Greyson Jakes Desert Paranormal

I felt my heart sink and tears filled my eyes when I read those horrible words about one of my closest friends, unintentionally estranged or not.

I was in complete disbelief because Greg had been my best friend since I was five, but we had lost touch after high school when I went to ASU.  He left home at the same time to get away from his abusive older parents, but mainly his alcoholic father enabled by his waspish and useless mother.

After I’d finished college, my parents had retired and moved to Florida.  They surprised me by giving me their modest home free and clear, near the famous Catalina foothills not too far from Sabino Canyon.

Mom had been born and raised in the beautiful Florida Keys but had met my dad at college in Arizona and had stayed with him in the desert.  They both had become grade schoolteachers after graduation and had lived simple quiet lives.

Even though the original plan was for me to follow in their footsteps to gain the financial security of an eventual pension it didn’t happen that way.  However, as it turned out during the student-teacher days I fully realized I wasn’t cut out to be an art teacher to a bunch of uninterested, untalented, troublemakers that only wasted my time.

After I graduated, I took a chance working at sidewalk art shows to display my paintings while living lean, and hoping I wasn’t going to starve.  I finally had gained a strong following on the web, and enough sales to keep me afloat to where I am now getting widely noticed.  I sell just about everything I paint with advance special orders and have a waiting list for my current works in progress.

I’d never been all that enthusiastic about the house I grew up in, but it was free and clear as I mentioned and low stress.  It oddly had no views for being in the foothills, but it was simple and a basic place where maintenance was easy and cheap, giving me a lot more time for my artwork.

My parents, on the other hand, had surprised me by buying quite the lavish oceanfront house with a private beach included.  Frankly, I didn’t know how they could afford it on their pensions, but they had never talked about their finances to me while I was living with them.  And come to think of it, they always changed the subject when I asked too many questions about my family history.

I asked Dad about how they could afford it once, and he just smiled and told me it was magic.  Needless to say, when I got the news about Greg, I’d been devastated and deeply saddened about my former friend’s early death.

But now however, I am even more surprised by his cryptic offer whatever that would turn out to be.

Part of the deal was that I had to meet in person with the attorney before I could find out what was up.  I thought that was a weird request but often in the past, Greg had always lived in his own world by his own rules mostly for self-preservation considering his obnoxious cruel parents.

I’d told my parents about it naturally as they were close to him as well, and they made a point of telling me to let them know what the offer was as soon as I found out since they were as curious as I had been and am.

I had decided to drive up to Phoenix a few days after that since of course, I was intrigued by this, but I needed to meet his attorney overseeing his estate to learn about whatever that might entail.

When I contacted him by phone and started asking questions, he basically cut me right off.  He said that during our meeting he promised to give me all the details of Greg’s life since he was a friend of his too.

We would discuss the reason for his recent death, along with the wonderful offer he would present to me and added that he could hardly wait to meet me after hearing so much about me through the years.

So now I was sitting face to face with Greg’s attorney, and he was giving me a delighted smile.

“It is so good to finally meet you Greyson, Gregor spoke of you fondly and often as the kid that saved his ass several times from the bullies at school,” he laughed, more amused by the conversation than I was.

He was looking way too entertained, but frankly it did put me at ease right away with his friendly demeanor and smile.

“I’d actually forgotten about all that weird stuff back then as kids.  We were always close friends from kindergarten and through high school, spending all our free time together.  He was smaller than the rest of the other boys his age, and they picked on him for no reason other than blatant ignorance.  I didn’t like it one bit and taught them a few hard lessons for acting like jerks and trying to hurt him.  It was just some insecure assholes trying to hide their own lack of confidence by focusing on others unable to defend themselves.  Greg was a great guy and an incredibly good friend to me during those times.  He practically lived at our house since his parents were constantly verbally abusive to him and serious alcoholics, especially his dad.  My parents wanted to step in to help, but he begged them not to say anything, knowing it would only make things much worse than they already were.  While they were never physically or sexually abusive to him like I said, they basically gave him a hard time and made him feel worthless, that can be just as bad.  I always thought that it was such a terrible shame that his own parents couldn’t see what a wonderful and creative person he was.  My own parents did their best to give him confidence and a sense of security, and they both loved him as I did,” I explained, and he nodded his head.

“I’m sorry to hear that.  Even though I didn’t know him all that well however, from what I could gather he was a truly kind man.  He used his land that you will hear about in a moment, to provide food for local shelters and tribes nearby.  He was constantly doing charitable things for others using his excess produce.  He had worked with Leda Edwards on food development and had been with her since he left high school.  She had hired him and originally owned the property for an exceptionally long time before she met him.  About seven years after he began working for her, she developed a strange and incurable fast-acting liver disease that no one could stop or slow, and she eventually died from it.  At that time she left her property to him as a gift of love.  He had completely cared for her during the time that she was sick, and before that time they had become a remarkably close couple prior to her terminal illness.  He was later stunned by her generosity to him but then again, they were always devoted to each other and were deeply in love, a true May to December romance between two lovely and caring people,” he explained.

I had to admit to myself that it certainly sounded like the Greg I once knew so well long ago.  I had also known he was always attracted to older women, so there was no real surprise there from the start.

“So what happened to him?  He was the same age that I am, so he wasn’t all that old,” I asked.

I was trying to keep my unexpectedly strong emotions out of it, at least while I was in his office.

I did not want to cry in front of him.

“I didn’t know him all that well as I mentioned before, but it seems that he had a real love of boating and fishing.  He also enjoyed camping alone under the stars as he put it when he had some free time and could break away from his duties at the farm.  As it turns out he was camping and boating at Roosevelt Lake northeast of here when a sudden Monsoon storm came up unexpectedly.  He was in a small metal fishing boat when lightning hit it and killed him instantly.  There were several shocked witnesses on the shore to the horrible event, and they were naturally terribly disturbed seeing it happen right in front of them.”

