Feeling less agitated and more in control, she walked toward the recliner.
Jason followed.
“Stay there,” she snapped.
He raised his hands. “Okay, okay.”
Jackie circled the recliner where the energy was the strongest and then sank down into its cushion. It was one of those swivel-rocker recliners. When she leaned her head back, the chair rocked a bit.
The recliner and the air around her made her feel agitated, jumpy. If she expelled the energy now, she wouldn’t be able to get a good reading, so she let the energy overtake her.
Wanting to tear the stuffing out of the chair, she dug her fingers into the cloth arms. Jason stared at her. That poor, miserable, useless twit. She ought to just smack him. Her jaw tightened; the joints in her fingers grew rigid.
“What are you looking at?” she asked him.
He blinked.
“Don’t you have homework to do?” she said. “You better go do it. You don’t want to be a loser forever.” A hole was opening up in the cloth as she wormed her finger into it.
Jason rocked from foot to foot, his hands in his pockets.
“Damn it, boy. What’d I tell you?”
A determined look formed on his face. How dare he defy her?
“Jackie, get up. Let’s get out of here.”
“I’m not your freaky girlfriend.”
Jason tried to pull her out of the recliner.
Halfway out of the recliner, she freed her hands and plopped back on to the worn cushion.
“Jackie, get up.”
“Quit calling me that.”
He tugged her again. She jerked her hands away from him. He fell to the floor.
“Ha, you little shit.” She wanted to kick a mudhole in his ass. She flew up from the recliner and drove the toe of her boot into his butt cheek.
“Ow!” He rolled away from her, jumped to his feet, and then rushed her.
They both fell into the recliner. Now, she was really pissed. Throwing punches into his sides, she whaled on him.
He pushed himself out of the chair. “Jackie! Get up!”
She lunged at him.
He jumped out of the way.
Her hands slammed into the rough fireplace stone, scraping her palms. She was stung by horror and surprise. He hurt her intentionally. How could he? He loved her, didn’t he?
Even though she was emotionally hurt, the rage she had picked up from the recliner still drove her. She charged at Jason, knocked him to the floor by the stairs. Her heart racing, she came to her senses. She crumbled to the floor and sat next to him, her arms hung over her folded knees.
“You sounded like my dad.”
“I’m sorry. I wasn’t myself.”
“Obviously.”
“I told you, I didn’t think I was ready for this. I’m still so vulnerable. What if I’d killed you?”
Jason’s eyes were filled with hurt. “You may as well.” He swallowed. “So now what do we do?”
“Go to Madam Sophie for more training.”
Chapter 34
Jackie and Jason sat together on the tapestry love seat in Madam Sophie’s parlor.
“My emotions got totally out of control,” she told Madam Sophie. “I knocked Jason on his butt. I thought I was his dad.”
Madam Sophie slid open the end table drawer. “You need to take this,” she said, taking out the crystal she had tried to give Jackie the other day.
“I told you. I don’t want to put my faith in an object. It just doesn’t feel right to me.”
“You’re not going to be ready for the next step in solving Jason’s problem if you don’t learn how to protect yourself. This crystal will help.”
“I’ll practice. I promise. Just tell me what the next step is.”
Madam Sophie returned the crystal to the drawer. “You need to research Jason’s house. Find out what traumatic event occurred there.”
“Then what? How do I heal the energy?”
“By neutralizing it with energy of the opposite polarity.”
“I already know what the dominant emotion is,” she said. “It’s anger. Extreme anger.”
“Yes, but you have to understand the person who put that energy there. Your positive energy will be strongest this way. You’ll be able to envision that person and send the appropriate healing energies to him or her.”
Jackie gave Madam Sophie the deer-in-headlights look.
“Trust me,” Madam Sophie said.
“But, it’s not like the person is there. I mean, it’s just objects and energy. Right?”
“Their imprint is there. The whole traumatic event is imprinted on the surrounding materials. The ceiling, the walls, the floor. You must envision yourself reaching out to the person to whom the imprint belongs and send that person emotions of the opposite polarity. For example, if the emotional energy of the person was anger, you must envision sending that person energies of calmness, tranquility, and inner peace.”
“How?”
“It’s the opposite of reading someone’s energy. Instead of acting as a sponge, you act as a floodgate, letting your thoughts and energies flow from your hands. It’s just like when you practiced expelling the negative energies in your body. Let’s have you practice on your friend.”
Jason smiled.
“Not a good idea,” Jackie said
“I thought he was your partner…”
“Was. He’s fired.”
“Now, now,” she said. “Jason needs your help. There’s no time for silliness. What I want is you to read Jason’s emotional state and then send him energy of the opposite polarity.”
“But how can you change the core tendencies of a person?” Jackie asked.
“Changing someone’s emotional state is not the same as changing someone’s core tendency. A person can be bad to the bone, but you can still send them energies to alter their emotional state.”
“I guess. So, what is it you want me to do?”
“I want you to read Jason’s emotional state. I’m sure you will find an emotion that needs healing.”
Jason grew pale.
