Forever Yours
©2025 Elder Road Books - Lynnwood WA
Chapter 46: Journey into Darkness
HENRY HAD NEVER been plagued with nightmares. He credited that to his ability to almost instantly recognize when he was dreaming. Nightmares were a result of believing you were experiencing something false. Usually, if he had an unpleasant dream, he could simply change channels or turn it off.
“God is punishing you!” Isobel said in his ear. He turned to see the Latina beauty standing naked beside his bed. Yes, this had to be a dream.
“God isn’t interested in me,” he responded. “Or anyone else, for that matter.” He started to turn the channel, but Rev. Daniel Reeves was standing behind Isobel in a long flowing robe with a bunch of stoles hung around his neck.
“The Sword of the Spirit has descended upon you. You will be judged for your sins. You have set an idol before the people to worship and adore. There is no god but God and he will not be satisfied until this idol is cast down and you have been thrown into the flames of judgment,” the preacher said.
“Is that why you hired Russian atheists to attack our servers?”
“God can use anyone to serve his purpose.”
“Maybe he’s using Pythia for his purpose,” Henry argued.
He turned back to Isobel. As long as she was in his dream and naked, he was going to enjoy her.
“Is that guy Catholic?” Henry asked.
Isobel looked at the preacher as if she’d just discovered him and tried to cover herself up with her hands. The robes fell away and Reeves stood there in a business suit with his Bible flopping around in one hand like a fish.
“You aren’t part of the Church!” Isobel declared. “You’re a false prophet.”
“It’s the Romans who have led the people astray for centuries. You are idol worshipers, too,” the preacher shot back.
“Your only god is money,” Isobel responded. “How can you demand that the poor and homeless give you what sustenance they need; and you turn around and spend their money on lavish homes and gluttony?”
Isobel and Reeves continued to argue and Henry lost interest in them. He slept until he was nudged awake by a naked girl in his bed. He turned to look into Lisa’s eyes.
“My love,” He whispered to her. “How I love you.”
“Did you kill him?” she demanded.
“Who?”
“The preacher. He caused all this, didn’t he?”
“Don’t know, don’t care. I don’t even know where he lives,” Henry told his wife while trying to kiss her.
“Didn’t stop you with me,” Tom Reynolds said.
Henry looked over Lisa’s shoulder. It was another dream then. Reynolds was dead.
“I didn’t kill you,” Henry said.
“I was as good as dead long before the bullets found me. My job gone. The girls gone. My money gone. Even my property up north was confiscated. I had nothing. All my hope was gone.”
“You killed yourself,” Henry said. “You had nothing to hope for. Hope is what makes men despair. Despair makes them die.”
“Right now, the preacher has hope,” Lisa whispered. Tom faded out of his dream. “Take away his hope.”
Henry pulled Lisa closer to him, but held only a wad of blanket in his arms.
“Partner, you need to build us a fortress,” Luke said from a chair by the window. Henry hadn’t remembered a window in his dreams, but the only thing that had remained constant was the bed he was sleeping in. Surely, it must be about time to get up.
“I’m no architect,” Henry said.
“A digital fortress. Of course, if you want to build Isobel and me a mansion, that would be nice, too. We’re getting married.”
Dreams. Luke and Isobel were married a long time ago.
“You just said I need to build a digital fortress.”
“Like a castle on a hill,” Luke said. “Where no one can successfully attack us. It’s not enough to have a counterattack. We need to prevent attacks before they occur.”
“It’s true,” Ryan said from a chair on the other side of the bed. The room was beginning to look familiar with Henry’s father in it. “The thing that’s been bothering me about my Forever Yours files is who will have access. Anyone could ask me a question and the AI me has to answer. I have no protection. No way to refuse to answer.”
“I’ll think about it. I’m getting tired. I need to sleep on it,” Henry said, burrowing under his covers.
“No need for that,” Sylvia said, sitting on the arm of his father’s chair. “You’ve been asleep for days. You haven’t even asked about your wives. It’s time for you to wake up, Henry.”
“Lisa! Chastity! What happened?”
“What did you do to my granddaughter?” Beau demanded, towering over the bed. “You said she’d be safe!”
“No! Where is she? Lisa! Chastity! Where are you?”
“Here, love,” the voices of his wife and her girlfriend spoke together.
“It’s time to wake up, Henry,” Chastity said. She pulled his right arm around her as she stood by the bed.
“Come back to us, Henry,” Lisa said. He tried to put his left arm around her, but it wouldn’t move. “We all want to go home now.”
