She finished her shower, turning the water off suddenly. \u00a0Shivering a bit in the chill air, she toweled herself off, avoiding looking in the mirror. \u00a0Kate then got dressed in her t-shirt and shorts again, and headed back out to the living room, then the bedroom.<\/p>\n
Kate debated sitting on the computer for a minute or two, surfing the internet, but she really was tired. \u00a0Something had happened to her tonight, and she wasn\u2019t sure what it was, what had left her in a state of panic earlier. \u00a0It didn\u2019t matter all that much, as whatever it was, it couldn\u2019t have been that important.<\/p>\n
2.<\/p>\n
It all came flooding back, the minute he sat next to her again. \u00a0She stared at the young man in the black duster, who said, \u201cI\u2019m really sorry about what happened yesterday.\u201d Kate was on a different bus, at a different time of day. \u00a0This time she was going to her morning class. \u00a0Was this guy following her? \u00a0He had been on the bus already, and sat down next to her a few minutes after she sat down. \u00a0\u00a0She started to get up again, to move somewhere else – she couldn\u2019t be late for class.<\/p>\n \u201cWait, hear me out, please?\u201d \u00a0She could see his eyes, imploring her. \u00a0His hand reached out, as if to take her by the arm, but he stopped himself. \u00a0\u201cPlease?\u201d he said again.<\/p>\n She huddled her backpack close and took her earbuds out, letting them dangle over one shoulder. \u00a0\u201cHow do you know my name?\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cIt came to a friend of mine in a dream, all right?\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThey some kind of psychic?\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cShe is, yeah,\u201d he replied, taking his hand back and giving her a small smile. \u00a0\u201cWe\u2019ve been waiting for you.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cWe?\u201d \u00a0This was freaky.<\/p>\n He looked around the bus, seemingly looking for something or someone, and then he leaned in close, closer than she would like. \u00a0\u201cNot here.\u201d \u00a0He leaned back. \u00a0\u201cLet\u2019s get off at the next stop.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cI have to go to class,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n \u201cYou can catch the next bus in time for your class. \u00a0It won\u2019t take long, I promise you.\u201d<\/p>\n Her senses were telling her no. \u00a0She looked him over again. \u00a0He was thin. \u00a0She probably could put up a good fight. \u00a0She had nails. \u00a0And she had roughhoused with her brothers when she was younger, so she knew how to fight dirty against a boy. \u00a0This was an early morning, and there were tons of people. \u00a0So long as he didn\u2019t drag her down a dark alley, she felt \u00a0she could be safe in the crowd.<\/p>\n \u201cOkay, I guess.\u201d \u00a0She looked outside, watching the stores go by and people walking. \u00a0Yes, she would be safe in a crowd of people.<\/p>\n He pulled the cord that signaled to the driver to stop at the next stop. \u00a0When the bus slowed down, he got up. \u00a0Kate followed, her backpack over her shoulders to keep her hands free.<\/p>\n They got off the bus, heading up Commonwealth Avenue toward the campus. \u00a0\u00a0He stood close to her, and then took her elbow and guided her toward an empty storefront. He looked around again.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m a mage,\u201d he said quietly. \u00a0\u201cAnd you\u2019re a Seer.\u201d<\/p>\n Her first thought was that he was loony. \u00a0He seemed so sincere about it though. \u00a0Her heart flew in her throat. \u00a0She noticed that he wasn\u2019t crowding her, that she had room to run. \u00a0\u201cWhat does that mean…exactly?\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cYou can see things no one else can see.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cLike what?\u201d \u00a0She looked around too. \u00a0She saw people, and stores, and vehicles – nothing out of the ordinary. \u00a0\u201cAnd you\u2019re not answering my question – \u201c<\/p>\n \u201cGhosts,\u201d he said. \u00a0\u201cPeople\u2019s souls.\u201d<\/p>\n She stifled a near uncontrollable laugh. \u00a0\u201cI think you have the wrong person.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cI know I have the right person. \u00a0I\u2019ll prove it to you.\u201d \u00a0He turned the door handle to the storefront, and it turned easily in his hand. \u00a0\u201cTrust me?\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cAre you kidding?\u201d she said. \u00a0\u201cNo, I don\u2019t trust you.\u201d<\/p>\n He nodded. \u00a0\u201cI really don\u2019t blame you. \u00a0Look, I\u2019ll go first. \u00a0You can leave the door open, too.\u201d \u00a0He stepped inside the darkened store. \u00a0She looked around her, but no one seemed to be looking her way. \u00a0Maybe if she left the door open, she could have room to run.<\/p>\n She stepped inside. \u00a0The place looked like it had been a pawn shop or a jewelry store, with d cases still together in a large U leading out from the door, with the bottom part of the U on the opposite side of the door. \u00a0Everything was in a diffused light, mostly coming from the front of the store. \u00a0People walked by and the shadows flickered along the walls.<\/p>\n Kate looked at the opposite corner, diagonally across from her and could see a man there. \u00a0But it wasn\u2019t a man. \u00a0He was in muted colors, as if m was a clothed store mannequin left out in the sun too long. \u00a0It wasn\u2019t a mannequin, either, if no one dressed a balding, short mannequin in a suit and tie.<\/p>\n \u201cWhat do you see?\u201d the young man asked, looking in the same direction she was.<\/p>\n \u201cYou don\u2019t see that man over there?