Eternal (Eternal series)

by Chantelle Nay

  That was the plan. Emma would keep the date, but only because she needed to be really sure that Micah was the one she wanted.

  She pulled in the driveway and walked into the house. It was filled with the aroma of lasagna. Shoot! Emma had totally forgotten about the lasagna. Luckily, she was just in time, another few minutes and it would have started to burn. She grabbed two hot pads and pulled the lasagna out of the oven, placing it on top and turning the oven off.

  Her mom would be home soon. Emma would have to tell her about the date planned for Wednesday with Destry. Hopefully she'd be running a little late this evening. Emma would need as much time as she could get to compose herself before the twenty questions started.

  She grabbed a bag of vegetables from the freezer and placed them in the microwave to cook. Now that dinner was almost finished she walked quickly out the back door and headed for the solitude of the barn.

  She couldn't help but feel a calming peace wash over her as she opened the large wooden door and took in the smells and sounds of her place of comfort. Emma walked over to the hay and sat down on the bale nearest the sheep stall.

  Their little herd consisted of one buck and three ewes. Two of the ewes were expecting. Emma loved baby lambs. They were so gangly and uncoordinated, it was endearing. You couldn’t help wanting to hold them and rub their fuzzy, oversized ears. She hoped they would be born soon. They would be a welcome distraction.

  Being here helped Emma realize that her life wasn’t as bad as she’d made it out to be. Beauty was in everything around her. There was no doubt in her mind that these amazing creations didn't exist by accident. A divine Creator was evident in all of it. All she'd needed was a different view to set things right again.

  Everything was going to turn out okay with the whole Micah vs. Destry ordeal. If it was meant to be it couldn't help but work itself out in the end. She was actually starting to feel a little excited about the upcoming “experimental date” with Destry.

  The strange influence he had over her was intriguing to say the least. It was worth the effort to find out what was behind it, and why it kept knocking her feet out from under her.

  

  Tuesday morning Emma woke up with a sick feeling in the pit of her stomach. She'd been plagued by strange dreams all night. In them, she was walking in a huge meadow that had strange silvery grass that swayed methodically. She was happy and safe. Micah was there. She couldn’t see him but she knew that he was there because of the warm feeling of safety that held her.

  Suddenly an unseen force was pulling her, dragging her away from her happiness, from the place she wanted to be. Emma wasn’t afraid of the unseen force, it was familiar to her in some way—trustworthy it seemed—but she didn’t want to go with it. Emma wanted to stay with her happiness. She wanted it more than anything.

  Now that she was away from her happiness she couldn't remember what it even was or why she needed to get back to it—like her memory had been erased.

  She rolled over in bed wishing she could go back to sleep. How would she ever find her way back to the place where she was happy, that place where she belonged? She rubbed her eyes and noticed the time.

  Crap! She was going to be late for school. She must have hit snooze or turned off the alarm.

  Emma brushed her teeth and got dressed as quickly as possible and combed quickly through her hair. It would have to be a ponytail day. She pulled her hair back and threw on her jacket. Breakfast was out of the question this morning. She dashed out the door, praying that her car would start without any complaint today.

  Emma arrived at school in record time, then it hit her….her backpack was still sitting at home on the kitchen counter. She let out a low moan. She could make it through her first few classes without her books, but she’d have to go home at lunch and get her Calculus notes. Year-end testing was looming in the next few days and she couldn’t afford to fail.

  When the lunch bell rang, Emma knew she needed to get moving if she was going to make it home and back in time for her next class. She was feeling pretty lucky that she hadn’t run into Destry at all today. She still wasn’t quite sure how to act around him and she didn’t want to give anyone at school the impression they were “dating.”

  As Emma hurried across the school parking lot she heard someone call her name. She knew instantly who it was. So much for being lucky, she thought sourly.

  Emma turned to see Destry in front of the Agriculture building. He was waving, and heading across the lot to intercept her path.

  She didn’t have time for this right now, but she didn’t want him to think she was avoiding him again. Emma smiled and waved back to him, hoping he would hurry with whatever it was he wanted so she could be on her way.

  “Hey stranger,” Destry said playfully, “fancy meeting you here.”

  “Yeah, that’s weird huh? What are the odds of us both being at school on the same day?” Emma retorted with a sarcastic smile.

  “Where are you headed in such a hurry? Aren’t you going to be enjoying a fine and nutritious school lunch with the rest of the student body today?” he said with a smirk.

  “That sounds delightful,” she said mockingly, “but regretfully I'm going to have to pass today. I have to run home and get my books, I forgot them this morning and I need my notes for Calculus.”

  “Well, I could give you a lift if you want. I wasn’t really in the mood for mystery meat anyway,” he smiled at her brightly.

  Destry looked so hopeful that Emma wanted to concede but it wasn't a good idea. She was still working herself up for tomorrow night.

  “No thanks,” Emma said trying to sound nice but firm at the same time. “I’m going to have to break the speed limit to get there and back in time and I don’t want to involve you in anything illegal and ruin your innocence.”

  “I’m anything but innocent. But if you don’t want me to drive you, I won’t push it. I’ve been in trouble for being pushy before.” He raised his eyebrow at her and smiled an evil grin.

