Garda - Welcome to the Realm

by Stacy Eaton

  “I have coffee for you,” Beth walked closer to the bed, “and some Tylenol.”

  My arm slowly dropped, and I tried to open my eyes by blinking rapidly a few times. “Thanks.” I pushed up from my back and leaned against a pillow, and took the mug and two white pills she handed me, all while avoiding her targeted gaze.

  She sat down on the side of the mattress. I viewed her profile, her nose turned up slightly at the end, her chin softly rounded. She chewed on her lip. She wanted to say something, but she was afraid.

  I took a sip of the hot coffee, still holding the pills in my hand. “Go ahead, Beth, I know you have something to say. I deserve whatever it is.”

  She looked down to the bedroom rug. “I love you.”

  I watched her closely; once again surprised she was not venting her anger or throwing hurtful words. Her confession threw me off balance.

  Not knowing how to respond, I cleared my throat.

  “I know that I hurt you. I cheated on you, and I lied to you, but I never stopped loving you.” Her soft green eyes peeked over her shoulder at me, almost pleading with me to believe her.

  I rolled the pills around in my hand, “I know.”

  “How long were you involved with her?” her voice was barely audible.

  I didn’t want to talk about Corey, but maybe this was my chance to admit my sins.

  “We weren’t together very long.” I threw the two pills from my hand into my mouth and swallowed them with a gulp of hot coffee.

  “But you loved her.” That was not a question, I knew that, but I felt it deserved a response.

  “Yes, I loved her.” I set my coffee mug down on the nightstand. “Beth, look at me.”

  She hesitated, and then lifted her chin, shook back her hair, and turned to face me. Unshed tears brightened the color of her irises, and I fought to keep mine from reflecting the same thing.

  “Yes, I loved her and she loved me, but you need to know that I never slept with her. Our relationship wasn’t like that; it was more emotional, not physical.” There, I had admitted it.

  “Were you going to leave me?” The honesty of the question was so intense I wasn’t sure how to answer, but after staring into her face for a few moments, I knew I needed to continue being honest.

  “I had thought about it.”

  She blinked quickly a few times and turned away.

  “Just because I thought about it, doesn’t mean that I would have done it. Like I said, we weren’t together very long, and then she died.”

  “I guess I deserved that,” she mumbled.

  I sat up and reached for her hand, “No, you didn’t deserve it. Beth, you are a good woman, and I do love you. I was going through a lot, I still am.”

  She squeezed my hand, “Are we going to get through this?”

  Our eyes met, and again I had to be honest with her, “I don’t know. I really don’t know.” I released her hand and leaned back against the wall.

  ~Brock~

  When I phased into Mitch’s room, I knew that Corey was not here. There was a brief lingering of her energy, so I knew she had been recently.

  She was released from the Realm and she had gone straight to him. Beth and Mitch spoke softly in the bedroom. Was there a way to help them put things back together, without getting myself in trouble?

  Beth walked out the door after saying she hoped they could work things out. Mitch watched her leave the room and his view came to rest right where I was standing. What if I spoke to him?

  Mitch closed his eyes and the urge to step over the line was strong, but the consequences of my actions would be too much. I didn’t want to lose my chance with Corey.

  I phased down to where Beth now stood in the kitchen. Her hands were still under the running water of the faucet as she stared out the window with unfocused vision. She was a beautiful woman. She had a strength inside of her that reminded me of Corey. It was no wonder that Mitch loved them both.

  With a loud sigh, she picked up a sponge and started washing some dishes that lay in the bottom of the stainless steel sink. If only I could make it easier for her, but she wasn’t my charge.

  Turning from her, I felt her pain as if it were my own, and knew some was my fault. I left her kitchen and ended up beside a guy in his car. The feeling of anger quickly communicated to me from the driver.

  His driving was aggressive today; he drove less than eight feet behind another car going seventy miles per hour.

