Walking Among the Shadows: Awakening: Revised Edition

by Navi' Robins

  But her being that close to me was uncomfortable and without thinking I let out a quiet yelp. A mischievous smile formed on her face which would usually upset me because I then came to the conclusion that she tried scaring me on purpose. But instead of being upset I was kind of “weirded” out. She wasn’t physically intimidating but all the same she scared me and that smirk wasn’t helping to lessen my anxiety towards her. After about five seconds of smirking and me looking at her like she was crazy, she decided to speak. At first she tried to be cordial and ask me how I was doing and did I enjoy the game, but I wasn’t feeling the small talk from her because the way she came at me was totally out of line and I wasn’t trying to be friends at this point.

  My heart was beating fast and wouldn’t slow down. I hated feeling this way about another girl who wasn’t that much taller than me. So I cut her off and told her I was on my way home and I didn’t have time to play Facebook friend request with her. So if she had a point it was well past due to getting to it. She seemed unfazed by my unwillingness to engage in small talk and she kept talking. I can’t even recall what she said. All I wanted was to go my way. So I reminded her about my previous statement (something I hated doing was repeating myself or trying to explain a very clear message). So she stopped talking and started smirking again and looking me dead in the eyes. At that point I started wondering if this mental patient thought I was a joke or something?

  Now I was getting upset because she was in my way and if she didn’t get out of my face I would rip that pretty little smirk off of her’s. So I told her to excuse me and started to walk past her. At first I thought she as going to let me go until I felt her hand grab hold of my arm, holding me back. I remember her hands were cold, colder than normal, as if they were made of ice and I felt the chill through my jacket. I tried to pull away but her grip was firm and I noticed she was much stronger than she looked. Now I was beyond upset, I was livid and ready to give her the best right hook she’d ever encountered. But before I could get in position to swing she opened her mouth and said…

  “Jason isn’t who you think he is, he’s done horrible things and he will do the same to you and your family.”

  Now this entire confrontation had gone well beyond a verbal resolution. How dare Jasmine say anything like that about Jason? She didn’t know anything about him and worse yet to say horrible things would happen to me and my family was not only crossing the line, it was kicking dirt in my eyes. She was going to have to pay the price for being so stupid and outspoken against my family. I loved Jason and in my eyes he was family. So I did what any girl in my position would have done; I slapped her…really freaking hard. The sound of my open hand connecting to her face filled the corridor and I felt the sting of the slap surge through my fingers. I have never regretted striking someone when I decided it was necessary and today wasn’t going to be any different.

  The look on her face was priceless. I could tell by the bulging of her eyes that a slap from me was the last thing she was expecting. But then she did something I wasn’t expecting either, a winding front kick across my face. Even now while sitting here I can’t figure out how she executed that kick so close to me? She would have had to be doing a complete split standing up to pull that off. The kick sent me off balance and before I could recover another kick connected to my stomach. The force of her kick and the air leaving my body sent me straight to my knees. Again, she was much stronger than she looked. I then realized that this was going to be the most difficult fight I’ve ever been in but I wasn’t going to back down from this bitch. If she wanted to go I was more than willing to show her I wasn’t going to go down from two kicks. She had more coming to her. She stood over me with that same smirk on her face but her face was different because now the left side was red with the imprint of my hand.

  I waited for her to get closer, and then I executed a frontal sweeping kick to knock her off her feet but she lifted her front leg so I missed. Or so she thought. I quickly stood on one hand and connected with a strong kick to her chest. But before she hit the floor I hit her with a spinning kick that sent her flying to the other side of the hall. She hit the floor and slid a few feet before stopping and holding her chest. I stood up and looked at her across the hall. That smirk was gone from her face and another a look of surprise. I could tell she was too comfortable and confident in her fighting skills and didn’t expect me to be as skilled as I was. Stupid, arrogant bitch. Looking at her I wanted to pound her face in until nothing was left but mush and bone fragments.

  She stood up stumbling and holding her chest. Once she got her balance she took in a deep breath and started running towards me with a lot of rage in her eyes. I wasn’t going to be outdone by her aggression so I charged as well and when we were within striking range of each other we began attacking with everything we had. She was much stronger than me and every hit that managed to get through my defense took a more serious toll than my strikes did to her. I knew I wasn’t going to win this fight like this so I backed away and let her come to me and responded to her attacks instead of reacting. Every time she would strike I would quickly reposition myself on the side or behind her and every time she missed I made her pay dearly. Before long she was screaming and cursing every time she missed and I shut her ass down with another strike across her head and body.

  But I got greedy and stayed with the same tactic, something my sensei constantly warned me about and she made me pay for it. When I tried to get behind her she bent down and stepped back, positioning herself behind me and quickly grabbed a handful of my hair. She then wrapped it around her arm and pulled me backwards and down towards the floor. I hit the floor so hard I bit down on my tongue. The pain was so severe I wanted to cry as the nasty taste of my own blood filled my mouth; but I refused to give her the satisfaction. However, the position I found myself in was very compromising and even though I’d hit her more and caused more damage, she’d won this fight with that move. I was lying there waiting for her to wail on me and get all the revenge she wanted for the beat down I’d just given her. But when I looked at her strangely she had this look of compassion in her eyes and seemed to be looking me over to see if I was okay.

