𝐒𝐏𝐄𝐋𝐋𝐁𝐎𝐔𝐍𝐃 ━ 𝐬. 𝐬𝐭𝐫𝐚𝐧𝐠𝐞

━━ . THREE

Katherine continued to glare at the man; her body filled with every emotion she had been feeling for the past year—anguish, hurt, anger, rage, loss—and they took a hold of her in a way she had never experienced.

A tiny voice in the far corners of her mind told her that she was being irrational to blame this man; he had saved the lives of many people, including her own. But as she took in his appearance, silhouetted by storm clouds and dressed like some modernized-hippy monk, all Katherine could do was feel outraged and disrespected.

He studied her a moment and then Katherine saw his appalled expression turn into one of beguiled amusement.

"I believe I remember you," Said this strange man and Katherine swore his words were a taunt.

Katherine sneered. "You had no right to use your powers to take me away from here..."

She knew before the words left her lips that she was being unjust, ridiculous even, but she could not stop herself. The one thing that had ever meant anything to her, gave her reasons to be alive—to exist—had been taken away from her and by some inconceivable act of intervention, she was back where she had first started in her life.

Katherine was alone.

"Though, if I remember correctly," The man had ignored her contempt, however and she turned her attention back to him.

"You were heading straight for your death."

Katherine felt herself break on the inside and the pain flowed out of her mouth. "I was trying to find my parents! They came to see me and..."

The man paused in his words as she trailed off and her voice cracked. A tear fell down her cheek and she furiously wiped it away. At least she had been afforded the opportunity to say her emotions out loud to someone who had also been there—and he was also shielding her from the rain at his own expense.

That was some form of reprieve at the very least.

He nodded, watching her carefully. "Your only family?"

Katherine adverted her gaze to the ground and sniffed, nodding in response. The past year had been an absolute nightmare for her. She had spent that entire year feeling guilty; it gnawed at her and she continuously told herself it should have been her and not them. Of course, she kept in contact with the rest of her relatives, but deep down she knew that the only reason they had come to call her family was because David and Pamela had adopted her.

Oh, sure, they had had mourned and grieved with Katherine, even offered their condolences, but eventually the texts and calls got shorter until they weren't anymore. It was so they wouldn't have to face their own mortality and Katherine had understood, respected it enough to keep her distance.

They had to get back to their lives, yet she had to deal with her inner turmoil on her own and couldn't depend on anyone to take it away from her. It only strengthened her feelings of not deserving to be a part of that family anymore—her last name just served as a reminder that the people who she had come to call her parents had even existed in her life.

They had a purpose and reason to be in the world, yet Katherine did not.

And even if she did, that did not matter anymore.

Katherine was lucky that she hadn't been evicted out of her townhouse yet and thankfully, the landlady had been kind enough to let her grieve peacefully, but no one was trying to hire a nurse who had post-traumatic stress from an event like that. She still remembered the stinging bitterness that came after she received the phone call that they wouldn't hire her and the reason why.