Gillian Anderson - A Vision of Fire

Unnerved, Caitlin broke the gaze and glanced at the girl, who was flashing a smile, then coyly turning her face to look down at her seal.

Caitlin felt the young man start to move toward the girl. She felt a gust of cool air, only now realizing how pleasantly warm the evening had been. The boy took the girl’s hands and Caitlin felt their connection. She realized then, with certainty, that Maanik and this girl had been merged ever since the visions started. And if this girl’s soul, or transpersonal identity, or whatever it was, was connected to Maanik, then the girl was not going to leave with the boy on his ship. Something else had happened.

Caitlin let go and the boy let go and suddenly she was back in Maanik’s bedroom, with Maanik staring at her. Caitlin quickly took both of the girl’s hands, not to reconnect but to make sure she didn’t get away.

“Maanik?”

The girl seemed confused. She tried to let go of Caitlin’s hands but Caitlin held hers tightly.

“No. Stay with me.”

“I have to go,” the girl said frantically. “I don’t belong here.”

“Where?”

“Alive.”

Horrified, Caitlin almost let go of her. This wasn’t Maanik. This was the merged identity, some strange hybrid—part Maanik, part the other. It was not a split personality, not post-traumatic stress as anyone understood it, not even “possession.” It was something else, something new. More importantly, she suddenly understood why they were merged.

“Listen to me,” Caitlin said. The girl tried to withdraw her left hand. Caitlin gripped it and focused. “Listen. I know you’re trying to complete the ritual, and I know you’re trying to join the others and transcend. But something goes wrong each time your people—”

Suddenly her grip broke and cold wind blew against the back of Caitlin’s head. She felt her hair rising, heard shouts and screams from every side. She saw a sky turning red with fire that was shot from the earth to heights she could not imagine.

The girl before her was heaving sobs. Her hands were trying to lift into the air, not in the gestures of the strange language but with drooping wrists, with the awful helplessness of a child crying inconsolably. Caitlin was crying too now, feeling the girl’s gasping, choking cries in her own body.

The young man was not present. The grandmother was not present. There was just the girl in the midst of chaos. Clearly the crisis had come early. People had not been prepared. The well-planned exodus the young man had spoken of had not taken place.

But this was not Caitlin’s concern. It was not something she could repair. She had only one objective.

“Maanik!” Caitlin called, hoping to reach her. “What you see around you is not happening. It already happened . You are not there.”

The girl shook her head as embers fell and scorched her bare arms. “I… am . I must… transcend.”

“No, you must not!”

“It is already being done,” she said through tears.

This wasn’t working; Caitlin would have to go through this girl to get to Maanik. “Tell me your name.”

“Bayarmii,” the girl wept.

“Bayarmii, you must listen. The ritual is not going to work. I know you want to join with the others, but something is going wrong.”

“Why?” she wailed.

“I don’t know yet. But I do know that this isn’t working. You have to stop taking Maanik back with you.”

“No, I need her.”

“But you’re killing her!”

“Yes,” the girl said, rubbing at her face, trying to see through her tears. “If she dies, we will go together. That is what we were told.”

“You’ve been told a lie,” Caitlin said. “Bayarmii, you will ascend through your own private prayer. This ritual—what you’re doing now, the cazh —it’s something else. Please, let go.”

The girl looked around. “I can’t!” Her face was twisted, tortured, terrified.

Then there was silence. Maanik’s bedroom began to waver back into Caitlin’s vision.

“Bayarmii?” There was no response. Then, hopefully, Caitlin looked at the girl standing before her and said, “Maanik?”

“Yes,” Maanik said, trembling.

Caitlin knew that something was still terribly wrong—the bedroom would not steady around them. The other place was still flashing in and through it.

“Maanik, do you understand what Bayarmii said?”

“Yes.” Maanik was shaking hard. Caitlin took her hands again. “She’s not letting go of me, though,” Maanik said. “She’s so scared. She wants to come with me.”

“You must tell her no .”

“But… she says she’ll die if she remains. She says she has to come with me!”

She is already dead , Caitlin wanted to tell her. “Maanik, Bayarmii is very frightened and very confused but that’s not your responsibility. It’s not your job.” Caitlin held her hands tightly as words spilled out of her. “Just like it wasn’t your job to save your father. That was up to the bodyguard and he did it, he protected your papa.” Maanik was weeping again. “You did what you were supposed to do. You kept yourself safe and that’s exactly what you have to do here. You have to tell her no. Helping her is my job, and I will do it. But you have to come back to me first.”

Maanik shuddered, sobbing.

“Listen to me. Your parents love you. Stay here for them and stay here for you.”

“I can’t ,” she choked out, trying to pull her hands away.

Caitlin held fast. “You can. Listen to my voice. Follow it.”

“I’m lost—”

“You’re here, with me, with your family, your mother and your father who love you dearly.”

“Papa…”

“That’s it,” Caitlin encouraged her.

“Papa… papa… papa !”

Maanik’s final cry seemed to empty her. She collapsed and then they were both on the floor. The bedroom stabilized around them and the other place disappeared. Caitlin put her arms around Maanik and held on to her tightly as the girl wept into her neck. Caitlin could see the Pawars standing behind Ben, tears coursing down their faces. Caitlin beckoned them with a nod and then moved aside so the family could fall into each other’s arms.

“Is she…?” the ambassador asked.

“For the moment,” Caitlin told him. “But we’re not done. You must keep her here.”

“Of course.”

“No, I mean here in this time and place,” Caitlin said. “I’m sorry, I don’t have time to explain more fully.”

She instructed the ambassador to help his daughter to stand, then led the family back to the living room and had Maanik lie down on the couch again. She placed the ambassador’s right hand on his daughter’s left. “Don’t let go of this hand. Talk to her—about anything, it doesn’t matter. Send good energy through your right hand and she’ll absorb it through her left. Hopefully she’ll keep shifting any bad energy out through her right.”

The ambassador was confused but he didn’t move his hand, and Caitlin quickly walked over to Ben. “I have to find a way to make this permanent.”

“How?”

But Caitlin was already hurrying away. “Mrs. Pawar, please get Jack London and keep him with Maanik, close. I believe that will help. And would you mind if I borrowed something from your kitchen?”

Mrs. Pawar nodded and Caitlin searched through the kitchen cabinets until she found what she was looking for: jasmine tea.

“Ben, can you come with me?” Caitlin asked. “I need your help.”

“Of course,” he said, moving to her side.

As they returned to the living room Ambassador Pawar asked, “Where are you going, Dr. O’Hara?”