Understanding dawned on him. “Your trip around the states.”
“Canada too. Did I forget to mention that?”
“Yes.”
“We went through Canada too. Searching for… You know, after all these years, I still don’t know what she was searching for. Ever since I was a little girl, she was into the occult and supernatural. She went to mediums, she held séances and did Ouija parties with all her friends who were into the same things. She read tarot cards and had hers read.
“Even before she learned there was something different about me, our vacations were spent driving to haunted places so she could explore them. My father indulged her, and when I was little, I believed all the different haunted houses, hotels, and cemeteries were cool. As I got older, I resented that I couldn’t kick back, watch TV, go swimming, or relax during my school breaks, like my friends.”
“Whywas your mother so fascinated with the paranormal?”
“I don’t know,” she admitted. “Every time I asked her, it was a different answer. She once told me she’d seen a ghost and was determined to prove they existed. Another time she told me she believed she had ESP. Once, she told me she could divine tarot cards, and another time she said a psychic told her that her search would lead her to a higher level of understanding.”
“And how did she find out about you?” he asked.
“Because I’m a moron and I told her. But I was dumb enough at twelve to believe that if I told her, the proof such supernatural abilities did exist would end her quest. I washorrificallymistaken. It propelled her into a whole new realm of obsession.
“Instead of being centered on vacations, her search became our lives, and nothing was going to stop her until I became old enough to say no. After I told her, she made us go to every supernatural hunting group she could find on the internet, and there are atonof them out there.
“She contacted every talk show and newspaper she could. Most of them refused to talk to her. Yes, it’s a pretty unusual ability, but what normal person is going to watch or read about a kid having blood smeared on them so they can track down a person?”
“Not too many.”
“Exactly. But there were plenty of people who wanted to watch or hear about it. I was on a few paranormal radio shows and podcasts, a couple of local TV shows, and I was the central attraction at hundreds of group meetings. My ability paid our gas and food and allowed her to keep searching.”
The bitterness in her voice tugged at his heart as her gaze drifted away.
“I wassolonely,” she muttered. “And I was prey for anyone who recognized that loneliness.”
Saxon stiffened. “Did someone hurt you?”
“No. I was a stupid, lost girl looking for love inallthe wrong places. I was also looking for someone to rescue me. Then, one day, I realized I had to be my own knight in shining armor. I told my parents I was done traveling and wouldnotdo another meeting or interview.”
“How did they take it?”
“My mom got mad at first, and then she cried, but, for once, my dad was done catering to her and sided with me; she couldn’t argue with both of us.”
Saxon found himself disliking her mother. What kind of a woman got angry at her child and cried when that child told her she was unhappy?
“How didyoudiscover you could find people through their blood?” he asked.
“A stupid, stupid accident. One day my friend and I were playing in the yard; she fell and cut her hand on a piece of glass. I got her blood on me while I was helping to bandage the wound. After she went home, I could feel her presence, and the next day in school, when someone asked if I’d seen her, I told them she was in the gym.
“I didn’t realize until later that I hadnoway of knowing where she was. It wasn’t her normal gym period, but she’d skipped class to watch her boyfriend practice football. When I told my mom about my ability, and after she made it well known in town what I could do, my friend realizedshewas the reason I knew about my ability. We didn’t stay friends.
“Afterward, school became an experience in misery as even the teachers went out of their way to avoid the weird Bloody Girl. That was what they called me afterward, and believe me, no one wants to be known as the Bloody Girl, but it’s so muchworsefor a girl that age. As much as I’d grown to hate my mom’s quest for the supernatural, I was relieved when she announced our new home and mission.”
“I bet you were,” Saxon said.
Elyse didn’t tell him about the phone calls where she’d pick up and people would tell her to get out of town, that she was a freak, or she should die. She didn’t tell him about the letters in her locker or the red paint smeared over its surface.
She didn’t tell him how they put paint on her chair, and when she stood up, what looked like blood covered her. Their cruel laughter followed her from the room as she ran to the bathroom, where she locked herself in a stall. She didn’t emerge until after the day ended and she felt safe enough to walk the five miles home, at night, with her jacket wrapped around her waist. There were some things she preferred not to revisit.
“The day it first happened, that first time with the blood, I vividly remember the burnt copper smell on the air and… and…” She paused to think about how to describe it. “You know how sand gets squeezed through the center of an hourglass?”
“Yes.”
“It’s almost like that. Like I can feel the blood seeping into my cells and shaping them into something different. And those different cells belong to the person whose blood I’ve touched. It lasts for a few days before returning to normal. But for as long as my cells are alsotheirs, it’s like they’re a separate but joined entity ofme. Sometimes they’re as easy to find as my hand, and other times, they’re a little more elusive, but eventually, I find them.”
