On the Run: The Texas Files ✔

Chapter 15: The Cat Outta Hell (Part 2)

Of course. It all makes sense now. He's been manipulating everyone. That's how he got me to go out with him, to kiss him, for Izzie to fall for him, to freaking bow to him.

I stare at Parker. I can't even bring my face to show my emotions, but if I could, I'd be afraid.

When I suck in my breath, I am consciously aware that my lungs are filling with air like balloons and deflating when I exhale a few seconds later.

Parker takes off his mask and sits on the bed.

"No glasses?" I ask.

"Contacts," he answers. "They were too bulky under this."

I sit next to him. 

There's nothing to say. Nothing can describe how bizarre this situation is.

I don't know a lot about what we can do. I only know what Mom told me that night. It could be a hallucination for all I know. I hadn't slept in 48 hours. I was seeing things. 

"Do you remember the night you stayed in my room?" I ask.

He nods. His face does what it can to keep from smiling, but I can see a small smirk come to it.

I make him happy. At least I can do that for someone right now.

I need to tell him something from that night. A truth of some kind. I have to leave parts out. What can I tell him about that Mom told me?

"I had a vision that night, on the fire escape," I say carefully.

He nods. "That would make more sense than you 'suffering from night terrors.'" he uses quotations around what I said the next morning.

"Anyway," I say. "My mom told me that it's linked to genetics and we're born with a dormant gene."

"So, can your brothers do anything like this?" he asks.

Shit. "Uh, no," I say as neutrally as possible.

"Must be recessive then," he says.

"Yeah." I agree.

If he only knew the half of it.

He ponders that for a moment. "All right, let's be logical about this..."

I take a moment and think about it, even though I know what's going on. I just can't tell him everything that I know. He'll ask questions.

And I can't have that.

"Why can I read people's minds?" he asks out loud. "What do my parents have to do with that?"

I shrug. At least, you know your parents. At least, your real father didn't abandon you. At least, your mother is still alive and doesn't leave you the most cryptic clues known to man about who you are.

"Tyler's make more sense than mine or yours," he says finally.

"What do you mean?" I ask.

"They're lawyers, remember?" he reminds me.

Dammit. "Manipulation is literally their job," I say.

He nods. "Exactly,"

There's nothing we can do about it though. We can sit here all night and discuss this, but nothing is going to come of it. It's not like we can stop either of them.

"Can we expose him?" he asks.

"To who?" I ask. "Who is going to believe us over a person who can tell someone to apologize just by staring at them and saying the right words?"