\u201d Kate asked, pointing. \u00a0The man stepped forward to the counter and looked like he was speaking to someone sitting at the counter. \u00a0He pantomimed pulling out something from the display case, and offering it to the people there.<\/p>\n Then he stood up straight again, went back to his place against the wall. \u00a0He stepped forward, speaking again, pulling out something.<\/p>\n \u201cI don\u2019t see that man over there,\u201d said the young man, \u201cbut my friend sensed someone there a while back.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThe psychic?\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cNo, someone else.” \u00a0The young man walked over to the counter, going around it. \u00a0He had his hands outstretched, as if a blind man trying to find his way. \u00a0\u201cHe\u2019s around here, isn\u2019t he?\u201d<\/p>\n She watched the young man move, \u201cYou\u2019re almost right on top of him,\u201d she said. \u00a0The man didn\u2019t move, but seemed to shimmer, like someone had put a hand in a bowl of water and the reflection in that bowl rippled.<\/p>\n The young man nodded. \u00a0\u201cWhat is he doing?\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cIt looks like he\u2019s showing someone something. \u00a0From the display case.\u201d<\/p>\n The young man glanced into the display case and rummaged with his hand around inside. \u00a0Kate looked out the door, then back at him. \u00a0\u201cWhat are you doing?\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cGhosts are drawn to a certain place for a reason,\u201d he said, and straightened. \u00a0\u201cThere\u2019s something over here that this ghost needs laid to rest.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cAre you some sort of ghost hunter or something?\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cNo,\u201d said the young man, looking up. \u00a0\u201cYou\u2019d better catch the bus, you\u2019ll be late for your class.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cAre you a thief?\u201d<\/p>\n He laughed. \u00a0\u201cI wish. \u00a0I\u2019d make more money that way.\u201d \u00a0He rummaged around some more. \u00a0\u00a0\u201cClose the door, please. \u00a0You\u2019re either in or out.\u201d<\/p>\n Class or this young mysterious man. \u00a0School or finding out who \u201cwe\u201d were. \u00a0The first class of her major or finding out how he knew so much about ghosts.<\/p>\n She stepped outside and shut the door behind her. \u00a0She ran back to the bus stop and waited about five very long, agonizing minutes. \u00a0She kept glancing back at the store, to see if he would come out, but he didn\u2019t.<\/p>\n He had to be some sort of thief. \u00a0Maybe he was like that show with the pie man…she couldn\u2019t think of the name of it. \u00a0Her mother watched it once or twice. \u00a0The bus came and she hopped on, glancing at her watch as she sat down. \u00a0She had lost maybe ten, fifteen minutes, still enough time to get to class.<\/p>\n She watched the store go by, still looking uninhabited. \u00a0She wondered why she didn\u2019t go to the cops, to report this guy. \u00a0But what was he doing? \u00a0Breaking and entering, maybe. \u00a0But he didn\u2019t break in, the door opened for him. \u00a0He just turned the handle, and it opened. \u00a0Right?<\/p>\n Maybe he wasn\u2019t supposed to be in that abandoned property. \u00a0She didn\u2019t feel right there.<\/p>\n Then it hit her. \u00a0She had just seen a ghost.<\/p>\n A Seer, he called her. \u00a0But Seers were fortune tellers, as far as she knew. \u00a0They weren\u2019t people who saw ghosts and spirits. \u00a0She half-believed in ghosts, or in life after death – her parents were Methodist, so she was brought up in the faith – but she stopped going to church when she was fifteen. \u00a0She believed there was something after death, there had to be. \u00a0She also believed that ghosts were because someone had done something horribly wrong or horribly bad, that they were haunted.<\/p>\n This couldn\u2019t have been a ghost. \u00a0It was a mannequin, that\u2019s it. \u00a0She was overusing her imagination, and some guy had talked her into it. \u00a0He was a mage, he said, so he could be using powers of illusion to create things that weren\u2019t there, like David Copperfield. \u00a0That was it, that had to be it. \u00a0She was suckered by some guy, a guy she couldn\u2019t remember quite right, but who gave her a sense of unease. \u00a0She\u2019d be able to pick him out in a line up. \u00a0Maybe she should report him to the police. \u00a0But how, if she couldn\u2019t quite remember him.<\/p>\n She had an aha moment, and pulled out a notebook. \u00a0On the back page she wrote \u201cBlack Duster\u201d in big letters and stuffed the notebook back in her pack. \u00a0There, now she would remember the most important part of him, the part that stuck in her mind even after he had taken her into the store. \u00a0She would make a point to remember to open her notebook the minute she got to class, and she would look inside the back.<\/p>\n The bus pulled up to the campus, and most of the people on the bus got up. \u00a0This was usually the end of the line for this bus, even though it hit three other stops before turning around in the campus and heading back to Commonwealth Avenue to restart the process all over again.<\/p>\n She got off at the second stop, looking at her watch again. \u00a0Fifteen minutes to get two doors down and two flights up. \u00a0Not a problem, so she walked, not ran like some of the other kids were doing. \u00a0She didn\u2019t know what their hurry was; she had all day.<\/p>\n She finished her shower, turning the water off suddenly. \u00a0Shivering a bit in the chill air, she toweled herself off, avoiding looking in the mirror. \u00a0Kate then got dressed in her t-shirt and shorts again, and headed back out to … Continue reading
\n<\/strong><\/strong><\/p>\n