New Revelations: Second Sight Book Two (32 page)

“You should come in, so we could talk,” she forced out.

Jared
nodded and entered the living room with her. “
Why don’t you come over my place? I’m off of work today.
We could spend the entire day together lying on my new couch that was delivered this morning.”

The offer sounded tempting. The idea of confessing was sounding less and less appealing each minute that passed by.
Spending the day together and lounging on the new furniture she had helped pick out was much more preferable
.
She shook away her thoughts and stared at him.
She le
d him into the living room and pulled him down on the couch next to her.
“Where were you yesterday?”

“I’m guessing you didn’t read the newspaper today?”

She scrunched up her face in confusion. “Huh?”

“The case I’ve been working on actually made the fr
ont page of the
Franklin Times
today. A guy was trying to hire someone to murder his wife. We got tipped off by the ex-con he tried to solicit.
We were working with federal and state investigators to get him. The ex-con had a wire on last night and he was caught on tape trying to offer him money to shoot his wife.
” He leaned back into the couch cushions and closed his eyes. “I feel completely drained from the whole thing. I think I may use some of my comp hours to catch up on some sleep.”

“Why didn’t you tell me about it?
”

“I couldn’t mention the case because it was an ongoing invest
igation,” he explained. “I’m
glad it’s over. We’ve put in
so many hours into catching him—
it would’ve been awful if he got away with it.”

“You’re kidding
,” she whispered.

He gave her a puzzled expression. “Don’t think so. I have a strange sense of humor, but that would be a little out there to make up.”

Kate
didn’t deserve him. He was out
actually catching bad guys—
probabl
y saving some poor woman’s life—
and she was kissing another
boy in a cheap motel. She felt disgusted with herself. Why had she let Declan get into her head? It had been presumptuous and foolish to think Jared had been seeing someone else.
Jared had always been straightforward with her. He understood how her powers worked and had said it would be useless trying to keep much from
her. A few late night shifts were
not a good enough explanation for her rationale for kissing Declan.

Kate realized he was observing her closely. “What’s wrong? Is it about Melanie?”

She wondered if she could force herself to have selective amnesia and completely block out last night. “Last night was awful. I couldn’t sleep. CJ’s memories kept popping into my head and haunting me.”

He grabbed her hand and gave it a firm squeeze. “I literally wasn’t able to get to my phone until this morning.
Everything with the case was happening so fast, I didn’t have a second to even check my messages.
I’m sorry I wasn’t there for you.”

Tears clouded her vision as she looked at their hands intertwined. It took all her willpower to unlace her fingers and meet his gray eyes.
“Jared, I did something stupid.”

“What did you do?”

“I kissed Declan,” she ad
mitted and burst into tears. Kate
covered her face
with her hands
and waited for the screaming and accusations. The unearthly quiet was more unsettling than she imagined.

She peeked throug
h her fingers to look at him. Jared
had stood up and placed his hands in the pockets of his jeans. As he looked down
at her
,
Kate couldn’t quite register the
expression
on his face
. She expected anger, hatred or disgust. Instead, his face only
displayed
a sense of resignation.

“Jared, please say something,” she begged.

He heaved a sigh. “I really am at a loss…I don’t even know if I want you to tell me what happened.” His eyes probed her face. “Was it just one kiss? Did he initiate it?”

“No, it was more…and I kissed him back,” she confessed.

Jared
didn’t respond as she continued to cry softly. Finally, he sat down next to her. “Look Kate...don’t be upset. I’ve been worried for awhile now that maybe things weren’t going to work out between us.”

Kate
stopped crying and couldn’t mask her shock. “What?” she croaked out.

“
Maybe you should be
seeing guys your own age. I’m
twenty-eight
.
I’m at a different place in my life now. I have a career and I’m over just dating. But you’ve never had that experience
,” he explained.

“But I don’t need that, Jared. I only need you,” she
blubbered
. “I can’t lose you.”

He closed his hand around the back of her neck and
moved her face towards him. Jared
forced her to meet his eyes. “You won’t lose me. I promised you when we met that I would be a good friend to you, didn’t I?”

Kate
forcefully moved out of his grasp. “Why are you acting like this?
” she demanded and slapped her hands against her thighs.
“
Be pissed. I screwed up an
d you should be telling me how much you can’t stand what I did. You shouldn’t be so accepting and agreeable.
Don’t you feel
anything
?
” she questioned
growing agitated.

His jaw tightened. “Yes, I feel something, Kate. I feel revulsion right now. But I was trying to be the
good guy
and take the high road.”

“I’m sorry, Jared,” she replied instantly contrite.
“
I was feeling vulnerable over the whole Melanie thing and Declan was there. I realized it was a mistake and I stopped things before they went too far. Don’t give up on me.”

