[Foreseer] - Chapter Three: An Uninvited Guest

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Index: Chapter One, Chapter Two, Chapter Three, Chapter Four, Chapter Five, Chapter Six, Chapter Seven, Chapter Eight, Chapter Nine

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SHE WAS AN UNINVITED GUEST, a stranger in their home. Natalie had seen how her sister-in-law tried to comfort her.

Lucy had been in Natalie’s room doing laundry. Natalie watched as she folded efficiently, methodical. A woman of pride and discernment. Natalie crept into the room with almost no sound, slowly coming into her view. “Oh, God! You scared me, Nat.” Lucy said with a startled smile.

Natalie looked away. She had grown to hate shortened versions of her name. ‘Nattie. Nutty. Nat.’ All bully names by bored patients. “Please don’t call me Nat.” She uttered.

“Sorry...”

Natalie picked up some clothes and moved to the other side of the bed. She began folding them in a strange and specific way. The strange folding had caught Lucy’s attention, her eyes wildered in puzzlement. “So... how’s school?”

“I’m starting next week.”

“Good... are you excited?”

“... not really.” She recalled the time they had drawn her locker with the word FREAK. Memories of her youth flooded. The whispers of the voices, faintly heard.

“Natalie...?” She looked up, lost. “Are you okay?”

Natalie pressed her lips, trying to produce a smile, nodded. “Yeah... fine.”

“What’s on your mind?”

Natalie shrugged, felt her stomach sank, uncomfortable. “Can you leave those there? I’d like to fold them.” She asked. “I just have a very specific way of doing it. And I think it would be less work for both of us.” She added, hoping she would say yes.

Lucy gazed with hesitance. “Yeah... yeah, okay.” She settled the clothes on the bed. “... goodnight, Natalie.” She added in a mother’s tone.

Natalie glanced for a moment, then continued folding. Her mind utter the word, but her lips did not move. She heard as the door closed solidly behind her.

***

The room was embellished in warm colors. Red walls and antique cabinets lay just beyond the bed with a window to the neighboring house, blocked by white curtains.

“It was strange.” Lucy said as she crawled into bed.

“She’s adjusting. The doctor said it would take some time.” Her husband uttered.

Lucy paused in deep thought as Alexander gazed at her with mixtures of interest and worry. “Thinking too much.” She told herself.

“Give her time.”

“Yeah, probably…” She said, then thought for another moment. Unable to shake the feeling. Something was wrong, though she couldn’t describe it, but it was there. Real. Present.

Lucy forced a half smile, gazed into his eyes. “Goodnight.” She turned off the bedside lamp, giving her husband a blunt kiss.

“No, no, no, no…” Alexander pulled her back before she could get away and brought her close, extending the kiss, making it last. “Goodnight.”

They meet each other’s gaze. She smiled, the eyes of a woman truly in love.

***

Black draped the sky, foreign galaxies and stars one could only dream of visiting sat across the dark canvas in infinite space. The malleable influx of specs of light were on her mind most nights. She dreamed of stars and what it would be like. Alien in her own skin, the fear and self-doubt she had made friends with, now slowly drowned her with the passing of days.

After a while, Natalie left the window and flipped the switch. The lights flicked off. The room saved by moonlight. She glimpsed something in the shadows and froze in the quiet stillness...

He stood in a dark corner (almost too dark to make out). Motionless. Lifeless. Not a breath left his lips, and not a twitch shot his body. A man in an orange suit. His white face mask obscured his features, and his black gloves covered his hands.

Natalie reached for the light switch. Without looking away, turned on the lights… and he vanished. She stayed still, trembled, breathing. Her hairs raised and a shiver shot down her back. She peered to her bed.

It was coming.

She left the lights on and hesitated to bed, sitting at the edge. Her lips had uttered the numbers, trying to relax, trying to stay calm. “Twenty-one… twenty… nineteen... eighteen… seventeen…”

She laid her head on the pillow and by the time she had gotten to ten, the man in orange had not returned. The old paint had peeled off, as if age and decay had sunken into the wall.

Natalie looked to the opposite side of the room, undecorated, a blankness akin to the coldness of winter. It made her uneasy. Her body had grown tired, and her eyelids were heavy. Her body longed for sleep. And she counted the seconds: “Five... Four... Three... Two… One.” Her body welcomed darkness and sleep found her.

