I yell for him, “Ezra! Come back!”
I see him disappear into the mist that is slowly disguising the crowd of fighting bodies.
I ask Nate, “Are you able to stand on your own?”
He nods and shifts his weight away from my arms.
The sounds of screaming and yelling pull my eyes from Nate back into the field. I search the meadow for Ezra, but I don’t find him. As I continue to scan the bodies that are multiplying on the ground, I look into the distance and see something strange.
Humans, both average and giant, are coming through a group of pine trees, except the trees are blurred and distorted. I move from the path onto the edge of the meadow and blink, thinking I need to refocus my eyes. A hand pulls on my arm. It’s Nate.
Nate warns, “Don’t get any closer, Jes.”
I don’t resist him, but I return my gaze to the cluster of pine trees. I look deeper now, focusing between two trees within that cluster. The distortion becomes dark and shadow-like there. The shadow swirls, becoming a wave for a moment.
Without warning, a woman with a small child in her arms departs from the dark, swirling shadow. Then, without a doubt, I know that this is a wormhole, and it’s not just any wormhole. It’s the wormhole that must be closed to prevent an all-out invasion.
My throat tightens and goes dry while I focus my eyes to look at the trees on a grander scale. The gravitational pull from within this gateway is so strong that the nearby brush and trees are bending and bowing.
The woman gripping the child runs into the woods to escape the battle safely. I worry about where they will go for protection. Who are they? Are they Sondian, Dobrian, or neither? What if they are something else entirely? I feel the urge to go after them, so I pull away from Nate’s grasp.
Nate scrambles to grab hold of me again, but I’m too fast.
He hollers after me, “Jesca, No!”
But, I keep running in the direction of the baby’s cries.
The ground beneath me begins to shake, and I topple over, falling. I scramble to my feet, but I immediately fall again, unable to keep my balance on the quaking earth.
When the shaking stops, I try to push myself away from the ground once more. I can’t. There’s a weight forcing me down. I roll away onto my back, ready to fight the attacker holding me, but no one is there. It’s just the mist.
I push myself up on my elbows, and that is when I see it. The dark, familiar presence is creeping along my legs. I try to scramble back from the darkness, but I can’t make my legs move. I can’t feel them. It climbs onto my thighs, and then it’s on my stomach, pushing me more deeply into the hard ground. Its heavy weight radiates to my chest, pushing every ounce of air out of my lungs. It’s suffocating me. I can’t breathe.
Quickly, I close my eyes and center my mind on my life force, my Qi. I feel it building fast, and I envision releasing it directly at the dark entity. In that moment, I feel the buildup of energy push out from my body into the darkness. Swiftly, the heavy weight releases my body, and I gasp for the air my body has been deprived of.
Without hesitation, I hustle to my feet and run deeper into the woods. I feel the darkness moving in on me again. It’s the same feeling I had on the trail back in Marietta, Georgia and then again in the facility. I know it’s the same person or being. It’s a Sondian. But who? Sam?
Without any warning, my body is jolted from a dead run to a head-jerking halt. Someone has a hold of both my arms. I crane my neck to look behind me. There is a shadow of a being. It has no face or features. It’s grasping onto me. The shadow swings me around and forces my body into a strangle hold so tight that the wind is knocked out of me.
I will my body to move away, but it’s no use. I can’t feel anything. It has me paralyzed in its grip.
Then, I feel a warm breath on my ear. “Shh, Jes. Just let go.” The words ooze from the heavy and thick male voice that this inanimate object possesses now. “Don’t fight. Just let go.”
It’s Sam. I try to open my mouth to speak, but nothing comes out, not even air. I can’t breathe. I try to pull air into my lungs, but my body doesn’t respond.
I tell myself, C’mon, Jes. Breathe. Breathe. Breathe.
The only sound I hear is my pounding heartbeat that is becoming slower and duller, fading to almost nothing. There is no feeling. I’m weightless. The only part of my body that I’m still able to control is above my neck.
My eyes search the crippled branches of the trees above me as I wonder, Is this it? Is this how I will die?
