Soul Quest

Chapter 16

Liv

Time - November 1, 2014

Place - Liv's house/ Gaea's meadow

Queens, New York

"We dance round

in a ring and suppose,

but the secret sits in

the middle and knows."

- Robert Frost

I had another disturbing dream about Shy Donovan. I saw Shy walking the streets of Manhattan. He appeared in a dark alleyway and he was not alone. The homely woman with him had bleached brittle hair and her skin was as ghostly as a corpse. Her eyes were a dull flat gray. The man with them was equally as horrid. He had gray hair and the same sickly looking skin and dead eyes the woman possessed. The man looked to be disfigured. He had a hump in his back and walked with a slight limp but he looked quite inhumanly powerful in spite of this. The woman looked strong and dangerous as well. Shy called them Etheline and Lefu. He shouted something at the man Lefu who looked very intimidated and frightened by Shy's presence. The man quickly consented to Shy's wishes. Shy looked at the woman Etheline and instructed her to come with him. Suddenly he and the woman vanished into a whirl of blackness. It was as if the darkness of the night literally swirled around them sucking them up like a vacuum. Their abrupt disappearance was both odd and unsettling but it did not seem to concern the man Lefu. In fact he appeared to be relieved. Only Lefu remained where the three once stood together. In the distance I could hear noises and voices. At the end of the alleyway there was a group of vagrants. The sight of them seemed to please Lefu. He approached the group of homeless people and introduced himself. He smiled at their dirty faces and soiled torn clothes and invited them back to his hotel suite at The Waldorf Astoria, one of the finestHOTELS IN MANHATTAN. He promised them food and dry, warm clothing and shelter from the cool wet night. How could they possibly refuse his gracious offer? Something seemed off about the invitation but the vagrants did not disappoint him. They easily accepted his hospitality eager to take advantage of the situation. Realizing the financial means it requires to be able to afford to stay at The Waldorf Astoria Hotel, over five hundred dollars per night, the vagrants became insatiable. They began begging for beer and liquor and Lefu promised them everything they asked for. The homeless group followed Lefu back to the hotel suite. Lefu ushered them into a luxurious sitting room complete with exotic tapestries, heavy oak floors and crystal candelabras. Lefu gestured them toward a fully stocked bar and instructed them to make themselves at home. He stepped out of the room and the vagrants indulged themselves with wine and whiskey. They lounged on the thickly padded velvet sofa and warmed themselves by the fireplace.

In an instant the dream flashed and the five homeless human people became the five bodies I saw lying at bottom of the Hudson River the night I met the Undines at the water's edge with my companions. The memory shuddered through me as I recalled the sight of their still lifeless bodies. Not only were they dead but they showed no evidence of having ever lived. Their bodies were merely shells void of any life or emotion. They looked completely empty. No shadow of life remained. Their souls had been ripped out of them and devoured. The realization was overwhelming. A Daeva was walking the halls of Forest Hills High School on a daily basis and he was compelling everyone he met to love and trust him. He had already infected two humans. He called them Ethline and Lefu. Were there more? What was he doing at Forest Hills High? Did he recognize me and my companions as human Oracles? Is this why he acted the way he did in the meadow last night? What if it was true? What would he do next? Who would get hurt? No. I must not think like this. I am a Guide. I will consult with my companions. We will learn everything we can about Shy Donavan. We will figure out what to do. We will stop him!