Within the Crystal

by Kat Blak

  The stones that are laid out in front of me are: Ansuz, Dægaz, Gebo, Raido, and Urus. Looking back over the stones, it's definitely a mismatch of symbols. “So what do they say?” Cal asks, looking over the runes laid out in front of me.

  “Tea is ready,” my mom says as she walks back into the room holding a tray with mismatched cups and a big teapot. Phew, saved by my mom. I have no idea where to start with these runes.

  “Wow, that’s a strange combination,” she says when she reaches the table and takes in the different stones placed in front of me. “What did you ask them, honey? Maybe your thoughts are too jumbled. You probably should head upstairs and meditate for a little bit?” Can she blame me for having jumbled thoughts, my morning hasn't exactly been a normal one has it. On the plus side, I got to meet four hot guys, maybe I should go and meditate with them in my mind, well three of them anyway. Cal can keep his attitude and stick it. He’s not ruining another fantasy.

  I’m feeling really tired suddenly, most likely because of the amount of magic I expelled earlier. Getting up from the table, I grab the stones and place them back in their bag.

  “Well, I would like to say it’s been enlightening meeting you all,” I say, moving my eyes around the table, “but I’d be lying.” I finish holding up two fingers in the universal peace sign and my way of letting them know that I’m out of here. I know it’s a crappy thing to say, but I really don’t want these guys to know that they have just become very good night time alone material.

  “Alexandrite!” my mother scolds, but there is no real anger behind it. I ignore her and continue walking from the room. I head out back and up the stairs to our two bedroom apartment that’s above the shop.

  Chapter Five

  The burning desire to go back downstairs and eavesdrop has me turning back around when I reach the front door to the apartment. Nope, I shouldn’t...Yes I should...Nope I really can't.

  “GAH!” I shout in frustration.

  Shoving open the door with a tad too much force, has it slamming against the wall. Oops, my bad. Where did all this anger suddenly come from? Heading over to our altar, I light the blue candles and place them in holders. Blue candles can represent focus, truth, and calming; all things I could do with right now. Opening the drawer, I reach in and take out some Selenite crystals and place them around the table in a semicircle. Selenite can help clear and calm the mind.

  When I say our altar, I mean a small table covered by a black tablecloth with a silver pentagram on it. Another piece of cloth that holds great family significance and helps stabilise our powers. To an outsider this doesn’t look like much, just a table, but to us it is so much more. It’s essential we have a space we can use like this to find peace and harness our power safely. Sitting on the pillow that is on the floor in front of the altar, I place my hands on my knees and assume the lotus position once more. I try and clear my mind of all the different things rushing around. Taking a slow breath in through my nose and out through my mouth, I fill up my lungs and release the air. When I breathe out, I imagine blowing out all my thoughts along with the air.

  With my eyes closed, all I can see is the guys’ faces playing over and over in my mind. The images the crystal gave me are still fuzzy, but I can clearly see we are all entwined together. Not just physically, but also predestined. What does all of this mean? An inkling tells me my mother knows something, which is why she set this ‘assignment’ in the first place. But I know her, if it involves my future, she won't tell me anything.

  After spending a few minutes trying to meditate, I realize that nothing is helping. Normally I can clear my mind with no problem, but when you have four sexy as sin men running through it, calm is not the emotion I’m feeling. Hot, lusty, and horny are the emotions I’m experiencing right now.

  Getting up from my seat on the floor, I decide that maybe I just need some food. Now, even if i may look like a hippy and dress like a hippy, I don't eat like one. I’m not a believer of my body being a temple. My mind is, yes, but not my body. My body is allowed to indulge in whatever makes me feel happy. There are few things in this life that can make us truly happy, food being one for me. You can keep your avocado on toast and your lentil stew, that's a hard pass from me. Also, who the hell puts pineapple on a pizza? Hippies do, but only if that pizza has a cauliflower base. To me that is an offense to pizza and pizza lovers everywhere. Shuddering at the thought, I grab my trusted BBQ chicken frozen pizza from the small freezer compartment above the fridge, I turn on the oven and throw it in.

