Chapter 12
Sitting in yet another meditation session, Eden kept looking around for Eric but couldn’t find him. She couldn’t shake the feeling that something was wrong. And yet she couldn’t tell if it was just her growing anger or a valid concern that he had headed off to do something without her.
Either way, it felt wrong to just sit here and to ignore the sensation.
She sidled toward the back exit and then made a dash out of the room, hoping it would look as if she needed to go to the bathroom and would soon return.
As she went around the corner, she saw Richard’s brother talking to the receptionist.
He raised an eyebrow. “Problems?”
She shook her head and then blushed. She had the perfect excuse. “Just have to run to the bathroom.” And, with that, she made good her escape, as if heading toward the bathrooms, which thankfully were right around the corner. But around that corner was also a set of stairs.
And that’s where she headed. She didn’t know what the hell was going on with Eric, but his continued absence was something she couldn’t ignore. So, she quickly slipped out the side door, hoping it didn’t set off any alarms.
She bolted up to the green area where Eric had been sitting before. And, sure enough, there he was, sitting with a strange expression on his face, completely motionless, yet almost as if he were fighting a battle, … just not physically.
She knew how insane that sounded. She noted movement, but it wasn’t outside of him. It appeared to be inside his body. Everything in her wanted to touch him, but she somehow knew that even the slightest touch could be catastrophic.
Why had he chosen to do this once more? Particularly when he had encountered a problem before. And yet here he was, out here trying to do it all over again and all alone. Angry, perturbed, and feeling so helpless, Eden sat protectively beside him as the fear built up inside her.
She was afraid he needed to do this, but he didn’t know how to do any of this safely. Yet her instincts had brought her here, even now clamoring at her to do something, … anything.
She bounced up, walked around him, sat down again, bounced up, walked around, raising her hands in frustration as she sat back down again. “What am I supposed to do?” she asked out loud because it felt as if she was supposed to do something.
A crystal-clear voice announced, “And you need to do it now.”
She looked around and asked, “Who said that?” Eden knew it wasn’t Debbie, as the voice was masculine. Scared, she watched Eric’s expressions twist, as something built up inside him, as if fighting something, and she didn’t know what.
“Eric, come back to me, please. Get back here.” Her voice rose, until she realized that she would cause a scene and could attract attention, which was the last thing she needed. When another voice sounded so close to her, she twisted around, looking for the speaker.
She finally called out, “Who is that, and what do you want?” But no clear-cut answer came, and now she was starting to freak out even worse. Who was here? Who was talking to her? And what the hell was Eric doing?
That same voice spoke again, “Inside.”
“Inside what?” she whispered angrily.
“You need to go inside you.”
What the hell?
She sat down, took some deep breaths, closed her eyes, and tried to step into a meditative state. As she started to calm, she grasped Eric’s hand.
He gripped her hand almost like a lifeline, as if fighting some force that only he could see. When he released a heavy sigh beside her, she watched as his shoulders sagged, and he took several deep, calming breaths.
When he finally opened his eyes, his gaze was dark, deeper, with depths that she couldn’t explain. He squeezed her hand but didn’t let go, and she knew that had to mean something.
“Thank you.”
“You’re welcome. What were you doing?”
“I wanted to open that portal again.”
“Why?” she asked bluntly. “You didn’t think you had enough problems with it already?”
“I was afraid that,” he explained, “whatever was going on, might get people stuck in there.” He added a headshake, followed by a laugh, and then he went on. “Maybe I don’t mean people, but it felt as if maybe something—some entity, for want of a better word—might be capturing those people.”
She stared at him in shock and then, in a low voice, she asked, “Do you think Debbie is there?”
His gaze opened wide as he stared at her. “I don’t know,” he whispered. “I really don’t. I don’t know her, but I also didn’t get the sensation that anybody named Debbie was there, but again I don’t know for sure.” She just nodded, and he added, “I’m sorry.”
“No, it’s okay. You tried.”
He laughed. “I’m the one who should apologize. You were heading into a meditation, so I just thought I would take a moment of privacy.”
“But, when I realized something was wrong, I ran up here to find you.”
“Did anybody see you?”
She nodded. “Richard’s brother saw me in the hotel lobby.
I told him that I had to go to the bathroom.
