Awakenings (Elemental Series - Book 1) (10 page)

She wore a long black leather jacket which only accentuated how skinny she was. She was staring at me openly. Her gaze caught me off guard. Why was she staring at me? I turned to see if maybe she was looking past me at someone else, but there was no one there—she was definitely staring at me. I turned away and made my way to the washroom. Before I entered, I felt compelled to look behind me. I turned back to look at her. Her eyes were abnormally huge, jolting me again.

Her eyes were polished black onyx. Normally, I’d think ‘
hey, pretty cool,’
but there was a coldness to them which I felt in the pit of my gut. She wasn’t just looking at me—it felt like she was looking directly into my soul. W
eird, I know
. But that wasn’t what initiated my fight or flight reaction. I, of course, chose flight.

Looking back at her, I saw red sparks of light shooting around within the center of her eyes. That was enough for me—I turned and ran through the shop to the doorless girls’ washroom.

Once inside, I headed directly to the sinks. The washroom was large with ten stalls in all. In the center of the room there were three large sinks with mirrors hanging over them.

I turned on the cold water faucet and filled my hands with ice cold water. I splashed it all over my face. I did it a couple of times and then looked into the mirror. In the hollow of my stomach a dreadful eeriness crawled up into the back of my throat, giving me the heebie-jeebies. I was afraid to look into the mirror. Afraid of who or what may be behind me in the reflection. When I looked, all there was in the mirror was my own reflection. Nothing was behind me. A tidal wave of relief instantly swept through me.

I shook my head and chuckled at my overactive imagination. I grabbed a paper towel and dried my face and hands and went towards the last stall. As I was about to enter, that cold scary feeling came back. I turned away from the stall and looked back toward the sinks. Standing there was the onyx-eyed girl staring at me. This time there was no place to run.

“Can I help you?” I asked.

Silently, menacingly, she moved towards me, hands outstretched. No way was she giving me a welcoming embrace. She ran her fingers down both sides of the walls as she approached. She was no longer walking my way—she was floating towards me—literally. Stunned, I couldn’t move or breathe.

Her eyes seemed blacker than they were in the gas station. I was able to make out the sparks of red in her eyes, which brightened as she moved closer to me.

“What’s your problem?” I asked, moving back. I soon found out I couldn’t move far enough away from her because I’d chosen the last stall.
Note to self: Next time pick the first stall so you have room to back up.

She was stone-faced as she hovered closer. I couldn’t lock myself in the bathroom stall.
Yeah, not very smart, no protection there
. Instead of trying to figure a way out, I got mad. I got madder than I think I’ve ever been. She spoke out suddenly in an eerie, monotone, dreamlike voice.

“Faith—”

“What?” My own voice surprised me. “Who are you, what do you want?” I demanded.

She reached out and grabbed onto my hand. The instant we came into contact, it felt as though a razor blade had sliced through my hand. Shocked, I didn’t scream or pull away. I closed my eyes and felt a red blinding fury build up inside of me.

The entire bathroom suddenly filled with all of the colors from my dreams. With my eyes closed, I still knew the colors were there because I could feel them. Intense reds, ice cold blues, stormy black grays.

What surprised me more than anything was the reality of these colors coming from me! They weren’t merely shining from me. They were exploding from me in full force. The energy emanating from them surged forward and focused directly on the onyx-eyed girl.

I felt her hand ripped from mine. In an instant she was gone. I grabbed my hand as soon as it was free and clasped it to my mid-section. I opened my eyes and looked down at my right hand.

“Jacey, are you in here?” Jen called, entering the bathroom.

I stood clutching my hand. There were no colors and no onyx-eyed girl hovering anywhere in sight.

“I’m here,” I replied, sounding calmer than I felt.

“You look like you just saw a ghost,” Jen said.

“I have no idea what I just saw…Did a girl walk past you when you came in?” I asked.

“There wasn’t anyone in the hall when I came in. What happened to your hand?”

I glanced again at my injured hand. It had the same coloring as a cooked lobster—bright red. As I released it from my mid-section, a searing pain shot up my arm.

“What happened to you?” Jen asked.

I turned my hand over, palm up. In the center of my palm was a cut. I inspected it closer. It looked like a symbol, one I’d never seen before. It looked like a cross with two eyes. The upper portion of the cross was like any other. The bottom portion was something completely foreign—it appeared to split like into two legs. On either side of the upper portion of the cross there were two pea-sized burns that resembled eyes.

