The Psychic Within

Chapter 2: Broken

"I... I think I did," I gasped. The patio around me seemed to sway.

"Whoa, easy there," Luc said, catching me. He guided me back down to my seat and knelt before me. "Are you alright?" His incredible green eyes—shadowed by his folded brow—searched my face.

"I don't... I don't know," I said, shaking my head. "I... I saw... I saw..." The girl's sunken face surfaced inside my mind, and I recoiled from the memory.

"Rachel? What did you see?" he asked, moving his hand to cradle my face. I wrapped my fingers around his wrist, holding it in place. My anger with him was forgotten. I was just thankful he was here. It would be all right as long as Luc was here...

"I think I saw..." I began again, then dropped my voice. "I think I saw a ghost."

I expected Luc's eyes to widen, reacting with the same fear that was strangling me, but his features remained perfectly still and calm. "That's impossible, Rachel," he said. "It couldn't have been a ghost."

I blinked at him. "What? Why? I mean, you're a... a..." My eyes darted around to see if anyone was watching us. They were, again, so I couldn't bring myself to say the word aloud. "You're a you-know. Don't you believe in ghosts?"

"Of course I do," he said plainly, not bothering to match my tone; he didn't seem to care about our audience. "But the fact that I am a psychic is precisely why I don't believe you've seen a ghost."

My mouth fell open, hurt piercing through me. "You don't believe me?"

"No, no, I didn't mean it like that," he said quickly. "It's just... It couldn't have been a ghost. It's impossible."

"You keep saying that, but it's not impossible!" I snapped back. "I saw a girl and she... She looked like a ghost..." Was she though? Luc's doubt was starting to make me second guess myself.

"Let's take a step back," he said, taking my scarred hand and giving it a heartening squeeze. "Start at the beginning. Tell me exactly what you s—"

A sharp spike of pain shot through my arm, surging along the ridges of scar. "Ah!" I cried, yanking it away from him.

Luc blinked at me in surprise. "What's wrong?"

"It's my scar." I grimaced at my arm as I shook it out. "It's been acting up again."

"Again?" he echoed. The fold in his brow was back. He took my left hand instead, his touch extra gentle. He began stroking the back of my hand in a slow rhythm. "Are you okay to continue?"

I dropped my now-numb arm on the table. "I t-think so."

"Then please continue."

I took a deep breath to prepare myself for facing the girl again, even if it was just in my head. "I was sitting here, waiting for you," I began, keeping my eyes closed as I tried to remember every detail. "I had just noticed you standing over there, but when I looked away for a second, you disappeared. So I was looking around for you when... when I saw her."

Her ravaged face flashed through my mind again—her pallid skin, her sunken eyes. A shudder ripped through me, and I had to stop for a moment to collect myself.

"What did she look like?" Luc prompted.

My eyes snapped open and met with his. "Normal, at first. Sort of sick, though. But when she noticed me and her eyes went wide and her face... Her face..." My mouth failed me again. Even though I saw her horrible face in my mind, I couldn't find the words to describe it.