by Jamie Magee
“They knew I wouldn’t, that my charge had to be complete. That is why they sent you.”
“Listen, dude. You’re twisted. I was not only born here, but recently I have been well informed that I have lived here for a while, apparently as a Witness at some point. Some said that I have lived longer. So, even though you look like a young version of my father and have my mother’s blue eyes in the center of your eyes – you’re an illusion.”
“You’re joking?” His eyes grew wide. “A Witness?”
“A fallen Witness, it seems.”
“Oh, dear Creator,” he muttered under his breath.
“Yeah, tell me about it. Listen, I really don’t care what I was. I can’t change the past, but I can control the now - and right now my parents are missing, a demon is chasing me, and recently I have landed myself in a new dimension that seems to have just as many if not more questions than I already have about this twisted roller coaster of fate that I’m on.”
“You need to take a seat, sweetheart,” he said, nodding to an odd shaped black velvet couch. The back of it waved up and down, creating really low points and really high points.
I did as he asked, not feeling my body make any effort to wake up anytime soon. He paced a few times, moving his fingers at a rapid speed against his legs...musician; bet every guitar I owned.
He finally sat down next to me.
“I don’t know where to start with you, but let me be clear: Mum and Dad are not coming back - at least not anytime soon. It was nearly impossible to pass The Fall when I came. If you have been here as long as you say, it would have to be just that - impossible.”
“Apparently not. They just hit the exit door.”
He smirked as he playfully narrowed his eyes and tilted his head before he spoke.
“Our bloodline is the oldest of The Selected. It would have taken a lot of energy and power to do such a thing, but nevertheless our ancestors’ energy would have allowed it if they felt there was no other way.”
“The Selected?”
“Yes. All right, here are the basics for you. There are two, two full - and at one time beautiful - universes side by side. Between them is The Fall - the star Sirius centers it. The Fall is meant to be open, a free passage for souls to pass through at death. Long ago, this side began to darken, and as it did less and less souls would travel through it. Then before long, only The Selected. Just before I came, there was a threat by less open minds to close The Fall, to cut off the dead limb, if you will - but our father, our family knew that was our death sentence, that there had to be balance.”
“So you are saying that my parents are from a twin universe? That they managed to come over here forty years or so ago and have me, only to leave me now?” Yup, one of us was mad.
He clenched his jaw as those eyes focused on me.
“You went rogue, didn’t you? You followed me, even though I told you not to, and they came over here just to save not only your arse, but mine.”
“Right,” I said, nodding along, playing into his insanity.
“Exactly why do you not believe me, sweetheart?”
“Umm...maybe because your math doesn’t add up. I told you, apparently I have been here a while, so how is it that we supposedly shared a family forever ago and our parents, you and me, are still young?”
“I told you, we are from the blood of The Selected.”
“Meaning...?”
“Meaning that we were not only born, but live against The Fall. Our home is on the outskirts of the cycle of life, and we age incredibly slow because of that. We easily live through eternities without gaining a blithering wrinkle.”
“Do you know what an eternity is?”
“I do, but apparently you do not. It is a cycle that is just over four million years. It’s when the stars begin again. Everyone on the other side of The Fall lives for long periods of time in one form, but we live extremely long due to the blood of The Selected that runs through our veins.”
“Sure,” I said with a sigh.
“It doesn’t matter if you believe me or not. You are here, so there is the proof. Now we just have to figure out why. Mum and Dad would not have left us both here unless they had no other choice...we must be at the brink of the end...the pieces must all be here now. Time to act.”
“To do what?”
It was clear that I was frustrating him to no end.
“To turn this universe back to the way it was meant to be, to end those who continue their threat of darkness.”
I cringed, thinking of Draven.
“Darkness is not bad,” I muttered.
“Evil is, which is bred on this side. Its creation began here and will end here.”
“You realize that my father’s energy was dark, right? That my mom was light? That they had to fight to be together? That his internal war led to his death, to me being raised by a grieving mother that refused to let any sound be elevated?”
“All for show, sweetheart,” he said with heavy grief as those breathtaking eyes eased over my ever-growing furious expression.
“Not a show. It was my life.”
“We are on stage right now, and every move we make is watched by those we must end. Our parents would do anything for not only us, but for the universe they have all but ruled with other selected souls.” His eyes slowly danced across my image. “I know that look in your eyes. This is not all new to you.”
Unable to hold his stare, I glanced away.
“I think you’re an illusion, my mind’s way of putting my parents on a pedestal so I can fight what is in front of me.”
“That is a lie. You always glance away before you speak a lie.”
“It is new to me, like hours new to me. I had a mental break that tried to erase my past and create a new one just before I fell into this dream.”
“Backlash.”
“Back what?”
“You felt that when they crossed, the energy lashed over you. Bet you felt drained, like someone pulled your power plug or something. Got a little dizzy, your head spun a bit as the life they lived was erased and the real one was set in place.”
