If I can start over: A new world

VI. Innate. Part 1

Tuesday, January 8, nine-thirty sharp at night. Building five.

I walked into the bathroom door and returned to the most distant memory that had changed. The memory of the fire in building five. The door led me directly to the bathroom on the first floor, next to the cleaning store.

"Which isn't time travel, by all the gods!"

"What did I just do?" I asked her slyly.

"You came back in an astral representation. You are still somewhere on this timeline interacting with your friends and family... living." She tried to explain.

"But I went back... in time," I laughed, knowing that, basically, my logic was pseudo correct.

"Okay, whatever. Where were you at half-past nine?"

"I don't know, it depends on the day."

"Eighth."

"In the lobby," I said without much thought. "It seems to me that in mid-February I started to quit the habit, but for now, I must be in the lobby." I left the bathroom and went into the corridor until I reached the main doors. "Now that you mention it, does God have anything to do with this?"

"It depends." I left the building and ran into a light snowfall. The flakes fell gently and made waves into nothingness.

"Depends on what?"

"From your definition for that word." I walked the section of the parking lot to the gate where the security booth is located, I left the residence and moved quickly towards the lobby. "I have seen some Uralt who can do things impossible for any earthling. Our ancestors gave them names: Zeus, Jupiter, Odin, Ra. They were all just Alt. Only Geister experienced enough to master astral gifts, admirable gifts that astonished the sleeper-minded."

"Like what? What gifts?" I entered the lobby, crossed the first wooden frame, left the benches and bathrooms behind, passed the second portal, and came to the great room.

"Like turning back time, stopping it, or even going to the future. Like creating lightning bolts with the palms of your hands, moving the water of the seas, or seducing men just with the eyes" and there it was. Sitting at one of the too many tables there were. On my left side, Astrid and Alexandra were sitting, and opposite us, Claudia and Ramcés.

"But... I go back in time, and it doesn't cost me anything," I commented proudly.

"You don't come back, your Geist does." My other self and the rest were still chatting animatedly at the table, so I sat near the ping pong table, and waited. "I mean to keep physically, without using the geist. That takes a long time to practice."

"How much?"

"I'm not sure, I guess after a century of repairing cracks, and being trained, you're starting to get used to it." I noticed her sarcasm.

"A century?" I twisted my lips and my eyes bulged. "How long will I be on this?"

"Always."

"You mean until death?" I gulped.

"No, even after. Always." She was direct.

"I don't understand. I thought that when I pass away and cross into your world, I would be like you."

"Not exactly... you can choose," she replied. "You are a Geist, and always will be. Actually, if you die, only your body would, but not your Geist, so you could go back and avoid it, or go into my world, and become a Ratgeber."

"And there are only those two possibilities?"

"Something like that, although I think there are other ways to get back."

"Like which ones?" I tried to get something out of her, even though I'd failed before.

"The only thing I have witnessed is reincarnation in another living being. The more trained you are, the more control over the time you would like to be born, you have."

"Can I be born in another time?" I frowned.

"Wherever you want, as long as you know how to guide yourself at the right time."

"But it would be a fresh start. Everything I know would be lost over time because a baby is not able to retain so much information."

"You will always have traces of your previous training. There will be gifts that no longer need any training, as you learned them so well before that they are now innate. Like some of your skills. It is thanks to this that the human has evolved."

"Have I been an important Uralt in a past life?" My curiosity was flying so high, so high that I didn't even fully notice what we were doing there anymore.

"Yes, something like that ... but no..."

"But you can't talk about it, right?" I finished for her.

"Don't insist, if I start giving you incorrect information I can radically change the course of things," she requested me. "Just chase yourself and try to figure out what is happening, and what shouldn't happen."

"Okay, okay, I won't say anything else about it, but I had other doubts. You have mentioned twice already, it seems to me, that I will be trained."

"It's one way of putting it. The assigned Vormund should guide you through this period. It's... disturbing that no one has shown up yet."

"And after proper instruction, what's next?"

"The Vormund will lead you to an Oberster Uralt, which is a higher command. And the latter will welcome you as a disciple. It will be your master, and there will be an initiation in the order of the Alt to join the race."

