by Jamie Magee
It was dark outside now. Across the street, a small car pulled in front of the building. Even without the scarlet red flowing out from the car, we could feel the couple inside arguing. The young woman stepped out; she was crying, and the young man followed her. We could see the white line that connected them, and deep inside we could feel that they loved each other. I could see the woman’s intent; she was going to leave him. “Why would she leave him if she loves him?” I thought.
Landen tilted his head. “Do you feel betrayal?” he asked.
“Yeah, from her...did he cheat?” I asked, instantly taking the girl’s side.
“I don’t think he did. He isn’t hiding anything. It’s a misunderstanding,” Landen thought.
The people on the streets just seemed to ignore the couple as their argument danced around the car.“Why don’t we help?” I thought
“What do you want to do - walk over there and play peacemaker?” Landen thought in a teasing tone.
“Not walk,” I thought. Landen looked quickly at me. He was excited and nervous at the same time.
Chrispin and Olivia sat back down at the table with us.
“Do you think we’re ready for this?” Landen asked
“Preston and Pelhan think we are,” I thought.
Landen nodded, then took a deep breath. “Chris, come sit by me,” he said. He then looked at Dane and said, “Can you guys scoot around?” They all complied without question. “Look, we’re going to try something; don’t let anything move us, and don’t touch us,” he said to the table.
We got blank stares and simple nods from all of them.
“I think if we just stare at them, we should be able to move there,” Landen thought.
I nodded. Landen put his arm around me, then I stared at the girl and listened only to my breath. Seconds later, I felt a rush of energy; I was standing outside by the car that the couple was fighting around, and Landen was at my side.“Are we going to touch them or step in?” I thought, feeling a little less confident now that I was at the threshold of this challenge.
“I’ll step – if you step,” Landen thought, grinning at me.
I nodded, then started to make my way to the girl; we decided to pick a moving target for our first time. Landen shadowed the young man.
“Willow – just focus on my eyes,” he thought. I nodded and stared into him.
We both stepped in at the same time, and a warm rush swept through me; when her soul felt the love I had for Landen, the girl’s anger didn’t stand a chance. She fell silent, and so did the young man. Beneath his brown eyes, I could see Landen’s soul sparkling through. The man took a dominant step toward me and pulled me into a deep kiss. It was undeniable; his touch was Landen’s. “Leave now,” Landen thought.
I stepped aside, and a hum of energy soared through me. Landen was out safely, too. The couple stayed in the embrace in which we’d placed them, and all the anger they had was gone. Landen nodded his head toward the window behind which our bodies were sitting. I then focused on my body, and within that second I was back. I looked up to make sure Landen was back, too, and saw him grinning profusely at me. He leaned in to kiss me and thought, “That was awesome.”
I looked out the window to see the couple still embraced in one another. The others were staring out the window in utter amazement; Chrispin was as still as a statue at Landen’s side, and Clarissa was the same at my side. They saw us moving and jumped.
“It’s alright. We can move now,” Landen said, laughing.
“Was that you?” Clarissa asked, tilting her head out the window. Landen nodded, taking a bite of his food, which must have arrived while we were gone.
“You’re going to teach me that?” Clarissa asked, bewildered.
“If you’ll learn, we’ll teach you,” Landen said between bites.
Clarissa pushed against Dane. “Come on; let’s go,” she said. She was more excited than I’d ever seen her.
“Hey, hey - let’s at least eat first,” Landen said, still grinning.
Clarissa let out a gasp of air and shifted back in front of her food. They all ate in silence, looking at one another, then to us. All we could do was smile. The first time I saw Preston move into another body, I took it as a violation, but now I think Landen might be right; stepping into people seemed to have a more profound effect.
We lingered in front of the restaurant, looking at all the paintings while we were waiting on the limo to arrive. Clarissa was still anxious and excited about learning to meditate, and the emotions of the others mirrored hers.
Once we were in the limo - away from anyone who could overhear us - an onslaught of questions came at me and Landen. They wanted to know everything: how it felt, what we could see. Landen explained everything that we’d learned about the energy. I laid my head on his shoulder and tried to stay focused, but my eyes slowly became more than I could hold. I felt them fall as I struggled against drifting by listing to the others speak.
“Baby, don’t scare me like that,” I heard Landen say. As he pulled me on his lap, I could feel his panic beginning to rise. My eyes flew open with a start, and the limo suddenly filled with fear.
“I wasn’t sleeping; I was just resting my eyes. I promise,” I said, looking at Landen.
He let out a deep breath, and calm came over him.
“I forgot about the nightmares. Should we even stay here tonight?” Dane said, leaning forward to make sure I was OK.
Landen could feel my embarrassment. The nightmares and the star on my tattoo made me feel like I was a weak link - a person I didn’t want to be.
“She’s fine. We’ve just been in three different dimensions today, and we’re dancing across a thirty-two-hour day,” Landen said, pulling me closer. I felt the doubt in the others, but they let it pass and began to ask even more questions.
The limo came to a screeching stop, and I heard other brakes screeching around us - then a loud crash of metal. “Was that us?” Olivia screamed.
