by Dale Mayer
She stared at the empty water bottle in her hand, passing it back to Sebastian. “Both of which sound like crazy stories.” She didn’t want to call Stefan a liar because it was already beyond ridiculous that she was talking to this glowing space between the two men. She glanced from Hunter to Sebastian. “Do you guys do that?” Her stomach sank when both nodded. She scrubbed her face with her hands. “You know how ridiculous this sounds?”
“We do,” Hunter said. “That moment of awakening, that moment of realizing you have abilities you didn’t know about and that people were utilizing and feeding on your system because you didn’t know to stop them, … it’s the end of innocence.”
“Awakening?” she mimicked in disbelief. “It’s terrifying. It’s scary as shit. And what you said doesn’t tell me anything useful. I need to know how to create that sensor.”
“The initial lesson is awareness,” Stefan said. “Now that you’re aware of what is going on around you and that somebody is helping himself to your energy, whether a little bit or a lot, you need to do something about it. First, become aware. You know how you feel great and energized when you’re with certain people, and then how you can be with another group and walk away feeling drained? That’s because people subconsciously reach out and help themselves to the energy they need. Some people use that as a way of communication. The reason they’re with people is because they’re attracted to that energy, and so they help themselves to our energy to make themselves feel better. But, as an end result, you feel worse.”
“Oh, wow,” she muttered. “I really don’t like the sound of that. And I still need to have an early alarm system.”
Sebastian chuckled. “Whether you like it or not, you have to realize this is exactly what you’re dealing with now. Awareness.”
“It’s a lot to take in,” she admitted.
“It is,” Hunter said. “This is a crash course in getting up to speed.”
“Or else this entity will suck me dry? You’ve been watching too many vampire films.”
“We do understand,” Sebastian said, crouching in front of her. “But consider how much food you’re inhaling. Consider how much water you’re drinking. Consider the fact you can’t sleep anymore, and your system is under extreme distress.”
She covered his hand with hers. “Since I arrived, I’ve had nothing in my life except stress. This mess being one of the final straws of so much that started with that accident.”
“And what accident was that again?” Stefan’s voice was sharp.
Almost in an absentminded voice, Sebastian explained about her getting hit by a vehicle on her second evening here.
“Interesting.”
Hunter turned to look at Stefan. “Why?”
“Remember in the Mayan ruins, injuries were this entity’s way of getting into the energy system.”
Silence fell.
Her gaze went from one to the other. “Are you saying, after that accident, I became even more susceptible?”
Sebastian nodded slowly, adding, “We did wonder if that accident had awakened Lacey’s abilities.”
Hunter nodded. “That would make more sense.”
“But it doesn’t make sense to me,” Lacey said. “Is the entity slipping into my body through my injuries, my wounds?”
Stefan shook his head, smiling sweetly. “It’s more invasive than that. The spirit waits for your body to divert its normal processes of protecting your body from foreign invaders, whether germs or this black energy spirit, into an all-out healing mode. So your body is more interested in healing itself than in protecting itself from further invaders. Think of the last time you had a bad case of the flu. It knocked you out, kept you in bed for days, right?”
She nodded.
“You were too out of it to eat or drink. Just sleeping. Until the body healed itself.” Again Stefan smiled sweetly at Lacey. “The black energy is aware of this human process and takes advantage of it. Even to the point of creating these injuries to begin with, to divert your body’s protection process to a more focused healing process.”
Lacey rubbed her temples. “What about the headaches? Are they all connected?”
“Explain the headaches,” Stefan ordered.
She shrugged. “What’s to explain? They’re headaches. They’re always at the back of my neck, right where my head joins my spine. It’s like this … tension bubble.”
“No,” Stefan said softly. “It’s likely a hook.”
She stared at him, dumbfounded. “There’s no hook in the back of my head.” She turned to face Sebastian. “Is there?” She watched as this weird glowing entity moved around her, barely noticing that Sebastian held both of her hands.
Stefan murmured, “Definitely a hook is in here. I’m not sure I can release it. You’ll have to do it yourself.”
“What are you talking about?” Lacey released Sebastian’s hands, then threw her braid over one shoulder. She searched the back of her neck. “There is no hook. I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“A spiritual hook,” Sebastian said. “It’s like a direct line into your energy system. At the spine, it hopes to tap into the Kundalini energy at the base of the spine, as well as the other energy in your chakras.”
She stared at him. “What’s really scary is that this concept doesn’t seem all that foreign to me.”
Hunter gave a bark of laughter. “That’s good because we want you to disconnect that hook.”
She shot him a look. Her stomach churned. “How do I do that?” she asked cautiously. “I can’t feel anything.”
“Close your eyes,” Stefan ordered.
She obeyed but winced at the fact that she did so. “Since when do I listen to a ghost,” she muttered.
“I’m not a ghost,” Stefan said. “I’m as alive as you and Sebastian are.”
She doubted that, but this wasn’t the time to argue.
