by Michelle Lee
“Kalisha, do you have any recommendations for Airiella in regard to this job?” Stephen asked.
She smiled warmly at me, “Carry your stones everywhere and the book of Psalms.” That was easy enough to manage. I nodded at her.
“Aminda, you’re next,” Stephen said, taking notes.
“Just words of advice. Remember to set your intentions,” she spoke to me. I nodded at her.
“Thank you Aminda. Father Roarke, your turn,” Stephen continued.
“My recommendations are that Airiella check in with me weekly,” Father Roarke said.
“Airiella, is this something that you can manage?” Stephen asked me, making more notes.
“Of course,” I replied. I wonder if that meant he had more information on how to cleanse the energy.
“Asher, please give your recommendations,” Stephen droned on.
“I have none at this time,” Asher responded in a monotone.
“Very well. Dr. Fields,” Stephen gestured at her.
“I would recommend weekly spiritual cleansing,” Dr. Fields said.
Startled I gave her a surprised look.
“It’s for your own protection,” she told me quietly. I nodded at her.
Stephen made another note. “Degataga, you’re up.”
“I have made an herbal tea for her to drink to help with the healing she needs, and one for pain that is caused by spirits. My recommendations are for her to use those,” he said carefully.
Stephen looked at me, “Is this something you are comfortable doing?”
“Yes, not a problem,” I said, giving Degataga the acknowledgment he wanted that I would drink the nightmare tea.
“Tama, Onida, is there anything you would like to add?” Stephen said, looking them over.
“Believe,” Onida said, tapping her chest.
“You can make it happen,” Tama said.
“Thank you for those words of advice ladies. Taklishim, the floor is yours,” Stephen said.
“First I would like to recommend that Ronnie teach her basic fighting skills and self-defense,” Stephen started writing. “Second, more meditation and self-reflection when things are more intense, she will find the answers there. Third, that she utilizes all bonds she has to complete the circle.”
Taklishim gave me a strong look, “You will do this.” I nodded at him, grateful for the hidden messages of support woven in there. If anything, this panel showed me that I just may have made a few new friends that I would need for this.
I took a deep breath in, “Thank you all for your time, patience and energy in talking to me, teaching me and working with me. It has been an honor to meet all of you.”
“The honor is ours,” Onida said gently.
“I’m sorry this is complete and utter bullshit,” Dr. Stone burst in standing up again.
“Sit down,” Taklishim thundered. Oh, now I see the warrior in him, and he’s terrifying.
Dr. Stone sat, but if the vile look on his face was any confirmation, he was far from done.
“Airiella, during filming season, we rent a house in a location close to the studio where we can do the editing and the computer work for each aired show. We keep the equipment at the studio where the team can go over it, check to make sure all is working properly and prep for the next location. It is at this house we can set up appointments to have the recommendations that the council has made completed after each location. Are these agreeable conditions for you?” Dave asked.
“To clarify, I would share a house with the rest of the team during the filming season? And then after I would get to go home? I don’t need to permanently move?” I asked. What was I going to do with the cats?
“Correct. Living expenses are paid for while in the house,” Tom said.
Dave slid an envelope across the table to me, “This contains an offer of employment and the salary details and benefits offered. We will draw up a contract with the recommendations of the council as conditions of your employment. This is to keep you safe.”
I nodded my understanding. “When would this position start? I have a few things to wrap up at home before I can jump in.”
“Ultimately, we would like you to start now, but we understand you have a current position that you need to wrap up, and personal matters to attend to. Please take the night to look over the information provided in the envelope and if you can, let us know tomorrow if things need to be changed, or if you accept,” Tom said.
“If you accept, I would like to send Aedan with you back to your home, he doesn’t need to stay in your home,” Dave amended, “but he would be able to fill you in on what it’s like on location, the things that we would be looking for you to do, and train you a bit on the equipment while you take care of what you need to take care of there.”
