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six I sat in there for an hour and I could hear him crying in my room. Pushing him away like that hurt me so bad, but I wasn’t ready for a kid. I wanted him so bad. The pull wasn’t receading. I opened the door and he looked at me with begging eyes. I sat on the bed next him but not touching him. The pull was so strong that my hand went limp and I dropped my shirt. I wanted to bend over and grab it but I couldn’t make my body do it. “Will the pull be any less in the spirit world?” I asked him. He looked at me, shocked. “I don’t know,” He said, the idea intrigueing him. “But I do know that you can’t…multiply in the spirit world.” He said. “If our bodies touched while we went to the spirit world would they act of their own accord?” I asked him. He shrugged. “Go to the spirit world,” I said and followed my own advice. We went into the spirit world and we saw my body sag into his. There was a fire so intence that I was almost forced back into my body. Sam resisted it too. I went to him and let the fire consume us here since we couldn’t let it in the real world. We returned to our bodies and though the fire was so thouroughly there we could ignore it. I kissed him and the fire consumed me in a way that almost made me lose my own free will. I grinned at him but the lust in his eyes made my smile falter. He pinned me to him kissing me hard. The fire was unbearable and I was about to give in when Isaiah walked in. He saw me sitting there in my bra and my eyes begged him. He burned Sam until he stopped and ran to the bathroom to cool off. “What’s that all about?” He asked me. “Rya put a fertility curse on us and it will last for another week. It’s like fire every time we touch. It’s driving both of us crazy and I don’t want a kid in high school.” I said. “Why would she do that?” He asked. I hesitated. //Should I tell Isaiah why Rya did this to us?// I asked Sam. //She deserves it.// He said looking at his burnt hands. “Rya is pregnant and hasn’t told the tribe yet. I threatened to tell the tribe and she put this on me.” I said. He almost fell over. “Block your mind so she doesn’t know.” I said to him. He did. “Wow. I guess you kind of deserved it.” He said with a grin. I threw a gust of air on him. “Do you want a kid yet?” I asked him. “In the next nine months?” I asked him. His eyes got really wide. I smiled. “In a year maybe but…” He said. “That soon?” I asked him, astonished. “I’d like to start my family life. I’ve always wanted to get it started early.” He said. I nodded. Sam came into the room and offered his hands to Isaiah and Isaiah healed him without thinking. “So what are you going to do?” He asked me. “Well, go back to the village I guess.” I said and Sam nodded. Sam and Isaiah got into the car and I threw on some different clothes. I ran to the village and it felt good to run again. I went and found Maggie. I explained what had happened and she laughed. “What do you want me to do, reprimand her?” She asked me laughing. “That’s a typical revenge in the village. If you’re going to mess with her then that’s what happens.” She answered. “Isn’t there some way to counteract it?” I asked. “No; and believe me I’ve tried to myself. It just doesn’t work.” She said. I plopped down on a mat in the girl’s dorm. “So I’m screwed for the next week?” I asked her. She nodded. I sighed and went to our hut. //I’m in the hut so don’t come in.// I said to Sam. I could feel his assent. I curled up in the bed and slept. Around dinner time I got up and went to dinner. I sat with the girls from the dorm and they asked me why I wasn’t sitting with Sam and I just said I didn’t feel like it. They gave me weird looks and I said that even the perfect couple will eventually get sick of each other after twenty four hours a day with each other. It was true but not the real reason. I got up and went over to clean my dishes. When they were cleaned Maggie called me over to the elders’ table. “Do you want to announce something to the village?” She asked me expectantly. “That wouldn’t be fair even with what she did to me.” I said. “What did who do to you?” The oldest of the elders asked me. I blushed and told them that Rya had put a fertility thing on me. I didn’t know whether it was a gift or a curse so I just said thing. He got really red and looked down. I looked at Maggie who just stared at me. “Did I just say something that I wasn’t supposed to?” I asked her. “You aren’t supposed to say stuff about fertility around the male elders. Or men in general unless they are doctors, shaman, siblings maybe, or your betrothed or your husband.” She said her cheeks getting red. “Uh…Well I already said it so it’s not like I can take it back.” I said and got up. They all stared at me wide eyed. “Let me guess. I’m supposed to ask permission to rise?” I asked her. She nodded and glared. “I’m already up,” I said and started walking away. Then my tattoos burnt through my normal clothes and there was two extra ones on my legs. “Oh, come on! How many outfits am I gonna go through like this?” I complained. I went back over to Maggie. “I know this isn’t normal.” I said to her. She nodded in amazement. “Does it ever stop?” I asked her. She shrugged. I