“I know how it works with your visions, but they do give me something for my mind to work on,” she shared, with a halflaugh. They talked for another moment and then hung up. He wasn’t even sure what to think about that.
She was such an example of contrast. On the one hand, she absolutely detested that anything possibly psychic was an option in this world, and yet she couldn’t stop herself from asking if he’d gotten anything new. And he understood because, when you were desperate to find a solution to a problem, particularly when people were dying, you would do almost anything. He knew that. He’d been there, and he’d played the same game, time and time again.
But, at this point in time, he really didn’t want too many more of these psychic visions, particularly when he hadn’t asked for them. He could almost hear his gran’s voice in the background again, but he was happy to ignore it. Instead he picked up another taco and spoke directly to the voices in the back of his head.Stop. I’ll eat now. I need the nourishment.
Then he took a big bite. It was delicious, and, in no time, he had polished them off. Nobody took their time eating these things. They were small, and he could probably even eat a half dozen more, if he applied himself, but he also knew that wasn’t the best answer right now. Thankfully the voices in the back of his head were a whole lot calmer. He wasn’t sure what that meant, and he also felt guilty trying to still those voices, just so that he could get a meal eaten in peace.
With that thought, he closed his mind and intentionally pushed open the door.Okay, so what was the message?
There was a moment of silence, and then the voices just slammed him. He immediately slammed the door closed, seeing his hands shaking in reaction. He looked around, but everybody else seemed to be busy on their own stuff and weren’t concerned in the least about him. But he also knew it wouldn’t be long before somebody would notice.
He got up, hurriedly wiped off his hands, and tossed all his garbage, then quickly strode down the street. A couple alleyways were up ahead that crisscrossed over. He needed some privacy, and he darted inside one of them. He leaned up against the wall, his hands still shaking even now, and whispered, “You’ll want to do this calmly and quietly,” he told the voices. “I’ll try to help, but, if you’ll just slam me all at once and make my life very difficult, screw you guys.”
An almost shocking silence followed for a moment on the other end. He didn’t know who the hell he was talking to, and he probably shouldn’t be speaking to them this way, but how in the hell was he even supposed to function if they would just keep screaming? When he opened the door to his mind ever-so-slightly again, he heard some semblance of calm.
He smiled at that. “Good. Now did you have a message?” But there was no verbal message. People were around, and he could sense ghostly energies. But, as far as words, nothing was spoken. The “messages” were more about emotions, primarily fear and panic. He frowned at that. He spent a moment sorting through what he sensed, but nothing seemed to be related to the runners. The fact that maybe these were people related to other cases was enough to drive him crazy.
“I can only focus on the priorities,” he stated. “So, if there’s any priority here, let me know.” Almost immediately, an image slammed into his head. Once again, he was running down the path. It was so clear and crisp. He reached up to smack a branch, feeling it hit the palm of his hand as he ran. It was such a great feeling, and he looked over to his side, where he could sense and then see a man running beside him. He winced because now he realized what was coming. He was in the woman’s viewpoint. This would be the other couple. Found dead already.
Almost instantly a branch smacked up hard against her face and down she went, stunned by the shock and the force of theblow. He didn’t want to see what came next, but no way to do anything else but wait because, waiting, when you were in a cold dead body, didn’t give you any answers. It just made the sensations that much more horrific because Simon already knew what was coming. This couple was dead, and then he froze. Or were they? Dragging himself free of the vision, he quickly texted Kate and asked if there had been new victims.
She called him instead of texting. “No, why?”
“I just had a vision of a couple on the pathway,” he said, his voice heavy and dark. “I was in the woman’s point of view.”
“Can you describe the man?”
“Maybe.” He gave as brief a description as he could. There was almost relief in her voice when she confirmed, “That’s the couple from before.”
He stopped for a moment. “The woman was taken down first.”
“Interesting,” she noted. “I wouldn’t have thought that would be the smartest of the choices. Generally, when couples are attacked, the males are taken out first because they’re the ones who provide the most resistance.”
“True enough,” he agreed, “but I think, at the last moment, she darted ahead of him and slammed right into the branch.”
“So, it was a branch again?”
“Yes.” Then he stopped. “You already knew that though, didn’t you?”
“I did. Just confirming.”
“Just don’t play games with me.”
“Never games,” she replied, with a gentleness he had never heard before. “But listen. There will always be a certain amount of fact-checking because I deal in the world of facts,” she explained. “And I still have to get evidence for the courts, regardless of what woo-woo magic you may have at your fingertips.”
“I don’t have anything at my fingertips,” he snapped. “Otherwise I would be giving you answers that would stop this madness.”
“I would happily take them too,” she replied, “but then I’d still have to turn around and prove to the rest of the world that this is what happened.”
He thought about that, then nodded. “I guess that’s the thing about the two of us, isn’t it? I can only give you visions, and you still have to lock the information down to something much more concrete.”
“I do,” she agreed, “because the end result is not only to just stop this guy but to make sure we take him off the street so that he can’t ever do it again.” And, with that, she hung up.
He walked out of the alley and stood for a moment in the sunshine, the warmth slowly seeping into his pores. Something was so cold and chilling about this psychic work, and he had never expected to end up involved in this. It certainly wasn’t where he wanted to be. In fact, this was not the work he would ever have chosen to do at all, but then he had to question why he was doing it then. Why was he helping Kate? The answer was one he couldn’t even begin to argue with. Not now, not before.
He was doing it because he had no choice.
Chapter 12