Common Ground (The Common Ground Trilogy Book 1) (25 page)

Cool air slammed into my body and my hair was thrown back by violent thrusts of wind. I was falling quickly into an endless white void and any traces of the yoga studio were long gone. With each passing second, blurry, unidentifiable images started to zoom by at the speed of light and random voices were yelling or calling out inaudible words. All of my senses were in a state of shock, barely able to comprehend what was happening. Without warning, everything went pitch black. My eyes suddenly flashed open and I found myself back in a familiar place.

The yoga studio was completely empty and dark. There was no sign of anyone or anything; even my cell phone and I.D. card were gone. The only piece of familiarity was the yoga mat still lying underneath me.  Slowly I sat up, rubbing my head.  Being tired was one thing, but sleeping through an entire day was mind-boggling. As reality quickly sank in, I jumped up feeling panicked. My entire day had flown by and I’d missed everything, including my meeting time with Professor Woodward. I rolled up my yoga mat in an instant and bolted out of the studio, wondering how I could possibly sleep through an entire day without anyone waking me up.

The sun was still rising fairly low in the east. There were a few random students and adults walking into and out of the gym, but nobody looked familiar. A light haze covered the adjacent soccer field, a telling sign that it was still early in the morning. I stood in front of the gym in confused frustration.

After a minute, the answer seemed to be too obvious. The flashing white light and unexplainable change in time were all just parts of another one of my bizarre dreams. But, for some reason, this dream felt different than the others. There was no familiar face to follow around and no vision of my childhood there to keep me occupied.  Annie was nowhere to be found, and my parents never had been to Las Vegas. The only other option was Professor Woodward. Maybe he was the familiar face I was supposed to follow around to find another pointless clue to some reminder of my past. Without any other option, I broke into an all out sprint directly to his office, hoping I’d wake up before anything bad happened.

My long stride carried me away from the gym and down the steps very quickly. My immense desire to find Professor Woodward meant no regard for myself or anyone else, as two random students almost got leveled when I turned the corner of the gym and broke into an all out sprint. Campus flew by in a blur while I kept waiting to reappear back in yoga class, sweating profusely and waiting to answer all of Steph’s questions. But nothing happened and Professor Woodward’s building came into clear view.

Barely panting, I threw open the door and flew up the stairs towards his office. Every classroom was full of students taking notes and a few random stragglers were roaming the halls when I zoomed by. Nobody gave me a second look while I sprinted up the stairs, which made me feel better that it really was a dream. It wasn’t until Professor Woodward’s office appeared and I raced into the open door that my initial suspicions were refuted.

“Zoe?” Annabelle asked suddenly, looking surprised to see me.

“Wait,” I panted slightly. “You can see me?”

Her eyes narrowed in confusion for a moment. My words must have sounded worse than gibberish to her.

“Are you feeling alright dear?” she asked concernedly. “You look a little flushed.”

I was completely lost. How could Annabelle see me if it was just a dream? Nobody had ever acknowledged my presence in a dream before, not even my parents. Any assumptions or ideas of what was going on evaporated instantly and I didn’t know what else to do.

“I’m sorry to intrude, but is Professor Woodward here?”

“Just a sec hon,” she replied slowly, turning into Professor Woodward’s main office. While she was in there, I glanced around at Annabelle’s desk and noticed something very peculiar. She had a fresh, steaming mug of coffee sitting by her keyboard and her email was open on the computer. I approached her desk and glared at the monitor to see the time, but before I could find it, she hustled back out of the office with a completely different expression on her face.

She appeared perfectly calm and content. Any confusion or worry that had taken over her face had been replaced with reassurance. It was then that I noticed the second unusual sight since my arrival. Annabelle was taking off her coat, appearing to have just gotten into the office.

“Professor Woodward is waiting for you,” she said with her kind, motherly smile.

I took a big gulp and hesitantly walked into his office. Maybe it was still a dream, maybe it was real. There were no signs that told me one way or another and it made me feel helpless.

