Devin Greigh: Testimony
Chapter 18

I woke up, but kept my eyes closed; I still felt relentless drops of pouring rain battering my face.

“I know you’re awake,” I heard Devin’s voice call out to me. “You can’t fool me.” I gave him a smirk and I heard him snicker, which turned my smirk into a full-blown smile.

“So am I dead?” I asked, still keeping my eyes closed. “Because I feel like I’m in Heaven in your arms!”

“That must be without a doubt the worst pick-up line I’ve ever heard,” Devin replied. “Seriously, do you try and pick up guys in a bar with lines like that?”

“Every night,” I teased, “…twice on Sundays.”

“You tramp,” Devin joked.

“I love you too Devin,” I murmured.

Smiling, leaned up slowly, and looked around. I finally took to time to realize that I was lying in Devin’s lap as he sat on the ledge of the side entrance of the van.

“What happened!?” I asked suddenly.

“Everything’s fine,” Devin ensured, “No one’s badly hurt. Everyone is in the cabin. We drove back.”

“I passed out?” I asked.

“You overexherted yourself,” Devin started. “I’m actually surprised you managed to stay conscious from the amount of time you spent using your powers.”

“I must be special,” I said softly with a smile.

“You were almost killed by Teixeira,” Devin teased, “don’t think you’re TOO special!”

“And you would have been killed by Tember if it wasn’t for me launching him into another dimension!” I teased back. “So you have no room to talk!”

“Tember had nothing on me,” Devin bragged, “He was barely able to keep up with me, despite my having one good leg and all…And Ixion, well, it’s no wonder how his cover was blown so easily.”

“You would have been without a head, Devin.”

“That would only mean that I wouldn’t have to worry about looking at you for the rest of my life.”

“The rest of your life?” I continued to tease. “Whoa now, let’s not get ahead of ourselves!”

“This is coming from the person who had a dream about me suddenly falling madly in love with you.” He dug in with his verbal knife.

“Ouch,” I replied, “do you even like me at all?”

“I tolerate you,” he continued to joke even though I was serious, “like messy toddlers, getting into trouble but you can’t stay mad at them for long.”

“I’m serious, Devin,” I snapped as I sat up from his lap and rung the water out from my drenched hood, “Do you even like me? Do you hate me? You were trained to protect me, and I didn’t even ask you how you felt about it. For all I know, you could be allergic to me.”

“Look,” Devin said crossly, “we have bigger things to worry about. What just happened today is bigger than us…bigger than you, and your feelings for me. You need to keep your worries set on protecting this world or else there won’t be a world for you to live a normal life in.”

Devin hopped off of the edge of the van, and started shuffling towards the cabin in the relentlessly-pouring rain.

“And for the record,” Devin started, “I’m not allergic to you.”

Everyone was back at Devin’s house, but only me, Devin, Mr. Goldstein, Casrial, and Winston, were still awake. With the fireplace lit in the den, the five of us sat, discussing the final matters at hand. I was bundled up in a large towel, trying to regain warmth in my body; the rain, coupled with the thirty-degree weather, on top of the freezing atmosphere that the demons and gheists created, numbed every sensory node in my body. I acted as the information gateway for everyone as they used astral communication to determine what I had learned from Ixion when I had banished him.

“Now this changes things,” Winston muttered. “There was chatter about the Perfect Cirqule losing a few of their demons, but I didn’t think it was as serious as sending in spies to determine their next course of action.”

“Ixion was supposed to replace the anomalies,” Cas started. “Afterwhich, somehow, he was supposed to destroy the others.”

“Meaning Teixeira and Tember,” I spoke through chattering teeth as I thawed out.

“And whatever other members that exist within the faction,” Mr. Goldstein added.

“The recurrences are another issue,” Winston began. “What are the recurrences, and why is it important for them to be stopped?”

“I was thinking maybe this may have happened before,” Cas started, “Demons disrupting the order, trying to gain powers from anomalies to control the order, and stop everyone, anyone, anything, from interfering.”

“But it has to be more than that,” Mr. Goldstein grunted, “Winston, we’ve been chasing these demons down for decades…what is it that we could possibly be missing?”

“The prophecies,” Devin finally muttered. “Think about it. You’ve been fighting against these demons for decades. Was there any talk about a prophecy beforehand?”

“You’re right,” Cas agreed. “And if that’s the case, then they’re not going to need just one anomaly…”

Something didn’t sit right with everything that I had learned. Teixeira was not only after Windsor, but she was strongly after me as well. This made me wonder about my important role in all of this.

“Your role is more important than you think,” Casrial had cut in on my thoughts. “We’ve never had the means to figuring out the demons’ plans before you showed up. If you hadn’t banished Ixion, we would have never figured out what we must do next.”

Cas’ words were warm and heart-felt; something I needed right now to boost my morale. But I knew she was not just telling me false words of encouragement; they seriously did need me as an asset to the team…the family.

“What do we have to do next?” I asked.

“We have to go to London,” Winston murmured, “and speak with the councils of the Perfect Cirqule.”

