by Ariadna Marrero Saavedra
“We still don´t know if she is real.”
“I know that she is, I feel her inside of me; it is as though something is missing,” I said placing my hands over my heart. “I don´t want them to harm her, I want to find her as soon as possible.”
“And if it is a trick? It could be the same ones that captured you that day, that want to do it again and they are tricking you with her. It is easy to reflect in your mind, according to you, she is your living image. But,” he hesitated, “if you believe she is real, I believe you.”
We sustained a long conversation about where I could find my sister. Finally, in a low voice, he told me not to worry, because we would be assigned to search for her.
I ended that day exhausted for all the accumulated tension from the previous days and I fell asleep without even thinking about it.
<>
I woke up startled and with tears in my eyes before the impotence of not being able to save my mother even if it were in a dream. I shook the sheets that hugged my skin and ran to the wall to put the light on. And there were the pair of them looking worriedly at me.
“Are you alright?” Eric asked me. I hugged him without even thinking about it, I kept crying for a long time until I found calm in his arms. He took me to a small living room and sat me on a small armchair, beside him, in a way that I ended up very close to him. Stunned, I looked straight at him and vaguely heard some words in my mind. I got such a fright that I fell off the armchair. He picked me up between laughs and he told me that it had been him; he had the power of telepathy and wanted to share it with me. I started to laugh when I remembered about Professor Rutherford and I looked to him with an expression of urgency on my face. Without asking anything he told me that he was fine. It had been a full day since the incident; I could not forgive myself for not having remembered about the professor.
“He was not at home when the explosion went off.”
“How can you read minds? And why are you sad? Where is Gabriel?”
“You are very curious, you know?”
“Oh! Come on, tell me.” I smiled evasively at him.
“Tonight, and only tonight, I am going to allow you to ask everything that you want and I will answer in the measure that I can,” I agreed smiling. “Starting with your first question, I don´t read minds, I only see them. I can see what you are thinking, what has happened to you and what you dream. I am still developing the telepathic part and you are the first person that has heard something that I have said. And in reply to your second question, Gabriel has gone to the library; he is trying to find the way to contact a certain wizard in order to trace your sister.
“You haven´t told me why you are sad.”
“When I saw you so scared I simply got worried for you.”
“I don´t believe it, I can see it in your eyes.”
He smiled as though I had guessed his trick, but he was decided not to tell me that evening.
“Let´s just say that it is a delicate issue that I don´t want to talk about right now.”
“Okay. Do you know why I have had strange dreams ever since the professor told me everything he did?”
You have spent a long time out of our world. In the dimension that you were in there are energy blocks and the information that Mother Earth sends you did not normally arrive. Nature is very wise and knows what needs to be done, but it´s information is often blocked. When the professor told you our history and your implication in it, your subconscious mind awoke, allowing all the hidden memories and emotions from years ago to blossom again. You and your sister have such a strong connection that even though you were in distinct dimensions you could communicate.
“Communicate? How?
“You see, in our society there are few numerous families, the majority of the siblings die in the hands of our enemies or they do not wish to belong to our world and they leave.” These last words he said with a melancholic tone. “For that reason the family connection is broken. But in your case it is different, as well as being sisters, according to you, you are also twins. This is rare in our society. There is a specific legend for twins, which I believe you will not hesitate in confirming.”
“Continue.”
“It is said that many centuries ago two babies were born from the same birth. In ancient times this was believed to be an abomination and a curse of nature that had fallen over the mother of the children. In those days, the sons of the night had only just started living and discovering new things stirred up fear amongst them. The whole town objected to these babies living. They did not wish to affront the fear, nor discover what lay behind it. Simply put, they thought that the best way to flee from this fear was making the two children disappear. The mother of the children empathically opposed her children being touched. The people marginalized her but allowed her to keep them; after all they belonged to the world of the darkness. The locals watched as the children grew little by little. One day, the ironsmith saw them playing alone close to his workshop and was able to observe with detail how they didn´t speak to each other, with a look they knew exactly what the other was thinking.”
“The sons of the night had never seen such a power. They said that it was a divine power that the Earth had given them. Since that moment they held them in highest regard until the end of their days. However, they had not known that not only did they have the gift of telepathy, but also they could do many more things, irrelevant of the distance between them, they always managed to carry out whatever they had planned successfully. They had powers of hypnosis and mind control over people. They could throw objects by only looking at them, but what most astounded the residents of that place was that they could control the elements. They could create fire from nothing, manipulate air and water and make the earth help them as they wished. They could make the sunlight disappear, or invade homes with blinding light. They had never seen anything quite like it. Some privileged people had the ability to handle one of the elements of nature, but the twins could use all of them. As soon as they found out, the people were alarmed. If they did not make good use of their powers, they could destroy the entire existence of our dimension.”
