“I think you were about two years old the last time Ria was here.”
“Why didn’t we ever come back?” I asked.
“That’s a really long story. But I do promise you, I will tell you the whole story soon,” Aunt Grace offered. The phone rang and she jumped up to get it. “Back in a second guys.”
“What time is it, anyway?” Hudson asked.
There was a clock hanging over the mantel indicating it was 12:30 a.m.
“Wow, time does fly when you’re having fun, eh?” Jen said.
“We should all get some sleep. Tomorrow’s going to be another busy day,” Hudson said, getting up.
“Why do you think it’s going to be busy?” I asked.
“I was hoping to go out and explore the town. I’d like to see where the high school is.”
“Good idea. Jen, I’ll see you upstairs when you’re done down here.” I went over to Hudson and gave him a hug. “Say goodnight to Aunt Grace for me.” I called back as I went up stairs. I figured I’d give Jen and Hudson some time to themselves. I wanted some time to myself anyway. As I was passing through the kitchen, I heard Aunt Grace in the sunroom on the phone.
“Eve, we should be by tomorrow. Are Bronson and Vincent going to be there?”
My heart went into overdrive. It felt like there were a hundred butterflies in my stomach and I could feel my face redden. What was that? I thought to myself. I turned and took the stairs two at a time up to my bedroom.
This time I went in through the bedroom door and not through Aunt Grace’s old room. I closed the door behind me and sat on the bed. I’d been holding my breath since taking the stairs two at a time. I needed to let my heart rate slow and take a few breaths.
The feeling which prodded me to run was lingering on the outer edges of my mind. I lay down on my bed and stared up at Mom’s mural. Why I’d just had the reaction I did was a mystery…as I racked my brain trying to rationalize why I was feeling this way, I came up with the excuse of accepting this was now my new home.
I was going to have to face a new school, new people, and a new life, this time, without Mom and Dad.
“Mom, I miss you,” I said out loud. I lay there for a while, playing the day’s events over again in my mind—leaving home, the onyx-eyed girl, the new town, my new house, Jen and Hudson. I pulled my comforter up around me and snuggled into my new bed. Before long, my dream colors were dancing around behind my eyelids.
I was walking down a pathway in a forest, which appeared to be an old roadway. Beautifully matured trees hung over the trail and were swaying in unison to a gentle breeze. The overgrown roadway had long green grass growing in all directions. I glanced up into the sky and shielded my eyes from the sun. Its light was shining off the leaves and lighting the particles dancing around in the air as I walked though them. I was completely alone.
I walked for a while, enjoying the serenity of the path until it opened up into a meadow. There were large yellow sunflowers and huge white daisies throughout, and in the far right corner was a huge oak tree with an old wooden swing hanging from it. It was swaying with the leaves from the light breeze. I walked into the middle of the meadow and spun around a few times to see if anyone else was there. No one. I was able to completely relax and took a seat in the plush green grass.
A sudden childhood memory came to me and I lay back, staring up into the sky like I used to do with my parents and Hudson. The sky was brilliant, clear in spots with puffy white clouds strewn throughout for as far as the eye could see.
“That one looks like a lion, don’t you think?” a familiar voice said from beside me. It was Mom. She was lying there and staring up into the clouds with me.
“Yeah, it does,” I said.
“Do you remember when we used to do this when you were little?”
“I do. I also remember Hudson and Dad playing ball as we daydreamed. Well, that’s what Dad used to called it.” I laughed at the memory.
“I still think he was a little jealous because he could never make out the things we saw in the clouds. He always accused us of making things up,” Mom said with a sigh.
“It’s you, isn’t it, Mom?”
“What do you mean, Jacey?” Mom asked.
“The gust, the colors… It’s you, right?”
“Never could pass anything by you. It is me. It’s a form I can take when you’re awake. It’s the form I will be from now on—other than in your dreams.”
“Am I right in thinking you’re communicating with me while you’re the gust?”
