Nova's Dawning
Chapter 10

That next morning Osiris and I found ourselves at that coffee shop again. It had become a regular place for us. It was even colder then with fall settling around us and he was extra careful with the road. The way he wanted to protect me was a beautiful thing and it was rare for me. Of course, my parents were protective, but being cared for like this was different. Even in that previous relationship of mine, I had never felt this adored. He bought me fresh coffee as promised, and a snicker doodle, and when he came back there was a flower in his hand.

He slid all three over to me in our favorite booth.

“Star... I...” his face was red, and I held his hand across the table.

“We’ve been seeing each other a lot lately, and I know we haven’t known each other that long, but I just... I really like your company, and your smile, and your laugh, and I think we make a really great team, so I brought you back here today, to see, if you want to be my partner for the long run?”

I was halfway through a bite of snickerdoodle when he finally asked, and I almost choked on it trying to say yes. He laughed and squeezed my hand. That was a highlight of my time at Moonlight, probably THE highlight. He spoiled me.

When we picked up our friends they seemed to be in a good mood. Everyone’s training seemed to be going smoothly and luckily Sam could even touch certain things.

No one understood how happy it made me to have my friends so hopeful again. When we got to class (and yes, we all had History of Abilities together) I immediately noticed that girl from the theater. Mainly because she no longer looked like one of the dead herself, she looked more like the girl from Orientation, but you could tell she was still subjected to her own personal hell.

We took seats close to her, but not too close because she looked like she didn’t want to be bothered. Bee walked in and filled the seat in between the mysterious person and me. It made me a little nervous at first, but for some reason Bee wasn’t affected at all by the dark energy emanating from that girl.

Our teacher was this skinny, short, platinum blonde lady. She wasn’t too much older, but she wasn’t our age either. She was wearing a bright orange dress suit and her outfit’s style kind of reminded me of the rural 60′s.

“Good afternoon everyone, I’m Mrs. Campbell. I just want to let you know that we are going to move VERY fast, because we only have a little under two months until your break and the big school event, whereas, I can announce, the school beauty, Violet, will be setting sail. Many people are able to join us, but you’ll have to make reservations as soon as possible. There’s a signup sheet here at my desk. The cruise will fill out quickly, so only fill this out if you REALLY want to go. Also, let’s give a very big thank you to our very own Osiris, who was one of the many who is helping get Violet operational again.”

The room gave small claps since there weren’t many of us, and I held his hand, as his face turned red. This was probably the best day of his life.

“Now, back to our lesson.”

“What about roll?” The scary girl said. She was leaning on her elbows awkwardly with her hand half raised.

Mrs. Campbell rolled her eyes and looked at the girl.

“What’s your name?”

“Thea Bari,” she said sitting back in her chair.

“Look, Thea. I appreciate your concern, but I don’t care whether or not people come to my lectures. This stuff is really important, and if you’re here great for you, if you’re not, once you’re in the real world you’ll wish you would have listened to me, because the stuff we are going to go over in this class will not only help you with understanding your abilities, but using them to actually succeed.”

We all went silent and stared hard at this woman who went from 5 feet to seven really fast. She took a deep breath and suddenly she was little again. She smiled brightly and began the lesson. It was introductory at best and mostly focused on the beginning of Moonlight.

“Our school is practically ancient, but it is said the origin of powers came from the original Dean. There are no concrete replaceings, just speculation, but the story goes as follows. There was a set of twins, Eris and Nova, who were raised by an evil woman. Their mother swore to raise them with hate, but instead they used their love for each other to keep them from the darkness. With the help of some friends they escaped and started Moonlight to educate more women. Their mother found them and there was a great battle, where Eris perished along with the mom. After that the details are sketchy… some say that Nova gave up her powers to everyone, some say they were stolen from her during the battle, but what is clear is that she went on to name the change, Nova’s Dawning, and that she became the first Dean of Moonlight.”

When class was over, we all put our names down on the signup sheet and then we all wanted to talk to Thea. Bee had signed the sheet with the rest of us and bolted. I wasn’t sure why she wasn’t as social anymore, but I assumed it was because she was happy and busy with Oren. I tried to explain to the rest of our friends that Thea might not want to converse, but they were intrigued by her dark being. Even though I could tell at one point she had really liked pink, since there was a fading pink streak in her hair.

