Love and Submission

Chapter Three

Olivia woke with a start and sprang into a sitting position. She looked around her room for the source of her sudden return to consciousness but found nothing. Her room looked exactly the same. She couldn’t figure out what time it was or what day for that matter. Logic dictated that her parents would have come down to check on her if she had in fact been asleep for longer than 24 hours but she couldn’t shake the feeling that somehow the world had shifted while she’d been asleep. Of course her fever induced dream delirium had been a doozy. The whole angel bathing her and holding her while she passed out again had felt real. So real she even checked the pillow next to her for indentation but when there was none she just chided herself. Yeah freaking right. An angel. Man she was really losing it.

The sound of heavy footsteps drew her attention upstairs. She c****d her head to the side out of habit and listened as what could only be her father moved from the living room to the kitchen. The more she listened the more she was able to discern. Her father was asking her mother what she was cooking. Her younger siblings were arguing in the living room over who got to be which Mortal Kombat character. She could feel her eyes widen at being able to hear all of this so clearly. However her stomach grumbled as smells of pasta wafted down to her. She could figure out the super hearing thing later. Right now there was dinner. She rushed about her room trying to find some sweat pants or something and by the time she did she was seriously contemplating just going upstairs in her underwear. They were all family after all and she was starving. Thankfully there was a pair of sweats half under her bed. They would just have to live with the tank top.

Her mother was startled by her sudden appearance though she covered it quickly with a scowl. Her brother and sister were already chowing down and her father was decidedly occupied by his dinner. “You look better.” Her mother said with an almost accusing tone as Olivia sat down and started heaping food on her plate.

“I feel better. I think the fever must have broke or something. Hey can you pass the potatoes?” Her little brother lifted the bowl of mashed potatoes and handed them to her one handed. She continued to pile the food onto her plate and felt her mouth fill with saliva when she got to the roast beef. When she finally had enough on her plate she reached for her fork and caught sight of her mother’s wide round eyes. “What?”

“You don’t like roast beef.”

“Mom don’t be ridiculous.”

“You’ve never eaten it before.” Olivia sighed and rolled her eyes then dug in. Her little brother watched her for a moment then shrugged and went back to his own food. “You’re pregnant aren’t you? I knew it!” Olivia coughed on her potatoes and sputtered as she tried to wash them down with milk.

“MOM! For God’s sake I’m not pregnant. Why does it always have to be something dramatic with you? Can’t a kid just be hungry? I haven’t eaten all day you know.”

“You were sick.” Her eyes narrowed as if daring Olivia to tell her she wasn’t that sick. Yeah right. Even if she hadn’t been she was not going to walk into that trap.

“You ever think maybe that’s why I’m so hungry? Besides, the roast beef is great.” She shoveled in another forkful before her stomach grumbled too loudly. It really was delicious. She finished her plate before the others did and helped herself to seconds taking great care to avoid her mother’s stare as she did so. She was going to have to put up with her mother watching for tell tale signs of pregnancy now. Great.

“What happened to your shoulder?” The question distracted her from her food intake and forced her to answer before she could continue.

“One of the Martin’s dogs bit me. Don’t worry I got it all cleaned out and stuff.”

“Those dogs are a menace. Steven I think it’s time we went to the neighborhood committee don’t you?”

“I think that is a bit over the top Jane. Olivia says she’s fine.” Olivia nodded while swallowing another forkful. She was starting to feel full finally and glad for it. If she’d eaten anymore her mother would’ve rushed out and got a stick for her to pee on before she’d finished.

“They’re going to kill someone one of these days you mark my words.”

“Jane, please.” Her dad went back to eating and reading the paper while her mom muttered to herself about the Martin’s dogs. Olivia was once again struck by her new oddly perfect hearing. Even though her mother was speaking in tones that normally would’ve been barely audible Olivia could now hear every word. More so she could see with perfect clarity every object in the room. She could read the assorted papers that were attached the refrigerator with the alphabet magnets still left over from her and her siblings’ younger days. She could read the signature on the sole painting in the hallway to the living room. In fact she could almost make out the titles on the book spines that were visible in her dad’s study which was at the other end of the hall. She almost asked her mom if she’d ever heard of anything like it but thought better of it. Her mother would no doubt chalk it up to drugs or pregnancy or some other teen related horror. Even her vanilla mother couldn’t handle their bland life and was searching for drama to spice it up.

Olivia rose from the table and cleared her setting without further incident or commentary. She looked out the window over the sink and found that even in the dark of night she could see. She could see better in fact. Every tree and bush was easily distinguishable. Hell she probably could’ve made out the license plates to every car on their street. Something was definitely changed. Maybe she’d hit her head and knocked something around in there. “I’m gonna get a jump on the work I missed today. Talk to you guys later.”

“How are you going to get the work?” Her mother called after her causing her to pause with her hand on the basement handle. Damn she hadn’t thought of that.

“I’ll call Kate.” She said with a shrug. If she’d had any intention of actually doing said work she would’ve called Kate. So it wasn’t that much of a lie. Her mother nodded and then watched with worried eyes as Olivia went down to her room. She managed to hold off the groan until her door was closed safely behind her. Parents were such a pain. They either cared to the point of suffocation of they didn’t care at all. There was no middle ground on the subject. With an angry huff she changed into a pair of shorts and headed for the bathroom. It was time to inspect her war wounds from the previous night. They didn’t feel like they were bad at all so she was pretty confident she could lose the bandages now.

She stared into the mirror as she slowly peeled the tape off the edges of the gauze covering the shoulder bite. When she finally got it free and lifted the gauze off she blinked once, then twice, and finally used a finger to prod the area. It was completely healed. There wasn’t even a scar. She checked the other shoulder just in case she’d wrapped the wrong one but there was nothing. Maybe it hadn’t been as bad as she’d thought though she could have sworn there was a lot of blood. She poked it again once more to be sure then shrugged and tossed away the gauze. Next up was the ankle wound and she was less surprised but more unsettled when that was perfectly healed as well. She pinched herself hard for good measure and stifled the yelp of pain. She was definitely awake. She was about to head back into her room when her eyes focused on a crumpled towel lying on the floor. But that had all been a dream, hadn’t it?

She panicked and started backing out of the bathroom into her room. If it wasn’t a dream than she had either showered herself in her delirious state or someone had been in her room. She couldn’t really decide which was the scarier scenario there. She was having a hard time getting enough air when a sound at the window made her whirl around to face it her body automatically crouching in a defensive posture. Where was that coming from? She didn’t know a damn thing about fighting She nearly screamed when her eyes connected with a pair of mysterious yet familiar grey ones on the other side of her window but some instinct told her not to. She decided this was probably a bad instinct because making noise of any kind would summon her parents and frighten off the man outside her room.

He was familiar to her somehow though. His storm cloud eyes were framed by black eyelashes that were the same exact shade as his hair. Hair which looked like it could have used a comb once in a while and more than likely didn’t see one. It was long and unevenly cut giving it a shaggy appearance and pieces kept falling into his face and then blowing away in the breeze. The face was a thing of beauty all strong lines and peaches and cream skin tone. His eyes never left hers the entire time she stared at him. He seemed to be waiting for something. Like she was going to let him in. Yet even as she thought that she felt her body starting to relax and straighten out of its automatic defense position.

Her mother’s footsteps on the stairs drew her attention and her gaze away from the stranger outside. It was only a moment but by the time she’d turned back to the window he was gone. She ran to it and looked outside hoping that her new night vision would lend a hand but he had disappeared. She frowned and managed to turn around just in time to see her mom open the door sans knocking. “Olivia, I want to talk to you.” Olivia sighed. Just great.