by Dale Mayer
No, that’s not good enough, he said passionately. I wish I could take her away from all of this.
Then do. Find her a safe haven until this is all over.
Where? How?
If you mean to take her away while her body adjusts then take her to her grayscale. Or better yet, take her to yours.
He glanced up around the living room. I never thought of that.
It will take her out of her physical body for the moment. She will still be overwhelmed, but it will be more distant. Give the memories time to settle then bring her back.
Trevor closed his eyes for a moment, prepping himself. Then he opened his eyes and gazed down at the woman in his arms. “Hannah, can you hear me?”
“Yes,” she cried. “Make this stop. I can’t handle it.”
“You can handle so much more than you know, sweetheart. But I can help…”
She stared up at him hopefully, her skin pale, wan. “Please help.”
“You have to trust me…”
“I trust you,” she said passionately. “Just please help.”
He smiled down at her. “Okay, then.” He shifted her position in his arms and reached a hand down, laid it on her chest above her breasts. “Come with me.”
“Anywhere,” she whispered and as if already feeling the pull of his hand, she closed her eyes and went limp.
He closed his eyes and willed himself to his grayscale.
The place he always came to when he couldn’t handle the reality of the physical world.
But this was the first time he’d brought someone with him.
Chapter 19
“Open your eyes, Hannah.”
Trevor’s voice. She smiled and snuggled close. The pain was gone. The noise was gone. The visual overload – gone. She gave a deep sigh of relief. “Thank you, thank you, thank you.” She hugged him close. “That feels so much better.”
“You might not thank me in a moment,” he said humorously. “You need to open your eyes.”
She opened them lazily and saw that firm square chin above her. She didn’t think, she just blew him a kiss. And laughed. Then laughed again. She’d never done that before. Never felt so free.
She opened her eyes fully and gazed around. She was still in his arms, where she wanted to be. And he’d done what he promised he would. He’d taken it all away.
Only he’d taken her into a world of no color.
As she looked around she caught her breath. “Where are we?”
“In grayscale,” he said calmly. “I took you to my grayscale world in this dimension.”
She studied the pearl gray look to the air and the odd, almost metallic look to their surroundings. They stood outside a house but not the same house they’d been in. A big rolling lawn and a wooden glass and cedar house stood behind them. Nice. “It looks familiar. Like I’ve been here.”
“You’ve been to a similar place but not this one.”
She threw him an odd look. “Meaning, I couldn’t have come here because it’s yours?”
He gave a half laugh. “You’re learning fast. Some people can travel from one gray world to another. Not everyone. Most of us are confined to our own grayscale world.”
“Not that this is making any sense, but how could I come to yours then?”
“I brought you. But I think you may be able to travel from one to the other like Stefan can.”
“Sounds like Stefan can do a lot of things,” she muttered. With his help she stood up and turned to look around. “Whose house is that?”
“It’s actually my house,” he admitted. “The house I grew up in. I bought it from my parents a few years ago when they wanted to downsize.”
“Nice,” she said, studying the cedar and glass look. “A family home.”
“Exactly.”
“And this gray light, silvery to the air?” She shot him a sideways look. “And yes I did notice that we went from the living room of the house we were staying to here in the blink of an eye and haven’t asked about that yet…”
He grinned. “Ask away. This is the dimension between life and death. I see people here from both sides.”
“What?” she slowly turned to stare up at him, her eyes so wide with surprise they almost hurt. “Are you serious?”
“He is very serious.”
At the new voice, Hannah turned to see Stefan walking toward them. She gave him a brilliant smile. “Hi.”
“Hi, back. You are looking better,” he said quietly, that gaze of his assessing.
“I presume you heard us,” Trevor asked with humor. “Got to love the world of psychics.”
“You’re psychics?” Hannah asked dubiously. “Really?”
Stefan laughed. “No, we are all psychics.”
She snorted. “No way.”
“You are walking in the space between realities. How can you not be,” he countered.
“I’m here because Trevor brought me,” she said. “I’d have never gotten here otherwise.”
“You walked in your own grayscale world several times in the last couple of days,” Stefan said. “Both Trevor and I could see in. Although Trevor couldn’t move in your space, whereas you appear to be able to walk in his. Interesting.”
She frowned and considered his words. She hadn’t been joking when she said this place looked familiar. “I was at Maddy’s Floor when I saw something like this.”
“Yes, that’s where we saw you,” Trevor said with a smile. “It appeared as if you were speaking to someone, but I never saw who that person was.”
She was startled to think that he’d seen her there. “Wow, that’s when I saw the young woman who was terrified I was there and told me to run.”
“Right, you woke up the next time still running into a different grayscale world with the creepy woman.”
She nodded. “So was that my grayscale?”
“No,” Stefan said with an intent look on his face as he watched her. “You were walking in someone else’s grayscale world. The question is, whose? Because if you can answer that, I think we’ll start to have this puzzle unravel.”
