Twisted By Love, Reincarnation Tales, Book 1 (18 page)

Bern was familiar with the term. In
reincarnation theory, small children often had dreams that were
memories bleeding through from their previous life. In time, they
would forget, all traces wiped clean.

“So this isn’t the first time snakes scared
you.”

Livie shook her head emphatically with a
child’s exaggeration.

“Do you remember the time before when they
scared you?”

Livie frowned. “No. Not really.”

“Why don’t I help you? Let’s take the stairs
down again. Let’s move to that previous time when you were
frightened by the snakes. Are you walking down the stairs,
Livie?”

“Uh-huh.” She nodded. “Have to be careful,”
she murmured.

“Good girl. Is there another door down
there?”

“Uh-huh.”

“What does it say?”

“The real truth.” A hint of fear laced her
voice, a slight quiver in the words.

“Do you want to go through the door?”

Livie was silent for several seconds, a line
between her eyebrows as if she was concentrating hard. Then she
answered. “I think so. Hadden wants me to.”

“Who’s Hadden?”

“My friend.”

“Well, then, let’s go see Hadden.”

Without further prompting, Livie made the
same gesture she had before, stretching out her hand, twisting the
unseen knob.

“What do you see?”

“I’m on the dock with my feet in the water.
It’s warm and the water feels good. I like it out here.”

“How old are you?”

“Five.”

She’d been three, then gone deeper, yet now
she was five. Jesus. Could it be a past life? Was it actually
possible? He’d believed…and yet he hadn’t. He wasn’t sure he did
even now.

“Do you know what year it is?” Suze
asked.

“I’m five,” Livie said again, as if she
didn’t understand.

Suze compressed her lips in disappointment
and moved on. “What’s your name?”

“Chad,” Livie said, and Bern noticed an
accent in her voice, something slightly southern.

“You’re a little boy, Chad?”

Livie made a face. “Course I am.”

“Are you all by yourself?”

“Yes. Sissy’s mad at me. She says Mama’s
always making her take care of me on accounta my legs don’t work
right. She says Mama always pays ’tention to me and never to her
’cause I’m a cripple.” Bern made out a definite southern twang,
though he couldn’t identify the specific region. “It’s always you,
you, you,” the little boy in Livie mimicked the older sister. “So
she said I should just sit on the dock here,” Livie went on, “and
not bother her no more for an hour. She’s over by the big willow
playing and pretending she don’t see me. I don’t care. I like it
here better.”

“How old is Sissy?”

“She’s eight, and she hates me because Mama
loves me better. But Hadden’ll come by to play soon. He likes me
even if Sissy don’t.”

“Is Hadden your brother?”

“No, he’s my friend,” Livie said, her brow
creasing in frustration. “And he likes me lots better than he likes
Sissy, because she’s just a big old ugly girl.”

“How old is Hadden?”

Livie made a face as if she had to think
hard, then suddenly smiled brightly. “He’s eight like Sissy.”

“Okay, so you’re playing in the water. What
do you mean your legs don’t work right, Chad?”

“I can’t walk. My legs don’t hold me up good.
Sissy says they should have drowned me when I was borned, just like
the damaged kitties Grandpa made her drown last summer. Then she
wouldn’t have to take care of me.”

“That wasn’t nice,” Suze commiserated, but
Bern was struck by the thought that a grandfather would make an
eight-year-old child drown kittens.

“I don’t care.” But there was a note in the
childish voice that said Chad cared very much about what his sister
had said. “It’s getting hot out here,” Livie said. “I wish Hadden
would come. I got mud on my shorts and Mama’s gonna be mad on
accounta everyone’s coming over this afternoon.”

Suze didn’t pursue that line of questioning
and moved on to the reason they were here. “All right, Chad. I want
you to move to the time the snakes scared you. Can you tell me
about the snakes?”

Livie began rubbing her feet together, her
fists clenching and unclenching. “I don’t like them. Too many
swimming all round me. I think they’re biting me, but I can’t feel
anything. Where’s Hadden?” She sucked in a sob, her lower lip
trembling.

“You can’t take your legs out of the water?”
Suze prodded.

