I stumbled into the diner while rubbing some warmth back into my arms. Mary came from the back, no doubt thinking I was someone else and getting ready to tell me its closing time, but when she saw me she stopped short.
"Is Ajax here? I have to talk with him."
She ignored me. "Electra! Good heavens did you forget how to eat?! Let us make you some food."
"But I just came to talk to Ajax." I protested.
"He can talk with you when we're making your food. Now sit down."
I sat in a booth and held my head in my hands.
"Jesus did you forget how to eat?"
I looked up and saw Ajax, looking as good as the last time I saw him. I nodded to the booth across from me and he sat down. I took a shaky breath and leaned my head back against the booth.
"You wanted to talk to me?" he asked quietly, reaching across the table to hold his hand over mine.
I opened my eyes to see him carefully watching me. I opened my mouth once, twice, three times before I realized I didn't know what to say. Maybe it wasn't that I didn't know what to say, I just had too much to say. I opened my mouth again but instead of words, a sob choked me and before I knew it Ajax was beside me, rubbing my back as I cried into his chest. Every emotion that had been building up inside for days started coming out. At first it was sadness, then came the anger.
I pushed Ajax away and got up to pace. I was close to pulling out my hair.
"He thought he could just invite them to live with us?! I mean what was he thinking?!"
I realized Ajax probably had no idea what I was talking about but he was sweet enough to listen and go along with it.
After that came the despair. I finally realized that over the last few days I had begun to lose hope. Hope that I would ever be happy again, hope that I could ever get over the deaths.
I crumpled to the floor and started sobbing again. Ajax sat down beside me and cradled me in his arms. I no longer cared that I was getting his shirt wet with tears. Or slimy with snot. I didn't even care that I was out in public, making a scene. Ajax didn't care about any of that either, because when I felt the snot coming, I tried to pull away but he held me tighter and rocked back and forth.
Once my sobbing calmed down, Ajax pulled away slightly, holding me in his arms still, and brushed back a lock of hair.
"Do you want to talk about it?" he asked. His voice was soothing and I suddenly felt exhausted.
"Yes. I apologize for all that."
"Its a natural human response. It is perfectly okay."
I thought it was far from okay, but I sat down with him again and told him everything. All the dreams, the suspicions of me being reincarnated, the weird connections with werewolves and Norse gods. He just nodded therapeutically the whole time. At one point, after I announced the part about me being reincarnated, Ajax's eyes flashed with something. Anger? Annoyance? It was gone before I could analyze it.
Once I finished, he sat back and chewed on his lip. I had gotten the food about five minutes into my spiel but it still lay untouched twenty minutes later. Finally, Ajax leaned on his elbows and looked me in the eye.
"Do you know what I take from this?"
I shook my head.
"I believe its from all the stress. These...dreams. You say they began after a...track accident?"
"Correct." My voice was hoarse.
"I believe your mind is over reacting to everything that's been going on in your life. My father was like that before he went insane and was admitted to a mental hospital."
