by Deanna Chase
Presently, her love life was dismal. She had yet to find that exceptional someone to fulfill her in every way. Melanie believed wholeheartedly in the concept of a soulmate. She had faith that there was one person in the world made specifically for her. One day, he would find her and make her the happiest person on the planet.
At the bottom of the mountain, Melanie stopped her momentum by falling on her butt. It was a rookie move, but she was still not as comfortable on a snowboard as a pair of skis. As the snow began to fall harder, she took a cleansing breath and reveled in her surroundings. It felt good to be alive.
“Kate, you need either to get some sleep or sleep with your boyfriend. You look like crap,” Julie remarked on the Sunday afternoon following her dinner with Jared and her father. The friends had made plans to hit the outlets and have a high calorie lunch at the food court.
The rest of the evening was barely salvageable as both Jared and her dad attempted to keep the peace at the table. They must have called a truce while she was having hallucinations in the bathroom. She figured they chalked up her silence to her resentment over their disagreement at her birthday dinner. They never suspected that she had become certifiable.
Last night she had heard Melanie’s thoughts again during a vision. The only common factor Kate unearthed in the visions was that they were all joyful. They played like a home movie of the happiest times in Melanie’s life. Unless Melanie lived full-time at Disney World, Kate felt like she wasn’t getting an honest depiction of the fitness instructor’s life.
“I feel like crap,” Kate conceded to Julie as they walked the perimeter of the outdoor mall. The square shape of the outlets forced shoppers to pass by every single store. The Gap, J.Crew and Nine West had been made a little richer that day as Kate spent the majority of the birthday money her father had gifted her the night before.
“You need to take a day off from everything. You said this girl keeps having happy memories, right?” Kate nodded which encouraged Julie to continue. “Then you should consider the possibility that she isn’t in any serious danger. It seems to me that if she was in trouble, her memories would probably be filled with the horrible things happening to her.”
“I don’t know. Maybe…” Kate trailed off uncertainly.
Melanie’s case was truly an unsolvable mystery. It had been a week since Melanie disappeared and not a single sighting of her anywhere. Her credit cards and cell phone remained untouched. With close family and friends, why would she willingly leave everything behind with not so much as a note goodbye?
“You can’t let these cases take over your life. You still have school and work and a very sexy boyfriend who you have not seen completely undressed,” Julie reminded her. She linked her arm through Kate’s and dragged her towards a storefront.
“Julie, I really don’t need your help picking out my underwear,” Kate complained as she noted the lingerie covering the mannequins in the windows of the shop.
“Obviously you do,” Julie snorted. “You have been with Jared for almost two months! By then, I was doing things with Gage that probably isn’t even legal in every state.”
“You’re making my ears bleed Julie,” Kate retorted.
“Stop being such a prude. Didn’t you say you have very strong feelings for Jared? Dare I say it, but maybe you’re feeling like you may be in love with him?”
“Will you be quiet, someone may hear,” she hissed as they made their way to the rear of the store.
Julie didn’t bother to conceal her amusement. “Kate, they did a few news stories on you. You’re not exactly trailed by the paparazzi.” She gave her a long look. “Besides, you’d probably be surprised to find out how Jared feels about you. If you stopped ditching him for the psychic desperate to get into your pants, he would probably tell you.”
“I’m not ditching Jared for Declan,” Kate snapped. Taking a calming breath, she then added, “And Declan has actually turned out to be tolerable. I thought he wanted more when he first started hanging out, but he must realize I’m not interested. Not to mention he’s dating Trish, the girl that was at your party.”
“Trish puts out for anyone with a pulse. I doubt it will last,” Julie said. Holding up a barely there black thong with a jeweled studded string, she questioned, “What about this?”
“Is this the kind of thing guys want you to wear?” she demanded in scandalized tones.
Julie snorted. “He’s not going to want you to wear the control top underwear you save for your quote-unquote fat days.”
Checking around to make sure she didn’t see any grandmothers or children that could be traumatized by her underwear choices, she grabbed them out of Julie’s hands. “Fine, I’ll buy these. But just for the record, I doubt I’ll last an hour with these jeweled things up my ass.”
“Kate, if Jared sees you in them, you’ll be lucky to last ten seconds with them still on you,” Julie chided. Kate blushed over the thought and hurried towards the cash register.
After leaving the lingerie store, they headed towards the food court. In lieu of lunch, they decided to splurge on ice cream sundaes. As Kate spooned out the last bite, she moaned. “That was so good. It doesn’t even matter I’ll probably have to return the clothes we bought and buy a bigger size.”
“Ugh I know,” Julie agreed. It was nice Julie humored her. Julie was a size two maybe on a bad day. “By the way, I’ve been meaning to ask if you heard from Max’s mom.”
Kate was glad she had the ice cream beforehand. Otherwise, she would’ve definitely lost her appetite. “Yes. She was wonderful when she called. I still have visions about Max. I wake up feeling like I was the one Ally hit. So I know he’s still haunted by the things that happened to him. Farrah assured me he was doing better everyday and seeing a team of doctors. She insisted I stop blaming myself and even wanted to know if she could give me something for my help.”
