Empathica

by Ruth Watson

  Her Earth Mother was one such person, and despite the fact she had moved on to another plane of living, she was a Goddess so Laryssa still had the privilege to walk with her, but only through dream and meditation.

  “Mother! Stop intruding on my thoughts!” Laryssa said a little frustrated.

  “I am part of your thoughts, Laryssa you are 24 years old. But, you have lived in many worlds and had many lives. In every life you will be destined to meet him, but your loss from your life before has made you bitter and cold towards him. You need to forget that past, you need to get close to him, teach him, give his eternal soul a chance and let him be as he is supposed to be. He is a good man.”

  Laryssa’s mother began to stroke her daughter’s hair; in her mind she could feel every touch. She had missed this.

  “After all child, don’t you think you have both suffered enough? 527 years was his last encounter with you as a human, I understand that he hurt you terribly but, you must have a heart, give this man a chance to see who he truly is, I implore you darling”

  Earth Mother smiled. Her kind eyes and facial expression made Laryssa feel a little sad inside, after all she was her eternal mother, it is only destiny that chose her fate. Her Earth parents were wonderful, she was lucky to be with different people this time.

  Gaia had finally become as the other Gods, grounded and happy in Empathica. Laryssa had missed her human form, but she hadn’t seen it since her first birth many decades ago.

  “I don’t believe he will ever be able to understand who we are, he had a real problem living in reality, he spends most of his time daydreaming, I know that we are two sides of the same coin. I am not sure I want to get to know him enough to bring him up to date and share our past, he gets quite annoying!” Laryssa said.

  “You know that this is a part of why you love him, he is very like you, because you are a part of each other. He will never find out if you do not let go of your past! Your soul is showing its age my darling. Give it a try, not just for him, but because it’s also what you need.”

  Money had been obsolete for 300 years on Earth, and with this mankind has become changed, although the food chain was still in existence, people had no currency to buy things with they could only barter, that is unless you were the privileged.

  “He doesn’t speak to me, except the odd nod as he passes.” Laryssa said.

  “You do not speak to him either, be brave, take a deep breath and try. Say the word ‘Hello’ you never know, he may respond!” Earth Mother said, a little amused at her daughter’s lack of social alertness.

  “Perhaps!” Laryssa said.

  She needed to get out of the white room, she had things to do, and Rebel had been scratching at the door for at least twenty minutes. He needed walking. As for Leesi, she had probably pulled all the cushions off the sofa by now and was digging a hole to Australia through it. She was a bit of a nightmare.

  Laryssa’s mind went misty for a moment, her time in the white room spent, she was back to reality, she loved her time with Gaia, but she had to bring herself back into this world.

  On Earth.

  Three

  Niam walked confidently, he had been taught as a child to always take care of his hygiene and how he presented himself to the outside world, it was always drummed into him and his siblings how important this is, especially in business.

  Intelligent women liked that, dress yourself well, look smart and the rest would always take care of itself, their father would say repeatedly.

  His self-confidence was constantly knocked by his father and his older brother as a child, making him question if he was liked, ‘people just put up with you, you’re too shy to get anywhere!’ were his father’s words. So this, in turn, made him less confident when it came to matters of the heart. He suffered with what could be called, ‘clumsy speak’ a term used for those who always said the wrong thing, accidentally, but still, he said it none the less. Couldn’t stop himself, it was a miracle he even had friends, sometimes it would be so bad you could see him cringe at his own words.

  “Idiot!” he often said to himself, under his breath.

  He once told the old woman in the downstairs apartment that’ her cat was dead, he was very sorry, but not to panic, he’d buried it in the gardens for her’. Kind boy, so, unthinking, he then slipped up with, ‘I hated the bloody thing, it really was ugly.’ To which the poor woman was brought to tears and shut her door. Niam walked away, head down, red faced; he could hear the poor old dear’s sobs.

  It wasn’t because he wanted to be cruel, his mouth just opened and crap came out at the most stupid of times. So, you can understand how his approach to a woman may be a little hampered! In all honesty, his approach to anything that breathed was not great!

  Niam had once said to her in their other human life (very matter of fact), “I’ll do (as in have sex with) anything, fat, thin, I don’t mind!”

  Yep! You got me bud! Take me now!

  Or, “I am willing to have an open relationship (I am desperate for your attention, so I am saying anything!”) Laryssa was thinking about their past life, she did have a point!

  Kiss him or bash him? Kiss him or slap him? Hmm, hard to make up your mind at times!

  Laryssa was modest, pretty (but didn’t believe it), always smartly dressed, even in casual clothes, she turned a lot of male and female heads.

  She was your average 24-year-old gal, with a lot of ambition, and an amazing stubborn streak.

  She didn’t have a lot of confidence with the opposite sex either, but she was intelligent enough to know whether she should act accordingly.

  She tended to have a smart mouth with anyone who pissed her off, yet she could be a sophisticated and intelligent person, with good organisational skills and the ability to talk business like no other. She could fit herself into any walk of society, her father had made her this way.