“Yes I am. No one has ever been able to do what you’re doing. I hope in time we’ll see more of what you can do.”
“No one else can do what?” I turned to look at her but she was gone. I sat up and looked around. I found her at the other end of the field, swinging in the tree swing.
“Don’t be afraid to enjoy yourself, let go and have some fun. You’re sixteen…” I heard her say in my mind.
I lay back down and looked back up in the sky. The lion was still there, but now it looked like it was staring at me, smiling. I noticed it changing. It started to grow arms and legs like a human and its mane completely disappeared. In place of the lion’s head, a human head took shape. I watched as the clouds became something new. As I focused on the cloud form above me, it looked like it was actually falling from the sky. I was captivated as it slowly made its descent from the sky.
I rubbed my eyes and looked back up in where the cloud was no more. A longing filled my chest. As I started to get up, I felt a cushioning in my hand. I looked to my right and the cloud was now lying beside me. Its face was indiscernible but the body and hands felt quite real. What also felt quite real—the effects its touch had upon my breathing and heart rate.
“Who are you?” I asked.
“In time…” the cloud answered.
I could hear my heartbeat in my ears. My face and ears turned a brilliant color of red. I turned away and quickly looked back up into the sky, trying to gain some kind of control over my body.
“Do I know you?” I asked.
“In time,” it answered.
“Have you always been with me?”
“Turn and look.”
My eyes were locked on the cloud’s face when I turned to look. Its eyes had turned into the same crystal blue as the ones I’d been seeing in my dreams. My heart beat in a rhythm I’d never quite experienced before.
“I do know you. You’ve always been there,” I said as I brought my left hand over my chest and reached to touch its face. The form disappeared as my hand fell through and hit the soft grass beneath. I sat up and looked for it in the meadow, the forest, and finally the sky, but it was nowhere to be seen.
I placed my hand over my heart. It was racing like I’d just run a marathon and my face felt as though it was on fire. I let out a long deep breath and lay back onto the grass and closed my eyes.
The sound of another familiar voice caused my eyes to spring open. It was a whisper which made the hair on the back of my neck stand on end as though I’d touched an electric fence.
“Faaaiiith…” It was the onyx-eyed girl. “We see you…” she whispered in my ear.
I sat up, whipping my head around looking for her and instinctively grabbing my right hand. Thankfully, she was nowhere to be seen. I opened my hand, palm up. There was the symbol, glowing a deep, blood red.
I closed my hand into a fist and looked up into the sky again. Where there had been crystal blue skies and puffy marshmallow clouds, there was only a blackness coming from the left. I stood up and ran to the trail. The trees looked as though they were making way for me. They seemed to point in the direction I needed to run. I ran like my life depended on it. I didn’t stop for anything or look in any other direction than straight ahead and home.
Suddenly, mid-stride, my feet left the ground. As I was about to scream, I gazed upwards and found myself looking into crystal blue eyes, the cloud form had come back for me. I felt its arms around me, and instantly I kn
ew I was safe.
It took my racing mind seconds to grasp that I had gone from running for my life to being held in an impossible cloud embrace and floating to the unknown. I closed my eyes again and held onto the form, completely trusting its intentions.
“What’s that darkness?” I asked.
“It’s what we have fought since the beginning. It’s what we exist to battle with,” He said as calm as the ocean on a beautiful sunny day with the threat of a hurricane looming. Note: I said he…the cloud form is a he.
“Why is it coming for me?”
“Because you are what they have been looking for. You are the anomaly. You, Faith…”
I stared at the face of the cloud, only to be captivated by its crystal blue eyes. What was I to make of who or what he was? I grabbed onto the form, closed my eyes and let the shape take me to where I knew I’d be safe. As we flew across the brightly lit sky, I turned to see the black abyss chasing us.
“Are they the ones who killed my parents?” Even before I finished asking, I knew what the answer would be.
“Yes,” he replied.
“Why are you helping me?” I asked.
