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Hello lovelies! Just wanted to give a quick shoutout to everyone who's been reading so far. I wasn't sure what to expect when I started publishing this story, but it's been a long time coming and I'm grateful to every single reader who's clicked on it so far! I know I don't have a ton of reads compared to some other authors on here, but it still means a lot so thank you!! ❤😘😘
Please remember to comment and vote, and as always I'm here if you wanna shoot me a message-- I would really love to hear what you think!
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-Nora-
As much as I miss the comfort of my own homey studio apartment, I can't deny the obvious effort the CIA has put into arranging my new accommodations. The headquarters facility itself doesn't exactly scream "comfort", and I wasn't really expecting much in the way of living arrangements, but they graciously set me up in a furnished modern townhouse near the building with fully-stocked cabinets, amenities, and an ample fridge full of food.
It's more than I had dared hope for, and it's far nicer than the apartment I left behind. Putting the messy, hectic day behind me I allow myself the luxury of a preparing a nice hot bath. I refuse to dwell on mysterious prophesies and the pressure of mastering time until tomorrow. It's honestly just all too much to process right now. It's much easier to focus on the basics of my new reality, and maybe I'll slowly work my way up to it.
There are so many new rules to learn, names and faces to memorize, and basic elements of my new routine to familiarize myself with. Even without the supernatural side of things, my new life would be overwhelming.
Before leaving headquarters, I picked up a tentative itinerary for the days to come. The supernatural division representative won't be arriving for another day, so tomorrow I will be learning protocol and training in the gym with Kent. I have a lot to learn if I plan to survive past my first field operation, and I can't say an extra magic free day doesn't feel like a relief.
I've never been in a fist fight or shot a gun, nor have I ever wanted to. Just hearing that gun go off earlier was terrifying to my very core. It really shook me, and to think that I might have to be pulling a trigger like that tomorrow sends an unpleasant shuddering sensation down my spine.
I may not know a ton about this spy-thing, but I know that guns are pretty much always involved in the training process. It's part of the territory. I have nothing against people who like to visit shooting ranges or people who feel safer with a gun in the house, but that's just never been who I am.
The self defense lessons, however, I can definitely get behind. This entire ordeal has raised so many new questions, but the one thing I know for sure right now without a shadow of a doubt is that I need to learn to protect myself. Even if I don't want to use a gun, I need to sharpen my instincts and learn to throw off any would-be attackers. It sounds like there will be a lot of those headed my way...
I think I can rely on Kent and my future team to do their best to protect me, but Kent was right when he said he sensed my distrust in him. Maybe that will change, but right now the one and only person I can trust is myself. Even Pablo isn't who I thought he was. My whole life feels like a lie.
I have to be a whole new person now, and first and foremost that person has to be strong.
Kent made sure I was well fed and guided me personally to the driver who would escort me home. He really is taking this 'handler' thing seriously, and if he wasn't so jaw-droppingly divine looking it would maybe even strike me as a little creepy.
The large porcelain jacuzzi tub finally fills up to the brim with steaming water, and I slowly lower myself into its soothing depths. Letting the water revitalize my senses, I indulge my mind by allowing it drift to that brief moment with Kent in the hospital wing. Nothing illicit happened, but would that change later on? Would my body betray me and act on those indescribable lustful sensations he instills in me? The fiery look in his eyes was almost animalistic. I didn't know he had that much passion in him, but it was clear as day, just lurking beneath the surface.
It's like he was so controlled and composed from the moment we met, and then suddenly, he wasn't. Is this just another side to him that I hadn't experienced in our short time knowing one another, or does he feel this infuriating need the same way that I do?
It would be so much easier if he didn't. We would be fools to make this situation any more complicated than it is, and I am obviously not in the right mental headspace to get physically or emotionally involved.
As I finish up my nighttime routine, I say a silent thank you to whoever provided me with pajamas and other essential clothing items. Not only are they the perfect size, but they are a welcome sight considering that all I had after the getaway were the clothes on my back.
Pulling on a silky-soft pajama set, and slipping into a cozy pair of slippers, I trail sleepily into the bedroom. Curling up in my soft, warm, brand-new bed I finally allow myself to drift off into a peaceful, much needed slumber.
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I'm once again greeted by purple sands, only this time they are less insistent, moving softly and with little urgency. The purple-eyed boy is nowhere to be seen, but I can feel his presence throughout the surrounding mists.
Lately my dreams have been getting stranger. Less randomized and more focused. Whoever the boy is, he seems to be stepping in, much like a teacher, and guiding me to the specific things he wants me to see.
His magical voice permeates the air, as if from nowhere, and yet simultaneously from everywhere.
"Let me show you, my child."
