Walking Among the Shadows: Awakening: Revised Edition (19 page)

The glow from my skin began to
surround the form of the dark entity, but it was so consumed in torturing my
mom it didn’t notice me. Somehow even though I’d never experienced this kind of
power coming from inside of me I knew exactly what I needed to do next. A
bright light blasted from my hands and I held them out in front of me, reaching
out to grab this evil and expel it from this room, from our home, and away from
my mother. The light flashed across its face and it turned suddenly and
screamed,

“It was you! It was you all
along! I thought it was the girl!”

And then it began screeching
again, trying to move away from me and then another blast of  energy shot out
of my body towards the dark entity causing the entire room to engulf in flames.
Soon the heat inside me was so intense my clothes burst into flames but the
fire didn’t burn me; rather, it seemed to become an extension of my body and
consciousness and the fire began moving and burning the darkness at my command.
The entity cowered in the corner by the windows, trying to move away from the
light and fire that was burning through the room. It coiled like a snake
hissing as it tried to get out through the window. When I saw what it intended
to do, I commanded the fire to prevent its escape and suddenly the window burst
into flames, blocking its escape. It began hissing again as it ducked back into
the corner and kneeled down in fear.

I could hear my mom screaming
for Sarah but her voice seemed far in the distance; a mere echo in the bright
light and fire that had become the controlling environment in the room. I was
still moving towards the evil that had now become the prey and not the
predator. In the light this thing wasn’t so menacing anymore and now it seemed
like a small matter to deal with. Its dark and misty form slowly began
dissolving in the light and what was left was a shocking revelation. Once the
cloak of evil was shed away what remained was a man I came to trust, a man I
decided to love as a father despite my initial reservations. Kneeling before me
was Jason, but he wasn’t the same man I knew and his eyes seemed to harbor a
deep hatred and fear that sucked the love I felt for him right out of me.

To see that hatred in his eyes
was even more devastating because his deception was so complete he made us all
believe he loved us, that he loved me as a son, giving me the father I never
knew and the love I’ve always yearned for. But we were all wrong. During the
terror and chaos I assumed that this thing had killed Jason; taking his place
where he was standing at the island in the kitchen. It never crossed my mind
that this thing and Jason was the same person.

As I walked towards Jason with
the intention to end his reign of deceit and terror in our lives, I vowed to
never make that mistake again. I began to feel another surge of energy build up
inside me, this energy was hard to control and the fire in the room started to
burn more  intensely as it concentrated all its energy towards the corner where
Jason was kneeling. I started to lose consciousness right before I heard Jason
scream in agony as the energy shot through my body and then…darkness…

I
hate
hospitals. I hate the smell and the people that work here, but what I hate most
is the atmosphere of death. It’s like hospitals are the concourse of the
damned. When you come here it is only a matter of time before one of these operating
tables transport your ass to the afterlife. So here I am sitting in the waiting
area, worried and scared to death that this hospital will be ferrying my
brother and my mom to the afterlife. My mom is in serious condition from a loss
of blood and shock, and Aiden is in a coma. The events of this day will forever
reign supreme in my “weird shit is afoot” book. I can’t even begin to
rationalize how this all started and how it’s playing out. This is way too much
drama for a fifteen-year-old. It’s hard for me to relax in this uncomfortable
chair, but Tony is here next to me and that makes things a little better. We
both smell like smoke and sweat, but Tony is covered with soot and ash; even
his hair has some ash in it. I don’t want to giggle but he looks funny with all
that ash and dirt on him. Tony is always so put together, so to see him like
this is very funny.

But I’m really not in a giggly
mood. I guess I’m being silly trying not to think so hard about what my mom and
brother may be going through in the other rooms. Still, it’s good to not be
sitting here alone.

“So, tell me what happened in
there?” Tony asks me.

He has this look of amazement
and concern on his face, like he doesn’t know but at the same time I believe he
may have an idea of what happened at our house. In my mind I’m looking at him
saying to myself,
you may think you know but you have no idea
. Not even
close to an idea about what we just went through. It’s cute he’s so concerned
and he probably thinks he can make things better or console me, but at the
moment there is nothing he can say to make this all better. I’m mentally
screwed up right now and this day will have a lasting effect on my mind for
years to come. I just hope one day I will be able to sleep with the lights off
again.

“Sarah? What happened?”