I felt myself stiffen in horror thinking about it, but again tried to keep it down in front of this guy.

“Was he alone out there?”

“Yes, so no one else was hurt but him.  As I said it killed him, and he could not save himself.  Even with his natural abilities he could not react fast enough since it happened so swiftly, being caught off guard,” he mentioned casually.

He was watching me intently for some reason that made me feel uncomfortable, and I looked back up at him.

“What abilities?  He wasn’t disabled in any way when I knew him years ago, and I knew he could swim from our high school gym classes,” I asked, taken off guard by his strange, unexpected comment.

“Why this certainly surprises me Greyson, I thought you knew since you were such good and close friends at one time.  This is almost disturbing to me to say the least, and I don’t want to speak out of turn here Greyson about things you might not be aware of in his life.  He told me clearly that you were familiar with supernatural people, or I sure wouldn’t have revealed this in such a casual off-hand way,” he stammered, turning red and looking extremely uncomfortable from his words.

“We used to play some fun games as kids, make things move, read each other’s minds and silly kid stuff like that if that is what he was referring to, other than that I don’t have a clue what he would be referring to about that.  However, as I got older, I just shrugged it off as simple kid’s nonsense.  I figured later that it probably was just the wind helping things along.  So are you going to sit there and tell me Ezroc, that he had some magical supernatural powers of some sort that he never mentioned to me?” I asked, now feeling quite odd and starting to wonder what the fuck.

There was simply no question about it in my mind.  Ezroc was now staring at me, obviously as totally weirded out as I was feeling right about now.  I now honestly had to wonder what the hell was coming next from this strange meeting and believe me we were both on edge now.

He took a deep breath, letting it out slowly, swallowed hard then looked me right in the eyes.

I almost felt like I was sensing a soft vibration flow over my skin, and then he shook his head looking confused.

“Okay I will level with you about this, but the things I’m going to tell you go no farther than this room, and I’m dead serious about this Greyson.  I am speaking to you in complete and trusted confidence.  Greg was a natural witch, exceptionally talented with an affinity for nature, an earth based witch to be exact.  He came to me for legal matters because I am a witch as well, again natural born like Greg.  Leda was a Psychic Medium, Telepath, and an expert at Telekinesis.  I don’t mean to shock you or speak out of turn here Greyson, but I just have sensed, while the sensations I’m sure you felt were me reading you to find the same situation with you.  The difference here between you and us, is that your supernatural potential that I am reading is tremendous and off the charts for a normal witch,” he told me sincerely, and I felt my blood go cold.

My chest felt so tight and for a long moment I seemed a bit dizzy, and it was hard to breathe.

“Witch?  As in broomstick witches?  Are you trying to pull my leg here, and if so, I find this pretty damn unprofessional?” I demanded.

I then suddenly noticed that I was getting that strange tingly feeling all over my body once again.

He just shook his head slowly again, and I realized what I was feeling was coming from him.

“He was certain that you had figured it out by now, or maybe your parents had finally talked to you about it but surprise, you fooled us both, along with your irresponsible parents it would seem!”

“I don’t believe it Ezroc.  I don’t consider that kind of stuff anything other than something to amuse small kids at parties and nothing more,” I responded way too quickly.

He was now scaring the total fuck out of me with the way he continued to intently stare at me.

However, at that moment my mouth dropped open when without warning, he levitated a huge law book sitting on his desk.  I know I blinked my eyes several times in a row to make sure it was real and not my imagination.

“What the fuck?”

“Not sex Greyson, honest to goodness witch magic,” he snickered, letting the book float down again.

“Do something else,” I demanded, squeezing my fists trying to build my bravado by being defiant.

“Whatever,” he breathed, then I began to rise off my chair, and thought I would have a panic attack on the spot.

“You know and to be honest here Greyson, you certainly don’t need to rely on me for your supernatural entertainment around here, you are more than capable of doing it for yourself and a hell of a lot more from my scans of you, I would imagine.  I just read you again to figure out who I am really dealing with here,” he mentioned casually, almost looking bored by the whole thing.

“No way Ezroc!  This has to be some dumb kind of trick that Greg put you up to, and it is starting to make me feel strange and uncomfortable,” I stammered, my heart pounding, and my palms beginning to sweat.

“No tricks just natural ability my new and quite suspicious friend.  Now try it for yourself and concentrate on the book on my desk.  Make it rise up slowly and then go back down,” he prompted, and I felt like a fool.

“Do I have to say any magic words too?” I asked him.

I knew from the way I sounded and the look that he was giving me, that I seemed like a smartass.

“No words, just visualize what you want, use your hands to direct the energy, and don’t be rude to me, I’m trying to help you here,” he answered shortly.

Now I really felt like an idiot for insulting him like that when he was attempting to make me understand.

“I’m sorry, okay here goes,” I said.

I already knew what was going to happen, a big fat nothing and I was right on the mark with that one.

I held out my hand and visualized the heavy book rising off his desk.  Nothing, and I grinned at him, but he certainly wasn’t having it.

“This time clear your stubborn mind, while only thinking of the book.  It takes a strong focus to make things happen in witchcraft, now do it, and make it come about this time,” he prompted firmly, only with a big happy smile.

I cleared my thoughts, and put my self-conscious feelings aside for the moment, and only had the book in mind like he asked me to do.  I mentally ordered it to lift from the desk, and suddenly it shot up and hit the ceiling so hard I thought it would make a hole.  It then fell back down as I was so startled and forgot to control it.