Extra Long!

I missed posting yesterday.  I did get some writing done, but not nearly enough to meet the daily goal.  Made up for it this morning.   Looks like things are getting a little more interesting, which is good because I was afraid I was going to get bored! 

Seven

The days flew by, Larissa kept up with her regular school work, but only barely.  Keith introduced her to so many new concepts and information that her head was swimming.  She tried to keep everything straight, biology, math, chemistry, chakras, history, reiki, metaphysical practices, literature, it all swam together in her brain in a mish mash.

Larissa stood on the bluff next to her campus and stared out into nothing.  The day was warm, the sun beat down on her head, but it was still cool enough to need a jacket.  She sat down and brought her knees to her chest, curling her arms around them.  What was she going to do with everything she now knew?  Keith had told her to play with the information, to have fun with what she was learning and her new talents.  She wasn’t sure it was a good idea, but she thought she might give it a try.  So in her least favorite class she had given it a go.

She had let her mind wonder, she had let her focus change and the classroom took on a different hue.  She could see all the students, but she could see more of them.  The colors that came off of them differed so greatly, she was surprised.  People she thought would be totally engaged with the class were only halfway present in their energy.  She could tell others that were struggling as they pushed their energy out, towards the professor, as if asking for a connection, asking for something to help them along.

Then she looked at the professor.  It made sense, suddenly, why she disliked the class so much.  The professor wasn’t there.  His energy was like a black hole at the front of the class room.  He wasn’t connecting with anyone, he wasn’t giving anything out but information.  Knowing what she now knew, Larissa realized that the ones that knew what they were doing in the class must have learned it all somewhere else.

So what could she do?

She could see the lack of energy, she could see the other students attempting to grasp at the teacher, connect with him and really learn something.  So how could she intervene and help?

Larissa studied the professor. 

Keith had taught her about grounding and centering.  About getting energy from the Earth’s core and the Universe.  She looked at the professor to see where he was getting his energy, where he was connected, and she realized he wasn’t.  There was no connection to the Earth or the Universe.  He had cords, but everyone had cords. 

Larissa reached out with her mind, with her imagination, and pictured the professor with roots.  She saw him as a tree, his body the trunk and large energetic roots coming out of his feet and plunging into the ground.  She pictured these roots going all the way to the Earth’s core, just as Keith had taught her.   Then she saw energy coming up from the core, through the roots and filling the professor’s body with beautiful white light energy.  She shot the energy all through his body until it came out of the top of his head.  It burst from his head all the way into the clouds and past the planet, into the solar system.  So far that Larissa lost track of it.  Then it pulled in the universe’s energy and Larissa saw that coming down into his body.  The energies met in the middle and Larissa saw them crash together in a harmony of color and shoot across the room.  It was so beautiful that Larissa blinked.

When she blinked the room came back into focus and she lost the colors, she lost the auras of everyone around her. 

The room seemed to have noticed something as well, because it had gone silent.  The professor stood, stock still, at the board.  He had stopped midsentence.  As suddenly as everything had stopped, it started again.  The professor caught his thought and started speaking again.  This time it was different though, this time he faced the students and seemed to engage them.  He looked different as well.

Larissa let her gaze lose focus and saw that everything had changed.  The students that had been reaching out with their energy had a connection with the professor.  The students who had been disengaged were suddenly present, as though they actually had something to learn again.  She blinked and brought her focus back to the material. 

She was stunned by the results.  She had grounded and centered the professor and he suddenly became a better teacher.  How was that even possible?  All she did was think about it.  She visualized him connected and then he was. 

Now she sat on the edge of the bluff and thought about the implications of what she had done.  What might be possible for her to do.

Could she stop people from fighting?  Could she make people agree with each other?  What about love?  Could she cause people to fall in love with each other when they did not before? 

What were the boundaries with this gift? 

They had not talked about that yet.  Instinctively, Larissa knew that she had been okay doing what she had done in class.  That grounding the professor was helpful to everyone.  But were there cases where it was not right?  There were so many questions. 

She knew he was close before he said anything.  She waited for him to tell her he was there before acknowledging him. 

“Am I intruding?” Keith asked.

“Only a little.” Larissa responded.  She looked up and smiled at him, letting him know that it was okay.  She wasn’t mad.

“I came to look for you.  You weren’t in your room and your roommate said you’d left a couple of hours ago.”

“I had to think.  Keith, I did something and I’m not sure what…well I’m not sure if it was the right thing.  I’m not sure if it was my place or if I should ever do it again.”

“Did it feel wrong?”

“No. It felt exactly right.  Like what everyone who was involved needed to have happen.”

“Then it was ok.”

“But…how do I know it was ok?”

“When you are guided to do something, you do it.  It will feel like second nature, like there was nothing else you could do but what you did.”

