Blank Slate

Chapter 16: Burning Ballrooms

Chapter 16: Burning Ballrooms

Katelyn Bishop

The next morning she was still coughing and sputtering like a mechanical bull on drugs from the fire. When her eyes finally opened, it all came back to her with one swift inhale. Anger seethed under her bones. She so desperately wanted to believe that Flint was not capable of killing her mother, but she realized that-other than him being a great kisser-she really did not know much about him.

All she knew was the feeling inside her gut whenever she saw him before.

And now, that feeling turned into a burning guilty sensation in her chest whenever she thought about him.

She kept thinking about what he had done to her mother.

This was such a bad idea, trying to forget that night, who was she kidding, it would would always be engrained in her memories.

Katelyn's insides toiled back and forth at it.

As her head paced, Katelyn went to get her shower. The water hit warmly on her body and for a while she became numb there, just enjoying the pleasure of the silence in a city of sounds. Katelyn began to try scrubbing away at her skinny body. Her pale skin matched the bathroom tiles a bit too well, while her char coal hair contrasted everything in her complexion.

As she scrubbed, she thought of him once again.

Anger seeped through her skin and her usual smile had barricaded it's doors into a burrowing brow and a billowing frown.

It wasn't that she didn't expect it, it was that she did.

Somehow she knew Flint was too good to be true...but she cherished him anyway.

She was stupid. She was all the idiotic characters she'd read in novels over the years, but it didn't sink in until too late.

Katelyn stopped the water at that thought and opened the curtain as the cold bristled her in uncomfortable goosebumps.

She wrapped a towel around herself and looked in the mirror.

It was sort of funny that the shower steam was her only version of any steamy love life she had.

Well, it was funny momentarily to her before she realized how sad and pathetic it really sounded.

Katelyn shook that off and cleared the fog from her mirror...although...she looked much better when no one could see her.

When her eyes glinted back to the cleared mirror, a half smile hit her lips at a high speed.

She wasn't flickering anymore.

Katelyn wasn't sure if she should be happy with this or not.

This all meant that the further she was from Flint, the safer she was.

And that meant that there were two choices left for her.

#1 Flint would disappear all alone.

Or...

#2 She would be there be with him and disappear as well.

Either way she was the loser.

Katelyn shrugged this off as she dressed up in a plaid skirt and another cotton white button up. She slipped into her heels and grabbed the mail on the counter. Bills had stacked themselves up in a very disturbing fashion. They each piled on top of each other almost shouting at her, "Pay me please."

Katelyn's brows narrowed at the thought of paying them on time.

She thought to herself, "You'll get your money when I get my raise...could be a couple centuries, wait a minute for Carter to grow a soul."