30th May 2019

NOAH

Renee's grey irises looked up at me, lighting up with laughter as she pointed to the stream.

"You just threw your watch away?" She questioned, her lips curved in a grin. "Don't you need it back?"

I stared at her for a few more seconds, before realising that she was waiting for an answer.

"You mean this one?" I pulled my watch out of my pocket, throwing her a playful smirk.

Renee's eyes widened in surprise. "How did you do that?"

"That's a secret," I gave her a wink.

"Noah!" Renee pouted like a baby, looking unnecessarily adorable. "Please."

"It's not a real object, just a lighter version of it. I can imagine it whenever I want, and it would appear in front of me." I explained as I handed her the watch.

"That's so cool!" Renee exclaimed as she studied my watch. "And it feels so solid too."

She handed it back to me, her palm just the perfect size to fit in mine. The winds blew, messing up my hair again, and I pushed it back into place, gazing up at the sky.

Then I saw it, a faint line of darkness peeking through her fiery sunset. The edge of her Realm.

And right now, anyone could enter through it. Including the ISA.

"What's wrong?" Renee furrowed her brows as she followed my gaze.

"We need to shield this place from the ISA," I told her, as I opened my duffel bag. "Quickly, before they find out that the Realm is permanent."

"Okay," Renee nodded, as she watched me pull out the Shield from my bag. It was a fluid like transparent material, that could float in the air. Right now, it was small, but once I charged it with my energy, it would be big enough to cover the Realm.

"This is the Shield?" Renee asked me, giving me a curious look. "Is this going to hide the Realm?"

"Yes," I nodded, now unfurling the Shield. It spread out to the size of a large blanket, which clearly wasn't enough.

"Can the ISA detect it?" She asked.

"No." I grinned at her. "They have no idea that the Shield exists.

"Why?" Renee raised her eyebrows.

"Because my friend and I invented the Shield. And made sure that the ISA never got their hands on it." I told her, my mind reeling back to all that had happened.

My heart felt heavy at the thought, my eyes stinging with tears. I turned away from Renee, in an attempt to hide my face, as I worked on the Shield.

Renee stopped talking, now watching the Shield curiously. She was inquisitive, but she knew not to pry into my thoughts. I really admired that about her.

I stretched the Shield, moving my fingers delicately, focusing on sending my energy through it. The Shield was a fragile object, and I had to be extremely careful while handling it. It was like blowing a huge soap bubble, and I tried to ensure that it didn't break.

As the Shield expanded, Renee looked at it in awe, her mouth hanging open as I imbibed my energy into it. My arms began to hurt from being stretched out, and beads of sweat appear on my forehead.

Did I forget to mention that this thing was like a vacuum cleaner, sucking every last bit of energy from me?

The Shield was now the size of a house, but it needed to be larger. As I expanded it, I wondered if my energy would be enough. To make it the size of the whole Realm.

And suddenly, a jolt of pain moved through my left arm, breaking my concentration, causing the shield to hang in mid-air. I felt myself panting as Renee handed me a bottle of water, her grey eyes looking worried.

"I need more energy," I told her, glancing at the Shield.

"What sort of energy?" Renee asked, and I glanced at her head.

Her device. The one that used electrical energy to stimulate her pineal gland.

Our ultimate source of energy in this Realm.

"Is that your device?" I asked her curiously.

"Yeah," She adjusted her helmet, causing a lock of brown hair to fall between her eyes. "I used it to make the Realm."

I smiled to myself, as I pulled out my notebook from my bag. As I flipped through it, Renee edged closer to me, eyeing the notebook eagerly.

Then we landed at it. The device that stimulated the pineal gland.

Renee gasped in recognition, her fingers running over every intricate detail. I gave her a wry smile, and she grinned excitedly.

"I designed this three years ago," I told her. "I had no idea if it would work, but now you proved it."

Renee looked at me, her eyes shining in admiration. "Wow, this is so..." She laughed nervously, looking speechless.

Is this the part where she realised she had actual feelings for me?

Shut up, Noah. That was not going to happen.