  This new side of her made me very uncomfortable because I have never seen anyone react like this before. One second she was the queen “B” and the next she had the look of a heartbroken and concerned mother looking at her child’s knee after she had a hard fall off her bike. She was a very strange girl and I thought I had seen it all but I was wrong. Not only was she a very skilled fighter but she was a psycho…a very bad combination. And then she placed her two fingers on my head and uttered the word “awake.” After that she got up without saying another word and walked away. I laid there on the floor for about a minute trying to gather myself and make sense of what just happened. When I finally stood up I felt different but I couldn’t put my finger on what it was.

  I felt a draft blowing through me that wasn’t there before, like something in me was now exposed. I checked myself to make sure I was fully clothed and everything seemed to be there; but at the same time I kept feeling like I was missing something or something that was once heavy was now much lighter. When I finally walked outside there were hundreds of students celebrating with a few teachers overlooking the celebration and making sure things didn’t get out of hand. As I searched the crowd for Aiden I glanced over at Mrs. Palpachek, the school nurse, watching a group of students that was further away from the rest of the crowd.

  They were clearly up to no good and I could see she knew it. As she walked towards them I saw something move behind her. At first I thought I was tripping and seeing things; a result of hitting my head on the hard floor but when I took a second look I was sure I wasn’t. Whatever it was seemed to be attached to her and it was moving around and through her. It was ugly and disfigured like an old doll left in a fire. It appeared solid but was able to move in and out her body like a ghost or something. I found myself staring at it; as terrified as I was I just couldn�
�t keep my eyes from it. When it noticed I could see it, it seemed to growl at me revealing a mouth full of jagged and sharp teeth. Mrs. Palpachek immediately turned around and gave me the most evil look, like I’d invaded her privacy or caught her cheating on her wealthy husband. Which if rumors are correct is something she did on a regular basis. Everyone in Deerfield knew she married for money and she was seeing several men around the Chicago land area; including a few right here in Deerfield. She was a very beautiful woman with an amazing body and because of that she got special treatment from the male faculty as well as the principal and took full advantage of it.

  She wasn’t a nice person and whatever that was attached to her wasn’t nice either. It seemed to be formed of a dark mist and where its eyes should have been were just empty holes. It was threatening and aggressive constantly scratched at the air in my direction. Mrs. Palpachek also seemed agitated by the way I was looking at her and she decided to go elsewhere and out of my line of sight instead of checking on the wayward teens. What was happening to me? I thought. Was it the knock on the head from hitting the floor? Was I going crazy? I was losing my cool and it got worse once I started looking closely at everyone and noticed they all had those misty things attached to them.

  Some were similar in character as Mrs. Palpachek’s and others were different and not as aggressive. They seemed peaceful and their forms were beautiful and serene. Some were a mixture of the two, like the arms would be disfigured while the rest of the body wasn’t so deformed. It was strange and terrifying to see everyone have these spirits or entities attached to them, clinging to them as if these things wouldn’t survive without the host they were attached to.

  All kinds of things popped up in my head from alien invasions to demonic possessions. But none of them made sense or seemed to describe what I was seeing. It was one of the most horrifying moments of my teenage life because inside I knew that I was also possessed by one of these things and what I was seeing was real and not a hallucination. As bad as I wanted it to be hallucinations, something inside me told me these things were real and I began to understand the feeling I had in the hallway now. That feeling like I was missing something or a draft was blowing straight through me. Jasmine has done something to me but I didn’t know what or how. I just knew I was different now and I didn’t see my life going back to how it used to be anytime soon.

  I ran back in the school trying to get away from everyone. I just wanted to be alone but fate would have it that I would run into Tony…literally. I turned the corner and bam! I looked around and I was on the floor again but Tony was still on his feet reaching down to help me up. I remembered being upset because I’d never been knocked on my back twice in the same day; in fact the same year. Tony looked me over and noticed the scratches and scars Jasmine had given me. “Are you okay?” he asked with concern. I reached up to take his hand then pulled back. I almost forgot about what I was seeing and the last thing I wanted to see was Tony’s little baby demon playing ring-around-the-rosy on his leg or torso. But when I looked I couldn’t see it. So I allowed him to help me up and before he could back away I hugged him tightly. After such a traumatic evening he was like my oasis in a desert of horrors. At first he tensed up at my show of affection but seeing me in the state I was in I guess he figured I could use a hug and for the first time he hugged me back.

  The feeling of him embracing me filled me with security and warmth. We just stood there hugging for about thirty seconds and then I saw it. I screamed and immediately jumped away from Tony and pointed at it. Tony looked very worried now. He looked around himself to see what I was pointing at. Tony’s little visitor was hiding behind his head, wrapped around his neck. After looking at it more I realized that his little creepy visitor wasn’t disfigured nor aggressive. Actually it was very shy and cute like a koala bear but it didn’t have any animal features and it didn’t look anything like Tony. But looking at it, I realized it was Tony or something that was a part of Tony. I can’t really explain how I knew this but something in me started to make sense of what I was seeing and I swear this little cute companion that was hanging on Tony’s arm was actually apart of Tony or it was Tony.

