The Guardian's Protector: The Chamber of Souls (29 page)

‘What have you done with that middle bit then?’

‘I don’t know!’

‘Oh.’

‘I’m getting a shower,’ she announced, kissing his forehead and leaving his room.

After her shower, she headed downstairs for breakfast. As she took a bite of her toast, she realised everyone was staring at her and felt paranoid. It was only when Harold spoke she realised what they wanted.

‘Well?’ Harold pressed, with a seedy grin, similar to Jack’s the previous evening. As she looked up at him, she was astonished. Never before, apart from always wearing his hat indoors, had Harold stood out like he did right now. He sat as ordinary looking as everyone, yet his shade was nearly as bright as Mark and Tom’s. Mark answered for her.

‘We don’t kiss and tell! Do we, Amy?’ Mark asked, making her swallow her toast in a big lump before she’d chewed it.

‘No,’ she answered through a cough.

‘That’s mean!’ Harold said, as if upset. She couldn’t get over how bright he was. Even now, as he scowled and sounded disappointed, he was bedazzling. Mark gave her a knowing smile.

‘Tart!’ Mad-Doris shouted. George’s shade darkened as he scowled at her. Amy looked at Mad-Doris and had to blink to see if her eyes had gone out of focus, for Mad-Doris was the only person at the table who had no hue to her at all. Looking at her was exactly like looking at her before. She looked ordinary—in the past sense of ‘ordinary’—which naturally meant she was completely strange!

Amy turned to Mark. ‘Why is she not…?’ She stopped herself as she realised everyone had turned to look at her, like her and Mark had become some kind of captivating soap opera. Amy waited until after breakfast, as the kids walked into the classroom for their lesson, to catch Mark in the hallway.

‘Mad-Doris has no shade! What’s the score?’ she said, jerking her thumb to the living room where Mad-Doris had scurried off to.

‘She’s a Squaddie,’ he answered, as if his explanation should have made sense.

‘Eh?’

‘In Omnipion, we have souls who work for a team called the Interference Squad. They can jump into their Squaddies at any time if they need to do something inside the Test. Mad-Doris has been used once in this lifetime when she was younger.’

‘Well, why aren’t they any shade? How will I know if she’s black or not?’

‘She’s not black. If you see someone with no shade at all, there’s no need to panic. Don’t forget, going back into the Chamber to work means you’ve already passed the Test. She’s white like you!’

‘So this team of souls who jump into people…do they take turns? Could Mad-Doris do the jumping into someone herself if she wanted to?’

‘Why? Are you thinking of changing profession once you’ve finished here?’

‘No. I’m freaked out by it!’ She shuddered. ‘Letting another soul jump into you and take over is a bit weird, isn’t it?’

‘It takes extraordinary love and bravery to do so. Squaddies trust Omnipion will use them for matters of the highest good. Once you’ve been a host, you can then choose which side you’re most suited to. Mad-Doris is always the host,’ he said with a smile.

‘Can the Dark Army see she has no shade? Is she vulnerable like me?’

‘Yes, they can see,’ Mark said. ‘Thankfully she’s also mad. They only like to take people who seem of sound mind because it’s easier to influence them. Like Luke.’

‘Luke?’ Amy said, feeling something she couldn’t describe for Luke—maybe a newfound respect for him or a connection she’d finally found between them: they both worked for Omnipion.

‘Yes. Luke was a Squaddie too—until he was taken, that is. That’s why we need to be with you at all times until we can fill your channel with light.’

‘So Luke was Interference Squad,’ she said. ‘Do you know if he was ever used?’

Mark paused before answering. ‘He was used to meet you, you know, so we could impregnate you with Tom at the right time…’

‘What?’ she screamed, her voice echoing through the hallway. ‘That’s just charming!
How
romantic!’

Mark stepped back in alarm. ‘You agreed…’

‘Oh nice…
me
again?’ she snapped, taking another dislike to her higher self. ‘What was Luke then? A
sperm
donor?’ she asked but didn’t wait for the answer. ‘No wonder
I’m
so messed up!’ she added.

