Awakening

Chapter 19

William Shakespeare once said “It is the stars; the stars above us govern our conditions.” I couldn’t tell you where I read it, or when, but I remember it. I couldn’t even tell you with 100% certainty what he meant when he said it. But, as I sat in my seat in the car, staring out my window at the vast, seemingly never ending blanket of stars above me I felt as if I knew what he meant. They seemed so majestic. It seemed that just by looking at them I could feel my mood lighten. The stars seemed so bright and close. I’d never seen them look so beautiful. Perhaps it was the fact that I was no longer looking at them on American soil, but instead on a lonely, deserted highway in a desert in Mexico, but I doubted it.

Ryker and I had crossed the border a few hours back. Why I felt the need to become a bit worried when we reached it I have no idea. Ryker handled the officers the same way he handled the policeman who pulled us over. A bit of smooth talking and we were across the border in no time. If things hadn’t been so tense and quiet between us I would have made some comment about how it was ridiculous that people fell for his magic so easily; and he would have said something witty and idiotic back about how it isn’t magic, only his charm and good looks. But neither of us said those things. After I had come apart at the seams from my confusing and jumbled dream, Ryker had spent the better part of an hour putting me back together. We sat on the side of the road clinging to each other.

I held onto him for dear life. I had felt so lost and confused, and scared. But the worst part was that I didn’t completely understand why I felt that way. I didn’t understand half of what I’d seen. But what scared me the most was the end, of being alone, not being able to find Ryker. His reassuring strength and presence was the only thing that kept me from sinking into a bottomless ocean of emotions. And through it all he never said a single word of admonition. He never once told me to stop crying, that it was only dream and I was over reacting. He simply held me. It was as if he knew exactly what I needed from him without me needing to say a word. He knew I needed his strength and support, and instead of questioning why he freely gave it.

When it was all over, when my eyes had no tears left to cry, when I was able to breath normally again and I was able to stand on my own, he asked no questions. He never asked what I saw. He simply sat me back in the car, took his place behind the wheel and continued driving. Maybe it was because he didn’t want to know everything that I had seen, or maybe, just as he seemed to be able to do with everything else, he just knew that I didn’t want to discuss it then. Whatever the reason I was grateful for it. My dream was so different from any that I had ever had. It was as if I weren’t dreaming but instead seeing select events out of my past.

But who were those people? Who was that man that I had seen, the one who looked at me as if I were the most precious thing he had ever set eyes upon? And that woman, she was easily the most beautiful person I had ever seen. She was even more beautiful than Azrael, and that was saying something. But who was she? Why did they both visit me?

“You know I never miss her birthday.”

Did she really come to me every year on my birthday? Why?

“Did we do the right thing?”

“I don’t know…”

“We are her family.”