Torn

by Ashley Stambaugh

  Dean nodded his head, but the wrinkle in his forehead remained. Melina could tell he was confused about something, but then the sudden redness in his cheeks made her think he was also slightly embarrassed.

  "What?" she asked. "What's wrong?"

  He shrugged. "You seem to approach your problems head-on with very little help. If something new or different happened to me that was an effect of my powers, I always contacted Phinneas, no matter how small it was." His lips pulled up into a sheepish grin. "I guess I sort of feel like a helpless child compared to you."

  "Well," said Melina, "I guess I'm used to it. I mean, Walter was a big help in teaching me how to use the powers and giving me pointers on how to break through to Lee. But after that I knew there wasn't anything else he could do, and the rest was up to me. I also didn't want to bother him too much since he was trying to figure out who sent the Noxin demons after me."

  "That's true," Dean said. "I didn't have to worry about the demons, so my powers were my biggest threat. I guess I feel slightly better about myself." He let out a short laugh. "So Lee was the person you had to help to gain control of your powers?"

  Melina nodded. "Yeah, he was."

  "That's great that you two became so close. I wish my experience would've had that result." He looked away from her and kept his eyes down as they continued to walk.

  "What happened? If you don't mind me asking."

  He let out a heavy sigh, his breath coming out like a puff of smoke in the cold air. "The young woman I helped had a boyfriend, so that wasn't an option for me. We're still good friends, but none of that really even mattered. I had a girlfriend of my own—Lynn."

  Melina took notice that he referred to his girlfriend in the past tense but didn't say anything.

  "I told Lynn about what was happening with me, but she didn't want anything to do with it. It's not like I sprung it all on her at once, either. I eased into it, told her little by little as things happened, but it didn't make a difference. All the time in the world still wouldn't have been enough for her to learn to cope with everything. She just didn't want to try." A lone tear slid down his cheek, and he swept it away. "After more than four years together, she couldn't even try."

  "I'm sorry," Melina said softly and then remained silent, unsure of what else to say at that moment. She was stunned by his ex-girlfriend's reaction, and couldn't imagine how she would've felt if Lee had reacted that way. A lump was starting to form in her throat, so she swallowed hard to make it go away.

  As if reading her mind, which he probably was, he said, "You're lucky to have Lee. And Tessa and Gwen, for that matter."

  Melina wondered how he knew about Tessa and Gwen but then remembered she had mentioned them in front of him yesterday. "Yeah, I am. I'm lucky Gwen already knew about everything from being there when it happened with my parents, and I'm lucky that Tessa and Lee accepted it all so well."

  She pulled her coat collar up and crossed her arms in front of her chest. "I don't think I can bear to be outside much longer."

  "Me either," said Dean as he lowered his head and hunched his shoulders forward.

  "The library for this part of town is just up the block here," Melina said as she picked up her pace and pointed up ahead of them. "Do you want to stop in there for a while?"

  "Yeah, that sounds good."

  "Okay, let's…" Her voice trailed off as her attention was drawn to the alley on her left. A shadow had flashed by out of the corner of her eye, and she thought it might be a demon. But when she looked closer, she saw that it was only a small gray cat. She pulled her eyes away from the feline and looked back out in front of her.

  "Did you see something?" Dean asked.

  "I thought I saw a Noxin demon, but it was just the shadow from a cat." She hugged herself tighter. "We need to get our guards up, though, and be on the lookout. If that cat had been a demon, who knows what would've happened."

  "You're right," said Dean. "I could see how the demons might be hard to notice until it's too late. Phinneas told me they're usually in their demonic forms because they're stronger in that form, and at first glance they just look like someone's shadow."

  "That's why shadows make me so jumpy." She cautiously glanced around them and then said, "Noxin demons also have a stealth ability."

  "Yeah, yeah. I remember Phinneas mentioning that," said Dean. "That could definitely make things tricky."