“Easy, because you have returned, like I always knew you would.”
“Who are you?” I asked.
“You’ll see, in time.”
The black abyss was fast approaching, so he hugged me closer and we flew faster.
“Would you risk everything for me?” I brazenly asked.
“Of course,” he answered without a hint of hesitation.
“But why?”
“You will see … in time.”
As we flew across the field, the backyard of my Aunt’s came into focus. The giant oak with the tire swing and the yard opened up in front of us. We flew directly to the front of the house and entered my Mom’s old room through the front yard window. Then he let me go, somewhat reluctantly, and stood back as I sat on my bed. The black abyss was nowhere in sight.
“Thank you,” I said.
“No need to thank me. Just be more careful the next time you fall asleep and venture down a path with which you are unfamiliar.” He winked.
“I’ll be more careful,” I said.
As I was about to get up and go over to the window he was floating in front of, he turned away from me and said, “Welcome home, Jacey…”
In a brilliant flash of light, he was gone and I was awakened by Jen calling out my name. “Jacey, is everything all right?”
I awoke sprawled across my Mom’s old bed, still in my clothes.
“I think so,” I answered, placing my arm over my closed eyes in a weak attempt to keep the bedroom light out. I didn’t want to wake up. I slowly peeked out from under my arm and saw Jen look at me and then at the open window. She went over to it and pulled it shut. She sat beside me on the bed. I moved my arm away from my face and opened my eyes, giving in to the reality I was now awake. The first thing to catch my attention other than Jen was Mom flying around the room in fervent movements. It didn’t take a rocket scientist to see she was upset. The colors following from her were dark and deep.
“I’m okay,” I said more to Mom than to Jen.
“The strangest sounds were coming from in here. At first it sounded like you were whimpering. I figured you were just having a bad dream, but then, there was a loud crashing and it scared the crap out of me,” Jen said as she helped me sit up.
Mom was all over me. It was as though she were inspecting every part of me to make sure I was all right.
“I’m okay. Really, I’m fine. If it wasn’t for him, I don’t think I would have been, though.”
“Who’s him?” Jen asked as she got up from the bed and started looking around the room. Aunt Grace and Hudson came to the door.
“Everything all right in there?” Aunt Grace asked.
“She said ‘he’ helped her,” Jen told them.
“Who’s he?” Aunt Grace asked with Hudson echoing her.
I got up from the bed and walked over to the window. I knew it had been closed before I fell asleep. I looked at the sky, then turned to my very confused family, including Mom, who was still in a flurry.
“Who’s who?” I asked.
“Who’s the guy you keep referring to, Jace? You keep saying he saved you. What does that mean?” Jen asked. Hudson stood guard at her side.
“I…I don’t know. It was a dream. Sorry if I woke you all up. Well, I think it was a dream,” I said.
Jen directed me back to the bed and we sat down. Aunt Grace went to the window and Hudson went back to the doorway.
“Jacey, tell us what just happened. Don’t leave anything out,” Hudson said, leaning against the entry.
There was no mistaking, this time I would tell them everything. I started with the colors and ended with my escape via a ‘he’ cloud form. I left nothing out. I never even thought of leaving the blue-eyed form out of this explanation. Nor did I forget to include Mom and when I first saw her here. I knew the consequences of leaving things out.
“I have no idea who he is and I have no idea what the black abyss is. Mom is here now, swirling through the room like crazy,” I said as my eyes tried to follow her movements.
“Where?” both Aunt Grace and Hudson asked.
“She’s upset with everything that’s going on. She’s racing through the room like wild fire,” I said, still trying to follow her around with my eyes.
Aunt Grace and Hudson tried to follow where I was looking but they couldn’t see a thing.
“I haven’t left anything out,” I said abruptly as I got up and went to the window.
“So, that’s it…” Hudson mocked me with a quick glance to Aunt Grace.
“I don’t think she means to belittle the situation, I think she just means she’s left nothing out this time, like before,” Aunt Grace offered.
