CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE
When my eyes open, I find myself in the basement. All I can think of is what the Great Sage said—that I have to drink all the fluid in all the vials.
Then my mind begins reeling with questions: What if the Great Sage is wrong? What if I experience a bad reaction after drinking the liquid? Who's going to save Edwin then?
The overwhelming lack of certainty gives me a headache. I'm freaking out. I also know there's no choice. The truth is: he's provided me with more direction than anything else has so far. If I don't try this, I'll regret it. I know it. I have to do this.
I hurry to the stone box of vials and stare at them for a few seconds. Wire-thin, leather threading secures the stone stoppers that seal the vials. I cut the thread with a blade I find on top of one of the packed boxes and then use a small flathead screwdriver and a hammer to chip away the stopper without damaging the vial itself.
One by one I swallow all of the bright fluid from each vial. The liquid from the first vial is frosty and tingles as it slides down my throat. I do the same with the remaining four vials, careful not to chip away any of the crystal.
As the final drops of the last vial reach my stomach, I feel an odd rumbling. Not the kind I would feel after eating too much raw food or sugar-free chocolate, but a feeling that the liquid is somehow swirling around like angry waves during a heavy storm out at sea. I pull my shirt up and freak when I see a violet ring glowing under the skin of my bellybutton, spreading upward and filling my abdomen. My fingers start to tingle, until they go numb altogether. My spinning thoughts dissolve into the sudden blankness in my mind. I grab at the air, but catch nothing, and topple to the floor.
The first thing I feel for is the floor. Its texture is unfamiliar to my hands. I crack my eyes open and watch a feathery cloud of mist drift over me. I turn my head to face the floor, but the same serene mist conceals it. I stand up and spin around, taking in the vast area with bright, golden rays of light that shine from every corner.
Everything feels calm and perfect. I should be freaking out, but I'm not. I'm in some kind of perpetual feel-good moment. Maybe how it would feel to be accepted to college or hold your newborn for the first time. The thought knots my stomach as I'm left wondering what it would've felt like to hold Edwin as a baby.
The thing is, even those feelings are finite, both with end dates ... but this—even though a few seconds have passed—this feeling continues to repeat, on a constant loop.
"Been a while, buddy."
The familiar voice slices through my heart, nearly sending me into a shock.
I crane around, and everything I know—or thought I knew—comes crumbling down. In front of me, in the flesh, are Bud and Estelle. They're in the exact outfits they wore the very day I arrived on their doorstep, only a few weeks ago.
"Bud? Estelle?" I can hardly speak. My pronunciation is barely audible.
"We've missed you, sweetheart," Estelle reassures me, flashing the same smile that forever changed my life.
I'm unsure that what my eyes and brain are telling me is real. This is unreal. But it has to be, somehow. "How? Why? I don't understand?"
"The vials," Estelle says. "You drank the liquid that gave you the ability to access the spirit world. Just like the Incas believed. Consider it a gift from the Great Sage."
"Can I ... can I touch you?"
Bud grins like old times. "Only one way to find out."
The emotion I feel is too real. Any pain I've felt has been completely washed away. I'm more alive than I've ever been. I dash over to them, praying that I won't fall right through them.
