His step-dad lifted his head and looked at him. Then he burst into loud laughter. “Who the hell do you think you are?” He said.
Jason’s entire body trembled. “I’m here to kill you for what you did to my mother,” he said with a voice that was no longer shaky, but sharp and determined.
“You little rat.” His step-dad got up from his chair. “You think you can come here and threaten me?”
He took a couple of slow steps toward Jason with a sneer and eyes that looked like he would snap at any moment.
That was when I saw them: the small shadows on the wall again. Just like the ones I had seen in the operating room at the hospital. They crept along the walls, with a moaning and growling sound. I realized they were helping the step-dad, cheering him on. I thought about how they had gone into my head and told me all those lies They were probably doing the same for Jason’s step-dad right now. And he was listening to them.
He hit his fist on the table. “I am FED up with all your crap. You live here for free. You want me to support you while you do nothing around here. NOTHING! I have to work every freaking day to keep food on your table. To keep you alive. You can’t kill me. You know why? Because without me, you and that no-good mother of yours would starve to death.”
“We would figure it out. I could get a job,” Jason said.
I noticed the trembling in his voice was back. As his step-dad came closer, it got worse and Jason backed up. His eyes were filled with fear. Then he found his courage again and lifted the bat higher in the air.
“Come any closer and I will hit you with this,” Jason said. “I will kill you. But I will not make it a merciful death. I want you to suffer!”
That’s why he didn’t bring the gun instead, I thought. He didn’t want his step-dad to have an easy death. But the baseball bat didn’t seem to frighten him one bit.
Jason’s step-dad burst into loud laughter again. I could tell it scared Jason that his step-dad wasn’t afraid of him.
“You? You are nothing but a scared little kid” He took another step closer to Jason. “A little mamma’s boy, aren’t you?”
“I will hit you with this,” Jason stuttered.
I felt my heart break into pieces. There was no way Jason could win this fight. It would all happen as shown in the book. I couldn’t bear it. Had I come in vain?
The step-dad smirked and took another step toward Jason. Jason didn’t hesitate one second. He swung the bat. But as it came close to his face, the step-dad lifted his hand and grabbed the other end of the bat. Just one second later, it would have hit his face.
Jason froze and so did I.
The step-dad held on to the bat and Jason couldn’t wrest it out of his hand. When the step-dad started turning it, I could see it was hurting Jason’s arm and he had to let go of it.
My heart raced. I felt so chilled inside, like ice-cold water was running in my body causing me to freeze.
I had to do something. If I didn’t, it would go exactly as predicted in the book. I couldn’t let that happen. I just couldn’t. I had to give it a try.
In that second the step-dad turned the bat, lifted it, and took a swing at Jason, who ducked and avoided the first blow. But the second blow hit him straight in the stomach and he bent over in pain.
I didn’t know what to do. I felt horrified. Jason was in pain and his step-dad lifted the bat to take another swing at him. He hit him in the back and Jason fell flat on the ground. I started crying and then I thought of something. A chair in the back wouldn’t be enough this time. He would just come after Jason at another time.
I hurried upstairs and took in a deep breath. For the first time, I managed to go through a massive wood door. I went into Jason’s room and placed myself close to his mother. She was sitting on the bed, crying and holding her hands to her head, blocking her eyes from the reality going on downstairs. I heard Jason scream once more and felt more tears in my eyes.
Now where had he told me the gun was? In the top drawer of the nightstand! I turned and found the nightstand with a little blue lamp on it.
I tried to pull the drawer open but my hand kept slipping through. I took in a couple of deep breaths to calm down. I tried to remember what Mrs. Ohayashi had taught us in the Art of Transition class. It was all in my head. She had taken us to a pond outside and made us look into the water.
“See,” she said. “Now it is nice and still. Your minds are like that water,” she said and threw a rock in it. “When it gets agitated you can’t see. Everything is blurry and unclear to you. You need to be like the calm water.”
If I am too agitated I can’t hold on to anything. I need to keep calm, I said to myself while trying to breathe deeply. Another scream came from Jason downstairs. I tried to block it out. I couldn’t let it disturb my focus.
I reached out one more time. This time I managed to grab the handle and hold it between my fingers. Then carefully I pulled with all my strength.
The drawer came open and the gun appeared. As it did, Jason’s mother heard the sound and turned around. She looked around and then she saw the gun. She stared at it for a few seconds before she took it up. She turned it a couple of times in her hand like she wanted to feel it, feel its power, and then she seemed to make a decision.
As another scream came from downstairs Jason’s mother pulled the door open to his room and walked out with the gun in her hand.
Chapter 21
I was scared as I followed Jason’s mother down the stairs. Scared of what was going to happen. Was I about to change Jason’s destiny? Had I already done it by opening the drawer? Was that even possible? Could I change someone’s course of life? Even if it was written in the book of “meant-to-be”?
Jason’s mom walked slowly and carefully. Every time she heard Jason scream she stopped, like she needed to find the courage to go on. She was holding the gun between her hands and I noticed she had a hard time holding it still.
