Nova's Dawning
Chapter 21

Wednesday, I stayed in bed most of the day. I was starting to feel overwhelmed with fear and it was as if the universe was building up to something horrible. I meditated a lot and used a bunch of calming techniques, but nothing was helping. Bee stopped in for a few minutes and she used her blue light on my nerves. After that my brain calmed down and I could breathe easily. That kind of panic attack mode was unusual for me unless a vision was on the way, and even though Osiris didn’t leave me alone, I could tell that it made him uncomfortable.

“I’m sorry.” I said after Bee had left…

“For what? You can’t help it. Something is happening, and as an empath you’re open to all the channels of the universe, isn’t that what Michy said?” He kissed my forehead.

“Well yeah, but I can also tell you’re uncomfortable.”

He shook his head slowly. “Star, my only concern is that when this starts to unravel, when the bad things come to fruition, I won’t be able to help you...”

I nodded, knowing that if anything was true in this world it was that he wanted to protect me and love me. “I appreciate your concern honey, but I’m just as concerned about you. I don’t know what I would do if you got hurt.”

He hugged me tight. “Well hopefully fate unravels the way we want it, and neither of us will have to worry about the other.”

The rest of the day I spent with our friends.

Thea was genuinely happy again. She was explaining to us how Selene had shown her this beautiful place about an hour out. She described it as a greenhouse in the middle of an iceberg. It was a place where a lot of the greenery was still alive and vivid, but if you looked around you could see the frozen lakes and snow-covered hills.

“After that we also went around to different arcades in that area. Also... Big news here. After the cruise, and we schedule some time she wants to take me on a retreat to a cabin in Vancouver. They’ve got these really awesome arcades and gaming bars.”

Sam, Mo, and Jack were completely intrigued, and I sat back and enjoyed the atmosphere. Surrounded by my loved ones I felt safe and secure as if my mood this morning had never happened in the first place.

“Star?” Sam asked. “You okay?”

I nodded quickly. “It’s been a long day, and I’m just... enjoying the moment.” My friends smiled at me and I jumped into the conversation they were having on whether or not Mo’s surprise would be worth it.

“I’m telling you it’s going to be amazing.” said Jack.

“Suuuuure it is, and I’m sure that pigs are going to fly right through the stage.” replied Sam.

“Well anything could happen during this talent show.” Thea said in a sing-song voice.

“Well, you’re not wrong.” I said, and we all laughed.

We all got pizza that night and played games. We had a couple glasses of wine, and the semblance of having a normal life again started to fill the air. Each of us were excited and filled with energy. Nothing was floating or being pumped with thousands of watts of electricity. It wasn’t quiet, because we were a loud group of friends, but we were happy and content.

We went to sleep, and, in the morning, we carpooled to class. Our happy mood from the previous night had been replaced with anxious thoughts and the jitters. We all were lined up outside the door and the first person was already inside having their one on one with Mrs. Campbell. We sat in the very back, not wanting to go through this experience again with Thea the last one in line. She was texting on her phone, probably to Selene, who was hopefully doing the same as we were; giving her words of love and support. Each meeting was only taking fifteen minutes, and when the students were dismissed it didn’t seem like they were upset, but I wasn’t trying to watch them too closely. I was the last one in front of Thea, Osiris was in front of me, and Bee was in front of him.

Soon the line started to hit our friends, and it was as if everything was fast forwarded. Finally, it was my turn. I gave Thea an encouraging nod, and then I headed in the room, ready to be chastised. I sat in the chair across from her at her desk, and my paper was there right in front of her. No notes written on it.

“Welcome Starlite. Now, let’s get down to business. Your paper was probably one of the best I’ve ever read throughout the years. It was very well executed and written in the correct format with very few errors.”

I sat there, in shock. “Uh, well, thank you. I really appreci-”

“However, your content was, well interesting to say the least. It seemed like you were taking a personal vendetta against the faculty here.”

I started to sweat and I felt myself go pale. “No, it’s not like that at all!”

“But I think it’s good to tell you the truth, of what happened...” She got up and moved to the other corner of the room, where she sat where I usually did. “I used to sit right here, when the Dean and I were students together... She was probably my best friend even though I wasn’t hers. I loved her like a sister. In fact, back then, we learned everything. I do believe I owe young Thea an apology since I knew that there were risks, but the Dean assured me that your class would make a good trial run for this assignment. This is the first time a class has tried anything like this. Typically, we just teach you the full story from the beginning and have you write a paper. The real story says that during the battle Eris sacrificed herself to save Nova, and Nova killed their mother out of grief. However, she tried to save her sister’s life, but instead of saving her life, she distributed her many powers to the students that had offered to help during the battle. It wasn’t intentional, but it happened. Her sister lost her life in the end, but her spirit wanted more. She thought getting rid of the students with powers would set her free, but the living sister didn’t want to go around killing innocent people. Nova felt it was her responsibility to teach her friends how to use their gifts. So, with the help of all of the students she exorcised her sister’s evil spirit and forced her into the light... Or so she thought.”

It was a dark tale, one of betrayal that blurred the lines of right and wrong. She had been staring at the wall the whole time.

“And the Dean’s part in all this?” I was on the edge of my seat, not sure of what else to say.