  "I'm not sure how it works, though," said Melina. "I don't think it's a permanent ability. If it was then I would think they would want to stay that way all the time. I think they can remain in stealth mode until they attack, then they're sort of forced out of it."

  Dean nodded. "Plus, if they wanted to be in their human forms, then they couldn't use their stealth ability, right? Phinneas told me that their burning touch is the only power strong enough to come through while they're in that form."

  "That's right," she said. "But they can still teleport in their human form, too."

  Dean gave her a confused look.

  "Teleporting seems to be a universal power for all the supernatural beings I've come across so far, so I think it's just the demons’ specific powers that can't come through when they're in a human form."

  "That makes sense," Dean said.

  Melina glanced back at the alley and shuddered. She still couldn't believe she was having to worry about Noxin demons again. It wasn't that she thought she'd never have to deal with them again. She just didn't think it would be so soon.

  "We're here," she said, motioning to a large brick building to their left. They both stopped and looked up the steps toward the front door.

  "This is a decent sized building. Are you sure there won't be too many people in there for you?" Dean shifted his gaze to Melina, waiting for her to answer.

  "It doesn't sound like there are too many people inside right now, but I'm not sure if that even matters anymore."

  "What do you mean?" he asked.

  She stared up at the front door a moment longer and then turned to look at him. "All it took for me to become angry earlier was hearing Nina's thoughts, and she's only one person."

  Dean removed one of his hands from his coat pocket and gestured to the library. "Well then, let's go inside and see what happens."

  Melina nodded and then made her way up the short flight of stairs and opened the front door. As she stepped across the threshold and into the main room, the soft voices in her mind quickly turned to loud ones. She winced as she tried to block them out and then glanced back at Dean. His eyes were closed, and she could tell that he was also trying to push the voices from his mind.

  A few seconds later he opened his eyes and looked at her. "You all right so far?"

  "Yeah, thanks," she said as she surveyed the room and removed her gloves. "Let's take a seat at that back table over there," she said, pointing to her right, "and I'll grab a couple of random books on our way."

  Dean gave her a curious look.

  "We need to fit in with the rest of the crowd, right?" She flashed him a quick grin and then started toward the back corner. A small cart full of books was parked at the end of an aisle, so she swiped a couple of them off the top of the pile and took a seat at the table.

  Dean sat down across from her and eyed the books. "So what did you pick out for us?"

  Melina laid the two books out on the table. "It looks like a gardening book and a children's alphabet book."

  "Well," said Dean after letting out a short laugh. "The gardening book it is then."

  Melina pushed the children's book aside and laid the gardening book out between them. "How did it happen for you?" she asked as she glanced up at him. "It seems as if Phinneas has been your primary mentor. Did you have a run-in with him and absorb his powers?"

  Dean shook his head as his eyes remained stuck on the book. "Phinneas was the elder who came to explain everything to me, and we've remained close since." He flipped a page in the book and remained silent.

  "I was out for a morning run when I
collided with Walter," said Melina, hoping that if she told her story, he would tell his. "Luckily, since it was so early, no one was around to witness our little incident. Light exploded between us when it happened, and I was thrown to the ground." She eyed Dean expectantly.

  Without raising his eyes, Dean began to talk, a slight blush filling his cheeks. "I, um… I was in a bar, and I approached a young woman to try to get her phone number."

  "Wait," Melina interrupted. "You told me you had a girlfriend."

  Dean sighed, and as he lifted his eyes to look at her, his cheeks reddened even more. "I did. It was a stupid dare from one of my buddies, Alec. He said I was so obsessed with Lynn that I wasn't capable of picking up women anymore." Dean shook his head. "He's not really a friend, I should say. At least not anymore." His eyes drifted to the side for a moment, and then he looked back at her. "Anyway, Alec's always been more of an annoyance, so I did it just to prove him wrong. When I approached the woman, Ann is her name, that's when it happened."

  "Wow, in front of a room full of people?"

