Untitled Chapter eleven

“Young lady, just who exactly are you, and how did you get here?” the one man asked.
“My name is Jesse,” I stopped, and realized they wouldn’t know me by that name for sure. “Jessina, I’m the daughter of Baldemore and Miranda. I’m guessing that subconsciously I created an entry way.”
The two men whispered between themselves, before turning to the men nearby.
“Help her to our work room, quickly,” the one said before they turned and walked away.
The men carefully lifted me up and took me in the same direction that the other two had gone in. I looked around as we moved through the cavern, there were carefully created sub-caves along the sides that were the individual living spaces. A part of me considered that I should be worried about what could possibly happen to me, but I was just too amazed to be concerned. As we reached the far area of the cavern they entered into one of the sub-caves; it was actually quite spacious. They set me down on the slab table that was in the center of the room.
“Good, good. Okay you can leave us now.”
“Now Jessina, we must know what can you do? What gifts do you have?” he asked excitedly.
“Forgive us, our manners,” the other one finally stepped forward and spoke. “First let us introduce ourselves.”
“Yes, yes, forgive us,” the other one chimed in.
“I am Christoff and this is Merlin. We are the only elders left from the village, but I think you might already know that. That is assuming what we have heard about you is true.”
I looked at him and nodded, remembering the dreams that I had had. The other elder had told them I was watching from a dream. My heart ached as I remembered the tragic death of the other elder. I smiled at the two men before me, there was such a familiarity for me that I just couldn’t deny it. I wondered if Merlin was the name sake for the wizard written about in the story of King Arthur; with the life span of the people in this world it was possible. And if he had gifts too it would explain how they would consider him a wizard or magician.
“Now please tell us your gifts,” Merlin asked again.
“Well obviously I can open entry ways, I can manipulate things a bit, such as lighting a fire, it would seem that I have a bit of control over the weather. So far it is based off my moods and emotions though. I can cause plants to grow or to revert back to seed. And I can create a protective wall.”
“Is that all?” Christoff asked, sounding almost frustrated.
“That is all that I know of, but I don’t know of anything else to try. The gifts that I know about are because my mother wrote about them in her journal or because I stumbled on them accidentally. What other gifts are there?” I asked.
“Have you tried to heal yourself?” Merlin asked. I looked at him; could I possibly be able to do that? If I could that might explain why the bite marks on my arm had healed so fast, and the cut on my head, compliments of Abraham.
I looked at my leg and tried to focus on the break; I jumped a bit when I felt the movement of the bone. The more I focused the stronger the connection became; I could feel it all and in my mind I was actually able to visualize the bone as it healed. I could feel the connection all around me again; then I felt Matthew and Christian. They were frantic; I had literally disappeared off the face of this world. I knew that this was putting them both into a very bad space as far as emotions were concerned.
I pulled away from all of that and brought my attention back to the area around me. I looked at the two elders shocked and amazed; they just smiled at me. I slowly removed the splint and attempted to stand up. There was nothing wrong with my leg anymore; it was back to normal. I was excited about all that they would be able to teach me; they could also tell me about my family.
“I need to leave for a little while, I kind of just disappeared on the people that care about me. “
“Before you leave could you do us one favor first?”
“What is it?” I asked.
They turned and walked away and I got up to follow them. I was surprised when they stopped in front of a small grove of five trees. They bore fruit but you could tell that the plants were fighting to survive. I sat down crossed legged in the center of the grove and placed my hands on the ground and focused on pulling the nutrients from the ground to feed the plants here. I could feel the drain on my body as the trees began to flourish around me. Then a cloud appeared over the grove and it began to rain.
I heard the gasps of the people that had gathered around and as I pulled my hands away from the ground the rain stopped. Christoff stepped forward offering me a hand, I took his hand as he helped me pull myself up. We stepped aside as the people rushed forward to pick the new abundance of fruit. I watched as they went about picking the fruit and felt a little put out that they bypassed me without saying a word.
