Kindred: Book 1 A Realms of the Otherworld Book (2 page)

I become aware of sounds all around me but I’m unable to move. I hear people around me talking and relaying vital signs, rushing around, bringing other people up to speed about the accident situation. I’m oddly numb as I hear voices relay, “There were only two survivors both female.” My heart is breaking. From what sounds like a million miles away I can hear the doctors and nurses frantically trying to save my live as the machine I’m hooked up to signals a flat line response to my heart stopping. Then suddenly I’m looking down upon myself, detached and numb I take in the scene below me, I appear to be covered in blood and my face and skin are ashen in contrast to the dark tan that I had gotten while at the beach. Vaguely I look around and see that Alexia is in the next room and the medical staff are busy working on her. Thank god, I think, Alexia survived. Poor Lexie is going to be all alone and then I feel a jolt and I’m pulled back to my body as an electrical pulse races through my chest jump starting my heart. I gasp for air as everything fades to black.

Where am I? It’s totally dark and I’m all alone. How long have I been here in this dark cocoon? Do I really care? Not really. In one fatal car crash my entire world has changed. Wrapped up in this dark place is not so bad, I don’t have to think. To feel… To move… Nothing…

I’m having moments of lucidity. In these moments the pain of losing my Mom and family is still so very fresh. I know there’s nothing I can do to bring them back. With that acceptance one would think that the darkness should have dissipated, but it doesn’t.

What the hell? Where am I and how do I get back? Darkness is everywhere, it surrounds me. Cocooning me from everything even my senses and I feel nothing but the ache in my heart for the loss of my family.

Now the darkness is pressing in on me and feels like a cage. A prison I need to escape but how? I’m trapped. One thing I know for sure. It’s time to wake up or figure out what the hell is going on with me. If Lexie survived she’s going to need me. Come on Ashlinn, think! You need help, so get your ass in gear and figure a way out of this seriously bad situation. Come on now, focus!

I can’t wake and it’s not like I haven’t tried. My mind keeps going back to the weird dreams that I’ve been having. I decide to try to replicate my dreams. They’ve been so realistic. At this point, what could it hurt? I think about how my dreams begin with me rising out of my body somehow tethered by a shimmering silvery cord attached to what can only be describe as my spiritual being. I concentrate on replicating this even though it seems impossible. Surprisingly without much effort, I can feel myself rise up tied to my physical person as if I’ve done this a million times before and maybe I have. For the first time in maybe days there’s no darkness surrounding me, I look down on myself, Lexie is in a wheelchair at my hospital bedside softly crying and begging me to come back to her. My heart breaks just a little more but I know instinctually that this is bigger than just me being injured. I look down to the necklace on the bed side table that I should be wearing and reach up as if to hold on to it around my ethereal neck. I have to find tall dark and handsome, the guy from my dreams. What’s his name? I’m sure that I should know it. My only thought is to get to him and then in and instant I’m on my way.

Chapter 2

Like in my dreams landscapes and scenery flash past me and then there is a feeling of being sucked into a vacuum before I pass through the other side. In the blink of an eye, I soon find myself in a beautiful meadow. I feel as if I’m actually here though I know I’m not. I look around to get my bearings; this place is secluded and breathtaking. I’ve been here before, in my dreams. My tether feels stretched taunt but begins to relax the longer I’m here as if adjusting to where I have traveled to. “Hello?” I call out. “Is there anyone here? Please, someone be here. Anyone?” I mutter more to myself than anyone else. “I should have known this wasn’t going to work.” Frustrated, I stamp my feet and say a little louder than necessary.

“Are you always so loud and needy?” an exasperated voice says.

“Who’s there?” I spin around but don’t see anyone. “Hello? I’m sorry to bother you but I’m looking for a guy. Can you help me?”

“Aren’t we all?” I hear the smile in her question. “Seriously, is that the best you’ve got? I mean really? I’m looking for a guy? Duh, who isn’t?” The voice came from the shore of the pool of water to my left.

“I’ve met him here before in my dreams, or at least I think it was in my dreams and I think he may be able to help me.” I continue to look around but have yet to see another person. “Can you please show yourself, I just need…?” I sigh. “That’s the problem, I don’t know what I need or what’s going on but I think the man from my dreams may be able to help.” I say, hating that I sound like such a helpless twit.

Giggling ensues and I catch sight of what can only be a sprite bent over at the waist laughing from behind the large rock at the water’s edge, “You’re looking for the man of your dreams to solve all your problems. That’s just rich!” she continues to giggle as she clutches her sides.

