Enflame (Insight #6)(6)

“Are you trying to see your friends now?”

“No. I want these ghosts to let me out of here!” The frustration and anger in my voice caused thunder to rattle the entire house.

“How do they feel, Willow?” I could hear her rustling around and the muffled voice of a man I assumed was Evan.

“Cold.”

“A mean cold?”

I focused my eyes on the hallway. “A protective cold. They don’t want me out of this house. It’s not an evil feeling.”

“Put the phone on speaker, Willow.”

I fumbled with the buttons on the phone until I found a way to project her voice into the room.

“Now what?” I asked.

“I’m listening. While I listen, I want you to sit down and draw in slow, deep breaths. I want you to fall into yourself.”

“I don’t have time to meditate.”

“I agree. Find a wall to hide behind, find a mental totem. Allow yourself to look out at your surroundings without your emotions stabbing the atmosphere.”

“I tried the numb feeling. It didn’t work.”

“Willow, listen to me.” Her soft but firm voice caused me to freeze at attention. “Numb is not the answer. Your energy is powerful, and numb does nothing but bring that emotion to the atmosphere around you. I want you to feel your emotions. They are your power, but I want you to feel them on the inside.”

“I don’t get it,” I said through gritted teeth, balling my fists as the house rumbled again.

“Think about Charlie. Out of all of them, she is the only one that sees it all: the dark moments, the lost ones, the emotions—all of it. It was too much for her, too terrifying, so her father taught her to raise an imaginary glass wall in her mind. To listen to one song, to stand within herself and think clearly. He had to teach her that because the shadows reflect what the energy you put off feels. I need you to slip into yourself. Find a wall to hide behind.”

I leaned back in the chair and stared at the hallway. I wasn’t Charlie. I liked music, but I doubted it would calm me the way it calmed her. I couldn’t focus on sketching or painting because that would distract me to the point where I would have no idea where I was, or would it?

I took in a deep breath and in my mind began to sketch out what I wanted this room to look like. I wanted to take away the eerie darkness, the cold that was spilling into the room. I wanted Landen here, holding me gently in front of the fire he would build for us when he came back.

“Good job, Willow,” Nana said calmly. “Keep doing whatever you are doing.”

In the background of her home, I heard a phone ring, then Evan answer. “Yeah...yeah, she found me. I need a flight. No, not now five minutes ago.”

“Wait. What?” I said, losing my hold on the wall I was building in my mind. “You don’t need to come here. I just need to get out of this room. By the time you get here, we’ll be gone,” I argued.

“Willow,” Nana said calmly as I heard bags opening and her stuffing items in them. “Those beings with you are more corporeal than most of the shadows we help.”

“Corporeal?”

“More real. They’re ghosts, no doubt, but they are not ghosts that have forgotten that they are loved or are worthy. They remember all too clearly.” She paused as she listened to Evan in the background.

In the background, I heard Evan say, “The plane was already fueled and ready to take off in the morning, flight plan was approved wheels up in an hour.”

“You have a plane?” I muttered. I knew the house I found Draven in was nice, but I didn’t see a plane in the garage or anything.

“Evan’s company does,” she answered in a distracted manner. “They’re fine. I promise,” she said to Evan.

“Jacob is less than ten miles from her. Do I need to send him there?” Evan asked her.

“No.”

“Who is Jacob?” I asked. If he was a ghost whisperer, send him my way.

“Willow, wall,” she sighed. “A friend of Evan’s. He works in film. He’s in that city on a project.”

“Does he know anything about ghosts?”

“More than he wants to,” she said with a light echo of humor in her tone.

“I don’t understand. Why are you coming here? I’m the only one here. Landen is going to come back, and we’ll be gone. I’ll tell someone to take Charlie and the others to you so you can see they’re fine. I didn’t mean to cause this much trouble.”

“I know they’re fine,” Nana answered as I heard a car door slam. “Shh.”

Who was I to argue with her? I fell back into that wall she was making me create. I took it further. I imagined painting a girl in a field, a sphere of weather in her hand. I sketched her expressions to match what the sphere of weather would do. I created a world inside of myself. I wasn’t sure how long I could hold it, but I was going to use that time to figure out what Nana was not saying.

“Wall is up,” I said with a sigh. “Tell me why you’re flying here. What did you mean, ‘corporeal’?”

“There are many shades to spirits. Some are lost, only shells. Some linger for other reasons only they know. The ones with you know why they’re lingering.”

“What?” I whispered, knowing if that were true, these ghosts were like Donalt, focused on what they wanted. This is bad.