The Almighty Tom Sullivan

"Let's have sex," she said matter-of-factly.

Lisa stood at the foot of the bed, her hands steady as she let the nightgown fall to the floor until it settled on her feet.

The man sitting on the bed barely moved, his eyes unfocused ahead, his body stiff. He didn't glance at her, just sat there, numb, unseen, as if he hadn't even heard her.

Lisa drew closer, scrambling onto the bed until her bare skin grazed against his. She settled onto his lap, legs around him. He tensed up; his breathing came shallow, and his eyes darted in quick jitters from her face to the floor.

"What-what are you doing?" he stuttered, his hands hovering without surety over her skin for some sort of placement. His face turned beet red, and his voice came out no louder than a whisper.

She leaned in, her eyes fixed on his, and told him, "I need you to be a man."

He swallowed hard and tried to say just what he needed to. "L-Lisa, I. I don't think this is a good idea," he said awkwardly, his eyes darting around the room as if searching for some means of escape. "I'm. I'm not sure I can…"

"You can," she corrected him, firm without hardness in her tone.

Lisa’s voice cracked as she pulled away from him, standing at the edge of the bed. “Tom, you’re my husband, for God’s sake,” she said, almost in tears. She grabbed her nightgown off the floor and slipped it back on.

She sighed deeply, her mind drifting to the doctor's words. “Tom will keep forgetting himself every day. The toxin is eating away at his brain.”

Soon, he would not even know who she was anymore. Before her eyes, the man that she had married was fast disappearing.

She turned toward him-a hollowness spreading through her chest. Six years into their marriage, and he still didn't have any idea about that. Day in and day out, she had to introduce themselves to him, making him see their wedding photographs as if somehow this would bring him back.

Her hands shook as she wiped at her eyes. She remembered the day she found him on the street, barely alive, eight years ago. She'd nursed him back to health and somehow, along the way, fell in love with him. Her family couldn't understand why she chose him, a broken man, over everything else. They left her because of it.

“Why is my life like this?” she cried out, her voice breaking with pain.

Tom sat there, watching her. He wanted to say something, to comfort her, but the words got stuck in his throat. He could feel her pain, even if he couldn’t fully understand it. “L-Lisa, I’m sorry,” he muttered, but before he could say anything more, Lisa’s phone started ringing, cutting through the silence.

She stared at it for a moment, wiping her face again, before reaching for the phone.

Lisa stared at her phone in surprise to see "No Name" flash on the screen. Her hand hovered before answering.

"Hello?" she said cautiously.

"What are you doing at home? Have you forgotten it's your grandfather's birthday today?" The sharp voice on the other end sent shivers down her spine. She knew that voice too well-her mother.

Lisa listened, gob-smacked with surprise. After all these years of silence, her mother was calling? She hadn't heard from her family since they'd disowned her for marrying Tom. And now, out of nowhere, this.

"You better be at the party this time," her mother warned, "Stop wasting your life with that. Worthless trash of a man you call your husband. You've played around long enough."

Lisa shut her eyes tightly, trying to hold herself together. She remembered the day she called for help when Tom's condition turned worse and how her family had left her completely. They blocked her number, ignored her pleas, leaving her to handle everything on her own.

And now, just like that, her mother was commanding her to come back, like nothing had happened.

"He wants to see you. Be there. Now," her mother snapped, and the line went dead.

Lisa slowly lowered the phone; her mind was reeling. She couldn't move, her breath shallow. How could they call her after all this time, after telling her she was banished?

Her eyes flickered toward Tom, who sat silently, looking at her. Was she really supposed to leave him alone in this state? How could she just walk away when he needed her the most?

Lisa quietly placed a glass of water on the table beside the bed. She leaned in close to Tom, brushing her fingers gently over his arm. "I’ll be back," she whispered.

She turned away then, to the closet, to dress, her mind torn between staying with him and this sudden demand by her family. She gathered a small bag and began tugging on clothes.

Finally, she left the room.

Behind her, Tom straightened up, pulling his face into a quiet panic. "L-Lisa, don't go," he stammered out, shaking all over. His body was an oafish mess, grabbing toward her and knocking the glass off the table as he went; it hit the floor loudly and splintered.

He flinched at the sound, and suddenly, a sharp pain shot through his head. He clutched at his skull, groaning as flashes of memory surged through his mind. Fragments of his past, long buried, began to surface.

A large mansion, one powerful family-the Sullivans. He was the firstborn child and was supposed to be in charge of their elite army, taking to the throne after his father's death. But the most wrenching memory was that of his seventeenth birthday, the day he was to take the throne. That was when everything changed.

His cousin had approached him that day, a dark smile etched on his face. He could still remember what he heard-the tinkle of shattered glass, crystal clear. "This is adrenotoxin," his cousin had said, holding up a small vial. "It'll eat away your mind, drive you insane so slow you'll be losing your bits, everything, until nothing remains.

The poison in the drink had weakened Tom, and he collapsed. His cousin just whispered, "Long live the king," before he lost his consciousness. He was left to his death, dumped on the streets like any other piece of garbage.

That's where Lisa found him: broken, almost dead. She didn't know who he was, but she'd taken him in, looked after him, and eventually they fell in love. She had known nothing but pain and humiliation because of it. Memories swirled in his head of how people treated her-insults, meanness. Even her family had shunned her because of him.

The fog rolled out of his brain, and it wasn't until then that the blind fury resurfaced. Now he remembered everything-the life taken from him, the suffering inflicted upon Lisa because of him. Well, that all was about to change today.

Tom leaned himself up off the bed, his eyes aglow with crimson red anger. They made his wife suffer; they humiliated her. Well, now that was over.

He looked around, saw a phone on the bedside, picked it up, and dialed a number he hadn't called in years.

On the other end, the line clicked, and then a voice answered, respectfully. "Is that you, my lord?"

Tom's voice was steady. "Yes," he said, "I'm back. Let them know."

There was a pause on the other end, then the voice responded fast, "As you command, my lord."