“But…”

“Ok.  Tell me what happened.”

Larissa told him about the professor and grounding him.

“Hmmm… how did you feel when you were doing it?” Keith asked.

“Like it was the best thing I could do for everyone involved.”

“Then it was the best thing.”

“Hmmm.”

Larissa stopped talking and stared out the scene in front of her.  She understood what Keith was telling her, but there was a large part of her that wondered if she would do something wrong.  Would she end up hurting someone if she did something she thought was right but really wasn’t right?

“Larissa, you aren’t a bad person.  Not deep down inside.  You aren’t going to look at someone and attempt to bring evil, dark thoughts and energy into their world.  You are going to look at someone and think ‘that person could use some light’ and give it to them.  It’s up to them to receive it, you are only making the offering.”

“So even if I send them something, they still have the choice?”

“Of course.  Humans are all about free will.  They can choose whether they want to accept what you are offering or they can push it away.  You can only offer.”

Larissa let out a large breath.  All of her concerns about hurting someone fell away.  What she did with the professor was ok because he accepted it.  She had offered to ground him and he let her.  That made sense and made her feel a lot better.

“Come on, I’m starving, let’s go get some food!” Keith stood and pulled her to her feet.  She glanced once more across the skyline, admiring the clouds and the trees, the mountains and the valley below.  Then she turned with Keith and walked back towards main campus.

Eight

“Another one has awoken General.”

“Another one?  Where?”

“Looks like a collage campus in Colorado.  A girl this time.”

“What does she look like?  What are we dealing with?”

“She’s a clairvoyant.  She’s moving quickly in development, we’re thinking someone must have picked her up and is training her.”

“Is she being obvious?”

“There have only been a few blips on the radar, so not too obvious.  But yesterday, yesterday we got a huge anomaly.  She did some major work on someone.”

“One of her own?”

“We’re not sure, Sir.  We’ve sent someone to the campus to infiltrate and see what she’s up to.  We’ll know in a few hours, when they arrive and spot her.”

“Good.  Keep me informed.  We’ve got to get this tamped down.”

“Yes Sir.”

Nine

Larissa walked across campus after lunch, thinking about her biology class and a lab she had to perform later that afternoon.  She had a lot of work ahead of her, and she had spent a significant amount of time learning about her new gifts instead of doing homework. 

Better buckle down, she thought.  The work needed to get done if she was going to keep her grades up.  Her grades were imperative right now, she had to keep her grades up to keep her scholarship, to move forward with the life her parents and teachers wanted her to build. 

Thinking about her parents, Larissa longed a bit for home.  She missed her mother, the hugs and chats at the kitchen table.  She missed someone asking how her day was going.  But she had to pull back from that, those thoughts would lead her down a dangerous spiral of depression.  She didn’t have time for that either. 

Larissa shook her head and kept walking.  It was time for study.  She needed to put away this new talent for a bit and concentrate on her school work.  Deciding where her focus should be felt really well.  She had been lost for a few weeks, even wavering away from her major because of the History class that she loved so much.  The new found gifts had taken her completely by surprise and she had delved so deeply into those that she had lost track of her regular life.  She needed the stability of her regular school work, though.  She hoped that Keith would understand. 

Larissa headed back to her room to study.  Keeping her eyes focused on the present, the three dimensional world that she had always been used to, she didn’t allow herself to see the energies of the people she passed.  She kept her energy close as well, not wanting to draw attention to herself.  At least with all the information she had devoured she had learned a few tricks that would help her get through the next few weeks of school.  She was already looking forward to the holiday break.

Ten

Keith watched as Larissa walked across campus, pulling her energy tightly to herself.  He knew instantly what she was doing and he sighed.  He figured it would happen.  Discovering gifts, especially of her magnitude, was always a little frightening for people.  He would not push her.  In fact, she had chosen the right time to pull back. 

Keith turned his attention to the newcomer on campus.  He watched as the young man scanned the quad, searching.  He wasn’t sure how much they knew about Larissa.  She had obviously hit their radar and they were concerned enough to send someone to scope out the situation.  Larissa had to be pretty bright for them to send someone specifically for her.  They had never sent anyone to look for him, or the few others that were on campus. 

He knew that they watched the city centers very closely.  He knew that many practitioners were underground, constantly changing locations and the way they practiced so they wouldn’t get picked up and shut down by…who ever these people were.  Keith wasn’t sure what to call them and the theories ranged from government thugs to aliens.  He had heard stories about what happened to especially bright people, people who could influence energies like no others.  Somehow these people were able to shut the talent down, or shut the talents off.  He was not clear on how that happened. 