“You are your father’s daughter for sure,” he beamed.
“I must leave for today, but I will return tomorrow,” I said trying to assure them.
“We completely understand, return when you can. Thank you for this,” Merlin said.
“Yes thank you,” Christoff said as he turned and walked away. I watched as Merlin followed.
They weren’t really talking to each other but they seemed so deep in thought that their reactions almost mimicked each other. I got a bit of a chill; but I didn’t put anymore thought into since I really needed to get back before things got out of hand with Matthew and Christian. When I stepped out from the entry way I was behind Christian and Matthew; when suddenly Matthew turned and swung at me. As his hand struck I went flying up against the nearest tree. I had only had a second to take a glimpse of them but they had both been in attack mode. I had seen the look on Christian a few times now, the shock was seeing it on Matthew.
As realization of what had just happened became apparent to Matthew, he turned and focused his anger and frustration on destroying a nearby tree. I watched as he fought to control his emotions. Christian had been unable to move after this happened, he just stared at me; I wasn’t sure if he was fighting his emotions or debating how best to get at me. I searched his face, his eyes for the answer. He quickly turned away and bolted, I could feel him as he went through the entry way. I knew the answer now.
I didn’t move, afraid that it might provoke an unwanted response. I just stood there and watched as Matthew fought to control his emotions. The tree was completely obliterated when he finally turned to me. He still hadn’t calmed down completely.
“Where in hell did you go?” he yelled as he approached me. I stood up and looked him in the eye.
“I’m sorry, I didn’t realize I had done it until it was too late,” I tried to explain. His expression softened suddenly as he looked at me.
“Your leg is healed? How did that happen? What is going on?” he asked. His emotions were changing but he still was fighting for control.
“Remember the voices I have been hearing?”
“Yes.”
“Well they belong to the remaining people from my parent’s village. Somehow I opened an entry way to the cavern they are in. They basically let me know that I should be able to heal myself and when I tried I was able to do so. There is so much that I can learn from them, I plan to return tomorrow,” I told him.
“So you are completely healed?” he asked as he stepped just a bit closer to me. I moved forward and closed the gap between us as I put my arms around his waist.
“Completely,” I said as I reached up to kiss him. He was still holding himself very rigid as if he was afraid of me. This was something I would eventually have to get use to; it was easier to acknowledge it than to really deal with it.
“Jesse, I’m sorry,” he started to say.
“Matthew it’s okay. I could easily forgive you of anything, but only if you are going to relax and go back to treating me the way that you did before.”
“I don’t like hurting you, and yet that seems to be the only thing I am doing.”
“I understand the emotion thing. That was clear from the start. It is something we will have to live with; and we both will live with it, especially now that I know how to heal myself. I don’t regret a single moment that we have spent together. I hope you don’t either,” I told him. For just a moment the fear that he might tire of the constant battle with his emotions passed through my mind. But then his arms came around me pulling me up against him.
“My dear sweet Jessina, I worry about what all this does to you, the pain that you have had to endure because I lost control of my emotions. I can’t control my emotions when it comes to you. I would do whatever is necessary to protect you, even if it meant protecting you from a distance.”
“Definitely not interested in having a stalker.”
“Jessina, are you really okay? I mean no injuries from what just happened?” he asked.
“I’m good, instant healing powers,” I said with a smile trying to reassure him.
“You’re positive?”
“Absolutely,” I said.
“Good,” he said as he lifted me into his arms. He moved so quickly that I was already plummeting towards the water when I realized he had tossed me into the stream. I stood up and coughed out the water I had started to swallow. I looked up at his gloating smile.
Instantly I went under the water and slipped through an entry way and stepped out behind him and quickly pushed him into the water. Of course his reflexes were much quicker than mine and he grabbed a hold of me and pulled me in with him. I fought his grip of me but I knew it was a losing battle, not that I really wanted to win. He pulled me close and we stayed there for quite some time enjoying each other’s company and the feel of the water against our skin. It was several hours later that we returned to the cave. Matthew was wholeheartedly in agreement that I should return to learn more from the elders of my parents village.
