Devin Greigh: Testimony

“You’ve got to be kidding me,” was the first thing I heard as I woke up. I sat up, way too quick, and the blood had rushed through my head like an hourglass that had been flipped sand side-up. My eyes felt tingly, and I felt like falling right back to sleep, but Devin had caught me before I had made another near-fatal mistake; hitting the back of my head against the headboard.

“What am I kidding you about?” I slurred, still trying to recuperate from the entire initiation process.

“You suck your thumb in your sleep,” he started, “as if you couldn’t look any more like an infant.”

I checked both of my thumbs. The left thumb was dry to the bone. I checked my right thumb; dryer than the left thumb. I looked up at Devin with a puzzled expression…or more like a pouting expression as though I had been scolded. Mere seconds later did I realize that he was only joking. “You jerk!” I laughed sluggishly. I hit him, but not nearly hard enough.

He gave me a smirk and then finally replied, “I can’t help it if you’re easy to fool…it’s the price you pay for being an idiot.”

He smirked again, and I smiled back. I felt like I was a mere masochistic slave with an immense glutton for punishment. Perhaps I was attracted to boys who were obnoxious, condescending, and arrogant jerks like Devin. I did not know why I felt the way I felt, but I knew that it was real. I was sure that if my mother was still alive, she would say, “There’s plenty of good in that boy, honey, don’t give up!” I knew for certain that Beatrice would just ask me a million and one questions about him, like, “How old is he!?” or, “Does he smoke pot!?”

I sat myself up again to collect my bearings, brushing the curly tendrils of hair that had fallen in front of my eyes. I had closed my eyes for only a brief moment, and when I opened them, my eyes instantly met with Devin’s. His eyes shone with a crystal-clear blue as usual, and like always, I found myself lost within his marble-glossed irises.

“Are you sure you didn’t receive laser-eye surgery or something?” I joked. “Your eyes are way too beautiful to be your actual eyes.”

Devin simply scoffed and then asked, “What’s so beautiful about my eyes?”

“Everything,” I answered.

At that same time, Othello strolled by and added, “I keep tellin’ him that, but he just sits there with that ridiculous look on his face every time I say it.”

Devin turned quickly to Othello and replied, “That’s because I don’t want you to know how I really feel.”

“I know,” Othello answered back with a wink. He then looked over to me and said, “Girl, you’re lucky.”

“Yeah,” Devin scoffed, “lucky I’ve been rejecting her and saving her the heartache.”

“Whateva,” Othello said as he finally walked away. “That’s not what I meant, playboy.”

Devin shook his head, and then said, “Are you okay to stand?”

I smiled and nodded, and then Devin stood up with his cane so that he could give me room to stand. When I got to my feet, I held my arms out, linking my fingers together with my palms out, and then swung my arms upwards slowly to stretch my body. I arched my back, and I could feel the sharp but over-relieving popping of the small of my back. I sighed as the muscles throughout my body tingled with the brief stretch.

“Are you done?” Devin scoffed.

“Not yet,” I replied sarcastically. “You can’t go the day without doing a few jumping jacks!”

“Well fortunately for you, the day passed,” Devin stopping me mid-jumping jacks.

“It did?” I asked. “Where did it go?”

“Where all the other days go,” Devin answered, “with the sun.” Devin prompted me to follow him, and I did so. There was an extra bounce in my step as I followed him down the out of den room and through the hallway.

“I just remembered,” I blurted out.

“That you’re an idiot?” Devin teased.

“No,” I snapped. “That we arrived here at night, or close to it. It was after school.”

“Yeah that was yesterday,” Devin replied.

“Yesterday!?” I shrieked.

“Yep…Yesterday.”

“You mean I passed out and was asleep for nearly twenty-four hours!?”

“Relax,” Devin muttered, “considering the amount of people who had garnished you, I’m surprised you’re awake right now.”

“It’s really that strong?” I asked.

“Garnishing is a powerful thing,” Devin said as we stopped at the front door. “But Cas will tell you more about that.”

