Exhale

Chapter Fifteen

Chapter Fifteen

"I want you to clear your mind," Adrian instructed. "Relax. You're tense." I didn't want to tell him that being around him made me feel uneasy. That my heart rate increased drastically, or that my breathing became more shallow, or that my mind would race. He already knew all these things. I didn't want to admit it anymore though, through my reactions. He started to rub small circles on the back of my hand, and somehow that began to calm me. I was able to focus on my breathing, and began to meditate.

"Good, now I want you to focus on my presence. My touch, the sound of my voice, my scent, everything."

I focused on him. How he was holding my hand, the way his voice murmured softly as he was talking to me, the smell of peppermint and lemon radiating from him. He was close to me. I could feel his body heat.

"Okay, you're doing well. Now imagine an alleyway. It's nighttime. The stars are out, and there's a chill in the air.

I put myself into an alleyway. The night was as dark as the color black. A million stars twinkled in the heavens. I could feel the nip in the air, and my skin crawled with goosebumps from the breeze.

I could still hear Adrian. He sounded distant. I could still feel him, though. "Don't let go," he told me. "I may not be able to get you back, if you do. You're drifting into my subconscious. All the memories I've tried to suppress of that night will begin to surface to you. Now, repeat after me. Memoria praeteritorum resurface."

"Memoria praeteritorum resurface."

" Occultatum figuras monstrant."

" Occultatum figuras monstrant."

"Ascendite in tenebris."

"Ascendite in tenebris."

"Ad me omnes revelare."

"Ad me omnes revelare." I felt a woosh of air around me, and suddenly chilly weather bit into me. It wasn't too terribly cold though. I guessed it was late Summer, August sometime. I opened my eyes, and saw my surroundings. It looked to me that I was behind a building. Some sort of bar. A nightclub. Trash cans littered the alleyway, and I heard sirens wailing off in the distance. The yellow street lights reflected off the pavement.

Adrian was nowhere near me, yet I could still feel his hand on mine, even though I was alone. I was in his subconscious. About to discover what I thought was not possible. Doing what I would have laughed about six months ago.

I took a step forward towards the club. There was a reason why he wanted me here. My bare feet stepped down on the roughness of the pavement as I moved towards the metal back door.

I laid my fingertips on the cold handle and closed my hand around it, giving it a pull. It opened. I wasn't even inside yet when the fumes from smoke slammed into my face.

I coughed before entering.

The dim lights from the ceiling cast shadows on the wall as I walked.

Some sort of eighties music was blaring from the speaker, and I looked around, seeing big hair and neon colors.

A disco ball from the ceiling was flashing crystal colors, and there was a bold purple hue to the room.

I walked over to a table where a newspaper lay. My eyes skimmed the page for a date, and instantly I felt an electric current pass through me. The date read: August 7, 1982

Why was I standing in a joint from the past?

I heard Adrian's voice in my head ask, "What do you see?"