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When two plates of soup were in front of them, Emma looked at the man. "Can we start now?" she asked.
"Have something to eat first," he responded.
"Well curiosity just happens to be stronger than me feeling hungry right now."
"Why are you so inpatient?"
"Because I just passed through what was like five different realities and I have absolutely no idea what is happening!"
"Alright, where were you?" he asked her calmly.
"Ah…um… some place that looked like sanctuary only weirder, then on some beach by a waterfall… somewhere that appeared to be in the past… then Brennan!... and then of course in a cemetery."
"And do you remember who was there?"
"Yes."
"And…"
"Wait, can you tell me who you are first?" she asked.
"Who would you want me to be?" Brennan smiled.
"Excuse me?"
Brennan then quickly morphed into Shalimar. "Alright… is this better?" she asked Emma.
"How did you do that? Who the hell are you??" this was confusing the Psionic even more, everything so far had only raised questions for her.
"You know those internal dialogues everyone has?"
"Yeah."
"Well, I happen to be one of those voices."
"You're one of the voices in my mind…" Emma did not sound impressed.
Shalimar nodded and leaned her chin on her hand.
Emma laughed. "You're kidding, right?"
"Nope."
"No, seriously, this is just another reality, right?"
"Well sort of, but not like the others you experienced."
Emma glanced around the empty restaurant. "Ok…" she responded with a doubtful tone, "right… and is this place real?"
"Yes, it is."
"What kind of a place is it?"
"Um, call it 'stuck between times'."
Emma gave Shalimar a questioning look and then quickly stood up, intending to run towards the exit.
"If you're intending on going out… which you are, you can't."
Emma stopped and turned around. "Why's that?"
"Because this is only a meeting place, not an expedition like the other five times."
Shalimar stood up and approached Emma. "You wanted an explanation to this entire situation and hence you brought yourself here."
"I brought myself here?"
"Difficult to believe but true. And so you can't do anything else," Shalimar told her.
"Huh," Emma didn't believe her and turned around. She walked over to the two doors but when she wanted to touch them, something stung her inside. "Shit! Argh!"
"Told you, you couldn't go out." Shalimar slid her left lip line up as she placed her hands on her navy blue dress, its design identical to that of Emma's.
Once the pain stopped, Emma glared at the doors and then at Shalimar. "Who's doing this??!" the annoyance which she felt caused her to shout.
"You are."
"You're not serious. What do you know about this place? Who are you, really?!" she did not like this oddity.
"I already told you…"
"If you are my… inner voice, then how come you know all of this?"
"Because you know all this subconsciously, I'm just clearing it out for you in a way. Close your eyes," Shalimar said.
Emma's eyes narrowed.
"Please, close your eyes."
Emma shook her head, her lack of patience leaving her so quickly that she shut her eyes only to open them a second later and find herself, standing at the edge of a cliff. "What… where…?" she noticed her hands tied with a rope behind her back. Emma felt her face being wet from tears and she was still carried by the grieving feeling.
"No, Evelyn! Please!" A loud male voice yell turned her head behind her and to have her eyes see a young man with black hair, struggling to pass but being held back by a group of men, all dressed in peasant outfits. Her lips parted, she felt her heart beating out of control as she felt fear. Managing to look into the man's eyes she somehow felt the presence of an Elemental she knew. Quickly returning her face in front of her, Emma looked down at her and noticed a long black dress, resembling the 18th century, its satin ends traveling on the strong wind. "What's happening?" she whispered to herself and could not escape the view of the long fall before her. Emma wanted to move but she felt powerless to do so, some other will inside her was keeping her on that spot. Moving her gaze slightly to her right she noticed an older man holding a sharp sword at her. Swallowing she heard she young man's voice again, recognizing an Irish accent.
"Evelyn, you don't have to do this! You mustn't do this!" he pleaded with a voice filled with pain.
"It's too late, Patrick. Evelyn has already made her decision. Either she takes her own life or you die," someone had said.
"No! It does not have to be this way! Evelyn!"
Feeling the tears falling, Emma kept gazing in front of her, trying to hide her fear. She felt powerless to do anything. Quickly glancing at Patrick, she told him: "I will love you for eternity, Patrick. Please, take good care of yourself," and with that Emma jumped to the deep and nearly endless space.
A quick flash then brought her back to the restaurant. Managing to regain her balance, Emma searched for Shalimar and found her standing a meter from her. "What was that?"
"Another reality."
"What happened?"
Shalimar shrugged. "You appeared to be a young lady who so unfortunately had fallen for a street thief… that would be Patrick."
"Why did I go there?"
"That was the time when this original place was built. You, I mean Evelyn and Patrick used to come here… and they would sit down," she pointed at a hidden and dark corner, "on that table."
"I thought you said this was 'no man's land'."
"Well, yes, but I had to somehow connect the meaning of this place to you and Brennan. It was quite special to Patrick and Evelyn."
