn trick. It’s not going to change my mind about—”
“Have you?” she insisted.
“You know I have,” he said as intensely as she had, his voice as low-pitched. “When I was a kid.”
“And I was your mother’s best friend from high school then, wasn’t I?”
Before Zeke could answer, he noted a subtle difference in Isabel’s eyes. The pupils were no longer round but vertical, like a reptile’s. And then the whites disappeared, replaced by a golden color.
He gaped, and the phenomenon was gone. As though it had never happened.
“Tell me,” she said, “when did I ever come to your house? When did you ever see me with your mother?”
This was nuts. Her complexion looked darker suddenly, more like hide than skin.
“Zeke?”
He blinked because she now looked as she always had. What in the fuck was happening?
“When did you see me with your mother?” she repeated.
He snapped, “Many times.”
“When, exactly? During one of your birthday parties? At another celebration your family had, like when you won that track meet in middle school or when Jacob won that spelling bee?”
Zeke thought back to every special event he could think of, knowing there had to be countless instances when the two women had been together. They’d been inseparable. BFF’s. Two normal females.
“You can’t recall details from even one now, can you?” Isabel asked. “Because they never existed. They’re no more than beliefsI put into your mind and those of the others so I could walk among you without causing fear.”
Unable to speak, Zeke kept shaking his head.
Isabel gestured to the pictures.
He studied her hands. The nails seemed yellowed and clawed then ordinary once more.
“How could I remain the same decade after decade, never growing older? Never dying?” she asked. “Not once have I changed in this form, and no one has asked how that could be. Do you have any idea why?”
He stepped back, not wanting to know or to consider what Isabel really was. That what he kept seeing—or at least thought he had—was her actual appearance and this might be true. When he and his clan had played the holograms left by the Others, they’d spoken English as flawlessly as he did and looked as human as anyone else on this planet. Not even close to this…thing…that seemed to be Isabel.
She went around the table, following him. “I removed or changed the memories the others had of me so no one would question my continued presence. Through the centuries, I’ve always been known as Isabel, or its equivalent, the best friend of the woman who bore the clan’s leader.”
Zeke’s voice shook. “Why are you telling me this?”
“You gave me no choice. No matter what Carreon and his men do, even his latest threat, you insist on that woman being here, on helping his people rather than your own.”