Peter felt a tug on his gut, almost as if a wind was pushing him from behind, guiding him. He felt certain of the feeling, just as he had been the other times Anuvata had communicated with him.
He followed the urgings and raced across the festival grounds. He saw Sensei Rob materialize out of nowhere and almost ran into him.
"Pete!" Rob greeted with a smile. "Ready for some adventure?"
"I said I wanted a mixture of every soda!" a voice boomed.
Peter turned and saw Jeremy threatening the worker behind a food counter. The man stood head and shoulders above Jeremy, yet somehow he looked scared of the angry, rectangular boy in front of him. Even the crowd was going out of its way to avoid the booth.
Now that Peter's third eye was open, he saw that Jeremy was filled with dark energy. He recognized the same rancid stench he had noticed earlier, too.
"It's not that difficult!" Jeremy berated the man. "I know you're an uneducated, trailer park reject, but you should be able to figure out how to put a little of each kind of soda into one cup!"
"Get to work," Sensei urged Peter with an encouraging slap on his back.
He approached slowly, as if sneaking up on a wild animal.
"Hey, Jeremy," he greeted.
When Jeremy turned, Peter started. His face looked different. His teeth came to points and his eyes were an icy blue. Peter couldn't remember what color they were usually, but he knew they weren't icy blue.
Jeremy screamed a sound that reminded Peter of an elephant trumpeting. Then he turned and started running. Peter was on his heels in a second.
They ran through the crowd until they came to the hammer challenge, the "high striker." Jeremy grabbed the mallet from the game and swung it suddenly at Peter.
Peter punched the air, sending a powerful blast of wind that knocked Jeremy backwards. Jeremy recovered and jumped into the air, covering an unnatural distance. Peter dodged just in time as Jeremy and the mallet crashed into the ground, creating a crater underneath them both.
In an instant, Peter jumped forward and placed his hand against Jeremy's forehead.
"Be swept clean," he said.
The asura howled as it was expelled from Jeremy's body and Peter was pushed backwards by the noise. His feet scraped along the grass.
When he looked up, the asura had formed itself into a gargantuan elephant shape. Peter gulped as he stared up at the towering asura – almost as big as a house.
"We will trample you!" the elephant-asura taunted him. "Then we will drag you and this boy down to the depths of Naraka."
The elephant-asura reared up on its hind legs and blasted a trumpeting sound that shook the earth. Peter rolled out of the way as the elephant-asura's feet came crashing down.
Peter glanced at Jeremy's resting body only a few feet away. He wasn't Jeremy's biggest fan, but he wouldn't let the guy get hurt.
He backed up to lure it away from Jeremy, but he couldn't think of much beyond that. The elephant-asura stomped repeatedly, trying to squash him, and all he could think to do was scuttle backwards.
Then Peter fell and stared up as the elephant-asura foot lifted over him. His mind and body seemed to freeze as he watched the foot hovering above him. Just then, Sensei Rob's green water crested over and crashed onto the asura. Within moments, the dark form had washed away.
Peter breathed a sigh of relief. He felt humiliated that he hadn't been able to stop this asura on his own either, but he was immensely grateful that Sensei had been there.
Rob offered a hand and said, "Remember that they can take any shape. And it might scare or startle you, but their form never affects their power. You could've taken him easily."
"Oh," Peter said, realizing that he had basically fallen for a simple parlor trick.
"And chanting can help focus your thoughts," Sensei reminded him.
"Oh, yeah. That chanting thing," Peter said, feeling increasingly stupid.
"Don't worry," Rob said, reading his face. "This is why you have a mentor. And you kept the victim safe. That's priority number one."
Peter and Rob propped Jeremy up to a more comfortable position, against the wall of a booth. The area had started to become populated again, now that the spiritual threat had evaporated.
"So Jeremy?" Sensei asked. "Is this the Jeremy?"
Peter nodded. "He's also the son of that husband and wife from a few weeks ago."
Sensei made a sympathetic face. "How sad they all must be," he said softly. "Can you imagine the amount of pain that family must live with?"
Peter suddenly felt guilty for every thought of ill will he had had for Jeremy.
The guy can be a jerk, but I guess he's been in pain all these years...
"You think he's been possessed this whole time?" Peter asked.
"Maybe not," Sensei speculated. "They were probably working on him for years, conditioning him. But now there's hope for this guy. One good influence can make all the difference." Rob eyed Peter emphatically.
"Me?" Peter laughed. "Yeah, right. I mean, I'd love to help the guy, but he hates me with a passion."
Sensei shrugged. "If not you, we can only hope there's someone who will help him."
"You really think he could change?"
Rob nodded. "The Buddha said, 'Hatred does not cease by hatred, but only by love. This is the eternal rule'."
The thought weighed on Peter. It was nearly impossible to even imagine loving Jeremy.
"Well, I have to get back to a date with a lovely woman," Rob said with a smirk. "Have a good night." Then he disappeared.
Peter looked down at Jeremy and wondered how he could even start to like the guy.