  I’m not a very good cook. In fact, I’m pretty sure most of the food I make could be used as killer poisons. What can I say, I never said I was perfect. We all have to have at least one downfall, right? Mine just happens to be cooking. This is why I live on frozen meals. Mom is a good cook, but she doesn’t really have the time, with the shop and teaching. So, it's either ready meals or starvation.

  While the pizza is cooking, I head over to the kitchen table and grab my phone. I like to keep updated on what’s happening in the world and I have an account on eBay, selling different witchy items like dried herbs, homemade candles, and crystals. Basically just items from our shop that can be sold online. Other than that I don’t really have anyone to contact. We have always moved around and never settled long enough for me to make friends. Plus, people tend to keep their distance from me, all the tattoos I have seem to scare them. They see a Gypsie with tattoos and dreads, so they judge before even getting to know who I actually am.

  When the oven dings, I grab my pizza out and place it on the counter. As I’m slicing it up with my lightsaber pizza cutter, Mom opens the door and walks into the apartment.

  “It’s nice to see you are getting some use out of that,” Mom says from the doorway. Little does she know, I cook pizza just for an excuse to use this pizza cutter. I love the bzuhzzzzzzzuhzzzzzuhzzzz sound it makes.

  Waving the pizza cutter around like a real-life lightsaber, I reply, “Who doesn't love the power of the Force?” My joke appears to go straight over Mom’s head and instead she just stares at me.

  “Alexandrite, we need to talk about what happened downstairs,” she responds, like she caught me having sex with the four guys, instead of finding me passed out after giving them a reading.

  “Do we really though?” I ask back while grabbing my phone to put some music on. So my power went a bit haywire, it's not like it was the first time. In fact, if we had to count how many times my powers had gone crazy, we would be in the hundreds. Nan had said to Mom one night, after I had supposedly gone to bed, but had stayed on the stairs to eavesdrop, that she thought my power superseded any family member yet. Nan had also had a glimpse into my future and had apparently seen me achieve great things. As far as I was concerned, even just seeing the future was achieving great things for me. What can I say, I’m lazy and proud. I'm one hundred percent sure my spirit animal is a sloth. I am not someone who dreams big and I definitely do not have any big aspirations. I am happy with my little life exactly the way it is.

  “Do you remember anything from what the crystal showed you? I'm still shocked you went with the crystal ball, it doesn't normally call to you,” she says while grabbing a slice of my pizza and taking a chunk out of it.

  “What can I say, Mom? I love me some balls,” I suddenly hear choking behind me. Turning around, I see Mom bent over trying to get pizza out of her throat. Walking over, I give her a few sharp hits on her back.

  “Can you not say things like that to your mother, especially when she has a mouth full?” she says with a small smile.

  “That’s what she said,” I reply while trying to hide my laugh, but failing miserably when I release a loud snort. Mom’s face remains unchanged, clearly not getting the joke at all.

  “So walk me through what happened?” she asks while taking another bite of pizza.

  “Fine, but put another pizza in. You're stealing all mine,'' I say, holding the lightsaber up with glistening eyes. “Everything started normal. I had ev
erything set up on the table ready for customers when we opened, but I did notice that when I took the crystal ball down from the shelf it had already started swirling. Then when I rested it on the table, the fog started going crazy, like tornado crazy. I just put it down to extra energy from spirits, so added some extra crystals to help with grounding. When the guys came, the ball showed me their names in the forms of crystals,” I explain, pausing to take a deep breath. I think about this for a few seconds.

  “Do you not find it strange that they all have crystal names?” I ponder out loud. Surely she would have already thought about this, being their teacher and all.

  “Nope, it never crossed my mind,” she says while glancing away. She is hiding something. My mother has never been a good liar, it always shows on her face. She’s never been able to hide it very well. I’m shocked she would lie to me.

