Chapter 18
Eden sat here after the phone call with Stefan, just waiting for life to pass by, stuck in time, trying to glean something that would make sense of the craziness of her world. When she turned, Eric walked toward her, holding two cups of tea. She frowned as he sat back down again.
“You didn’t even realize I was gone, did you?”
“I did and I didn’t,” she muttered, with a shrug. “I was just lost in my own world.”
“You were also getting cold,” he noted. “I had Stefan keep watch while I ran for some hot tea and your sweater.” He now wrapped it around her shoulders.
She sighed. “I’m really not used to being taken care of, you know?”
“You also aren’t used to what you’ve been through today.”
“That’s true,” she agreed.
“Do you feel any better about it?”
She looked over at him and shrugged. “How much better could anybody feel?”
“Are you still being watched?”
“No,” she replied in all honesty. “I haven’t felt that since I came outside. It was inside and very creepy at the time, but it’s not a problem now.”
He didn’t say anything, sat down beside her, and placed the hot cup of tea in her hands.
She stared as the steam rose above the take-out cup. “This weekend has not been what I expected, you know?”
He laughed. “I don’t think it’s what any of us expected.”
“Did you get a chance to phone your office earlier?”
“I did. We still have a very active case that I am working on,” he shared, shaking his head. “It’s kind of bizarre too.”
“Something to do with the rapes and murders in town, right?” she asked, turning to him.
He stared at her and then nodded. “Yes, a woman was raped and murdered in her own home.”
She just nodded.
“Why? Do you know anything about it?”
“No, I don’t know anything about it,” she replied, looking far off into the distance, “but I can tell you that it’s not his first time.” Her voice had shifted into a weird droning whisper.
“Okay, humor me. What else can you tell me?”
She shrugged. “He doesn’t really like doing it, but he gets a sense of anticipation, a sense of excitement from it that he can’t stop. He doesn’t really want to stop.” She let out a heavy sigh. “Not now.”
“Did he ever want to stop?”
“There was a time when he wanted to stop, but now it’s too good, too exciting. And he also knows that he can’t get caught.”
“Can’t get caught? How is that?”
“He hasn’t been caught, has he?” she asked, frowning. Then she looked around, and her voice dropped even lower, “He’s connected to here.”
Eric reared back ever-so-slightly and shifted so he could look closer into her eyes, finding them unfocused. “What did you just say?”
She frowned, then shook her head. “I’m not sure.”
“Oh no, you don’t get to say that,” he snapped, frustration in his tone. “You just told me that this rapist and killer was connected to this place.”
She tilted her head, staring at him, then nodded. “That seems right, but I don’t really know what that means.”
“I hope you do because we really need to catch this guy.”
She gave a headshake, then frowned at him.
He raised an eyebrow. “Hello? Are you listening?”
She stared at him in surprise. “Yes, … but I was out of it there for a moment, wasn’t I?”
“I’m not sure out of it is quite right,” he corrected. “When Stefan shared how you could be affected by energies, I wasn’t thinking he meant you were a medium.”
She stared at him. “I’m not.”
Eric stated, “Whoever I was just talking to—”
“It was me,” she declared but with a quizzical expression. “But I was different, wasn’t I? I was getting messages from someone.”
Then he sat back, studied her, and asked, “From one of the energies around here, maybe?”
“From an energy and that’s as much I know. I’m not sure it’s from one around here,” she replied, twisting to look around her. “Yet she had been murdered.” Eden frowned.
“And you know the person who did it?”
“No, I don’t.”
“Do you remember her name?”
She stared at him, and the name flashed into her mind. “Valerie.”
He stared back. “One of the victims is a Valerie,” he confirmed.
“Yes, I think it was her.” Then Eden groaned. “I really don’t need this happening again.”
“This again?” he asked, frowning at her.
She sighed but nodded. “Yes, like I told you about my grandmother, how she insisted I stay in the room with my mother, but it was horrible. And I had all those people talking to me.”
“Right. And I get why you feel the way you do because they were all dead.”
“Yes.” She frowned, then shook her head. “No. … Some of them were dead. Some of them were not. Some of them seemed to be in a coma,” she clarified. “I couldn’t really tell who and what they were. Plus, I was really too young to understand. I can’t believe my grandmother did that to me.”
“Yes, but, if she sincerely thought you had any way to help your mother, her daughter, live, I can see why she did it.”
“I guess,” Eden muttered, as she stared off into the distance. “I had helped people before. My mother used to get me to help. There would always be somebody nearby who would need something, and she would say that I could help.”
“But sometimes you couldn’t—”
“Yes, and it was terrible,” she exclaimed. “Absolutely terrible. I always felt I had failed her but never really understood how.”