The Touch

Chapter 19 - Dangerous liaison

I had managed to keep my meeting Slade, Theon, Tori, Jeffrey and the CWT a secret from Blind Bird. All I had discussed was the details of the day and told her that the child got to safety and that the assignment had gone well.

She hesitated before congratulating me on the job being carried out correctly. It was the hesitation that made me wonder if I had let something through. But I had been careful to block out that part of the day and meeting the others, especially Slade.

We talked for a while and went over my next assignment. It was not for another week as it seemed the Watchers were having a problem locating any children with the Touch. Blind Bird told the people at the institute that she needed time to recoup so that she could focus better on finding them. They granted her this as without her they would be unable to find any of them anyway.

This was good news for me too because although I knew what I was doing was to save every child that I could, I was looking forward to going back to the underground CWT to learn more about the children with the Touch and to also ask more about the diary that Jeffrey mentioned.

Ever since Jeffrey told me that my name was in that diary, I knew that I had to have a look for myself because I still couldn't understand why my name be mentioned in something that was years old.

There were also other factors to think about. What if it was about something bad? Or something I wasn't supposed to know? What if it showed my death? The thoughts seemed to race around in my head until I felt exhausted by it.

After I said goodbye to Blind Bird and I knew she was gone, I looked at the clock which said it was 11pm. I knew I should have been tired, but I was too wound up to go to sleep.

I decided to go into the other side of my apartment and put on some music. If I have to get rid of this tension by dancing then I would.

Grabbing my shorts and off the shoulder grey sweatshirt top, I changed out of the clothes I had been wearing all day and let my hair down so that it hung around my shoulders. My music station is connected to the speakers I installed in the apartment roof which I also used for recording people's conversations if they came over to my apartment. It was not like that happened very often, but I always had to think about my safety.

I opened the windows in the apartment and let the air drift through. It had been closed up for a while and I always loved the nights when the air was cool and starting to have that hint of winter arriving soon. I looked forward to it being really cold and possibly snowing as it always reminded me of being home in the country with my grandmother and parents.

Turning up the music I selected a new mix that had a great dance beat. It wasn't so much the words, it was more about losing yourself to the rhythm while dancing to it. Music was always something that I found worked on clearing my mind. In fact music and working out always seemed to be a good way to sort through things.

This week had blindsided me, what with meeting Slade on the train and then again at the school. I also realised that I never asked Slade how he wasn't affected when I took his wrist on the train. He seemed to have the same reaction to being stunned but then he remembered who I was.

Was I losing my ability to stall someone? If I was then I could be in trouble as the Watchers could very well remember who I was. I made a mental note to ask him when I saw him again.

I didn't know whether seeing Slade again was actually a good idea as whenever I was with him he made me feel like I was unable to control my physical reactions towards him. He gave me butterflies unlike anyone else before and I felt like my senses were down when he was around. Being in control was important to me and that is how I had to be every single day. Blind Bird had taught me that.