by GG Anderson
“You are a liar! I told them I had to find my sweater. You have it, I know you do!” She took a step away from me, maybe in realization that I wasn’t who she was looking for? “Someone has my sweater. I have to find it. It is my lucky sweater. Without that sweater something really bad could happen.” She walked away, and I noticed she wore slippers and pajama pants. Her hair was a wreck, standing on her head, going all directions. She looked truly frazzled. Her short robe kept slipping of her shoulder, and she continually tugged it back on. Mumbling, she walked towards the far side of the library.
Breathing deeply, I began to get a bit concerned. This library was only a couple years old. The building was built on empty ground. No former building had occupied this space.
So where did she come from? My dorm was just next door, but if laundry lady was a resident, surely, I would have met her when I met stalker boy, right?
Then again, it was unlikely that high school Karson was a resident of the dining hall.
I stood up, getting a chill.
Things were getting way more intense.
Sitting down at the table with Camryn felt like a foreign place after my insane day. So much had changed, and yet none of them knew, so for them, everything was exactly the same as before.
Camryn leaned over when some of the others started down a topic of conversation that she knew would keep them all occupied. “Hey, how’s your day? You look like, well, you look like you’ve seen a ghost.”
Awesome. So, I looked as pale and sallow as I felt. Well this day was getting better and better. I nodded, “Yeah, a few of them,” I smirked at her.
Her brows raised. And the rest of her face fell, “More?”
“Yep. Apparently, I am the cruise ship director on the SS Mystery Machine,” I looked back at the other girls, making sure no one noticed our conversation.
Brooklyn walked in, dropping her books on the table first. “Dude, who has taken Dr. Eyebright?” all conversation stopped, and everyone looked at her. “Anyone?”
“No, because the rest of us are majoring in something we can ACTUALLY make a living in,” Camryn tossed a napkin at her.
Brooklyn rolled her eyes. “Anthropology is a completely solid major; I stand by that.” She cracked a slight smile, “Ok, and don’t forget my environmental science degree, I am double majoring for a reason,” she shifted her books to the floor but held one in her hand. “Anyway, as I was saying, did you know that she is a world-renowned expert on Ancient Pagan Religions?”
The table held silent. I couldn’t tell if no one knew, or if they just didn’t care.
Brooklyn looked around the table at the blank faces. “You guys, we have a professor who is an expert. Like The History Channel calls her.”
Camryn placated her, “That is really cool Brook, I’m glad you’re enjoying her class,” she started to turn back towards me, but Brooklyn took the comment as sincere.
“Today she was talking about all the different like rituals they had. Did you know that several of our current holidays are based on Pagan Festivals? Halloween used to be celebrated with helping the spirits pass on. They would leave food for them, ask them to keep going, and help them move onto the other side. Seriously, take her class. To just listen to her lectures is so interesting,” she met the eyes around the table. “What?”
“Anyway, as we were saying,” one of the other girls started laughing and the whole table erupted.
Everyone but me.
Dr. Eyebright? I think I needed to check into when she held office hours.
Chapter Seventeen
The professor’s office was in the basement of one of the oldest classroom buildings on campus. As I waited, I closed my eyes just trying to get some rest. Sleep had been a lost cause this week. Between homework, constant interruptions from spirited guests, and classes, I felt like the walking dead, pardon the pun.
The door opened and a woman with long white hair answered the door, her simple glasses sat agreeably on her nose, allowing her bright blue eyes to sparkle through them. “Are you Miss Mills?”
I smiled, standing quickly, immediately nervous. “Thank you, Doctor Eyebright, for seeing me, I know I’m not one of your students.”
She smiled sweetly as she waddled into her small office. “Nonsense. It is nice to have the company. It’s a break from grading,” she laughed as she took a seat. “Truth be told, I really hate grading.” She chuckled a little more under her breath and her eyes twinkled with kindness. She appraised me as she sat back in her chair. “Now what can I do for you, Miss Mills?”
I fidgeted with my jacket, adjusting my position again, buying time to try mustering up the correct way to address this topic with her.
“Well, you see, I hear you are an expert on ancient Pagan religions.”
“Yes, but I don’t do spiritual counseling. I leave that to the Campus Ministries department.”
I stumbled over my words, “Oh no, it isn’t a religious question.”
She met my eyes quizzically.
I looked down at my lap and continued, “Well, one of your students was talking about the ancient Halloween holiday?”
“Samhain.” She added.
“Yeah, and that it was all about helping the spirits here cross over?”
“Yes, that’s correct,” she didn’t see my point yet.
“Well, my question is how does that happen?”
She smiled sweetly. “You are going to have to be a bit more specific.”
I sighed, exhaling with conviction. Now or never. I had to see if she had the answers I needed. “Ok, well how do you let them cross over, or make them cross over? And can it be done during other times of the year? I mean they don’t have to all sit around and wait for shawin?”
“Samhain. And no, they don’t have to wait around. Spirits cross over throughout the year. Sometimes those that are here for a bit longer need a little extra push. At least that is how it is believed in ancient religions.”
