At First Sight (8 page)

              “I’m not necessarily afraid. I’m just…” She paused, shaking her head. “... confused.”

              “I know and I promise to do all that can to make you comfortable. The pain is gone from our bodies and it’s because our hearts know what we want. Though it’s hard to grasp, we want each other. We just… need to learn to accept it,” he explained gently.

              Lola looked at him and nodded. “I know. I’m willing to give it a try.”

              “That’s all I ask,” he smiled.

              They stopped at the guitar player as he began to switch from Bruno Mars to Ed Sheeran’s “A Team”. His voice was soft and sentimental, matching the tone of the song and setting the mood for the night.

              Lola was so entranced with the song that she barely noticed the fact that she was holding hands with Dean. He was closer to her, too. It felt nice, though.

              “Lola?”

              She kept her eyes trained on the strings of the guitar being plucked expertly, but paid attention to Dean’s words. “Hmm?”

              There was no response.

              “Dean?” She looked to her left, but there was nobody there. Venice Beach was deserted and there was no more music. It had gotten colder, too. The ocean was barely moving and there was no wind. Everything was just bleak and cold.

              “Hello?!” she shouted, hugging her body as she shivered.

              “My, you sure are something.”

              Lola jumped and turned to see a man dressed up in a business suit, looking far too formal for Venice Beach. “Who are you? Where did everybody go?”

              “I never thought it could be this easy to get into your mind, but you are really vulnerable. I don’t really know how you came to be one half of the team to bring the gift back,” he explained, slowly walking towards her.

              “The gift…” murmured Lola. “You know about it?”

              “Of course I do.” He lifted his right palm, showing off a scar in the shape of a lightning bolt. “See?”

              “What is that?”

              “It’s my imprint.”

              Lola’s heart stopped. She didn’t know this person. He was making these claims that he could get into her mind, but she didn’t remember any other times. She tried to think back and only came up with a blank space. She thought she had told Dean about something weird that had happened earlier that day, but it was erased too. Everything that they had talked about on the swing was erased.

              Where were her memories going?

              “What are you doing to me?” she asked.

              “I’m simply preparing you for what is to come.” He folded his hands together. “You and Dean are going to change things.”

              “Change things? How? What are you talking about?!” exclaimed Lola, getting annoyed with his cryptic responses.

             
“Lola? Lola! Wake up!”

             
The man smiled and waved his fingers before disappearing into thin air, leaving Lola alone in the cold. She blinked and gasped, feeling a brush of warm air and an enormous amount of noise filling her ears.

              Dean was standing in front of her, grasping her shoulders. They weren’t with the guitar player anymore. In fact, he was gone. They were all alone standing in the same spot as before. He looked worried.

              “Lola, are you okay?” he asked.

              “What happened?” Lola looked around. Nobody was looking at her strangely, but she felt strange herself. She felt like she had just woken up from a long sleep.

              “Your eyes were closed and I kept trying to talk to you, but you wouldn’t say or do anything. I couldn’t hear any thoughts, either. I got scared,” he explained.

              Lola quickly remembered the illusion and knew she had to tell Dean before it disappeared from her memories again. “There was a man and he was telling me that you and I were going to change things. Since we brought the gift back, we were going to change things.”

              “What do you mean? What are we changing?” asked Dean, furrowing his brows in confusion.

              “I don’t know. He wouldn’t tell.” She stared at her vacant palm. “He had an imprint.”

              Dean let go of her shoulders and stared at her incredulously for a few moments. “An imprint? He was a Manifester?”

              Lola nodded. “Yeah.”

              “Which one? What did it look like?” he asked softly.

              “It was a lightning bolt. Why?”

              Dean looked away, his skin turning pale as if he had seen a ghost. “Shit.”

              Lola grabbed his hand, trying to get him to look at her. “What? What is it?”

              He looked at her, his face determined and angry. “We have to see my parents. Right now.”

12

“His name is Leo,” explained Frankie, looking through the bookcase in the library later that evening.

              When Lola had entered the library door, she had expected something small. Instead, she came face-to-face with multiple tall shelves holding what seemed like millions of books. There was a bay window that showed the beach outside, an antique Persian rug, and even a baby piano in the corner.

              “He made such a show about never wanting to have the first sight,” started Frankie. He sat down at the piano bench. “Then, he actually experienced it.”

              “With whom?”

              Frankie flipped through a few pages in a leather photo album and handed the book to Lola, pointing at a photograph of a young woman with blond hair and blue eyes. She looked very pretty as she smiled in front of a fireplace. “Her name was Beverly Johnson. She was a human, just like you. Leo met her by accident in the park in New York. They accidentally bumped into each other and their eyes met.”

              “Sounds really typical,” said Lola, shrugging.

              “They were attached at the hip and it completely changed Leo’s point of view when it came to the first sight,” said Frankie. He flipped the page to reveal a photo of Leo and Beverly together.

