AN: Sorry I haven't updated in a long time. But hopefully this chapter will make up for it.................
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"Don't give up. Concentrate. Focus your mind on pushing that barrier away." the Fortune encouraged me.
My face was covered in sweat and was turning redder by the minute. "I can do this." I repeated to myself over and over again in my head. This had been going on for months. My parents would bring me to the Fortune's house. Stay in his amazing living room, while I pushed my will power to its limits with only small words of encouragement from my trainer.
But things were different now. He could still read my mind, but I could hear his thoughts now too. With him talking to me and his side thought blaring in my head, I could hardly concentrate. Let alone block out Alex's thoughts.
I felt like such a disappointment. Everyone was counting on me to use my curse against Alex. But every time I tried controlling it, my mind became blank and only negative thoughts and feelings seeped through. Nothing had changed and I was beginning to lose hope.
Then I started to think of Ian and how when we were kids we would play castle. I would be the prince in the tower and he would have to save me from the evil queen. That thought made me laugh. More of these thoughts came into my mind and overcame the negative ones.
I was still trying to push out the barrier but I wasn't using as much energy as before. I could feel the invisible barrier slowly receding, until only a fraction of it was left. I felt a tingling sensation in my ears. All the noises from outside became crystal clear to me and I could hear my parents talking about how I was coping with my new predicament.
Suddenly all i could hear was the Fortune gently nudging me and telling me to wake up. I opened my eyes.
"What happened?. What's wrong? Did someone get hurt?" I asked
"The only one that got hurt was you Saturn." the Fortune explained. "You were sitting on your chair like always. When you toppled over laughing. I've been trying to get you awake for a while. Are you alright?" he asked.
I explained everything to him in perfect detail. He sat on the floor next to me pretzel style. Several minutes went by with him pondering on what I had explained. "It seems to me that whenever you get to close to erasing this boundary completely, you are overwhelmed with happy thoughts causing you to collapse." he concluded. I thought about what he said. It did fit the description of my story.
"You're right." I told him. "It makes perfect sense."
He smiled at me. "Now your finally beginning to believe that I'm not insane, right?" he asked. I laughed at him.
But he was right. When he first started training me for this "epic battle" with Alex,I had thought he was a little insane and creepy. But once his words actually started making sense, he became my friend. I sighed.
"What happened to your friend was tragic, I would know. Something like that happened to my friend as well." the Fortune sympathized. I turned to him. I wasn't wondering how he had know what I was thinking. I had grown used to him reading my thought. But never before have we had something in common (besides the whole Alex thing).
"When I was a boy. A long time ago at that, I had a friend who was just like me and you, never...normal. One day when we were swimming in the lake, we were approached by a gang of men with guns. They had asked us which one of us was John Larrington. My friend raised his hand. They turned to him and shot him in the head. Right in front of me." he said. Tears filled his eyes and dripped down his cheeks.
It scared me to see him cry. I thought about my friend, and what had happened to her.
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"Are you coming or not?" Amanda asked me. "Yeah, yeah. I'm coming!" I shouted down the hall. I dashed out the front door to meet her outside. We were headed to the park for a day of fun.
"Let's play hide and seek." Jenna whined. "Fine." I said defeated. "I'll count first, and you hide." I told Amanda.
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"18...........19..........20. Ready or not here I come." I shouted. I started at the playground. There she was under the slide, her usual spot. "My turn to hide!!" I shouted.
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"19,.................20. "Ready or not here I come." I heard Amanda shout. I tried not to giggle. I was about to laugh, but I was stopped short by a gut-wrenching scream.
I starting running. "Stay right where you are or I'll shoot." a gruff voice demanded. I spun around but couldn't find the source of the voice. "I said stay where you are." the voice shouted again more forcefully. It was coming from my right. I ran towards it. But I was too late. She was already gone.
I ran all the way home crying. I ran into my Mom's arms. "What happened?" she asked, fear in her voice. "It-t-t's A-amanda-a." I stuttered. I couldn't even talk. I was too devastated.
Days later, I had stopped crying enough to explain the story to my mom and Amanda's family.
We held her funeral in June, her favorite month.
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"It's best not to dwell on the past." the Fortune said, patting my shoulder. I wiped tears from my face. "I think we are done for today." the Fortune said. I agreed.
I walked out to the living room with the Fortune following. "What's wrong?" my parents asked. Obviously they saw my tears. "Oh nothing. Just a new experience for Saturn. It became a little emotional." the Fortune said. He winked at me.
"Right." I said. "It was nothing." I smiled at him. This was going to be our little secret.
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AN: I hope this is long, and this makes up for not updating. Please comment and let me know what you think.
Thanks, Sasa123 =^)