“No mind is safe from Madam Sophie,” she told Jason. “So when I read you, no funny stuff. Just be yourself. Ready?”
Jason nodded and took a deep breath.
Jackie hesitated before taking his hands. She was afraid she’d fall under his spell and not be able to zip herself up. “I mean it. No funny stuff.”
Jason grimaced.
She took his hands. They were soft, warm.
“Close your eyes, both of you,” Madam Sophie said. “Jackie, open up to Jason’s emotions.”
Oh, jeez. Here it goes. Jackie closed her eyes and let Jason’s energy flow from his hands into hers. The color purple washed over her inner vision, and the emotions of hurt and desire brewed in her chest. She sensed that Jason was at her mercy, like he was begging for her love. She wished he’d let up. She might like him in a romantic way if he were a take-charge kind of guy. Most of the time, she felt like his mom or his babysitter. Okay. So this was it. She would send him “take charge” energy. Whatever the results, it would be fun just to see if it worked.
“Concentrate on the positive energy you’re sending,” Madam Sophie said. “Jason, open up to Jackie’s energy. Let it flow through your body.”
“Yeah,” Jackie said to Jason. “Take in the energy. Don’t put any out there.”
“Okay,” he said, “but be easy on me.”
Jackie focused on being in control. Then she let a “take charge” feeling fill her head and flow through her body and out through her hands. In control, Jason. You will be in control. You will be strong, positive, and self-confident.
She imagined Jason walking with his chest out and shoulders erect and flaunting his arm muscles—what muscles he had. She imagined him opening the car door for her, telling her to get in.
Sometimes she felt resistance in his hands, a blockage, and then an opening up as if he had opened up every pore i
n his palms to her. This was when he breathed in. She continued sending him these vibes, waiting for Madam Sophie to say time’s up or something. Finally, after about five minutes, she let go of Jason’s hands and flopped back into the couch. “I can’t do this anymore. I’m exhausted.”
“How do you feel, Jason?” Madam Sophie asked. “What’s your dominant feeling right now?”
Jason raked his fingers through his angled bangs. He looked paler than before they started. He wiggled his fingers and took a deep breath. “I don’t know. Confused, I guess.”
After all that, Jason feels confused?
“Maybe Jackie should practice on you,” Jason said to Madam Sophie.
“She can’t,” Madam Sophie said. “It won’t work. I absorb and read everything, whether it’s sent to me or not. I’ll know quickly what she’s thinking, and I’ll resist letting it take control over me. Jackie, you must continue to practice this and your protective exercises before tackling Jason’s house. Do you understand me?”
“But we don’t have much time. Who knows what Jason’s mom will do the next time she goes into the basement? I have to try it now.”
“I’m telling you, it’s dangerous.”
Jackie’s confidence wavered. “Why don’t you come too? We can sneak you in when Jason’s mom is running errands.”
“Are you kidding?” Jason said. “My mom would freak. She thinks it’s bad luck to have anything to do with horoscopes and fortune-tellers. She says it opens the door to the devil. She grew up Protestant.”
“Jeez, Jas. You didn’t tell her about me, did you?”
“She knows about your church vision.”
“Obviously. But did you tell her the latest news? Does she know I’m—” She almost said it. “Overly sensitive to things?”
Madam Sophie shook her head. “Still denying.”
“She just thinks you’re going through normal teenage growing pains,” Jason said.
“Good,” Jackie said.
“Be careful,” Madame Sophie said.
When they left Madam Sophie’s apartment, Jason held the door for her and then held the apartment building door open. Outside, he took her hand and he led her to his truck.
Inside his truck, Jackie smiled.
“What?”
“Nothing.” She didn’t want to tell him and spoil it. “Library?”
“Library.” He placed both hands on the steering wheel and eagerly shifted the car into gear.
Chapter 35
In the Ravenwood Public Library, Jackie and Jason sat at a research computer. Jackie brought up the Ravenwood Gazette home page and then the news archive page. In the search area, she typed Jason’s home address into the address field. There was a setting for the date range, but she wasn’t sure how far back to start her search.
“Jason, how long have you lived in your house?”
“I don’t know. I think we moved there when I was four. I know it was before I started kindergarten.”
“Okay, so you’re seventeen now, minus four. We’ll start thirteen years ago and work backward with the dates. Hey, better yet, I’ll look up local home sales first and find the name of the previous owners and the date they sold the house to your parents.”
She entered Jason’s home address in the search box for local home sales. Jason’s house was listed along with the name of the previous owners, the date the house was sold, and the amount it was sold for.
“Holy shit, you guys paid almost two hundred thousand for your house.”
He looked at her like, where have you been? “Our neighbors sold theirs last year for three hundred.”
“Yikes! I’ll never be able to afford a house at that rate, not even a garage. No wonder me and Mom live with Babu. I guess David’s got the right idea—free food and housing. Maybe I should become a nun and live in a monastery when I graduate.”
“Who’s David?”
“You remember. He’s the seminarian who came to my door that day I pissed you off.”
“You call him David?”