The driver slid open the glass that was separating him and us. “There’s an accident in front of us; I’m going to see if I can help,” he yelled back.
I felt a rush of emotion push through me, one of panic and fear; they were so strong, it took my breath away. Dane opened the door and jumped out to help, and Clarissa and Chrispin were right behind him. I crawled off Landen’s lap to help, thinking if I could take their fear away, I’d be able to breathe. Landen held me back.
“Willow, they’re going to be twice as strong out there. I’ll go,” Landen said, moving forward in the limo.
“I’ll stay with you, Willow,” Olivia said, watching Landen follow the others. I turned to look through the tiny window the driver had opened. I could see a van on its side, and another car was at its side. Other cars were tangled around them, and smoke was coming from everywhere as onlookers pulled out fire extinguishers, trying to keep the flames away until everyone was out safely. The emotions were so strong, I couldn’t even count them; instead, I found myself gasping for breath. Olivia reached forward and closed the window, then pulled me to one of the side seats. As she moved back by the door; I was sure she was halfway trying to block my exit.
Chapter Ten
We could hear sirens in the distance, and the crowd around the accident was growing. The driver got back in the limo and moved it to a side street to make way for the emergency help. As soon as he parked, he ran back in the direction of the accident. Even though I was several feet away now, I could still feel the strong pull of emotions. I leaned forward on my lap, trying to shield myself.
All at once, the emotions seem to fade. I sat up slowly, trying to understand how they all could have disappeared simultaneously, and then the limo door opened. Drake, my void, slid in causally next to Olivia and closed the door behind him. My mouth dropped open. Preston was right: Drake’s Aura held no color; it was ashy and gray and outlined in black. Drake slowly came to my side. Olivia dove for the door, wanting to scream for Landen and the others - but Drake rai
sed his hand, and the locks on the door locked. “Be still, little one,” Drake said, looking sternly at Olivia, who froze stiff, then sat back down.
Olivia had lost her sight the last time she saw Drake, so the fear she felt was called for. I shifted back away from Drake and glared at him. He tilted his head and smiled in a boyish manner. “Love, I have no hard feelings about you sending me so far away,” he said charismatically.
“Apparently, I didn’t send you far enough away,” I said, finding that I had nowhere to go but the tiny window.
Drake slowly reached for my wrist and pulled it gently to him; his touch still held the same warm tingling sensation, but it was incomparable to what I’d felt when I combined my energy with Landen’s.
“Now...Love, you are the one who called me here. If you didn’t want to see me, surely you would have stayed in your own little fairy tale land,” Drake said, tracing the star he had branded me with.
“You’ll not hold me captive anywhere,” I said, pulling my hand away.
Olivia saw an opportunity to open the door while Drake and I went back and forth, but Drake saw her out of the corner of his eye and raised his hand. When he did, I raised my hand and yelled.
“NO!” I screamed as loud as I could, and as I did, what looked like a wall of clear water divided the space between us and Olivia. “Run!” I screamed to Olivia, and she pushed the door open and ran.
Drake let out a burst of laughter, then looked back at me like I’d just professed my love to him. “I see you’ve been busy in my absence,” he said, still laughing. “That is the power that belongs to us.”
I looked down at the hand that I’d raised; it was my left hand, the one with my ring on it. The band was a stunning white color, and I felt a tingle rush through my soul. I slowly reached up for my charm and felt it hum under my fingertips. I suddenly realized that Drake had no power over me - I held the power. I then looked at Drake and smiled confidently, and when I raised my hand, the wall fell. As I made my way out of the limo, I pushed forward and saw Olivia running up the street toward the accident.
Drake was right behind me. Silence came over the streets, and everything froze. I looked back to see him slowly lowering his hand. “Love, we can play this game all night...I find it enticing, quite frankly,” he said, lowering his head and looking up.
I was so angry with him, I could have ripped him apart. I walked quickly to him, put my hands on his chest, and pushed him back as hard as I could. “What do you want? I love Landen. Why can’t you get that through your head?!!” I screamed.
He stopped my hands from pushing him again, effortlessly holding them behind my back. He then pulled me closer to him, trying to mesmerize me with his touch. “Why can’t you understand that they’re only telling you what they want you to know? There’s another side,” he said in a low tone, staring into my eyes, trying to capture me.
“Drake, I know about the lives we had. I know everything I need to know,” I said, tilting my head and holding my resolve better than I ever have before in his presence.
“Then you know that you loved me,” he said in a tender tone as his expression turned softer.
“You can love someone and never be ‘in love’ with them,” I said, furrowing my eyebrows together so he’d see how serious I was.
“There is no way for you to know how you felt then; if it was not real, why would we have had so many lives together? Mistakes are only made once,” he said, smiling gently.
I closed my eyes and breathed out. As I heard him breathe out, too, I opened my eyes to glare at him and saw his smile widen. “You know that I’m right,” he said, leaning his forehead to mine.
“Drake, the past is in the past. This is now, and I love Landen,” I said in a flat tone.
He raised his head up and glared at me, then stepped back and released my arms. “Why won’t you just submit? You’ve always been a stubborn Scorpio,” he yelled. For the first time, I was proud of that trait. “You wish to play these games, to face every planet, putting everyone you know in danger,” he yelled at me.
