Angel's Dance (26 page)

Louis let go of her, unable to hold
her up anymore and gasped, staring at what he had done. He decided
that she definitely looked better like this. As he got his
breathing under control, he stood up straight. Yes, this was much
better. He pulled her body into a resting position on the bed and
curled up next to her. Now everything would be alright, now that
bruha would let him go and leave him be. What she wanted was
destroyed so she would leave him be.

As Clear cringed watching
him cling to Kat’s corpse, she realized what he was thinking. The
nausea began to ease. This wasn’t real. This hadn’t happened. This
was simply what he
wanted
to do to Kat. What he wanted to do because he was
so completely and utterly terrified of Clear. She swallowed down
the bile. And if this is what he wanted to do, then Kat must be
alive somewhere.

Clear groped about for some lines
attached to this line, because that pattern had already made itself
clear. Memories, thoughts, ideas all seemed to be connected to the
same source. She had to find the line that would lead her to the
truth about Kat and where Kat was.

Clear was feeling weak and ill. Being
trapped inside the mind of a mad man was a very terrible and vile
thing. She had direct access to every thought, every twisted idea
that had come into his mind. And it was in this darkness that she
would find the answers about Kat. So she continued to wade through
the mire of evil in this man, looking for some hint of where Kat
was. She found that the darker strands seemed to be linked to real
events. The darker the strand, the less he seemed to want to
remember it.

She had now had several encounters
with Kat and was deeply impressed with the girl. Kat had
repeatedly, and to the immense disappointment of Louis, refused to
be compliant. She was full of attitude and snarky. She refused to
let him see any fear in her, no matter what he did to her. She spit
in his face, called him a murderer and a coward and repeatedly
threatened that her dad was going to get him. Sadly all of this
angst actually excited him more. His father had told him to get rid
of her. She was going to get him caught. But in the moment, he
didn’t care. She was so remarkably beautiful and completely unfazed
by him.

At least that is how it
seemed to him. He had none of the disdain for Kat that he had for
Bella. As a matter of fact, the fact that Kat didn’t have the
freedom, Clear knew that their relationship was basically the
opposite of what Louis had with Bella.
He
was Kat’s Bella, hanging on
everything she said to him, desperate to find a way to get her to
notice him. Except that where Bella had turned herself inside out
to get Louis to notice her, Louis was contemplating ways to turn
Kat inside out to get her to praise and notice him.

He was surprisingly curious about his
own psychosis. He knew that he wasn’t normal and often,
particularly after torturing Kat, he would drag himself down
twisted memories with his father. He blamed his father for what he
was and Clear had to desperately fight away from these memories as
she knew that they would not be productive in getting Kat back and
could possibly break Clear’s own fragile mind.

At one point in an effort to flee from
another one of these twisted reminisces, Clear literally tripped
over the darkest thread she had yet seen. As a matter of fact, if
she hadn’t tripped over it she probably would not have even seen
it. What could have possibly made this memory so dark that it had
been all but invisible?

Instantly Clear knew that this was the
thought that would lead her to Kat. The secret he was most
desperate to keep from the witch. She grabbed on tight and followed
it through so many dark and twisted encounters with Kat. Several
times she thought about switching out to another thread, but if she
could just stick to it, part of her knew that she would eventually
find the way to Kat.

Chapter
Eighteen

Grant was becoming frantic. He had no
idea what was going on, but Louis had been unconscious and Clear
had been catatonic for nearly a half-hour. He kept checking their
pulses and both seemed stable, though Clear’s pulse had leapt up
several times. It was the only change in her otherwise frozen
state.

Not knowing what else to do, Grant
called Anne. Anne had personal experience with Clear’s unique
condition and abilities. As a doctor, Grant hoped she would be able
to give him advice about how to proceed with Louis as well. As the
phone rang, Grant realized that he had himself in quite a
predicament. He didn’t know what to tell anyone should he need to
call the EMT’s. He was so far off the reservation right
now.

Anne finally picked up the phone and
Grant was grateful for the interruption to the turn his thoughts
had taken. “Hello?” Anne murmured groggily.

Grant realized that he had no idea
what time it was. “Anne, it’s Grant… I have… a.. well, a situation.
I need your help.”

“
Grant?” Anne whispered,
sounding very confused. “I thought you were in Chicago? What…” He
could hear her crawling out of bed. “What are you doing?” He heard
a door close and her volume rose a bit. “Is Clear
alright?”

“
I don’t know. That is why
I am calling. I was hoping you might be able to tell me.” He filled
her in as much as he could, without mentioning the incredibly
illegal nature of what he and Clear were currently doing. “And she
hasn’t moved since. I think this is psychic-related, but I couldn’t
very well tell that to the EMT’s… and I thought you were really the
only person who might help me know what to do,” he finished, hating
how helpless he sounded.

The line was quiet and he wondered if
Anne had gone to sleep. Finally she sighed on the other line. “You
said their pulse rates are steady?”

“
Yes.”

“
Check the dilation in her
eyes,” Anne instructed.

“
Uhhh…”

“
Get a light and shine it
in her eyes, are they dilating?”

Grant looked around for a light. He
had nothing, so he used the screen of his cell. Clear’s eyes
dilated ever so slightly. “Uh, yeah.”

“
Both?” Anne
asked.

“
Yes, both eyes are
dilating,” Grant confirmed.

