by Kim Cormack
Matt stared blankly at him and said with not so thinly veiled sarcasm, “Seriously, you’re going with the story that you believe my sister kissed you because she is possessed by her dead twin sister? I’m supposed to say, ‘Why Kevin, that sounds like a perfectly reasonable explanation. Let me go and get the phone book. I’ll find a priest that is willing to do an exorcism on my sister because she’s a better kisser than you thought she would be.”
“I know that this sounds completely insane, but I know Kayn. She’s my best friend, and it wasn’t Kayn that kissed me,” Kevin stated as fact.
Matt stated, “Maybe she has kissed a bunch of guys and she just didn’t tell you about it.”
Kevin raised his eyebrows at Matt. He said, “Do you seriously believe that? This is Kayn we’re talking about. We have spent almost every single day together since we were in Kindergarten. She doesn’t even talk to other guys.”
The boys stood face to face, Matt said, “Look we’re both mentally drained and this is a completely insane sounding conversation.
Their voices were getting a little too loud as they debated. Matt whispered, “She remembered everything last night, Kevin. It was horrible to witness. She could be snapping. She’s obviously having some kind of mental breakdown. Last night I thought I was going to have one simply by watching her reenact that night.”
“I understand that you want something you find tangible as the answer to what’s going on here with Kayn,” Kevin said, meeting Matt’s unwavering and defensive gaze. Kevin was trying to be understanding, but he had seen too much this morning to keep pretending and whispered, “You know as well as I do that’s probably not going to be a possibility because in the last year far too many creepy and unexplainable things have happened for us to simply continue to believe that if we do not acknowledge them, that they are not really happening.”
“What are you suggesting I do about this? Put her back in the hospital? I finally have my sister back home after almost a year, and she is all I have left,” Matt whispered back with a completely helpless tone in his voice.
“I’m not suggesting that she needs to go back to the hospital, Matt. She needs a very different kind of help,” Kevin whispered back.
Matt stared blankly at Kevin, knowing where he was going, yet not wanting to say it aloud.
“I’ll just throw this one out there. What if she’s possessed like in The Exorcist? I saw something really strange in the bathroom mirror,” Kevin said bluntly, no humor involved this time.
“Why don’t we just try calling her doctor first, boys, and save the exorcisms for another day.” Officer Jenkins walked into the room and added his piece to the conversation with perfectly timed sardonic humor.
~
Meanwhile upstairs Kayn Brighton was in the middle of a naughty and sexually charged dream. She awoke abruptly as someone knocked on her bedroom door. Kayn could feel the heat of embarrassment in her cheeks as Kevin entered her room. She turned away from him to compose herself and wondered if her naughty thoughts were written right across her face. She could feel them burning with warm heat as they flashed across her forehead like a neon sign.
Kayn felt confused for a second when she noticed where she had fallen asleep. “Hey, why am I sleeping in Chloe’s bed?”
Kevin walked over and sat on the edge of her bed and inquired, “You don’t remember having a nap in Chloe’s bed?”
Kayn shifted a little, moving her body a few extra inches away from Kevin’s almost gravitational pull that seemed to be making her feel warm and tingly all over. What in the hell is going on, she thought with this attraction that was beginning to tug enthusiastically at her insides. Am I really this shallow that I’m not remotely attracted to him for all these years, and then he works out, gets a little hot, and I want to roll over with my legs in the air?
“I’m just going to throw a wild guess out there that you don’t remember kissing me.” Kevin ran his hand from her shoulder down the length of her arm.
Kayn felt strange warm shivers ripple over the path that his hand was travelling. Her memory instantly brought her back to the sexually charged kiss they had shared earlier.
“I remember kissing you, Kevin,” she timidly admitted in an almost whispering voice.
Kayn’s cheeks immediately turned to brilliant crimson as she realized that the sexually charged dream that she had was completely and mortifyingly real.
Kevin’s confusion registered on his face. He said, “I wasn’t sure you wanted me back.”