He remembered his first teacher, though.  A great man, an amazing talent.  The man’s house had awed Keith when he was a small boy.  He would sneak into the house, and Roger had always known when he was there.  He would greet Keith and walk him around the rooms, showing him different tools, books, crystals.  He would talk to Keith about what different things were used for and how they worked.  At Keith had grown older, Roger had started training him on energy work.  Showing him specifically how to do things.  He lent Keith hundreds of books on different modalities, encouraging him to learn as much about everything as he could. 

One day Keith had gone to Roger’s house, but Roger wasn’t there.  By that time Keith had his own key, and he walked into the house and immediately felt the change.  He walked past the front room, not seeing anything different. The energy shifted hard in the back rooms.  All the tools and things were still there, the books, but it felt as though a dark sticky energy had covered everything in the rooms.  Keith hadn’t wanted to touch anything, hadn’t wanted to borrow the book he had come for.  He didn’t want to stay in the house alone.  For the first time he was scared for Roger and himself.  He wasn’t even sure what he was scared of.

When Roger did come back, a couple of days later, he was a changed man.  Keith went to see him and it was though a light had gone out in Roger.  He looked sadly at Keith and told him that things had to change, that he wasn’t able to live the way he had used to.  Keith helped Roger pack up all of his books, tools and crystals into boxes.  Keith carried a backpack into the house every day, and every day he left with a bag filled with items that hadn’t been tampered with.  Books that still held the original energy, crystals that still held their power.  He wasn’t able to really help Roger.   Roger seemed to be gone, the new man was one who was constantly afraid.  He would look out the window, staring far into the distance. 

Then there were the men, sometimes in dark cars, sometimes on foot, that penetrated the neighborhood.  They took no notice of Keith, at least they seemed not to.  They kept a close eye on Roger.  Keith watched as they followed Roger’s car from the neighborhood, following at a short distance, not bothering to try and hide from view.  He didn’t ask Roger about the men, and when he tried to talk to his parents about it, they looked at him as though he was crazy.  They didn’t see the men.  His parents didn’t see the cars. 

Keith wondered what else there was in the world that people didn’t see.

That was when he learned to keep his mouth shut and his eyes open.  He learned what the energies of those people felt like, he learned the effect that they would have if they found you. 

The new man on campus was one of them.  He had the same energy that Keith had run into years before.  Keith had a good idea what this man was looking for.  He was looking for Larissa. 

Keith would make sure that Larissa wasn’t found.  It was time to alert the others.

Eleven

Larissa sat with her study group in the library, quietly discussing the latest physics homework when she felt something strange.  She didn’t look up right away, instead she pulled her energy close to herself.  She realized that she had pushed her energies out in the group, helping everyone work together more fully.  She pulled herself in, hesitating in mid-sentence, and glanced up and around the group. 

“Personally I think the answer is B.” Shannon said.  The girl sat across from Larissa. 

“Yeah, I think you are right.” Said John, another student. 

“B it is, shall we head to the next question then?” Said Steve. 

They started discussing the next set of problems and Larissa let her attention float around the room.  Her eyes came to rest on a man she had never seen on campus before.  The campus was small, only a few thousand students, so it was fairly easy to spot a newbie.  They stuck out.  Larissa didn’t focus on the man, but let her eyes drift past him.  She focused back on the conversation they were having at the table, and wondered what she had felt.

Later, back in her room, she thought about what had happened.  The man had walked into the library, he was searching for someone.  Larissa had felt him looking for someone, reaching out with his energy, searching.  Whatever he had been looking for had led him to the library.  She had known, instinctively, that she needed to pull in.  To not allow him to see her energy at work in the group.  Why had she known that?  Why had she done what she had?  What was really going on?

She felt herself reaching out, looking for answers, and she felt like she hit something and immediately pulled back.

He was searching for her.  He was looking for her energy. 

She shook her head.  That didn’t make any sense.  Why would he be looking for her?  She was just a college student who happened to see people’s auras.  And could help them change the way she felt.  Could she do more?  Was there more to her ability that she and Keith hadn’t discovered yet and that was why they were after her?

Maybe she was making it all up.  There couldn’t possibly be a reason for anyone to come looking for her.

Still, she had felt something.  She felt the need to keep her energies close, to not explore as she had been doing for the past couple of weeks.  And something about that man really bothered her.  She would keep an eye out, she would be careful, and she would ask Keith what he knew. 

Larissa turned back to her school work, determined to stay focused on her coursework.  She stayed up, well into the night working on various projects.  When she went to bed her eyes could not stay open, they were scratchy and tired.  She stretched out on her bed and was instantly asleep. 

Day 3 - a new character appears!

Four

Larissa sat in front of the computer, her hands at the keyboard, her eyes on the browser open in front of her.  What should she type?  Colors coming off people?  She wasn’t sure how to describe what she had just seen.

She looked around her, seeing if anyone was watching her.  She had chosen a computer in the farthest corner from everyone else in the library, but they were still out in the open, she felt conspicuous. 

