Mike shook his head in amazement.
“Wow.”
Anna snorted.
“I’m not sure I want to remember being stabbed again,” Anna pointed out.
“The other guy, KK, he doesn’t remember anything either. I still think he could be a suspect.”
Something in Anna twisted a little at the mention of KK. She pushed it aside. Her gut instinct kept insisting that KK wasn’t who had hurt her, but she couldn’t deny that he had come out pretty unscathed in comparison.
“We’ll let the police worry about it,” she replied.
Anna picked up the bottle of pain pills on the counter and furrowed her brow at them. She was hurting bad, but she knew she had to be careful not to take them too close together, even if there was breakthrough pain. The Doctor had been very firm on that point.
“Did I take one of these in the car?” She asked Mike, trying to determine if she was good to take one.
“No.”
“You sure?” Anna pressed.
She thought she had, but couldn’t remember for certain, and her pain was spiking aggressively.
“Positive,” Mike assured her.
Anna made a face, but swallowed one. Mike had promised to help keep and eye on it all. If he said she hadn’t, Anna was inclined to trust him.
Anna closed the lid of the trash bin with a sigh. She still seemed to tire out so fast. She felt her phone go off in her pocket. She pulled it out to check the caller ID. The display read “INCOMING CALL: LEX.” Anna hesitated for a moment before accepting.
“Hello?” she said into the receiver.
“Hey,” Lex began. “Don’t call the cops, I—”
“You’re fine.” She hesitated, then added firmly, “Just this once.”
“I heard you got out of the hospital. I wanted to make sure you were okay.”
Anna wandered around the garage as Lex spoke, idly taking in the items scattered around.
“I’m fine,” she told him. “I don’t remember anything.”
“The doctors didn’t think you’d make it. I hated seeing you like that.”
“Seeing me?”
“They let me visit you in the hospital.”
“No one told me that,” Anna said, startled.
“The nun let me in, from the hospital chapel.”
An icy feeling settled in the pit of Anna’s stomach.
“Nun?” she whispered.
“Sister Catherine, I think? She read you your last rites.”
Everything in Anna went cold at the name, but she couldn’t figure out why.
Lex continued, oblivious. “Look, I’m just glad you’re okay.”
“Thanks,” Anna said quietly.
“I’m getting cleaned up and I’m ready to move forward.”
“You’ll have to talk to the lawyers about that,” Anna reminded him bluntly, trying to shake off the odd mood that had settled over her.
“No,” Lex cleared his throat. “I mean I’m moving on for good. I met someone and I’m starting over.”
Anna paused in her walk around the garage to examine a large dent in the wall. She had a flash of memory, her and KK watching a hammer strike hard against a wall. She ran her fingers over it curiously.
“So this is it?” Anna asked Lex.
She wasn’t sure how she was supposed to be feeling right now. Sad? Relieved? All Anna felt was the lingering certainty that nothing was really resolved between them. Could something really be over without resolution?
He sounded calm, certain. “I think it’s best that way.”
“I’m sorry I never got you help,” she said sincerely.
That was the biggest regret that still hung over her head. Anna need to say it, not for Lex, but for herself.
“That wasn’t your responsibility,” Lex dismissed. “Tell Claire I’m sorry. When she’s older, tell her I’m here if she wants to see me.”
Anna wasn’t going to let that happen unless she was certain Lex was clean and committed to this new path he said he was on, but she knew he needed that bit of hope. Afterall, Claire was what had pulled her through rehab herself.
“I will,” she reassured him.
“Goodbye, Anna.”
Anna hung up with a sigh. She was sorry it took this long for things to turn around for Lex. She hoped he might find some peace for himself. She hoped he would make this new start stick the same way she had.
Later that night, Anna lay in bed, feeling more tired than she wanted to be. Fatigue was normal after an injury like hers, she supposed, but it still frustrated her. Beyond that, she was mentally tired, as if she had been chasing ghosts around her head all day. She thought of her conversation with Lex, and maybe she had been, in away. She rolled over to face Mike as he entered the bedroom. Anna scrunched up her face in confusion when she saw him holding a glass of water and one of her pills.
“You forgot this,” Mike said, holding out the pill.
“No, I took one in the bathroom earlier.”
Mike frowned. “When I was in there?”
“Yes!” Anna made an exasperated noise, sitting up on the bed. “I asked you!”
“No, you didn’t.”
“I swear I did. And even if I didn’t, I took one in the car.”
Mike set the glass on the nightstand next to her.
“I’d take one just in case.”
Anna shook her head. “I’ll take one tomorrow.”
She wasn’t going to risk it. She was sure she had taken one in the bathroom. She had been fuzzy about the car, but the one in the bathroom she knew for certain.
“I think you should take it now,” Mike pressed, a strange edge to his voice.
Anna shot him an annoyed glare. “I’m going to bed.”
She was done with this. What was Mike trying pull here?
Mike slammed his fist down on the nightstand, rattling the glass of water and making Anna jump. He took in a deep breath, composing himself gain.
“Anna, take it,” he said in a low voice.
Anna sat stock-still for a moment.