I was feeling cornered, but I already knew I was taking the job. Aedan coming home with me wouldn’t be a big deal, neither would letting him use my extra room. I think the energy in the room was getting to me. “That’s fine with me, and I do have an extra room in my house that he can use. It would cut down on expenses and travel time. I would like to ask that his wife come with as well.”
I don’t think they expected that as all three of them looked startled, but they nodded their agreement. As they were nodding, a crash sounded from behind the glass where I knew the guys were sitting. Everyone at the table jumped and looked over.
Suddenly the speakers roared to life with a voice shouting, “Fuck you!” I sighed. Jax. The energy was reacting to something.
The producers cleared their throats looking extremely uncomfortable. “Um,” they all stammered, and then Dr. Stone stood up. But it wasn’t Dr. Stone. My senses picked up the energy rolling off him and the room smelled of danger.
Dr. Stone pointed a finger at me, “Do you really think you are better than me?” he snarled. “I will show the world your lies and defeat you in a way that will leave no doubt about who is in control here.”
“Dr. Stone!” Dave shouted; fear spreading across his eyes.
Dr. Stone shifted and then shoved Dave across the room. Well damn. This got out of hand fast. I glanced around the table seeing a variety of expressions, but just fear on the producers faces. I stood up and stepped around the table to stand between Dr. Stone and the producers.
“Get out of my way bitch or I’ll kill you now!” Dr. Stone spit at me.
I looked at the three men standing there stupefied. “Please go stand in the corner or leave the room. Out of the line of fire,” I told them quietly.
“No one leaves here unless I say they do!” Dr. Stone yelled in my face; way too close for my comfort.
There was commotion in the room with the guys as well, that was being picked up by the activated microphone. “Aedan, Ronnie, Mags, please restrain Jax, I think he is going to react to what will happen.”
“Got it angel,” Ronnie’s voice came through tight.
“Smitty, I’m going to need you in a matter of moments,” I looked over at Father Roarke. “Can you help me again after I do this?” Father Roarke nodded his head. “Smitty, if it’s ok, you’ll need to help Father Roarke.”
“Whatever you need, baby girl,” I head Smitty agree. Then the door opened and Smitty came out, showing Ronnie behind Jax holding him in a head lock.
“What the fuck makes you think you are in charge here?!” Dr. Stone roared, still not advancing towards me. I ignored him. I knew he wouldn’t touch me; he was afraid of me. It was rolling off him.
I looked over at Aminda, Kalisha, Dr. Fields and Asher. “Can you go with the producers?” As one they all nodded and joined the producers in the corner.
“Degataga, use your sight to see if you can see what’s happening. Hawkeye, Cat Woman and Gandalf,” they all broke out in laughter at that, “can you do what you do and see if you can spot any way that we can make this easier? I’m going to do my thing, looks like you’ll get a front row seat.”
I waited for their signals that they were ready, and motion
ed Smitty over to Father Roarke. “Thank you.”
“If you so much as dare touch me, it will be the end of you,” Dr. Stone shouted, spittle hitting me in the face.
“Why are you so hostile Dr. Stone?” I asked slowly. I took a step towards him and opened all my senses fully. The negative energy slammed into me hard from Jax, it was violent and hot. Writhing in him. I focused on Dr. Stone, the energy in him was the same, but on a smaller scale. “Are you afraid of me?” I taunted.
“Why would I be afraid you, whore?” He sneered. I heard Ronnie cuss in the background. “You are nothing but a stupid whore.”
“Maybe. Maybe I’m more than that. It’s not for me to say. I’m pretty sure I’m not talking to Dr. Stone though, so why don’t you tell me who you are?” I stepped closer again and latched on to the bad energy, seeking out other threads I could use to help. He was full of insecurities, fear and anger. There had to be something else in there to counteract those. I kept digging as he hurled insults at me.
Found it, he had love, though it was by far the smallest amount out of all the negative in him. I pushed energy into the love and watched his expression change. At the same time Jax roared so loud it almost broke my concentration. I yanked hard on the bad energy, not caring if it hurt Dr. Stone or not, I didn’t have time to wait and go slow with how Jax was reacting.
