Chapter 16: Happy Birthday In Ruins

It has almost been a week since I saw into Asher’s mind. Now every time I see him, I go out of my way to avoid him. I don’t exactly have a reason to do this nor to treat Asher this way, but I just don’t know how to react around him. Sometimes I feel like I am staring at him like a wounded puppy, which no one wants to be looked at like that. Ruth has been staying around me more now. She noticed my actions whenever Asher would come around and of course she had to ask about it. She asked about everything I had witnessed in Asher’s memories. Mostly she only wanted to know what he thought of her and all of that, but I didn’t share anything. It’s not my place to share what is in someone else’s mind. Soon I started to grow more annoyed with her and tried to avoid her at all costs as well.

Now instead of me exploring the forest, we were camping in, I mostly just stayed in my tent, focusing on keeping my abilities in check. I still needed to practice keeping my thoughts private and inaccessible. Other than that, I needed to keep everyone else’s thoughts at bay.

Rory began to notice my reclusiveness and sat down with me in our tent. He didn’t say anything at first as I sat in my meditative state with my eyes closed. “Sarai, my love, what’s troubling you?”

“Nothing…I’m just trying to practice…”

“You know that I know you better than that,” he replied sternly. “So what’s wrong?”

“Just seeing everything inside Asher’s mind has made everything different somehow.”

“I can understand that,” Rory replied consolingly. “But you can’t let it affect you so much, my love.”

“I’m not trying to. All Ruth is concerned about is how Asher sees her and what he thinks would make their relationship better.”

Rory didn’t say anything to this.

I let out a sigh and tried to focus on practicing to make my abilities stronger.

“You’re not angry with me for some reason though, right?” he questioned, looking at me concerned.

“No, why would you think that?” My heart dropped at the thought of him thinking I could be mad at him.

“Well, you’ve pretty much kept yourself locked up, away from everyone, since you have been in Asher’s mind and since we…”

I blushed and smiled, remembering that night. Kissing him, I replied, “It’s nothing you did.” Closing my eyes, I tried to start focusing on my prior objective.

“Sarai…You know you need to practice breaking into people’s minds if you are going to defeat Silas, right?”

My eyes flew open. “What do you mean?”

“Well, you are going to have to sneak into his mind, without him knowing you are there and steal information.”

“I thought you said I wouldn’t be near him. I thought you were supposed to be protecting me!”

Pain reflected in his eyes by my sudden outburst of rage. “Sarai, you know that I will protect you, especially from Silas, but you are the only one who can truly kill him,” Rory stated sternly. “But I can only go so far, my love. That’s why you need to learn your abilities.

“If Asher is telling the truth, and if he is now actually on our side, we have a better chance at killing Silas for good.”

My heart dropped to my stomach. I knew in my heart that he was right, but this still went against what he had said before. What suddenly changed? Rory was more than willing to keep me hidden from Silas or at least die trying. Has he deceived me this whole time?

“I haven’t been lying to you Sarai,” Rory began as he heard my thoughts. “There just seems to be something at play here that shows that this is our time to attack.”

I didn’t respond because I still felt like I had been betrayed. But little did I know how quickly everything was about to change. If I knew what was coming, I would have embraced everyone I was with instead of ignoring them, judging them, and trying to steer them away from me.

***

I was mad, but over the next few days, my anger had fueled me to practice even more. Most of my time was spent sparring with Eden, who was scared by my sudden vehemence, but also impressed by how much better and confident I had become. I also had spent most of my time avoiding Ruth and Asher. There was no way I was going to put up with my best friend asking me questions about her boyfriend because she is insecure. I’m also not going to put up with her boyfriend’s bad temper.

As I sat in the tent, trying to focus on blocking my thoughts and memories, Rory walked in. Sitting down beside me, he began, “My love, we need to have you become better at breaking into people’s minds.”

I stared at him in disbelief. “I don’t want to do that again. There are so many things wrong with it.”

“I understand that—no one understands that better than me—but it is something that can help you live.”

I rolled my eyes. “So whose mind am I supposed to break into?”

“Me.”

“You?” I asked incredulously. “Now that really doesn’t seem right.

Rory smiled. “Just try it.”

Closing my eyes, I focused on Rory and his mind. His mind had a really thick, impenetrable barrier. This was completely different from what I had experienced with Asher. I opened my eyes and stared at Rory strangely. He only returned my gaze with a smirk. There wasn’t anything malicious or challenging about his smile, but I became compelled and felt some instigation from him.

Closing my eyes once more, I decided to try harder. I will unlock Rory’s mind.

The barrier was very tough to crack. It was hard to believe that he would be able to hear anyone or communicate to anyone telepathically through it. I tried to feel around his body, maybe there was a weak point somewhere that could prove beneficial to my task, but no avail. He had every inch psychically blocked from everyone. There must be some sort of trick to this, I thought to myself.

