Miss Nobody

Chapter 13

RIGHT THING TO DO

Evening Day 4

I looked over at Keiran.

"I'm sorry, I didn't know Cherry would be here," he said quietly, the annoyance obvious on his face.

I nodded and listened to their conversation.

"When I wake up, he says he's sorry and buys me things. Look at these cute new boots." Jess laughed.

"You need to file a police report and stay away from him." Cherry shook her head.

"He is the police."

"You're still dating the Cop? That's a new record."

"Not by choice." Jess shrugged before the lights dimmed and a hush came over the crowd.

"We can go? I think enough people have seen us." Keiran suggested quietly.

The lights darkened even further, making the room shadowy. A spotlight shone on a small platform in the middle of the room.

I shook my head. "It's okay."

"Hello." A balding man on stage cleared his throat. "I'm not going to say my name but I want to share some things. I help people work through past traumas."

"Fun," Keiran said sarcastically and put his arm across the back of the loveseat. It pulled my hair and I leaned forward to move my hair from under his arm. "Sorry," he huffed as he moved his arm away.

"I've been doing this for many years now and have noticed some patterns around relationships. Particularly high drama relationships." The man on stage hesitated. "Patterns with high drama relationships and alien abductions." The corner of his mouth lifted slightly with the murmur of the crowd but he continued, "I've noticed these things spread out into MK Ultra, Milabs, Super Soldiers." He looked across the crowded space nervously. "These words may mean nothing to you, that's okay." He nodded his head.

I leaned forward and tried to see the speaker better. I had no idea what he was talking about but my interest was piqued.

"Depending on how you are utilized. They are being handled by interdimensional beings, I believe." He looked at his phone. "Good Psychics can perceive, they can see a human, in the government, CIA, or it could be a teacher. It could be anyone. Often, they are run by a hyperdimensional being, or an attached entity or a spirit guide. And those beings are the ones truly running things. There's a hyperdimensional element involved in these very powerful love connections that feel like a Twin Flame." He paused to clear his throat. "Many case studies of people experiencing a past of alien abductions, ritual abuse, and some just a history of channeling or their partners being into channeling. There always seems to be some kind of connection with a hyperdimensional being, often a predatory one, that feeds off human life essence." He sighed heavily.

My brows were high on my face. My straw frozen between my teeth.

"I'm finding connections within the narcissistic support groups. Which are becoming more and more popular. This is a dynamic that shows up commonly in this kind of relationship. In the older days they would say it was just another spirit or a Demon or an Angel or something in between that has the ability to shapeshift."

"I believe the ones involved, say energy vampirism, which is a good detector of good and evil. If someone is stealing energy from someone else without permission and in a manipulative predatory way, I would say that falls in the not-so-good category."

My heart stopped beating. The blood stood still in my veins. The stillness of my body was unnerving. I tapped on my chest to restart my heart.

"I've said enough for tonight." The man stepped off the stage and was swallowed by shadows.

Snapping fingers filled the room. Was this just a performance piece? A dull ache between my eyes throbbed with my beating heart.

"These things have gotten strange." Keiran laughed.

Cherry turned back. She spotted me and then Keiran. She glared at me and tapped Jess on the shoulder to gain her attention.

Keiran noticed my stare and followed my gaze. A quiet, "Fuck," came from him. "I'll go talk to her."

I nodded and he walked over to her. I need to get out of here. The space was overly warm and crowded, I could feel my heart flutter erratically and my headache became more painful. Cold air. I headed to the front of the cafe and stepped outside. I buttoned up my jacket and stuck my hands in my pockets as I inhaled the fresh air. The air was cold on my cheeks and nose.

A firm hand gripped my arm and yanked me backward into a dim alleyway. An old homeless woman's bright green eyes appeared in front of me. The alcohol smell coming from her was strong like it seeped from her pores.

"Please don't be afraid," she whispered, quickly looking toward the street. "Take this cursed thing back." She pulled a silver chain out from under her dirty, tattered clothes and brought a necklace from around her neck. It glistened as it caught the light from the street lamp. "Nothing but bad luck since I pulled it off your body the night I found you," the homeless woman announced.

"What?" I grabbed the necklace and the old lady backed away. The tears pooled in my eyes making the pendant blurry. My fist was tight around the silver chain. The memory of me casting a "Return to Me" spell on it swirled in my head. The bad luck charm was a last-minute spell. Glad to see it worked.

She grabbed my arms roughly and brought my face close to hers. "You're starting to remember." She was surprisingly strong and lifted me to my tiptoes.

"Hey!" Keiran's voice echoed down the alleyway. "Let her go!"

The old lady dropped me and hobbled further into the dark alleyway, disappearing amongst the shadows.

Keiran helped me to my feet, brushing off my arms. "Are you okay?"

I wiped the tears quickly from my eyes and nodded. "Yeah, I'm fine."

"They are getting more bold." He walked with me back to the sidewalk under the streetlamp. "I'll have to tell my uncle about this." He turned me toward him to look me over under the bright light.

A throat cleared from behind me. I followed Keiran's gaze to see Cherry, her arms crossed over her chest. "I thought you were going to take me home?" the whininess in her voice was unfamiliar.

He walked over to her and put his hands on her shoulders. "I'll take you both home."

Cherry pouted out her bottom lip.

"It's the right thing to do, Cherry. I brought her out here." He turned her to the car and walked with her to the passenger side. "You know taxis don't go up to the Lodge."

"I thought you guys were just friends." She huffed as Keiran helped her in the passenger seat and shut the door.

He looked at me apologetically and walked over to the driver's side, leaving me to climb in the small backseat. The situation should've made me uncomfortable but I was dreading the night ahead more. I needed a way to stay awake. Today was a weird day and I knew it would carry into my dreams. But my eyes were already drifting shut as Keiran took the curvy back roads to the Lodge.