This wasn’t helping. She was starting to question my sanity. I should have known this was a bad idea. “Ok, thank you for your time,” I stood up to leave.
“Miss Mills, something has you concerned enough about spirits to ask if they cross at different times of the year, and your kindness is asking if you can help them, so if you don’t mind please sit so we can continue.” Her soft lips creased her weighted face.
I swallowed and sank back into the chair. “I see ghosts,” I stared at the edge of her desk, committing the laminated wood pattern to memory, avoiding her eyes. “and I see them more now than I used to.”
“I see.”
I peeked up through my lashes. What did it look like when the professor thought you needed a white coat with extra buttons? Ah, there it is.
Skepticism.
“And do these spirits communicate with you?”
I nodded, not trusting my voice. I had just told a professor at my college that I saw dead people. Holy cow, they were going to box me up and ship me home for sure.
“And do you find they can hear you as well?” a quizzical expression crossed her face.
I swallowed, “Yes. It used to be little things, small interactions here and there, and now they – well they won’t leave me alone.”
“Ah. So, you have opened a door and now can’t figure out where the key is. Closing the door is just as important as opening it. It is careless to open it and not know how to shut it,” she smiled again. Her kind eyes gently appraised my situation. “Looks like you may need some help with that.”
“Yes ma’am, can you help me?”
“I believe I can.”
I exhaled deeply.
“Now, have you found you’re a bit more emotional lately?”
“Oh my gosh, yes! I am a total mess. I used to be quiet and reserved and now I am all over the place,” I sat back in my chair realizing how loud that came out, and how true it really was.
“I see. Well, first you must understand that your emotions are completely tied to your gift
s. The rawer your emotions are, the rawer and more uncontrolled your gift is. If you can start to control your emotions, it will give you better control of your sight.” She sat up at her desk, carefully crossing her fingers. “Try an exercise for me. Take a deep breath, close your eyes and visualize calm water.”
I did as she instructed, imagining a small babbling stream, slowly and quietly trilling down the hill.
“Now look into the water. Can you see the bottom through the calm glass top?”
I held a finger up and reconstructed my image.
Lake – large calm lake, crystal blue water.
“Yes.”
“Now visualize releasing all your intense emotional energy into that water. Imagine it coiling around one of the rocks in the bottom, clinging to the rock, safely stored under that calm cool water.”
I visualized the dark smoke colored snake of my emotions twirl around a large smooth rock. The shiny brown shades and veins of the hard river rock was covered with my pulsing dark grey smoke colored emotions. I nodded silently.
“Now let go of that emotion.”
I did and it felt like I snapped an elastic band. My eyes popped open.
“Could you feel them detach?”
My eyes grew large and nodded, “That-that was so weird.”
She smiled, “I would imagine you haven’t done many deposits into your emotional waters.”
I shook my head, curving my mouth into a small smile.
“Well this will help. One of the ways spirits reach out to us through emotional lines. If you keep your emotions tightly wound, they can’t catch a ride to you, so to speak.”
"Does that mean they won’t come at all?”
She laughed a little, “No my dear, this just allows you a small way to start dealing with them. Remember the door that you left open? We haven’t addressed that yet, have we?”
I shook my head. “So, you don’t think I am crazy?”
“Not at all. I think you are very gifted, and I think you have never been given tools to work with your gifts. Has your mom never told you about these gifts? Usually it travels in the mother’s side,” Dr. Eyebright questioned with a small smile.
My face fell. I hadn’t expected that one. “My mom passed a while ago. I live with my grandparents.”
She smiled knowingly, “Ah, that makes sense. How long have you been visited, my dear?”
“I was much younger when I could see them, but I tried as hard as possible to ignore them, keep them away,” I twisted my hands in my lap, “I guess it was this year when I started to actually hear them. Or maybe listening is a better way to put it. I have always heard low voices, but I worked so hard to close it off, to ignore it. Just make it go away.”
“Did you used to be very good at keeping your emotions tightly tucked away? And since coming to college, things have opened up a bit for you?”
I nodded. I couldn’t meet her gaze.
“You must have made some good friends here,” she fumbled with a few papers on her desk, moving them casually. Was this for her comfort, or to make things seem more nonchalant for me? She caught my attention as I had lifted my head to notice the paper moving.
Ah, so that was her reason. My focus locked on her. The thin skin around her eyes crinkled with age. Her full face fell slightly relaxed from years of knowledge that it had taken in. “Do you have some good friends here? Maybe someone who knows your gifts?”
“I have two.”
“And is one a boy?” She prompted.
“Yes, my boyfriend knows.”
She nodded like it all made sense. “There you have it. You have tasted love and it has sparked the deeper parts of your emotions. This is likely why you are having such a wave of experiences currently.”
I laughed, “You could say that.” My cheeks deepened with the blush, “I mean the wave of experiences, not the tasting love thing.”
"Ok, next part. You will need to get some sea salt. It isn’t as difficult to find as at used to be, but...”
“Is this for my door?”