Thea thought our group was... entertaining.

“That’s cool that you guys want to hang out, but I don’t think I should. Public places are kind of hard for me to be in, even with training, and I usually just hang out in the Peace Room. If you guys want to talk or hang in there, that’s where you’ll replace me. So naturally we all followed her there. We could all be ourselves there, even I found myself laughing boisterously again.

Osiris held me close, kissed my cheek, and then him and Jack went off to go get us some food before we had to go our separate ways for MT. Thea was laughing with Sam, and it seemed she had made a good friend. They were acting like they had known each other forever.

I sat there with Thea, Sam, and Mo and I realized that I genuinely enjoyed my friends. Just sitting there, talking about girl things, and making Mo uncomfortable. I could feel our bonds strengthening and our friendships growing deeper.

“Star.”

“Huh?” Thea laughed.

“The spirits were talking about you. After we first met, and I left this room, they were making up all sorts of things about you. I wonder who you pissed off in the afterlife.”

“Probably Death himself, since she’s basically a seer.” said Sam, laughing.

“Well maybe, but it’s pretty crazy. They were saying you were dangerous and to stay away from you.”

Everyone laughed except for me.

“They said you had the power to bring this entire world crashing down.

Laughter again.

“I totally think they’re crazy. My mentor says spirits make up things all the time, and that’s why they need us, to guide them to the truth.” Thea reassured me after seeing my face.

I smiled and nodded.

“Your mentor sounds very cool.” I said.

“Oh, she is. Pretty too.” Mo laughed and for some reason when I saw them both side by side, I remembered something. A vision from when I had first visited our friends house. It was a bit blurry, but it was Thea and Mo in the same picture.

“You ok, Star?” Mo asked. “You looked a little lost for a moment.”

I shook it off, telling myself it had most likely been a false vision anyway.

“Yeah, sorry.”

Just then the guys walked back in with a couple of boxes of tacos. Some of those with no meat for me and Mo, who thankfully was also a borderline vegetarian. It helped to have a friend with you who knew your food struggles.

It was then that we needed to leave Thea to her rest. She laid back in the chair and as we were walking out the door, she was falling asleep. Instantly our gifts came back, and I sighed deeply.

“You okay?” Osiris asked me as we got in his car.

“When everything comes rushing back it just kind of takes its toll.” He rubbed my back and I smiled at him, and then we were off.

At my meeting I inquired about Thea’s suspicions, yet Michy dodged the question each time. I even tried to trick her into answering, but to no avail.

“So, do you think that after some practice with future telling I will understand Thea’s spirits?”

Finally, I could tell Michy was a bit frazzled with all of my persistence. Her green eyes glared at me frighteningly.

“Look, ya said yurself that Thea laughed it off and said the spirits were just pullin’ yur leg. I don’t know nothin’ bout spirit communication, just acceptance and appreciation, so I don’t know why you’d think I would know the answers. Now do ya want to practice with YOUR gift or not?” Her tone went from southern belle to southern hell, so I didn’t ask her anymore that night, but something bugged me. It nagged me for the rest of that draining and tiresome lesson. She was having me go longer and longer into visions of the past. Sometimes mine, sometimes others, and the last event was Violet herself.

“Violet?!” I asked, trying not to sound so tired, however it was almost eleven. “Violet has a rich, full history. Wouldn’t trying to concentrate on it, hurt me?”

“No. We are trying something new. AGAIN.” She pulled out that very big book from our last session. “This book has every calendar in it going back thousands of years to the very, very first calendar. Pick a day in history where Violet was sailing or not, whatever you choose, and see the hour on a clock, down to the very second if you can.” I scrolled until I could replace such a year. March 12th, 1959 stood out to me, not for any reason, but just because.

I got in the position. I crossed my legs in front of me, and I closed my eyes, easily slipping into the darkness where I could replace peace.

“Great Gods of the Earth and the Sky. Great Goddesses of Wisdom and Time.”

I let my head back once again, feeling the darkness tickle my soul, and took a very deep breath.

“Open the gate of past to me. As you will so mote it be.”

