The Psychic Next Door

[First Draft] Chapter 13: Trapped

He hesitated for a moment longer, then walked over to me and plucked me off the floor, pulling me up by my arms.

"No!" I didn't want to know what exactly he intended to do. I tried to push him off, pry his hands free of me, but every movement hurt my battered body. I had no strength in my arms, and it was impossible. It was so frustrating, infuriating, and for some reason the anger made my eyelids heavier. Why was my body so determined to sleep when I was about to be attacked? Killed? It was a bizarre push and pull.

But he didn't attack me. He didn't curse at me or taunt me even as I wriggled in his impossible grip. He simply lifted me into his arms, carried me back over to the bed and gently plopped me down, taking a good look at me before shaking his head.  

"Don't try moving around just yet. You're still too injured."  

I stared at him increduously, then took another look at the room. Then it dawned on me. This room was an exact mirror version of my own; this was the apartment next door. Was I in Luc's bedroom? Had I been sleeping in Luc's bed?  

"What am I doing here?" I shot back, my voice raspy and hoarse. My mind was foggy and slow, my body's screaming desire for sleep drowning out my ability to comprehend. I couldn't seem to make sense of this.  

"It's the only place that's safe for you now." He replied tersely.

The growling resurged, and I glanced around nervously, trying to figure out where it was coming from. Luc wasn't reacting. I figured that it was because he was controlling it, that it wasn't attacking because he wasn't telling it too. Yet.

Then I noticed that it was slightly muffled and unclear, like it wasn't in this room, that there was something between us and it. I listened closer, searching for the direction of it. It was coming from the far wall, from the other side... where my own bedroom was.

It was still in my apartment. Why? During the lull in conversation, I could hear its footsteps, the clacking of its invisible claws on my hardwood floor. Back and forth, back and forth... it was pacing. I felt like I was missing something, but mind was so muddled I couldn't seem to figure it out.  

"It's staying in there because it can't come in here. But it wants to stay close, just in case it gets a chance to come after you again." Luc explained, like he had read my mind.

I eyed him cautiously, beneath my drooping lids. Everything considered, I wouldn't be surprised if he could. But what was he talking about? Couldn't come in here?

He looked at me sternly, but with a shadow of a smile on his face. "I can't read your mind."  

"Then how did you know I was just thinking that?"  I mumbled, struggling to stay sitting up.

"Your face gives it all away. I'm good at reading people, not minds." He said, plainly. "And you're very transparent."  

I just glared in reply, and my head felt heavy again.

"You should rest." he said, ignoring my hostility and noticing my drooping head.  

"No..." I protested. "I want to leave." I didn't want to stay here, with him. I tried to crawl across the bed, to slide off the other side and escape, but it felt like my body had been filled with quick-dry cement. I collapsed face first into the bed, sprawled across it.

"You can't leave. I told you, you're only safe here."

"How am I safe here? When I'm with you?" I snapped, my voice muffled from the bedding.

I couldn't see his face, but his voice sounded slightly hurt. "Don't you—What was the last thing you remember?"  

The Beast next door let out a particularly bone-chilling howl, as if to remind me.