Chapter 44

“Are you ready?” Kimball asked.  We were in our room, getting ready for traveling to his next mission.

“Of course, we can leave whenever you want.”  I said as I got up and moved to hug Kimball.  I wanted to be distract him, so he wouldn’t see that I was lying to him, I wasn’t ready.

I had had a bad feeling all day, but I wasn’t sure what the problem was.  Would there be a problem with our travel?  Would the airplane have problems?  I didn’t trust that particular transportation method, I wasn’t used to it, and I wasn’t as comfortable using it as they were.  Would we have problems when we arrived to our destination?  I wasn’t welcomed into the island, and my arrival to Mzansi was even worse.  I had to stop myself from getting into the fog and trying to find the problem, Kimball had a mission to complete and I didn’t want to stop him.  I had to trust him to be prepared, and be alert in case my help was needed.

Kimball guided me to the hangar, he went ahead once we reached the place, he still had to make sure everything was under control.  He went to speak with the pilots and made sure all of his men were already there.  I knew most of the people we were traveling with, but there were a couple of new faces.  Once Kimball finished issuing orders, his people started to move, some were loading our stuff, some were checking the plane.  Mbali was one of the first to finish her tasks, and she moved to where I was as soon as she was done.

“Ready for our travel?”  I could feel she was a little bit nervous, just like me.

“Of course.”  It was getting easier to lie.

“Don’t worry, you will be surrounded by friends.  Besides, it’s just a quick mission, in and out in a flash, we will be back in a safe place sooner than you think.”

“No place is really safe, Mbali, but I get what you are saying.  Is that place really dangerous?  Not that I’m worried about that, I’m used to be in the middle of fights.  No matter what is waiting for us, I’m sure I can handle it.”

“Let’s hope that we won’t have any problems.”  Mbali said.

“Everything is ready, time to get into the plane.”  One of the man I didn’t know interrupted us.  I felt a strong emotion coming from him and opened my mind to it.  I was surprised by the strong wave that hit me, he had strong feelings for Mbali, he was in love with her.

“Thanks Tau.  Let me introduce you two.  Tau, this is Kaiserin, former Empress of the Dark Empire.  Kai, this is Tau, a friend of mine.  He will be traveling with us for this mission.”  I took a look at Mbali’s feelings and realized that she felt something for him too, but she was afraid of those feelings, and the fear was masking everything else.

“It’s a pleasure to meet you.”  Tau said, but his feelings were at odds with his words, he wasn’t happy with me, he felt nothing about me.

“The pleasure is mine.”  I said, trying to be polite.  “Mbali, I usually don’t get involved, but let me give you a piece of advice.  Sometimes fear keeps you from finding real happiness.  Take a chance, it worked for me and Kimball, it could work for you too.”

“You were right Mbali,” Tau understood what I was trying to say, “your friends is wise, you should listen to her.”  Mbali’s response was to playfully shove Tau away, and dragging me to the plane.

Kimball was waiting for us next to the plane.  We went up together and took our seats.  Kimball had told me that the flight would take just under two hours long.  It wasn’t that much time, but it felt longer.  I wasn’t sure about anything, and that wasn’t like me.  Was I nervous about the people we were going to meet?  Kimball hadn’t told me anything about them, I wasn’t sure if they would act like Paki and Kgosi, or would actually be friendly.

As soon as the plane started descending, I started to feel sick.  At first I thought that something was going on with the lights in the plane, but then I realized that there was a haze around us.  It took me longer to realize that the cause, the separation between astral planes was broken, the spirits from the lower planes were bleeding into the material plane.  I didn’t want them to notice us, but the spirits were already moving to us.

As soon as it was my turn to get out of the plane, I felt like running, I felt trapped inside, but as I saw outside I realized that it was even worse.  The planes were overlapping and changing in front of my eyes, it was like watching a mirage.  I tried to move, but my body didn’t follow, before I noticed I was in my astral form, and my body was falling.  Kimball was fast to react and was able to stop my body before it got hurt.  He took me into his arms and ran down the stairs with me.  He put my body on the tarmac and started to check my vital signs.

