Empyreal: Awaken - Book One (5 page)

“Yeah, I guess, but ... I mean
–”

“You’re welcome and you can thank me
by getting up and getting dressed.” Katelyn said, leaning down to
kiss her daughter atop her head.

“Mom –” Coralie started.

“Yes, Honey...” Katelyn stopped just
before walking out of the bedroom door.

“Umm...” Coralie paused. The words
would not come. How crazy her mother must be thinking she is right
now. She suddenly questioned herself. Questioning, had she really
been asleep all day ... had she really never left the house ... had
she not taken Jacques for a walk ... had she really not ran into
some psycho-creep-canine-keeper, who had tried to kill her?
Yeah,
she thought,
that didn't sound crazy.
She
snapped back into reality to see her mother’s questioning stare.
“Nevermind, Mom.”

“Okay, Hon.” Katelyn smiled and
answered innocently, then turned to exit the doorway. Coralie sat
on the edge of her bed, listening to her mother's footsteps descend
the stairs. She shifted her eyes and stared at the book that lay on
her bedside table.

She sighed. She had already told her
parents about her dreams once. She recalled the concerned looks on
their faces. A few more mentions of this kind could get her an
express ticket to seeking professional help.

She took a deep breath and decided to
keep this one mention to herself. It was not like she had made a
regular practice of keeping things from her parents, but this
seemed a bit necessary ... just until she could shake this feeling.
The feeling that something was going on ...

Her dreams had seemed real
.
Too
real. But it had to be real, right? If not, if what she was
experiencing was all a dream ... then, what did she have to worry
about? Dreams couldn’t hurt you, could they?

“Coralie...” she heard her mother call
from downstairs, “I don't hear you stirring...”

“I'm up, Mom...” Coralie said as she
rose to her feet, walked across her room, and looked down from her
window. The sight made a grin spread across her face. She saw
Jacques resting underneath the big oak tree in their
backyard.

Maybe it was just a dream
... a vivid, crazy dream ...

As she strode lightly across her room,
she took a hair tie from her wrist, and pulled her hair into a
short sprig to the back of her head.

Something caught her eye.

Her eyes widened as she quickly moved
back into view of her mirror. She moved in closer to the mirror,
checking out her extremely visible, bruised shoulder.

She touched it lightly, causing a
sharp pain to run up her arm. It was a dark shade of purple and
blue that stretched over her entire shoulder, highlighted with red
& pink scrapes.

She closed her eyes tightly. She said
to herself,
“This is not real...it was only a dream... only a
dream...”

Eyes still closed, she touched her
shoulder again.
Still painful,
she winced. She opened her
eyes and took a deep breath inward.

Looking at her bare shoulder,
underneath the skinning strap of her tank top, the bruise gawked
back at Coralie, taunting her. Her parents could not see this.
What would they think?

She heard lightly ascending footsteps,
coming up the staircase. Quickly, she grabbed at her sweatshirt
that lay across the back of her arm chair from the day before, and
through it over her head.

“Coralie?” her dad said, as he knocked
lightly on the door frame.

“Hey Dad!” she answered,
quickly.

“A little jumpy, huh?”

“Uh, no ... well, yeah, I guess ...
still not quite awake yet...”

“Well, are you awake enough for a
mid-afternoon snack?” Cal asked, as he pulled a plate from his
back. “I made you an ultimate grilled cheese – your favorite –
well, aside, of course, from Mom's cold spaghetti...”

“Well, of course...” she said with
agreement.

“... so, I thought that since you had
had that for an early morning breakfast – and you slept clear
through lunch ... you're surely panged with hunger, eh?”

Coralie's stomach growled as if on
cue, answering her dad's question.

“Actually, I hadn't noticed until just
now, but, yeah … I'm starving...” she said, taking the plate and
grabbing one of the precisely cut triangles. “Thanks,
Dad!”

“No problem, kiddo.” he said as he
patted her left shoulder. She gulped down the bite of grilled
cheese still in her mouth, and then clinched her teeth in an
attempt not to scream out in pain.

“You okay, kiddo?” Cal
questioned.

She finally choked out an answer.
“Yeah, Dad ... sorry ... grilled-cheese, down the wrong pipe ... I
guess I was hungrier than I thought.”

“You're alright, now, though?” he
questioned again.

“Yeah, Dad ... I'm okay now...” she
said clearing her throat, taking another bite, chewing dramatically
and noticeably slower.

“Alright, you need to start getting
dressed pretty soon, or Mom will have a come-apart...”

“Okay,” she said, pretending to salute
an officer, “I'm on it, Sir...”

“At ease soldier … call me if you
start choking again ... I know the Heimlich...”

“Okay, Dad ... I think that I'll be
fine...”

As soon as she heard his feet hit the
bottom of the stairs, she looked back toward the mirror and peaked
back at the hideous bruise that covered her shoulder.

She all of the sudden had a sickening
thought
. Could today have really happened?
Could all of this
– everything she had experienced in the past couple of weeks –
could it all be a reality?

“Coralie ... I don't hear enough
movement up there ... is everything okay?” Katelyn called from
downstairs.

“Yeah, Mom – In the closet, I'm just
picking out my dress...” Coralie walked over to her closet and
sighed as she perused through it, trying to find one that would
cover her dark, shining bruised shoulder.

* * * * *

“
Come on, Cor...” Katelyn
called up to her daughter's room, “... let's go ... we’re going to
be late...”

“Okay, Mom,” Coralie answered, “...
I’ll be right down...” Coralie took one last glance in the mirror.
The black dress draped close to her body, flattering to her tall,
slender frame. The dress hung to just above her knees. It was
sleeveless on one side, and on the other was a flowing sleeve
draping across her left shoulder, hiding the purplish-blue mark
that covered it.