“Lisa! My precious wife,” he gasped, opening his eyes. “You’re alive!”
“Banged my head pretty badly, but I’m alive. They say I was concussed. I’m still on concussion protocol but I should be fine.”
Henry turned to see Chastity looking down at him. He saw the purple and orange bruise on her face. She winced as he squeezed her.
“Chas! What happened? Are you okay? Where are we?” Henry was still confused. This wasn’t his bed. “You’re hurt!”
“Couple of broken ribs and bruises on my face and chest. I guess the airbags saved us all from more damage, but I’m sure they caused the bruises on my face.”
“We’re at the hospital,” Lisa said. “We refused to leave after they discharged us.”
“Why? I don’t remember. Why am I in bed? And you’re bruised and broken! Tell me this is all another dream!”
“The accident. You don’t remember any of it, do you?” Chastity asked. “I don’t blame you. It was nasty.”
“A car ran a red light and T-boned our car,” Lisa said. “You took the brunt of it.”
“I don’t remember. We fought off the cyberattack and went to dinner,” Henry said.
“I was curled up on the passenger side of the back seat,” Lisa said. “I mostly just banged my head through the window. They say I was lucky not to be cut up badly, too.”
“You were lucky the guy hit you just behind the driver’s seat,” Chastity said. “It still broke your arm and leg and gave you a severe concussion. I think it was your head hitting me that broke my ribs. We’ve been watching over you for five days.”
“Five days? I knew I was tired after we left the office, but I didn’t think I’d sleep five days,” Henry said, flinching when he drew a deep breath. His ribs were also either broken or bruised.
“No doubt exhaustion had something to do with it, too,” Lisa said. “I think part of the reason we all survived was because we were so tired and relaxed.”
“I’m so thankful you’re here and awake!” Chastity said, petting his forehead and hair.
Henry’s initial assumption that she was naked proved to be a dream memory rather than reality. She wore blue hospital scrubs, identical to Lisa’s. She reached for the button that would call a nurse. The nurse arrived within seconds.
“Ah, Mr. Pascal! You’re awake. We’ve all been waiting for you. Especially these young women. I’ll call the doctor on duty and he’ll be here to check on you.”
She turned her head to a lapel mike and gave instructions, then started checking Henry’s vitals. The whole time, Henry continued to stare at Chastity and Lisa as they stood nearby.
Henry was released from the hospital two days later, once the doctor was satisfied he wasn’t suffering any long-term damage from the concussion and had medications to keep the pain under control. Henry always considered himself to have a high pain threshold, but he was thankful for the prescription painkillers the doctor gave him. By the time each dose wore off, he was in pain again.
Lisa and Chastity called in help from their friends and had a hospital bed and recliner moved into the living room of the row house. It was definite Henry would be unable to negotiate the stairs for a while. His mother came to supervise the transition to the house and make sure he was settled. Having a medical professional in the house had always kept Henry on the straight and narrow when it came to following doctor’s orders and Sylvia promised she would be looking in on him regularly.
Henry found it intensely frustrating to be confined to the bed and needing help to even move to the chair nearby. They’d moved the reclining loveseat from their sitting room downstairs so either Lisa or Chastity could sit next to him when he was out of bed. Chastity went back to work the next week, but Lisa stayed home. She was no longer working for Open Cloak, but had to be in the office in their suite to set up working remotely for her father. Still, she came to sit beside Henry and to help him move whenever he needed her.
“Oh, no!” Henry said, soon after he’d settled at home.
“What’s wrong?” Lisa asked, alarmed.
“Our celebration. It was supposed to be the weekend after we got back from our honeymoon. I missed it!” Henry said.
“Not really, dear. We didn’t hold it without you,” Lisa laughed. “Everyone was very understanding and I simply told them we would hold the celebration after you were ambulatory again. We’re still married.”
“I’m so sorry, Lisa. There’s so much pain I’ve caused.”
“Do you need a pill?”
“Not that kind of pain. Or at least not just that kind. I never considered that we would actually become a physical target. It’s just computer code!” Henry was becoming even more frustrated by not being able to work. He could scarcely go to the office without being able to walk. What was it Luke had said about an ADA compliance notice they’d received?
“Honey, did you know that according to recent surveys, seventy percent of Americans use some form of generative AI or chat bot? Half of Americans say they use it daily. And get this: twenty-five percent of Americans say they have a personal AI friend. You and I know it’s just code. The majority of Americans have forgotten that.”
“Shit! I really need to get back to the office.”
“You really need to rest and recover,” his wife said.
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