The Hollow Root - Chapter 20

First time? Here’s the table of contents:
Chapter 1 Chapter 2 Chapter 3 Chapter 4 Chapter 5 Chapter 6 Chapter 7 Chapter 8

Chapter 9 Chapter 10 Chapter 11 Chapter 12 Chapter 13 Chapter 14 Chapter 15 Chapter 16 Chapter 17 Chapter 18 Chapter 19

Kavin’s mind was not stiff like his body. He lay still in the back seat of the car experiencing a great deal of discomfort based on how he was placed into the car. His thoughts flitted between realities as though one eye was focused on the present and the other was gazing into the past. The visions were layered over each other and Kavin struggled to understand which one was actually taking place. In his right eye he saw the door of the Camry and would hear the muffled sounds of Amy and Fasaani discussing their current plan to evade the law. In his left eye he was in a pleasant village eating a piece of fresh bread he had stolen from a window sill on his way to his store front. He preferred the serenity of the left eye and tried to focus his mind to it, but the jarring bumps and turns of the Camry combined with the inability to move a single muscle in his body prevented him from shutting the right eye. Kavin strained internally attempting to shut the eye, or even make the smallest squeak of noise. He wanted out of the prison cell his body had become.

“Did you know you could kill Vaino with your knife?” Kavin heard Amy ask.

“I didn’t know that he could be killed. Amy I don’t want to talk about this,” Fasaani rambled back.

Kavin shuddered in his mind. Vaino was dead? He hadn’t been able to piece the events together as when Vaino placed his hand on Kavin’s head he received this dual vision. He was lost in time and space and unable to fully grasp either reality. He only really started to come back to the present day when Jed and Amy were folding him awkwardly into the back seat. He remembered thinking it was rather unfortunate that he couldn’t move but was still fully receptive to the pain.

Kavin tried to focus on the present but his left eye commanded attention. He saw a figure that was out of focus. Blurred like it was a person who asked not to be filmed in a crowd. The voice was muffled and distorted and they were walking towards a taller man who... who was Vaino. Kavin was shocked as the memory flooded into his brain. This was years ago after he had first created Vaino. This was in North Falls. Vaino had set up a business in the town and was finding his place as a healer or shaman. He would give lectures to followers and sell a variety of real, fake and potentially hazardous potions to the local townsfolk. Kavin had tracked him down and was trying to make a connection.

“Faz focus on the road please,” Amy’s voice cut into the vision in Kavin’s left eye.

“Amy, there was a squirrel. Did you want me to kill it? I think I’ve killed enough for this week,” Fasaani snapped back.

The Camry steadied and Kavin’s focus landed on the door again. The two of them were chirping back and forth... well Fasaani was chirping and Amy was attempting her best to deescalate. Kavin wished he could tell them to quiet down or pull over. It was hard enough to focus on his vision and they probably needed this. That said he began to realize that even if he understood the vision, he couldn’t tell anyone about it due to the whole paralysis thing. He laughed in his own mind that his first thought was “This is highly inconvenient”. He trained his mind back on the left eye straining as hard as he could to shut out the ranting Fasaani who had dove fully into explaining that she didn’t know her ex had imbued the knife with some dark magic, she just thought he did a spell so he could protect her.

Kavin pushed his thoughts as hard as he could to look into his peripheral vision.

“Kavin, I’ve learned the ritual you used... and Kavin why couldn’t you have just told me from the start. How could you,” Vaino’s distorted voice boomed into his mind. He felt his mouth open but wasn’t sure if his mouth was actually opening or if this was just part of the vision. His body felt tense.

“Faz... his mouth is open. He moved... pull over,” Amy shouted.

“You were too special to be chained down by mortal constraints. I had to do what was right,” Kavin said, unclear if it was past or present.

“What the fuck is he talking about?” Fasaani shouted.

Kavin forced his focus into his left eye forgoing concern of if they could hear him in the present. He needed to know who this figure was. He pushed with every synapse he could fire in his mind. Until he felt his voice blurt out a loud booming “Who is that?”

