147
We’d been driving for almost six hours when Felix slowed down and took the exit for Malta. I glanced at him and he gave me a lopsided smile. “I’m hungry.”
“Make it quick, we’ve still got about twenty hours ahead of us,” I said.
He pulled into a gas station and filled the SUV’s tank up. I stood outside and stretched my arms above my head as he spoke to a woman at the other pump. She was pointing him in another direction as he nodded his head.
“There’s a convenience store back that way,” Felix said.
“For what?” I asked him.
“Snacks for the road, listening to you snore isn’t as compelling as you think,” he said as I smiled.
“Please, you probably stare at me while I sleep and drool a little,” I said.
“Asshole.”
“Let’s just eat first, I need real food,” I said.
We stopped at an American restaurant and ate our fill. We’d barely been there an hour before we headed to the grocery store. Inside the store Felix grabbed a trolley and headed directly to the snacks aisle.
I froze in my tracks as Felix kept walking and I closed my eyes as a peculiar scent engulfed me. Felix was still talking to me, his voice closer than it had been. I opened my eyes and looked at him.
“Ryder, your eyes,” he said and I could feel Abeloth trying to take control. I pushed him back and my eyes returned to their normal colour.
“What the hell was that?” Felix asked me.
“Do you smell that?” I asked him.
“I smell cookies and fruit and female perfume, hormones and what not,” he said as he frowned.
“No, it’s something else,” I said and turned around. The aisle was empty except for the two of us.
“What’s the matter with you?” he asked me.
“Nothing, I’ll be right back,” I said.
I followed the scent into another aisle and for a moment I couldn’t breathe as she turned around and grabbed two packs of pasta from the shelf. “Ally … do you want olives?”
“Yes, grab two bottles please,” she said as she turned towards her trolley and smiled at the man at the other end of the aisle.
Abeloth was roaring in my head and he kept trying to take control. This woman was a dead ringer for Megan and I couldn’t help the jealousy that took over as he placed his hand on her and I saw the ring on her finger.
“Ryder?”
“What?” I asked him angrily.
“Calm down mate, what the hell’s gotten into you?” Felix asked me.
“I don’t know, I might be going crazy,” I said to him.
“You look like you’ve seen a ghost,” he said.
“I think I did.”
“Are you going to tell me?” he asked.
“Come on,” I said to him and followed them to the fresh vegetables section.
“She’s pretty but not at all your type, a bit chubbier than what you always go for,” Felix said and I smacked him behind his head. “Ow.”
“She looks exactly like Megan,” I said.
“Oh …”
“Smells like her too,” I said.
“Did Megan have a twin sister perhaps?” he asked me as I gave him a look. “I’ll take that as a no then.”
“She’s got a nice ass for … stop smacking me!”
“Stop looking at her ass!” I said as he grinned.
“Ryder, you’re imagining things because she died. It takes time to get over a love like that,” Felix said gently.
“Don’t patronize me Felix,” I said as she turned her head and looked at me self-consciously.
“Stop staring before she calls security,” Felix said.
“Yeah you’re probably right,” I said as we headed to the pay points and stood in line.
In the parking lot I took my time unloading the bags onto the backseat of the SUV and I saw her with the man as they headed to their car. I could feel Abeloth trying to surface again and climbed into the driver’s seat.
“Good, let me get some shut eye for an hour or so,” Felix said as he leaned back in his seat and closed his eyes.
I followed their car out of the lot and slowed down as they turned towards the residential areas of the town. I stopped the car and watched them pull into a driveway. When I switched the car off Felix opened his eyes and looked at me.
“What the fuck Ryder,” he said.
“I know I sound crazy, but that’s her Felix,” I said.
“Fine … what do you want to do?” he asked me.
“Wait.”
“Just go knock on the door and ask her if she’s Megan,” he said.
“Don’t be an idiot Felix. I watched Megan die, I sent her to the realms of the dead,” I said.
“So she isn’t Megan then?”
“It’s her but the bigger question is who did I burn?”
“How are you so sure that it’s Megan?”
“I can’t explain it, I just know,” I said.
“You have lost your mind,” he muttered.
“What if …”
“What if what?” he asked me.
“What if she doesn’t remember who she is?” I asked him.
“Like Chelsea?”
“Yeah, I mean she saw me in the store, saw me staring at her and nothing. There was no recognition,” I said.
“Or it’s not her,” he said.
“Shut up.”
We sat in the SUV for almost two hours before the man left the house and got back into his car. I shifted and watched him as he drove past us and waited until he had turned at the corner and disappeared from view.
"Ryder ..."
"Knocking on the door Felix,” I said as explanation.
Felix fell into step next to me as we walked up the driveway and stood on the porch. I rang the doorbell and shifted nervously on my feet. I could hear her footsteps and then her scent when she opened the door and looked at us.
“Can I help you?” she asked.
“Megan?”
“Sorry, there’s no Megan here,” she said looking me straight in the eye.
“I apologize for the inconvenience Miss but my friend here says you look exactly like a friend whom he hasn’t seen in months,” Felix said as she smiled again.
“Oh … I’m Ally Thompson, sorry,” she said and moved to close the door.
My hand caught the edge and I pushed it open. Her eyes widened and she backed away from us. Felix sighed and closed the door behind him.
“Your name’s Megan Greer and we’re engaged,” I said to her.
“Take whatever you want,” she said calmly. “There’s cash in my purse.”
Felix was laughing as I looked at her with a frown. “We don’t want to rob you. I need you to remember me.”
“My fiancé will be back soon, just take the money and go,” she said.
“Look,” I said and pulled my phone out and opened the gallery.
I had hundreds of pictures of her, of us and for some reason I never could delete them and now I was glad that I hadn’t. I went back to when she first moved in with me and Link and gave her the phone.
She scrolled through the pictures, slowly, studying each one of them. “I see why you’re confused, she looks a lot like me.”
“That’s you, Megan,” I said.
“It’s not possible,” she said softly.
“You have a butterfly shaped birthmark on your left hip,” I said and her eyes widened.
“How the hell do you know that?” she asked me.
“I know this is going to sound very weird to you Megan, but I need you to drink my blood,” I said.
“What? Are you insane?” she yelled at me.
“I need to take you to see Typhon,” I said.
“Listen here asshole, I tried being nice, get your weird ass out of my house or I swear I’ll hurt you,” she said with meaning.
“Okay, as entertaining as all this is, drink his blood and then we’ll leave,” Felix said.
“You’re both insane!” she yelled and turned to run to the kitchen.
“Tag team!” Felix said loudly and if I had the time I would’ve knocked him on his ass but he zipped past her and blocked her way as she halted and backed away from him.
Before she could register my movements I had my knife out and cut my palm open. I grabbed her and as she screamed I pressed my palm against her mouth. She was trying to push me away and then she bit down on my hand hard.
“Shit,” I said not letting go of her.
This was not how I imagined doing it, hell I hadn’t even thought about it, but she had to remember me. Her eyelids fluttered closed and I held her limp body in my arms as I felt myself being pulled into darkness as well.
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