Obsidian

- protection, grounding, healing -

Nephele wakes up. She promptly turns over and picks up her phone, clicking the home button. 9:45, the clock reads. 9:45?? She thinks. She hasn’t slept that late in ages. Nephele tries to recall her nightmare from the night before but she comes up empty. Is it possible that she hadn’t had a nightmare that night?

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The light is streaming in through my apartment window, and for the first time in ages I feel hope swelling in my chest like a balloon getting filled with helium. Is it possible that the old man from the park really got rid of my nightmares? Everything feels soft and new again, I feel as if I am walking on eggshells now because I don’t want this feeling to go away.

Nephele pulls her nose out of her journal, and touches her obsidian necklace. A look of determination settles on her face as she decides that she must go and question the old man. Nephele pulls on black jeans and a corduroy jacket before leaving her apartment, a small bounce in the way she walks. The air smells like flowers, the perfume only adding to her feeling of newness and happiness. Nephele notices that the town had been adorned with flowers, she stops and picks one, slipping it into her journal. After entering the park, she searches for the old man and the boy who just yesterday sat under an old oak tree, when she arrives at the tree she finds nothing but a pair of porcelain salt and pepper shakers. She picks them up, the smooth material cold on her skin. She finds that her eyes are swelling with tears, like her happiness depended on finding the pair of men. Dropping the salt and pepper shakers, she heads to St. Cecelia’s.

The feeling of dread has returned to Nephele, and as she sits on a bench underneath a magnolia tree, the light shining through the branches dappling her legs, she begins to cry. It has been a long time since Nephele has allowed herself to cry. She has always seen it as a sign of weakness, and she was supposed to be anything but. But sitting here crying Nephele can’t explain why she was chose now to break,  nothing bad had happened. But the lump of dread in her throat has now grown to be a blanket of dread covering her body. She is lost, completely dumbfounded when it came to what she is supposed to do now. So, Nephele cries, clutching the stone around her neck that is supposed to be protecting, healing her.