The Awakened Ones

During the weekend, my grandmother cleaned and took my guardian stone to put with the rock fountain on the patio. Of course I didn’t think of this until it was brought up in AIS by Quint. During the class, Quint called me over to his table in the back of the room. I thought he needed help with homework or something, but was wrong. Once I sat down, he asked where my stone was. I sighed and told him about my grandma’s mistake and was given a look.

“What? You can’t blame me for a sixty-seven year old’s mistake!” I defended. Well, maybe he could, it was supposed to be with me. “Why do you ask anyways?”

“Xi is hovering around you, can’t you feel him?” he asked. I shook my head but found it strange because usually I could sense things… but then again I haven’t really kept up with my spiritual stuff anymore. “You need to keep your senses open more, Jillian. Especially now. Have you ever felt someone staring at you and you know who and where it’s coming from?”

“Kind of like Xavier?”

“Right. Your senses were open to him and for now on they have to always be open. While Xi is around it’s going to be dangerous for you.”

“So is this lesson number one?” I asked, raising an eyebrow.

“I guess you can say that. Now get that guardian stone back as soon as possible.”

“What do I do in the meantime?”

“Do you have a mirror?”

I nodded.

“Use it. If Xi is near you - show him his reflection. Evil entities seem to hate it.”

I did a salute to him and sat up straight. I slouched at my last thought, “So that’s all you needed?”

He smirked, saying yes and that I could sit with him for the rest of the class if I’d like. I told him Mrs. Ryan might find that weird, so I went back to my desk and finished with what I was working on. My senses open for the rest of the class.

Shortly after the bell rang, I met up with Sarah.

“So you want the update so far?” I asked. Sarah’s attention fell on me and I started to tell her, “Okay, so when you don’t- Hey… Did your dad do that for you?” I pointed at her guardian stone. It was on the keychain and dangling from her hip.

“Yup,” she answered, smiling, “I asked him to do it for me over the weekend. Pretty cool, huh? Do you want me to ask if he can do it for you?” she asked.

“Sure! I just have to get it out of the water fountain. Grandma thought it was one of those stones, I guess.”

Sarah laughed, then asked about the update.

“Right. Quint told me about when you don’t have your guardian stone on you, keep your senses open and a mirror in your pocket.”

“A mirror?”

“Yeah, supposedly evil spirits don’t like to see their reflections.”

“Awesome. Good thing I have one in my bag. So… That’s it?”

“What do you mean?”

“What about the update between the two of you? Has anything happened? Because I know you two have been hanging out!”

“I wouldn’t really say hanging out…”

Sarah threw her hand on her hip and stopped walking, “Nick says the other day you were over Quint’s house! What’s been happening with that?”

I laughed, my face turning red, “Nothing. I just went over to hang out, that’s it. Did Nick say Quint and I did something?!”

“No, no. He just said you guys played videogames… We’re both kind of waiting for something to happen though.”

I laughed at her again and began to walk away, “Please, I’m sure nothing is ever going to happen between us.”

Sarah tilted her head and had both hands on her hips now, she laughed and ran to catch up with me - teasing me the whole way to Spanish.

During lunch, Brittany, a girl who I sit with during lunch, never stopped talking to me. Even when she knows I tune her out the second her mouth opens. It was never useful things either. Just things about her clothes or her dog, or even people I didn’t know and didn’t care to know. She was the kind of girl who would talk and talk and talk then ask you a question, then ignore your answer because she had a new topic to talk about all of a sudden.

I wanted to shut her off today too, but lately projecting was out of the question. Not just because of Xi but also because Quint always sat right next to my table. I glanced over at him while Brittany blabbered on and checked to see if he would really know. Of course I was in perfect view of him so if he saw my head drop, he might wait for my soul to project and then- I don’t know, come over and scold me about that soul chain of mine! I looked away from him and Brittany and began to pray for her to shut up. It was only until I felt someone sit next to me that Brittany finally shut her mouth and turned away - picking her next victim to chat with.

“It was sixth grade when I learned about astral projection and Xi,” Quint began. I turned to him to hear what he had to say. “Ever since then, it’s been Xi this and Xi that. I know how tiring it is hearing his name all the time, so-” he smiled at me and let go of his rolled up magazine. “If you want to talk about something other than Xi- then I’m all for it.”

I smiled back at him, mentally thanking God that he finally got it. We talked for the rest of the lunch period and even sat with him during our study hall together.

Xi wasn’t spoken of once.