Devin opened the door, and stepped to the side, allowing me to walk through. As I stepped through the door and out on the front porch I took the time to gaze into the sky. The thick clouds were gone, and the sky was clear; I could see millions of glimmering stars peppering the rich, blackened sky. The street was illuminated by the sun-colored luster radiating from the bulbs within the 1960’s-style street lights. The streets were paved in cobblestone; something I had not noticed during my first visit. Just at the gate stood a bouncy Casrial; her hazel eyes shone just as bright as the street lights. She held Salvador, her SLR camera, in her hands like a zealous tourist. Her smile was bright and even more noticeable as I approached her.

“Alright!” she sang loudly. “We got two nights before we get back to school, so I’m going to go over the basis first.”

“Wait,” I stopped her. “Two days…but isn’t it Saturday night?”

“Hun,” Casrial started, “it’s still Friday. I mean it’s eleven-forty at night, but—,”

I scoffed before saying, “Devin…,” shook my head, and then said, “Never mind, I’m still recuperating.”

“Devin did the whole, overslept prank on you, didn’t he?” she laughed.

“He’s done this before?” I asked.

“He and Othello always do it to those who were garnished,” Casrial answered. “But don’t fret; Tess got it the worst. Poor girl thought she wet the bed, and she wouldn’t leave the bed until Devin told her he was joking.”

“Poor Tess!” I gasped, although secretly I was laughing.

“Yeah, Devin could be a bit of a jerk,” Casrial admitted, “but he’s the best, and he looks out for his family more than we could ask him to.”

Casrial then spun around to face the gate, waved her hand, and the gate unlatched, swinging open in sync with her waving hand before saying, “Come on, we’re gonna go for a walk.”

I followed Cas as she bounced onto the cobblestoned streets. I felt Scarlett bounce loyally at my hip, letting me know I had not forgotten to bring her along; I figured that since Cas had Salvador out, we would be taking pictures somewhere along the line. As soon as I had thought this, Casrial confirmed my hypothesis.

“Do you know why we were given these cameras?” Casrial asked.

“I think I kind of have an idea,” I started, “I know that I can see the wraiths better with the camera, and when I use the flash, I can see them with my eyes.”

“That’s good!” Casrial sang, and then asked, “But do you know why?”

I couldn’t even pretend to know the answer to that, so I just shook my head and answered, “Nope, no idea.”

Casrial skipped a bit in her step; her legs were longer than mine, so I found myself adding a lot more spring to my step to keep up.

“We, as mediums, have the power of paranormal sight; our eyes react to our own spiritual energy, allowing us to see spirits and other spiritual essences that normal humans are unable to fully see. Our powers are great, but our spirits are very fragile; we must reserve our energy so our spirits do not grow weak. Because of this, not a lot of mediums can see spirits the same; some see them very easily, while others barely see them at all. This is why we adopt these. Casrial held up Salvador to show me as she continued her lesson.

“SLR Cameras are very powerful, and can interact with the essence of paranormal activity very easily; not any old camera can do this. SLRs are pretty customizable, and different exposures grant it different effects, while different lenses add more range and depth…Not a lot of people know this, but our SLRs are both our senses and our weapons. For waywards, they reveal them with a single shot from the flash; this makes any wayward, however, vulnerable. For gheists, the right shutter settings could paralyze them, and with the right flash, it can be like a shotgun against them. There are many things you must learn about your SLR that you don’t already know, which is why I’m going to teach you thoroughly.”

Casrial and I walked far from Devin’s home as she taught me a lot more about Scarlett than even my foster father Ben could ever tell me. She taught me how the exposure and shutter settings on Scarlett are pretty much the settings used to fight off gheists, and told me that I should always carry a set of three different flashbulbs; one as a flashlight, one for revealing, and the other for fighting. She also taught me more about the shutter settings, and how a single “burst” shot is powerful, but slow and could wear the bulb out, and single “quick” shots were weaker, but quicker when dealing with a horde, or a really fast-moving wraith.

“Night-vision is excellent for spotting residual energy,” Casrial explained. “Simply, Night-vision acts as a form of sonar to detect three sources of energy. Any bright, pale-green light in the forest-green field was normal human energy, any yellowish-green light was passive energy, and any black blotch was negative energy. That’s something you will learn to use on your own,” Casrial explained. “You don’t have to worry about that now, but it’s good to know either way.”

