Saints and Sinners

Chapter 9

Amelia had woken up that morning stiff necked and her body sore from sleeping on the couch. She had tried to lay next to Beth in the bed but she just began to sweat uncomfortably. Her thoughts returned to her dream last night and she realized that after it was over she hadn't felt ill like the times before when her thoughts had been invaded. She got up and went to see Beth. “Hey, how are you feeling?” she asked with a bit of a hopeful voice that she would go back to school today. “Just one more day, please Amy?” Came Beth’s voice using her name only she let her use. Amelia sighed, “Beth take through the weekend but come Monday you're going to school. I'll try to get home this afternoon but I'm at the store and then the bar tonight. Also Alex wanted me to go have my hand looked at, so I won't be home until late.” she said as she grabbed clean clothes from the closet. A mumbled “Okay” was all she got in reply. ”If you need anything, call me or you can call Michael.” she added and left the room. Half an hour later Amelia was dressed in a pair of stylish bootcut jeans that had silver sequins on the back pockets and a white lace camisole under a light blue half sweater the whole ensemble completed with her tennis shoes. She had run a straightener through her hair since she left it down with a light blue jeweled headband that may or may not have been pulled out of a dollar kid's bin at the store. Amelia hadn’t cared; she had liked it. It was an added bonus that wearing her hair down also covered up the new mark on her neck. “Beth! I'm leaving!” she's called, grabbing the keys and heading out the door.

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When Amelia got into the breakroom Michael seemed to be frazzled, “Good morning Michael.” Amelia said with a cheerful voice. Michael looked up at her with an unpleasant looking scowl on his face, “If this is a good morning, I'd hate to see what a great one is.” he said gruffly. She put her things away while asking, “That bad? What's up?” “I've had three people call off, and no one is able to come in. Which means we're down almost half of our team today, and the rest of us will need to pick up the slack.” he said not very happily. Amelia just gave him a reassuring smile, “We got this, we aren't typically busy until people get out of work.” she said pinning on her badge and heading out to the floor.

Amelia had taken up stocking the aisles and was getting a good pace going when she finally pulled her hair up into a clip she was working up a small sweat for doing twice the work. Typically they had three people on the aisles working towards the middle stocking but today they only had the two of them. “So you haven't told him about me,” the familiar voice said. Amelia looked around, he wasn't even in the aisle. When she didn't answer Damien spoke again, “You really are an intriguing character Little Angel.” Amelia continued to stock the shelf, surprised that she wasn't affected by what was going on. “Why do you insist on pestering me? I'm pissed at you.” she said under her breath, thinking about the lip print on the back of her neck. “Well, you didn't seem to mind me pestering you last night,” he answered with a tone that made her see a smirk on his face. Her cheeks burned unwilling to openly admit that it had felt good, “Why are you even talking to me anyway?” she asked more loudly than she thought.

“Well I was going to see how your hand was, but I can see you're in a bad mood.” Alex said. Amelia turned and looked at him ready to hide from embarrassment. “No, I’m sorry, I was just talking to myself.” She said, hoping he wouldn’t think anything else about it. “Liar.” came Damien in an amused voice. She went on quickly, “I hadn't even realized you were here,” she said. Alex gave her a smile, “Yes well, I hadn't realized you were here either. I came to grab a sandwich from the deli. Your hair had looked familiar so I thought I’d say ‘hi’. Anyway I need to go but perhaps you could come by the office so I can look over your hand.” He said in a way that said, ‘If you don't come to see me, I'll be coming to you’. Amelia just looked at him before replying, “Yeah sure.” As he gave her another smile before turning to walk away. “Oh, Alex,” She said. He stopped and turned around. “Thank you.” she had started. He just gave a small wave in acknowledgement and left her in the aisle to go back to her work. “My, a sweet little angel like you certainly does have such a dirty little mind. Perhaps you should tell the doctor just what you want to have him do to you. But you know, I could be everything you need. I could have you beggi. . .”, “Get out!.” she said, giving a mental shove. “Fine, I have to leave for now anyway. I'll see you later Amelia.” he said with a wink.