Imagine (16 page)

             
"The last Event was on the night that I was kidnapped by the Artemisians. Keagan and Eddie, who we thought were our friends, had actually set us up. They arranged for a dog fight, which completely horrified me. I somehow managed to create a new reality, one where the dogs where not fighting." There is a look of surprise on her face when I finish.

             
"I have to say I was not expecting this at all."

 
              "Which part?"

             
"Usually, when the powers first manifest themselves it’s not in such a large display of power. It’s something much smaller, like the broom. Not only that, but Creation comes more naturally than manipulation. Let’s try something."  Tisiphone gets up and I follow her lead. She holds out her hand, the air shimmers above it.

             
"The reason that you are called The Young Creators dear Trish, is because that is just what we do, we create
things
. You have the ability to manipulate matter.” A rosy red apple appears in her open palm. “Hold out your hand,
Imagine
something that you want to appear, feel the weight and see the object in your palm."

             
I hold out my hand and think of one of my favorite things in the world, a little lady bug. The air shimmers and a tiny little lady bug appears in my hand, it has two black spots on its back. It takes off in flight; I look up at Tisiphone with a grin on my face. Proud of what I had done.

             
She, however, looks flabbergasted. But how can a simple little lady bug amaze a woman like Tisiphone? Someone who just created
the patio set and fruit bowl, someone who destroyed Atlantis, so much? She eventually answers my question.

             
"Trish, you should not be able to
create life
!"

XXI

imagine a prophecy

Tisiphone speaks first “Another piece of the age old puzzle has revealed itself.” She says, the look of horror has evaporated from her face; in its place is one of amazement. Her words don’t really help me though; I still have no idea what she is talking about.

“What age old puzzle?” I inquire.

              “Hmmm...” Tisiphone looks completely wrapped up in her thoughts as she stares right at me.

“Hello? Aunt Tisi?” I wave my hand in front of
her face to try to refocus her. She slowly blinks and her eyes, which had now turned to a warm chestnut color. They focus on me and she gives me a warm smile to match her eyes.

“Sorry Trish, I was not expecting this at all. I am somewhat caught
off guard. You see, many thousands of years ago a prophecy was written that involves you, your Sister and your mother. One of the lines of that prophecy read simply,

Where one shall only awaken death the other shall raise life.

I had always thought that it meant one of you would be able to destroy
humankind and only the other would be able to save it. But now I think that the old prophets may have meant it in a more literal way.  I could never have imagined …” She starts getting that faraway look again. I don’t want to lose her to ‘La-la land’ once more, so I throw questions at her.

“What does it
mean? When you said that I should not be able to create life? I thought that was part of the gift, we could
Imagine
or create anything?”

“Only gods can cr
eate life, Trish … The gods and apparently, you!”

“So what does that mean for me? Are you saying that I am a
god?” I don’t really believe it’s a possibility, but I have to ask.

“No you are not a god
my darling” she chuckles at my question and continues “I am sure of that, I would be able to feel it. You would have this essence about you. You have just a touch of it, but it would be a thousand times stronger. No, this is something different, something that I have not ever seen in my thousands of years, you are special.
Very
special indeed. For now though let us concentrate on the part of your gifts that I do understand. This time make sure to follow my instructions step by step. Let’s start with something small. Close your eyes dear.”

She takes my hand and turns it to have my palm facing up. “
Now I want you to
Imagine
a juicy green apple. Feel the weight of it in your hand, smell the sweet fragrance, see it taking form right in your hand, then open your eyes.”

I open my eyes and once again the air a
bove my hand shimmers, and I see the apple appear from the inside out, layer after layer. In only a matter of a few seconds I have a perfect green apple sitting in the palm of my hand. I take a bite of it. It is juicy and crisp, with a perfect amount of tartness.  I just created an apple out of thin air, this is unreal.

She takes the apple from me and coos
“Very nice Trish I have to say that I am very impressed. I don’t think I have ever seen anyone take so quickly to their powers. Let’s try it again, but this time I want you to picture something bigger, how about a swing set?”

I try, closing my eyes and imagining a swing set. It is held up by wooden poles and long metal chains support the
single plastic swing. I can feel the smooth plastic and the cool of the metal in my hands. I open my eyes, next to the deck the air is shimmering; my swing set begins to take shape.

“
So, from what you told me about the broom in the kitchen, the dogs and the car on the overpass, I know you can also make what already exists move too, so let’s practice that now. Trish, I want you close your eyes once more, this time
Imagine
the swings moving back and forth gracefully, with the apple sitting on one of the swings.” Is she crazy?

I give it a
go; I close my eyes and picture the scene just as she described it. After this morning’s success so far, I am really surprised when I open my eyes and all I see is the swing set, swings still, without the apple.

Tisiphone looks at me
expectantly; I give her a shrug as if to say ‘I don’t know what happened.’ She gets that far-away ‘La-la Land’ look again, as if she is thinking something up or coming to some sort of conclusion.

“Trish,
what made you want to hit your Mom with the broom?”

“I was really annoyed with her; she just always seemed to be nagging me. Why?”

“I am trying to figure out what your trigger is. For me, all I need to do is just picture whatever I want to happen or what I want to create and it happens. But it is slightly different for everyone.” She scratches her right eyebrow on her deep in thought wrinkled up face. “How about the dog fight? What was going on in your head then?”

“I was scared and
shocked; all I wanted was for it to be over, for those dogs to not be hurting each other anymore.” I tell her.

“Let me guess, when the car almost hit you and you feared for your life and the overriding thought in your head was you desire to live. You weren’t ready to die? Am I correct to presume this?”

