Devin Greigh: Testimony
Chapter 11

“Knock knock!” The familiar voice of Mr. Goldstein was more pleasant than an alarm clock to wake up to; no headaches, no eardrum bleeding, and no intent on taking a mallet and obliterating it to fragments of bolts, screws, sprockets or cogs. My eyes opened slowly letting the light from the sun’s rays pour slowly through the slits of my eye lids. I noticed that my current room had a sky roof, which looked beautiful from my current position. I rubbed my eyes, as they were slowly adjusting to being open for only a few seconds after being shut for hours. When I reopened my eyes, I could see Mr. Goldstein’s slightly-aged face hovering over mine. “Breakfast is ready kiddo!” he sang. “And Casrial told me to wake you up…You’ve got more training to do later, but she wanted to take you out for awhile beforehand.”

I sat up, arched my back, and stretched; I felt my back pop, and I sighed as I normally would when this wake-up routine occurred. Mr. Goldstein stepped away from my bedside as I spun around to hop out of bed. When I stood up, I noticed that I was not wearing the same outfit that I had worn just before passing out; Instead of my school uniform, I had on a tight, but comfortably-fitting green t-shirt with a video game controller screen-printed on the front, and a pair of soft, cotton-fabric grey pants which were my favorite sweats. I noticed that the shirt, which wasn’t mine, had left part of my belly exposed, which felt a little awkward at first, but I just tugged at the shirt, admiring the illustration on the front—upside down from my view—and asked, “When did this happen?”

“Oh,” Mr. Goldstein started, “Anna asked Tess to dress you. She gave you one of her shirts as of way of saying she likes you. She says you two have quite a bit in common, like twin sisters almost. But I hope you don’t mind…Mediums give off more residual energy than anything else; it leaves traces in their hair, on their clothes, and anything they’re usually in frequent contact with.”

“Is that your way of kindly saying that I stink?” I joked.

“Well spiritually, yes,” Mr. Goldstein laughed.

“I should actually take a shower,” I thought out loud.

I reached for my hair to feel how frizzy it must have been, only to notice that it had been wrapped in a ponytail. “Wow,” I gasped, astounded by how my hair was perfectly held back…not a single strand was out of place because a single hair tie held it all in place. “I don’t think I’ll be able to take this out by myself!” I exclaimed.

“I can’t help you with that one Evvy,” Mr. Goldstein said, then reached over, and catching the jeweled locket he had given me for my fourth birthday. “You’ve finally grown into this bulky old thing!” he joked. I laughed and replied, “Yeah, it seemed a lot bigger when I was a lot smaller!”

“Do you know the story behind this locket?” Mr. Goldstein asked me. I simply shook my head, interested in knowing its origin, and why it was actually given to me at such a young age.

“Well,” Mr. Goldstein began, “I will have to tell you some day!”

I pouted and whined, “Some day you’ll tell me…Why not now!?”

“Because it’s a long story,” Mr. Goldstein sang. “A long story that’s suited to be told when you have more time.”

Immediately after he had said that, I heard Cas’ voice shout from down the hallway. “Come on you slacker! We’ve got a plethora to do today! Don’t make me come in there!”

“Hurry along now,” Mr. Goldstein ushered me towards the door, “there will be plenty of time for storytelling later, I promise!”

I speed-walked out from the room, with Scarlett swaying at the hip in her traveling case, and met Cas in the hallway just ahead of the family room. She curtsied to me, keeping an overzealous smile stretched across her face.

“Hello big-girl voice!” I joked about her deep-toned bellowing from outside of my room.

“Well I had to get you out somehow,” Cas sang, “plus, we’re a little pressed for time, so hurry up and get ready!” I gave Cas a salute, and then found myself being chased upstairs by her immediately following my gesture.

