Ask.

Yvette sat up on her bed, covered in her silk blanket, the bluish hue of her iPhone casting a faint light on her lacy nightgown. She started breathing deeply, as the panic and excitement washed through her in waves, and she was afraid she might hyperventilate. She quickly checked if Grace was online - she wasn't. Yvette wasn't going to message her at 2:04 anyway. But she really wanted to. God, she wanted to, real bad.

The word "ASK" shined on the screen of her, like a cold light flash in the whirling darkness. Yvette drifted in a strange dream all night long, before opening her eyes, looking straight at the faint notification light which marked the arrival of the midnight message.

 In her dream, just moments before, she was slowly flying or swimming she couldn't discern which actual action it was. She was thinking of her twin obsession; true love and her spiritual connection. Illusory ghost lights blinked in the depths, around the corners, tight corridors opened up to vast, cubic halls made of black stone, with ancient statues and buildings inside with unknown, long forgotten functions. As she touched the walls around the angular corners, she realized they are full of tiny engravings, resembling Egyptian hieroglyphs. She felt she is following an unknown guiding force into the depths of an ancient pyramid so vast, greater than the world itself. She felt lost and saddened by her loneliness, leaving everything she knew and loved behind for a purpose that was so important back then, more important than anything, but here in the darkness, it's hard to say what could be the prize that worth's this dark descent.

Yvette shivered while holding the iPhone on her palm, looking at the single word, burning in the night.

Thoughts and emotions raced through her mind. A deep yearning, longing for unconditional spiritual connection, locked and chained to the secret letter mysteriously appearing at her parent's old home - a sure sign that the powers behind these messages carried on different platforms are. Nicodemis - the nickname said nothing to her at all, but she had no idea how this… guy, or whatever it is able to message her through Facebook. The profile image is nothing, an utter black square… though there is something glinting in the middle, Yvette just could not pick out it yet for the image was tiny, and she did not dare to even touch the screen for a while.

The word "ASK" was glowing there, still, waiting, and she finally, after seconds that seemed like hours, listening to her scared heartbeat drumming in her ears, she decided to ask.

"Will he come back?" she typed in, after a panicked rush. She overcame her fear, although she knew the least she should be doing is talking to uninvited strangers on the Internet. Yet, Nicodemis was not entirely uninvited, if he is what Yvette thinks he is… the lone message in the night felt like it fallen down on her like a millennia old bronze pendulum, heavy, important, but perfectly unsurprising, as the bell of the clock tower when the night descends on the city around it. It was a stranger, but a stranger whose arrival has been foretold. She hurriedly typed a continuation to her question, over washed by emotions.

"And I can't just ask one question so, I follow up with another, if we are connected, does he receive my messages?"

"Yes. And your thoughts."

The answer came so quickly, it was terrifying. The being on the other side had its answers ready, and its attention was constant. After merely a few seconds, another line appeared below the first:

"Trust and believe… when you don't, the connection is gone. Have faith. Faith is the key."

Who is there? Yvette thought, while getting goosebumps. The unknown on the other side almost like, continued, exactly where Julie-Marie left off. But she would never do such thing, as texting her from an unknown account in the middle of the night. No one knew about the "ASK" letter… no one but Jack, and of course, Grace. Yvette really hoped it's not him, tricking her like that. That would be cruel, and Jack really did not come down as a person who could be capable of harassing her like that.  Yvette never told even Jocelyn about the letter. But Jocelyn warned her about a veiled, mystical character as a future, possible love interest. And her dream, the nightmarish drift through the labyrinth inside the infinite pyramid, she just burst out of it, exactly when she got this message. And one thing Jocelyn said for sure about this character, is that he is Egyptian. Yvette felt trapped inside a vortex, spinning, and lost. For a moment, she wasn't sure if she really was awake - maybe she is still locked in that same dream, only dreaming about breaking free from that big, scary burial site raised by the ancients to worship their dead.

"I know having faith is key... Is Jay aware, consciously? That I'm there for him?" she retyped the questions several times, but gave up eventually. She felt that whoever is on the other side, whoever this Nicodemis is, he will understand her. The chat there is only a ritual - Yvette knew he feels her. And that thought was just as scary as liberating.

"Consciously and subconsciously, he dreams of you, like you of him."

"I can't text him without making him angry, distracting him from his work… but I send messages to him in other ways. I think about him throughout day, picturing him, sending mental messages and energy. Does he know? Does he feel them?"

"He gets them. He gets them all. He does not always know that it is really you, coming from you. But he accepts. He takes you in. He draws strength from that."

Yvette was on the verge of crying. She knew by her heart that the connection is real, but getting confirmation, even from this mysterious outsider, was a huge relief. She drank from the water on his bedside table, and sat up in her bed. She breathed deeply and cleared her mind before answering again. She felt the remnants of her puzzling nightmare waning into oblivion.

"Sometimes I feel we are having a conversation. I know he is mad at me. It wasn't a nice goodbye, when he went."

"Tear down your walls. Calm your mind. Embrace his return. And you will have what you want."

Yvette smiled, and gratefulness spread in her chest. Her panic and her woes drifted away. She felt calm and content now.

"Thanks so much. I needed this."

"I know. I know what you need. I will give you that as well. Light be with you."

"Light be with you too."

Yvette laid back, and slept like a baby, loosely holding her iPhone for the remainder of the night. No more nightmares and no more messages interrupted her sleep that night.

A few days passed and things felt like back to normal for Yvette, a "normal", which she had no part in for weeks or even months now. These days without Jay drifted away slowly, his absence become more and more bearable. When they spoke or exchanged messages, the mood was happy and harmonic, both of them looking forward to meeting again, seemingly without any hurt.

Yvette stood in the park one afternoon, bare feet in the grass, with the noise of traffic becoming a bland murmur in the background. She took the world in, with deep breaths, pushing all her energy into the ground with every exhale. She successfully grounded herself a profound, clean emptiness took the place of whirling chaos within her head. The turbulence of the helpless chase after unconditional love faded away. She regained her composure and learned to be grateful for all she got from Jay, being content and not just keep asking for more. She kept her connection to her online guides in check, slowly letting go of control over her future, and instead of asking all the time for outsider advice, she focused on her spiritual lessons.

Her telepathy course ran well - in that regard, the distance between him and Jay came handy, as she honed her skills of thought transfer more and more. Other times, she concentrated on Grace, and she could pick up ever more accurate impressions from her environment: the cheerful effort in the gym, the high speed, stressful shot callings during her day as an investment broker, and once, a quite intimate liaison within the depths of mall garage, behind tinted windows, on the leather backseat of a Lexus…

There is only the presence of this Master that is always lingering somewhere at the edges of her consciousness, the memory of that midnight chat session is the only thing she can't let go of. It is not a particularly troubling memory, nor it is frightening, but is haunting her, like a ghost. In her thoughts, she is referring to the being as Master.