What Rose Above

Twenty

Yasmine and Christian's conversation was nearly impossible for me to hear. Strict official police business—his words, not mine. So, I'd been condemned to the outside of his office. He knew better than to think I wouldn't try to eavesdrop at some point though.

"Thank you for your time—" Christian's voice, alongside the chairs scraping from inside the room, sent me into panic mode. I hissed and moved away from the door. The knob jiggled just as I stood straight against the wall. Yasmine, followed by Mark at her side, and my brother lagging behind the two, exited the room.

The trio halted beside me. Christian held out a small white card. His business card, I assumed.

"If you see or hear anything else, don't hesitate to let me know, okay?" he said.

"Sure." Yasmine shrugged. But Mark was the one to take the card from Christian's hands. The two siblings nodded at each other in silence, then turned their backs to us.

Well, some goodbye that was.

I turned to Christian as soon as they were out of earshot. "So?"

"So what?" He folded his arms.

"What was that about?" I frowned.

"She's claiming there was a stalker now." I followed Christian's eyes as they stalked the pair to the lobby doors leading outside. "I'm pretty sure the brother told her to come clean." I followed along with a nod. Not very shocking, if that was the case.

"Don't you think that's weird? Or suspicious?"

He massaged his shoulders and sighed. "I don't know yet."

As I opened my mouth to respond, a bright glistening object caught my attention from behind Christian's head. I looked over his shoulder, my face scrunched at what I could now see was a plain gold bracelet. The deja vu creeping up on me was a reminder of Emerald Lynn's bracelet—back when I found hers in the lake a few months ago. And nothing good came of that.

"Who's bracelet is that?" I rushed inside Christian's office.

"Bracelet? Where are you going!?" I could feel Christian's presence behind me. He rushed to my side as if there was something to panic about. I was moving pretty fast, so I couldn't blame him for possibly acting on high alert. Regardless, I crouched beside the chair with Christian hovering over me.

"Someone left this here?" When I lifted back up, I raised the bracelet to Christian's eye level.

His eyes widened. "Shit. One of them probably dropped that."

"No, not shit," I repeated, shaking my head.

"Language," Christian hissed.

I ignored him and said, "This just might be what I needed."

"Elaborate," he said, crossing his arms again.

"Close the door."

Unease settled in the pits of Christian's eyes, nonetheless, he followed my instructions. When he returned to his spot, his arms were crossed again. His back was to the door.

I nodded in approval, then continued, "I don't know if I've been able to control my visions better or if they've been able to control me better but I think I'm learning to navigate them more. And they're getting stronger. . . A lot stronger."

"Meaning?" Christian asked. Very slowly, might I add.

"This gift or whatever . . . it's becoming more than what it used to be." I fidgeted with my fingers before staring at the palms of my hands. "And so, I want to test something out."