Since we were “pressed for time” as Cas had put it earlier, I did not take long in the shower like I normally would at home—although the size of the shower, as well as the bathroom itself, made me want to at least take a few moments to ogle its huge and gorgeous layout. I realized that I had to risk walking through Devin’s enormous home in only a towel since Cas gave me little to no time to search my room for proper clothes. I toweled my hair as dry as I could so I wouldn’t leave a trail of water for anyone—like the supposed accident-prone Tess—to slip on, grabbed Scarlett and the clothes I previously had on and stepped out of the bathroom. The air graced my skin quickly, and although it wasn’t nearly as cold as a winter wind, the fact that I had been in the hot shower made the breeze feel like a December day in Ontario; I felt my body sprout goose bumps from the change in outer-body temperature. Listening to my bare feet clapping against the equally-cold floors, I scurried as fast as I could, down the stairs and through the hallway, making sure that I had a proper hold of my towel. I was almost to my room when I noticed the downstairs bathroom and then mumbled something along the lines of, “Cas could have at least let me take a shower downstairs,” when suddenly the door to the downstairs bathroom swung open and struck me in the face. I let out a reflexive shriek as my heels flip out from in front of me as though someone had pulled a rug out from underneath them. The door hitting my face was faster than my descent to the floor; I thought falling on my butt was going to be a quick one-step process. I made sure that my towel was still wrapped around the areas of my body that mattered—I didn’t care so much about the exposed thighs as much, however—and then worried about the pain surging through my head as well as my backside.

“Stupid door,” I heard a familiar voice mumble.

“Yeah,” I replied as I looked up and noticed it was Devin that had opened the door.

“Oh,” he responded after whipping his head around and noticing me on the floor. “I did that?”

“Not you,” I answered, “the door did.”

“Well I still opened it,” Devin said, and then I noticed that he was no longer staring at my eyes.

“Just got out the shower,” I informed him. “Not a good time to take a break on the floor.”

I laughed a bit, but Devin’s eyes kept wandering. Oddly, it did not make me feel uneasy, but it did alert me that my towel may be exposing more than it should. I checked out of curiosity, and sighed to myself. I was still tightly secure.

“You’ve got nice legs,” he blurted out, but then quickly added, “For someone who can’t keep both feet on the floor, I mean.”

“You just complimented me,” I teased.

“Hardly,” he replied—he began playing that hard-to-get game again, and I grumbled in my head for a moment until he continued on by adding, “It was more like sarcasm for your lack of balance.”

“Well I could use a help up once you’ve picked your jaw up off of the floor,” I continued to joke.

“You’ve got legs,” Devin said as he started to shuffle past me, “ask them to help you.”

“My hero,” I grunted as I forced myself up off of the floor after Devin was completely behind me. After I had dusted myself off and scurried into my room to change, I ripped the towel off of my body and threw it haphazardly in the air. I reached for my bag of clothes pulled my undergarments from it and then slipped into them. I then grabbed exactly what I was going to pick out before being chased into the upstairs shower; jeans, pink and white-striped polo shirt, and pink socks. I almost literally jumped in every article of clothing I had picked out. I strapped Scarlett around my waist, grabbed the hair brush from my bag and quickly groomed my hair, then put it up in a ponytail like Tess and Ann had done while I was sleeping. As I tugged on my shirt and briefly modeled in my outfit, I heard a knock on the door.

“Are you done yet!?” Cas yelled from the other side of the door.

“I’m ready!” I yelled back, stumbling into my white sneakers.

“Okay!” she crooned—her impatient tone noticeably disappeared.

I opened the door and danced a little jig in front of the door as soon as I saw Cas’ face. Cas surprisingly did the same.

“Gosh,” I started, “the way you rush me, I swear you’re like an annoying boyfriend!”

Cas just giggled and replied, “I try. Now come on, little sis, we’ve got an adventure to embark on!”

Grabbing me by my wrist, Cas yanked me from my bedroom and I helplessly followed her down the hall and out the front door.

We took the local bus line down to the mall—which was about five minutes away from Devin’s home. The ride made me wonder what town Devin lived in. “West of Long Island,” Cas answered.

“And he goes all the way to my school from here!?”

“Well he doesn’t really go to school there,” Cas replied. “He just goes to see you.”

My eyes widened before I replied, “Really!?”

“Yep!” she answered. “Well he looks out for me too, but you’re far more important to us. Plus, there’s not an agent with the ability to travel the way Devin can, so in case any gheists come after either one of us, he’ll be right there to save the day.”

“But I never ran into any gheists in the presence of the student public,” I pointed out.

“That’s because your focus is on everything else around you, and not the paranormal,” Cas replied. Sᴇaʀch Thᴇ ꜰindNʘvel.ɴet website on Gøøglᴇ to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.

“Is that so?” I asked.

Cas continued to smile while answering, “Absolutely! No matter how many people are around, wraiths, waywards, and gheists are always around as well, sometimes even more frequent when more people are around depending on the location. It’s always recommended that you make sure you scan the area that you’re in; chances are you’ll detect a wayward or two. There are different signs to look out for when not focusing on the paranormal while in the presence of others.”

