by Angela Peach
“Night. You too.”
To my surprise, I was asleep almost instantly.
CHAPTER 12
I woke next morning with my face buried in Spencer’s dark curls, and our arms and legs tangled up together, bodies pressed against each other perfectly. My heart started pounding so hard, I was sure it would wake her and the ringing in my ears was almost deafening. We’d both slept in our underwear, as it was just too hot for anything more, and the sensation of her near naked body against mine was doing crazy things to me!
I lay there for over half an hour, just enjoying being so close and listening to her breathing. I could have stayed this way all day! But then, to my disappointment, she woke up, stretching her arms above her head.
“Mm, morning!” she said, smiling at me. I smiled back stupidly, wondering if she had any idea how beautiful she was. My heart couldn’t make up its mind whether to race or stop altogether.
“Morning. How did you sleep?”
“Really well actually. You?”
“Best night’s sleep I’ve had for a long time” I said, and I meant it. She smiled and snuggled into me, idly tickling my back with her fingers before realising what she was doing. Her smile froze, and she rolled away from me quickly, getting out of the bed in one swift move.
“Um, I’ll go and shower first, then I can sort us out some breakfast. I’ve got to make some calls to cancel clients, then we can sort out a plan for what to do, ok?”
“Cancel clients? I don’t want to put you out or make you lose money.”
“It’s not a problem. I’m fine for money, Tris, and I’ve got a lot of savings so please don’t worry.”
She walked out, leaving me to stretch out in her bed and think about the previous day.
In all the excitement of reading through the hypnotherapy session, we hadn’t discussed what had happened to me on the roof of the supermarket. I wanted to clear this up, to let her know I wasn’t suicidal, and also to get her views on this new change of direction the blurs had taken, so I decided I’d do this over breakfast.
I got up and walked over to the window, looking out into her back garden. It was shaping up to be another beautiful day, and I was glad I’d brought a decent selection of shorts and small tops. I went over the session notes as I sat on the sill, some parts more thoroughly than others. I wondered if Spencer did indeed feel a pull when we were apart, and if she experienced the same sort of anxiety that I did?
Where I am, time is almost still.
A shiver went down my spine. What did that mean? What could that mean?
“The more you read it, the less it makes sense. Trust me!” Spencer said as she walked in wearing a very small towel. I gawped slightly at her sexy wet legs which the towel just didn’t cover, then turned away blushing. Something about knowing she was completely naked underneath made me nervously excited! I was suddenly wanting that towel to fall, so I could see the rest of her wet body, so I could lick every last drop from her!
I shook my head before the fantasy got too carried away and stood up. She told me where to find some clean towels, and I went to have a very cold shower!
Once I’d dressed, I spritzed some of my favourite perfume on me and went to join Spencer in the kitchen. I could hear her on the phone cancelling an appointment, and I felt guilty again. She hung up and brought me a cold glass of orange juice.
“What do you want to eat? I’ve got toast, cereal or fruit.”
“I’ll just have some toast, thanks. Spencer, I need to talk to you about what happened at the supermarket.”
“Ok. I was wondering about that.”
I explained to her as best I could about my episode on the roof, and how I remembered jumping off to what I thought was my death. Her eyebrows shot up.
“You actually jumped?”
“Mm-hm. When you found me, I thought I was on the ground.”
“That’s insane! Are you sure you didn’t just fall asleep?”
“Spence, I think I could tell the difference! I was fully awake! Pissed, but awake! I sent you the text, then I jumped! But I’m not suicidal! It was almost like the longer we were apart, the worse I got. I’d never try and kill myself!”
“I got that text when I finished translating and tried to call you, but your phone was switched off. My neighbour drove me to town cos I told her it was an emergency but I kept thinking I was going to be too late. I told her to go as fast as she could, but I just felt more and more anxious with each passing second. By the time we got there, I was actually sweating and I could barely breathe!” She looked out of the window into her garden. “When I saw you lying on the ground, I thought you’d od’d on tablets or something. I was so scared, Tristen. I couldn’t imagine life without you! All I could think was how I never got a chance to tell you how I felt.”
“How do you feel?” I asked, my mouth dry. She turned her attention back to me, her dark eyes mysterious and intense, and sighed.
“Does it matter? You have a boyfriend and you make it quite clear just how much you love him all the time. But you confuse me when you do things like hold my hand, or…or kiss me.”
“Spence, tell me how you feel?” I insisted gently. She paused, searching my eyes with hers as if gauging whether or not to tell me.
“I feel like I’m falling in love with you.”
My heart practically exploded in my chest at her words! I wanted to run around her garden naked singing! But I noticed how down she looked.
“I feel the same way! I thought I was coming on too strong to you, so I tried backing off” I said, putting my hand over hers. I was surprised when she pulled hers away.
“But you still have a boyfriend. I don’t want to be the other woman, Tris. You obviously still love him, and this is more complicated than us just having a quick kiss and fumble on the bed. What if you don’t want to know me once we sort out the reason for your blurs? Where am I left then? I don’t want to get hurt, and I seem to lose all control when we’re close together, so maybe we should just keep our distance until we know what’s causing all this.”
