Kitabı oku: «Kill me with your love. Part I», sayfa 2

5. Mentor

Ema… As soon as I heard that name, I pictured the sounds of the sea in my mind. The sea, whose quiet waves in calm weather peacefully break on the rocky shore. Its salty air refreshes not only the body, but also the soul and the thoughts. Its sunsets make you love life and never cease to delight over and over again. However, as often it happens with the weather at sea: it is unpredictable. Calmness abruptly gives way to a storm, and there is no mercy for anyone who stands in its way. This is how my childhood friend seemed to me. A fury in an angelic image. She suddenly burst into my life, turned everything upside down in it and left no stone unturned, while promising nothing and giving no chance for a future together. Although I kept waiting and believing. The door swung open by itself before I opened it. It was Ema. Apparently, not expecting to see my unusual new look, she just stared at me without saying a word. There was an awkward silence between us. It lasted only a few seconds that seemed like an eternity.

“Have you decided to change your style, Kaulakis? It’s about time. I can even give you a compliment: it suits you!” Finally, she was the first to break the uncomfortable silence with sarcasm in her voice. Coming in, an unexpected guest slammed the door behind her without touching it.

“It’s not funny at all, Butkute,” I muttered in response without moving.

We often liked to address by last names to tease each other.

“You would have put on something at least, unless you were lost to all sense of shame. Is it in this outfit that guests are received nowadays?”

Only now I did notice that I was standing naked. Before I had time to think about what she said, the boxers and pants themselves flew into my hands, with the help of the friend’s telekinesis.

“What would I do without you?” Now it was my turn to say something sarcastically.

“Don’t worry about your look. It will go back to normal over time. After you take your powers under control, your inner self that has showed up now will fade away. It happens to everyone. You may call it as a kind of transition period. When you get used to new powers, learn to control them and feel comfortable with the energy in the body, you will never want to return to the previous state. Believe me. I know this from my own experience”.

“I didn’t know about your transition. What did you look like?”

“You don’t want to know. I went through it. No one is an exception to the rule. It happened the year when you served in the army. Thank God! I’m glad you didn’t see me then: I was a terrible bitch”.

“I think you had been a bitch before that”.

We laughed heartily. I felt a little better. I wanted to enjoy my life again.

“You still have to learn a lot. The transition is just the beginning. There are many sorts of rules and restrictions that you will need to learn by heart. The most important rule you should know right now is that under no circumstances should you ever use your powers in public. They may forgive violations of some laws, but that one is punished with the death penalty only. In the entire history of humankind, only two Bernauses had committed it, but I’ll tell you about them later. Now let’s do yoga, because there is no better way to find the shortest path to harmony with yourself and the world around you. Besides, you can’t go out like this. We’ll wait until dark. I’ll also tell you a brief history of our kind. There’s no future without knowing the past.

6. History Lesson

“Millions of years ago, a meteorite had fallen on Earth,” Ema began the narrative and, after a moment of intriguingly pausing, continued. “Its fall neither had brought any destruction, nor any changes to the place where it had found a “peace”, only had illuminated the whole area with an unearthly light and had gone out. No one still knows how big that meteorite had been and how it had looked like at all. Several million years had gone on and there had been no trace of the funnel left by it. It had been covered with many layers of soil. The surface had been overgrown with unpassable thickets and swamps. It had not been possible for any living creature to pass through these dense thickets. Even birds had avoided flying over them in the sky. As if some unknown powers had been guarding the peace of the mysterious meteorite, which now we call “Almighty Stone’.

After people had settled the neighboring areas, they had started making up many legends about that mysterious place into which no animal would have dared to enter and no bird would have dared to fly into or over it. Many brave men had challenged their gods (in the ancient times they believed that deities and other supernatural creatures inhabited in that forest, so all mortals were not able to come in there neither during their lives nor after death). All attempts to penetrate through the dense thickets had ended up in failure. Some had gone mad, some had disappeared and some in a kind of madness had given themselves injuries that had not agreed with life, but still the majority had never come back. As a result, the thicket had gained infamy among the tribes living near them. Humans had gradually begun to desert that area.

The reason for that had not been the cases with those who had been trying to get into the forbidden zone in spite of taboos, but strange and inexplicable visions and sounds that had not caused any harm yet, but frightened anyone who had faced them. Shamans, so called witch doctors, present in every tribes, had asked the spirits of their ancestors for answers, which had turned out not to be good. So the peoples had decided to leave their native lands, inhabited for many centuries. They had believed that the angry gods had been driving them out of there for some inexplicable reason. Although in fact it had been only the first signs of awakening of Almighty Stone.