“What kind of signs?” I asked.

“It’s quite simple, actually,” She started. “With waywards, it may be a bit more difficult. Since they’re passive, there’s no real way of knowing but to listen to your surroundings, but not too much; you don’t want to make yourself look paranoid. If you feel like you’ve heard someone or something odd…recurring whispers, for instance…you should scan the area; most likely it’s a wayward talking. With gheists, it’s as simple as noticing someone choking, or someone passing out, or someone getting sick all of a sudden; usually those are signs of someone’s spirit being attacked by a gheist. If something randomly explodes, topples over, or collides due to mysterious malfunction of machinery, then it’s most likely a gheist. Gheists are destructive, whereas passive and slightly aggressive waywards are more vocal.”

“Wow!” I gasped. “Illnesses, buildings collapsing, auto collisions, and explosions…gheists are really the cause of all of that?”

“It’s because of their rage, and the hunger for residual energy,” Casrial explained. “No normal human would notice; they would just label them as some weird phenomena or unsolved mystery. It’s actually the perfect cover up for gheists since no normal human can see them wreak havoc.”

“And this is why we exist?” I asked, “To stop them?”

“And to make sure that they safely cross over,” she added.

The bus came to a screeching halt, and the brakes hissed loudly as the air pressure eased. There were only a few passengers besides Cas and I that were on the bus, and so we let them exit the bus first. As we finally stepped off of the bus, we continued our conversation.

“So all this time, even now, there are possible waywards and gheists around?” I asked as we walked through the parking lot and towards the mall’s main entrance.

“Usually in places reeking with residual energy,” Cas answered.

“Is that why we’re here?” I asked her. “To detect them and help them to cross over?”

“Not today,” Cas answered nonchalantly. “Today we’ve come to shop!

Cas and I did tons of shopping the moment we set foot in the mall; something that I had never experienced with a friend before. We wound up going to several different clothing stores, trying stuff on and actually catching some great sales. I ended up buying a lot of shirts for myself, along with some clothes to add to my uniform for school, including black leggings, socks and shoes. Casrial bought more buttons and pins to add to her skirt and book bag’s current collection. I bought more hair ties, and bracelets, as well as a few pairs of earrings, mainly small ones with little cartoon characters on them; my inheritance money, along with the allowance money collection over the past few months definitely paid off. I didn’t realize how fun it was to just splurge for awhile; it made me feel normal, and not some random geek with telepathic spiritual super powers. It was only until we stopped at the electronics store did I remember what I was on the inside.

We bought accessories for Scarlett and Salvador, our two parasights. Cas bought a few lens filters and a new flash bulb, and she helped me buy the “starter kit” as she referred to it as, for Scarlett. I bought her a larger, stronger lens, three different types of lens filters, three memory cards, and three different strength flash bulbs. Our arms were over encumbered with bags of clothes and SLR accessories.

“I don’t get it,” I began, “if our parasights can be utilized as a weapon, why do we need agents?”

“Good question,” Casrial replied, “to which I can give you the answer. Of course you know that our parasights were given to us for a particular reason, right? (I nodded) Have you ever had to charge the battery?”

“Never,” I answered, realizing that though I had spare batteries for Scarlett already, I’ve used the same battery for her since I received her.

“Have you ever felt the need to?” she continued.

“Um…Now that you mention it, no,” I answered.

“That’s because your parasight does not run off of lithium ion, alkaline, or any type of battery; it runs off of you. Your spirit energy is what powers it. It sounds weird, but our genetic makeup contains, controls, and conducts over one thousand times the amount of neurons than a normal human. A normal human with that much going on inside of them would be considered a walking lightning rod after it has been struck by lightning. It’s our spirits that make this possible. Our spirits use our own body’s energy to connect with our parasights, and in turn giving them life. Our parasights basically use our body’s energy for power…See how my name for them fits?”

“So we’re pretty much batteries for them,” I confirmed. Casrial nodded, and then I replied, “That’s pretty awesome!”

“Yep,” Cas agreed.

“So, since they’re running off of our energy,” I began.

“The more we use them, the more spiritual energy we expend,” Casrial finished.

“I see,” I murmured. “I still think it is pretty cool not having to replace batteries all of the time.”

