Alex POV
Alex woke up with a start. The ceiling was rough cement instead of the usual white plaster of her room startling her but she quickly recalled yesterday’s events. She supposed she should be grief stricken but she felt a confusing swirl inside and wandered into the ‘kitchen’ for a bite. Her friend Daniel saw her awake and slipped her a piece of paper. Alex gave the scrap of paper a glance and caught that Daniel wanted to talk but without waking up the others. She gave her trademark shrug of confusion to retain a sense of normality. Daniel wrote to her predictably that he just didn’t want to wake the others.
What do you want to talk about?
Daniel wrote with a pen he kept on him.
Just about this year, because I think that would help me relax so I can actually sleep. For starters do you remember Mr. G’s outfit on the first day of school? He was such a Napoleon fan!...
Alex simply went through the motions in this talk talking without actually talking. Well writing if she wanted to nit pick. When Daniel asked if their father’s would be okay Alex feigned getting upset. She got up as soon as she heard her friend snoring only to see Daniel pointing at a piece of paper.
How long have we known each other?
Sitting herself in a lotus position, Alex thought back to the day she learned meditation and the day she met Daniel.
The weather was pleasant a big contrast to Alex’s household. Her mother was yelling at his father about how abnormal she was in showing almost such anger.
Alex was 8 at the time and her health quite robust other than the fact her face was set in ugly anger after she got in a fight at the playground. The school called home and after half an hour the couple agreed to take Alex somewhere. The drive was a short 5 minutes and they rushed Alex into the courtyard of an old structure.
By then Alex realized something was wrong and he looked apprehensively towards the strange man in orange clothing. After a few exchanges, Alex’s parents left abruptly. Seeing Alex’s look the man warmly told him, “don’t worry you have nothing to worry young child. I have seen similar cases to yours in the texts and found meditation to be the most effective in finding yourself.”
Young Alex asked, “what’s meditation?” The man simply smiled and fell into a strange position that Alex would later learn as the lotus position. He followed suit and had no troubles in copying thanks to his young body.
The strange man gentry spoke, “Let your eyes fall out of focus, looking at the space in front of you, and simply breath at first and then start counting your breaths when you are ready.”
Alex did as he asked and reached number 100 before the the man asked her, “now how do you feel?”
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Alex’s hearing felt strangely amplified but otherwise felt no different. Before Alex could reply that she felt nothing, she saw the monk’s face. To any other the emotion display would be worry but to Alex this was a warning sign. Her parents carried the same expression before they rushed him to this strange environment. Instead he asked, “what do you mean?”
The monk replied, “As per teachings, you should feel a warm emotion that comes from the Buddha’s presence.”
Alex replied, “I’m not sure.”
An hour later the parents came back and with the newly acquired awareness Alex heard his father say, “So?”
“The girl has remarkable concentration, but it may take a while for her happiness to actually show. Let me recommend specialists.”
Their were the suburbs. At this point Alex felt relief when mom told her to run along and go play with the other children.
Alex introduced herself to a boy with brown hair and hazel eyes, ”hello my name is Alex. What’s your name?”
He simply answered, “Daniel.”
Having done this before, she replied, “It’s nice to meet you. Let’s go do something!”
Daniel scoffed, “You’re lying.”
Alex was caught off guard at the unusual response, “what makes you say that?”
”Do I need to spell it out? I am saying you’re full of shit.”
Now Alex didn’t understand what exactly Daniel meant but understood she should be angry.
Daniel took a step back at the sudden fire in her eyes, “my bad that was uncalled for, but I have always wanted to try saying that. That is actually true for everyone, it’s just that it was so much more obvious with you. Let me show you something.”
In the present, Alex considered how she quite possibly could have been abandoned as “demon possessed” by her superstitious mom resulting in a divorce. Daniel had helped her come up with a script for acting like a normal child, but it was a pain cutting onions to make herself cry. Her dad introduced her to martial arts for her to get her temper under control afterwards.
Her current reason for meditation was understanding her emotional confusion. Alex encountered a black diamond like object in her mental space but that didn’t matter because she needed to regain emotional stability. She first thought grief; afterall, she lost her father, but that wasn’t the main emotion. Fury? No, surprisingly. She discovered fear as the main emotion to her dismay, Alex thought that wouldn’t do and grabbed hold of the ember of anger and fed on the fire while it fed on her fear. Usually she had to fight against this but the fear of such powerful entity like the voice must have built up after she felt spent of her anger. The flame found itself centered around the black crystal strangely.
”Alex you are glowing blacklight.” Daniel spoke with fascination.
”I COME BACK TO SEE WHAT HAPPENED BUT ALL YOU SHITTY MORTALS MANAGE TO DO IS HIDE? WELL I GUESS THAT COMES FROM RELYING SO MUCH ON YOUR TECHNOLOGY SO MUCH! WELL REJOICE, I GIFT YOU WITH WISDOM OF WORLDS LIKE YOURS CURRENTLY!”
5 cubes fell to the floor, materializing in thin air one by one.