Sebastian hastily grips my shoulder, shocking me at his urgent reaction. “What?”
I watch Sebastian’s reaction intently as I speak. “When I was unconscious, I had a premonition about the Etowah Mounds in Georgia. Anna, the real Anna, tried to stop me from following through with the illusion, to keep it from Michael, but she was too late. He saw what I saw. He is going to try and stop us from getting to those mounds.”
I pull away from Sebastian’s grip. “Back in Kyoto at the facility, you dodged Xander’s questions about why you chose the Etowah Mound site. What is its significance?”
Sebastian runs his hand over his mouth and taps his finger on his lips as he thinks. “What did you see?”
“A creek, the outlet above a lake, in the distance I see the mounds. I follow the creek down to where it joins a rushing river.”
I close my eyes to conjure the image in my head as I speak. “The ridge is high above the river. It is dusk, but the profile of the three mounds is vivid. There are stars, three of them above the largest of the three visible mounds.”
I open my eyes slowly. “That is what I saw before Anna came to me. The stars, it looked like Orion’s Belt.”
Sebastian stops tapping his finger on his lips. “I have had premonitions of the mounds, but you have seen something that I have not.”
“All I saw were the mounds and three stars. It isn’t that big of a deal.”
It really wasn’t. It was just a constellation in the night sky.
Sebastian, “In all of my visions of the mounds over my lifetime, I have never seen Orion’s Belt above them. You have seen it above those mounds for a reason.”
“What the hell does a bunch of stars have to do with saving our world?”
Saving my father and Nate, ending Michael, getting all of us the hell out of here, sealing the veil, and saving our world. My chest constricts from the pressure of knowing that the events of my purpose are upon me and closing in fast. I turn away from both Sebastian and Xander to try and calm down.
I feel Xander’s hand rest on my shoulder. “Hey, you are not going at this alone remember.”
I nod my head acknowledging his support, while I bite my lip to hold my opposing words for what I know he would be willing to do to protect me. What both him and Nate would be willing to do; anything.
I look up to hold the tears in my eyes for as long as possible. I can’t let Xander and Nate risk themselves for me; another item to add to my growing checklist of things to do.
Sebastian’s somber voice interrupts my internal rant, “I thought it would be me. The one to have the visions that you have. I sought the uncharted territory in the first place. I challenged the boundaries of our world, our universe. I wanted to find what was beyond us, what created us, originated, possibly what had occupied our world at one time before us. We can’t be the only ones that have been here. This should be my burden, not yours.”
Sebastian covers his mouth with praying hands and closes his eyes. He breathes in deeply then moves his hands away to speak. “I have burdened my wife, my sons, my niece, my grandson, you, all of you. Dobria, she would still be here if I was home when they came for me. They murdered her because of me.”
“She was murdered?”
Sebastian nods. “Because of what I had discovered about our family, our ancestral legacy in Georgia, we are not just guardians. That is only the destiny of our origin because of who we are, our abilities, and what we can do. Yes, part of our abilities are because of the Copula. But much of it is inherently because of our lineage.”
Our lineage?
Sebastian continues, “The men in suits came for our family. Michael’s father...” Sebastian shakes his head, like he is trying to shake off a bad dream; bad illusion.
Not able to read him and wanting to break the anguish on his face even for a moment, I whisper, “It was only an illusion Sebastian.”
He turns away from both Xander and I. “Truths lie within the illusions, Jesca. Sometimes we try really hard to bury those illusions, but they plague our reality and will always resurface. Our legacy could only be buried for so long. I exposed it, dug too deep, to the root of our legacy and it has transformed everything around us. I should be the one to seal the veil and save our race, not you.” Crestfallen, Sebastian turns his gaze to the ground. “I was not chosen to see what you have seen. Know what you have learned. The calamity of our family’s legacy has fallen on you, Jesca.”
I turn away from both of them now, swallowing the golf ball sized lump of trepidation in my throat. When I speak, I expect my voice to be strong, but it sounds so…so weak, “What am I supposed to do? I don’t know how to save us.”
