| |
HUTCH WAS ALMOST ASLEEP when the air in the room turned frigid. The air pulsated with evil. A dark shadow moved towards the bed. She blinked her eyes several times hoping her eyes were playing tricks on her. As it came closer to her, she froze in fear. The malevolence that surrounded her was terrifying. Her heart pounded so hard in her chest it actually hurt. Adrenaline raced through her veins. Her body shook.
The shadow hovered at the foot of the bed waiting for her to make the first move. All she could do was watch it. She was too scared to even reach out to wake Mike.
In the next instant, the shadow moved toward Mike. She feared it meant to harm Mike so she moved quickly and put her hands out in a manner to stop it, as if she could actually stop it physically.
She yelled out, “You are not welcome here. I order you to leave this place at once.”
The black shadow moved away and then suddenly, it grew larger and became a solid black. As if a large gust of wind had blown through the bedroom, the covers and everything on the night stand went crashing to the floor. When Mike woke, the shadow disappeared. “What the hell happened?”
Hutch shook her head, “I’m not even sure. Something blew in all of a sudden.”
As he reached out for her, he exclaimed, “You are as cold as ice.”
Instead of responding, she just sank into his warm embrace. She let his warmth soak into her very being until she stopped trembling. He wrapped his arms around her tighter, bringing her back against his chest. For the first time since this started, she was afraid for the both of them.
***
MIKE AND HUTCH STOPPED by the coffee shop before heading to work. Steam rose from the cup as she lifted it to her mouth to take a sip. An all too familiar chill ran through her.
Hutch did not want to have the vision in here with so many witnesses. She told Mike that she would wait for him in the car. She cradled the cup with both hands and hurried to the car, hoping to make it there before the mist consumed her vision. By the time she made it to the car, her world had gone silent as the mist became a dense fog. In the next instant, her world went dark. A numbing cold filled the car until there was no sign of warmth around her. Through the darkness, a light took shape. It wasn’t long before the images appeared. Hutch tried to peer into the darkness to make out the images.
The images sharpened. A man walked to the bayou with a woman thrown over his shoulder. She felt the rage that emitted from him. A breeze rustled through the leaves on the trees as he made his way deeper. The ghosts of the ones he’d killed began to appear. Hutch couldn’t make out what they were saying.
Once again, she attempted to make out his face. He was merely a black shadow. Even from this distance, she felt the evil that surrounded him. Suddenly, the images faded away. She was transported to a small room, a closet of some sort.
As she dropped the coffee from her grasp, she never even felt the hot liquid as it splashed on her lap. Once again, she looked through the eyes of the killer. She watched in horror as he took out tiny jars filled with liquid and placed them on a shelf. There were several tiny jars with the eyes and tongues of each victim he’d killed. He had caressed each jar lovingly before he locked the closet. As he passed by a mirror, he stopped to look at his reflection. The mirror was shattered, distorting his image. Disappointment filled her as once again she could not see his face. As he walked around the house, she searched for anything that would give her a clue as to his identity. Nothing so far could help her. Sensing that she was in his mind, the door slammed closed. The connection had broken before she found any relevant information.
Mike opening the car door sounded far away instead of right next to her. She looked at him with tears in her eyes, shaking uncontrollably. “It happened again. I saw through his eyes, but I couldn’t get an image of his face.”
Mike could tell that the vision had left her weak. He noticed the spilled coffee. “Did you burn yourself?”
Hutch looked down and grimaced at the spilled coffee, “Oh Mike, I am so sorry. I should have put the coffee down when I got into the car. All I thought about was getting to the safety of the car before the vision hit.”
“I’m worried about you having scalded yourself and not the car. The coffee will clean up. Let’s get you back home and make sure you didn’t burn your legs.”
As Mike started the car, Hutch blotted up the coffee as best as she could. Mike asked, “Did you make out anything useful?”
Hutch shook her head, “No, not really. I don’t know if it was a new murder or something from the past. He keeps the eyes and tongues as trophies. He had them locked in some kind of closet. There was so much rage around him that all I could see was darkness surrounding him.”
“Did the crime scene look familiar or maybe the house?”
“I’m not sure about the crime scene, but the house looked like an older house. When he passed by a mirror, I noticed it was shattered. His image was too distorted to make out.”
Mike pondered what she’d said, “I wonder why the mirror was shattered? Maybe he isn’t happy with his image.”
The mirror being shattered had to be something significant, but what? He had such rage for these women. Did these women remind him of someone who’d hurt him?
Hutch continued to go over the details of her latest vision in her mind. She watched as the man put his hand up to the woman’s neck with the knife. There, there it was. He had a tattoo on his wrist. How did she miss that before? She closed her eyes tighter and focused in on the tattoo. She called out for Mike, “Give me a piece of paper please. I need to draw a picture of this tattoo while I can still remember it.”
Mike rushed to get a piece of paper and pencil. He did not want to disturb her any more than needed so he placed the pad and pencil in her hand. Without opening her eyes, she began to draw rapidly. She said out loud, “It was a snake of some kind on the inside of his wrist. I don’t know how I missed it in the past. For a cab driver, his clothes were extremely neat looking. He dresses in black. I couldn’t make out his hair color or style, they were still too distorted.”
Hutch was exhausted from just reliving the vision. Her thoughts were too random and disjointed to do any good. Her head hurt so bad that her vision blurred.