“Close your eyes. Think and feel about what’s going on from the top of your head down to your shoulder blades,” he instructed. “Feel whether it’s heat or whether it’s cold or if it’s tension.”
She tried to sort out the sensations running up and down her back. Right now she was so confused and terrified at the thought of this hook in her neck and what it might be taking from her that it was hard to find a neutral position in which to assess her system. Eventually though she could tell there was no pain but kind of a tug on the right side of her neck. She reached around and touched it with her fingers. “My neck feels like it is being pulled here at this spot.”
“Good,” Stefan said. “That’s the hook.”
She explored the area. “I really can’t feel anything though.”
“But you can. It’s just you don’t know what it is you’re sensing,” he said. “Now I want you to think about that hook. Imagine a vacuum hose is attached to that part of your neck, taking with it whatever it needs from your system. So, while you’re drinking and eating, you’re feeding that thing too.”
“And how do I get it out of my system?” she cried out.
Sebastian leaned toward her, placed a hand on her knee and squeezed. “Just remain calm,” he said. “You have to realize everybody has hooks, and most of them we allow.”
“We always allow it,” Stefan said. “But sometimes they come in with other hooks. Because you’ve agreed to the first, the second one is like a leech. Several other kinds of hooks are in your system, and that’s normal. There will be friends, family members.”
“Okay,” she said, slightly calmer. “How do I get rid of the one I don’t want? I presume the ones I allowed or I do want, help me to have a better relationship with people?”
“Exactly,” Stefan said. “But it’s still not healthy to have them if these people are controlling you, manipulating you. We must set boundaries even with our friends and family. Getting rid of those isn’t today’s issue. Getting rid of the one sucking the life out of you is.”
Hearing it described like that made the bile rise in the back
of her throat.
“Now I want you to reach out mentally and disconnect that line,” he said. “Not because it’s hurting you, not because you’re afraid of it, but because you have the power to decide who and what can have your energy. From a position of a calm sense of knowing that you have the right to do what you’re doing, detach it.”
She tried to get into that mind-set, but doubt and fear warred inside. “I can’t quite get that sense of being allowed to do this,” she said with a wince.
“That’s because you’re coming from a victim mentality. You feel like he’s done this to you,” Stefan said, “and that he’s taken advantage of you, so you’re being terrorized, and you’ve put yourself in victim mode. You need to realize somebody was taking advantage, and you have to slap them back into their place. Think about when you’re in a store, and somebody cuts in front of you in line. You speak up and say, Excuse me. The line is behind me. Have you ever done something like that?”
She shrugged. “Not for myself but for my mom I have, when others have stepped in front of her when she needed to get to the front of the line as soon as possible because she was so tired.”
“That’s fine. Use that analogy now. Not coming from a victim mentality but coming from a sense of knowing they’re in the wrong.”
“Aah,” she said and tried again. She could feel herself straightening her back, stiffening, almost as if getting bigger.
“That’s it,” Stefan murmured. “Keep doing that. Find out who you are inside. Stand up straight and tall and be proud of it.”
She followed his instructions to feel through her toes with this great energy from the earth, pulling it up, filling her system, her arms, her fingertips, through her neck and her head. And then she hit the top of her head. This Earth’s energy bounced back around to where this hook was, and, as if with a flick of her finger, she kicked it out.
Instantly the sensation of being freed from a heavy weight on her shoulders fell off her. She stretched her arms high above her head, rolled her neck and her shoulders, and said, “That feels much better.”
“That’s because you released it,” Stefan said. “Now go to where it was and fill the space with a warm loving energy but also put a cap on it. Visualize snapping it in place so this person cannot, under any circumstances, reopen it.”
She could see a great big manhole cover coming down over the space where the hook had been. She looked around in surprise, took several steps, shaking out her legs and her neck. “I really feel different right now.”
“Good,” Stefan said. “Now you need to be aware if other attempts are made on your system.”
She turned to face him. “And what about the other hooks in my system?”
She could feel Stefan’s warm smile reaching out for her, the pat of approval on her back.
“When you did what you just did, you released all the hooks,” he said. “So you might find some relationships a little off right now. But a lot of these relationships and hooks have been in there since you were a child. It was definitely time to release those threads, those connections, to let other people grow and be who they are, to let yourself grow and be who you are without that neediness.”
She stared at him in astonishment, but he slowly faded before her. “Wait. How do I contact you again?”
A warm chuckle filled her mind. “Now that we’ve connected, the connection will always be there.”
She asked suspiciously, “Does that mean you have a hook in my system now?”
His voice, ever-so-gentle, whispered back, “No, my dear. You have a hook into my system.” And he disappeared.
She turned to stare at the other two men. “He said I have a hook in his system,” she cried out. “I didn’t mean to do that.”
Sebastian just grinned. “If he wanted to get rid of it, believe me, he’d get rid of it. And it wouldn’t matter in the least what you tried to do about it.”