“The powers were stronger when they were together. But I believe that you can manage all to a greater magnitude. That is why you can see her and with practice you will develop that power and communicate with her regardless of where you are. It is unusual to see twins these days. Thousands of years ago, after that first case, every time twins were born they would be separated; so that their powers would not get out of control.”
The truth is that I don´t know, when your mother gave birth, nobody notified that there were twins. Besides shortly afterwards, you disappeared and since then it is only you who is searched for.
“Wow, it i
s impressive all the things you know about me.”
“In my opinion you are much better than what the stories predict.” When those words left his lips, his eyes darkened slightly and he turned so that I could not see him.
“What is it? Are you alright?”
“Of course”, he dissimulated with a smile, but there was something more.
“Continuing with the questions, where are we?”
“On the outskirts of a place call the Extension, because it is partially in the darkness, to which your dimension refers to as North Carolina. In the morning you can see the lake which is close to here, I am sure you will like it. You should sleep now; tomorrow we have lots of things to do.” He got up and went towards the door. I didn´t want to leave, I just wanted to be with him and sleep by his side so that he could see my thoughts, I noticeably blushed but continued to desire the same thing. He gave me his hand and accompanied me to the room that I had woken up in. I lay down on the immense bed and waited for him. When I looked, I saw that he had no intention of coming close to the bed.
“Why don´t you sit by my side? Just until I fall asleep, then you can go,” I gave him an angelic smile to see if it worked. I looked at him and saw how the pain ploughed through his face. I couldn´t tell if he really wanted to be with me. I got up from the bed with impetus and stared fixedly at him.
“I don´t know why you believe that we cannot be together, but I assure you that when I find out I will find a solution. I swear to you right now that there is no other thing in the world that I want more. If you tell me, then maybe I can help you to look for a solution.”
He slowly approached me, saying no with his head. His eyes were still sad. He looked at me profoundly and then embraced me strongly. He placed his hands on my back and breathed heavily on my hair. He was muttering something but I didn´t manage to understand what he said. He moved slightly away and I saw him with his eyes closed. Without a word he gave me his hand and took me to the bed. He sat down and extended his hands to signal that I should lean on him. I got underneath the sheets and put my head in his lap. I knew that what we were doing didn´t seem right to him, but even still he stayed with me. Little by little he started to stroke my hair and back. This calmed me and let me know that he felt the same as I did for him; he liked to be with me. However, his character was of resignation, he was battling with an inner fight and I did not know if he was winning or losing.
I slept peacefully with him at my side. That night I did not have any nightmares.
Chapter 4
Gabriel was lying on the sofa of his room looking at the dark sky across the window. It had been a long day and he still had to wait until the following evening to leave the place. He could not stand another minute being close to Eric. He hated him with all his being. That afternoon after his arrival he saw how they spoke in the library, they were so close and had a look of complicity that he envied. However, the afternoon had been productive; in town he had found a witch to show the stone to. Her house was slightly outside of town; it was small and from the outside appeared to be a normal house. He knocked on the door. Seeing that nobody opened, he expected to have to leave. He had just turned to leave when a soft voice reached him.
“Don´t leave my dear Gabriel, I know that you have something for me.”
Intrigued, he turned again to the door and entered. The door closed by itself, leaving the house dark. He could see perfectly in the dark, so he entered a little further until arriving to a lounge lighten by a very small beam of light which floated above a small round table.
“Take a seat my dear guest.”
The witch was sitting at the other end of the table staring at him fixedly. He wasn´t scared of her, but so much mystery intrigued him.
“What do you want young man?” the witch enquired with a paused voice.
“What is your name?”
“You come in search of my help and you don´t even know my name”, she exclaimed surprised. “I think that you should leave young man. You don´t know what you are getting into.”
“Listen to me well false witch, I know perfectly where I am, so answer me what I am asking you.”
The witch looked at him and got up from her chair.
“Very well my dear young man. My name is Niv,” she exclaimed triumphantly. “The most powerful witch of this wilderness.”
After a moment of pause, Gabriel reflected and decided to be more respectful with the witch.
“Lady Niv, I would like to know how I can use this stone to find a wizard.”
