Into the Light

7

I sucked in my breath, hope filling me up for the first time since I had found Anna's body. "She's stuck right now, inside her own mind, because her soul has been traumatized so much, that it is scared to relax in it's own body. She's shutting down because she's scared to experience it all again. Since you have a strong connection to her, I will need your help with this." Beth looked at me expectantly, and I nodded. "Of course. Anything you need. What do I do?" "You're just going to comfort her, while I push her to reconnect with herself. You're going to let her know that it is safe for her to come back. Speak to her, hold her hand, anything that will offer comfort," she replied, pulling out some weird looking contraption and strapping it around Anna's head. "What is that?" Sam asked, peering over my shoulder at Anna. "It has an electromagnetic field that will help detect any phenomena in the area, but that's not all." I had no clue why knowing that there was 'phenomena' in the area was important, but I took the bait. "What phenomena are we looking for? And what else?" I asked. "Any supernatural forces, especially the negative kind. But also, it centers in and focuses on what makes Anna, Anna." "What do you mean?" I asked, getting annoyed. This woman knew that we were out of our depth here. She could've just explained instead of making us ask every single time. "Okay, in layman's terms, her soul. It centers on her soul, making it easier for me to connect with it and pull it forwards, letting it become comfortable with its surroundings and, ultimately, allowing her to awake." She pressed a little button on the top of the headset, which turned blue, then turned to look at us. "Okay. Are you ready?" This question was directed at me. "I just need to talk to her?" I asked. She nodded, and smiled at me, comfortingly. "You are the closest person to her here. Now, if her friend that Sam told me about was here, then I might've used her, simply because she has a connection to her from before her soul was extracted from her body. Her body doesn't know you. Her spirit does. That'll have to be enough." I furrowed my brow, still confused by the whole damn thing. "So, will she know me when she wakes up then? And how did Lilith feed on her soul, if it wasn't in her body?" She gave a short little laugh, and shook her head. "That's gonna take more than a few minutes, and we really need to do this, before my protection wears off. I didn't bring extras." I looked around the room, at the dancing shadows on the walls, and glint of the crystals that were placed in the corners. "Did you pour salt on our floor?" I asked, seeing what was a thin white line on our carpet. "Yes. You want her protected, don't you?" "How did we not see you do it?" Sam asked, astonished. "Did you see her do it?" He looked at Kat. She shook her head, just as shocked. "No. It wasn't there when we sat down." "But you've been talking the entire time," I insisted. She waved our thoughts away, with her hand. "It's called a cloaking spell, or a glamour. Simple magicks. I needed to hurry this along, so I made it possible for me to do two things at once. I had already 'recorded' the explanation of Lilith's life in this crystal." She pointed to a dark blue crystal on the coffee table that I hadn't noticed before. "It allowed me to do what I needed to do, while you three understood what we were dealing with. Should we begin?" I swallowed hard, just then realizing how powerful this girl beside me was, and nodded. "Now or never," I whispered. I heard Sam chuckle quietly, from the other side of me. "I need you to place your hands on her, however you think will comfort her the most," Beth replied, watching me with an almost eerie intensity. I nodded and stood up, to move to the coffee table, so that I was sitting right in front of Anna. Then I leaned over and took her hand. It was the simplest connection and the one that made the most sense to me. "Keep your concentration on her. Do not look away, no matter what you may think you see, or hear. None of it matters, and most of it probably won't be real. Just keep your connection with her. Do not break it. If you do, she will be lost forever." "When should I speak to her?" I asked, my voice cracking from the anxiety that I was starting to feel. "When she needs you too. You'll know when the time is right. Remember, hold your connection." With that, she starting chanting something, with words that I didn't recognize, then placed her hands over Anna's heart. Her chanting got louder with each passing minute. I kept my eyes trained on Anna's face, and noticed how her eyes, under her lids, started twitched, back and forth. How was I supposed to just know when to talk to her? Right now, all I felt was awkward and anxious. I waited, and listened to Beth's weird unrecognizable words. I assumed that Sam and Kat were doing the same thing, but I kept my eyes on Anna. Until I saw something flicker out of the corner of my eye. It wasn't a candle shadow, because it had been much to dark and prominent. My head turned just a touch, then Sam's voice brought me back to what I was doing. "Don't do it, brother. Just watch Anna. I got this side over here." I nodded slightly at his words and fixed full focus back on Anna. Then I heard Sam and Kat scream, like they were in the worst pain of their lives. I couldn't help it. They were my best friends, my family. My eyes flickered to Sam, then right back to Anna. He was fine. Something was here and it was fucking with me, hard. Beth's chanting got louder, just as Anna's eyes started to violently shift under her lids. Then I knew. I felt it, like a warm light in my heart, traveling down my arm to her hand, telling me that she needed me. "Anna, baby, I'm right here. I'm right here, waiting for you to come back to me. It's okay to come back."