Soul Wipe by Tahira Iqbal

As Cassidy exited the apartment block, nearly crashing through the revolving glass doors, she searched to her left, then right. She couldn’t see where Jaxon had fled. It was nearly 4 in the morning, and the streets were moderately busy. But he was nowhere to be seen.

Her heart was pounding at the madness of it all. Her hands were bunched into fists, and she would have loved to take an almighty swing at the star right about now.

She headed back into the lobby of her apartment block as water welled in her eyes as she pulled out her phone from her handbag. And to her delight Jaxon answered.

“Leave me alone,”
His words cut her.
“Jaxon!” She sobbed gently, “Please!”
“All this time…” He said, his anger barely concealed, “You’ve…”
He just couldn’t bring himself to say it.
“This is not what you think!” Staring up, she implored the God in heaven to help her. She hadn’t even imagined that she could lose Jaxon this way.
“I’m going home Cassidy,”
“Jaxon, come on, please just hear me out!”
“No,”

It took the next five minutes of harried conversation on her part to get him to agree to meet her.

Cassidy had hailed a cab and directed the driver to Jaxon’s hotel, which was just on the other side of the park. Soon, she found herself knocking the door of room 1741.

The door opened and Jaxon, red eyed, let her in.

The curtains had been drawn, and Jaxon’s unopened suitcase lay on the bed.
“Please don’t go home,” Weeks of pain and sorrow lurched through her system.

Jaxon sat down heavily on the bed, rubbing his eyes.
“I flew over here to surprise you, to be with you,” He looked up at her, and the raw anguish was all over his face, “Explain it to me Cassidy, and it better be good,”

Slowly, she pulled her jacket off, suddenly feeling warm and light headed. She sat on a spare chair, and she realised that she didn’t even have the words.

“You are having an affair,” Jaxon said.
Her speech locked away, she simply shook her head no. And looking him directly in the eyes, she realised that she needed to tell him the truth. She had to offer something of herself, some reality. And in a horrible rush, with moments filled with tears, Cassidy breathed the entire story to him.

Jaxon stood up, heading to the window and pulled away the curtains. A glittering view of the city appeared to them. He then opened the window as much as he could and stood, taking deep breaths of air.

Cassidy’s emotions charged through her, and she stumbled to the bathroom where she threw up.

Hunkering beside the toilet, she waited until the nausea passed and her stomach stopped turning.

“I think you need to see a doctor,” Jaxon’s tone was calm, even. He was standing at the bathroom door.
“Believe me, that’s what I first thought,”

She flushed the toilet, and got up, despair flooding her all over again. Cleaning her mouth with water, she turned to her husband.

“This must be something to do with you falling down the stairs,” He said.
“It’s not, I didn’t fall,”
“I saw you,”
“You didn’t,”
“I did!”
“Those memories aren’t real!”
“For fuck's sake Cassidy!” Jaxon thumped the door frame and headed back into the room.

She followed.

“Jaxon I need you to understand something,”
But he wasn’t listening.
“You’re telling me that I died, that I was killed in a car crash on the weekend that we went to Southgreens? I remember that weekend, we spent the entire time in bed! I didn’t die, we didn’t have a car crash!”
“Those thoughts aren’t real,” She said as calmly as she could, “We hit a deer… The car crashed… I don't know how he did it... But he did ... The star did something to change...”
"Change what?"
"Life... He changed our lives,"

Jaxon came up to her, suddenly, his hands cupping her flushed face.
“Oh honey, you need to see someone, you’re not well…”

She pushed him away.
“Jaxon, right here, right now, I need you to understand that this is real and is really happening. The space object that crashed? The one that the entire world is looking for? It was in me! Then it became human, he’s been torturing me ever since that day!” As she said it out loud, it did sound crazy, off the wall, but for her, it was the truth. And he had to believe her.

Sheer frustration caused him to take Cassidy by the shoulders and shake her,
“Oh my God!” Jaxon roared, “Just stop it! Stop this shit! You’re really freaking me out!”

Cassidy pulled away,
“I went through the agony of losing you, then losing my best friend in some sick exchange of lives, then you came back…” The tears reeled in remembrance of all she had been through.

Jaxon couldn’t stop his tears either, he was genuinely terrified that Cassidy was battling some psychosis that he couldn’t help with.
“I buried you, I went through such loneliness and you have to understand it, for two years Jaxon!”

“This is a real elaborate way to cover up an affair,” Jaxon lost his energy and sat down.

Cassidy went to him, kneeling before him,
“I can prove that what I’m saying is real, the star, he's real,”
Jaxon shook his head sadly,
“Cassidy…”
She focussed,
“I can prove it, you have to trust me,”

Jaxon couldn’t say anything, his eyes vacant. Lost.

Cassidy held up her hand under his gaze.
“What?” He said wearily.
“Just watch,”

Cassidy trained her gaze to Jaxon’s. And within a second his eyes widened in horror.
“Fucking hell!” He scooted back onto the bed, his breath coming in short pants, “Your veins…!”
“It’s traces of the star,” Cassidy spied the silver, strangely unaffected for once. If this was her reality, then she was getting used to it.

Jaxon got up off the bed and stared at his wife. She moved, wanting to hold him, but he just stepped further away. And it broke her heart.

“Get out…” Jaxon whispered.
“Jaxon… Please!”
“Just get out!”

Cassidy found herself on the street. The sky was a furious tornado grey, a rain storm looming as the dawn arrived. And as she tried to find her way back to her apartment, she saw that the star was waiting for her just outside the entrance to Jaxon’s hotel. And he knew what she had done.

“You told him,” The star’s tone hinted that he was impressed.
“I did. He thinks I’m crazy,”

Exhausted, she began wandering towards the hotel’s taxi rank.
“I want to go home,”
“I’ll come with you,”

And she didn’t have the energy to argue.

Back in the apartment, she fell into bed, aware that the star was pulling the covers back for her, then tucking them around her.

“Sleep,”
“Jaxon…” Cassidy’s eyes drooped shut.
“Don’t worry,”

The star sat on the bed, running his hand over Cassidy’s hair. Soothing her into sleep. He mimicked her breathing pattern, pulling a sense of peace into him. He almost felt sorry for her. Almost.

* * *

It was the next morning. And the text message she had received from Jaxon said that he was going home. And that they would get through this together. He would be taking a later flight, as the one that Cassidy was travelling on was fully booked. But he was offering her his support. Whatever she was going through, she wasn't alone any more.

Cassidy had taken her seat in first class, and sinking back in the large chair, she turned to face the window. Rain was battering against the body of the jet, it was going to be a bumpy ride she thought, in more ways than one.

Jaxon’s faith in her buoyed her emotions, and she smiled through her tears as the jet roared up the runway, and then up into the sky. She curled up in her seat, safe in the knowledge that her husband would help her through this trauma. The star had said that she needed to "learn from this". And she had.

* * *

The star stood outside room 1741. He knocked. Jaxon opened the door a few seconds later.
“We’ve got her,” Jaxon said.
The star smiled, a lazy smile that denoted victory.
“We’ve got her my friend,”

The star stepped into the room.
“Jesus, you’re going to really do it,” Jaxon said.
The star straightened his shoulders, a sense of purpose running through him. And he loved that feeling.
“I will not fail this time,” The star said.

---------------------------------------------------------

COPYRIGHT - TAHIRA IQBAL - 2006