Empyreal: Awaken - Book One (8 page)

Coralie started walking, but stopped
abruptly, turning back toward Court before ascending the steps.
“So, what was that?”

“What was what?”

“Tonight, I mean ... What
happened?”

Court opened his mouth to speak, but
before he could, the front door burst open. “Coralie!” she heard
her parents shout. “Oh, Coralie! Are you okay?” Kate shrieked
frantically, running up to her, checking her arms, face, and
neck.

“Mom, I'm fine ... really, I
am...”

“Thank you, Courtland, for bringing
Coralie home. As soon as the lights went out, we got pushed outside
with the rest of the frantic guests. We waited on the lawn, but you
two didn't show. We knew that you would bring her home safely ...
Thank you...” Kate turned toward Court and thanked him again,
appreciatively.

“Yes, thank you, Courtland, for
bringing our daughter home safely. Your mother, and father,
especially, should be proud, of such a fine young man...” Cal
added.

“It was nothing, Sir ... I knew that I
was carrying precious cargo...” Court said, with a smile. “Now,
please forgive me, Mr. and Mrs. Collier, but I must be on my way
home...” then he turned to face her Coralie’s direction,
“Coralie...” he nodded to her, “... it was quite an eventful and
enjoyable evening ... thank you, and I hope to see you real
soon...”

Coralie could feel her cheeks fill
with heat, once again. “Yeah, me too ... I mean … umm, thank you,
too, Court...”

“Anytime...” he answered, with a
handsomely confident grin.

Coralie shyly waved to him goodbye,
and then ascended up the front steps, turning to look at him once
more before walking into the front door.

Coralie walked into the kitchen,
expecting that her parents had followed. They didn't.

Odd.

She walked over to the window above
the kitchen sink and looked to the driveway from which she
came.

Coralie saw her parents still talking
with Court. She watched them talk as if they were in some sort of
meeting. As if they were making plans of some sort. After a few
minutes of conversation, the three of them parted ways with an
agreeing nod and a hand shake.

She watched as her parents walked up
the front steps and she wondered what sort of words may have been
exchanged between them.

Say hello to the family ... nice to
see you again ... nice weather we're having ...
sort of small
talk.
Or was it something else? Something secretive? Something
more?

But what would her parents, or Court
for that matter, feel the need to hide from her?

Coralie shifted her view to Court, who
was now crawling back onto his bike and cranking the engine. He
looked up to the window where she was standing. Coralie froze. He
smiled, and then put his helmet on. She could tell the smile was
still there. She smiled too, but quickly slid away from the window
when she heard her parents enter the front door.

“Coralie, honey?” the both of her
parents called out.

“In here ... in the kitchen...” she
said, quickly grabbing a glass from the middle shelf of the
cabinet, and starting to fill it with water from the filter
tap.

“Coralie...” they both
started.

She turned to face her parents with a
smile, “Yes?” But her smile started to fade as she looked at the
faces of both her parents. “Something's wrong ... isn't
there?”

Katelyn and Cal stood close to one
another and were eyeing each other as if to question who would go
first.

Katelyn broke the silent stares.
“Honey, your father and I would like to talk to you...would you
like to have a seat...”

“Sure,” she said as she sat her glass
of water down on the countertop. She walked over to the kitchen bar
and slowly slid onto one of the barstools. “What's going on? Is
everything okay?”

“Well, honey, we wanted to talk about
tonight...”

“What about it?”

“Well, besides the blackout at the
benefit,” Katelyn started, “... did anything out of the ordinary
happen tonight?”

“Out of the ordinary like
how?”

“Like, I don’t know, did you maybe ...
hear anything or see anything different ... did you
feel
like anything was different? Or even –”

Cal abruptly interrupted. “Did Court
happen to say anything to you...”

Coralie, caught by surprise, answered
questioning, “About what?”

“About anything ... what did you guys
talk about?”

“Dad ... We just talked...” Coralie
let a smile escape her lips. Not noticing that her parents noticed.
“... He's nice...” Coralie was suddenly lost in remembering every
detail of his most perfect face.

“So, nothing ... no particular topic
of interest...” Cal probed.

“Dad,” Coralie shrugged her Dad's
words off. “But, Mom, to answer your question, ... yeah, I felt
like something was off tonight...”

“Off?”

“Yeah … so I guess my own questioning
would be about the blackout itself. What happened?”

Her parents looked to each other as if
looking for an answer from the other.

“Forget it. Don't worry about it. It
was still a great night, guys. Great teamwork. I would love to stay
up and chat but...” she paused for a yawn, “I am beat ... I have
had quite an...” she paused remembering Court’s word usage, “...
eventful night...” she said, with smiling lips.

When she heard no rebuttal from her
parents, she pushed her stool away from the bar, resting her bare
feet on the cold kitchen floor. She leaned over to her mother, gave
her a kiss on the cheek, and then walked over to her dad, who was
standing at the sink. She reached up, doing the same, and then
walked to the door leading out of the kitchen.

“Coralie...” Cal started, causing
Coralie to turn to face them again. “You forgot your glass of
water...”

“Oh, right ... thanks, Dad...” she
said as she took the glass and walked out of the door. “Next time,
go a little easier on the lighting...” she called out, letting out
a quirky giggle on her way up the staircase.

The two sat in silence for a few
moments until Katelyn spoke aloud. “I froze ... I'm sorry...”
Katelyn said, turning to her husband.

“Me, too, honey...” he answered,
reassuring.

“We can't keep doing this to her, Cal
... her memories ... They are hers, not ours...”