His past self pointing to the blurred figure in the corner. Vaino didn’t react, he was just a memory on repeat. He continued on droning about his hurt and sadness around realizing Kavin had killed his parents in a ritual. He expressed his betrayal, but Kavin ignored it. He had no use for that feeling coming back, he needed to know who this figure was. He forced his past self to rise from the bar while Vaino spoke, and walk towards the blur. The room darkened as he left the portion of the memory that was his and faded into the portion he was meant to see. The figure sat as a silhouette. Kavin felt as though he was straining at the very limits of his mind to push this memory to the corner. As he neared the figure’s smile pulled into focus. It was a sinister grin. Kavin sat trying to pull the rest of the figure into something he could figure out.

“You found me in your mind, but can you find me in real time?” The voice leaked out from behind its toothy smile.

Kavin pushed closer and as he neared the face a blurred hand swiped at his face and he jerked back... but not in his mind, in the car. Kavin had shot into the present finding himself in the back of the car convulsing rapidly as his memory swirled around him. Past, present, maybe even future collapsing into his mind as he was rushed back.

“NO... NO... I NEED TO GO BACK I NEED TO KNOW MORE!” Kavin screamed.

Amy pressed her hand on his knee firmly. “Kavin, Kavin, you’re here with us. Breathe,” she said in a soothing tone reserved only for smooth jazz night time DJs and suicide hotline workers.

Kavin screamed and retched in the back of the car. His mind was a blur of images crashing through his mind. They slammed so quickly he couldn’t pick any information from them. Then like a car slamming into a tree it all stopped. He sat wilting into the back seat and opened his eyes to see Amy’s face staring at him. Fasaani was looking forward as she pulled the car to a stop.

“Kavin, there will be time. Now just breathe,” Amy said.

“What... the... where... how?” Kavin said, every question through deep breaths.

“Kavin, there will be time. Just breathe,” Amy said, placing her hand on the side of his face.

Amy turned to Fasaani briefly and continued in her practiced calm, “Fasaani, I think it’s best if we drive farther. Could you be so kind as to continue driving for an hour or so more and then we can find a place to stay for the night.”

Fasaani turned her head slowly to Amy with a look of shock pulled across her now painted and youthful face.

“Okay Amy. I’ll just keep driving. Welcome back Kavin.” Fasaani pushed the Camry into drive and pressed the pedal gently forward.

The Camry drove slowly forward twisting down the road. Amy held a stare with Kavin silently urging him to breathe and find his present self. The two did this for minutes that felt like hours to Kavin.

“Kavin, are you okay?” Amy asked, breaking their breathing exercise.

“No... but I don’t know that I will be for a while,” Kavin said, forcing a smirk to suggest this was a failed attempt at humor.

Amy patted him on the knee. “Kavin, where did you need to go back to?”

“What?” Kavin said.

“When you started moving again you screamed you need to go back, you need to know more. Go back where? To Vaino’s retreat? Did you learn something before you met up with us?” Amy said patiently.

“I said that here? I... I don’t know I got split between here and the past. I was seeing both. I was in North Falls and there was this blurred out person in every vision. I finally forced myself near them and they smiled and swatted me back,” Kavin said, looking at his hands as though he was ensuring he was present.

Amy’s face distorted with a cloudy blur. Kavin’s mouth began to open and then he saw the same smile pulled across the cloud covering Amy’s face. It had no other features, just a dark cloud with a Cheshire cat grin floating around Amy’s face.

“What do you want!?” Kavin shouted.

The cloud faded away with his words leaving only a very confused looking Amy staring back at him.

“Kavin it’s just me,” Amy said reassuringly.

“Can he stop fucking yelling? I’m trying to drive,” Fasaani said.

“I...your face... it was the blur... I... fuck what is happening,” Kavin’s voice trembled with genuine panic.

“I’m with you now,” a whisper drifted into Kavin’s mind.