*
It was a lot to take in but for someone who didn’t understand energy work, had never heard of grayscale or alternate dimensions, it was beyond confusing. But Trevor had to give her credit. She stood calmly in front of them and laughed. “You’re both nuts.”
Both he and Stefan shook their heads.
“Then I’m nuts,” she snapped, starting to pace back and forth. “None of this makes any sense.”
Trevor reached out and picked up her hand. He tugged her closer and said, “Now touch me.”
She frowned. “We’re already touching.”
He shook his head. “No, it’s my grayscale and I’m touching you. But you’re the visitor in my grayscale world so see what happens when you reach out and deliberately touch me.”
She frowned and reached up to pat his cheek. And her hand went right through his jaw.
Her face paled and her mouth opened to scream. Stefan reached out and touched her. His hand went through her arm, but there was an electric flash.
She jumped back, her hand going to her heart in shock.
Stefan said, “See, it’s not my grayscale world either,” he said calmly.
To prove his point, Trevor held up his hand and reached out to touch Stefan. And he could grasp the solid hand of his friend.
She tapped her chest several times as if that was going to help her to adjust to the evidence before her eyes. Trevor felt sorry for her. She was very talented if what he’d seen her do already was anything to go by. She just had to believe it and that would take time. That level of power carried its own challenges.
“Wow. As a demonstration that is very impressive. Okay so if I’m here in your grayscale, what purpose is there to this place?”
“Depends,” Stefan said. “I often travel to different grayscale worlds. I come here to talk to people who have died and haven’t moved on for one reason or another. Or to people wh
ose bodies no longer work but their spirit is alive and well. This is the only world they can access but often it’s lonely here for them,” he admitted.
“So when I was in this world before, you’re saying it was that woman’s world?” At their nods she frowned. “I saw several men there as well, but they were in the background further away. I couldn’t see them clearly.”
“Likely part of her grayscale history. People she’d spoken to before from her life or those she met in her grayscale.”
“That almost makes sense,” she muttered. “But when I was there the second time, I saw an old lady who tried to warn me that she was the same as I was and that the world was a dangerous place so I should stay where she was. There were many people around her too.”
Stefan shrugged. “When you can trip into and out of other people’s grayscale then you have to learn which is your own and which isn’t. And when you’re shifting from one world to the other without realizing what you’re doing…well…no wonder you’re confused. But it will help you to understand who the people are to you when you trip into one that isn’t yours.” He gave her a slow smile. “And that’s only if you have a connection. Maybe you are one of the few who needs no connection. And maybe these people are actually contacting you. They might recognize your abilities even if you don’t.”
“Wait, so are you saying that she could have been in a different grayscale as well?”
“Most likely she was,” Stefan said. “Did she try to touch you?”
“You know I think she did, but…” Hannah lifted her shoulders. “I think I backed away before she could make contact.”
“And that would have shown you more presumably.” Stefan studied her. “Did you know her?” At Hannah’s shake, he asked, “Did she look familiar at all?”
“No,” she said in surprise. “At least I didn’t think so. Honestly, she seemed so creepy I just wanted to get away from her. I wasn’t sure what to think or what I was seeing.”
“Right.” Trevor added, “It would be interesting to know the connection to these people.”
“Does there need to be a connection?”
“Not always,” Stefan said. “When I walk the grayscale worlds it’s like seeing a subdivision with all the backyards connected. I can move from one to the other and never hit the same one twice.”
“So you walk through other people’s worlds too?”
“I do.” He nodded. “Along with a fair number of other parlor tricks.”
She laughed. “Is there any value to being able to do this?” She waved her arm wide. “I can’t imagine any benefit to walking in a world only half lit and empty.”
“I do a lot of rescue work so this is where I often come to find those who need help.”
“Rescue work?” she asked cautiously.
Trevor laughed. “He helps the dead cross into the light. Those people who are caught between death and what comes after.”
“Jesus.” She glanced around. “Are the people I meet in this gray world all dead?”
“No. Right now you’re in my grayscale, and I’m not dead.”
She let out her pent up breath. “It’s a lot to get my head wrapped around.”
“It is. But another reason to master this world is for the reason we came here. You were being inundated by the memories flooding your psyche.”
She gave a mock shudder. “I remember. So when life gets to be a bit much, you escape to your grayscale?”
“As you do too,” Stefan said with a smile in his voice but his gaze intent.
“No, I’ve never been here before…wait…” She froze. “The night I came to your place…the world looked something like that. Gray silvery tones to it but it was at night time, and I was injured so I put it down to that. Was I…in grayscale?”
He nodded. “Yes and that’s the state you arrived at my doorstop in. You’d been calling out for help earlier only you didn’t hear me responding. I managed to direct you to my place. You collapsed and I tracked you back to the highway where your body was. It looked like you had been walking and just fell down when you couldn’t continue.”
Her gaze couldn’t have gotten any wider.
She gasped. “Other people couldn’t see me could they?”
