Evelyn Earth Part 16

“Well as long as you feel okay?” he put me at arms-length and looked me over. His eyes widened and I followed his gaze. All up and down my arms traces of darkness flecked my veins. The tips of my fingers were the worst—pitch black, as if nail polish had been applied by a child and spilled out over the edges inching its way up my fingers.

                “Evie…” Owen stammered, “Did you touch the black hole again? This wasn’t one of your, you know, suicide attempts?” I couldn’t help but laugh, I laughed right in his face whilst he sat there looking confused and slightly hurt.

                “Don’t be stupid Owen, look around, why would touching the darkness cause death?”

                “Are you kidding” his voice raised an octave, he dropped my hands and I could tell he was distancing himself from me, “Are we seriously going to have to have this conversation again? You haven’t seen what I’ve seen the way--” 

                “I’ve seen more than you think” I snapped interrupting him, I was sick of his sad speeches it felt like he was trying to scare me into safety with horror stories, “You think you’re the only one whose seen horror! I know what horror is and it’s not THIS!” I point around me.

                “You’re not thinking clearly Evie the trauma of whatever happened here must have confused you.”

                “I know exactly what happened here and trust me it wasn’t traumatic” I stood up brushing myself off. Once again I took in the wonder of what I had created and felt a deep sense of satisfaction wash over me. I smiled down at Owen.

                “Please, do tell” he replied angrily, lifting himself up to his full height.

                “The ‘black hole’ as you call it manifested itself right here and erased everything that was unnatural” I replied calmly.

                “So this black hole in particular doesn’t devour people, doesn’t erase human beings” he intoned sarcastically.

                “I’m still here aren’t I?” I growled back at him. My mood was becoming erratic—I was still on a high from the power surge I had just experienced, but with every second that I spent listening to Owen’s negativity the elation was turning into frustration.

                “You are, but you’re not the same just look at you! It looks like you’ve been…tainted.”

                “Tainted? Ha!” I held my hands up to my face and turned them over, all I saw were the residues of raw energy. This was what greatness looked like, and all that Owen saw was a taint? I looked up at him with a deep seeded distaste. I turned on my heel and stalked away.

                “Where are you going?” he called after me. I didn’t reply and kept walking until I reached the edge of the newly upturned earth where the sea water lapped at the now natural shore. I put my hand up to shield my eyes from the sun and looked out over the docks. Without the height of a building I would never be able to see the boat and its mysterious passenger.

                Just the thought of him, standing on the hull looking into my eyes from kilometres away made me shiver, so much so that the hairs on my arms stood up. I needed to find out how far away he was, there was no doubt in my mind that he had seen me just as clearly as I'd seen him and if he was more advanced than I was, well, he would have pinpointed my exact location by now. Assuming of course that he would want to find me. The look of surprise on his face when me made our connection indicated that he wasn’t exactly expecting to see someone else just like him, just looking back.

                The fact that we were the same, interconnected with the Earth wasn’t a rational conclusion that I had come to, but a spiritual one. By being linked with the Earth we were inadvertently linked together.

                “Oh yes” I mumbled to myself. Only yesterday I had discovered how to view the geography of the land through the ground. All I needed to do was to tap into the terrain and feel for the other man’s presence. I almost crouched down there and then, fully intent on immersing my consciousness into the earth, until I realised Owen had come up behind me. He stood there patiently waiting for me to turn around and acknowledge him. I spun around abruptly and caught him off guard. He stumbled back a step before regaining his composure.

                “You’re scaring me.”

                Those simple words entered my mind and rattled around inside my head for what seemed like eons. They were like a catalyst to a chemical reaction that triggered the humanity that the darkness had supressed. All of a sudden it came bubbling up to the surface manifesting itself in the form of tears.

                “I want to go home” I whispered. Owen took me by the hand and pulled me closer to him, smoothing stray hairs away from my face he said softly, “I’ll take you home Evie, just follow me. It will be alright I promise.”

                We slowly made our way back to his shipping container bunker. With every step I took I felt more and more lost. I was disconnecting with the earth and a panic gripped my heart. How was I losing the connection? If I thought about it, how had I kept the connection so contained for the past week? I knew that my self-control was nowhere near advanced enough to reign in the energy that was residing within me. It must have something to do with the logistics.

                Frantically I began to look around.

                “What’s wrong?” Owen asked.

                “I just need to figure out why…” I mumbled to myself. Breaking free of his hand hold I spun around in a circle. We were surrounded by stacks upon stacks of metal containers, were they acting as an interference to the earths power? No, that couldn’t be it.  If I could feel the earth’s energy whilst surrounded by high-rises why would the containers pose a problem?

                “Figure out what?”

                “I need to know why…why” I was lost for words. Everything was getting jumbled in my head. I wanted things to be clear, as clear as they were when I was standing on the cleared patch of soft, moist dirt.

                “Wait…” I dropped down to the ground and put my ear to the concrete, “There’s water underneath us.”

                “What are you doing Evie, please, get up” he tried to pull me to my feet, but I stayed stubbornly glued to the ground. I tried in vain to send out tendrils of the dark power, but they wouldn’t distribute. I couldn’t tap into the earth because I wasn’t standing on it.

                “We’re on a fucking pier” I cursed, “All this time I thought we were on solid ground!”

                “Yeah these docks are all man made, why did you think they were all in straight lines. God doesn’t build in straight lines, remember.”

                “No neither does Mother Earth” I mumbled under my breath.