Chapter Eleven
When she came back, she was holding a small paper bag in her hands, and I couldn’t help but flinch at the sight of it. I had no idea what was inside of it, and I didn’t actually want to find out. But she set the bag gently down on the table nearby, and pulled her stool over. “Come and sit with me. We have a lot to get through today.”
I scooted over to the table and looked at her. “I don’t even know your name yet.”
“It’s Annette, but you can call me Annie.” She reached her hand into the brown paper bag and pulled out the body of a white dove. She set it down on the table in front of me, and I felt myself begin to pull away from her. “Alright Veronica, I want you to focus. Use the power deep inside of you, and search for the dove.”
“But the dove is sitting right here,” I said, motioning to it. Is she crazy?
Annie frowned and rolled her eyes. “I know that,” she said impatiently. “Search for the dove’s soul. I want you to find it and summon it back to this side of life. Force it to rejoin with the dove’s body; this’ll make it alive once more.”
I didn’t want to do it. It was wrong and creepy on so many levels, but I knew that I was not leaving this compound until they were sure I was safe. So I took a deep, calming breath, and searched for this power that supposedly resided inside of me.
I’d never searched for any power before, and I wasn’t sure how to do it, or what that power even felt like. “I’m not getting anything. How am I supposed to do this? You can’t just toss me overboard and hope I can swim.”
“Just keep looking,” Annie softly urged. “It’s there inside of you, deep down. I know, because I can sense it from across the compound.” What she said both startled and frightened me. “Don’t lose your focus. Just keep looking. You’ll know when you find it.”
She was right. A few minutes of searching went by, and I finally found what I was looking for. It was hidden beneath my worries and insecurities, but it was there. Powerful, pulsing, and vibrant. I saw it in my mind as a black ball of energy that brightened when I called to it. It pulsated and moved toward my fingertips almost like shadowy tendrils, and for a moment, I was scared of it and what I might be capable of.
“You’ve found it. Remember the path you took to reach it. You’ll need to know it if you want to call forth that energy inside of you.”
“Why do I need it?”
“Well, you can’t just tell a dead body to wake up and start walking around,” she said. “You have to use that energy to bind the spirit back to the body. This’ll reanimate it for a short time, and because you’ve used your power to accomplish this, the soul will obey you and only you until you release it. Or if I were to overpower you and switch its allegiance.”
“You make it sound like slavery,” I said, disgusted with my power.
“It is, in a way. Though this gift can also be used for good. Don’t forget that. Necromancers have brought the victims of violent crimes back to life, and we’ve helped solve murders that way. We offer the victim a sense of closure while also preventing something horrible from happening to another person. We can do good, Veronica.”
“Ronnie,” I said, correcting her this time. “Only my mother ever called me Veronica. I didn’t wanna correct the Council, but I can’t stand being called by my full name. If I’m going to be here for a while, which the Council seems to think I will be, I’d like to be called something that’s familiar to me.”
She nodded her head. “I understand. Now, Ronnie, I want you to reach inside of yourself for this power, and I want you to focus it on the dove. You should feel a slight humming in your body; that means you’re doing it right. When you accomplish this, you’ll be able to feel a connection with the dove’s departed soul, and you can call it back. I’ll tell you what to do next when you get there.”
I set my feet, rolled my shoulders, and dove back down into myself, searching again for this ball of energy. I found it faster than I did before, and it pulsed and grew. Like Annie said, I did feel humming in my veins, filling me with power, and I called to it.
“Good. Now think about the dove, picture it in your mind, and focus on its energy. Call its spirit back into existence.”
I closed my eyes and began thinking about the dove. I pictured it flying, cooing, eating, and anything else it might do. Slowly, a picture began to form in my mind, fading in from nothing. The picture became clearer with each passing second, and I finally realized it was the dove lying on the table across from me.
It’s small, beady eyes stared into mine. “Ronnie, I want you to force the dove’s spirit back into the body. Just, picture the spirit, and give it a mental shove. The spirit will merge with the body, reanimating it.”
I did as Annie told me, shoving the spirit, but I wasn’t sure if anything was actually working. A few minutes went by, and I started to fidget nervously. The sooner I can do this, the sooner I can leave this place. You can do this. Concentrate! Just push harder. Do this!
“Ronnie, stop!”
My eyes opened, broken from my concentration, and what I saw revolted me. The dove was slowly and clumsily flapping its wings, trying to get in the air, but it wasn’t the only thing in the room that was moving. From my seat on the stool, I could clearly hear the pounding that was coming from every single cubby in the freezer room. Almost three dozen cubbies in total and each of them had something moving around inside.
They banged against the doors, and I jumped off my stool. It clattered against the ground, adding to all of the pandemonium, and I looked at Annie. “What happened?” She was staring at me with a mixture of surprise and horror, and it gave me a sinking feeling in the pit of my stomach. “Annie? What’s wrong?”
“You raised them all. All thirty of them. At the same time. I’ve never seen anything like this before. You must have massive amounts of power hidden away inside of you. Ronnie, things just got very serious for you. I’ll have to inform the Council of this matter. I’m sorry.” She looked freaked out, and she even backed away from me. “I think you should go. Don’t worry about the animals; I’ll take care of them for you. Just go.”
I turned and bolted for the nearest exit, nearly trampling Tanya in the process.