Before I could yell back, the sound came back, and everything was unfrozen. I could feel the tingle in my ring intensify, and I noticed that Landen had appeared out of nowhere and was standing in-between me and Drake; the shock on Drake’s face was apparent. “I see you’ve been busy, too,” Drake said, regaining his composure.
“You’re a little early - don’t you think, Drake?” Landen said, pulling back his shoulders.
“Who says we should wait on a silly little planet to play our game?” Drake said, pulling his shoulders back.
“No one here is playing games - except you,” Landen said through clenched teeth.
Dane and Chrispin came running up behind me, and Olivia and Clarissa were close behind them. Drake looked at Dane, then back at Landen, and sneered.
“So, you choose to make friends with her other loves, but not me?” Drake said, looking back at Dane.
“I’m tired of all the talk, Drake - go back to your gray hell,” Landen said, stepping toward Drake.
Clarissa pushed me behind her and advanced alongside Dane and Chrispin. Seeing another opportunity, Drake reached his hand out and started to pull Clarissa to him, using her Aura as a rope. Landen saw Drake’s Aura stretch toward Clarissa and threw his energy between them, then turned, pulled Drake’s ashy Aura to him, and flung his body on top of the building across the street - over one hundred feet in the air. “Did you kill him?” Chrispin screamed.
“It wouldn’t be that easy,” Landen said under his breath, walking quickly back to me. I was trembling from all the adrenaline that was rushing through me. Landen pulled me tightly into his chest, and we both looked to the rooftop where he’d thrown Drake. Seconds later, we saw Drake walk to the edge and look over at us, smiling. Chrispin’s anger raged out as he charged toward the building, but Landen reached for Chrispin’s flaming red Aura and pulled him back to us. “He’s going home,” Landen said through his teeth.
“Are you sure?” Chrispin yelled, looking at Landen.
“He didn’t realize how strong we’ve become,” Landen said, kissing my head and rocking me back and forth. He then led us all back to the limo. The driver came a few minutes later. As we drove off, no one spoke. We only half-heartedly listened as the driver recounted the accident for us. I was surprised to feel how calm Olivia was; she just stared at me as if I’d just won the game for the team.
Even after all the drama, when we were dropped off in front of our condo, we still turned heads as we walked across the lobby. The looks went unnoticed, though, as we waited patiently for the moment we would be alone and could speak freely. As the elevator doors closed, Clarissa looked up at Landen. “Are we going home?” she asked in voice barely above a whisper.
Landen shook his head no. “He won’t be back until he has a new plan.” He then looked across the elevator at all of them and said, “We’ll stay here; all of you have a lot to learn.”
Once inside the condo with the door closed, Chrispin turned to Landen and said, “First thing I want to know is how you threw him.”
Landen raised his hands to block the question, as well as the others that were sure to follow. “I need to talk to Willow; all of you need to change – something comfortable,” he said into the room as he took my hand and pulled me into one of the bedrooms. He walked in first, and I followed and closed the door behind us. He then dropped my hand and started to pace the floor; he was so angry. “I have got to stop making these mistakes,” he said through his teeth, almost to himself.
I realized then that his anger was at himself, not Drake. “What mistakes?” I asked, bewildered. Landen walked quickly to me and put one hand around my waist and one on my face. He stared at me, almost remorseful. “August tells me not to sleep here without you - the first chance I get, I do the opposite. Pelhan tells me not to stop you from anything - the first time I do, Drake shows up. I’ve done everything but drop you on his doorstep,” he said in an apologetic tone.
“You didn’t stop me from anything,” I said, reaching for his face.
“You wanted to help; I told you to stay.”
“You were protecting me, and there wasn’t a single second that you came close to losing me,” I said, smiling. I looked at my hand on his face, to my ring. “I used power, too; I was able to shield Olivia and get out of the limo. Even when he froze everything, I had no fear - only anger.”
He smiled slightly. “The ring called me, too; I felt myself pulled to you and found myself in front of him,” Landen said, closing his eyes as he began to calm down.
“See, we both did well. He can’t hurt us now. We have the upper hand, two against one - and when we teach the others, we’ll be strong enough to redeem Donalt’s entire dimension.”
Landen opened his eyes and let his smile grow, bringing his beautiful dimples to life. “You did feel angry when I found you,” he said, realizing he was being too hard on himself.
I stood on my tiptoes and kissed him; I could feel him release himself as he pulled me closer. We felt empowered, free from the pull Drake had on us. We changed out of our nice clothes, then went back into the in living room, where everyone was waiting on us dressed in pajama bottoms and T-shirts.
“We should go up to the roof; there’s a garden up there. For your first time, it’ll be easier if you’re in nature,” Landen said, walking to the front door. I smiled at all of them, excited to show them.
“Will you teach me to throw someone?” Chrispin asked when we reached the rooftop.
“You’re going to have to take small steps here. I don’t even know how I’m going to teach you to calm your mind,” Landen said in a serious tone.
The garden was an array of flower patches surrounded by a brick walkway. We circled around one of the larger patches and let our legs rest along the edge of the flower bed.