I felt the shadows from the inferior planes around me, they feed on negative feelings, and I was like a magnet for them, my fears were calling to them.  I saw some shadows moving in my body, like moths to the flame and I panicked.  I had heard stories of people that had gone into astral travel and lost the connection to their bodies, how an empty body could attract the spirits, and how they could possess it.  The spirits around my body wanted to stole it, but my link was still there, and I wasn’t going to let them broke it.  I got back to my body as fast as I could.

“Kaiserin! Kaiserin!  Wake up Kaiserin!”  I heard the fear and desperation in Kimball’s voice and I opened my eyes.  I could still see the shadows around him, the spirits were trying to feed on him.  Sometimes, when the veil between planes was thin, strong spirits could crossover, but what I was witnessing wasn’t natural.  Something was really, really wrong.

“Kimball, we need to go, now!”  I said, as I tried to get up.  “The spirits from the lower planes are invading the material plane.  They can interact with us.”

“Is she high?” An old man asked.  “Or is she just crazy?”

“Shut up for a minute, I’m trying to understand what is happening.”  Kimball was pushing me down again, trying to make me lie down.  “What happened to you?”

“The astral planes, something weird is going on, this place made me astral project, I didn’t mean to leave my body, but the astral planes are overlapping.”

“It’s because of the portal,” a woman said.  Her voice was strong and confident, but she looked old and frail.  “I’ve been saying for a while that the problems we are having are not natural.”

“Yeah, yeah, we are being invaded by demons,” the old man mocked the old woman.

“What kind of problems?”  I tried to get up again and Kimball finally helped me, finally acknowledging that I was unhurt.  “The spirits are feeding on the people, right?  I had never seen this kind of interaction before.”

“Can you see them?”  The old woman seemed surprised.

“Of course, can’t you?”  As I asked her the question, I noticed that we were surrounded by people that was looking at us as if we were crazy.

“I sense them, I can feel, but not see them.”

“Kimball, you were supposed to bring help, not make things worse by encouraging their crazy talk.”  A man said.  I was hit by the strength of his feelings.  He was angry, he was hateful.  His body was surrounded by a dark mass of energy.

“I’m here to help, and I will, as soon as I understand what the problem is.”  Kimball said.

“This is all you have to understand, that old hag is crazy, and so is your lady friend.  I want both of them out of here as soon as possible.  I won’t let their craziness keep infecting this place.”

The spirits around us were moving faster, and I realized that we were being manipulated.  They were creating the feelings they were feeding on.  My fear, the man’s hate, Kimball’s concern, every negative feeling the people around me was feeling was being provoked by them so they could feed on us.  I needed to do something, and fast, before I was too out of control.  I knew the desperation I was feeling wasn’t natural, and that I needed to get a grip.  I needed to remember that I wasn’t a helpless victim, and no one, not even those beings, could control me.

If the emotions of the people around me were attracting the spirits, then what I had to do was to take those away.  I was hearing voices around me, but I wasn’t listening, I was focused on my task.  I put my hand on Kimball’s arm, to assure him I was ok, and to borrow some of his strength.  I searched in my mind for a memory that could bring me peace and make me calm.  It wasn’t easy, but I thought of Melchizedek and found my inspiration, he always had a calming effect on me.  I rarely used empathy, and when I did it was mostly to read other’s people feelings, not to force a feeling on them, but even if it was something I wasn’t used to, I had to do my best, the people around me needed me, even if they didn’t know that.  After a minute, I felt people calming, the spirits were not happy about it, they were getting agitated.  The spirits that had attached themselves to someone were wandering away.

Some of the stronger spirits were noticing my intervention, and they weren’t happy about it.  They wanted to stop me, I could feel them trying to take away my peace.  No matter how many negative feelings were trying to creep on me, I kept focused, the fact that they were coming after me was a sign that what I was doing was working.  Then I noticed the energy around the angry man boiling, shifting, growing.  It was like something or someone was getting out of the man.  The spirit that was forming before my eyes was stronger than any other, more dangerous, more evil.  The dark energy started to change to form a body.  I couldn’t call the body forming black, it was more than that, it was like there was nothing there, like a black hole.  The only part that had a touch of color was the face, the grotesque face crowned with horns had brown-red smudges, as if a bloody hand had been run over it.  But the most disturbing thing about it were the eyes, those were like burning embers.  The terror that gripped me was so strong that I struggled to let my empathy drop before my fear could contaminate the people I was trying to calm, but there was nothing that I could do to stop the blood curling scream escaped my lips.

