Beloved: Memoir of a Phantom

Preface and Dedication

This story was started November 2007 and completed May 2008.This novel was a labour of love and a story that demanded to be told. The first 12 chapters seem very up beat and borderline surreal, but after chapter 12 the story takes a very dark turn. I hope you enjoy the tale of these two tortured souls,and will continue reading with Phantom's confession (a short story from Gabriel's point of view) and its harrowing conclusion in Phantom's Requiem. (Also a little note on the typeface and spacing. it transferred to wattpad a little wonky looking. It was orginally wrote on word 97 and so it may look a little weird here.)

Dedicated to my Mother who let me wander about cemeteries at night in my youth and supported me fully through this madness. Without her I would have never met my characters in the first place.

-Berlynn Masenko

PROLOGUE                                                          

       A Chance meeting

My real name is Isadora Thomas. This is the story of how my life was ruined and how I now spend every day of my existence chasing and hunting the monster that did this to me. My story begins in 1961; one year to the day that everything came crashing down.

It was a rainy September night outside my usual window seat in the Jitters coffee house; A quaint little hole in the wall filled with society's rejects sipping bad coffee and eating stale muffins. It was my kind of place.

On this particular night I was sitting solo, revelling in the sound of the low thrum of the acoustic band and the slosh of the rain outside the window. I was struggling to be poetic, scribbling away in my school notepad. "The moon in June will be rising soon." Trash. Pure garbage.

"Mind if I sit?" asked a male voice with the slightest hint of an accent.

"I guess," I retorted barely glancing up from my lame scribbling.

I heard the chair scratch across the floor as the stranger sat down across from me. Great, now I had company.

"So, who's playing tonight?" He asked quite obviously trying to make conversation.

"s'open mike night. My friend Genia is up next." Again I didn't bother to look up from my notepad.

"Oh" he replied "Are you working on something to read or sing?"

I sensed that he was trying to sneak a look at my pathetic excuse for poetry, so I quickly covered my paper with my hand.

"What I'm writing is garbage! Pure rubbish! And I'd like it if you wouldn't read it." I crumpled the top sheet of my notepad and quickly shoved it into my bag, looking up slowly for the first time at the stranger who sat across from me. This was also the first time I would catch a good look at HIM.

That's right; this was my first meeting with the devil who ruined everything.

At the time I was completely unaware of who or what he was. All I knew was he was the most stunning person I'd ever laid eyes on; at the time of course. He was tall and lean; a little over 6 foot. He was dressed all in black (but who wasn't in this place.) which really accented his milky white skin. He wore his dark raven hair long; coming to just past his shoulders. His eyes were by far his best feature, being the most beautiful vibrant green I’d ever seen, although they were half hidden behind some dark sunglasses. The sunglasses struck me as unusual; seeing as it was so dark in the place. However it did make him all the more cool and mysterious.

He introduced himself as Gabriel; a man with the name and the face of an angel. How ironic.

I meanwhile was gawking at him like an idiot.

"And your name is?" He asked jolting me out of my daze.

"Oh! Isadora, but everyone just calls me Izzy or Is. Don’t call me Dora though, I hate it."

At that moment Genia came off the stage and came over to the table sounding a little out of breath and slid over another chair to the table.

"Hey Is, what did you think of my reading? Lay it on me man, I can take the brutality." Genia had been my best friend since grade school, and was always completely oblivious to the fact that she is brilliantly talented at no matter what she did.

“Er…” I had to make up something quick. “It was really cherry Gene, but you do need to file down some of the edges, you know. It’s still a bit raw.”

She looked at me like she was going to burst out crying.

“Well I thought it was the best poem I’d ever heard.” Gabriel piped up.

I shot him a look that said drop dead.

“Thanks um…”

“Gabriel” He said offering his hand, which she took gladly.

That was the thing about Gabriel; he was far too polite and articulate for a beatnik.

“See Isadora, you catch more flies with honey than with vinegar.” Genia said smugly, sticking her tongue out at me.

“Well Eugenia,” I said fully aware of how much she hated her full name. “You asked for brutal honesty and you know everything you write is brilliant. I just thought I would give you something to work towards.”  I turned to Gabriel apologetically.

“Please ignore her.”

“Its alright, I find the banter entertaining.” He said with a small smile. Then he turned back to Genia.

“It was a pleasure to finally meet the wonderfully talented sister of the lovely Bryn.” He glanced quickly out the corner of his eye in my direction to catch my puzzled reaction.

“Oh! So you’re that Gabriel! My sister has mentioned you a few times before; it’s so nice to finally meet you!”  Oh god, she was flirting with him! Not good.

Genia certainly wasn’t the most attractive person; she was short and slightly overweight with wavy mousy brown hair to her jaw line and a slightly upturned nose that was peppered with thousands of little brown freckles that were sprinkled all across her cheeks and stopped at her large, watery brown eyes. However whatever she lacked in appearance, she made up for in talent and personality; Which always lead to her getting more dates than I did.

In actuality, people tended to avoid me all together. They said it was because I was strange and because of incidents that happened when I was too young to actually remember. So, with the exception of Genia and Bryn, I was a social leper.

And here she is drawing away the only live human male who had ever stopped to talk to me; Damn.

“You know, you two should join us on Saturday, We were going to go to the movies.”

He said looking directly at me again. YAY!

“Sure.” I responded with a big stupid smile on my face again.

“Great, we’ll pick you two up at Bryn’s. I’ll see you then.” And with that he got up from the table, joined another tall, lean guy who looked a bit like the military type, (or at least the type that wouldn’t hang around this kind of place.) and left into the rainy street outside the window.