She nodded slowly. “Well, that makes me feel a little better because I didn’t know I did that.”
Hunter nodded. “Relationships are like that. They are two-way streets. A hook is a connection between the two of you and is something you can build and agree on. And, if you’re very lucky, you can open that connection so you communicate through it. Hooks don’t have to be bad, and they can be turned into these tunnels, these doorways between people that will allow you to communicate much easier.”
“I really like that idea,” she admitted. “With my mother’s passing, I lost a really intense part of my life. For the six months before she died, it seemed like I could read her thoughts. I could understand what she wanted without her even asking for it.”
“That’s probably because you had already forged that tunnel between the two of you,” Hunter said. “And that’s a good thing. That was a loving daughter connected to a loving mother. When everything is right, it’s the most beautiful thing. What you have to watch out for is when things feel off or wrong, or if you get into an abusive situation. It’s subconscious behavior, but, when somebody becomes a bully and pushes people around, you have to realize they’re utilizing that kind of energy to make you do their bidding. Whether it’s threats or intimidation, it doesn’t matter. Often it’s just pure emotional blackmail. You have to detach from those hooks so you can see clearly what’s going on. As long as those hooks are in place, it’s hard for you to get clear of all that manipulation. But it’s important that you do, for your own safety.”
She took several more steps around the area. She studied the mask with distrust. “And how do we fence that off so nobody from the team touches it?”
“I’ll take it back,” Sebastian said. He bent down and opened up his backpack, carefully put the mask in it, closing it over the object.
“How do we know it won’t just disappear into black energy?” she asked. “It came, and it changed, and now it’s returned to its former form.”
Hunter added, “Yeah, Sebastian, we want to make sure nothing unlocks it again.”
Sebastian nodded. “We need a secure glass case.”
“Silver welds would be good too,” Hunter said. “Making sure it’s hermetically sealed, so it can’t change form again.”
“In any case, we better go now,” Sebastian said. He stopped, turning to look at her. “Are you okay to leave?”
“Leave? Go where? I’ve done no work at all today.”
“Good thing there wasn’t a whole lot for you to do, isn’t it?” He held out a hand. “Come on. Let’s go. We need to take the mask somewhere safe.”
When they were talking about, locking it up securely, they had meant it. She thought they were returning to the apartment. She’d been through enough that morning already that she’d be quite happy to return there. Even though she’d said she needed to get to work, she’d secretly wanted to just be alone in her room. But that wasn’t happening either.
Instead they ended up going to the rear of the apartment building where Sebastian had his vehicle parked. With her and Hunter both inside, the mask carefully stowed in the footwell, he drove to another building.
She studied the area, fascinated. “I wish I had time to take in the tourist sights. I really hate to leave without having seen some of the most famous attractions.”
“You’re working in the most famous attraction of all,” Hunter said.
She smiled, thinking about it. They passed a small market. She twisted in her seat to see everything offered in the crowded booths.
Sebastian commented, “Don’t worry about it. We’ll get you out here at least once before you go home.”
At the thought of going home again, she settled in her seat and muttered, “When will that be, two days?”
He shot her a look through the rearview mirror.
She just shrugged. “I’m hardly doing the job I came to do.”
“Remember that it’s a volunteer position,” he reminded her. “It’s not like you’re on the payroll.”
She brightened. “So you can’t fire me then.”
She grinned. “I’m glad to hear that. I teach photography at the high school too, but, at that level, most of my students only have point-and-shoot cameras. We do mostly photo editing, so they can understand composition.”
“And you are a history teacher?” Hunter asked.
She nodded. “History, photography, sometimes math.” She wrinkled up her face at that. “The more subjects you have, the more hours you get to work. For the longest time, I just taught history and worked only part-time to be able to help my mother.”
“At least you had that,” Hunter said. “It gave you a chance to get out of the house.”
“It did, but, every time I left, I felt guilty and worried about her. I used to phone her on my breaks all the time, send her texts, and then I’d rush back home again to see if she needed me.”
Hunter smiled. “You don’t need to feel guilty for being a loving daughter. It’s that kind of love that makes the world go around.”
She stared out the window, wishing she didn’t feel, in a sense, that she’d pulled the short straw in that deal.
“Were you caring for a loving mother?” he asked, as if studying the unrest on her face.
She glanced at her hands and nodded. “I was—and I hate to speak ill of the dead—but no doubt my mother was only waiting to return to my father, who had passed away ten years earlier. So, although she loved me, I was second in her life.”
Hunter’s gaze was intense as he studied her face and the depths of emotions in her eyes. “That’s not an easy situation for either of you.”
She grinned. “I don’t hold any illusions about it. I was loved, being an only child, but, once my father passed on, it’s like my mother was doing her duty by sticking around. She wasn’t terribly unhappy about dying. She was looking forward to seeing him again. When I became an adult, I think she felt like she had fulfilled her role as a mother.”