I’ve already tried everything that I could think of, so maybe imagining something like a sledgehammer or maybe a sharp object, like a pickax would allow me to break through. It’s something that would be able to break through thick glass, so what do I have to lose? After many tries, I was eventually able to break into his mind.

But now I was plagued by a different problem. After breaking the almost-seemingly impenetrable barrier, there was a pull and I was sucked, forcefully and unwillingly into unknown territory.

I fell; I was falling. The deeper I went, the darker the place became. Finally, after what felt like an eternity of endless falling, I hit the floor which, to my surprise, really hurt.

Pulling myself up, I tried to look around, but it was too dark, and the place felt completely empty. My footsteps echoed as I stumbled noisily through this mysterious place. I started to breathe heavily as I began to feel myself panic. How long will I be stuck in here? I can’t even see my own feet. By this point, I was just extremely nervous and scared. My mind wasn’t helping me, as I began to feel my chest tighten, I just knew, somehow I actually convinced myself that Silas was lurking around in here. As my mind raced with endless possibilities, my heart started to sprint and skip beats as my eyes began tearing up. I felt like I was about to pass out. There was nothing I could possibly do to explore or get out of here. I couldn’t think properly with everything that was running through my mind. I felt a tug at my stomach before I felt myself being pulled away.

Suddenly, I was back in the tent staring into Rory’s eyes. He was closer to me, his hands on my face as he wore a worried expression.

“Sarai! Baby, everything is ok! Calm down, take a deep breath.”

I hadn’t realized that I was having a panic attack in the real world.

Soon Eden rushed in with a cup of water. He sat behind me after handing me the cup and said, “Drink this.”

I knew it would help, but with how erratic my breathing had become, there was no hope of me taking a sip without choking myself.

Just as my vision started to become blurry and my chest felt like my heart was about to rip out of my chest, Rory leaned in quickly and started kissing me. My breathing slowly became normal, but my heart continued to flutter.

Rory looked at me with a smile. “Are you feeling better now?”

I still couldn’t speak. There was a lump in my throat that impaired my speech.

Eden offered me the cup of water again, which I took and drank like I hadn’t had water in days. About thirty minutes later, and four cups of water, I finally felt normal, apart from being extremely tired. As if Rory had read my mind, he told me to get some rest.

***

Later that night, I woke up as Rory came walking into the tent.

“Why is your mind so different from Asher’s?” I asked, rubbing my eyes. “Your head is nothing but emptiness.”

He smiled. “That’s how I keep everything protected from prying eyes. Not many can break my shield, and those who do can never get past the dark emptiness.”

“Then why did you want me to try?”

“Because I wanted you to see the difference in what people considered to be ‘locking their mind.’”

“All Asher had was doors after a few invisible barriers.”

“And how hard was it for you to break through them?”

“Not too hard…Each door only took me a few tries.”

“Exactly. He may think all of his memories are protected, but, no offense, if someone as inexperienced as you can break through them, who’s to say Silas hadn’t already?”

“The doors did seem to be really scuffed up…” I replied, thinking back. “But that isn’t good…If Silas broke through, then he would already know about him and Ruth, not to mention where we are right now.”

“I’m sure he made it more difficult to access than you realize. You are stronger this time,” Rory said nonchalantly while waving his hand.

I stared at him, unconvinced.

Rory smiled in return. “So what do you want to do? I know you can’t be sleepy anymore, even though you need to rest.”

“Tell me about our past lives,” I requested.

His face turned white. “Are you sure?” he asked, becoming anxious.

“Yeah…It’s not like I can get in your head to see. Plus it will pass the time.” I smiled at him. “Please, Rory. I would like to know.”

He let out a sigh before sitting down beside me. “Alright.”

I sat up and listened, being very attentive.

“You already know how we met. I know you had seen it and how it ended from Asher, so I will start from our second go around. We met when we were thirteen at school. At first, we were just friends, but I knew you were my soulmate the whole time. You were having trouble with your abilities, there was nothing and no one to help you with them except me. By the time we were fifteen, you were my girlfriend, but there was only so long I could keep you safe before Silas found you. You were already having nightmares, but he hadn’t sent anyone to watch you.

“When we were twenty years old, Silas began searching for you. By now we were married so I made sure to keep you protected. If he and his men started to get close we just packed up our things and took off. We went wherever we wanted to go, and this worked for five years. He found you, took you from me. I fought against his men while you stayed in the house, but one of Silas’ followers must’ve snuck in somehow…” Rory paused for a minute before continuing.

It was obvious that it was hard for him to relive these memories. The look on his face pulled at my heart.

“The next time I found you, we were sixteen. My mother and I had recently moved to town. This time, Silas had one of his followers watching you.