***
Peter returned to the picnic tables to find Zahid, his brothers, and Yara waiting for him. He braced himself for Zahid's anger.
"You owe me," Zahid grumbled. "She played with my hair."
He said it like it was the cruelest, most sadistic form of torture.
"I really am sorry," Peter said.
"Why do you not like Big Sister Gina?" Yara asked innocently.
Peter raised his eyebrows.
"'Big Sister Gina?'" Hassan repeated.
He and Ahmed started playfully punching their big brother while laughing.
Zahid groaned, "Please don't call her that, Yara." Then he explained to Peter, "They hit it off big time."
"She was nice," Yara said. "Why don't you like her?"
"American girls are just a little more bold than I'm comfortable with," Zahid explained to Yara. "Remember back in Syria how boys and girls don't touch in public? It's different here and I'm not used to it. Speaking of bold girls," he turned to Peter, "are you going to ask Alicia out?"
"What? No." Peter laughed. "Alicia wouldn't ever look my way."
Yara asked, "Is that the one Gina said likes Peter?"
"Gina said that?" Peter asked quickly. "Was she serious?"
"Peter..." Zahid shook his head. "I love you like a brother, but you're an idiot."
"Why does everyone keep calling me that?" he complained.
"And you will let me use your bike for a week," Zahid demanded, "to make up for leaving me alone with Gina."
"A bike!" Ahmed exclaimed. "Can we use it, too?"
Peter laughed. "You can have the bike for the rest of the summer."
Hassan's mouth dropped. "Can you leave my brother alone with that girl more often?"
***
"Move that one a little to the left," Sensei instructed as he and Peter placed rocks in a clearing, spelling out the words, "Will you marry me?" so as to be seen from the top of a nearby hill.
"Man, I can't believe I'm going to spend the rest of my life with someone so amazing."
"Save it for the proposal," Peter teased. "But hey, is she becoming a worldly attachment?" He meant it as a joke, but part of him was truly curious. "I thought the more attached you are to something in this life, the more it can cause you suffering."
Rob set a rock in place and massaged his recently injured hand.
"There is a significant danger," he admitted. "She could easily make me suffer by ceasing to love me. But there's a spectrum to love. When I think of how she makes me feel, it's self-centered. It's loving her for the sake of myself. When I think like that, she's an attachment and love becomes lust."
"Isn't that what love is?" Peter asked.
"No." Rob shook his head. "Love – real love – is supposed to be selfless. The Buddha said, 'To support mother and father, to cherish partner and children, and to be engaged in peaceful occupation – this is the greatest blessing.' If I focus on helping Charlie be happy or virtuous, if I focus on what's best for her, then that's a love that transforms and enlightens. That kind of other-centered love, no matter who it's directed at, is a love that makes us into better people."
"So is that what your love for her is?" Peter challenged him. "All pure and perfect?"
Rob laughed as he straightened a few rocks with his foot. "No. Not at all. I struggle moment to moment choosing to have the right love for her. But that's everything in Buddhism. It's all about the present moment. We can become great monsters or great gurus with every choice we make. No, my love is not pure. But I want to spend the rest of my life trying to get it there."
Peter thought of his crush on Alicia. If he was being honest with himself, he really liked how she made him feel. When she wasn't angry with him and calling him an idiot.
"How do you make sure your love is selfless?" he asked Rob.
Rob stretched his back, causing it to pop.
"My personal trick is that I take it to meditation all the time," he said. "I run through scenarios to prepare my reactions. I think of what would happen if she decided to love another guy or if I lost her. If I'm thinking of myself, those thoughts are unbearable. If I'm thinking of her, then I can choose to let her go if it's what she really wants."
SHOOOSH!
A gentle breeze tickled Peter's ears. In a flash, a vision danced before his eyes of a cabin in the middle of the woods.
At the same time, Sensei Rob was overtaken by a massive shiver down his spine.
"Looks like someone needs us," he said.
He slapped Peter on the shoulder and transported them both outside the same cabin from Peter's vision. When no one answered their knock, they stepped inside.
The interior was clean and organized, decorated with rustic colors, animal hide rugs, and creature bones everywhere. It would have appeared to be like any other cabin, but Peter could feel the chill in the air. He moved slowly and carefully, afraid that something would jump out at him at any second.
They searched the house slowly, the floorboards creaking eerily beneath their feet.
"Hello," Sensei called out, but received no answer.
Following a tug at his gut, Peter opened the fridge in the small kitchen area and nearly jumped at the sight.
"Geeze," he exclaimed. "That is beyond..."
He struggled to find a word powerful enough.
"What is it?" Rob asked, looking over his shoulder.
There, resting casually on the shelves, were individual human body parts, wrapped in plastic wrap. Peter was crestfallen when he noticed how small the body parts were. He could almost hear the cries and screams of children in his head as he stood there, frozen.
His eyes burned with unshed tears for the young victims. He wished he could return to a time when he didn't know such a horrendous act was even possible.
"Rakshasas," Sensei hissed with disgust. "Every culture has stories of a creature that lives in the woods and demands human sacrifices or eats wayward children."