When I gave Sarah my guardian stone after school yesterday, she actually wanted to hang out. I was surprised since lately it’s been all Nick, but then today I completely regretted giving her the stone. That whole mirror trick didn’t work. I stayed after school the next day to make my math teacher happy and got some extra help with what we were learning in class. After sitting through this second class of my worst subject ever, which by the way I still have no idea what she was talking about, I began to head to the cafeteria to wait for four o’clock to stroll around.

While I’m walking to the cafeteria, guess what happens…

Xi stood at the end of the hallway like last time, waiting for me. Only this time, he was fading in and out, almost like his temple wasn’t nearby. My feet froze from fear shooting through my body. He flickered for a second and appeared closer to me. Then I noticed it was his soul standing before me. I reached for my mirror and just as I got it out, it literally jumped out of my hands. The mirror hit the ground so hard that it shattered into four pieces.

Xi stood before me at this point, glaring at me and smirking. I gulped back fear and took his hesitation to attack and ran. Well, first I grabbed the largest shard of my mirror, then ran.

Stupid me though never showed Xi his reflection…

I ran all the way to the pillars outside the school. I was shaking and tears formed in my eyes. I was so afraid. What if Xi did attack me back there? What if he followed me to try and attack again? I held the shard close to me, keeping every sense open the best I could. I tried to calm myself, but that calmness didn’t last for long. I heard someone coming my way and didn’t know who it was. I began to stand, keeping my back pressed up against the pillar. If it was Xi for round two, I was ready. I pointed the mirror at the person who stopped next to me.

Quint looked down at my shard and rose his eyebrow, “What happened to your mirror?”

I dropped my shard, shaking even more and dropped my head onto his chest, finally letting my tears fall.

“Jillian? What happened?”

“Xi was right there- he could’ve gotten me!”

I began to ramble on about Xi and what just happened. Quint let me get everything out then wrapped his arms around me, holding me tightly. My words drifted off and I dug my head into his chest more.

“It’s okay,” he said, resting his cheek on my head, “He didn’t get you. You’re still here.”

“But he could’ve!” I exclaimed, pulling away to look up at him, “I just stood there like an idiot then smashed my mirror. I’m such an idiot!”

“Jillian, it’s okay. Calm down.” He pulled me to him again. “The most important thing right now is you’re safe.”

“What if he followed me?”

“He wants to scare you, toy with you, that’s why he didn’t attack. Trust me. Come on, sit down with me.”

We sat on the ground and didn’t talk for a moment.

“But what if he did attack me?” I asked, finally feeling calm.

“Then you would’ve been awakened.”

“I wouldn’t be dead?”

“Not really. Xi would be pushed away by the immense power that will be released, then him and the other spirits trying to harm you and Sarah will be killed.”

“There’s more!?”

“Yes, but only Xi has the balls to actually attempt attacking you,” he smiled at me.

“How do you know this?”

“Whispers. I learn a lot from the souls I’ve been hearing since middle school. You can hear them too if you open your senses to the soul world.” I asked him how I could do that and he told me to tune my soul with the ones around me. “It’ll take some practice,” he added, “but once you figure it out, you’ll learn and understand a lot more things.” He smiled again, then nudged my arm, “Feel a little better?”

I shrugged, “Kind of… I wish I had my guardian stone - but Sarah’s dad is putting it on a key chain for me.”

“Do you want to come over for a while then?”

I agreed to it and we waited for the buses to arrive. We hung out and talked for a while, watching television. Almost like the weekend, only this time Nick wasn’t there. After eating dinner, I fell asleep. It wasn’t totally out of nowhere because I had been tired all day. I fell asleep when Quint went upstairs to talk to his dad for a moment. During my twenty minute nap, I dreamt about that realm my soul was being lured into when I broke free from my soul chain. As I walked through it, a person ran by.

“Dru!” I yelled, waking up and shooting up from the arm of the couch.

I stared in front of me and was scared. After I called for Dru, the last thing I saw was Xi.

“Are you okay?” Quint asked, sitting on the opposite side of the couch.

I looked over at him, “How long was I out?”

“Fifteen- twenty minutes?” he shrugged.

“Sorry…” I said, leaning back into the couch, “I don’t normally do that.”

He smiled with closed lips, “Its fine. After dinner you looked exhausted. Did you have a bad dream?”

“Kind of… How do you keep Xi away from you in your dreams?”

“Put up a soul block on your sub-consciousness. But of course if you do that, you won’t dream.”

“How do I do that?” I asked.

He explained that before I sleep I need to begin concentrating on my soul and place my thoughts in a black room. If my thoughts go there, my soul should follow, he said – but only if I direct it to. Then when I awake, drop the walls of that room and my soul will be awake again. In a way I wanted to stay in that box he talked about, because then Xi could never get to me. But from the way it sounded, if I didn’t open everything again – I’d be a walking zombie.