Page 15
K ylie appreciated Porter backing off and giving her a little bit of time. They had arranged for pizza to be delivered, and then afterward she went up and had a hot bath, trying to de-stress a little bit more, then headed back to bed. She couldn’t believe how exhausted she had felt earlier. Then she got some strength, but now it was dipping once more. She was ready to crash again. What Porter had mentioned about blocks made some sense, and she highly suspected her aunt had put them there.
She remembered various times, where she had not been as compliant as her aunt wanted, and Agatha sitting her down and doing something strange, but Kylie didn’t understand it. Her aunt did something that was beyond Kylie’s comprehension.
Apparently Agatha had a lot more going on in her world than she had been prepared to explain to Kylie. It saddened her because her aunt could have been such a great help to Kylie. Yet Agatha obviously didn’t want to have a relationship, and that also made Kylie wonder why in the world Agatha had taken in Kylie to begin with. It’s obvious Agatha didn’t want anything to do with her.
Maybe Agatha took in Kylie as Agatha’s only living relative or maybe because Agatha’s sister had been murdered, or just because Agatha had helped put the killer behind bars. Regardless, Kylie had to be appreciative of the fact that Agatha had been there when Kylie was too young to support herself. Yet now she felt herself running out of appreciation for Agatha very quickly.
Kylie chastised herself as she crawled into bed, then hooked up her phone to the charger and set it to Record. Should Kylie have any further sleepytime conversations which she wasn’t aware of, she needed to know just what was going on. Obviously more psychic stuff was happening than she had expected in her world, and that had proven to be a bit of a challenge too.
Up until now, she had only utilized that special ability for drawing crime scenes. Sometimes she drew them with her eyes open. Even then she wasn’t seeing anything before her. Yet she was in a visualization mode, and the drawings were coming. In a way they were just being downloaded from her psyche as to any information she was picking up. So far, nothing had been so far off the wall that it had caused anybody any issues.
But it also made her a decent police sketch artist for victims too. She’d only done a little of that and was more than willing to do more, but she had been wary of her own abilities and what it would look like if she zoned out in front of people, yet continued to sketch. The couple times it had happened up until now had been incredibly powerful, but it had also affected her, hearing the victims’ stories and their breakdowns over the people who had attacked them.
She quickly nodded off to sleep, her dreams calm, quiet, with something almost peaceful about them. She woke with a start in the middle of the night and stared around the room, wondering what had disturbed her. Sensing nothing wrong, she slipped back into an easier restful position, only to remember that she had put the phone on Record. She shut it off, then listened to see if anything was there. She fast-forwarded and heard nothing there. With a sense of relief, she reset her phone to Record and went back to sleep, this time into a deeper and calmer space.
Almost immediately she was picked up and tossed into a nightmare, at least something she would have classified as close to a nightmare, with horrific screams and cries coming at her from all around her. She didn’t understand but clasped her hands over her ears, trying to shut out the noise, as she ran as fast as she could away from whatever was happening. It was almost like a mass shooting, and, with that thought, she snapped awake, sitting up in her bedroom and looking around.
Seconds later, her bedroom door burst open, and Porter raced in. Seeing her sitting up in the bed again, he asked, “Are you okay?”
“Yes.”
“What was that about?”
“I don’t know.” She stared at him. “What was what?”
“You cried out.”
She shook her head. “I didn’t hear myself cry out.”
“You did. It woke me up, and I came running.”
She gave him half a smile. “I’m sorry if I disturbed you.”
“No, that’s not what we’re doing here,” he declared. “I just need to know that you’re okay. Do you remember what you were screaming about?”
“Yes, a mass shooting.”
“Ah,” he replied, understanding on his face. “You’re not alone there. Lots of people who worked that casino case are having trouble sleeping.”
“Of course they are,” she whispered. “It’s just so sad.”
He nodded. “It is.”
She looked at him and asked, “Did you ever find a connection between our serial killer-for-hire and the casino mass shooter?”
“The research team is looking into it, but I’m getting the impression that they’re not finding anything. At this point, we aren’t hopeful that they ever will. It’s beginning to look as if it may have been random.”
“How was that random? Did Hogan just take advantage of that opportunity at the casino?”
“I don’t think so.” He walked closer and sat down at the edge of the bed, looking at her closely.