I was trying to run away, but Kimball was holding me, asking me what was wrong, trying to calm me down, but I could think of was escaping, I fought Kimball as the dark spirit moved closer and closer to me.  No one else could see him, I was the only one that knew he was coming for me.  I turned and tried to get out of Kimballs grip, but I couldn’t.  I felt a pain on my back, as if I was being burned.  The pain extended to my arms, and legs, and I couldn’t take it anymore.  I welcomed the darkness that was growing around me and passed out.

A chanting woke me up.  It took me some time to remember what had happened.  I opened my eyes and noticed that I was in a room full of smoke, the smell was nice and calming.

“How do you expect me to calm down?!” Roared Kimball.  I couldn’t see him, but I knew he was close.  “You saw what happened, she was attacked, and we didn’t see who did it.  Something did those cuts on her skin, but her clothes are not even scratched.”  As if his words were a reminder I felt the pain in my back and limbs.

“Your woman is a powerful one, whatever she did made the entities mad, they were the ones who attacked her.  It proves that she can fight them, which is odd since those beings are not from this world.”

“With all due respect Rutendo, all I want to hear is how to help her.”

“I’m fine.” I tried to reassure him, but my voice broke, having the opposite effect.

“Kaiserin?  Please, don’t do anything like that again, you scared me to death.”  Kimball sat on the border of my bed and took my hands on his.  “What happened?”

“The spirits from the inferior planes invaded this place, they are strong because they have been feeding on the people here.  I tried to stop them and they attacked me.  I didn’t know they could physically attack someone from this plane.”

“A portal has been opened, the entities are entering through it.  They are causing the people in here not to act like themselves.”

“I don’t see them here,” I said, noticing the lack of shadows.  I did notice some flashes of light, spirits from the superior planes, “at least not spirits from the inferior planes.”

“Even with the portal opened, there are ways of protecting us.  If people had listened to my advice, I could have protected us better.  But thanks to you I’m finally being listened, Kimball is going to make it possible for me to protect the people.”

“So what you did worked?” Kimball turned to me and asked.  “Tell me, what Rutendo did made things better?”

“There are no shadows in here, just beings of light.” I said.

“I can’t understand what is going on in here, it’s not like I believe in ghosts.  Beings of light, beings of darkness, it sounds like the stories we tell children to scare them.  This whole dark versus light is childish.”

“You know how colors work, right?” Asked the old woman.  “Black is made when an object doesn’t return the light that it receives, it absorbs it.  White on the other hand is the result of the object reflecting all of the light it receives.  Black takes, white gives.  Dark entities take everything, they absorb the energy around them, they take and take and never give back.  Light entities reflect what is given to them, they give back what we send to them.  Your woman calls the entities astral beings, or spirits, some people knows them with other names, like demons and angels.”

“I’ll trust your word Rutendo.  Do whatever you think is necessary to protect our men.  I won’t take any risks.  If you are right about this your help will keep us safe, if not, the worse thing that could happen is that we will look ridiculous.”

The old woman took an amulet from a table and put it around Kimball’s neck.  Flashes of light told me that the amulet was attracting the spirits from the superior planes.  Maybe whatever it was made off was pushing the spirits from the inferior planes away.

“I hope this will help you.” She said as she put another amulet around my neck.  She took a box and walked out of the room, out to deliver more amulets without a doubt.

“I’ so sorry Kai.  I shouldn’t have brought you to this place.  Rutendo told me that your affinity with the astral planes is making you a target for those beings.  I put you at risk.”

“It was a good thing that I came, I can see what is going on and help you.  I was taken by surprise, I wasn’t prepared and I didn’t know what they were capable of, but now I’m ready.  As long as I keep my feelings under control I will be safe.  I won’t let them feed on us.”

“You are the most important person in my life, all I want is for you to be safe.”

“I’m sorry I got you worried, but I will be ok.”  But the sooner we left that place, the better.