Afterwards, Casrial taught me about the different zoom lenses, and exposure lens filters. The zoom lenses was simple; the greater the number, the further the zoom. “It’s perfect for weakening a gheist from a distance when you want to use a burst shot,” Casrial sang.

The lens filters were essential during day and night. UV filters worked to eliminate the blockage of the sun. Casrial’s explanations of our SLRs to me were almost like training guides to become professional assassins. I kept picturing myself lugging around a massive cello case as I scaled a rooftop, and assembling a scope, ammunition cartridge, tripod, and a shot suppressor, on Scarlett. The little daydream made me giggle a bit. “I kind of think of it as playing Call of Duty,” Casrial said with a wink; she must have been reading my thoughts. “Just remember that your parasight doesn’t really shoot out real bullets.”

“Parasite!?” I asked.

“It’s what I call SLRs like Salvador and Scarlett; Paranormal sighting devices. For a while, mediums referred to them as PSDs, but I came up with my own term, Parasights. It’s catchy, and in some sick way, I enjoy people mistaking the term for a virus or leech.” She smiled at me; one of probably many who had thought she had meant some form of virus.

We stopped in front of the entrance of an abandoned playground. The old spring-horse rides and climbing dome reminded me of when Barry and I were younger, and he would literally dropkick me off of both playground activities. The sand on the playground blew with the swirling wind that inhabited the area; it was like a concealed sandstorm awaited our presences into the heart of the playground.

“This is where I will teach you about your medium powers,” Casrial sang.

“Why a playground?” I asked.

“Well at first I had an option of choosing an indoor environment or an outdoor environment,” Casrial started, “but when you were finally appraised as a telepathic medium, I had no choice but to choose an outdoor setting. It would be kind of dangerous trying to teach you what I’m about to teach you in an enclosed environment.”

“Fair enough,” I replied with a shrug, and then followed Casrial into the heart of the playground. When we reached the stone climbing dome, Casrial stopped, and then spun around.

“Now,” she started, “remember when I told you a second ago how you were appraised?”

“Yeah,” I answered, “what does that mean?”

“Alexander and Anna both have the ability to detect the essence of residual energy within a person, place, or thing. Every form of residual energy is different by nature, but similar by class. There are different types of classes for each type of clairvoyant. Different types of classes for mediums include: telepathic, intervention, and alteration. Each class has a particular subclass, and with each subclass, the skills can be practiced, mastered, and perfected. Alexander and Anna can detect these classes just by the signature embedded within the residual energy of a spirit.”

All of this surrealism started to make me feel like I was in a video game; at first I felt like a character from Call of Duty, and now, sitting in an abandoned, creepy playground, I felt like a level-four mage from World of Warcraft. It was so unreal, yet I felt like I was in my own world; a world I had created. All of this was something I would have read in a manga, or played on Barry’s XBox. I was waiting for the sheer disappointment of waking up from this life-long dream, four-years-old again, lying between my mom and dad in their bed—then again the thought of my parents still being alive was also something I had looked forward to, though ironically that seemed more fictional than having supernatural powers right now. The thought of having powers other than seeing, touching, and talking to ghosts was becoming more intriguing, and I grew more excited to know what powers I had.

“So what medium class am I again?” I asked zealously.

“You’re what I am now,” Casrial sang with a smile, “you’re telepathic.”

“Are you serious!?” I squealed. “So, I can pretty much move things with my mind!?”

“Not yet,” Casrial started, “but that’s why we’re here.” Casrial frolicked past the big, stone climbing dome and I followed anxiously behind until we stopped by a pile of wood.

“Before I begin I must apologize,” Casrial started, “you’re not what I am per se; when you perfect your abilities, you will be able to do more than what my powers allow me to do.”

Before I could give her a modest reply, Casrial turned around to face the massive pile of wood, and held her hand out to it. The moment Casrial did this, I could feel the cooling warmth radiating from her body, and her harmonic resonance faded in with the soothing sounds of a harp-like melody. Suddenly the pile of wood trembled, and then flew from its original resting place, out into the direction Casrial’s palm was facing. The pile of wood was swallowed by the darkness of the forest up ahead; all I heard was the crashing and cracking of splintering wood off in the distance.

