Walking Among the Shadows: Awakening: Revised Edition (25 page)

O
ver
what seemed like five hours, all we did was meditate and exercise. For a man
who was thousands of years old, Jaffrey was in unbelievable shape. He put me to
shame by outperforming me in every physical and mental category. And he
constantly teased me calling me out of shape and a young “Thundercat.” I guess
he thought it was funny and “hip,” but it wasn’t funny and was kind of weird
knowing this man who was thousands of years old knew about a cartoon from the
eighties. I would think a man of his experience would be reading books on
strategy and enlightenment, not watching cartoons. But what was even stranger
was that regardless of how long we had been in this forest, the sun never went
through its natural progression. It just remained in the same position in the
sky and after so many hours its position should have been towards the west and
not still in the east. I tried to ignore it, but after a while it kept eating at
me so I just had to ask.

“Hey, where are we?”

“Keep moving, Aiden!”

“Wait, we’ve been at this for
hours and the sun hasn’t moved one inch— that’s not normal. So where are we?”

“I said keep moving!”

At this point I was getting
upset, I hated being ignored and given my current predicament, withholding
information could mean my family’s demise.

“Okay, I’m not going to take
another step until you tell me where we are!”

Jaffrey stopped running and
turned to me with a look of anger in his eyes.

“I said move! I’m not going to
repeat myself again.”

“And if I refuse? What are you
going to do? Kill me?”

“The thought crossed my mind!”

“You actually think I’m afraid
of you, Jaffrey? Things here don’t seem right even with all the beauty around
me. I want answers and if killing me is an easier task than telling me what the
hell is going on here, then so be it!”

Jaffrey smiled and placed his
hand on my shoulder in a gesture of congratulations.

What the hell? He thought this
was funny?

I quickly snatched away and
took a step back to make sure he couldn’t touch me again.

“Jaffrey, you may be all
powerful, but I will not hesitate to kick your ass if you try and hurt me.”

Jaffrey began to laugh till
tears started falling down his face.

“What’s so funny?”

“You remind me of myself
during my training with my teacher and he always said I was one of the most
difficult yet most talented of his students. I never saw myself as being
difficult. I, like yourself, just wanted answers and I didn’t trust the process
in the beginning. Now I understand completely what I put him through and it’s
cosmic comedy at its best.”

“Jaffrey, look at my face, do
you see a smile or even a giggle coming on?”

“No, Aiden, I do not. I meant
no disrespect.”

“So why the threats? Why the
games?”

“Aiden, this was all a test!”

“Another test?!”

“Yes. In training you will be
tested to find out exactly what kind of Baraqu you will become and the limits
of your potential. I have trained many Baraqu in my past and you are by far the
most intuitive of them all. It only took you mere hours to discover and gain
the resolve to question your current situation. Normally it would take days and
weeks before they got the nerve to question their trainer. I am not in the
business of training ‘yes’ men and walking-talking “sheeple”. No, we train
those with a mind to think and use it. Regardless of how things may seem, how
beautiful they are, if your soul speaks to you and tells you something isn’t
right, you must have the courage to speak up. Even if it’s someone you love or look
up to; it shouldn’t’ matter, you must have the resolve to discern what’s right
and act.

This is the foundation of our
order. We can’t sit idle and let even those we love behave contrary to what we
know is right. This is one of the major problems with mankind today. Fear—fear
prevents people to act and rise up against oppression and tyranny. They wait
for others to act and while they are waiting, someone else is also waiting and
a chain reaction occurs and the entire planet is sitting on their asses waiting
for someone else to make things right. As Baraqu, we can’t become mentally lazy
and complacent.”

The more Jaffrey explained,
the more I began to understand how much I didn’t understand. I thought even as
a teenager I was ahead of the curve. Boy, was I wrong. I was clueless.

“So can you tell me where are
we?”

“Yes, we are in an alternate
reality that I created just for this training exercise.”

“What do you mean a different
reality? So all of this isn’t real?”

“Yes, it is…this isn’t an
illusion. As a master and wielder of time and space I am able to create an
alternate reality to which I can invite whomever I want. I can create all the
scenery I want, create my own canvas. But I am unable to create any life forms
that require ‘Shi’ or the breath of life. Only the creator has that power. But
I can create wildlife, plant life, landscapes, etc., but I can only maintain
this alternate reality for a limited time period and once I’m done with it I
must dispose of it. It can’t be permanent.”

“Why not? I mean that would be
a great idea to create the perfect vacation or chill spot! Beaches, oceans,
great islands with all the trimmings. C’mon, Jaffrey, why would you not want to
keep a place like that for yourself?”

“Because you are altering the
order of the universe and keeping that reality permanent could have a negative
effect on the order of the universe. We are creating an unknown and smashing it
into the known without proper process of creation. We are taking personal order
and implanting it into universal order. Who’s to say making this reality
permanent won’t cancel out another reality?

