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Joy burst out of the tree line into an open space, a clearing, the sky framed by branches all around. There was a sort of cabin, she supposed, built there – it looked old and was only large enough for a single room, but it was there. She surged towards it, thinking it might be shelter. She reached the door and pounded on it, but –
He was right behind her.
She managed to dart to the side just before he was upon her, her legs propelling her forward in an ungainly and desperate dash that had her arms flailing to the sides for balance. She threw herself back towards the trees –
She’d hit something with her foot, maybe another tree root, but the next thing she knew she was flying through the air. She landed heavy, coming down on her side, the air whooshing out of her at the impact. She only had time to turn slightly before he was upon her – over her – so close she could see his teeth bared in a grin.
So close she had no time, no time at all – Joy opened her mouth to scream as he trapped her arms with his legs, pinning her in place – his hands came down towards her and she was powerless to do a thing but watch…
And Joy knew it was over.
The last thought in her mind was that drink, that one more drink she decided to have, and the car sitting, waiting for her so that she could have driven home in safety--if she’d stopped before that drink.
CHAPTER TWO
Laura sat bolt upright in bed, drenched in sweat. She wasn’t even sure if she had screamed, but if she had, there was no one else in the apartment to hear it. She fought for breath for a moment until she could get herself back under control, holding her head in her hands.
What was that?
A vision, she was sure of it. But it had been so real, so visceral. It was like she was actually there, and not only that, but she was thereas the woman who had been attacked. Not like she was a camera following her, or even a camera looking through her eyes. She felt like she was the woman herself. She understood what she was thinking, felt her emotions, even felt the stabs of pain in the soles of her feet.
Laura had bad dreams before. She’d even had vision dreams. But this…
It was so much more, so much stronger than anything she’d ever seen.
It was like knowing Zach, the only other psychic she had ever met, had been a serious blessing. At first, their proximity to one another had caused both of their abilities to act up and go haywire, almost disappearing at points, but now… it was like it had come back better than ever before.
Almost like being close to another psychic had allowed her abilities to evolve and grow, maybe even to learn from his. Laura didn’t know how it worked. She never had known, which was always part of the problem. But something had happened – and now she could see better than ever.
Her head was pounding, an unfortunate side effect which always came with her visions. Laura felt the pressure on her neck, on the other woman’s neck, putting up her hands to touch the place where it had been. She was sure she had felt herself being strangled like it was real. It had happened to her recently, after all. The red marks had faded in the month or so since, but…
Laura scrambled out of bed and went to her bathroom, turning on the light. She stared at herself in the mirror above the sink. Same blonde ponytail, same blue eyes that she expected. But her neck was clear, the skin pale and white, no trace of a red mark on it. It was just a vision. The feeling was just… a ghost.
A ghost of something that hadn’t yet happened.
And that was the most important point – because Laura had been given a chance to see the future, and she needed to do something to make sure it never came to pass.
She walked out into her small living room, sitting down on the battered second-hand sofa that had been all she could afford after the divorce. She checked the time on her cell phone: It was a little after three in the morning.
But getting woken up at all hours of the night, or interrupted at all hours of the day, for a case – that was the job. That was being an FBI agent. And surely, surely, when a life was at stake… an agent wouldn’t mind.
Laura quit trying to reason with herself and dialed Nate’s number anyway, knowing she needed her partner by her side before she even attempted to do anything about what she had seen.
The line rang three times before he answered. “Laura? We have a case?”
“Not quite,” Laura said. She considered it. “But maybe.”
“What?” Nate’s voice was a little off, somewhat muffled by sleep, and she heard him shift in bed to look at the clock. “Laura, it’s three in the morning. I need you to make more sense than that.”
“I saw something,” Laura said, cutting right to the chase. “It’s not an official case. But it’s a murder. We have to stop it.”
“Okay.” Nate sounded a lot more alert immediately, like he’d sat up and woken up. “What do you want me to do?”
“Meet me,” Laura said. “Help me figure it out.”
“I’ll be there in fifteen,” Nate said, and hung up.
***