“I’m fine,” she repeated. “I was in a nightmare.… I was running. I heard all these screams,” she murmured, rubbing her head. “It’s just so awful.” She hated that the tears had reached her eyes. “All those people gone, slaughtered, and for what?”
“For one very angry and mentally unstable man,” Porter stated. “We see it over and over again, unfortunately.”
“Which doesn’t help,” she pointed out. “I mean, nobody wants to see that happen. Yet it seems as if we have so few safeguards to protect people when somebody chooses to commit a mass murder. It’s awful,” she murmured.
“I agree, and I’m sorry that it’s disturbing your sleep.”
“It needs to disturb my sleep.” She stared at him. “Nobody should get so comfortable about shootings that they can sleep through it all.”
He nodded. “I won’t argue with you on that. I just know that you’re already dealing with a lot, and I would just as soon you get some sleep.”
She rolled her eyes. “Did you get any?”
“I was doing just fine until you woke me up,” he shared cheerfully.
“Now you can go back to bed,” she said, with a wave of her hand. “Go grab some more sleep, if you can.”
“The operative words are, if I can,” he noted, with a smile. “I just need to know that you’re okay.”
“What time is it?” she asked, reaching for her phone, then seeing the red Record light on. She shut it off. “I put it on Record, just in case.” She stared down at it but felt such a sense of foreboding that she didn’t even want to hear it.
“Maybe you should listen to it.”
She winced. “I’m not sure I’m up for it.”
“I’m right here,” Porter said, “so it would be a good thing if we listened and confirmed nothing else is going on that you weren’t expecting.”
“I’m not expecting any of this,” she declared in frustration. “Most of the time I sleep like a baby, and nothing ever bothers me.”
He looked at her. “Even with the work you’re doing?”
She nodded. “I guess that’s odd, isn’t it?” He gave her the gentlest of smiles, a smile that she was coming to recognize as tenderness.
He murmured, “Remember that we all have safeguards to protect ourselves. Don’t judge any safeguards that have helped you get to where you are.”
“Maybe.”
“Let’s just listen to confirm.” He shuffled over to her, and she sat up, so they were both close enough to hear her phone, and then she hit Play. Nothing immediately came, so she fast-forwarded several times, until all of a sudden she heard a voice. Her voice.
She shook her head in astonishment, as she heard herself cry out, “No, no, don’t! Please don’t!” Then there was silence for a moment, and she started screaming and screaming and screaming. And then it cut off really sharply. She looked over at him, and she hit Stop on the playback.
“I don’t like anything about that,” Porter said.
“I don’t either, but…” She winced. “It’s almost as if I was there, thinking the killer would pay attention to me and—”
“Or it’s just your conscious mind,” he suggested, “knowing what is coming, and you’re asking him to stop the killing.”
She sighed with relief at that very logical explanation. “Thank God for that,” she muttered. “I’m starting to wonder just what is going on.”
“We all are,” he said, “but we’ll keep it calm and under control, so we don’t go off half-cocked, with expectations that it’s something other than what we’re thinking it is.”
She rolled her eyes at him. “You make it all sound so simple.”
“Most things in life are. It’s just the explanation that gets us,” he murmured. “So, let’s just relax and not go there.”
“It is getting late.”
“It is.” He glanced at his watch. “Or early, as it’s five o’clock.”
“In that case,” she said, “I’m getting up and staying up.”
He smiled. “I’ll go put on the coffee.”
“You can go back to bed,” she replied, turning to look at him.
He shook his head. “Nope, I’ll sit up and have coffee with you.” When she hesitated, he leaned over and gave her a quick hug. “You’re not alone. Given the way you were raised, that is probably the last thing you would ever expect to hear from anybody, but I’m not just anybody. I do want you to realize that you are not alone in this.” And, with that, he left.
She stared at the doorway for a long time, wondering if she had ever heard that before in her life. She hadn’t realized how such a basic human necessity for friendships and for people you could count on had been missing in her life. Her aunt had done the absolute bare minimum to connect.
Kylie shook her head, got up, got dressed, and headed downstairs. She heard the coffee dripping and Porter tapping away on his laptop. She walked into the living room, and it struck her. “I suppose you’re sending off progress reports to Stefan,” she stated, with a wry look.
“Nope, but it’s not a bad idea. You could also send him one.”
