Lucy

Lucy woke up suddenly in the middle of the night, it had been forever since the last time that happened to her. – I thought those nights were over!!! – She shouted almost like crying. She saw a flash of lightning through her window and 5 seconds later, she heard a huge thunder that scared all the pets in the neighborhood, she heard cats and dogs and who knows what, meowing and barking so loud as if they were in her room. But she was more tired than scared, she was an adult now, with responsibilities, and needed the sleep. So, she stood up, pissed, and walked toward her window, ready to open it and shout from the top of her lungs to shut up all the animals. She was so angry that she overlooked the absence of rain sound. She finally opened the window and to her surprise, there was no rain, no houses close by, no lightning, no thunder, no animals, no sound. – What is happening? – She thought to herself as she turned around to go back to her bed. She started walking through the wood floor, each step making a horrible sound, more than the other. She was so close to her bed, almost reaching the blankets when she noticed something strange, someone was laying in her bed. She ran to the other side of the room, crawling for the switch to turn on the light. She had to press it repeatedly until the light finally turned on. She turned her head towards the bed, and what she saw took her breath away. There it was, a female, mid-thirties, with brown, long, and curly hair, peacefully sleeping. Lucy was petrified as a stone, as she realized it was… yes... it was her. She was seeing herself. – How could that be possible?... how? – She muttered to herself while she slowly crawled back to the switch to turn it on and off multiple times, closing her eyes, crying – not again, not again!!! -  Then she felt a very violent fall and woke up in her sweat. A few rays of sun were reaching her eyes, she could hear birds singing and the old houses from the neighborhood near hers. Everything seems back to normal. – Maybe it was just a dream – She thought.

Lucy went to work as usual; she didn’t tell anyone about the incident or better say her dream, not even her therapist. Yes, Lucy knew better. If people knew she was seeing weird things again, they would luck her up with tons of meds, like last time. But last time she was just a kid, now that she was all grown up, it was different, she was in complete control. Or so she thought. She went back home for dinner. She stood in front of the old house, staring at the attic, at the only window in the attic. – What am I doing? – She asked herself. It will happen again if I keep thinking about it. She entered the house and went straight to the kitchen to start cooking. She was going to treat herself with pasta that evening, and maybe watch a movie later. She was waiting for the water to boil when she felt it again. That rather familiar sense of not being alone, of being watched, a feeling that reminds her of dark and death. – It was just my head, I was sick – She said out loud – It was never real. The water started boiling, but Lucy was so absorbed in her thoughts that she did not notice the little shadows that started to move. – But you do know I am real, right – She heard – What’s the point of waiting for you, almost for an eternity I might add if I didn’t think you’d come back to your senses-. She was hearing these words form inside her head. That couldn’t be possible. She returned to the real world, the water almost gone from evaporation, she looked at the wall clock, almost an hour had passed by. – How strange – She thought, while slowly getting back to that weird stage between being awake and asleep or maybe it was between being alive and death. The truth was that Lucy wasn’t scared at all as a kid, at least not at the beginning, when she started to leave her body to visit surreal places, when she started to see people, if we can call them people, from other times or worlds, people without a pulse, searching for someone who could hear them, who could help them. Even though she tried to bury all that past, Lucy remembered very clearly the day she started to fear what others could not see. It was a summer afternoon, she was on vacation with some friends in the country, and there was not much to do, except walk through the forest. In one of those walks, she and her friends notice that a boy started to follow them, they were teenagers at the time and thought that maybe he had a crush on one of them. Lucy wished it was the case, but when the boy finally reached them and dared to speak, somehow the conversation led to energy, spirits and out-of-body experiences. Lucy remembered having that feeling of being watched by someone else as if the boy wasn’t alone. He went on to say that if you ever have an out-of-body experience, you will be exposed to all good and bad from the spirit world, and some pretty bad beings are always searching for light or energy from humans, so it was very important to “lock” your body before leaving the room, or otherwise someone could enter and possess that body without spirit. Then he talked about all the bad beings and energy he had to fight every night and how afraid he was to go to sleep. It was a very short and “meaningless” encounter but changed everything in Lucy’s life afterward. That day the fear began, and that fear led to the big incident. Many years later, one night, she felt thirsty and went to the kitchen for some water. When she got there, she saw at least 20 people waiting for her. They were all in one line, chatting to each other until they saw her. – Finally, she can see us – Shouted the oldest one – She will help us all. The queue grew bigger and bigger as the news spread. But Lucy wasn’t ready, she was too afraid to talk to them, she politely said, please come back later, when I am not scared. And so, they left. The very next night, she somehow was out of her body seeing herself laying in her bed, and because she was full of fear she tried to think of happy places. Suddenly, as if it was magic, she started to appear in those places, she imagined something and she would have it. She traveled to Egypt and Greece, she was starting to lose fear. After what seemed maybe days or weeks, she decided to get back to her body, she tried to imagine her house and her bed, and she managed to get back, but there was only one bit kind of big problem. Her body was no longer there! She never learned how to “lock” her body and someone had taken it, or so it appeared. She tried to go to the places she normally would, school, movie theatre, and sports courts, but her body was nowhere to be found. She was almost giving up when she saw herself in the street, apparently she had been driving and caused an accident, she, or better said, some being in her body hit another car and injured a little boy that was sitting in the back. She was so confused, she looked at herself in her eyes and asked, who are you? – It had to be done, thank you! – And all of a sudden she was back in her own body, being interrogated by the police, - For the last time, you are only 15 years only, no permit, no grown-up in the car, what were you thinking?!!! you could have killed someone!!! – said the officer. Lucy told the truth, every single detail, and of course, was immediately locked up in a psychiatric facility for some quite time until she admitted her fault. 20 years had passed since that, 20 years without incidents. But there she was, with that same feeling she couldn’t get rid of.

