{"id":287,"date":"2011-06-08T00:00:11","date_gmt":"2011-06-08T04:00:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/awakenings.embklitzke.com\/?p=287"},"modified":"2011-06-08T00:00:11","modified_gmt":"2011-06-08T04:00:11","slug":"287","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/awakenings.embklitzke.com\/?p=287","title":{"rendered":"Day 1 – Chapter 6 – Marin – 04"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u201cHow is he, Marin?\u201d<\/em>
\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 I sniffled, swiping my sleeve across my eyes.\u00a0 \u201cNot good.\u00a0 Still not listening.\u00a0 I just\u2026I can\u2019t\u2026\u201d<\/em>
\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Carolyn wrapped her arms around me and hugged me gently, kneeling behind me on the ground.\u00a0 \u201cHe\u2019s too stubborn for his own good sometimes.\u00a0 He\u2019ll be okay, though.\u00a0 You know that he has to be.\u201d<\/em>
\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 I shook my head a little, leaning back against her, hugging her arms.\u00a0 \u201cI don\u2019t know if he will be this time, Carolyn.\u00a0 Not if I can\u2019t make him listen.\u00a0 Not if I can\u2019t convince him to stop denying\u2026\u201d<\/em>\u00a0 What if I\u2019m wrong?\u00a0 What if I was just imagining\u2026
\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u201cYou\u2019ll find a way, Mar.\u00a0 He\u2019s not going to give in and just die, is he?\u201d\u00a0 She looked at me seriously.\u00a0 \u201cYou\u2019ll make him realize that it\u2019s real.\u00a0 Most of the rest of us believe it, now, have seen it.\u00a0 But you two\u2026you\u2019re the ones that can <\/em>see what most of us only feel.\u00a0 He can\u2019t keep saying that\u2019s not real, not for much longer.\u201d<\/em>
\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u201cDenying it is killing him,\u201d I mumbled.\u00a0 \u201cYou can\u2019t just bottle it up.\u00a0 You can\u2019t just\u2026you can\u2019t do that.\u00a0 There\u2019s too much there, too much inside of him.\u00a0 And it\u2019s destroying him from the inside out.\u201d<\/em>
\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u201cEither he\u2019ll realize it on his own or you\u2019ll convince him of it.\u00a0 I have faith in you.\u201d\u00a0 She smirked.\u00a0 \u201cMore faith than in him, that\u2019s for sure.\u201d<\/em>
\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 I squeezed her arm, staring at Thom\u2019s prone, fevered form, nodding a little.\u00a0 This was one fight with him I couldn\u2019t afford to lose, for the sake of us all.<\/em><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u201cThey\u2019re coming more frequently, aren\u2019t they?\u201d
\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 J.T. was gone\u2014long gone, from the looks of things\u2014and Kellin was standing in his place, carrying a bag that looked heavy.\u00a0 She was soaked to the skin, the rainwater that dripped from her hair splashing down into the fire and hissing as it hit hot coals.\u00a0 I blinked at her, momentarily uncomprehending\u2014what was she asking me?
\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u201cVisions, Marin.\u00a0 They\u2019re coming more frequently, aren\u2019t they?\u201d
\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 I shook my head as if to clear it, what she was asking me finally registering.\u00a0 I nodded mutely, feeding a few sticks into the guttering flames.\u00a0 It was a few more minutes before I trusted myself to speak.\u00a0 \u201cMore than they have been before this shit started happening, yeah.\u00a0 They\u2019re weird.\u00a0 Not like the ones before\u2014not like them at all.\u201d\u00a0 These ones are clear, if fragmentary.\u00a0 Not cryptic.\u00a0 And stronger, much stronger, with no discernable trigger, either.\u00a0 God.\u00a0 It\u2019s like I\u2019m folding time and peeking over the edge to see what\u2019s coming months and years from now.<\/em>
\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Kellin nodded a little.\u00a0 \u201cRemember what we talked about a few months ago, Marin?\u00a0 When I said that I thought people were going to start realizing what\u2019s really going on around them?\u201d
\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 I nodded.\u00a0 It had been late one evening, and we\u2019d been sitting in the courtyard at Mackinac, just talking as we were wont to do late at night when neither of us could sleep\u2014and there had been many of those sleepless nights that summer, with Thom giving me the cold shoulder, trying to detach.\u00a0 I\u2019d spent a lot of time with Kellin, just talking, sometimes about what we felt, what we believed.\u00a0 I\u2019d complained about feeling a shifting in the balance around us, one that worried me.\u00a0 She\u2019d only shaken her head at that concern\u2014things would correct themselves in time, she\u2019d counseled.\u00a0 They\u2019d rebalance and we wouldn\u2019t have to worry so much about the way things felt\u2014or, at least, Drew and I wouldn\u2019t have to worry so much.\u00a0 Rory had been reveling at the feeling of things tilting toward a darker end of the spectrum, but that was simply because of his nature\u2014or the image of his nature I was convinced he carefully cultivated to obscure reality.\u00a0 On one of those evenings out in the darkness, Kellin had told me very quietly when I\u2019d been complaining about Thom\u2014again\u2014that she didn\u2019t think that I\u2019d have much to worry about soon enough.\u00a0 She could feel it, somehow, that those around us were going to start realizing what was going on around them, beginning to Awaken, in the terminology of my late aunt.\u00a0 Their own talents would begin to manifest, slowly but surely, and we\u2019d have a lot to deal with suddenly\u2014so much that the balance wouldn\u2019t even concern me anymore.
