by Dale Mayer
“And I care why?” she cried out in anger and frustration. “There is nothing else in my life but this asshole.”
Because you’ve fed on that same theme over and over and over again. It’s up to you if you want to let it go. To walk past it. To move on and actually have a life of joy.
“Joy? I don’t even know what that is.” Her laugh was bitter, flat. “He took everything from me.”
Silence.
Then in a much softer voice, Stefan said, Not quite. Your brother is still there.
Her heart froze. He couldn’t know. There was no way. No one knew. Some secrets were never meant to come to light. As her fear and panic magnified she doubled up her shield as she tried to keep Stefan from learning her innermost secrets. It was too dangerous.
I don’t want to intrude. I don’t want to pry into your history, Stefan said. Your secret is safe with me.
She shook her head. “No,” she whispered. “No secrets are ever safe.”
Then let me help.
She froze, her mind consumed with the fact that somebody was wanting to help her and her instinctive reaction was to let him. She hadn’t had much of that in her world. Maybe some had been offered, but she’d never been in a position of needing to take it. She’d been able to handle it.
Right now she needed help. But when you let someone in you opened yourself up. Things changed.
Stop. I’m not trying to take over your world. I’m not trying to control anything. I want you to calm down so you can see you’re doing this to yourself.
“If I’m doing this why is it I can’t free myself?”
You can. He paused. Take several deep breaths. Get your energy to a lower alert level. You’ve been using a shield for so long you no longer recognize a real threat.
She frowned. Did she even know what that meant? Then she realized she did. But less from knowledge than an intuitive sense. Following his instructions she took several deep breaths. As she did the constriction around her chest eased. Following that came the ability to move her hands. When she realized it was working, she quickly repeated the process until the force paralyzing her eased back. “What started this?”
That’s a little harder to explain. Likely someone in your circle thought you should be forced to stay in this position.
“Jericho?” she hissed in alarm. “How is that possible?”
I can see you, Stefan said. It’s possible that this person is also watching the house and could be psychic. And it could also be your own alarm systems preset to trigger whenever you come up against something that terrifies you.
Tavika hopped to her feet and walked around the small room shaking her hands and legs. She didn’t understand what just happened, but she understood his words even less. The fact that he was speaking to her, that she could hear his voice just as if there were speakers in the room – which there weren’t – was mind-blowing. Her mother had been able to do that, but she’d lived in the cocoon of belief that her mother was special and that nobody else could do what she did. It was a shock that Stefan had the same abilities. As did Jericho and…herself. Not only do I have the same abilities, but there’s a lot us who can do the same thing.
“Unbelievable.” She glanced around the room, seeing the setting sun casting shadows. And so much more. Had the pizza delivery man gone? She hoped he got paid, but there was no way in hell she was opening the door and letting whoever sent it to her know she was actually in the house. Not now.
What if he’d been responsible for her paralysis? If he’d seen her arrive then he might have thought that’s where she’d be, but she’d be dammed if she’d confirm it.
Then she stopped and placed a hand on her temple. The paralysis issue was so much bigger than the pizza delivery. How the hell could this person do this? And what was she going to do about it?
You’re going to keep the communication open because it could save your life, Stefan snapped. I don’t care if you don’t think your life is worth saving. It is. And there’s so much more you can do to help the world than what you’re doing now.
How dare he? She could feel that old rage boiling up. It had haunted her since she was a child. Knowing she was going to die young, knowing she wouldn’t be able to escape the killer. Not wanting to escape. Did Stefan understand how hard it was to do anything knowing her life would be ending?
Convert that rage into something useful, Stefan snapped. I don’t have time for all this and neither do you. That serial killer is out there, and he’s on a mission right now.
Her gaze narrowed as she stared out to the sky. “It’s bad enough you’re inside my head. That you can read my thoughts and mind. What do you know about the Ghost?”
I know everything you do and more.
She gave a shuddering breath, wondering what had happened to her world.
The Ghost happened. Are you really going to let him get away with it? Stefan’s voice was determined as he added, You’re no longer a child. What happened to you was horrific. You have carried the vestiges of all of that guilt, the grief, the loneliness, from the death of all your family members forward. And he’s using it against you. But worse…you’re letting him.
*
Jericho wondered if anyone other than a psychic could see the strong cloud of energy bubbling through the house where Tavika sat hidden from most of the world. She was so damn powerful her thoughts and energy were just firing off like a lightning storm. He knew Stefan had gone in to talk to her. Most the time Stefan was a gentle soul, but when he needed to be, he came down with Thor’s hammer and made the world happen.
Tavika was caught in a time warp. So hung up on something she needed to do that she’d programmed her entire life to achieve it. Fear kept driving her forward. He did not want to see her die. He knew she was on the Ghost’s list. He just didn’t understand why. Especially after all this time.
Stefan’s voice slammed through his mind. Something has changed in his world.
Jericho closed his mind and cried out, “Tone it down will you?”
