The Fine Line Book One Between Worlds Series (28 page)

“
This isn’t a contest or a
game. Matthew, this is a serious problem. It’s bigger than us. The
only way to make it through this is with faith,” she
explained.

“
I still find all of this
very hard to believe.”

“
How can you deny your
sight? You said to me a long ago that if you couldn’t see it or
touch it, you couldn’t believe in it. Well, Matt, you’ve seen it;
more than once.”

“
I don’t know. I guess I
still believe logic can prevail. And for the record, I also have a
real problem with what Olivia is doing. I just don’t understand
it.”

“
That’s what faith is all
about. You don’t have to understand anything. You just have to open
your mind and your heart. Learn to have faith that the Creator will
bring you through hardship. With that faith you ultimately believe
that the Creator exists. That’s really all it takes. Children are
very open to spirituality because they embrace things with a
child’s mind; unconditional acceptance. As children grow older...as
we grow older, any abilities we may have possessed are usually
killed by religious doctrine or our parents telling us that ghosts
aren’t real or skepticism of some sort.”

“
But I don’t believe in
this ‘Creator,’ Robin, that’s the problem.”

“
Let me pose it to you
like this. If evil exists, which I actually didn’t believe until
now, then we know it only makes sense that good exists,
right?”

“
I don’t know anything for
sure anymore. I really don’t. I never thought I’d have to live
through something like this.” He pulled away and took a deep
breath.

“
Let me see your cell
phone,” Robin continued.

“
The pictures; I’d almost
forgotten.” He took his camera phone from his pocket and opened the
application. He stared.

“
I don’t believe
it.”

Robin stood and walked to him. She looked at
the screen over his shoulder. They were awestruck by what they saw.
One of the photos filled the screen with lights and unexplainable
orbs floating through the air. Another one of the photographs
featured a transparent figure. Small in stature, the figure
appeared to be a little girl with a red bow in her hair, but that
wasn’t the unbelievable part. Behind her, several feet away, stood
a large, dark, ominous figure that didn’t even touch the ground. It
had no eyes, no limbs, and no other features.

“
Save these,” she
suggested. “They will be very useful.”

Only Human

The first nine weeks of school for Olivia
yielded A’s and B’s. She joined the basketball team at the
suggestion of her therapist. Work schedules were adjusted once
again to accommodate for the activities.

January marked Robin’s fifth month of
pregnancy. The life inside of Robin’s body became more alive. The
flutters of movement caused the unbreakable bond of motherhood to
form.

Robin and Matt sat on the bleachers waiting
for the basketball game to start. She reached over into the bag of
popcorn Matt held in his hand.

“
Craving salt, again?” he
asked.

“
Always,” she answered as
she grinned.

“
At least it’s not bananas
and peanut butter sandwiches again.”

Robin became restless and her tailbone
started hurting. She wiggled and squirmed on the hard, wooden
bleacher.

“
Back hurt?” he
asked

She nodded.

“
It’s only going to get
worse.”

“
Thanks for the
encouragement Dr. Gregory,” she said sarcastically.

Unexpectedly, she felt claustrophobic so she
got to her feet. She made her way down the bleachers and to the
exit walking out into the cool air. To her surprise, Robin saw
Audrey standing beside Matt’s truck. Robin looked twice to make
sure she wasn’t hallucinating.

Puzzled by the unexpected visit, she smiled
and walked toward Audrey. The parking lot lights were bright and
the beams bounced off of her dark hair.

“
Robin,” Audrey began,
“can I talk to you for a moment?”

“
Sure,” she answered as
she got closer. “What are you doing here?”

“
I just couldn’t stay
silent any longer.”

“
What do you
mean?”

“
You deserve to know the
truth. You deserve to know that Matt and I are in love.”

Robin’s face fell. A pit formed in her
center. She shook her head in refusal.

“
It’s true,” Audrey
continued. “It’s been going on for some time now. Surely, you have
to know.”

Logic returned to Robin momentarily. Surely
what Audrey said had to be impossible. Matt’s hours had gotten
better. There had been no more late nights at the hospital and no
more long hours. Yet, a shred of doubt existed and from that doubt
grew the seed of mistrust. In her mind’s eye she imagined Matt
being seduced by Audrey and giving in. She imagined them throwing
caution aside, Matt’s hand gliding across his desk, throwing
everything onto the floor, and them making love in his office. It
made her physically sick.

“
I kept trying to convince
him that it was wrong. He kept promising me we’d tell you. Then you
got pregnant,” Audrey persisted.

“
I don’t believe you,” she
said. She hoped her spoken words would convince herself. She choked
back her emotions.

“
I couldn’t keep it a
secret anymore. I knew once I told you, you’d leave him. You’re a
good, respectable woman. You want honesty from your husband, just
like any wife does. It’s because of his dishonesty that I knew you
wouldn’t stay with him once I told you.”

Her eyes opened wider.

“
So, you just want me to
disappear?”

“
Well, of course not. You
are carrying his baby. But, think about it. Do you want to stay
with someone like that? Someone like him?”

Robin threw up her hands.

“
I need to think and you
need to leave.”

Audrey smiled.

“
I just wanted you to
know. I love him. This isn’t some half-assed fling. I want to spend
the rest of my life with him. And he loves me just as much as I
love him.”

“
Leave!” she
shouted.