“Well, yeah, what am I supposed to call him? He’s not an ordained priest. I can’t call him Father David.” That would sound weird. He was too young to be taken seriously as a priest. “You know he plays basketball with the neighborhood boys? He’s pretty nice for someone who’s going to be a priest.”
“And what’s he do with the neighborhood girls?”
“Jason, I know what you’re thinking, and it’s terrible. You don’t even know him. How can you talk about him like that? You’re jealous. You’re jealous of a seminarian?”
“It’s not as horrible as being in love with a guy who’s going to be a priest.”
“Oh, that is so ridiculous. I’m not in love, and I’m not joining a monastery. I was just saying—Come on. We’re getting off track. I’m here to help you, remember?”
She navigated to the local news archive search engine and entered the previous owners’ names and entered a date range equaling five years from when they sold the house.
“So, why do your eyes light up every time you say his name?”
Her fingers froze on the keyboard. “Oh, come on, Jas. That’s just your imagination.”
“No, it’s not. Your mind’s been elsewhere lately. Now I know where. So what is it you see in him that you don’t see in me? What’s David got that I don’t?”
Okay. Now she was ready to spout it out—self-esteem—but she bit her tongue. This was going way too far. “We’re never going to get anything done here.”
Jason spun her chair around so that she was facing him and placed his hands firmly on her thighs. “Admit it. You felt something the other day when I kissed you.”
Her shoulders tensed. “Do we have to talk about this now?”
He bit his lip, and then nodded. He tugged the seat of her chair, pulling her closer to him until their knees touched.
His heated emotions pressed against her. She swallowed. Nice job on sending him feelings of being in control!
“You feel it now, don’t you?” he asked.
“I don’t know what I feel. Nervous, I guess.”
“I love you, Jackie. That’s what I feel.”
“Don’t you think love is a dangerous word to toss around at our age? I mean, I don’t even know who I am. Except that, currently, I’m a train wreck… a walking disaster. It’s dangerous for you to even think about getting romantically involved with me.”
“Making out with Trish was dangerous. I mean it was exciting, but I don’t feel for her what I feel for you. I can’t understand why you keep denying that you feel it too.”
“It’s not like I’m denying it. I do feel something for you. I mean, you’re my best friend, and I can’t imagine a day without you. And, I have to admit, I was jealous thinking of you with Trish. But I’m just not ready to move our relationship to the next level. Not now.”
Jason’s eyes grew watery.
Awkwardly, she wrapped her arms around him and hugged him to ease his pain. His heart beat in sync with hers, and his warm energy blanketed her body. Her heart radiated with love, but she didn’t know if the love she felt belonged to her. Like in the church with David. It wasn’t real. It couldn’t be.
A tear escaped her eye and rolled down her cheek. Then, more followed. One after the other, tears dropped onto the back of her hands. She wiped the tears, hoping they’d stop.
She and Jason held each other for quite some time, and she cried quietly enough not to evoke the wrath of the librarians. She cried because Jason’s passion and pain were flowing through her. She cried because she was totally screwed up.
Finally, with puffy eyes and Jason by her side, she quietly returned to her research.
Chapter 36
Sunday morning, Jackie walked up and down Main Street, camera strung around her neck, looking for places where emotions were soaring. Yesterday, she and Jason had discovered through their research that his house had belonged to Steve and Marianne Murphy. Steve had a history of violence: road rage,
bar fights, and parking lot brawls. His wife, Marianne, and their three children had a history of bruises and broken bones.
Steve’s days of violence ended when he bashed Marianne’s head against the fireplace bricks. And, in a standoff with the local police, while Steve held his three children hostage, one of the officers, a sharpshooter from the Afghanistan War, got a clear view of Steve Murphy’s head through the basement window and plugged him.
The anger Jackie had felt in Jason’s basement, the frustration of not having anywhere to vent it but on someone else, and the fact that she had become Steve Murphy scared the hell out of her. The other day, she wanted to kick the shit out of Jason. What would she want to do this time? Bash his head against the fireplace? She needed to learn how to protect herself from Steve Murphy’s violent energy. It occurred to her, last night, that maybe she could use her camera to disconnect from the emotions she picked up.
She spotted Tiffany’s Antiques. A storehouse full of emotions, it was the perfect place to practice.
A bell on the door jingled when she entered. A woman in her fifties with a ruffled blouse and spiked blonde hair was sitting on a stool behind the counter. She looked up from the tattered paperback she was reading. “Good morning.”
“Morning,” Jackie said.
“Are you looking for anything in particular?”
“Actually, I’m not. I need to take photos for my photography class and was wondering if I could shoot some pictures of your antiques.”
“Cool beans. Shoot away. Let me know if there’s anything I can help you with.”
“Thanks.”
Jackie headed for the row of items against the back wall, a less conspicuous location should she totally lose it. A row of tall items—curios, chest of drawers, dressers, headboards, standing lamps, and coat racks—served as a cover. She touched her camera for reassurance.
The bell on the door jingled. A retired couple walked in. They were looking for antique pipes. The store lady led them to a display near the front of the store. Yes! This would distract the store clerk while Jackie did her thing.
Possessed (Pagan Light Book 1) Page 15
