The Vacuum

Part 8

"I'm sorry Alex. I really am." Said the blond haired blue eyed man as he finished backing up the last of his things and zipping up the pockets on her suitcase. He was struggling, his angular jaw working as he tried to do what he felt like he had to.

Alex sat up against the headboard, a joint in between her fingers as she propped the arm holding it over her knees. "I know." She told him.

He ran his hands through his messy blond hair, sticking up in a million directions. Looking around the room to make sure that he had gotten all of his clothing he glanced back at the girl on the bed. Alex looked down at the suitcase, the zipper sound tearing through her mind like the ringing of splitting skin. She looked up at him slowly, taking a long hit of the joint to rid her ears of the sound and he sighed again. "I just can't deal with this...I know I should but you're just not getting any better!"

Alex flicked the ash from the joint into one of his old, empty paint cans sitting on the bed side table. "I know." She repeated methodically. She felt like she said this all the time, over and over.

His muscular arms crossed over his chest under the grey painting shirt. "I mean I'm the artist Alex...I'm meant to be the one all tormented and..." He stopped and looked down at her arms that were still bandaged from her latest night terror. "I didn't even want you to go remember? It was too long and two far away..."

"I remember." She finally snapped.

"I know you remember! That's the whole problem! If you could just let all this bad shit to go!" He stopped and tried to collect himself, clearly not really having wanted to say something like that. "I'm going to go stay with Maggie...I just....I'm sorry Alex."

She ran her hands through her hair at the top of her head, pulling the long waves and curled away and back. She watched him pick up the last bag and kicked her leg out. "Toby." She called out stopping him at the door. She could clearly see his eyes squeezed closed to the side; thinking that she was going to beg him to stay. He glanced back at her. "You have been fucking her right?" His blue eyes widened. "Since I got taken?" His mouth dropped open but no words came out. She gave him a little closed mouth smile. "It's okay. I'm insane...not stupid."

She never really did blame him. Dealing with someone like her wasn't easy before she was taken. She'd always needed someone who was a bit more...wild. Crazy even to keep up with her. When she had gotten back he had needed as much comfort as she did. Maggie didn't see things that weren't there in broad daylight. She didn't hear people screaming in the grocery store. She didn't have nightmares that were so vivid that she would start tearing her own skin off.

Alex took a long rehydrating sip of orange juice as she sat at the kitchen counter looking out over the desert and Canyon. Her phone was propped up on her shoulder, the melodic hypnotizing voice of her therapist and friend coming through it.

Damien was a nice man...really nice and very handsome in person. He was one of those men who was blessed with a face that made you want to tell him all of you deepest darkest secrets. He'd taken a liking to her right away and was one of the few who would even consider taking her on as a client.

"Things are just becoming more...real." Alex muttered into the phone. "I can feel them happening again."

She could hear the sound of his chin hitting the phone as he nodded. "It happens in cycles sometimes Alexandra...flows back and forth. What are you seeing?"

Alex shrugged. "Just the usual...killing fields, smelling things I shouldn't be. I saw a faceless man in my room last night." She smiled as she heard Damien drum his pen on his desk. "Don't say it!" She laughed.