“
Is she rigid?”

“
Completely. Her hands are
clawed up. She hasn’t moved at all since this started.”

“
Blow into her eyes, see
if she blinks.”

Grant did and Clear closed her eyes
against the breeze. When the breeze stopped, she opened her eyes.
He didn’t know what it meant, but seeing her move released a well
inside of him. He felt less afraid. “Yeah, doc. She
reacted.”

“
Now, pinch her. See if
she flinches.”

“
What?” Grant was more
than a little baffled, but did as he was told. She didn’t move. Not
at all..”

“
Okay, now… go over to the
guy. Are his eyes open?”

“
No. He fainted… I’m
pretty sure.”

“
I don’t think so,” Anne
murmured. “Pinch him, but watch Clear.”

“
What?”

“
Pinch him, but watch
Clear’s reaction. Preferably wherever you pinch him, look for a
reaction in Clear.”

Grant pinched Louis’s arm and looked
at Clear’s arm. It jumped. “What does it mean, Doc?” he asked in
awe, all sense of well-being gone.

“
It would seem that
Clear’s powers are growing… exponentially,” Anne murmured. “She is…
well… somehow she got inside his head. She is literally inside him
right now. This is…. It is so
completely
opposite of what we were
trying to achieve.” Anne sounded bitter and angry. Grant was a
little afraid that she was angry with him.

“
So…well, how long will
this last?” he asked uncertainly.

“
I don’t know! As far as I
know, this is the first time this has ever happened… I don’t know
if she will be able to find her way out.” Anne sounded afraid. That
made Grant even more afraid.

“
So… what do I do?” Grant
whispered.

“
I don’t know,” Anne
whispered back. “I guess you just have to wait.”

Grant felt ill as he hung up. He
gently caressed Clear’s arm. “Oh God,” he murmured. “What have I
done to you?”

An hour later Grant was starting to
drive himself crazy with all the ‘what if’s’. He had entered the
fourth ring of hell and could not possibly beat himself up anymore.
Not only was he going to lose his daughter, but he may have lost
Clear as well. He was going to lose his job for this and he would
be truly and utterly alone with nothing to change it.

As he began to contemplate how things
had turned out the way they were, Clear began to twitch. At first
he didn’t notice it really; then he realized that her fingers were
spasming ever so slightly. He moved over to her and looked for
anything in her face. Her eyebrows had tightened. Something was
happening!

“
Clear?!” he whispered,
putting his hands on either side of her face. “Clear, are you
there?” he pleaded. She didn’t respond, but suddenly her arms began
to tremble ever so slightly. He began to rub her arms. “Clear,
please, tell me you are ok? Clear, honey?”

Suddenly her whole body went limp and
he was barely able to catch her dead weight and guide her to the
floor without banging her up too badly. Her eyes rolled back in her
head and she began to seize!

Grant grabbed his wallet and shoved it
into her mouth to keep her biting off her tongue and then held onto
her tightly as her body began to jerk and flop about
uncontrollably. He tried to protect her head by cradling it in his
lap. He was afraid he was going to hurt her as hard as he was
holding on, but was more afraid how much she would hurt herself.
Her back began to arch sharply, her feet and head pressing into the
ground.

She peaked with her back curved in a
perfect bow shape and then she collapsed. Her eyes were closed and
the trembling had stopped. Grant rubbed her arms and face. “Clear,
please. Oh God, Clear!” He was surprised to see her face was wet
and thought that it was from his own tears when he touched his face
and realized that he was crying, but then her eyes opened and the
tears were flowing free. She tried to pull herself up and Grant
grabbed her and pulled her up to him, hugging her fiercely. Her
arms weakly came around him and they sat there like that for a
moment. His heart was pounding a whooshing in his ears. He could
feel that she was breathing and that was all that mattered. The
seizure had stopped. She was alive. God, she was alive.

Suddenly he became aware that she was
weakly trying to push him back. He could hear her rasping words. He
pulled back. “What?!? What can I do?” he pleaded.

“
Water..” she rasped. He
ran to the back office and got her a glass. He ran back to her and
she took a small sip then smiled at him. “I found her,” she
whispered.

Grant was so overwhelmed and in
surprise that he didn’t understand what she was saying. She must
have seen the confusion on his face, because she whispered. “Kat… I
think she is ok.” Grant fell back on his butt. He tried to process
what she was saying. Only ten minutes ago he was certain that he
had lost the two women he loved most in this world, and now Clear
was telling him that he was going to get them both back. It was
such a mind shift that he just sat silently for a moment. Then he
looked up and realized Clear wasn’t the only one who had come back
around.

Louis, still tied to the chair, was
staring at Grant and Clear malevolently. Grant had not believed
that a face could hold such Evil, but he was watching it now. And
it made him desperately afraid for Clear and Kat.

Clear struggled to pull herself to her
feet. Grant pulled her up, letting her lean on him. “She is at his
flat. Well, near his flat. Come on, let’s go get her.”

All Grant wanted to do was to run to
his daughter, but looking at Louis he knew that they had to do this
right, or Kat and Clear would always be running from this
psychopath. He led Clear outside away from the monster and leaned
her against the wall.

“
You’re sure she is ok?”
he asked, looking deeply into her eyes.

Clear looked away from him. “She is
alive. She… she is a very strong girl… but, no she is not ok,”
Clear whispered.