Chapter 34: Chapter 34

Maya was lying on a rug in the middle of the room, the furniture pushed up against walls to give them space. At her head, Ka was sat on a sofa next to Ke, his hands pressed tightly together in a mirror image of Ke’s. Ellie was sat to Maya’s right, next to Brian, looking more amused than anything. She’d already mentioned that she was prepared to dodge large quantities of water suddenly splurging from thin air. Brian was too busy looking at Ellie to be worried about anything else.

As Maya lay there, Steve started speaking in a calm manner.

“You need to see yourself as two separate entities, body and soul. Your soul is energy, and flows within you. You have taken it out of your body before, and you can do it again.”

“That was an accident!” disputed Maya indignantly.

“Nevertheless, it happened, and you are capable of it. Lie there, and visualise the distinction between your human body, and your consciousness which is pure energy.”

Despite trying to understand what he meant, Maya didn’t get it at all. She tried breathing more slowly and imagined her body was part of the floor while her mind wasn’t attached.

“Now concentrate on leaving your body behind,” Steve continued. “Imagine rising, towards the ceiling. You’re not looking to open a portal in the way you are familiar with; your soul needs to leave your body.”

Maya concentrated as instructed, and a normal portal opened in the air above her.

“Wonder where that goes to,” she mused idly. Steve touched her arm to view the portal before continuing his instruction.

“Maya you need to concentrate. Close the portal, relax and concentrate on going up.”

Maya concentrated so hard she felt all her muscles tense. She tried to let it go as much as she could and concentrated on separating body from mind, but to no avail. Another portal appeared, but with no sign of her soul rising.

She began to despair, wondering if it was ever going to work. As she was despairing about the portal, one appeared above her before rapidly moving down over her, absorbing her. Maya was terrified; it was completely out of her control.

Suddenly it was warm and she could see trees, but in that briefest of moments she felt a hand on her leg, and was being pulled back to the others.

“What the hell was that?” she cried, lying in a heap on the floor.

“That, was engulfing. Slowly, mind you, but definitely engulfing.” he eyed her suspiciously.

“Engulfing?” wondered Maya, somewhat wary of his disposition.

“Yeah. It happened to me once when I was shot. A portal engulfed me and placed me in a kind of hospital in a very advanced world. They fixed me and sent me on my way. I’ve been forever indebted to them, they are wonderful beings.”

“They’re not human?” asked Maya.

“They were once.”

“So this thing I have, it will save me?”

“I wouldn’t take it for granted, I don’t know how much of it is my subconscious operating it. Anyway, continue, don’t worry, I’ll grab you again. Just concentrate. Lie down,” Steve directed, his patience waning. Maya did as she was told and tried to think only of her energy. Whatever that was.

Sometime later she was ready to go home and forget it had ever happened.

“You just have to concentrate, have self-control” said Steve one time too many.

“I am breathing at a reasonable rate, I am not pissing or shitting myself, and clearly, despite my better judgement, I am not punching your face in,” snapped Maya through gritted teeth, “now, please specify exactly what self-control I am lacking.”

A shadow passed over Steve’s face, before he remarked “Feisty this one,” his face returning to his charming smile while looking at Ka who nodded vigorously in agreement.

Hrmphing, Maya lay back down, and flippantly thought about how she should just fly. She imagined flying through the roof and away from there.

A flicker of silver and she wasn’t on the hard floor any more. She opened her eyes and to her horror found she was back in the psych ward.

“OH FUCK!!!” she shouted, before heading upwards through a flash of silver into a world she had never been before.

* * * * *

“Wow,” was the first word to leave her lips. Maya was standing in the same forest that she had appeared in earlier, only it wasn’t the same. Maya could see the energy of the leaves, feel the tree’s life force, and when she felt its proximity to her, She could see the energy that connected them. Suddenly the whole world around was part of her, she had never felt so wholly connected to anything in her life. She couldn’t feel her body, not in the normal sense. She couldn’t touch her fingers together to create a familiar sensation, the edges were too blurred, they were already connected.

