Authors: Trisha Grace
She placed her pencil down, took another look at the sheet music in front of her, and grinned.
She loved the song, and she was sure it would be fabulous for Nicole.
She wanted to call Nicole right away, but she wanted Christopher to hear it first. She removed her noise-canceling headphones and ran down the stairs.
“Rebecca?” She frowned; not just because Rebecca was sitting on the couch, but because her hand was cradling Christopher’s face.
“Chloe.” Christopher stood and walked over to her.
That was the first time he’d said her name that way; that one word was surrounded by a glowing red halo. She stopped at the bottom of the stairs. “What’s she doing here?” she asked softly.
Rebecca stood and said, “You have to talk to the press—both of you. I don’t know how your mom got an interview with the largest gossip magazine in the world, but you need to step up and do something or Chris’s reputation will be affected as well.”
“No.” Christopher took her hand. “I’ve already told her no.”
“I know someone who owes me a favor,” Rebecca continued.
Chloe couldn’t help but roll her eyes. “You mean someone whom you’re blackmailing. And perhaps if you hadn’t leaked all this information to the press, none of this would’ve happened in the first place.”
“All this had nothing to do with me. I’d never do anything to hurt Christopher.”
“Not even to break us apart?”
Rebecca’s face didn’t reveal a hint of expression. The only reaction was the longer than necessary blink of her eyes. “You helped him sing again, so for now, you’re okay.”
“For now?” Christopher stepped toward Rebecca. “Rebecca, if you do anything … to hurt Chloe, I’ll never forgive you.”
“She isn’t good for you! Look at the trouble she’s caused!”
Chloe blinked as red powder exploded across the room, heading right toward her. She took a step to the side, avoiding the direct impact of something she knew was only happening in her head. At that moment, when she looked at Rebecca, Chloe felt as if she really saw who Rebecca was—someone who cared about Christopher.
Chloe was annoyed at her own insensitivity. She should have more compassion for Rebecca. After all, she knew what it was like to feel crazy.
She closed her eyes and sighed softly. “What can I do?”
“Chloe, I don’t want you to do any interview. I know how much … you treasure your privacy.” Christopher hooked his arm across her waist and turned her around.
“If she doesn’t say anything, your fans are just going to think you’re making another bad choice.”
“I don’t care what others think.” He stopped and turned to Rebecca. “If I have to lose my fans or my singing career to protect Chloe from the craziness of the industry, I will.”
“You’re choosing her?” Rebecca said. The red powders fell to the ground like raindrops, morphing into deep purple as it hit the ground heavily.
She pursed her lips, but Rebecca’s sadness didn’t linger.
“Don’t force me to hurt her the way I hurt my parents.”
Again, there wasn’t any color from Rebecca’s words.
“Leave,” Christopher said as he stretched his arm protectively in front of her.
“Have you taken your medicine?” Chloe asked as calmly as she could.
“I don’t need any medication! I’m not crazy!”
“Of course not, but you’re—”
Christopher stopped her from going down the steps. “Rebecca, listen to me.”
The anger melted from Rebecca’s face when she turned to Christopher.
“We’ll talk about this another time, all right?” Christopher spoke as if he were talking to an enraged animal that might pounce on them at any time.
Rebecca must have noticed. She shook her head and grabbed her bag. “I’m sorry. I don’t know why I said that. I should go.” She hurried out of the house and slammed the door behind her.
“I thought you didn’t like her.”
Chloe continued staring at the closed door. “I saw the colors.” She looked at him. “It only showed up when she was talking about you. Then it disappeared again when she talked about her parents.”
“I’ve never seen her like this,” Amy said.
Chloe hadn’t noticed Amy standing near the couch.
“Neither have I, but I think she’s proven that the detective was right to be suspicious.”
“Detective?” Amy went over to the door and locked it. “Is there something I should know?”
“Bring your mom up to date,” Chloe said and went back to her room. She slid the window aside and stepped onto the balcony. She leaned against the rail and watched the colors as the water rushed by, right in front of her house.