“Like money?”
“Yeah I guess so.” She shrugged. “Funny you should bring that up. Turns out that’s what Declan does—he helps find the missing and collects any reward money.”
“Kind of a strange way to make a living,” Julie said and pursed her lips. Shrugging her shoulders, she said lightly, “But hey, you said he has a nice car and house so he must be successful at it.”
“He asked me to work with him,” Kate admitted. “He thinks we’ll be able to handle more cases and have better luck finding people. Is it a horrible idea? Am I exploiting these families by using my gift to make money?”
Julie smoothed back her hair behind her ears and peered at her. “Jesus Kate, I’m the wrong person to go to about a moral dilemma. Have you talked to your mother about it?”
She shook her head. “No. I haven’t told Jared about it either. I just explained he wanted to work on Melanie’s case together. I didn’t tell them it was because her family is offering up $25,000 for information leading to her return.”
“In my opinion, you shouldn’t feel bad,” Julie stated decidedly. “The police officers searching for her are getting paid, aren’t they? And you’re probably spending as many hours working the case. Besides, put yourself in the shoes of Melanie’s family. They would probably be willing to give any amount of money to someone who could bring her home.”
“This is going to sound crazy…” Kate started uncertainly.
“News flash Kate, the majority of the things that come out of your mouth sound crazy,” Julie quipped.
“Well, my mother told me once she believed my second sight came from God. And I’m afraid that if I don’t use it in the right way, something bad will happen,” she confessed.
“I’m a little skeptical on that one Kate. Would God give Declan a psychic gift? He may have a heavenly body, but that’s about as close to holiness that boy will ever be,” Julie cracked.
“I guess,” she said noncommittally.
Leaning back in her chair, she smiled at her friend. A surge of gratitude encompassed her. Julie was the only friend who had stuck around after
Kate developed her psychic powers. Many people mistakenly labeled Julie as shallow and conceited. It couldn’t be farther from the truth. Julie was fiercely loyal to the people she cared about, including Kate.
“Thanks for letting me vent about this stuff. If you ever want to talk about how Gage is a Neanderthal who should be worshipping the ground you walk on, I’m here for you,” Kate kidded.
“You better stop it or you won’t get invited to our future wedding. I won’t have you yelling ‘I object’ and ruining it,” she laughed.
“Alright.” Kate put her hands up in surrender. “This has been fun, but I should be getting home. I wanted to spend some time connecting with Melanie.”
Julie gave her a quizzical look. “You make it sound like she’s a friend.”
“To be honest, I feel like we’re friends. Her memories are like a breath of fresh air after experiencing the horrors Max went through. One memory, she was teaching a kickboxing class. I woke up feeling like I actually worked out for the day,” Kate explained.
“I hope you or Declan find her soon.”
“Me too,” Kate readily agreed. “More than anything I want Melanie to have a happy ending.”
Chapter Fifteen
The following day Kate headed home after attending her morning classes on campus. The night before, she made arrangements to meet Declan there to discuss Melanie’s case. He had put together a compilation of all of their visions of Melanie and wanted to see if they could reveal any clues. Declan wondered if they could find a pattern that could lead them to Melanie. Situated on the couch, Kate sat for a long time staring off into space as Declan looked over his notes. Every minute or so, he would make a frustrated sound as he continuously hit a brick wall. Nothing consistent was sticking out to them. They had both gone quiet as their disappointment mounted.
Breaking the silence of the room, Kate spoke softly. “I saw her reflection in the bathroom mirror the other night. Is she haunting me now?”
Declan looked up from his notebook. “Doubtful. I don’t believe that’s how our powers work. You probably just have her on your mind a lot.”
“She’s consuming my every thought,” Kate acknowledged. “A couple of times I woke up and it took me a minute to realize I wasn’t Melanie. The visions have been that intense.”
He made a thoughtful sound and turned away from her. After the moment of silence stretched out, he gave a tight smile. “I’ll tell you something, but I don’t want you to freak out.” Her mouth opened to reply, but he held up his hand to stop her. “The only reason I’m saying anything to you is I want you to consider this a warning. I want you to remember to keep some emotional distance when you get involved in these cases.”
“Stop being so mysterious and spit it out already,” she said growing annoyed. Declan’s secretive side grated on her. Kate wished he would stop handing out these nuggets of wisdom whenever he deemed her worthy. She tossed back her brown hair and stared him down.
He relented. “Well, you’re not exactly the first psychic I’ve checked out.”
“And here I was thinking I was special,” she said pressing her hands against her chest.
“Anyway,” he remarked pointedly, “a couple of the psychics I tried to track down were in hospitals.”
“What did they catch? Psychic pneumonia?” she joked. The smile slipped from her face when Kate saw the tortured look in his dark eyes.
Declan gave her a solemn look. “They both were diagnosed with schizophrenia and institutionalized.”
“You can’t be serious? Oh god, this is my destiny. I’m going to end up locked up in the padded cell with no freaking idea of who I am.” Throwing her arms up, she began to pace the floor in front of him. A headache formed behind her eyes as she imagined being put away from the rest of her life.
