Psychic

37. Comfort

Isaac was very talkative as they walked back to Antonio's house. Rai kept giving him very curt answers. She was too tired for anything else.

"Are we going home now?"

"Not yet."

"Did anyone else come with you?"

"No."

"I'm hungry. What are we eating?"

"I don't know."

Isaac watched her as she waited for Antonio to come open the door and let them in. "What's wrong with you?"

She took a deep breath and let it out quickly. "Nothing."

Antonio opened the door and walked away, allowing her to let herself in. She closed the door behind Isaac when suddenly she heard, "what's wrong with you?!" She turned to see Ken jumping up from the recliner he was sitting in, pointing at her. Roxanne was standing beside him with her arms crossed, looking like a bodyguard.

"What?" Rai asked, too exhausted to wonder what he was angry about or how he had arrived at Minesce so quickly.

"Leaving like that without telling anyone anything! You have any idea the chaos you caused?!"

She looked at him blankly for a moment and he seemed to notice something about her that surprised him. Before he could comment on it, Rai mumbled, "I have to go to sleep. Antonio, would you feed Isaac?" Without waiting for a response, she started toward one of the bedroom doors.

She heard someone tell her to wait but was not interested in being around people another second longer. She closed the door of the apparent guest room and leaned her back against the door. As she studied the room with her eyes, they started to get more and more blurry right before she started crying. She covered her mouth and shook her head as if to tell herself to stop.

Aila crawled out from her hair, pressing a hand to Rai's neck to remind her of her presence. She called her name quietly and Rai only shook her head. "What's wrong?"

"Nothing," she mumbled, slowly calming her sobs. "It's just... what the fuck happened? I couldn't even... I couldn't even do anything." She was wiping her eyes with the sleeve of her shirt when the bathroom door opened. She turned around to the bedroom door quickly. Her hand lingered on the doorknob and her forehead rested against the door as she tried to bring her breathing under control.

Reno stepped out of the bathroom, eyeing her curiously. He was certain he had heard her sniffle so he was not quick to speak, choosing instead to evaluate the situation first. He looked her up and down, as he always did and noticed all the holes in her clothes and the dried blood around them.

"Hey." Rai heard him speak to her softly and she closed her eyes trying to force them to stop watering. "Turn around, yeah?"

She inhaled and held her breath as she turned to look at him. He instantly noticed her wet, clumped up lashes. He approached her quickly and before she could say anything to him about it, he hugged her suddenly. She stood there with her arms hanging at her sides, allowing him to hold her.

Rai chuckled suddenly and pressed her hands against him, pushing herself away from him. "Okay," she said with a sniffle and a laugh, "that's enough of that."

He looked down at her, his usual flirtatious air absent for the moment. "What do you need?"

"Nothing, I just got in a fight."

"With a machine gun?"

Rai slapped his arm gently. "No, stupid. It was a... a possessed corpse."