He encouraged me to return so that I could learn more about my parents history and about the gifts that I might have. In fact he was very adamant that I go back there while he and Christian went to feed. I could tell that he was holding something back and I had a feeling that it had something to do with Abraham. For now I wouldn’t press him about it, I couldn’t be turned and since I couldn’t be turned he couldn’t try to use my gifts in a bad way. It sounded good in theory, I just hoped it was true.
It took me a while to calm down enough to sleep that night. So many thoughts running through my mind. I was excited about finding my parents people, I was worried about the concept of possibly changing and then I was wondering what wasn’t being said by Matthew. I wanted to believe it was just the details of them going to feed; but I feared that there was something else. If I was still in my old life I would worry that there was someone else; but now I worried it had something to do with Abraham. For now at least I had a chance to learn all the things that my parents weren’t here to teach me.
When I arrived at the caverns the next day I was able to find Christoff but Merlin was no where around. Christoff worked with me on controlling the wind. I was able to manipulate the air around me to move things around. Christoff pushed me to try harder; I continued to focus and push till I was finally able to push things away. We continued to move up to larger and larger items, eventually I was able to push the large stone table a few inches. I was thoroughly exhausted afterwards. I tried to ask Christoff questions about my parents but he was so intent on documenting and trying to decide what we should do next.
He walked away and just left me standing there. I waited patiently thinking that he would be returning, after a while I gave up and went out into the public areas. Several of the adults looked at me but they didn’t speak or even respond when I smiled at them. One woman turned and rushed into her personal living area when she saw me. I walked past the grove and back towards the area that I first arrived at; I smiled at the villagers as I walked past but still no one smiled back or even acknowledged me.
I had no choice but to give up the search for Christoff or Merlin there seemed to be too many places they could be. I wished that Matthew was here with me, but at the same time they kept looking at me oddly. I couldn’t even begin to imagine how they would react towards him. I was thoroughly disappointed about the way things were going and I was ready to go back home. I touched the cave wall and opened an entry way home.
“Hey aren’t you the one who made it rain in the groves earlier,” a young guy asked me. I looked at him and nodded. There were three other guys and two girls with him, they looked like teens but I wasn’t sure how that worked here on this world.
“I think that is so cool, think you could do it again?” one of the girls asked.
“I don’t really know, I was strictly focusing on what the plants needed. I didn’t know I could do it.”
“You willing to give it a try? It can be really boring here at times, I doubt that you have ever had that problem before,” another guy stated.
I closed up the entry way and followed them down a long, narrow passage way until it opened up into a large space. They all made themselves comfortable with the exception of the first guy to speak to me. He stood beside me and looked at the others and then turned to me.
“Well are you willing to give it a try?” he asked.
“I guess so,” I said as I sat down on the ground and placed my hands down. I focused on the need for rain. I was still a bit tired from the practice earlier but finally I was able to make it rain inside the area we were in.
Everyone was excited and they were splashing around in the puddles as the rain fell. I looked up at them and couldn’t help but smile at their enthusiasm. Once the ground started to turn very muddy I pulled my hands up and let the rain stop. They all were talking too fast for me to keep up; and I was too tired to focus. I leaned up against the wall and looked at them.
“I think I need to be going now, I am really tired from all of this,” I said as I stumbled when I stood up. The guy closest to me caught me and helped me stand up right.
“When are coming back again?” he asked in a soft and gentle voice.
“Possibly tomorrow but I have to wait and see.”
“Look me up when you come back. My name is Lucas.”
“Nice to meet you, I’m Jessina, but I go by Jesse.”
“See you soon, Jesse.”
I made an entry way and went through to my cave. Matthew was there and got up immediately when I came through. He lifted me up into his arms and I rested my head against his shoulder, closing my eyes for just a minute.