I heard gasps from behind me and Winnie shouting, “Airy, no!” Wonder where she’d been. The bad energy leaped into my body and Dr. Stone screamed, collapsing in a heap on the floor. I swayed where I stood and latched on to part of the energy in Jax.
At least in him, I could feel hope, love and kindness. I grabbed those and shoved my own energy into those hoping it would ease the effect on him, but that energy fought, and I heard him screaming for help. A little piece of my heart broke. Tears began filling my eyes as the pain of what I was doing settled on my nerves. I pulled some of the energy from Jax.
“He fainted,” I heard Ronnie yell. I gave a small prayer of thanks and stopped pulling and dropped to the floor. Sickness engulfed me, my stomach was heaving, my eyes blind. My skin felt like it was being stung by thousands of bees.
I felt Smitty, the connection we had easing some of the pain as his skin touched me. He lifted me and was carrying me. I heard the footsteps of others following, but I kept blacking out. The energy in me was so filled with rage that it was trying to consume me. It was too much; I took too much. The only way I knew we were in the church was by the way the energy in me reacted.
My own energy that was filled with hope and love was fighting being taken over by this darkness that filled me with despair, pounding against my soul so violently that I couldn’t get a hold of anything to use against it. It was savagely ripping at me. My nerves raw now, pain was all I knew.
“Raven, I need you to drink this,” I heard Taklishim say and something touched my lips. I opened my mouth and swallowed, the earthy mix hitting my stomach and immediately I threw it all up. “There’s no time,” he said.
I was put on the ground and cried out at the pain of my skin on the floor, the loss of the connection severed. I must have been in the circle. “I’m so sorry, Airiella,” Father Roarke said, and I was drenched in water. Holy water, was my thought as my nerves exploded in fire, screams ripping through my throat my body rigid.
“Not enough,” I choked out.
“Oh my God, baby girl, stay with me,” Smitty’s rough cry penetrated my head.
“I need to drink it,” I rasped between screams. I felt the cup pressed into my hand and guided to my lips. I tasted blood, and my stomach heaved again. It felt like the scene in that alien movie where an alien comes out of her stomach. It was awful. I had little doubt that my life was about to end, and I only could hope that what I pulled from Jax was enough to help him.
“Stand back,” I heard Father Roarke say and he started reciting prayers. I also heard Taklishim chanting, but my ears started ringing with a buzzing noise that drowned everything else out. Someone raised my arm to my mouth again for me to drink and I fought to get it down. It felt as if every bone in my body was breaking. Following that it felt like every one of my limbs was torn from my body, and then there was blackness.
Smitty’s brain couldn’t process the horror of what he was seeing play out in front of his eyes. Her body literally broke, he heard the bones snap. There was blood coming out of her mouth and the screams were deafening, echoing off the walls and ringing in his ears. Then in a split second it stopped, and the room was silent. Like someone had dampened all the sound in the room.
He glanced away from Airiella for a moment and looked around. Shock written on all the faces of those present. Destruction all around them, and as he looked back at Airiella, his heart stopped. She wasn’t moving, she wasn’t breathing. Covered in her own blood and drenched from the holy water, her beautiful face frozen in a grimace of pain. He stepped forward, but Father Roarke was suddenly in his way.
“It’s not over, son,” he told Smitty in a shaky voice.
“She’s not breathing,” Smitty sobbed unabashedly.
“Wait,” the priest told him. Before his eyes, Airiella lit up in a blue glow, her body six inches off the ground, her hair floating around her face as her body snapped back into place. The sounds of the bones sliding in to place making Smitty cringe in pain. The light around her flared so bright he couldn’t even look at her anymore, he shielded his eyes and looked over at the three that followed him, Taklishim, Tama and Onida.
All three were on their knees, their heads on the ground in supplication. As he snapped his gaze back towards Airiella, he saw Winnie, and his jaw dropped. “Winnie,” he whispered. “What’s happening?”
