Grim Echoes

Chapter 82 - Maeve

They rode back to the motel in silence. Maeve fidgeted with her necklace, twisting it back and forth. Couldn't sit still. She'd been afraid she was going to freak out on the mission because of her past. Turned out that was the least of her concerns. Staring out the window, she tried to make sense of the events of the night. Deeply concerned about Will; in her opinion, his PTSD was much worse than she'd thought, and there were a lot of other underlying problems as well.

Embarrassed about what happened in the shed, she stared at her lap and let her hair fall forward to hide her expression. Tears pricked her eyes, but she refused to cry. Not even sure if Will knew what happened or if he did, he regretted it. And the little girl... she'd been the one who'd seen her. Will's harsh words echoed in her mind. She couldn't use magic. They'd ruled out she wasn't a demon or angel, that only left her with being a monster.

How could she be a monster and not know? A tear slipped. She closed her eyes to stop more. Ander explained it before. Sometimes people didn't understand they carried mutations in their DNA. Her parents may not have known. It was like red hair, sometimes it skipped a generation or was dormant. She hadn't seen shades before. There'd been the experience in the asylum, but she didn't see the shade just connected with it. Maybe it was something else? Anything else.

They filed into the room. Maeve kept her eyes lowered. Will stomped into the bathroom and slammed the door. She slumped on Ander's bed, wondered what they'd do with her now. Ander crouched in front of her and put his hand over hers. Maeve brought her eyes to his and was met with a kind expression. Relief flooded her. She blinked back tears.

"It is going to be alright. Give him time to calm. You are not a monster." he squeezed her hand and stood just as the bathroom door opened.

Will picked up a chair, flipped it around, and placed it in front of her. He sat and rested his arms on the back of the chair. With narrowed eyes, he glared at her. She braced herself for his interrogation.

"So you saw the shade?"

She nodded and forced herself to maintain eye contact, even though everything inside her wanted to leave.

"It was a kid?" his eyes so dark they looked like hematite.

"Yeah, it was a little girl, she didn't look evil."

"When did you see it?"

"When you did or when I thought you did." her voice faltered at the end.

"She is being truthful," Ander said somewhere beside her. She wouldn't allow herself to look away from Will, sensing it was key.

"You seen shades before?"

Maeve shook her head no. She'd never seen shades, felt them, yes. Her ability had undermined her and triggered with the spirit in the asylum, but until tonight she'd never seen one. Will sat back, but didn't take his arms off the back of the chair.

"So this is another ability that unlocked and you don't know how?" his expression flat and unreadable. The words seemed sarcastic, but didn't sound that way.

"I guess so." she shrugged.

"You guess so," Will laughed, but it was distorted and angry.

He stood and went to his bed before he rummaged in his bag. Maeve sat with her back straight and tried to prepare herself for whatever Will planned.

"She does not know what is occurring. I know you can sense that." Ander stepped toward Will.

Will spun around and stood aggressively. Maeve couldn't say what exactly about his posture was aggressive, but something about the way he held his upper body seemed poised for a fight. She didn't want him to pick a fight with Ander because of her.