Obscured (Book 1 of Psychics and Psychopaths)

Chapter 6: Run

I look down at the hard piece of bread and cold glass of milk situated in front of me on the table.

Silence filled the halls of the house, except for the occasional clinking of glass against the table.

Beside me sat another girl, nibbling at her now soggy bread. She looked up at me with her doe eyes and I looked back at her.

Her eyes mirrors, reflecting my own dead ones.

There was no chatter in the room full of kids. All eating there meals in complete silence, lost in the safe spaces of there minds, including Kenji who sat opposite to me, also focused in his own food.

I look up at the mirrored walls and the person reflected is not the girl who owned Cypher, nor the daughter of Hadrian Sinclair. But a scrawny looking girl wearing a white gown, with sunken cheeks and close cropped hair.

I look back down, freezing when instead of the wooden table I find grass.

I look around, my gaze scanning the trees surrounding persephone house.

The warmth intensifying and I flinch away from the ghost of a touch behind me.

“Come on Alina. Let go. Why are you holding back. They don’t deserve mercy. Don’t you want to save your friend?”

The familiar shrilly voice echoes in my mind. The same words repeating in my head over and over again till my head starts to spin.

My hands shake.

Tremble.

Burn.

And in seconds the house in front of me erupts in blue flames, the burning intensifying till I feel like my hands might melt.

My eyes shoot open. I stare at the white ceiling and unlit chandelier.

Slowly sitting up my eyes roam the room scanning over my ebony black cupboard, desk, dressing table, and finally landing on my reflection in the mirror.

Even with the mirror far away I could see my body trembling violently, I suck in a deep breath and release it.

The silk shirt and trousers I wore now stuck to me because of the sweat.

The forgotten name people once called me by sounded in my mind.

Alina.

How long has it been since I last heard it?

I shook my head. It didn’t matter. I wasn’t Alina. I was Keir now.

The ghost of the touch was still there and i knew the little devil was watching. Like she had the past week. Occasionally commenting on stuff—mostly on how the guy stalking me was so obvious—to which I didn’t respond. I acted like she wasn’t there.

But she knew what I was doing. She knew I could hear her, she knew I was purposely ignoring her. I wasn’t sure if not talking to her was the best course of action, considering the fact that I was still worried about what she had meant back at the party.

But talking to her would mean easing my hold on the leash of my sanity, and I knew if I did that she wouldn’t hesitate to take control. Like before.

I got up, pulling the shirt from the collar behind and taking the shirt off, after which I slipped out of my trouser, grabbed the towel and entered the bathroom.

After taking a long hot shower, I felt my mind finally clearing up. It was eight in the morning and I had wanted to get to the office early today considering I had alot of meetings scheduled but I decided on stopping at my usual coffee shop before heading there.

“Thanks.” I smiled at the waitress as she put down the plate holding a slice of baumkuchen and next to it a glass of my usual americano.

I took a bite out of the cake and my mind wandered to why my head was suspiciously quiet today.

Had she given up trying to talk to me? Or did she see what I saw? Maybe she was the one who showed me? Why? What was she thinking?

I wasn’t feeling as irritated as I thought I would, infact my mood had significantly improved this week as opposed to how it had been for the past couple months.

I wonder why. The left corner of my lips tilted upwards and I smirked as I took the last bite of the cake.

Finishing the americano, I stood up and made my way to the restroom, stopping midway right in front of a two people table.

The man who sat alone there hid his face behind the newspaper and looking at it made my smile widen. I pushed the seat infront of him back and plopped down.

“You know I was enjoying this game in the beginning but its starting to get boring now. So will you finally tell me why exactly your stalking me and that too so obviously?”

I asked my voice sugary sweet. I saw the hands on his paper freeze as he slowly pulled the paper down, his dark brown eyes meeting mine.

“I don’t know what your talking about, what game?” He said, his voice little more than a whisper. A deep whisper, which reminded me of the night we danced.

Where was all the confidence from that night? I felt a pang of disappointment and maybe I had let the mask on my face slip for a second because when I met his eyes again his expression had changed. But he still stayed silent.

Hmm. Maybe I should give him a little push.

“I was thinking I would make it easier for the both of us, but if you’d rather I make it hard then…” I trailed off slowly getting up. His hand shot out clamping over mine and I forced myself to hide the smile threatning to escape.

“Wait. Wait. Okay I really was stalking you.” He finally said.

I didn’t shift my eyes from him, and the uncomfortable look on his face made my heart jump. s**t, was I really a sadist or something?

“Why?” I urged.

He stayed silent.

“Okay then.” I said and stood back up but his hand stayed firm as he glared at me.

“Will you report me?” He asked.

“Do you want me to?” I asked trying my best to sound mentally sain as I spoke. His eyes noticably widened and his jaw went slack but then he spoke, “No….no. Please don’t.”

“Okay then I won’t” I said pulling away from his warm hand and turning around.

As I walked back out into the busy street I let my smile show.

“Have fun while it lasts.”

With that one line my smile vanished. “What do—” My question was thankfully interrupted by my phones ringtone going off.