I woke up on the bed with Matthew holding me close. My head was hurting and I was still exhausted. I couldn’t remember the dream I had been having and it bothered me. I reached over to touch the ground and focused on getting rid of the headache. At least it was better and quicker than aspirin. He gently kissed my forehead as I laid back down against him.
“Want to tell me what happened to you?”
“We were just testing out my abilities and it drained me. Christoff believes that once I have better control it won’t be so tiring anymore.”
“You’ve slept for almost fourteen hours now. And I love you but you really look horrible right now.”
“Well that is possibly better than I feel. I just want to sleep, I probably would have still been asleep but my dreams woke me up. I can’t remember it; I always remember my dreams.”
“Why don’t you relax for a while, I will go and get you something to eat. I’ll be right back.”
“Okay.”
He left and I just laid there and closed my eyes. The village was there but it faded in and out of view. I moved forward towards it, I saw the elders, all three of them were arguing it seemed. I couldn’t seem to get closer. Every time I moved closer it shifted away so I just stood and watched as the one elder who had seen me in his dreams walked away. Then I saw my father walk up to Christoff and Merlin, they seemed to be on good terms with my father. I watched as they pulled a book out and opened it up on the table and the three of them crowded around it.
Everything spun around like crazy and I thought I would get sick, then it stopped. It was back to the first elder I had seen as he quickly placed the book my father had been looking at into a box with other papers and books. He caused it to be buried deep in the ground beneath the hut and I watched with interest as he seemed to seal the ground back up instantly. Then the vampires attacked again. I woke up crying over his death again.
Matthew pulled me into his arms and held me until I finally was able to stop crying. I didn’t move just let him hold me and I stared out at the light playing through the branches of the bushes that blocked our cave entrance. There was no way to tell what my dreams meant, but I felt so completely at a lost right now. I wish I had asked more questions, there was so much that I wanted to know. I turned and looked at Matthew.
“Have you been able to find out what Abraham is up to?” I asked, carefully watching his expression.
“I don’t really know what you are asking, it’s not like we hang out together,” he said.
“You know what I mean,” I insisted, because I knew that he did.
“You don’t have to worry about it, Christian and I have it under control,” he said as he released his hold of me and stood up. I rolled over and watched him pace.
“Have what?”
“We have the situation carefully under watch. I’ve told you before that I will do everything in my power to keep you safe and that is exactly what I am doing.”
“I just want to know exactly what you are doing. I have a right to know, it’s my life after all that is on the line here. It’s my stupid gifts that he wants control of,” I said as I stood up. I could tell by the expression or lack thereof that he had no intention of talking about it.
I walked over towards the wall and created an entry way and walked straight through it; I was half tempted to close it up behind me but I knew it was a waste of time. I walked over to the edge of the water and sat down on the rock there. I was once again stuck in a position of not having control over my own life and I hated it. I had tried to take control of my life and future when I had bitten and drank from both Christian and Matthew; but nothing came from that. My life seemed so completely out of my hands and I couldn’t seem to find a way to change it.
Matthew had come through behind me but he stood next to the entry way unmoving. We were at an impasse; he had no intention of talking about it and I had no intention of letting it drop. I looked back at the water and watched it as it moved peacefully by me. I didn’t care for the way I was feeling, I could feel the same thing ripple through the air around me. I debated about what I could say to make him understand my view and my feelings. I stood up and turned to face him, he was watching my every move.
I stepped forward and then had to stop. I felt an entry way open and several vampires came through all at once. It wasn’t just the fact that I felt it, or the fact that I knew they were coming; there was something so familiar sort of a déjàvue sensation. I couldn’t quite place the sensation. Matthew took my hand in his and I looked up at him.
“What is it, Jesse?”
“At least five or six vampires came through an entry way,” I said and then paused as I realized what had been the familiar sensation, “They came through one of the entry ways in my clearing.”
“Open an entry way to Christian’s cave,” he demanded. I could only nod and do as he told me to.