“Something like that,” I muttered.
“And you don’t believe it?” he pushed.
“Just had a really hard few days. Hard to believe anything right now.”
“You’re in shock.”
“So I’ve been told.”
“They didn’t tell you one blooming thing, did they? They didn’t because they knew the backlash would occur and I would be pulled to you instantly. That can only mean one thing.”
“Waiting...” I said, refusing to show any interest in this.
“You were hunting someone, and you became the prey. If you lived as long as you say you did and were forced to become a Witness, then yeah, they came over here to save you. The thing is, they had to have known exactly when you were supposed to fall in order to do that - which means your falling was predicted. You fell into a life with others that were sent here or were being watched were.”
I just glanced away.
“Stop it. What I’m saying is ringing true. How did you rise into a Witness, and how or why did you fall when you did? Tell me you at least know that much.”
“I’m not clear on any of it. Apparently, I lived in a city that was destroyed by Mother Nature and the boy with me and myself rose into the life of a Witness. Years later I met a couple that explained exactly what that was to us and forewarned me that I would find someone in a future that I could help and may choose to, as you say, fall with them. Apparently, I met my boyfriend in that life, helped him. He was punished for trying to be good and then fell, and I followed. And then - TA-DA! I was born to a grieving mother. Fast forward eighteen years and you’ll find me sitting in this dream.”
“I have no idea who is around you, but I have no doubt that the master Escort you were to bring down was near or in your life before you rose to a Witness. You were saved by those warriors of light and harbored until the time was righ
t for you to fall. Mum and Dad were told, and they caught you, staged a life, and protected you until this point.”
“What about before that?” I asked, wondering why I saw that image of Aden at my birth in The Realm, why he thought that was his place - if any of that was even real at all.
“No telling. It was not planned for you to be over here when I left. If you came anyway, you could have landed where you weren’t supposed to be. You could have landed right where you were supposed to be, too. Our path is never clear. Some of us feel it, some see it, and some dream it. The only safe way is to feel it because sight can be our biggest enemy. Things are never what they seem, and even if you are crystal clear without a doubt you are supposed to be somewhere - lo and behold, some fool who relies on sight will trip you up.”
He let out a deep sigh as his concerned gaze waved over me. “We are not supposed to be close to one another until the final strike, until the end of this war. Yet, they not only put us side by side, but more than likely they put you side by side with others as well.”
“Other what?”
“Warriors. Either the end is here or they had no choice but to use them to find you. I need to figure out which of the two.”
“You make no sense. You just said you’re tethered to me.”
“I can shield myself. Perks of death. Take off your shirt.”
“Excuse me?!”
“You heard me. Don’t get your drawers in a wad. We used to take baths together, for Creator’s sake.”
Not waiting for my argument, he went to the side of the room and grabbed an overgrown mirror, then carried it to the fireplace. Before the fire, there was a wooden circle with all those stars, rings, and triangles on it. He moved it from the light, taking the moving symbols away from the glow of the room.
“All right fine, then. Just show me your back,” he said in disbelief when he noticed I hadn’t moved.
I stood and walked over to him. With one arm he angled me so my back was to the fire.
“Go on now, bare your back.”
I let my hoodie fall to the floor and pulled my tank top up so he could see my back. He held the mirror before me.
“Little closer.”
I stepped back, and as I did I could see in the mirror that same pattern on my back. It was deep within my skin and glowing ever so slightly.
“The crest of The Selected. Yours has grown. I guess you were right: you do belong on the front lines,” he said with dismay and grief in his deep tone.
“What is this?” I said with a gasp.
The crest began at the top of my shoulders and expanded the width of my back all the way down to my waist. The rings were defined within two triangles. There were glowing circles and paths between them. If you had a vague imagination, you would be able to see two universes side by side, protected by a pentagram.
“We would get through this reunion a lot faster if you would stop asking questions that I just answered,” he said, then handed me the mirror so he could walk around and see my mark more clearly. “All those with our bloodline are born with this mark. That is how we know who can move through The Fall, who will be the ambassadors-slash-warriors for this side. It takes a while for it to show up. Usually you have wicked dreams first that outline your life plan. Your mark was barely showing when I left. You begged me to take you, but I didn’t because this is the last place I would want my sista.”
His fingertips outlined a space by my spine in the center of my back. In the mirror, I could see his brow furrow, sadness there.
“What?”
“Nothing,” he said under his breath, then pulled my shirt down, as if he did not want to see whatever he had discovered there any longer. “You said we had a sista?” he said as he took the mirror from me and walked it back to the wall.
Completely perplexed, I adjusted my tank top before picking up my hoodie.
“I have one. Kara has a different father.”
I saw his shoulders flex as he finished hanging the mirror. It was clear that he could not stand the idea of my mom with another man. I knew my mother couldn’t either, that she would never change her path because she loved Kara, but she only truly loved one man: my father.