Before I could get sucked in, I imagined a big clock with the exact time on it and as I did, I found myself looking at a grand clock in Violet’s cargo hold. To my astonishment, everything seemed to have worked, but I could tell this exact date and time stuff was taking a lot of energy from me and after only a minute or so of inhaling dust from Violet’s past I found myself half faint on Michy’s floor.

By the time Osiris picked me up I was dead tired, again.

He had to half carry me to the car. I don’t know if I ever really thanked him, but I did try. He took me back to my apartment, because we could have peace there. Our friends were still cautious with their gifts, but they had returned back to their kind of loud, playful selves. He cuddled me until I could open my eyes again and when I did, I just wanted to sleep. I felt like I had failed my lesson, even though I knew grading wasn’t involved.

“If I can’t even get to my mentor’s level how will I ever get to my mom’s level?” I asked Osiris as I sleepily pulled him closer. He chuckled.

“One day honey, you will be the greatest, remember Seer of all times.”

Sleep took me and as I was dreaming, I saw Bee, but it wasn’t quite Bee. She looked lost, sad as she dropped to her knees on the other side of a blurred gray room. Her aura was unrecognizable and I felt myself wanting nothing more than to help her. However, I awoke as soon as I was about to reach her with Osiris kissing my face. The memory of the dream faded away in our peaceful morning, and we laid in bed until almost noon.

“Breakfast, my love?” He asked me and I laughed.

“Can we get pancakes?” I asked, getting dressed.

“Of course. Whatever you want, but afterwards I need to get to Violet, would you want to come with me and wander about the library?” He put his clothes on and kissed my cheek.

“Sure, maybe it’ll help for when I start working there next week.”

We headed out to get breakfast to the restaurant we had stopped at the night our friends got their powers, but unlike then we were not sitting in silence. It was easy to speak to him, to hear his voice, and it had even been getting easier to laugh. There was so much potential I could see in us with the way he looked at me and wanted nothing more than to make sure I was protected at all times. However, no matter how much we cared about each other, there was a darkness that I could sense, that I feared more than anything.

“Star?”

“Huh?” He apparently had been talking to me, but I had been lost in my thoughts, trying to make sense of the darkness.

“I asked you if you want a to go box, you’ve barely touched your pancakes, are you sure you’re feeling okay?” He reached across to rub the back of my hand with his thumb.

I smiled. “Oh yeah sorry. I just kind of lost my head for a minute, you know, being so gifted and all.”

He smiled at me worriedly, and then got a to go box for my pancakes. I tried to eat a bit more, but the pressure of the negative energy ruined my appetite. When we were getting in the car, I could tell he was worried. “Maybe I should take you to Michy? We can always go out an-” he started while we were on the way.

“No. I just need some peace and quiet and a bit of time to meditate. I can do that on Violet.”

He nodded as he accelerated a bit, wanting me to be at peace. When we arrived on Violet, my dread was increasing. It got so bad, it was making me feel weak and lightheaded. Osiris halfway carried me to the library, since it was closer than the theater. The librarian didn’t even raise his head at us as Osiris quickly rushed me towards the back corner where there was blackness and quiet. I was already so out of it due to a sudden raging headache that I slipped into the trance even with Osiris right next to me.

I appeared in darkness, I could see faint lights in the distance, but I couldn’t make out my nearby surroundings. I turned around and there were two bright lights in front of me, like headlights and before I could move, they vanished, but instead it was replaced with the smell of burning rubber and the sound of crumpling metal. I could almost feel the flames in the darkness. I smelled the fire and could hear it crackle. I stepped closer, trying to see it, but as I outstretched my hand my fingertips burned.

I heard a woman scream, followed quickly by a sigh of relief from a man. The same woman cried out in fear, and then everything was silent. A wave of sadness washed over me so strong I began to sob in the darkness. Out of the silence I heard a man’s cries. Footsteps, sirens, the sounds were so overwhelming I dropped to my knees, tears still streaming down my face.

I wanted to scream, but I wasn’t sure if it would make me scream in real life, so I whimpered as softly as I thought possible in this loud sea of black.

“Please help me.” I whispered.

It was shortly afterward; Osiris was shaking me awake. I was on the floor now, laying down. I could feel the tears on my face drying up, and he pulled me in for a tight hug.

