Chapter 5:
Olive and Sonny approached the section downtown where she had seen a psychic worked. The block of stores stood in unison all being the same height and size and every store colored either brown or white. However right smack dab in the middle, standing taller and thinner than the others, was a bright yellow building which Sonny knew would be the psychic's business. Only one window, about the size of two regular windows, appeared on the front of the building and it rested at the very top. As they came up the steps, Sonny read the sign on the awkwardly large black door:
Luminitsa's Medium Establishment
The Only Place to Truly See Who You Are
Hours of Operation: When the Dead Are Sleeping
Sonny shook his head, he had never been a huge believer in the realm of psychics and mediums, but he enjoyed spending time with Olive and it could make for a good laugh later. Before opening the door Sonny looked at Olive who seemed calm and collected and not the least bit nervous. "Ready for this?" Sonny asked. Olive nodded, opened the surprisingly light door and went in first. Sonny followed, an eerie feeling beginning to build within him.
The smell of the incense hit him first as they entered into the foggy mist that seemed to be trying to escape the building. Sonny had never seen a place like this before in his life: Wild designed rugs covered the walls, the floor was made of all different types of tiles put together like a mosaic, giant photos of what Sonny can only presume were other psychics hung above a massive fireplace, about six different sized and shaped tables were set up in seemingly random spots and despite the size of the outside of the building, the inside was small and cramped. He walked toward one of the pictures of the psychics: a bald older man wearing a very fancy red robe that had so much glitter on it he could light up a street at night. He noticed the man only bore one large eye. Where the other eye should have been only sat a small, horizontal scar. He wondered what happened to him. Probably read someone's future wrong and got stabbed Sonny imagined.
A voice came from the side of them, "Ahem…" Startled, both Olive and Sonny jumped back. A woman, dressed in all black—even her head scarf and her sandals, snuck out from the mash of rugs behind her. After awkwardly walking around Sonny and Olive as if inspecting them she closed her wrinkled eyes, "I sense greatness in your future," Luminitsa said, rolling the word greatness off her tongue like she was singing. That's just wonderful Sonny thought. This lady was all flash and show and she wouldn't teach him anything substantial about his dream. He found himself thinking about his dream and staring at a couple of different looking rugs on the wall while Olive and Luminitsa got ahead of him. Finally, Sonny glanced at Olive who had her lips pursed in a semi-smile in between conversing with Luminitsa and smiled a little bit himself. Even if he didn't get any new perspective on his dream, he knew Olive would still have a good time with him.
Olive turned to Sonny and waved her arm, "Hey c'mon she wants us to sit down so she can hear about your dream." As he caught up with Olive she nudged his shoulder, pointed at a table and whispered, "She wants us at that table because she says she can feel our "energy" directed there…like we are a compass or something." Olive made her fingers into quotation marks as she said energy and giggled while rolling her eyes. It made Sonny smile even bigger to see Olive's seriousness toward this subject was lacking just like his own.
Luminitsa, ignoring the giggling between the two, sat at what appeared to be the head of a rather small ancient looking wooden table. A large crystal ball rested on a stand in the center and as Sonny looked around the rest of the table he could barely make out faded strange markings that were etched into the table's wood. Unlike many of the other tables in Luminitsa's shop that had ten or more chairs around it, this one had just one bench sitting opposite Luminitsa.
No one spoke for long time while Luminitsa sat with her eyes closed moving the incense that was smoking up in front of her around in the air with her arms. The beads she wore clinked together with every movement Luminitsa made, and he could hardly see they looked like tiny teeth. He shook his head trying to get the image of teeth extraction out of his head. Sonny looked around to see if he could spot a clock, which seeing all the trinkets and relics, he would have assumed there would be one, but he spotted no clock. After a couple more minutes the medium slapped her hands together, opened her eyes and spoke, "So you have a dream a night that haunts you?" Her eyes flickered in excitement, but before Sonny could answer she was grabbing his hands in hers saying, "Come come dear. Let's take a look at your aura...let's see what I can feel.".
