Sinister

Chapter Four

Sinister

Chapter Four

Leighton shoved her hands underneath her thighs, worried that someone might catch sight of her nails. She had tried painting them the night before but they had smudged when she slept and were already chipping.

Karen sat beside her daughter, hair pulled back into a ponytail in an attempt to combat the stifling heat. After reading a few pages of her magazine, Karen would stop to fan herself with its pages. Ads for cologne and clothing brands waved at Leighton as Karen sweated.

Leighton looked around the office, wincing as the clock against the wall continuously ticked. Each sound made her head pound while her eyes started to sting after staring at the bright yellow walls. She hated yellow.

Leighton leaned back in her seat and pressed her head against the wall, closing her eyes and slipping her hands to her ears. All she wanted was a few moments of silence, of blankness. But every time she closed her eyes she heard Jack's laugh, felt Tate's touch, watched Rudd collapse to the ground.

She grinded her teeth together and sat up again, lifting her weight to the tops of her toes in an effort to un-stick her thighs from the chair. Although she couldn't quite pinpoint why, Leighton didn't like wearing clothes that revealed too much skin. For this reason Leighton was wearing a sweater in the middle of June. She was quickly overheating.

Her eyes wandered to the clock again and she froze along with its hands. The only thing that seemed to keep time was her thrumming heart paired with her lungs' desperate gasps for air. The clock had stopped.

Leighton looked around slowly, eyes becoming dry. When she noticed the dark figure in the corner of the office she jumped, her bones jarring in her body. He was here. Tate. Leighton shook her head roughly, hands shaking as her mouth popped open.

Tate smiled as he tossed a black pebble up and down in the air, his lips blue. Tate's entire body seemed to be coated in a layer of frost, his tattoos gleamed under the fluorescent lights. Leighton tried to meet his eyes but they were focused on someone else. Her mother.

Horror filled her. Tate didn't speak, he glided forward as his lips stretched into a grin, the skin cracking, eyelashes dusted with snow. Leighton was the only one who noticed as Tate dropped the stone into her mother's lap and reached his hand towards the centre of her chest.

Leighton tried to move, tried to call out but her tongue was frozen along with the rest of her body. Terrified, Leighton watched as frost crept up her shins and covered her fingers. Tate cast her an awful sidelong glance before he started to draw the light out of Karen's chest.

"No!"

"Leighton Connors?" Leighton almost jumped out of her own skin. Her eyes cut to the place she had seen Tate to see the space void. He hadn't been there. She had imagined everything. A shiver passed through her.

A wiry looking nurse stood at the door, smile frazzled. It seemed like the heat was getting to everyone. "Are you ready to go in?" Before Leighton could answer Karen squeezed her knee and told her to enter.

Feeling stuffy, Leighton tried to swallow and followed the nurse down the yellow halls to the office at the end. The hallway seemed to stretch on forever and Leighton couldn't quite trust the floor underneath her. The door at the end opened and a woman in her late fifties stood behind it, dark hair cut into a bob that must've kept her cool.

The woman smiled wide, teeth too large for her mouth. "Leighton, it's been a while. How are you?" The woman held the door open for Leighton, inviting her in. Leighton mumbled a half hearted everything's fine as she passed before shuffling into a plump chair.