Touch of Death(18)

"I understand." I hung up the phone before she could lecture me anymore.

Alex was gone. I was surprised that I wanted him here, but he knew the truth. He understood how I felt. Right now, he was the only one I wanted to talk to.

The back door opened, and Mom led Melodie in by her shoulders. She sat her down at the kitchen table. I turned away from her. How could I look Melodie in the face after I'd killed the guy she was secretly in love with? Mom made tea for everyone, not that we touched it. The paramedics and the power company arrived, and Mom showed them to the backyard. We stayed inside. Mom asked the paramedics to take Matt's body around the side of the house. She didn't want us to have to see him.

I sat at the table, across from Melodie, who was still in shock. Mom called Melodie's parents and explained what had happened. Mom offered to let Melodie spend the night, but her parents insisted that they'd come get her. They wanted her home so they could make sure she was okay. Her dad showed up fifteen minutes later and took her home, saying he'd come back for her car in the morning. The house was eerily quiet after that. The silence of death hung in the air, and I'd put it there.

"Can I get you something, sweetie?" Mom asked.

"No."

She sipped her tea, which must have been ice cold by now. "The guy from the power company said the wire looked like it had been snapped by a tree branch. They found one down in the woods behind the house. It must have been struck by lightning or something during the last storm. It was weak, and it finally gave."

I wondered how Alex had done all that in a matter of minutes. Unless he had been working with a tree that really had been struck by lightning. Maybe he'd seen it during one of his stalking sessions. He'd certainly spent enough time hanging around my house to know if there was a tree that had been hit by lightning.

"The power company said this kind of thing is more common than you'd think. It-"

"Mom." I raised my hands in frustration. I couldn't listen to this. I didn't want to think about Matt or the stupid fake story Alex had concocted to cover up the real way Matt had died. "Please, I can't. Not now."

"Sweetie, I'm sorry. I just don't know what to say."

"Let's not say anything. Okay? Nothing we could possibly say is going to bring Matt back or change what happened." But Alex had changed what happened. He'd covered for me, made it look like a freak accident. "I want to go to bed. Sleep the day away and escape this nightmare."

Mom looked lost. "This is one of those times when I really wish I was older. That I hadn't had you at sixteen. Maybe if I was older I'd know how to make you feel better right now. How to protect you from things like this."

"Mom." I hugged her, and she cried on my shoulder. "There are some things you can't protect me from." Like myself. "I'll be okay. I just need time."

She nodded and wiped her tears. "You go to bed. I'll lock up down here."

I knew she was going to sit at the table and cry for at least another twenty minutes. And the worst part was that she was feeling like she had somehow let me down because she couldn't shield me from the bad things in life. She had no clue I was one of those bad things. She didn't really know who I was at all. Hell, I didn't really know who I was.                       
       
           



       

I slept late into the next morning, completely wiped out from the day before. But the first thought that popped into my mind when I opened my eyes was that Matt was dead. I'd killed him. I'd brought him back, and I'd turned him into a monster-an animal that tore a cute little bunny to shreds. I felt tears well up in my eyes.

"Don't start that." Alex's voice made me sit up abruptly.

"What are you doing here? What time is it?"

"Almost noon." He was leaning against my windowsill. "Your mom came to check on you about an hour ago. You were out cold."

I looked at the nightstand. Mom had brought me a muffin and some coffee. There was also a note. "Jodi, I hate to do this to you, but I got called in to work. I told them I couldn't stay long. That I had to be home for personal reasons. They weren't happy, but I insisted. Please, eat something, and call me when you wake up. I love you. Mom."

I sighed. "She went to work."

"Probably better that way." Alex pushed off the windowsill and sat at the end of my bed. "How do you feel?"

"Like I killed my boyfriend."

He frowned. "I meant, do you feel drained in any way? Sometimes using our powers drains our energy. At least, when we're first learning to use them. It doesn't take nearly as much energy once we get used to it." He ran his hand along the edge of my bed. "You've been using a lot of your power lately, without knowing it."

"Thanks for the reminder. I guess to clarify my response to how I'm feeling, I should say I feel like I killed my boyfriend, a doctor, a nurse, and a bunch of innocent animals. Yeah, that's more accurate." I slumped back onto my pillow.

"I can help you pack if you want." Alex looked around my room.

I covered my face with my hands, careful not to reopen any of my cuts, and shook my head. Was he seriously doing this to me now? I felt his eyes on me, so I sat up again and met his stare. "I'm not going anywhere. My boyfriend isn't even in the ground yet. Everyone will expect me to be at his funeral. The police may even call me in for questioning. Who knows? I mean, I told Mom and Melodie that Matt had broken up with me. What if the police think we were fighting and things got heated? What if they think I had something to do with his death?"

"You did have something to do with it." The words stung. "But the police will never know that. The power company said that tree had been hit by lightning. That Matt's death was an accident. No one is going to believe you had anything to do with Matt's death."

Except, I did have something to do with it. "Was that tree really hit by lightning or did you do something I'm not aware of? Do you have other superhuman powers?"

He smirked. "It was hit by lightning. I actually saw it get hit last week in that bad storm we had."

"Last week?" My mind started spinning. "You were spying on me last week? I thought Mr. Quimby just told you to start watching me a few days ago."

Alex turned toward me, bending his right leg up onto my mattress more. Our legs touched, and I couldn't help looking at our limbs resting against each other. God! What was I doing? Matt just died yesterday, and I was getting excited about my stalker touching my leg?

"Jodi, I was sent to watch you in September. After Mr. Quimby confirmed our suspicions-that you were an Ophi-I started camping out in the woods behind your house. Monitoring where you went, when you came home, who you went out with." He said the last part like the words were painful on his tongue.

"September? You've been watching me for five months?" I felt violated. I was finally starting to kind of like him, to not mind having him around, and now this. We were right back where we'd started. I pulled my leg away from his, curling it under me and as far away from his body as it could get.

"I'm sorry that bothers you, but you have to remember we're trying to do what's best for you. Asking you to come with me is part of that."

"Asking me? So, I can say no and that would be that?"

He hesitated. Somehow I knew it wasn't that simple. Alex may not have wanted to force me into anything, but that didn't mean the other Ophi wouldn't. "I want to help you, Jodi, but you have to let me. I won't force you."

I knew it was childish, but I crossed my arms and turned away from him. "I'm not going with you. This is my life. I'm not leaving Mom and Melodie. I'm not missing Matt's funeral. I owe him at least that much."

Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Alex get up and go to the window. "If you need me, you have my number in your phone. I'm willing to bet you haven't deleted my texts."

He was right. I hadn't. But why hadn't I? Who kept messages from their stalker? Maybe to use as evidence, but I'd kept them hidden from everyone. I unfolded my arms and turned to the window, but Alex had already gone out it.

I couldn't eat. The day passed, and I let it. Mom got home around four-thirty.

"Sorry, sorry," she said, practically running through the door. "I was all set to get out of there after an hour, but there was a major crisis. The company is being sued, and if I didn't pull my weight they were going to fire me and find someone who was willing to work on a Sunday."

"Is that what they said?" I asked, staring at the blank TV screen, realizing for the first time all day that I'd forgotten to turn it on. I didn't even remember coming downstairs.

"Oh, yeah. They said that. Can you believe it?" She hung up her coat and purse and sat down next to me. "I was thinking I'd make pot roast for dinner. If I start now, it will be ready for a late dinner, and we could throw in a movie and stay up all night. What do you think?"

She was doing her best to avoid the subject of Matt. I had to give her credit, but there was actually something I needed to know. "Have you heard from his parents?" Matt's car wasn't in the driveway, so they must have come for it at some point.