“Nope.” She felt the intensity of Porter’s gaze, and she raised her hands. “I don’t really have a relationship with him,” she pointed out.
“And yet you could. You’re in the same field.”
“Same field?” she repeated, with a laugh. “My God, he’s such a pro in all of this, and, besides, I don’t want to disturb him.”
“Aha, I hear you there, and I’m pretty sure that would just piss him off.”
“You’re telling me that he doesn’t have hundreds of thousands of people already queuing up to contact him?”
“Maybe, but he also has a lot of people he helps. So, helping you for five minutes, then your time is up and you move on is what Stefan does,” Porter shared. “Until you’re capable of dealing with whatever is happening in your life, in my experience, Stefan has been there. He still stays in contact with my sister.”
“She is very lucky to have him,” Kylie said warmly.
“You would like her,” Porter added, with a smile. “She’s very much like you.”
“Oh, I doubt it. I’m very closed down and extremely unfriendly,” she added, ending with an eye roll.
“No, you’re just very private, mostly because your defenses are so deep.”
“Sure, they’ve had to be.”
“Exactly,” he agreed, “and I’m not looking to change that. I’m just happy that we’re talking and managing to solve some of these problems, without triggering too much response on your side.”
She frowned at that and then nodded. “I guess that’s one way to look at it.”
“It absolutely is, and, as long as it’s all still working, then we can continue to be ourselves.” He poured her a cup of coffee and handed it to her.
She hadn’t even realized that he’d gotten up, made his way to the kitchen, and returned to bring her a cup. She shook her head. “You move so quietly.”
“I didn’t want to disturb your great brainpower, churning away on the problem.”
She laughed as she accepted the coffee. “Don’t know about great brainpower,” she murmured, “but definitely churning away.”
“And what part of the issue is currently bothering you?”
His question was curious, not judgmental, so she found answering was easy. “I think my aunt had done something. I’m pretty sure, as I look back on various things in my life, that she put in the blocks. Anytime I had trouble, I was forced to sit in a chair, and she would always stand beside me. I thought at the time it was to confirm I stayed there as a punishment. But maybe it wasn’t. Maybe she had some way of putting blocks into me that I didn’t know about.”
“It sounds as if she did, but the question is why.”
“Honestly, I think maybe because it made me easier to get along with, maybe more malleable or something.” Kylie raised both hands. “She was all about making life easy for herself.”
“I didn’t like her before,” Porter shared, “and you’re making it even harder for me to like her now.”
“Doesn’t matter to me whether you like her or not,” she declared. “Why would it matter to you?”
“It doesn’t in a lot of ways,” he conceded, “but she is your only living relative. So, if you wanted to have a relationship with her, I would like to at least be civil to her.”
She stared at him as the implications of what he just said filtered through, but she couldn’t be certain about exactly what he meant, so she wouldn’t bring it up.
He smiled over his coffee cup. “I just love that about you,” he admitted. “You’re dying to ask questions, but you’re absolutely not willing to get too involved or too invested in the answer. So you just stay quiet.”
She frowned at him. “Now you’re laughing at me.”
“Never. I would never laugh at you. I might find a way to laugh with you though.”
“I’m not sure I have very much to laugh about with anybody.”
“Exactly. That’s one of the reasons why I would never laugh at you. You have enough on your plate right now, and you’re dealing with so much. You’re being ultra critical about everything that you’re doing, making it seem as if you can’t do anything right, but I’m really proud of the way you’re handling everything so far.”
“I’m not handling anything,” she argued. “I mean, listen to that stupid recording from last night. It didn’t sound like the one-sided conversation you were talking about earlier. It sounded like a completely off-the-wall nightmare.”
“Have you had nightmares before?” he asked.
She shrugged. “Of course. Don’t we all?” When he remained silent, she added, “I do have nightmares. I figured I would grow out of them, but I haven’t so far.”
“And I would expect nothing less,” he said. “You’re human. You may be deemed a sensitive too, like my sister. So working that casino crime scene would be more difficult for you to handle, yet you somehow worked that scene until your drawings were done. That may be partly because of the blocks.”
She stared at him. “What do you mean?”
He hesitated and then replied, “I was just wondering if you were a precog as well.”
“A precog,” she repeated, shaking her head. “Is that supposed to mean something?”
“You see things in advance, and you might have even seen that casino shooting nightmare before last night.”