“Is there something I should apologize for?”
She grinned and shook her head. “It could’ve been me.”
“What?”
“I was committed, too, remember? I could’ve been like her.”
When she was young, she didn’t know others couldn’t see what she saw. When she first spoke of the colors and images, her parents simply ignored her, then they got annoyed and warned her to stop lying.
She wasn’t lying, but she stopped talking about the colors and words. She got punished whenever she spoke of them, so she stopped.
Her reaction, however, wasn’t as cooperative.
“You were committed because your parents didn’t … believe in your superpower.” Christopher stood beside her and pushed her hair behind her shoulder.
She pursed her lips as she recalled the lectures she often received for daydreaming, for not having the manners to look at her parents while they were speaking. At first, they thought she had ADHD, so she was sent to a doctor.
When she explained the reason for her distraction, she received a referral letter to a psychiatrist. Before she knew what was happening, she was committed and treated as if she were a mental patient.
“You’re not crazy.”
No, she wasn’t. “But if Mr. Upton didn’t show up, I may have been locked inside my whole life.”
Despite dozens of brain scans and endless consultations with various doctors, she was still stuck in the hospital, labeled and treated as a mental patient.
Thankfully, after two weeks in the hospital, a world renowned scientist declared her perfectly sane and she was finally vindicated.
“I see images and colors. She hears voices. The images, colors, and voices all happen only in our heads. You can’t see what I see, and we can’t hear what she hears.” She sighed and shook her head, then described what she saw when Rebecca spoke about him.
She paused and gave him a wry smile. “I had to step aside because it felt so real to me. I know it wasn’t real, that the explosion wasn’t going to hurt me, but that knowledge wasn’t enough. I still took a step to the side to avoid the imaginary explosion.”
“Your superpower isn’t dangerous. You don’t hurt people.”
She smiled and sighed softly. “Maybe she can’t control it, just like I can’t.”
“She can take her medicine.”
“I was given medication, and I refused to take it as well.”
“Because you don’t need it, she does.” He draped his arm over her shoulders and pulled her closer. “And I love how you’ve embraced your superpower. You used to hate it and never talk about it, but now you trust your power.”
She nudged him in his ribs. “Stop it.”
“All right, but you’ve changed—for the better, of course.”
“You have, too.” She cupped her hand against his cheek and ran her thumb under his wound. “You’re tougher.” She ran her hand down his arm, feeling the curve of his muscle. “Stronger.”
“Are you trying to seduce me?” He leaned in closer.
She grinned and shook her head.
He gave her a peck on her lips and rested his forehead against hers. “I’m sorry I wasn’t there for you when you needed me.”
She closed her eyes and smiled as she felt his warm breath against her lips. “I thought we were done apologizing.”
“I just want you to know that I’ll never leave you alone to deal with anything on your own again.”
She tipped her head back and tugged at his T-shirt.
He closed the gap and kissed her again. She breathed in deeply and moved her hands up his shoulders. She hooked her arms over his neck as he wrapped his hands across her waist and pulled her tight against him.
She broke into a smile, and he deepened the kiss.
She wanted so badly to continue the kiss, but she pushed against his chest and stepped back. “Your mom’s downstairs, and I still have a song to complete.”
“Right,” he said as his chest rose and deflated sharply. “Right, of course.”
She tiptoed and gave him another peck. “I love you.”
Chloe thought the excitement for the day would have ended after all that had happened.
She polished up the song she’d written for Nicole and grabbed her cell phone. She was about to call Nicole when she thought about Rebecca again.
She leaned back against the chair and thought about what she’d told Christopher. She was lucky she was born in a time when her condition was considered a quirk in her brain instead of a curse or a madness in the mind.
She grabbed her laptop and ran a search on schizophrenia.
Hallucination, paranoia, and confusion.
Shaking her head, she took a deep breath as she imagined what was going on in Rebecca’s mind. The voices she would have to battle each day.
Just imagining having to go through that every day was causing her chest to tighten.
She exhaled heavily and stood, walking around while focusing on her breathing.