  He shrugged. "The power transfer didn't cause a light explosion between us like it did with you and Walter. It was more of a spark and then a slight jolt that unbalanced me momentarily."

  "Oh." Melina's brow furrowed as she looked down at the table. How they contracted the powers happened differently, too. Once again it had happened much stronger with her than it had for Dean. She cleared her throat. "What a coincidence that you chose Ann to approach. She must've been there to help someone."

  "Yeah," said Dean. "She was there to help someone. She was there to help me."

  Melina's eyes lifted to meet his, but she remained silent.

  "So I'd say it was a bit more than a coincidence," continued Dean. "With the development of my situation, Ann had to put off helping me with my problems to help me with my powers. Or at least that's what she thought. It turns out she was able to do both at once."

  Melina raised her eyebrows.

  "Let's just say that I may have been a little more like Alec than I care to admit, and in helping my charge, I helped myself. I became a more caring and compassionate person, rather than a cocky and annoying jerk."

  "Do you think that maybe…" Melina's voice trailed off as if she wasn't quite sure how to word what she wanted to say.

  Dean finished for her. "That me being a jerk was the real reason why Lynn left? That even though I changed, it was too late?"

  Melina nodded.

  "I was never like that with Lynn. I loved her too much to have her know that side of me." Dean's face became sullen as he stared down at his hands. "Maybe I shouldn't have hidden it from her, though, seeing as how she’s not much of a caring person either."

  Melina gave him a conciliatory smile. "Try not to be so hard on her. You said she gave up on you and didn't even try to understand your new situation, but it sounds like you might have given up on her as well."

  Dean's eyes flicked upward as he gave her a look of disbelief.

  "If you loved her as much as you say you did, then why didn't you put up more of a fight? It just seems like you accepted her reaction and didn't really do much to try to change it."

  His face relaxed, and after a short moment of silence he said, "You're right. I didn't expect her to react the way she did, and I think the amount of hurt that overcame me was just too much for me to do anything else."

  "You still love her, don't you? Just as much as you ever did."

  Dean slowly nodded his head. "Yeah, I still love her. Very much." He looked down at the book and began to mindlessly flip through the pages.

  Melina also turned her eyes down to the book, taking in the silence of the room, when all of a sudden she had the feeling that she was being watched. Her body stiffened as she slowly started to scan the room. As her eyes shifted from one side of the room to the other, they finally came to rest on a young woman. She was very pale with raven black hair that tumbled down her back in loose curls, and she wore a long, dark red coat and black high-heeled boots. From the way she stood, Melina's first impression was that she was trying to hide behind one of the large bookcases. But when they made eye contact, the woman didn't flinch. With dark, smoky encircled eyes, she stared at Melina in an unnerving manner. After a few seconds had passed, the woman suddenly spun around and disappeared behind the bookcase.

  "Stay here," Melina whispered to Dean. "I'll be right back." Without waiting for a response, she stood up from the table and walked as quickly as she could over to the row of bookcases. She approached the aisle where she saw the woman disappear and peeked her head around the corner. No one was there.

  "She couldn't have gone too far," Melina said to herself as she slipped down the aisle and took off to search for her.

  She looked up and down each row, making her way toward the front of the room. When she came to the last aisle, she glimpsed a swirl of black hair and a flash of red darting out the front entrance. Melina rushed over to the doorway but stopped herself on the threshold.

  The woman glanced back over her shoulder and smirked at Melina. Then she ducked behind a row of nearby shrubs and was gone.

  Chapter Nine

  Melina ran down the front steps of the building and over to the row of shrubs. Where did she go? she thought to herself as she looked up and down the sidewalk. There aren't any alleyways or stores for her to have run into. She gave the immediate area one more quick scan and then made her way back inside the library, her brow creased in confusion. Dean met her at the doorway.

  "Hey, are you all right?" he asked. "Why'd you run off like that?"

  "There was a woman," Melina muttered as she started to walk back to their table, "and she just vanished."

