CHAPTER 11
As Presley slept, her dreams sent her back to her past life as Emily. She was under their favorite tree, Sacred, and Jesse was sliding a simple thin gold ring on her finger.
Presley slowly awoke beside a still sleeping Jesse. Facing him, she lay in the early morning light quietly, trying not to wake him. She found herself concentrating on every line and pore on his face. She tried to remember specifics about her previous life, but her mind drew a blank. The only way she could remember her past life was through her dreams.
Why can’t I remember anything when I’m awake? she thought. Her brain just wouldn’t allow it. She extended her finger and lightly ran it along his warm, strong arm. She traced I love you with her finger. Still afraid to speak these words aloud, she knew them to be true. She was conscious of the fact that she had always loved him, even before she met him in Porha. She had been searching for him her entire life. She struggled with her emotions and seriously contemplated whether to go back to Earth or stay with him in Porha.
His eyes gradually opened, “Good morning,” he smiled. He cuddled up closer to her, his strong arms tightened around her small waist. They lay comfortably engulfed in the moment, wishing it would never pass. Both anxious and aware that it must. Their eyes locked.
“I want to stay. I want to stay with you,” she said softly.
He smiled.
“After everything we’ve been through in the past few days, and you want to stay?” he said surprised.
“Yes, I want to stay,” she said.
His smile faded, “I can’t let you stay. Porha is too dangerous. You have to go back,” he insisted.
“We could help Paulette get back home and then we could go back to town and I could help you with the farm and - we could . . . be together,” she said hopefully.
“No, you have a life, a real life to get back to. If something were to happen to you here, I couldn’t live with myself.”
“You don’t want me to stay?” she asked pitifully.
“I would do anything for us to be together, aside from endangering your life. Presley, I love you more than I love myself. Asking you to stay was selfish of me. I know better. I need to know that you are safe. I need to know that you will go back and have a great life. I can live the rest of my life out here - knowing that you are home and out of harm’s way.”
She left the bed and slowly walked over to the corner of the room, hoping he would say something, anything, to make the outcome of their situation end the way she wished. He didn’t. He couldn’t. There was nothing either of them could do.
The information that Manna had presented to her the night before began to invade her psyche once again. She never doubted what Manna had said. She knew, with everything in her, that she had known Jesse before, and she knew that she loved him. That much was evident. Even though she was unable to express her feelings into words, just like Manna’s gift, she knew it to be true. Her mind was racing with countless thoughts, running rampant through her head. Jesse anxiously paced the floor and then finally broke the silence.
“We need to get around and talk to Manna again. We can’t waste any more time here. Paulette needs us.”
“Okay.” She wanted to stay in the room with Jesse forever. She liked the fact of being tucked away, secluded from the rest of her world, alone with him. He took her hand and pulled her up from the bed as she dragged her feet.
He opened the door and went up the stairs and down the hallway to Manna’s room. Jesse was just about to knock when they heard a faint voice.
“Come in,” the voice said.
They found Manna sitting at his desk as he was the previous day.
“I hope that you are well rested,” he stated. “Were you comfortable?”
“Yes,” replied Jesse, as he pulled a book out of his bag and placed it on Manna’s desk. “The Book of Codes. Did you write it?”
“Yes, I wrote it, with some help from the other psychics here at the castle. I wanted you to find it along with the crystals and I wanted you to find me. That’s why I let myself be known throughout the book. The other writers wanted their names omitted because they feared not only Fiend but also the human race. You see, when Fiend and the Manes unsuccessfully infiltrated our castle, the members of The Panacea Gnostic were terrified.
“I was quite aware that you, along with others from your planet, would inevitably be transmitted here through the open port hole so we made a safe place for you to live. We designed the small town where you have been living and supplied it with virtually everything you would need to survive: livestock, fields to grow vegetables, wood for shelter, cotton for clothes. We built your town around Gracie to keep you safe from Fiend. As I said before, we studied your world for a long while. We knew long ago about your different cultures and tried to make the town conducive to your human needs. We were unsure of how you would react to us so we had to keep our distance from you.
“But we’re an extremely compassionate group, and we knew that if we didn’t help you, then all of you would surely die.”
Jesse glanced up from the book, “You made the town for us?”
“Yes. We felt profound empathy for all of you who would, without intervention, unavoidably face the same fate as the porits, caused by Fiend’s seduction. So, after our civilization was destroyed, the other members of The Panacea Gnostic and I worked together to gather information and knowledge about these demons. We learned two valuable pieces of information. First, the crystals that nourish Gracie’s soil fend off the spirits like a repellant. Second, the crystals that you hold work slightly differently. They make the spirits visible to you. Without them you would not see them, not in their true spirit form anyway.”
“So these crystals don’t keep the spirits away?” Jesse held up the gems.
“Right, Gracie’s crystals are different than the ones that you hold. They each have completely separate powers. The magic crystals in Gracie’s soil travel through her root system, enabling her to carry the enriched nutrients from the crystals, and spread them to the other trees throughout Porha.