  She took a deep breath and sighed…

  “Oh God do I really need to talk to him?” she asked herself, as the two approached each other, both heading to graduate school.

  Niam nodded his head in her direction as usual, and then sighed as she seemed to ignore him again.

  Laryssa took a deep breath…

  “Good afternoon.” Laryssa said politely. She bowed her head as she attempted to lose eye contact as she passed him.

  Niam looked quite shocked by her acknowledging him,

  “Hello, you’re Lari aren’t you? The girl from my Psychology classes?” Niam enquired politely.

  “Yes, I’m sorry, I don’t mean to be pedantic but I do prefer my full name, I never caught your name.” Laryssa said, casually (even though she knew damn well who he was).

  His head went into a spin, this well dressed confident man suddenly sounded like he had never spoken to a woman in his life, let alone anything else.

  “Niam, hmm, Niam Lewis. I was er… Laryss…er… hmm…Laryssa, yes, in your neuro psychology class last year. Hmm, I wonder well - hmm, when we are finished here, would you like to get a coffee with me?” Niam asked.

  (He couldn’t believe it, he’d finally got the nerve to speak to her, he had admired her from a distance for so long and now, he had finally asked her to meet him, to be fair if he had left it any longer, they would have left University altogether and that would have been that!)

  Laryssa looked at him, he was so nervous; she took some time to stop herself from smiling at him fumbling his words.

  “Sure, that would be good.”

  Then, Niam relaxed, with the initial question out of the way, he seemed to be a lot calmer.

  They walked through the doors of the graduate school together, talking all the way; she couldn’t believe the change in him, once he had got over their initial meeting. He was a very interesting man; they seemed to have a lot in common.

  It was as if they had known one another forever, well, she had but, he didn’t know that.

  Laryssa relaxed with him quickly, she was so relieved she had taken the chance on him,
she could feel her attachment to him fall into place, looking into his eyes, using her Empathic sense, she knew he already felt the same.

  *

  Gaia had spoken many times about those on Earth who would seek to hurt her and others like her. Because people did not understand or like those who are different, something that had plagued humanity for centuries, social norms were always what others accepted to be correct, others that stepped out of these strange categories just had to be bullied or ignored.

  One such man Gaia had come across many times, he was no Empath, what he was, was dark inside. A CEO to a solicitor’s firm in London, he went by the name of Jaydan P. Barker. Those in Empathica had known him as a ‘regulator,’ a normal human, his family through the generations had taught one another of the Empaths and all strived to rid the world of such abnormal creatures, Jaydan P Barker therefore worked to seek out and destroy empaths.

  The Empaths named them ‘the curious’.

  Laryssa found very little out about this man, Empaths feared that too much investigating would cause suspicion and eventually he may start looking for reasons to investigate her, then depending on if he believed her or not, if she wasn’t convincing enough, she would end up in what her father called ‘shit street’.

  Jaydan P Barker was in his early thirties, he always wore the same kind of clothes, a dark, designer suit, (usually Hugo Boss) but, good tailor made at the very least. His hair short cut and styled, it was white (bleached) blonde, yet his eyes were a deep dark brown. He had a very handsome complexion, pale skin, small neatly plucked eyebrows. His shoes so polished, you could put your make up on through the reflection.

  A bad tempered spoilt little boy, he was in fact a right bastard.

  The company he worked for were called Barker and Fitzgerald of Cure Street. It was one of London’s finest and most expensive solicitors, Niam’s family firm used them as bigger case outlets. They covered cases for MI5 and other government departments, this company was the home to UK’s finest solicitors and barristers. Only people with serious wealth used them.

  Jaydan was a collector, of - let’s say, ‘the unusual’. He was a family friend of the Lewis’s and one of Niam’s oldest and most trusted friends.

  Always complications! Laryssa thought, as Niam chatted on about himself.

  “I’m boring you, aren’t I?” Niam said, suddenly stopping in mid conversation.

  “Oh, no, no! Of course not. But you are talking a lot about other people, I’d rather know more about you!” Laryssa smiled (as if she didn’t already know).

  Niam went silent.

  “Do you have a family?” she asked.

  “Yes, my mom and dad, I have a big brother and two younger sisters…oh, and a niece called Dalila!” Niam said, with a smile.

  “My parents are dead, Elvia (her human mother in this life), my mother, was a wonderful woman. My father I didn’t really know that well, he always worked away.”

  Niam gave her a smile, his father was never around either, his parents had fled here many years ago to escape war, as young children, and his father was with the family who had fostered him. He was of Swiss origin.

  Laryssa listened intently as he told of his childhood and of the conditions his family had been in. Switzerland, then a war-zone, and many countries like it suffered civil wars. Such a sad way to have to live as a child, Laryssa asked herself if man would ever stop fighting for land and possessions. It would seem not, they found a way to be greedy even with money no longer being a concern.

  His life in this world was different from hers, (although Niam’s family made their wealth as time went on, with good education and investing in good business) she had been a spoiled privileged child, she realised just how little her family cared for her. She tried to convince herself that she had been born too late because her sisters were much older than her, the truth was, she was ignored at a time when she should have been cared for by her father and he eventually took himself away, leaving her alone with her mother she became sad and an inconvenience convincing herself that her father going was somehow her fault.

