Of the Occult

The Cultist

The wind was strong that night, so much so that the little hair on John Daye's head whipped from one end to the other. As he got down from his lead colored car, and looked up to see the medical research facility and asylum looming overhead, he hesitated. John Daye's nature, if one were to ask, was a complex one; on one hand, he was a man of science, well educated and learned, and hence he often fixated about the facts of a matter, choosing to base his deductions upon them. But that is not the same as saying he based his deductions only on them, because on the other hand, his nature was such that he was easily swayed by his heart; often symptoms of sympathy and pity manifested upon him, and he was well aware of it. What this duality (and his knowledge of it) did to him was pretty straightforward - he was a man who undervalued his own assertions, thinking it came from one side of his nature or the other - and this was, perhaps, the main reason why he hesitated.
His basic scientific nature dictated he had to meet Alicia Lamb to get all the facts straight.
His more emotional state of being told him he should stay far from Alicia Lamb, for there was only so much of shock the world could handle.
This hesitation would have only increased had Rebecca White included herself to this excursion to the facility Mrs. Lamb was admitted to, and John was secretly glad that she, when he asked her to come along, had said in no uncertain terms - "sorry, John, I got no wish to see that pyromaniac."
Needless to say, the presence of her niece would be an unnecessary complication to today's meeting.
It wasnt the first time that John Daye was walking through the long corridors of the asylum. He had, on exactly two occassions, paid Alicia a visit sometime last year for his book. On both times he had been received by the unusually calm Alicia Lamb, and both times he had had amicably intelligent conversations with her. If not for the ambiance, John Daye would never be able to tell she was insane, despite the degree in psychiatry that hung on his office wall, and this he had admitted to his agent in exactly those words.
And as the nurse opened the ward to a cautiously designed cell, even with all the time between their visits, Alicia smiled to John without wasting a second and his eyebrows furrowed together in that instant. He would never forget the heinious acts of crime she had committed, but he always found it hard to remember that in her presence, and that disgusted him. There was a reason why he had only visited her twice.
"oh hullo, Mr. Daye, hullo. How you been?"
Daye's frown increased in depth, but he knew that for a psychiatrist it was important to always be seen by the patient as a person of superiority.
"Perfect, Alicia. Beautiful night outside."
A flash of anger was very quickly subdued by the Lamb, and Daye might have very well imagined it. Alicia looked away as if looking at a far off thunderstorm.
"pity, I haven't seen the outside like ever. So what brings you here?"
"the same thing that brought me here last time."
Alicia looked at him now, and in her eyes he could see greed.
"Why? You didn't finish your book yet? Thought all my "cult" members had been caught for arson. What you up to?"
Daye suffocated his feeling of unease.
"Arson and reckless endangerment of life. Children's lives, Alicia. They burnt down a public library with kids inside. Kids!"
" Oh I wasn't involved, as I have said countless times to you before."
" your cult, your people."
The flash of anger substantiated itself again in her eyes.
"my religion! My disciples!" She hadn't raised her voice, only her temper.
John raised a hand in mock defeat, but she continued anyway, in much softer tones,
"in any case, I wasn't aware of that as you very well know. What "my people" chose to do that night was not something I told them to do, but i agree I share responsibility."
"Share responsibility?? How can you be so callous about the attempted mass murder done in your name? You do realise your people did that because you were burning yourself and your child? Because you told them the sacrifice of children would save the world? That night while you burnt down your family, they burnt down a public library. It was lucky we could save those trapped in the library, but your child perished. Do you not feel anything, woman?"
But John had managed to lose his cool and hers. She slammed her hands down on the table between them and said,
" do I feel nothing? I feel everything! I can feel the flames consume me every hour of every day! It's a pity you cannot! I sacrificed my child so that I could save this world, or are you so blind that you cannot see that our world is dying? Do you feel nothing?"
John looked at her the way a hawk looked at a disease carrying rat. He felt disgusted and hungry to kill her at the same time. The power of belief was so utterly terrifying. But this conversation was growing steadily pointless. He needed information, not about the fire cult but about her, Alicia Lamb. So John said venemously,
" What I fail to understand, woman," calling her that seemed to infuriate her, much to John's satisfaction, "is why would you burn your own daughter, when you were trying so hard to have one?"