“You see,” Casrial started, “that’s telekinesis. This is my subclass. I’m able to force anyone and anything in the direction I want them to be forced, limited only to a linear path from which I’m currently facing. Your subclass is known as psychokenisis.”

“So I’m crazy?” I asked.

Casrial laughed and then answered, “No, silly! Psychokinesis is an advanced form of telekinesis; instead of just being able to push things, you can actually grab hold of things, move them freely and--of course--let them go. Once perfected, you’ll be able to do a lot more with this power…a lot more than you could even imagine.”

“Really?” I asked excitedly. “Like what?”

“That depends,” Casrial shrugged, “that’s for you to decide. But first, I need to teach you the basics again; your aura, and how to use it.”

“My aura?” I asked with a raised eyebrow.

Cas just giggled and replied, “By now you should have grown familiar with feeling the presence of waywards and the clairvoyants; the menthol-feeling, accompanied by the sound of music?”

I nodded and answered, “A sort of harmonic resonance.”

“Exactly,” Casrial replied with a smile. “That’s you, sensing someone, or something else’s aura. Every aura feeling is similar, but the overall presence of every aura is different. However, every normal human aura’s presence is the same since there’s no real abnormality within them. However, clairvoyants, waywards, and even gheists, have their own unique presence in their auras; it helps us distinguish ourselves from one another. Yours, for example, is beautiful; it sounds angelic, as if a choir of children is singing softly and in perfect harmony.”

“Really!?” I asked with a light high-pitched crack in my voice. I’ve never really thought about how my aura sounded; I was far too busy listening to how everyone else’s aura sounded. Cas’ aura was chiming in loud and clear, with her harp-like melody strumming softly throughout my body. I thought for a moment, how my aura might have sounded; I was now intrigued with how it may sound if I were to hear it. At that point I wanted to know…I needed to know.

“Is there any way for me to hear my own aura?” I asked her.

“That’s what we’re going to do,” Casrial answered swiftly. “In order to use your powers you have to get in-tune with your own spirit. You will need to be able to hone in on your own aura as if it was an involuntary action. Once we get you to do that, then we will then move on with the next lesson.”

Cas smiled brightly; she must have been enjoying the fact that she was able to teach me. Throughout the short time we’ve known each other, I knew that there was something that made us click; just not that we were both clairvoyants. I was also excited that Cas was teaching me. I probably would have felt awkward if someone else was assigned as my mentor.

“So,” Casrial began as she noticed me smiling back, “what you need to do is what we call soul searching. When people pray, talk to themselves, or even daydream, they isolate themselves from everything else except the point of interest. Unlike normal humans, our spirits can actually make things happen if we think it. It’s not easy at first; you have to believe that the connection exists. It’s exactly like using astral communication, only you’re using it on yourself. Do you know how to use astral communication yet?”

“A little bit,” I admitted, “Devin has been teaching me, and I think I’ve got the basics covered.”

“Well we’ll have to make sure you truly grasp the concept of astral communication,” Cas informed me. “It’s a powerful source that can save your life and others; it’s not just a way of communication. Communication is simply the basic part of it.”

Cas continued with her explanation on astral communication as the wind began blowing my massive nest of hair in its direction. From what I had learned from her explanation, communication was the first step in using astral communication; it all began with communication. Once a connection has been made, you could virtually do anything as long as your spirit is strong enough to execute the task. I felt almost invincible until Cas had warned me that a medium’s spirit energy expenditure runs inexplicably fast, and that it’s dangerous…even fatal…to overexert that expenditure cap. I knew there had to be a catch to it all.

After all explanations were over, we went to work on my astral communication skills; Cas had let me try on her since no one else was around but ourselves. I pretty much got the hang of it easily. I realized that what Cas and Devin had said about our spirits pretty much doing what we think is true; it was almost as if I was operating a computer by mouse-point. I could also see her aura around her as I practiced more; it was the very same pale-blue smoky essence that radiated from Devin whenever he had used his astral form. The more I practiced, the more advanced the lessons became; I had learned to see Cas’ aura with my eyes shut. I also learned to communicate with her without speaking; everything was done by utilizing my own spirit and nothing more.

