Chapter 3

I gulped. No director here to stop him. I knew I wouldn’t see the doctor again until tomorrow. My only hope was a nurse, but they only visited on their scheduled rounds. In my panicked state, I didn’t even think to look for the call button.

And then in a flash, a grotesque scene filled my brain. Me, bent over my bed, with that asshole fucking me. I enjoyed it, screaming for more. It was all I could do to choke down the vomit in my throat.

Where the fuck did that come from? I knew it couldn’t have been my fear, because there was no way I would ever take pleasure from…that. I looked at him, but he was somewhere else entirely. No, it couldn’t be… Was I seeing his thoughts?

I shook my head and placed a hand on my forehead, which actually did hurt. “Thanks for stopping by, but I’m starting to get a headache.”

His eyes met mine, and I felt this overwhelming feeling of desire. Obviously not mine. He brushed his fingers lightly against my cheek.

“Really bad headache,” I repeated, but the words had no effect. He stared at my lips, as he moved slowly in.

I kept thinking, no, no, no. Don’t do it. I turned my head away from him, and was horrified to feel his hand grasp my chin and turn me back toward him. “Chad, I’m your employee.”

Unrelenting, he squeezed my chin, pulling me in to him.

“Really, no. You need to back off.”

I tried to wriggle free, but I was still a little out of it.

Get the fuck away from me! I screamed in my head.

His eyes suddenly flickered, and to my surprise, he backed away. Right about the time his nose began to bleed.

“I think your headache must be contagious,” he said, flashing a nervous smile. He grabbed a tissue on his way out. “Guess I’ll see you back at work.”

My lips parted in shock as I watched him walk out of the room. I blinked a few times, wondering if I were dreaming. Being alone with him was a recurring theme in my nightmares, but none of them ended this easy. My headache began to subside, but then the door creaked open. I closed my eyes and sighed.

Grand fucking Central here. I had no family, one friend, and now no one could leave me alone.

I assumed it was the nurse. “Could I get some water, please?”

“We have to get you out of here,” a familiar voice said.

Gorgeous dude. Standing next to my bed. The first thought that ran through my head was how shitty I must have looked. And then I actually got enough sense to get pissed off.

“Who the fuck are you?”

“My name is Steve,” he said in an impatient tone. “And you’re coming with me.”

“I’m not going anywhere with you!” I folded my arms against my chest as best I could, being wired to the ping machine.

“You don’t have a choice,” he said, as he started to unplug the several devices that were in some fashion attached to me.

This time, I remembered the nurse call button, but he yanked it out of my reach before I could grab it. “They can’t find out about you.”

He picked up the tablet at the end of my bed and within seconds, he’d hacked it. “Thank God they haven’t ordered bloodwork,” he said to himself.

I raised an eyebrow—he didn’t seem like the religious type. And why was he concerned about them taking my blood?

“What is this about? Look, I’m sick and tired of you and anime girl just barging in—”

“Viola was here? Shit.” He yanked the tape and IV from my hand in one fell swoop, and it hurt like a motherfucker.

“Ow! What the hell!” He ripped open my gown just enough to expose the heart monitor wires when I grabbed his arm.

“What the fuck is going on?” A frightened look swept across his face as he looked into my eyes.

“There’s...there’s no time to explain,” he said nervously. His eyes searched mine, and then he relaxed some, as if he came to some kind of realization. “I know all of this is very confusing. I promise to tell you everything.”

He took my hand into his, and I was amazed at how cold it felt. “Kate, you have to trust me.”

I remembered the promise I’d made to myself in the shower. It seemed silly now, but the desire I had for him hadn’t changed. In fact, the sincerity of his voice and his cold hand in mine only served to increase my desire.

“We have unfinished business,” I said, smiling crookedly.

“Well, yes,” he agreed, looking thoroughly confused. “We do.”

“You’re not supposed to be in here,” another voice said. This time it was a real nurse, and alarm registered on her face when she saw the mess he’d made of all the equipment.

“What did you do?” The nurse glared at Steve. He didn’t say a word. Instead he dropped my hand and took off. She started after him, but then returned to my bedside. “Did he hurt you?”

“No, I was only confused about when I was getting discharged.”

I didn’t know why I covered for him. Maybe it was because I needed answers, and he was one of two people who possibly knew.

“Oh sweetie, you’re a mess,” the nurse said, as she began to plug everything back in. “Did he do this?”

“I needed to use the restroom.”

“For goodness sake,” she mumbled to herself as she finished the process of hooking me back up. She helped me to the bathroom, lecturing me as if I were a child on how to do it while remaining connected to all that crap. She was still there when I finished and went over the ground rules once more. I suppressed the urge to tell her to fuck off.

The door to my room creaked open once more and I looked up. Jay was back.

“Kate, how are you feeling?” he asked.

“What are you doing here?”

“I just got back from dinner.” He turned to the nurse. “Can she have visitors now?”

“Yes, I think it would be good for someone to stay with her,” the nurse replied. “In case that man comes back.”

“What man?” Jay looked at me, concerned. “What did I miss?”

“I wish I knew,” I said, too tired to go into it. Somehow I figured the less he knew, the better. Something must’ve happened to me the night I blacked out. And from the way Steve was acting, I got the feeling it wasn’t a good thing.

The next morning, I was relieved to wake up in the hospital bed with all my body parts still intact. Nothing exciting happened in the night, or if it did, I was unaware, knocked out by the glorious painkillers they had given me. After they discharged me, I was eager to get home and relax for a while. But when I walked in the door, psycho kitty had other plans. Even though I tried to explain I was in the hospital, my legs were safe only after Pickles was fed. I flopped down on my couch afterward and thought of all the unanswered questions I had. Like who were anime girl and gorgeous dude? What secret were they keeping from me? Why did it feel like my brain was on fire? And what really happened that first night?

A loud crash came from the kitchen. Pickles? No, he would still be eating, especially after an extra day with no food. I grabbed the closest thing I could find as a weapon, which happened to be my TV remote. My heart pounded as I tiptoed to the kitchen.

I exhaled in relief when I saw anime girl on the floor. Although she was…eccentric, she’d never really frightened me. And after the weirdness of the last two days, her breaking into my apartment didn’t even faze me.

“Can you explain how it is you’re in my kitchen?”

She smiled as she stood and brushed herself off. “Still getting the hang of teleporting.”

My jaw dropped. Was she for real? I knew she looked like she came out of a comic book, but teleportation? Since when did the X-Men become real?

“What? It’s harder than it looks,” she said.

I hadn’t heard the front door open and close, which in my creaky old apartment was an announcement difficult to ignore. There weren’t any windows in my tiny kitchen, and we were four stories up. Ridiculous as it seemed, it was the only valid explanation.

“Viola, is it?” I figured we should at least get formally introduced.

“How did you… Oh you’re using your power, aren’t you? Ooh, ooh, is it mind control? Did you just scan my brain or something?” She let out a gleeful giggle.

“What? No, the dude in the suit, Steve…”

“Fuck.” She started fumbling with her silver necklace, a chain with a Hello Kitty charm on it.

“Do you know him? He was the last person I saw before I blacked out,” I said, and then revised, “the first time.”

“Yeah, that makes sense…” She paced back and forth, rubbing the charm from her necklace along her chin.

“Some answers would be nice,” I said, as politely as I could.

She noticed Pickles, who had just finished eating and was now bathing himself. “Oh, you have a cat!” she said. “He’s so cute!”

“Pickles, Viola,” I said dryly.

“Call me Vi,” she said, giving Pickles a stroke on his back. He purred and rubbed her legs affectionately.

“So Vi,” I said, “Tell me about the flies.”