“Ah Zoe, I wasn’t expecting to see you this soon,” Professor Woodward exclaimed with his back turned to me. He was taking off his jacket and placing it on the fancy oak coat rack that stood next to his desk.

“I know Prof-.“ I stopped while comprehension slowly dawned on me. “What do you mean weren’t expecting me this soon?”

He turned back around and flashed his warm, charming smile. “I meant nothing by it; it’s just that I only sent that email a few moments ago. Usually it takes students at least a few minutes to get over to my office.”

Remembering his email from earlier in the morning, reality sank in immediately. My feet were frozen on the spot and I could barely find the words. Professor Woodward sat down easily in his chair, put his hands together and waited patiently.

“Wait… what time is it?” I gasped.

“Actually,” he chuckled. He took off his glasses and placed them on the desk. “It’s only 9:00. I wasn’t expecting you until after yoga. You’re an hour early.”

Chapter 11: Common Ground

“Zoe?” Professor Woodward called distantly.

My eyes flickered open and Professor Woodward was leaning over me looking concerned. The rugged carpet was hurting my back while the checkerboard ceiling filled my vision. A strong coffee aroma invaded my nostrils as Professor Woodward carefully helped me up.

“What’s going on?” I asked dazedly.

“You fainted,” he replied, still supporting my back with his hand. His eyes studied mine nervously, looking for any possible injury. “Are you alright?”

“Yeah, I’m okay. Wha…what happened?”

“Perhaps you should take a seat first, clear your head,” he said hesitantly, helping me over to the soft but hefty leather chairs that sat in front of his desk.

While he took a seat opposite me, I rubbed my head, desperately trying to ignite my memory. It took a few moments before bits and pieces started coming back to me. I exhaled a few shallow breaths in an attempt to quickly compose myself.

“Now, what exactly do you recall leading up to the moment you arrived here?” he asked keenly, apparently satisfied that I wouldn’t pass out again.

I closed my eyes again and the memories from earlier in the morning quickly rushed back into my consciousness. Every little bizarre detail and incident came to the forefront of my mind.

“Um, I remember waking up in the yoga studio, but something weird had happened,” I said.

“And what was that?”

“Well, one minute I was lying down on my mat at the end of class and the next minute, I was in the same room, but everyone and everything was gone. All of the other students, the instructor, even my stuff that was right next to me had disappeared. The only thing that was still there with me was my yoga mat,” I said distracted, glancing down at the purple mat.

“Please, continue,” he added attentively, not taking his eyes off me.

“I then decided to go outside and figure out what had happened. At first, I thought maybe I had fallen asleep during our relaxation time, which a lot of other students do. But that didn’t make sense because my good friend in class would have awakened me before she left.  So, I finally determined that it was just a dream because the dreams I have usually start out exactly like this one did.”

He cocked his head, looking surprised. “Which way is that?”

“It’s nothing really,” I tentatively said. “All of my dreams start off with me at some random time in my past. Normally, either my parents or my best friend are around and I follow them. They never see me, but I see and hear everything. I thought that this was the same thing, except for one big difference.”

His eyes raised in suspense, waiting for a response.

“Nobody I knew was around. I looked but couldn’t find a soul. I finally thought that because it was all happening on campus that maybe you were the one I needed to find and follow. That’s what brought me here. The whole thing continued to feel like a dream until Annabelle saw and spoke to me. That’s when I knew that it was something different. Then the last thing I remember was you making some kind of assertion that I’d arrived early for our meeting,” I finished.

Professor Woodward nodded a few times and then inhaled deeply. He didn’t look perplexed at all. If anything, he came across very self assured. My entire story didn’t appear to faze him in the slightest.

“It wasn’t an assertion,” he finally said, staring at me. “You arrived precisely at 9:00.”

“How is that possible? I was in yoga class then.”

“Believe me, not only is it possible, it’s irrefutable.”