“I’m sorry, Jace. I need to make sure we’ve heard everything. I know it may have come across like I was being a hard ass. Things have changed...” Hudson said.
Aunt Grace quickly added, “What we need to worry about at this point is checking that things are in place. We’ll go outside and ensure everything’s okay out there. Jen, stay here with Jacey. Hudson, you’re with me.”
So, now I should be getting pretty peeved with everyone telling me what I should and shouldn’t do and who was going or staying where. But I wasn’t upset, I was grateful that Aunt Grace had told Jen to stay with me. I needed to talk to someone I trusted about these feelings…
“Do you realize it’s three a.m.? Let’s get going, Hudson,” Aunt Grace said.
Before Hudson was completely out the door, he looked back at me and Jen on the bed. “Jacey, I need you to be sure about what you heard in your dream…What did the voice say, and are you sure it was the same voice as the girl with the onyx eyes?”
“There’s no doubt it was her,” I said. “She’s kinda hard to forget. She said, ‘Faith…we see you. The black abyss was definitely the same one from the dream I had about Mom and Dad before they died.”
Hudson looked at me, nodded towards Jen, and then left the room with Aunt Grace.
“Do you think they’re going to be all right?” I asked Jen.
“They’ll be fine…They have more on their side than you know,” Jen said.
“I feel useless. Everyone keeps telling me I’ll learn about everything soon enough but I’m sick of waiting around. I’ve never been known for being very patient and tonight I’ve totally reached my limit. There’s no way I’m not going to help out tonight. If I seriously have to pick up a rock and throw it at something to help, that’s exactly what I’m going to do.” I went to my dresser and picked out a pair of old joggers and an old roots sweatshirt.
Jen sat there staring at me, open mouthed, and somewhat shocked by my sudden outburst. Mom was unaware of my outburst because she hadn’t stopped flying around like a maniac.
“So, are you comin’ or what?” I asked as I slid my sweatshirt over my head.
“Of course,
but are you sure, Jacey? I mean, Hudson and your Aunt seem to have it all covered and I think they’ll be really upset if we left your room and went out to h-help.” She stuttered on the last word.
“I know what you’re thinking. You think if we go out there we’re just going to get in the way and be more of a pain in the butt than actually any help. Well…maybe we will be, but I couldn’t live with myself if I let something happen to them. I still feel like I’m responsible for what happened to my parents and I did nothing about it.”
“That’s not true, Jacey, and deep down, you know it,” Jen said, interrupting me mid-sentence. Mom finally quit flying around and came over to us. She stopped right in front of me, swirling slowly and changing colors from dark foreboding ones to calming colors of sapphires, pinks and emeralds. My confession had taken the edge off her tantrum.
“Your Mom’s here, isn’t she?” Jen asked.
“Yeah, she is. She’s worried about me, and she’s telling me she doesn’t blame me for what happened. I just blame myself…”
Jen got up without a word and went back to her room. I was confused. Great—not only have I let my parents down, but now I’ve pissed off my best friend. I was about to leave my room when Jen came back. She had changed her clothing and was now dressed similar to me.
“You ready?” I asked, not knowing if I was really ready myself.
“Like I told you before, anywhere you go… I go, too,” Jen said with an obvious false sense of bravado.
Mom disappeared through Jen’s room and we followed. We stood at the top of the stairs quietly listening. We didn’t know exactly what we were waiting to not hear, but when no noise came from the kitchen, we both snuck down the stairs. We went into the sunroom and looked out into the backyard. It was pitch black outside. I’d never seen it so dark before. We’d grown up in cities for most of our lives and there was always a light on somewhere in a city. In the country, though, it was completely blacked out at night.
“Can you see anything?” I whispered to Jen.
“Nothing, how about you?” she whispered back.
“I’ve never seen it so dark before…I can’t see anything past the window,” I said as I turned to go back through the kitchen towards the front door.
Awakenings (Elemental Series - Book 1) Page 10