That was when I remembered what Mick had done at the hospital. I started whispering encouraging words to her, giving her the strength to go on, to help Jason. I don’t know if I got through to her, I don’t know if she heard me, but as she kept on walking across the living room, it seemed like she was getting more and more strength and power in her steps. The sound of the baseball bat hitting Jason one more time filled the air, but this time there was no scream. As we entered the kitchen we both saw why. He was lying completely still on the tiles—motionless, lifeless. My heart stopped beating.
Had we come too late?
It all looked exactly as it did in the book. This was the picture, except for one thing. The mother hadn’t been in it.
When I realized that, I turned to look at her and saw her lift the gun and point it at her husband. He was still bent over Jason’s lifeless body and now he was raising the bat to give him that final stroke I remembered from the book. The one that would kill Jason.
First I looked at Jason and all the blood on the floor, next at the mother. In the second between lifting and swinging the bat the man looked up and his eyes caught those of the mother. He froze for one fatal second.
Then she pulled the trigger.
The bullet hissed through the air and hit the man right in the heart. It was as if time stood still and nothing moved in the room. Time and even the air were frozen. All I heard was the bullet hitting the flesh and going straight through his body. I’m certain I even heard his heartbeat stop.
Then he fell to the floor. The bat clattered on the tiles. It bounced a couple of times making the loudest noise I have ever heard. It was like it wouldn’t stop. All I heard in my head was that sound.
Then I sensed someone else was in the room. I turned and saw Rahmiel. She put a hand on my shoulder and squeezed it. I hadn’t realized I had started crying. Her touch made me feel warm and loved like never before.
What I didn’t know was that I needed her protection for the next thing that was about to happen. Suddenly it was like there was a fire in the room. It became burning hot. The shado
ws on the wall became bigger and their groaning louder. The man’s spirit rose slowly from his body and as it did, the floor opened up underneath him. A horrific screaming came into the room and filled me with nothing but sorrow and pain. It was as if all life and hope was sucked out of me. Rahmiel saw it and held me tight. I heard her voice inside of my head, whispering comforting words, telling me I was loved.
Then the opening in the floor turned into what looked like an open mouth. Like a burning crater, like a giant volcano with nothing but death and despair in it. I now realized the screaming came from that burning crater. It was an endless crying and screaming that burned its way into my heart and made me feel empty and hopeless. I fell to my knees. Rahmiel knelt next to me. With her mighty body she picked me up and held me in her arms. Meanwhile the spirit of the step-dad started falling into the burning crater. His face twisted in pain as he himself started screaming.
Then the floor closed and he was gone. The burning and the screaming stopped. Even the shadows had gone as well.
Jason’s mother hadn’t moved, but now she dropped the gun and ran toward Jason. She turned him around and wiped blood off his face. She wailed and it made my stomach turn. I loved him so much and I only wanted to help him. I wanted him not to get beaten. But it had happened anyway.
I got back on my feet and flew closer. As I did I heard a moan. It came from Jason. He was still alive!
Filled with such amazing joy inside, I turned to look at Rahmiel. She smiled her comforting smile. I felt like everything was going to be all right after all.
While his mother turned her back at us and started calling for an ambulance Jason even opened his eyes and looked at me. I was sure that I saw him smile behind that beaten-up face when I made myself visible for a second. I smiled at him and touched him gently.
“You will be all right now,” I whispered before I made myself invisible again.
Then I heard the mother call the police.
“I shot my husband,” she said.
I held Jason’s hand and sat next to him. The police were first on the scene; the paramedics followed quickly after. A paramedic declared the step-dad dead and the police started interrogating the mother about what had happened.
The paramedics examined Jason and his wounds before they put him on a stretcher. But Jason wouldn’t lie still. He kept looking at his mother while she was talking to the police and crying. That was when I realized why he was so worried. A second later she was put in handcuffs and two officers were escorting her out of the house.
Another officer approached Jason.
“I am sorry, son, but we have to take your mother in.”
Jason’s eyes became wide and filled with anxiety.
“But why? She saved my life!” he yelled.
“She has killed a man. She killed your stepfather and that needs to be investigated.”
“He was beating me … and her!”
“We still need to investigate if a crime has been committed. As I said, I am sorry, but that’s the way it is.”
Jason was now furious and tossing himself around on the stretcher.
“You can’t touch her! She was defending me!” he yelled with all of his strength. I tried to approach him, but his anger made it impossible.
Jason was carried out of the house on the stretcher while he was screaming at the police. I felt Rahmiel’s hand on my shoulder once again and I looked up. “It is time to go,” she said.
I nodded and followed her back to the bathroom where we went through the mirror. Rahmiel didn’t say a word to me all the way back, not until I was in my bed again. Then she looked me deep in the eyes.
“You did something extremely brave but also very foolish today,” she said. “We will talk about it later. Now get some sleep.”
Then she kissed me on the forehead and as she left the room with her glowing body all the light in the room disappeared.