I look up at the sky and hope Michael can hear me and realize that it is a lost cause to try and kill us. “I don’t know how to seal the freaking veil! I don’t know how to save our world!”
I feel Xander’s body move closer behind me, his chest barely touching my back.
Sebastian explains, “The premonitions, they will guide your path.”
I snicker, “My path.”
That phrase keeps coming back to bite me in the ass, doesn’t it? I hear a familiar voice in my head and it makes me smile like only he can, “You are thinking too hard. Keep it simple, love.”
Ezra.
Hearing those words in my head give me the renewed spirit I need. I turn around to face both Xander and Sebastian. “Right now, getting Ezra and Nate from Michael is my path. After that, well, I will just have to figure it out as I go. I need to keep it simple. Anna, has gone after Ezra and Nate, but she won’t stand a chance against Michael, Sam, and the beings wanting to keep us here.”
Xander interrupts, tensely, “Jesca, Ezra and Nate are bait to draw us in! You are doing what Michael wants you to do!”
I look from Xander to Sebastian. “Balthazar says sometimes to catch you have to be caught. This is one of those times.”
Sebastian nods. He can’t argue his son’s wise words. It is not a confident and optimistic nod by any means, but I will take what I can get. I look back at Xander. The condescending look in his eyes fuel the fight building quickly within me. “What? It is what it is, Xander! There is no other option!” Xander shakes his head and works his jaw back and forth. I start to move around Xander.
He steps in front of me, blocking me from passing. “I can’t let you do this, Jesca!”
“Then don’t!”
In that moment, I turn and run like hell. The only way to get Sebastian and Xander to follow through with my bright idea is to force it upon them.
Chapter 21
Ezra
Anna walks ahead of Nate and I, leading us out of the thinning wood. I watch Anna’s movement, the way her body shifts, it’s different. Maybe it has been so long that I have forgotten the way she moves. I have Nate walking beside me. I didn’t like the way his body reacted to Jesca making contact. It made him vulnerable. It is nearly dusk and my eye is caught by the light beyond the brush ahead. Without warning, I see a small figure pass in front of the light from one side of the opening to the other. I react quickly, put my arm out, and grab hold of Nate’s shirt, bringing him to a halt. His eyes dart from me back to the opening. I hear his thoughts as he contemplates what he could have seen just now. Anna is still walking. I call to her in my mind, “Anna,” but it has no effect on her as she keeps drudging on. I whisper, “Anna.”
She stops, crouches, and turns to face me. “What?”
Why couldn’t she hear me? “Didn’t you hear me?”
She looks down, like she is thinking. “No, I guess it is this place trying to block our connection. What? Did you see something? ”
How could she not see it? I whisper, “Ahead of you in the opening.”
She turns back to the opening and waits, watches, like a predator. I have never seen Anna like that.
Nate leans into me and whispers, “Something is off, Ezra.”
I look over at him. He shakes his head from side to side, looks at Anna, then back at me. No, Anna is fi
ne. She is trying to protect us, get us to Jes. I shake my head and hiss barely above a whisper, not wanting Anna to hear, “No, don’t even go there, Nate. Nothing is off. She is fine.”
Nate looks away, runs his hand over his mouth, then looks ahead at Anna. “Fine.”
Anna looks back at us. “We need to move fast. I think the beings here are getting restless.”
That is all we needed, to have the beings attacking us as well as Michael.
Anna looks at Nate. “Are you getting anything else from her?”
Nate looks down, like he is thinking, taking inventory, and then looks up at her annoyed. “No, damn it, I can’t feel or hear anything. All I hear is random thoughts running through my head.”
Anna looks from Nate to me. “Stay close. Let’s go.”