  Dean cocked an eyebrow at her. "You're not making a lot of sense."

  Melina approached the table, but instead of sitting back down, she turned and looked at Dean. "I had this feeling earlier that someone was watching me. When I searched around the room, I spotted a woman hiding behind one of those bookcases," she pointed to her right. "She was staring right at me, almost like she wanted me to see her looking at me. After a couple of seconds, she disappeared into the aisle, and I followed her. I finally caught a glimpse of her dashing out the front door and took off after her. Then she ran behind some bushes and vanished. I rounded the shrubs maybe two or three seconds after she did, but she was already gone."

  "So what are you thinking? That maybe she's some sort of angel?" Dean asked.

  She shrugged. "I'm not sure if she's some type of supernatural being, or if she's just a really fast runner. But if she is an angel, then why did she run from me?"

  "I don't know," said Dean as he shook his head.

  Melina sighed and then closed her eyes as she lowered her head into her hand. "For some reason I'm having trouble blocking out everyone's thoughts now. Would you mind if we left?"

  "Of course not." Dean took a hold of her left arm and started to lead her back toward the front door.

  She raised her head slightly and opened her eyes so she could see where she was going. The path to the door was clear of people. Only a few more steps, and she would be outside and hopefully feel some relief from the mounting pain.

  As she crossed the threshold, she felt a lightening of pressure in her head. She hurried down the stairs with Dean by her side, and by the time they reached the sidewalk out front, the pain was gone, and she could no longer hear anyone's thoughts. Her eyebrows scrunched together as she stopped in her tracks.

  "What is it?" asked Dean as he stopped himself and released her arm.

  Melina glanced over at the library and then back to Dean. "When we were standing here earlier, before we went in, I could hear the thoughts of everyone inside. Now I can't."

  "Maybe we're a little farther away now?"

  She shook her head. "No, that's not it. Usually the thoughts gradually grow fainter and fainter until I can't hear them anymore, but this time it was sudden. I could hear them as we walked out the front door, but just as we reached t
he sidewalk, they instantly stopped."

  Dean rubbed his chin. "That's how the mind reading power worked for me before I was able to control it. Do you think you might be losing some of your control over your powers?"

  Melina gave him a small nod and then glanced down at her feet. "Yeah, I do." She started to walk off down the sidewalk and Dean followed. "I think the powers are just too strong in me, too strong for me to handle. I don't know if I'll ever be able to properly control them."

  They walked a few moments in silence, then Dean spoke up again. "Do you want to try to do anything else this afternoon, or do you want to call it a day?"

  Melina reached into her right coat pocket and then her left, coming up empty handed both times. "I left my phone in my Jeep. Do you know what time it is?"

  Dean raised his left wrist up and glanced down at his watch. "It's a little after five. Is it getting to be too late for you to be out?"

  "No, no. I'm not afraid to be out after dark," she said with a slight grin. "I just have a date planned with Lee tonight, so I need to head back to get ready."

  "Sounds like fun," Dean said. "Anything big planned?"

  Melina shook her head. "Just dinner at his place. But I'd like for you and me to meet up again tomorrow. Then maybe—" Her sentence was cut short when a young woman with short brown hair suddenly rounded the corner of the building they were in front of and ran right into her, sucking her into a vision.

  The woman was sitting on the front steps of a house with her head in her hands, crying. A deep sadness overcame Melina, but she could also feel fear. The brunette lifted her head, and Melina thought she might be able to figure out what was causing the fear by seeing whatever the woman did next, but she was knocked out of the vision when her entire body suddenly felt like flames were ripping through it.

  A pain-filled scream erupted from her, and when she opened her eyes she saw the woman standing in front of her. Melina glared at her and started to lunge forward when she felt Dean's hand grab her arm and pull her back. She didn't try to fight Dean, but she continued to stare at the woman. "Watch where you're going," she said through clenched teeth.