Who’s to say it wouldn’t
create a supernova that would eradicate all organic life in the universe? We
have no idea what it would cause, so we must maintain it for a limited period
of time and then correct the ripple we created in the fabric of time and space
when we created this alternate reality.

“Creating these alternate
realities are essential to keeping the Shadows’ prying eyes in the dark about
what we are planning.

I was still confused about the
whole “time and space equals reality” thing. I was trying to wrap my head
around it, like Jaffrey said, but it just seemed too advanced and farfetched to
me.

“So now that I’ve passed this
test, what’s next?”

“We continue to train. You
see, you think you’ve been here for hours but in reality you’ve only been here
less than five minutes.”

“What!”

“The most I can maintain an
alternate reality without it beginning to have an effect on the universe is
about an hour tops. If you didn’t pass the test within that time frame we would
have to stop and the training would end.”

“End?”

“Yes. I would have to stop
training you and revealing the secrets of the Baraqu.”

“Why?”

“Because you don’t possess the
mental capacity to handle the power you would wield and you would become your
own worst enemy and potentially become a harbinger of destruction. That is
something we cannot allow, so this test is necessary to weed out those who have
the potential and those who don’t. Just because you have the power of the
Baraqu inside you doesn’t mean you will become Baraqu. It’s not just enough to
have the power, you must also have the wisdom to use it.

“Our time is up here, it’s
time to move on to another form of training.”

“Which is?”

“Wielding and controlling the
elements.”

“ You can teach me how to
control fire, electricity, water, and other elements?”

“Yes, I can, but can you
learn?”

“We’ll have to see.” The
thought of being able to control lightning was just badass to me. I was really
hoping this training wasn’t all smoke and mirrors either. I was standing there
picturing myself shooting lightning out my hands and eyes like a superhero.
Yeah, it was going to be badass. Well, that’s if I could learn because I had
the feeling the whole control-time-and-space thing would come into play and I
still hadn’t gotten the concept.

“Shall we leave, Aiden?”

“Yeah, let’s go.”

Then Jaffrey did the most
awesome thing I’d ever seen. He calmly walked forward, stretched out his right
arm with his hand held open and then closed his hand like he was crushing a
piece of paper. And instantly everything around us was absorb inside his hand;
like balling up a piece of paper that was on a wall, but instead of paper it
was an entire world.

When I looked around we were
back at his place. It all happened in less than three seconds and the swift
change in environment and lighting made it hard for my eyes to adjust. Never in
my wildest dreams could I have imagined this kind of power being available to
anyone. Not even in comic books or movies was this kind of power displayed. It
was amazing and unnerving. I started to understand why my mental state was so
important because someone with a really bad attitude with this kind of power at
his disposal could be a walking, breathing Armageddon.

“What was that? How did you do
that? That was incredible!” I yelled. I couldn’t contain me excitement at
Jaffrey’s display of power.

“This is the power you will
wield and you must be trained to use this power responsibly. You must
understand and honor the laws of relativity and govern yourself accordingly.
Using this power is no small matter and that’s why the first thing we have to
know is if you have a mind capable of thinking for itself and a will to use it.
We will train in the art of elemental powers first. Elemental powers are the
weapons of the battlefield against the Shadows and any other enemy you may
encounter. The power to alter reality is a power that will be learned much
later once you’ve mastered your ability to harness emotions and the wisdom of which
emotions to use.”

“Can Shadows create alternate
realities?”

“In a way. They possess a
power called Erset La Tari, which means ‘land of no return’. It allows them to
place people in a dark hellish reality where evil spirits occupy a dark abyss.
Many have perished while under Erset La Tari spell.”

As he continued to explain
Erset La Tari, it dawned on me that was exactly what Jasmine was doing to me. I
never gave it much thought until that second, but it appears that Jasmine was
also a Shadow. But how could she be a Shadow yet warn Sarah about Jason the
night of the attack? I would think she would rejoice in our demise’ not warn
us. Especially now knowing she was trying to kill me with that dark nightmare
she kept putting me in. I was so confused and I guess my inner turmoil was
written all over my face. The look on my face alarmed Jaffrey and he walked
towards me with concern in his eyes.

“Tell me Aiden, have you
experienced this curse before?”

I was hesitant to answer
because then I would have to relive my murderous intentions towards a high
school girl who from what I’ve just learned, may be a Shadow.

“Yes, I have.”

“Where?”

“At school.”

“School? At your high school?”

“Yes.”

“That is not good. How many
children were affected, how many were lost?”

I was really confused now.
“What do you mean how many were affected? No one was lost, I was the only one
affected.”

“Impossible, Aiden, unless you
were alone. Where did it happen?”

“In the lunchroom first and
then on the football field during tryouts, also during a game and I wasn’t
alone. There were hundreds of students and teachers around.”

“That is impossible! When a
Shadow performs Erset La Tari it affects an area not an individual. Entire
towns and armies have been lost when a Shadow performs the Erset La Tari.”

“Jaffrey, I’m telling you I
was the only person affected.” He still had a look of disbelief on his face.