"Wait. Were they… me and…"
"Brennan? Yep."
Emma's eyes widened to this answer. "It can't be that we actually met in the past, shared lives together!" she bit her upper lip and thought. "And I can't believe I actually came up with this conclusion."
"It seems it can in your case."
"But reincarnation is just some mythical nonsense, it can not actually exist!"
"Oh dear, you really have spent a lot of time with Brennan. It's a little strange though as you should be able to believe in reincarnation."
"Where I went, what I did, that wasn't me; those weren't my… past lives."
"Yes, they were."
"Why did you put me in this position at all?"
"I didn't do anything else except observe."
"Ok, then who did that?"
"You did."
"Me?"
"Yes. You have much stronger abilities than you are aware of, Emma. Somehow you managed to put you consciousness on a travel through time while you were a sleep."
"That's crazy."
"Yes, as I said it is difficult to believe… you only observed what was happening around you, that's why you… your body did not teleport itself, physically that's quite impossible at this point of time… you didn't want to alter events, you only wanted to observe."
"So you're saying that all of this was my doing?"
Shalimar nodded.
"Oh," Emma collapsed her hands as her eyes traveled around. "Great! Why did I do that?"
"Perhaps something inside and… outside, felt that you needed to know."
"Know what?"
"About yourself… who you were, what you would become."
"And Brennan?"
"Well, he seems to be rooted in those lives with you. And how? I do not know. As you say, God works in mysterious ways…"
"Wait…" Emma touched her neck. "Why couldn't I do anything on this last… place?"
"At the cliff?"
"Yes! I didn't have any control! The other time I could, but this time, I couldn't. I should've done something!" she began heading towards the blonde mutant.
"I can't give you all the answers, Emma. Some you just need to work out by yourself."
"That really helps," Emma sounded displeased. "well… that time when I…" she swallowed, "stood over Brennan's grave… that was real?"
"Like everything else you've experienced so far, yes."
"He's going to die?"
"Everyone dies in the end."
"But…"
"Emma…" Shalimar placed her hand on her shoulder. "Some of these realities didn't happen in this dimension and those that did… those from the future, they're other lives of yours, not this one so you can not change anything now."
"Has this something to do with…um… reincarnation?"
"Probably."
Emma put her hands behind her back and looked down. "This has to be a dream. From that moment I woke up with Brennan to this… it has to be a dream. It's… it's too damn weird to be real!"
"It's expected that you should feel like that."
Lifting her face, Emma looked into Shalimar's eyes. "It doesn't make sense… none of this makes any sense!"
Shalimar's eyes saddened. "It does, Emma. You're just feeling far too confused to realize that."
"Then why couldn't I sense anything when I was with Jesse or-or when I was Brennan?"
"You weren't always a telempath, you know; plus Brennan wasn't as well so that kind of interfered."
"God… so not real." Emma shook her head while her mind was trying to accept the reality of everything that had happened to her. She placed her hands gently on her waist. "What did you mean with 'not in this dimension'?"
"You've heard about parallel universes, right?"
"Um, yeah… but that's all just a theory."
"Well, yes, for now."
"First it was different lives and now you're trying to tell me, I went to other… universes?" Emma took a few steps away from Shalimar.
"Similar to this one, yes."
"Aha… which ones then?"
"Um, the very first one where you woke up next to Brennan," and a naughty smile appeared on her face. "Then there was that one when you leaped into Brennan's body."
"Ok…"
"All great things take some time to be fully comprehended, Emma."
"But why couldn't I have gotten into my own body… why Brennan's?"
"Maybe by accident?"
"Maybe but still… so fucking strange… so I've traveled…"
"Yes, you did."
"Well… that's creepy."
Shalimar giggled.
Finding a chair next to her, Emma sat down on it. "How did I do this…"
"The mind is a wonder."
Placing her elbows on her lap, she leaned her head on her hands. "One hell of a journey is all I'll say…" she sighed, "the one in the cemetery disturbed me…"
"I know, Emma." Shalimar kneeled next to her. "But you can't change anything."
Emma looked at her. "But you were there…"
"No, Shalimar was there but it is still not your reality… I'm sorry…"
Burying her face in her hands, she gave out a heavier sigh. "Just don't tell me that this is all, some… plan or whatever to discover something else about Brennan."
"In a way it is… you did discover something about him, about both of you."
Uncovering her face, Emma's blues stared intensively at the blonde. "There's more isn't there… all this… past, future lives… there's more, right… isn't there?
Her face became serious as she stood up. "Alright… this seems to really be affecting you. You should maybe wake up now," Shalimar said and gathered her hands.
The headache struck once more. "Not now! Damn it!" she complained until the headache rose to that level that forced the Psionic to fall into deep slumber.
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The sweet smell of the sunny morning reached Emma, opening her eyes. Looking slowly across the room from where she laid, the Psionic smiled and slowly like a cat stretched lazily on the comfortable bed. She felt as if she had awoken from a strange but delightful dream.