walked away again, and walked into strong arms. They picked me up and blinded me. I was carried and thrown onto a mat and I touched something warm. Fire spread through me with such force that I almost didn’t have my own will. I heard Rya chanting and tried to untie the blindfold. I heard the last word and recognized it and the fire got so intense that I couldn’t control myself anymore. After maybe five minutes I heard Maggie come in and she tore me away from him. She used the elements to separate us and I had my mind again. I heard a loud slap and saw Rya hit the ground. I smiled in grim satisfaction. She was unconscious. I grabbed my clothes and put them on. Sam did the same and we sat there looking awkward. Maggie rolled her eyes. I left the hut and I ran. I ran home and slept in my bed. I woke up and felt like I was acting like I was five. I got up and I decided to do something today that I absolutely could not do when I was five. I tried to think of something I could do. I couldn’t think of anything. I went to the swimming pool in my suit and swam laps. People stared at me and my tattoos but I was getting seriously used to it. I loved my tattoos. I swam laps, practiced some flips off the diving board and tried to tire myself out. It didn’t work. I left after two hours with a really nice tan. I went and painted for a while and just relaxed. I watched a few movies and sat around. I realized it was past midnight after I was yawning for a half an hour. I spirited myself to the girl’s dormitory. I was in the bathroom so I wouldn’t scare anybody but it was so loud in the other room. I came out and Maggie and Rya were yelling at each other about what Rya had done to me. “She’s 17! She shouldn’t have to deal with any of this!” Maggie yelled at her. “Yeah? Well then she shouldn’t be messing with me the way she did! She’s old enough mentally and physically to know how to respect her elders!” Rya yelled right back. A long fifteen minutes later I was boiling mad and I yelled at both of them “SHUT UP! Maggie, I can deal with her! I don’t need everybody in the village knowing that I’ve been cursed! Rya, I was joking!” I yelled at them. They went dead silent and a new tattoo covered my stomach and made itself known. I sighed and gave up. I was wearing a swimsuit anyway. They all stared at me. “I’m sleeping, be quiet.” I said and curled up on the mat I’d occupied before. I called air and told it to blow out the candles and make it dark. The darkness decended and heard all of the women crawling into bed instead of being off on the sides. I still heard a lot of yelling from the men’s dormitory so I got up. I walked over and through the front door to Sam and Qwen yelling at each other. The men of the village were taking sides. “SILENCE!” I yelled and spirit made my voice rumble like thunder. I had the attention of every man in the village. They all stared at me and I remembered I still had a swimsuit on. They gawked at me and my skimpy outfit. “By now, the entire village must know about it so get over it. We can live for another week, Sam. If I hear anymore yelling I’m gonna kill whoever’s yelling. I have a migrane and I’m trying to sleep. I’m cursed and I can’t touch my fiancé and I’m having a horrible day anyway. I want to sleep and if I don’t get what I want tonight there’s gonna have to be a burial.” I said. Qwen looked dangerous but then he saw my eyes. Ancient sadness and deep, furious anger were not a good combination to mess with. I looked stronger than him and I definitely felt it. They both nodded and I extinguished all the lights here too. They stumbled around and I went back to the girl’s dormitory. They were all staring at me with fear. I crawled into bed and sobbed myself to sleep. I woke up with Rya and Maggie discussing something. I was seriously cold so I rolled over expecting to have Sam next to me and cried out when he wasn’t there. I started crying hard and they just looked at me with shocked eyes. I sobbed into my pillow and lay there feeling helpless. “What?” Maggie asked me. “I was cold and I rolled over expecting him to be there and when he wasn’t I thought we were still not together and I started breaking before I remembered. It’s hurting all over again.” I said. She came over and held me. I sobbed into her shoulder. Sam came in and saw me crying. He glared at Rya and slid in next to me. I felt the pull but didn’t care. I threw myself onto him and sobbed. He held me tightly and he didn’t fill with lust the way he had before. I sobbed into him for a long time before I realized this. Rya was just staring at us in shock. They were all staring at us and wondering how the fire wasn’t consuming us. I felt it on the edges of my mind but I was breaking in ways that I didn’t know I could for reasons I couldn’t name. When I’d cried myself out the pull and the fire became more apparent but they didn’t consume me. //Is the curse bothering you at all?