Drawing in a deep breath, she moused over to the search bar and began typing.

“Colors coming off people” was what she decided on.  The third result said something about auras.  She had thought she had heard of auras before, but in the context of religion.  Shrugging, thinking, what the heck, Larissa went back to the search bar and typed in “Auras.”

The results were astounding.  She clicked on the images tab and watched her screen fill with depictions of what she had seen earlier in the day.  She looked at pictures of people surrounded by colors.  Of people’s who colors mixed and melded with others.  She started clicking on the pictures and reading short descriptions of what was happening.

Auras.  She was seeing people’s auras.  What exactly was that?  What did it mean?  What was she supposed to do with that information?

Curious, Larissa toggled over to the library’s site and searched for books about auras.  She was a bit surprised when several choices came up in the results.  She was even more surprised to see that a couple of the books had already been checked out.  She wrote down the information on the books and went in search of them.

She found herself in a section of the library she had never been in before.  She was surrounded by books on mysticism, the occult, fairies and healing.  She ran her fingers over the titles, curious about the contents of the many books, but not wanting to choose just one.  She finally found the book that she had written down, and plucked it from the shelf.  She looked around her, seeing if anyone had seen her take the book from the shelf, but there was no one near her.  She saw some chairs not far away and made her way to them.  She curled herself into the chair and started reading the book. 

Hours passed, Larissa didn’t notice the time until well into the afternoon.  Her stomach started grumbling at her.  She knew she had to make a choice, either check the book out or leave it on the shelf.  The thought of leaving the book behind made her sad and uneasy, so she pooled her courage and took the book to the front desk to check it out.

She had images in her head, while she waited in the short line, that the man behind the counter would stare at her.  That he would call her out as a freak, or ask her what she was doing with such a book.  But he never looked twice at the title, or her for that matter.  He simple swiped her card, scanned the book, handed it to her and she was on her way. 

She slipped the book into her bag and made her way to the meal hall.  She walked with her head up, but didn’t really see the people around her.  Her mind was fully on the information she had been reading for the last few hours.

Auras, the energies that surround people every day, all the time, that is what she had been seeing.  She wasn’t sure what to do with the information, she hoped that the book would tell her.  So far it had given her a lot to think about.  Starting with the Chakra system.  Who knew that the body was made of energy and that there were so many energy centers?  That each of these centers represented different aspects of the self, of what people were thinking?  That some people could see, or perceive these centers and could tell what people were feeling just by looking at them?

Larissa found herself at the door to the meal hall.  She looked around, seeing if anyone she knew was inside.  Relieved to see that she would be alone, she made her way through the food line and paid.  She sat to eat, only slightly paying attention to the food, her mind focused on what she had learned and what it meant.

Five

The alarm went off and music filled the room.  Ever so slowly, the music built in volume until Keith could no longer stand the noise of the shrill voice and driving beat.  He pulled himself out of bed and moved to the other side of the room to turn off the alarm. 

He had figured out long ago that he needed an excuse to get out of bed.  At one time he had an alarm clock that actually moved around the room, but he had stepped on the thing one too many times and it had been impossible to repair it.  He had taken to this new routine, having the alarm too far away for him to reach from any comfortable spot. 

After turning off the first alarm, he moved to the second and third alarms, disabling those as well.  His roommates would be pleased with him today.  He usually waited for all three to go off before getting out of bed. All three would be playing different songs with different beats, the discordance would finally drive him out of bed. 

Today was different.  He needed only one to get from bed today.  He was excited, he was ready to find her and speak with her.  To find out if something had changed yet.

Keith had been friends with Larissa for many years.  He had followed her around jr. high and high school, waiting and watching her.  He knew, from the first day that he met her, that she would be different.  That she would be more like him, but the change had not come.  He dropped little hints to her now and then, seeing how she reacted to this or that bit of information, but she never blinked.  He knew it wasn’t time yet. 

Yesterday though, yesterday had been different.  He had watched her from across the quad as she stared at a group of people, a look of shock on her face.  He had watched her in class, normally one of her favorites, and she hadn’t paid attention at all.  She didn’t answer a single question from the professor.  Others had noticed it too, but no one said anything to the reserved girl about her behavior.  He followed her after class, curious about her behavior, wondering if something had finally changed.  Then he saw it. 

He saw the group fighting, he saw the energy coming off the group, and he looked at Larissa and saw that she noticed it too.  She had turned white, her face falling at the sight.  She had seen more than she had ever seen before.

Finally, Keith knew that he had been right all along.  Now it was finally time to talk to her about what life was really about.

He pulled on clean clothes and made his way from his room.  He knew she was an early riser and he would have to catch her before her first class, hopefully at breakfast, to see what she was feeling.  He was wondering what the experience had been like for her.  What had she seen?  What had she felt?  Was she visual?  Did she hear tones with the energies?

