Torn

by Ashley Stambaugh

  “I thought I heard you say it.”

  Tessa shook her head.

  “Huh.” Melina placed her hands on her hips as they both looked at each other with puzzled expressions. “Weird…” Scratching her head, Melina drifted out of the room and headed toward the stairwell that led down to her bookstore. Once she reached the doorway, she turned around and looked back at Tessa. “I’m not sure what’s going on, but I think I need to take a breather, maybe go out and get some coffee. Do you want some?”

  Tessa nodded, still looking curiously at her friend. “Sure. Take your time. I’ll open the store.”

  Melina gave her a small, nervous smile. “Thanks. I’ll be back shortly.” She grabbed her dark green peacoat from the hook by the door and slid it on as she made her way down the stairs. As she stepped out the back door, the brisk wind was quick to greet her. She pulled her hair tie out and shook her long wavy hair around her shoulders to help keep her ears and neck warm.

  She walked down the alley to the street and then turned to her right toward the coffee shop that was only a couple of blocks away. As she walked, she replayed the events from the morning in her mind. Who was that old man? And what did he do to me?

  The feeling still tingled in her fingers. Melina shook her hands out in front of her, but it didn’t help much. The sensation wouldn’t leave. She shook her hands a couple more times and then attempted to ignore the lingering feeling as she approached the coffee shop.

  She opened the door, and as she walked inside, she heard a mixture of low whispers. Her pace slowed as she looked around for the source of the murmurs. There was only a handful of customers in the shop, and none of them were talking. She came to a stop and gazed around the room in disbelief. Was she hearing their thoughts?

  She focused on the couple sitting closest to her and tried to pick out their thoughts from all the others, but it was impossible. The more time passed, the louder and more jumbled together the whispers became. And all the buzz in her head was starting to give her a headache. She put her hand up to her forehead and closed her eyes when suddenly she heard a loud, clear voice say, “May I help you?”

  The noise in her head immediately ceased. Melina looked up and came face-to-face with a plump, red-haired woman standing behind the counter. She looked at Melina expectantly.

  “Uh, yes, yes. Two regular coffees with cream and sugar, please.” She scanned her eyes around the room, expecting the murmurs to start up again, but the woman was back with her drinks before anything happened. She paid the woman, picked up the drink holder with her coffees, and as she turned to leave she brushed against the man standing behind her. As their arms touched, Melina was forced to stop and close her eyes as a vision sprung into her mind.

  She saw the man she had just run into. He was leaning over a sink, looking at himself in a mirror. His face was red and blotchy, and tears streamed down his face. The man looked down at the sink, and she saw a toothbrush laying on the left hand side and a knife on the right. Suddenly the man grabbed the knife and cut a deep, excruciating slit in his left wrist. Melina screamed out in pain then was jolted backward as the vision left her.

  Her eyes popped open as she pulled her throbbing wrist in toward her body. She looked around and noticed the entire coffee shop was staring at her. The man from the vision gave her a curious look but nothing of recognition. She glanced around the room one more time and then hastily left without saying a word.

  She walked back to her store as fast as she could and had never felt so relieved when she stepped inside. “I’m not going back outside today.” The pain in her left wrist was gone now, but she couldn’t shake how real it had felt. She let out a heavy sigh as she walked over to the front counter and set the coffees down.

  “Did it help any?”

  Melina looked up and saw Tessa coming out of the stockroom. “Not really. I think it might’ve made things worse.”

  “How?” Tessa asked.

  “I’ll tell you later,” Melina said in a shaky voice. She eyed the clock hanging on the wall behind the counter. “We need to open the store.”

  “But—”

  “We’re running late.” Without looking at Tessa, Melina walked off to unlock the front door. She greeted a couple of customers who had just approached and welcomed them inside. After showing them the section they'd asked for, she made her way back to the counter to unpack a shipment of new books. Tessa left her alone.

  The first couple of hours were pretty low-key, as long as she stayed her distance from the customers. But as the noon hour approached, the store became busier and louder. The thoughts no longer sounded like low whispers but more like noisy chatter. It must be the amount of people, Melina thought. She still couldn’t make out what was being said, but she couldn’t block any of it out either. By mid-afternoon she could no longer concentrate on her work, and she had had enough.

  She found Tessa back in their shared office going through the inventory on her computer. “Tess, I’m going to take a short break, okay?”

  “Sure. Are you all right?”

  “I’m just a little overwhelmed right now,” Melina said. “I think I need to relax for a bit and clear my head.”

  “No problem. I’ll get Carl to cover the front desk and tell Gwen to stay out on the floor.”

  “Thanks.” Melina rushed off to the stairs in the back and hurried up to her apartment. She shut the door behind her and leaned back against it. “Whatever is going on with me has got to stop.”

  “It can, if you’d let me explain.”

  Melina jumped as she looked up and saw Walter, the old man from the park, standing in her living room.