// I asked him. He shook his head. I nodded and lay down. He lay down with me and we snuggled. The pull was starting to come to the front of my mind. I didn’t care. I needed to be held. I fell asleep again and when I woke up I could see Sam struggling. Rya looked at us with astonishment. “How?” She asked me. “I needed to be held and he could feel it through me. The pull isn’t as strong when there’s something else at the front of your mind.” I said. She nodded. I snuggled into him and he squirmed. “This may be easy for you but it’s hell for me.” He said. I nodded and got up. I was still wearing my swimsuit. I went and got an outfit from the hut but couldn’t make myself move so I curled up on the mat. I went in the other room and started to get dressed but the wave of exhaustion swept over me so suddenly that I couldn’t even move. I flopped down on the mat that Jenny and Isaiah had dragged in here a week or so ago. I woke up with Sam tripping over me. He tripped and fell on the mat next to me. I wasn’t even awake yet and the pull was the only thing in my mind. I wasn’t dressed to begin with and he was only half dressed. I crawled over to him and he surrendered quickly. Rya came in a minute later and separated us using the elements. It was a curse that she’d bestowed upon us and we both hated it. I got dressed and then I went to school. It was Friday and I needed to get out of the village. I went to school wishing I could be with Sam the way I used to be with him but I had to focus. We had tests all day, end of the year tests to show we’d learned something. I used the past memories of past lives to pass all of my tests. I figured it wasn’t cheating if it was all already in your head. I had lunch and the popular girls came over. “Where’s your boyfriend?” They asked mockingly. “Off somewhere being loyal instead of sleeping with my so called friends like your boyfriends do.” I said. They all tried to jump on me and start a fight but I can run for miles now. I ran out of school and hung out in the parking lot. Once lunch was over I went to class and finished up the rest of my tests for the day. When the day was over I went home and cleaned again. Once the house was spotless I went and curled up in my bed. Five days left of this. I woke up in the morning and showered and went to school. The day passed utterly uneventful. I was utterly bored all day at school. I was ready to be done with all of this. I wanted to sleep comfortably again and my bed was always too cold without him next to me. I needed to be with him if I wanted to stay sane. School is such a bore when you already know what they’re trying to teach you. I have all the memories of all the protectors for the past thousand years and I don’t need to learn what they already learned. The memories were mine now and there was no reason that I shouldn’t just skip school. “Why don’t I?” I asked myself aloud and then my classmates stared at me. I’d beed staring off into space and just said something random out of nowhere. I walked out of class with my science teacher threatening detention. I’d already learned it all and there were memories of a thousand years ago in my mind. I didn’t need to learn it all again. I left the school and ran to the village. It was about ten miles away from school and the distance was comfortable to me now. I had to run through peoples yards and through parks and dense trees but it was only ten miles if you didn’t use the roads. If you used the roads it was a half an hour. When I got to the village I was puffing but not so bad that I needed to sit down. A woman I’d never seen before approached me. “Are you really a shaman?” She asked me. I nodded, still puffing. “Then why is it that I don’t even like my husband anymore?” She asked me. “How am I supposed to know? If you don’t love him the way you should then maybe you shouldn’t be married to him.” I said. Her eyes got wide. “I couldn’t refuse a marriage proposal from an upperclass man in the village!” She responded. “Are you actually married to him yet?” I asked her. She was still young enough to barely be older than me. “No, but we will be married soon.” She said. “If it was me, I wouldn’t marry him because I wouldn’t actually want to spend my whole life with him.” I said. The man came up behind her. “What foolishness are you putting into her head?” He asked me and glaring at me. “Nothing she didn’t ask to hear!” I said back. My tone was sharp and he had a temper like mine. He got in my face, thinking he could put me in my place. When I didn’t back down or away his eyes got really wide. I noticed a crowd gathering around me. I saw the elders all watching me from the corner of my eye. “I am higher class and I have more power in this village than you. Back down.” He said with authority. “You do not scare me. I have way more power spiritualy and physically in this village than almost anybody. The elders are higher than me and Rya and Qwen are. You do not have the power to tell me to back down and I will show you that you have no power over me.” I said. His eyes narrowed. He grabbed my hands and started to drag me toward the men’s dormitory. They were going to try and punish me. I planted me feet in the ground and spirit magnified me voice unconsciously. “Do not ever touch me!” I yelled at him. He tried to hit me. I caught his hand and flipped him onto his back. “You have no right to attach me.” I said. Sam came up and grabbed me. The fire didn’t effect me. “You can’t do that!” He yelled at me. “Why not? He tried to attack me!” I yelled at him.