Bloodstream

Chapter 23

The next night Ariel intended to return to work as if nothing had happened, except that soft little peck on the cheek that Avriel had left her with. She didn't want to pretend that didn't happen, but she could do without all the rest. That man Sean grabbing her arm, Alex's insistent flirtation, the dead woman she encountered on her way home, and those mysterious yellow eyes, she could do without those things. At least that officer was nice enough to escort her to her door.

Those eyes, they had haunted her and followed her through her nightly routine. She kicked off her shoes the moment she walked in the door of her home. Her light jacket didn't make it up the stairs with her. Her clothes barely made it in the hamper she placed in the corner of her room. She pulled her shirt over her head and tossed it in the hamper's general direction. She missed. Her socks made it in. She hopped across the room pulling one leg out of her jeans one leg at a time. She grabbed her robe off the door of her room and walked down the hall to her bathroom in her bra and panties, dragging her robe along behind her. She took her hair down when she reached the bathroom and ran her fingers through it rather than the brush she should have used. She rinsed her mouth with her mouthwash rather than brushing her teeth. She'd take care of it in the morning. She turned on the shower and closed the curtain to stop the spray from splashing out of the tub. Then she changed her mind and put the plug in the tub and turn the knob, so the tub would fill instead.

Steam rose out of the tub. She added the rose oil and breathed deep, the scent filling her lungs and soothing her soul. She pulled her hair up into a loose bun on the top of her head and sank down into the bathtub. She let the hot water cover her shoulders and relaxed. She hoped that her thoughts would lead her to Avriel, but instead a set of yellow eyes came to her out of the darkness. Rather than being repulsed by their presence in her mind she cautiously explored them.

Had she really seen them? Did she actually see someone walk away from that wreck? She hadn't reported it to the police when she gave her statement. She didn't because she wasn't sure that she did. As she thought about it more and more it seemed less and less likely. She'd had a pretty bad experience that night. The vision that came to her mind unwelcomed and unbidden when Sean had grabbed her left her shaken to her very core. It had been a long time since a link was formed like that and a vision hit her that way. A very long time. Things like that were the very reason that she stopped letting people touch her, the reason she stopped going out. The visions had gotten so bad that they crippled her. She didn't leave her house for a month for fear of accidentally touching someone and having a vision she didn't want. Some of them were alright, in fact, most were innocuous, just visions of a hard day at work or school, a bad drive, or just feelings. It was the ones of the fight someone had the night before, of the head they bashed in and occasionally the person that they shot that drove her to isolation.

People couldn't hide the things they had done when the emotions in them rode higher than normal. She saw all manner of things. Things she didn't want. The worst part of it was that she could do nothing to help them or their victims. Nothing at all. How was she supposed to tell the police that she knew who killed that beggar on the street and she had a pretty good idea why? How could she tell them that she knew which teacher was having an affair with his young blond student or which husband beat his wife in his spare time? How? People, some were good, very good, most were just good, but some, some were downright horrid.