We stepped into Christian’s cave and he wasn’t there. I worried about that, what if he was attacked unexpectedly? An uneasy feeling crept into my stomach, it became worse when I heard the others outside of the cave. Matthew walked outside of the cave and stood to confront them. I followed but I didn’t get farther than the cave entrance before he warned me to stay put.
“Matthew, you know why we are here,” the tall skinny vampire stated.
“I have a little trouble believing that you would join forces with Abraham. You swore against him after he killed Lucy,” Matthew said.
“That was until we found out what all she was capable of doing. His plans will benefit us all.”
“Well I will fight anyone who attempts to take her against her will or to harm her.”
“That was expected.”
“Actually it was hoped for,” one of the others said as the group started to spread out a bit. I scanned the entire group but noticed that Matthew never seemed to take his eyes off the leader of this group. I watched as the one to the far side prepared to attack, I was afraid to say anything but was afraid that Matthew might not see him.
“I wouldn’t do that if I were you,” Christian’s voice came from somewhere in the woods behind the group. I instantly felt better. And then wondered if he had been watching all this time or if he had just came back; if so then I why didn’t I sense it?
Matthew still did not take his eyes off of the leader of the group. Even when the one vampire lunged at him, he didn’t move. It was one of the vampires that had been with Liz that other time who came from the side of the cave and knocked the guy down. After that it became a huge blur. There were vampires everywhere, I tried to focus on where Matthew and Christian were in the middle of everything. One vampire had Liz pinned down, I tried to focus and get him blown off of her. Well I managed that but unfortunately I don’t have the ability to limit the area so everyone in the pathway of the wind was pushed out of the way.
I wasn’t much help that way. I tried to think of what I could do to help; the only thing that came to mind was entryways. I sat down out of the way a bit and put my hand on the ground and watched till I saw a vampire in the open that wasn’t entangled with one of the ones here to protect me. As soon as I saw that I caused an entry way to open up beneath him and he slipped through. I quickly closed it so he couldn’t come back and so that no one else fell in that I didn’t want to have go through.
I thankfully didn’t have to attempt to try anything else the fighting seemed to end almost as quickly as it had started. Two that had been protecting me had been killed, as well as one of the others. I stared at the bloody remains of the bodies in the clearing, something inside me seemed to churn; not in a way that I would have expected. I kind of had expected my stomach to churn and feel nauseated but this was so different that I just couldn’t even begin to rationalize the way I felt. Liz came over and pulled me up onto my feet and then led me back into the cave. I couldn’t stop looking until we were in the cave and the bodies were out of sight.
“Thanks for the help,” she said as she helped me to sit back down on the bed.
I just nodded at her. I let my thoughts drift away, back to the night of the party at the beach. Nothing was simple any more, how could I have known that going to the party with my family could change everything. That damn mirror was what had started all of this, no, actually it was the kid having been lost. A thought came to mind, when I had asked about the kid they had said that he was hiding in his room. Why had they not checked that out before?
Wouldn’t it make sense to check there first. It would unless you had an ulterior motive. I thought about how Max had made me believe that he had been a friend to me and my mother. Could he have any connection with that mirror being in that house? After all her parents and their business partner were all from England. I gently rubbed my temples as these thoughts circled around inside my head. Suddenly fear gripped me, making it hard for me to breathe. I stood up and looked at Liz.
“I have to go check on my parents,” I said as I quickly created an entry way to the other world.
I stepped out of the brush and slowly walked up the road to my parents house. The house was dimly lit; which was unusual. I looked around but there were no cars to be seen anywhere near the house. I pulled out the spare key from its hiding place and went to punch in the alarm code; but the alarm was not activated. Slowly I opened the door.
“Mom, Dad, are you home?” I called out.
“They aren’t here anymore,” the male voice said from the drawing room.
“What have you done to them?” I asked as I slowly followed the sound of the familiar voice.