Sitting up, Emma covered her face and then slowly slid her hands to the back of her head before she jumped off the bed and rushed over to the bathroom.
It was ten in the morning when she was passing through the corridor; she did not appear to have any remembrance of what had happened after that night when she had gotten to bed. The only piece of memory present in Emma's mind was that of a strange dream.
As she passed by the laboratory, Emma suddenly stopped. Seeing a small blue gem placed carefully on a pyramid-shaped surface, she decided to walk over to it. This was the stone they had gotten for Adam a couple of days ago. Taking it in her hands, she observed it and brushed her right thumb on its smooth blue surface. Raising it in front of her face she moved it to the left so it would take in some of the artificial light. Emma smiled. This stone seemed ordinary to her. Placing it down on its surface, she sighed and turned around to walk out of the laboratory.
When she reached upstairs, Emma slowed down her pace. She saw Jesse sitting on the table with Shalimar across, both enjoying a nice meal and at the beginning of the table stood Brennan, explaining something to them.
Seeing her friend there, the mere site had affected the beating of her heart. "What's happening?" she swallowed as the Psionic asked herself. Slowly she moved her blue eyes over to the other two mutants but as if there was some gravitational force pulling them back, they quickly returned to Brennan; he was now smiling. That smile, the gentle movement of those lips, the gestures which he made with his hands - all of that struck a familiar cord in Emma's mind. The argument that was there the previous night was now absent from her memory; she suddenly felt softened by his presence.
Something, some foreign memory caused her to touch her lower lip and slowly move her hand to her neck as she swallowed once more. Why did she feel like this? What had happened to her? Emma had no knowledge of the realities she might have experienced before she woke up to this sunny morning; even if she had a memory of it, the Psionic would have only kept questioning herself of the reality of such travel… was it a dream? Did something as strange as that truly occur?
Turning her head, Emma glanced through the window and how the sun had set itself free from the shield of dark clouds. Returning her gaze to her friends, to Brennan, she took a deep breath and slowly moved over to them; her heart was calling her to him.
"Oh, good morning, you." Shalimar smiled when she noticed her friend.
"Hey… Shal," Emma briefly lifted her hand with a still wave while her eyes took only a glimpse of the Feral and Molecular. She had quickly returned her blues with the desire to look at Brennan and her heart nearly sank into the chocolaty color of his gaze when he looked back at her.
"Someone's finally up," he spoke with a soft and pleased voice.
Emma remembered that tone from somewhere unfamiliar to her; she had of course heard the Elemental with that tone but it had been not as often as she had hoped… but this time that tone had reminded her of something different. She then saw his smile… it was sincere and beautiful.
She approached him until she stood merely an inch from the Elemental.
"Em?" he called her.
She sensed nothing of last night from him, but then of course they rarely took such arguments as serious. Not saying anything, Emma simply raised herself and touched his lips in a deep, passionate way.
More than astonished by this action, Brennan's eyes had widened as he gazed at the closeness of her skin and felt the smell of strawberry. He wanted to break away from her and laugh but he couldn't, there was something inside the invisible sense of her kiss that prevented him from taking any other action except allow Emma to place her hands gently on his shoulders. Accepting her, Brennan responded with the gentle touch of his hands on her hips.
Stopping with their meal, Jesse and Shalimar only stared at the two mutants embraced in each other, while small cracks of giggles eventually escaped the Feral and Molecular's mouths. "Um, guys?" Jesse called them.
Tasting each other's lips, Emma and Brennan had remained in that position for a while longer before Emma slowly parted from the Elemental's embrace, leaving Brennan to stare back at her in amazement.
Taking a moment to recover from this, Brennan let out a tiny smile. "Em… what was that… for?"
Emma shook her head. Those lips, they tasted exactly as she had remembered them. But from where? She never kissed Brennan like that. Feeling the need, once more the Psionic rushed to him and took his lips with hers. She felt Brennan allowing this action that took a shorter amount of time than the previous one. The temperature in Emma's body rose higher with every taste and kept that pace until she felt she was going to explode so she broke free again. Taking in air, she then replied: "I needed to know, I don't know from where I just needed to know."
"What?" Brennan felt confused. "Know what?"
"You," she responded and wrapped her arms tightly around his neck, hugging him with the love she felt for him as a friend, or perhaps more. But as a friend she knew she adored him. "Thank you for being there," she whispered and slowly felt his strong arms wrap around her small body, working like a drug on her, causing her blue eyes to slowly close.
A strange feeling had wrapped around these two souls as if a sudden discovery of a life longer than this had appeared, pushing them closer to each other – both hearts and minds.
THE END
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I hope you have enjoyed the story. Your opinions are as always welcomed and very helpful as well.
From my first story I read that some wanted an exploration of the Shalimar and Jesse relationship which is nice to know. Perhaps another story will follow. Thank you :o)