Her lips pursed while her head tilted. “I thought you said you didn’t have any guidance?”
“I don’t, I just found it in a book a long time ago. It seemed to work, so I kept doing it.”
She nodded again, “So these spirits aren’t coming while you sleep?”
I shook my head, “No, not in my room. I have been dreaming about them, but I don’t think they are actually there. The dreams are more all over the place, not really like the spirits are in my head.” I thought back to my room being unprotected while The Creeper was able to sneak in. I swallowed and continued, “I think I have that secure, I guess. It’s when I am on campus at other buildings, or not in my room.”
“And you see them? In full form?”
I got nervous. “Yeah. Like they look like you, standing there.”
“Oh my, you are much more gifted than I had first thought.” She turned to reach to a bookshelf behind her. The book was not marked as anything special. An old leather-bound spine that appeared it hadn’t been opened in sometime. She thumbed through the dried pages, looking for something specific.
“Here it is,” her finger traced the words as she read:
"The one will be pure of heart, and free of envy. She will appear young, but her soul will be ancient. Her talents will be raw but drenched in experience. She will be pale, and yet darkened with pain. Fire will make her recognizable and hidden. But this will be the true Medium to bring peace.’
Her finger remained on the page, as she met my eyes. “I think we will need to meet a bit more regularly.”
Dr. Eyebright sent me home with some chants, some exercises, and a large bear hug I had not expected.
We planned to meet every other day until I could get a better grasp on my gifts. I would just be happy if I could get my days handled so I wasn’t being followed by random spirits in all my classes.
I didn’t buy the book talking about me, but she felt it was a definite possibility.
The problem was, it talked about some ancient evil and the tribe and some other stuff that had nothing to do with this modern world. But if that was what it would take for her to help me, I wasn’t in a position to argue with her. I would let her speculate on the possibilities and continue to work to control this sight and learn how to shut the dang door.
The chants out of the ancient book she taught me I repeated over and over in my head. Not that they were difficult. Honestly, they were rather basic.
Leave me alone, you are not welcome, I banish you from my space, sayings that I should have been able to come up with on my own if I’d actually given it enough thought.
“Savanah, I’ve been calling you,” Tyler’s hand on my shoulder sent my heart leaping tall buildings. “You ok?”
“I’m so sorry. I didn’t hear you. I guess I was really zoned out.” He wove his fingers through mine. Even as the cold bit at my skin, I smiled in the pure warmth I felt being near him. “How was practice?”
“Sucked,” he smiled.
“So, it was good?”
“Pretty much,” he started to tell me about the road trip they were headed on. They would be gone for four days, playing three games. He was super jacked. Apparently, it was a typical tournament that was the greatest thing of the season. Or at least this piece of the season.
“So, this is our opener,” he squeezed my hand, “Next game we are home.” He smiled that adorable smile. His dimples set on his cheeks, and I speculated how his mother ever said no to him as a child.
I hadn’t truly considered I was dating an athlete. That he played games and as his girlfriend, I would be expected to watch said games.
I smiled the best loving, exciting smile I could muster.
His laugh told me he didn’t buy it. “You will come to at least one game, right?”
“I’ll go to all of them. That’s my girlfriend duty,” I squeezed his hand tightly and ran my other up his arm. His long, toned arm that I would happily sit th
rough sports to have wrapped around me.
He squeezed my hand. “Thank you. You don’t have to go to all of them if you don’t want to. I mean, I know you don’t really get baseball.” his face dropped to the ground.
I thought about his words, knowing full well it was a loaded statement. “I will learn, it can’t be that hard right?” I smiled at him my most innocent smile. I tried batting my lashes like I had seen in movies, tilting my head slightly to the side, to convince him I was all in.
He grinned wide this time, “So, in other news, how is your neighborhood hauntings going? Didn’t you have a meeting with that professor today? How’d that go?”
“Really well. She doesn’t think I’m crazy.”
“Did she meet you?” he laughed.
I rolled my eyes, “Yes, she did,” I shoved him with my shoulder. “She gave me some good feedback. We are going to meet like every other day for a while.”
“Wow, so she really did get to know you!” He goaded again, “Looks like you are certifiable.”
I nodded my head. “Definitely.” We chuckled and headed to meet up with friends for dinner.
Afterwards, I excused myself to head off for more homework. I grabbed my stuff and beelined to the library, choosing the table as close to the laundry girl sighting as I could get.
Writing my paper took longer than it should have, as I continued to be half focused on the surroundings, waiting for her to appear. Finally, after revising it at least a half a dozen times, I submitted the one assignment and started on the next. Another paper, this one not as detailed, and wouldn’t be as difficult.
Eventually, I had both completed and headed out.
No sightings since my work with Dr. Eyebright.
Interesting.
The next day, still nothing.
The following day felt like much of the same, and when I headed to her office, I feared we had closed the door too tightly.
“Ah, no it is just you haven’t quite figured out your balance yet.” Dr. Eyebright worked through some more relaxation techniques with me. More deposits into my emotional pond. I feared I was getting farther away from the magic that I had just started to embrace.