“Michael…you’ve never spoken to me like that before,” she whispered, confused and alarmed.
That wasn’t Mike. That was how Lex had spoken to her, but never Mike.
“Take it. Now.” Mike said shortly.
Anna reluctantly swallowed down the pill. Fear churned in her gut. Mike watched her coldly before turning and walking away without another word. Anna stared blankly at the wall for long minutes after he had left, trying to work out what had happened. She felt tears tracing sad caresses down her cheeks. She just didn’t understand. Mike wasn’t like this. Mike had never even so much as shouted at her before, not even when she had been near hysterical herself over one thing or another. His calm, sweet nature was everything Anna had fallen in love with. That man hadn’t been her Mike. It just didn’t make sense.
Her last thought before laying down for bed was wondering when Mike had put that silver crucifix on the wall. Her Mike wasn’t religious. Why did nothing make sense to her?
Anna woke from dreams of blood and pain to a roiling sensation in her stomach. She bolted for the bathroom. Her knees hit the tile with a crack as she hastily slammed the toilet seat up. Bile burned at the back of her throat as she retched, emptying everything in her stomach. She heard soft footsteps approach from behind.
Mike flicked the bathroom light on. “Hey, baby, are you okay?”
“I took too many of those pills,” she moaned.
“I screwed up. Can you forgive me?”
Anna heaved again. She took a few shuddering breaths before speaking. She didn’t want to look at him right now. She was too sick and exhausted to even be as upset with him as she knew he deserved. She just wanted to throw up in peace, and then go back to bed.
“Can we talk about this in the morning?”
“Sure,” Mike agreed readily. “Here, this will help you feel better.”
An
na wiped at her mouth with the back of her hand and turned bleary eyes on Mike. He stood in the doorway; hand outstretched with a pill resting in his palm.
“What’s that?” Anna asked dubiously.
“It’s mine, from when I had that stomach flu.”
Anna looked closer at the pill before recoiling slightly. What the hell was he thinking? Her anger resurfaced swiftly.
She rounded on him, yelling. “That’s mine, Mike. I don’t know what you are playing at—”
“What are you talking about?”
“Get that away from me,” Anna snarled.
She wanted to snatch the bottle from his hands and throw it at him as hard as she could. Maybe that would snap him out of it. Her stomach roiled again before she could put thought to action. She turned back to the toilet, another dry heave wracking her frame.
“I wouldn’t do that to you,” Mike protested, placing a hand on her shoulder.
She threw him off of her with a violent motion.
“I don’t want it.” Anna wrapped her arms around the cold porcelain for comfort.
She wasn’t going to get any from Mike.
“But—”
“I said NO!”
There was a moment of chewed silence before Mike spoke again.
“Fine,” he said in a clipped tone before walking off.
Anna groaned into the toilet bowl.
Chapter 14:
Anna sat on the couch, her feet curled beneath her as she booted up her laptop. The house around her was silent, save for the persistent tick, tick, tick of the clock on the end table. She typed a few words into the search bar before locating the article she was looking for. “STABBING IN BRENTHAVEN”, the header of the article read in bold typeface. She skimmed it for what had to be the twentieth time, her eyes still catching on the “SUSPECT UNKNOWN” every time. Despite what she had told Mike before, Anna was beginning to think that maybe she needed to remember what happened that day. At that moment, she figured it was better than thinking about what had happened last night.
A photo of the rental house was attached to the article. Something in its window caught Anna’s attention and she zoomed in on the picture. Standing in the window by the front door, Anna could almost make out what looked to be the figure of a nun.
Ding-dong!
Anna sighed and slammed her laptop shut. She set it aside and slid her feet out from underneath her to go see who was at the front door. She made it into the foyer before she came to the immediate conclusion that she should have just stayed on the couch. Lex was peering in through the square windows on the front door.
“No,” Anna whispered. “No no no.”
Anna ducked into the kitchen to grab her purse. She rifled through it to make sure her handgun was in there. Her sister had always thought she was crazy for owning one, especially with a child in the house. Anna thought that was easy to say for someone who hadn’t been stabbed twice now. She pulled it out to check the cartridge.
No ammo.
Anna deliberated for a few moments before deciding that even the sight of it would probably be deterrent enough. She replaced it in her purse and went to open the door.
“Lex! I was just about to leave,” Anna lied breezily.
“Maybe we could talk?” Lex asked.
“I don’t think that’s a very good idea,” Anna crossed her arms against her chest.
She should have known that answering his call yesterday would only breed more trouble. So much for him moving on.
“I just want to talk one more time,” Lex pleaded, lifting his hands in a pacifying gesture.
“I have to go.”
“Come on.” Lex took a step closer.
“I can’t,” Anna said firmly and attempted to shut the door.
Lex reached up and caught it in one hand, holding it open. Anna glared at him, trying to cover up the sudden spike of fear. He loomed over her, just as he had done so many times before.
“Don’t be like this.”
“Lex, please,” Anna tried to reason with him.
She needed to shut the door. She should have never opened it.
“Anna. I need to tell you something.”
“You’re violating the restraining order,” Anna reminded him.