“Woman, will you calm down? I feel like I should have smelling salts handy,” he quipped. Declan reached out and gripped her by the shoulders. Kate stopped pacing and focused her hazel eyes on the floor.
After a minute, she was able to regain her poise. Kate gave him a wane smile. “I always had a fear of going crazy—like I wouldn’t know the difference between my thoughts and others.”
“I reached out to the families of the psychics,” Declan elaborated, “and I let them know I had the same abilities. In both cases, the psychics became more and more obsessed with their visions. They lost interest in their regular lives and their reality became the people they interacted in the visions.
“Melanie and Max can’t consume you to the point where nothing else matters. You have to think of their families as clients and nothing more,” he advised.
“It’s not that easy. Melanie has been missing for eight days. Eight days!” Kate exclaimed and wrung her hands in front of her. “It’s like I hear this internal stopwatch counting down and I know the longer she remains missing, the less of a chance we have of finding her alive.”
Declan moved close to her and cupped her cheek. In a gentle voice, he spoke. “We’ll find her, Kate.”
She tensed at his touch. There were moments where Declan was able to show this softer side—it almost made the psychic amiable. Their similarities were becoming more apparent as well. They both put up this wall made out of sarcasm and distrust to protect themselves from people who could hurt them. It wasn’t easy having visions of friends and acquaintances and learning what they really said about you behind closed doors.
For instance, Kate still didn’t talk to her cousin Jessica. In a vision, she had seen her in the middle of a gossiping session telling a group of her cronies that Kate had pretended to be psychic so she could try and seduce Jared while they worked together on the Cori Preston case.
The tension crackled in the air. She was grateful to hear the garage door open as her mother pulled in her car. Declan drifted away from her and sat down on the couch. No witty retort passed from his lips and he gazed at her thoughtfully. Nervously, she tucked a loose strand of hair behind her ear and smiled brightly at her mom as she entered the house.
“Hi Mom,” she called.
From her mother’s piercing look, she hadn’t missed the artificiality in Kate’s voice. She addressed Declan. “Nice to see you again, Declan. Were you staying for dinner?”
“No. I have plans with Trish, but thanks for the offer Ms. E,” he said with a charming smile.
“Ms. E?” Her mother mouthed to her as Declan turned to gather up his notebook and bottled water.
Kate rolled her eyes and shrugged in her mother’s direction. He had tried out the nickname Kit Kat on Kate, but when she promised to do harm to his genitalia if she heard that name pass his lips once more, he backed off.
Her mother’s watchful stare never left them as Kate walked Declan out. Kate closed the door and turned to face him. Declan gave her a crooked grin. “Now, don’t go crazy on me. I’ll work on Melanie for awhile and let you take a breather.”
“Thanks. Maybe this working together thing is going to work out,” she said thoughtfully. “We’re even on our way to being fast friends.”
“We could be if you stopped pining for me,” he joked.
“Will you get out of here? Trish is eagerly awaiting someone to leave her emotionally damaged and physically dissatisfied,” she retorted and playfully pushed him off the porch.
“See you in your dreams, Kate.”
Kate couldn’t help but giggle at Declan’s conceit. At the very least, he offered comic relief. It had been excruciatingly difficult the past few days for her to focus on anything besides the case. Each vision of Melanie entangled her more and more in the girl’s life. She was beginning to know the ins and outs of Melanie Pirola’s existence. Kate could name the girl’s past boyfriends and best friends. Being inside of Melanie’s head during the visions also made it obvious to Kate that she was a kind and loving person. This further affirmed Kate’s belief that Melanie wouldn’t simply vanish without letting someone know.
Normally Kate would vent to Jared, but it seemed as though he w
as swallowed up by the Franklin police department and would never be returned to her. For some reason, he couldn’t give her specifics about the case he was working on, but did say it looked like it would be resolved soon. With only a few snatches of conversation here or there, she hadn’t wanted to hijack the conversation with her growing despondency about Melanie. Instead, she craved a distraction from her psychic life. She missed her boyfriend desperately and anticipated the day when both of their cases would be solved.
Her mother had her arms folded across her chest as Kate reentered the home. The expression on her face was the same look she wore when Kate was fourteen and she took the family car for a joy ride. Kate only made it as far as the end of the block before she chickened out, but her mom had grounded her for a month.
Kate figured a lecture was on the tip of her mom’s tongue and decided to distract her. She would rather avoid defending herself against spending time with Declan. He was a shameless flirt, but half the stuff he spewed Kate didn’t take very seriously. He made her laugh while also empathizing with the difficulties that came with being psychic. Not to mention, he did rank high on the hotness scale. However, obscure and ancient torture methods would need to be used against her before she ever admitted to him that she was flattered by his attention.
Kate’s eyes widened as she looked over her mom’s outfit. “You look really pretty today Mom. Is that skirt new?”
Her mother looked down at her casual attire before locking eyes with her daughter. “No, I’ve had this for years. Your avoidance techniques need work.”
“Mom, I’m twenty-two years old. I thought I was allowed to have boys in the house without you here. You did let Jared in my bedroom last week,” Kate reminded her. She figured the best defense was a good offense.