This Strange Addiction by Julie Steimle (story books to read .TXT) 📖

Magic. As if it were real. It was driving her mad.

“I just….” She shook her head.

Nodding, taking in a breath, Rick sighed. “Yeah.” He sat with her for a minute, not saying anything. He didn’t put an arm around her, but he stayed close. He finally said, “Is there anything I can do? Can I get you a drink of water?”

Water sounded good. Audry nodded.

Rick got up and went to the vending machine. It took a couple of minutes but he was soon back, opening up the bottle for her. “I’m sorry the bottle is not glass, but we can recycle this later. There’s a bin over there.”

Audry lifted her eyes to his face. “Are you making fun of me?”

He shook his head. “No. But I’d like to calm you down. You look like you are freaking out.”

She shook her head, then grabbed the bottled water, taking a sip. Then another one. Lowering the bottle from her wet lips, she shook her head again. “I just… I can’t…”

“Sorry,” he whispered.

She lifted her eyes to his face again, wondering what his apology was for. His wolf gray eyes watched her carefully. His lips seemed a little pale. She could see it—he was worried for her. In fact, for a second she felt like she was staring into the face of her wolf.

She pulled back.

Rick rose, gesturing to the hallway, “You said they were that way?”

Audry nodded.

He then marched down the hall as if he frequented the place. She also noticed that several cops recognized him and even steered out of his way as if—it was weird—but as if they were afraid he would bite them. The same policemen also looked to her. One actually stopped by her and asked, “You know him?”

Audry nodded. “Yeah. Passing acquaintances…” And yet those words did not fit. Not anymore. She was not a passing acquaintance of Rick Deacon. Acquaintance, maybe, but more like an unavoidable acquaintance. Oddly connected. She just couldn’t get away from him, no matter how often they went their separate ways.

The noise of the lobby went back to its dissonant murmurs, PA announcements, and footfalls. Audry just sat there, sipping her water.

Then another familiar rhythm of feet came up to her. Audry lifted her head and saw Tom approach. “Are they down the hall?” He thumbed that way.

Audry nodded.

He almost went that way, but then halted next to her. “Hey. Don’t freak out. You’ve got friends. Just…” he peered down the hall again. “Trust us. We’re going to make it right.”

Audry looked up as he jogged off. This time the policemen all recognized him, getting entirely out of his way.

That earlier policeman called over, “You know him too?”

A little winded, Audry nodded.

Someone in the lobby shifted, leaving it at little too abruptly. 

Looking, Audry caught sight of that ordinary-looking witch lady as she went out the door—that Marta. How she had not noticed her before?

“…well maybe she will object, but no witch would dare cross her. You know what she did to their clubhouse when she was last in Middleton Village.” Tom along with Matthew and Rick marched out of the hallway towards Audry. Tom said to her, “We have a place you can stay at for the night.”

“I hope you don’t mind,” Rick said looking more anxious about it than his friends.

Rising to her feet, Audry wondered what he meant by that. “If it is a real safe house, then I don’t mind at all.”

Tom busted into snickers. Rick swatted him with the back of his hand.

Matthew leaned near and said, “It’s not that. Uh, we have to call her first, but we think we can convince our friend Selena—uh—Davenport to, uh, let you stay with her until things get arranged for you and Silvia.”

Audry blushed, looking to Rick whose face was a shade of pink also. Selena was a shared ex-girlfriend of both Rick and Tom. Rick had dated Selena when he was fourteen, and he had broken up with Selena when she had started to date Tom—happily, Audry had heard—back when they were still in high school. And Selena had broken up with Tom approximately two years previous the current date, she wasn’t sure why. But Audry began to understand what Rick really meant when he said he hoped she would not mind, as Selena was a wealthy debutante—in the same tax bracket as him and probably the kind of person she never wanted to associate with. He knew Audry had a distaste for the lifestyle of the rich as her cousins were just that—wealthy snobs.

“We don’t want to put too much pressure on you,” Matthew said, glancing to Rick who was currently trying not to make too much eye contact with Audry. “And I know all of this sounds weird but—”

“If you don’t want to be shadow for Silvia, we’ll find another way,” Rick cut in, finally looking at her. He stared earnestly into her eyes. “I don’t want you to get hurt. It was my fault for agreeing to you two rooming together in the first place. We should have just gotten Silvia her own place last time and let you have your own life. I should have—”

Tom smacked the back of Rick’s head. “Stop blaming yourself for everything!”

“They wanted to live together anyway,” Daniel said, striding up. He nodded to Audry, looking a little less stressed. “I’m sorry I spoiled your day. Um, Audry, can I ask you another favor?”

“No more favors!” Rick rounded on him. “We’ve asked enough of her already!”

Ignoring him, Audry rolled her eyes and said, “What is it?”

Stepping beyond Rick, Daniel said, “Suspend your disbelief for a bit as we do all this for Silvia. I know you are a true skeptic. And that has served you really well, but we need you to just… go with the flow for a bit.”

Rick’s eyes turned from his friend and he gazed a little hopefully to Audry. So had Matthew’s gaze, and Tom’s. But Rick’s for some reason struck her the most and sent chills down her arms. It was like he was hoping for something important to him.

But suspend her disbelief? What was he asking? That she believe in witchcraft?

Tom chuckled. Matthew glanced to him. When Audry sighed and shook her head over it, Matthew nodded to himself. Rick and Daniel peeked over to them.