              Lola furrowed her brows at the photograph. “Was this a wedding?”

              Frankie nodded. “They got married about a year after they met. Her imprint turned out to be a flower. She could make any plant or seed bloom in record time. It matched her beauty of the world.”

              “Leo’s imprint was the lightning bolt. Why is it so rare?” asked Lola.

              Dean looked through the shelves as his father continued talking. “The lightning bolt imprint is so rare because nobody else has ever had it before. Leo’s the only one. We weren’t sure at first what the imprint meant. He could do just about anything. We figured he could basically borrow any other imprint. Then, things started to change.”

              “Change?”

              “He started to become angry as each day passed,” started Frankie, sighing. “His days grew darker and he became pretty psychotic. It became obvious that his imprint was controlling him. It was taking over his body, mind, and soul. Beverly did the unthinkable when it became too much and she attempted to leave him.” He paused somberly. “But, when she tried to leave, he got angry and his imprint burst from his hand. He created a fire in his house and everything inside burned. Including Beverly.”

              Lola gasped and looked at Frankie in shock. “He
killed
her?”

              “Some believe it was a mistake. But it’s the imprint. Nobody else has had it before. It controls you. There is no way for the person to control it. It’s pretty much a death sentence to any relationship,” explained Frankie.

              “But, how did he survive without her? They had the gift for a while. Can it still go away?” asked Lola.

              Frankie nodded. “It’s still possible, but it’s rare for soul mates to part with each other after spending so much time together. They are meant to be together. With Leo, it just went away but he was so controlled by the imprint that it stayed with him.”

              Dean sat next to Lola with a worn, leather book. The pages had been worn down along with the spine. He pointed to an open page that featured the lightning bolt imprint. “It puts everyone in fear once somebody sees it.”

              “What happens if somebody gets the imprint?” asked Lola.

              Frankie chewed on his bottom lip. “Our speaker of the family, Matthew Baker, has said that if anybody else were to get that imprint then there will be an execution. Nobody wants to risk it happening again. So, according to Matthew, extreme precautions need to be taken.”

              “You mean, they would kill?” Lola shook her head. “That’s immoral, though.”

              “The speaker controls the laws in our family,” ended Frankie. He watched Lola carefully. “What is it? What are you thinking, Lola?”

              “What if I get that imprint?” asked Lola, looking at the two. “I mean, we don’t know what imprints we could get. I don’t want to get the lightning bolt.”

              Dean held her face in between his hands, causing their gaze to meet. “Lola, stop it. You aren’t going to get that imprint, okay? You are meant for greater things.”

              “You think so?”

              “I know so,” said Dean. He smiled at her. “You are a good girl.”

              Frankie smiled at the couple and stood up from his seat. “I think your mother and I are going to contact some family members. We haven’t spoken to Shelia in years.”

              Lola watched Frankie leave the room, leaving her and Dean alone. “Who is Shelia?”

              Dean shrugged nonchalantly. “She’s an aunt I’ve only ever talked to twice.”

              “Oh.” Lola nodded. She looked over at the piano and smiled at Dean, nudging his knee. “Can you play something for me?”

              “What do you want to hear?” he asked, walking over to the piano and sitting down.

              Lola sat next to him. “Surprise me.”

              Dean stared at the keys before beginning to play a soothing melody. As Lola listened to the tune, she immediately recognized what song he was playing for her.

              She scoffed lightly in surprise. “‘Truly, Madly, Deeply?’ Savage Garden? How did you know that was one of my favorites?”

              He shrugged, but kept playing with a crooked smile. “Lucky guess.”

              Lola sighed as she relaxed without stress resting on her shoulders, listening to the soothing melody from her soul mate’s fingers.

              Frankie waited on the other end of the line as his Skype beeped, sending a call to Matthew. He didn’t care what time it was over in Paris. Things had just gotten worse and he couldn’t keep lying to his son when so much was at stake.

              Matthew’s face appeared on the screen. Surprisingly, he was still in his suit and he was in his office. “Frankie Baker. So wonderful to see you!”

              “Yeah. We have a problem,” he murmured.

              Matthew furrowed his brows, taken aback by his tone. “What is it?”

              “Dean’s soul mate, Lola, has experienced an illusion. There was a man and he told her he was invading her mind. Apparently, he is a Manifester and he has the lightning bolt imprint.” Frankie paused and glared at Matthew. “You know exactly who I am talking about.”

              The two men were silent as Matthew took in the news with a shocked, yet sober look on his face. It was definitely unexpected, but Frankie knew he had to be informed of this.

              “I can’t keep this secret from Dean anymore,” said Frankie. “He needs to know.”

              Matthew shook his head. “No.”

              Dean walked back into the house later that evening after dropping off Lola at her house. After he had played the piano for her, he had been tempted to kiss her. But, since it had only been a first date and there was so much going on with his world at the moment, he felt it wasn’t exactly the right moment.