“But how can that be? I specifically remember starting yoga at 9:00 this morning. We always finish up an hour later, which would mean that the earliest I could have gotten here was 10:00 and even that would be pushing it. There just wouldn’t be enough time.”

“Time,” he whispered softly to himself.

“Professor?” I asked. 

He sat there silently for a minute before speaking up again. “Time is a complex component of life Zoe, something you just unfortunately discovered in a way that was not planned. Common perception is that time is a fixed dimension of nature. It cannot be altered or distorted and therefore, everything that happens is constant. However, the truth is, time is a variable medium, something that can be manipulated. This may come as a shock Zoe, but you just traveled back in time.”

Like with everything else he told me, my mind had trouble accepting what he said. Changing time was physically impossible. The only response I could give was the natural one.

“I’m sorry, but did you just say that I traveled back in time?” I chortled, unable to contain myself.

“Indeed,” he nodded stoically. “But if everything you’ve seen so far hasn’t convinced you, perhaps undeniable proof would be sufficient?”

His skinny frame stood up instantly and he walked over to the door and opened it for me.

“Let’s take a walk,” he smiled.

We exited the Religious Studies building and started walking back across campus. The day had grown a little brighter since I arrived in his office, but it was still a relatively young morning. While we walked, he randomly asked question after question about my midterm, wondering if I thought it was a good style of assessment. His calm and friendly demeanor wasn’t doing anything to break my feelings of anxiety and His non-stop questioning and small talk continued on for countless minutes before I even realized where he was taking me.

The gym quickly came back into view. Professor Woodward continued to look relaxed and at ease while we approached the steps of the gym, two sentiments from which I was quickly diverging. I didn’t know what he planned on showing me there, but an unsettling feeling was slowly overtaking me.

After another minute or two, we walked up the stairs to the gym and headed inside. We turned the corner and the door to my yoga studio stood closed just feet away from where we stood. I looked over at Professor Woodward nervously. He took a sharp breath and stared back. Without a word, his head nodded towards the closed door. I swallowed hard while my hands began to tremble. Professor Woodward took a slight step back, leaving me alone in the middle of the hallway standing between him and the door.

Anticipation built up inside of me as my suddenly weary legs began inching forward. As each new step brought me closer to the room, familiar looking girls started to appear through the long, thin piece of glass that was built into the door. The front half of the class was entirely visible when I came to an abrupt stop. I looked back at Professor Woodward who stood tall with his paper thin arms crossed over his chest. He wasn’t smiling anymore. His pointy jaw was locked into place and he looked rather omniscient.

Inhaling deeply, I turned back around and took another few steps towards the door until the entire class came into full view. I stopped right before my body would have been visible through the glass. Slowly, my head leaned to the side and I stared into the room. All of the girls from my yoga class were looking at the front of the room at an invisible Mr. Himani. My eyes quickly traveled over the class before they finally fell upon the most shocking image I’d ever seen in my life.

There I was, standing right next to Steph, wearing the same white running shorts and sea blue tank top that currently clothed me. I stumbled away from the door in an instant, barely able to contain my breath. My body bent over while I inhaled and exhaled sharply.  I’d just seen myself, in real time, doing the exact same stretches I’d done no more than an hour ago.

Almost instantly, I stumbled away, staring at the door in shock. I spent weeks refusing to believe everything Professor Woodward had said, and in the matter of a few seconds, what once seemed impossible had become real. While the certainty of what had just happened quickly overtook me, I grabbed my rapidly tightening chest, bent down and started to hyperventilate.

“Zoe,” a worried voice said distantly. “I need you to calm down.”

I continued to stare directly at the floor while my breathing grew more out of control. The words were meaningless and no matter what I did, the air still felt like it was slowly and painfully being drained from the room.

“Please, try to relax,” the same voice said, at the same time a comforting hand rested between my shoulders. The moment the hand touched me, my breathing suddenly came under control.

“I’m sorry you had to see it this way,” Professor Woodward sighed, bending down next to me. “But there was no other practical way to do it.”