Just as he had hoped, he found her sitting alone at breakfast.  Her nose was in a book, and she was eating without seeing the food in front of her.  He grabbed a plate of food and headed in her direction, trying to catch a glimpse of what she read.

“Hey Larissa, how’s it going?”

“Oh, hi Keith, I didn’t see you.” Larissa didn’t lift her head from the book. Interesting.

“What ya reading?”

“What?” Larissa raised her head, really noticing him for the first time that morning.  She slammed the book closed and tucked it into her book bag before he could see the title.

“Nothing, really.  I wasn’t reading anything.” She said.

“Ah.  Well, ok.” He had to figure out how to get her talking.  She was obviously trying to hide it from him. 

They sat in silence for a few moments.  Larissa fidgeting with her food, Keith trying to figure out how to get her talking about what she had seen yesterday.  Maybe he could be a little direct about it.

“So, um, Larissa,” He started and stopped, unsure of how to be even direct about the subject.

“What’s up Keith?”

“Have you seen that new show?” He had it, it popped into his head at just the right time, “That show with Morgan Freeman called ‘Through the Wormhole’?”

“I haven’t seen it.”

“It’s a really cool series he’s doing on the latest science, quantum physics and biology and stuff.  Cutting edge theories.” He watched her face light up.  He was on the right track.

“Really?  That sounds pretty cool.”

“Yeah, they talk about all kinds of different things on the show.  Some new age type stuff too, you know how people can perceive things that they might not realize they are perceiving.”

“Huh.” Larissa’s face closed down a bit.  Had he gone too far?  He had to get her talking about what ever had happened or…

“Larissa, what happened yesterday?” The question just popped from his mouth.

“What are you talking about?” The color drained from her face. Now he’d done it.

“Something happened to you yesterday.  I saw you, stopped in the quad, staring at a group of people like you were watching a show or something.  I’ve never seen you look like that.  Then in class you were all distracted, didn’t answer any of the questions.  And you didn’t show up to our other class later that afternoon.  What happened?”

“Keith, I don’t know that I should talk to anyone about it.  I’m not even sure it really happened…”

“Tell me Rissa.”

“Keith, I hate it when you call me Rissa.”

“Fine, Larissa.  Tell me what happened.”

“You are going to think I am crazy.  Heck I think I’m crazy.”

“Try me, you know I’ve heard and seen some crazy things.”

“Fine.  But you have to promise me that you will not tell a soul.”

“Easy.  I won’t tell a soul.”

“Yesterday, when I was walking to class, well… I stopped to look around the quad, to see the colors and enjoy the fresh air.  When I looked at a group of people talking, they had colors coming out of them!”

“Sweet! You saw their auras as colors?”

“How did you know that?” Larissa’s jaw dropped. It was Keith’s turn to look bashful.

“Larissa, I guess I’ve been hiding something from you.”

“You’ve been hiding something from me?”

“Well, kind of.  I mean, I’ve tried to talk to you about it before, when we were younger.  But you always looked at me like I was nuts, so I never went any further with it.  But, now that you can see auras, well, you should know that I can feel them.”

“You can feel them?  How does that work?”

“It’s how I perceive things.  Through feeling, often through touch.  But even from a distance I can feel what people are feeling.”

“Huh.” She looked incredulous.

“Ok, let’s do an experiment.  See that couple over there?  On the other side of the room?”

Larissa nodded affirmative.

“Ok.  So right off the bat you assume they are a couple because there are only two of them and they are sitting close to each other.  That’s basic body language and easy.  But then I go deeper.  I can feel that she’s angry.  Super angry at him.  And he’s totally indifferent to what she is feeling.  She’s putting off this anger vibe, but it’s only directed at him.  It isn’t coming across the room, so I don’t get the full force of it.  He does.  It’s going straight into him.  Or it would be going straight into him if he wasn’t completely indifferent to what she was feeling.  Her feelings, her energy, though it’s directed at him, it’s like it’s going into a black hole because he refuses to take any of it in.  He feels nothing.”

Larissa nodded and said, “I see it.  She’s putting out this deep green and red stuff, it’s pouring off of her in his direction.  Only it gets swallowed before it reaches him.  He’s got this black inky stuff on her side of him.  But, well that’s interesting…”

“What?  What do you see?”

“He seems to have some sort of cord coming off of him going off from the other side.  It’s all silvery and pink, like he’s connected to something or someone else.”

“That’s called an energetic cord.  It’s amazing that you can see it.” Keith nodded sagely at her startled face.

“I hadn’t meant to tell anyone what was happening.” She whispered.

“I know.  But I’ve been waiting for you for a long time Larissa.”

“What do you mean?”