“What?” she asked, leaning back. “No. Hell no.”
“Hell no?” he repeated, with a smile. “Are you sure?”
“Of course. Obviously, if I’d known, I would have done something.”
“Would you though?” he asked. “I think all these abilities of yours are blocked—locked up and blocked behind your psyche, compliments of your aunt. Whether right or wrong, she appears to have done one hell of a job trying to harness your gifts as well as your memories, and I think they’re all in there. Her blocks maybe kept you from having even more nightmares.”
She picked up her cup and sipped, as she contemplated his words. She shook her head several times but wasn’t exactly sure that he was 100 percent wrong. “I did have a pretty prophetic dream way back when,” she shared. “And I don’t remember where it’s playing out, but it was another death of somebody close to me, and I vaguely remember my mother, things like that, other than with her. I’m not sure I remembered this correctly. I was so young,” she explained, “but it’s one of those little memories that just sticks with you.”
He nodded. “So, if you ever said anything about your memories of your mother, and your aunt overheard you, how would she have handled it?”
“Not well, I suppose,” she replied. “Absolutely no way she would have ever allowed me to say anything about it.”
“If you told her directly, what would she have done?”
“Punish me for sure, and maybe that wasn’t enough.”
He nodded. “That could be why she started with the blocks.”
“I don’t know,” she whispered, staring at him, “but that would mean all that time, all the time that I was with her, had been wasted.”
He frowned. “I’m not sure wasted is the right word because, of course, she was just trying to manage whatever she was dealing with.”
Kylie couldn’t stay quiet. “We keep giving her excuses.”
“She was raising a child who was injured and traumatized,” he stated. “I’m not sure we can do anything but initially give her a pass, at least until we find out more.”
Her lips curled at that, and then she shrugged. “I don’t know. I feel as if everything is being rewritten, even as I sit here, and I just don’t understand. I wish she would talk to me. I wish she would just tell me what the hell she was doing all those times.”
“And maybe she just can’t tell you. Maybe it’s something that she’s feeling bad about and doesn’t feel as if she can share that with you.”
“I think she would just deny it. Whatever it is, I think she would flat-out deny any involvement, and it would be a too damn bad if you don’t like it response,” she added.
“Did she ever attend any school events or do anything like that?”
She shook her head. “No, she went to parent-teacher meetings only if they demanded it. Otherwise she was as hands-off as possible.”
“And if she was called in to the school?”
Kylie winced. “There was this one time, and I know she was extremely angry when she got home.”
“Do you remember what it was about?”
“Not really. I supposedly said something to somebody, but I don’t remember what.” She frowned. “How come I can’t remember any of this stuff?” Then she realized why. “She did put blocks in there, didn’t she? No reason for me not to have remembered why she was so angry that one time, and she was horrifically angry.”
“She probably put another major block in to confirm you couldn’t ever do anything like that again.”
She stared at him. “I don’t think she gets a free pass for any of this shit,” she snapped, as she bolted to her feet and paced the living room. “I mean, that’s just disgusting. How dare she do something like that.”
“And again we don’t know the full story.”
She stopped, headed to the living room window, and stared out at the early morning dawn rising in front of her. It was an absolutely stunning morning, yet it was hard for her to see the joy in any of it.
“I don’t know,” she murmured. “It just seems to me as if all this is so far-fetched, but now that I can piece together little bits and pieces of it, it feels right. And that just makes me so angry. I never really knew who I was, so I did my best to become who she wanted me to be. Which was somebody who caused her no trouble, gave her no guff, did all my schoolwork, helped in the house, and left as soon as she wanted me gone.” Kylie was shaking now. “I never really had a chance to develop a personality or anything.”
“You did, but you had to do it within the boundaries she allowed you.”
“And who does that?” she asked, turning to stare at him. “Really, who does that?”
“Somebody who doesn’t want to be bothered or doesn’t know how to handle something,” he suggested, walking toward her. “Again, I get it. You’re feeling hard done by. I can see that Agatha’s behavior really did hurt you. It really stifled something within you,” he said, as he took Kylie’s hand. “Agatha had gifts and should have been better able to handle you with yours. You deserved better. Just think how scary it would be for mothers without gifts to have a gifted child, probably not even realizing it.”
Kylie looked at him and then slowly nodded. “I guess people who aren’t aware of their abilities are probably doing this all the time, aren’t they?”
