Soulmates (10 page)

“Love is when all of your thoughts consist of only that person. When you know the person so well that you can finish each other sentences, or with a look you know what they want you to do. It’s when you know without a shadow of a doubt the person is right for you. There’s no second guessing, no questioning. Emily made it known that I was the only one for her, and I believe that to be true. I never doubted it. And saying ‘I love you’ isn’t enough.”

“Sounds like you have it all figured out. But if someone tells you that they love you, then I believe that they do,” she added, thinking of Tyler.

“No, that’s not right,” Jesse corrected shaking his head. “Think of it like this. If you couldn’t hear, you could only see, then would his actions show you that he loves you?" Presley didn’t answer him. He went on, “It’s when you care more about that person than you do yourself. Emily and I shared a special kind of love
—
agape love,” he said with a grin.

“Agape love? What’s agape love?” she asked.

“Agape love is a spiritual love, a selfless love. The purest form of love. It’s hard to form a definition of agape love. It’s more of a feeling, a knowing.”

“Wow, you nailed it! That’s me and Tyler, for sure,” she lied.

He turned towards her and looked deeply into her blue eyes and said, “It’s when that person dominates your thoughts each and every night before you close your eyes. And again in the morning when you wake, your mind fixates on that person instantly. The problem with this is if
you
are the
only
one in the relationship with these feelings, then it’s all for nothing. Because it’s
not
true love and you’re just wasting your time. It must be
mutual.
And I for one would never settle for anything less than true love because once you’ve experienced
that,
nothing else compares. I would rather be alone than try to force love to happen with someone.

For a moment Presley was silent.

“Yeah, Tyler and I have all that,” Presley repeated as she looked away.

“Sure you do,” he smiled.

Chapter Seven

Jesse walked Presley back to the cabin. He was obviously disappointed that Presley had rejected him. He stopped her at the doorway and took her hand.

“Please think about what I said. I really don’t believe Tyler is the one for you. You deserve better,” he whispered.

“Maybe I do. But I’ve been wondering. If you really believe in all that ‘true love’ stuff, then why did you ever even date Sarah? I mean your whole spiel back at the river about ‘the one’ was touching, I'll admit, really. But I’m not sure you truly believe that,” she said.

“What do you mean? I courted Sarah for a short time here,” he confessed, his face flushed.

“Yeah. Well, if you were
so
in love with Emily, then how do you explain Sarah?” she pressed.

Jesse looked down and shook his head.

“Woman! I courted Sarah for a
short
time here because I
couldn’t
have Emily! And I do mean a
short
time. I figured out quickly that our relationship was
not
going to work,” he explained. His eyes were eager for her response.

“Why didn’t it work?” she asked softly.

“Because I—I— was still in love with Emily. I learned and accepted, after being here for a while, that I would always love Emily. She was
my
one,” he said sadly.

“Okay, I see. I don’t know why you’re getting so defensive with me,” she said.

“Because you wanted to know,” he looked at her as if she were crazy.

“Well -now I know. Good night,” Presley said as she opened the door. She took one last look at Jesse before walking inside the cabin. Presley was now not only jealous of Emily, but of Sarah too. And she was a little angry with Jesse for dating either. She couldn’t understand why she was having these feelings. She was too tired to try to sort them out. Exhausted, Presley collapsed her body onto the bed and thought silently to herself.

“Agape love. Jesse and Emily had agape love. That was so long ago. Seriously long ago, the eighteen hundreds. I think love has probably changed since then. Hmm, agape love
—
there’s no such thing,”
she concluded. She shut her eyes and drifted off to sleep.

≈≈≈≈≈

Presley began to dream again. Only this time the images were sharp and in focus. The colors were bright and it seemed so real, as if she were right there. Jesse was riding a black horse and a young lady was riding behind him. The horse was galloping fast and the girl held on to Jesse’s waist tightly with her head resting on his shoulder. Her long hair was curled at the ends, with the sides pinned up. Her long dress flowed as they rode. Jesse stopped the horse and he turned around and kissed the girl.

≈≈≈≈≈

“Get up Presley! We are finally going home!” Paulette announced from the kitchen. Presley rubbed her eyes as she rose from the bed. She staggered into the kitchen and Paulette threw her a piece of bread.

“I’m not hungry,” said Presley.

“You need to eat,” insisted Paulette. “We have a long journey ahead and you’ll need your strength."

There was a knock at the door and Jesse walked inside. He had a book under his right arm. Without even a glance in Presley’s direction, he hastily walked to the kitchen table and opened the book.

“There are several maps. See?” Jesse said as he flipped through the pages. “But this page here. This is where we’ll find Manna. It reads,
The Castle of The Panacea of Gnostic
.

“Panacea of Gnostic?” Presley repeated. Jesse nodded.

“See here?” he pointed to the written description at the bottom of the page. “Yeah, it means universe of knowledge. Hmm… manna apparently holds a wealth of wisdom about the universe. I believe this is where we need to go-to the castle,” he concluded.

“How long will we have to travel?” asked Paulette. Jesse shrugged his shoulders, still not making eye contact with either of the girls.

“At least two days, maybe three,” he said shortly.

“I’m ready to go,” stated Presley.