“How!?” I asked, “I have school to worry about, and an overly-worrysome foster mother that would surely barricade my bedroom with me in it!”

“Don’t worry,” Mr. Goldstein ensured, “I have that covered.”

“Do we even know where to replace the Perfect Cirqule!?” I asked

“Not yet,” Cas started, “But that’s why you’re coming along; to help us replace out where to replace them.”

“And in order to do that,” Devin said, “You’re going to need to train your ass off…because there’s going to be nothing small of demons flooding London…Demons even stronger than Teixeira.”

“You’re going to have to do more hulking out like you did in the woods,” Cas said.

“I honestly don’t even know how I did that,” I said, “My body was acting on its own accord, as if someone or something was controlling my actions. I couldn’t even tell my body to stop; it was like it knew what to do, but not actually doing it myself.”

There was a brief and awkward silence, until Cas broke it by saying, “Adrenaline, perhaps.”

I wasn’t too convinced by her comment, but I could tell she wanted to drop the subject for the time being; I was pretty sure it was yet another time-sensitive piece of knowledge that I will eventually uncover once the time was right. I started towel-drying my hair once I finally felt warm blood coursing through my veins once again.

“What about the others?” I asked. “Won’t they have to train as well?”

“They will train,” Mr. Goldstein started, “however, they will not be coming…Not for this trip.”

“Why!?” I asked. “Will it seriously be that dangerous?”

“Someone’s gotta protect the house,” Devin said. “I don’t want my X-Box stolen…I paid a lot of money for that.”

“And someone’s gotta protect Windsor,” Casrial added.

“She’s not coming!?” I asked.

“She will be in more danger with us in London than she will be under the protection of a cleared house guarded by a family of talented clairvoyants,” Mr. Goldstein started.

“And no offense, Winston,” Devin started, “But your daughter scares the crap out of me.”

“I’ve never seen a clairvoyant with red eyes before,” Casrial added. “It was almost as though she was a demon herself.”

“My Winnie was born under...,” Mr. Winston hesitated, “…certain circumstances.”

Everyone looked at me, to which I annoyingly asked, “Would you all like it if I were to leave the room, so you guys can discuss more time-sensitive material to which I am not allowed to know until it is my time?”

“It’s okay,” Cas replied.

I took a deep breath and exhaled before asking, “What are her powers exactly?”

“Windsor isn’t a typical clairvoyant,” Mr. Goldstein started, “She has the powers to actually control spirits, twist them to her will. She is far too young to understand or control these powers, however…she still doesn’t know that she is doing it when she is doing it.”

“But that whole thing with the massive tornado of gheist,” I started.

“Just a simple accidental slip of thought,” Winston suggested. “Winnie might have been thinking, or wishing, the gheists to stop and stay away, and her aura reacted. She falls fast asleep afterwards…everytime. And when she wakes up, she doesn’t remember a bit of it.”

“Are you guys sure you don’t want to bring her along?” I joked.

“It would be too dangerous,” Mr. Goldstein said, obviously not understanding that I was only joking. “We couldn’t risk having an anomaly as powerful as her in their possession.”

“Right,” I pretended to not already understand the circumstances behind bringing Windsor with us. “Besides, she will be well protected.”

“Between Nichelle and Shaun,” Mr. Goldstein started, “I think any gheist would have their hands full.”

“Shaun and Nichelle seriously handled their own out there earlier,” Cas started. “Before I ran over to help you, Evvy, Shaun was moving around like crazy. He uses acrobatics like he’s simply walking forward; He doesn’t have significant powers like Devin or Nichelle, but he is truly a warrior for his age.”

“He was showing off for the most part,” Devin teased. “He kept counting how many gheists he had dispatched…Nichelle still had the most.”

“Nichelle is almost like you,” Cas started, “if you taught her how to use her astral current better, she would be more of a threat!”

“I would if I could,” Devin said. “You saw what it did to her out there…Her body can’t withstand the amount of voltage exiting from it; if she overused astral currency, her body and her soul would reduce to ash. Her speed and strength are good enough. She was giving Ixion a run for his money until she started using that. It exhausted her energy.”

“If it wasn’t for Aaron distracting him, Ixion might have killed Nichelle,” Cas murmured.

“Is Aaron alright?” Mr. Goldstein asked.” He took a beating out there.”

“He’s a big boy,” Devin said, “he heals quicker than I do.”

“If it wasn’t for our auditors, we probably would have suffered more damage than we had,” Mr. Goldstein stated. “Anna and Othello both share the same type of powers. They’re support-types, so masking the battlefield helped out a lot when it came to the gheists; the demons saw right through it, but atleast we weren’t pinned down by the horde.”

“Everything went too fast to even follow with my eyes,” I admitted, “But when I was fighting Teixeira, it was like everything was moving so slow, even though I wasn’t in control of myself. I don’t remember what she was trying to do to me, but I was glad Tess saved me when she did.”