Her heart began to pound as he ran his fingers through her hair, and pulled her towards him. Their lips met with a blend of molten electricity and confusion. Kayn rolled on top of him and slid her hand under his shirt. She wanted to see what he looked like with his shirt off. She was confused as he tried to pull away.
She said, “What’s wrong?”
He whispered, “I just don’t want to take advantage of you.”
She pinned his wrists to the bed and said, “Who is on top of whom right now?
He grinned and whispered, “You’re on top of me.” Kayn kissed him in a way that made him understand that this was exactly what she wanted. She was swept away and didn’t care where they ended up at the end of this kiss as long as it continued.
There was a pounding on the door and a pause and they jumped away from each other. Kevin fell with a loud thump onto the bedroom floor. Kevin ducked down, still hidden by the side of the bed as Matt strode in. Kayn sat up in bed looking flustered, her lips swollen from Kevin’s kisses.
“You scared the crap out of me,” Kayn said to her brother and hoped Kevin would stay hidden until he left.
“I thought Kevin came upstairs to get you,” Matt enquired from the doorway without actually entering her room.
“He’s not up here anymore; he went back downstairs, I think,” Kayn replied with an unusually calm voice.
Usually Kayn couldn’t lie to save her life and would always speak a few octaves higher when not telling the truth. Kayn was aware that Matt knew most of his sister’s idiosyncrasies, but her brother took her well-spoken lie as truth.
Matt said, “Weird. Maybe he went for a walk or something to get some fresh air.” He turned to walk out of the room and then added with a teasing tone, “Or he’s hiding under your bed.”
Kayn darted her eyes over to where he was hiding.
She smiled and said, “He’s not hiding under the bed today.”
It wasn’t a lie. Kevin pressed himself to the floor beside the bed. He was trying not to laugh.
Matt paused in the doorway for a second more and said, “Your doctor thought it would be a good idea, if you spoke to the counselor today after everything that happened last night.”
Kayn suspected that her brother was waiting for her to get angry and deny that she needed to see him. She answered, “Okay, I guess that’s probably a good idea.” The sooner Matt left her room the better.
Matt said, “He is on the way to check you out and make sure everything’s okay, but you should come downstairs and have some lunch first. We saved you some bacon from breakfast. You have been asleep for hours. I’ll make you a B.LT.”
“Okay, I’ll be right down. I just need to go to the bathroom and freshen up a bit,” Kayn replied as kind of a polite hint for him to leave her room. Kayn smiled and hopped off of her bed and strolled towards the bathroom. He was still standing in the doorway. She stood in front of the mirror thinking, Oh shit, as she saw her brother looking under her bed. Luckily Kevin had shimmied under the other bed and over by the window. There was a loud crash downstairs and Matt shut her bedroom door. She could hear him running down the stairs.
She heard Chloe’s voice in her mind say: You owe me one. You little slut. I didn’t know you had it in you. Kevin isn’t looking half bad. I completely understand. Kayn looked in the mirror and thought I wonder if I’m actually going insane? She turned around. Kevin appeared beside her bed looking completely frazzled.
He pulled himself up to a sta
nding position and laughed, “That was close. Good thing I moved.” Kevin opened her window and said, “I had better go out your window.” He stuck his head out just as her brother walked outside to look for him, and he dove back inside.
Kayn started to giggle as she watched him sneak out her bedroom window as he had a million times before. Only this time it wasn’t an innocent visit as it had been on prior occasions.
“See you downstairs,” she said as Kevin began crawling out of the window.
Her bedroom door opened again and her brother stuck his head in and said, “The doctor’s here. It looks like you’ll have to wait for lunch.”
Kayn turned around and replied, “I’m coming and I’m not hungry yet anyway.” Her door shut again and she ran to her window to see Kevin hanging from the gutter with only a small drop ahead of him. As Kevin dropped from the gutter he was looking straight through the living room window at Jenkins. Jenkins with his openly wacky sense of humor started to laugh as they made eye contact. Kevin mouthed the words, Oh shit, as he dropped from the gutter.
