CHAPTER II (Continued)

"NO!"

Sean screamed and sat upright in bed.   His body was soaked with sweat.

Lorrie was jolted out of her deep sleep and instinctively reached out for him.

"What is it, hone?  Did you have that dream again?" She wrapped her arms around him and held him as tightly as she could.

Sean gasped for air and blinked his eyes in a desperate attempt to come out of his deep sleep and erase the image of the explosion from his mind.  Then he stared into space, his eyes glazed as if he were in a trance.

"Oh, dear, your tee-shirt is soaked, "said Lorrie.  "Let's get if off of you and I'll get you a freshly one."

Sean obediently raised her arms in the air and allowed Lorrie to pull the shirt off over his head.  She got out of bed and walked over to the dresser.

"This has got to stop," she thought to herself.  "He's losing too  much sleep."  She opened the drawer and took out a clean tee-shirt, then moved to Sean's side of the bed.

"Her, honey . . . put this on."

This nightly ritual was beginning to have its toll on Lorrie as well as Sean.  For the past three months he had the same nightmare.  It always ended with an explosion that seems so real, it was hours before he could get back to sleep.

Lorrie gently guided Sean's arms through the sleeves of the shirt and pulled it down.  Then she put her hand on his chest and applied just enough pressure to force him to lie back on the bed.  As soon as his head touched the pillow, his eyes closed.  She softly brushed her hand across his cheeks . . . then, she lightly touched his brow with her fingertips.

"Ummmmmmmmm. . . " he murmured, "that feels so good."

She let her hand glide down to his chest and drew a butterfly on it with her fingertips.

"Go to sleep, my love . . . Everything is going to be alright.  I am here.  I will always be with you."

"No, I can't.  I can't go to sleep," Sean protested.

"Shhhh.  There, there.   Yes, you can.  Just relax."

"No, I have to talk to you about this."

"Tomorrow, honey.  We'll talk about it tomorrow . . . After the TV show.  We've got a couple of weeks off and we'll have plenty of time to talk.  Right now, we've got to get some sleep.  You don't want to go on Benedict's show with circles under your eyes, do you?"

Sean seemed oblivious to Lorrie's words.   His mind was racing a mile a minute.

"There's something wrong, Lorrie.   I can't figure out what it is, but I know that there's some kind of message in this dream.  I just have to figure out what it is. You're good at this kind of thing.   I really need your help.  Please?"

"Tomorrow, honey.  I promise.   We'll do it tomorrow."

Sean continued to ramble, his voice gradually becoming more and more slurred with fatigue.

"Nirih?" Why are you intervening?  What is it that you want?  Why won't you leave me alone?   What are you trying to tell me?"

Lorrie's heart began to pound when Sean spoke Nirih's name.

"Oh, no," she thought. "Could it be Nirih who is causing these nightmares?"

Sean opened his eyes and stared up at the ceiling.  Then he spoke.  This time his voice was calm, low and determined.

"Nirih is not fished with us," he said.  "There's something else he wants us to do.  I'm sure he's trying to communicate with me . . . "

Lorrie sighed heavily.

"If what you're saying is true, then Nirih must still be in the Fifth Dimension.  I thought for sure he would be returning to work in the higher dimensions once he helped us write the book about Mawuvia."

"Maybe he did go to a higher plane," said Sean.  "Maybe that's why he's having such a hard time getting through to me."

Lorrie let out a soft chuckle.

"I don't think he's having a hard time communicating with us.  I think he's just being too cryptic and we're not getting what it is he saying."

Sean became very quiet.  Lorrie strained her eyes to see if he had closed his.  She listened for the telltale signs of heavy breathing, hoping that he had drifted off to sleep.  He was frighteningly quiet.

"Lorrie . . . you've got to let Nirih channel through you again.  It's the only way."

"Oh, honey," she moaned.

"I know what id does to you, but you've just got to do it one more time.  I'm sure there's a reason why I have been having this dream.  I can't shake the feeling that something terrible is going to happen.  We've got to find out what it is and keep it from happening.  Nirih is our only key.  You've got to do it . . . just one more time . . . "

Lorrie laid down and folded her arms in front of her.  Her mind raced back to the first time Nirih decided to channel through her.  She remember how tired it made her and how embarrassed she felt every time she woke up to find the rest of the group staring strangely at her.

