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Chapter Eighteen

As Melina was driving home, she decided to stop by Nina’s to pick up lunch for Tessa, Gwen, and herself. That ended up being a horrible mistake, though, as the lunch crowd’s unceasing thoughts only made the throbbing pain in her head worse. Now that the pain was back, she was even more confused as to why it had temporarily disappeared.

She let out a low groan. Everything was so confusing now. She wondered how long it would take before Walter had any luck with the elders. If they were all in on it together then they would definitely all work together to continue to keep it a secret. And then Walter would surely not receive any answers.

She groaned again as she pulled into the parking lot behind the bookstore. “I’d better get inside before the soup gets cold,” she said out loud to herself. She grabbed the bag of food and made her way into the store where she found Tessa and Gwen organizing a book display.

“Hey there,” Tessa said as she looked up at Melina.

“Hi, ladies. I brought soup and sandwiches from Nina’s.” Melina held the bag up in front of her.

“Sounds great! I’m starving,” Tessa exclaimed.

They all made their way into the break room and chatted over turkey sandwiches and vegetable soup. Tessa and Gwen came to the conclusion that Melina needed to do a little research on Claire Atwood. With any luck, she might find her address and maybe even her picture.

After they finished eating, Melina joined in with helping to finish organize the store. It took the rest of the afternoon, and when Tessa and Gwen finally left, Melina ordered herself a pizza. She took her dinner and her laptop and sat down at her kitchen table to do some research on Claire.

After a couple of hours, Melina finally found a current address for his sister but no picture. That proved to be a more difficult task, which she knew it would be. She decided to retire for the evening and try again in the morning. Before she traveled almost two hours away to Lee’s sister’s house to try to witness the confrontation from her vision, she had to be sure that the woman Lee was fighting with was indeed Claire.

The next morning Melina dressed in a casual blue sweater and jeans and then headed into the kitchen for some breakfast. She ate a small bowl of oatmeal before starting in again on her research. After only an hour, though, she gave up. She wasn’t going to find a picture of Claire on the Internet.

She thought about going down to the store to see if doing some work would distract her, but then she remembered what Tessa had told her yesterday. Her friend had been very adamant about keeping her focus on resolving her problem instead of on the store. She drummed her fingers on the table and wondered what to do next.

“Hmm…” she said out loud. “Maybe I can find a family picture or something at Lee’s office.”

Melina didn’t want to teleport, knowing that it would make the pain in her head worse, but it was the only way to get into his office without being seen. She went to grab her coat from the hook by the front door, just in case she had to go outside, and then brought up an image of Lee’s office in her mind. “I want to teleport to Lee’s office,” she said out loud. She continued to repeat the phrase in her head, and within a few seconds, she was gone.

The pain in her head skyrocketed, causing her to drop down to her knees and cup her head in her hands. About a minute or so passed before the intensity lessened enough for her to raise her head. She blinked her eyes a couple of times and slowly looked around the dark room. It was almost pitch-black.

The blinds were pulled shut, as well as the curtains. That explained why there wasn’t even a trace of sunlight in the room. She looked to her right where she thought the door was and saw a sliver of light coming in from the hallway. With her bearings confirmed, she crept over to the door and felt around the wall on both sides for a light switch. After a few seconds, her fingers finally found it. She flipped it on and immediately started to scan the room for pictures.

There were two frames sitting on Lee’s desk. Melina checked those first. One was of him and another young man standing in front of a lake with fishing rods. The other picture was of a younger Lee and his late father. She smiled at the pictures. He looked so happy in both of them.

She stepped away from the desk and looked around at the bookcases and cabinets lining the walls. At first she didn’t see any other picture frames, but as she looked closer into the curio cabinet, she saw one of a woman and Lee as a child. It was sitting on the top shelf, but Melina couldn’t see it very well since it was obstructed by a panel of wood that ran down the middle of the cabinet. She reached up to open the glass door only to find that it was locked.

