Overlap

Chapter 82: Third Eye

<01/23/2012 - 07:27 | Link Street (Bus Stop), Marietta, GA, USA>

In the span of a single day, the world around me turned into the world's most amazing ice land. From every angle I turned my ears, I could hear the stone cold winds around me howling in celebration. The faint glimmer of a winter storm gave bloom to the air without a cloud in the sky, while the grass and plants froze below us.

My body shivered, trembled, and quaked in protest to the absence of heat around me in my wait, while I struggled to convince myself how wonderful this was through the discomfort. A push and a tug; my mind fought my body in this constant battle I've been part of before. Humans are not designed for extreme temperatures; such cold air hurts us, distorts us, and damages our peace of mind. However, in my situation, it is a necessary part of nature I cannot live without. I've grown to love the cold, to worship the freeze of the air around me, enough to ignore my pain, to ignore my discomfort, to ignore the reactions my body puts out. I huddled up like a snow ball trying to stay warm, knowing I'd still rather freeze than melt.

It's the paradox of my only desire, the reason I deny hating the cold like all other humans do, even though it's so hostile to my body. The temperature report for this morning currently had this air set to seven degrees, three if I convert to Nixus. My hands were certainly frozen solid, and my face was as brittle as stone, uncovered by any gloves or a scarf.

Right at this moment, with no effort at all, I can see into two worlds simultaneously, one layer behind the other. I can see my own familiar surrounds, and I can also see Lumina's world through her eyes. It's a power that I've been gifted with, given to by Lumina over a year ago. It's the most amazing thing I know to date. So, there's a very good reason why I fight to be in love with the very essence of the chilling cold, whether it's a gentle brisk or an Antarctic blizzard.

Without this freezing cold weather, I wouldn't be sharing my senses with Lumina right now. A connection made at a level above freezing would prevent me from seeing into her world, but go high enough in the warmth, and I can't speak to her at all. For that reason, nobody in this world will ever be able to appreciate the winter cold like I do. I know it's good for me. It's the only tool I have that will allow me to connect to my wife.

"With all said and done, I'm still really freaking cold." I wished I had a way to warm up my hands at least. The laws of psionics say it has to be cold outside, but not that I have to be the one that freezes over. This has to be a new set record of cold in Georgia. Where did this amazing weather come from?

"Quit whining," Lumina deflected. "You're the one who wanted it to get this cold in the first place."

"I'm not whining! I was only stating a fact. I wish I at least had a better coat or something. But seriously, I'm glad that it's this cold." My words, while protected from shivering due to telepathy, didn't hide the natural response from my body to Lumina. She could very much feel my body's upset to the elements; I knew this because, she was thinking along those lines right now.

"You're allowed to hide how cold you really are, but don't be afraid to seek shelter if it's too much for you. Lately, I'm wondering where all the snow is. It can get so cold down there, but no snow at all?"

I knew she wasn't wrong. Adding a flurry of soft snow would be the best part of the day, if only I could get out of school to enjoy it. I would have agreed with her right then and there, but something else took my attention away.

While I waited on Lumina to finish her rambling, a whole other world flashed before me, replacing all I could visualize with some other place, whether my eyes remained closed or open. At first, I thought it might have been from Lumina, but the strange world totally vanished from my view almost as quickly as it appeared. Before I could react to the strangeness of the moment, the strange vision reconstructed itself all around me once again...