Jen reached over and put my injured hand palm up into her hand.

“What happened in here, Jacey?” Jen asked.

The instant the words were out of Jen’s mouth the first thought to pop into my head was my black abyss dream. Immediately following it, was my mistake of not telling my parents about my entire dream. My mom’s voice rang out in my head—learn from your mistakes…

“I haven’t got a clue! I seriously think I may be losing my mind,” I said.

“You’re not losing your mind, I’m here for you. Tell me what happened,” Jen said, staring down at my palm. I looked down to see what had Jen’s attention. There was no cut there—I had been branded. My skin was raised, pink, and burning.

“Did you see a Matrix-looking girl, long black hair, long black coat, really white skin, with completely blacked-out eyes when you came into the rest stop?”

“Nope. Hudson stayed with the truck to fill it up and Grace told me you were in here. I came in looking for you. There wasn’t anyone else around except the kid at the counter. He was watching hockey on the television.”

“When I came in, there were two people behind me. A man, who I assumed was paying for gas, and a girl with long black hair wearing a black leather jacket. Her eyes were creepy black—they looked like black onyx stones. But it wasn’t the color of her eyes that freaked me out. It was the red sparks flying around in them.

“I came to the bathroom and splashed water on my face. It took a me moment to figure out if I was seeing things. When I looked up, out of nowhere she’d appeared and was staring me down. She didn’t say anything, then began moving toward me. But she wasn’t walking, she was floating! She hovered right there, staring at me. I swear her eyes looked like fire pits with red hot sparks flying out of them. I tried to get away, but I was in the last stall and I couldn’t go anywhere.” I looked back at the stall. “And Jen, when she got close enough she said, ‘Faith,’ and then grabbed my hand. Her grip felt like a razor. I was so completely shocked I didn’t know what to say. But I did get angry, angrier than I’ve ever felt before in my entire life. Then she just disappeared. I know it sounds nuts.” I finally took a breath. Before I could keep rambling on, Jen grabbed my hand and pulled me into a hug.

“You’re not crazy. You’re—” Before she finished, Aunt Grace came running into the washroom.

“Jacey, are you in here?”

“Yeah, I’m here,” I said

“Are you okay?” Aunt Grace looked like she’d just run a marathon. She was all sweaty. “I’m fine. Are you?” I said with a misplaced giggle.

“Yes...” She looked into the mirror as she said it.

“What happened?” She questioned us, looking back and forth between Jen and me as she tentatively took my hand from Jen and looked into my palm.

“I have no idea,” I replied.

“Oh…” she said as she looked at my hand.

“When we get to Nevaeh, you’ll know exactly who that was,” Aunt Grace declared.

“Seriously, who was that? Do you know her?” I asked.

“Does it hurt?” Aunt Grace asked, completely ignoring my question.

“Not now. But when she grabbed onto me it sure did.”

Aunt Grace placed my hand in the sink and turned the faucets on. She let the water run over my hand then looked at me and smiled… the Mom smile.

“I will never let anything like this happen ever again.” She said it with such resolution my breath caught.

“What, or better yet, who
was
that?” I asked.

“Something and someone we all have to be on guard against. Your parents had been avoiding her kind for the whole of your life,” Aunt Grace said.

Before I could ask what she meant, a beautiful purple light illuminated the sink. I looked at Aunt Grace. Her eyes were closed. I looked at Jen and she smiled at me. Within seconds the burning sensation had disappeared. Aunt Grace released my hand and hugged me.

What was that? I was so confused.

“I promise you’ll never have to deal with her or anything like her on your own ever again,” she repeated.

She let me go and we started to walk toward the exit.

“Hmmm,” I said.

“What’s wrong?” Jen asked.

“I still have to go the washroom.”

“We’ll wait for you right here,” Aunt Grace said.

I headed for the
first
stall this time and I locked the door behind me. I looked down at my hand. The marking had faded almost completely. There was only the faint outline of the symbol I had first seen cut into my hand. I washed my hands, and before I exited into the hall, I overheard Aunt Grace and Jen talking.

“Do you think it was a Shenuy?” Jen said.

