Haunted by the Past (Original)

Chapter 45

"You're late," Heather frowned before taking a sip from her teacup.

"Ugh, this again!?" I threw myself back on the chair.

"Gee, to dream of us this much," Gabe teased. "You must really miss us."

"She does indeed!" the imposter to my left laughed.

"You!" I slammed my fist on the table and stood up. "Son of a bitch, you aren't dead! Get out of here!"

"I thought we already decided I'm not Brodie," he questioned.

"Then please, for the love of all that is sacred, quit using his voice and his face!" I yelled.

There was a murmur of voices behind me. Looking over my shoulder I noticed another person sitting at the table with Jorge, but that wasn't what took my breath away. Beyond their table were more tables, tables as far as the eye could see, all with distorted figures sitting and drinking bloody tea. It was like looking into an infinity mirror, but when I looked past Heather, I only saw the wall behind her.

"How do you know that's his face?" Gabe's voice snapped my attention to the table in front of me.

"Yes, Dani. My face is so burnt. Burnt worse than those brownies you made for the school bake sale. How can you even tell?" the imposter tilted his head inquisitively, smoke billowing out from the sides.

"I don't know. I just know," I plopped back down in my chair. "Sometimes you can just look at a person's back and, just by the way they walk, you know it's them, right?"

"Is that so?" he shrugged.

"What?" I narrowed my eyes.

"It's just that you never questioned what you saw that day, so why now?" he asked.

"I don't know. I mean you're right, you were so badly burnt, who can really say what I saw that day?" I sighed.

"But you knew then, even before it was confirmed," he reiterated.

"I-I must've been mistaken!" I defended. "There was a lot going on! It was chaos!"

"At a time when you wanted it to be anyone other than me, you never once second guessed it before," he continued.

"It was your car!" I exclaimed. "Of course I thought it was you! But Eli's right, it could've been anyone in the car!"

"Girl, you're having a debate with your subconscious," Gabe mused. "You're really off the deep end now."

"He's the one who started it," I pointed my finger at the imposter accusatorily.

"Listen to your heart," Heather muttered.

My eyes darted to Heather in shock. It was the first time she ever said anything other than commenting on my tardiness.

"What else have you seen that you've subconsciously disregarded?" Brodie's voice echoed in my ears as my vision distorted. "What have you seen that 'couldn't be true'?"

**

Finding myself being pushed about so suddenly, I started to scream, but a hand quickly covered my mouth. It took a moment for me to focus and recognize my surroundings. Eli was leaning over me. I was lying on the bed. We were still in the motel, and aside for the table lamp next to me, the room was dark.

"What the hell!?" Eli frowned, slowly removing his hand once he was convinced that I wasn't going to scream again.

"What's going on?" I questioned with unease.