We had spent virtually no time quickly going over astral communication because Casrial wanted to start teaching me how to soul search.

“Now remember,” Casrial started, “eyes closed, connection open, no speaking.”

I did as she had directed. I shut my eyes, pursed my lips tight, and breathed slowly through my nose. For a moment I had felt nothing, heard nothing; only the low whistling of the wind as it sang through the playground, and the brisk, but gentle movement as it caressed my face. Other than that, it was silent. I tried a plethora of times, over and over, again and again…Nothing…silence. I had remembered what Cas had said about isolating one’s self from everything else but the point of interest, and tried implementing that to my practices. After two long hours of silence, I finally heard a faint sound, almost like singing from a distance. I concentrated on that sound, hoping to pull the sound closer to my ears. The sound suddenly started to fade. Then I had remembered not to listen with my ears; something that I had been doing for the majority of the time. I treated the sound as an aura, which it most likely was, and used my spirit to listen in. If it was indeed my aura, then it would be like I was talking to myself. I remembered the faint sound in my thoughts, and played it over in my head repeatedly. Suddenly, the sound returned, only it was louder. It was beautiful; it was like a thousand angelic children singing in different chords. The vibrato was perfect, and it rang through my body like a tuning fork as though it was coming from inside of me. That’s when it hit me…this sound of a thousand angelic children singing in perfect harmony…It was coming from within me. This was the sound everyone opposite of me had heard. This was my aura. I gasped, and opened my eyes. Everything was swirling a bright, pale blue through my eyes; it was as though I was a robot, scanning the entire perimeter around me. Every living thing, such as the trees, leaves, the grass and other foliage, had an aura overlaying their surfaces. Everything shimmered as though it was the day, and the sun had covered everything with every single drop of its rays. My aura was loud and clear, and my skin was tingling with the strong menthol feeling from it; I felt like I was being serenaded by the entire town of children…It was beautiful.

“There it goes,” I finally heard Cas’ voice sing through my ears.

Suddenly I felt my aura slowly fade, and the robotic scan-like vision followed, and I found myself staring off into the black abyss in which Cas had thrown the pile of wood into.

“There’s a forest in there,” I stuttered while pointing at the blackness up ahead—“I can’t see it now, but before…I saw everything!”

“That’s your aura’s vision,” Cas said. “Instead of using your own eyes, your aura layers your eyes with a black coating of ectoplasmic energy, enabling us to see the auras of wraiths and other forms of residual energy when we’re not using our parasights.”

“So I’m able to see auras all around me to a certain degree?” I asked, and then followed up by adding, “That’s awesome!”

Casrial clapped her hands and started to dance.

“Congratulations on making the grade!” she cheered. “We’re going to keep practicing this for a little while more, and then it’s on to the good stuff!”

“You mean what I did there wasn’t the good stuff already?” I said, still astonished by what had just happened.

“Not even close,” Casrial sang.

I practiced soul searching more, and with each time I had become better with the gift. Cas eventually gave me a time limit to pick out every tree in the black area, and then count as many blades of grass as I could before the allotted time. Each time I had to try and break my highest count. Eventually I managed to count up to three-hundred blades of grass resting within the pitch-black area of the forest. I was able to soul search easily after that final practice; it wasn’t about focusing as much as just praying or thinking to yourself—which was what Casrial had said in the beginning. An hour had passed after my final soul searching practice, and Casrial grew even more impressed and anxious to start with the good stuff.

“Unfortunately we will have to wait until tomorrow to begin the good stuff,” Cas sighed, “it’s getting too late, and you’re going to need more sleep.”

“But I feel so awake now!” I whined. “Can’t we just start a little of it now? Come on, big sis!”

I pouted in attempts to win her over, but she pouted back and replied, “Awww, don’t worry, we have plenty of time tomorrow. Plus, in an hour, the drowsiness will hit you instantly. Trust me; using your aura’s power for the first time is always a doozy, so when you get back to Devin’s I want you to stay in bed until you feel the need to sleep.”

