Traveler - The Price (Book 3)
Chapter 3

They say that goodbyes are only for those who love with the eyes. There is no goodbye for those who love with the soul. Between two soulmates will always be a connection, something that will push them to go back to each other. The ones who are destined to be in your life will replace the way to you, regardless how far they’re lost.

“What’s the explanation?” I hear Ivy.

“I wish I knew…” I said in a whisper.

“How did it start to shine just like that, after all this time? It’s weird! I thought it was never going to shine again!” says Deby.

“It’s something unusual” I whispered. “All day I had this feeling of uncertainty. Then I found out about Ema, but it wasn’t gone.”

“What are you talking about, Aaron?” asks Ivy.

“I can’t explain. I just feel weird. Weirder than ever…”

They looked at me lost. I understood them because I thought I was going crazy. In the last two days, my mind constantly reminded me of all the good and bad things in my life. I put my hands on my face, and then I rubbed my eyes. Andy was sitting with Deby in front. Ivy was staring at me, without saying a word.

“I need some air. Pull over” I say.

I got down, and I supported by the door. It was soundless. It was late spring, just like three months ago, or five months ago. There weren’t seasons for a while. I followed Deby’s example and poured a bottle of water on my head, leaving the drops to drip on my face. I put my hand through my hair. It had grown a little, but I made sure I didn’t leave it to grow as long as it was before. Maybe this was my way to run from the past, or I just got used to the change.

“I’m ready, let’s go!” I say getting up.

After a while, we saw a cabin in the woods. A path was leading to it. We planned on sleeping there because it was secluded. We looked around, and we concluded it was a safe place. When we got inside, I felt a strong smell of fir tree. A smile appeared in the corner of my mouth. We put the luggage on the floor, and we installed there.

“We have a problem” speaks Deby.

“What is it now?” asks Ivy irritated.

She showed us the box. It wasn’t shining. I sighed disappointedly. I couldn’t understand anything.

“I think we will stay here for a while until it shines again” I say.

“I saw in front of us a town. Maybe we can go there tomorrow to see what else useful can we replace. If the box doesn’t start shining, of course” says Andy.

We prepared to sleep. For about thirty minutes, I rolled over and over. I couldn’t sleep. The others were sleeping deeply, so I got outside, in front of the cabin. It was a clear and quiet night. I put my hands on the wooden window sill and took a deep breath. I felt a strange feeling of uncertainty, or it was all just inside my head. I made a face and got inside to sleep. After trying another thirty minutes, I finally fell asleep.

Some hard noises woke me up, so I jumped ready to attack.

“Sorry!” I hear Deby.

“Deby! What the hell? People are sleeping here!” shouts Ivy angrily.

Deby had broken a shelf with a lot of objects, and I wasn’t sure what she was looking for.

“What are you doing?” I ask getting up.

“I was just looking around” she says.

“You could have been quiet!” grumbles Ivy.

“Where is Andy?” I ask.

“Here I am” he says walking out from the other room. “I found some interesting stuff. Sleeping bags, a tent and a lighter.”

“Great!” I said ironically.

We got up, and we decided to go to the town of which Andy told us a day ago. We took our backpacks, just in case. The box was in the same way, so we probably would have gone back there. This time, I chose to drive, and Ivy was on my right side.

“I feel strange” she says after a few minutes.

“And you can’t explain it?” I said.

“Something like that.”

“Something’s happening.”

Ivy winced and started screaming. I stopped the car, and she jumped out. We got down to her, but we couldn’t touch her because she was pushing us. It didn’t take more than a few seconds, and she stopped screaming. She looked at us.

“Are you ok?” I ask her.

“That was weird” she said. “I had a vision.”

“What did you see?” asks Deby.

“It was something… I don’t know. I was on someone’s skin, and I was running through the woods. That person was trying to escape from something, but I didn’t see what. Then I saw you, Aaron. You were saying something like “That’s not possible, someone is mocking us.” You had a shock expression on your face.”

“That’s it?” I ask.

“Yeah, it was unusual.”

We think about life. What is life? What is its purpose if in the end, we still have to face death? These two elements were more than mere words. They formed a connection. There’s no life without death or death without life. They are part of our existence. But still, we suffer so much when someone we love meets the end too soon. It is said that everything happens for a reason. I tried to understand it with all my being, but it just overwhelmed me. You can’t understand death. It awakened inside me uncertainty, and it wasn’t because of the fear. The guilty one was the unknown. What was left to do if after all that time I couldn’t understand a lot? I felt I was moving to nowhere, even if I knew it was a purpose for that. But what if it wasn’t? All I knew at that moment was I was missing like hell. Missing old feelings, touches or experiences. The touch that had a memory, the one I used to feel every night before I fell asleep. I was missing Jo.

Ivy’s vision made me think a little. I was curious about what was next, but I wanted to avoid everything somehow. I knew it couldn’t be something good. We sat there five minutes with Ivy to get better, and then we continued our way. I was in a deep thinking again, when I heard Ivy from my right shouting:

“Stop!”

Everything happened so fast, and I couldn’t stop the car in time. In front of us had jumped a person, who ran in a hurry from the woods. I hit that person, and when I stopped the car, she rolled over on the ground.

No one was saying anything. We were all blocked. Normally, we would have got down quickly to see what happened, but we haven’t seen people around, and we imagined it was some supernatural creature. Then I remembered how Julia and I jumped in front of their car and we were rescued.

“What the hell is wrong with us?!” asks Ivy and gets down quickly.

Andy and Deby woke up in time and followed her. I remained inside. They didn’t get too close, but Ivy’s face was saying pretty clear that something was terribly wrong. She looked up, and she started trembling uncontrollably, without being able to say two words.

I felt something was wrong, and I wanted to get down, but I couldn’t. I knew her vision was fulfilling and I felt fear about it. That was confirmed by Andy and Deby’s faces too. They were as shocked as Ivy.

We all feel when something is about to happen, but we decide to ignore all the signs. We ignore them because we hope inside of us that is going to be okay, but some things are just beyond our power of understanding.