People are always inclined to give negative interpretations to strange phenomena for which they cannot find a logical explanation. It took another thousand years before the Almighty Stone had finally woken up. By that time, almost everyone had forgotten about the thicket, since the locals had left all the surrounding areas many years ago. The trails had been overgrown. The rocks had surrounded it with dense walls. No one had tried to conquer those thickets anymore. However, the legends that had long turned into fairy tales had still lived among peoples. When the right time had come, Almighty Stone had awoken fully. The forests had opened up. The rocks had parted, crashing down on each other. The earth had engulfed by earthquakes as in a fever, and covered first with small cracks, then with large ones, until finally, Almighty Stone had freed from the forced captivity of many years. Having shone with a bright blue light it had poured out energy that had scorched everything around with fire and left behind only dead soil. A pillar of light rushed to the sky. Those who had witnessed that had thought that the gods themselves had descended from heaven and began to flee from the strange glow and noise.

The most amazing thing was that there had been those who had not run away from awakened Stone at all, but, on the contrary, had rushed toward it. Enchanted by the call, some people of all walks of life, nationalities, faiths, ages and sexes had embarked on a long and difficult journey. No one can know how many of them there had been, but many had died on the way. Not everyone had reached their final point of destination. The brave men and women had been walking through ravines and potholes, rivers and swamps, fields and woods, mountains and flatlands, stopping at nothing. They had died of hunger, cold, heat and dehydration. Behind them they had left their loved ones, their homes and everything that had been the dearest of all. No obstacles could have halted the unwilling travelers. They would have rather accepted death. Among them there had been kings and slaves, servants and nobles, soldiers and nurses, who had been then equal before the magical power of Almighty Stone. Those who had reached the place rushed into the newly formed funnel, from where light had been bursting out. The seething and burning blue waves of the sea had swallowed them.

As soon as the last victim had jumped down, Stone had burst into a bright fire, illuminating nearly half the world with its unearthly light so the night had turned into a day, and then had gone out, never to light up again. Almighty Stone had disappeared, and Almighty Book has remained in Its place. After awaking the first Bernauses, It had read them a set of rules and actions and, closing itself, fell into the arms of the king of some southern lands, Arecu, who created the Council and became its first Dapirul (that is, chairperson or Supreme Leader). Almighty Stone gave everyone certain powers according to their personal qualities, character and temperament. Since then no Bernaus has been like any other in his or her magic. Everyone is unique.

It is also considered surprising that all mentions (direct or indirect) about that meteorite were erased from the memory of humankind in the literal sense of the word. Often it had to be done with fire and sword. Rock carvings and written sources were destroyed and eventually forgotten. Those who continued, despite all the prohibitions, to spread legends about the witchcraft woods did not escape the fate either. The talkers were exterminated cruelly and mercilessly. Thus, Almighty Stone was displaced from the memories of the past, and Book containing all the wisdom of magic has been kept by the Council and carefully passed down from generation to generation as they say.” Ema got up from her chair, making it clear that the lecture was over, and went to the window. The rays of the setting sun played on her hair, reflecting with reddish shades.

“What is necessary to become a member of the Council?” I asked, admiring my best friend’s youth and beauty.

“You need to challenge one of the Council members and win in a fair fight. The winner gets fame and a place on the Council, the loser must…” again making an intriguing pause to follow my reaction, Ema continued, “… die at the hands of a winner”.

The Sun disappeared below the horizon. The twilight of the night was rapidly advancing on the town. In an instant, clouds covered the entire sky, and rain poured down on the busy streets.

“This is your doing, isn’t it?” I asked Ema, no longer surprised by anything.

“We don’t need any witnesses. By the way, it’s about time to hit the road. I would like to introduce you to the others. I promise you will be pleasantly surprised”.

“Who doesn’t like surprises?”

7. Surprise

I didn’t like surprises, but most of all I hated rain. It was pouring cats and dogs, nonstop for several hours. It was enough for us to make our way through downtown to one of the abandoned buildings by the river. Although the streets were still crowded, no one paid attention to us. Everyone was trying to search refuge from a sudden shower of rain, which poured down on everyone indiscriminately. As for us, we did not escape that fate either, but thanks to the magical tricks of Ema, the water dripped on us without wetting a single fold of clothing.

“If we are so powerful, why make up all this fuss? Wouldn’t it be easier to teleport?” I shouted to my friend, barely keeping up with her fast-flying pace. Going out in public did not give me any pleasure at all. I would have preferred to stay in, so my voice betrayed me with irritation, which I wanted to hide. Ema, half-turning, shouted back, trying to sound louder than the noise of the downpour:

“If I had the powers of teleportation or at least knew someone who was gifted with it, then as they say, be my guest. In the meantime, we will act in the old fashion way: witching, so to speak, and all that jazz.

