The Psychic Next Door

Chapter 23: Blood

"They're still the same!" Luc shouted and pounded his fist on the table in frustration. I was close to doing the same, but instead all I managed was a sigh. There was no point in wasting energy getting mad; it wouldn't solve anything.

That was how I felt about everything lately. My determination had begun to give way to apathy, and I could feel my resolve to fight slipping away with every day that passed. Every day was a failure, and every failure wore me down a little more. There was a little murmur in my head, growing a little louder each time, an insidious little whisper that urged me to just give up and let the Beast take me; I managed to fight it off, but I knew my strength was dwindling.

The cards were the same as the first time we had tried to get a reading since Luc's powers had returned. We had been trying for over a week, several times a day, to no avail. Though each time we approached with slightly different questions, trying to eke more information from them, the cards simply didn't change.

I knew nothing about the deck he relied on to give us insight, but even I was beginning to recognize certain cards. I knew there were a few I had seen many times before. What I didn't know was what was holding us back... Was it me? The nature of the cards? Or was it Luc, his magic still too weak to control the cards properly?

Either way, we had to admit to ourselves there was nothing more we could do. We had finally run out of options.

Luc rested his forehead in his palm as he continued to search the cards for answers in vain. I felt my brow droop, my eyes prick with tears. I considered for a moment reaching out to him to comfort him, but resisted. My mood was no better than his. I didn't have the energy to pretend to be optimistic, and any comforting I could have attempted would've surely fallen flat.

Instead I glanced across the room at the little calendar that hung on the wall. We had been careful to mark each day off after it had passed, like prisoners carving into stone walls, tallying their days spent inside. A cold, numbing chill spread through me as I noticed it had been exactly one month since Polly and I had botched the binding spell next door. Four weeks since we had faced our most brutal attack. Thirty days since Luc had to rush in and save us from our mistake. And in all that time, we still hadn't gotten any new information that could actually help us.

To improve our odds, we had to fully restore Luc's powers... But the only way to do that was with Polly's help, and she didn't look like she was interested in helping us any time soon. I had tried to explain that she didn't have to sleep with him—obviously—but she hadn't listened. Or, at least, I didn't think she had; she just hadn't replied.

It wasn't so surprising; she hadn't spoken to me at all since our argument about the night I had spent with Luc. Now she just spent her days sitting on the other side of the room—as far away as she could possibly get in this small apartment—peering over the edge of the blanket she had cocooned herself in, watching our every move. She was especially vigilant while we did our daily readings.

The strain that had been put on our friendship wasn't exactly ideal, but I couldn't bring myself to regret what had happened between Luc and me. He was the sliver of light in the overwhelming darkness, the only thing that made me happy when the rest of my life had turned to complete shit.

But even then...

I turned back and re-examined the infuriatingly familiar spread of cards, clucking my tongue in disappointment. Being negative would do nothing, but my mood was the kind that wanted to poison everything, even if it bit me in the ass. I turned my gaze to Luc. "Is there nothing else we can do?"

He shook his head as it still rested in his hand. I looked at him, and my foul mood dissipated as my heart broke; he just looked so defeated, almost on the verge of tears. It didn't look like he could take much more... I wasn't sure I could either.