  This lack of love had made Laryssa walk away from her ‘privilege’ family and that life, she started again. She had found it difficult to accept the way privileged people treat one another, wealth coming first, she had been a grieving child who had been left, her world had suddenly changed.

  As they continued to offload, they began to relax more with one another and quickly through very little time, coffees led to lunches, but she could never have ‘the talk,’ the one that gave her away, the Empath talk, not yet. Revealing who she was could be dangerous because of his connections with the Barkers, especially when she told him, they were the same.

  Months flew by, the two of them couldn’t help falling for one another, the sexual chemistry was amazing. As time went by, it kept growing stronger.

  They fell in love.

  Four

  Earth 2528

  This was not much different from Earth 2018, wars had been threatened but no-one really had the nerve to push the ‘nuclear’ button!

  Nuclear power had depleted and hydro (water) power had taken over, a much cleaner energy, so we were led to believe. Our government were still fighting a battle against those who opposed hydro power, claiming it was a part water infusion (making it cleaner) and part chemical infusion, even though chemical power had been banned from UK in 2097.

  Chemical warfare had been abolished.

  The age of technology had slowed to a minimum climb, things could only go so far before it became an illegal act, and some artificial programmes had taken over jobs, which was against human rights.

  Sometimes this world felt a little unsteady with the artificial intelligence around, robots had become so advanced in the early 10’s that you had trouble distinguishing what was real and what wasn’t.

  Housing was still a major problem in every country, places were still war torn, and had refugees escaping their worlds with bombs and gun fire, heading to the westernised worlds for peace.

  Terrorism was at its peak.

  High-rise buildings came back into fashion, people tried to get as far away from one another as they could. Living on the top floor of a building was now where (if you had plenty of wealth) it was safer to be. Those living below the fourth floor struggled to keep themselves from being burgled and those on ground levels, well, they didn’t seem to live there for very long.

  Police officers were few, no one wanted that job any more there were just too many risks to your life, so most of them spent their time in the office rather than on the beat.

  There were those on the ground in camping sites, no one approached, the lower-class system was still fighting to live, only now, they had to scrape by living in unsafe, criminal worlds. Robbery and rape ignored, so was murder (unless it was one of them killing someone from the higher levels). People of the lower classes lived in a Godforsaken world.

  Man had gone too far, but only a few seemed to be bothered.

  The Empaths of this world, fought to survive amongst the higher levels, using their powers of emotional reading to gain enough wealth to remain at least in a safer environment which could be a tough and brutal world. Wealth only gained by good business.

  Education of the young and teaching was all computerised, untouched by the face of the friendly teacher, in the world of law suits, teachers were deemed unsafe to teach. As the need not to touch or offend went crazy, pass and get to the higher levels, fail and do as those on the lower levels and ground floors did, education became ongoing, a way to learn, being taught to make something of yourself or fight like pit dogs for your survival.

  Laryssa watched this familiar world with optimism, hoping that man would eventually see that they needed to pull together, not pull each other apart.

  Niam admired her for this, but her wealth level was still lower than his, although he didn’t care, those around him had other ideas about whom he should be falling in love with. Laryssa was not the woman they had
in mind.

  Cars were solar powered, interesting looking things, mainly glass bubbles. They hovered more than ran on wheels on a road.

  Hospital care was phenomenal; the government had privatised this in the UK hundreds of years ago, even though the people fought to keep a national health service. Political crisis was just how politics was now, no government ever won an election outright, and people didn’t really want any of the parties standing for election in power. They spent more time arguing amongst themselves, than with each other.

  Healthcare was so expensive that even those on mid-level housing (or the middle-class system) found it almost impossible to keep up with the private healthcare payments. Painkiller addiction had become rife amongst them, trying to keep the doctor away, so to speak! Gone was the saying of the apple (An apple day keeps the doctor away)!

  Niam and Laryssa didn’t have these kind of worries, both were wealthy enough to not be too bothered with medical expenses, they worked out a lot, to avoid this.

  Fashions had come and gone, the retro look of the noughties was back in fashion right now, nothing too flash; people had normal coloured hair with perhaps a splash of unusual colour, bright pinks, greens, and blues in them. Nothing that outlandish! Of course, the regular smart suit was still a winner, everywhere.

  Drinking alcohol and smoking was now illegal, left mainly to the lower classes that really had nothing else. Even the drinking outside rule had been abolished by them. People sued others now if they had cancer through passive smoking; again medical cost had something to do with that, treatment was expensive, why get a doctor when you could drink the pain away. Same with liver damage, old pub landlords went bust over it. Solicitor, now that was the job to have, they were all minted!

  Those with mental illness suffered, always in bad housing, no one giving them enough care. The issues unseen, the waiting lists growing ever longer, those who could afford it, didn’t necessarily benefit from anything done for them, family members were left to take the strain. Institutions closed many moons ago.