***

As tired as I was, one would think sleep would come swiftly but I tossed and turned for hours. I grabbed my necklace, the homeless woman had given back to me, from my nightstand. Rolling it over in my hands for the hundredth time.

The heavy silver teardrop pendant with a jewel-encrusted spider on the front was familiar. The metal warmed in my hands. The pain between my eyes threatened to come back. Trying to force the memories always led to a headache. I shoved the necklace in the drawer and glanced at the bright screen of my phone. Three thirty-three in the morning. I had been ignoring Jonny's texts, not knowing what to say to him. I opened my message app to his awaiting message.

How was your date?

My reply was a few hours late. Not a date.

His number popped up on my silenced phone and answered his call. "Why are you awake?"

"I'm having a hard time sleeping." I yawned and sat up in my bed. Pulling my messy braid to the side, my fingertips brushed against my temple. "Ow," I said, wincing with pain. In the mirror hanging from the back of my bathroom door, I saw a gnarly-looking purple bruise forming near my eye.

"I'll be there as soon as I can." His truck rumbled to life in the background.

"No, Jonny, it's okay, I'm okay." Are you? Did you sleepwalk without knowing it?

"Are you there?"

I missed what Jonny was saying. "Yeah."

"You're lying."

Am I losing pieces of time, or am I forgetting? I touched my temple gently.

"I'm worried about you." Jonny's voice was distant.

"Why?" I whispered. If he was worried about me he would be here. Not putting his too-young nephew in charge of protecting me.

"I can't be in two places at once." His truck got louder as he accelerated. "Maybe Chefs' Magic books have a spell to make me two people." He chuckled.

I smiled slightly. Two Jonny's would be hot.

"Nah, I don't think you can handle two of me." He chuckled again and I laughed with him.

"Maybe Chef has something for sleep or memories in his books?" I was only half joking.

"Stay away from Chef's rooms, especially at night. You shouldn't be leaving your room after dark anyway." Jonny ordered me.

I gave him a look over the phone that, of course, he couldn't see. While he was technically my boss he couldn't boss me around when I was on my own time. I nodded at my phone. "Yes. Sir." I said curtly, having no intention of listening to him.

He sighed heavily. "You want me to punish you, don't you." It wasn't a question.

I sucked in my breath quickly and choked on my saliva. I coughed and sputtered.

Jonny laughed. "I'll be there soon." He hung up.

Being punished by Jonny sent a little thrill through my body but only if he was talking sexually and not like, in a weird way. Dammit woman. Jonny needs to stay away or he'll get sucked into your curse like everyone else. Stop thinking with your vagina, you have more important things to do.

I shut my thoughts of Jonny off and went through my mental to-do list. Chef might have something in his bookshelf for sleepwalking. Even an herb to help me sleep would help.

I changed into warm clothes and boots quickly before I chickened out. I headed to Chef's rooms before I talked myself out of it. I had fallen asleep at Chef's island counter several times before, reading over old herbology books with sometimes indecipherable handwriting. Maybe it would do the trick now. Lull me to sleep like the good old days.

The flashlight from my phone lit my path through the forest. It was quiet at four in the morning and I rushed to Chef's rooms before a bear ate me.

I hesitated briefly on his doorstep before pulling the sleeve of my sweater over my hand and turning the handle. The living room was dark and cold. A large spider web stretched across the front of the fireplace. I shivered.

I shut my eyes against the coming tears and inhaled forcefully. Think about why you came in here, not the old-man. I felt guilty for not crying enough. Not mourning enough, not being sad enough but I also knew, somewhere in the recesses of my fucked up brain, that if I stopped to really think about all this, to really take in Chef's death, my accident, I would snap. My brain would no longer want to participate in this crazy, lonely, confusing existence.

One step at a time. I did that and found myself in front of Chef's Magical books. Some were rather large and made the shelf sag. Some were small and double-stacked. My knees popped as I knelt to examine the fading words on the spines. Simple Spells for Sleep written in red on one of the books grabbed my attention and I pulled it out carefully.

I headed to the kitchen to sit on my familiar stool by the island counter and opened the small book. I smiled before I remembered that Chef should be here. Stirring something in a big copper pot on the stove. Entertaining me with stories of his adventures across the world.

The smell of faint floral scents permeated the walls. I glanced down at the book and noticed it was speckled with wet dots. I wiped the tears from my face before they ruined the book any further and noticed the blank page in front of me filling with scrawling words.

Stop Somnambulation Scones. Som-namb-ulation. I looked up the word on my phone. Sleepwalking. Great, perfect. Maybe a little too perfect? What else am I going to do? I need sleep or my brain will stop healing. It's a recipe for scones, with lavender and rose petals. I convinced myself it would be fine.

I flipped through the pages and scanned some of the other recipes. This looks more like a recipe book than a spell book. Immobilize Insomnia Ice-Cream read a different page. I slid off my stool and gathered the ingredients from Chef's pantry and herb shelves. I stirred ingredients in the quiet. It was unnerving and I didn't want to listen to the same thoughts that circled in my head so I turned on some music from my phone and before I knew it I was pulling hot scones from the oven.

They're a little too round to be scones. The rose petal pieces had turned a dark brown color and the baked good was more like a fluffy chocolate chip cookie than anything else. I scraped the overly cooked "scone" off the sheet pan and onto a rack to cool. Dropping the empty pan to the floor when Jess and Cherry loudly stumbled into the living room.

They collapsed in a heap, giggling. A bottle of green apple vodka rolled across the floor and stopped at the entry to the kitchen.