Somberly, Caly, Sarah and Jasmine entered Tom’s apartment. They found him sitting on the couch, a beer in his hand and a glazed over look in his eyes. Jasmine frowned. “Tom, are you okay?” Silence followed not even a blink of acknowledgement from Tom. Jasmine tried again. “Tom?”
After a moment, Tom shook his head. “Oh, Jas. You guys are back.”
“Yeah,” she said uneasily.
“So what did you find out?”
“There’s more than one person responsible for this.” Jasmine said softy, glancing at Sarah with a slightly narrowed eye as if silently reminding her that this isn’t her fault.
“What do you mean?” Tom asked, sitting forward and quirking a brow in interest.
“We went back to the magic shop where we found the book, and talked to the guy that works there. He knew some things we didn’t thus far. One of us is the vessel, the one that Shiniquah will manifest herself through to become alive, and the other is, well the other has the power to stop all of this. She can only manifest if she can get past the person with the ability to stop her.” Jasmine took a breath.
“You know guys,” Tom started, an unreadable expression on his face. “This all seems so, fairy tale. I mean we’re not hiding a princess in a castle, here.”
“Weather it seems bogus or not, this is really happening, Tom and we all have to face it.” Sarah said sternly.
“Okay, okay.” Tom said, sighing and hunching his shoulders forward. “So what are we supposed to do?”
“We think.. We think that Jim is the one Shiniquah wants to manifest in. He’s the strongest, and the one that seems to be turning violent. And we think Beth has the power to stop it.” Jasmine regarded Tom with curiosity, confused as to why he looked like he was about to burst into laughter.
“Come on! You think Beth’s involved? She’s quiet-girl. She wouldn’t swat at a fly. I really think you’re off on that one.”
“She doesn’t know it, we don’t think. But it makes sense. She’s the only one of us unaffected by the scroll, like she’s immune to it.” Tom raised his hand to his chin, rubbing it in absentminded thought.
“Maybe you’re right, I don’t know. So what do we do about it?”
“I think we’ve got to get her here, talk to her. She needs to know she has our support for whatever lies ahead. Weather she likes it or not, our lives and maybe other people’s too depend on her.”
“Then let’s call her, get her over here.” Tom offered as he reached for the phone. Caly raised his eyebrows, as did Jasmine, surprised that Tom suddenly seemed so interested in jumping on the bandwagon after showing minimal interest in all of this to begin with. Maybe the seriousness was finally sinking in. If that was the case, Jasmine was glad. She needed him to be there with her through this. She needed him in general.
“Hi, is Beth there?” He paused. “I see. Well if she comes home, tell her to call Tom right away. It’s very important. Uh-huh. Thanks.” Tom hung up the phone and glanced at the others. “She’s out with Jim.”
Jasmine raised her palms to cover her face; a feeling of washed out dread tingling over her skin. “Oh, god. What if Jim’s going to kill her? We have to find them!”
Sarah gripped onto Caly’s arm in unconscious fear, and Jasmine tried desperately to keep tears from flooding down her cheeks. It could be all over before they had a chance to stop it. She came here, wanting a new life, a new love, a whole new existence and now none of that would happen for her. The only thing waiting for her was doom.
“Okay, here’s what we’re going to do. Caly, Sarah, you two go out and look for them. Check the café, the gym, anywhere you think they could possibly be. And be careful! Don’t let them get you alone anywhere. Act casual if you find them, act casual and try to convince them to come back here, make up some lighthearted excuse. Jas and I will stay here in case they show up.”
“Wait.” Caly interjected. “What if they do show up here? I mean how are you going to defend yourselves?” Tom held up a finger in a wait motion, stood up from the couch and walked towards his room disappearing behind the door. A moment later he came out with a large katana sword in his hand. Jasmine raised her eyebrows. She did remember him saying he had interest in the martial arts, but she didn’t know he actually had weaponry.
“With this if I have to. Don’t worry about us. Go.” Caly paused for another moment, glancing at Sarah but seemed to have made up his mind.
“Alright. Be careful. We don’t know what to expect from either of them right now.”
“We will, you guys too.” Jasmine said, flashing Caly a knowing and sympathetic smile as he and Sarah rushed out the door.
Sighing, Jasmine retreated to the couch and diligently sat down. She was tired. Not just in her body but her mind and spirit as well. It seemed to her like everything she did and everything she touched was somehow tainted. Her parents never cared much about her, they didn’t even ask her for a forwarding number or even where she was going when she left. Kara was the only friend that even bothered to say goodbye. Jasmine cocked a half-smile. Kara, wacky Kara who always thought doom was around the corner. This time, she had been right.
