Caleb looked up at him and said, “Don’t worry. She’ll be alright. It’s just… uh…. She’ll be alright.”
Arthur returned his attention to Ellie and he whispered to her, “You’re still drugged. The medicine will leave your body soon and you’ll be able to move again. You’re safe, Ellie. You’re safe!”
Twilight was already coming through the window when Ellie was finally able to sit up straight again. Her mind had been very active, trying to process all the things that had happened to her.
She had spent the last day in a private kind of hell, being visited constantly by Roger Wheeley, who insisted on touching her and whispering vile words in her ear. The scent of his rotting bloody pulp of a head still lingered in her nose.
When she thought back to how it started, she remembered Mr. Boothby and what she had done to him. His blood had stained her fist after she broke his nose. She told herself she would have to go back and apologize to him. Maybe even explain why it had happened.
It had happened because she had felt a such horrible pile of guilt and anxiety building up inside of her. She hadn’t been able to face it, hadn’t known how until only a few hours ago when the strange investigator had visited her in her dreams. Ellie knew that she had been saved by Jane Elring.
Jane Elring sat beside her bed now with a face that was deathly pale and red eyes that screamed for relief. Her smile was very thin, but it felt warm to Ellie’s tired mind and part of her wanted to bask in it forever.
Ellie could finally talk about Cleveland now because that horrible guilt that she had felt had somehow deserted her. It was the investigator’s work, the girl knew, though she had no idea how it had truly happened. In the end, Ellie could only come to one conclusion.
“Are you a witch or something?” she asked.
Jane Elring shook her tired head before looking at her bodyguard.
Caleb said, “Nah, she’s not a witch. There’s no magic here.”
“Then what is she? Why can’t she talk?”
“She’s, um… a psychic, I guess? But a weird one, with like all kinds of abilities I don’t even know about, I think,” Caleb replied. He added, “When she exerts herself, like with what she did to help you, her brain starts bleeding. The blood runs down her throat, making it hard for her to talk.”
A psychic? Ellie marveled at the idea that a psychic investigator had somehow entered her head and healed her of whatever afflicted her. Had taken from her the great burden that she hadn’t known how to get rid of on her own. Jane Elring had saved Ellie from herself, and she had to pay the price for it by drinking her own blood.
“I’m so sorry,” Ellie said softly.
Jane shook her head and slightly raised her hand.
Caleb said, “Don’t be sorry. She was happy to help.”
Arthur, who had sat in the room very quietly, spoke up for the first time in hours.
“So, Caleb, is she telling you what to say right now?”
Caleb nodded. “I can hear her inside my head.”
Ellie looked at Jane and found her red eyes looking back at her. She felt completely safe with the young investigator. Jane Elring had saved her and she owed the investigator more than a bit of gratitude. She owed her, so Ellie thought, complete acceptance.
Ellie asked, “People must be scared of you, huh?”
Jane nodded slightly.
“Well, I’m not afraid of you. You helped me when I needed it the most and I will always be grateful for that.”
Again the thin smile drew itself upon Jane’s face. Ellie wished it could stay there forever.
Ellie turned to her other side and found an exhausted Arthur leaning back and looking at the ceiling. He had been inside her head too, somehow. The girl felt embarrassed about all that he had seen. Yet she was happy that he had been there for her.
A wonderful person. That was what Arthur had called her, and for the first time in what felt like ages, Ellie thought that she might be able to believe that about herself again.
Caleb’s voice interrupted Ellie’s thoughts. “Mr. Toaves?”
Arthur looked away from the ceiling and at the big bodyguard that sat by Jane’s side. His eyes were tired and he looked at the odd couple wearily. As if he dreaded what the young investigator would ask Caleb to say next.
“She says you have something inside your head. Something you’ve been suppressing for years. Makes it hard for her to read it properly.”
Arthur cleared his throat. He seemed to ignore Caleb and looked straight at Jane. “I am thankful for what you did for Ellie, please understand this. But what makes you think I want you looking around inside my head?”
Ellie watched from left to right as the conversation unfolded. She saw Arthur’s tired but steadfast face and felt an old strength well up in his voice. The kind of strength that came with experience and was called upon only when there was no other way out.
She saw Jane Elring’s red eyes and thin lips. Her pale face. It looked as if the young investigator could pass out any minute now, but she never did. As if, somehow, she willed her body from collapsing on her.
Caleb said, “She says that what’s inside your head is very important for figuring all this out. If you want Brettville to be safe, you have to stop running away from what happened three years ago.”
Three years ago? If she had been able to, Ellie would have jumped from the bed right there. As it was, she interjected with as loud a voice as possible. “The car accident, Arthur!”
Then she turned toward Jane and said, “He still has nightmares about it too!”
Then she turned toward Arthur and said, “You never want to talk about it! But see? It’s important. You have to tell us!”
“Ellie….” Arthur’s voice was softer when he spoke to her. “Please stay calm. You’re still recovering.”
Caleb said, “He’s right. Jane says you should take it easy.”
Ellie sank back into the hospital bed. Defeat tasted bitter and the girl couldn’t help but shake her head.
“Still, you have to talk about it, Arthur.” Ellie almost whispered it this time.
With a loud groan Arthur got up from his plastic chair and walked over to the window. The old man stood there silently as he watched the twilight fill the October sky. His head sank slightly as if lost in thought, but his pointy shoulders refused to budge.
Caleb said, “She’s sorry for what she did. You know, surprising you like that. But—”
Arthur turned around and his expression was very grave. He looked straight at the young investigator.
“No. You must never apologize for that. You did what you had to do, using the tools that are available to you. That I do not understand your abilities is my limitation. You must never, ever make it yours.
“You are correct. Of course you are correct. Three years ago a terrible thing happened to me. Something that I caused entirely by myself and that could have, should have, killed me. But I am alive, though I do not understand why it is so, and now you say that my good fortune is at the very core of what plagues Brettville?”
Jane nodded and Caleb said for her, “She won’t lie. Once you start talking about it, she will gain full access to your mind. It is very likely that you won’t like what she finds.”
Ellie watched as Arthur sat back down on the plastic chair. His old body groaned underneath the pressure he felt and she wondered if she could do anything to make him feel better. To start being the wonderful person he had said she was.
Arthur said, “Very well, then. If this is how it must be, then I will tell you all that I can remember about the events that transpired three years ago.”