Cara could feel the fear trying to overcome her, she implored her Guardians to help her, with all her might she screamed in her mind for them to come and help her…

The image of a spiky ball floated past her inner eye and she instantly remembered, she couldn’t get there from here. Which also meant that they couldn't get here from there.

In what felt like a flash, all the teachings that Estelle and her Guardians had shared with her came flooding into her mind, “Oh! Right!” Cara exclaimed aloud as she closed her eyes and took a deep breath, as she ran through the teachings.

“You must calm yourself.” She recalled her Guardians telling her, “You can only connect to us from a heart full of love, and love cannot blossom in panic.”

Cara exhaled against the fear and thought about the next step: “Think of the love of God and All Divine, breathe it in, deeply and calmly, feel it in your heart and soul space.”

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Estelle mind-spoke to Cara “help me focus, help me call her in.”

Cara turned back from watching Daniel walk away and moved to stand face to face with Estelle.

As the two women stood face to face, they raised their hands to chest level, palms facing each other.

Both inhaled deeply as they focused to unite their love energies.

Daniel took a few more steps before he felt the need to stop and go back.

Cara tuned into her love energy, just as she had before, and this time focused it toward Estelle as they both connected to their Guardians and asked them for their assistance as well.

Estelle looked to Cara, “we will begin with a prayer chant, calling to her and inviting her here.”

Cara nodded her understanding while holding her focus on her love energy.

Estelle closed her eyes and so did Cara.

As Daniel returned to the women, he found them standing where he’d left them, only now, they were standing face to face, almost touching.

Daniel stopped in his tracks, wondering what the women were doing and wondering if he was somehow supposed to help them when Estelle stepped backward to her left as Cara stepped back to her right, they stood close together now, Cara’s left hand touching Estelle’s right hand. They almost looked like an entryway opening the way they had moved.

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Estelle set the plates on the table at the same time Cara set down the mugs, pulling Daniel out of his thoughts and back into this new reality that was surrounding him.

He looked to each of the women, “Thank you”

As Daniel looked down to see what was actually on his plate, he was pleasantly surprised,

“Grilled Cheese, with ketchup, I haven’t had this since….” his voice trailed off as he recalled the last time he’d had lunch with his Grams, and then realized that this was the first time he’d had grilled cheese since then.

Tears came to his eyes as he relived the memory of that last day with his Grams, “I’m sorry Grams” he thought to himself “if I had known that would be our last day together, I would have stayed with you longer.” He also recalled how, on that day, he’d made some half-assed excuse for having to leave early, “Club business” he’d muttered as he kissed her cheek and ran out the door.

Daniel rubbed his face with both hands before he looked around the table, “Sorry ladies, just a little distracted tonight.” he mumbled before taking a sip of his coffee, while waiting for his eyes to let go of the tears.

Cara opened her mouth to speak, but something, some instinct told her to wait.

Estelle placed her hand on Daniel’s arm “you're noticing that your Grams has been with you a lot tonight, have you been aware of her being with you before tonight?”

Daniel shook his head as he swallowed his mouthful, “no, not really, I had moments where I thought maybe she was, but tonight, she’s been loud and clear, like I could almost close my eyes and see her next to me, I've never felt like this before.”

He looked over at Cara, “is this happening because I was in your house? Is your house haunted or some shit?”

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Daniel made his way through the kitchen and into the dining room. As he returned to the chair he’d previously occupied, placed his elbows on the table, and hid his face in his hands.

Questions flooded his mind and the voices of Grams and this Other voice felt like they were having duelling conversations in his head. One spoke to him with love and kindness, the Other seemed to be friendly, yet had some sort of agenda and Daniel felt greasy and slick everytime it spoke.

He felt movement around him and looked up just as Cara placed her hand upon his shoulder,

“Are you ok?” she asked.

Daniel was surprised to see the genuine concern on her face, and even through the leather of his jacket, he could feel the sincerity of her compassion and concern for him.

In fact, he noted that even though she only touched his shoulder, his whole body felt her warmth, her peace and her caring.

He tried not to flinch away from her hand, yet something in him seemed to take over and move him away from her touch.

The voice of Other suddenly felt wild in his mind,

“Don’t let her touch you!” it hissed loudly in his mind, Daniel flinched in response, causing him to jerk away from Cara’s touch.

Cara in response, as though she could feel what he felt, flinched away from him as well, and as Daniel turned to apologize to her, he saw the look of confusion on Cara’s face..

“What was that?” Daniel asked, fear and confusion as clear as day on his face and in his eyes.

Cara smiled, “Let’s don’t worry about that right now, are you hungry?…

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Daniel stood, staring into the shadows across the street, trying to make out the image that he had noticed as the car went by. The awareness of how obvious his actions were was beginning to urge him into the shadows as well, like some unseen force was pulling him across the street, toward the figure he’d noticed only seconds earlier.

The Other voice, the one that Daniel had heard in his mind for years, the one that had led him into Cara’s bathroom earlier this evening, began to whisper to him, egging him along…

“That’s right, come this way, we need to talk…” the Other voice slithered through Daniel’s thoughts, but this time, Daniel noticed one significant difference…

The closer he got to the figure in the shadows, the heavier and thicker Daniel felt. Like he was moving through some sort of tar-pit of sludge and with every step closer he got, the worse he felt.

Finally, he just stopped moving all together.

