I spun away again, taking two more steps. Her pulse began to race, the machine going apeshit.
“Nurse!” I yelled, running back in the room.
Three nurses barged past me, blocking my view. I plastered myself against the window, hands clasped on top of my head. What the fuck was happening?
A doctor came in, voicing my question minus the curse.
“She’s waking up,” one of the nurses answered.
Fuck. I hoped to God it was true. I held my breath, mangling my bottom lip with my teeth.
“Andrea. It’s okay. We’re going to take the tube out and then you can breathe by yourself. Just relax.” His elbows jostled as he worked.
I was glad I couldn’t see what they were doing. Even if I did want to look, I couldn’t. I was frozen, too petrified to inhale, let alone move. I focused on the drip, drip, drip of her IV, waiting for some sign that she was going to be okay.
“Okay. It’s okay. Just breathe. You know how to do that. You’ve been doing it on your own for years.”
I listened to the doctor’s instructions like they were meant for me, ordered my diaphragm to help. My nostrils flared as I pushed air out. And then she coughed. My legs gave out and I slid to the floor. My arms felt like their bones had dissolved as they flopped at my sides.
I tilted my chin to the ceiling and mouthed a thank you.
Thank you to a God I hadn’t believed in.
Until then.
_____
Emmeline/Andrea
Somewhere. Everywhere. There.
Swirling ... spinning ... floating ...
The oppressive weight of carrying around a sack of flesh was gone. I’d released myself, and not for the first time. I’d done this before. But this was different. This time I was reuniting with the small part of me I’d left behind. And I was eager to go. I called in my energy, asked the fragmentation to heal and pull together again. It bubbled and vibrated like an oncoming earthquake.
But I couldn’t get past a barrier.
They wanted to show me something before I went.
She wanted to show me something before I went.
Jess.
I felt her. Every soul had its own unique vibration. I recognised hers straight away.
A scene rolled across my consciousness. My energy dropped instantly. This wasn’t a happy scene. Her spirit tugged my thoughts back, reminding me I was merely a spectator and that she was happy and free where she was.
I observed Jess laying on a bed. The frame was the old-fashioned wrought-iron style. Her mouth was gagged, hands tied above her head and secured to the frame, her feet tied to each corner of the end of the bed. Her body was naked.
I retreated, preferring not to witness this heinous crime. Jess’s ghost reminded me she was no longer there—she was here with me. We were in another realm, our energies suspended in nothingness. No flesh to tie us down. No mind to fool us into believing a false reality. We were consciousness. Pure energy.
Jess’s eyes blinked open as her head rolled to the side. Taking in her surroundings, she thrashed all her limbs, sheer terror in her eyes.
Why are you showing me this? I don’t want to see this.
She planted a word in my awareness.Watch.
A man entered the room. He was muscular, like he did manual labour for a living. He wore nothing but a twisted smile. I knew that face. He was young. Only in his late twenties, maybe early thirties. Where did I know him from?
Johnno’s party. I’d seen him. He’d been there when I’d picked up on the negative juju. Had I recognised him that night? Who was he?
For a fraction of a second, his face morphed into that of Reginald Fortescue the Third’s. If I’d had a mouth, I would’ve gasped. I certainly recognised his acrid vibrational signature. But the young man was from a different time.
I pulled back again, feeling like a whisk had reached inside me, twisting me into knots. Reaching for Jess’s energy, I tried to regain equilibrium.
I was from a different time.
Was this some sort of timeline warp? Had we crossed an impenetrable divide?
The scene continued to play out. The man climbed over her. Jess’s eyelids peeled back. He beat her as he forced himself inside. Blood ran from her skin as his teeth sank in too deep. Vomit spilled around the gag in her mouth as her throat surged. Her face turned dusky pink before going a horrible tinge of purple blue. She choked on her own vomit. The dip at the base of her neck stopped pulling in with each breath. There were no more breaths. She was dead. And still he pumped in and out like an animal determined to get what he came for.
The scene changed. It was dark. The man had driven into ... where?
Mount Archer National Park.
The answer crossed my awareness.
He took Jess from the car boot and hauled her sheet-covered body over his shoulder. Tossing a lighter onto the seat, flames burst to life, spreading across the leather of the Mercedes. He ran through the scrub, surprisingly fast considering the weight he carried. There were no signs or walking trails around. This was a remote part of the mountain. The part cars drove through, giving no thought to stopping.
He travelled far from the road until he found a hollow tree stump a foot taller than he. Beside it was another truncated tree, this one much shorter. It was the perfect step. He heaved himself up, jostling Jess on his shoulder. Tipping her body into the log, her hair hung down to reveal that she’d been buried head first. Once he’d successfully stuffed her in, he gathered a pile of dry leaves and twigs and added
