Page 52 of Stalked

My death.

She flipped the next card. On it was a swirled circle that started out broad and became smaller until it met in the center of the card with a green triangle encasing it. I hadn’t looked at it longer than a few seconds before I felt my eyes roll to the back of my head, and my inner thoughts fell open to a different world around me.

In this realm, I saw a woman I somehow knew was my mother, Mary, from my past life, cradling me in her arms. A midwife wiped me down with a wet rag and wrapped me in a cream-colored blanket.

“We shall call her Mercy,” my mother said to the man I knew as my father, Alexander.

The scenes flipped past quickly, like scenes in an old-timey projector. First, there was me as an infant, wailing in a bassinet, while my mother shed tears into my father’s arms, saying she wasn’t good enough.

Good enough for what?

Next, I saw my childhood friends: Caleb, Simon, Ezra, and Leah. I saw myself grow to love them as my family. Next, I stood in a room with instructors teaching us how to fight. I threw punches at Caleb’s father; his name was Roland. Suddenly, I turned around to see someone I didn’t recognize charging toward me.

“Here comes one of them, Mercy,” Roland ordered, throwing me a wooden stake.

A stake?

As I turned around, I felt a blunt force slam into my chest as the strange man with ashy brown hair and dark, eerie eyes threw me to the ground. I wrestled with him, gripping tightly to the stake.

“Mercy, now! What are you waiting for?” Roland screamed.

I clutched the weapon as hard as possible and plunged it into his chest. The body of this man exploded on top of me, covering me in gray ash.

“Wake up.”

My eyes shot open when I heard Patricia’s voice.

“Oh, my God,” I gasped.

“What did you see?” she asked.

“The symbol had triggered the visions from my past life. I’ve had visions before, but nothing like this. This time, I felt things and touched them. I remember a huge part of my life from back then.” Pointing to the symbol on the card, I asked, “What does this mean?”

She looked at me with genuine fear in her eyes. “It means you’re a?—vampire hunter.”

_______________

PATRICIA AND Ispoke for over an hour. She shared how she had learned about a particular coven that was sent to Earth centuries ago. Still, the history books never mentioned that their purpose was to fight vampires. They only knew that each witch possessed an extraordinary power to help other witches manifest their own. They had only heard tales that vampires once existed, but the undead hadn’t been seen since the Salem trials.

My vision’s unsettling feeling came over me as I sat in my car in front of the small shop. Fighting vampires wasn’t an inconsequential part of my past life; it was the reason for my existence.

My phone beeped, and I looked down to see who it was.

Shannon:An animal attacked Riley last night. Meet me at his place.

My pulse jarred in my throat.

Me:An animal? What animal?

Shannon:His dad isn’t sure, but his leg got pretty cut up.

Me:On my way.

Not Riley. Please, God, help him be okay.

_______________

WHEN I ARRIVED, Shannon was waiting in the driveway for me.

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