Why do guys do this? Keep
asking questions they don’t really want to know the answer to or questions we
ignore. I mean if we didn’t respond the first time then maybe that should give
men a hint that the question isn’t going to be answered right now, if ever. But
he did run into a burning house and pull my brother out, so I guess I can tell
him something; but do I tell him the truth or make up something like a faulty
socket or an iron left on a bed? I don’t want him to look at me like I’m crazy
or something, because that wouldn’t be good at all. The last thing I need is
for my crush to think I’m one screw shy of a straightjacket. But I can’t just
ignore the question, with him sitting here staring at me with those beautiful
brown eyes.

Let me exhale first and then
I’ll give him the most suitable answer for a question like this at a time like
this.

“I don’t know.”

From the annoyed look on his
face he didn’t like that answer. Oh well, better that answer than the weird
truth about what really happened today. I don’t think he would be able to
handle it if I told him and he would look me up and down like I was losing it.

Damn this chair is so
uncomfortable! And I don’t want to start walking around in this hospital for
fear of seeing things, scary things inside people. Images of their true selves
illustrated in the most bizarre and terrifying ways. I started seeing this crap
right after the fight with Jasmine when she placed her two fingers on my head
and spoke a simple word that in normal situations wouldn’t have a life-changing
effect. It wasn’t the word but the person that spoke it that wasn’t normal.
That bitch is mental and now whatever she did to me has made me mental. I’m
sitting here thinking about our confrontation and wondering why it got so out
of hand so quickly.

I remember walking down the
hallway towards the lunchroom when I heard someone call my name. I turned
around, but no one was there. I felt weird because I could feel someone
watching me, even following me, but no one was there. And the way they called
my name was like a whisper but it echoed through the hallway bouncing off the
walls and lockers that lined the walls. I remembered feeling the hairs on my
arms stand straight up and my skin feel icky, like tiny bugs were moving in
different directions underneath my skin. To make myself feel okay about this
weird feeling I just tossed it to the air-conditioning that was on. But then as
I walked further down the hall, that same voice whispered my name again from behind
me. When I turned around no one was there. When I turned back around I was
startled by Jasmine standing right in front of me. I’d never been that close to
the girl and I always heard guys talk about how beautiful she was. I felt like
she was highly overrated but looking at her this close I had to admit that the
girl was flawless.

But her being that close to me
was uncomfortable and without thinking I let out a quiet yelp. A mischievous
smile formed on her face which would usually upset me because I then came to
the conclusion that she tried scaring me on purpose. But instead of being upset
I was kind of “weirded” out. She wasn’t physically intimidating but all the
same she scared me and that smirk wasn’t helping to lessen my anxiety towards
her. After about five seconds of smirking and me looking at her like she was
crazy, she decided to speak. At first she tried to be cordial and ask me how I
was doing and did I enjoy the game, but I wasn’t feeling the small talk from
her because the way she came at me was totally out of line and I wasn’t trying
to be friends at this point.

My heart was beating fast and
wouldn’t slow down. I hated feeling this way about another girl who wasn’t that
much taller than me. So I cut her off and told her I was on my way home and I
didn’t have time to play Facebook friend request with her. So if she had a
point it was well past due to getting to it. She seemed unfazed by my
unwillingness to engage in small talk and she kept talking. I can’t even recall
what she said. All I wanted was to go my way. So I reminded her about my
previous statement (something I hated doing was repeating myself or trying to
explain a very clear message). So she stopped talking and started smirking
again and  looking me dead in the eyes. At that point I started wondering if this
mental patient thought I was a joke or something?

Now I was getting upset
because she was in my way and if she didn’t get out of my face I would rip that
pretty little smirk off of her’s. So I told her to excuse me and started to
walk past her. At first I thought she as going to let me go until I felt her
hand grab hold of my arm, holding me back. I remember her hands were cold,
colder than normal, as if they were made of ice and I felt the chill through my
jacket. I tried to pull away but her grip was firm and I noticed she was much
stronger than she looked. Now I was beyond upset, I was livid and ready to give
her the best right hook she’d ever encountered. But before I could get in
position to swing she opened her mouth and said…

“Jason isn’t who you think he
is, he’s done horrible things and he will do the same to you and your family.”

