11:11

Oftentimes people say that when you suddenly see the same oddly specific thing, word or a sequence of numbers it’s either a sign or your subconscious playing tricks on you. It could be both of those things or neither but Jamie was getting tired of constantly seeing the number 111 or 11:11 wherever she went. It annoyed her in such an absurd way that she laughed at herself for letting a number bother her. The number was everywhere though, on the clocks, price tags, license plates of cars, page numbers and she even saw a girl on the street with the number tattooed on the base of her neck. It was getting absurd and Jamie felt as if she tried anything to stop seeing the number, she tried tricking her mind into ignoring it, tried to stop herself when she suddenly felt the urge to look to a certain spot because she knew that most likely the number was there but curiosity took the best of her and she usually looked anyway. She was a sceptic but she didn’t laugh at people who believed in spirituality, signs from the universe and tarot, however, she felt the need to start believing that maybe there was something more to this whole number seeing shenanigans because it all started after allowing her best friend Alex to read her tarot cards.

Alex recently got into the modern practice of witchcraft and bought herself a deck of tarot cards, she was so excited about it that Jamie had to let her practice on her. So they both sat down and Alex began shuffling the deck. After a couple of adjustments and three more shuffles, Alex finally pulled out a single card.

“Oh that’s so exciting!” she said

“What’s exciting?” Jamie asked trying to peak at the card Alex held in her hand. Her friend turned the card around to face her it depicted an angel emerging from the clouds playing the trumpet while looking down at three people. It said XX – The Judgment on the bottom of it and Jamie immediately got confused, what did that have to do with her and why was it exciting? Alex must have noticed her friend’s confusion and begun explaining.

“The Judgment can mean a lot of things but I think for you it means an awakening, a spiritual one.” She said “Especially with the bottom deck energy being the death card” Alex continued flipping the rest of the deck to show the second card to Jamie “Something ends and something new begins, old beliefs die to make way for the new ones” Jamie laughed

“That doesn’t sound very promising”

“Oh no it does actually and I’m curious to see how it happens. With you being a massive sceptic and all” Alex replied putting the deck back into its box.

“I don’t know,” Jamie said picking up a clear and shiny piece of rock that Alex laid out before starting the reading. “How does one exactly go about having a spiritual awakening?” she asked and her friend stared at her with a smirk.

“You get drawn to certain things and see some repeating patterns” Jamie nodded at Alex to continue explaining “You see angel numbers, the ones that come in threes or fours and are attracted to pure energy. Which is clearly happening to you right now,” she said and Jamie paused.

“What?” she asked and Alex pointed to the rock Jamie was absentmindedly playing with.

“That is Angel Aura Quartz, the rock of spirituality and awakenings” she explained laughing and Jamie put the crystal back on the ground shaking off the eery feeling she suddenly had.

“Hate to break it to you but I don’t think I’ll be doing spells with you anytime soon,” she said to her friend who still looked amused, “I think all of that was just a coincidence”

“I don’t think coincidences exist but okay. Also thank you for letting me practice on you” Alex said smiling “Next time we’ll look at your birth chart!” Jamie laughed and shook her head.

Well, she wasn’t laughing now. That was a week ago and since that fateful tarot reading she was haunted by everything angel, spirituality and awakening related. She knew that now because one of those past few days she gave up and decided to look up what 111 exactly meant and according to the internet it meant that one’s manifestations were coming into fruition but it also was a number that was supposed to ‘awaken’ you spiritual side.  The problem wasn’t that she had anything against spirituality it was the fact that she was raised by highly logical and science-focused people, who didn’t believe in God and especially disregarded modern witchcraft as bullshit. Jamie was always fascinated by it and felt drawn to it but her own insecurity and fear of being judged made her push those feelings down and pretend they didn’t exist. And that was what she was trying to do right now, retreat and ignore but it seemed that the universe had a different plan for her this time. It seemed like every possible thing screamed at her to ‘awaken’, see the numbers, and don’t resist it this time because the universe or God or whatever was out there was not about to leave her be this time.

It was a Saturday morning and Jamie was treating herself to a relaxing shopping trip, thinking that some new clothes and books would improve her mood. She visited a couple of stores trying not to look around too much in order to avoid seeing angel numbers or other bullshit like that. It was going well, she got a new dress, a fantasy book and a couple of pretty pens to take with her to lectures when she remembered Alex telling her about a new used book shop being opened not far from the shopping centre, so she set out to find it in hopes of purchasing some pretty vintage copies of her favourites. However, as soon as she started peaking into allies and making turns based purely on her own instinct she got completely lost. The narrow brick alleys all looked the same and she seemed to be walking in circles but persisted nevertheless, determined to buy some pretty books. She walked not really paying attention to her surroundings when suddenly a question presumably being directed at her made her stop. Turning to the side she saw an old man smiling softly at her standing perched on his wooden cane. Jamie smiled back.

“I’m sorry young lady but I forgot my watch today, would you be so kind as to tell me what time it is?” The old man asked sweetly. Jamie immediately reached for her phone and turning it on she started speaking

“It's 11…” and stopped seeing the two numbers next to the eleven.

“It’s 11 what?” the old man inquired; Jamie sighed defeated.

“It’s 11:11 sir” she replied

“Ah! Great a good number.” The man said perking up “A strong and lucky one” Jamie couldn’t help but smile at the man's reaction.

“I guess you may be right,” she said. The man smiled even wider.

“This store,” he said turning to the shop Jamie only just now noticed “Has a lot of books on good numbers and such, If you want to know more” She looked closer at the building and the strange-looking store, looking up at its name she snorted in amusement. It was a mystic and spiritual store called “The White Sparrow”, through the windows Jamie could see shelves full of books, tables filled with candles and tubs of crystals and to be honest she couldn’t ignore the signs any longer.

“Yeah I think I’ll check it out,” she said to the man, nodding at him in farewell she walked to the door and entered the incense smoke-filled store.

If only she turned around to look at the man one more time she could have noticed the satisfied smile on his face and the outline of wings, his shadow moving across the nearby wall as he slowly walked away.