  Slow down, Gary, relax. Work will still be there when you get there, my voice reflected into his mind.

  He glanced down at the speedometer and sighed. The distance between his car and the one in front of him grew as he took his foot off the accelerator for a moment.

  Why couldn’t all my charges be this simple? I phased to the next one.

  ~Corey~

  Monty and I phased to the living arena, landing inside the secure gates of a storage facility. We stood between two buildings; the bright orange siding on the walls caught my attention right away, stark white rolling garage doors lined both sides.

  “Why are we here?” I asked Montgomery as I inspected the area.

  “I told you we needed some things before you stepped down,” he grinned, “but first, I need to show you how to step down to the living arena.”

  Was it anxiety or excitement that pulsed through my body as I thought about coming face to face with Mitch again?

  “Okay, what do I do?”

  “It’s pretty easy once you do it, but you have to remember a few things. You will be a little bit disoriented the first time or two.”

  “Why is that?” I listened intently.

  “When you are on this level here, you can see and hear things, but you can’t feel them. Your senses are very strong, Coralenna, and when you step over, it will be a bit overwhelming.”

  “I don’t understand why it would be so different?”

  He thought about it for a second, “Right now, you can hear things from the living arena, but they are more of a hushed background noise unless you are targeting something specific, like a conversation. When you step over, you will hear everything, not just those things you target, but everything. The sounds of life and the thoughts of others that are around you can be daunting.”

  I still didn’t get what he meant, but wanted to move forward. “Alright, if you say so. Anything else I need to know?”

  Montgomery got a serious gleam in his eye, “Yes, you need to be very careful here. You are not protected down here like you are above. You can be injured.”

  “I can take care of myself,” I brushed his comment aside, eager to get moving. “So what do I do?”

  He snickered and shook his head, “Picture a line in front of you that has an invisible wall. You have to step through the wall. Once you start to move through, it will pull you.”

  “Pull me, right.” I nodded and pushed my hands down into the back pockets of my jeans.

  “Watch me,” I turned and observed him as he seemed to concentrate for a moment before taking a step forward. A small ripple appeared to travel along his body.

  “See?” he smiled at me.

  He didn’t appear any different to me. Was he now at a different level? He didn’t appear to be.

  “You try it now.” He crossed his arms over his chest and waited. I shrugged, didn’t look too difficult.

  I imagined a clear glass wall in front of me; the bright orange metal wall stood on the other side, and I took a tentative step forward. A thickness started to suck me in, as if I was stepping into a vat of pudding, and suddenly I felt like I was being pulled into a vortex. With a snap, I landed on the other side.

  I blinked rapidly at the same time the world struck me. The sounds around me were like standing in the middle of Times Square. The noise of cars driving past, a lawnmower, a dog barking, and voices, so many voices filled my head at once.

  I staggered back a step and wanted to slam my hands over my ears.

  “Block it out, Coralenna; ju
st try to block it out.”

  “Block it out? I can’t even think straight, much less try to concentrate to block something out!” The sound of my own voice appeared louder than it should have, and I finally put my hands over my ears.

  As I stood with my hands tightly on the sides of my head, I felt something that I had not even realized I had been missing. A slight breeze floated over my skin. I inhaled the air swirling around me and picked up the scents of flowers, grass, animals, cars, and people.

  I focused on the breeze, allowed it to fill me, and absorbed the soft feeling. The buzz in my ears slowed down. The scents flowing into my nose calmed. I slowly released the tension on my ears and moved my hands away.

  The sounds were all there, but by focusing on something else, I was able to push them back to manageable amounts. I turned to consider my surroundings, taking in the colors and the sounds as I viewed the area.

  “Better?” Montgomery asked from behind me. I gave him a thumbs up afraid my voice would be too loud again.

  “You did that rather well, Coralenna, but I am not surprised.” He laughed at himself. “You just need to remember to focus on something and stay calm. Then the sounds, smells, and feelings won’t be so overwhelming.”