  “I don’t believe that for a minute,” Emma gasped mockingly, faking disbelief. “What kind of a person would ever accuse someone like you of something as terrible as that?”

  “Someone who knows me too well I think,” Destry winked at her and Emma felt weak in the knees.

  This boy was unbelievably good at getting to her. She should really learn to stop underestimating this power he seemed to have over her. She didn’t have time for this though, so she turned and started towards her car again.

  “I’ll see ya later, okay. I really have to hurry,” she called back to him, adding a smile and a wave so he wouldn't feel too rejected.

  "I'll be waiting anxiously for your return," he said, bowing in front of her.

  She started walking faster hoping he wouldn’t think she was being rude. She reached her car and climbed in. Before she could close the door she heard his voice, so low that she didn’t know if he meant for her to hear or not… “I’d wait forever and a day for you Emma.”

  She looked back at him in disbelief of what she thought she had just heard. He had already turned and was headed back inside the school, and from her point of view, it looked as if he were giving himself an internal scolding.

  Did he really just say that?

  Things kept getting stranger with Destry. He hardly knew her, but he acted like they'd known each other forever. He seemed strangely at ease when he was around her and apparently he wasn’t afraid of saying whatever came to him in the moment.

  Emma had to admit that on their first date he had actually been quite easy to talk to. It was like they had been friends for a very long time.

  Emma pulled up to her house without remembering the drive home at all. She must have really been in a daze. She glanced at the time; there were only fifteen minutes until classes started again. She headed toward the house and noticed out of the corner of her eye that the barn door was open, swinging back and forth in the breeze.

  “Who left that open?” She sai
d to herself. She knew she'd better close it before the wind caught it and ripped it off the hinges. It had happened before; Eden had some pretty strong winds at times.

  Emma quickly made a B-line towards the barn. As she got there and started to shut the door, she was overcome by a feeling to go inside. That was stupid of course; she knew she didn’t have any time to waste. She was already going to be late getting back to school as it was.

  The strange feeling came to her again and she felt as if she were somehow being pulled inside.

  Curiosity finally got the best of her. She leaned her head around the door and peered into the barn. There was nothing there. It looked the same as always.

  She wanted to turn and close the door so she could be on her way, but her body wouldn’t cooperate. She was frozen in the doorway. What was going on?

  Emma decided that if she was ever going to get back to school, she'd better just go along with this strange force that was keeping her here.

  She hesitantly stepped inside the barn.

  Nothing happened.

  She took a few more steps in, nothing still.

  This was beginning to get annoying, she was really in a hurry.

  “What do you want?” Emma yelled to the nothingness, feeling exasperated.

  “Emma?” Micah’s voice came quietly, but Emma immediately sensed the urgency in it.

  “Micah? What’s going on?

  “Are you okay?"

  "Of course I'm okay," Emma said, bewildered, "Why?"

  "I've been trying to talk to you since this morning," Micah paused. "I wanted to apologize for yesterday, but when you couldn't hear me I got worried."

  "You've been trying to talk to me?" Emma said with confusion. "But I can always hear you when you talk to me. I didn't hear you though, in fact I haven't sensed your presence at all today," Emma was perplexed. "I'm sorry that you were worried, I don't know what's wrong with me today. I guess I've been preoccupied with other stuff. I got up late this morning and I've been off my game all day."

  "I'm just glad you're okay," Micah said, a strange tone to his voice, "I was only worried at first. I thought maybe something had happened and you'd lost your ability to hear me. But after a while I began to suspect that you were probably just busy—thinking about Destry. Am I right?” Micah knew better than to push the subject, but he was having trouble thinking clearly at the moment.

  “I don’t know,” Emma said stiffly, not feeling like talking about Destry with Micah, “why don’t you tell me what I was thinking about. You must have been eavesdropping in my head again to come up with that theory in the first place."

  Emma wasn't happy with Micah's behavior, she'd been waiting to patch things up with him since yesterday, but this seemed less like an apology and more like an accusation.

  “I wasn’t eavesdropping," Micah countered, "I was worried that you were going to run off the road again. It wasn't just me that you weren’t paying attention to you know, it was everything around you. I wondered if something was wrong, or if you were upset, but I couldn't ask you because for some reason you couldn’t hear me, or else you refused to hear me,” Micah knew that was a low blow. What was he doing? Why was he feeling this way? He knew it wasn't right?

  “You can't really think that," Emma whispered, "that's not fair. You know you mean everything to me. I would never ignore you on purpose. I was just thinking really hard I guess. I have a lot of stuff on my mind at the moment.”

  Emma didn't want to fight she wanted to make up with him. It sounded like they both needed to cool off a little before that could truly happen. "I really am in a hurry Micah, I just came home to get my school books and notes, but I'm already going to be late as it is, so can we do this later?”

  “You were thinking about Destry though, am I right?” Micah said quietly, not willing to let it go.

  “I guess so. Why does it matter? You know I wouldn’t be in this mess at all if you hadn’t insisted that I go to the prom with him.” Emma could hear her voice getting noticeably sharper. What was with this line of questioning? She felt like she was being interrogated by the FBI. It's not like she'd committed a crime in thinking about Destry, she hadn’t done anything wrong.

