The Lost Soul

Chapter 6

--Faye's POV--

“You have to focus, Faye.”

“I am focusing.” I reply through clenched teeth, annoyed.

“Relax your muscles.” Marilyn suggested, pacing around the room.

I take a deep breath and sink down into my chair. Currently, we're in a large room in Marilyn's house where she's trying to teach me to reconnect with my physical body. We've been practising for 6 days, and nothing has happened besides me feeling more and more like an incompetent idiot. I opened my eyes and looked at Marilyn, frowning.

“I've done everything you've said. I've relaxed my body, closed my eyes, cleared my thoughts, and visualized myself at home.” I say, counting off the steps on my fingers. “Nothing is happening.”

“I did say that this would take time, Faye.”

“If I can't even get back into my own body, how do you expect me to fight evil spirits?” I ask, crossing my arms. Marilyn stops her pacing to face me.

“The Herleni? It's in your blood, running through your veins. It'll come naturally.”

“I can't become the karate kid just because it's 'in my blood'.”

“Focus on getting back to your body before you get worked up about fighting.”

“I'm not worked up!” I say angrily as I close my eyes and take a deep breath.

“You're not relaxed, I can see the wrinkle lines on your forehead.” Marilyn points out. I let out a sigh of exasperation and slump in my chair, which was beginning to get uncomfortable.

“You're not going anywhere with that attitude.”

“Yes, mom.” I say sarcastically, thoroughly annoyed. Marilyn ignores my comment and sits in the chair opposite me.

“Do you know what surroundings your body is currently in?”

“The hospital? Yeah.” I say, recalling the room I was violently sucked out of.

“Try imagining the room as if you're in first-person point of view, inside your body.”

“What's it supposed to feel like?” I ask after a moment of awkward silence.

“Reconnecting? The same as what you felt travelling here; being sucked through to another dimension, I guess.”

I closed my eyes, and did my best to relax. I visualized what it would be like to be in the hospital room – laying propped up in an uncomfortable bed, the sound of the heart rate monitor in my ear, the disgusting hospital smell filling my nostrils, the bright lights from the ceiling hurting my eyes, the ugly furniture and wall colour.

“Once you visualize your surroundings, you have to kick-start the transfer. Give yourself a shove – a starting point.” Marilyn's voice drifted through my thoughts.

I try to remember what it was like, being pulled through six days ago. Six whole days I've been stuck here, doing nothing but training, walking, and wishing I could get back to my uninteresting life.

I begin to get a tingly feeling in my fingers and toes. My vision begins to darken around the edges.

“Don't go too far. I have more to teach you yet, Faye.”

I look down at my hand in the hospital bed. The IV is still in the back of it, turning the skin an ugly brown-green colour. I try to move my finger, and – to my disbelief – it twitched. After the small victory, I feel a smile of satisfaction edge its way onto my face.

Just as I begin to drop the connection, the door to my room opens, and a figure emerges from the shade of the hall. Before I lose the connection, I desperately try to figure out who it is.

“Greyson?” I ask with a faint voice, barely audible.

“Faye?”

Greyson stood in the door frame with a shocked look on his face.

Everything went black. The connection was lost.

--Greyson's POV--

“Greyson?”

I heard it. I knew I did. Her eyes were open and her lips had moved.

“Faye?” I ask, standing in shock. She caught my eye, seconds before hers fluttered shut and she went limp.

“Faye!” I hastily dropped my book bag on the floor and put my cup of coffee on the table next to the bed before I rushed to her side. I carefully picked up her hand and held it in my own. She showed no sign of consciousness; her eyes remained shut and her breathing constant.

I dropped her hand and sighed, defeated. I picked up my bag and sat in the chair next to the bed.

These last six days have been torture for me. Ever since I heard her scream at the party, I've been worrying. When I rushed to the hospital, I had told them I was her cousin – again – and they let me in. Once I had found her room, people in pastel blue scrubs were still leaving from Faye's “close call”. One of them explained the situation to me, assuring me that she was stable with no other developments.

When I had went back out to the parking lot, I checked that no one was around before screaming Faye's name out into the empty night. When no one had answered, I got really scared. Was it possible that her spirit self was lost, and that she would be left comatose forever?

I've been back and forth to the hospital multiple times within the past six days, checking up on how Faye's doing. Today has been the only day that has granted me proof that she isn't completely gone.

In the past six days, I've felt more alone than I've ever felt in my entire life.

It's crazy to think how much of an effect people can have on you in such a small period of time.

I open my bag and pull out my math binder. I was fresh out of school, and I had nowhere else to be. If something else happened, I wanted to be here.

While I'm here, I might as well do something productive, like my math homework.

My knowledge of math hasn't improved much, but I had managed to pass my last in-class assignment. It's not a huge achievement, but it's a start. I need it.

I popped in my earbuds and began to work. I know that I have one hour until I have to leave – I want to be safely out of here before Mr and Mrs Williams get here after work. I don't want to have to explain why I, a strange boy that's posing as a relative, am watching their daughter sleep.

That sounds way creepier than I had originally thought.

***

As always, the hour passed quickly, without incident. I was packed up and back in my car before anyone could accuse me of being a stalker, rapist, or some other kind of criminal offender.

On the drive home, I let my loose thoughts gnaw at my brain. Why could only I see Faye when she wasn't physically conscious? How the hell could she disconnect her spirit from her body? Why the hell hadn't I heard an urban legend about this before?

How have I not researched this? It's not like I'm going to find any real answers, but at least I could humour Faye when – or if – she gets back.

I guess I know what my job is for tonight.