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As she continued to make her way through the mass of people, she held her arms in close to her now tense and rigid body. The more time passed without her having a vision, the more scared she became. She just wanted to have one and get it over with.

Finally, they came to a small break in the crowd, and Melina thought she might be able to relax for a bit. But it was in that moment that a young woman, who appeared to be around the same age as Melina, backed right into her and a vision forced itself into her mind.

The young woman was being rushed into a hospital on a stretcher, and her entire body was covered with blood and bruises. Her left eye was swollen to the size of a golf ball, blood was gushing out of her apparent broken nose, and her clothes looked like someone had tried to tear them off of her. She also appeared to be unconscious. That didn’t stop Melina from feeling her pain, though.

As the vision left her, Melina doubled over and gritted her teeth as she tried not to scream. Her eyes were still shut tight, so she couldn’t tell if anyone was staring at her. She heard Walter say her name, but she couldn’t respond. Her entire body ached unbearably, especially her head. She could feel the pain from the woman’s swollen eye and broken nose, and once again she developed a severe headache.

Her knees quivered, and she desperately wanted to collapse down to the ground, but she knew that would attract attention. She took in deep breaths and exhaled slowly. Eventually the pain began to ease up some. She stood up straight and opened her eyes. It appeared that nobody was looking at her except for Walter and a thin woman with a short pixie haircut who was standing next to the woman from Melina’s vision.

“Are you all right?” Walter asked.

Melina eyed the short-haired woman as she nodded and said in a low voice, “The pain’s slowly going away, but why is she still staring at me?”

“Oh yes,” whispered Walter as he turned toward the woman. “That’s Lauren. She’s like me.” He looked at Melina and gave her a quick wink.

Lauren smiled softly.

Melina’s eyes widened in realization as she turned back to Walter. “She’s here to help that woman.”

“Yes,” replied Walter. He gave a small nod to Lauren, who nodded back, and then started to lead Melina slowly away. “Let’s take a seat on that empty bench near the back there, and you can explain to me how that one went.”

“Okay,” said Melina.

As they made their way toward the bench, Walter asked, “How are you doing with keeping all of these people’s thoughts out of your head?”

“Well,” she said, “I still can’t block them out completely, and it’s causing a constant throbbing in my head. It’s only when I’m far away from them that I can’t hear anything and the throbbing stops.”

They finally reached the bench and took a seat.

“I know you said it’s only going to get worse the more I use my powers, but I can’t see how. All of it is already so painful.” Melina lowered her head into her hands and rubbed her face a couple of times before she looked back up.

Walter gave her a sympathetic look. “Let’s see if we can minimize some of the pain. Give me the details of the vision you just had.”

Melina recounted what had happened in the vision, the emotions she'd experienced, and the pain she'd felt. “At first I felt scared, which, even though she was unconscious, I knew was coming from her. Then I started to feel the emotions of everyone else around her — nervous, anxious, sad. The pain I felt from her was everywhere, all over my body. It was terrible.” She rubbed her arms and then gingerly touched her nose.

“The pain you’re experiencing is a result of the emotions you’re feeling from the vision. Try to block out those emotions like you do with people’s thoughts.”

Melina nodded. “That may work.” She gazed over at the crowd and let out a low sigh. “Shall we give it another try?”

“Not here,” said Walter. “Let’s find someplace else to go.”

Walter suggested they go to the mall next. He'd seen a flyer as they'd been walking along the sidewalks that advertised various children’s activities being held there that afternoon. Melina agreed, so they caught a cab and were there in less than ten minutes.

As they walked through the front door, they saw children everywhere, ranging from toddlers all the way up to teenagers.

Melina looked around then said, “Shall we?”

Walter nodded and started walking toward all the people. “Remember, try your best to block out the feelings from the vision.”

“I’ll try.” She followed Walter through the crowd, doing her best to suppress everyone’s thoughts, when out of nowhere a young girl ran into her.