You’re not staying the night at Devin’s?” I asked with disappointment.

“My dad worries,” Cas sighed, “plus, I’m waiting on a phone call from Jayden.”

“Awwww!” I sang. “So wait, I heard you went on a date with Jayden…How was it?”

Cas began to blush, and skipped as we started to walk out of the playground.

“Well,” she started, “he’s definitely a keeper!”

Cas and I continued to talk about her date with Jayden until we made it back to the front of Devin’s house. Apparently, Jayden was a great kisser and was never really quiet or awkward, which I knew already from the times we had all hung out during school. Jayden was the perfect match for her; they were both cute and playful, and both of them felt more alive than I had known them to be before they had started talking to each other.

I sighed as Casrial continued talking about the many things she loved about Jayden, and it had caught her attention without me having any knowledge of it.

“Are you okay little sis?” Cas asked in a concerned voice.

I sighed again and replied, “I don’t know…I just…I’m so happy for you and Jayden, and it’s about darn time it had happened, because you two are utterly cute together, and Jayden has become like a brother to me…”

“But,” Casrial said, elongating the one word in her voice.

“I wish I could have that too,” I said. I noticed Casrial’s eyes widen, and then quickly added, “Not Jayden, but someone like that as well.”

“You mean Devin,” Cas said in a sweet voice.

“Yeah,” I started. “How did…? Oh yeah, astral communication.”

Cas nodded and then said, “Devin would be a great catch if he wasn’t so hung up on keeping everybody alive.”

“I know,” I started, “he gave me the whole spiel about if we were to be together it would be too great of a risk, because he would be worried about losing me and everything.”

“That’s a load of crap!” Cas shouted. “He’s just hiding the fact that he actually likes you.”

My eyes widened. “He does!?”

“Of course he does,” she said loudly, “him saying all of that nonsense is actually proof that he does. The truth is Devin doesn’t want to lose anyone because it will let everyone know that he actually has feelings…But when he looks at you, his aura goes crazy, as if it’s trying to embrace your aura. And have you noticed him when he stares at you? He doesn’t like any of the other girls in the house, although he and I get along swell…But he talks about you a lot, even to Alexander. He knows that you’re crazy about him, but he has this complex character persona going on…He cares about the family he’s with now—us—but he acts like a loner. He’s bound to fall for you, but he’s acting like he doesn’t want or like you, but then he hovers over you, like he wants to ask you out right there and then.”

“You’ve been using astral communications to your advantage, haven’t you?” I teased.

“It pays to be me sometimes,” she boasted. “But seriously, lil’ sis, Devin likes you, just stay close to him, and eventually you’ll get him to crack.”

The aching in my chest that I had was suddenly replaced with a comforting feeling of hope. The talk Cas had given me definitely convinced me that I was still in the running…that I still had a chance. I pounced Cas, and hugged her tight. She was definitely the sister I’d always wanted. “Play a little hard to get first,” she whispered in my ear.

Then I heard the sound of tires rolling along the cobblestoned street, followed by bright lights of a massive black pickup truck. It stopped right in front of Devin’s house with only minor squealing from the brakes. I looked inside and noticed the same man with the short buzz-cut and bulky build sitting next to Casrial—her father. I loosened my embrace and we both pulled away. I waved to Cas’ father and he smirked—his way of smiling—and waved back.

“He won’t like it much, but that’ll mean that he likes you!” she said as she opened the passenger side door of the truck and hopped in. She rolled the window down, poked her head out, and said, “I’ll see you tomorrow! Be up early so we can hang out beforehand, okay?”

I smiled and said, “Sure thing big sis! Good night guys!” and waved them off.

Cas and her father both waved back. I watched as the truck made a three-point turn, and then disappeared down the street. I sighed, and then opened the gate. I noticed that the lights were on in almost every window of the house except one—must have been the bathroom—which meant that people were still awake. I slowly marched the paved walkway leading to the stoop, skipped up the stairs, and walked inside the house.

Everyone was awake as I had thought. I checked the massive circular clock on the wall in the family room…it was almost one o’ clock in the morning, and I was still wide-awake. I added a little bit of spring to my step as I trotted down the hall towards the family room. Othello was sprawled out on the large L-shaped sectional sofa, watching an episode of Life and Times of Archie Long.