“To a certain extent, yes. I suspect in your case, your aunt knew what she was doing or found out fairly quickly, then utilized it as a tool to get you to comply with whatever she needed from you. If she was afraid you would talk about people who would die soon, then keeping you quiet and keeping you off the school’s radar and away from the neighbors would be Agatha’s goal. If anybody heard you sharing your prophetic dreams, it could have gotten out to the world and back to her.”
Kylie sagged in shock. “I didn’t think of that.”
“And that’s why we try hard not to make a judgment call before we have the information. For all you know, this was literally only to keep you safe.”
“Or to keep her safer.”
“Yes, that’s absolutely another possibility,” he agreed. “But, in keeping herself safe, don’t forget that she also kept you safe. And, without her, you would have been tossed into the foster care system, and who knows what would have happened to you there.”
*
Porter broke the silence. “I suggest we get several changes of clothes from your place and plan to stay here for a few days, until we can see what your stalker guy will do.”
“I also want to talk to my aunt again,” Kylie told Porter.
“I’m okay with that too. Any answers we get will be good for both of us.”
She rolled her eyes at that. “I get that you guys need to know more about this, but I’m much less concerned about what you find out than what is happening with me.”
He smiled. “Believe it or not, we’re all concerned about you too.”
She laughed. “I doubt that. I’m not even sure why you are, much less anyone else. Regardless, my aunt owes me an explanation.”
“She might not agree with that though,” he cautioned.
“No, I’m pretty sure she won’t. Yet I think it would help me a lot if I got answers. If she’s in any way willing or can be bribed into providing answers, I think it would help me put all this behind me.”
“Let’s go now,” he said. “She’s probably been trying to escape the hospital today anyway.”
She bolted to her feet. “It’s not visiting hours.”
“No, but you are family after all,” he pointed out, “so you can go in right now.”
She nodded. “Let’s go, and you’re right. No doubt she’s planning on getting out and going into hiding today.”
“If she hasn’t left already,” he pointed out.
Kylie replied, “Then no point in phoning the hospital because that’ll just waste time, while we hang around and wait.” And, with that, she picked up her jacket. “Let’s go.”
Surprised, he put down his empty coffee cup and asked, “Do you want to take your coffee in a thermos?”
“No. I want to go. I need to go now.”
He got up and headed toward her, keys in hand. “That’s good. Maybe we can get some answers.”
It was a short trip to the hospital, and, as they walked in, Porter cautioned Kylie about even talking to anybody. “I’m not sure what the rules are at this hour, but we do need to see your aunt. So let’s just keep our presence low-key, and hopefully we’ll get in and out easily.”
Kylie didn’t say anything, just nodded. As they headed down the hallway, Kylie’s footsteps got faster and faster.
“What’s the rush?” he asked, easily keeping up, but wondering what was going on.
“Something’s wrong,” she muttered, as she broke into a run.
He bolted after her. As soon as they got to her aunt’s room, Kylie dashed in first, and Porter noted the older woman on the floor, looking as if she was already gone. He headed back down the hallway to see if anyone else was out here. When he rejoined Kylie, he shook his head. “Nobody is out there.”
“But there was someone,” Kylie said. “It was him.”
Porter didn’t argue. “I’ll go find the security guard.” And, with that, he took off, calling the captain and sending the first nurse he saw back to help out Kylie with her aunt. The nurse frowned at him, and he all but bellowed, “Something is wrong with Agatha. We just walked in, and she’s either dead or unconscious, on the floor.”
The nurse took off, as the captain answered Porter’s call, sounding sleepy, “What the hell is going on?”
“Kylie’s aunt was just attacked in the hospital,” he murmured. “I need access to the cameras.”
“Hang on. You head to security, and I’ll have it cleared by the time you get there.”
It took a little bit longer than that, but not much, and soon Porter sat down with one of the security guards, looking at the most recent camera feeds on Agatha’s floor. Almost immediately Porter tapped the screen. “That’s him there.”
They watched Hogan go into Agatha’s room and then came right back out a few minutes later, smiling.
“Wow,” the security guard muttered, “cold much?”
“A whole lot,” Porter confirmed. “We’ve been after this guy for a few days now.”
“And he just walks into the hospital?” the security guard asked, turning to look at Porter.