“They met with a tragic death, my wife and child were there with them at the time. Horrible accident,” he said. I stood in the doorway and looked at the man that had been my father’s business partner for as long as I could remember.
“How convenient for you. How did you manage to get them all together like that without you?” I asked.
“It wasn’t hard, your parents have always been willing to do anything for me. Especially since I couldn’t go because of a very important business meeting,” he laughed slightly. That sounded like my dad, anything if it meant getting ahead.
“I don’t see why you had to kill them, you already had me in the other world. Why couldn’t you just leave them alone?” I asked trying to contain my rising anger.
“Because that would leave loose ends and that just wouldn’t do. You obviously don’t understand what is at stake here.”
“I think I understand better than you do. Do you really think that Abraham is going to give one iota of a care about you once he has gotten what he wants from you? You are so very expendable that you don’t matter to any of them.”
“You really don’t understand all of this do you? My life, Max’s life, your family, my family, we are all just a tiny piece of such a larger puzzle. My life means nothing right now, soon though, very soon I will be a part of Abraham. I will become one of them.”
“How naïve can you be? He won’t turn you. If he has marked you it is so that no one else can turn you. He will kill you and be done with you in no time.”
“He will keep his promise to me. We have sworn to a sacred pact, I will be one with him as will you.”
“Wrong on both parts,” I said as I looked around the room. “One thing I would like to know, the mirror, how did you know that I would find the entry way?”
“One way or another I was to get you up to that mirror if I had to drag you to it kicking and screaming. But thankfully you have always been a very nosey person, and curiosity got the better of you. That and being a drunk,” he laughed as he stood up to face me.
“And now what do you plan to do?”
“You have nothing to fear of me, Abraham wants you turned and Abraham will get what he wants. I am just here to deliver the message. The sooner you accept it then that many more lives will be saved. But if you don’t join him he will destroy everything and everyone that means anything to you until you do join him.”
“Not going to happen. Any way it is not even possible, we have already tried to turn me. Twice we have tried, it just isn’t in the cards,” I said back to him. The look of shock on his face, regardless of how quickly it passed, was worth it.
“Now that is very interesting,” he said as he stepped a bit closer to me. He looked at me as if he was trying to find something written on my face. Maybe he just didn’t believe me.
“I am just glad that you will receive your just rewards from Abraham himself. And then it will be me who is laughing at you.”
I turned and went up the stairs to my room, it had been ransacked already. I wasn’t completely surprised. There was so much that I wanted to know, so much that I didn’t understand; but what I did know was that the answers would not come from this world. At least not from any source that I trusted. I had to return to the elders of my parents village; I had to find the answers from them. And I needed to find them soon.
I picked up a few things from my room and went back to Christian’s cave to find both him and Matthew there and both very upset. The others were nowhere to be seen; either they had left or they just made themselves scarce with the mood these two were in. I felt bad, after all they had just risked their lives for me but I had to go and there was no changing that fact. Of course my explanation of what had happened by no means eased their moods, but at least it was out there. I couldn’t get past the feeling of guilt about all that had happened as of late.
Knowing that my parents were dead because of me was a horrible guilt to carry around. The only comfort I could pull together was that at least when I had sent the cards out from New York; I had told them how much I had loved them and was sorry about the way I had acted. It was a far cry from what they deserved but at least I had gotten that much to them. The irony in all of this was that once again I found myself unable to cry. I tried to release everything that felt so bottled up but it just wouldn’t come out.
Matthew held me tight all night long until I eventually fell into a fitful sleep. The dreams returned; I was back at the village again. I watched from a distance as Abraham’s vampires ripped apart the village in search of something. They never found it and a very angry Abraham left. I saw flash back type images from everything I had seen or knew about the village but all it did was cause me to wake up with a headache. Of course that was easily healed but it didn’t stop it from bothering me.