After months of allowing Nirih to channel through her, Lorrie began to get used to it, but she was relieved when the book was finally written and Nirih stopped communicating to the others through her.

Of course there were good times.   Nirih did have a tendency to pop in unexpectedly once in a while.  It was a little disconcerting, and Sean and the others had to be on their toes in order to recognize the signs of his impending visits so they could set up the tape recorders.

Although Lorrie sometimes resented the fact that during the sessions she couldn't see what the others were seeing or experience Nirih "live."  Still, she did get a little bit of satisfaction in listening to the session tapes and watching Lisa and Jo act out Nirih's movements.

Lorrie's favorite tape was taken one night right after she had broken her foot.  Sean was sick that night and went to bed early, so Terran was elected to lead the session.  The last thing Lorrie remembered was sitting on the couch with her broken foot resting on a pillow.  As soon as Terran began the countdown which would bring them all to an alpha level, Lorrie was sound asleep.

Almost immediately, Nirih emerged in his grandiose, Shakespearean  Manner.  He made a broad sweep with his right arm and started to stand up to greet his friends when Terran quickly spoke up.

"Nirih, please sit down.  You will cause Lorrie much pain when she awakes."

Nirih did not understand.  Terran tried to explain that Lorrie had broken her foot and if he chose to walk on it, it would cause her much pain.  Nirih did not remember what "pain" was, and his reaction was quite humorous.

Although the pain wasn't funny, the tape certainly was.  And now that it was all over, Lorrie recalled that she really didn't mind the discomfort.  After all, Nirih had a wonderful time teaching the others and entertaining them at the same time.  He would not have been able to do it quite as effectively if Lorrie hadn't allowed him to trance channel through her.

"Oh, what the hell," she thought.  "I guess one more time won't make that much difference.  And if it will help the nightmares to stop, it will be worth it."

She turned to face Sean and rested her hand on his chest.  She knew that there really wasn't any sense is disagreeing with him anyway.   Especially this time.  When he was right . . . he always won.

"Okay, hone.  I'll make you a deal.  If you promise to close your eyes and go to sleep I promise I will try to channel Nirih as soon as we can."

"Not good enough, Lorrie," said Sean.  "Don't patronize me.  I know that you're hoping this will all blow over and I will forget about it so you won't have to try to bring Nirih back to us."

"That's not true, Sean" Lorrie complained.

Sean rolled over and wrapped his long arms around her.

"I love you for what you are. And, after all of these years, I think I know you pretty well, sweetheart.  What I just said was true.  I'm not sure why, but for some reason you were always reluctant to have Nirih channel through you. "

He gently kissed her forehead.

"I'm sure that you must have thought it was all over once the movie about Mawuvia was made.  As a matter of fact we all thought we'd never see him again.  But, now I know differently.  There's something else we have to do, and I'm not going to let you procrastinate on this one.   You have to do the channeling within the next few days."

Lorrie let out another deep sigh.   Sean was right, and there was no way she was going to change his mind.  She secretly  hoped that his nightmares would cease and she wouldn't have to go through with her promise.  But she, too, knew that something was up, and the sooner they found out what it was, the better.

"All right.  Do we want to bring Terran and Lisa and Jo in on this, or she we go it alone first?" she asked.

"I think we should do this alone.   If I'm right, then we'll have to get together with them pretty soon.  For some reason I have this feeling that there is dangerous work ahead for all of us . . . and we're going to need all the help we can get.  But first, let's find out what it is so we can prepare the others before they join us."

"I don't think I'm going to like this, Sean."

Sean took Lorrie's hand in his, raised it to his lips and kissed it.

"I'm not looking forward to this new challenge either.  But I do know that it's something we've got to do. . . and that its for the Good of ALL."

"Well, I guess there's no sense in worrying about something that hasn't happened yet.  We need to save our energy for the real thing."

