A Banshee's Wail (The Banshee Curse #1)

Chapter Seven

THE WEEKS CREPT by slowly, an end never really in sight. They probably seemed even more torturous because the police had told Dr. Sterling that there was a possibility that I was suicidal—which, if you can't guess, means she bumped up the weekly visits to just about every day. She wasn't really helping with anything. She kept asking the same questions over and over again, and then kept assuming things like she thought she'd get it right eventually. I'll say this: The cops are lucky they haven't had to come back to investigate another murder.

     Of course, my despondency to just about everything probably wasn't helping anything. I was still struggling with not just completely shutting down, which was much harder than I'd realized it would be. Having Lyle around reminded me that I couldn't just shut everybody out—well, I could, but that wasn't the point. The point was that I couldn't just become a robot like I wanted to. I had other people that cared about me, and I had to take their feelings into consideration. Sometimes, though, it was very hard to remember that.

     It was especially hard to to remember when Lyle wouldn't stop being relentless about me telling him what was bothering me. We'd had quite a few arguments because he'd pushed me until my patience had run ragged and I couldn't take it anymore. You'd think he'd get on my nerves less, but no, he was still the same annoying Lyle Bane today as he'd been a year ago. And sadly, I liked him all the more for it. I guess it's true that you don't fall in love with someone because they're perfect, you just see an imperfect person perfectly and that does you in. I don't think I minded much, either.

     The door to the dormitory clicked shut behind me and I fell onto the chair in front of the window. I'd just returned from another meeting with Dr. Sterling and I could barely contain all the irritation and anger running through my veins as I blew my hair out of my face. My posture in the seat was so bad, that even Derrick, who was busy playing another one of his video games, noticed. I didn't notice that he'd focused his attention me at first, though, because I was too busy imagining ways to murder Dr. Sterling without the authorities getting suspicious.

     “What's wrong with you?” Derrick asked, breaking my homicidal thought rampage.

     I huffed and sat up a little. “I'll tell you what's wrong with me,” I muttered, my grimace deepening. “Dr. Sterling's what's wrong with me, that's what.”

     He smirked. “She still thinks she can fix you?” he guessed, shaking his head as he returned to his video game.

     “Yes,” I groaned, throwing my head back. “Why can't she just accept the fact that I'm a crazy, hallucinating lunatic and leave me alone?”

     Derrick laughed, despite the fact that I was serious. Okay, so maybe I was joking just a little. Fine, I was joking completely—but I did wish she'd just leave me alone. “Well, Lyle's still at practice,” he said, pounding the buttons on his controller. “So you can complain all about it to him when he gets back.”

     “Gee, thanks, Derrick,” I joked, shaking my head. “Good to know that I can always come to you when I need to talk.”

     “You're welcome.”

     I shook my head again and headed upstairs, deciding that I should probably go for a run. I hadn't been running for the past few days, which might have been the reason I was so ticked off all the time. Running was my outlet, and since I hadn't been doing that lately, my emotions were running haywire. It was either that, or my depression had spiraled into insanity, which was possible. I saw the Grim Reaper for Pete's sake, it wasn't a far stretch.

     My sneakers pounded the hard-packed dirt pretty hard as I ran, my speed steadily increasing until I was practically sprinting. Yeah, I really needed this. I could feel the tension leaving my muscles as I ran, everything in me relaxing. It was like a weight was being lifted off my shoulders with every step I took. I could feel myself becoming happier. Hopefully, it would stick around this time.