Chapter 14 - Linnea

One second, I'm resting my cheek against Aris's chest, drifting contentedly to sleep, and the next, I hear a scream echoing through the room. It takes me a second to realize the sound is coming from me, and then I register the feeling in my head. Aris jolts up, his hands moving over me like he's looking for the wound, but I can't think about him.

He's saying something, but I can't hear him. It's like reality is zooming outward, away from me, and I couldn't reach out and touch it if I tried. I'm cradling my head in my hands as a searing pain—worse than anything I've ever felt—rips through like it's cutting a line clean through my brain.

As though through a dense fog, I can hear Aris calling my name and feel his arms going around me, but it's almost like I'm watching it happen to someone else. The vision starts to take over, falling over my brain like vertigo. All at once, it's like being inside and outside of myself. Like being stranded on a raft in the middle of the ocean but painfully aware of all the space above and below you.

Thankfully, the pain dims as I take in the scene in front of me. I have to take several deep breaths to keep from screaming again. No matter how many visions I've seen, it's always like being dropped in the middle of a nightmare I have no control over.

It's a tall, gray building surrounded by trees blooming with cherry blossoms. I stand for a moment, letting the soft breeze brush over my calves, rustling my skirt. The sky is startlingly blue, and just beyond the building, I can make out the soft, rippling waves of a body of water.

There's a sign in front of the building, but when I try to focus on it, the words and letters turn into a language I've never seen before. This has happened to me before in visions—details that aren't important tend to fall away, especially when they're words or someone talking. I try to glance around and see what's around me, but my eyes are locked on the building.

From experience, I know that the only way out of these visions is through them, and my head clearly wants me to investigate the tall, concrete building in front of me, so I take a step forward. The details are always uncanny and intensely vivid, but right now, the scene feels odd, and I realize it's because there are no people outside, nobody walking past me on the sidewalk.

I make my way up the path, coming to a glass door with a large gold handle. I pull the door and walk in, immediately met by the ghostly apparition of a security guard. In the vision, I know this is a guard, but when I try to look directly at him, he turns into a vague cloud of gray smoke.

He grunts and pokes at me as I try to figure out what he wants, and I'm eventually handing over a phone and a gun I didn't know I had on me. I pass through the metal detector, then step forward as a weird laser scans my eye. When it's done, I feel exposed, and I notice the security guard doesn't offer me my things back as he points to a set of stairs on my right.

As I turn, my eyes widen in awe. In the center of the room is a huge sphere covered in tiny multi-colored lights. The longer I look at it, the more I realize it's a globe showing the countries on Earth. I find North America and watch the individual lights twinkle and blink out, wondering what kind of art display it is.

This seems like some sort of government building—maybe an international agency? It's much bigger than any of the government buildings in the state's capital. Is it possible I'm seeing a government building in D.C.?

My head doesn't want me to linger, and before I know it, my feet are guiding me toward the huge staircase on the right side of the concourse. It feels like I climb forever, and when I reach the top, I'm met with several identical hallways that stretch as far as I can see.

I sigh, putting my hand on the railing to anchor me. I've had these kinds of visions before, where I wander around aimlessly, trying to figure out where my head wants me to go. Once, I was lost in a forest for what felt like hours, trying to follow smoke from a fire that constantly moved.

That time, I found the fire still burning after the campers had left, a cinder jumping up and grabbing onto a nearby blade of grass. I'd jumped back, watching the trees go up in flames. As soon as I came out of it, I called the local fire department, insisting there was a fire that hadn't been put out. They thought I was the one who left it and tried to get my name, so I hung up. The day later, a devastating fire in Indiana was on the news, with an untended fire found as the culprit.

Not in the mood for another endless game of cat and mouse, I try to focus my energy on the purpose of this vision. This momentarily brings the pain back into focus, and I have to pause, gasping for air, both in the vision and in real life. I hear and feel Aris trying to talk to me, but he fades away again as the hallway focuses.

At the end, there's a glass door slightly ajar. I walk toward it as quietly as I can, hearing an old man's voice crystal clear, floating out into the hallway.

"You haven't sent the rest of what we agreed on. If I don't get the money, I'm breaking the deal. I swear."

"I'd like to see it," a cruel, cold voice laughs, and I realize it's one I know very, very well.

"If I'd known you were going to be this stingy, I wouldn't have dealt with you in the first place," comes the older, more fragile voice, wavering on the final syllable.

"Oh please, old man. You weren't complaining about the priceless gift I sent you just last week—"

"That's enough," the old man says, and the volume on his computer decreases considerably. "Are you going to send what we agreed upon or not?"

"As soon as you get your people out of my territory."

"I told you—I'm working on that. It's not as easy as you think. Apparently, one of my operatives has a convenient hide-out in the area. That's why your shifters haven't been able to find them. But I have their coordinates now. Just got them in—I don't know what they took so long to come through."

"Work faster," comes the cool voice again. "Or I might have to look for a different partner."

"I—" the voice stops, and I hear the creaking of a chair. "Hold on."

"Eavesdropper?" comes the other voice, a cackle following shortly after. "Oh, no, you're toast!"

Hearing the heavy clod of footsteps, I turn and run, acknowledging in my head that it's silly—I'm not really here, and they can't really see me. My visions are a representation of a future reality or sometimes a past event, that's all. It's not physically possible for me to appear in front of anyone since that future hasn't occurred yet.

But that doesn't matter to my panicked body, which is hurtling down the hall as fast as I can urge it forward. I come to the end of the hallway and try to turn around and go back, but all the lights have gone black, leaving me with a single door to go through.

As soon as I crack it open, I hear the ungodly sound of a shrill scream cutting through the air, and I instinctively clap my hands to my ears, not wanting to see what it is. I've seen awful things in my visions—terrible, gut-wrenching acts of violence I could do nothing to prevent because I didn't know when or where they were happening—and I'm not in the mood to see another.

But I know that I have to look. I have to witness it, or the vision will never end.

Slowly, I crack open an eye and turn, seeing the corner of a bed come into view. It's a bed I've never seen before, but I recognize the foot resting on the end. It's my foot, painted with the same shade of pink I've been using for years.

Another ear-splitting scream tears through the room, and I take a step back, looking on in horror at myself, disheveled and bloody, as I scream and cry like someone is twisting a knife in my back. I clamp my eyes shut again and turn, trying to rip open the door to get out of the room, but it's locked. I start to bang against it, crying out for help, screaming in pain, feeling the blood on my thighs when something soft and warm closes around my wrists.

The pain in my head is back, throbbing persistently, and I realize the door is gone, and I'm trying to pound my fists against Aris's chest. He releases one of my hands, which I let fall loosely to my side, and uses his other hand to cover my mouth, silencing the scream I didn't know I was releasing.

I breathe haggardly against his hand, and he moves it away so I can suck in deep gulps of air. My entire body is shaking, trembling like a leaf, and I can see Aris's lips move, but I still can't hear, the ringing in my ears far too loud.

Because I can't talk, or think, I just reach up and put my arms around him, asking for comfort the only way I can. Aris goes stiff for a moment, and I think what he's just witnessed is too much for him, but then he eases, pulling me fully into his lap. I bury my face in his chest and cry, trying to put the image of myself, covered in blood, out of my head.