Into the Light

135

Seemed to me like she was saying 'I promise' a little too much. I gave her a hard look, judging her stability and color. She did look like she felt a little better but... "Ash is right, Colby. We don't have time for this. You should still be over there practicing, not hovering over me. I just wasn't expecting the feeling that it gave me when Barbie...well, when she went inside me." I saw the blush creep over her face at her own words and I couldn't stop the smirk that I gave her. She knew that I would turn that dirty and I loved this girl for that. "I know what to expect now, so I should be able to keep myself from fighting it. I can do this," she replied earnestly. I could see that she did believe what she was saying...and I prayed she was right, because Ash was right. We didn't have time for anything. We had to practice and get this right, right now. We were running out of time and fast. "Okay," I sighed. "If you think you can do this, then so do I. Just promise me that you'll stop when you need too." She nodded her head, with a small smile crossing her face. "I will. Cross my heart and hope to die," she responded playfully, making a cross over her chest with her finger. "Maybe don't say that,"I replied, laughing a little. I didn't want her saying anything about dying. Not right now. Not in the middle of all this. "Oops," she replied, with a nervous giggle. My heart swelled and beat just a little harder from the sound of it. I had it so bad for this girl. I leaned down to kiss her, pressing my lips against hers, hard for just a moment. "I'll see you later. You got this," I whispered, before kissing her cheek. She nodded again, then I turned around to head back over to Sam and Kat, who were still over on the other side of the clearing. "Hey, she okay?" Sam asked, with concern. Kat was chewing her bottom lip, worrying. "Yeah, I think so. A ghost sent inside of her and it made her sick, because she was fighting against it. She said she thinks she can keep from doing that, now that she knows what to expect," I replied. I glanced back over and saw her and Ash having an intense conversation. I had really almost cussed that man out for what he was saying. So what if he had been right? I was only concerned about Anna, in that moment. "You sure she's okay?" Kat asked, glancing in Anna's direction. "Yeah, I'm pretty sure. She's strong. Stronger than I thought," I replied, thinking about how I kept learning new things about Anna. "Oh yeah, he's in love," Sam replied, grinning.  "Yep, you can tell by that little smile on his face when he's thinking about her," Katrina giggled. I rolled my eyes at them both and my smile got wider. "Shut up," I responded. "Let's get back to it. We're doing pretty well, but we have a long way to go before we're ready for this battle." We were actually doing well. The dent in the trees had progressed into a larger blown out chunk of wood, but it was nowhere near strong enough to hurt the Darkness. So, we practiced well into the night, with nothing but the moonlight shining over us. "YES! DID YOU SEE THAT?! WE PULVERIZED IT!" Sam yelled, pumping his fist into the air. I laughed, but did my own yelling with him. We had managed to almost bust about three quarters of the way through a particularly thick, burly tree. "Hey, guys?!" Ash yelled from behind us. We turned to see what he wanted, with wide grins on our faces. Even Kat couldn't hide how excited she was with our progress. "We're actually going to be able to do this, aren't we?" she exclaimed, smiling at both Sam and I. "Yes, I do believe you will be able to do this," Ash replied, as he walked up to us. "Impressive. I've never seen so much progress in so little time. The Darkness will not be prepared for any of you. In her mind, she is the ultimate power and no one can defeat her. I feel that we're about to show her different. Anna here, has made incredible progress as well." I watched the blood rush to her face, as she smiled. She wasn't very good at taking compliments, but that was something she was going to have to get used too. "I bet she did," I replied, catching her gaze in mine. "She's amazing." "Yes, she is," Ash replied, nodding his head. "After the first incident, it only took her two more times, before she was able to fully let Barbie in. Now, she can let up to five spirits inside, at one time. That's really impressive. I, myself, can only handle about eight. She's already over half way to my record. Now, throwing them is a little more difficult, but she's getting the hang of that too. Look over there." He pointed back towards where he and Anna had been practicing, to an overgrown fern bush, with long tendrils. Or what used to be a fern bush. Now, there were only a few tendrils and bushy leaves hanging from a splintered and practically destroyed stalk. "She took that entire thing out by herself. Then we moved on to trees. Look there," he said, moving his hand over a few feet to point at a rather large, thick forest tree. "Wooow," I murmured, awestruck by what I was seeing. The entire top part of the tree was hanging down by the truck, by only a thin strip of flexible wood. "You did that?" I asked, meeting her gaze again. She nodded and smiled proudly. "I did, but only because I got a little upset. Ash kind of pissed me off...and then that happened." Ash chuckled and shrugged. "I use whatever technique I can to get the best results. I realized that she was too hesitant and maybe a little scared to actually put all of her talent and strength into the task. So, I used anger. It always seems to work for the quiet ones. They're holding so much back that it just builds up and then...well, it explodes, as you can see." "That's amazing, Anna," I replied, pulling her close to me, for a tight hug. Her arms came around my neck, as she buried her face in my chest. "I can't believe you did that," Kat exclaimed wildly, looking from the tree to the beautiful girl in my arms.