Matthew said, “Think of it this way—can you scientifically explain how I am able to know what you are thinking?”

A shiver ran through her, her eyes taking him in. She couldn’t. Not in specifics. But she had accepted the fact that Matthew was psychic. She had theories about energy and electricity and waves and whatever. And of course she had her religious upbringing which was not exactly hard core establishment Christian, but rather spiritual in nature. That allowed for lots of possibilities of spirit talking to spirit. Matthew was talking about things of the spirit and not things of science. Was that what they meant by witchcraft?

“Um…” She shook her head.

“The word witchcraft, if you break it down, means the craft or skill of witches,” Matthew said. “Not the imaginary wand waving magic of fantasy novels.”

Rick perked up, listening, watching Audry’s reactions also.

“A witch is just a name for people who believe a certain way about the world,” Daniel cut in. He nodded also as he watched her expression shift towards cynicism again. “And yes, they do believe in magic. But really that word does not mean what you think. Some anthropologists have said that magic might be considered indistinguishable to advanced technology by a primitive species. Besides, Audry, some people consider religion mysticism. Atheists see it as believing in an invisible being—and they call it mythology. And I know you are not an atheist.”

She frowned lowering her gaze to her shoes.

“Audry,” Daniel said in a lower voice. “We are not asking you to participate in anything evil. In fact, we’d like you to continue to act on your conscience. But Silvia and I need you to suspend your disbelief for this one thing. Can you do that?”

She stared at him. Then she leaned back. “Are you saying this magic spell of hers won’t work if I don’t believe in it?”

He sighed, eyeing her once, then nodded. “Some magic has to be believed to work.”

“Like faith,” Matthew said, remembering her earlier thoughts.

Faith. Yes. She understood that. Faith alone had power, according to the Bible. People were healed by faith. One nearly walked on water until he panicked.

“You are asking a lot of her,” Rick murmured.

Daniel nodded to him. “I know. But…” he looked to Audry with an idea. “Hey. Will you call Jessica and talk with her about this? She’s a lot like you, really skeptical about this sort of thing. I think she can help you out.”

Audry blinked at him. She pulled out her phone, but did not dial. “You mean call her right now?”

He shook his head. “No. Call her when you get to Selena’s place—”

“If Selena will let us,” Tom said.

“—It will be safe there,” Daniel said. “No interruptions.”

“Do you know Selena Davenport also?” Audry asked him.

Daniel shrugged, peeking to Tom. “I met her once several years back.”

Audry then peered down the hall. “And where will Silvia be staying?”

“Here,” Daniel said. “I’ll be with her until housing for you both can be arranged.”

“Housing?” Audry’s head began to swim again. They had talked about them moving apartments.

“We need to stop now,” Rick said, a tremor rising in his voice. “We are overwhelming her.”

However Audry shook her head, his voice also grounding her to reality. “No. I’m ok.”

But then her knees buckled.

He grabbed her, holding her up “Whoa! Audry, hold on.”

“She’s gone faint.”

“Well, maybe she is hungry,” Tom said. “What time is it? Four?”

“In the afternoon?” Audry looked up, regaining focus. Rick’s face was close to hers. She could smell his musk. It was almost doggish. Not bad, but odd.

“Oh man,” Daniel said. “We totally missed lunch.”

“Let’s go to the cafeteria,” Tom said. “The food’s not bad there.”

“The cafeteria smells like floor cleaner,” Rick muttered. “Let’s order in.”

“The head of office does not like us ordering in. Too many poisoning scares,” Matthew’s voice said overhead.

Audry felt Rick lead her to a near chair, where he sat down with her. He helped her put her head between her knees. His touch was surprisingly gentle and calming. Why had she imagined that he would be brusque and indifferent? He never really acted that way. Why was she now realizing that he was a really decent guy?

“Fine,” Rick said. “I’ll go get takeout.”

“I’ll get takeout,” Tom declared. Audry could feel him leave the group.

Rick did not let go of her, but he called out, “No! You always get something I can’t eat!”

But she could feel Tom had gone anyway.

“Damn.” Rick then called to Daniel, “Can you get some water? No wait! Orange juice.”

Daniel hurried off.

“Do you need any help?” Matthew said.

Rick sighed. “No. I’m fine. I can handle this.”

Audry had closed her eyes, her head aching.

“How do you know that’s what I am asking?” Matthew asked dryly.

“I know what you are asking. You think I am freaking out.”

Matthew chuckled. “You should be a detective.”

Rick snorted.

“Is she ok?”

Rick’s hand went to Audry’s forehead. His touch felt a little cold against her skin. “I think she has a small fever. I think we really stressed her out.”

“I’m ok,” Audry whispered. She tried to sit up. She felt clammy. Her ears were ringing.

“Nope!” Rick put his arms around her, pushing her back down. “Just breathe. You are still very pale. I know this works.”

“Works for you, or works for other people?” Matthew asked.

Daniel came back. She could hear his footfalls. “Here’s orange juice. I’ll open it for you.”

“Both,” Rick said, answering Matthew.

“Do you need some juice?” Daniel asked him.

“I’m fine,” Rick said. He slipped the juice bottle into Audry’s fingers, with a straw. “Sip it.”

“You look pale,” Daniel said.

“Because he is worried,” Matthew said.

“He shouldn’t be,” Daniel replied. “Shadowing protects both the shadow and the person being shadowed. It will keep them both safe.”

“Can you