Jasmine nearly jumped when she felt an arm slip gently around her shoulder, and she whirled around. “Oh, Tom.” She said, taking a moment to regain her steady breath. “You scared me.” He smiled coyly.
“Sorry. You look sad. What’s wrong?” Jasmine paused. That was an off-putting question.
“What’s wrong? Tom, people might die. And all this bad stuff started happening when I came here.”
“Jas, it’s not your fault. You’re not even the one who insisted on reading the scroll, okay?”
“It doesn’t matter. I’ve always been a bad luck omen. I thought things would be different here. I thought,” She paused, hesitant to go any further. She was probably digging her own grave.
“Thought what, Jas?” Jasmine took a deep breath. If she didn’t confront this now, she may never and she’d always be confused, always be wondering about what might have been.
“I thought things between us would be wonderful. Like they were before. We had magic.” She lowered her head, attempting to control her emotions. There, she said it. She said it and now she was out there, vulnerable and alone, and she had no idea how Tom was going to react.
“Jas, I love you just as much as I did before. I know things the past few days have been complicated, but that’s because of what’s going on. You know that, right?”
“I’m- I’m not sure. Things just don’t feel right, and I don’t even mean the scroll.” Tom sighed, curling his arms around her and pulling her to his chest. Regardless of her previous fears and hesitation, Jasmine immediately curled up against him, her need and desperation for love and acceptance far outweighing her fear.
“Can you feel my heart beat?” Tom whispered. Jasmine closed her eyes, listening, feeling his chest rise and fall with every breath, and yes, even the beat of his heart.
“I can feel it.”
“It’s for you. You’re special, Jasmine, more than you know. We belong together. We’re Caster and Pollox, the twins that couldn’t bear to be separated, so they were made into stars to shine side by side for eternity.” Jasmine smiled. This was the Tom she had fallen in love with, his romantic words, his promises of love. He was the only one who ever made her feel special.
“And when this is all over, can we live happily ever after?” She asked in a dream-state.
“Of coarse we can. It’s you and me, Jasmine. We’re connected. We’re eternal.” Those promises sealed up her hesitation, and she sank into him, letting the rise and fall of his chest become in sync with her own breathing, and she could feel what he was saying. They truly were connected, two strings dangling helplessly in the wind until fate tied them together. Maybe this challenge was put before them simply because they could handle it. Maybe she wasn’t cursed after all.
“I love you, Tom.” Jasmine whispered, the words rolling off of her tongue like melting butter on a warm piece of toast in the morning.
“I love you, too.” The words she’d been craving to hear her whole life. The words that made her feel like she had substance. Words that made her feel real. With her eyes closed, she could see the future she’d imagined her whole life, a beautiful dance floor, romantic music and herself incased in the arms of the man she loves. Nothing else existed but the two of them. There was no scroll, no worries, no danger. Only the promise of happily ever after. And with that comforting thought in her head and heart, Jasmine drifted off to sleep.
Jasmine began dreaming where she had left her fantasy only moments before. The room around her was elaborate, the floor made of solid shining gold, satin off-white curtains flowing with a gentle breeze behind them, giving them sustenance and life. Faceless men in tuxedos were conducting a soft symphony, and Jasmine found herself in the arms of Tom, being gently whirled around in a dance she could only do in her dreams. His eyes burned into her own and she was stuck there, unable to look away even if she wanted to, but of coarse she didn’t want to anyway.
Suddenly things began to change. Those magnetic eyes that trapped her in their hypnotic gaze began to change red fire of fury that seemed to singe her pupils. She tried desperately to look away but she was still trapped there, unable to move as if a steel bar was connecting her torso to his. Jasmine began to panic, twisting and turning in desperation to escape the confusion and entrapment that was suffocating her.
Suddenly when Jasmine was just about to give up her struggle, something snapped free and she fell backwards, catching herself on her palms. She winced, and looked up again. Tom’s face was sullen and sad, as if he didn’t mean to let her go, and didn’t mean to cause her any pain to begin with. She began to stand up again, but Tom began to fade and by the time she could reach for him, she was only grasping air. “TOM!” She called out, frightened and now alone. The symphony had stopped, the curtains remained still and the golden floor had suddenly turned to rust.
“You don’t understand yet, do you?” An empty voice suddenly echoed throughout the room. Tingles ran up Jasmine’s spine, the familiarity of the voice suddenly became clear in her mind.
“Bethany?”
“Yes.” Responded the voice that held no form this time at all. “I tried to warn you. I tried to keep you safe but now you’re in even more danger.”
“What did I do? Or what didn’t I do? I don’t understand. I thought this wasn’t about me.”
“It’s always been about you, Jasmine. Why do you think you’re here? Some part of you must always have known your destiny was something far greater than any average person. You have it in you, great power.”