Mark watched open-mouthed as she stomped all the way to her room.

She couldn’t believe what she’d heard. She wanted to rip something apart. Something substantial. She searched her room like a woman possessed until she found her hair brush and, although it wasn’t as satisfying as hitting something, she tore the tangled hair from it until she could see the bristles again.

Feeling the fury inside her increase, she needed more. More to rip. More ways to strip out all the hurt she had buried deep inside, and then it dawned on her what she needed.

She ran out the front door, down the steps and up the hill. Just across the road from the archway entrance and facing the skate park was the building that Jack and Winston were working on. She ran across the road and entered the flat building through an open doorway, went straight up the dusty corridor and was greeted by Jack who had so much paint in his dreads, it looked like he’d bleached them.

‘Hello there?’ Jack said, waving at her with the paintbrush he held. ‘Come to help?’

‘When is this place gonna be opened?’ she barked.

‘Soon, we hope!’ He looked at her questionably.

‘Good. I’ll be your first student!’ she snapped.

‘Who are you and what have you done with Amy?’ Jack laughed. ‘I’ve been trying to get you to do martial arts for years. I’ve always told you you’d be good. Why now?’

‘I need somewhere to vent my anger.’

‘Your
anger
?’ he asked, with a sarcastic tone. ‘You went out on a date last night with the man you’ve had the hots for for the last four years, and you’re angry?’ His eyebrow raised suspiciously.

‘I’ve not had the hots…’

‘Whatever,’ he said, holding his hand up.

‘I’ll fight you now if you carry on.’ She playfully kicked him in the shin.

‘I see you remembered that move,’ he responded, lifting his leg to rub it.

‘Just hurry up and get it done!’

‘Tell them that,’ he said, pointing to the workmen inside the room behind him.

‘Hey, you guys,’ she called, popping her head through the door where three rough looking men in blue overalls were working. The man plastering the walls turned and gave her a toothless smile, his shade a deep grey.

‘Hello, darlin’, what can we do for ya?’

‘You can hurry up with this place!’

‘Ooh,’ put in another other man, who was painting the skirting boards. ‘Getting a woman to do your dirty work eh, Jack? I thought you were a trained boxer?’ As he spoke his shade of grey lightened which, as he held no expression, showed Amy he was joking.

‘Not while this one’s around,’ Jack called back, laughing.

‘Well, we’ll let her off,’ added the third young man, who wasn’t bad looking, ‘seeing as how she’s so gorgeous and all. Let me take you out to make up for their rudeness?’ His shade, lighter than that of the other two men, brightened as he winked at her and she felt the tiniest of flutters to her stomach.

Amy looked at him for a moment and wondered what it would be like to kiss him. She hadn’t kissed someone in such a long time. She wondered what was wrong with her. Why was she so fixated on one man who she obviously couldn’t have? Why couldn’t she just have some fun like any other young girl of her age? It wasn’t normal. She longed to be kissed and held, she longed to be loved, but only by Mark. She may have stared and thought about it for a moment but the unrequited pent-up love would have to be taken out via focus mitts and gloves, not on someone she didn’t love.

‘Suit yourself,’ he shouted as she turned away. ‘My loss though, babe.’

‘Just hurry up!’ she ordered, but allowed him a smile for the ego boost.

‘Wait,’ Jack called as she made to walk off. ‘Tell me what’s up?’

‘No. Can’t!’ she said flatly.

He grabbed her hand and made her look at him. His hand was slimy with paint. ‘You’re hiding something from me again,’ he said. ‘I don’t like it!’

Amy almost cried as she yanked her hand back. She stomped back across the road to the clover covered hill, back though the Garden of Need, up the steps into the home and slammed the door behind her then went straight to the kitchen for her vacuum.