Just then, my body begins to convulse and shake rigorously. Am I having a seizure? I close my eyes, afraid of the startling spasms my body is experiencing. The shaking becomes so intense that I feel like a rag doll being jostled around.
A shaky deep voice is yelling at me. “Jesca! Wake up!”
My eyes snap open, and I desperately gasp for air. Someone is holding me close. I breathe in and pick up the mild scent of his cologne. It’s Xander.
The room begins to spin, so I pinch my eyes closed. I’m breathing too quickly, and I’m getting dizzy. I try to concentrate on slowing my breath. I wrap my arms around his waist to keep from falling, and he grabs me tighter.
His voice is shaking when he speaks. “Jesca, I’ve got you.” His voice is nervous while he yells for help. “Nate! Ezra! Get up here. Hurry!”
Xander scoops me up in his arms. I feel his body trembling as he carries me to the bed and sets me down gently. I open my eyes to look at him. He is breathing deeply, and he looks so scared.
“Jes, I thought you…”
Xander puts his hand over his mouth before he finishes speaking. His eyes are tearing up when he says, “God, you were dying, Jes.”
Just then, Nate pushes open the door and rushes to my side with magnificent speed. He brushes past Xander and pulls me into his arms tightly. His whole body is shaking as he buries his head between my neck and shoulder.
I try to pull my head back to look at him, but he doesn’t release me.
Still a little groggy, I whisper, “Nate, I’m fine.”
Holding me with a death grip, Nate doesn’t respond to my words. His breathing is quick and uneven. I can sense he is frightened to let me go. I look at Xander, still seated on the edge of the bed. When my eyes meet his he quickly looks away, stands, and begins to pace. I feel the urge to go to him, but the heavy footsteps coming up the stairs distract me.
Ezra appears at the door. He is holding on to the doorframe with both hands. He looks at Nate and then at Xander. His eyes stop on me, and he rushes to kneel in front of me.
He rests his hands on mine. “Are you alright?”
I’m still a little dizzy and lethargic, but I respond, “Yeah, I’m fine.”
Xander reels around and glares at me. “You aren’t fine, Jes! I heard banging on your wall and rushed in here! You were wandering around aimlessly, so I grabbed a hold of you! Then, something pulled you from me, and you were thrown to the ground!” Xander runs his hand over his brow, looks at a spot on the floor, then at Ezra. “I flipped on the light to see if there was someone else in here with her, but it was only her and I.” Xander looks back at me now. “I rushed to your side. You rolled over with your eyes wide open, but you weren’t moving.”
I interrupt him. “I wasn’t awake.”
Xander says, “I know that now. You were dreaming.”
Ezra chides angrily, “A very intense lucid dream.”
Nate sits down on a nearby chair and puts his head in his hands. I want to go to him, but I don’t think I have the strength just yet.
Xander continues, his voice shaky again, “You looked lifeless. You weren’t moving at all. I kneeled down next to you and called your name, but you didn’t respond. All I could think was that I needed to wake you. I pulled you up into my arms and held you to me. I listened for your breath, but I didn’t hear or feel it.” Xander stops pacing and stands in front of my bed with his hands on his hips, his breath becoming more labored. His words are a
lmost inaudible. “You weren’t breathing, Jes.”
I try to clarify my dream. “No, I wasn’t breathing in my dream, but I was breathing in reality.” I look at Ezra for confirmation. “Right?”
Ezra doesn’t respond. He sits back on his heels, and then he pushes himself up to stand. “It doesn’t appear to be the case.”
His concern makes me nervous, but I argue, “It was a dream! I was probably just in such a deep dream state that my breathing slowed.”
For the first time since he entered the room, Nate speaks, “Someone was in here with us.”
I look at Nate. “Wait, you were in there with me?”
Nate answers, “I couldn’t move. It was like I was forced to stand still. I could only watch what was happening.”
Nate grimaces, and then he continues, “Something dark, like a shadow, had a hold of you. I couldn’t see a face, but it was shaped like a human—a man.”
Ezra interjects, “What do you mean you couldn’t move?”