Jesse shook his head and took a deep breath as he firmly said, “I need you both to understand just how dangerous this is going to be. Fiend and the other spirits will find us. We have to stay together at all times,” Jesse demanded. Jesse pulled three small bright white stones out of a bag.

“What are those?” asked Presley.

“Crystals,” Jesse replied. “The Book of Codes shows us that the crystals will protect us. They keep the evil spirits away somehow, I think.” He flipped through more pages. “Here’s a picture of Gracie. The book illustrates the layers of rich black soil mixed with crystals.” He turned the page, “Now, this page I don’t really understand.

It was a drawing of frightening demons with red eyes, each with a large black X drawn through them.

“That must be how Gracie can protect us. The crystals are what makes Gracie special,” Jesse shook his head, “I don’t know how this all works. Manna is the only one who truly knows,” he said.

“The Book of Codes was left here to help us figure out how to live here. It warns us of the evil that lurks outside of our town,” Paulette said, as she pointed to the page opposite of the illustrated demons. “See, the picture of the crystals here? There’s a line drawn to the crossed out demons.”

“So, the crystals must kill the demons-somehow,” Presley deducted.

“The crystals have a direct effect on Gracie and this land. This much we do know,” said Jesse. “My theory is that Manna knew that humans would come to this planet and he wanted to help protect us from Fiend. Without the crystals on this land we wouldn’t have been able to live here safely for all these years. We’d all be dead. I don’t know exactly how much power these three crystals hold, or exactly what they do, but I do know that we need to take them with us. When I discovered this book, these crystals were lying next to it.”

“We need to have plenty of food and water, enough for a three day trip. I’ll be back. Get ready to go! Oh, and Presley’s clothes are ready. They’re out on the line. Hurry up!” he snapped. Jesse walked out of the cabin, the door slamming behind him. Startled by the loud noise, Paulette’s eyes grew big as she looked toward Presley.

“Wonder what’s wrong with him. He barely even looked at you,” Paulette whispered.

“I know what’s wrong with him. He asked me to stay here with him and I told him no,” Presley said as she rolled her eyes. “That sounds even dumber when I say it out loud.”

“He asked you to stay? What’s he thinking? He must have it bad for you!” Presley chuckled.

“I guess so. I don’t understand his intentions, though. He acts as if he likes me, but then he goes on and on about how Emily was his one true love. Anyway, I have a boyfriend, not to mention a life that I need to get back to, and besides that-what’s wrong with him? I can’t believe that he’d ask me to stay here. He acts like he knows me or something. It’s weird.”

“Is it weird?” asked Paulette.

Presley thought for a moment and then said, “Yeah, I think it’s weird. So he’s going to be mad at me because I have a boyfriend and family and friends that I want to go home to? Does that even make sense? He doesn’t even know me well enough to be mad at me!"

“I know. It’s like he’s in love with you or something,” Paulette smirked.

“You can’t fall in love with someone in two days. It just doesn’t happen," Presley said quietly, talking to herself.

“Are you trying to convince me or yourself?” Paulette smiled.

“So you believe that you can fall in love with someone that quickly?” asked Presley.

“Crazier things have happened,” Paulette said with a grin. “Let’s get your clothes.”

They went outside and found Presley’s clothes hanging from the clothesline. Paulette unpinned them and handed them over to Presley and they returned inside to dress. They finished gathering up the food they would need for the trip when they heard the door open.

“Are you two about ready to go?” Jesse called out. Jesse had a brown bag hanging over his right shoulder. “Hey, Paulette, where do you keep your flint and iron?” he asked.

Paulette reached her hand over the shelf by the fireplace and grabbed an old cloth and the iron and flint. Jesse placed them in the bag, along with the food the girls had gathered. Presley grabbed her cell phone from the table and put it in her back pocket.

Presley followed Jesse out the door. Paulette paused as she looked around her house one last time and said quietly, “I pray that I never have to see this place again.” She slowly shut the door behind her.

They walked until they reached the gates of the town, where they had met only days before. Jesse stopped abruptly and turned to the girls, “Okay, we need to establish a few rules before we leave. First, we all stay together." He reached into the bag and pulled out the three crystals and continued, “The spirits will try to divide us, but if we stay together and have the power of the crystals, I think that we will be safe. Next, we’ll take limited breaks. We don’t have time to rest every hour. We need to get to the castle as soon as possible. Last, we’ll have to sleep in shifts at night, so expect to be tired during the day. We have to keep moving. If we make it to Manna’s castle, we’ll make it together, and if we die, we die together. Agreed?” he asked.

“Agreed,” said the girls.

“Open the gates!” Jesse shouted to the guards. The guards opened the massive wooden gates and they walked out. The land was quiet and peaceful. It was hard for Presley to imagine the massive tornadoes that had tried to destroy her only a couple of days before. They walked around the wall that shielded the town from the evil outside. Then through a field of high grass for an hour or so making small talk until they heard a noise. It sounded like a shuffling in the grass, like someone was walking towards them. Startled, Paulette held on tightly to Jesse.

“It’s just a couple of deer,” Presley said. The deer stood still, staring at them, and then slowly they began to walk closer. Presley held out her hand and the deer brushed her face against it.