Chapter 22
Sam
When the fog lifts from the hold Michael has on me, I take inventory of what is around me. I see lampposts ahead lining a suburban-like neighborhood. To my right is heavy brush and trees; the woods. It is beyond dusk now. I must have been under his complete control for a couple of hours. The sound of rustling within the trees makes my heart quicken. The beings here, what if they have discovered me? I quiet my deep breathes and listen. It could be Anna, Ezra, and that kid Nate. I need to try and warn them.
Suddenly, my body acts on its own and moves swiftly, arms and legs pumping in an animal-like stride; low to the ground. When my body stops and I get my bearings, I see that I have sprinted a good two hundred feet down the street in a matter of seconds and I am hunched behind the front end of a parked car. I look down at my hands, bloody from gripping the ground beneath them. They don’t even resemble human hands any more.
Michael’s thoughts violate my mind again, “They aren’t yours anymore Sam. They belong to me and the beings here. With your tainted past, they couldn’t be more pleased with their acquisition.”
No, I’m still in here. I feel it. You are just trying to make me think they have taken my soul. I can still make things right.
My body crumbles flat against the concrete, then jerks me backward and I am moving again, animal like, along the sidewalk, then up a driveway and into a nearby yard. I come to a stop, crouched next a cluster of trees. My vision is tunneled and focused on the front of the house. I hear foot movement coming from my right and I, the me inside, want to look, but I have no domain over myself. My body crouches lower and closer to the trunk of a tree, eyes still focused on the doorway of the house.
Three bodies come into my tunneled area of vision, to the doorway of this house. Whose house is this? They slowly climb the steps. The young kid, Nate, seems to lag behind Ezra hesitantly; he knows something is wrong. I try and use my mind to will my body to move, become my own again.
Michael’s thoughts break into my mind again, distracting my focus, “Not going to happen, Sam. Between me and these hungry, lost, souls here, your soul being so appealing, you don’t stand a chance.”
The three, Anna, Ezra, and Nate open the door, cross the threshold, and close the door behind them. I think, What are you going to do to them?
Michael thinks, “Me?” His cackling laughter fills my head, “You and I.”
My eyes are still fixed on the front porch of the house, when I see a person running down the road toward the driveway. Anna? How can that be? She just went in there with Ezra and the kid.
Michael thinks, “So naive Sam. You make this so easy.”
Anna isn’t with them. I push against the ground to lunge out of the bushes, but I am held down, immobile. The numbing fog that has infested and oppressed me, latches onto my mind again. I fight it, knowing that this is the last time Michael will enslave me, then I will be theirs to possess.
No, no, NO!
Chapter 23
Jesca
I hear Xander and Sebastian close behind me. I try to use my ability to Astral Project, jump, but I can’t. Has Michael or the beings affected our abilities or is it an illusion? I know it is wrong on so many levels to make them bend to my will like this, but it was the only way I was going to get them to follow.
I pick up my pace, pumping my legs harder, but my lightning speed doesn’t ever kick in. If Xander gets his chance, he will tackle me to the ground and hold me there until I listen to reason. The thing is, the faith in what I am doing, who I am doing it for, is the only reasoning I need right now. Ahead I see the break in the woods, a light. I hit the pavement without a hiccup in my footing.
Immediately I hear two sets of feet close behind me; they caught up quickly. The street light ahead comes upon us quickly with the speed we have taken. It has an intimate familiarity; one that is not pleasant. I look to my left and right quickly. The houses, I have passed them many times in my childhood. The gray one story with the bright red shutters and door, the lime green VW Beatle that always parked on the road, old Ms. MacDermott watering her flowers, and the...Woah! What? I do a double take, but Ms. MacDermott and her watering hose are gone.
I don’t acknowledge Xander grabbing my arm and whipping around to face him. I keep my eyes on the yard that displayed Ms. M, waiting for her to reappear, for it to reappear. “It wasn’t her. It was him. He knows we are coming.”
My words must take Xander off guard, because his hands loosen around my arm. In his moment of weakness, I pull away and start running again.