“Has she shown any supernatural gifts? Any at all?”
“No, but my best friends have, my boyfriend has.”
“Boyfriend?” he said, looking over his shoulder in disbelief.
“Yeah, want a quick history? When I was a Witness, he was dark. I convinced him to change his ways, and he fell. I fell with him, and we found each other here.”
“What kind of dark?” he asked as he turned to face me.
“One that is fighting who he is to be in balance,” I answered cautiously.
“What does he fight?”
“What do you mean? He fights to not become what he is.”
He furrowed his eyebrows as if I were speaking a foreign language.
“Mom and Dad love him,” I bluntly stated, oddly wanting his approval for some reason. I was really starting to fall for the long lost family idea of this dream.
He sighed. “Well, considering how high their standards are, bravo.” There was disdain in his tone.
“Are you fighting with them over someone you want to be with?”
He shrugged his shoulders. “Not really the point, now is it? The point is, I need you to get me out of here.”
“I don’t know how to do that.”
“You don’t have to do anything. I told you, they tethered me to you,” he grimaced, “as if that even needed to be done in the first place.” He sighed. “Whatever dimension you are in, I can roam.”
“Call me crazy, but if you were looking for a quote-un-quote queen of the veil, would she not be in the veil where you have been?”
He ignored me as a thought obviously kicked into place. “What did you mean before – that you know how to help souls move on?”
“I’m haunted. All of my friends are. We hear whispers and then call them into place, show them love, and allow them to move on.”
“Not supernatural beings, though?”
“I don’t know what you are calling ‘supernatural.’”
“Meaning you, people like you, people that have defined powers and extended life patterns.”
“No. The souls I help are damned.”
“A little shocked that they are dead?” he asked, raising one eyebrow as if he were trying to get me to remember something.
“You could say that. In general, they lived bad lives, and they need to be reminded that they were not bad.”
“Right. What emotion do you feel when you help them? What lingers in your soul?”
“It doesn’t get easier, if that is what you are asking.”
“Little shocking - seizes your soul as you decide to either fear it or take hold of the adrenaline and ride the wave.”
“You could say that.”
He let out a deep sigh as his eyes looked over me in the protective way that only a big brother could.
“I may not clearly know my life plan, but my advice to you: figure out how to master shock.”
“Why?” I breathed because that direction sounded all too familiar.
“So you can recognize and guide others through it.”
I cringed as I thought of my time in Pompeii, how I failed so badly at guiding those souls through the shock of that explosion. We did not ride out the adrenaline. We submitted to fear and cowered away.
“It will take some time. You’re being tested, but fret not; I’m here now.”
“I thought I was supposed to help you find a queen of the veil? Why would she not be in the veil?”
“Not that simple. You see, there are seven, seven that are to bring balance in their own way. The queen of the veil is light, pure light - and last I knew she was at home with you. I doubt Dad would have put the cart before the horse. She must be here if he left you here.”
“What would I have to do with it? ”
He smirked and mocked a b
ow. “I suppose we will see. The more I talk to you, the more I remember - and breaking out of here will help me gain even more. I don’t know where we are. Honestly, we could just be the search and rescue at this point.”
“What? You don’t remember what your cause is?”
“The Selected live on for eons, and from time to time we feel an urge to penetrate The Fall. We don’t know why until we pass it. In that span of light and power, we are told what we are to do and why. My issue -- I landed here and lost that reason, and now apparently my baby sista is here to rescue me…among other things.”
“You said seven?”
“That’s right.”
I pulled the envelope out of my back pocket and handed it to him. He glanced down at my name.
“Charlie.”
“That’s me.”
He pursed his lips.
“What?”
“A ghost named Charlie has been lingering around me for almost twenty years. Saw him as a good friend - that is, until a few hours ago when he turned into my father.”
“He has a way of not pushing himself on you.”
“You have no idea,” he muttered as he opened the envelope.
“Nothing is on them.”
“Unwritten stories, sweetheart. Words will come as those that live them make steps to claim their rights. They are intact, though, so no one is truly failing at this point.”
I could not disagree more.
“Mom left a box, too...well, a block of wood.” I pointed to the crest he had moved from the fire. “It has that crest on it.”
“Awesome,” he breathed. “Anything for the likes of me?”
“I don’t know, man. I’m going to figure out how to get them back. I think a demon is holding them hostage or something.”
“No,” he said, shaking his head. “They went home and no one could hold them if they wanted to. In order to trap them, they would have to have known who they were, and you have clearly explained to me that they have staged false lives.”
My soul was at war. Part of me wanted to grasp these images in my mind, believe that my parents were safe, that I would rescue my brother as planned and move on to save this reality. The other part knew that evil was holding my family as hostages.
“I would love to believe you, but I’m going to wake up in a bit, and all my problems will still be there.”