“You watch that show too?” I asked.

“Yep, we all do honey,” he replied. “Somethin’ about the show, it attracts the soul…like a good lover.”

I smiled, and simply nodded. He winked at me and then asked, “Wanna share the sofa?”

I gasped and shook my head. I then found myself stuttering out, “I’m definitely way out of my league!”

Othello then burst into laughter and replied, “Chill gorgeous, I’m offerin’ you a seat to sit down. Besides, you’re still a guppy compared to my barracuda-sized appetite, if you catch my drift.”

My face flushed quickly with red; my face was burning hot as if I was running a fever. Othello cooled me off quickly however by adding, “You may wanna just catch some Zs…If Cassie worked ya good like she did with Tess, then in a few minutes you’re gonna pass out right there on that floor. Trust me; you don’t wanna hit that floor baby.”

He made a good point. I tapped the floor with the tips of my shoes; a loud clattering emanated from the rapping of my shoe. The floor was made with solid marble. I definitely wanted to be somewhere less threatening to the skull if I had decided to pass out unexpectedly. Also, I wanted to do as Cas instructed; lay safely in bed. The only problem was finding a room…I didn’t even know where I was supposed to sleep tonight.

“There’s that room we put you in when you passed out,” Othello said as if he read my mind. “That’s your room for the weekend…it’s got a flat screen and everything. You’re gonna need it for the weekend gorgeous!”

“Thank you!” I said with relief. “Good night Othello!”

“Call me O, hun,” he corrected me. “Night.”

“Night O,” I said softly, and then headed down the hall. Tess stepped out of the bathroom to the right of me. She was already dressed for bed; pink baby t-shirt and teal-blue sweat pants with writing on the back of them…I did not want to stare too long wondering what it said. She had just turned in my direction and I had almost bumped into her as she was still brushing her teeth.

“Oh!” She yelped with the toothbrush still in her mouth. “Solly Ehhenhlow, hollon!”

Tess ran back in the bathroom. I heard her spitting a mouthful of toothpaste out into the sink, followed by the running of water. As soon as the water stopped she sprang out from the bathroom once more.

“So how was your training the first time?” Tess asked in a cheerful voice.

“It was really awesome,” I said through a heavy sigh. “I didn’t know we had such amazing powers as mediums!”

“I know right?” she said jubilantly. “Cassie’s an awesome instructor, and though she doesn’t have every single medium subclass or class for that matter, she knows so much about them all. She knew what my powers were and what to expect and the dos and don’ts on them. The first time was wicked awesome, but I passed out right on the floor, and suffered a concussion afterwards.”

She pointed right to the very spot where I had rapped my shoe against, just in front of the family room where I could hear Othello now laughing.

“I feel like everyone picks on me because I’m small and clumsy,” Tess said suddenly. “I’ve had a rough start when I first became part of the family. I’m sure if you haven’t heard by now, you’ll eventually hear the many horrors of my romance with Murphy’s Law.”

“It sounds like you and I have plenty in common then,” I laughed.

Tess smiled and said, “It’s always us shorties that get the bad rep. But we’re still awesome!”

I nodded, and then a question had spawned in my head. “What is your medium class?” I asked her as if I was asking her what level she was in World of Warcraft.

“I’m in the alteration class,” Tess started, “I can take on an astral form, pretty much like smoke. I can only do it for short periods of time, though…expenditure cap and all. But it’s still good for many uses!”

“Yeah,” I agreed, “like getting into areas others can’t!”

“Exactly!” Tess sang. “So how about you?”

“Telepathic,” I answered.

“I’m jealous!” Tess said. “That’s such an awesome power. If you haven’t noticed, I’m a huge comic book geek!”

“No way,” I gasped. “So am I! Well, I read graphic novels and mangas, mostly, but—,”

“Shut up!” she shouted—“I’m a huge manga and anime fan! We’re gonna be the best of friends, I can tell!”

I smiled, and then suddenly, for a split second, everything started to distort in a spiral. I teetered back and forth, but felt Tess’ hands hold me upright.