Xander calls after me, “Jesca, our abilities are weakened, we can’t go up against him, not like this.” Suddenly, the road takes on an illusory quality, stretching in distance and rising in elevation. I feel the burning in my legs and my lungs catch fire as I keep running up the growing hill. I turn to see how far behind Xander and Sebastian are when I notice a thin, slinking fog trailing behind them. The fog quickly thickens and rolls along the glossy elevated pavement, climbing with Xander, Sebastian and I. Through my panting I manage to holler, “Keep running!”
I look ahead of me and concentrate on the climb, but it is hard to ignore what could be within the fog gaining on us. I turn once more to see outlines of beings, human beings, within the fog; no faces, only silhouettes and blackened sockets where eyes would normally reside.
Xander and Sebastian both look back to see what has my attention. The visible fear on their faces when they turn back is what give me that extra push I need to fight the illusion of the impossible climb ahead of us. I turn back and pump my arms hard, swinging them in time with the pounding of my feet and my racing heart.
Up ahead, another street light.
Fifty yards away.
The way the mist gathers and swims in the atmosphere around the lamppost.
Twenty five yards.
I look at the ground; wet, glossy asphalt shimmering in the light.
Fifteen yards.
I feel Xander and Sebastian at either side of me as I slow to a walk.
My nightmare, the one about my adoptive parents, Roan and Delilah. I turn in a circle taking in the precision these beings, Michael, have performed to recreate an intimate terror that plagued me for years. If they thought it would spark that initial fear I felt again, they are mistaken. All this has done is piss me off.
Xander’s voice warns, “Move faster, Jes! They are on us!”
I turn to see the human-shaped shadows moving rigidly and unnaturally as they writhe in fast motion closer and closer.
All three of us turn at the same time and run as hard as we can. I swing a left at the lamp post and round the corner onto my street. Our feet pounding pavement and our wheezing lungs are the only sounds I hear as I come up on the delusion of my home.
Sebastian and Xander have stopped behind me. Out of breath, Sebastian says, “They aren’t advancing.”
I turn to see that the phantasmic figures are standing motionless, like sentinels, about a half a block from us rather than attacking.
I turn back to this displaced house, meant to be the embodiment of my childhood home. Among the graying, warped wood panels, I try to find some reminder that this was once where I lived with Roan
, Delilah, and Bethany. I approach the front door and glance at the front lawn, well, the lack of a lawn. Not a blade of grass to be found, just dirt. I step up onto the creaking wooden porch. The siding on the house is cracked and rotting and the two front windows have been broken out. The front door is no longer deep blue in hue, but rather corroded and peeled back to reveal the decaying wood beneath. I reach out to touch the specks of blue paint that have managed to cling to the door. That is my confirmation. This withered, shattered, and desecrated edifice is an illusion of the place I had called home as a child. I close my eyes and let my mind travel beyond the door, testing the murky waters of the illusion I’m about to leap into. I see nothing though. Craptacular!
“Jesca! No!”
Anna’s blood-curdling scream sets me into action. I rear back and kick the door, expecting it to splinter upon my contact, but it doesn’t. “Ouch, shit!”
Xander comes to my side. “Stop, Jes! You are going to hurt yourself!”
The pain quickly turns to anger. Ignoring Xander, I lunge at the door and make contact with my body; the door doesn’t budge. “I’m not going to let him stop me!”
I rear back and lunge once more with all my strength at the door. This time it gives and I stumble into the house blindly with Sebastian and Xander close behind and right into a hard chest and grabbing arms. “Ah, ah, ah, where do you think you are going little guardian?”
Sam’s voice is not like I remember; smooth and sly. It is coarse and clipped, like he is crazed, insane.
Xander reacts quickly and tries to grab hold of my outstretched hand, but the sound of a blade being unsheathed and the feel of cold steel on my neck, steals my chance of a quick escape.
Xander is swaying from side to side, anger building within him as he thinks. I know what he is thinking.
Sebastian does too; he grips one of Xander’s arm. “Don’t, Xander.”
Ascending the Veil Page 16