“I don’t know, Jen,” Aunt Grace replied.

“That was the symbol, wasn’t it?” Jen asked.

“It certainly was,” Aunt Grace replied.

“Are you all right?” Jen asked.

“I’ll be fine. It will go away soon. We’re close to Nevaeh; it shouldn’t take long for it to heal,” Aunt Grace said.

“I’m sorry, Grace. I never thought they would try something while we’re close…” Jen said.

“You, Hudson, and I all thought the same. We need to be on guard for the remainder of the ride. We’re only an hour away, but we must remain vigilant. Once in Nevaeh, we’ll have added protection. The others are busy with the new semester’s intake, and they have strengthened the Bulwark,” Aunt Grace added.

I walked out, their conversation stopped abruptly.

“We ready to go?” I asked.

“More than you know,” Aunt Grace replied.

I glanced down at Aunt Grace’s right hand. It bore the same lobster redness my hand had before she’d touched it. I was shocked but said nothing. I trusted her to tell me more when we got to Nevaeh.

We made it to the parking lot adjacent to the gas station. Hudson stood outside next to his truck. He was clearly upset with the person he was talking to on his cell phone.

“What do you mean you knew? You knew and you didn’t think it was important to warn us?” As he finished his sentence he brought his hand up to his head and roughly brushed it through his hair. As we approached, he turned in our direction and quickly mumbled something into his phone and then hung up.

“You all right, Jace?” he asked, making a weak attempt to conceal how concerned he was. I played the whole situation down. I figured Jen would tell him all about the onyx-eyed girl during the remainder of their trip. If he had any questions about it we could talk about it at Aunt Grace’s.

“Everything’s good. We should all get going though,” I offered.

Aunt Grace spoke up, “Hudson, she’s safe. We need to be on our way before night falls.” She ushered me into her car.

Jen went over to Hudson and then turned back to Aunt Grace and me.

“We’ll be right behind you this time—not out of sight, all the way,” Jen said, lightly brushing her hand across Hudson’s right arm as she headed to the passenger side of his truck.

This registered a raised eyebrow from me to Hudson, who tried to look at me like,
what, nothing there
.

I saw him blush as he turned to get into the truck, something totally foreign and completely out of character for him. We headed towards Nevaeh. I sat quietly for the next half hour. I couldn’t let everything that transpired at the truck stop pass without asking some questions.

“Things are going to be different in Nevaeh, aren’t they?”

“There are a lot of things that are going to happen. You’ve seen things in the last week which most people wouldn’t be able to comprehend. There’s a lot I can’t tell you, but what I can say is that your Mom and Dad knew all about Nevaeh. They knew all about the ‘strange’ stuff you’ve been seeing and experiencing. I’m not trying to speak in riddles. You deserve a straightforward answer…but not yet, Jacey. It wouldn’t be safe or smart for me to discuss any of it with you. I’ve already revealed too much with the purple light episode you saw in the washroom.” She looked down at her right hand. It was still bright red.

“Will I ever get any answers?” I asked.

“Sooner or later,” she replied.

While we drove on in silence, my mind went back to the events in the washroom. Reliving this inevitably brought up all of the unexplained things which had happened lately. I came to a couple of conclusions that might explain everything:

A) Out of body experiences
(abducted by aliens and such).

B) I was losing my mind… (
Probably the most logical and the most probable).

C) Magic (
the real hocus-pocus kind).

I knew A and B were most likely the right answers, but when ‘C’ popped up, it felt right. It had been sitting on the edge of my tongue. I’d know in time. I had to wait for any kind of explanation, but there was one thing I needed to know now.

“Did you see the way Jen and Hudson were together back there?” I asked.

“I did,” Aunt Grace replied.

“I’m not seeing things—well, other than purple healing lights and onyx-eyed girls with red sparks—am I?”

“I don’t know, Jacey. That’s something you’ll have to ask Hudson and Jen about. But to answer your question, yes, they do seem to be
comfortable
with one another.”

I wasn’t quite sure how I was supposed to feel about this newest development. Magic, huh… big deal,
note the sarcasm.
My best friend falling for my brother, this was possibly a bigger deal.
Note: no sarcasm here.
We drove for another hour. I nodded off a few times, only to be awakened by Aunt Grace’s voice softly saying, “Jacey, we’re home.”