Chapter Nineteen

Ry quickly stands up, rushes to her and grabs her arm. “Will you excuse us for a moment.” He says to Heather and ushers Nasia out of the room.
“What the hell, Nasia? You can’t just teleport in my office while I’m with someone.” He seethes quietly.
The hallway was empty as the service was going on in the main part of the building. He pulls her to the corner wall, where a small window faced the back of the church and to the parking lot, showing the cloudless sky above.
“I wasn’t aware she was in there. Your office is filled with so many mixed energies it was hard to tell whether you were alone or not.”
“So, you just took the chance?”” He felt a little annoyed.
“Yes. Your energy felt off and I wanted to know what was causing it.” She frowns looking at his person. “You seem to be okay though.”
“You sensed my energy all the way from the redwoods? How is that possible?” He wasn’t sure on how to feel about that.
She shrugs indifferently. “Your force of life is very strong to me now. I can probably find you from all the way across the country. The more time I spend with you the stronger the force becomes.”
“Right. Still doesn’t make it okay for you to just pop out of nowhere like that. Other humans won’t understand how you are Nasia. You need to be more cautious and careful with your abilities.”
“I understand. Your movies helped with that.” She smiles big at him, causing his heart to flutter along with pride and joy.
Slightly blushing he looks away and asks, “Are you sure Heather is pregnant? Do you feel the energy of the baby or something?”
Nodding she lays a hand on her lower abdominal. “There is a small sense of vitality right here inside her which tells me there is another human being there.”
Sighing with a heaviness he didn’t want to feel he rubs the back of his neck trying to figure out how to handle this situation. He knew he was going to face some difficulties when it came to teenagers, he was one not too long ago, but this? This may be out of his element.
“Okay, well let me go talk to her first and then we’ll talk more about why you’re here.” He goes to walk away and makes sure she stays where she is while he continues to talk to the girl, who was rightly angry that someone else knew about her situation.
After finding out that she was indeed pregnant with a much older man whose age made Ry’s jaw nearly drop, he agreed to keep the secret for now. She was eventually going to have to say something because as she stood up he noticed she was already beginning to show signs. He didn’t notice it before but now that he was more aware she was already further along than what he expected her to be.
Once she left she gave Nasia, who was still standing where he left her, a dark look. Not bothering to say anything she practically runs out of the hall.
“She’s young.”
“She’s sixteen who has a long and difficult road ahead of her. And it’s highly possible that she’ll be raising that baby alone or give it up for adoption. But enough about her, why are you here?” He goes back into his office with her right behind him.
“I told you. I felt your energy was off. It made me feel…unsettled.” She goes straight to his bookshelf and starts peering at the contents.
He couldn’t help his lips quirking a bit. “That’s because my work sometimes disturbs me.”
“How so?” She takes a book down and starts flipping through the pages.
“Because it requires listening to people’s problems, heartaches, troubles, grief.” The last word he said solemnly getting her attention.
Stopping what she was doing she looks over to him. “Grief? Whose grief? Yours or someone you had to talk too?”
He wasn’t supposed to mention his clients problems and what they were going through to other people, not even the preacher who was his benefactor. Breaking protocol of confidentiality he couldn’t help but tell her. She wasn’t just anybody. He told her of the deaths that he had hear from an eleven year old girl.
Nasia comes to sit next to him on his desk where he had been lounging staring down at his hands while he talked softly.
“You humans really do take death seriously, don’t you?” She asks with a frown.
“Of course we do. It’s our biggest fear.”
“I listened to the music you gave me. For hours and hours walking around town watching people. I sat at a park where an old man was sitting on a bench feeding ducks and geese some breadcrumbs. He looked…sad and lonely. I don’t know what it’s like to lose someone the way you all do. We weren’t brought up to care about such things since emotions isn’t something we ever thought to dwell on.”
“What about now?” He couldn’t help asking, watching her facial features as she works through her thoughts.
“I’m…not sure. Watching him look like that I felt…” Sitting up a bit straighter she looks to him with furrowed brows. “I’m just not sure what I felt at that moment. But it felt heavy. Right here.” She lays a hand on her chest.
Taking that hand he places it right over his own chest where she can feel his pounding heart. “That’s because right here is where most of our emotions come from. Right here is where we feel it the most.”
She stares at their holding hands together and sudden embarrassment takes a hold of him as he realized what he was doing. Clearing his throat he quickly lets her hand go and looks away. Suddenly his cell phone starts blaring out an alert system making them both jump at the loud obnoxious sound. Grabbing it from the desk he stares down at the message that showed bold and red letters.
ALERT: SEVERE THUNDERSTORM!
Then a recorded voice starts speaking from the speakers. “National Weather Service has issued a severe thunderstorm warning for the coast of southern California and moving upward to central valley. Along with large hail and damaging winds expected at one hundred and twelve miles per hour with expected two inches of rain. People outside should move to a shelter inside a strong building and away from windows. This is not a test. National Weather Service…”
It continues to repeat the same message. Ry looks to Nasia who just stares out the window looking up at the sky again like she did the day before. Not waiting to see if she’ll follow he heads out the door and into the main building to hear everyone’s phones going off as well. Looks of concern and worry were on everyone’s faces.
