“Ya better meet me at dawn tomorrow. If ya don’t, we’re takin’ the first flight home.”
Chapter 10
The next morning, if you could call anything before dawn that, I drove with Aunt Jo to a small Karate dojo. Texas dojos weren’t what came to mind when I heard the word. This one was in a strip mall, sandwiched between a Subway and a smoothie shop. My headlights reflected off the darkened windows as I parked in front.
“How’d you even talk the owner into giving you a set of keys?” I asked.
Aunt Jo raised an eyebrow. “The schools not the only place we got our fingers in. Freddy owes us a favor.”
“I swear,” I said. “Our family seems more like the mob every single day.”
She snorted. “We’ve been around longer.”
“How long are we doing this?”
“Till dawn. Freddy’s first class starts at eight. He wants us out before then.”
“Let’s get this over with.”
I help Aunt Jo in her chair, unlocked the glass door, and wheeled her inside. The front room, which could be seen from the outside, was large and open with pale wood floors. Several mats were rolled up on the side. The scent of old sweat permeated the air.
“We doing this out her for everyone to see?” I asked.
She nodded to one of the two doors in the back. “There’s a room for private sessions.”
Her chair squeaked as I wheeled her there. It was half the size of the front room with racks of practice weapons lined along the walls and a mat spread across the middle.
“So how are we starting this?” I asked. “Warm up katas? Jazzersize?”
She snorted. “Nope. We’re not doing any fightin’ today. Gonna focus on those blocked Chakras.”
I scrunched my mouth to one side. She wanted to jump right to the source of the problem. Why had I even hoped we would start of easy? Most people thought that chakras were an Eastern thing, which is sort of true depending on where they were from, but there was a similar belief among the Greeks. The clearest idea came from Plato, who taught that there were seven points that connected the soul to the body. Little did he know that gods possessed the seven points as well. The Pandorans learned these points as a way to take resonance from them.
“Help me out of my chair and onto the mat,” Aunt Jo said.
I wrapped her arms around my shoulders and pulled her from the chair. Either I’d gain some strength, or she’d lost some weight. After several moments of me grunting and her sharp instructions, she was in a lotus style sitting position. I ended lying with my head on her lap, my legs stretched out, and my hands resting at my sides with my palms down. She placed her index, middle fingers, and thumbs on my crown and the spot between my eyebrows.
“Take a deep breath,” she said. “This is gonna burn a little.”
Yeah, I remembered that part. The burning had remained hours afterward and no amount of rubbing or ice would make it stop. As a child, my mother had kissed both chakra points with a smile. She’d told me we all had to endure this and this was one of life’s little lessons. It never prepared me for the hardest lesson I’d ever had to face.
I closed my eyes and inhaled deeply. It started out as a small sting, like small pinpricks where Aunt Jo’s fingers touched me. The feeling spread and formed into heat. The burning began to swirl clockwise along my chakra points. I scrunched up my closed eyes and gritted my teeth.
My mother’s face came into view. Her blue eyes crinkled at the corners as her face lit up in a smile. She held her arms out to me. Dance with me, Cassi. An orange light flashed behind my eyelids as a pressure built up in in head. I saw my mother again. This time she rested her hand on with her hand on the handle or our front door with a pained frown. She’d been about to leave on another mission. I begged her to stay and to send someone else. Didn’t she have that power? She was the Pyrrha, after all. She’d ruffled my hair and told me that we all had our duty.
And look where your duty got you, Mom.
A dark purple light flared, and I gasped. My whole head sizzled, and the pressure rose in my mind. It had to break. If it didn’t, I would burn into nothing. I wrenched away from Aunt Jo’s fingers and sat up. My momentum sent her toppling over on her side. She propped herself up on one elbow and glared at me. My nails dug in the rubber mat, leaving indents, as I panted with sweat dripping from my face.
“Now we’re gonna have to start all over,” Aunt Jo said.
“Today?” I croaked.
She shook her head. “Not enough time. Yer endurance is shit.”
“I don’t understand,” I said. “I shouldn’t have a problem with it.”
“Edurance isn’t just physical, Cassi girl.”
”What do you mean?”
She tapped her head. “Whatever’s blocking ya, is up here. Ya need to deal with it.”
“So, what? You’re looking for me to sit on a couch and talk about my traumatizing childhood?”
“If that’s what you need to do to stop being all but useless, yeah.”