Seraphina: Initiation (14 page)

“I am taking it seriously! I’m training and
learning, but I just wish I had some kind of warning! Something to
prepare me for this!” I blurt out, finally letting myself scream my
frustration out loud.

“You did. Do you think those dreams were a
coincidence? You were being trained even back then. Seraphina, this
is deep within you, trust your instincts,” he cryptically tells
me.

“Grandpa, are we descendants of Nephilim?” I
decipher his statement quicker than he expected.

“There is something I want to share with
you…” he states, standing on his bare feet and looking out over the
cemetery. “When I was younger, I ran into a woman with fiery red
hair, like yours,” he pauses before glancing back down to me. “She
had this look in her hazel eyes that told me she knew me. I
followed her into a dark alley. She stopped, turned around to face
me and I noticed she was dressed head to toe in black with swords
and knives entwined in this strange suit. I thought it was a trap,
I thought she was going to kill me,” he tells me before coming to
sit beside me ironically against his own grave stone. “She told me
not to be afraid, she said that she knew me. That she knew me
better than I knew myself. Then she told me something to the effect
of her just checking in on me, that was all I remember. The next
thing I know I’m waking up in my bed the next day. I didn’t think
anything of it because I had quite a few drinks that night and I
assumed it was all a hallucination. It wasn’t until your mother was
born that I thought I saw her pass me in the hallway of the
hospital. Then the day you were born, the nurse that came in
carrying your tiny swaddled body had a surgical mask over her face,
but she had hair redder than flames and I swear her hazel eyes were
tearing when she handed you to your mother. After that I never saw
her again. I don’t know what happened to her, but looking back now,
I think that maybe she was an Angel, maybe she was our Guardian
Angel.”

“She was our Guardian Angel? What happened
to her? Is that why Nate came to me?” I ask trying desperately to
make sense of it all.

“I don’t know Seraphina. I’m just telling
you what I do know. I have to go now.”

“No! Grandpa!” I exclaim trying to reach for
him.

“Be strong,” he tells me as he evaporates
into the wind. His smiling face looking down on me forever
engrained in my mind.

“Noooo!” I scream before bursting into tears
looking down to the frost hanging off the hampered blades of grass
where my grandfather just was.

“Sera! Sera!” I hear being called to the
back of my mind, “Sera!” It’s coming louder now. The cemetery
before me is starting to shake,
what is going on? Is this an
earthquake?
“SERA!”

I snap out of my daze, opening my eyes to
the basement. I’m sitting against the wall next to the treadmill
that’s still running. I’m crying as Nate is trying to shake me out
of it.

“Sera! Are you okay? What happened?” he asks
seeing my eyes are beginning to focus again.

“I’m fine,” I automatically state shaking my
head,
was that all a dream?

“Sera, what happened?” he continues to
press.

“I daydreamed I was running outside and I …
I saw my grandfather!” I whisper piecing everything back together.
I hear him take a deep breath, he was probably expecting the worst.
I don’t know where seeing dead relatives ranks up against his list
of strange happenings that can kill me. So, I decide to keep what
my grandfather told me to myself, after all it may have just been a
dream. When my breathing finally slows to normal and my tears have
dried, he climbs to his feet and offers me his hand, “Come, let’s
go upstairs.”

Nate turns to me when he reaches the middle
of the dining room and I think I see him take a deep breath before
starting right in.

“Today is devoted to learning how to use the
power of your mind,” he begins to tell me, but my eyes seem to be
wandering over to the closed door of his office. I wonder what is
in there and why is it that he hasn’t showed me this one room, what
could he possibly be doing in there? I thought we were a team. “Now
let’s start with the simplest, movement.”

My mind finally catches that last part,
“What?”

“Try and move something with your mind, with
one thought, one emotion—not all emotions like what you did in
front of your house last week!” I have to smile at his words, to
think I can be so powerful is exciting.