\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u201cDo you think this is that time you felt coming, Kel?\u201d
\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u201cIt\u2019s certainly a possibility,\u201d she said quietly.\u00a0 \u201cI wouldn\u2019t say it\u2019s entirely outside<\/em> that realm, anyway.\u00a0 Have you been listening to Carolyn?\u00a0 It sounds like she\u2019s already starting to realize things aren\u2019t what she thought they always were.\u201d
\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 I laughed weakly.\u00a0 \u201cOh, believe me.\u00a0 I know.\u00a0 She\u2019s been acting\u2026well.\u00a0 Not like Carolyn and at the same time more like the Carolyn we always knew was hiding in there somewhere that didn\u2019t get to come out to play very often.\u201d
\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u201cExactly.\u201d\u00a0 Kellin shifted her weight from one foot to the other.\u00a0 \u201cWe could be in a lot of trouble, Mar.\u00a0 Hell-ah trouble.\u201d
\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u201cI know,\u201d I murmured, glancing back toward the fire, thinking of Thom.\u00a0 How many of our friends would end up like him, denying what was growing inside of them, denying the feelings, denying the truth<\/em> of what was inside?\u00a0 I prayed it would be none, but I knew that wouldn\u2019t be the case\u2014I was too much of a realist to think otherwise.
\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u201cHere.\u201d\u00a0 Kellin produced a tea kettle and a jug of water from one of the bags she was carrying\u2014their raid on the grocery store must have been successful.\u00a0 \u201cPut that on the fire.\u00a0 I\u2019ve got to dig out some teabags.\u00a0 We need to talk a bit.\u201d
\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u201cSure.\u201d\u00a0 I slowly moved to start filling the kettle with water.\u00a0 \u201cHow was it?\u201d
\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u201cHow was what?\u00a0 Raiding the store?\u201d\u00a0 She exhaled through her teeth.\u00a0 \u201cWe had to break in the door.\u00a0 Thank god no one was there when this all started.\u00a0 Place was locked up solid.\u00a0 Generator\u2019s still running\u2014we think we\u2019ve got it rigged to run for a while, but we packed all the cold cases with ice.\u00a0 That\u2019s what took so long.\u00a0 Raiding the secondhand store next, for clothes and coats and stuff.\u00a0 But I\u2019ll tell you about it after I get this stuff stashed away, okay?\u201d
\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 I nodded, feeding a few more small sticks into the fire and settling the kettle over the flames, on the makeshift tripod we\u2019d gotten rigged up.\u00a0 Maybe we\u2019d have enough supplies to last us.\u00a0 Maybe we wouldn\u2019t.
\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 If our friends are Awakening, this could get really messy really, really fast.\u00a0 And probably not in an easy way to fix.<\/em>\u00a0 I rubbed my face, suddenly weary.\u00a0 How would we handle it?\u00a0 Some of our friends already knew that there was something funky going on, but they\u2019d never really inquired too deeply about it\u2014J.T. was like that.\u00a0 We\u2019d tried to insulate others, like Carolyn and Jacqueline and Brandon.\u00a0 There was no reason for them to get involved with any of our crap.\u00a0 Not until now, at least.\u00a0 Not until they began to manifest signs of being aware of more than they could see or smell or taste with their <\/em>mundane senses.
\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 I glanced toward where Thom still lay asleep, still ignorant of my departure, and sighed softly.\u00a0 My cards were there, near him.\u00a0 I\u2019d have to read them soon enough, if only to seek some guidance, some direction\u2014if they decided to give me anything useful at all.\u00a0 They didn\u2019t always like to read well for me.\u00a0 For other people my Tarot readings were fantastic.\u00a0 Whenever I<\/em> happened to ask something of it, though, that was entirely a different story.\u00a0 I\u2019d always wondered if it was perhaps that I was too close to the situation to perceive things correctly, or if I was trying to influence the outcome of the readings too hard.\u00a0 Regardless, it never seemed to work well for me.
\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Maybe I\u2019ll just have Kellin ask the question about what we should do, how we should\u2026how we should let this all pan out, what we should do next, how this should come together.\u00a0 How to handle it all.<\/em>\u00a0 I rubbed my eyes.\u00a0 Maybe I\u2019d do that, but maybe I wouldn\u2019t.\u00a0 Maybe the visions would just come and tell me what to do.
\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 I\u2019d never had control over when they would come, or how long they\u2019d last.\u00a0 I\u2019d only tried once or twice to stimulate them\u2014that had resulted in the nastiness following the vision I was sure was the end of the world, the vision that seemed to have come true yesterday\u2014was it yesterday?\u2014though in a way not wholly like I\u2019d perceived it then.\u00a0 Maybe that was the problem with my visions then, when I\u2019d tried for more information.\u00a0 Maybe I was just meant to let them come, let things be as they would be and not try to press for more.
\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 God knows I already didn\u2019t like some of what I\u2019d seen in my visions since the day before.<\/p>\n

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\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u201cHow is he, Marin?\u201d \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 I sniffled, swiping my sleeve across my eyes.\u00a0 \u201cNot good.\u00a0 Still not listening.\u00a0 I just\u2026I can\u2019t\u2026\u201d \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Carolyn wrapped her arms around me and hugged me gently, kneeling behind me on the ground.\u00a0 \u201cHe\u2019s … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[8,10],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-287","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-chapter-6","category-day-1"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/s1EBlN-287","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/awakenings.embklitzke.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/287","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/awakenings.embklitzke.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/awakenings.embklitzke.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/awakenings.embklitzke.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/awakenings.embklitzke.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=287"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/awakenings.embklitzke.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/287\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/awakenings.embklitzke.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=287"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/awakenings.embklitzke.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=287"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/awakenings.embklitzke.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=287"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}