“I’ve known about this stuff, this energy work, for a long time.  I’ve been waiting for something to happen to you so we could talk about it.”

Six

Larissa stared at her best friend.  The boy she had known since she was a small child.  She couldn’t believe what he had said to her, what she had said to him.  It was shocking enough to know that she could see people’s auras, that she could know what they were thinking and feeling by the colors that surrounded them.  Now Keith was telling her that he had been able to do it for years and had been waiting for her to figure it out.

She sat back in her chair and studied the couple across the room.  The girl was so in love with the boy and he was attached somewhere else.  Where was he attached?  As soon as she thought the question, Larissa seemed to have the answer.  It was his mother.  So typical. 

Larissa slashed her hand through the air and thought, ‘that connection should be broken!’ She felt Keith straighten next to her when she did it and she looked closely at the couple again.

“You cut the cord!” he hissed at her.

She had.  The cord that had been coming from the boy was no longer there.  The black hole in front of him had also faded slightly.  She watched as the girl’s energy penetrated the boy’s field for the first time.

“Was that bad?” She asked Keith. 

“Yes and no. You have a lot to learn Larissa.  You can’t just cut cords for people without them knowing.”

“Why? What are cords anyway? Oh, there’s one snaking from the girl into the boy now.  Weird.”

“We’ve got a lot to talk about.  Can you skip classes again today?”

“Yes.” Larissa didn’t even hesitate.  The classes she was taking didn’t mean anything to her at that moment.  She wanted to know what Keith knew.  She wanted to know what Keith saw.  The book she had been studying didn’t say anything about cords or connections.  It didn’t really explain to her what she was seeing, only what different colors meant and something about Chi, Ki and Kundilini. 

“Finish your breakfast, I’ll finish mine.  Then we’ll figure out where to go so we can talk without being noticed.  And stop staring at them Larissa.  You are making them super nervous.”

Larissa blinked, the couple coming into focus.  She smiled at the girl and shrugged apologetically.  She looked down at her breakfast and started eating as quickly as possible.  She had to find out what Keith knew.  She had to find out how he knew it. 

2013 Starts!

I didn't post yesterday because I wasn't sure what was going to happen.  Looks like we're on another fun adventure - so I'm posting yesterday and today.  This year it looks like the main character is Larissa.  Let's see what happens to her this month!

Introduction

So it begins, she thought to herself.  Another journey down another path, searching for what she was never sure she would find.  Her stomach growled accompanied by a clenching in her stomach, letting her know that it had been several hours since her last meal.

Such was the life of a business traveler.  She tugged her carry-on bag behind her, wishing she had had time to purchase a new one before this trip.  The wheel had been broken for so many weeks, months, she had lost track of when it had last functioned properly. 

Sighing, Larissa queued up behind a long line of travelers at the only coffee stand in this wing of the airport.  It was a Starbucks this time, so she knew what to order and knew what to expect.  With some of the smaller shops in airports the coffee was either too weak or too strong.  With Starbucks strict standards, she knew she’d get what she was looking for. 

She felt her phone start to buzz in her pocket.  She stood in the line trying to decide if she would answer or not, and in making up her mind inadvertently let it go to voice mail.  She would check it as soon as she was out of the line, as soon as she found a table and had a few bites to eat.  Her stomach clenched again in protest of the line.  One of these trips she would learn to pack snacks in her case.

She inched her way towards the counter, listening to the other travelers.  The mother, trying in vain to convince her child that he was too young for coffee.  The teenage girl who had never ordered at Starbucks before and wasn’t sure what she wanted.  The savvy businessman who knew all the lingo and could speak coffee as if he knew no other language.  She looked around while she waited and caught a glimpse of her reflection in the metal surface of a pillar.

She stood a little straighter at the sight of her reflection.  This body was so different than the ones she was used to.  It was always a bit strange to see herself, though she recognized herself instantly, she often forgot what this one looked like.

Larissa gazed at her reflection, taking in the short legs, her wide feet stuffed into the cutest comfortable shoes she was able to find.  They were not very cute, black loafers.  Matte leather, so they would not attract notice.  Her eyes traveled up her body, taking in her thick waist and her large breasts, barely held in place by the bra she had to special order from England.  She shook her head.  Why Americans could not accept large breasted women was beyond her.  She ended her perusal of this incarnation with a study of her face. 

She loved her face.  The rest of her body was always a shock to her, the shortness, the roundness, but her face was beautiful.  She had the perfect lips, when she held her mouth closed they formed the classic lip shape that people had been trying to copy for thousands of years.  She preferred to keep her lips slightly parted and always glossed.  She liked to watch men as they watched her breath.  They were always spellbound by her perfect lips. 