Chapter 22
A month went by with exams and, to my own surprise, I was happy to learn that I passed with good marks. Even The Art of Transition went pretty well, not something Mrs. Ohayashi had expected either. After the exam she came out of the classroom into the hall where I was waiting to hear if I had passed or not. She looked at me with her narrow black eyes and said:
“Well, it seems as though we will be getting on each other’s nerves in Advanced Art of Transition next year as well.” And then she went back into the classroom and closed the door.
“I guess so,” I mumbled happily while I went to see Mick in the kitchen.
“I passed all of my exams,” I said and hugged him.
“Now that is something to celebrate,” he said with a great smile.
He concentrated for a second while staring into my eyes and then he smiled again.
“You want strawberries dipped in chocolate, huh?”
I smiled again. “Those are my favorite.”
“Well, your wish is my command, my lady,” he said and bowed in front of me. Then he took a plate in his hand and looked at it intensely until the strawberries appeared a second later.
“So how have you been?” he asked while we ate.
“Up and down. Mostly concentrating on my exams.”
“What about the whole Jason story?”
I sighed. “I don’t know. I haven’t visited him since, so I have no idea how he is doing.”
“Why is that?”
“I feel like I’ve messed everything up. I mean I am happy that I saved his life, but … I don’t know.”
“What don’t you know?”
“I don’t know if it was a good thing or not.”
Mick nodded while putting another strawberry in his mouth. I did the same. It was so incredibly tasty.
“You probably won’t be able to visit him again,” he said. “Not through the mirror in the cellar at least.”
I stared at him. I hadn’t thought about that.
“Why?”
“The mirror was only set on his house because he was supposed to die. It was prepared for the spirits to go and get him.”
“So now it is closed?”
“Probably. Or set on someone else’s house.”
“But we didn’t go through a mirror when we went to get that woman in the hospital. We flew there.”
“It is only in the cases where people die in their own home that the Angels put up a portal through a mirror. Sometimes we have to travel all day to get to certain people, like we did.”
“Oh. So does that mean that there are more mirrors like this in this castle?”
He nodded. “Hundreds.”
“Wow.”
He smiled and nodded again.
“More strawberries?”
I shook my head.
“I have to go. Salathiel and Rahmiel want to see me in their chamber.”
“Well, take one for the road, then,” Mick said while holding out the plate in front of me.
I took one and kissed Mick on the cheek. He blushed. And so did I.
Salathiel and Rahmiel turned as I entered the room through the wooden door. It still left me out of breath, but I had definitely improved.
Rahmiel smiled and asked me to sit down in a huge leather chair. Their chamber was beautifully decorated with old leather furniture, lots of books, and a candle lighted on the table. It had a nice ambiance to it.
Salathiel sighed and sat on a chair in front of me.
My heart started beating faster and faster. An idea struck me. Were they going to kick me out of the school? Could they do that?
“What you did in the human world was a serious breach of our rules,” he said. “It is clearly stated that students cannot go outside the school area. It is too dangerous and you might cause trouble in that world of which you are not aware. Even the spiritual world’s very existence might be revealed to them. And that cannot happen. Later on, when you graduate from this Academy, visits to the human world will be allowed, but not until you fully understand the consequences it might cause to the peopl
e to whom you reveal yourself. Is that understood?”
I nodded anxiously.
“Nevertheless,” Salathiel continued with a more gentle tone. “We find your intentions and actions toward the human boy as honorable and filled with all the right motives.”
Rahmiel took over. “What Salathiel is saying is that you had the right intentions. You followed your heart and showed compassion for a human being. And that is a good thing. It is actually a great thing. When spirits or Angels visit the earth, it is to show the humans that we love them, that they are being cared for. And that was what you did for Jason.”
I nodded, a little less anxious.
“So what does that mean?” I asked. “Will I be punished?”
Salathiel and Rahmiel looked at each other. Then they laughed. I felt relieved. They didn’t seem to be angry with me.
“No, sweet child. No one will be punished for loving somebody,” Rahmiel said. “But you have to know that your actions have had great impact on Jason’s life on earth.”
I nodded. Then Rahmiel and Salathiel got up from their huge chairs and stood in front of me. I felt so small and insignificant.
“We need to show you something,” Rahmiel said and reached out her hand toward me.
I took it.
The next thing I knew, we were flying in the air. And we were going faster than I had ever gone before. The two Angels held tightly onto my hands while they pulled me gently with them. We stopped in front of a house. It took me a couple of seconds before I realized that it was Jason’s. It was abandoned. Windows were broken, weeds had taken over the lawn and it looked dark and a little creepy.
“What happened?” I asked.
“They had to leave the house,” Rahmiel said.
“But where are they now? Where is Jason?”
Rahmiel and Salathiel grabbed my hands again and we soared into the air. They took me to the big city and into a small alley filled with garbage disposals and people sleeping on the ground.
“What are we doing here?” I asked, rather nervous about the answer. This was not a nice neighborhood. Homeless people slept on the ground with all their belongings in plastic bags next to them.