There were other things that were bugging me too. As I looked at my own recent past. Things I had accepted as truth didn’t seem to be anymore. But there was something else, something that was nagging at me that I just couldn’t pinpoint. I felt that it was something important but I just couldn’t figure it out. I paced the room trying to find the elephant that was in plain sight. That was something my father had always said. He had told me that the hardest things to find were in plain sight, your mind didn’t want to see them or accept them so you just didn’t see the elephant in the room.
I felt as if there was a herd of elephants hiding in this little cave and I was just too blind to see them. The answers were here, I could feel them. I just couldn’t seem to focus hard enough to recognize them. This of course was even more frustrating than the thought of not having control over my life. I knew that if I could just figure it out then so many of my current problems would have answers.
As my day progressed I eventually left Matthew’s side and went back to the caverns to see Merlin and Christoff. We worked on different skills, mainly I learned more about what I could control of the earth here. I was able to create a small stream that bubbled up from a geyser type hole and then drained back through a different hole. I was still a bit dizzy from it when I ran into Lucas again.
“Thought maybe you weren’t going to come back here again,” he stated as he reached out and helped me to my feet. We walked farther back through the caves again.
“Well things aren’t going so great out there right now.”
“How so?” he asked.
We talked for an hour as I explained about the vampire attach and about my parents. He was very sympathetic about both and then he talked about his family. They were killed during the raid of the village. He talked about how Christoff and Merlin had more or less helped raise him ever since. Once we were into the hidden cave off the back end of the cavern we sat and talked some more. Eventually we talked about what all I had learned that day.
“I can’t believe all that you can do. If I even had a small portion of your gifts, oh the fun I’d have.”
“What do you mean?”
“Seriously?”
“Of course,” I responded back.
“Well just think of the possibilities that this small cave could have. Turning it into some kind of jungle. Can you picture it?”
I looked around the small cave and started to think what it would be like for it to become a jungle. I was able to easily visualize it trying to envision every last detail as I looked around the space. I listened to Lucas as he spoke of what he could envision the place looking like; I was amazed at how similar our thoughts were. As I continued to picture it I started to feel a bit dizzy and as I reached out to stabilize myself a surge seemed to take off from me that I couldn’t control.
Dizzy and disoriented I slowly sat up after having blacked out for a bit. I closed my eyes tightly trying to gain some kind of focus on what was going on with my head. It was as if a battle was being fought inside and I wasn’t sure if either side winning would make it stop. When I opened my eyes Lucas was crouched down in front of me with a cup of water. I attempted to smile but it hurt.
“You have one powerful imagination there,” he said as I took the cup.
“What do you mean?”
“Everything is exactly as I pictured it.”
“What…,” I started to ask but then he moved and I saw that the cave had transformed into the jungle we had both envisioned.
As I looked at the vast jungle before me my head began to throb again. But this time I didn’t seem to be able to just will it away. In fact it took everything I had to finally open up an entry way so that I could return home again. As I stepped out into my cave Christian reached out for me immediately. I gratefully fell into his arms as my legs gave way beneath me. My mind momentarily skipped over the days I had first arrived to this world and how absorbed I was with him; and now I found myself in love with two men. Vampires. I had no clue how to refer to them, but I knew that I loved them both.
I drifted off to sleep, a completely restless sleep. I woke up more exhausted feeling than when I had drifted off. There was no way that I could explain it; and that was actually minor compared to the fact that I couldn’t remember my dream again. That was really bugging me. I looked around realizing that I was alone in the cave. Too many thoughts circled around in my mind as I stood up and walked toward the entrance to the cave. It was still dark out as I went and sat down next to the edge of the cliff. Looking out on the darkness below me; I felt even more alone.
I looked back at the cave entrance trying to think of what had been bothering me earlier. So much seemed to be happening in such a short time that I couldn’t keep up. I was still so tired that it made it harder for me to try and concentrate. I tried to make a fern, but I couldn’t. I tried for something simple, I couldn’t even produce a blade of grass. I wasn’t sure if I had lost my gifts or if I had just over exerted myself and was too tired to use them.