“You're almost here..don’t stop now, just a little –” but the voice was cut off as a blaring car horn interrupted Daniel’s unseen trance as the headlights blinded him.

Daniel jumped back just in time to avoid being hit by the previously unnoticed truck that was racing toward him. “What the f—!”

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Cara and Estelle sat in the silent aftershock of the sound of the slamming door, just staring at each other.

For a moment, no words were spoken, not even in their minds.

No Guardians whispered any words of guidance nor encouragement.

It was as though, just for a second, the world had simply stopped. No sounds, no movements, nothing but the stillness of the moment.

And then the moment was over.

As quickly as it had been upon them, it was gone, it had passed almost completely unnoticed.

Almost.

Cara was the first to find her voice as Estelle, looking like she just remembered something cute and funny, began to smile.

“What are you smiling about?” Cara asked, surprised that anything at this moment ~ after this evening ~ could be funny,

“You said he couldn’t leave without your blessing… did you allow him to leave?”

As the smile left her face, Estelle replied…

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Estelle cleared her throat in an attempt to get their attention… and when no one moved nor looked up, she couldn’t help herself, she began to giggle….

“UUuumm, if you two are going to lay there for a while, I could get you a blanket..?”

Suddenly, as though they’d both just been stung by bees, Cara and Daniel fumbled around and struggled to remove themselves from each other, even managing to bump heads before just giving in and sitting on the floor. Even then, they couldn’t even look at each other…

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As Daniel entered through the sliding glass door, his dark vision sharpened and he had to blink a few times to be sure he was actually seeing what he thought he was seeing.

He felt like he had somehow entered a whole new dimension in just the two steps it took to get in from outside.

A calm and strong sense of peace overcame Daniel and the only physical response he had was to just relax, that there was absolutely nothing to worry about, he needed to simply and freely relax.

Daniel closed his eyes, thinking perhaps he wasn’t seeing correctly…. but when he re-opened his eyes, he realized that he saw right the first time he’d looked…

He was standing in an oversized closet.

No doors to exit out of, no windows to climb through, it was just a square box of a small room.

Daniel looked to his assumed rescuer in confusion…. “What the f–”

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Cara, still in her towel, and now desperately wanting to go to bed and call it a night, hoped the tapping at her door was just her imagination.

She stood, listening, debating.

When her Guardians spoke to, “Answer it Cara, it's important.”

Cara rolled her eyes “So is me getting some sleep'” she mumbled in reply.

As she turned toward the door, Cara heard another tapping sound and then: “Come on Cara, it's me, I have your package.”

Cara dropped her head in surrender, it was Estelle, her next door neighbor.

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Daniel stood, staring after Cara, surprised by her words….

‘What is she doing?’ he wondered to no one but himself.

Grams began speaking to him again, “Son, whatever that woman is up to, she is doing it for you.” Daniel nodded in understanding as he turned and headed for the window in the office.

It was still open, waiting for him to make his retreat, but he paused.

It felt different.

Daniel stood, focusing on the window and this new found feeling in his chest that something wasn’t right, as a flicker moved past the window.

“What…?” Daniel questioned as he moved closer.

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As Cara headed for the front door, she rolled her eyes to the Heavens,

“I hope ya’all know what we’re doing” was her silent plea.

Cara began breathing heavy and deep, hoping she looked like she just ran toward the door, as her doorbell rang.

She hoped she looked as convincing as she thought she did as she threw open the front door, almost dropping her towel as the firemen were standing on her steps.

Everything seemed to stop, except Cara.

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Cara’s eyes widened with fear as a vision of her bathroom and the candles she had left burning flashed through her mind’s eye.

She gasped sharply,

“My bathroom!” was all she said before she turned and ran back into the house.

Daniel knew that now would be a great opportunity to run the other way and out of her life, but his Grams was yelling in his head

“Go help her!” quickly followed by “this is part your fault too!”

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“Danny”

As the name left Cara’s lips, it felt as if time had suddenly stopped.

When Cara closed her eyes, she could see him, now stopped on her window sill, though, not as he was here in this moment, but as a youth and as a young man progressing through his life to this point.

It was as though a movie was playing on the inside of her eyelids, and as swiftly as it had started, it stopped.

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As Cara sank below the bubbles, she began formulating a plan in her mind. She counted to 5….

….4 and 5!

She sat up swiftly, ready to give her visitor the third degree for standing in her bathroom and watching her while she was in the tub.

She turned her head to where he had been standing and opened her mouth ready to share the half-assed speech that she had been preparing in her mind.

But he was gone.

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Cruising down the residential street, Daniel noted the amount of cars parked curbside and grinned to himself.

“Parked cars always give good cover.” Daniel noted to himself.

He continued to roll quietly down the street, well, as quietly as one man could while riding a Harley. Daniel cut the lights and the engine, allowing the bike to coast to his preferred parking spot, in the shadows between an abandoned house and a tall hedge.

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Cara sighed happily and sank deeper into the bubble-filled tub.

She was instantly grateful that she had wrecked the budget on the bathroom redesign when she decided to upgrade to a deep soaker tub, much to the frustrations of the designer and the contractor.

Cara grinned, remembering the manic banter of the design team, banter that all ended the second that she offered to pay the extra fees involved for upgrading to the new tub, and the structural upgrade necessary to ensure that the tub, when filled with water ~ and with Cara ~ would not end up in the basement.

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