She never thought she would appreciate cleaning but as she shoved the heavy vacuum back and forth over the carpets with much force. It was exactly what she needed. She set about cleaning the rest of the home in exactly the same angry way.

By the time she’d finished for the day, she felt flat and exhausted. She couldn’t understand why she’d agreed to this mission. Her higher self must know nothing about being human. She wondered how a supposed higher intelligence could come to such cold, unemotional agreements.

She knew, to her higher self, she would never be able to relate. The fact that she said she would train Tom and help him fight was bad enough, but there was no way she wanted to remember or resonate with someone who said she could be interfered with. She didn’t
want
to connect to her higher self. Or remember who she was. She knew her own mind here and now and she didn’t want that perspective changed.

As the weeks passed, Amy missing her family more and more of each, Adaizi would stay while Mark and Tom went to the soup kitchen. Adaizi battled to soothe Amy’s mind but, even after teaching her meditation and breathing techniques, it was not enough to shift Amy’s resistance.

‘I’m not doing this on purpose,’ Amy complained after a few months of getting nowhere.

‘I know, beautiful. The main problem is your ill feeling towards your higher being.’

‘If I could just invoke the light without the resonating, even if it was painful, I would!’

‘It’s just fear,’ Adaizi said. ‘Ironically, once you’re there and you meet yourself, you’ll have no fear.’ Even though she felt she didn’t understand, Amy smiled at Adaizi.

One cold afternoon in early October, Adaizi sat by her side on the bed and took her hand.

‘I want to talk to you about your higher self. I hope I can get you to relate,’ she said, looking only half confident.

‘Go for it,’ Amy said, with a shrug of her shoulders. ‘Good luck!’ she added with a stubborn smile.

‘You don’t think that’s you up there, huh?’

‘No.’ Amy shrugged.

‘You see Nevaeh as separate?’

‘Yes.’

‘Well, she’s not…but I’m now going to speak to you for a moment like she is.’

‘Okay?’

‘Nevaeh is a being of infinite maternal compassion. She loved Tom from the moment she saw his soul rise from the core and trusted her human self to carry that love through to the next world. She knew when she came to Earth that she wouldn’t remember her higher self but…she trusted
you,
Amy, to do the job!’

Amy sat back and considered her for a moment. Talking about Nevaeh like she was another person made Amy feel different. She now wanted to understand her. ‘She trusts me?’

‘Yeah. She loves you…and all that you’ve become. She
feels
everything you do. She
understands
everything you do. She’s watching you at all times. She is stuck in her Omni-Pod until you die and when you do, you will connect. You and Nevaeh will become one.’

‘I don’t want to understand
her
! I don’t want to change my mind!’ Amy retorted. ‘I’m not having her point of view…’

‘Look, even though you will remember your higher self when you connect, it’s
you
that has the perspective.
You
that makes the decisions.’

‘I don’t want her to influence me. She wanted Tom in harm’s way.’

‘She agreed out of love for Tom.’

‘I love Tom!’

‘Exactly.’ Adaizi winked.

Amy rolled her eyes. ‘I want to keep this mind.’

‘You will.’ Adaizi sighed. ‘You will just remember what was before this mind.’

‘Don’t you get it? That’s what I don’t want.’

Adaizi held Amy’s hand. It felt warm and comforting. ‘Nevaeh agreed because of the experiences she’s had. She’s seen what’s happening to Omnipion and what could happen if the Dogod gets his way. She is the Protector of all souls, and she wanted to carry on protecting them the only way she could. But she is now what you are too. Whether you like it or not, if you died now, you would form back into one with Nevaeh. You would instantly know that Nevaeh felt all what you felt along with you, and has become all that you have become too.’

‘Sounds perfectly logical,’ Amy muttered sarcastically, feeling a headache coming on.

‘Nevaeh still learns in Omnipion, as do we all. Nevaeh, my beautiful gal,
loves
you!’ Adaizi said it this time with so much conviction that it almost brought Amy to tears.