Had I lost it? Was I really about to reply to her? f*****g hell. I looked at the caller ID and for the first time, ever, I was thankful for my brother's call.

“So you decided to ignore my warnings.”

Forget what I said before. I still hate him.

“Aren’t you my brother? You should know by now that the more you tell me not to do something the more I’ll be inticed to do it.”

“Suit yourself….don’t blame me for what happens to him next.” with that the line went silent and I cursed.

Kenji wasn’t one for empty threats. I might really have to stop this. Today.

Yes, we weren’t allowed to kill innocent people. But I wouldn’t hold it against him to frame someone, he had done it before. Granted the dude he framed for murder was a piece of s**t who r***d a girl. But I still couldn’t take any chances.

“Aww, feeling protective are we?” The voice in my head whispered.

The grip on my phone tightened as I entered the car and inserted the key twisting it around as soon as the engine started, I turned the radio on.

Slow Down by Chase Atlantic blasted through the car as I pulled out of the parking lot and sighed, the only way to silence the voices when they got too annoying was to overpower them with music.

.

.

.

The sun had set a while ago. The city was illuminated by glistening colorful lights as I stared out the ceiling-to-floor windows from my office. At this height, people looked a little more than ants. Cypher’s main office was located smack dab in the middle of Evrouver City’s downtown, right next to a few other up-scale buildings.

Blackwell.Co was among them. I looked towards their building, wondering if ‘he’ was also looking here.

I had my desk full of heaps of paperwork and here I was thinking about a guy.

What the hell was wrong with me?

I got up, tucking the pen in my half-updo. I adjusted my grey silk button-down and pulled my black overcoat from the rack, letting it hang from my finger over my shoulder as I pushed the double doors and walked out.

“Good Night, Ma’am.” My secretary smiled.

“Good Night, have a nice weekend.” I replied as I entered the lift and it closed.

Now, how do I find him?

I could just walk into his office and ask him to speak to me. My phone buzzing for the hundredth time today made me wanna hurl it down the garbage but I decided against it and pressed accept.

“We need you at Marina, within in thirty minutes.” Vi’s voice sounded as the speedy clicking of keys were heard in the background.

“Why? Is it urgent?” I asked.

“Yes. It is urgent Keir. Lorcan f****d up, his target escaped and he saw his face. I’m trying to hack into the security camera but there all down. Someone is stopping me. This is an all hands-on-deck situation. Kenji is on his way as well.”

This was bad. If the target escaped and somehow told anyone who tried to kill him we’re all dead. Forget Orian finding out about our secret, the whole world would find out. How the hell did he f**k up this bad? It had never happened before. “I’m coming,” I say as I cut the call and turn around, stopping in my tracks as I hit a wall.

A wall of muscle. “Watch where you’re—” I trail off when my eyes meet similar brown ones.

He really is big. Now that I was wearing loafers, I understood why Delilah thought he was huge. He stood a head taller than me looking down.

I hated people looking down at me.

But this didn’t feel as irritating as usual.

Fuck I didn’t have time for this. I turned around without saying a word, “Wait!” He said grabbing my hands.

“I’m sorry, I didn’t look.”

“It’s fine.” I said looking down at his hand that was enclosed over mine, taking the sign he pulled back and I saw his Adam's apple bob up and down as he swallowed, “If that’s all…” I said.

“No, actually. I was wondering if you would have dinner with me?”

“Why?”

“I wanted to talk to you.”

“About what?”

“Something.”

“Something? You still haven’t told me why you were even stalking me. What do I look like to you? A pushover?”

“No! I didn’t mean that and I already apologized about the stalking part.”

Does he really think an apology would suffice for stalking a girl? I wanted to laugh but I held it in.

“Right, the apology. If you really want me to forgive you, then tell me why you were stalking me.”

He remained silent just staring at me. The fact that he didn’t look nervous made me even more excited, he looked conflicted.

“I…I.”

“It’s okay you can think it over. I’m late for a meeting anyways. Come back once your sure.” I say.

“I’m interested in you.”

I pause before turning back around.

“What?”

“I like you. No, I love you.”

“Pft.” I chuckle. That’s the excuse he thought of?

“I’m serious.”

There were so many red flags I was ignoring but hell, who was I to talk? I was literally a psychopathic serial killer who could talk to ghosts. I look down at my watch, I had twenty-five minutes, and reaching the Marina in half an hour with my car would be impossible in this traffic.

“You're serious? Okay then tell me why you fell in love with me.” I enunciated the ‘love’.

“It was love at first sight.” s**t, this was getting so cringy and I could tell by the look on Orian’s face that he thought so too.

Why was he so desperate to find out about his pedophile father? Did he not know what a piece of s**t he was? He must have been ten at the time, he must have witnessed something. People like Dimitri loved to show off their achievements.

“Right. Okay, I’ll go on that date with you but not today, I’ll text you when.”

“Then I’ll give you my number,” he spoke as he pulled out his phone.

“Shh. They’re here.” The shrilly voices whisper.

My ears perk up.

“Hehehe.”

“You better run Keir.”

Now what? I groan. There must be danger around if they were whispering altogether.

“Oh you’re in big trouble.”

Her voice spoke the loudest amongst them.