“Yeah, it seems as if anybody can do that,” Porter quipped, staring at him. They watched as the killer headed straight to the stairs, and it took a minute to switch through the various cameras to see him coming out on the other side.
“That’s him there.” Porter was surprised to see Hogan still driving the same truck. “Get me that license plate, will you?” And as soon as he had it, he sent it on to the captain with a text. This is the second time with the same vehicle for Hogan.
The captain called him back, as Porter stepped out into the hallway. “It was definitely him though,” Porter reiterated.
“What is out of pattern is that he kept the same vehicle. So, either he doesn’t expect that he’ll get caught, or it’s a vehicle he knows he can use whenever he wants.”
“Regardless, we need to get an APB out on that sucker.”
“Will do,” the captain muttered, “and what about the aunt?”
“I don’t know. I’m on my way back up. For all I know, Hogan took care of Agatha finally.”
“But why?”
“I don’t know that either, and that’s why we came here the first time, hoping to talk to her aunt. Agatha was as unfriendly as you can get. We returned early this morning, really hoping to catch her and to get some answers before she took off to hide. Honestly Kylie sensed the trouble as soon as we got into the hospital. She walked faster and faster, until she was running in the hallway, knowing something was wrong. When we got there, Agatha was on the floor and seemed unconscious at best.”
“Why is it that I think this is a classic example of too little, too late?”
“I suspect so, yes,” Porter replied. “And, if that’s the case, I need access to her house.”
“Yeah, consider it done,” the captain replied in a gruff voice, just as Porter got back to Agatha’s hospital room.
He stepped inside to see a certain amount of chaos happening around Agatha.
Kylie stood off to the side, chewing on her nails, as she watched the medical personnel attending to her aunt. She saw him enter and walked straight into his arms.
He locked them around her and held her close.
“It’s too late,” she muttered.
He nodded and could already see there was no hope, but the medical personnel didn’t have the same vision that he had. As they continued to work on Agatha, Porter held Kylie close. When they finally called it, the nurse looked over and shook her head. He just nodded and didn’t say anything. Kylie already knew it was too late, so there was no point in telling her that.
They waited until all the medical personnel had left them alone with Agatha. Kylie looked up at him finally and said, “I don’t understand why.”
“I know,” he murmured, “and I hope to God that she left you a letter or something somewhere that gave an explanation of the craziness that was your life.”
“Maybe, but I doubt it. This is just too damn horrifying. I don’t understand why Hogan came back yet again to take her out.”
“Because she got away,” Porter offered. “Each time she has managed to get away.”
“And was it her abilities that got her out of danger?” she murmured. “Or was it just some luck and some planning?”
“Probably all of that,” he replied. “Do you want to say anything or to stay here with your aunt for a few minutes?”
She frowned at the body. “Not really. Everything I wanted to say needed to be done while she was alive. Now I just don’t even know what to do.”
“We’ll have to deal with her body, and we’ll have an autopsy anyway. It’s obvious that something went wrong somewhere along the line.”
“I know. So, let’s get the autopsy done to nail this asshole. He has an awful lot of explaining to do.”
“You’re hoping that he’ll explain, but I’m not sure you’ll get any satisfaction out of that. I also have it cleared with the captain to go through your aunt’s house.”
She shuddered for a moment but nodded. “I guess we need to, don’t we?”
“Yes, we do. She refused to say she had been attacked, which led to her ending up in the hospital to begin with.”
“Once again afraid of being caught?” she asked.
He nodded. “I would suspect so, yes.”
“Wow, that asshole’s got a lot to answer for.” She walked over to her aunt, seeing the pale fearful look on the woman’s face, and shuddered. “She shouldn’t have had to go to her death terrified like this,” she murmured. “If only we were a few minutes earlier.” He didn’t say anything to that because the world was full of if-only situations. When she finally turned and looked at him, she announced, “I’m ready to leave.”
He nodded and closed the door behind them. As they headed out of the hospital, he stopped at the front reception desk, showed the woman his badge, and said, “The coroner will be over to pick up the patient in room 418.”
As they walked outside, Kylie stopped and took several deep breaths of fresh air.
“Are you okay?”
“No, I’m not okay,” she snapped. “I don’t understand any of this.”
“I know,” he murmured, “but that’s okay.”
Just as they were about to head out to the vehicle, a shout came from behind them. He turned to see the same nurse crying out for Kylie.