“You see, in our year there was a girl, probably Thea’s distant aunt or something, someone who could see ghosts... She became possessed and completely taken over by Eris, due to her interactions with her. She hurt a lot of people, and almost killed the man she loved, but the Dean who was just weeks away from graduating intervened. She formed a group together to ban the spirit from this world, but the spirit killed her host in the process. Everyone else celebrated, but the Dean mourned, because that had been her roommate and best friend at the time.”

I sat there for a moment, shocked. “Well... why doesn’t anyone know about Eris’s spirit?”

She looked back at me. “To be honest with you, everyone else is getting the lesson and was warned, but this exact class is the only one not being taught that, and I think it’s even funnier that most of you figured it out anyway. Eris usually only shows up when we have a Seeing One, and I brought that up when the Dean told me not to teach it, but she said it would be fine... That maybe if the subject was taught a different way that Eris wouldn’t be powerful enough to break completely free.”

“So, the Dean told you not to teach it to my class specifically?” I was more confused than ever.

“She told me not to teach it to this class and she looked at me more serious than ever before and said, ‘It could be life or death.’ It made my skin crawl so I just didn’t. Between you and me, after Thea’s episode I was sure she was right, but I’m not so sure anymore... I just... It’s complicated. We don’t want a repeat of what happened before, and I think you would have to agree it was probably because of Thea. Anyway, overall your paper was good, and you got an A. Any more questions for me?”

I sat there for a second trying to let everything sink in. “Uh, yeah. I guess I’m done.” I got up, took my graded paper, and I walked out the door. Thea was there with pleading eyes and as I looked at her, I gave her a thumb’s up. She relaxed and smiled at me. I headed off to meet with the others so we could get dinner together. We grouped up in the lobby and the others were already discussing their meetings. Some of them didn’t get very good grades due to format and grammar errors, but the meetings overall went well. Thea joined us shortly and she seemed very pleased, as we all were.

As we ate our Mexican food, I filled them in on the truth.

“It still doesn’t make a lot of sense on why she taught the actual history to all the other classes too though, like why us?” Sam said shoving tortilla chips in her face. Thea did not look pleased. The question hung unanswered as we finished our meal. Soon after we went our separate ways.

Michy was once again her typical ballerina self where she danced through the house and on top of coffee tables. I got in and settled on my favorite coffee table, with a cup of coffee.

“They say it’s not good to drink coffee after six,” Michy said, “but who cares.” We sipped at our coffee and finally I closed my eyes and began to meditate.

“Star. I just wanted to say that I’m really proud of you. You’ve really accomplished a lot... I’m kind of sad we only have two more sessions until the break.”

I smiled at her and closed my eyes again, concentrating hard. I slipped into my meditation and then I heard a laugh, but I lost it. Michy gave me some of her energy replenish tea, and I let myself feel the liquid pour down my throat and spread into each of my limbs.

I slipped back into meditation and I chanted strongly, “Goddesses of love and life, Gods of the Sun and Moon, open the gate to future to me. As you will so mote it be.” I fell into the darkness and I wandered around in the dark for what felt like forever. I could hear sounds, crying, to be exact. I started to pick up the pace, because there seemed to be multiple people sobbing, and for some reason I couldn’t stop thinking about that one vision, where metal crunched on metal and people were screaming.

I ran as fast as my thick legs would let me and I finally started to reach light. I burst through the door, and I couldn’t see anyone but the future me. There were a few of us sitting there, but I couldn’t make out what was happening, except for everyone crying. Future me got up and started to walk away from the group. I wanted to stay and see what was going on, but I followed me instead. Future me stumbled down the hallway overflowing with tears and giving out small cries. I passed a lot of people, but I couldn’t make out any faces, except for one. When we passed her, she turned her head and began to follow us.

Future me was unaware, but I couldn’t stop glancing back, wondering what was going on. We headed into the stairwell which had no cameras, and no one else was there. No one was there to watch as the Dean snuck up behind future me and pulled out a gun. Future me heard the click and stopped sniffling. I watched as the dean raised the gun to my head.

“You won’t get away with this.”

“I know, but this way your soul can’t hurt anyone again.” The Dean said, a hatred in her voice.

“How does this fix anything?” I said through my tear streaked face.

“I don’t know yet.” and she pulled the trigger.

I screamed and I started to kick and flail in real life. I screamed and I screamed and I don’t remember calming down, or leaving Michy’s and Osiris taking me home, but it apparently happened, because when I woke up, I was in Osiris’s bed.

The room was empty besides me and I could hear talking from the other room.

“She was screaming and flailing, and whatever she saw could change, but... I don’t think so.” said Osiris.

“I hope she’s okay.” said Thea.

I got out of bed, not wanting to be talked about, and headed out there to them. My friends looked concerned and worried.

“Star.” Sam said, and she hugged me, without even being prompted. It made me tear up a little bit, and I remembered the sound of the gun clicking and I cried harder, falling into my friend’s small frame. They all hugged me tight until I was breathing easy again.

“Star... What did you see?” Mowgli was the one who got enough courage to ask me and I grimaced.

“I saw... me... and the Dean...” Tears welled up in my eyes again, but I forced them down, knowing that I needed to tell them my vision. “She... killed me.”

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