Chapter 2

• Two things registered—well, three did, but the last one didn’t count because it was only my stomach telling me I hadn’t eaten recently. I was laying on a bed, so that confirmed I’d blacked out, and the bed moving meant I wasn’t alone.
• “Crissy, open your eyes for me.”
• I didn’t open them. I knew if Daxx was talking to me, I was safe. Her watching over me meant I had a few moments to assess the chatter inside my head. So many still, which was not a surprise… none were demanding I needed to really see them, so I didn’t. A sound from beside the bed told me she wasn’t alone… that was the second thing I noticed.
• “Crissy, you gave me a heart attack.” Rafael was with her.
• Opening my eyes, I looked up at him. He smiled. I liked him, he always smiled at me. Too bad his teeth were normal right now, I liked his fangs better. It was an odd thing, but that confirmed my whole life wasn’t just me losing my mind, seeing stuff in my head, and knowing there were things out there that everyone didn’t know about. I looked around to see where we were, and recognized Daxx’s apartment.
• “Next time you text ‘help’, try to give me a hint about what is going on.”
• I had sent him a message. I bolted up and looked around. “Where’s Alona?” I crawled off the bed and went out into the other room. She wasn’t here. A large man with red hair was, but no one else. “No, no, no, no.” I spun around and went to the window to see if it was still night time. My blackouts weren’t always short. “We have to go find her.” I went quickly into the kitchen and turned on the tap. Leaning down I took a quick sip, then shut it off and turned, running into Rafael’s chest. He reached out to steady me, so I wouldn’t fall backward. I looked up into his blue eyes. “We have to go get her. They found her.” I ducked around him and went to go get my pack. I’d been staying here for weeks now, but I went nowhere without it. You never knew when you would have to run and hide, or disappear, so keeping what you’d want to take with you was very important.
• “Criss.” Daxx stepped in front of me and put her hands on my shoulders. “Slow down. We found you passed out in an alley with some strange woman.”
• I nodded. “That’s Alona.” I went to go by her, but she blocked me. She had that look, the ‘we have to talk’ look. I would have to talk before I was going to be able to do anything else.
• “We’ll get to Alona in a second. Are you okay?” Her eyes searched my face.
• I frowned at the odd question, but the way she stared at me demanded an answer. She was very determined. “Why wouldn’t I be?”
• “You were unconscious when we got there.” Rafael said coming to stand beside me.
• I shrugged, “I’m fine. I knew it was coming, I tried to hurry…”
• “Wait.” Daxx stopped me with the look that said she wasn’t happy.
• I loved her, she had so many looks, the fact I recognized them always made me feel like we could have been family in another life.
• “You knew you were going to pass out?”
• I nodded again, it was too complicated to explain, we didn’t have time for this. “Yes. It happens when there’s too much filling my head at once.” Glancing to the redheaded man standing on the other side of the room, I wondered who he was. He was as big as Raf, but nowhere near as nice. He hadn’t moved or smiled. Waving my hand, I decided I’d figure out who he was later. Snapping my head around, I looked back to Daxx. “We have to go find Alona. They found her and she isn’t safe now.”
• “Is she a friend of yours?” Rafael asked.
• “No,” I shook my head, “I’ve never met her, but I saw her before and that didn’t make sense, until it did.” Daxx rubbed a hand across her forehead, the way she always did when she listened to me. I know she didn’t understand me most of the time, but she always listens to me, and that was more important than anything. I needed them to help me find Alona. “We have to find her. She doesn’t know, but she just carries on…” I glanced at Raf, he was nodding, but his expression said he had no idea what I was saying either. “if they know her, that’s bad.”
• “Okay.” Daxx put her hand on my shoulder so I would look at her. “First, you passing out is a normal thing?”
• I could see the worry in her eyes and it upset me to see that. “Yes. It’s like…” I paused and looked at the floor trying to figure out how to explain it, and be clear with all the things in my mind right now, “a system reboot. When I get over-loaded seeing, I just shut down for a few minutes then I’m good to go.” I nodded.
• “Does it happen often?” Rafael leaned down and looked at me. He was so sweet and good inside.
• “No. Lately though, with so much going on here, it’s been more frequent.” Hundreds of visions a day would be taxing on anyone, if there was another person that went through it. I doubted what I had was common at all.
• “You feel okay now though?” Daxx asked with her eyes searching mine again.
• “Yes.” I hoped that explanation would clear it up so we could go. “Can we go find her now?”
• “I don’t think she wants to be found.” The redhead said.