Mesmer

Part 5

Still in a conscious state, but on the verge of blacking out, I heard the ringing of the frequency echoing in my pitch black void. I studied my hands and my feet, everything slowly becoming a notch above crystal clear. I reached out to touch him, but my hand went straight through him. His eyes never left the floor and I tried yelling out his name.

"James!" It came out like a whisper. Slowly but surely the figment of myself that I was conjuring started rocking back and forth, the flutter of my eyes getting heavier and heavier.

"Jame-"

***

I was being shaken awake.
The man with the ponytail was standing over me, his figure blocking out the light from the ceiling. I quickly noticed I was laying on my back and perched myself on my elbows. I saw James sitting in the corner with a damp cloth between his hands.

The man let out a light laugh.

"You two did good. Lasted a couple minutes each. You will get better," he assured. He handed me a cup of water and stood up and wiped his hands off.

"At what exactly?" I took the water and gulped.

"What you first see when you enter your perfect frequency is normally the image you go back to to enter this space. When you begin your other physical and mental training, you will focus on this image to help unlock your 7th sense, until eventually, it is like a second nature to you. Everytime you enter, the image your subconscious has chosen for you will become clearer and clearer until you've mastered your figment and can move on. This training wheel exercise will be a good one for you to hold on to for now. Until you are ready, we will enter this space a few times a day. Until you are no longer so physically tired from it, until you no longer have to see it, and until you and the seventh sense become one. When that day comes, you will not have to hear the sound. All you will have to do is focus, and you will be... alive." He gave a short nod, smiled, and went to put the head gear up.

I looked at James and he looked right back.

You will know every beginning and end to one another, Whitlock said.
I wondered if he would ever know that he was the center of what would tune my "seventh sense."
I've barely known him for a week.
Why did my mind have to take me there? To him?

***

That night, I was laying on my bed when there was a knock on my door. Half of me was expecting it to be James, but when it was food, I wasn't necessarily disappointed.

It wasn't five minutes later that James straight up barged in.

"Sup, Ana Miahs- and before you get on to me for not knocking, Greta said your food had just been delivered and to come on in. Blame her for not knowing bounderies." He plopped on the opposite side of the couch I was on.  His feet making their way to the top of the cushion, his arms leaning back making himself right at home.

My mouth had shut and closed before ever coming up with a response to my immediate reaction of him barging in.

I took a sip of the iced tea she brought me instead.

"I could have been eating naked. Greta doesn't know shit."

He laughed, "As much as I think I would like to see that, I apologize. I'll knock next time."

I blushed. "So, whats up?" I shifted uncomfortably on my side of the sofa.

He shrugged, "I figured we haven't really hung out since the night we met, and if we're soul partners doomed to die together and roam earth for eternity or whatever that bullshit Whitlock said, I thought it'd be nice to get to know you."

"That's definitely not what he said, but okay, what do you want to know."
He propped himself up and moved closer to me. Both of us sitting criss-crossed facing eachother.
He reached over and grabbed a grape from my plate and popped it in his mouth. He pointed at me with his free hand and said, "I want to know what you saw today. Tell me, what did the Ana Miahs see and feel. What, oh what, could it be!" He was laughing, but I felt a pit in my stomach.

"Wow, you went deep fast."

"What's the big deal? Was it you living your perfect fantasy of eating your dinner unclothed-was it ME eating MY dinner unclothed?" He kept eating the grapes, and I could tell he was teasing, but I caught the glimmer in his eye.

I rolled my eyes and played it cool, "God, give my imagination some credit. "

"Alright, alright. I'm joking. But seriously, are you going to tell me what it was?"

I looked at him in all his mischevious glory, "I'll tell you when I think this new found friendship's earned something so personal... And you? Are you going to tell me what you saw or are you only allowed to inquire and not divulge."

He leaned closer to me, his face only an inch away from mine.
He looked in my eyes, then at my lips and gave me an award winning smirk.

"I'll tell you when our new found friendship makes me."

It took all of me to not let out a shriek. He stayed there taunting me. His smile getting bigger, and his eyes gazing deeper into mine. The heat of him was radiating around me making any sense I had left foggy and unclear.

He leaned back again, unphased by what he just did to me.

"No, but I'll tell you. I guess when you determine the time is right."

I snapped out of it and caught my breath. Play it cool, play it cool.

"Next question then." I too leaned back and tried to let my body relax.

"Favorite color?" He was back at it with the grapes.

"Blue."

"Hmmm, what shade of blue though?"

I thought for a second, "More like the hue the sky turns right before it's about to storm. You?"

He nodded and smiled, "That's pretty. I like that. I guess mine's the same. But the green the sea turns when a storm is overhead. Do you like what I did there? I made it fancy like you."

I kicked his foot, "Shut up, I was trying to give you an accurate description."

"Hey! I said I liked it. No need for violence!"

"Whatever," I said, "Why do you call me Ana Miahs everytime you address me? You know you could just call me Ana. "

I think I saw him blush, "I know. I just don't think that name is special enough for you."

"Wow, I'm offended."

He rolled his eyes this time, "You told me you'd never have a nickname. So, I've spent some time trying to think of one. I'm afraid the one I landed on has already been used before and isn't all that creative."

I grinned, "Well, what did you pick?"

"I think I like Miah, because my-UH, is just really cool sounding to me. And I know my-ISS is your last name, but close enough right?"

I immediately felt a smile coming across my face. He tapped his fingers on the shoulder of the chair waiting for a response, but he wasn't getting one. I was just resting there staring at him. Taking him in. So, this is what life was now. This gorgeous man in front of me, a new friend he said- and this wack ass organization I got thrown into. I think I could do it if I kept having moments like this. Moments where I felt good inside.

Eventually he cleared his throat.

"I guess, Miah it is."