Alternate Soul

Chapter 31

Time slowed to the point that it didn't matter. Haley looked around. It seemed as though nothing moved but herself. She looked over to the treeline and could see Jessie moving in to get Jared, Davenport, and Dwight. She could see Calvin holding Britta's upper arm so she couldn't make a run for it. Teal's soldiers were all around none of them aware of her.

A little light appeared to her right. It seemed to struggle as it came toward her. She didn't feel threatened by it but strangely comforted. It made it to her and stopped just in front of her. She reached out to touch it and it settled in her palm feeling warm. Then it slowly absorbed into her and as it did she felt the warmth spread through her body.

Haley felt like her brain was swelling but it wasn't painful. Her body was tingling as her blood was rushing through it. Her vision became more acute and she could see things that weren't there before. Tiny little lights and strings of a sort she didn't know how to describe them but she knew they were the soul's different paths and experiences. She looked up at the sky and there were larger thicker bands. Somehow the knowledge came to her that she could affect the bands she could see.

As she looked back to Shannon a memory came to her.

"Are you ok?" A woman asked as she came and sat on the swing next to her. Her eyes were so kind and genuine she couldn't help but to immediately trust her.

She had been dumped by her boyfriend earlier that morning. He had been the love of her life or so she thought. Her life up to that point had seemed one big tragedy. She had told the woman everything over the course of their long talk together. It had made her feel so much better. The woman had assured her that she was indeed loved by many people.

"One day you're going to meet a man, a real one." She laughed. "And he will try to take care of you but we women we always take care of them. But he will be different he will give you his life then come back to you and love you even more." She looked distant for a moment. "You, baby girl are going to be able to do whatever you set your mind to. You are going to know what needs to be done and how to do it. You will have the knowledge and the power at the right time to do it. All the pain and all the loss will be worth it in the end. You will understand when the time comes. And you will know that the people you love are never really gone."

She gave Haley a hug then got up to leave. "Remember your mom and dad love you always and they are always watching over you. And one day that real man will come and he will ground you so you don't lose yourself." Funny how that came to her now when she needed it most.

Haley felt the power coursing through her. It was time. She looked back to Teal and felt her destiny come to her. This was her time, her place, her chance to change this timeline. She let time snap back to normal and it made a loud booming noise like a jet breaking the sound barrier.

"Ahh, Haley, you have arrived finally." Teal welcomed her. "Welcome." He smiled slowly. "I've been waiting a very long time for this moment."

"I'm sure you have."

"I see you haven't lost your attitude." He considered her. "Your time with a deviate madman did nothing to you, did it?"

That caught her off guard, she hadn't expected him to ask her a question like that at all. "What?..." As she said that she realized what he was doing. He was trying to distract her and get under her skin so he could find her weakness and exploit it. Well, she wasn't going to play that game with him. "You know what I will answer that just on the off chance you can somehow know in one of your other timelines that it won't work. No, it didn't work. It only slowed me down for a moment."

Out of the corner of her eye, she noticed some of Teal's men making their way around her. She glanced at Shannon and knew that he saw them too. She wondered if she could slow down time again and somehow bring Shannon with her so he could help her take care of the soldiers. She gave it try.