Stefan shook his head. “Not unless they were like us.”
“That makes so much sense. Several vehicles passed by but not one stopped to help me,” she cried. “I didn’t understand why not.”
“They couldn’t see you,” Trevor said. “It seemed real, didn’t it?”
“I’d have sworn it was real,” she cried out. She spun slightly to look at Stefan. “So I didn’t leave a bloody mess on your door frame, fingerprints? I felt bad that I’d left such a mess.”
“Sure you did but only on the etheric level.” He laughed at the look on her face. “There are investigators who work on energy signatures as well.”
“Who knew,” she murmured. “Unbelievable.”
“That’s the problem. It’s a complete other world,” Trevor said. “As a psychologist I work with people who spend more time over here than is good for them. I come to visit them here,” he said flatly. “I try to get them to come home.”
Chapter 20
She studied Trevor’s face, hearing the flat tone to his voice. “The work you do is hard, but so very important.”
“I can only help so many people,” he said. “And there is such a real need for more like me.”
“So are you really a lawyer as well?” When he nodded, she asked, “Why?”
“Because I finished law school before I realized I was a grayscale walker. Once I saw how many people were here and in need of help, I went back to school to learn more. The school couldn’t teach me any of what I needed to know on this level, but it gave me the piece of paper I required to access the people who needed my help.”
“And the lawyer stuff?”
He laughed. “It paid for my schooling. Plus considering the problem of patient rights and the need to protect patient assets until they returned to this reality, it’s been a very handy combination.”
“I can imagine.” She could. “Stefan, do you have any crazy degrees like he has?”
“None. I never did go to a conventional school,” he said with a wry grin. “My skills in this field are a little more advanced and I’m fairly specialized.”
“It’s none of my business, but last I looked there wasn’t much demand for psychics, so how do you support yourself? Or are you like me, family wealth?”
“Nope. There isn’t any hereditary money. I’m an artist.”
“He’s not any artist. His canvases hang in private galleries all across the world. He also paints his psychic visions.”
She shuddered. “I can’t imagine.”
“No one can. That’s why I paint them. Sometimes it’s the only way I can see clearly. And speaking of seeing clearly, are you ready to go back to your body? It looks like your memories are fully aligned again.”
“Back to my body?” she asked cautiously, wondering that she could even listen to him and have this not freak her out. “How do you mean.”
“This way.” Trevor reached out and grasped her arm gently. His hand was warm against her skin. “We’ll go home now.”
She gave a gurgle of laughter and said, “Well, I’m game.”
“Open your eyes.”
She frowned. “They are open.”
His grin widened. “Close your eyes then open them again.”
Obediently she shut her eyes and opened them again. “See.”
“See what?” he asked gently.
She twisted her head to look around. And realized they were back in the living room of the house they were staying at. She was lying in Trevor’s arms on the couch. The same place she’d been when the pain had hit. Pain? She gasped and slowly reached up her hand to touch her head. The pain was gone. There was a sense of peace on the outside, but a sense of disquiet inside. She didn’t know what to think. Her memories were calm. In fact, t
hey were there but she had no wish to access any. It was like they were old and better stuffed away. She could drag one out and look at it now. There was no barrier except that of time saying it was over and done with. She let out her breath only now realizing she’d been holding it in. “Okay, this is beyond…” her words failed her.
“Science fiction? Fantasy?”
“I have no idea what or how but my head feels so much better. I’m tired, in a different way than physical,” she said. “It’s a peaceful tired like that good feeling you get after a workout. Yet at the same time I didn’t do anything.”
“Not on a physical level you didn’t, but on the etheric energy level you did a lot. It could take a bit of time to assimilate.”
“I hope not.” She smiled, then shifted so she could reach up and kiss his cheek. “Thank you for removing the blocks. I feel much better knowing I’m whole again. It felt foreign to think of those things in there.”
“In that case, I have bad news. Dr. Maddy removed only one block. And a small one at that. There are others in there.”
“Oh Lord.” Her skin moved from hot to ice. She stared up at him in shock. Others? Crap. “I have to go through that again?”
“You saw how hard it was for you to get through this adjustment. Pulling all the blocks at once might have sent you into a coma,” he said seriously. “We couldn’t risk it.”
She leaned against his shoulder, hating the idea of what was still ahead of her. But being in grayscale hadn’t been too bad. If they could repeat that trip, she’d be okay with it. “Maybe we could leave a little bit earlier for your grayscale world next time, so I’m not so overwhelmed.” She tilted her head back. “It will get easier, right.”
A muscle in his jaw twitched. “Not necessarily,” he said. “The other blocks are bigger. Possibly, more important, holding back some very painful memories and responses. So no, I doubt they will be any easier.”
“Ouch.” She sighed. “So when can I get rid of the others?”
“Just a minute and I’ll ask Dr. Maddy.”
When he didn’t make any move to grab up his cell phone and call, she figured he had changed his mind, or meant to do so later.