  He walked over to a garage door, pulled a key out of his pocket, then bent down and unlocked the padlock that secured the door. When he stood, he handed me the key.

  I studied the small gold key; the metal was warm from being in his pocket. “What do I need that would be stored in the garage?”

  He stood back up and grinned. “You can’t just go popping in and out of places. People might see that, but if you had transportation, then you would be just like any other person.”

  He reached down and grabbed the handle to the garage door, pulling it up halfway before putting both hands under it and lifting it over his head.

  When the door cleared his hips, I knew what was hidden inside. “Is that mine?” I whispered while my gaze caressed the black hood.

  “It’s not the one you had, if that’s what you are asking, but it’s just like it.” He turned, sliding his hands back and forth together to get the dust off his palms.

  There wasn’t anything on Earth that could take the smile off my face as I regarded the sleek black car.

  “The keys are inside. I would suggest that you wait until nightfall before you take it out. Remember that people here will recognize you, so you have to be careful about that. It’s only Mitch that we want to shock.”

  At the mention of his name, my heart skipped a beat. I was going to see him, face to face. I had no clue what I would say or how he would react to seeing me, but right now all I could think of was that he would see me.

  “Oh,” Monty got quiet for a moment, irritation written on his features. “I must go, Coralenna, one of my charges has gotten himself in a predicament.”

  He gave me a lopsided smile, “I wish you the best. Remember that your choices here will affect a lot of things, so be wise in your decisions.”

  I nodded at him, “I will, Monty, and thank you.”

  He walked to me and pulled me into a hug, his strong arms holding me tight and close. The love and friendship that wove through us was strong, and I absorbed it. He pulled away, searching my face as a parent might examine his own child’s.

  “Be careful, my child.” He kissed me on the forehead gently and stepped back.

  “I will.” We shared a moment of quiet and then he nodded once and was gone.

  I inhaled a deep soul-cleansing breath, trying to relax my body as if I were to practice my forms. Releasing the air I held deep inside me, I examined the area around me again.

  An old half-crushed soda bottle lay against one wall near another door, a few cigarette butts were strewn about. My line of vision settled on my car again as I heard a horn honk and a dog bark in the distance. I grinned. I was back!

  ~Mitchell~

  Things at home the last two days were for the most part better. While Beth and I had not spoken about my involvement with Corey or her involvement with my brother, we seemed to have come to a truce.

  I wasn’t sure what my feelings toward the whole thing were, but at least there were no more skeletons in the closet.

  As I pulled up to the twenty-four-hour convenience store where all the guys on duty were meeting for coffee, I backed into a parking spot. Two other patrol cars were already parked, and I watched the last one pull in while I climbed out of the car.

  I waited for Tom to get out of the car. Joe was off tonight, so Tom and I were partnered up for the shift. I liked working with Tom. I didn’t seem to make the bad judgment calls I did when Joe was my partner. Tom and I had just cleared a domestic call together. He prattled on about the baby mama drama that we had just dealt with as we entered the store.

  The coffee island stood to our right, and we grabbed brown paper cups as we reached it. Tom poured French vanilla creamer into his cup before walking to the canisters to fill his. I made my way straight to the Kona coffee canister and filled my twenty-four-ounce cup to the rim. I liked mine hot and black.

  We stood around the island idly chatting over the night’s calls, random people came in and grabbed what they needed and left. A few would stop to say hello, but most avoided us. At this time of night, the drunks were coming home from the bars and the seedier people were out and about.

  With my hands resting on the green Formica counter, I glanced towards the door when headlights flashed into the store. The lights turned off, and I brought my attention back to the guys around me.

  As if an ice cube had been slipped down the back of the shirt under my vest, a spear of anxiety raced down my back as I heard a gentle voice inside my mind.

  Outside, Mitch.

