Ghost Skills

Ghost Skills Chapter 22

I stumbled into the empty library, using my blurring vision to search for the woman I knew could help me. On my way into the rest of the house I placed a hand onto the heavy wooden door to steady myself in my fatigue, tainting the finish with a bloody hand print. Listing slightly to the left, I plodded through the halls of the immense home and I felt the last dredges of my strength ebbing away quickly. Opening door after door, I found no evidence of the woman I sought, only empty rooms. Finally, with my legs buckling, I opened the last door on the third floor and saw Melissa. Sleeping soundly in a large bed, sheets thrown on the floor in a heap.

Moving closer I could see her shapely frame clad in a silk nightgown, hair all a mess, I couldn't help myself but to stroke her cheek as she slept. She smiled and moved her cheek deeper into my palm, and then to my surprise mumbled my name. I withdrew my hand in shock, then her eyes snapped open and found my shadowed form. In a flash, her hand slipped under her pillow and came back out gripping a stiletto with white knuckles. I removed my mask and smiled and her expression softened at once.

“Daniel, what's wrong?”

I raised my blood stained hand into the moon light for her to see and smiled wide. “Bye,” left my lips just as my legs collapsed and I slipped into the painless, blackness of unconsciousness.

I slipped in and out of consciousness, seeing flashes before I would go back under. Melissa, still clad in the nightgown, now bloodstained, holding a stitching needle. After the sun had risen, using a cloth to dab seat from my brow. Nighttime again, injecting some type of fluid into my arm. Morning once more when I awoke fully, a small twinge of pain coursing through my left side. Melissa was sitting in a chair, facing slightly away from me watching the sun rise. The morning light ran through the slight curls of her brown hair, making her look gorgeous. Silently raising myself to a sitting position, I studied my surroundings to find I was in the same room I had woken Melissa in. Turning to her, she still hadn't noticed I was awake.

“Good morning darlin.”

Her head whipped around with a worried expression. “Daniel! I-I-I mean, Mr. Stevens! You're awake!”

“Yes, I realized that,” I said with the same smile. “How long was I out?”

“Two days,” she replied, rising and removing the blanket from my bare torso and inspecting the bandage on my stomach. “You're lucky. It didn't pierce anything you need. What happened on that roof?”

Puzzled for a moment, I looked at her quizzically before it all came rushing back to me. “Which reminds me...”

I grabbed her around the waist and pulled her down onto the bed with me, rolling us until I was straddling her hips with my thighs and locking her hands above her head. A good amount of pain welled up from my side but I ignored it. “You sold me out Melissa, and I want to know why.”

She squirmed for a moment before she stopped struggling and looked me in the eye. “What are you talking about Daniel?”

I leaned my head down, finally noticing the bags under her eyes. “That's what Megan called me.”

“I have no idea what you mean Mr. Stevens.”

“Funny, she called me that too.”

Melissa gasped. “She knew your name?”

“Yea, she did. And I'm pretty sure you are the one who gave it to her. Why?”

Recognition passed through her eyes and she smiled. “Daniel, if I wanted you dead, I would have killed you when you were unconscious.”

Embarrassed now, I rolled off of her until I was laying once more on my back. “Sorry darlin, I had to make sure. I still don't know how she knew my name though.”