Insight (4 page)

We sat in silence for a while, staring at the night sky. I wondered if he was right, that if we stayed close to one another we would find our place. Figure out why it seemed like all this time we were just sitting in a waiting room. Wondering when fate would open the door and invite us into a new world.

“Dane, will you do me a favor?” I asked.

He glanced at me, surprised that I had to ask. Then he nodded.

“Will you watch out for Olivia while I’m gone?” I asked with a tremble in my voice.

Dane nodded, understanding why I was so concerned. Olivia had lost her parents when she was only ten. She now lived with her cousin Hannah. Those two could not be more different. In fact, I think I’m the only one that understands Olivia and that’s only because I can still feel her grief and loneliness.

“You’re coming to the lake tomorrow, right?” I asked.

“I have to work most of the day, but I’ll meet you guys out there at night,” he said regretfully.

“Night?” I repeated. I thought we were just going to get some sun and go home.

“Yeah, they’re supposed to build a bonfire. I think a lot of them are camping out. It’s supposed to be a big farewell thing for you,” Dane said.

“You know I love you guys, but I’m not sleeping out there,” I teased, elbowing him.

“Ahh, come on. You’re not scared, are you?” Dane taunted.

Just then, the back porch light kicked on and my father opened the door. I felt a little anxiety rise inside of Dane. He respected my father as much as anyone else in town. My father stared in our direction. A surge of confusion came from him. Dane then stood and held my hand as he walked me to the patio. He hugged me then politely nodded to my father before he left.

I kept my eyes down and passed by my father. I made it halfway up the stairs before he said anything.

“Willow.”

I stopped mid-stride, then turned to look at him standing at the bottom of the stairs. I could not understand what he was so confused about.

“You can feel the way I feel about your mother and the way she feels about me, right?”

I nodded.

“Do you feel that way about Dane?”

“Yeah, right, not even close, Dad,” I answered as I started to climb the stairs again.

“Are you sure? If you did, that would change everything,” he said, climbing the stairs after me.

I froze and looked down. It would be so easy to lie right now and say that I did, but would they let me stay here, where I knew it was safe?

“How?” I asked.

“I told you that our dimension believes you are supposed to be with your soul mate. If you feel that way about Dane, then he is your soul mate, and we were wrong about you,” he explained.

I sat down on the step where I was standing. The emotion between my parents is beautiful. It’s a love that’s unconditional, timeless. I knew without a doubt that I felt that way about the blue-eyed boy I’d dreamed of. I would even say that I loved him more, but then I realized that my father had let something slip.

“Who was wrong about me? What am I?” I demanded as my body tensed.

My father sighed, realizing he had misspoken. He climbed the few steps between us and sat down next to me.

“I’m going to tell you a story,” he said.

I felt a sense of trepidation wash over him. I turned on the step, facing him, wanting to know everything.

“Every dimension has different beliefs, rulers, and ways of living. There is one dimension, Esterious, which is very dark.”

My heart began to hammer as my nightmares flashed in my thoughts. He sighed seeing my expression, then went on with his story.

“This entire dimension is ruled by the Blakeshire court. The ruler of that court is a man named Donalt, who has ruled that dimension for longer than anyone can remember. He has a very large palace where the priests and their families live. They make up the court,” he explained, glancing at me to make sure I was following him.

I nodded tensely, telling him to go on.

“When I was young, I traveled. I was one of the ones that helped others find their way back. We had taken numerous people to that dimension before.” His eyes drifted to distant memories. “It always felt like a rescue mission rather than a love story.”

He paused and looked over at me, and I could sense grief coming from him.

Clearing his throat and looking forward again, he continued. “We had never once brought home someone who lived in the court, but one day a good friend of mine, Justus, came to me and told me it was his time to find his soul mate. He wanted my help, so I went with him. I was shocked when he led me into Esterious.”

My father’s eyes turned green as he smiled, remembering his friend.

“Justus walked right to the gate of the palace, as if he didn’t have a fear in the universe. There, on the inside walking by, was a young, beautiful girl. Justus looked at me and said ‘That’s her…’”

He paused. I felt his emotion turn to sorrow.

“Long story short, she came home with Justus. Her name was Adonia, and her father was Alamos, Donalt’s highest and most trusted priest.”

My father stopped and stared down at his wedding band. I could sense his regret growing, so I put my hand on his. He sighed, then continued.

“Now shortly after this I left to find your mother so what I know was told to me by Ashten Chambers. It seems that every time Adonia would go home to see her father, they would ask her and Justus questions about our blood lines—how we traveled, where we went, things like that. Justus became convinced that Donalt and Alamos were plotting to take on other dimensions, so he forbade Adonia from going home again. But she missed her father, so she convinced another traveler, Livingston, to take her home. When she got there, the court held her captive. Livingston rushed home to tell Justus, and Justus, Livingston, and Beth, Livingston’s soul mate, then went to bring Adonia home.”

My father’s grief intensified, so I knew it ended badly. He stared at the floor as he continued, “When it was over, Livingston carried Justus’s body home. No one really knows what happened to Adonia or Beth. Ashten said that it’s been very difficult for Livingston since that day.”

My father hesitated as he thought back. I could feel his guilt. It was as if he were carrying a burden that was more than he could handle.

