Awakening (27 page)

“
Ana”, Arie said gently, “I think that was part of a dream. The creature that we have been keeping watch on doesn’t match that description. I think somehow the image you saw is from your memories from before.”

I was so frustrated. I could feel the despair rising in me. I knew what I saw. It wasn’t a memory. It was real. There was a creature outside my window. I looked at Athen hoping he would understand.

“
You know, Arie, if it was a memory why can’t she speak or move much?” He looked at both Arie and Cyril concerned.

“
She is probably worn out still from earlier. That was a pretty big influx of memories she experienced.”

I finally was able to shake my head and did as fast as I could. I began to describe the creature that I saw in my mind with hopes that it would prove something to them. Maybe they would be able to see it. I thought as hard as I could, ‘The black bulbous, image became larger and larger as it got to the window. Once the creature was at the window, I could tell it was in human form. It had long, wrinkled, almost leathery fingers. Its fingernails were wretchedly long, tinged with brown. I could tell it was a male. It wore a burgundy shirt and black pants. The more pain it caused me, the more it would smile. Its eyes were cold and black, almost hollow. When it would open its mouth, all I could see was a dark cavern that seemed to go on forever. I didn’t want to look at its mouth or into its eyes. It was as if I would get sucked in. Please believe me. It was after me. It wasn’t a memory from earlier. I was worn out from trying to think my thoughts so loud.’ I was drained from forcing those words to them all.

Athen grabbed my hand and turned to Cyril.

“
It’s not a minion. It’s Azazel. He must have gotten to her from her window. This could be a bit more serious than we thought. We need to be prepared for a fight. I don’t know why we are so interesting all of a sudden, but this is the real thing, again.”

“
Or there could be two of them.” Arie finally got on board.

“
You probably hit it on the head, sis. The first one probably was the minion. It looks like we will need to be a bit more cautious than we realized until we take care of this. Apparently, someone decided to leave the desert.”

“
Well, if what you guys are saying is true, that means she was cast. We need to get her back to her old self. It’s not going to happen on its own. Ana, I’m so sorry for not believing you. I never expected this.”

I knew they would never want to cause me pain or hurt, but I certainly hoped that going forward they would begin to trust my instincts a bit more than up to this point. I gently shook my head and attempted a smile. I had no idea what was next but hoped we could get this chapter over with.

“
We will.” Athen kissed me on my head. Arie went downstairs to the kitchen to grab something. What, I had no idea, but I suddenly realized that the turkey didn’t quite have the same level of intrigue as pre-nap. However, I didn’t want to ruin Thanksgiving dinner for everyone.

I
made my way down for the holiday dinner and knew that there was going to be a much different tone than at a typical holiday meal. I could tell everyone was attempting to make it as normal as possible without throwing me over the edge, but somehow I had to convey to them that I needed the details to stay sane and in control. Athen was cutting the turkey, and Cyril was finishing up the mashed potatoes.

“
Where’s Arie?” I asked.

“
She’s in contact with some of the others explaining the situation. We haven’t had this level of persistence for quite some time. She is hoping to find out something that may be floating through the channels. So far no one has heard of anything that would make us more of a target than usual.”

“
This is pretty intense. I had no idea how involved all of this would get.” I mumbled a bit under my breath as I grabbed the breadbasket for the table.

“
None of us could have predicted this one. We’ll take care of it though. It or they will be a thing of the past by Christmas, guaranteed.” Cyril boasted from behind the mashed potatoes.

“
I do admire your confidence, Cy.” I said grinning. I could feel my level of confidence brimming over the cup being back down here with my family.

Everyone began bringing the wonderful holiday delicacies to the table, spreading them out in between the plentiful holiday decorations. I could hear Arie bounding in from behind us, probably coming from the study.

“
So what’s the scoop, sis?” Athen asked hopeful that she had uncovered the answers we needed to end it immediately.

“
Well, it sounds like it might not be Azazel or maybe not only Azazel. Apparently the demon we took care of in Whistler might be a minion of Asmodeus. He is here strictly for revenge. Possibly because we disturbed one of the minions or his master, Asmodeus. Only time will tell.”
“Why does that make a difference?” I asked clueless.

“
Well, if he were sent to end one of us, and we ended him first another one would come and then another one, etc. If we end him, his memories will be cleared and we are done. He won’t come back after us. He’ll go back to what he does once he re-introduces, which is preying on humans.”

“
So what is the history on Asmodeus?”

“
We seem to be talking about all of the big guns of evil. He is an arch demon, and one of his specialties is revenge, along with jealousy and lechery.”

“
Geez, well I guess it’s better to know than not. Hopefully, there is no connection between any of this, and these occurrences aren’t connected.” I said trying to put everything out of my mind.

“
But the question we are kind of not answering here is why was the one in Whistler after her? Let’s hope he wasn’t sent.” Cyril and Athen traded glances while Arie lit the candles on the table.

“
Alright, guys, enough shop talk.” Arie said bringing us all back to the innocence that only she seemed to be able to.

The calm had settled over the dining room, and the dancing shadows from the fire in the family room added a nice touch. There were so many things laid out in front of me, I didn’t even know where to begin. The sweet potato casserole was calling out to me though, and I dug into that first. Cyril grabbed the Bose stereo remote and turned on some wonderful holiday music. Nothing like Bing Crosby singing White Christmas to lift the mood instantly, I was truly in my element.

“
So speaking of a White Christmas, what do you say once we get done with this little issue we head back up to Whistler. Do we want to spend Christmas up there or down here? We could go up there at least to get some skiing in.” Cyril looked so excited at the mere thought of gliding down the powder. Everyone looked at me immediately.