Jasmine took a step back, a vice-like grip encompassing her heart. “So- so am I evil? Am I the vessel?”
“No. No you’re not evil. You have to believe in yourself, Jasmine. And you have to open your eyes to a truth you don’t want to face. If you can’t believe in yourself, you can’t ask others to believe in you either.”
“Then who is the vessel?” Jasmine demanded with more ferocity.
“Open your eyes, you’ll see. Just open your eyes.” The voice grew distant with its last suggestion, and Jasmine whirled around desperately seeking a form to connect it to.
“Please! You have to help me! I don’t know what to do!” No answer followed, and everything around her began to fade. Jasmine’s heart was pounding nearly out of her chest, all of the fear that Tom had washed away rushing back inside of her.
“Jasmine. JASMINE!” A harsh voice cried as the rest of her dream world dissolved into nothing. She was abruptly being shaken awake, her eyes forced open to gaze upon Tom. Involuntarily, she let out a small scream.
“What happened?” She mumbled the clarity of the dream vanishing from her memory as quickly as it had been rushed upon her.
“You were having a bad dream. You were thrashing.” Tom whispered to her in a reassuring tone. “It’s alright now. I’m here.”
A deep sigh escaped Jasmine’s throat, and she uneasily settled back against Tom. “I don’t remember, what I was dreaming about.” She whispered, narrowing her eyes attempting once again to scrape the surface of her memory, but to no avail.
A knock on the door interrupted Jasmine’s attempt to calm herself down again, and giving her an apologetic look, Tom slowly squirmed off the couch and carefully tiptoed towards the door. After glancing through the peephole, he opened it, and Caly and Sarah rushed in.
“Good, you’re okay. We checked all the local places we could think of that they’d be, and they were nowhere! God, what if he hurt Beth? We HAVE to find them!” Sarah yelled hysterically.
As if on cue, Tom’s phone rang, sending everyone’s hearts into frenzy. Jasmine’s eyes darted back and forth, glancing at the phone and then at Tom, then back at the phone, completely unwilling to be the one to pick it up. Tom finally rushed over and grasped the receiver in his hand, pulling it up to his ear.
“Hello?” He said tentatively, and silence followed. Jasmine, Sarah and Caly all stared expectantly, none of them seemingly able to remain still, shifting their weight this way and that until Tom hung up the receiver.
“They’re on their way over.” He told them all sullenly.
“Is Beth okay?” Jasmine blurted, nearly on the edge of her seat.
“I heard her, she’s fine. But guys listen. I don’t want to put you in any danger. I want you three to leave.”
“What?” Jasmine replied frantically. “I’m not leaving you, Tom!”
“Jasmine, listen to me. I don’t want anyone else getting hurt, okay? I want you and Caly and Sarah to go away, and don’t tell me where and don’t come back until I contact you.”
“But how will you contact us if you don’t know where we are? What if Jim kills you? Tom you can’t do this!” No. She has just found Tom. She just found this love and she wasn’t about to loose it because of this scroll! There was no way in hell she was leaving Tom at risk like that.
“Jas, please. If you love me, you’ll do as I say. You’ve just got to trust me, okay? Can you do that? I promise I’ll be okay. You’ve got to trust me.” He repeated, burning that hypnotic gaze into her eyes again. Involuntarily, she nodded, attempting to hold back tears. It seemed to be a regular habit of hers lately.
“I trust you, Tom. I just don’t want to loose you.”
“You’re not going to loose me. I promise.” Moving forward slowly, Tom’s hand gently caressed Jasmine’s cheek, his lips nearing hers until she could feel them, and closing her eyes she sank into the kiss, hungry for his love and devotion. All too soon he pulled away, and glanced at Caly and Sarah. “You’d better go. I want you guys far away by the time they get here.”
Caly had a suspicious look on his face, but reluctantly reached for Sarah and Jasmine. “Let’s go.” He prompted. Without hesitation, Jasmine threw herself into Tom’s arms, squeezing him to her as if this were the last time she would ever see him. She trusted him, but fate was another story and it had never given her a reason to trust it.
“I love you, Tom.” She whispered in his ear with utmost sincerity. He smiled lovingly back at her.
“I love you too. I promise things will be okay.” Slowly, their embrace died out, and she felt his arms slipping away from her own. She couldn’t bear to continue looking at him, it was like torment and only heightened her fear of losing him.
Jasmine followed Sarah and Caly out the door towards Caly’s car. She didn’t know where Caly would take them, and she didn’t care as long as she could return home safely to Tom. If God had never done anything for her in the past, she prayed he would now. She prayed he would keep Tom safe.