  “Maybe I should have thought that through a little more.” Micah's voice lowered even more so that it was barely audible.

  “What are you talking about Micah? Are you mad? Did I do something to upset you?”

  “I don’t know," Micah said, sounding confused. "I feel strange. I know I don’t have any reason to feel like this, but it bothered me to know that you were so involved thinking of Destry that you couldn’t hear me anymore.”

  “You were…jealous?”

  Even as Emma said it, it didn’t seem possible. Micah had never cared before about Destry and her being together. He'd been the one to put them together in the first place!

  “Jealous?" Micah almost snorted, "I don’t think I'm jealous,” he disagreed lightly. “I have no reason for it. I don’t possess anything of my own, I am not mortal,” he spoke quietly. Emma could tell that he was just as baffled by this new theory as she was. “I'm just so used to having your full attention all the time that I was worried when I lost it.”

  “I’m pretty sure that’s jealousy Micah, whether you think so or not,” Emma stated flatly. “I’m sorry you were worried. You still have my attention. Like I said, I’ve just had a hard day. I had some weird dreams this morning, and I was late getting up and forgot all my books and notes at home. Then there’s this whole date with Destry thing, and on my way here he cornered me in the parking lot which slowed me down even more….”

  “Date with Destry?" Micah interrupted. "You’re going out with him again?” Micah tried to sound nonchalant about it, but Emma could tell that he was surprised and maybe even a little upset by the idea.

  “Well, he kind of asked me out again when I went to tell him that we were just going to be friends. I didn’t know what to say to get out of it. I was going to call it off, but for some reason I couldn’t. That seems to be an impossibility with him," Emma wondered to herself why that was. "I’m sorry you didn't know Micah, I haven't talked to you since he asked me. Does that upset you—I mean that we are going out again—because I could still cancel...”

  Emma knew that it wouldn’t be that easy to actually cancel. After all she hadn’t been able to do it either time she'd talked to him before, and nothing had changed since then.

  “No, of course not," Micah said plainly. "Why should that upset me? I’m really not involved Emma.”

  “Not involved?!” Emma was the one that was upset now! Hadn't he just made it a point to involve himself by dragging her out here to the barn for who knows what reason, and now he was conveniently claiming uninvolvement? “I can’t handle this at the moment. I'm late!”

  Emma turned and began to walk away.

  As she neared the door she felt the air around her change and something touched her shoulder.

  She couldn't believe that he actually had the nerve to try and hold her back after he'd just claimed that he was in no way involved with her life? She spun back around, angry at his audacity in thinking he could keep her here, and suddenly…

  ...there he was…

  Chapter 14: SEEING

  Emma could see him! Micah was standing right in front of her. She couldn’t bring her mind to believe what her eyes were seeing. She could never have imagined anything more glorious than he was.

  He wore dark pants and a dark button up shirt that was unbuttoned at the top exposing his chest and showing his perfect form. He was tall and wrapped in lean muscle. His eyes were the deepest blue, and at the same time so full of light that they appeared almost transparent. His hair was dark, almost black, and wavy. His face was smooth and perfect, and he was surrounded by a thin outline of pure light.

  His face was angular with strong cheek bones and it was so familiar to her, like she had known him from somewhere before. The funny thing is that at the same time he wasn’t what she'd exp
ected. Not to say that he wasn’t beautiful and perfect like Emma knew he would be, just that he was different than she had imagined him somehow.

  She was unbelievably happy to finally be able to see his face, but she realized she had expected something more powerful out of this moment.

  When Emma had dreamt of it countless times before, it had felt more complete than this; she had felt more complete, like all the pieces of a puzzle coming together.

  Emma had assumed everything would become clear and simple, but it didn’t feel that way.

  She had wanted this for such a long time. Now that it was happening Emma was taken off guard by the immenseness of it all. So like the dork she was, she stumbled backward in surprise.

  “Don’t be afraid Emma, it’s just me." Micah's voice was just as soft and soothing as before. His ageless blue eyes were calm and penetrating, and his smile was breathtaking.

  “I’m not afraid,” Emma's voice shook. “I just can’t believe it’s really you. You’re here, I mean… I can see you. I thought that you didn’t want me to see you.” She was staring wide eyed at him unable to even blink for fear that he might disappear if she did.

  “I never said that I didn’t want you to see me Emma, only that there was no reason for you to see me.” He spoke calmly, and matter-of-factly, like this was no big deal. Emma felt like she was going to hyperventilate.

  “What’s the reason now?" Emma asked with wonderment. "I’m not complaining or anything,” she wanted to make that perfectly clear. “I’m just wondering what prompted this? I still can’t believe it!”

  “I guess I didn’t want you to leave just now. I could tell that you were upset with me. I don’t know, I can’t explain it. I just felt like it was necessary.” His velvet voice made Emma feel like she was melting.

  She needed to pull herself together. She didn’t want to miss a moment of this just because she was becoming a puddle on the floor. This was big, and what if it never happened again? What if this was her only chance.