The Awakening of a Soul Reaper

Chapter 7. First Lesson ‘Control’

There at the pillar where the blue car rammed the other car into the pillar, she sees something.  The sight makes her feel unease she starts to shiver.  Tyler walks back to her “Are you okay?” he asks putting both his hands on her shoulders.  She looks at him, she wants to say what she sees but she is afraid he is going to think she is crazy.  “I’m fine, I just sometimes get flushed with emotions that runs over me” she says, while looking in his eyes.  She looks back at the pillar, his head following her head but he doesn’t see what she is seeing. 

At the pillar, she sees a ghostly lady looking around and crying it looks like, she is looking for something.  The lady drops down on her knees, her hands covering her crying face.  Clarise closes her eyes for a moment and then opens them, she looks around but the lady is gone.  She looks back at Tyler, Willow also now standing there with her.

“Are you okay, is this, because you have witnessed the accident yesterday?” Willow asks her concerned.  “I don’t know maybe?” she replies.  Tyler can’t help himself he takes her in his arms and holds her tight, “Don’t worry I have you!” he says with a calm voice.  Clarise can hear his heartbeat, its racing, so is hers but this, this feels nice. 

“I tell you what!  Why don’t I go and get James and then we will meet up at the bakery or what about the diner on the next corner?” Willow says, hugging Claris’s shoulders with her hand before walking off.

Tyler pulls her away from him and turns her around, “just look at me, don’t look over there” he says to her.  He takes her hand in his and they start to walk over to the diner.

Inside he tells her to find a spot while he orders two milkshakes a vanilla for him and a strawberry for her, they sit there quietly drinking their milkshakes. 

“I’m sorry, I don’t know what came over me” she says stirring the milkshake with her straw. 

“Tragic events in our lives leaves wounds and scars that sometimes get ripped open by other events and sometimes those events aren’t even related.  You are human and the fact that something like that touched your heart just shows your humanity” he says to her with a kind and gentle voice. 

She looks up at him “Thank you!” she feels mesmerized by his eyes.

The both of them stairs at each other with stars in their eyes.  He stretches forward his arm sliding over the table his hand sliding over her hand that is resting on the table, “I…”  The diner’s door open and Willow and James steps in.

He quickly pulls his hand away from her hand.

Willow takes a seat next to Clarise and James goes and sits next the Tyler, “And we are back!” says Willow with a laugh, “So what is here to eat?” she asks with the same breath.

Clarise started to laughing at her, asking “do you have a black hole in your stomach…?”

All four of them start to laugh.

“I’m sorry I made you guys worry about me, I just felt ashamed so I went and talked with my aunt who is the school nurse and she send me home” James explains.

The four sit and chatted away the rest of the afternoon, Willows phone later rang, her dad wanted her to go to the shop so he can close and go home, James suggested walking with her.

“I guess, I will also need to go” Clarise says with a sigh.

“I will walk you, if that is okay with you?” he asks lowering his head and looking upwards at her.

“I would love that!” she replies with a smile.

The two of them walks over to the bakery, just outside he stops and turns her around “I like you!” he says, his voice cracking.

“Well, I like you too” she says back to him.  He takes his hand stroking her cheek, while leaning in and kissing her softly.   He pulls away slowly saying bye to her and turning around.  She stands there looking at him as he disappears around a corner. 

That was my first kiss she thought to herself touching her lips with her fingertips.  She walks into the bakery and helps her aunt finishing up.

After dinner and a shower, she goes up to her room, while standing in front of the mirror, taking the pendant in her hand, she wills Ignus to come out, and surely, he appears.  Staring at him she asks “is there truly no other way to remove this pendant?  I don’t want to see ghosts!” she said with a tremble in her voice. 

“There is no other way to remove the pendant, once the pendant touched your bare skin it infused its power with you, and that cannot be changed, what has been felt, cannot be unfelt and what has been seen, cannot be unseen!” he replies. 

“So, what do I need to do now?” she asks, while walks over to her desk chair. 

“You need to accept your destiny, that is your path now, only then will I be able to help you understand and train.  By doing that you will not just help yourself but you will help those in need.  With knowledge and understanding, you will learn why the pendant has chosen you.” he replies.

“But I’m scared, I’m not a warrior like you want me to be, I cannot do what you expect of me!”