“I know, honey ... we will talk to
her, I promise...” Cal vowed.

“When, Cal ... how many times ... how
many close calls ... what will it take to convince you
–?”

“That she needs to know? After
tonight, I'm convinced. I had every intention of telling her
everything tonight ... but I froze, I panicked...”

“This is no time to panic ... we did
this, we have kept this from her, and now ... now, it's time to
come clean...” Katelyn finished, with a tear rising up in her
eye.

* * * * *

Court drove through the dark night on
his motorcycle. The wind on his face was refreshing,
cool.

He smiled as he thought of Coralie's
smile. The way the corners of her mouth turned up at even the
slightest gesture of his words. How her eyes lit up when she spoke
to him.

He adored how naïve she was in her
nature. She had been under continuous protection from those around
her, some she didn't even know of. She had been watched over for
all of these years and has never known why. She didn't have the
slightest inclination of her purpose or importance.

And furthermore, she had no idea that
he would lay down his own life for hers ... or how close that time
to come may be ...

Coralie woke to the beam of sunlight that was
peering into her room through her window. She stretched and smiled
as memories started to fill her mind. She thought of Court ... his
face, his laugh, his voice, and the way he held her hand. She felt
so safe with him. Just the thought of him made her
smile.

She started to try and replay the
events from the previous night at the Benefit. She remembered her
parents and their awkward introduction of Court, the terrace
balcony conversation with Court and ... and ...
nothing
...
but home.

Wasn't there something
else?

She felt like something was
missing.

Was there nothing between
the terrace and her arrival at home?

Confused, she rose from her bed and
jogged down the stairs, throwing her hair up in a
hair-tie.

“Good Morning, Parental units...” she
said, walking into the kitchen.

Both Cal and Katelyn were sitting at
the kitchen table drinking coffee. “Breakfast?” Cal asked, cheering
up his coffee cup.

“Not that kind of breakfast ... I'm
more of a cereal-type gal, with a shot of chocolate milk. You know
I like the hard stuff...” Coralie humorously explained, as serious
as she could without smirking, to her parents.

Cal rose from his chair and walked
across the kitchen. “You have always liked to live life on the
edge, kiddo...” Cal said, jokingly, handing her a box of cereal
from the top shelf of the pantry.

She poured her breakfast into a bowl
and sat down at the table. As she took her first bite, she had the
odd feeling that she was being stared at. She looked up from her
bowl of cereal. And she was. “Umm, ... am I missing something?” she
paused for only a moment, only to proceed overdramatically, “Do I
have something on my face?” pausing again to act shocked, she
continued, “That's it, isn't it? I'm missing my face ... Man, I
knew I forgot something this morning...”

She began to laugh, but a word began
to ring through her mind like sounding chimes.
Forgot ...
She took in a sharp breath as she shook off the word that lingered
within her mind.

Her parents looked at each other and
then at Coralie, who was allowing herself to snicker. “Ease up,
guys! It's a beautiful day!” She said, taking another bite of
cereal.

Katelyn and Cal looked at each other.
Cal nodded. “Coralie, honey, can we talk?”

Slurping down the last of her milk
from the now empty bowl, Coralie looked up at her parents and said,
“Sure, but can we do it after Church...nobody likes a Late
Lizzy!”

“Hey, isn't that my line?” Katelyn
asked, watching her daughter walk over to the sink.

Coralie turned and smiled. “Not today,
it isn't...” Then she tossed her empty bowl into the sink and
hurried out of the door, leaving her parents standing with curious
faces.

* * * * *

Coralie walked out of the Church's
giant, wooden, double front doors. The building was beautiful in
its old architecture - one of the oldest in Thessla, according to
her parents. Oddly enough, it seemed to serve the entirety of
Thessla.

As Coralie stepped into the sunlight,
she felt the rays fall upon her. The sun felt warm against her
skin.

“Coralie!” she heard. She turned to
see Court walking up the steps toward her. “Hey ... how are you
this morning?”

“Good...” she said, allowing smile to
wash over her face. “And you ...?”

“Better now...” he said, as he took
her hand. Coralie's cheeks blushed with red. “So, what are you
doing tonight?”

“Tonight?” she asked, as her breath
caught in her chest.

“Yes, tonight ... do you have any
plans?” He moved in closer to her, awaiting her answer.

“Umm ... no, I mean, well, actually,
kinda ... I have this paper due for Lit, and quite frankly, I
haven't even started on it ... why do you ask?”

“I thought you may want to accompany
me to dinner tomorrow night ... just to, umm, talk ... what do you
think?”

“I would love to ... but tonight I … I
don’t know...” Coralie began to stumble over her words.

“Well, how about this ... I will not
be the cause for you making the dragon-lady unleash on you for a
late assignment...” he said grinning, “So, another time soon,
perhaps?”

“I take it that you know Ms. Sieve
pretty well...”

“So?”

“Yes, I’d love to have dinner with you
sometime...” trying not to sound overly excited, though she was
almost overcome with it.

“Tomorrow night, then?”

“On a school night?”

“I like to live life on the
edge...”

“I see … Well, I’m not so sure that I
should take on that sort of company. Your devious ways may rub off
on me.”

“Oh, right … I wouldn’t dare want for
you to turn to the dark side...” Court smiled at her. “So, I'll
pick you up at seven o'clock on Friday ... not a school night...”
he said, leaning in, giving her hand a slight squeeze. He paused,
moving in close to her, and slowly breathing her in, “... until I
see you again...” He gave her a light peck on her cheek, then
turned and walked down the steps, and started down the
sidewalk.