“Now I get it. All the legends about shamans, high priests, fortune tellers and psychics are not fiction, are they? Do all roads lead to Bernauses?”

“That’s right, although there have always been charlatans and scammers, both in the past and nowadays. However, most of the magical community consisted and still consists of “us”.

“Isn’t it forbidden to demonstrate your powers in front of people?”. I couldn’t help getting confused.

“Who says that they demonstrate them? It is not forbidden to help simple people. After all, they do not show their powers openly, but they pretend they do. Here we are.”

Before our eyes appeared a huge, abandoned building of a former television and radio factory from the late 80s, which had been functioning as both a civil and military enterprise (in Soviet times, almost all factories that were officially civilian, secretly worked for the “defense industry”). Its huge empty windows and high walls set an atmosphere of gloom and mysticism throughout the area. Usually at this time of the day you could meet “representatives” of different subcultures there. As if reading my thoughts, Ema convincingly assured me that there would be no one else there besides us: it had already been taken care of. So that no one would accidentally wander into the area of the factory as the guys had put so-called magic locks, which gave a feeling of unbearable fear to anyone who would be trying to approach the forbidden place without an invitation. We went inside and found ourselves in the lobby of once one of the largest, but gone into the past of the country’s enterprises, which ceased to exist along with it.

Glass and frames were missing throughout the building. It became clear that the factory was pulled apart piece by piece. In some places, you could even notice holes in the walls, which indicated that the building began to be dismantled into bricks. In general, the place was depressing and it did not fit in on the map of the rapidly developing Kaunas. But soon the gloomy thoughts about the factory receded into the background, and I began to reflect on the meeting that lay ahead. Who did I expect to see? What was in store for me there? Above all, what was the surprise? I didn’t like being talked to in riddles. After passing through the hallway, we went out into the corridor, at the end of which a faint unearthly light was shimmering. The closer we got to the end, the brighter it became and the clearer I began to understand that this light was not of natural origin. I felt its magic with every cell of my body. From the corridor through a wide passage we got into the former dining room. In the middle of an empty room, a group of people stood in a circle, and a certain sphere hovered in the air above them, from which a soothing and enchanting light radiated. As if hypnotized, people were standing and staring at the ball burning like the Sun, only with many different colors of paint. None of those present noticed our appearance.

“This is their common powers. When several Bernauses gather, they can combine energy into a single whole and get to the height of pleasure. If you look for a suitable comparison, then it’s like nirvana for Buddhists. Only those need to spend their whole lives on meditation, for us it is enough to unite some of our magic”.

We got even closer, and I could easily make out the faces of the wizards. I understood why Ema warned me that I would be surprised. Those mysterious magicians turned out to be the people I knew. They were all of my best friends: Lucas, Matas, Gabrielius, Emilia, Liepa and Leia. By and large, no strangers to me at all. I had met each of them at different periods of my life: in school or college years or after graduation. Ema had introduced some of them to me. Even before I got the power, I already knew how to choose people for friendship. “Everything is predetermined” some unknown voice sounded in my head. That thought was definitely not mine. The ball gradually went out and, finally, attention was paid to us. Not believing their own eyes that I turned out to be the new Bernaus (I must give a credit to Ema: she skillfully kept it a secret from them), the guys rushed to meet me and began to hug tightly.

When at last everybody calmed down, being a little embarrassed I said:

“I understand that I am the last among us who has gained the magical powers. Weren’t you ashamed of yourselves not to wait for me?”

Laughing is the best therapy for any stress, and I still had a lot to worry about.

“So it is. We were waiting for you, although we were not sure that it would be you specifically. We just felt the birth of a new energy. The Bernauses, you know, are closely related to one another,” replied Lucas, the quietest and shiest friend from our noisy and cheerful company.

Despite the fact that Lucas was 24, he looked like 17 years old. They even refused to sell alcohol to him in stores without an ID. His unruly brown hair was always up on his head and his ears were like an elf’s. With his big blue eyes, Lucas would have easily become a prototype for Japanese anime. In addition, he was incredibly thin and hardly weighed more than 110 pounds. Girls always found something in him, although he was not so handsome as other men. Like Ema, Lucas had the powers of suggestion, but unlike her, he could hypnotize any living being and control it to fulfill his goals. He also knew how to create an illusion of reality, that is, a false idea of an event that happened, which in fact did not exist at all. Our friend demonstrated this clearly by the example of an uttered word: “sea”. The surrounding reality immediately changed before our eyes. We found ourselves on the coast of an imaginary sea. The waves broke peacefully on the shore, seagulls screamed and with a warm breeze we felt the aromas and taste of salt water. Peace took control of us, the bodies relaxed, surrendering to the warmth of the setting sun. Another moment and the illusion disappeared, as if it did not exist at all, and everything we saw seemed like a long gone dream. The sea was not around us, but the gloomy walls of the abandoned factory stood instead. We applauded our friend passionately as a sign of admiration.