The vision flashed into her mind, and Melina was instantly overwhelmed with a strong feeling of depression. She quickly tried to block it out, but just like with people’s thoughts, she couldn’t make it go away completely. The girl was staring at a computer screen. Melina couldn’t see what was on the screen, but she knew that whatever was on there was what was making the girl upset.

The girl, whose face was streaked with tears, stood up from her chair and walked over to where her bed was located. Her room must’ve been in an attic-type setting because Melina saw that there were rafters in the ceiling. She also saw that a rope had been tied to one of the timbers. The young girl climbed up onto her bed, placed the noose around her neck, and then stepped off the edge.

No!
Melina screamed out in her mind, even though she knew it wasn’t actually happening. It upset her so much, though, that she lost focus of blocking out the feelings, and she instantly felt the pressure of the noose around her neck. The vision rushed out of her mind, and she was left with one hand on her throbbing head and the other holding her sore neck while she frantically gasped for air.

It was noisy where they were, and it appeared that no one noticed her reaction but Walter. She gestured toward the girl walking away from them and said in a loud whisper, “She can’t even be more than fourteen years old, and she wants to kill herself!”

Melina looked anxiously around the area and then back at Walter. “Where’s her guiding angel? Isn’t there one here for her like there was for the woman in the park?”

“Not yet,” Walter responded in a low voice.

“Not yet? Are you kidding me?”

Walter held his index finger up to his mouth as Melina’s voice started to rise.

She lowered it down to a loud whisper again. “I just saw her hang herself in her bedroom, and you’re telling me that there’s no guiding angel here for her yet?”

“Trust me,” said Walter. “I’ve had more visions than I can count, so I know how hard it can be to experience one of them, especially when it’s about a child. And even though I don’t know if everything’s going to turn out okay with that young girl or not, you have to have hope.” He paused for a moment as if he expected her to say something, but when she remained silent, he continued.

“Melina, these visions show the future. But how far into the future, we don’t know. Sometimes it may be what could happen within the next hour, or it may even be what could happen a few months from now. Maybe she’s just starting to be troubled by whatever it is that causes her to commit the act you saw. Whatever the case, a guiding angel will come to help her.”

Melina rubbed her head. The feeling from the vision had gone, but she still had a dull headache. Her eyes found their way back over to the girl, and she watched her walk farther and farther away from them. She then turned to Walter and said, “I’m done for the day. I need to go home.”

“Melina, you need to try again—”

“No.” She cut him off as she shook her head. “That was my limit for the day. I’m going home.”

“Okay, okay,” Walter said. “Go home and rest. But tomorrow we need to work on bringing your light shield up on command.”

Melina shook her head again. “I’m done practicing. I don’t know why, but I can’t get these powers to completely work the way they’re supposed to, no matter what I try. I don’t see the use in us working on them anymore. What I need to work on is getting through to Lee. I’m going to stay home the rest of the weekend, away from people, away from everything. After I get some rest, I’ll try to see Lee again on Monday.”

Walter stared at her for a moment. “Very well,” he said, clearly not wanting to argue with her anymore. “But I’ll see you first thing Monday morning. Meanwhile, I’m going to try to find Phinneas.”

Melina nodded. “Thank you.”

“Come with me then,” said Walter. “I’ll teleport you back to your apartment.”

Chapter Twelve

Melina slept for the rest of Saturday and only left her bed twice on Sunday. One time was to close her curtains, and the other was to grab something to eat. When she awoke Monday morning, she looked at her bedside clock and saw that it was almost six. She wanted to stay in bed a little longer, but she knew she had to get up. The store would open in a couple of hours, and she needed a shower.

She crawled out of bed and slowly made her way into the bathroom. After removing the old bandage from her injured wrist, she stepped into the tub, turned on the hot water, and took the longest, steamiest shower she could ever remember taking. The water felt good on her throbbing head and aching body.

She thought about how she had left things with Walter. He hadn’t put up much of a fight when she'd suddenly said she was done practicing and wanted to go home. What more could he do, though? Showing her how to use her powers was the one way he could help her, and he had shown her all he could. Now the rest was up to her.

