Stealing Eternity
PART THREE
Chapter Forty-Two
Saidi’s Part:
From how I see things, nothing’s impossible, and people or other species don’t need restraining like gravity to ground their nature. And I have to laugh when people think I’m not paying attention or even within earshot of issues going on most of which concern me. Like unique thoughts and words between individuals that transpired and unspoken stories that nobody ever knew the details of because nobody ever asked.
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The short drive into town took less than fifteen minutes. He needed to buy some large envelopes to mail all his childhood letters and drawings to Cat. He specifically wanted aqua colored large containers — Yeah, the color of the ocean, their ocean.
He’d come apart many times in his life, and he could count the trouble spots on four fingers. The first incident when he lost contact with Cat initially. Then, when Saidi went without a trace. A couple of depressive years went by when he couldn’t stand most people. And lastly, when Cat came back into his life right after the locket activated and disappeared. Others around him might have considered more times but Shenser didn’t count other trivial things. If up to him he’d only number crunch the times wrapped around relationships. Never stress in finances, health issues, for the most part, or danger unless he’d count risk of not ever seeing ones he cared about ever again.
Shenser descended into town. He leaned forward some considering he hated directions. Then he relaxed knowing he knew the location of this paper store. As he perched on the wheel, his mind wandered to the earlier conversation that made him realize he needed Cat to know how he’d always felt about her.
“Aqua Boy?”
A nonstop war with emotions had occurred since age 15. Does that make me over sensitive? He wondered. With Cat coming back into his life now, the only loose end, or emotional tug remained in Saidi’s disappearance. Or for all practical purposes he could say the locket considering it practically beat like a human heart. Damn, now that’s gone again.
The up and down saga of the locket continued. Yes, the dilemma of the locket. At first welded shut. Then later smashed open to find his picture amidst an unknown family, including Saidi. Then Saidi left it dangling behind on her horse’s saddle horn. Later coming alive within his safe — lifting a 1200 pound safe off the ground and then disappearing altogether — assumed to have gone to an unknown place where Saidi resides.
Now, the disturbing roller coaster ride caused his head to spin as his face grew greener and greener. The rest of the world around him in all paths seemed simple — non-complex, his world, not so much, now even the explanations making that thin line between reality and fantasy blend.
Fantasy’s healing balm numbed his despair. Now reality jolted it back, and suddenly this new development, actually an old development, changed everything?
“Aqua Boy, can you hear me?”
This information reminded him of a seagull flying overhead and cutting loose, just barely missing its mark. Jeez, there’s nothing like a near miss to rev up my pulse. But no matter how you shape trouble, no question about it, major stress advanced unless he got that locket back. He felt responsible.
He pulled into the parking spot of the small specialty paper store. He found a cart. He looked ridiculous with his large hands and tall frame pushing the doll like cart down the aisles. Come on — how do they expect people to buy large amounts of paper with no room in the cart?
He spotted the colored envelopes. Then recognized the dark, bright color of the ocean. Up at the check stand the cashier smiled at him and curiously looked at the colored envelopes. “Nice,” she said.
He returned a cocky grin, “It’s for a special project,” he managed to say. Not wanting to spend too much time chit chatting he pulled out his credit card and left.
When he got back to his car, he sat for a moment, eyes closed. His Brain ricocheted again. It skipped between the reality of the here and now and the dreamland of different realms.
He knew Saidi for such a short timespan in his life. Rather his concern focused on the opened porthole into another world not meant as a two-way street. Yes, they had a team that could and did at times travel to this place. But now some of these entities could move back to this world and do harm. They could infiltrate and change the whole course of life as they knew it.
He had seen first hand the locket’s capabilities and the force behind it, and how it could result in a dangerous weapon in the wrong hands. This complication, seemed like taking a direct hit on a fighting plane. Yikes, how can I fix this?
“Shense, you listening?”
He realized how Cat must feel, so difficult to tell him. He loved her for having such guts. He didn’t hold it against her, but rather knowing her motivation for taking the locket became his call to action. He’d let her know how he felt, how he had always felt.
Though he wouldn’t tell her, that he’d search for the stolen locket at his first opportunity. He needed that locket back, for many reasons. And then having the locket would fix things once and for all, he hoped.
“Shenser,”
Shenser glanced at Cat, her hand enter twined, one elbow on his desk as she sat, chin perched on her hands. Her beauty took his breath away. Alarmed him. Her honesty, albeit late, moved him. He stared at her, finally giving her his complete attention, “What would you say if I told you I found your locket,” she said. Her head tilted to the side.”
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NINGEN QUEEN’S COUNSEL REGARDING THE FUTURE
The Ningen Queen’s wise counsel advised her for years from visions and apparitions telling of approaching distinction if life continued as usual. The queen emerged on the surface in human form for that reason.
Now, years later, she wouldn’t mind it if she never returned to the underground, going through the routine mating and laying eggs. Though instinct, a drive far bigger than her wishes drew her back without fail.
When she communicated with her counselors, they prophesied of an upcoming day that would bring the answer. Not exactly precise what to watch out for, but she should not object to detaining a company of people in the work camps when that opportunity presented itself.
The counsel taught the queen about the necessity of changing their future. She had learned how to transform convincingly, effortlessly, in fact. She even changed proportionately into the satisfying species of human matching their anatomy and geometry precisely. She knew about the scale and proportions of morphing.
The counsel taught the queen, well she already knew, but they reminded her of the lost species that had to inhabit another world and how this world could also determine their demise. Indeed, the entire species could die off and disappear altogether unless she toddled two worlds to accomplish their longevity, as a queen, the only one that could accomplish this. Their future relied on her completely.
The region, the mountain range, the new world all marked the area of their advanced beginnings many hundreds of years ago. The land and waters had swallowed them up and remained kind to them until recently.
When the negative news of the Infinītes first started to stir, when they first began causing problems worldwide, with their impending captivity and genocide, an opportunity opened for her as a world leader. Privy to such discussions but the Queen didn’t see how that would help the weakening and disease in her body and all the other Ningen’s.
Her life positioned in patience. As the queen, she knew her very species possessed the ability to live in the water and on land. Over the centuries, they had remained hidden from the humans and coexisted without problems.
If spotted, they would look suspicious, a cross between human and non-human. Up until recently they had remained virtually invisible. Now a new species discovered brought their cover into the spotlight. And Queen Bruni had to recognize the woman so as not to draw attention to her disguise.
She wanted to diffuse this discovery. First, however, she would acknowledge this researcher and then it would fade out as these discoveries always do. It would turn vaporous and insubstantial, visible only in the outdated history journals.
On the other hand, the clinging bells of new discoveries in truth do not disappear, like a gleaming ship on the ocean but it would shrink once the newness dissipated. More like an optical illusion at that point. This plan would take a little time. But what’s a couple of years in the span of a thousand? It would become a ghost of a thing without her ever worrying a bit of the outcome.
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Stealing Eternity is the (first draft of the) second book in the Infinite Series.
Eternal Infinite on Amazon
Written by Pam Kesterson