“She’s alive! She’s alive,” she said, joy and excitement in her voice. “In 418,… the patient, she’s breathing again.”
He stopped and stared at her. “What?”
“Yes, your aunt is alive,” she repeated, turning to Kylie.
Kylie was stunned, but she turned and headed back up to the room. For himself, Porter couldn’t quite understand what the hell was going on. As he walked in, the doctors once again worked on Agatha, but this time she was obviously breathing, and they were taking tests and trying to sort out what just occurred.
When the doctor stepped back, he addressed them. “This does happen, though not very often. Every once in a while, sometimes the body just starts breathing again.”
Kylie walked over and picked up Agatha’s hand and held her close. “I’m so glad to see that you made it,” she murmured. “We really don’t want that asshole to win.”
A shiver ran down her aunt’s body.
Porter saw it himself, even from as far away as he was. He walked over, studying the woman whose pale features appeared to be completely unchanged. He looked back at the doctor. “Will she recover?”
“We don’t know. Obviously we want her to wake up. At the moment she isn’t conscious. So that would be a concern.” He hesitated and then whispered, “Often in these cases they do survive, but I’ve seen just as many of them die within a few days.”
“Right.” Porter looked back at Kylie, who was murmuring to her aunt. “I’ll let her know.”
“Do that, but maybe Agatha will be one of the lucky ones,” the doctor said. “Yet I wouldn’t count on it.” And, with that, the doctor left.
The nurse fussed around, making Agatha as comfortable as possible, before the nurse told Kylie, “She’s one of the lucky ones.” And, with that, she turned and walked out.
Kylie shook her head. “What the hell was that all about?” she asked Porter.
“I don’t know,” he murmured, “but I sure want to.” He sent a message out to Stefan but got no answer, so he waited and watched. “How long do you want to stay here?” he asked Kylie.
“I don’t know.… I feel as if this is temporary, and I know that makes no sense, but I don’t really know that she’s in there.”
He studied the energy around the woman and nodded. “Her energy is definitely faint, and I think, if she gets a chance to knock off, she’ll take it.”
Kylie spun to face him. “As if it’s a choice?”
He winced. “In this case… I think it’s an escape. I think she’s done with whatever life she’s been living and wants an end to it.”
“I can’t blame her for that,” she murmured. “Her life hasn’t been the easiest.”
“I agree with you there. All I’m telling you is what I’m seeing.”
“Which may or may not be the truth either,” she noted pointedly.
“Absolutely, and I won’t tell you it’s right or wrong. I’m just telling you what I see.”
She groaned. “I shouldn’t be snapping at you. I’m just not sure what to do right now.”
“You do whatever you feel is right,” he suggested. “If you want to stay, we can stay.”
“I want to talk to her. I want her cognizant enough to answer questions.”
The words filling the room were quiet, almost too quiet, but her aunt clearly stated, “I’m not answering any questions.” Agatha slowly opened her eyes and stared up at Kylie. “And you, of all people, should know why.”
Kylie stared at her. “I don’t understand. Everybody keeps making remarks like that, but I just don’t understand.”
Her aunt closed her eyes, as if it were too much effort to keep them open. “That’s because you don’t want to remember.”
“No, I probably don’t. It seems as if everything in my childhood was horrific,” Kylie muttered, staring at her aunt. “That still doesn’t answer my questions.”
“No, it doesn’t. Sometimes there aren’t any answers.”
“You could help though.”
“I could, but I won’t,” Agatha declared, her voice getting stronger as she opened her eyes and glared at her. “You had everything you could get from me years ago.”
Kylie frowned at her aunt. “I was a child. You act as if I deliberately did something to you.”
The woman hesitated and then shrugged. “In a way you did. You brought him to us every damn time. I never could figure out how or why, but you just kept bringing him to us. Only since you moved out have I felt any peace, and even then,” she shared, tears trickling down the corner of her eye, “that didn’t last long. I haven’t figured out how you were doing it, just that it was coming from you every damn time.”
Kylie stared at her, stunned.
“Do you know how many times we moved? How many times we ended up in horrific situations, all because of you? Do you know how many times I wanted to deep-six you in the ocean? But I knew I couldn’t, as much as I wanted to. God damn you, I just couldn’t. I needed what you could do so much that I had to keep you alive long enough to do what I needed to do.”