Love lines (10 page)

“What place is this, Christian?” she asked in a
trembling voice.

“It's... Eileen, what's wrong?” I stopped, looking at
her worriedly.

“I don’t know. Just some strange feeling. Like I was
pulled back by some invisible force.”

“That's what I see,” I admitted. All her feelings were
reflected not only in me but also in her aura, gradually filled with a dark
purple color – the symbol of the lack of vital energy and anxiety. “I wanted to
show you the lake.”

“The lake?”

“Yes, the one that you saw in your dreams. When I
started to see your dreams, I immediately recognized this place. I’d
seen
it before. My father brought me here two years ago, when I first arrived to
Dever. There are so many legends about it. But if you're scared, we can go
back. I just thought that seeing it in reality, will help you somehow to get
rid of your nightmares.”

“Maybe you're right,” she whispered. “I want to come
closer.”

We walked a little along the mountainside, and stood on
the shore of a huge dark lake. I felt Eileen’s pulse quickened, and a shiver
ran all over her body. I came closer and touched her hand... And then she
cried:

“No!”

I pulled my hand away quickly; she dropped to her knees,
unable to keep on her own legs, and began to cry, hiding her face in the hands.
Being in a deep confusion, I didn’t realize that all her feelings, just like my
own, were gone. I didn’t see the light, I felt no warmth, I was in the
darkness... Again. I realized that I had to do something to help Eileen, but I
was powerless and I couldn’t reach her. An invisible wall grew between us, and
I didn’t know how to break it. I didn’t see Eileen, I was blind, but she was
there alone and I still knew she needed me.

Through the veil of a mist, I could hear Eileen crying.
She said something quietly thought the tears.

“Christian!” she called. Just hearing my name, I was
able to come to myself. I raised her exhausted body into my arms and quickly
headed back for the campus.

All the way I saw tears rolling down her cheeks. I
wanted to say something, but I couldn’t find the words. A complete surprise for
me was the flow of her mixed emotions. Now I saw everything that had happened
to her, as if we crossed some invisible boundary, beyond which we could feel
each other again. I noticed that Eileen began to calm down and slowly come to
herself. She was no longer crying, she looked at me with completely shocked
eyes.

“What was that?” she asked with a horror on her face.

“I don’t know, Eileen, I don’t know,” I said, still
holding her in my arms. I was scared to death.

I gently lowered her to the ground to make
sure
that she could stand and embraced her tightly.

Never in my life have I felt myself so weak and
helpless. I couldn’t explain anything of what had happened on the lake. I
didn’t know how to explain it to her. Eileen stood, leaning her whole body
towards me, and trembling. She was frightened. I could feel it. She was
confused, just like me. And I... I couldn’t and I didn’t know how to protect
her.

“I want to sit down,” she said quietly.

“Of course.” I led her to the nearest bench.

 “Eileen, can I ask you one question?” I said
cautiously.

“What did I see on the lake?” she guessed.

“You saw something? Actually, I wanted to ask, why did
you start to cry.”

“Because I saw
her
. A woman. She was standing
beside me and holding my hand. Then you touched me, and an incredible pain ran
through my body, and then... Then I began to see my own nightmare in reality.
As she calls me, as I go into the depth of the lake, as you disappear. I'm
calling you, feeling completely powerless, and you take me in your arms, but
I'm so weak that I can’t say a word, and she doesn’t stop calling me...

Eileen's voice broke and tears started rolling again
down her cheeks.

“Don’t, don’t say anything else,” I said, embracing her
again. Without pulling away, Eileen continued: “I have a feeling that we were
not supposed to be there together. As if
that
in itself, was wrong. And
yet, I heard another voice.”

“What? You mean there was someone besides the woman?”
moving away slightly to see her face, I asked.

“Yes. But that one belonged to a man. And he kept
repeating the same thing:
“He is your keeper, you are his power”
. What
does it mean Christian?”

“I wish I knew,” I said quietly. “Do you know what the
strangest thing is? I haven’t seen or heard anything of what you were talking
about. In general, I felt nothing. Once you started crying, I was like in a
fog. And I couldn’t understand where I was until you had called my name.”

“Of course,
she
wouldn’t let you.”

“What do you mean, Eileen?” I frowned confused.

“She saw how you tried to take my hand, so with her
other hand, she touched your face, and you lost the ability to see, to
understand and even to feel anything.”

The more Eileen was saying, the more I couldn’t
understand her words. No, of course, she still was speaking English, but it
didn’t help me to come at least to some logical explanations.

“Are you saying that you saw and felt everything that
the woman was doing?” I asked her.

“Yes. And even more, Christian. I also felt the
emptiness that overwhelmed
you
.”

Chapter 12.  Golden
radiance (
Eileen)

That night I couldn’t fall asleep. I really needed to
get rest and find some strength for tomorrow's classes, but the sleep didn’t
come. When Christian brought me into the room, we had a long talk about what
had happened on the lake. Amanda wasn’t there, and nobody bothered us. We
discussed all the feelings that were inside of us on the shore, but still
couldn’t understand their origins. Wishing me good night, Christian went to his
room. I could see from his face that leaving me alone was the last thing he
wanted to do at that moment, but I really needed to stay alone for a while. And
although I felt even worse after his leaving, I tried not to think about it.

