Mind Reader

Chapter 4: Lure

It's exactly 12:00 am when I am ripped from my silent dreams and violently thrown back into reality.

I sit up in my bed, noting the cold layer of sweat that coats me from head to toe.

Okay, maybe I wasn't sleeping as well as I thought.

This is when I notice that I don't hear anyone's thoughts. No feelings, no emotions. No nothing. It is silent.

Sweet, delicious silence.

Relief washes over my exhausted brain as I realize that I must not be able to hear any thoughts, perhaps because there are none to hear. Everyone's sleeping at this ungodly hour.

Looks like I'll be nocturnal from here on out, especially if every day will be anything like yesterday.

Yesterday was hell with a capital H.

I contemplate laying back down, but then quickly veto the idea, deciding to hop in the shower instead. Judging by how my hair is sticking to my forehead and neck, I most likely look and smell as horrible as I feel. Not a great feeling at all.

Entering the bathroom, I cut the shower on. I adjust it to my favorite temperature, just a teensy step down from boiling.

Well, that's a little bit dramatic.

Maybe we'll use the word simmering.

That's better.

I've never understood how someone can take a cold shower. I mean yeah, they say it does wonders for your hair and skin, but after trying it on whim, I almost jumped out of my skin entirely.

Screw my hair and screw my skin. That shit was horrible.

Never again.

I turn to the sink, deciding I might as well brush my teeth while I wait for the shower to warm.

I spit in the sink and rinse my toothbrush, finishing up with splashing some warm water on my face. I reach for the towel on the hook and pat my face dry. I look up.

Meeting my reflection, shock and fear grip me tightly as I step back in shock. My heart rate quickens and my breaths become shallow and uneven.

Stepping closer to the mirror, I slowly lean into my reflection, unsure of whether I am hallucinating or going crazy.

Or both. I wouldn't doubt it.

Standing adjacent to me, my own reflection stares back at me with glowing blue eyes. It reminds me of a predator creeping in the dark, it's eyes the only visible giveaway.

Where my eyes were once a cerulean blue, they are now a glowing sapphire.

And they are bright.

What the hell....

Even as steam begins to billow from the shower, causing the mirror to become glazed with fog, I can still see the bright-blue glow of my irises stalking through the steam. Watching.

I look freaky.

Kinda cool, but still freaky.

Is this only an at-night kind of thing or am I about to be even more off-putting?

Even more of an outcast..

I sigh at the creepy girl staring back at me.

Only time will tell.

And honestly, after all of the shock and change I went through yesterday, this surprises me the least.

I could grow a third arm tomorrow and shrug at this point.