"So..." I was restless now "it's like recruitment. And if I don't join the Alt, what is the other side?"

"Well... you'll get the attention of some Jäger," she said nervously.

"What is a >?"

"It's what your people would call demons," she explained. "A Jäger is very similar to an Uralt, but with dark gifts, gifts that are f*******n… unnatural." Her voice was now a nervous wreck, strained and clipped, waning from beginning to end.

"Are there f*******n gifts?"

"Yes, but I can't explain them to you, they are very complicated... and you don't even need to know that they exist. It is not worth taking unnecessary risks."

"Okay, whatever you say," I smiled, knowing that she could see me. "I have a question, and I hope you don't take it the wrong way..."

"No problem, ask."

"How do you know so much about all this?"

"Like you, someone else explained it to me."

"And did you immediately believe it?"

"No. But when I saw what I could do, and what I couldn't do, I realized that I was getting nothing by refuting what was explained to me, that there was no way to prove otherwise. Like rain, which never rushes skyward, or cold air, never floats on top of hot; I understood that the doubts in my earthly life were already answered, there is no room for faith or coincidences."

We waited patiently for them to finish chatting in the lobby until they got up from their chairs and headed to the girls' room.

"Well. That's the moment my dream begins. First, I have a premonition of what is going to happen, and then, everything happens as I say it within him."

"Well, the premonition thing is because time has changed, and you're the only one of the five who can feel it. But what exactly changed?"

"The fire, it's obvious." My tone was more casual than I wanted. "Building Five is about to go up in flames. I guess I should go check."

I came out after them, but I veered off to building five, turning left instead of right into the parking lot, which takes you to the other buildings. I went into five and started inspecting floor by floor. Since, for the rest, I was nothing more than a simple breeze that runs through its surroundings and bristles its beauty. I took the liberty of walking quickly, without noticing who I was touching on the way.

"I can't find anything out of the ordinary," I told her, as I finished checking the entire building and hearing the fire alarm.

"Do you remember when the fire was or where it was? Because everything's seen... not on fire."

"The alarm was supposed to be just a warning, or a joke, the fire started later. Can you see us there?" I peeked out of the third-floor south window and watched as all the occupants of building one, whose lights were off, left almost in an orderly fashion and entered the lobby to stay momentarily in the great room.

And then, I remembered. A guy in a leaden shirt was leaning out of the same door used by everyone, mingling with each other. He wore the wolf mask that covered his face, and the hood; the rest of the identity.

"I've seen it before," I mentioned, pointing at it with my right index finger, as I usually do.

"The one with the wolf mask?"

"Yes, him. I've seen it the first time this happened, the time I thought I was dreaming."

"Does he live in the residence? Or have you only seen it in dreams?"

"I saw a girl too, and I heard voices in building four." I circled the question. "I don't know what it means, but he was the only one who noticed my presence as a threat or an annoyance. It was as if he wanted to hurt me."

"It is normal. If you cross the veil you will meet Geister who haven't been able to fully exit this world, and are trapped in theirs. Some of them are likely to fear you."

"Are they ghosts too?"

"Yes, but unlike us, they can harm you." She returned to the previous topic. "But you haven't explained to me exactly what that boy has to do with all this."

"He scared the girl." I continued my story. "Then he chased me for a short stretch, no idea why." I saw another subject also that night, with a rope wound to the neck. "They both vanished when I walked through the kitchen door in building one."

"Did he chase you? That doesn't make sense." I heard her think after she spoke, as strange as it sounds. "Follow him. It seems to be the strangest thing you've come across so far."

I saw him get lost on the way to building three. He took the narrow winding pass and the sight of the window prevented me from following him.

"Do you really want me to go to the empty buildings in search of what might be a psychopath?" I hoped my sly tone didn't take too much of the seriousness out of it.

"You don't have many options. Either that or wait here to see how the fire is generated and start over if you miss it."

"What's wrong with plan B?" I complained.

"That if you start over, there will be a physical you, and two astral you on the same timeline. The more Geister of a single person there is in a defined time, the more fragile the line is, and the more anomalies will appear in its parallels. Not to mention, if either of you makes contact with the other directly, well..."