  I straightened and stared toward the glass doors, out in the parking lot beside the car that had just pulled in stood a dark figure. I tensed as a car turned the corner and the headlights hit the lone person.

  Corey? My heart sped and my hands grew damp. The headlights had only flickered over the person, but in that single moment, I saw her. I stepped towards the doors, drawn to her.

  The person turned back to her car and opened the door. No lights came on inside as I pushed open the first set of glass doors. I watched the person slip inside the vehicle.

  “Hey, Mitch, where are you going?” Tom yelled from behind me.

  I barely turned my head, keeping my line of sight trained on the car, “I’ll be right back. I need to check on something.” I stepped into the vestibule, stopping as the headlights came back on and struck me. I shielded my eyes.

  It couldn’t be Corey. Corey was dead. Yet, I had just seen her. She was focused right at me. That had been her voice I had heard.

  The car started to pull out. As it turned from the space in front of me, I saw the sleek lines of a black Camaro. My heart thumped wildly, and I pushed the second set of glass doors as the car continued to drive away.

  Once outside, I watched the car pull to the roadway, stopping briefly before it turned right. I ran to my car, I had to find out who was driving that Camaro. This had to be a bad joke. I reached my car and pulled out my keys to unlock the door when I noticed something on my windshield and hesitated.

  A small piece of paper was tucked under the windshield wiper. I grabbed it after unlocking the door. I lifted the single fold and gasped as I read the ink on the paper: Meet me, C.

  I lifted my face from the paper toward the road. The car was just fading out of sight. Meet you where? Oh God, was that really Corey? The taillights disappeared, and I jumped into my car, pulled out of the parking space quickly, and moved towards the road.

  The electronics building was in that direction, the place where we used to meet. I stepped on the gas. In the distance, I saw the back end of the car. The blinker flashed on and the Camaro turned off the road into a parking lot: the electronics place.

  My hands were damp, my heart hammered wildly, and my mind reeled. How could it be Corey? I had watched her die. I had
watched her get buried. I had carried her damn body for God’s sake!

  Anger sparked from somewhere deep inside as I stepped on the gas harder. What kind of joke was this?

  I slammed on the brake, almost locking them up, and turned without using my turn signal. The sudden fear that darted through my stomach made me feel ill.

  I stopped my car before I turned around the backside, squeezing my eyelids closed as my hands choked the steering wheel. It can’t be Corey! But I saw her! I shouted inside my own mind.

  I forced myself to breathe slowly and put my foot gently back on the gas pedal.

  As I made the left turn to drive past the loading docks, my headlights landed on the black Camaro parked on the far side. The lights were out and the door was closed. My foot shook on the pedal as I softly pressed it down to move closer.

  Twenty feet away, I stopped. My right hand put the car in park. I wiped my wet palms on my pants before turning my headlights off. There was no movement in the car in front of me. The overhead light on the corner of the building cast a harsh yellow fluorescent light.

  Why wasn’t anyone getting out? Fear froze me to my seat, not the kind of fear that we get on the job responding to a dangerous call, but the kind that mentally locks you down on the inside. I was afraid—afraid that this was a joke, or maybe I was afraid that this was real. I wasn’t exactly sure, but the apprehension choked me even as I lifted my hand to the door handle.

  A minute passed before I gathered the strength to pull the handle. I pushed the door open and stepped out gingerly, never taking my focus from the driver’s door. I held onto the door frame for a moment for support. The dark-tinted windows revealed nothing as I stood straighter and then stepped back to close the door with a soft click. My heart pounded in my chest in triple time, blocking out all other sounds except the blood rushing through my ears.

  I stood staring, waiting for the car door to open, waiting for whoever was doing this to me to step out and face me. I took a step forward but spun around when a soft feminine voice came from behind me.

  “Mitch, I’m glad you came.”

  I sucked in the air as the sound of her voice reached me—Corey’s voice. I swallowed as I searched the shadows near the wall of the building. A figure slowly stepped out from the edge.