Matt walked into the room and said, “Have you seen Kevin lately? I thought he was upstairs in Kayn’s room, but he’s not up there.” Matt had a kind of perplexed look on his face.
“He’s outside. I just saw him a minute ago,” Jenkins answered. He pulled his newspaper back up in front of his face to hide his laughter. Jenkins’ whole body was shaking behind his newspaper.
Matt said, “Are you laughing?”
“Nope, not laughing,” Jenkins snickered.
Just then Kevin walked in and announced, “Hey, guys, what’s up?” He plopped himself on the couch across from Jenkins.
“Where were you all this time?” Matt asked as he glared at him.
“I was outside, needed some fresh air,” Kevin said. He was trying not to look at Jenkins because he was laughing behind his newspaper.
“What is so funny?” Matt growled.
Kayn’s brother was starting to get ticked off. Kevin pressed his lips together so he wouldn’t start laughing. He looked down, trying not to look at either of them and especially not at Jenkins.
“Do you two think I’m some kind of moron or something?” Matt hissed in a frustrated tone.
That was it. They both started gutting themselves with laughter, tears flowed from their eyes.
As Matt walked away, he muttered, “You two are friggin’ hilarious.”
The doctor sat at the island in the kitchen with Kayn as Matt walked into the room.
“We’re going for a walk in the trails. Do you want to come with us, Matt?” Doctor Corning asked cautiously.
“I’m not sure that’s a great idea,” Matt said in a protective, anger filled tone. “Officer Jenkins already gave a statement to the police on what she remembered from that night. Can’t we leave it alone for a while?”
Jenkins walked into the room and was filled in on the doctor’s plan. “Nobody is going anywhere without me,” he said.
Kayn walked them through that night with a calm, serene voice. She felt peaceful as she explained the events that had unfolded that night. A year had passed for everyone else but not for her. Kayn knew she was explaining what she remembered as though the horror had happened to someone else. This was how she was dealing with it. Wrong or right it worked for her. She wanted everyone to believe that she was okay. When they reached the place in the trails that her body was found she abruptly stopped talking. Kayn felt agitated and her breathing quickened.
She looked at the spot on the ground and the closest tree that had been made into a sort of shrine for her. Kayn walked slowly up to the tree and began to read the notes and letters that were somehow still legible after a year of rain. The tree would have kept them dry, Kayn rationalized. As she read the letters and notes, she realized that the spot had become a memorial for her whole family.
There were pictures of her mother, Claire, in her younger years full of joy and her eyes glowing with the promise of the exciting journey that lay ahead of her. Her father’s picture smiled back at her from his high school days: strong, yet somehow always gentle and hopeful. Her heart began to ache; she missed them so much more than she could ever say. She had been trying to keep their loss locked away inside of an area in her brain. She knew that the words her mother had used on many occasions still whispered to her, Fake it till you make it, Kayn. This made sense to her now in a way that made the throbbing, aching sensation in her chest dull just a touch.
She reached out and ran her finger across a picture of Chloe, her mirror image. She understood their intertwined life path now. It had made complete sense as it had been revealed to her because she had known it to be true already. She wasn’t able to hold the events at arm’s length anymore. She tried to blink away her tears. Kayn willed them to stop, but they still began to flow a delicate trail down her cheeks. None of them approached her. They stood silently around Kayn as she processed everything.
She turned to look at Matt, but her brother couldn’t look at her. She could hear his thoughts and the guilt inside of him for not coming home that weekend that left his soul feeling soiled. Kayn fought the urge to turn around and run into her brother’s arms. She had never, not for one moment blamed him. He would have been killed, too. Kayn knew that she had said far too much this morning already and, if she were being watched, that someone would come to correct the situation.