“Me too,” Cas agreed,

My fingers ran along the casing of Scarlett’s traveling case as I thought about how strong of a connection a medium had with their parasight. I now realized why I had always kept Scarlett strapped to my waist wherever I had gone, and kept her at my bedside when I slept; the bond stretched beyond naming my parasight after my late baby cousin. My nose soon snapped me out of the thought of parasights, and into the thought of food consumption. It was now lunch time, and my appetite was stronger than normal. “Let’s grab something to eat!” Casrial cheered, obviously listening in on my spirit’s thoughts. My stomach rumbled to the word “eat,” and I quickly nodded my head in agreement.

We grabbed a bite to eat at one of the many food venues; preferably the Panini stand since Casrial did not eat anything other than fresh, organic, all-natural foods. The food there was good, and so were their smoothies. I had a pomegranate and raspberry smoothie with a tomato basil and turkey Panini which quickly became my favorite food, a revelation, even. During our small lunch break Cas and I continued our conversation about Devin and my horrible act of giving him the cold shoulder last night. I told her how I felt about how I responded to him, how horrible I felt afterwards.

“But it worked!” Cas pointed out. “You can tell that he wanted you to act your usual way, and though you weren’t totally rude to him, he felt the distance!” I then told her about running into him after getting out of the shower, and how he said I had nice legs, to which she replied, “Oh my gosh, you did remember to shave, didn’t you?”

“I’ve only grown hair on my head,” I pointed to the massive ocean of shiny red locks tamed by the restraints of my hair tie. “Between bald legs and a squeaky voice, I’m nearly convinced that I’ll be thirty by the time I finally reach puberty!”

“Most girls would call that a blessing,” Casrial replied with a wink. “You’re incredibly cute, Evvy, Devin knows it, and when he finally stops being a wuss, he’s going to be one lucky guy!”

“He’s so confusing!” I grunted. “But then there are times when we’re together, it feels like we’re together, do you know what I mean?”

“That’s called tension dear,” Casrial said with a smile. Casrial and I did more than just grace the aspects of my obsession with Devin Greigh in a matter of fifteen minutes. We spent the rest of the time at the food court talking about her plans with Jayden, and how Jayden’s parents love her and thought they look cute together; her father thought Jayden was too nice and it bugged him, but Casrial said he was warming up to him.

“Jayden made him laugh yesterday,” she said proudly. “It’s odd to witness Jim laugh, even more so to actually hear him laugh.”

“Does he laugh like a horse?” I joked.

“More like a drowning goat!” Cas replied, bursting into laughter.

Talking about Cas and Jayden reminded me of school, and how I had a test to study for. I was definitely going to need some time to study and do the little homework that was assigned to me before my weekend began. “You’re right,” Casrial spoke suddenly, “we should get back so we could both have time to study!” I was convinced that I would never get used to Cas using her astral communication as stealthily as she did; by now it was probably like second-nature to her whenever she used it. We grabbed all of our bags after throwing out our trash, and started to walk through the many rounded tables and chairs inhabiting the food court, when suddenly I felt a slight thud. “Ow!” I heard a little voice say.

I looked down, and saw a little girl with as much hair on her head as I had, only a shimmering blonde. Her eyes were as blue as Devin’s, only lighter, but definitely as intriguing. She looked sad; I hoped that I did not upset her by bumping into her.

“I’m so sorry!” I apologized. “Are you okay?”

With a scowling look on her face, she looked up and said, “Would you mind paying attention to your surroundings? It’s awfully rude not to. What if I were to have a tray of lunch? It would be all over me before I could savor a bite!”

“Umm…?” I stuttered, “I’m…sorry, I’ll keep that in mind, I guess.”

“It would be much appreciated,” she replied in a simple, yet scolding tone.

Despite the sudden, unnecessary browbeating, the little girl was so adorable. Her skin was pale in comparison to mine, but the carnation-pink that radiated from her apparent frustrated face as she glared at me indicated that she was alive at least. She wore a powder-blue hooded sweater half-zippered to show her mismatching orange and black-striped shirt. I watched her as she ran in line with whom looked like her parents at one of the burger stands, when I realized that Cas was yards ahead of me, skipping away like a gazelle. I shuffled through the rest of the tables and chairs quickly and then trotted after Cas, but couldn’t resist looking back at the girl as she apparently ratted to her parents about my accidental collision. Both parents gazed over at me, but from what I saw, it was more of a surprised look than an angry or worried one; it was a look as though they remembered me from somewhere, or some time ago. I quickly redirected my attention to Cas once again, nearing running into more people as I returned to catching up with her.