Okay, focus Sera. Move something
. I
look around the dining room, there is nothing but table with chairs
and… Nate. I close my eyes and take a few deep breaths before my
mind focuses on Nate. I sense his breathing, his body heat, his
blood coursing through his body, and I can even feel every beat of
his heart as if it were my own. Remembering his instructions, one
emotion. The only emotion that comes to mind when I think of Nate
has to be Love. So, I focus on all the love I harbor for him. My
heart rate elevates, my body heat rises, and I feel my arm extend
reaching for him, calling him. Smiling I can sense him coming
towards me. Slowly, I open one eye and watch as he is gliding
across the floor toward me. He looks down in surprise before
looking up to me and shaking his head. Though, he doesn’t say
anything until he is directly in front of me.

“That’s cute, but let’s start with an
inanimate object please,” he instructs kissing my forehead and
stepping to the side.

Inanimate object, well the only thing here
is the table so I focus on it. The first emotion that comes to mind
is Anger, so I jump on it. Why am I angry? All my memories seem to
flood to the forefront of my mind. The mystery of my family, will I
ever see them again? Are they in danger? The attacks, the threats
on my life, they have taken away my running, my sleep, my family,
my very freedom—things I took for granted before. The last image
that pops into my mind is the expression on Nate’s face last night
when he saw what had been done to me. I feel the power surging
inside me. Like a tidal wave, I feel it rise and sway back and
forth until finally it flows to my hands. I open my eyes at the
last minute to see them glowing, brighter and brighter. I clasp
them together trying to control it like Nate has told me time and
time again. Clasping as hard as I can, my power seems to grow
bigger and bigger. Forming an orb of pure white power in between my
hands until I can’t seem to control it any longer. I take a step
back and throw it.

All my senses slow as my eyes watch in slow
motion. I see the orb fly through the air, hit the table and it
bursts into pieces. What I don’t expect, however, is it also seems
to continue past the table and shatters the entire back wall of
glass. I watch in shock as the shattered pieces of wood and glass
fly through the air, out into the grass and ultimately tumble out
over the cliff. When time comes back to normal, I’m staring at the
destruction I just caused. I completely obliterated the table and
the cold breeze seems to hit me through the opening in the back of
the house. I automatically look over at Nate, waiting for my
lecture on how I need to learn to control these things, but I get a
quick glimpse that he too, is shocked. He quickly recovers and
turns to me.

“What were you thinking?” he asks but in a
curious way.

“I was picturing my anger…” I admit with my
mouth twisted to one side.

“Let’s try something not so… uh, volatile,
okay?” he jokes before walking in front of me and continues, “I see
we have to use different training techniques with you. How about
you try and move me backwards using an emotion you haven’t used
before.”

I focus on Nate, trying not to use love.
That’s like trying to swim without getting wet. As I ponder, the
only other emotion that comes to mind is Fear. I focus on how
afraid I am of him getting hurt in all this. I imagine something
coming for him and I’m moving him out of the path of danger.
Extending my hands in front of me like I’m pushing him out of the
way. When I open my eyes, sure enough he is gliding backwards. I
laugh at myself at how easy it is once I know what I’m doing.

“Okay, now try moving this chair,” he states
as a chair appears in his hands, “move it over there,” he finishes
pointing to a spot in the corner. Instead of closing my eyes, I
extend my hands. I feel as though most my power comes from them
anyway, Stretching my hand towards the chair and slowly trace it
across the room to the corner. The chair follows my hand and it
stops once I pull my hand back. Nate nods once in approval before
jumping right back into trainer mode and conjuring another
object.

After I’ve moved all the objects Nate can
think up, he decides I’m ready for my next assignment. “How about
you try and conjure something yourself?” he half asks half
orders.

“How do I do that?”

“Picture something, focus your energy and
force it into existence,” he turns to see my confused face, “It’s
hard to explain, but you’ve done it before so I don’t think it’ll
be much trouble for you.”