She’s only, maybe, six inches tall with silvery wings, long wavy hair that reaches almost to her feet so dark black that I see midnight blue highlights. She has brilliant crystal blue twinkling eyes in the setting of pixie like features with the most luminescent complexion I have ever seen. Her skin looks like it sparkles in the sunlight. Suddenly, she’s up and fluttering her wings until she is hovering right in front of my face.

“Alaric has tasked those of us who live here to let him know of any odd or unusual things happening here but I don’t recall Alaric ever saying anything about someone like you to me. Can you describe your dream man to me? Does he have a name?” she stifles yet another giggle.

In an effort to be civil I say, “You… are very pretty. Are you a sprite? By the way, my name is Ashlinn. What’s yours?” As I shuffle my feet and look around hoping to see this Alaric. As soon as she uttered his name I know that’s who I’m looking for. I can’t help myself as I glance around the meadow looking for him but he’s nowhere to be found and I’m stuck with the feisty sprite.

“My name? Are you sure you want my name? And yes, I am a sprite.” she says in a mischievously lilting voice.

“Well, maybe?? Why? Are there rules about obtaining a sprites name?” I ask running through all the Harry Potter and Lord of the Rings movies in my head.

She laughs again. “No, no rules. I’m just messing with you. My name is Jasmine. My friends call me Jas.” She cocks her head to the side as she addresses me with her hands on her hips. Her silvery, glittering wings fluttering behind her and her light blue mini dress hugging her curves. She really is quite beautiful even if she is only six inches tall. She is honestly the size of those Tinkerbell dolls you would find in Walmart and I can’t help the smile that slides into place.

“It’s nice to meet you Jasmine. So, Alaric? Where might I find him?” I’m growing restless because I know my time here is short. I can feel it in my tether. For a time it was relaxed but now I’m beginning to feel it pull tight and taunt and I’m not sure how much longer I can stay. “I really need to talk to him. Can you help me Jas?” I ask as desperation leaks into my voice.

Jasmine seems to consider my request for a moment and then comes to a decision. “Alaric visits here often; I could possibly get a message to him.” She takes a good look at me before saying, “You aren’t here physically, are you? And I’m guessing that you’re not from this realm as well, but maybe you should be.” She looks me over again quizzically. “That’s a rare ability you have, not many people can astral project in this realm and certainly those that can are not able to jump realms doing so.”

I ponder what she has said for a moment but quickly file it away as I realize that I’m running out of time. “Jasmine, I’m running short on time. Can you get a message to Alaric? Can you tell him that Ashlinn is looking for him and that I’m in trouble? There’s been an accident and I’m trapped in a dark place completely void of any light. It feels like a cage and the walls are pressing in on me. It’s like I’m trapped in my body but not.” Frustrated with myself I groan, taking a deep breath I try to gather my thoughts. “I’m not explaining this very well because I’m not sure what’s going on or why I seem to be unable to wake. Hell, you’re talking about realms as if this isn’t the planet earth and obviously it isn’t because we don’t have sprites where I’m from, at least I don’t think so.” Now I’m rambling. I feel my tether pull at me and I know time is up. “Jas, please? You may be my only hope. I know somewhere deep down, like a forgotten memory, that Alaric may be the only one to help me. I’m not sure if I’ll be able to come back. I’ll try, but this isn’t like my dream walking, I’m pretty sure that I’m not dreaming now. This is the only time that I’ve been able to visit this place when I haven’t been dreaming.” Before I can think about it any further I blurt out, “Tell Alaric it’s time. Tell him I need my Guardian for my awakening!”

Jasmine looks at me with eyes wide in alarm and then she says, “Yes my lady! I will find him.”

Suddenly, the tether pulls taunt like a rubber band that has been stretched too far and I’m flying backwards but before I go I manage to say, “Thank you Jas, I owe you one!” Then I’m flying back the way I came, back to my body, back to Earth? The scenery flies by at an incredible speed until suddenly I’m back hoovering over my prone form. Alexia, my Lexie, is still by my side but now she has a book in her hands and she’s reading to me, Romeo and Juliet, as my body lies deathly still against the stark white sheets of the hospital bed. She looks pretty banged up with a bandage around her head and one of her legs appears to be broken and set in a cast. Alexia may be my niece making her the only family I have left but she’s also my best friend, after all, there’s less than a year’s difference in our age and I vowel to myself to make it back to her. I’m all the family she has left in the world. Feeling suddenly drained I’m pulled back into my body. What once felt like a cocoon has now become my prison and I long to be free of it.

Chapter 3