I was gutted. And not knowing what to say that could right the situation, I just glumly nodded. She looked almost relieved that I’d agreed and stood up to clear our plates away, leaving me struggling yet again with being rejected!
We drove to the site of the accident in silence, both of us chewing things over. I wanted desperately to ask her about the notes from the session, but she seemed lost in her own thoughts and would barely look at me.
When we arrived, I got out of the car apprehensively. I’d sort of expected to feel something when we got here, but I felt nothing out of the ordinary. We walked around for a few minutes, remembering. There were some old dead flowers at the side of the road which I knew were for my old (dead) friends, and I walked over to them.
“This is where my car ended up after its spin” I said, feeling strange now that I was looking at it. There could have been flowers here for me too.
“I remember. And I pulled you back to here, just under this tree. This is where I gave you the weird kiss of life.”
I walked over to where she was crouched and followed suit.
“Do you feel anything?” she asked, putting her hand on the ground.
“No. Nothing. Do you?”
“No. But something happened here, between us. I don’t even know what we expected to find, to be honest. This has just been a complete waste of time” she said, frustrated.
“Are you girls trying to feel the vibrations?” an amused voice called out, making us both jump. We stood up and saw a middle aged man walking his dog on the other side of the road.
“Vibrations?” Spencer repeated.
“From the ley lines.”
“The ley lines?” This time it was me doing the repeating, and the man looked even more amused. He crossed over to us, and I could see his eyes drinking in our legs, exposed and tanned. “This spot here, under this tree, is where three ley lines cross. Get a lot of druids and witches coming he
re, doing their chanting and spells and stuff!” He sniffed and I could tell he thought it was all a lot of new age shit.
“What are ley lines?” I asked, looking down to see if they were visible.
“I think they’re like magnetic lines in the earth. Birds and other animals have been known to navigate using them” Spencer said thoughtfully.
“Magnetic lines?” I mentally shook my head at myself-I was starting to sound like a parrot! “And you said three cross here? Where do they go?”
“Well one of them’s supposed to go to Stonehenge” the man said cynically, and it was clear his attention was on my breasts. I crossed my arms.
“Thanks for your help” Spencer said, looping her hand through my arm and guiding me back to the car. “What a letch! I feel like I need a shower!” she muttered angrily, though I wasn’t sure he was completely out of earshot.
“Magnetic lines…do you think that would have had anything to do with the accident? Or what happened with us?”
“It’s possible. I think we should look into this a bit more; I know someone who would know a lot more about this than I do” she said, scrolling through the contacts in her phone and dialling one. She spoke to a woman named Mel who agreed to see us in an hour, then we got back into the car and drove off.
“Hello stranger! Come on in! I was just sat in the garden meditating. Can I get you both a drink?” Mel, a lady in her forties with frizzy greying brown hair and warm green eyes, opened her front door and hugged Spencer.
“Just a water please.”
“Me as well, thank you.”
After getting us our drinks, Mel led the way through to her back garden where we all sat around a large table.
“I haven’t seen you for ages, Becka! Jason’ll be gutted he missed you!” she said, winking knowingly at her. A pang of jealousy hit me, and I was suddenly very, very glad Jason hadn’t been there. Spencer blushed, reinforcing this.
“Actually Mel, we were just wondering if you could tell us everything you know about ley lines?” she said.
“More specifically, what it means when they cross” I added.
“Hmm, hold on. Let me get my book out” she disappeared for a few minutes, returning with an old weathered book. After a few minutes she found the page she was looking for. “Ok, it defines them here as straight lines of prehistoric tracks between hilltops.”
“Is that it?” I asked, deflated.
“It depends on what you believe in. I mean, a lot of people believe they’re highly energised lines of energy that run through the earth, and some would even say magnetised. Birds like pigeons, bees, even whales are said to use the earth’s magnetic field to navigate-just because we can’t see them, it doesn’t mean they don’t exist, or have any power.”
“When you say they have power, what sort of power? Say if three lines crossed, would the magnetism be strong enough to cause a car accident?” I asked. Mel shook her head.
“It’s not that sort of magnetism. It’s more a natural kind of energy. A lot of ancient monuments and spiritual buildings have been built on ley lines for their powerful natural energies. They’re more than likely to attract say, two people who were meant to meet, than to cause a car accident.”
Spencer nearly choked on the water she was just sipping and my mouth quite literally fell open. Mel looked between us both.
“Did you both crash your cars into each other over a ley line?” she asked, very astutely.
“Um, sort of. I was involved in quite a serious accident two years ago, and Spencer saved my life.”
“Who’s Spencer?”
“Oh, sorry, Becka. But since that day, we’ve both been sort of connected. We’re trying to find out how it happened” I said.
“I gave her the kiss of life, over a point where three ley lines cross, and there was some sort of…er…energy transferred between us? We didn’t see each other again until last week, and since then things have been very strange. When we’re together, everything’s fine. But if we separate, things…well, things go weird.”
“And we both share the same birthday!” I added excitedly. I wasn’t sure if it had any significance, but it seemed important.
“When you say things are strange, what do you mean?” Mel asked sitting forward.