He’s right I’ve done this before… I can do
this. Although the times I’ve done it was either in urgency or in
my sleep. I guess I have to just try. I walk up to where the glass
wall was and I place my hands up against the air where it would
have been. I imagine how it was. I know we need a wall, protection
from the evil that is around, that is building an army against me.
I feel my hands begin to warm and I hear crackling as if I were
walking on ice. Suddenly, I feel something hard against the palm of
my hands. Slowly opening my eyes, I see the glorious wall of glass
restored back to the way it was. The smile traces it’s way across
my lips, but I don’t allow it to turn into an excited giggle.
Instead, I spin on my heels and picture a new dining room table.
It’s only fair. I destroyed his old one. I imagine a long, mahogany
table with ornately sculpted legs and a tabletop made of sheer
glass to match the wall beside it. Clenching my fists as I feel my
hands warm I feel it come to life before me.

By the time my eyes blink open, Nate is
looking at me. I smirk in response and he shakes his head, talking
to thoughts I can’t hear.

“What’s next?” I blurt out maybe a little
too confidently.

“Let’s try shielding.”

“Hmm.. shielding?”

“Yes, it’s to protect yourself from harm,
falling objects, attacks, two men trying to decapitate each other…”
he raises his eyebrow and I realize maybe I’ve already shielded
once.

I walk around the table and stand feet apart
and my hands at the ready. “Picture yourself under attack and form
a shield around us.” I close my eyes and try to picture us under
attack. Feeling my power flowing to my hands, but I cant seem to
get it to form around us. Unwilling to admit defeat, I try again. I
add more imagery to my mind but it only slightly extends around my
hands. It’s not even enough to protect me, let alone the both of
us. I open my eyes and take a deep breath, unable to form the
words.

“I see we need some context,” he states
reading my mind. He conjures something that looks like a time bomb
from something out of an old cartoon. A cylindrical object with a
time clock strapped to it.

“Are you crazy?” I scream trying to reach
for his hands.

“Maybe,” he raises his eyebrows and takes a
step backward.

“What if I can’t?” What if…” I try and argue
as he gives me these eyes that tell me I better start focusing.

“You better hurry up and try!” I hear the
countdown begin to click behind me. I spin around to face it. I
bring my power to my hands again, but like before it doesn’t seem
to grow. My anxiety does seem to expand though, with each tick yet
I can’t seem to get my power to cooperate. It isn’t until I hear it
click the last notch that my hands reflexively brace for impact as
I feel the heat from the explosion coming.

I’m standing with my hands over my face, all
I can hear is silence. Did the bomb go off? I could swear I felt
the house shake! Slowly I open my eyes and take in the sight before
me. On the floor of the dining room where the bomb used to be is
charred and black, the glass wall is once again destroyed, and the
kitchen is currently on fire.

That almost seems appropriate, given the
circumstances. What I don’t expect is the shield around Nate and I.
It’s a semicircle of power that has formed around us shielding us
from danger. I look over at Nate who ultimately had to step in when
I couldn’t keep up, but he seems to be looking around at the
shield. He walks up to it and extends his hand to touch it.
Surprisingly, when his finger touches it, I feel as if he has poked
me. Distracted, I feel the shield drop around us. It was
me
?
I
created that? I’m shaking my head in disbelief. I could
have sworn I choked. Maybe, it’s a protective reflex, like the
night of the accident with the deer. The night I shielded myself
from oncoming car driven by an inebriated kid that would have
killed me.

“See, I told you, you need context.” Nate
breaks my train of thought.

I suddenly get this lightheaded feeling and
I automatically place my hand on my head. My body feels weak,
really strange feeling. I wobble slightly before Nate has his arm
wrapped around me.

“Sorry, I pushed you too hard today. But,
you have to tell me when you’re feeling weak.” He informs my
drooping eyes before picking me up in his strong arms and taking me
into the living room. Placing me on the couch before I’m vaguely
aware of the heat emanating from the fire until sleep takes over my
consciousness.

*

My eyes blink open to those of Nate’s blue
eyes peering back at me from the edge of the coffee table. I feel
my body contorted into some weird position and I feel my hair
plastered all over my face. I must look like a mess.