Liepa was standing next to Lucas. A 28-year-old fragile and graceful girl with golden hair like the sun and a shapely waist. She was distinguished by a very cheerful and never depressing disposition, as well as full of energy and life. Liepa was able to get along with any person. She was always active, had a lot of actions, ideas and plans in stock. Deservedly, we called her an “Angel”. Besides, she was the only one from the company who had already managed to become a parent. Our “Angel” had a son, whose father remained a secret for everyone, carefully guarded. Even her closest friend Leia didn’t know him. The powers granted to Liepa were opposed to her outward appearance. She could move huge objects over long distances. In the blink of an eye, the ground beneath us trembled, and we realized that the building was slowly rising. Plaster fell from the ceiling and walls. It seemed that everything was going to collapse and crush us to death with its weight, but a few minutes later we safely got down on the ground in one piece.

The next went 28-year-old Matas who had the gift of mind reading. He could also predict the thoughts and ideas of people, even if they hadn’t thought of them yet. He probably knew more about us than we did ourselves, but he never used that information as a weapon and politely concealed it. By appearance the guy looked like a giant: tall and large, but gentle and kind inside as a kid. Although he was not particularly lucky with girls in life, but he did not despair and believed that his day yet to come and he would meet his soul mate sooner or later. Matas showed his powers by reading the thoughts of each of us, which caused more discontent than joy, but no one got really offended.

Emilia, a 27-year-old black-haired and brown-eyed beauty, was standing next to Matas. Maybe because the girl used to work as a police investigator, she looked stern, strict and unapproachable. She did not like the weaknesses in men. Her temper was considered quite complicated. Going through her was not an easy task. She could not stand criticism and all sorts of coddling. She always spoke to the point and appealed only with facts. Nevertheless, the girl managed to harmoniously blend into our company and make everyone fall in love with her own nature, although she was perceived unanimously obnoxious and unbearable due to her temperament. Emilia, or, as we called her among ourselves, Milie could heal any wounds and injuries on the body: both external and internal. She also possessed the powers to resurrect from the dead, although it is more accurate to say from the “half-dead”. If the victim’s brain had not died and his activity, even in the form of weak impulses, remained active, then healing would not have been difficult for her. Using the example of cuts on the arm of Gabrielius, who volunteered, she showed her powers clearly. Today Milie was in a particularly good mood: she was planning an affair with an unknown Bernaus, so we were all looking forward to meeting a fan of such a difficult tempered friend.

Everyone knew that this affair haunted the 25-year-old Gabrielius, because our friend liked Milie very much, and he never tried to hide his feelings. That’s just the girl did not pay attention to him and was not serious about his pick-ups, putting off with fun, which brought me very close to the guy because of a similar situation I was in. Gabrielius was Chinese by mother and Lithuanian by father. Because of that the nature gifted him with a beautiful and unusual appearance, which attracted the eyes of many girls. He had a rare power, even more frightening than exciting: Gabrielus could communicate with the dead. It was enough for him to approach the corpse so that the image in the form of a soul appeared before him and answered all the questions put to it. Sometimes the dead came to him by themselves. The guy did not know the reasons for that, since ghosts disappeared as suddenly as they appeared. Of course, he refrained from demonstrating his powers to us, and it was not physically possible.

Leia was the last to complete the circle. She was 29 years old at the time, but looked older. However, the girl was not shy by character but not relating to her appearance. Being overweight, she compensated with charm. Everyone loved Leia. We adored her for sense of humor, the ability to support at any moment and a smile that could cheer everyone up. She had the powers to walk through walls, to return to the past (but not change it) and to foresee the near future thanks to short visions lasting from one second to several minutes. She demonstrated her powers: guessed who would say exactly in a couple of minutes. It happened so.

Finally, it was turn of 27-year-old Ema. Ema commanded natural phenomena (caused precipitation, winds, heat and cold), moved small objects over distances and possessed the gift of suggestion, but only for a short period. What would I be able to do? What would I be capable of? This was still to be found out after I got harmony with my energy. So far, it seemed to me chaotic and uncontrolled movement of particles. Since only Ema was immune to my unbridled powers during mentoring, the others decided to leave after a short conversation to give us space to train and not get hurt themselves. Saying a warm goodbye, we agreed to see one another again soon.