“Crap!” she said after letting out a frustrated grunt. “There has to be a key somewhere.”

She walked back over to Lee’s desk and started to rummage through the drawers for a key. The main drawer in the center was the first one she tried, and to her great surprise, there was a small container inside that held a selection of keys. She dumped them out on the desk and sifted through them, trying to find one that looked small enough to fit the cabinet’s lock.

There were two smaller keys. One was a tiny silver key that looked like a luggage key. The other one was a bit larger and gold in color. She decided to try them both.

As she had suspected, the silver key was too small. She inserted the gold key, which seemed to fit, and when she turned it to the right, she heard a soft click.

“Yes! Thank you.” She pulled the glass door open and grabbed the picture frame.

Lee looked as if he was only ten or eleven years old. The woman, however, looked much older. Too old to be his sister. Could it be his mom? The woman had dark red hair. Maybe that’s where he got the reddish hue in his hair.

Melina searched around inside the cabinet once more to make sure she wasn’t missing any other pictures. Seeing none, she replaced the one she had and locked the cabinet back up. “Hmm… well, that was a bust.”

Stepping back over to the desk, she scooped the keys back into the bowl and placed it back into the drawer. She was about to close it when suddenly she noticed something glinting near the back. Her curiosity piqued, she slid her hand into the back and retrieved the shiny object. It was another key, but it had a tag attached to it. She flipped the tag over and read, “Skyrise Apartments, number two hundred.” A four-digit code was scrawled underneath it.

Is it an extra key to Lee’s apartment? Wow, the Skyrise Apartments are pretty nice. But why would he leave the key in an open drawer? I guess he must have a lot of faith in his employees, or he’s just really stupid.

She shook her head as she closed the drawer. If it was a key to his apartment, she had to check it out. It might be the only way for her to find a picture of Claire.

Suddenly she heard a soft voice in her head, almost like a whisper. Then it started to get louder and louder as if the person was getting closer and closer to her. Who was it coming from, though? A second later she heard a male’s voice coming from out in the hallway.

“Oh no.” Melina tiptoed as fast as she could over to the door and flipped the lights off.

Frozen in place, she listened intently to the man. She assumed he was talking to someone on the phone because she didn’t hear anyone else, but it sounded as if he was right outside the door. The man talked for almost another minute before hanging up. Then she heard a key being inserted into the lock.

“I’ve got to get out of here.” She clenched Lee’s apartment key in her hand and quickly closed her eyes, focusing on her living room. “I want to teleport to my apartment,” she whispered. Again, she repeated the phrase in her mind, and just as she heard the door knob turn, she was back in her apartment.

Pain shot through her head once more as she stumbled over to her couch and sat down. She exhaled loudly as her hands began to shake from the adrenaline rush. “Whoa, that was close.” She leaned back into the couch and opened her fist to reveal the key to Lee’s apartment. “It’s now or never.”

She slowly stood back up, her head still pounding, and grabbed her keys and purse before heading out to her Jeep. Driving seemed to be her best bet since she could only bring up a vague picture of the apartments. It had been awhile since she had last seen them. Luckily, they weren’t too far away. Maybe a fifteen-minute drive.

She climbed into her Jeep and took off across town. The traffic was a little heavier than she'd expected, so twenty-five minutes later she pulled up in front of the apartment building. It was one large building with six different apartments, one for each floor. But even though the building was big, Melina assumed that all of the residents knew each other. She was going to have to be careful to not be seen.

After she climbed out of her Jeep, she immediately started to scan the area. There weren’t any other vehicles around, but that didn’t mean that no one was home. The building had its own parking garage for the residents. She took in a deep breath and headed toward the entrance, only to stop abruptly at the sight of the doorman. Of course the building would have a doorman. How was she going to get in now?

Her head dropped and she sighed as she realized what she was going to have to do. At least try to do. She had never teleported to a place without knowing what it looked like. But was bringing up a mental image of the desired location necessary? Maybe Walter told her to do it to give her new powers an extra helping hand. Well, she would soon find out. She had to try to teleport into Lee’s apartment. There was no other way.