After a couple of moments of Luminitsa holding Sonny's hands upwards in a strange position, Sonny felt nothing but awkwardness arising inside. His palms began to sweat as he began to notice how uncomfortably warm it was. Suddenly Luminitsa jerked her hands away from Sonny, mumbling something in another language under her breath. Her eyes stayed peeled on Sonny's hands, her voice rising, "No, No, No. I must be seeing something wrong. It can't be right." Sonny wiped his sweaty palms on the legs of his jeans, feeling his stomach turn.
"What can't be right?!" Olive spoke up, intrigue flowing through her voice. She leaned in closer to Sonny on the bench and gave him a slight, reassuring smile.
Luminitsa shook her head, "Don't worry. False readings happen sometimes. I wouldn't worry that I saw the black mark of death on your hands."
A giggle erupted from Olive as she whispered in a serious but joking manner, "The black mark of death. Oh no Sonny. She probably saw that because you walked under that ladder before we came here. And maybe that black cat that ran in front of us while walking—"
"LITTLE GIRL!" Luminitsa was now out of her chair and standing over them. Her dark eyes pierced Olive, as though all the years and struggles were pouring out of them. Sonny felt a shiver go up his spine--there was a realness to Luminitsa's face, something horrifying living deep inside her. Suddenly he felt a seriousness to Luminitsa that he could not explain. "The black mark of death is not something to be taken lightly. And if you want to make a fool of me then there is no use finishing this session." She turned to Sonny, "And if I were you, I'd want to figure out your dream, before it figures you out." Then she swiveled on her heel and began to walk away.
Sonny and Olive locked eyes. "Wait! Luminitsa!" Sonny's voiced carried and as it reached her she stopped and stood there for a second as if contemplating turning around. "We didn't mean any harm and we will respect your shop." Sonny did not come all this way to leave after getting his aura bizarrely read; He wanted the full experience, just in case anything she said could be even the least bit helpful to him. And for some reason she was beginning to intrigue him.
"Yes we are sorry for mocking your readings." Olive piped up. "Please sit down and talk to us about Sonny's dream."
Luminitsa stood over them again, considering whether or not to sit down. "Alright" She sat down and stared at Sonny, "But this time we do it a different way because trust me it is not fun for me to see that particular mark in people. This time we use the ball." Instantly as if responding to her voice, the crystal ball that Sonny hardly remembered seeing in the middle of the table appeared to have come to life. A glow emerged from underneath the crystal of the ball. Sonny glanced at Olive noticing the glimmer shining off Olive's green eyes and how intently she was watching the ball.
"Child put your hands on the ball." He snapped back from Olive's eyes and put his shockingly shaky hands on the ball. When did he become so nervous, Sonny wondered? Between the black mark and Luminitsa's incense, this situation was turning more real and less of a joke by the minute. How long had they been here? Sonny wanted to get up and run, but something kept him glued to the bench next to Olive. Luminista whispered to read something in another language on the side of the ball and once done Sonny's eyes widened as the ball changed color from the soft white of the crystals to dark grey swirls, moving like the night sky.
Luminitsa carefully placed her hands one by one on the ball opposite Sonny's. The four rings she wore sparkled against the crystal of the ball and he noticed her nails were filed to a point and painted a dark purple color. Luminitsa twirled her fingers around gently on the ball causing the swirls to follow the movement. Within seconds a red mist emerged from the ball and Sonny felt a rush of panic building up inside him.
Suddenly Sonny's body was hit with a sticky humidity and he immediately pursed his lips as the taste of salt from the air made its way onto Sonny. He looked around to find he was no longer in the psychic's shop, but instead standing atop a mountain overlooking a roaring ocean. Above him a flock of seagulls rushed toward the white tipped waves that were signaling them home, their cries piercing the mountain top all around Sonny. He looked beside him where his little brother Beau stood, peering out into the beautiful mid afternoon sky. A calming, reassuring half smile made its way to Beau's face as he spoke to Sonny without straying from looking forward, "I wish we could go swimming in that ocean, but he said there were sharks in there."
"Who said there were sharks in there?"
Beau pointed directly in front of him toward a patch of dirt. "The lion told me." Suddenly a bushy mained majestic lion emerged as if from behind a wall to stand mere feet from the boys. The lion sat up straight, his enormous front paws out in front of him. Beau's child like laugh echoed in Sonny's ears. "Hey Sonny, he wanted to tell us something. You have to listen he said."