“Teixeira knocked you out cold for a second,” Cas started, “She had you, and was going to crush you. Tess started running towards you guys, and then suddenly she vanished, and reappeared with you in her arms. Teixeira was trying to take your necklace then. I think she was too caught up in realizing what she had slightly in her possession to notice Tess taking you and teleporting you two to safety.”

“That power left her exhausted too,” I pointed out, “I hope she’s doing alright.”

“Everyone is still asleep in the van,” Winston said. “It’s insane how quickly these powers drain the energy of the youth. How the times change, Alex…”

“Indeed,” Mr. Goldstein agreed.

“So when do we head to London?” I asked.

“Once everyone has recovered for the weekend, we will discuss everything we must do before leaving to London,” Mr. Goldstein ensured me. “In the meantime, you should rest. You spent a lot of energy out in the woods today, so you should retire to your room, Evenfleu.”

I yawned and stretched slowly with the now dampened towel in my hands, and rose from the sofa. “I guess forty winks wouldn’t hurt. My body is completely worn out now, anyway. I should seriously look into participating in one of my school’s contact sports!”

“You’re kidding, right sis?” Cas asked with one eyebrow raised.

“I’m serious!” I laughed. “I need to be tougher!”

“You need to go to sleep,” Devin joked.

“You need to—,” I started, but didn’t have anything left in my mental reserves. “You’re right, I do need to go to sleep!”

With damp towel in hand, I dragged my feet along the floors as I sauntered lazily down the hall towards my room. From afar, I managed to hear Winston mention how Windsor took kindly to Shaun. I laughed to myself, thinking how adamant Windsor was for her age, and how easy-going and youthful Shaun was. As I entered the room, I threw the damp towel to the side, unstrapped Scarlett from my waist to place her onto the nightstand, and then plummeted to the bed, landing face-first onto the soft mattress. Everything soon faded into the outfield, and only the sounds of my sigh of comfort of my body feeling complete and utterly relaxed was heard.

I woke up covered in warm, comforting new blankets like a larva in a cocoon. I unwrapped myself and stretched slowly. I felt my back pop just the way I like, and I sighed with satisfaction. Standing to my feet as I left the bed, I looked to the nightstand. Scarlett was resting comfortably in the same position I had left her. “Slept well?” I asked.

Realizing that I was in fact talking to what normal people would consider an inanimate object, I giggled to myself, picked Scarlett up and rewrapped her around my waist side. I exited the room and walked down the lonely corridor leading to the front entrance door of the house. I figured I needed some time to think to myself; about Devin, about the new family I am now a part of, and about the fate that the world is now currently under. It was now solely our duty to protect this order, and in order to do that, I realized that we needed to take extreme measures. As I stepped outside, I noticed the van was still gone. I saw a note wedged between the screen door and the door jamb. I pulled it from its wedging, and unraveled it. The note was addressed to me:

“Evenfleu,

Meet us at the old playground as soon as you are awake.

Must discuss more time-sensitive information. It’s only going to become more dangerous from here, so as we mentioned before, you must be prepared. Cas and the others are with me. Your role is more important now than ever before.

-Mr. Goldstein/A. Van Helmsman”

“Finally!” I scoffed to myself. “I hope that it’s more information than last time! I can’t stand this time-sensitive nonsense!”

It was a wonder why the house was so quiet. I stood on the front porch steps, and looked up. The skies were gray, and it was as dark as night. I looked at my cell phone to check the time. It was 1p.m. in the afternoon.

“It feels like night as usual,” I told myself.

I was still dressed in my dirty, bloody, and tattered attire, complete with my equally tattered hood, but the letter suggested that I leave now. I looked at the note again, and noticed my thumb was hiding a bit more information:

“P.S. Call Beatrice, she’s worried about you.”

I figured I would call her once everything was said and done, but for now I wanted to let her know I was still alive, for now. I wanted to tell her everything; how I was born with a purpose far beyond my own personal ambitions. I was chosen to help protect an order; an order so vital to the living world as well as the afterlife, that it cost the lives of my family, as well as others, just to help protect it. The Perfect Cirqule was after anomalies in order to gain the power to control this order, but there was the one fact, that there was another network out there that also wanted Teixeira’s organization, the Others, dismantled. I knew that they would be after Windsor, and the rest of us; they’ve received the memo that we are not going to let them proceed with their ambitions without a fight, and they will be ready.

I wanted to tell Beatrice this, and not have her worry, but I knew that was well beyond impossible. One thing I knew was this: We would be ready as well. We would be ready for anything, and everything, and we would not lose. I had one last final thought as I stared at my phone, and that was Devin. No matter how insane, surreal, or fictional my life had felt since growing up, Devin was real. Devin made it real, and as long as he was in my life, protecting me, I would know that this was not an overly-vivid dream. And as long as Devin was in my life, I knew that I was safe. As I stepped off of the porch steps and headed through the gate, I flipped my cell phone open, highlighted Beatrice’s name, and decided to send her a text message:

@Beatrice Robinson

From: Evenfleu Andreas

Subject: None

“Hey. It’s Evvy. Weekend was fun. Everything is A-O.K. Will be home later. Love you!”

To Be Continued…