  “You lie like a flatfish!” I feign outrage. We never keep secrets from each other, we have always been open with our relationship. Since we are both Seers it is better not to keep anything from each other, unless it’s the future shown by the Fates. That will always be off limits, but other general things are fair game. We learnt the hard way that if we don’t say something, the stones or crystals sure as hell will. They like to grass us up to each other.

  “Fine, I may have seen something in a vision. Your fates are all linked. Now, you know that is all I can say. Carry on telling me what happened,” she says, grabbing the lightsaber out of my hands to cut up the next pizza.

  “Ok, so when it showed me their names I went and grabbed the matching crystals and gave them each one, to show them what their names represented. In case they were dumbasses and didn’t know they had names linked to crystals. I wanted them to believe what the crystal had shown me. After that, I went back to see what their futures had in store and the crystal ball went crazy. The images it showed me were disconnected and all over the place.”

  “Hmmm that is very strange. Your powers have always been strong and true,” she says while deep in thought. “Maybe we should get them back in tomorrow and try something else?”

  “I don’t know. You saw what the stones said. It’s just strange for them to be in that combination and I don’t know if I want to be messing with the Fates, those bitches can be mean,” I say, while walking over to the couch and plopping my ass down.

  “You know you don’t really get a say. Being a Seer comes with great responsibilities,” she says from behind the couch.

  “Mom, please don't quote Spider-Man to me again. I swear my head will explode if you quote it for the thousandth time,” I roll my eyes; she is always reminding me about a Seer’s responsibilities.

  “With great power comes great responsibility,” she says. Oh God, the shame, I can’t believe she is quoting Uncle Ben to me. Having Seer powers is not worth dealing with her and her lame-ass jokes. Only kidding, I wouldn’t change this for the world. We have always had a tight bond. She is not just my best friend, she is my only friend.

  “Fine, get them back in tomorrow. We’ll give it another go,” I say, caving to her demands.

  “Good, because I already told them to come back tomorrow at ten in the morning,” she responds with a wicked smile on her face. Of course she has, she knew I would cave. At least this little talk with her has managed to disperse my antsy energy. I rise up from the couch, heading to my bedroom. Think I need to do some stretches on my yoga swing to get ready for my day tomorrow. My mind is still being plagued with some of the images the crystal had shown me of the guys and I, naked in a tangle of limbs. If that is in my future then I need to keep on top of my stretches.

  Chapter Six

  After one of the most restless nights of my life, I drag my ass out of bed by nine. I need to head downstairs and get the shop sorted before the guys arrive. Every time I managed to drop off to sleep, I was plagued by disjointed images of them, but in different forms. I saw a wolf with honey-coloured hair, but with Calcite's eyes. It was the most beautiful animal I had ever seen, and seeing Calcite’s eyes staring back at me was so strange. It was almost hypnotic looking at the wolf. Heading out of my bedroom, to the bathroom, I try to shake my limbs out from the strange sensation of ants climbing over me. Dreaming of the guys has really got me on edge.

  Switching the shower on, I turn it to scalding hot, just how I like it. Hotter than Satan's ball sack. Our shower is nothing to write home about, just a shower inside a bath with a shower curtain. Mom makes all the products that we use, like shower soap, shampoo, and conditioner. Each month she likes to change them up with different smells. One of the things I love most about her is that she likes to experiment. This month the soap is shaped like a penis. She thought it would make a great seller for hen parties. Within twenty-four hours of them being on eBay, we had completely sold out. This month's smell seems to be Ylang Ylang, which is supposed to be good for memory and thinking skills. Hmmm, makes me wonder how much of my future she has seen. She must have mixed oatmeal into the soap as it's making my skin feel extra soft and I know she likes to use it because it’s a great exfoliant.

