Empathica

by Ruth Watson

  The only real success in this world was to be in business and be exceptional at it, and to keep yourself at the peak of good health.

  *

  Laryssa had been invited to the apartment on the thirtieth floor of the plaza building, this was Niam’s home.

  She lived in a similar building but, just two streets away, both resided in ‘modern day London’.

  She was a little nervous, although she had friends with high paid jobs; the thirtieth floor of the plaza building was for those who had basically made it! There were only thirty-four floors on the whole building and the top floor, if she remembered rightly, was owned by the notorious Jaydan Barker.

  Laryssa didn’t have a lot to say in this man’s company, but she understood that Niam had been close to Jaydan for many years, disappointing to her but, what could she do? At least while Jaydan had no idea who or what she was and if she remained careful all would be okay.

  She just had to make sure that nothing gave them away, this wasn’t just about her but, Niam also had the powers of an Empath (even though he didn’t know yet).

  Stories had been told of Jayden’s cruelty to those who didn’t fit into the human criteria. Differences meant that he could pull them apart if he wanted, and do what the hell he saw fit with them; he was such a cruel man. But again so were his father and grandfather before him.

  The Barkers were just very wealthy, very bored and lacked the social graces to live and let live. Laryssa may as well have just said it the way it was, she didn’t like him, the truth was, he appalled her, and she would never change her mind. She needed to show that she could adapt enough to function around him; Gaia had taught her that she must always try to do tasks that she didn’t like, for this would teach her patience, Laryssa didn’t feel patience when it came to Barker, she felt repulsed by him. She hoped that he wasn’t at the dinner party as well, but at the end of the day, she knew he more than likely would be.

  “Time, time… oh God, I better move my ass, otherwise I am gonna be late!” she said, as she combed her hair and sprayed it with a small amount of cosmetic gel, to hold it in place.

  “Cab or no cab? Cab! I’m gonna ruin my hair and look like a miscreant if I walk the blocks… Okay, purse, shoes, coat… no jacket, hmm… would be smarter… Oh God, wine…”

  Running back to her kitchen, she pulled a bottle of Merlot from her small wine rack, wrapping it in green paper tissue, grabbed her jacket anyway and headed out of the door.

  The lift took its time.

  By the time she had entered the lobby, a beep came from outside, her taxi had arrived. Good job she had called one, it had started spitting with rain.

  Five

  Getting out of the cab she smiled at the driver and handed over her card but she didn’t ask about fare prices, but surely two streets wouldn’t amount to much. The driver seemed to smirk at her and handed back the card, probably couldn’t believe how lazy she was, he didn’t seem to be impressed by where she had asked him to take her, he probably dropped people here all the time, but not walking less than five minutes kinda made her wonder why she didn’t just pick up her umbrella.

  The building seemed higher than any of the others in London; it held some of the finest ‘British entrepreneurs’, a lot of the politicians lived there. ‘Politics never changed; she would always consider them to be a bunch of lying bastards.’ She thought as she stepped into the lobby, feeling the warmth of the heating as her feet sank into the plush pile of the deep red carpet.

  “Can I help you madam?” she was greeted by a young man in his early twenties.

  “I am heading to the party on…” she went to add more.

  “Ah yes, you must be Mr Lewis’s guest? The guests have arrived and are waiting for you madam. Can I take your er...hmm...coat? He said, a little confused at the jacket.

  “No… erm, thank you.” Laryssa said, feeling really nervous, thinking that maybe the jacket was a mistake?

  She felt a little misplaced in here, Laryssa was great at mixing with people from all walks of life, but this was beyond her comprehension. She had been brought up by a member of the British Secret Service in her last earthly life, he had taught all of them (her sisters) to blend in with anyone.

  She usually allowed herself to read people, but of cause, any whiff of her abilities here, she could find herself in some serious doo doo! All it would take in this place would be for Jaydan Barker to suspect her of something unusual and she would end up in the museum of oddities, behind his memorabilia case, he loved to show others.

  Laryssa was escorted to the lift.

  “Which floor do you require?” An electronic voice enquired.

  “Thirty please.”

  “Floor thirty, Mr Niam Lewis’s apartment. I will send him a message that you are here.” The voice said.

  Not knowing whether to respond or not, she decided to say nothing more as that strange sensation entered her body, the one of the lift going up, she wondered if she would be able to survive the night without catastrophe, sometimes Laryssa tended to get a little clumsy around people, especially if she was nervous.

  This was strange, the lift door opened and Laryssa walked straight into the apartment. No front door, no meet and greet. Just straight inside, not even a door bell to ring before entering.

  “Good evening my beautiful young lady.” A familiar voice said, from just across the room.

  “Niam.” Laryssa greeted him; she walked over kissing him gently on the lips.

  “You look amazing.” He said, stroking her arm. He took her hand as they walked further into the apartment.

  Now Laryssa’s nerves disappeared and she felt okay.

  The guest list was a handful. His sister was there, she was a familiar sight, so was his loyal and loving friend Barker, God she really wished he’d just fall off the face of the earth. She stopped herself from gritting her teeth as he eyed her up and down like she was cattle. She smiled politely.

