Page 55 of Already Lost

“Hmm.” Laura nestled a little further intoher seat and yawned. It wasn’t her usual style, but…

Maybe just this once.

***

Laura wandered through her empty apartmentin bare feet, enjoying the feeling of being dressed in jeans and a plaint-shirt for once. It wasn’t often she got the chance to sit around doingnothing on a weekday. Normally it was because she was off work for medicalreasons, ordered by Chief Rondelle to stay at home, but this time she actuallyfelt fine. He and Nate were being far too cautious about making her take timeoff, given the fact the sedative had worn off pretty quickly.

Still, having a day off to herself waspretty nice, as it happened.

She grabbed a half loaf of bread from thecounter and checked, pleasantly surprised to find that it hadn’t gone bad yet.All she needed was some kind of filling and she was on her way to a sandwich.

There was a knock at the door which madeher frown and pause. She wasn’t expecting anyone today. Nate was in the officedoing paperwork, and besides, he would let her know he was coming ahead oftime. Maybe a delivery – though she didn’t recall ordering anything.

She moved to the door and looked throughthe peephole, and immediately clasped her hand over her mouth to stop herself fromgiving away her presence by making any noise. Maybe if he didn’t know she wasthere, he would go away.

Zach knocked loudly again, and Laura groanedinwardly. He was a psychic like her, after all. For all she knew, he’d alreadyseen she was home in a vision.

Besides, he’d been trying to get in touchwith her for days. If she just let him in now, when she knew that Chris wasn’tgoing to be anywhere near her, maybe that would be alright. Then she could putoff meeting him for another while to prevent their paths from ever crossing.

She opened the door, trying her very bestto smile at Zach instead of grimacing. “Hi,” she said.

“Hello!” Zach answered cheerfully,breezing past her quickly and pushing his way into the apartment. “I’ve beentrying to get ahold of you.”

Laura turned with wide eyes, wondering howhe’d managed to get the jump on her that quickly and just make his way inside.It was something to do with his grandfatherly manner – you didn’t expect itfrom him.

“Zach,” she said. “I’ve only just comeback from working a case. I’m supposed to be on medical leave.”

He turned and looked her over withconcern. She hadn’t closed the front door. “Are you alright?”

“Well, yes, I’m fine,” Laura said,struggling with the instinct to not lie and the fact that she didn’t want himto stay for long if it could be helped. “I’m quite tired. Is there somethingthat you wanted to talk about?”

“I won’t keep you long,” he said. “I justwanted to ask about your visions. Have you been getting them lately?”

Laura closed the door quickly and steppedaway from it, not wanting any of her neighbors to overhear the way he wastalking. “I don’t know,” she said, which was obviously a stupid and confusingresponse and wouldn’t help to make it sound like she was telling the truth. Sheamended herself immediately. “I mean, I’ve been getting dreams. I don’t knowyet whether they’re visions or not.”

“I’ve had a few dreams myself,” Zach said.“No new visions though, not since we last spoke. It’s the same as how youdescribed. It seems to be getting worse.”

“I don’t know what’s causing it,” Laurasighed. As much as she wanted some time to herself, it was true that theyneeded to get to the bottom of this. The whole reason she had allowed contactwith Zach in the first place was because she wanted to understand her abilitybetter. Now that this was happening… she needed to find the answers. Workingtogether was the only way they could get even remotely close to doing that.

“I’ve been thinking,” Zach said. “I havetwo possibilities. The first is that my visions led me to you because this wasgoing to happen, and the only way we can solve it is by working together. Theother option is that we’re causing it ourselvesbybeing close to oneanother. Maybe there’s some kind of interference caused by our interactionsthat’s stopping the visions from getting through.”

“We should test it,” Laura said, seizingon that idea immediately. “We should go complete no contact for a few weeks andsee what happens. And I mean nothing – no calls, no texts. We don’t speak atall. We’ll check in with one another on – what, the same date exactly a monthfrom now?”

“That sounds fair,” Zach said, tilting hishead from one side to the other. “I’m not sure it will work, mind you, but it’sworth trying. A scientific method. I like your approach!”

“Thanks,” Laura said, almostabsent-mindedly. She was just focused now on getting him out of the apartment.Of making sure that she didn’t need to worry about him meeting Chris for atleast another month – and maybe further beyond that, if it turned out that thesecond option was right. “Well, I’ll contact you in a month, then.” Shere-opened the door, gesturing through it as an indication that it was time forhim to leave.

“Oh,” Zach said, looking up into thedoorway.

Laura turned her head and her heart nearlyplummeted through the floor.

“Hi,” Chris said, looking between her andZach hesitantly. “Is this a bad time?”

Laura could hardly speak. It washappening. All she’d done to avoid it, and it was happening.

Chris was holding a takeout container inhis hands. He’d come to surprise her with lunch. She’d told him about themedical leave, and he must have decided to come over.

And now, despite all her best efforts –she was going to lose them both.

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