Poison in Your Blood

Chapter 5

It was now October 4th, 2024. Her ankle, while still recovering, was no longer broken which meant that she was capable of going back to in person classes and working as a library's assistant in her university. For the first week back, Colette walked her to her classes. While she was immensely grateful for her friend's support during these trying times she didn't want to constantly rely on her, especially since she was busy with classes and work herself. Even though that incident made the world scarier than it already was, making her anxious of another attempt against her to the point of nausea, she didn't want her fears to take over her life. She was out of that toxic relationship now. It was time to turn things around and to rebuild connections and study hard like she used to before Joanne came into her life.

After an hour-long conversation, Dionne managed to convince Colette that she was comfortable enough with walking alone. She put on a brave face. To not show vulnerability, she behaved the same she usually did with teachers and her counselor, who knew about why she was hospitalized, classmates, who only knew about the broken ankle and concussion, and Journalism and LGBTQ+ Alliance club members, who didn't know the full story but were clearly trying to put pieces together and coming up with their own conclusions. She was all smiles and pleasantries when she was supposed to be in a good mood and then passionate and outspoken when she needed to be, like in debates.

Everything was normal. Everything had to be normal. Showing weakness wasn't an option.

Dionne walked into the main building's dining hall, clutching her purse close to her. Her phone was there alongside her pepper spray. She softly sighed in relief when she saw the amount of students occupying the ground and top floors. Conversations and other noises pervaded the air. She wasn't alone. She bought herself a ham and cheese croissant sandwich and hot coffee for lunch. She took a seat at a table close to the entrance and in view of everyone then pulled out her laptop to continue her personal research. If a normal person were to pass by and see the tabs of highlighted news articles overwhelming her screen and one google doc with over twenty pages worth of notes they would call her obsessed.

Perhaps she was. Wouldn't anyone be?

Disappearances. Mental Breakdowns. All followed by the victims' dirty laundry being aired out for all to see. Commonly depraved dirty laundry. The latest was the inexplicable mental breakdown of a police chief's daughter who had apparently been abusing her boyfriend. A fact slipped from her own lips and proven by pictures and accounts from neighbors and associates. The ongoing investigations that had led to several dead ends since the boyfriend and his sister had airtight alibis the day the breakdown occurred, and people in forums were speculating that it was caused by guilt rather than outside influence.

But that was too easy of an answer.

This breakdown. Kyle's disappearance and the subsequent retrieval of Lorraine's body. The similarities of cases Dionne found in her intensive research.

There was correlation. No doubts about it.

"I just wish my research on demons was as conclusive," Dionne bemoaned in-between bites. She already tried multiple variations online: demons with red and white eyes disguised as humans, demons with red and white as disguised as humans that eat humans, demons with red and white eyes disguised as Black humans with piercings, demons named Fayth. When that didn't work she looked through books in the library and still couldn't find anything specific to what she saw.

Sighing, she started to drink her coffee. Perhaps she should consider taking a break from this. This was mentally taxing and it was clearly beginning to take over her life. She needed to focus on the now. On the reality separate from demons. On her career.

Besides, it wasn't like she was going to come across them again anytime soon.

"Mind if I grab a seat, stranger?"