  Niam’s sister Cathy (Eldest of two) had been escorted by her partner, they had been in a long-term relationship, so long that Laryssa found it amusing to sense her agitation by his company, but Paul was okay, he worked hard in his own computer software company; they had enough money to live quite happily on a high-level tenancy, plus Cathy also had money from shares in the family business.

  No-one really knew who owned these buildings, but cleaners were employed and doormen, so somewhere, some rich son of a gun got paid a lot of goods for owning these buildings. Mortgages simply didn’t apply here, country homes were bought and paid for, so were the seaside homes, material wealth applied here instead, Laryssa often wondered what it was that people owned, she didn’t even know how she was paid, comfortably off was how she described herself, but how she was never sure. None of that really mattered though, she did ok.

  The food at the party was from outside caterers, very pretty and tasty it was a small finger buffet, she enjoyed that. She could just keep going up to the table and pick off a nibble or ten without anyone really noticing, but she was slim anyway, lucky in this life that way.

  The dinner party went with a swing, as always everyone enjoyed one-another’s company. Jayden had brought his latest floozy, she looked about nineteen. Poor cow, let’s hope he didn’t find any imperfections on her, she’d be in a glass jar in his laboratories before the sun went down.

  Niam seemed to pick up what she was thinking; he smiled at her and just took her hand. He didn’t understand what the attraction was, but he knew that life without her now, well, it would be a world he didn’t want to live in, he knew that if there was an eternity, he would love her until then.

  She picked up what he was thinking. She smiled placing her head gently on his shoulder, she knew exactly what he meant but she had been here before and all had turned sour.

  When people left she was alone with him, the caterers had done a wonderful job, she was content yet a little nervous about what her life would be if she stayed with such a rich man.

  If they st
ayed together, there was so much that he needed to know.

  Sighing, she remembered their relationship before, it had failed so quickly. Laryssa was a patient woman. She just hoped that this time, he was too. He needed a lot of courage to face his real identity; it isn’t easy being different in a world that rejected you for it.

  *

  She awoke in the morning in his arms, God; it was so wonderful to be there. She felt safe and loved as he smiled back at her. The world seemed uncomplicated when they were together; they brought out the best in one another.

  As time moved on, she found herself there more and more, both finding out about each other, leaving no stone unturned, their likes, dislikes, something she hadn’t accomplished before in earlier lives.

  After six months, her own apartment had become unoccupied, even her dogs had been moved to the plaza.

  Niam as a gift to her decorated a white room, which was important to her, meditation being her gateway to Gaia. She spent a lot of her spare time in meditation and this was how she liked it, cleansing, pure and enclosed away from others.

  Jaydan had warned that this wasn’t a good thing, “Unhealthy” he said.

  He found it odd that someone would want to spend time alone when she could be enjoying the full benefits of sex on tap.

  “You believe that sex is everything? It’s just a part of what’s good about our relationship. You just go on screwing your cheap floozies; see how happy it makes you!” Niam said.

  “Oh, it makes me very happy. A hooker that you don’t have to pay for, stupid enough to think I will be with them permanently. With all my wealth, how would I trust a woman not to just want to take me for all I’ve got?” Jaydan replied.

  Niam told him to shut his mouth; he may have been Niam’s friend but, boy sometimes he just wanted to kick his ass.

  “He has no respect!” Niam said to Laryssa, after his argument with him.

  Jaydan didn’t care who he hurt and saying something like that in front of Laryssa had made Niam angry, after all that was what Jayden thought Laryssa was with Niam for. She had wealth, but not the amount Niam had.

  Laryssa just thought he was a small minded bigoted ass.

  They had great sex, whenever, he had always said what a good sex life he had with her, it was amazing actually; but Laryssa kept her private affairs quiet, Niam respected that.

  Within twelve months, the two of them had become inseparable. Both were very content, they began to talk of engagement parties and whether they should consider doing this.

  2500AD saw the end of marriage, it became obsolete along with many other old religious ceremonies, neither of them had ‘found God’ and it wasn’t likely they were going to.

  Those that were religious still maintained the need for living as man and wife. Marriage for these kinds of people was a quick ceremony, flowers and an odd guy who wore a dress and a collar. Churches became a bit of fun to those who took science seriously, there were still those who would marry couples, the last service on record was performed December 2497AD, No one really saw it as immoral anymore, church goers couldn’t hide behind forgiveness or their sad little need of a God, “People in churches were just a bunch of gossiping busybodies.” Laryssa had said many times.

  Niam didn’t really give a care about religion either; never saw the point in believing in things that weren’t there. He would tell people that he believed in the great unicorn God ‘Steve’ because that was about as real as a man who you couldn’t see, living in the sky! Although he would insist every December 25th that ‘Father Christmas was a true veteran of the gift, and making small contributions to such a season to be jolly was a must to keep the wishes of this dead man alive’.

  A good excuse to buy expensive things and throw a party in other words.

  “Tis the season for freezing your t**s off!” Laryssa told him, when he was dragging her around large shopping centres, trying to buy all and sundry gifts that they would enjoy. Not throw them in a cupboard, forget about them, and he’d have them back wrapped in different paper a few years later, when whoever he had bought them for had forgotten where the gift was from, so re-gifted it back.