I overlook Ezra’s question and respond to Nate, “I’ve seen it in my dreams before—back in Georgia and then when we left the facility. Ezra thought it might be a Sondian sent to kill me.” I turn to Ezra. “I think it was Sam.”
Ezra stands quickly and hollers, “I know it was Sam, Jes!”
He turns to Nate. “I need answers, Nate. You were in her dream. How did you do that?”
Nate leans back in the chair and thinks, I have been experiencing the feelings and emotions of Jesca’s dreams because of our link. They’ve been getting more intense lately, so I thought I would try and project myself into her dream realm. I didn’t think it would work the first time I tried, but it did. Once I was in there, I saw everything she saw. I just couldn’t do anything to help. It was like I was paralyzed.
Ezra rubs the back of his neck. “It’s because you haven’t experienced a shared dream state before. Now that you know how to get into each other’s dreams, you need to learn how to maneuver within them.”
Nate stands, and his voice shakes with anger. “These dreams are getting intense, Jes. When I saw your limp body in this shadow’s hold, I made myself wake up from the dream, so I could come to you in reality. When I awoke, I couldn’t move. I still felt paralyzed, like I did in the dream. I finally was able to move when Xander called my name.”
I try to calm him. “I just need to maneuver around these dreams more carefully.”
Nate yells at me, “Jes, you stopped breathing! You were dying in there! Sam, or whoever it was, was killing you, and I couldn’t do anything about it! We almost lost you! I thought I lost you!”
Nate’s eyes are red, and I see a tear fall from one of them. He looks away quickly. I want to walk over to him, hold him, and tell him that it’s okay, that I survived, but I know it would only hurt him to know it wasn’t him who saved me this time. It was Xander.
Ezra turns to Xander. “How did you wake her?”
Xander folds his arms over his chest. “I shook her to try to wake her, and then I pulled her to me. I held her head to my chest and spoke to her.” Xander looks at me briefly, and then he gazes down to the ground. “I told her to come back.”
Ezra looks over his shoulder at Nate. Nate is still turned away from us with his hands on his hips. Ezra looks back at Xander and me.
“Somehow, you were able to pull Jesca back from her dream state. It must be one of your abilities connecting with hers.”
Xander responds, “When I was holding her, I felt—”
Nate turns and walks over to Ezra. “We need to stop talking and work on this, Ezra. She is vulnerable in there without any help.”
Ezra nods. “In the morning, we will get started. We have a lot of work ahead of us over the next few days. Right now, we need to try to rest, if not sleep. All of us need to be at our best tomorrow.”
Nate looks at me, smiling softly. He turns to head for the door when Xander rushes over to him, putting his hand on his shoulder. Nate shrugs it off and continues out the door.
Ezra is talking to me about not going back to sleep. He says I need to just rest tonight, but I am too absorbed with the exchange between Xander and Nate.
Ezra grabs my hand to get my attention. “I will talk with Nate. He just needs to calm down to understand what is going on here.”
Ezra squeezes my hand and walks to the door. Xander is leaning against the door with a worried look on his face. Before he exits, Ezra puts his hand on Xander’s shoulder.
Ezra’s voice is full of gratitude when he says, “Thank you, Xander, for bringing her back.”
Xander’s eyes soften. “I just wish I could have brought her back sooner.”
Ezra responds, “We will work on that. For now, you need to rest.” He pats Xander’s shoulder. “Try to rest.”
Ezra leaves and heads down the stairs. I am still sitting on the edge of the bed, fidgeting with my fingers. Xander is leaning against the door, not moving, just staring off at nothing. I guess he feels me looking at him because he blinks and looks back to me.
He says, “I’m not leaving you after what just happened.” He moves away from the door and shuts it, closing us in the room.
I try to reassure him that I’ll be fine. “Xander, you don’t have to stay with me. I’m feeling fine, just a little drained. You should try and rest, Xander.”
Xander walks to the bed and sits down next to me. I figure he isn’t leaving. I inch back onto the bed and cover up under the warm comforter. Xander folds his arms under each other.
“You’re cold. Here.” I toss him a blanket. “If you’re going to stay, then at least wrap up and keep warm.”