Was he speaking? Sonny for the life of him would have remembered hearing the lion speak, what did Luminitsa do to him? As if reading his thoughts, the lion roared from deep within him, startling Sonny yet Beau stood smiling happily. The seagulls had flown off and the waves had become almost agitated as they crashed up against the rocks close to the mountain. A coarse deep voice emerged from within the lion, "You must listen for there is little time. The prophecy has been awakened and the moments to act are steadily coming forward. Act now or forever live in despair."
Then from within the lion emerged an even louder roar than before, and again Sonny jumped from fright. Now the ocean below them became nearly out of control as the winds began to pick up. Steadily the wind bellowed in more fierce as it became harder for Sonny to stand. The rain started falling, slowly, then as if the sky opened up and someone dumped buckets of water, the rain poured down on them. Sonny could barely see the lion in front of them and with the howling of the wind and the downpour of rain he could barely make out the lion's continual roars.
Sonny fell to his knees, now unable to keep himself standing up. He looked up towards the lion, now noticing something odd happening to him. Through the torrential rain he saw the lion changing to a silver color starting with his tail and working it's way toward the lions razor sharp teeth. Once fully covered with silver, the lion stopped moving and shattered leaving pieces of crystal in a pile at the boys' feet. Sonny turned to see Beau who was giggling uncontrollably, soaked through his clothes, kneeling on the ground.
Sonny screamed towards Beau, who's 14 year old self seemed very child like at the moment, "Why are you laughing? What's so fun--"
"GET OUT!" Luminitsa's booming voice rattled in Sonny's head. He was back in the psychic's shop, the crystal ball in miniscule pieces in the middle of the table. His hands were bloody from the shards and he was completely drenched in water. Olive grabbed at his arm, hurriedly trying to get him to stand up.
Panicked he heard her voice, "I don't know what you did Sonny but we have to go!" She looked toward Luminitsa who was throwing chairs at the rugs on the wall and screaming in another language. "RIGHT NOW SONNY. This isn't a joke. I mean it Sonny this lady's crazy." A chair cracked as it fell to the ground while relics from a shelf broke in pieces around it. Luminitsa picked up another chair and flung it toward a table next to Sonny and Olive, sending more objects flying from the table.
Shaking his head as if being awoke from a dream he stood up, Olive's hand in his they raced out the door, Luminitsa's screaming reverberating off the walls behind them.
They didn't stop running until they were standing in front of Sonny's house. Heavily breathing they didn't speak, just each trying to make sense of everything that just happened. "Woah," Olive finally spoke, her chest still aching for breath. "What happened Sonny? How did you get so wet?"
"I don't know."
"What do you mean you don't know?"
"I just don't OK!?" Sonny lashed at Olive.
Olive shook her head. "I'm just trying to help. I was there too you know. Watching how crazy everything happened. One second you had your hands on the crystal ball and the next it was shattered and you were soaking wet. I've never seen rage like that psychic's."
Sonny didn't respond. What was there to say? "Look, let's just agree what happened was horrible and that I'm never going to another psychic with you as long as we live." He nudged Olive with his almost dry shoulder to try and ease the tension.
Olive shook her head again, "Something weird is going on whether you want to admit it or not. And running from it won't solve your problem."
"There is no problem so no worries right?"
"Whatever you say Sonny. But," Olive shoved her finger in his face, inches from his nose, "But when something does happen, remember I told you so!" Smugly she turned to head toward her house, but not before turning around and yelling, "I'm gonna do some digging and see what else I can find. You said no more psychics, however," There was a dramatic pause, "what if I can set you up with a dream reader?"
"NO!" Sonny yelled to her. "You know maybe I won't even have that same dream tonight," He shrugged his shoulders, grinning towards Olive as she continued up to her house. As Olive entered and the door shut, Sonny stood on his front steps, the smirk he had around Olive had turned into a panic. As much as he wanted to deny there was some paranormal psychic event going on with him, he couldn't run from it anymore. Maybe Olive was right.
The next morning Sonny awoke to find he had no dream. None. Couldn't remember that he dreamt of anything. A tinge of relief fell over him and for a while he simply sat in his bed, taking in the morning sunshine.