Adelia had told her that to have complete control over the powers, to make them not have a painful reaction and not overload her and kill her, she had to help a select individual with his problems. And that select individual for her was Lee. But what she didn’t understand was why she couldn’t get the powers to fully
work
for her. Why couldn’t she bring her light shield up on command? Why couldn’t she block out people’s thoughts and the feelings from the visions? What was she doing wrong?

Walter had told her to get rid of the doubt and she thought she had. So what else could it be? She was lost in thought and was nowhere near ready to get out of the shower, but she didn’t have much of a choice when the water suddenly turned cold.

She turned off the faucet, wrung the water out of her hair, and stepped out of the tub. After she dried off, she slid into her bathrobe and combed her hair out before she blow-dried it. Using a roller brush, she slowly brushed through her hair and made sure it was completely dry before turning off the blow-dryer. She applied more ointment and a fresh bandage to her wrist and then sat down at her small vanity table to put on her make-up.

After dressing herself in a dark green, long-sleeved cotton shirt, jeans, and brown flats she made her way into the kitchen and had a bowl of cereal with a glass of orange juice. When she finished with her breakfast, she remained at the table for a while. She didn’t want to leave her apartment, but the clock said that Tessa, and probably Gwen, would be showing up to help open the store in about half an hour.

She reluctantly stood up from her chair, placed her dishes in the sink, and went back to her bathroom and brushed her teeth. When she came back into her bedroom, she heard a loud knocking sound coming from downstairs. She ran into the living room and pushed aside the curtain to peer out the window. The mail carrier was standing at the front door of the bookstore with two large boxes.

“What is he doing here so early?”

He knocked one more time, and when he still didn’t receive an answer, he set the boxes down by the front door and left.

“No,” Melina said as she stamped her foot. “Why didn’t you just take them with you and come back later?” She let out a frustrated sigh as she closed the curtain and turned around. She didn’t want to go downstairs until Tessa arrived, but that wouldn’t be for another thirty minutes, and she couldn’t risk leaving the boxes outside for someone to possibly damage or steal.

Okay. The demons know that I work in the store downstairs, but we’re not even open yet, so why would they think I was there right now? If I’m quick enough, I can make it down to the boxes, bring them inside, and then run back upstairs.

She took in a deep breath and headed downstairs. There wasn’t much sunlight coming in through the windows so Melina tiptoed over to the side wall to turn on the lights. She reached her hand out to flip the switches up when she saw a shadow flash by on her right.

With her hand frozen in place, she turned her head slightly to see what it was. She scanned the room, but it was hard to see around the bookcases with the lights off. At first she didn’t see anything and thought her paranoid mind was playing tricks on her. But as her eyes started to adjust, she noticed the pair of glowing red eyes in the back left corner of the room.

“Oh no.”

Melina spun around and darted for the front door. If she could get out in the open where other people might be, there was a chance the demon wouldn’t come after her. But just like before, she wasn’t quick enough.

The demon grabbed her left arm and flung her backward into the side of the nearest bookcase. Her head and back slammed hard against the wood, causing several books to fall from the shelves onto the floor. Melina winced as she let out a low groan. She raised her hand to feel the back of her head and then opened her eyes to see the demon standing in front of her.

He was in his human form and looked different than the two who had ambushed her in the alley by the coffee shop. He was much bigger and better-groomed. He must be the lead demon. The other two would probably have been yelling and sneering at her right now. That or trying to attack her again. But the one in front of her now seemed much more composed and was definitely stronger.

The demon stared at her for several seconds and then took a small step toward her.

Melina gasped and lifted her arm up in front of her. “Stay back!” she shouted in a shaky voice.

Once again, her fear and need to protect herself triggered her light shield, and it burst out around her. She strained to hold it up for as long as she could, but the pain in her head was only growing worse. Through squinted eyes, she looked up at the demon. He had stepped back just in time to avoid being hit by her shield. His face was turned away from the light, and his hands were held out in front of him. He wasn’t going away like the other two had, though.