Instantly Stefan softened his voice as it rippled through his mind. Sorry.
“It’s okay.” Jericho gently massaged his temple. “What do you mean something’s changed?
There has to be a reason why he’s coming after her now.
“Maybe he’s just found her again? Maybe he was looking for a long time and just came across her path now.” Jericho liked that idea but knew it wouldn’t fly. Tavika had an unusual name and although she was not in a high profile position, she was in one that put her in the media spotlight every once in a while, and she’d been in it several times over the last few years.
Or…Stefan’s voice fell silent.
“Or?” Jericho waited, knowing Stefan was trying to get his thoughts clear.
Almost hearing a mental shrug, Jericho heard Stefan say, We’ve seen it before. He’s cleaning up.
“Cleaning up?” Jericho rolled the idea around in his head. “That’s along the same lines we were considering.”
He could be moving on? He could be afraid of getting caught for some reason all of a sudden. Stefan’s voice turned humorous.
“Scary thought.” Jericho shook his head. There were a lot of people out there who were real psychics, and most of them were in hiding. Then there were those few that wanted the publicity, wanted the media to know what they did. There was no shortage of people who were not psychics that handed out misinformation for a bit of money on a daily basis. Casual comments could have incredible results when given to the wrong people. It would be just stupid enough for something like that to come into play here. “Any sign the Ghost is psychic himself?”
I wondered that, Stefan said thoughtfully. But I haven’t got any reason to believe so.
“And yet so many psychos are, especially the ones we haven’t been able to capture yet.” Jericho should know. He’d been involved in several big cases lately. The cops involved would not have wanted anything to do with them. They liked their serial killers vanilla style,
just plain old bad guys. He couldn’t blame them.
As he lay there along the tree branch with the stars in the night sky settling heavier on the town, he could hear a vehicle slowly approach. He froze. “Is that him?”
And heard Stefan’s startled gasp. Yes, it is.
*
Casual. Just be casual. But the blood pumped through his veins and his adrenaline matched the panic roiling inside. Drive as if you have a place to go and a place to be. They should be gone. He’d thought they were gone. Surely after the pizza they’d have given up and walked away for tonight at least.
Surely?
He had to dump the body. He’d planned to leave it at her home where she belonged but then decided to throw the cops off by putting it back at the same house as the old man. Surely another body would muddy the waters even more. But they’d blown that.
Now he had a new location, but he had to get there first.
Without being seen.
He drove past. He never turned his head but he was watching. Was anyone still here? A tree branch shook catching his eye. He thought he saw a face…in a tree?
Oh hell no.
He hit the gas and took the first corner. He could hardly hold the steering wheel he was shaking so badly.
Damn. The place was just a couple of blocks away. He kept taking corners, trying to throw off a tail. They didn’t have time to get into a vehicle and come after him. There was no way they’d see where he went but fear rode him.
Shit. What if she was a goddamned psychic like her evil bitch of a mother?
If she was, he was fucked. He gave a hard laugh.
In which case, she was too.
Chapter 15
Tavika couldn’t stop shaking. Stefan’s words still echoed in her head.
She understood some of what just happened. But for all her effort it seemed like she’d never put the past behind her. And she had tried. Damn, she had tried. It wasn’t fair of Stefan to say she was hanging onto it because she’d been trying to slough that off her shoulders forever. What would he do if his mother and sister were stuck inside the house they died in? And she’d listened as they died a horrible, painful death. Those cries, images, were stuck inside her. As if on a big color TV stuck at the front of her head. Just what the hell was she supposed to do about that?
Nothing. There was nothing she could do. Because she tried.
Then her mind jumped up and said, But what about Stefan? What if he could help? Maybe not her mother and sister, but maybe he could help her.
At the time he’d said she was perfectly capable of helping her mother. That had not been the answer she wanted then. It had been hard to realize there was so much more out there than she’d been unaware of. And she knew plenty. Just because she chose not to tell anyone didn’t change the fact that her mother and sister had been extremely powerful in their own rights. And her mother was insistent in her training.
And then there was her brother. Their mother’s favorite. They were initiated into the psychic realm when young, but none of her abilities had shown up until later. When she didn’t have anyone left to mentor her.
Tavika was the youngest – the last. And in her mind, the stupidest.
The least talented. And she paid the price for not having anybody there to help guide her through the changes when they hit.
So she was untrained. She could control certain aspects of her psyche, but not all of them. And nothing like her mother or sister could. Her brother had been a bit of a wild card. He hadn’t wanted anything to do with their mother’s world, but he’d been a strong telepath. That’s the way he liked it. He said he was sleeping. She laughed. She presumed that was the term for rebelling. Like that was a choice.
According to some people it was, she just didn’t understand how it could become her choice. She shuddered, a chill settling on her soul. She could never lose track of the fact that there was a serial killer out there. She could never forget what he’d done to her family.
Now he was tormenting other people.