“Alright everyone, lets calm down. We’ve been through this kind of thing before. Let’s go ahead and cut this short and get to our homes safe and sound. Hopefully it’s just a storm that will blow over within a day like it normally does. Might die out before it even reaches us.” Pastor Jones states while up on the stage facing everyone.
“It’s not going to blow over, not in the way he thinks.” Nasia whispers behind him.
“How do you know that for sure? You have some kind of super sense of something?” He whispers back.
She doesn’t answer right away but finally looks at him and bluntly states, “Or something.”
With that she takes his hand pulls him back into the hallway where they were alone and the next thing he knew he was falling to his knees ready to hurl his guts out right on the carpet of his bedroom floor. After the queasiness abated and his head stopped swimming, he growls,
“A warning next time would be nice.”
“It was best to get you home as soon as possible.” She goes to his tv and turns it on, as well as the PlayStation.
He watches her look completely comfortable and relaxed around his things. Standing up he takes a deep breath to calm the nerves that went haywire during that unpleasant ride and sits on his bed while she gets on Netflix and finds something that interests her.
“If you wanted to just watch movies again, you just had to say so. We didn’t need to teleport here you know. It doesn’t hurt to be patient.” He huffs that didn’t sound too irritated.
For some reason he felt at ease with her here in his space. He actually didn’t mind that she took it upon herself to be a little too comfortable messing with his belongings or bossing him around a little. It was beginning to feel natural.
“We did need to teleport.”
“Why?” he asks incredulously.
She stops what she is doing and turns to look behind him at the window. Then she points and ominously says, “Because of that.”
When he turns to see what she was referring too he frowns and takes a few steps to pull aside his curtain. His eyes widen at the scene before him. Far in the distance, a dozen miles away, the darkest and biggest clouds he had ever seen thundered dangerously their way. Lightning stroke the sky as the wind started to pick up and the hairs all over his body stood on end.
“Kevin is being discharged in two hours. How are we going to say goodbye to him in this mess?” He asks, not really paying attention to what he was saying.
“Looks like that’s not going to happen now. He can’t be moved when that hits. Nobody can. It’s best to stay where they are. That building he’s in is a lot more steadier and stronger than the one we’re in right now. He’ll be safe.”
“Is the storm going to be that bad?”
“Could be. I won’t really know until it’s upon us. Then I’ll be able to judge the accuracy of whether it’s dangerous or not.” She sounded like it was no big thing of what was happening right out his window. Which only made him wondered what her home planet was like for her to not care that the weather could possibly kill them.
His phone suddenly started ringing in his pocket. Taking it out without ever looking away he asks, “How long before that reaches us?”
“In about twenty minutes or so. Thus teleporting was highly needed.” She goes back to what she was doing.
He answers his phone. “Hello?”
“Ry! Oh honey, where are you? Are you still at the church? Your father is on his way home. Did you get the weather warning. It’s looks pretty bad out there. He can come get you.” His mother says frantically.
“No. I’m already home.”
“What? When did you get home? I didn’t hear you come in.”
Suddenly footsteps could be heard down the hall and then his door swings wide open. Looking to her he hangs up as she looks to him, then to Nasia who doesn’t even bother turning away from the tv, back to him.
“What’s going on?” She asks confused.
“We…got dropped off. After the warning Pastor Jones cut church short. Nasia lives by herself so thought it was best she stayed here for the time being.” He thought quickly.
“Hello, Mrs. Starling.” She finally spoke up giving her a small smile and goes right back to watching what looked like The Notebook.
“H-Hello.” She realizes she still had her phone to her ear and puts it back in her pocket. “This looks to be a big one with a lot of rain. Power is surely to go out tonight. Help me with the emergency power outage kit. We need to make sure we have everything we need. Also the garage and backyard needs to be secured just in case of a flood.” She gives him a look boarding on no argument.
“Alright, let me change and I’ll come out to help.” He goes to his closet to grab steadier clothes.
“I’m going to find the kit.” She turns to leave as she mutters, “First the tornadoes and now this, what is the world coming too?”
Out of earshot he quickly kneels next to Nasia and whispers, “Stay here. I’ll be right back.”
She looks over to him and nods. “Don’t worry so much Ry. This is only the beginning. The worst has yet to come.” With that she looks back to the movie.
Staring at her a foreboding feeling sinks in his bones and he couldn’t help asking, “Nasia, is there something going on that only you know about?”
“Hm, not sure. But I do know what’s going to happen.” She never takes her eyes from the characters playing on the screen.
“Nasia, what’s going to happen? What’s happening out there right now?” He practically demands but holds his worry and frustration back.
“I’m sorry, Ry.” She finally looks back at him with a blank expression. “I can’t tell you that.”
Staring at her she faces the screen again and for the first time since he’s met her he realizes what she really is. The emotions that just wasn’t there. Slowly getting up he grabs his jacket and walks to the door. Looking back at her one more time he couldn’t stop the horde of questions and assumptions that was racing through his mind.
But he doesn’t say anything else as he leaves the room and rushes to help his mother.