“I’m trying.” Panicked, she gasped for
breath. “Can’t do it. Sissy did it on purpose. She knew they’d
come.” She twisted on the sofa, looking over her shoulder at
something only she could see. “Why don’t she come get me?” Livie
bit her lip. “She hates me, and she wants them bad cottonmouths to
get me. She’s screaming and running away, leaving me.” She squirmed
on the couch, her feet rubbing, rubbing. “I hate cottonmouths. I
hate ’em.”

Cottonmouths. He’d also heard them called
water moccasins. And if there were as many as Livie said, they were
definitely lethal.

“Make them go away.” Then she screamed, not
full-throated but muted. Her pain tore through him.

“Hadden,” she cried out. “Why don’t Hadden
come?” she whispered, then sniffled.

He couldn’t stand it another moment and laid
his hand on her again.

Where previously she’d been wrapped in a
tight ball, Livie’s body began to relax. She rolled onto her back,
one arm flopping down by her side, the other hanging off the
couch.

“I’m tired,” she said in her soft, childish
voice. “I’m all tired now.” Then she opened her eyes and stared at
the ceiling. “The sky’s so pretty, don’t ya think?” Her voice
became sluggish. “And look at that light. See that light? Look, I
see Papa in the light. He’s holding out his hand to me.” She closed
her eyes. “Mama said he died in the big war.”

The big war? Civil war? First World War?
Second?

“The little boy is dying,” Suze said
unnecessarily.

That was obvious. “Aren’t you going to stop
it?”

Suze gave him a look. “It’s already
happened.”

“I mean the pain.” It was cruel to make her
go through her own death again.

Suze leaned closer to Livie. “Are you in
pain, Chad?”

“It don’t hurt,” Livie whispered. “It’s like
I see everything from way above. Look, there’s Hadden. He’s pulling
me out.” She leaned over the edge of the couch as if straining to
see something far below. “I knew he’d come. He always comes. Can I
go now?”

“First, can you tell us if any of the people
in that life are with you in this life?”

“My sister Sissy. She’s always with me. And
Hadden, too. I saw Grandpa once while I was out walking. He wasn’t
very nice to me. Papa says I gotta go now.” She rolled to her side
and curled into the ball again.

Bern’s insides were in knots. He didn’t know
exactly what he’d just witnessed, or what to make of it.

Finally, when he thought it was all over, her
eyes snapped open and she held her hand out. To him. “I knew you’d
come, Hadden. You always come when I need you.”

Then her eyelids fell closed once more, and
she tucked her hands beneath her head, like a child ready to
sleep.

Chapter Seventeen

“I’ll count to three, Livie, and you’ll wake
feeling rested and relaxed. One, two, three.”

Livie lay there a moment, her eyes closed. It
had been the oddest feeling. She’d heard Susan’s voice and could
answer all her questions. She’d felt Bern’s touch, his closeness.
Yet she’d been somewhere else entirely. She was that little boy
dressed in neatly pressed red shorts with mud splatters on them,
the hot summer sun on her bare arms. She wondered how, since she
couldn’t walk, she’d gotten mud on them. She hadn’t even questioned
that when she was in the dream. Only it wasn’t like a dream at all.
It had been intensely real. The snakes swarming around her legs,
the sense that they were biting even though she couldn’t feel it.
She’d been screaming for Hadden…

Livie opened her eyes. “I know you,” she
said, staring straight at Bern. She saw beyond his arresting face,
saw deeper, to the essence of that young boy racing down the dock,
dragging the lifeless little body out of the water, holding
tightly, crying. “Where were you?”

A muscle tightened, rippling along his jaw.
“I don’t know.”

His sister Susan broke in, and the sense of
absolute knowing washed away. “You’re a very good subject.”

Livie sat up, pulling herself into the corner
of the couch and curling her legs beneath her. “How long was I
hypnotized?”

Bern glanced at his watch. “An hour and a
half.”

She felt her mouth drop open. It hadn’t felt
that long at all.

Susan crossed her legs and leaned forward.
“I’m sure you’ve heard of reincarnation and regression
hypnosis.”

“Yes.” She answered Susan, but kept her eyes
on Bern. She couldn’t tear herself away from the sight of his face.
He was
so
familiar, in a completely different way than he
had been before. She
knew
him.

“I believe that’s what happened with you,”
his sister explained. “The first episode occurred when you were a
child, but obviously the second was a previous lifetime.”