Why? Why now and why so many?
Why so many victims so fast. He’d slept for years. What had changed? There had to be something that triggered the shift. Some killers were predictable until an event made them seriously unpredictable. She’d been hunting killers for ten years now and there was something horribly compellingly about her job. She knew she could never do anything else. She figured once she killed the one she’d been hunting, there’d be nothing left in her life to strive for. She no longer had the death wish that had tormented her teen years. Not really, but if it happened she wouldn’t mind.
In so many ways her life sucked.
Her phone rang in her left pocket. Her brother. Of course it would be him. She pulled it out.
“I’m fine,” she said into the phone.
“No you’re not. Stop talking about having a death wish.”
“If you’d been paying closer attention,” she protested, “you would’ve understood what I was thinking. I don’t have a death wish.”
“And yet if it happened you’d be okay with it. Do you understand nobody else would be?”
She stared out at the abandoned house next door. “I hear you. You weren’t meant to hear me.”
“Too damn bad. It’s going to be a cold day in hell when I don’t know what you’re thinking.” And he hung up. With a heavy sigh she shoved the phone back into her pocket. Such was her life. Apparently everybody could read her mind.
So why the hell couldn’t she read Jericho’s? He’d even managed to open some kind of corridor from his mind to hers. Could she duplicate that like she had the spirit walking when she’d found him at the restaurant? She thought about the serial killer in front of her and drove a tunnel corridor wide enough for her to enter into his mind.
As she stood there glaring at the wall in front of her, it disappeared and an office showed up. She gasped and stepped back, but the office overlooked the city.
She recognized the landmarks. The city skyline was Portland.
What the hell? She stepped forward, her hand instinctively trying to touch the wall. It was here beneath her hand – solid. But like a color TV that suddenly flashed on the screen in front of her, it was no longer a solid cement wall it was a glass one from a high office building. As if she was inside somebody else her gaze turned and looked at the rest of the office and then stared down. And she quaked. A janitor lay dead on the floor. She couldn’t tell how he died, but there was blood seeping under his head. She tried to glance to the side looking for more information but couldn’t. She had no control over what she could see.
As if she was in someone else’s mind using their eyes, she saw what he saw and that was it. And then she realized what she’d done. She’d connected to the killer’s mind. At a movement she glanced down at his hands and could see thin wire wrapped around one fist. There were little pieces of wood on either end and she recognized instantly what she was staring at.
It was the murder weapon. The killer had used a garrote.
The door slammed shut and somehow the office disappeared. Then she realized it wasn’t just the office that disappeared but the doorway into that world had too.
That’s when the shaking started. And the doubt. Was she crazy? Had she just seen what she thought she’d seen? Or was it all a figment of her imagination? And where the hell was Stefan when she needed him?
The same place I’ve always been. Everywhere, he said in a light voice. Anytime you need me you only have to call.
She could hear his words in her head. In a shaky voice she said, “Did you see what I just saw?”
No. What did you see?
She quickly explained, not giving herself a chance to question how absolutely absurd the conversation was. Or that she was half talking aloud and he was in her head. When she slipped from out loud to talking in her head she barely recognized the transition.
Until Stefan pointed it out. You do realize you are now communicating telepathically, the same as I was doing w
ith you before. You’ve opened doorways into your world that you had kept closed before and that vision is yet another one.
But was it real? She cried. Was that really the killer’s view I saw?
Yes, quite likely. You’ve connected to a killer, the one you were thinking of.
In bewilderment she stared around the destroyed house and said, how can I tell if it was the Ghost?
That’s for you to find out. You’re the one who made that connection. You drove that into his head whether he knew it or not, whether he was willing or not. You opened a window into the killer’s world. You might be able to use that pathway again.
I don’t think I can. She collapsed onto the floor, her hands shaking, her knees no longer willing to hold her upright. This was too unbelievable.
It doesn’t matter if it’s unbelievable or not. It’s happened. Your mother had visions, right?
She raised her gaze blankly to where she imagined Stefan would be standing if he was actually there in physical form. And for the first time she admitted, Yes, my mother had visions. She saw the future. But there was not very much she was willing to share because it was also horrible. She hated that she’d brought children into this world, children that were going to suffer.
Stefan’s voice was gentle with compassion. Your mother saw much of the darkness of this world. Her view was understandable, but it does not have to be yours.
And how is anything I’ve seen any different? How is it supposed to lead me to any kind of different conclusion than what she actually came to?
Slowly another truth filtered through her head – with all she’d seen, no wonder her mother had become hard, abusive, living life with a frantic edge.
By choice, Stefan said. By taking the time to see there is goodness in this world. By seeing the best parts of people, not just the worst. And right now you aren’t doing that. You’re actively hunting him down. You’re keeping him alive in your world, you’re making him party to your every breathing moment. There is no room in there for something bigger, better, happier. You need to make those changes. Or else you’ll end up just like your mother.