“It’s not what I expect of you, it’s what you are expecting of yourself, once you embrace your destiny and allow me to help you, you will no longer feel afraid, the path of a reaper is never alone” he replies with a firm voice.

Resting her head in her palm and pulling up her shoulders “Okay how? She asks”

“The druids that fused me to this pendant was not only masters of potions, but was also masters of the four basic elements, these elements allow me to have different forms that I can take to help you, what you see now in front of you is my familiar form.  The first time we met you manage to force me into submission with your will power, when you grabbed my arm and you changed my form into my most basic form, but because you didn’t know how to channel and control your essence, you drained more essence than your body could handle at that time, that is why you fainted” he says he looks at her and floats till right in front of her “Do you feel tired now?” he asks.

“Yes, I do, why?”

“Every power and ability you use of me, uses some of your essence, you will need to learn how to channel it so that you use only what is necessary at that time.  Like now because you cannot control the flow of your essence it tires you when you conjured me and you are using too much essence now to keep me manifested” he explains.

“So how do I channel my essence?” she asks doubtfully.

“Remember Mind, body, and soul, those are three in unity makes you human, all three needs to be in balance with each other, for you to have full control over your essence.  You have already learned that you can summon me but, you are struggling to maintain my visual form because it causes instability in your unity as a human.  You first need to learn how to open your essence channels and close it when you are done then only can your full training begin” he replies.

She drops her head in her hands, pulling back her thick long brown hair to the back of her head “and how do I do that?”

“Rest your hand palm on the floor and allow your essence to travel through your arm to your hand to your palm and allow it to push your hand up from the floor…” he demonstrates.

She goes and sits on the floor, she rests her hand on the floor trying to will it but nothing happens, she tries even harder but still nothing happens, she looks up at him “it doesn’t seem to work!” she says.

“Close your eyes and concentrate on the air around you feel it on your skin, it's everywhere, there is no crack that it can’t full, feel how it seeps in between your hand and the cold floor, feel how it pushes up against your hand, feel how your essence is streaming down your arm, into your hand, and into your palm, let your essence control it, embrace the element of air…” while he speaks, she suddenly feels warmth running down her arm into her hand palm, she feels how her hand lifts from the floor, she opens her eyes she can see what looks like an aura of smoke or energy running down her arm.  “Now close the connection disconnect your essence and let your hand fall to the ground” he orders. 

She closes her eyes; she can feel how the energy runs down her arm.  She concentrates and feels how the energy disappears from her arm.  When she opens her eyes, she can see Ignus looking at her with concern. 

“You need to rest now!” he orders.  

“I’m okay I promise” she replies trying to put on a smile.

“I can sense turmoil in your mind and it’s not only doubt, but I can also sense fear and sorrow, you will need to overcome these feelings else you will not have full control over your essence” he replies.

While she listens to him, he starts to fade away into the air vanishing from sight. She keeps on sitting on the floor for a while, and then she stands up and walks over to her desk, thinking of what she just accomplished, I wonder if I can do it again without him being here, she thought to herself. 

At her desk she puts her hand on the top, she closes her eyes and she starts to concentrate on the air around her she can feel it pressing her hand from the table, she opens her eyes and she can see the aura of her essence flowing down her arm she tries to move her hand to view it from all angles and suddenly the air pushes her empty cup from the desk and smashes it against the wall.  “Oh no!” Clarise jumps buck of fright, she closes her eyes and tries to calm herself, when she opens her eyes again the aura that encapsulated her arm is gone.

She walks over to where the cup is smashed, I need to be more careful with this she thinks to herself still feeling rattled as she bends over to start cleaning up the pieces. 

There is nock at her door her aunt coming in, is everything okay here, I heard something break!” she asks Clarise.  “Yes, I’m just clumsy as usual” she replies putting the pieces in her trash bin.

“That boy of today, do you like him?” Aunt Belle asks while she walks over to Clarise and goes and sits on her bed.  “Tyler, yes I like him” she replies going to sit next to her aunt on the bed.

“Well, he is handsome, I must say” her aunt says bumping her with her shoulder “remember if you want to talk about anything, I’m here for you”. 

“Thank you, Aunt Belle,” she says.

“Well CC good night” her aunt says walking out the door.