“A few years later, a little boy was seen alone in the strings. Livingston warned the people in Chara that Donalt and his priest, Alamos, were controlling this child. I assume the little boy was Justus’. I don’t know any other way he’d be able to travel the strings.”

My father looked to his side at me, and his eyes searched over my face carefully. “Livingston told Ashten that the child was looking for a girl that was born in the eleventh month and could feel the souls of others.”

With those last words, I held my breath. I was born in November, and I guess you could say that I could feel the souls of others. As his eyes continued to search over my face, it was easy to see that he was looking at his little girl, not the young woman that I’d become.

“Over time, Ashten managed to learn how to navigate through the storms. He found your mother and me just after your sixth birthday. We knew that you could feel emotions. We were living in one of the largest dimensions in the smallest town, hundreds of miles from any real doorway. We thought if we stayed here, you’d never be found by anyone from Esterious,” my father finished.

I let his story replay in my mind as I tried to understand why I was connected to that little boy. I was beginning to think that my nightmares were connected to him. My mind replayed the last nightmare that I’d had; the memory of the suffocating pain on my chest and the burn made itself known across my face.

“Willow, are you okay?”

“I just don’t understand…why was some kid in another dimension looking for me?” I said as I rubbed my fingers across the star branded on my skin.

“You are a direct descendant of the first recorded people in our dimension. Livingston believes they are trying to control a prophecy first made millions of years ago.”

“What prophecy?” I asked with wide eyes, wanting to know what they were protecting me from, what evil they had been shielding me from.

“Don’t worry about it,” my father said quietly. I could feel him struggling with a mix of emotions. Fear was there, and that was not helping me feel reassured at all.

“Then why are
you
worried about it?”

He grimaced. “You have to understand, they not only predicted your birth month, they predicted the day, hour, and the very minute.”

I continued to stare forward. My stomach was turning. The thought that I’d have to face that figure one day was terrifying. I didn’t understand what I had done to deserve this.

“Willow, the stars can be read a million different ways. They do not state our lives. I wanted to shield you from this in order for you to live a normal life.”

I looked at him like he was crazy. Did he really think I had a normal life?

“Do you have any idea how hard it was for me to grow up not knowing any of this? I mean, you could have at least told me I wasn’t insane. Do you know how hard it is for me to be in a large room with everyone’s emotions hitting me like a ton of bricks? Try and imagine puberty with my friends. That was
not
awesome. Not to mention the fact that people would appear out of nowhere, needing my help. Do you know I was convinced they were ghosts until I was like eleven?”

“I never realized that you were struggling,” he said as a surge of regret came over him.

I nodded and closed my eyes for a moment. I knew it didn’t matter how angry I was. It wouldn’t change the past.

That was the one good thing about this sixth sense of mine. I always knew when someone’s emotions were punishing them more than my words could. So, I let my anger go, sighed, and slowly opened my eyes. Finding the will to face my fear once again.

“My nightmare is the reason you’re telling me this, isn’t it?” I stated, looking down at my tattoo with the star inside the loop of the Ankh.

My father reached over and gently grasped my wrist, looking intently at the star as he spoke.

“It was predicted that on the
Blue Moon
of your eighteenth birth year, all those who seek you would find you.”

“All?” I questioned.

My father nodded as he gently moved his finger across the star.

“I assumed that prediction meant that your gift would be magnified and that you would be able to help more people. When I saw this mark, I realized that the prediction meant that the child would finally find you.”

“What do you mean, ‘Blue Moon’?” I asked.

He gently let go of my wrist and looked me in the eye.

“A Blue Moon is the second full moon in a month. It’s not very common.” He glanced down, and I sensed his anxiety growing. “We only have eleven days remaining until the
Blue Moon
will rise, and I want you safe in Chara when that night comes,” he said, looking back at me.

Eleven days. As far as I knew I had eleven days to live. That was enough to kick me into shock. To suspend the emotions and see this in black and white, I needed to know the problem and how to fix it. “When did you plan to tell me all of this? What if I did not have that nightmare?”

“When you were twenty, when it would be time for you to find your soul mate,” he answered, feeling relieved that he could talk openly with me.

“Who decided that twenty was the magic number?” I bit out, realizing that meant another two years before I would find my blue-eyed boy, if he were even real. If I made it past this eleven day mark.

“No one did. That’s just when we get this urge. It’s undeniable…it’s all you think about,” he said, leaning back and smiling.

“How do you know where to go? People can’t find each other in
one
dimension, much less several,” I argued with dismay.

He stretched his legs out on the steps and looked at me.

“Travelers can see several passages, but the others who don’t travel on a daily basis can only see one. The passage they see leads them to their soul mates. Once in the passage, they follow a feeling. The other person is usually looking for them as well. It really is a beautiful thing to witness.”

“So how does a traveler know if they can see more than one passage?”

“For travelers, their passage is always brighter in their eyes, like a beacon,” he answered, winking at me.

“So when I go into the string, I will see a beacon leading me to my soul mate?”

My father’s smile lessened a little. “The ‘beacon’ will shine when it’s supposed to,” he said as his eyes searched over my face. I could feel anticipation wrapped in dread coming from him.

“Okay, then tell me what the string looks like to begin with.” If there was a chance I could find my blue-eyed boy I was going to take it.

He tilted his head and gave me a shy smile.

“Well, it’s like standing in the center of a bright light. You feel surrounded by it. As you walk, you see hazes of different colors, they are the doorways to other dimensions.”