“It’s starting to happen I see,” she said. “You better get in bed soon so you won’t have to worry about waking up with a huge bump on your forehead.”

“Or a fractured skull,” I added. “We will continue this conversation tomorrow though. Goodnight Tess!”

“Of course we will,” she sang. “Goodnight Evenfleu!”

She skipped past me, and down the hall. As soon as she reached the stairs and trotted up them, I turned to the room that was dubbed my sleeping quarters, and walked inside. I found the bed easily enough and dove right into it. The television was mounted right on the wall out in front of me; a widescreen flat-panel TV that was about forty-six inches in its screen size. I opted to leave the television off for the time being, and practice on my soul searching. I closed my eyes, and began tuning everything else out…everything else but Devin.

“You should be careful with how much you practice,” I heard his deep, raspy voice call out to me.

I opened my eyes to capture a glimpse of Devin standing beside my bed…He had a way with surprising me as always. With pursed lips, I smiled, nodded in agreement, and answered, “I know.” I decided to take Cas’ advice about playing a little hard to get, and simply closed my eyes again to concentrate.

“So how did it go?”

I heard Devin’s voice again…this time I kept my eyes shut and answered, “It was good, I learned a lot.” I could feel Devin frowning—I smiled internally to myself, and then continued to concentrate.

“Normally whenever you and Cassie hang out it’s never just good,” he teased.

I finally opened my eyes, and with an actual tinge of frustration in the form of a simple sigh, I glanced at Devin. “Devin, I’m trying to concentrate here,” I whined. “I’ve learned to soul search, and I need to practice this before I supposedly grow too tired to stay awake…According to everybody.”

Devin scoffed, but jokingly…which was weird because I had always figured Devin never wanted to bother with me…I had thought that perhaps Casrial was right. “Well excuse me for wanting to talk,” Devin snapped…once again, only jokingly. I wanted to laugh, but did everything I could to stifle it. I managed to let only a simple muffled “hmph” escape from my imprisoning lips.

Devin smirked and said, “Well I’ll just leave you to your soul searching then. Good night and don’t let the bed bugs bite.”

I couldn’t help but to let out a soft laugh—I even found the worst of Devin’s jokes to be rather amusing. After my brief snicker, I looked to Devin and replied, “Bed bugs, seriously?” He just shook his head, and then gave me a look…one of those looks that someone gives that makes you remember them for the rest of your life…that look that whenever you think about that person, that stare is the first and only thing that is illustrated in your thoughts. I nearly gasped as my heart began to race, and I hid behind my enamored demeanor with a simple pursed-lip smile. In my mind, the only thing that was posted and illustrated throughout was his name.

Devin.

Devin.

Devin.

Devin.

I had finally snapped out of it when I noticed Devin had turned to shuffle out of the door—the clacking sound of his walking cane hitting the smooth, solid marble floor broke my bewitched state. “Devin!” I heard my high-pitched voice sing out his name, and I jumped immediately. Devin turned around, looking at me as though he was waiting for me to ask him to stay. I wanted to, but something popped in my head, telling me to continue playing hard to get, to not forget to keep him guessing. I stumbled to think of a good reason to reject his possible assumption.

“Um,” I stuttered, “could..cou—could you close the door on your way out?”

“Oh,” Devin sounded disappointed, but in a teasing tone he added. “Like I would forget to close doors in my own house.”

Devin gave me a sneering glance, and then turned away, shaking his head once he had shuffled back out of the room, deliberately forgetting to close the door. As soon as the combination of footsteps and cane clacking faded from my eardrums as quick as his figure disappeared from my view, I let out an enormous sigh…a sigh of endearment. I felt completely torn after thinking about giving Devin the cold shoulder…I never wanted to do that again; it hurt me too much to try and act like I wasn’t interested in the boy I was…without a doubt…profoundly interested in. Dare I say, at that moment, I had fallen hard for him? At that moment I had realized that I had wasted enough time for the night. After reluctantly leaving the bed briefly to shut the door, I returned to bed, closing my eyes, and practiced soul searching until I finally felt my body hit the soft, comfortable mattress and pillow spread.