“However the ones you carry are different. You need those crystals to make it possible to see the spirits. If you can maneuver around the spirits you have a good chance of getting back home,” Manna concluded.
“How do we get Presley and Paulette back to Earth?” asked Jesse.
“The same way they came, the same way you came,” Manna simply stated.
“The same way! Why didn’t you write that in the book? Obviously you know English. You couldn’t have thought of a better way to warn us of Fiend other than by using scripted messages that I can’t decode? You couldn’t just plainly write ‘Hey Jesse! If you want to go back home just go back the same way you came!’ I mean what was your plan? What were you going to do? Just let us rot here? You couldn’t have shared this information with us? Now it’s too late. It’s too late for me to go back home. And it’s too late for me to see my family and it’s too late to be with Emily.”
Manna calmly asked, “Are you finished?”
“There were a few reasons why we couldn’t tell you. One was that we weren’t sure how you humans would react to us. Case in point,” Manna nervously laughed. “Your species can be very impulsive, and at times, irrational and even hostile if you feel that you’re under attack.”
Still visibly upset, Jesse sarcastically remarked, “I thought you were psychic.”
“True, but we aren’t always correct. We knew that humans, by nature are unpredictable. And what if we told you how to get home? You know as well as I do that you would’ve told someone about your experience. We couldn’t risk the information getting into the wrong hands. More people would have been curious, wanting to come here to Porha, and not understanding the dangers that lurk here. We’ve seen enough suffering, enough death. I, for one, couldn’t fathom t
he thought of the people from your world thinking they found paradise, when in all actuality they would encounter the same demise as we did.”
“She has to go back,” insisted Jesse, pointing at Presley. “It may be too late for me, but it’s not too late for Paulette and Presley.”
“Be aware of the consequence if they do go back. They must never tell anyone of you or Porha. If they do,” Manna looked at Presley with a cold stare and fear in his tone, “more than likely, they will die. And trust me, you don’t want that burden. That guilt. This has ruined all of our lives,” he said sadly.
“The book has many scripted codes for a reason,” Manna said. “You’re right, and you have been able to break a few of them. But, there are many other codes that you are not ready to know yet, if ever. As for Paulette, let’s see just where exactly they took her.” Manna, sitting at his desk, pulled the crystal ball in front of him. As soon as he touched the crystal ball, it seemed to come to life. The colors were intense and vibrant. Presley shielded her eyes from its brightness as Manna closed his. As if the crystal could read his mind, a faint but obvious figure started to appear before them. He opened his eyes and gazed into the smooth shiny ball. Jesse and Presley gathered around the desk to get a better look.
Presley gasped, “Oh, no!” She shuddered as she covered her mouth with her hand, “It’s Paulette."
Through the ball they could see Paulette huddled in a small corner of a dark room shaking. She appeared terrified-her eyes tightly closed. They could also see shadows dancing around her. She rocked back and forth, sobbing uncontrollably in the corner of a dark room.
“We have to go,” Presley pleaded hysterically. “Come on, what are we waiting for? Jesse, let’s go! She’s so scared!” she shouted.
“Shhh,” Manna warned, holding his fingers over his lips. He motioned Presley to come close again. The image turned into an old dark brown mansion. From the back of the mansion they could see people walking around aimlessly. They saw a water mill rotating around, and every time it came up, a black shadow came up with it.
“What is that?” Jesse asked.
“They are the spirits of the porits.”
“I thought that the Manes were the spirits of the porits.”
“They are, but the Manes are the souls that chose to follow Fiend. But these spirits here are the lost souls of the porits. Remember, they signed away their souls to Fiend and now he has complete control over them. After death some of the porits’ souls wouldn’t fully comply with Fiend’s wishes. This is their punishment." Manna covered the crystal ball with a small blue cloth, indicating the sitting had come to an end.
“Listen to me carefully. If you care about Paulette at all, then you must find her. But be careful. Fiend and the Manes will be there. After you find Paulette, go back to the area where Presley first came to this planet. You will find a waterfall and beyond that you will come across a small creek. Step into the creek and you and Paulette will be home once again. When you arrive back, you must come up with a plan to keep this planet a secret. Nobody can know about Jesse or Porha,” he insisted.
Manna turned the pages in The Book of Codes and stopped at a dark, gloomy picture of the decrepit brown mansion. “This is where you’ll find her. This is the Manes’ mansion.” He thumbed back a few pages, “And this is the map to get there from here. You must go now and save Paulette, before it’s too late."
Presley and Jesse quickly looked at the map with Manna.
“I’ll pray for a safe journey,” he said.
“Do you think we will encounter Fiend again?” asked Presley.
“I don’t know. Now he has a bartering chip,” he said. “I think he will be waiting for you at the mansion. I have a feeling that he wants you on his turf.”
Manna walked them to the front door.
“Best of luck to you both,” he said with sadness in his voice. “I’ll be watching you.”