The scene around me shifts, overtaken by a brilliant white light. The purple sands have receded to the far corners of my surroundings, and in their place is an enrapturing whirling mass of glowing white sands. They trickle through my line of sight, weaving delicate patterns nimbly in thin air before me. Their beauty is remarkable, unparalleled, as they dance before my eyes. Gently, tendrils begin to wind themselves into intricate loops around me, finally making contact with my dumbfounded form as they circle up and around my arms.
The moment they reach my skin, something within me noticeably shifts. I feel a humming frequency building within my very soul, warming me like a familiar caress as it expands outward, capturing every inch of me. As it builds in strength, the humming reaches its desired capacity and my world is dissolved into a blinding display of powerful light. I feel a reassuring impulse traveling through me, and its presence feels unbelievably new, and yet achingly familiar all at once.
I am floating, hovering above ground, but I do not feel fear. The mysterious force lifts me gently, and I somehow know that the sands will not drop me. As if guiding me, I can feel the sands softly urging me forward, into the depths of their sentient consciousness. I follow their lead, letting them guide me into the heart of time itself.
The moment I comply, I am stunned to see images, memories, flashing before me one by one. They flit across the sands, which swirl in every direction around me and yet somehow aren't the least bit frightening.
In my last dream, I thought the purple vortex of sands were attacking me, but I see now that they weren't. It's suddenly clear that my presence has nothing to do with their movements, unless I actively insert myself into them. It's also finally dawned on me that the swirling is not arbitrary, but a means to fluidly connect every single moment in time to the next. What I am witnessing are the mechanics of the butterfly effect in action. Every millisecond in time is so beautifully connected by strands of glowing sand to every other moment that ever was and will be. It's a constant flowing cycle.
The entire expanse of movement around me glows bright white, and as the bits and pieces of lives flash before me I wonder if this is what heaven would look like. Perhaps from the perspective of a guardian angel--constantly watching over the living, waiting in the wings.
The windows move rapidly, appearing and disappearing like projected hologram screens on a never-ending loop. Their spectrum suddenly narrows, and the speed seems to slow, catering to some unspoken command. It doesn't take me long to recognize that these new flashes are my memories. Snippets of my past lives.
Flashes of two women, one blonde and one with ebony hair, play before me one by one, and I watch in wonder as they grow up over and over, right before my eyes. I recognize Teegan instantly, but the other I have not seen yet in this lifetime. Then, it hits me--- Harlow. The third sister is named Harlow.
Excitement fizzles through me, filling me up, as the first few pieces of the puzzle start to interlock. Trying to focus, to seek specific details that can aid in my journey ahead, I soak up every nuance and piece of knowledge I can, before I am once again brought out of time's network.
The images begin to fade, the glorious network around me recedes, and to my great disappointment the luminous sands unwind themselves and begin their retreat. I am slowly lowered back to solid footing, and I feel hollow. It's as though the bright white sands somehow completed me, and after knowing such wholeness, their retreat has left me feeling like a part of me is missing.
Purple mists and flowing sands trickle in to fill the resulting void. Just as I feel myself begin to wake, a voice returns to me.
"Remember.. remember who you are.."
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"Who are you, though?!"
By the time the question leaves my lips I'm awake, having yelled the words to no one but myself, and my empty new townhouse.
I am fully prepared to sit here in bed and stew in my frustration, but something else takes hold of me. Shock and wonder manifest in the form of a small gasp, and the memories all come flooding back. Not all, just all that I witnessed last night. That moment inside of time (Or was I outside of time? Who knows..) left me, somehow, with a photographic knowledge of all that I saw. Almost as though it was uploaded right into my brain. Like those curled tendrils around my arms plugged into my memory and filled it up.
It's incredible.
...
....I can smell chai tea roasting in our familiar cottage, and hear Harlow's wild raspy laughter as she mercilessly teases Teegan for her "prudish sensibilities". Teegan flushes dramatically and clutches her latest stray, a kitten, closer to her chest.
"He was a brute and he wanted nothing respectable from me so don't even start! Make her stop, Elia, please?" She pouts, and gives me a pleading look...
...
"Elia?" I whisper softly to myself and snap out of the memory.
I hadn't really thought about it, but it makes sense that throughout time we may not have had the same names as we do now. This is just so weird..
My heart aches for my missing sisters. I'd give anything to be with them, now knowing just what it is that I've lost.
Last night, I wanted nothing but to avoid the supernatural specialist, but now... now I want nothing more than to meet with whoever, and to do whatever I need to do to find the only people who can fill this hole in my heart. Sitting here and living in memories of the past might be nice in the moment, but I know there's only one way to make any actual progress.
I've got to go to work.