Maya looked around her at the forest, then passed her hand through a tree, feeling its energy combining with hers. She could feel something in her, wrapped around her, mixing with her. She looked down at the silvery shimmer combining with her orange energy that faded back into fingers and toes. That was it, that was the gift, it was a living being. She could feel its symbiosis with her, but there was something not quite right. She couldn’t identify the source of this feeling, could only understand that it was there. She just knew there was something really wrong with her gift.

Maya pictured her mirror in her mind and willed their energies to unite. It was so easy, she could feel her, and drew herself towards her. She closed her eyes and felt her energy. It was loud and clear, Maya number two was broken.

Then she was in front of her, just an orange blob that she somehow knew was her. They were the sole occupants of a dark cave.

“Go away! Leave me alone!” screamed the new Maya, more in Maya’s head than out loud. she wanted to hold the broken her, help her, make her whole. But instead just stood there, feeling how detached different parts of her energy were.

“Look at me, you know who I am,” she whispered to the tortured soul. The mass of energy started becoming more human in appearance, but dimmer than Maya, fading to black in the deep, dark cave.

“You, you were supposed to save me, save me, why didn’t you save me?” her words were barely coherent in Maya’s mind, broken like her spirit.

“I’m here to save you now, I can help,” she promised, although she had no idea how that was possible.

“Get away from me, leave me alone! You can’t help me now, get away, get away, get away!”

Maya felt the power of her revulsion to her. She didn’t want to cause her more pain, but didn’t know what to do. She needed Steve.

“I’ll help you, I promise,” she told her as she backed away.

“Supposed to save me, save me, save me, save me, save me...”

Her incoherence matched what Maya felt of her soul. It was fractured, split into pieces, the parts not connecting. There didn’t seem to be any part of Maya’s mirror left in that being.

Maya decided to find someone on the astral plane who might know what was happening. Was this because she was a suicide? Did this happen to all suicide victims? Steve would have mentioned it if that was true, wouldn’t he? Maya realised that she didn’t know him at all, had no idea what his motives might be of sending her there.

She shook the thoughts of Steve from her head, there was no reason to doubt him, and she needed to concentrate on energy far away to find someone to help. She moved towards the nearest energy, not far from the cave mouth, before arriving at a human shaped blob of energy.

“You are seeking answers,” she heard in her mind.

“Yes, what happened to her?” she projected into his. Perhaps it wasn’t really language as she knew it, just a sudden understanding of what the other person was saying. It almost felt like she was hearing it, but then just thinking it.

“I cannot answer that, I do not understand it. I have never seen a soul so fractured, nor here for so long.”

“Has she been here for three months?”

“It has been a long time, months yes.”

“What happens when people die, do they not come here?”

“No, they do not.”

“Not even people in comas?”

“Never. Is her body still alive?”

“Yes. If it dies will she move on?”

“That I cannot say. You can feel your body if you choose.”

“Yes, I can,” she realised for the first time that the connection was there.

“That soul has no connection to her body any more. I do not know if her soul would even know the body had died.”

“What can I do to release her? Her worst nightmare was to go on instead of dying, so she’s living her own personal hell. I’ve got to save her!”

“I cannot say, but I do remember that the silver energy that you carry, she carried it. She has it no more.”

“How long ago did she lose it? Please!” begged Maya.

“Not long, only weeks.”

Maya moved backwards, horror filling every bit of her. She moved blindly, needing to run, scream, release the terror that was unravelling her. This thing wasn’t going to kill her. Worse, she was to suffer Maya’s fate, a fate worse than death. Maya was kicking and screaming and then there was something solid against her.

“It’s okay baby, I’m here,” Ka’s voice was nearby and she felt his arms around her, holding her. She went limp, realising where she was.