“It wasn’t Asher, but some other guy Silas trusted. After I took care of him, Silas’ army came…They came while we were at school, which turned into a massacre because many people fought to keep us safe. Our efforts were successful, but three days later, Asher captured you while you were sleeping at night.

“The fourth time we met, Eden, you, and I were all in the same place. This time we were in Britain during the Victorian era. We were all happy and had a lot of fun together. But we all knew it would end soon…and it did this time. Silas took you when you were fourteen.” Rory paused, staring off, miles away from me. “You slipped right through my fingers…

“The next time…” Rory stared at me with guilt-filled eyes. “I felt that I was the cause of Silas always finding you and I had convinced myself of this…So instead of seeking you out, I left it to fate, which had brought me to you, but I kept my distance, only watching you from afar…It was hard for me, watching you go through everything on your own, but not as hard as watching you with other guys.” He stopped staring off into space and looked at me, pain filling his eyes. “Of course, that decision was stupid on my part because it really didn’t matter if I was in the picture or not. He always sought you out, no matter what obstacle was placed in front of him.

“You already relived the next memory where we were together in that dream you had with the forest. But, you want to know how we met…We were sixteen; you were ready to just leave everything behind you and I encouraged this decision. I took you far away from your home and we traveled, much as we did in our second life together. We traveled until you were ready to settle down, which I was alright with because I would still be with you. Not too long after, Silas and his men came, as you witnessed.

“The last time we met, I told you everything. Then one night when we were asleep, Silas convinced you that he could hurt me; kill me and everyone that you loved unless you willingly came to him. Which you eventually did.” Rory stopped on this story. I knew there were more details, I could tell that retelling everything was really getting to him. I had a sense that he was and still is trying to figure out how to stop all of this.

I kissed him and felt I shouldn’t press him about the situation any further, but something was bothering me. “After all those times, what happened to me?”

Dread filled Rory’s eyes. He really didn’t want to answer the question. “You always die…Every time I was still alive, I felt it. I’m not sure if he killed you or if you killed yourself, but either way, the result was always the same…”

“Thank you for sharing it with me,” I replied sadly.

Rory didn’t respond. He only looked at his watch for a minute and said, “Happy birthday, my love.”

In shock, my eyes grew wide. “Is it really?”

“It’s midnight now.”

I became very nervous because I knew what this meant…

Rory gave me a kiss that was interrupted. Eden burst into the tent. “Happy birthday, Sarai!” je said excitedly.

The way he did this was very comical and made Rory and me laugh.

Suddenly, there was screaming outside our tent. The three of us went outside to investigate. It was Asher and Ruth; they were running from something.

The three of us hurriedly walked out of the tent.

“They found us! They’re coming!”

Rory turned to me. “Get inside, now.” His voice was stern and demanding. I knew better than to disobey, so I got back inside.

From inside the tent, I couldn’t see anything that was going on. I could hear voices from other people and a lot of movement. There were flashes of light with sounds of swords hitting each other. I could also hear people falling to the ground and screaming out in horror as their deaths came.

I put my hands over my ears to try and block out the noises, but this only helped so much. I could still hear the fearful cries and swords. Abruptly, I became light-headed and dizzy. I then saw Silas standing before me. He was smiling and started laughing maliciously as I fell to the ground and passed out.

***

I woke up the next morning in a panic. Looking around the tent, I remembered seeing Silas, but he was no longer there. I suddenly realized people were yelling outside.

It was Asher, Rory, and Eden. When I stepped outside, a gasp escaped my lips as I saw the carnage. People were laying on the ground everywhere. Pools of blood surrounding their bodies with their fearful faces frozen in time. The three men that remained arguing were bloodied up as well, but they were minor injuries. Asher glared at me accusingly.

“It’s all her fault! She let Silas into her mind! She is so weak!”

“No, Asher, it is your fault because you didn’t tell her to go to safety,” Rory replied sternly.

“What are you all fighting about now?” I asked. annoyed, looking around. “Where’s Ruth?”

“Ruth is missing,” Eden said, walking over to me.

“We need to leave…” Rory stated. “It isn’t safe here anymore…” he finished with a reproachful stare toward Asher.

“I did not tell Silas where we are! You think I would honestly put Ruth’s life in danger?” Asher said.

“I think you would, to save your own ass. He wouldn’t hurt her, and you know it. He wants Sarai,” Rory replied coolly as he started grabbing his things.

“How dare you…”

“Ok. I have had enough of this,” I began angrily. “Asher, you need to stop blaming everyone else for your actions. What’s done is done. Get over it. There is nothing we can do to change it. Rory, you just need to stop talking to him altogether and Eden…You need to stop egging them on.”

None of them said another word as I was angry. I guess they feared what I may accidentally do to them. I was mad that we were found out and I was probably the one to cause it, not to mention I was with people who could not get along.