So she shut her mouth, understanding that he would be in more danger if he knew than if he remained in the dark. She would have to learn to control her inner Chloe. Her sister hadn’t known that publicly using gifts would make her whole blood line a target. She knew though … She knew. Kayn allowed her urge to console her brother with an explanation to pass. She turned to meet everyone’s eyes. They were all genuinely concerned and a little scared of her behavior. She could read them loud and clear.
Kayn’s gaze met the doctor’s and she said, “Do you still want me to tell you what I remember?”
“If you think you can. We can carry on tomorrow, Kayn, if you think this is too much,” Dr. Corning answered with genuine empathy.
“It’s always been way too much, but it will be too much tomorrow, too, so I’ll just finish it today,” When telling the story, she left out the song her mother had sung, in what she had thought would be her final moments. She remembered it though—very clearly now; it would seem impossible to anyone else, but Kayn knew in her heart that her mother had been there as she began her sleep.
Emotionally spent, the group walked solemnly from the trails leaving behind shrines and memories of evil that would be best left buried in the past.
Chapter 11
Leaving Normal
Kayn’s next few weeks were consumed with running internet research on situations relating to her own. She found it hard to believe that there wouldn’t be anyone else like her searching for answers. She looked up powers relating to hearing others’ most private thoughts and communicating without speaking.
Kayn tried to find other people who claimed to have the same gifts. She had known her sister had a gift with men and also with animals. She wondered if it worked on women as well, but Chloe had been a no show for days. Kayn longed for a glimpse of her in the mirror—something to suggest that she was still around.
Matt, Jenkins, and Kevin had not seen any more strange erratic behavior out of her, so they were delighted. Kayn did not give them any further cause for concern. She restrained her Chloe urges and had not pounced on poor confused Kevin for weeks.
Even though Kayn had the urge to put on makeup almost every day, she didn’t for fear of stressing Matt out. It was a trial to tiptoe around the house operating little experiments on what she was able to do. Kayn understood she had to be cautious until she figured everything out. She knew that she could not involve anyone that she cared about, not even Kevin.
She required lots of time alone to fine tune her gifts. This meant she would have to find new and increasingly ingenious ways to deter Kevin from coming over. She made a
n attempt to think of happy things. One night before bed, she discovered a new ability. She lay in bed and closed her eyes, holding the plush bumblebee that Kevin had given her many years before, and it formed a bond between them.
Kayn could hear Kevin’s thoughts as if they were coming through a tunnel with a slight echo behind them. He was thinking about sex far too often; she wished his intimate thoughts were only of her. In a few of those flashes, in amidst his random fantasies, there was some other girl. Kayn didn’t recognize her, but she was an exquisitely beautiful girl with shiny flowing midnight tresses. She knew that was probably quite normal for a teenage boy. He could be staring at a desk and begin to fantasize about making out on one.
Kayn found that she didn’t need the stuffed animal. If she relaxed on her bed, closed her eyes, and really thought about him, she could go to his room and see what he was doing. She would find him sprawled on his bed. He would be listening to music or playing his guitar. She read about what she was able to do online and found out that it was called astral projection. It was also called stalking. She was kind of wondering how mad he would be when and if she ever came clean. There was no way to broach the subject without it sounding slightly disturbing and more than a little bit creepy.
“Kevin, I have been watching you in bed and listening to your thoughts every single day for weeks,” Kayn said as she looked in the mirror, play acting the conversation. She began to giggle. There was no possible way to make that sound less creepy.
She was finding herself obsessed with certain gifts. She felt the need to push them further in some way. The more dangerous the situation, the better. It was all so new, exciting, and yes, extremely addictive. Kayn was starting to find that she had to do something to unleash the feeling building beneath the surface of her skin.
For the first time, she realized how her sister had to have been feeling; why she kept pushing further and further until she was exposed; how her whole family had to be corrected. That was the instant she realized the abilities were also a curse. She wondered if her sister had felt this way, too. Could it have played a part in her bitter behavior towards her simple existence?
