Remember More

Chapter 25

REMEMBER MORE

CHAPTER 25

John directed his qi into his ears and found the same old problem that he had always had when he tried to do this before. The qi would only go so far. It could only reach so far into his ears before the energy would come banging up against a brick wall and stop. Just like every other Gate before this one, he would come up to the door in the wall, find it locked and not be able to open it. This time was no different. Even with Styx going on there in the background, encouraging him, egging him on, still he was unable to find that special way to twist the knob and turn it, so it will unclick and open and let the door swing wide and then he and his qi can go gushing through it and be free.

By now, his ears were starting to sting with the loudness of the music.

He opened his eyes. "It's not working, Yan. This is not helping." He reached for her phone.

She drew it away. "No. Give it more time." She reached out and forced him back into position. "Be patient. It's not nearly loud enough yet." She dialled it up some more.

"Whoa…!" John closed his eyes and concentrated again.

"Once we get it loud enough, your protective force field should kick in behind your ears and that will help you guide the qi through the last little bit."

John didn't respond. The noise was beginning to drown out what Yan had to say.

The volume dial on Yan's phone was divided into a scale, with the maximum set at twenty-five. Now it was at ten. This would not have been loud at all for Yan or anyone else, but she knew that with his ears the way they were right now, this was already getting to be unbearable for John.

She eased it up to twelve.

John twitched. He didn't open his eyes, but Yan could see that he was beginning to breathe a little faster. Beads of sweat were forming on his forehead.

"This has to work. I know it…!" Yan grit her teeth.

Inside his head, John could feel that as the loudness increased, Yan was right and at least the noise provided a focus for his qi and helped him to better aim his efforts. He could feel where his qi was supposed to end up. He thought harder and made his energy sharper and more dense and then threw it with all his strength at the noise rushing in at him from the outside world, which was pounding and attacking him right now, making to blow through his defences and blast its way through into his head by way of his eardrums.

Meanwhile, Dennis DeYoung was already past the funny keyboard interlude and was about to bring it home with the twenty repeats to the chorus. Yan selected this section and played it over and over again in a loop.

"Come sail away, come sail away, come sail away with me, lads…"

Yan ground it up to fourteen.

John's eyes popped open. "Yan, this is too much! I…" He was shouting and didn't realize it. And his shouting was so loud, the walls buzzed with it and it was Yan's turn to feel her ears hurting.

"No…"

John jumped to his feet. Yan did too.

"Yan!" John rushed at her.

Yan darted back.

"…come sail away…"

"Yan! Give…" He swung his arm out for the phone.

"No!" Yan jerked it away. She jerked her whole arm away. She backed up against the wall.

"…come sail away…"