Corpse in the Mirror [SAMPLE]

Chapter 3 - Darkness of the Soul

        “You saw something, didn’t you?” Sir Julius asked me.

        We’d wrapped up our first SPRG meeting of the year just minutes ago.

        After we all saw Richard’s weird photos, Migs had drafted out a plan where he and Aris would get a copy of the jpeg files for further study, Eartha and Vanessa would take care of inviting new members for our org (Eartha was especially psyched about speaking to the new froshies on their orientation), and Richard and I would handle the first batch of inquiries that students had been emailing and posting on our Facebook page.

        Apparently, my mild shock at having seen the girl blink at me from Richard’s camera LCD hadn’t been lost on Sir Julius, which was why he asked to talk to me afterwards.

        “Yes, I did,” I told him. He was one of the three people in the world who knew about my extra ability to sense things, and it was always a relief to be able to tell him the things I usually had to keep quiet about. “And Sir, there’s something more…”

        I told him about my experience in Boracay, about the images flashing in my mind from the unknown stranger who watched me from behind. I told him too about that brief incident in this very campus late last school year, the quick image snapshots that came out of nowhere while Richard and I were talking about coffee.

        Sir Julius’ eyes turned thoughtful behind his glasses, as he sat back into his office chair and put both his hands together by the fingertips. This is interesting, his mind said, but I’m not sure it’s a good thing.

        “What may not be a good thing, Sir?” I asked him out loud.

        He smiled briefly, amused at the reminder that I could hear his thoughts. “You’re getting sharper at hearing,” he said, but as he leaned forward on his desk towards me his amusement faded. “It’s just that it seems like you’re not just hearing things anymore, Sam. Based on what you told me, it seems like you’re beginning to see things, too. And I’m not sure if it’s a good development for you.”

        He was right. Of course he was right.

        I was seeing things now.

        And as I remembered everything I had to go through just to come to terms with my being able to hear the spirit world last year, Sir Julius was also very right about not being too excited about this... Because I certainly wasn’t. If just being able to hear things last year almost drove me crazy, what more with this added dimension of seeing things, too?

        After a moment though, I realized that I had already been seeing things before: Hadn’t I been seeing angels and demons since last year, too?

        Of course, the major difference was that these powerful beings chose to show themselves to me, at the times that they wanted me to see them. Now, however, it looked like I was seeing the thoughts of people, too. And if my past summer experiences were any indication, these weren’t exactly happy thoughts of rainbows and butterflies.

        “We’ll need to talk to Father Nimoy about this,” Sir Julius said, after looking at my reactions closely, and accurately understanding that I didn’t know what to do next. “For now, just keep doing what he’s been teaching you, and try to let things go.”

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        One of the hardest things to do is to carry on with your life when you don’t know what to do next. It’s during these times that people give you the standard advice of taking it “one minute at a time,” but it’s still a tortuous waiting period with no end in sight.