Sean's breathing became heavier.   Evidently he was assured that Lorrie would help him as soon as possible and had begun to relax.  The pace they had been keeping since the movie about Mawuvia came out had drained him more than he let on.  They both needed a good rest.  They had to get away from everyone and everything.  If they did have dangers work ahead, they would need to be strong.

"I have an idea," Lorrie whispered softly in his ear.  "Why don't we go down to Monterey for a while?   We'll find a secluded beach somewhere and soak up the energies of the ocean and the sun.  We can do the channeling session there."

Sean smiled.  Lorrie had read his mind. He loved it when they were completely in tune with each other. 

"I love you, Lorrie.  That's a great idea of yours . . . " he said as he finally allowed himself to relax.   "We need to go back to the beach.  It's been such a lonnnnnng, lonnnnng time . . . I mish the osssssshhhhhhhun . . . "

Sean's voice slurred as he faded into slumber, confident Lorrie would keep her promise and that they would soon find out what was going on.

Lorrie pulled the covers up and gently tucked them under his chin.

"And, for tonight, just keep your eyes closed," she whispered, "dream of lying on the soft, warm sand . . . with the sun shining on your face.  Listen to the roar of the ocean . . . and the call of the gulls . . . and drift . . . deeper . . . and deeper  . . . to sleep."

She kissed him gently on the cheek and smiled when she heard his heavy breathing transform into light snoring.

Lorrie closed her eyes and listened to the soft patter of the spring rain as it splashed against the windows of their hotel room.

"Oh, swell!" she thought.   "Now that I've got you to go to sleep, I'm wide awake.  How on earth am I ever going to get to sleep, now?"

Lorrie took a deep breath, then let it out.  She knew that the only way she was going to get to sleep was if she could succeed in getting rid of the chatter in her mind and lower her brain wave activity to at least the alpha level.

"Alright, Saunders," she instructed herself. "I'm going to count backwards from ten to zero.  When I complete the count you will be totally relaxed and fall into a deep, deep sleep."

She took another deep breath, held the air in her lungs for as long as she could, then let it out slowly, commanding every muscle in her body to completely relax.

"Ten . . . all the muscles in my body are relaxing, now . . . Nine . . . Soon I will be sound asleep . . . Eight . . . feeling very warm and comfortable now . . . Seven . . . relaxing, going deeper and deeper asleep . . . Eight . . .uh, siiic . . . "

Lorrie's mind wandered as she began to lose consciousness.  The room seemed to be swirling around her as she lay perfectly still in the darkness with her eyes closed.

"Lyria," a voice spoke softly inside her head.  "I will continue the count."

"Nirih? . . . No . . . not now . . . it can't be you . . . " she mumbled.   "It's not time . . . You have better things to do . . . "

"Don't worry, my love.  You will not remember that I have come to you this evening.  You will sleep well . . . Yanah will sleep well.  We will meet again . . . Five . . . That's it, go deeper and deeper . . . (I've gotten pretty good at this from listening to you) . . . Four . . . more and more relaxed . . . Yanah is with you . . . Three . . . I am with you . . . I will protect you . . . I will protect Yanah . . . Two . . . deeper and deeper asleep.  One . . . You both deserve this rest and I will see to it that you are not disturbed for the rest of the night.  . . Zero . . . Sleep, my Lyria . . . Sleep, my Yanah . . . Sleep well . . . You have a most dangerous mission ahead of you.  Enjoy this solitude . . . enjoy this peaceful, undisturbed sleep."

A bright light flickered at the foot of Sean's and Lorrie's bed.  The light began to pulsate and brighten until it formed a cloudy, human-shape energy, surrounded by a silvery-blue aura.  The arms of this shape began to stretch, longer and longer, reaching out farther and farther until its "hands" touched the sides of Lorrie's and Sean's sleeping faces.  Gently, Nirih brushed the sides of the sleeper's cheeks.  Then his form slowly dissolved into an intense Blue-White Light which hover above the two lovers heads.

"M peace be with you . . . I shall see you soon.  In the meanwhile, I have assigned those in my command to protect and guide you as you continue on your Divine Paths and honor your Contracts.

"Within an instant,  Nirih was gone.