Chapter 88

  Sinus Allergies And Stones

  (Darcy Renolds)

  Sinus pressure.

  Over the past few days, Darcy felt more and more headaches brought on by sinus pressure.

  Everything seemed to set her off too. Everything from there being a buildup of barometric pressure due to increased clouds, to pressure cells that seemed to cause breezed, to smokers.

  Yes, smokers, though it wasn’t so much the smoke that got to her, though the smoke was annoying. Instead, she swore it was due to the bright flames that were generated to produce the mild burning of paper, tobacco, and other components.

  The flame more than the smoke seemed to bother her.

  A fact that she was able to confirm, when the odd sensations she was experiencing, sensations that always caused her to look at the source of her discomfort. They always seemed to increase when flame met burning cigarette, then seemed to alleviate ever so slightly once the smoker put out the initial light used to generate the smoke.

  Odd.

  The entire process was somehow annoying to her. Well annoying to her senses.

  Senses that seemed to be going crazy after everything that had been happening lately to her.

  Of her two friends, Jasmine was no help.

  “Yeah I hate smokers too, the way that smell just seems to soak into their clothes.” Jasmine retorted upon their one conversation about cigarette smoke.

  Misha on the other hand just stared at her, and almost seemed to take her as a mini science experiment.

  “How long have you felt like this?” Misha asked, her first question.

  “For about a month,” Darcy replied honestly.

  Hearing that Misha just nodded, then continued her questioning. As she spoke, her intense eyes never seemed to leave Darcy.

  “Can you do it with all elements, or just water, fire, and air?”

  “What? What do you mean?” Darcy replied.

  “How do you feel around dirt? Do you get the same sensations from being around dirt as well?”

  “This isn’t a joke, I am literally getting tension headaches from the elements and here you are…”

  “I’m not mocking you. On the contrary, I fully agree with what you are feeling, and am instead trying to understand the scope of your sinus headaches,” Misha replied.

  That’s when Darcy saw that Misha seemed to be looking at her in that odd way. The way that almost seemed like she was transparent.

  “So, you believe me? That I am some seventy-year-old lady inside the body of a teenager?” Darcy retorted, already cutting off the future joke that she could see building up from this conversation.

  For a moment she looked around, wondering if she was being recorded somehow. This way the entire world could laugh at her comments and statements made while suffering from what was clearly impacted sinuses.

  “Of course I believe you, why would you lie about something like this,” Misha replied.

  Pausing for a moment, Darcy wanted to take the words at face value but then found herself questioning even that.

  At this point Misha looked down at the ground and plucked up a rock. Then from around her neck she took off a necklace with an odd sapphire held in place.

  Seeing the necklace, Darcy instantly wondered where Misha had gotten such an item, for it didn’t seem like something that she would have worn naturally. Then again, the girl was mysterious and therefore she knew that she had barely scratched the surface of what Misha truly was.

  Then taking the stone and the gemstone fastened necklace she quickly turned her broad back to Darcy, before doing an odd gesture with her hands. After which she returned revealing two outstretched fists.

  You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.

  “Let’s test you and see if you have an affinity for earth as well.”

  “Earth?” Darcy protested.

  “Yes, let’s see if you can get the same sensations with earth elements as well. In my hands are two stones, one a finely cut gemstone, the other a standard piece of granite. I want you to focus your mind and tell me which hand as the gemstone in it.” Misha stated, again her perfectly calm tone made Darcy look to the side as if trying to see someone recording this whole conversation.

  Taking a reluctant breath and not wanting to be part of these games Darcy just let out an exasperated sigh, before pointing to Misha’s outstretched right hand.

  “There, you happy,” Darcy protested, just choosing a hand as quickly as possible and not wanting to give this game any more leverage over her.

  “That’s it, you aren’t even going to focus your mind?” Misha asked.

  “So you are mocking me?” Darcy asked.

  Misha just shook her head.

  “No, you were correct,” Misha stated as she turned her hand over to reveal the gemstone necklace within the right hand.

  Badump, badump, badump.

  At that revelation, Darcy’s heart began to beat as she almost wondered if there was something to this. Granted she had a fifty-fifty shot, but still the fact that she didn’t get it wrong to begin with was something, right?

  “Let’s try again,” Misha exclaimed as she closed her hand, then once again turned her broad back. A back that had muscles that seemed to bulge and stretch under the fabric of her shirt.

  Darcy ended up being so distracted by staring at the broad back that she almost felt like she had been caught doing something naughty a moment later, when Misha once again turned around and held out her hands in front of her.

  This time, Darcy assumed that the rock would have switched hands and rose her hand up to pick Misha’s outstretched left hand, only to pause and immediately go back and tap Misha’s right hand.

  Misha nodded, and upon turning over the noted hand once again revealed the blue gemstone.

  “Want to try again?” Misha asked.

  At this point, Darcy felt more than a little relaxed. As she had managed to guess correctly not once, but twice.

  Also, if Darcy didn’t know any better, she would swear that there was something to the test being done. That if she just focused on the question being asked, she would have a much easier time of choosing which option to go with.

  The only problem was that she couldn’t help but still feel that this was a setup of some kind. As if even now she was still waiting for the other shoe to drop.

  This time, Darcy still watched Misha’s broad back move and twist ever so slightly with each delicate movement she made.

