Reunited (Secrets of the Soul, Book One)

Chapter Nine

The place looked just as grand as the day before when Stephanie approached Jack's home, but somehow it was a little less intimidating today. Everything she'd seen from him the day before showed he was a genuinely nice guy, humble, and not the kind to be vindictive if he didn't like the results of all this. He reminded her of herself a lot, except she was convinced his old trauma was literally destroying him instead of the metaphorical destruction Stephanie suffered.

No matter how traumatic some old memories were, she'd never experienced any physical symptoms from them, but she'd heard of people who did. A woman from her group had started manifesting some coughing and other symptoms during their training, and it had turned out to be related to an old incarnation that ended around the same age. She was sure this was what Jack was dealing with; she just didn't think that was it. There was something else was affecting him emotionally, too, and she wanted to get to that as well.

I just hope I can keep him alive long enough to do it.

She had no doubt that if he didn't deal with what was causing this, he wouldn't make it much longer. Her opinion was only validated by the woman who answered the door in his place.

"Hello," Stephanie said. "My name's Stephanie. Jack's expecting me..." She hoped this strange woman answering didn't mean he was worse today.

"Yes, he told me," the woman replied. She stepped aside to let Stephanie in, then closed the door behind them. She extended her hand. "I'm Grace. He told me quite a lot about you yesterday."

Stephanie couldn't help but smirk at that. "I hope nothing bad."

"Not at all," she said. "Come, sit down a minute."

Stephanie frowned, then nodded. "Okay." She followed the woman into the living room, looking around in confusion as they entered and there was no sign of Jack. "Where is he?"

"He's fine," Grace said. "I just wanted to talk to you a minute."

She nodded, taking a seat. "What?"

"I don't want you to take this the wrong way," Grace said, "but I've been working here with Jack for a little while now, and I think of him as a friend and not just a patient. I have to be honest here: he was a little unnerved by your visit yesterday, and he wasn't sure if he should keep doing this."

"That's not so unusual," Stephanie began, "but—"

"Please," Grace said, holding up one hand. "Let me finish."

Stephanie raised an eyebrow, then nodded for the woman to continue.

"We had a talk last night, and I told him that I've seen people have interesting results with all kinds of things before and that if something's working, I'm not sure if it matters if it's for real or not." She paused, then continued, "I still think that, but I just want to make this very clear to you: if you're pulling some kind of scam on him, I'll see you all over every paper in the city."

"I'm not scamming anyone," Stephanie said, a slightly defensive tone in her voice. "I like Jack, I think he's a good guy who needs help, and I think I can give it. That's all. If you're worried about me being a scammer, I can show you all the documentation. I really trained in this, and I'm really part of a place that sets standards. This is completely legit. I also have a lot of psych training."

She nodded. "I see. And what on earth got you into this kind of thing anyway?"

Stephanie sighed. It looked like she was going to be rehashing the past after all. Deciding details weren't needed, she said, "I've been through something like what Jack's going through. Actually, sometimes I think I'm still dealing with it. That's why I'm doing this." She swallowed and said, "I know how destructive things from the past can be, believe me. I learned that when I was just a little girl and I started remembering things. For a while, I thought I just made the whole thing up, you know? But then I looked it up when I was a little older, and everything came up just as I dreamed about it. There was no way for me to know about the situation unless it was real."