“She’s gone,” Winnie said brokenly. “She took way too much,” she looked horrified. “There’s so much damage inside her.”
“What are you talking about?” Smitty saw her still floating there glowing.
“It made her bleed inside,” she whispered.
Taklishim was by his side in an instant, “Can you tell me what that was?”
Smitty looked at him wildly, “How the fuck should I know?”
“The ghost, not you,” Taklishim said patiently.
“Neither of us know, but she calls it bad energy, but it’s sentient, it changes every time,” Winnie told him.
“Every time?” Smitty was dumbstruck. “She’s done this before?”
“Two days ago, when Mags stayed with her,” Winnie said sadly. “Before that, it was the same stuff she pulled from me.”
Taklishim had pulled out his medicine bag and was mixing ingredients and chanting, the priest praying fervently. Onida had walked over to them but looked directly at Winnie. “She’s not gone, she’s with her Creator,” Onida said.
“In my world, that means dead,” Smitty shot at her.
“She’s in there, her soul isn’t gone,” Onida argued. “I can see it, so can you. That’s what is glowing.”
Smitty gasped. “That’s her soul?”
Taklishim spoke up, “You sealed the connection, right?” Smitty nodded, at a loss for words. “Then feel for her. Reach for that connection you share with her. She needs your touch to make it back here.”
“How?” Smitty asked, willing to do anything to see her breathe again.
“Close your eyes, remember the feel of the connection, how it felt in you. You saw it too, picture it. Picture yourself touching it, feeding it energy. It’s alive, I can see it between you two, but it’s weak right now. When she does this, whoever has those connections with her, you need to be there. You are her tether to this world.”
Smitty was unable to provide any logical backup to the words, but he did as Taklishim told him. “Will doing this kill her?”
“Not in the way you think, but it does hurt her. It’s a part of who and what she is, you will need to accept it. Skin on skin contact is best to help her, but you must wait until it is safe to do so, or the energy that was ripped from her will attach to you. It is why Father Roa
rke said it wasn’t finished. That energy was not dead yet. Now, it is safe, you can touch her,” Taklishim said.
“Do you know what that was?” Smitty whispered.
“No, it’s never been seen before. But the ghost was right, it’s sentient. It’s evolving to try and learn how to survive. Your friend is lucky she pulled some out of him, it’s almost too late for him,” Taklishim said, stirring water into the herbs he crushed. “Take this paste, rub some into her mouth, on her tongue. It will absorb and ease some of the pain. Keep doing it until it’s gone, or she wakes up.” He handed Smitty the bowl.
“She’s truly incredible,” Onida whispered to him. “If you combined the entire council, we wouldn’t have had enough power to do what she did. All we can do is find ways to help her get through this part of it. Take care of her,” she pressed a card into his hand. It had their contact info on it and Smitty slid it into his pocket.
He took the paste over to Airiella. “Baby girl, I’m here.” He scooped some of the paste onto his finger and slid it into her mouth, scraping his finger along her teeth to get it off. He put his other hand gently on the arm floating in the air next to him and felt the connection tingle to life and her body shuddered.
“Keep touching her son,” Father Roarke said gently.
Smitty had tears falling down his cheeks, “I had no idea. She told me, but I had no idea.”
“Neither did I, son. Not until two days ago when she came to me asking for help. It was so much worse this time. Believe me, I’m searching for ways to ease this process, I haven’t slept since last time she was here. I see it in my nightmares,” he told Smitty.
“She chooses to do this,” Smitty said in wonder.
“Help her see herself,” Father Roarke said. “She doesn’t believe how amazing and beautiful she is.”
Smitty looked at the priest sharply, “She doesn’t?”
“She thinks she is unworthy to be called an angel because of her past.”
Taklishim joined Smitty, sitting on his knees. “Add more paste. And the priest is right. Her true powers won’t come into play until she heals those wounds. Encourage her to drink the tea that Degataga gave her, but don’t leave her alone that night. She will need as many connections as she can around her to hold on to the love that she radiates.”