  Then when she turned around, and offered her two hands, Darcy paused.

  She wanted to choose a hand and hopefully get this over with, but instead just held her hand up and felt that something was off.

  Seeing her paus, Misha just stared at Darcy.

  Finally, after a second of deliberation, Darcy was certain that this was in fact a trap of some kind.

  “It’s not there,” Darcy exclaimed, as she put her hand down by her side.

  With that Misha smiled brightly, as she turned over both her hands and revealed one empty right hand, and a standard pebble in her left.

  Seeing that she was correct, Darcy also felt a moment of satisfaction.

  “Where is it?” Misha asked.

  At that question Darcy just paused, because how was she to know?

  For a moment she wanted to say that it was around her neck, but no, Darcy knew for a fact that it was not around her neck, as she would have noticed Misha’s hands behind her back. The fact that she was adamant that it could not be around her neck did cause a bit of a blush to appear on her face but was quickly dismissed as she focused on the question.

  Then just as quickly as she focused on the question, she dismissed it and went for that odd sensation. The one that told her to pick the right hand two times in a row. The sensation that now told her it was in her right breast pocket.

  In fact, Darcy was so certain that it was in that pocket, that she reached up to touch the pocket in question. Only once she was about an inch away did she get distracted by where, or rather what her hand was about to touch.

  Still, the stone was there, and now that she had a moment, she could see the faint bulging of fabric in that area that proved her conclusion correct.

  “Right there,” Darcy squeaked out, before quickly pulling back her hand from Misha’s personal space.

  At that, Misha just smiled brightly, before nodding in agreement and then reached up into said pocket to procure the noted necklace. Misha held the locket there in place for a moment, as if showing Darcy that the stone was real and wouldn’t vanish before her eyes. With a graceful movement she clasped it around the back of her neck within a second. Then before Darcy could say or do anything to react to the act of pure grace and speed, Misha spoke.

  “Very good, you might be an omni mage in the making,” Misha stated as if it was commonplace for the list of jobs available to Darcy. A Job list that now included scientist, journalist, good guesser, and now apparently omni mage.

  Bzz, bzz, bzz.

  “What?” Darcy found herself asking, but was quickly cut off as a vibration in her pocket. Pulling out her phone, she realized that this was her buzzer letting her know that she soon had to leave, if she was going to make it to class on time.

  Looking at the alarm, Darcy just let out an exasperated huff.

  “I need to go,” Darcy stated, swiping the alarm away.

  “I know, poly-sci,” Misha replied.

  At that, Darcy just stared at Misha, wondering how she could remember her class schedule more clearly than she could herself.

  “It was on the alarm,” Misha stated, apparently addressing the concern that had popped into Darcy’s mind.

  Hearing that, Darcy only nodded, as she had gone through and labelled each alarm just for this purpose. What was the point of having an alarm going off telling you that you were late, when you didn’t remember what you were late for.

  “Be careful out there, remember there is a predator on the loose,” Misha noted as she waved and began walking away.

  That last comment made Darcy pause, as she remembered why there was so much concern around Misha’s accident on the hiking trails. Apparently, the higher ups thought that Misha might have seen and somehow survived an encounter with a killer.

  This was of course undeniably false, as Darcy knew that if a killer did try to attack Misha, that it would be the killer who perished and not Misha.

  At least that was the thought that Darcy had as she watched the very muscular back of Misha as she walked away.

  Only for her mind to realize something while staring at the back.

  Her mind was mesmerized by the sight, as she desperately tried to make sense of what she was seeing now and how her mind was using that to equate to an apparent concern that was just beginning to form within her mind.

  After a second of staring in what had to be wide eyed amazement, it hit her, the reason for the apparent concern.

  Namely, how could Misha have seen the name of her alarm when the phone’s back was to her? Looking at Misha’s back reinforced this question, this concern.

  But then Darcy just shook her head and realized it was likely seen while she was standing over her, or from the way she twisted her hand. Or maybe Misha really had taken the time to memorize her class schedule? That was a bit creepy at first, but then after a moment’s deliberation, Darcy realized that she didn’t quite mind the knowledge that her friend had taken time to memorize her schedule.

  Then Darcy’s mind went back to the ominous warning that Misha had given, one that seemed to stress her being careful.

  For there was a killer on the loose.

  At least that is what all of the local deputies and the three letter agency operatives seemed to think.

  For a moment, she also remembered that one odd guy from the phone company. The one that seemed to show up almost immediately upon finding out that Misha had been hurt?

  How did he know to be there?

  Then a better question was, what did he do after he left?

  Bzz, bzz, bzz.

  Once again, Darcy’s phone went off, buzzing in her hand letting her know that she would now have to run, if she wanted to make it to class on time.

  Dismissing all thoughts of creepy phone executives, deputies, agents from three letter agencies, the way she swore she was being punked, and yes even Misha’s broad back. She dropped all thoughts and began sprinting wildly to class. Never noticing the faint traces of light that seemed to highlight the ground she had stood on a moment ago.

  Unfortunately, someone had noticed the odd coloration and even came out to inspect the disturbance. This inspector was not alone, for they were soon followed by a second person.

  “Is she one of them?” A voice asked, looking down at the same glowing dirt.

  “It would appear to be so,” the voice of the first person stated, as they reached down and touched the dirt that still seemed to shine in the waning light of day.

  “So what do we do now?”