He was taking the stone from his pocket when the witch made a gesture with her hand to bring it to her in order to inspect it.
“Oh!! You cannot possibly know what you have in your hands. This Stone belongs to the very same Phoenix, the immortal wizard. It is very difficult to get something like this. Where have you got it from?”
“Someone gave it to me.”
“And what do you want to do with it?”
“I want you to cast a following spell to find its owner, I want to find Phoenix.”
“A young man like you would like to find Phoenix?” the witch started to laugh resoundingly, she thought that the lad was having a joke at her expense. She looked at the serious face of the young man observing her. He was not going to leave without an answer. “Very well, and what do I receive in return?”
“I have a lot of gold and precious stones to pay you with.”
“That is fine, I will do it,” saying this and taking the stone in her small hands, the witch went to another room to look for her enchantment tools. She left the powerful stone on top of the worktop, but couldn´t give it back to him. She opened one of the windows that faced the forest and lifted her hand diligently, drew whichever stone to her hand and closed the window forcibly. In a rapid game of hands, the vulgar stone adopted the form of the magic stone that previously rested in the hands of the young son of the night. She returned with the tools and the false stone in her hand. She put them all on the table under the attentive watch of Gabriel. The witch was not going to do anything to the stone. It was an ordinary stone which had never belonged to any wizard. She thought that she was going to trick him like she did to all of the locals who came to see her. She thought to take a part of it, so that she could live longer.
Gabriel forgot about the strange noises that he had heard come from the back part of the house when he watched, puzzled with how the witch mixed potions on the table. All of a sudden, she started to pour an intense blue liquid from a small container over the stone. When the liquid touched the stone, it started to shine, lighting up the whole room. Gabriel was so fascinated that he did not see how the witch smiled maliciously. Little by little the light of the stone extinguished until everything was dark. Without expecting it Gabriel felt how the witch’s hands touched his head until he remained unconscientious.
The witch made use of this to do what she did best. She put her hands to the young man’s chest and slowly separated his right hand, taking with her the small thread of white light connected to the palm of his hand. She was taking a small part, good and heavenly with which the sons of the night were blessed. Rarely had she had the occasion to fool one of them and she wasn´t going to miss the chance. Little by little she took this fine thread to a small jar that she hung round her neck. When she put it in she smiled, satisfied and awoke the young man.
“That is it done, young man.”
Gabriel was confused but, according to him, had not lost any detail of all that the witch had done. He assumed that he had not been tricked. The witch gave him the stone in his hand. It was no longer grey, now the stone was blue.
“Within two nights there will be a full moon. Put the stone in the earth and it will show you the way to your objective.”
Gabriel agreed and he gave her all the gold he had with him. Looking at the stone that he held in the palm of his hand he went home, with a strange sensation, but satisfied for having found someone who could truly help him. Now he was a little closer to re
encountering his love. When he found Phoenix he would be happy again, like he had been that night.
The witch looked at how the innocent young man went into the distance. She knew that his heart was not pure as soon as he entered the house. She really didn´t know how he had found such a difficult stone to find, belonging to the wizard Phoenix. But thanks to her cleverness she could change it for another when she went into her study to get the tools, as well as tricking him she could take advantage of his youth to prolong her life. The day had been perfect. She could leave this place and take the stone to its master. The most powerful wizard of all time!
Gabriel was tired after remembering everything that had happened that afternoon. He had not slept well for a long time, but on this occasion he gave in to his tiredness and rested the whole night dreaming with his sweet Elizabeth.
A few rooms down, Eric could be found sitting on a bed with Samantha leaning on his body. He could not stop looking at her. He caressed her back thoughtfully. It had been an hour since Samantha had fallen asleep, but he had not left yet. He remembered how he had embraced her only a short while before. Oh, how her warm body felt against his and the fresh aroma of her hair.
“I am a lost cause”, he had whispered as he held her.
He could not bear to separate himself from her. At that moment she was the only person he cared about. His only desire was to be with her. He feared that one day she might no longer want to be with him. He knew that she wanted them to be together but he couldn´t imagine how much love Samantha felt for him. He knew that sometimes he confused her, but on occasions he couldn´t avoid feeling a profound pain knowing that their time together was coming to an end. Each time he looked at her he was fighting with himself, he knew the things that he shouldn´t do, but his love for her pushed him to do what she wanted. He knew that he could not last much longer without kissing her again. He knew that within a short time, he would give in and fall at her feet.