I nod my head in acknowledgment.

“I think I m
ight see a pattern here. Annoyance, anger, fears they are all emotions that seem to be your triggers. Alright, let’s give this a try. This time I want you to be annoyed that it did not work the last time. Be annoyed with the swing, or apple, whatever feels right and let’s see what happens this time.”

I close my eyes and find that
feeling of annoyance inside. But instead of being annoyed with the apple or the swings, as she suggested, I find that I am directing that feeling at myself. I am annoyed that it didn’t work, annoyed that I hadn’t succeeded.

I slowly open my
eyes with some trepidation, this time it had worked. The apple is no longer in Tisiphone’s hand; it is now sitting on top of the plastic swing, which is gently swaying back and forth.

“
Great, Trish, you need to remember that very emotion you just felt. I am impressed that you are not only able to
create
something as you see it in your mind, but you can also manipulating that object using your mind too. I really don’t think that you are going to need too much practice at both of those skills. I think tomorrow we might invite some of the others and work on some defense.” She pats me on the shoulder in a show of pride.

“Watch this!” She tells me a mere moment before both Maximus and Sam appear, almost out of thin air. Sam still in the middle of a sentence that is abruptly cut off when he realizes what has happened. He looks around in bewilderment while I see a bemused smile on Maximus’ face.

“Really Tisi, did you have to scare the poor boy like that?” He walks over to Tisiphone and gives her a gentle kiss on the lips then takes her hand in his intertwining their fingers. “Let’s leave the lovebirds alone now!” he winks at Sam and starts leading her away.

“We’re not
…”

“Wow, hold on a …”

Both Sam and I start talking at the same time over each other, then laugh when we realize. I see Maximus whisper something into Tisiphone’s ear which makes her look over her shoulder at Sam and me, giving us both a wink. “Don’t forget to tidy up, Trish!” she calls cheerily.

I just shake my head
and turn to Sam, who from the very first moment that I met him, has intrigued me. I don’t only think that he is cute with that shaggy blond hair, those crystal blue eyes and that wicked smile that gives his eyes their mischievous twinkle. But I really like that he has so much fight in him and the way he looks out for his Sister the way that he does.

“So what’s going on between you and Keagan?” he asks, catching me completely unaware.

“What do you mean?” I don’t think I can talk about what’s going on with Keagan and me with Sam, especially because I am confused as to what that actually is myself.

“I know that you said that you guys were friends, but it seems like there is something more to your story. Especially after this morning. You know? I was wondering, what’s going on?”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about, there is nothing going on between Keagan and me.” I try to change the subject.

“Where are you and Kia from?”

Sam gives me a smirk, he decides to answer my random question and let it go, which I am really grateful for.

“Kia and I grew up in a small Wyoming town on our parents’ ranch. Kia and I were always outside doing chores
, helping with the day-to-day running of the ranch. We learnt very early on that there is nothing more important than family, my father is still my biggest role-model. That man has a lot of heart, courage, he taught me to stand up for what I believe in.”

“So what happened? How come you both ended up in Haven?” Sam and I have made our way over to the white couches, each sitting on one of them but our bodies facing each other. Sam gets a sad look on his face. He looks down at his lap and then meets my eyes.

“Remember those stories that crazy old lady at Haven was telling us about The Collectors?” I nod my head to let him know that I do indeed remember. “Well they are not just stories, they are real. I don’t know how, but they found us and grabbed Kia in the middle of the night. I’m sure they didn’t mean to bring me along too but I remember waking up and hearing something. I went to investigate and found some dude carrying my little Sister over his shoulder. I tried to stand up to him, just as my father would, but did not see the other guy sneak up behind me. Next thing I know I feel a searing pain across the back of my head and find myself in a locked room on the floor, Kia occupying the one bed in the room.” 

He takes a deep breath before continuing his story. “
I know it’s hard to believe, but what they did to us at Haven was nothing compared to what The Collectors did. The Artemisians supposedly rescued us from them. We were grateful, but ultimately we want to go home, wanted to see our family again.” Sam gives me a weak smile probably trying to make me feel better after the sad story that he just shared.

“What did
The Collectors want from you?”

“They wanted to train Kia to support this movement that they had going on in punishing t
hose that they thought were unfit to be on this planet. They started trying to train me to be one of their muscle men. It’s the girls, those like you, that are clearly in charge there. What that old hag at Haven told us about the Collectors, at least the ones that I dealt with was completely incorrect. They’re
evil.
”

“That’s horrible, I am so sorry that you and Kia had to go through all of that. I can’t even begin to
try to put myself in her shoes.” I feel really bad, this entire time I have thought of Kia as sweet, but weak; somewhat of a burden to us. Now as I find out that she has been through so much, the poor girl.

I get up and give Sam a
hug, he squeezes me tightly in return, not letting go.

When we both sit back down on the couches. I decide that only one thing can turn the mood around, so I close my eyes.

“Trish are you alright? What are you …?”

I open my eyes and start laughing. Where that beautiful white couch once stood is now just Sam sitting in the grass
with a bump and a startled look on his face.

“What just happened?” Instead of answering his question I decide to follow my instincts and I
give him a kiss on the corner of his mouth. I shut my eyes, place my lips on his skin and I let the sensations wash over me. It is pleasant, very comforting. I think he feels the same as he kisses me back. I laugh again but I stop instantly, falling silent with shock when I see Keagan, his arms crossed, leaning against a tree at the edge of the meadow. A dark scowl on his face.

A gi
ant swarm of butterflies invade my insides when our eyes meet.