Renee looked up at me shyly, as though she was aware that I'd been staring at her.
"You need energy, don't you? For the Shield."

"Yeah," I cleared my throat, arranging my face into a thoughtful gaze.

"Can you somehow power the Shield with my device?" She indicated the helmet on her head.

Then the ideas clicked, suddenly making me excited.

"Your device is just an imprint here. It can't give us energy..." I watched her face fall.
"But, we have you. Your mind. The most powerful source of energy that just created a whole Realm."

"Which is being powered by the device," Renee added, though I noticed a rosy tint in her cheeks.

"Yeah. If you give me energy from your mind, I can use it to expand the Realm." I told her, watching her eyes widen with understanding.

Ideally, my lower back needed energy. That was where the root was, and that was the kind of energy that is needed for the Shield. But I chickened out and asked Renee to place her hands on my head. Spirits hardly had physical contact with each other, and it had been years since anyone had given me a hug.

Renee placed her tiny fingers on my forehead as I bent forward and she closed her eyes.

I used the opportunity to admire her face, her chocolate brown hair was less tangled than before like she'd attempted to comb it. I wanted to run my hands through it, just to know what it would feel like, combined with the burning gaze she gave me when I was too close to her. I wondered if Renee noticed these things if she too had feelings for me like I did.

Feelings that ran a little too deep for someone I didn't know much about.

The energy whirred through me, directly from her palms. I directed it to my spine, and my lower back, hoping to dispel the swarm of butterflies that had invaded my stomach.

"Is this enough?" Renee asked me sounding weary, her eyes now tired.

"I think so," I shrugged, and felt the power radiate through me. "If not, you'll have to give me more."

"No problem," She said, sipping from my water bottle and I turned away before I spent more time drooling at her.

This time, the Shield grew rapidly, soon covering a third of the sky. I moved my fingers softly, as though I were playing the piano, weaving the Shield into expanding faster. It covered the whole sky now, forming a dome-shaped covering over most of her Realm.

Then suddenly, I found my head spinning and my arms weakening. My energy was fizzling out, and I needed Renee to help me.

Right on time, she came towards me, throwing an anxious glance at the Shield which has stopped growing.

"Help me," I managed to tell her, my vision blurry, and my voice weak. And I don't think the butterflies were at fault this time.

Renee tried to reach for my head, but sadly I'm too tall for her. She placed her hands on my shoulders, before sliding lower and lower until she reached my lower back. I stood there breathless feeling my heart ache from the feel of her, trying to force myself to breathe, steering myself to think about the Shield.

I'd never felt so human for the past sixteen years like I did today.

I felt the energy shooting through me, instantly giving me the strength to focus on the Shield. It grew further in size, like a giant, extremely flexible bubble, covering the entire Realm.

And then, it disappeared.

"What?!" Renee yelled in shock. "Noah, it just vanished!"

"No, it didn't," I told her gently. "It's right outside your Realm, protecting it. Like a giant bubble."

"Oh," Renee nodded, taking her fingers off my back. I could feel the Shield reverberating, and I smiled knowing that it was in the right position.

If Isaac had seen this, I knew he'd be proud of me. I'd just invented another use for our Shield.

"So, you can't enter the Realm now?" Renee asked me, avoiding my gaze.

"Of course I can. I control the Shield." I smiled at her.

She returned my smile. "And I can enter too."

"Yup, through your thoughts and dreams," I told her.

We were the only ones who could enter.
We had complete privacy.

Then I snapped out of my overactive imagination, cautiously stepping away from Renee as a safety measure.

"Thanks, Noah, for everything," Renee told me, her voice wavering. She inched towards me, before giving me a quick hug, her head on my chest. I inhaled sharply at the movement, before slowly patting her hair.

Spirits never showed any form of physical affection. It was a human attribute.

Mostly because the ISA didn't want you to feel good. They were annoying like that.

Renee pulled away from me, giving me a soft smile. The sky was darker now, and I could only see vague outlines of her face. Suddenly, there was a sharp pain in my head, throwing me into darkness, making my head spin like a tornado.

As I fell to the ground, I realised the reason.

I'd used up all my energy.

*****