Paige Brim

Chapter Two

     “Paige Brim?” the tall man asked. He spoke so quietly, so calmly, barely a whisper escaping his mouth. She wanted to shake her head, to tell him that she wasn't Paige, that she was any other girl but something told her that he would know anyways. Instead, she just nodded. Maybe he wasn't going to kill her. Maybe he was a cop. Maybe her grandpa was worried that she wasn't home yet and had sent someone to look for her at school.

    The man kept staring at her for a few seconds. God, it felt like he stood there for an eternity. She couldn't muster the energy nor the confidence to say anything so she just stayed there on the floor holding her nose. He looked like he was evaluating her. He kept looking straight into her eyes as if he was trying to get past them and into her thoughts. Then a horrifying thought crossed her mind. What if…

    “You're like me aren't you?”, she heard her voice say before she could stop herself.

    He didn't reply. He continued to stare into her eyes. She closed them.

    “That won't stop me, you know.”

    Paige opened her eyes and stared at him.

    “Who are you?"

    He ignored her.

     “Fine, I'll find out myself”. She looked into his eyes, calmed herself down, and focused. Immediately her head started pounding and she felt stab after stab of pain until she was forced to close her eyes and look away.

     “I wouldn't do that if I were you.”

     “what did you do to my head?” she moaned, barely able to speak. Her head stopped pounding but everytime she tried to focus, the pain came back like knives stabbing her over and over again.

     “Nothing" he said with a shrug. "It's your fault for trying me.”

   “what are you talking about?" She could barely look at him from the pain that was spreading through her head, forming streaks of white in her peripheral vision.

   He continued to stare at her not giving the slightest attention to her question.

    After a few seconds her curiosity got the best of her.

 

"How did you block me out?"

    Again he ignored her completely and continued to stare at her determinately like she was a puzzle he couldn't quite solve.

   "Is that even possible?" She knew he wouldn't answer but her tongue wouldn't stop talking.

    “You mean you didn't know?” for the first time she felt a tinge of surprise in his voice.

   The pain was starting to fade and she began to take in the seriousness of what was happening. It didn't matter that this stranger could keep her out or not. This guy had a gun in his hand while she, Paige, was helpless. She had to get out of here.

     “Look….” she said, getting up.

     “Do not move!” His voice was commanding, anger appearing in it for the first time. No, it wasn't anger. It was more like frustration. Paige could see it in his aura. Red, but not that angry red. Its was changing. Becoming darker. She could tell his patience was fading. It seemed like something about her was frustrating him.

   “Ah, there we go.” he said as a smile curled at the corner of his lips.

     Dark green. Greed. Not good. It looked like he'd found what he was looking for.

   “Now that that's over with, lets see what you were trying so hard to hide, Paige Brim”.

     Paige barely heard him. She was distracted by something that had caught her eye in the doorway. It was there for just a second, almost a blur, but she could have sworn she saw a man standing there behind the stranger. She looked again but there was nothing.

     He must have noticed her looking because he walked further into the bathroom the gun never wavering from his hand.

     "Don't get your hopes up, there's no one here but you and me", he said as he turned to close the door.

     Then out of nowhere, a man stepped through the door with a fire extinguisher in his hands. He aimed for the stranger's face and pushed down on the nozzle enveloping all three of them in white clouds.