She lifted her hand and brushed it with a cautious fingertip. She couldn’t recall touching the drawer it had hidden in at all, never mind taking it out to put on. Just like when it had appeared on her at work she had no idea how it had ended up around her neck.
A soft noise, almost a whine, made her look down. The fox was back, staring up at her intently from a few feet away. It turned away and looked at her over its shoulder, once again unmistakably indicating she should follow. Right; Amie. Wren reached out to reestablish the link she’d dropped and found that Amie wasn’t in the chair any longer. In a panic she spread her senses further, groping through the sudden din of thoughts as she tried to find her again. The fox trotted away and she followed.
There. She found Amie’s mind. She blocked out the rest of the shoppers and tried to calm herself. Amie was moving through the lower level toward the end of the mall in which Wren had begun. She was talking on her phone which frightened Wren a little. But no; it seemed not to be Wil. Her conversation was friendly and wry. Wren kept pace with her from the upper level, the fox a few meters ahead, heading for the escalators as she tried to decide what she should do.
She could control people’s actions, manipulate their minds so they acted without realizing she was responsible. Could she make someone forget something? Did she want to do that? She had to settle on an answer quickly, as it seemed Amie was planning to leave the mall. Wren hurried down the escalator, not simply letting it carry her as was her habit. Amie had stopped for a bubble tea, having discarded her empty iced Cappucino cup on the way.
Wren sat on the bench beside the escalators and took a deep breath, staring at Amie’s profile as she stood at the bubble tea kiosk. Probably nothing will come of this, she told herself sternly. She’ll just write it off again as paranoia. Probably. She wasn’t convinced but she felt too nervous at the thought of messing around in Amie’s mind. Erasing a memory was too much, too intrusive. Too presumptuous.
With no warning Amie’s head turned and she looked straight at Wren. Wren had been staring at her intently and jerked in surprise, feeling the other woman’s shock and bewilderment mesh with her own. Amie’s eyes narrowed and she took a step away from the counter. Is she stalking me? Wren heard her think harshly, Amie’s thoughts and suspicions rising like an angry wave. Is she the one?
Wren acted without thinking. Pay for your drink. Forget about me. You don’t know who I am and have never seen me before. Forget seeing me at the restaurant, forget the yearbook. You’re on your way out of the mall now.
Amie turned back to the counter with a blank expression, watching the server prepare her tea. Wren covered her mouth with her hand, aghast at what she’d done. She checked Amie’s mental state and found it much the same as when she’d first come upon her near The Bay; anxious, anticipatory and impatient. She was thinking about getting somewhere on time. That seemed to be it. No remnant of her suspicious thoughts over seeing Wren at all.
Tags: Chapter Four