  It had happened once or twice; when it did he found it hilarious.

  Six

  Contented, Laryssa fell to sleep, she was staring into the face of the man she truly loved, she felt so lucky…

  She began to dream…

  She was staring into another face; very familiar, it took her by surprise at first. It was an old friend of hers from her life before, from her office days, Phoebe.

  Phoebe was one of Laryssa’s best friends; she had met her before Niam.

  Phoebe was another Empath, she remembered a lot about their friendship, and Phoebe was like the sister Laryssa had always wanted. In her dream it was in the year 2018AD, she was sat across a large wooden table in a pub, they spent a lot of time there, it was close to where Phoebe was living at the time.

  The dream made her feel like she was wrapped inside an old warm blanket, the fire blazing in the pub, the familiar old wooden furniture, the smell of beer along with the laughter and banter of the people inside. It occurred to her, this was a dream.

  Laryssa felt comfortable, she smiled at her friend as the two greeted one another with the usual hug and peck on the side of the cheek.

  Phoebe always made Laryssa feel settled, the two sat down together.

  They talked about what they had been doing and where they were living now, everything familiar, and then Phoebe asked the question that Laryssa was dreading.

  “So, what happened to you and Niam?”

  Laryssa had forgotten that they had all worked together in that life, it made her take a sharp intake of breath at his name.

  “Oh, please… let’s not go there right now, I still find him hard to talk about.” Laryssa replied abruptly, she turned her eyes down toward the floor, years had gone by, yet, she could still feel the pain as it hit her stomach, emotional turmoil filling her head for just a few seconds at his memory. Phoebe quickly changed the subject to other things.

  Talking for a while about where they had been, what jobs they had done. Laughing about the days when they had time to be in each other’s lives more.

  “So, why do you find it so difficult to talk about him? As I understand it, you gave him the brush off. Don’t you see anything of each other anymore? To be frank, I thought you were both inseparable, a couple, you both had so much chemistry it was almost explosive!” Phoebe said. Going a little red, well, she had brought up the taboo subject now for a second time.

  Well, it was the main gossip in the office. Phoebe had never seen two people more attracted to one another, or to be fair, right for one another.

  Laryssa sighed deeply, sadness filled her heart and her mind, he had been such a loss in her life, he hadn’t died, but sometimes real loss like this there is no way of mourning it, after all, they just lived their life without one another. Even though it was many years later, something would remind her, make her smile, or make her angry, all would flood back, and she could feel the pain as if it was yesterday, he was a coward!

  “Sometimes there are things that you just can’t forgive yourself for, this is one. I hurt Niam so much more than I have ever hurt anyone, it was mortifying. My head misses his clumsy intelligence, being able to converse with someone who wasn’t trying to turn me into someone I didn’t want to be, yet he stood by my side and he fought with me to become whatever I felt like being.” Laryssa took a deep breath, she had to push back the tears “Whilst my heart will never be able to stop missing his love, his smile and the way his eyes wrinkled on the sides when he smiled, I am angry with him, he buried his head in the sand and left me.”

  Phoebe looked at her a little astonished.

  “So why did you let him leave?”

  He wasn’t mine to begin with; he had two young children who both needed their father. I knew that. I lost my mother at a very early age and the tragedies that followed don’t even bear thinking o
f. I saw him walking with one of his children, she was about 10 years old, it made me realise how important it was for him to stay with them, to be their father. To have more than I ever did”

  Phoebe could sense her sadness; it was almost unfathomable how her friend coped with that. She took her hand to try and give her some comfort. She could sense how difficult it was for Laryssa to talk about. Laryssa as always pulled her hand away, she couldn’t cope with physical contact when she talked about him, it took all she had not to cry.

  Phoebe suddenly wished she hadn’t brought the subject back up; it was after all none of her business.

  “I pushed him away; not because I didn’t love him… but because I did. He was going to hurt either way, being with me, he would be without them, being with them, he didn’t have me. I would have been the cause. At least if I was the one that left the situation, his life would not be brought to chaos, his children would never bear the brunt of something that was out of their control. It would have been wrong to believe that they should ever be subjected to such emotional harm.”

  “So, you sacrificed the love you both had? Laryssa, you are a strong woman.” Phoebe said.

  “Not strong enough. We should never have fallen for one another in the first place. Believe me, we both tried not to, but situations called for us to be in each other’s company more and more. We worked in the same office. It didn’t seem to matter how hard we tried, our attraction was too deep.” Laryssa said putting her cup to the table.

  Laryssa moved her cup out of the way, she had begun nervously twisting it from side to side on the table, and she had spilled a small amount of her coffee doing it.

  Trying to stop the nervous motion in her hands…

  “I personally never got what you saw in him? To be honest, he didn’t speak to you kindly sometimes; I just felt he thought you would just accept that.” Phoebe said.

  “Mmm, I must admit, he always had a way of making me feel like I should be touting for business but, we also had an understanding for one another’s quirkiness. I just kept my cool at the times when his insulting manner made me want to whack him hard with a stick!” Laryssa smiled a little.