Chris's ability proved to have very strong magic in it and they were not yet sure what it could do at it's full potential. For this case, they wanted to protect Chris from the magic in him that he knew nothing about before it fully manifested in the wrong place.
"Do you want to head back?" Chris asked after the silence that grew between them while he was lost in thoughts. He had begun feeling uncomfortable and wanted to so bad to go somewhere else.
He was however not willing to say it directly to Lily who he was sure would probably be very alarmed or confused. On the contrary, it was him who actually singlehandedly asked Lily to take a walk with him.
Waiting for a response, he flushed a pretentious smile at Lily who by this time had already sensed that Chris's switch in behavior was a little bit out of place. "I think I want to stay a bit longer, it is actually nice here," Lily responded with a smile.
Chris could not help but be very uneasy after Lily's response. He could not blame her after all and he told himself that he had to keep it together and not make anything weird now that Lily was begining to be warmer towards him.
He knew that he so much would not want Lily to misinterpret his actions or words and perhaps think that he was pushing her away. He knew that would only make her see herself and her grandmother as a burden to Chris and his family, and that was something Chris did not want to risk.
"Okay then," Chris responded too, trying so hard to look as normal as he could. They spent the next few moments strolling slowly across the beach as they had numerous little chats.
At some point, Chris stopped and looked at Lily with an expression of someone who had got an idea. And it was actually so as he rushed quickly towards some small rocks. He bent down and picked something from the rocks.
He turned around and while walking towards Lily, he could see her looking at him with an inquisitive face. Her face was close to blank since she could not tell at all what Chris was holding in his hand.
Close enough to her, Chris opened his palm and smiled sweetly, "do you remember these?" He asked in a soft low voice.
Lily looked long at Chris's palm and raised her hand, reaching towards Chris's open palm. "Yes I do," she responded and proceeded to feel the surface of the marble as she grazed her finger softly against it.
"Do you know that I still have my jar?" Chris asked a little amused at what he was saying. "With all the marbles in it?" She asked a little stunned. "Yes, all of them," Chris responded with a little laughter.
"Unbelievable, I bet you're even going to put that too in it?" Lily teased Chris. He looked at the marble again and felt it in his palm as he stared a little longer at it, "you're actually right, I'm going to add it in the jar," Chris replied without looking at Lily.
He had suddenly fixated his eyes on the palm as he softly felt the smooth texture of it's surface. Chris then suddenly blinked rapidly as he staggered a little almost losing his balance.
Lily noticed all this and quickly held onto his arm to support him and looked at him, "are you okay Chris?" Lily was looking very concerned as she examined Chris's face with her eyes. She could see that he was still not focusing completely on her.
Chris however on the other hand, was experiencing something he could not quite place properly. He had these random flashes the moment he brushed the surface of the marble he had just picked up from the ground.
Chris could not grasp properly what he was seeing. He saw feet. He was seeing feet proceeding just close enough to where he had picked the marble. The feet were those of a woman and it seemed she was wearing a long dress.
The feet he was seeing were definitely those of a woman judging from the size and the manner of walking. The feet too seemed very delicate to belong to a a man. The movement of the feet also looked like that particular person was coming from further ahead of them.
He then saw the feet step close to the rocks and not later after, one of the feet stepped on a marble as the person walked away. Chris could feel something strange in the atmosphere as the figure of the woman disappeared further ahead.
Chris suddenly opened his eyes and gasped for air as if he was breathing for the first time after almost drowning in water. He staggered a little as he moved a few steps backwards. Chris realized that Lily was still holding into him and that was the reason why he did not fall on the ground as he staggered backwards.
"Chris are you okay?" This time Lily asked with a more concerned look and she seemed alert than before. Chris however just blinked his eyes a few times and without looking at Lily directly, he answered, "I just got a little lightheaded."
Chris steadied himself as he looked around and clearing his throat, he pretended to wear a smile on his face which did not do a very good job at fooling Lily this time. Even Chris himself could tell that Lily was very alarmed at this moment.
Chris began walking ahead and even a little faster than Lily. He however did not notice this but he still kept walking a little bit faster. He then halted immediately as though he had a sudden thought of something.
He then slowly followed his arm with his eyes as he looked slowly down towards his palm as if something deadly was about to attack him and he did not want to alert it or scare it to defense.
Chris suddenly gasped as he looked at his palm. He swallowed hard as he looked at his hand that was now tightened in a fist as if he was clenching something so hard in his hand. He slowly eased his grip and opened his palm.
He gasped once again upon the sight of the marble that he was holding. He tried to make sense of everything that had just occured to him and he could neither understand anything nor place any of the events that had just occured.
On the other hand, Lily who was walking slowly behind him, could see the strange behavior that Chris was displaying. She however decided not to get too close to him and instead chose to keep a distance between them as she keenly looked at everything that was going on with him, at least the ones she could see at the moment with her eyes.
Chris still continued to gaze at the marble as he looked towards the direction from which he had picked it from. The moment he switched his attention that way, he recalled the flashes he had. He saw clearly that those very rocks were part of what he had just seen.
He continued staring at the rocks and once again recalled those feet. He closed his eyes at once and rubbed them perhaps expecting to wake up. He however still opened his eyes to what seemed to be his reality at that specific time.
Chris could not explain what was happening and why it was happening to him. This was totally new and he knew better than to dismiss it as one of his memories. He knew very well what remembering memories felt like and he sure could differentiate that from what he was seeing at this very moment.
"What is going on... what is happening to me!" Chris mumbled under clenched teeth. He did not want to be noisy or to alarm Lily more than he had already done. He again remember what he had seen, those feet stepping on the marble.
He once again looked at the marble and finally something clicked, he soon connected the thoughts. "This is the exact marble that she stepped on..." Chris spoke to himself still a little confused.
He put the marble in his pocket and forcefully shut his thoughts away and pretended like nothing was happening to him. He then rose his head and looked straight ahead, seeing the huge rocks where the cave was located.
He then proceeded ahead without thinking about it. Lily followed behind him still not quite sure why he was going towards the direction of the cave. What she knew was that she did not want him to get there.
"Chris we can't go into the caves, it can be dangerous," Lily attempted persuading him. Chris however turned around and smiled as if he was not just being weird a while ago, "come on Lily, you couldn't be possibly scared of this cave after going into an actual witch forest all by yourself," Chris spoke back hurrying into the opening that led into the cave.
Lily cursed inwardly as she followed behind him. Chris was somehow faster with his steps and in just a few seconds, they had advanced quite some distance into the cave. He then suddenly stopped as he looked around the rocks.
Lily by this time could not understand what was really going on and the anticipation was killing her. Chris on the other hand was looking around the walls of the cave and he instinctively placed his hand on the rocky wall of the cave next to him. He then gasped sharply as he closed his eyes, unable to retrieve back his hand from the rocky wall.