She went back to sit in her Jeep and thought about what she needed to do. The tag on the key said number two hundred, so she assumed he must live in the apartment on the second floor. With her eyes shut tight, she started to chant to herself, “I want to teleport to the second floor apartment in the Skyrise building.”

A few seconds passed and nothing happened, so she continued to repeat her phrase. About ten more seconds passed and still no teleporting. Her eyes fluttered open and she sighed. Maybe it did require a mental image. She only knew what the building looked like, though, not the exact apartment. It was better than nothing.

Melina closed her eyes again and pictured the Skyrise building in her mind as she started her chant back up. When nothing happened a few seconds later, she began to think it wasn’t going to work either, but then suddenly she felt the dull pain in her head grow worse. She knew she had teleported. But to where?

She peeled her eyes open and saw that she was standing in a beautiful foyer area with two glistening chandeliers and sleek, white marble floors. A large window was in front of her, and when she walked over and peered out, she saw the doorman standing below. She was inside the building, but was she on the right floor?

She spun around and saw a door back behind her. When she approached it, she saw the number two hundred on the front. Lee’s apartment.

She hurried over to the door and saw that there was a keypad on the wall next to it. A red light was glowing from a small bulb on the top. Was it some sort of alarm? She took out the apartment key and looked at the four-digit code written on the tag. That had to be it.

Praying she was right, she took in a deep breath and punched the code into the keypad. There was a series of three beeps and then the light on top switched from red to green. Assuming she was in the clear, she inserted the key into the lock and slowly turned the handle. The door opened, and since no alarm sounded, Melina felt safe to step inside.

The apartment was breathtaking — polished dark wood floors, plush Persian rugs, and more paintings of musical instruments hanging along the walls. Lee must really like music. She softly closed the door behind her and then walked farther inside.

The size of the place wasn’t outrageously big, but it was impressive. Melina wanted to explore it all, but she knew she shouldn’t stay here longer than necessary. She thought for a moment and then headed into the step-down living room on her left. If Lee had a family photo, or even just a picture of his sister, it would probably be in that room.

She searched around for a light switch but couldn’t seem to find one. There were two table lamps and a floor lamp, though. The floor lamp was next to a large bookcase that seemed to house several picture frames, so she opted to turn that one on. Once she could see, she started to examine the photos. Most of them were of Lee and his friends on various outings, but there was one smaller frame on the top shelf that was pushed toward the back that appeared to have a female in it.

Melina pulled it down off the shelf and saw Lee, his father, and the woman she'd seen in her vision. She opened the back of the frame and saw writing on the back.
Me, Dad, and Claire, summer 2009.
A huge smile appeared on her face. She hadn’t expected it to be so easy.

She put the picture back in its place and turned around to an unwanted sight. Her smile faded as she stood face to face with the lead Noxin demon. “No, not here.”

He was in his demonic form and looked angrier than before. A loud growl escaped his throat as he moved closer to her. “You should have never involved him,” the demon said. “He’s going to be in a lot of trouble now.”

Melina blinked and shook her head. “Who are you talking about? Lee?”

The demon chuckled. “No, you stupid girl. Your guardian angel!”

“But I didn’t—”

“Quiet!” the demon shouted. “I don’t want to hear your excuses. I don’t want to hear you say another word.”

Suddenly the demon lunged at her. Melina backed into the bookshelf, and her light shield instinctively shot out all around her. Books and picture frames went crashing down all over the floor. The demon screamed as he was thrown back onto the coffee table, causing glass to shatter everywhere. Melina fell down to her knees, trying to steady herself as the searing pain in her head intensified.

The demon rolled over onto all fours and then screamed out again as he struggled to stand up. “You don’t listen, do you?” He stumbled as he turned around, his fiery eyes blazing into hers. “I told you to stop doing that!” He shook his head at her. “I’m going to have to teach you a lesson before I take your soul and kill you.”