Until they reached her eyes.  Her eyes were a piercing green, an unnatural green many would say.  They would accuse her of wearing contact lenses.  Her eyesight was perfect, just as the color of her eyes.  Her face was framed by thick tresses of dark auburn hair which made her eyes stand out even more on her pale skin.  She knew the wavy curls made her look exotic in most cities in America, though often she would not garner a second glance abroad.  Unless someone noticed her eyes.  Then they would stare, trying to make eye contact to see more clearly into her eyes. 

Larissa smiled at the reflection, and moved up in line.  She reached the counter, placed her order and moved to one side to wait for her breakfast and coffee to be served.  She didn’t bother trying to meet anyone’s eyes, she did not bother trying to make any connection with anyone there.  She knew where she was going next and that would take all of her strength.

Her order came up and Larissa made her way to an empty table.  She ate a couple of bites of the breakfast sandwich before she pulled her phone out of her pocket. 

Three missed calls.  Three voice mails.  They were all from her mother.  Larissa had a good idea what they were all about.  Her mother rarely left her alone for more than a day, usually calling three to five times a day.  Larissa would ignore these calls, choosing to only respond every few days to her mother’s demand for attention. 

Her mother rarely called three times in a row, though, and would never leave multiple messages.  She had learned that Larissa would only respond when Larissa was ready, and leaving more messages generally made the time frame for response longer.  Larissa put the phone to her ear, waiting for the first message to begin playing.

“Larissa, it’s mom.  Look, there’s been an accident.  I need you to call me right away.” Larissa looked at the phone, and pressed play on the next message.

“Honey, it’s mom again.  I…I know you are probably busy with something.  I hope to God you aren’t on a plane right now.  Please, honey, please, if you are able to call…” Larissa felt her heart drop.  Something very bad had happened.  She pressed play on the next message.

“….Larissa please… please call me…I, I can’t do this without you…please…”

Larissa looked at the sandwich in front of her, half eaten.  She wondered if she should finish it now or risk not being able to when she finished the call with her mother.  The tone of the messages was one she had never heard from her mother before.  Sure, her mother was needy, but never dramatic in this way.  She would go on and on about what one neighbor did to another, but she never called claiming something had happened. 

Shaking her head, afraid of what her mother had to tell her, Larissa pressed the Call Back button on her phone and waited.

One

Larissa listened to the singing from the room next door and wondered if her roommate would ever stop.  It was the same three lines of the same song, over and over.  She had been singing the same three lines for more than a month and Larissa was ready to knock some sense into her. 

“And who do you think you are, Runnin’ round leaving scars, Collecting your jar of hearts and tearing love apart”  Her roommate wailed one more time. 

Larissa rolled her eyes, looking around her room for something to silence the girl.  She had been warned, when she put in for the transfer, that she could end up living with anyone.  That often people moved out because they had issues with their current roommates, but Larissa was hopeful that this situation would be better than the last.  And though the girl was sad, and wailed the same song over and over, at least Larissa could put on headphones, crank her own music and drown her out.  She could shut her door and pretend that nothing existed outside her room, with her twin bed, small closet and desk. 

Really, she thought, did anything really exist outside of her room anyway?  Larissa stood and walked to her window.  The view outside her window was stunning.  The trees had just started to turn and seemed to set the mountains and hillsides on fire.  The oranges, reds and yellows were breathtaking.  The color only broken by the occasional evergreen.  The sky was a glorious blue, clear and cloudless.  Larissa hugged her arms around her body, and swayed from side to side.  Her own personal music playing in her head, rocking her, comforting her.  The noise from the other room faded, the view outside the window faded, as Larissa reached out with her mind and looked for the one thing she had always sought. 

It wasn’t there.  She got close to where it was supposed to be and felt the void.  Her eyes blinked and filled with tears.  When would it come back?  When would she feel that part of herself that had seemed to leave when she was a small girl?  When would she feel whole again?  Sighing, she pulled herself into the present moment and turned from the window.  It would not do for anyone to see her crying at her window.  It would ruin her image, and she needed the façade to work right now. 

Larissa plopped back into her desk chair and pulled on the headphones that were waiting.  She pressed shuffle on her favorite list of music, waited for the song to start and drown out her roommate.  When she was certain that the song, the music would drown out her roommate, she opened one of her books and began reading. 

Hoping, praying that there may be answers in this book.  Or at the very least she would be able to drown out the sorrow in her soul with the information at her fingertips. 

Two

Larissa made her way across the campus to her second class of the day.  This was a class she really looked forward to.  It was her only elective, the only class she felt free to do what she had always wanted to do.  The other classes, those in her major, were what her family wanted for her.  The math, the science, proving to her parents that they had raised a smart daughter.  Giving them bragging rights with their friends as they watched the other children study literature, the arts and other such subjects. 

