I See You

CHAPTER 3 - A Different Kind of Haunting

Emma woke again Monday afternoon and pulled her old college hoodie over her chilled flesh. There was central heating in the house, but she couldn't be bothered to search for the thermostat. She found another protein bar and grabbed one of the manuscripts and a red pen from her satchel. Sitting in her mound of blankets, Emma worked for several hours before finally needing a break. Her neatly cultivated routines and organized schedule were completely out of sync, but she didn't judge herself too harshly.

Pulling off the hoodie she had worn all day, Wyatt made himself scarce as she changed into her yoga pants and a sports bra. Finding her mat, she rolled it out next to her bedding and put her body through a vigorous routine until sweat beaded on her skin. Wyatt was mesmerized by her movements, graceful and strong.

The woman was a wisp compared to him, barely reaching his shoulder in height and probably almost a hundred pounds lighter than he had been. He had wrestled and played football in high school, then worked as a logger, and had always had a natural propensity to bulk-up. Of course, it didn't help that she never ate anything. If that didn't change soon, he would run her off just to not watch her starve to death.

Emma followed up her yoga with twenty minutes of meditation, just like she always did, and then rolled up her mat before heading back to take another shower, grumbling at the end as she wiped up all the water that had splattered around the bathroom.

"A shower curtain is an easy fix, Emma," she chided.

"But that means leaving the house and seeing firsthand that this is all real," she said in a whiny voice.

"Yes, because we all know reality doesn't actually exist if we hide long enough," she mocked, returning back to the stern tone she started with.

Wyatt chuckled on the other side of the door but grunted when it swung open, passing right through him. He hated that. It was his own reminder of reality. He watched her dig around in a couple boxes marked 'kitchen' and make a hot tea, pouring it in a glass measuring cup as an impromptu mug. She also found a pack of cinnamon rice cakes in the one box labeled 'food.'

"That's not food," he grumbled, peeking in at the limited contents of the box she kept eating from. "None of this is."

Emma sat down with her dinner or was it breakfast and opened up her notes app again. Wyatt nearly whooped for joy when he saw her start to type out a grocery list. Whether she would actually leave and go buy that stuff was yet to be seen.

"Pasta, flour, bread, real freaking crackers. Take that you gluten-free fanatic," she murmured, her fingers flying over the tiny keyboard. "Oh, and ice cream. God, I miss ice cream. Maybe I'll gain ten pounds and send him a picture of the scale."

Her little chuckle was amused more than deviant, but her words had Wyatt ready to strangle someone. Was that why he could make out the shape of her bones? Did some asshole restrict her food? Tell her she was fat?

When she clicked off the phone, Wyatt expected her to crawl under the blankets, but Emma surprised him by getting back up and pulling on a fresh pair of jeans and a thick cream sweater. It was just after ten p.m. on a Monday night, the perfect time to shop with minimal people around. Leaving a few lights on, she grabbed her purse and headed out the door.

"You're going to the store now?" Wyatt asked as if she could hear him. "Not without me."

Emma hopped in and started up the RAV, completely unaware that she had a passenger along for the ride. Deciding it was time to put Hector Berlioz aside, she flicked through her phone before leaving. When the Bluetooth connected, Symphony No. 4 in A Minor Op 63 by Jean Sibelius began to play. Wyatt felt he was discovering another secret about this strange young woman.