Page 56 of (Sur)real
“That doesn’t make any sense. You say they want to possess us…that they already have possessed Blake even though it hurts them. Why aren’t they just possessing everyone, then?”
“They can’t. There are rules. They have to be invited. Right now, I’m the only person who can do that.”
“Why only you?”
“Because only I can see and hear them to understand their terms.”
“Terms?”
I stood, turned, and lifted the back of my shirt, despite the pain, so he could see the bandages.
“What are you showing me?”
“Lift one of the bandages.”
“I don’t want to hurt you.”
“Jim, this goes beyond one person’s pain or another’s discomfort. You need to understand. Lift a bandage.” I didn’t know why it mattered so much for him to see, but something told me he needed to. Maybe because, so far, he was the first one interested in listening to all of it, not just asking questions about Blake.
The first touch of his warm fingers on my cool skin almost sent a shiver through me. I hadn’t even heard him move. He eased the tape from my skin and lifted the strip of gauze with care. He hissed an indrawn breath.
“They did this?” His voice vibrated with anger.
“They did. The Others. It was their payment for helping me. For possessing Blake. Inhabiting a body with a living soul hurts them. Weakens them. But a body without a soul is easy. Or would be if the Others actually were in this world.”
His fingers stroked along the edge of the tape, all the way up to my shoulder. I stepped away, dislodging his touch, and dropped my shirt back into place. When I turned to face him, he already sat on the opposite bed in the same position as before.
“If we don’t complete the Judgement, the veil separating our two worlds will disappear and the Others will come here. They have no form. Not even in their world. When they get here, they will find ways to kill every man, woman, and child so they can inhabit their bodies.”
“How many of the Others are there?” he asked.
“Four times as many as there are humans on earth.”
JIM…
Was that why I felt the pull? So I would take the time to listen to what she knew?
I remained quiet for several moments, considering what she’d just shared. Bethi knew a lot about the Judgements and their history. She understood their gifts and Blake’s consuming drive for power. Olivia understood a world that had stayed completely hidden to us until now. Other creatures who wanted to not just rule earth but use its people as playthings.
The Elders had always taken what Bethi said as truth, yet I knew they’d always thought some of her desperation was due to the repetition of vividly dreamed deaths. Her warning that the world would burn had seemed very literal at the time, and we’d wondered if the Urbat’s drive for power would cause a world war if we didn’t stop it. Now, I doubted that. These Others that Olivia saw would be the cause of our destruction if they escaped their world into ours.
“And the Judgement will stop them from coming?” I asked.
“Yes.”
“So Judge, now. Why wait?”
“I don’t know how to make the Judgement. Bethi does. The Lady is giving her the dreams with the answer, she’s just not seeing it yet.”
I could hear the frustration in her voice but not a drop of it touched her scent.
“Before, you said the Lady knows I was testing you. You made it sound like she talks to you.”
“She does.”
“Then why not ask her what we need to do?”
She shook her head slowly.
