The Presence

Chapter Fifteen: A Night of Suprises

"Can I go outside for a few minutes. I need to get some air," Logan asks.

"Sure. Do you need help walking?" I ask.

"I'll help you," Megan says and gets up quickly offering her hand. Logan smiles, takes it and she helps him outside to sit down in the swing.

As I watch them I can't help but grin. I've never seen my sister like this. Turning around I go back and sit down with Hailey and notice she looks a little upset.

"Are you alright?"

"Yeah, I guess so," she looks at the floor.  "This wasn't the evening I was hoping for."

"No... It wasn't," I put my arm around her, "but I want to thank you for what you did back in the alley. You got us out of a bad situation."

She turns at me, "Max, I didn't know what I was doing.  It just happened. And behind the bleachers I couldn't control it without the two of you. What if I accidentally stop time and can't return it to normal?"

"You've already done it two or three times by yourself. You were just upset. All you need to do is practice."

"I hope you're right," she pauses for a moment. "What about our eyes? When we were all concentrating behind the bleachers our eyes turned blue. Did you notice?"

"Yeah I did and I've been thinking about that.  I believe we received our abilities at least partially from the other side. Remember how the fireplace glowed blue when we retrieved the book?"

"Yeah I remember."

"Now, as the book says, 'When we're one,' meaning we all concentrate toward a specific task, our eyes will probably turn blue."

She thinks about it for a moment. "That makes sense, I guess..."

Gently, I place my hand on her chin and she slowly turns toward me. We lean in close and share a long kiss and I feel power flowing between us.  When we open our eyes I notice time has stopped again.

Looking around we see Megan and Logan jump up out of the motionless swing.  She's still holding his hand so I guess he's not affected.  We bust out laughing at their reactions. 

"I guess Logan has just learned something else."  We both watch as Megan continues to hold his hand and tries to explain...

"Now that you've done it again, try thinking about it returning to normal."

Hailey's smile fades, "I'll try."

"Just stay calm.  You can do it."

She looks straight ahead and concentrates. After a few seconds the ceiling fan starts to move until it's spinning normally. The swing that was stuck leaning backwards, begins to move and Logan catches it.  After Megan explains a little more, they sit back down in it.

"See. I told you..." Relieved she leans back and looks out of the front window... and gasps.

"Max! Look..." Turning I notice Logan has his arm around Megan.

"Do you think he's the one the book talks about?" Hailey asks.

I eavesdrop on Megan's thoughts for a second, then slowly back away.

"For what it's worth, Megan thinks he is..."

Hailey leans against me as we sit watching the two of them...

An hour later...

We've just arrived at Logan's house.  He lives about five miles from us so it was a short drive. After helping him get out of Hailey's Challenger Megan walks with him up to the front porch.  Hailey and I decide to stay with the car and lean against the hood.