  Switching the shower off, I grab my towel from the hook on the back of the door and wrap it around myself. The best part of having dreadlocks is they are very low maintenance. They don't need styling, or blow drying, or even straightening, which means once I’m dried and dressed I’m ready to start my day. As I'm going to be working with the guys, I feel like I can make less of an effort to look the part. So I just grab some jeans and an old t-shirt. Making sure I have my bangles in place, I head towards the sitting room. As soon as I open my bedroom door, I can hear their voices coming from the other room. They are upstairs, in our apartment. What the hell, why are they here? I close the door quietly so they don't know I'm up and hope to hell that they weren’t here earlier to hear my shower, they would definitely know then.

  I stand in my room fidgeting as i’m really not in the mood to deal with this today. Can I just go back to bed, pull the covers over my head and pretend I'm lying on a warm hot beach, with Tek in Speedos, fanning me with a palm leaf? That would be true heaven. Not that thinking more dirty thoughts about the guys is helping my cause, but damn if that’s not a hot fantasy. In fact maybe I can have all four guys in Speedos fanning me. Now I can’t erase that from my memory. Nope, it's time to put my big girl pants on and nut up. Reaching for the door handle again, I steal my back, take a deep breath, slowly release it and head out into the apartment.

  Reaching the sitting room where they all seem to be hanging out, I feel all eyes turn to me. They manage to make our seemingly normal size sitting room into a much smaller space, filled with testosterone. Downstairs in the shop yesterday they didn't seem all that big, now in this space their sizes are more intimidating. Made worse by Cal leaning against the wall with his arms crossed over his body and a scowl on his face. Looks like he doesn't want to be here any more than I do. “It’s way too early for this,” I say, grumbling under my breath as I head to the kitchen. I need caffeine and a lot of it.

  “Morning, honey, did you sleep ok?” Mom says in an overly chirpy voice that makes me want to cut my own ears off.

  “Like death,” I deadpan back. I’m not normally a morning person, even when I’ve had a good night's sleep, let alone a crappy one like last night. Glancing around, I can see all the guys are still staring at me. I think they might actually be checking me out. Fine, I shall play this up a bit. Reaching into the top cupboard I grab a cup down, well it's less a cup and more of a tankard. While I'm reaching up I can feel my jeans tightening around my ass and my t-shirt starts to ride up to show the small dimples in my lower back. I hear a deep masculine sound, like someone trying to clear their throat coming from behind me and it causes an evil grin to raise my lips up. Alex - 1, Boys - 0.

  Grabbing the coffee pot, I pour myself a liberal amount of coffee into the cup and take the biggest gulp. “Ummmmm, tastes so good,” I say more to myself than anyone else, while running my tongue over my lips in my best seductive manne
r. Nunu starts having a coughing fit while Jasp pounds on his back. Alex - 2, Boys - 0. This is going to be so much fun. Finally something to smile about.

  “Mom, why are the guys not downstairs in the shop, its…?” I start to ask using a nonchalant voice, only to be swiftly cut off by Mom. The inside of my cup has suddenly become very interesting as I stare into it. This way I don't have to make eye contact with anyone.

  “I purified the space up here this morning, Alex. We can try the crystal ball again as the stones don't really give us enough information to work with, if that's ok with you?” Mom states in her take no shit tone, she didn't even answer my question. Quickly glancing around at the guys, I can see they are also trying not to make eye contact with me. This is so damn awkward. I'm suddenly hyper-aware of how small our apartment is with everyone crammed into one little room.

  “Wait!” I suddenly say, a thought popping into my mind. “Aren't you guys supposed to be at school, in lectures and stuff?” Come on, please be an easy out. Just be like ‘oh, yeah, we completely forgot’ and head back to the university. I am aware that I’m grasping at straws here, but it’s all I have left.

  “Nope, we are all good,” Tek says, popping the P with a cocky smirk to match. Damn, I was kind of hoping that Cal at least was going to jump on my bandwagon, but it looks like that's not going to happen. He is still standing with his arms crossed.