Now this entire confrontation
had gone well beyond a verbal resolution. How dare Jasmine say anything like
that about Jason? She didn’t know anything about him and worse yet to say
horrible things would happen to me and my family was not only crossing the
line, it was kicking dirt in my eyes. She was going to have to pay the price
for being so stupid and outspoken against my family. I loved Jason and in my
eyes he was family. So I did what any girl in my position would have done; I
slapped her…really freaking hard. The sound of my open hand connecting to her
face filled the corridor and I felt the sting of the slap surge through my
fingers. I have never regretted striking someone when I decided it was
necessary and today wasn’t going to be any different.

The look on her face was
priceless. I could tell by the bulging of her eyes that a slap from me was the
last thing she was expecting. But then she did something I wasn’t expecting
either, a winding front kick across my face. Even now while sitting here I
can’t figure out how she executed that kick so close to me? She would have had
to be doing a complete split standing up to pull that off. The kick sent me off
balance and before I could recover another kick connected to my stomach. The
force of her kick and the air leaving my body sent me straight to my knees.
Again, she was much stronger than she looked. I then realized that this was
going to be the most difficult fight I’ve ever been in but I wasn’t going to
back down from this bitch. If she wanted to go I was more than willing to show
her I wasn’t going to go down from two kicks. She had more coming to her. She
stood over me with that same smirk on her face but her face was different
because now the left side was red with the imprint of my hand.

I waited for her to get
closer, and then I executed a frontal sweeping kick to knock her off her feet
but she lifted her front leg so I missed. Or so she thought. I quickly stood on
one hand and connected with a strong kick to her chest. But before she hit the
floor I hit her with a spinning kick that sent her flying to the other side of
the hall. She hit the floor and slid a few feet before stopping and holding her
chest. I stood up and looked at her across the hall. That smirk was gone from
her face and another a look of surprise. I could tell she was too comfortable
and confident in her fighting skills and didn’t expect me to be as skilled as I
was. Stupid, arrogant bitch. Looking at her I wanted to pound her face in until
nothing was left but mush and bone fragments.

She stood up stumbling and
holding her chest. Once she got her balance she took in a deep breath and
started running towards me with a lot of rage in her eyes. I wasn’t going to be
outdone by her aggression so I charged as well and when we were within striking
range of each other we began attacking with everything we had. She was much
stronger than me and every hit that managed to get through my defense took a
more serious toll than my strikes did to her. I knew I wasn’t going to win this
fight like this so I backed away and let her come to me and responded to her
attacks instead of reacting. Every time she would strike I would quickly
reposition myself on the side or behind her and every time she missed I made
her pay dearly. Before long she was screaming and cursing every time she missed
and I shut her ass down with another strike across her head and body.

But I got greedy and stayed
with the same tactic, something my sensei constantly warned me about and she
made me pay for it. When I tried to get behind her she bent down and stepped
back, positioning herself behind me and quickly grabbed a handful of my hair.
She then wrapped it around her arm and pulled me backwards and down towards the
floor. I hit the floor so hard I bit down on my tongue. The pain was so severe
I wanted to cry as the nasty taste of my own blood filled my mouth; but I
refused to give her the satisfaction. However, the position I found myself in
was very compromising and even though I’d hit her more and caused more damage,
she’d won this fight with that move. I was lying there waiting for her to wail
on me and get all the revenge she wanted for the beat down I’d just given her.
But when I looked at her strangely she had this look of compassion in her eyes
and seemed to be looking me over to see if I was okay.

This new side of her made me
very uncomfortable because I have never seen anyone react like this before. One
second she was the queen “B” and the next she had the look of a heartbroken and
concerned mother looking at her child’s knee after she had a hard fall off her
bike. She was a very strange girl and I thought I had seen it all but I was
wrong. Not only was she a very skilled fighter but she was a psycho…a very bad
combination. And then she placed her two fingers on my head and uttered the
word “awake.” After that she got up without saying another word and walked
away. I laid there on the floor for about a minute trying to gather myself and
make sense of what just happened. When I finally stood up I felt different but
I couldn’t put my finger on what it was.

I felt a draft blowing through
me that wasn’t there before, like something in me was now exposed. I checked
myself to make sure I was fully clothed and everything seemed to be there; but
at the same time I kept feeling like I was missing something or something that
was once heavy was now much lighter. When I finally walked outside there were hundreds
of students celebrating with a few teachers overlooking the celebration and
making sure things didn’t get out of hand. As I searched the crowd for Aiden I
glanced over at Mrs. Palpachek, the school nurse, watching a group of students
that was further away from the rest of the crowd.