I was hoping he would just take that at face value and wouldn’t question it.
And then, of course, as soon as I got around the corner, I ran out here.
I don’t know if he figured it out and saw me or not,” she added, showing her palms. “By the time I got here, you were the only one I was concerned about.”
He smiled and squeezed her hand. And this time, almost reluctantly, he let her hand go and shared, “I think I’m okay now.”
“You might be okay,” she conceded, staring at him, “but I am not.”
He faced her and then nodded. “All of this has turned out to be much more of a surprise than I anticipated.”
“I don’t know that I anticipated anything like this,” Eden admitted, narrowing her gaze at him, “but I can tell you that, whatever this is, it’s a far cry from anything I thought would happen today.”
When he burst out laughing, she hushed him and whispered, “What will they say if they find us up here?”
He smiled, but a fierceness had been added to it. “They’ll just think we’ve stolen a few hours to be by ourselves.”
“Maybe, but, in that case, why did we need to come for this meditation retreat?”
“Good point,” he noted, but he was still chuckling. He got up and stretched high to the sky and then bent over, dropping his arms and hands to the ground, letting his arms rest on the ground below as he struck a plank pose.
She sighed happily at the prime male in front of her. “You must do yoga.”
He turned to her and laughed. “I do enjoy yoga.”
“Never pegged you for the type.”
“I don’t know about the type, but I find certain things help me to de-stress at the end of the day, and yoga is definitely one of them.”
She nodded. “I had been doing more and more of it myself, … until Debbie’s death. Then it seemed as if I let everything go because of it.”
He nodded. “And you don’t need to blame yourself for that either.”
She winced and then shrugged. “You read me so well.”
He smiled. “It’s not so much that I can read you,” he clarified, “but I do seem to understand you better.”
She wasn’t sure what to even say to that. He was a detective after all, an intuitive one at that. She believed him when he told her that he had some insight into what was driving her, and yet it scared her at the same time. She stood up and asked, “Are you ready to go back?”
“Maybe,” he muttered. They took several steps forward, and he fell to his knees, as if a force hit him from behind.
“Whoa, whoa, whoa,” she said, checking on him. “Are you okay?”
He frowned. “I was okay. … I’m not sure what just happened.” As he got up to take another step, something slammed into him again.
She stared, not understanding what was happening here. “I don’t like anything about this,” she stated, turning and twisting around. “Something out here is terrifying.”
He didn’t say anything, slowly got up once more, and almost immediately was sent to the ground again. He took several deep breaths and then just sat down.
She looked at him and asked, “Do you want to try again?”
“I’ll just sit here for a moment,” he murmured. “I’m not sure what this is, why this is here, but it does appear to be something that might require my attention.”
“Meaning?”
“Meaning, something or someone doesn’t want me to leave,” he offered.
“Oh.” She frowned. “Can we go sit on the bench again? It might be a little more comfortable for you. Can you walk back?”
He thought about it and then nodded. “I’m not getting any resistance to that idea.”
“Yeah, but wait until you stand up again.”
He gave her a droll look, rose, but faced in the direction they had come. As soon as he did that, the pressure seemed to ease. He nodded. “I can do that much.”
Frowning, she watched as he returned to the bench and sat back down again. “Okay,” he began, “this is weird.”
“This is scary—and beyond weird.”
He frowned and nodded. “I think I might know someone who I can get to help with this.”
“Good,” she muttered. “Why can’t things just be simple?” she snapped.
Just then she watched as his eyes almost defocused.
“Whoa, whoa, whoa,” she cried out. “What’s going on? What’s the matter?”
He looked at her. “What?”
She stared at him, peered deeper into his eyes, and shared, “Your eyes just went inward. Do you feel okay?”
He frowned and then nodded. In a calm voice, almost acting as if it were completely normal, he announced, “Stefan, we might have to do this out loud.”
Immediately an odd sprinkling of a form appeared, standing before her. Just enough light was here that she could see it, yet, at the same time, it was so bright that she couldn’t really see anything. “What the hell is happening?” she asked, stepping back, holding her hands in a prayer position.
“This is Stefan,” Eric explained. “He can’t maintain this state for long, but I need his help right now. So I’ll talk to him internally.”
“What the hell do you mean, internally?” she cried out.
“Telepathically.”