He wraps the blanket around him and walks over to the lone chair in the corner of the room. He turns off the lamp on the nightstand next to the chair.
I quickly say, “Please don’t turn it off.”
He switches it back on and then sits back, wrapping the blanket around him tighter.
I lie back, but I keep my eyes on his. I hesitate, but then I decide to ask him something that is bothering me a little. “What woke you, Xander? I don’t remember banging on anything in my dream. All I remember is running and then being caught.”
Xander shifts in the chair. “I heard a noise.”
“What kind of noise?”
Xander rests his arm on the chair, leaning his temple on his fist. “A voice.”
“Was it a man’s voice or woman’s voice?” I ask inquisitively.
His eyes don’t leave mine. “It was your voice, Jesca. I heard your voice.”
“Why didn’t you tell Ezra?”
I quickly realize why he didn’t. He didn’t want Nate to know.
Avoiding my question, Xander closes his eyes.
Wondering if the only thing he was withholding was what he heard, I ask him, “How did you bring me back, Xander?”
He opens his eyes, but he doesn’t answer right away. “I told you. I shook you, and then I held you to me.”
I prop myself up on my arm. “I know what you said happened.” I look down at the bed, fiddling with a piece of the comforter. “But, something else happened.”
Xander sits up, leaning his arms on his knees. He puts his hand to his chest. He breathes in a ragged breath before he speaks. “Your heart was beating so slowly. I could barely hear it. You were dying. All I could think about was how this couldn’t be it. This couldn’t be all that was meant for us.”
I remember saying those same words when he walked me back to the villa after the first time we met. My chest tightens, and I breathe in deeply, trying to control my emotions.
Xander runs his hand across his forehead. “All I remember is that I closed my eyes and begged for you not to leave me. I felt anger and pain all at once. Then, I felt like I released something from within me and gave it to you.” He looks at me with such sadness and pain. He bows his head, cupping his hands around the back of his neck.
Without really thinking, I get up from the bed, walk over, and stand in front of him. His body is rising
and falling from his rapid breathing. I can see that he is breaking in front of me. I quickly kneel in front of him, and I carefully put my hands on both sides of his arms, letting him know that I’m here for him.
A tear falls from my eye, running down my cheek, and my voice sounds so shaky when I speak. “I think that feeling of release was you connecting with me, giving me your inner energy. Xander, you saved my life.”
In that moment, Xander falls to his knees before me. He envelops me with his body in an embrace. His soft sobs take my breath away and melt my heart. I run my hand through his hair over and over again, trying to calm him.
I don’t know if it’s because of the overflow of our emotions or his need to share something intimate with me, but without any warning, Xander lets me into his mind.
When someone opens his mind to you, it feels like a window is being opened in a fast moving car. Everything just floods in, swirling around.
I gasp from the impact of all the images—his mother’s face, his father’s face, his parents’ funeral, his grandmother’s face. He even gives me the memory of the way his grandmother smelled, and I inhale it deeply. He shows me the first foster family he stayed with and how the kids would push him and hit him when the parents weren’t watching. He shows me the shelters and his fear of getting hurt by the other runaways and homeless people.
I wrap my arms around his neck, hushing him as the thoughts continue to flood me. He shows me a younger version of Ezra, waving at him and running toward him. He shows me Sam telling him to get into the car. He unleashes so many memories in this moment that I can’t help but sob hysterically with the overload of emotions flooding in on me.
I feel his body begin to relax. He’s calming his sobs, taking deeper breaths now, but the memories don’t stop coming.
He shows me the day he saw me at Ms. Olivia’s. He shows me the way I looked at him while we sat at the café, drinking coffee. He reveals how I made him feel as I interlocked my hands with his when he walked me back to the villa and then how I looked at him with hate and bitterness the night we lost Corinna to Sam.
That same night when he snuck up on me while I was jogging, he exposes how he was so hesitant to come see me before he left, but he couldn’t leave without telling me how he felt. He gives me all the emotions that were overflowing within him when he kissed me that night—the need for me, the passion for me, the want to be everything that is good for me. It all takes my breath away.
Surfacing the Rim (Piercing The Fold) Page 12