A past life? Livie wasn’t sure she could take
it all in. Yet it had all been so real.

“What did you think of it?” Susan grabbed a
notepad off the table and held a pen poised. “I hope you don’t mind
if I document.” Behind the wire-rimmed glasses, her eyes were
bright and excited. She perched on the edge of her seat as if
afraid she’d miss something.

“You can write down whatever you want.”

Next to his sister, Bern was totally
unreadable. He hadn’t said a word. She wondered what that meant.
Had she totally freaked him out?

“Let me explain,” Susan was saying. “Souls
travel together. And it certainly sounds like you were with your
sister. Do you recall what you said about your baby sister? That
she’d
always
hated you?” She waited for Livie to nod. “That
was most likely an emotion flowing from your previous life
together.”

Livie recalled the intensity of that emotion.
Yes, when she’d said it, she’d thoroughly believed it.

“You also mentioned your grandfather.” She
pointed her pen at Bern. “And my brother.”

As far-fetched as it sounded, it explained
why she’d become so attached in such a short time. Even more, it
explained her nightmares.

Livie just started talking, telling Susan
everything. “The dreams. They’re exactly like—” She stopped,
brought the image of the dock to mind, recalled the feelings. “It
was so peaceful. And I felt so good. That’s how the nightmares
always start. I could see my sister over by the willow tree. She
was pretending I didn’t exist.” Livie paused for a deep breath.
“The dreams always start with a tranquil feeling, my sister close
by. Then all of a sudden she throws a snake or a lizard or some
horrible reptile at me.” Livie didn’t even know if a lizard was a
reptile, but it was the image of creepy-crawly things that was the
same. “I can’t get them off me. All I can do is scream.”

For a moment, she’d been completely in the
dreams again. But she looked up to find Bern regarding her with a
dark gaze. Susan eyes beamed with an avid light.

“I know it doesn’t sound the same at all. But
it is.” Livie pursed her lips. “The emotions are the same.”

Susan nodded eagerly. “It’s what we call
bleed-through memories. A small sliver of a past life comes
through, especially with children. But yours don’t seem to have
faded completely.”

Livie regarded her a moment. “You do this
stuff all the time?”

“Of course.”

She glanced at Bern, starting to feel a bit
miffed that he said absolutely nothing. “I thought you just did
hypnosis for bad habits people want to quit.”

“I do that, too, but reincarnation fascinates
me. Your dreams are also a metaphor for your relationship with your
sister. In the past life, you were in competition for your mother’s
affection, and probably for the boy Hadden’s as well. Do you have
the same kind of rivalry in your current life?”

Okay, that sounded completely crazy—past
life, current life.

“Yes, she does.” It was the first thing Bern
had added to the conversation.

Susan’s hands flew excitedly. “So you see how
that life is a metaphor, the rivalry between the two of you and
your total immobility against it.”

“So maybe that was just another dream.”

“Nonono. It was real. Unfortunately I
couldn’t get enough facts to verify anything because you weren’t
old enough to give the pertinent details.” She fluttered the pen in
her fingers. “Do you remember anything about that childhood
incident with the snakes in your bed? Three is young, but some
children retain memories, especially with a traumatic event.”

Bern, after that initial entry into the
conversation, had gone back to studying her like a bug. Where had
he gone? She knew he’d touched her during the hypnosis. It had made
everything easier. Yet now she felt abandoned.

“I’m not sure I
remember
versus having
heard my mother tell the story so many times.”

“That can happen. That’s why I didn’t want to
direct too much. It’s possible for hypnosis to confuse memory.
False memories, you’ve probably heard of them.” Susan tapped the
pen against her lips. “Still, the fact that your mother talked
about it is corroborative evidence.”

“It’s late, Suze,” Bern interrupted.

“Oh yeah, sure.” His sister seemed caught up
in her own excitement. “Thanks for doing this. I rarely get someone
as detailed as you. And going into the light, even seeing your
father. Fascinating. If you ever want to do it again, don’t
hesitate to ask.”

“Thank you.” The truth was Livie felt a bit
overwhelmed. And she didn’t have a clue what Bern was thinking. She
was sure jumping into past lives wasn’t what he’d had in mind when
he brought her here. All she was supposed to do was explain away
her bad dreams.