"That really happens?" Peter asked, wishing it weren't true.
They heard a muffled sob and raced towards its direction. They came to a door and Sensei threw it open to reveal a man.
He was a burly, outdoorsy man with a big beard and belly who had paused on the steps from the basement, mid-reach for the doorknob.
Peter noticed a jagged knife in the man's other hand, the tip of which had a smear of red. The man smiled darkly at his two house guests and brought the knife to his mouth, licking the blood off with a quick, snake-like flick of his tongue.
Sensei Rob performed a rapid succession of moves that tore the knife from the man's hand and threw it across the room. Peter sprang to secure it while Sensei Rob fought the man.
As soon as Peter grasped the knife, it sent a paralyzing shudder through his body. He was overwhelmed by visions of hurting people, cutting them up, eating their flesh, and drinking their blood. And in all the visions, he had a smile on his face.
He nearly dropped the knife in repulsion. The visions sent an icy wind throughout his veins, freezing him to his marrow.
In his gut, Peter simply knew:
"It's the knife!" he yelled to Rob. "The spirit is in the knife!"
With a nasty snarl, the possessed man ran straight for Peter.
With a swipe of his free hand, Peter sent a thin slice of air that pushed the man backwards and into a wall.
Sensei cried out, "The Metta Sutta!"
It was a long recitation that Peter had memorized over the months, at Rob's command.
"This is what should be done by one who is skilled in goodness, and who seeks the path of peace..."
The man fought through the attacks and tackled Peter, shoving him into a wall. The knife flew from his grasp.
"Just one taste of blood and flesh and you'll know," the rakshasa whispered in Peter's ear. "You'll like it. It tastes like power."
Peter was only disgusted.
He employed all his mental energy to focus on thoughts of loving-kindness. He inhaled deeply, then blew outward with a force that sent the man flying backwards.
"Let none deceive another," Rob and Peter continued the Sutta, "or despise any being in any state. Let none through anger or ill-will wish harm upon another."
The man howled, holding his head as if in excruciating pain.
Peter wondered what was causing the man such pain, then he saw Sensei Rob holding the knife, hand in front of his mouth in prayer.
"...with a boundless heart should one cherish all living beings; Radiating kindness over the entire world."
The man writhed on the floor and Sensei proclaimed:
"May you be washed clean."
The man finally collapsed, unconscious.
Peter marveled, yet again, at how the air in the cabin changed. Now it grew warmer, calmer, and peaceful.
"The rakshasa was in the knife?" Peter asked. "They can do that?"
"They can influence any items," Sensei explained. "And those that come in contact with the items. This should be clean now," he said, holding up the knife, "but just in case, we'll purify it back at the studio and destroy it."
"Shouldn't we leave it for the police to find?" Peter questioned.
Sensei shook his head emphatically. "These things have a way of returning to people or finding new victims," he warned. "You have to destroy them in a thorough way. I'll teach you when we get back."
Peter then started for the basement door when Sensei held him back.
"You heard that sound," Peter reminded him. "Someone's down there."
Rob sighed heavily. "That's for the cops to sort out."
"But..."
Peter felt tortured over the decision. It made sense that they shouldn't tamper with evidence unless they had to – like with the knife – but he could only imagine how terrified and hurt the child was.
"Geez, that's just not playing fair," Peter complained.
"I know," Sensei agreed. "But we can watch from a safe distance to make sure the victim is safe, if it'll make you feel better."
After making a call from the house phone, they watched, hidden behind trees, as the police and medics wheeled a small boy into an ambulance.
Then Rob and Peter left the scene to return to their project with the rocks, although this time they worked in a somber silence.
"So why the Metta Sutta?" Peter asked after a while. "It's so long."
"And it's powerful," Rob told him. "One day, the Buddha's monks were scared by a group of demons in the woods and the Buddha gave them that sutta to chant. It calmed not only the monks, but the spirits, as well. Now, monks use it all the time for regular practice and for exorcisms."
When they finished, while Rod was obviously fantasizing about his plans, Peter couldn't help but think of the traumatized boy, rescued from the basement of the cabin.
"Geez. How can you even think of something like proposing after a fight like that?" Peter asked, feeling the knots of pity in his stomach.
Rob's mood grew serious.
"I think you have to," he said. "After witnessing such darkness, you need to focus on all that is right, pure, and beautiful. Otherwise..."
He paused, staring off into the trees for a moment.
"For years, I fought these beings and it felt like they were chipping away at my soul," he said. "I'd force myself to chant after each encounter, to focus on something good, but it always felt like a fight. But now, after falling in love with Charlene, it's so easy to focus on her. Love really is powerful. It changes everything."
***
A few days later, Peter entered the dojo to see Sensei Charlie showing off her ring to a few moms while they all congratulated her.
"She said yes?" Peter asked Sensei Rob.
Rob's smile looked like it would split his face.
"She said yes," he said.
"Are you going to start calling her Charlie now?"
Rob took in a deep breath, his eyes still fixed on her, and replied, "Never."
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