“You were whimpering and crying and you looked like you were in such pain. I couldn’t even do anything, my shield did nothing. I was useless.” I went to touch his face, but I realized that my fingertips were singed. He noticed and kissed them. “What happened to you?”

I sat up and rubbed my temples as my headache receded. “I believe I was getting visions of the future, but I couldn’t see anything it was just sounds and smells and I could feel it. Hence my fingertips. It was some sort of crash, but I couldn’t tell who with, but the fire was unreal even though I couldn’t see it, and the screams.”

I grabbed my hair, not trying to lose myself again.

“Do you want to go to Michy’s?”

I shook my head. Something told me that bothering her on the days I wasn’t supposed to see her would be bad. At the thought I felt the darkness. It swirled around my legs and I felt it tug on my heart.

“Then tell me what I can do. Please. I can’t just sit here and let you suffer.” His voice was fading.

Unfortunately, his words couldn’t do anything to stop the next wave of attacks. I felt my body hit the ground as I laid there. I sat up, but Osiris was gone and I was in the dark again.

The sounds getting closer and closer were of a party. People were chatting and laughing, but it was so cold I thought my blood might freeze. I heard familiar voices, but with it being so cold and so dark, I couldn’t put any voices with a name except one.

“Star, honey, what are you doing here?” The party was so loud I didn’t even hear my own response. I tried to move closer, but I had no idea where the source of the conversation was coming from. “Wait, baby, slow down, you’re talking so fast, and so quiet.” His voice was fading so I turned around the other way. “Can you say that again? Sorry I still can’t hear you.” Then there were people near him, asking him engineering questions that I had no idea about.

“Star, I’ll be right back. Don’t go anywhere, and we can go talk in the library.”

I felt defeated, even though I didn’t know why.

I tried to get close to the invisible other me, but it seemed like every time I did, she walked ten feet away. She was speaking to anyone and everyone she could, but I could barely make out what she was saying. Eventually I caught one word. “Bee.”

I jolted up in Osiris’s lap again.

I hugged him tight, still feeling cold.

“Star you’re like ice, what the hell is happening?” He gripped me so tight.

“Get me out of the darkness.” I said through chattering teeth. “Please.”

He couldn’t lift me all the way, but he did help me get out and he sat us at a table underneath a warm light. I took a couple deep breaths to recenter myself, and I sat there contemplating what all of it could mean.

“Star, please tell me... what is going on?”

I took another deep breath and then I slowly opened my eyes. Osiris was there, practically in a sweat, his eyes were red, and his clothes were wrinkled. I smiled at him. “I’m okay.”

He sighed in relief. For some reason those were the words he really needed at that exact moment.

“Osiris... I just saw a bunch of stuff. The wreck, a party. I don’t think it’s all a coincidence, but I don’t know how to connect them, but I’m scared. I was scared in that darkness, I was blind, but all of these other senses were overtaking me. I just... I don’t know what to do, or how to react from now.”

He put his arm around me and I put my head on his shoulder. “Is there anything you remembered from the visions that stood out? We can just start there.”

I closed my eyes as I got comfortable with him next to me. “Um... Bee.”

“Bee? What about her?” I sat up.

“I think I was looking for her at the party. There were people in the crash one, but it was just sounds, like sighs and screams, but at the party I was searching for Bee, I think. You were there, but you were busy.”

“Why was I busy?” he rubbed my arm.

“You were talking about engineering...” I opened my eyes.

“Hmm.” he mumbled, thinking. It struck us.

“Violet.” we said together.

“It was the party on Violet.” I said. I was sure about that, but I still didn’t know what to do about it.

I stood up, taking Osiris with me out of the library. I dragged him all the way to his parked car and when we got there, I kissed him on the cheek. “Thank you for everything, but I think now I need to replace Bee. I want to warn her, and maybe if I can keep an eye on her before the party, at least the party vision can be altered.”

He nodded. “I’ll help you replace her.” he said, opening the door for me.

“Are you sure? I might have more episodes and I wouldn’t want to upset you.” I said, buckling up.

“It’ll be alright, I promise. I’ll feel better if I can be there to protect you from any physical damage, plus you and I are a team.”

I smiled at him. He was right. He was my person, and I gladly accepted his help, unaware of the consequences.