“I still love you, Anna.”
She couldn’t listen to this. Not after everything that had happened.
“What happened to moving on?” She snapped.
“I can’t move on without you, Anna.”
She held her ground as he tried to wedge himself further inside.
“I’ll call the cops!” Anna warned him.
This was her fault. She never should have answered the phone yesterday. That was when everything had started to unravel, wasn’t it?
“I know you still love me, too.” Lex had a sickly-sweet smile on his face.
Anna tugged on the door again to no avail. She contemplated kicking him, but knew from experience what he was like if things escalated to violence.
“I mean it, Lex!”
Lex’s voice dropped into a deep growl. “Stay with me, Anna.”
For a moment, Anna froze. It wasn’t quite a memory, not in the truest sense, but something deep in her brain recognized that tone, and it made her desperately afraid.
Anna pulled the gun out of her purse and aimed it at Lex, backing away from the door as Lex forced his way in.
“I’ll shoot!”
She tried to hide the way her hand trembled. She prayed that Lex would go away and not call her bluff. She wouldn’t want to shoot him even if the gun had been loaded.
“You’re worth dying for,” Lex said in that inhuman tone.
He pulled out a silver crucifix and raised it threateningly, advancing on her.
“Go on. Shoot.”
Anna backed up again. There were no bullets. She had nothing to defend herself with. Her left hand fumbled in her pocket and closed around something small, cold to the touch, and oddly heavy. Anna saw a flash of a man with untidy hair and a puppy-dog expression placing something in her pocket with the instruction to use it in an emergency. As if on instinct, Anna reached for it.
It was a pentacle pendant.
Lex dropped the crucifix and immediately backed away.
“Alright! Alright! Jesus Christ,” he muttered, slamming his way out of the foyer.
She looked at the pendant in her hand incredulously. That worked? I pull fucking gun on him and he leaves because of a fucking necklace? Anna sucked in a few lungfuls of air, trying to calm the wild galloping of her heart. She raised the pentacle up closer to stare at it in utter bemusement.
She turned it over in her hands. Mike was acting strange, Lex had nearly attacked her again. Where had the sense of peace and purpose that had filled her just a day ago gone?
Anna accepted a refill on her iced tea from the waiter before she turned her attention back to KK. He sat there, ball cap over his wild brown hair, and one leg bound up in a thick cast. His crutches leaned up against the side of the table and his eyes kept darting around nervously.
“Nothing?” Anna asked.
“Nothing,” KK confirmed.
“No flashes or anything?”
“The only thing I remember is the name Sister Catherine.”
Anna flinched at the name. “The nun from the hospital chapel?”
KK gave her a bemused look and shrugged. “I just know the name.
“Does this ring a bell?” Anna set the pentacle pendant on the table.
KK picked it up with a noise of confusion. “This is mine.”
“I remember you telling me to use it in an emergency and putting it in my pocket.” Anna said.
“I bought this on a ghost hunting project.”
“Ghost hunting?” Anna raised an eyebrow.
KK shrugged. “It’s a hobby of mine.”
“We must have been messing with it in the rental.”
KK wrinkled h
is nose, setting the pendant down. “I doubt it. I fixed some pipes there once and thought there might be something paranormal, but nothing came of it.”
“Then how did I end up with this?” Anna gestured at the pendant on the table between them.
KK looked at her pityingly. “Does it matter?”
“Strange stuff is happening at my house. I think it’s related to what happened that day.”
KK began fumbling with his crutches, his eyes darting away from Anna’s pleading ones.
“Look, I’m sorry, I am, but I can’t help you,” KK mumbled.
He managed to get the crutches back under his arms and stood up. Anna stood as well, hands outstretched toward him as if part of her wanted to catch at his clothes and force him to stand fast.
“Maybe it’s connected to your ghost hunting thing,” Anna said desperately.
“You’re crazy.”
Anna felt a lump in her throat. She had been so sure that KK would have answers, that somehow he would just know. She had been counting on him.
“KK, please…”
He looked up to meet her eyes again. “I can’t do this anymore.”
He hobbled towards the door.
“We need to figure out what happened that day!”
As he reached the exit, KK looked back over his shoulder at Anna, pity and concern in his eyes.
“It’s over, Anna. You’ve gotta move on.”
The bell on the restaurant door jingled as it swung shut behind him. Anna stared at it long after he was gone. She felt hollowed out by the conversation. It was crazy, of course; she barely knew the guy, but watching KK walk out had felt like a betrayal.
Chapter 15:
Dinner had been a subdued affair that night. Claire had done most of the talking, updating the adults about her day. Anna had tried to give the appropriate amount of attention to her daughter’s stories, but her thoughts kept spiraling back to the blank space in her memory where the last day at the rental house should be. She’d excused herself right after dinner, claiming a headache, and collapsed on her bed. She felt wretched, it wasn’t a lie, but she also wasn’t keen on spending much time around Mike right now. The incident with the pills still carried a sting of betrayal no matter how many times he had apologized. The surge of energy and new possibilities that had seemed so strong only a few days ago had faded, leaving behind only the sensation of something important slipping away from her.
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