Of all the things that happened that evening, the man's
voice bothered me most. I had never heard it before. Despite that, the voice
seemed very close and friendly. So close that I wanted to reach out a hand and
touch it, as if someone was whispering into my ear. And though that voice,
never ceasing, repeated exactly the same phrase, I liked its sounding - warm
and soft, and calming. He inspired confidence - something I haven’t experienced
in the last forty-eight hours. That reminded me of those feelings that were
inside of me when Christian was near.

Hearing the rustle of the opening door, I didn’t turn
around, pretending to be already asleep. Despite the fact that Amanda and I
were very close and always talked about everything with each other, I didn’t
want to discuss the events of the night.

Some time later I finally fell asleep.

Fortunately, I didn’t have any dreams, so when I woke up
the next morning, I was quite surprised to feel well rested. Coming down for
breakfast, I found Amanda, Christian and Anna sitting at the table.

“Morning, sleepyhead! I thought you had a day off,”
Amanda said.

“No. My classes start later than yours,” I replied,
catching Christian’s troubled look at me. A sleepless night hadn’t affected his
appearance. He looked amazing. Well, as always. And I was a walking nightmare.
Again. Apparently foreseeing the course of my thoughts, he smiled slightly and
said:

“Is everything all right?”

Oh, for a millionth time already, I felt so stupid in
his presence, so I just mumbled something like
“It’s okay”
. 

“Your coffee,” he said, handing me a cup of hot drink.
“I thought you wouldn’t refuse.”

“Thank you. Just what I needed,” I smiled, breathing a
bracing aroma of coffee.

Watching  us  very  precisely,  Amanda  finally  decided
to  say:

“I can see that yesterday's meeting was a success,” she
said, trying not to give us up to Anna.

In spite of that, Christian and I exchanged smiles and
said
“yes”
together, after what there was another exchange of
understanding glances.

“Yeah. So I thought,” giving us a knowing smile, she
replied. “It's time for my classes, so let's talk about it
later,
” she
said before leaving, deliberately emphasizing the last word and looking only at
me. The interrogation under torture was coming and I already wanted to escape.
Every time Amanda wanted to extort some secret she turned into a real beating
up monster. And I was going to become her next sacrifice.

“I have to go too,” as if apologizing, said Christian.

“Wait a minute, I will go with you,” I jumped from my
seat.  “We have our classes with Evan in the training building.”

“Well, let’s go then.”

Out on the street and making sure that no one was
around, Christian said:

“Are you really okay? No nightmares?”

“If there was something wrong, you would know about it
first,” I said, enjoying that opportunity to have a few private minutes with him.

“I hope that.”

I raised my eyebrows questioningly.

“I mean I hope that such nightmares will no longer
bother you,” he concluded. “But I don’t mind if you want to see me without any
specific reason,” leaning closer to me, he added. I just hoped he didn’t hear
the sound of my beating heart ready to jump out of my chest hearing those
words.

“All right,” laughing nervously, I replied. “I hope you
didn’t forget that today we are going to the town?”

“Of course I didn’t. See you after classes then,” said
Christian, giving me his mesmerizing smile. He left and I stayed on the porch,
waiting for my mentor. I was wondering what a practice session he had planned
for today. I didn’t have much time to think about it, when Evan came.

“Hey beautiful! How are you feeling today?” he asked,
opening the door.

“The mood is not so good, but I hope the today's
training will fix it.”

“I’m sure you'll like it. Today we’ll see the
preparations of some students for the Festival’s show. Let's start, of course,
from the faculty of Fairey.”

We came to the second floor and entered a large domed
room that reminded me of a planetarium. All the walls and the ceiling were made
of glass. Feeling the familiar warmth, I turned my head slightly to the right
and saw Christian in the company of several other students. He apparently was
too focused on something else to feel my presence, so he didn’t notice it when
Evan and I took our seats in a distant corner of the room near the window.

“All the Fairey possess the power of fire, so now we'll see
how the best of them can do that,” instructed Evan, folding his arms and
spreading out his legs leisurely.

Christian came to the center of the room. He stood with
his back to us and still didn’t know about my presence.

“There are also two more students near Christian who
possess the power of water. They are here to guarantee his safety, as the trick
with fire elements in his show is rather complicated and dangerous. I hope he
won’t burn the whole building down,” smiling, commented Evan.

“I'm sure he’ll do everything just as it needs to be
done,” not thinking about his reaction, I said.

“Do you know him?” Evan asked in surprise.

“Yes, I have been best friends with his sister Amanda,
since school,” I explained indifferently.

I didn’t know whether it helped to reduce Evan’s
surprise, because all my attention at the time was focused on Christian. He
still stood with his back to us. Stretching his arms out before him, he began
to turn his palms slightly in different directions. Watching closer, I noticed
thin streams of fire, burning in his hands, like small brushes. And he was
drawing with those brushes, in the literal sense of the word, a picture that
was difficult to see well from my seat. I stood up and made a few steps toward
Christian. Evan, according to the rustle behind, followed me. I was coming
closer, until I saw what exactly Christian was drawing... Those were the most
intricate golden lines from my dreams. Only in his performance, they seemed to
be more transparent. They were swirling and interweaving in the air, making it
crackle from the power of Christian’s fire. Some strange impulse hit me and I
felt an incredible desire to join him. I was dying to feel his power and I
wanted to add a new dimension to his picture.