This elective was different for her.  It was a history class, the history of Europe, and she adored it.  The pictures, the art work, seemed to call to her, to tell her stories that the books did not.  She would often sit and stare at one page in the book for hours, seeing what had happened on the land that was presented in the picture.  She could see the whole history of it.  When people first arrived, how they looked around them and decided to settle.  When the next generations were born and raised.  The struggles they faced through weather, war, and other things.  The history of the place would sweep before her senses.  She loved it.

It was through this class that she first began to wonder about her existence.  Where she first began to wonder about the body she was in, it didn’t feel like her body for some reason.  She wondered where she had really come from, why she was here, so many questions that didn’t seem possible to answer. 

Larissa crossed the quad, the large grassy area at the center of the main campus.  She looked at the people all around her, many standing around in groups chatting.  People rushing to and from classes.  So many different shapes and sizes, so many different tones of skin, hair and eyes.  And the clothing choices! 

She stopped short.

Larissa slowly twilled around in a circle, really looking at the those that surrounded her for the first time.  She saw something she had never seen before. 

There were not only the outward appearances of people, not only clothes, eyes, skin and hair.  Something more was suddenly apparent to her.  There were colors that weren’t associated with the physical people but somehow seemed to emanate from them.  She focused on one group of people, squinting her eyes a bit to see if that changed their appearance. 

There were five people standing in a loose circle, chatting animatedly with each other.  Larissa watched as one girl told a story, waving her hands in the air to describe something.  The colors seemed to shoot from the girls hands, from her arms.  From the top of her head.  She was enveloped in colors.  They were mostly bright, green, blue, orange and red.  The orange was shooting from her hands, like flames. 

The other people seemed to be responding with colors of their own.  Two of the boys were radiating similar colors, orange and red being the strongest.  The colors flowed out of their bodies to mix with the colors coming from the girl’s hands.  There were two other girls standing in the group.  One girl also had colors flowing from her body, seeming to respond to the story teller.  The other girl did not.  The other girl, standing a bit away from the others, was colorless.  No, that wasn’t right.  She was emanating a darkness, a moodiness, grayish black color came off of her.

Larissa blinked a few times and the colors faded from her sight.  She was left looking at the group as she would normally see them.  A girl talking animatedly with her hands, three of the others responding and one girl standing apart looking bored.

Shaken by what had just happened, Larissa turned and made her way to her class. 

Three

She sat through the class without hearing or seeing a single thing.  What had just happened to her?  Did she eat something bad for breakfast?  She had eaten her normal breakfast, yogurt and granola, maybe someone had something to the yogurt?

She looked around the classroom, waiting to see if her vision would change again.  Frightened by what she might see.  But her vision did not shift.  She saw everything and everyone as she would normally see them.  No colors emanating from their heads or hands.  She watched the professor, with his back to the students, writing on the white board, and saw only what she always saw.  Nothing changed, nothing different. 

Maybe it had been some sort of hallucination.  Maybe she was getting a fever or getting sick.  Unsure what she should do, Larissa decided to make her way back to her room after class.  She would tell her teachers she didn’t feel well.  Since she didn’t regularly miss class she knew she could easily make up whatever she missed.  And she knew that her teachers would be forgiving.  They loved having her in class. 

Keeping her eyes on the path in front of her while she walked, Larissa thought about what she had seen.  Colors coming out of people, almost like waves.  The colors responding to each other, almost as though they were having their own conversation.  Shaking her head at herself, telling herself it was some sort of bad vision, Larissa stopped in the quad again and looked around. 

There were similar groups of people standing around and talking. There were couples walking, holding hands, there were friends chatting as they made their way to classes and other activities.  Larissa saw a group where one person was talking animatedly again and studied them, waiting.  Nothing happened.  They looked like every other group she had seen on the quad a hundred times. 

Suddenly a young man ran up to the group.  He pushed one of the other men and started shouting at him.  Larissa watched as an argument ensued, the young men trying to pull the others apart.  The girls who were in the group stepping back. 

Then it all changed.  Larissa saw that the two aggressive men glowed an angry red, with black and what looked like oil flowing all around them.  The others who responded where also dark, some had red and orange hues, some yellow, but the colors were all muddled and dark.  The girls who had stepped back were cloaked in gray, almost like wool. 

A professor approached the group and Larissa’s eyes widened.  The man was ablaze in deep blue and purple.  She had not seen colors like those before.  He walked up to the group and started talking to them.  They all immediately calmed down and Larissa saw his colors flow over them.  The deep blue and purple seemed to take over the reds, oranges and blacks.  It seeped into the boys, changing their demeanor.  They all became submissive to the professor.

They disbanded quickly, and Larissa stood, rooted to where she was, unable to process what she had just seen. 

Changing her mind about heading back to her room, Larissa turned towards the library instead.  Perhaps she would find some answers there.