You must remember – She kept hearing, - Remember what? – She finally said. There was no water left in the pot, she turned off the stove and sat on the floor. – remember what? – she asked again. A glass full of water that had been sitting on the table, suddenly fell on the floor and broke into pieces. – Remember you could see us – You need to know the truth-. The light in the whole house started to jingle. – Please go away! – Lucy shouted as she covered her ears and closed her eyes. But this thing or being, or spirit was not giving up. – You are the result of centuries of training, you have a unique ability- she heard – And you must remember.

Lucy didn’t know what to do, if it was happening again, better get rid of it once and for all. So she stood up and said, - ok, show me-. Then, a very old man appeared, he was wearing a white coat and some very old boots, and clothes. You see – he said – I used to be a doctor, I was never around my family, my wife died, and my only son moved out. We were never closed. He started a family which I was never part of. I wanted to tell him how sorry I was and how proud I was of him; I was on my way to tell him but had a heart attack and died on the street. Somehow, I didn’t leave, I was stuck in this world, condemned to watch my son’s life as an outsider, just like when I was alive. He had a son, my grandson, so smart and handsome, but there was something wrong with him. He had a tumor, he had very unspecific symptoms, nothing to alarm his parents, but I knew something was wrong. I tried to reach you several times, I knew you could see me, but you weren’t ready, and my grandson was running out of time, so when you took that trip outside your body I took the chance and borrowed it. I hit their car so they would have to take him to the hospital and get some X-rays. It was better, they got him this new thing we didn’t have back them, something called CT scan for the injuries, and saw the tumor, which saved his life. So, I am here to say thank you. That is all I have being waiting for, and of course sorry to have taken your spiritless body. Now I can cross over. The old man was gone before Lucy could say a word. – What the hell was that? – She thought to herself, while she stood up, only to see her kitchen full of people waiting to talk to her. – Are you ready now? – Asked the oldest as he sat down waiting for her. He smiled and shouted for everyone to listen – She finally is! -. As Lucy sat down in front of him ready to listen to his story.