The rest of the day was just as exciting. After Casrial and I got ourselves situated with our mall purchases, it was off to the park again to train. There were some kids in the playground, but they were too busy in the sandpit to realize, or understand, our intentions for being here. The first couple of hours were frustrating because I could not grasp the entire concept of my powers. We trained using some light objects; a few empty soda cans.

“You’re not going to be able to lift anything heavier than that until you get a few reps in,” Casrial warned me.

Even lifting the empty soda can drew beads of sweat from the pores of my forehead. There was something I wasn’t doing right. Casrial waited for me to figure out what step I was forgetting. “Soul searching,” I remembered. “…Right.”

I closed my eyes and entered my state of solace, as I called it, and everything else faded into the background. Even with my eyes closed, my aura drew a layout of everything that was covered with residual energy; it was almost like The Matrix, except everything was represented in blue particles and not green binary coding. I scanned the area and noticed an outlining of the soda that Cas had propped on an old, decrepit park bench. I put my hands to the temples of my head to try and push it.

“What are you doing!?” I heard Casrial laugh as she chimed in with her aura.

“I’m trying to push it with my mind,” I grunted, still attempting helplessly to force the empty can off of the bench.

Casrial simply laughed, lowering my fingers from my head and said, “You look like you’re trying to make your head explode. Direction is the key, but you want to use your hands like a conductor’s baton or wand while you’re directing, while actually using your hands as if you’re literally performing the act. For instance, if you wanted to grab a soda from that bench, you’re not going to point your fingers at your head as if you had a horrible migraine; you’re going to reach out, and pick it up with your hand, right? “

“Right,” I agreed.

“So that’s what you’re going to do from where you’re standing, you’re going to reach out with your hand and act as though you’re picking up that soda can. You have to direct your energy to the soda can, so your aura can react to it. Remember, everything has traces of residual energy on it, even from normal humans. Your aura will pretty much act as a magnet, attracting that energy onto it, which in turn will allow you to use the powers you possess. This is one of the key things you must learn about the Telepathic class; everything begins with a connection. Now let’s try again.”

I nodded, and returned to focusing on the can. I remembered what Casrial had said, and then raised my hand, directing it towards the location of the empty soda can. My fingers curled to make a “C” shape, as if I was prepared to actually grab the can up with my bare hand. At that moment, I could feel a resistance, as if the soda can was being dragged away from me. I clenched my fingers slightly and felt what appeared to be the contours of the can, and started to raise my hand…it was as though I was fighting against an incredible force of gravity. The lift was so unbearable, that my head began to sting with pain, like a horrific migraine. I could not pick this can up…it weighed way too much for me to lift. And then a realization kicked in…It was only an empty soda can; there was no way on earth that this can standing before me could weigh more than even a few grams, or milligrams for that matter. I laughed to myself as I thought about how I was previously struggling with, above all else, an empty soda can. I scoffed before saying aloud, “I’m struggling with an empty soda can!?” and then proceeded to tighten the grip over the force that my aura had made to trace the contours of the actual soda can, and lifted.

I saw the blue representation of the can slowly rising up with my hand, about a half of a second delayed, and I started to smile. I lifted higher, and the can obeyed, rising higher to follow my hand’s command. I gasped, easing my hand’s cramped-looking position, and the can fell back down, clunking against the wooden, splintered bench, and then rolling off onto the softness of the grass below. I laughed in both disbelief and triumph, still thinking that it was so bizarre that I had this power and also excited that I’ve managed to experience first-hand that this power of mine truly existed. “Way to go!!” Casrial congratulated me. “You completed the first stage of psychokinesis!” I looked at my hand, as though there was some weird marking on it. I literally felt the can still, as if it was actually in my hand.

“The first stage is practically so that you could get used to the new feeling,” Casrial explained. “Your aura lets you feel the object that you’re attempting to control, and from what you’ve experienced, you determine whether you could move it or not. As you remove all restrictions regarding weight and mass, you’ll be able to master your powers, allowing you to lift much larger objects, and even more. Every weekend we will practice newer and more advanced techniques.”

“I just lifted a soda can with my mind,” I gasped, still in shock and awe of my newly-discovered powers coming into light, into reality.

“Yep!” Casrial confirmed. “And you’ll be doing that until you get the hang of lifting a soda can!”

“I lifted. A soda can. With my mind,” I repeated over and over…again and again.

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