  “Are you okay?” Tony asked again. I answered yes as I slowly walked towards him never taking my eyes off this thing that was now hanging on his arm. When I got closer it hid behind him again, only peeking out once or twice then quickly hiding again. Then when I got about a foot from Tony the thing popped its head out of his stomach and then jumped back in. The sudden appearance from his stomach startled me and I jumped back again but this time I laughed. Tony was really confused now and grabbed my hand and told me he was taking me home. I told him to give me a minute so I can call my mom to let her know I was on my way home. As I began dialing I noticed from the corner of my eye that Tony’s little companion was watching me. It was perched on his shoulder and staring at my cell phone’s screen as I dialed. It would look at me and then back at the screen. I was getting too comfortable with this. Where was my head? This wasn’t normal and unless I spoke to someone soon I would find myself locked away in an insane asylum. I’ve never shared this with anyone, but death never scared me nor did serious injury.

  My greatest fear is being locked away in a cage or restrained, unable to move or speak. Locked away in a padded room and forgotten by all those I cared about to rot and live out my life staring out a window drooling and longing for an end but not having the mental capacity to end it all myself.

  So standing here and accepting being watched by some supernatural pet sitting on Tony’s shoulder shouldn’t be a laughing matter. In the car ride home with Tony I tried my best to not look at him directly. Instead, I looked outside the car window. I could tell Tony wanted to ask me about what happened but he was hesitant due to me being so distant.

  When I got home I paused outside my front door for about ten minutes; afraid to see what type of supernatural things would be attached to my family. Would they be disfigured and aggressive or would they be something docile and goofy like Tony’s?

  This was crazy and it would drive me insane if I had to live in the house with those things so I wasn’t looking forward to walking through that door. When I finally got the nerve to open the door I noticed the house felt different. It wasn’t as welcoming as it used to be. It felt cramped and seemed to have this feeling of disorder and depression. The atmosphere was so toxic I almost walked my butt right back out the house but I decided to keep going towards the kitchen when I heard my mom’s voice. I really needed my mom at that point; I just wanted her to hold me in her arms. Maybe her love could help me calm my nerves and make things better.

  But after seeing the monstrosity that was attached to Jason no amount of hugging was going to make things better. Jason’s entity could only be described as death materialized before your eyes. It was rotten and horribly disfigured and moved like a serpent; slithering in and out of Jason. To say it was aggressive was an understatement. It seemed to actually feast on Jason, biting and gnawing at him. Even though it couldn’t physically bite him it still appeared to be taking pieces of Jason and swallowing them whole. I screamed when it stared at me and grinned allowing pieces of rotten flesh to fall from its mouth. It was a scene that not even the most renowned “masters of horror” could conjure up in their wildest imaginations or nightmares. It was only natural for a girl like me to scream at the top of my lungs at this horrific display. It was the only logical response to something like that. I may be very skilled in self-defense but this was way out of my area of expertise.

  I don’t know what is going on with my family; I can see ghosts attached to people, and apparently Aiden can control and walk through fire. And Jason was an evil spirit or demon. Oh yeah, and I saw that crazy shit as my mom and I ran out of her room. On a night when our family should be celebrating we are in the hospital trying to make sense of the most horrifying experience any of us has ever endured.

  Here goes Tony again, trying to get to the bottom of what happened. I just wish
he would drop it. I don’t want to be mean to him but right now I’m trying to grasp everything that’s happened and also pray my family will be okay. So the last thing I want to do right now is start explaining the unexplainable.

  “Listen, Tony, I really can’t talk about this right now. I got a lot on my mind and it’s a lot to process, so I’m gonna need some time to figure this shit out. I’m sorry but I can’t give you any answers.”

  By the look on his face, he isn’t going to let it go. Now I understand why he and my brother are the best of friends. They are both dense and hard of hearing. Boys are so dumb; it’s like a hint to them can’t be subtle it has to be an explosion or a hit across the head with a bat. Then they get the point but anything less dramatic and they are clueless. On the other hand, I understand that he deserves an explanation especially after running into a burning house to get my brother out, risking his life for someone else’s. Also, I know that Tony and my brother had a falling out a while back because Tony became a ghost and I rarely saw him outside of school. I’m not quite sure why but something tells me all this supernatural stuff may be a reason. I would more than likely have a falling out with my best friend if they told me they could see ghosts, control fire, and kill demons. Yeah, I think I would keep a safe distance from that kind of crazy. It’s just not fair for people to think that just because you are friends when a friend goes all “Hitchcock” on you that you should stay around anyway.

  Self-preservation is paramount in my book and no amount of friendships or “keeping it real” will make me decide otherwise. So for Tony to go in there after my brother was impressive and very selfless and I want to give him something but I need to be still and quiet and collect my thoughts. Later I will break it to him but right now isn’t the right time and place for it.