“
Whoa, guys, I don’t want to be the one to choose. I’m cool with anything. I do love it down here, but I would love to see Whistler during the holidays for a little bit at least, since it has been my home for so long.”

“
Alright, we will take care of the situation down here, spend a couple days more and then head up there for a couple weeks maybe? We could probably get back down here by the 20
^th
and have plenty of time to enjoy things. Maybe your friend would want to come down for New Years Eve?” Athen offered up.

So much had happened since we left Whistler, I hadn’t even thought about Karen. I felt like such a horrible friend. Truthfully I probably was never that great of one anyway. I knew the right thing to do would be to invite her. I’m glad he mentioned it.

“
Yeah, that would be good idea. Thanks, Athen. I tend to forget about life outside of our little circle lately.” I said as I plowed through the turkey and cranberry sauce that I had piled on my plate. This was the best tasting Thanksgiving without a doubt. I was having a bit of trouble understanding my appetite. One minute I think I’m about to die, and the next, I’m ravenous. Athen started to chuckle.

“
You’ve always been like that, Ana.” He said smiling.

“
So Arie, when are you going to teach me that tip to keep some of my thoughts to myself?” I barked.

“
Tonight! I promise.” She exclaimed throwing her napkin at Athen. “The fun will be over soon, Athen.”

Everyone began on their second round of food, and I wondered how I would ever be able to fit in any of the desserts that we had made. I knew the pecan pie would win, but I wondered how many of the others would too.

I was dreaming about the desserts when a flash of the snowboarder came into my mind. I didn’t know what was happening. I couldn’t shake it. I knew it was the same guy as I saw in the picture back when I was with Athen at the grocery store. I saw the snowboarder walking to what looked like a yurt in the snow. There were people waiting for him inside the yurt.

“
Ana? What’s wrong? You look like you saw a ghost!” Arie put the pie dish down and stared intently.

“
Athen, do you remember the missing snowboarder? Images of him are flashing in my head. Why would that be? I don’t even know him? It’s like a home movie is playing in my head only I don’t know the ending.”

“
Ana, you’ve got to be kidding me. What do you see? I can’t believe you are able to see things clearly.”

“
He’s in the snow, looks like out in the wilderness. There is a yurt with a chimney that he is entering. He isn’t alone. The inside of the yurt is pretty bare. There are about 3 people that I can see in there with him - except that their eyes…”

“
What do you see, Ana?” Cyril pried.

“
Their eyes are black. There is no essence of any human spirit within them. They are like the one that tried to attack me. They look like humans but must be demons.”

“
Can you see the snowboarder’s eyes?” Athen asked.

“
Not yet, they seem to all be heading to the table. There are maps, and all sorts of trinkets spread out on the table. It’s like they are giving instructions.”

“
Keep focused on the his eyes, Ana.”

“
I am, I am… It looks like he is sitting down now, listening. I got it! His eyes, they aren’t like the others.”

Everyone began shrieking. I wasn’t exactly sure why. Arie began running to the other room to make a call.

“
What’s going on? How do you know what I saw was accurate?” I asked emphatically.

“
That was one of your true talents, Ana. You could find the missing and endangered. You could scope out the poor victims, and in many cases, we could get to them before it was too late. You can see visions just like the one with Karen and the guy texting her. It’s like seeing the future, but rather it’s the present. You can see what’s happening in the moment. I didn’t expect this to come back so early.” Athen grabbed my hand. “Are you doing ok?”

“
Yeah, I’m fine, but how can you be certain that I really saw him, and it wasn’t just my imagination?”

“
I just know. You used to get this look of concentration, and it appeared tonight while it was happening. I can guarantee what you told us tonight is happening at this very moment. Arie is calling some of our friends in Whistler to help since we are down here and have to deal with this other mess first. We’ve got to try to get him back. Go tell Arie everything you saw - the more detail the better. We’ve got to track this kid down before it’s too late.”

“
Alright. I’ll go fill her in as best as I can.” The thought that this all occurred while I was awake brought a wave of relief. Maybe those nightmares were just that – bad dreams, figments of my imagination, nothing more than that. Maybe my visions only happen when I’m awake. I hoped with all of my heart that it was the case. My stomach became ill at the thought of the nightmares trying to make their way back into my conscious. I have fought to keep the images of Athen escaping into thin air a thousand times, and this gave me hope beyond all that maybe it was just a bad dream. Maybe the demon with the serpentine eyes was only my subconscious reflecting my worst nightmares. Those images must be nothing more than tried and true nightmares, not premonitions. I followed after Arie to help her in any way I could.

*****

It was pretty late in the evening, probably close to midnight, and we were all huddled around the fireplace in the family room. I had changed into my pjs and had my favorite fuzzy robe covering me up for extra warmth. Athen was near the fireplace, which was throwing a warm glow onto his skin, highlighting his yellow-green eyes. He was so hard to resist. He had changed into some flannel bottoms and a t-shirt, looking absolutely perfect.

“
Well, Brenda and Rob think they may have some leads as to where this yurt might be. They are going to round up some others and head up there to see if they can find him. It sounds like our snowboarder hasn’t been turned yet. We can only hope it’s not too late. They told us they would keep us posted as soon as updates come in. In the meantime, we have to focus on our own little situation. We’ve got to get this resolved before we are of any help to what’s going on in Whistler.” Arie grabbed her cup of cider and sipped slowly.

“
Switching gears…So the plan is to wait until he appears again. My guess is that he will be casing the house when we are away. I think we should all leave, and then Athen and I will bring him back to here and trap him. We will take care of him that way.” Cyril announced.

“
Ok, but what if the minion is present?” Arie asked. I could detect a hint of worry in her voice.