“Um, as in…” Spencer looked at me for help.
“It’s really hard to explain.”
“I don’t know what to say. If you’re asking me if the ley lines could have caused all this, then I couldn’t say. I’m so sorry Beck, I wish I could be more help” Mel said, looking perplexed.
“Ok, well I guess we’d better head off. If you think of anything that might be helpful, would you let us know? We’re pretty desperate for any ideas!” Spencer said as she got to her feet.
“Oh, really? Are you sure you can’t stay longer?”
“We’ve got quite a long drive home, Mel, but thanks anyway.”
They hugged, and we all said our goodbyes before we made our way dejectedly back to the car.
It seemed like just as thought we were getting closer to an answer, we just found more questions. Spencer drove us home in silence, and I had the strangest sensation of missing her, even though she was right beside me.
“What. Are. We. Missing?” I growled, banging my head on the table to accentuate each word.
“Have you thought about what to do just in case we don’t ever find the answers?” Spencer asked as she made us both a salad for dinner. I lifted my head to scowl at her.
“No. There must be something. Some vital thing we’re overlooking, and it’s probably staring us straight in the face.”
Spencer’s phone rang then, and looking amused at my frustration, she answered it. I could hear her talking while I read on her laptop for the fiftieth time about ley lines, in particular a reference I’d just found to something called leygates, which talked about teleportation from one location to another.
“Tris, that was Mel. Apparently, just after we left, she got a call from another old friend of hers that she hasn’t seen in years. She wants to meet us!”
“What? Why?”
“This is the weird bit. Her friend is a psychic, and she said she had information that might help us!”
“Did Mel tell her about us?”
“No! She was really surprised when Pam started talking about having information for two girls who were having problems with reality!” Spencer’s eyes were wide.
“Seriously? That’s what she said?”
“Mm-hm! I gave Mel our address-she’s going to pass it on to Pam and she’ll come by tomorrow morning. How crazy is that?”
“Do you think she’ll be able to help us?”
“I don’t know. She must be good! How else would she know who we were?”
We talked about it more while we ate dinner, which was an amazing power salad packed with what Spencer called ‘brain food’. Afterwards, we went and sat on a blanket in her back garden to enjoy the last of the sunshine with a couple of bottles of wine.
“Spence, I want you to hypnotise me again” I said as she poured us both a second glass from the second bottle. She froze.
“Tris, I…”
“I know it freaked you out” I interrupted, “but we found out so much the last time!”
“Really? Is that what you think? Cos I thought it made things more cryptic.”
“Yes, but now we know what sort of questions to ask, like who’s supposed to die, how we can stop it, things like that. I mean, we can’t spend the rest of our lives joined at the hip, can we?” I joked, but Spencer just looked at me, her beautiful brown eyes dark and guarded. She drained her glass in two large swallows, then lay back on the blanket, looking up at the sky.
“I’m a little bit drunk, so I’m just going to go out on a limb here and say…why not? I don’t think I’d mind spending the rest of my life with you until we die, happy, in each other’s arms. If that’s how it’s going to be, then I’m happy to go with it. I just don’t know what you want-I can
never tell how you feel. But if you’re planning on going back to Nick, I think I need to know right now, before I fall so much in love with you that I can’t let you go.”
I was dumbstruck. My mouth was moving, but no words came out! My heart was singing and my soul was alive, but my mouth remained silent. I couldn’t believe she felt like that toward me!
“Wow. Well, I think I just made a total idiot out of myself!” she muttered, covering her face with both her hands. I finished my drink, then lowered myself down beside her, gently taking one of her hands in my own and entwining our fingers together. She watched me, still guarded but curious at what I was going to say.
“I think I fell in love with you a long time ago, even if I wasn’t aware that I had. I can’t remember ever feeling as complete as I do when I’m with you, and the thought of not being with you scares me to death. You want to know what I want and how I feel? I want you. I’m more in love with you than I can bear, Spence, and I can promise you that I have no intention of leaving you to go back to Nick. I want to stay here with you, if you’ll have me?”
Her eyes searched mine, wanting to believe. I waited, my body aching for her in ways I’d never thought possible. Then, slowly, her free hand was behind my head and pulling me down until our lips met in a kiss that took my breath away. As our tongues explored each other’s mouths, her hands roamed shyly over my body, leaving a trail of sparks in their wake. She tugged gently at my vest, lifting it away from me and I pushed myself up so she could remove it completely. She sat up too, and between kisses I helped her take off her top, followed swiftly by our bras. We both stopped for a second, staring at each other’s nakedness for the first time.
“Tristen…oh my god! You’re so beautiful!” she exclaimed breathlessly, gazing at my body in awe. I couldn’t speak-I felt like I was looking at what could only be described as perfection! She leaned forward and started kissing me again, slowly and sensually, pushing me down until I was lying on my back, and then she was on top of me! When our bodies made contact, there was a small gasp from both of us-it was so erotic feeling her soft warm breasts, with hard erect nipples, pushing into my own! And when she tore her mouth away from mine to kiss her way down to them, I found myself gasping and almost unable to bear it!