"I'm right there ..." I raised my right index finger again, and put my elbow in a vee, touching the dry, frozen glass with my fingertip. I just came out of the lobby, and I'm chasing him. "It seems I took plan b."

"You must ... be ... joking," she sighed. "That's not your physical body, it's another astral representation. But why don't you ever listen to me?!"

"Technically... it's the first time I've ignored you. We just met."

"No... you always do this, trust me. I don't even know why you need a Ratgeber to whisper the answers to you when you like to a***e your free will."

"OK sorry. It won't be my intention when it happens, I'm sorry." I held up both hands, palms open and forward, even though I knew I was alone in the corridor. "And now what? Because I have just given myself the answer to which plan I will use."

"Well, there's no use checking the building, you know what you'll do in a few minutes. Use the door of your room to return. You already know where you will find it and when. You just have to follow him and find out who he is."

"At your command, Ratgie," she laughed sweetly, I could say I felt her nostalgia in my chest.

"Like your sister, right?"

"Yes. You remind me of her: explaining everything to me in detail and exploding, without needing to get angry, when I'm smarter or right."

"You really don't remember anything about me?" There was a hint of hope in her voice.

"I'm not, sorry..."

At that moment, I turned my back to the window and circled my position with my feet. I started walking in the direction of my room when the boy with the wolf mask and the plume t-shirt came out of my room.

"What the f**k?" Francesca, stunned by what happened, only heard my curses in silence. "What the hell?"

The young wolf stared me straight in the eye, then glanced at what he was carrying between his arm and ribs: a gallon of Tampico, but instead of being heaped with the processed juice, it was full of water, or what appeared to be water. It didn't take a couple of seconds for him to run in the opposite direction from mine. He was running away, or so it seemed. And he had no idea why he was doing it. Fear, in no one, I could provoke.

"He saw you!" Francesca reacted. "Don't let it escape!"

"Why? The i***t left alone, he won't hurt anyone with a gallon of water."

"It's not water, it's gasoline, you i***t. Look at the trail it leaves behind. This thickness is only in oils, derived from petroleum, carbides."

"Okay, I do know..." I said as I started to run.

I turned to my left, took the metal door on my side that leads to the stairs, instead of running behind him, which would take me longer to know the path he chose when going down to the second floor, which I reached before him.

Not seeing him enter the hall, and only hearing his hurried steps, I followed the path to the first floor, crossed the portal to the east corridor, and went straight ahead, heading north, to reach him right at the emergency door, by if he planned to leave the building. I crossed and left the kitchen and the bathrooms behind, to arrive just in time to see the young wolf escape the stairs and flee outside. I noticed that the gasoline trail was consumed, and the flame had already been lit.

"It's late," Francesca said. "You won't reach the flame. Go back and repeat the process, there is no other option, otherwise, it's that or let all those affected die in this line. You know what his plan is, you just have to wait for him upstairs in your room."

"It doesn't make sense," I said as for me "and I don't like this plan B."

I turned around and ran to the men's room, which was just to the right of the wooden frame where I was. I walked through the door and dematerialized as I did in my dreams so many times ago, but in a real way this time.

I appeared a few seconds ago closing the bathroom door in my bedroom. The flame had not yet arrived, but I didn't have much time. It was only a matter of seconds to find out what happens to a Geist when is in the middle of an explosion of processed ethanol.

"What do you do?! You should have come back long before..." Francesca demanded.

I looked up and noticed that Álvaro was asleep, facing the wall and his back to the rest of the room, while Holger was sprawled on his bed, limbs extended and sleeping in the breeze from the air conditioning.

"I'm not creating any more cracks just for that jerk."

I scanned the room with my eyes. In the middle of the closet, the small can of detergent had been dipped in gasoline, as had the clothes around it, and the sock that had protruded from its spout. It was cheap detergent, which we used to save a few coins, which was completely flammable, and in large quantities, even explosive.

The flame reached my thoughts. I had no better idea than to approach the little Vesuvius that had been formed in my bedroom and lay my hands on it, kneeling at its side and extending my arms.

The impact of the explosion threw me back, sending me to sleep for a moment.