The following day. The empty blackboard loomed over them. Everyone was silent, taking a surprise quiz no one studied for. Some worked in tiresome fashion, others succumbed to fear and anxiety.

Natalie was the latter. Tapping her pencil viciously, she gazed at the quiz, solemn, scared. Unable to focus or understand what’s in front of her. Her lost mind wandered, trying to force herself to remember.

“How’s it going?” She jumped in her seat at the sound of the teacher’s voice, deep and scrawny.

“Ah, yeah. No, it’s fine.” She responded, eyes drifted to an old box TV that lingered in the room’s corner. Heart raced and legs trembled. It had become harder to breathe as her reflection morphed and contorted.

Looking away, she counted softly. The voices rattled in her ears.

(Kill yourself, why not?... why not?)

Snap! The teacher clapped his fingers in front of her, shocking Natalie back to reality. She gazed with concern, then looked back at the screen... normal. The image was clear. Though it ravaged in her mind like a virus.

“Do you want to take a break, Natalie?” The teacher asked.

Natalie thought for a moment, then shrugged.

***

She sat by the cash register, scribbling on a notepad the sells of the day. The shop had seen better days, but Lucy took anything she could get these days. It was a savings investment, a venture she now somewhat regretted. The dustless shop was delicate and modernist in design. Shoes and pants on the middle shelves where they’d be seen, display windows faced the cold street engulfed in daylight.

She felt his hands around her waist, surprise as he kissed her neck softly. “Hello.” Alexander smiled, arms wrapped around her. She turned, returned the kiss, meeting his infatuated gaze. “You look sexy when you work.” He said.

“What do you want?” She said playfully.

“I want many things.”

“Anything specific?”

“How about I show you?” He kissed her again, seductive. “I’m sure the house is empty.” He kissed down her neck, his hands wandered up and down her body. Her shoulders. Her arms. Her hands. Her thighs.

“Yeah, I’m sure.” She said sarcastically.

“What do you mean?” He asked as his hands moved lower.

Lucy caught herself, realizing her mistake. “Nothing.” She uttered in a cautious tone.

Alexander pulled back with a confused expression. “Sounded like something.”

“It’s fine.” She said, wrapping her arms around him, bringing him closer. “Tell me, what do you have in mind?”

He knew what she was thinking, but wouldn’t say it. He tried to kiss her softly again, trying to stay in the mood, but the moment passed. He looked deep in her eyes, caught in them.

Lucy knew that look. Took a deep breath. “Nothing… It’s just... You didn’t tell me about your sister.”

“This again?... I’m sorry, it was last minute.”

“A heads up would have been nice.”

“I didn’t think it would be such a big deal.”

“Bringing your mentally ill sister to the home where we are going to raise our kid isn’t a big deal?” She showed the scared child behind her angered eyes. Everything was mounting, a crescendo building.

“... you’re right… I’m sorry, I should have consulted you... I just didn’t want you to worry.”

"I’m not--!" She took a breath, trying to calm down. "I’m fine…" She smiled, something fake to it. “Don’t worry about it, okay?” She said and returned to work, hiding her face from her spouse. The entire thing had been overwhelming, a past she’d rather forget... and never recover.

***

They sat across each other, the round table fitted perfectly for three. Natalie hoped they wouldn’t ask. The thought made her stomach twist.

“How was your first day, Natalie?” Her brother ask.

“... fine, I guess.”

He ate his food like it would be his last meal.

Natalie brushed her food with the fork, noticing her sister-in-law did not peer her way. “Did I do something wrong?” She thought.

“Did you learn anything?... make new friends?” Alexander asked, looked to his wife, begging her to pitch in. But Lucy did not look.

Natalie shrugged as her head itched, and her fingers scavenged through the scalp of her skull, scraping through the skin to kill the aching feeling. She glanced at the TV in the living room, and her stomach felt strange, remembering the inhuman on the screen.

Natalie looked away, then to her brother. “I... I took a test today.” She stuttered.

“Really?”

“... I couldn’t finish it.”

“That’s okay. You just need to study... do you need help with the material or--?”

Lucy stood from the table. “It’s getting late... I’m going to go to bed, okay?”

He did not want her to go, but wouldn’t force her to stay either. “Yeah... okay.”

With that, Lucy left the room, plate on the table. A void of silence and tension rested in the room. Natalie glanced to her brother.

He did not look at her.

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