Echo by Valerie J Mikles

Author:Valerie J Mikles [Mikles, Valerie J]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2021-07-14T22:00:00+00:00

It was difficult to find Michael this time. For months, the spirit realm had been a breath away, intruding on her life and her perception whether she wanted it to or not. With the Confluence, she’d had a little more control. She wished she’d kept one of the stones, but Danny had dumped every last one.

The NR therapy had healed some of the scars in her mind, but she wasn’t whole yet. She homed in on Danny, his worried prayers making lightning. This was the wrong approach. Echoing a power didn’t take this kind of meditation. It was more of a feeling than a vision.

All she knew of Michael’s power was that yearning sensation that had washed over her. A call. And when she said the words, “Tommy, I need you,” she heard Michael answer back. “Goodbye, Tommy.” Was he canceling her call?

After a few minutes, exhaustion set in and Amanda laid her head on the arm of the couch. The day rushed back at her, and she lay there, shaking. The NR therapy was worse than the baselining. The flashbacks were exhausting and nightmarish. The hallucinations confused her. She had bruises on her arms and chest from being tied down. The medication they’d given her mitigated the intensity of it, but knowing that tomorrow would be more of the same frightened her. And she didn’t have Danny here to help her sleep anymore.

There was a knock at the door, and everyone scrambled. Saskia kept the others silent and ushered them to a back bedroom. Rolling off the couch, Amanda followed numbly, but Saskia pointed back to the door and told her to answer. Amanda touched her boot, feeling for her knife, but it wasn’t there. She picked up a ladle from the kitchen counter and approached the door. It whooshed open, and Tommy stood there looking as dazed as she felt. He had a black eye and a split lip. There was blood smeared on his hands and face, but not his clothes.

“I don’t know why I’m here,” he said worriedly.

“I do. You need a friend. Let’s get you cleaned up.” She took his hand, cringing at the stickiness of it. It felt like sap, dirt, and dried blood. Since the others were hiding in the back room, she used the kitchen sink and gently washed the blood from his hands and face. The black-eye didn’t look too bad. It was mostly purple around the cheek bone, but there was no red in his eye. His body was still, his eyes fixed firmly on the counter top. Amanda got the sense that he’d switched to test-subject mode, and he’d yield to almost anything.

“I was worried about you,” she said, leaning into his field of view. “I heard something happened today. I was getting NR therapy, and I’ve been foggy, so I don’t know exactly what.”

“I wish Cooper would let me watch,” he said.

“I don’t need an audience,” Amanda said, biting her cheek. She wanted Tommy to know her after she got better.

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