“
Kate, it’s too much to deal with. I can’t be with you and worry that any time I’m stuck late at work, you’ll feel the need to go off and kiss someone else,” he said tightly.
Following his accusation, Kate’s tears began to fall freely. He stated flatly,
“I’m going to leave now before either of us says something we’ll regret.”

“Jared, please…It was immature and such a huge mistake. I’m sorry,” she moaned. He shook his head and walked out of the door without replying. She called out to him, but his only answer was shutting the door behind him.

Her knees felt weak
and it was hard to breathe. Kate
collapsed onto the couch and grabbed
a
chenille throw blanket. Pulling it around her body, she tried to stop t
he uncontrollable shaking that plagued her. Loud sobs erupted from her mouth and a tightening in her chest immobilized her. She couldn’t believe she lost him. How could she ruin everything she had ever wanted in a single day?

Curling into a ball, Kate
shut her eyes. The tears would not stop and she didn’t know how to handle
the anguish of losing the person she was falling in love with
. She had stopped herself from feeling anything for two years. After her coma, she never let anyone close to her. Now, the first guy she had let in was gone. The worst part was she had no one to blame but herself.

She wanted to call Julie or her mother to come and comfort her, but couldn’t summon the energy. They would also ask questions that she was too humiliated to answer.
She couldn’t expect a pity party thrown for her when the situation was entirely her fault.
Instead, she shut her eyes and wished herself into someone else’s brain
.

Kate
walked sadly
into the kitchen without bothering to turn on the lights. It was dark, but she easily knew her way to the fridge. Gazing inside, she
peeked under a container wrapped with aluminum foil. The casserole that her mother made looked sketchy enough that she decided to move on to something yummier.
Food could be the ultimate comfort when your life was a complete mess.

Behind the bottles of soda she hit the jackpot. A tray of mini red velvet cupcakes begged for her to
eat them
. Popping one in her mouth, she decided that they were small enough that she could eat at least two more to equal a single regular sized cupcake. Her mother would die if she saw her, but she began to drink straight from the two liter bottle of Diet Coke to wash it down.

Wiping her mouth, Kate
stilled when she heard a rustling sound
at the front door
. She figured it was her mother and called out. “Mom?”

No response. It was eerie, but maybe her mother hadn’t heard her. It was also strange that her mother wouldn’t turn on the lights as she entered the house. What time was it anyway? She left the fridge open to help her find the light switch and moved towards the hallway.

Her brain wasn’t able to process what was happen
ing. A dark figure moved out of the shadows
and the bottle of Diet Coke fell to the floor.
A hand reached out and tightened over her forearm.
Scrambling backwards to fend off her atta
cker, she instead slipped
on the liquid
and landed hard on her backside. The scream caught in her throat as the light of the refrigerator reflected on the blade of a knife.
Time seemed to slow as the knife plunged towards her.

The knife tore threw fabric, skin and bone. The first cut landed in the dead center of her chest. Her fingertips danced over the wound and she stared dumbfounded at the blood that soaked her skin. After her initial shock, the pain set in. It radiated from her chest and threatened to immobilize her completely.
The sting was raw and unforgiving.

Her survival instincts kicked in as she saw
the knife come towards her body
again. Kicking out wildly, she was able to land a few blows against the stocky figure
that blocked her way to freedom
. A male voice grunted as she lashed out at him. The twilight hid her attacker from her complete view and she wondered if it even mattered if she could see him. With her chest bleeding profusely and no weapon readily available, she was as good as dead.

Kate
turned her body
towards the dining room
to try
and make a desperate run for the front door
. She barely got a foot away from him before she felt the knife slice into her arm. Ruthlessly, he then stabbed at her waist and pelvis.
There was no hesitation in his movements. This man wanted her dead and would cut her until the job was finished
.

A car door slammed
nearby
. Her attacker mumbled a curse and
quickly
disappeared into the darkness of the house.
He never looked back.

Kate tried to call out. Warn whoever it was of the impending danger within the house. Instead, a garbled sound escaped her throat.
The pain was too much to bear at this point. As much as she wanted to hold on
for the people she cared about—
her parents, Jared, Declan, Ju
lie—
she couldn’t any longer. Kate welcomed oblivion
.

***

The late afternoon sunlight shone through the windows of the living room. Kate fumbled as she opened her eyes and landed tangled up in the chenille blanket on the carpet. Trying to catch her breath, she did a quick examination o
f her body. No blood. Just the
Thompson
College
t-shirt and jeans she had changed into when she arrived home.

Kate
surveyed her surrounding and immediately knew something was off. The sun was still shining and she was wearing different clothing than when she was attacked. Her mother was nowhere to be found and the front door was firmly shut. She was certain only a short time had passed since Jared left and she fell asleep on the couch.

“Oh shit,” she groaned.

Kate had just received her first future vision. And it was of her being stabbed to death in her
own
kitchen.

The End

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