My mind was spinning while I attempted to rearrange myself. In one split second, every little detail and story Professor Woodward had told me since the beginning no longer sounded far-fetched. His history with my parents and the world of angels and demons that he said existed all suddenly felt real and undeniable. Everything I thought I knew about the world was erroneous. Even the concept of time didn’t seem valid anymore.

“Professor, what is happening to me?” I asked weakly, wiping my mouth. “What am I?”

Professor Woodward stood for a moment, eyeing me carefully, maybe making sure I wasn’t going to pass out again. After my hands stopped shaking and my body regained composure, he cautiously led me back towards outside.

“Zoe, for longer than you can imagine I’ve exceedingly struggled with this. There are no simple or easy ways to divulge what I’m about tell you. I know what I told you a few weeks ago came as a shock and this won’t be any different. But I need you to promise me that you will listen with an open mind and heart and understand that what I have to say is very complicated but extremely important. Can you do that?” he asked while we exited the gym and began walking back towards his office.

Even with the gunshot fresh in my mind, the fact that I’d just travelled back in time was enough to get me to believe almost anything Professor Woodward was about to say, including a world of angels and demons. With every ounce of effort possible, I nodded.

Professor Woodward walked along next to me and stared ahead. After a moment, he spoke in a low voice, only audible enough for the two of us to hear.

“The history of angels and demons coincides with the origins of the human race. In the beginning, there were the humans and those of us with heightened abilities. There were no angels and demons, just one group of special beings who held powers that defied the laws of nature. Humans were oblivious to our abilities because our goal was to blend in with them and not draw any extra attention to what we really were. We decided to call our world Common Ground because it was the place where we were able to coexist with humans, even with our secret. Concealing our true identities then became the first of three rules we adopted as a code to maintain the secrecy of Common Ground. The second rule was that we could never physically harm humans. Our powers were so far beyond human capacity that we were afraid any physical altercations would result in their deaths. Taking risks wasn’t something our kind was willing to experiment with and that helped us live in a peaceful and safe world.”

My mind was reeling. Hearing a first-hand account of the beginning of humanity was mind-boggling, especially coming from a man that was walking next to me. It was impossible. But after what I’d been through the last few weeks, I couldn’t deny it had some validity. My eyes remained locked on Professor Woodward while we walked and my desire to hear more grew with each new step.

“The last rule focused specifically on maintaining a constant population. Since the first two rules were supposed to keep our world a secret from humans, we had to make sure our population didn’t get so large that we couldn’t keep track of everyone. That’s why being intimate and having relations amongst angels and demons was strictly forbidden. As a result, not procreating meant there were an established number of us that never fluctuated. The few hundred of us that existed from the beginning never changed and our population remained the same for thousands of years.”

“Remained the same? You guys couldn’t die?” I asked, feeling confused.

He shook his head. “At first, we all thought our abilities were unique to the individual. Everyone had their own set of abilities. Some of us could fly while others could feel specific human emotions. It wasn’t until we all started witnessing the bitterness of mortality when we realized that our greatest power was one we all shared. It took some time to get used to, especially because all the humans we lived with started to die and we just didn’t have the mental capacity to understand it.”

The more we walked and talked, the less difficult it became to hear about things like immortality and super powers, even knowing that what he said meant I was immortal too. But every time he gave me an answer, more questions popped into my head. I understood how Professor Woodward was able to reference the beginning of humanity, but I didn’t know how he still looked so young for someone who clearly was much older.

“So if you were immortal, did any of you age?”

He chuckled slightly and looked over at me. “No. Once we reached the age of 21, our bodies were fully developed and we never aged a day beyond that. But, in order to avoid suspicion, we then had to become nomadic. We couldn’t stay in one place for very long because people would have started to realize that we were forever young. A big drawback with that was we never were able to fully immerse ourselves with humans because when we would finally get settled, it would be time to move on. Humans remained, for the most part, a big mystery to us.”