Robin’s hands trembled as she pulled her
phone from her coat pocket. Quickly, she sent Wendy a text message.
She demanded that Wendy pick her up in the parking lot. Confusion,
betrayal, heartbreak; those feelings wrapped around her like a
snake preparing to devour its prey. Blinded by raw emotion, she
didn’t even tell Matt that Wendy would be picking her up. She
didn’t want to see his face. She couldn’t get Audrey’s horrible
words out of her head and she certainly couldn’t get the image of
Audrey and Matt having sex out of her mind either.

Wendy was there in less than 10 minutes.
They drove back to Terri’s place. Tears were all Robin could offer;
she couldn’t speak or explain anything.

As she sat in the kitchen at the apartment,
Wendy made tea.

“
Honey,” she began, “you
have to tell me what’s going on.” She paused. “Damn it, tell me
what is going on!”

Robin continued crying. Each time she tried
to speak, the tears overpowered her body making it impossible for
her to talk. Finally, however, she told Wendy everything Audrey
said.

Wendy merely shook her head.

“
I don’t believe one word
of it. Not Matt.”

Robin shrugged. The silence broke when
Robin’s cell phone rang. She refused to answer it.

It wasn’t long before Wendy’s cell phone
rang. She answered it, stood, and walked out of the room leaving
Robin alone with her insecurities.

After hours of talking, wondering, and
crying, Robin finally fell asleep on the couch.

****

The room was dark. A single light shone on a
gentleman sitting behind a small, shiny metal table. His back faced
her. The man looked familiar even if she couldn’t see his face, but
something drew Robin closer. She felt obsessed with discovering the
man’s identity. Slowly, she walked to him.

She couldn’t ignore the vastness of the
black room. It suffocated her. Closer and closer she came to the
man. Walking to the front of the table, she saw his unmistakable
and familiar features; Matt. His complexion gray, but the glimmer
in his eyes made her fall in love with him all over again. From
behind him, out of the darkness, came pale, bony hands. The long
fingers twisted into his hair. His eyes closed as the terrifying
fingers penetrated his skull. His eyes quickly opened and then
everything went black. Then a door appeared. It looked so far
away.

There was light coming out from around the
door. She walked to it craving the light. Without warning, the door
flung open. The wandering woman from the field near Pikeview Manor
revealed herself. The house stood behind the woman.

“
He is faithful,” the
woman began. “Doubt will take what belongs to you. She’s a liar!”
she shouted.

In an instant, scenes of life flashed before
Robin on a movie screen. All of the images contained Matt and
Audrey. Quietly, Robin observed Audrey’s gestures and demeanor. She
displayed treachery. Robin felt a hand on her should and she
turned. The woman, behind her now, her black hair whirling about
wildly, spoke yet again.

“
She’s a
destroyer.”

Robin shot up from the couch as she caught
her breath. She still felt the warmth of the woman near her.

“
Talk to him,” she heard
in her ear. “You will find him to be true,” the voice clear in her
mind.

The next day, Terri took Robin to work with
him and then took her home afterward. As she neared the door to the
kitchen, she saw Matt rushing through the living room. The door
flew open, much as it did in her dream. He embraced her. Fervently,
he gazed into her eyes.

“
Are you okay? I was so
worried! What happened? Why did you leave?” he asked.

She stood in the kitchen and confessed
everything. She could see he felt disoriented by the discussion,
but carefully, he offered reassurance to Robin. She remembered the
dream.

The following day Matt and Robin patiently
waited in his office at the hospital. The morning sun shone
brightly through the glass. Robin stood watching the specks of snow
falling onto the blacktop parking lot.

The clicking of heels alerted both of them
that someone was coming. Robin played her part well as she stood
behind the door in his office. She intended to stay there, waiting
for her cue. She heard Matt’s chair push away from the desk. He
left the office and met Audrey in the reception area. Robin heard
him say,

“
We need to
talk.”

Soon Robin heard both of them in Matt’s
office as she remained unseen and unheard behind the door.

“
First of all,” Matt
started, “you’re fired. Secondly, you and I will never communicate
with one another again. You’re lucky I’m not filing a complaint
with the board for sexual harassment. You’re also lucky that my
wife didn’t file menacing charges against you for cornering her in
the parking lot at the ballgame.”

She heard Audrey’s shrill voice. “I don’t
understand.”

“
You approached my wife
with a pack of black lies! Did you really think she wouldn’t come
to me with that?”

“
Matt, I have no idea what
you’re talking about.”

“
You are certifiable. Do
you realize that there are countless security cameras in that
parking lot?”

Robin didn’t hear a response.

“
Before you begin packing,
you should know that my wife and I are very much in love. The
greatest asset we have is trust.”

Robin beamed.

“
Audrey, I don’t want to
see you in here again. I’m calling security to have you escorted
out of the building,” he concluded as he picked up the phone
receiver from his desk.

“
Matt, I…”

“
Nothing you can say will
change the outcome here. You owe my wife and me an apology. Now,
please go to your desk and pack your things.”

Robin heard the clicking of her heels as
Audrey left the office. She emerged from behind the door and
followed her out. With her arms crossed, she smirked. Audrey’s face
dropped as she looked up from her desk to see Robin staring right
at her.

A security guard opened the door to the
reception area and crossed his arms.

“
Let’s go miss,” he said
curtly.