“Chlo.”
She stopped and turned around to see Christopher standing behind her. “What is it?”
“Your mother is asking for you to go back to the house.”
“Is she downstairs?”
Christopher shook his head. “She called my mom. I think she tried calling you.”
“I switched off my phone.” She knew her mother would be calling or texting. “Just ignore her.”
Christopher’s head bobbed up and down slowly.
“Do you think I should go?”
“My mom said she sounded … frantic.”
Chloe waved it off. “She always does that. Remember that time when she called me all frantic and claimed that the house was robbed because I left the house key on the door?” She had been so worried and guilty while rushing home from school, only to find out that nothing had happened. The house wasn’t robbed. Her mother was simply punishing her for leaving the key on the gate.
His lips hooked into a wry smile. “You’re right. What … are you reading?” He leaned toward the laptop.
“It’s nothing.”
“You’re reading … up on schizophrenia? Why are you suddenly so concerned … about her?”
“Why are you suddenly so against her?”
“She … crossed the line when she threatened you.”
She cupped her hand over his and smiled. “Do you remember what happened on sports day?”
“The same thing at … the airport.”
“I didn’t have my earplugs in, and I got overwhelmed by the noise.”
“And you fainted.”
She closed her eyes. “The colors swamped me. They were so overwhelming that I couldn’t breathe. I knew the colors couldn’t hurt me, that nothing was actually enveloping me. But I couldn’t take it and I fainted.” She sighed softly. “Imagine she has to deal with a condition that’s a hundred times worse than mine; imagine the battles she has to fight every day.”
“She’s basically admitted to killing her parents, Chloe.”
“I’m sure—” She stopped and looked at Christopher’s ringing phone.
He sighed and picked up the call. “Yeah, I’m still with her. What? Are you sure? All right, I’ll go over and see what’s going on.”
“My mother called again?”
“No, my mom decided to drive by your house to see if everything’s all right. She saw Rebecca’s car outside the house.”
“Rebecca? I’ll go with you.”
Christopher opened his mouth, seemingly ready to retort, but he nodded in the end. “Let’s go then.”
They got into the car and drove to her house.
Though it was dark and the streets weren’t well-lit, it was easy to spot Rebecca’s car. Theirs was a quiet and boring neighborhood. So even though she’d only been back for a short period of time, she was already used to seeing the same cars parked in the same place.
The spot where Rebecca parked her car was usually empty, so though Chloe could barely make out the color of the car, she was certain that it belonged to her.
Christopher stopped the car behind Rebecca’s and stepped out.
“I don’t have the key,” she said as they got nearer to the door.
The curtains were drawn, but Chloe could still see the lights through the curtains.
Christopher turned the knob and the door opened.
She was about to shout for her mother when Christopher placed his hand on her back and shook his head. He pressed his index finger to his lips and pushed her behind him.
“Please, please let me go. I won’t tell anyone what happened.”
Chloe pointed to the kitchen where the colors were oozing out from.
“You’re a horrible person. You hurt Chris. I saw the cut on his face; he told me you threw a trophy at him.”
“No, no, wait. That was an accident. I never meant to hurt him.”
“But you did!”
Chloe recoiled from the bright red explosion that came blasting out of the kitchen. She shut her eyes, reminding herself that whatever image the colors formed wouldn’t hurt her.
“Chloe.”
She gasped when she felt a gentle touch on her neck.
“Shh …” Christopher tugged her face closer. “Call the police. I’ll go in.”
She glared at him. There was no way she would let him go into the kitchen alone.
He sighed softly. “Stay behind me.”
She nodded.
Though her feet weren’t making any noise, she still tried to lighten her footsteps.
“Rebecca,” Christopher said when he stepped into the kitchen.
“Chloe!” her mother shouted.
Chloe pursed her lips when she saw her mother seated on one of the chairs by the dining table. The chair had been shifted closer to the stove.
She had never seen such wild fear in her mother’s eyes. Streaks of maroon blood stained her mother’s right cheek, right where Christopher’s injury was.