Alicia was mum for the first time. No, it was much more than silence, it was severity. Her eyes became like blank marbles, her cheeks much more gaunt and her mouth withdrew to a thin line. Somehow her reddish-brown hair (so similar to Rebecca's, despite having no blood relation to her) became like fire, as if fanning and stoking itself with rage. But John, despite that, carried on, finding it so satisfying to anger her.
" you wanted a child, did you not? A daughter you could love like your own. A babe you could take care of. You felt the need to be needed, Alicia, and that's understandable. Thats human."
But Alicia Lamb smiled a devilish smile. She contrasted so starkly in her nature when compared to the man uttering these words; for her nature was neither of science or of love. It was pure hatred - hatred of the world, hatred of her people, but most of all hatred of herself. So she smiled her devilish smile, and as John Daye recoiled, he missed the tear that escaped from the corner of her eyes.
" I wanted a child so I could burn her"
Daye's eyes became like two saucers, so wide with shock. His heart wrenched with the thought of such pure evil. He was so horrified, he wanted to leave at once. But there was still the matter of the Lady of the Lake. His lips twisted in disgust, and he stood up, as he demanded.
"tell me about the Lady of the Lake"
Alicia considered.
" oh going to destroy one more "cult" are you, Mr. Psychiatrist? Oh but she isn't a cult. She is a goddess."
" how so?" he asked with narrow eyes.
" she heals people, Mr Daye. She heals them with a touch and for a price. Of course, you asking me that question means you already know how I was able to give birth. See, when I was a young girl, my neighbour took quite a liking to me. So one night, while I went out to buy some groceries for me mum, he decided to rape me. Oh, he did more than just rape me. - he damaged me. Growing up, I forced myself to forget that "incident". I went on about my studies and I went on to find a job and such. And when, years later, I found Patrick and we married and we decided to have a child of our own, the doctors told me I couldn't carry. My womb was inflamed - it was burnt away, unfixable. So I went to the Lady of the Lake, a little Asian girl she is. And I thought "heck they swindled my money", I mean she was just a little kid dressed up in proper traditional Japanese clothes. "nonsense" I thought.
But I was very desperate, and I believed. So me and Patrick, we went to the place they told us to come, went inside this silver caravan, and did this whole incense filled ritual sort of thing, you know? And all I thought then was "shit, this is nonsense." And then it happened."
" what?"
" what else, Mr. Daye? The little girl touched my arm, and I don't know what happened to me, I swear. All of a sudden, I was crying and telling her about all my sorrows and shit. And I felt it, I felt the stress leaving me, I felt that tomorrow would be another day, you know? And I wept in that little girl's lap, still crying. I felt free.
When I got home, I was pregnant. It was the most beautiful thing I have ever witnessed. I don't know how it happened, or why it happened. Those nine months, people preached to me, worshipped me as their goddess, but I never told them who was the real goddess. The Lady of the Lake.
See, there is a legend in Japan, a legend Patrick heard about from his time spent in Kanto. Once upon a time, there was a young samurai who fought for his lord loyally and chivalrously. This lord of his was waging a war against some other lord, you know what the lords do, and the young samurai fought in his stead. But he was wounded, fatally so, and half in deliriums he walked through the forest and found himself near a lake. Drinking a sip from the waters and deciding this was as good a spot as any, he lay down waiting for death. But next morning he woke up to find his wounds healed and his exertion gone. He went back home to tell his lord of the magical water, and the lord hearing this brought his whole retinue to the lake, built a shrine there and in time built an entire town around the lake. Soon, as could be expected, the water in the lake depleted, for everyone drank the water in hopes of a long life.
So one day, the gods descended and to their horror, found their holy water nearly exhausted. In their wrath, the gods put a curse upon any who had tasted the water. The entire town faced plague and disease and starvation, and the lord in desperation begged the gods to free them from the curse and promised to never drink from the lake again. They then told him - "you have taken from this lake, so you have to give something back". And the lord asked them what he could give back, and they answered - "your daughter."
And so he sacrificed his daughter to the lake.
In time, it became a ritual of the village to leave a baby girl to the shrine next to the lake, where she is brought up like a goddess. When that girl becomes old, the village chooses one more to be sent to the shrine. And so it goes on. That girl is called the Lady of the Lake."
Daye spat on the floor and walked away.