Descending the stairs, Coralie saw her
Mom rushing in one room and out of the other and then back again.
“Okay, Cor, let's go ... I cannot be late to my own benefit!”
Katelyn called out, as if Coralie was still up the
stairs.

Still standing on the last step of the
staircase, Coralie answered, “Mom, I'm right here...”

“Okay, Cal, go get the car ... I'll
get our coats. Cor, just stay right here and wait for Dad to pull
around.”

“Okay, Mom ... I think I can handle
it!”

“Okay, then ... and here, hold on to
this...it's my speech.”

“Got it!” Coralie said, as she took
the slip of paper and walked out onto the front porch.

It was a clear night, breezy and cool.
Cooler than the more recent March nights. A shiver ran through her
body. But it was not the cool air that made her shiver. It was the
sudden feeling of being not-so-alone. Coralie knew that she was
standing all by herself on the front porch of her house, but the
feeling of someone else standing near, standing close, watching
her, swept over her like a blanket.

The only illumination came from a
sliver of moon that hung high in the dark sky and the tiny
twinkling stars that filled the rest of it. As she stared out into
the darkness, her eyes found themselves searching for something,
someone. She felt
their
presence. And she knew that if she
could feel the presence, surely there had to be a source from which
it came.

Her eyes continued to search the
darkness around her, but they saw nothing.

Coralie instantly felt uneasy as she
thought that she may have seen something ... a movement, a shadow,
in the field of open landscape that rested beside her house.
Concentrating on the open field, she seemed to lose sight of ...
what? What did she see? Was there possibly someone out there, in
the open field, amongst the waving stalks of wheat? Was there
someone, out there, watching
her
?

Honk!

Startled, Coralie jumped at the sound
of the car horn, seizing her attention. “Come on, Cor ... get in!”
her mother called from the front passenger seat window.

Coralie descended the front steps and
strode down the walkway leading to the driveway. She slid into the
backseat. Her parents were both turned around and staring at
her.

“Honey, are you sure you are okay? You
seem a little jumpy tonight...” Katelyn asked her daughter, in a
much calmer tone than before.

Coralie looked out of her side door
window toward the black, open field. Nothing – no movement,
anywhere ... aside from the sea of wheat stalks swaying in a
wave-like motion.

What or who had been out there?
Watching? Waiting for ... what?
Her
? She turned around and
tried to muster up an easy grin. “I'm fine, Mom ...,” she paused,
taking in a deep calming breath, “I’m fine...”

When they arrived at the Talmedge University
Banquet Hall, there were swarms of people. But that was the norm.
Anytime Coralie’s parents hosted an event of this sort in the city,
it was the most popular place to be. She stood in awe, thinking to
herself that everyone inside and outside of the city must have
showed
.
And it was still early
.

Though Coralie gave most of the credit
to her parents for putting together such a wondrous celebration,
she did not want to discredit the University itself. Talmedge
University was one of seven very prestige and reputable private
universities that her father had been affiliated with. It had been
named for Dr. Wade Talmedge, who founded the University in the
early 1900s – or at least that’s what the dedication plaque in the
quad indicated.

Coralie’s father had been offered the
Head of Department position at each of the seven private
universities. But for whatever reason, he had decided to stay in
Thessla, and took the position at Talmedge.

Tonight's Event: a Going Green
Campaign for the University
. For Talmedge and for the town of
Thessla, this was a major affair. Cal was the Department Head of
Natural Sciences & Research for the University. Katelyn,
Thessla’s event planner and coordinator, would ensure tonight's
event was a success.

Coralie looked at her parents. She
watched her mother, looking so put together and sophisticated. She
shifted her eyes to her dad, looking ever so debonair and
intelligent. She smiled with pride. Together, they made a great
team.

“It's showtime!” Katelyn said, holding
her hand out, beckoning her speech, which was written flawlessly on
a set of monogrammed note cards.

“Break a leg,” Coralie whispered,
knowing her mother would not need the wishing of such luck. Coralie
never understood why her mother felt the need for the note cards.
She never used them. Never even looked down at them. She always
held her audience’s attention with confidence and never once looked
away from them.

The night's event would consist of
seven speaking parts, five of which would be from celebrities, of
some sort. As always, her mother would begin the night with an
introductory speech of the campaign's importance, and then
introduce Coralie’s father, who would speak on behalf of the
night's campaign, cause and foundation. After speaking, he would
then introduce the first guest speaker and so on from there. After
all of the celebrities have spoken to their audience on behalf of
the cause, and the importance of
“playing your part”
and how
to make “
healthy contributions
”, Katelyn would then return
to the stage, giving another heartfelt “
thank you all for coming
and supporting our cause”
followed by the
“and please
everyone stay, mingle ... we're all family here...”
And with
that said, the
mingling music
would begin, causing people to
stir with meaningless chatter.

The Banquet Hall was filled with
people mingling about. Coralie shuffled through the sea of people,
and began to listen to the comments being thrown back and forth
from one party to another.

“I plan to write a check for ten
thousand dollars,” one would say.

“Hmph ... an insignificant drop in the
bucket to my fifty thousand dollar check,” another would
counter.

“You're contributions are both sad and
pathetic, and will look as such next to my check for one hundred
thousand dollars ... I would think of giving nothing less for a
cause such as this...” another countered to both.

Coralie tried to hurry away, hiding
her laughter and disgust. This was the same bantering,
back-and-forth conversations from the last event, the
Save the
White Seals Benefit.
The Benefit held before that was the
Save the Red Oaks Benefit.